And since i wrote that ^^^ another 2 earth likes and one more ammonia world
Marx's guide to finding Earth-like worlds
- Thread starter marx
- Start date
Another update to this. The notable changes are about the different areas of the galaxy and where you might have better chances (spiral arms, high star density), a suggestion on surveying systems in the same boxel, and some more clarification on stars. Plus a usual bunch of minor edits and typos.
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Finally updated this to the 3.3 changes. Which mostly meant taking out a good part of the text and writing some shorter ones. For posterity's sake, here's what had to be removed:
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Now that you've (hopefully) decided what to look for, let's see some tips on how to recognize Earth-likes on the system map.
Before you travel there and scan the planet, you can confirm its type by listening to its sound. No, I'm not making this up.
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Also, the original figures for the odds were from 2017. March: I've left the original counts in, but also updated them with the current EDSM data. (Didn't sort things to subtract non-natural (terraformed) ELWs and inhabited systems though.) It's impressive to see how many more have been found in almost two years.
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Now that you've (hopefully) decided what to look for, let's see some tips on how to recognize Earth-likes on the system map.
They are blue.
Of course, so are water worlds, and some high metal content planets in orbit of class A stars, so that's very not helpful.
So, let's extend it: they are blue, and have patches of green on them. Water worlds are entirely covered by water (now), while Earth-like worlds have landmasses. Some have only a few small continents, but others can be mostly covered in land and have only a few seas. But if it's blue and green, then congratulations! You've found one.
Also, Earth-like worlds are a "special" shade of blue. With practice, you'll be able to recognize it.
However, note that the light of different kinds of parent stars will give these colours some hues. Most notably, carbon stars will colour them slightly green (example, and another example), while red dwarf stars will give them a red hue (example).
If after all this, you'd still like to see some examples of how actual Earth-like worlds look in-game, the ELW list has literally thousands of example screenshots. Look at enough of them, and you willgo mad like I did get a pretty good feel of what they might look like. Should you be in doubt, it's always best to go investigate. Also, there is another way...
New in 2.3: you can now also identify Earth-like worlds based on their hologram icon that shows up when you target them. Previously, they shared the same icon with other types of worlds: now, they only share it with ammonia worlds. You can see all the examples on this sheet, courtesy of Radio Sidewinder. So if you're unsure about whether or not your target is an ELW, there is now also this method of visual verification. But there's more...
Of course, so are water worlds, and some high metal content planets in orbit of class A stars, so that's very not helpful.
So, let's extend it: they are blue, and have patches of green on them. Water worlds are entirely covered by water (now), while Earth-like worlds have landmasses. Some have only a few small continents, but others can be mostly covered in land and have only a few seas. But if it's blue and green, then congratulations! You've found one.
Also, Earth-like worlds are a "special" shade of blue. With practice, you'll be able to recognize it.
However, note that the light of different kinds of parent stars will give these colours some hues. Most notably, carbon stars will colour them slightly green (example, and another example), while red dwarf stars will give them a red hue (example).
If after all this, you'd still like to see some examples of how actual Earth-like worlds look in-game, the ELW list has literally thousands of example screenshots. Look at enough of them, and you will
New in 2.3: you can now also identify Earth-like worlds based on their hologram icon that shows up when you target them. Previously, they shared the same icon with other types of worlds: now, they only share it with ammonia worlds. You can see all the examples on this sheet, courtesy of Radio Sidewinder. So if you're unsure about whether or not your target is an ELW, there is now also this method of visual verification. But there's more...
You see, when you zoom in on planets in the system map, the background music changes depending on what type of planet it is. Thankfully, the sound of ELWs is rather unique, so it's not too difficult to tell them apart from others. Listen for the sound of birds chirping.
For this, make sure your audio is set up correctly: make sure music is unmuted, and stellar cartography music is on. Also, if you have headphones, I recommend setting the "Optimise for" option to "Night Time". Unless you have an expensive, high quality headphone setup.
You can find a sample of how it should sound like here, and I also recommend reading the guide to planet sounds if you wish to know more.
You can test if your setup is working correctly by calling up the system map for a known Earth-like planet - for example, like Earth in Sol. They don't get more Earth-like than that!
For this, make sure your audio is set up correctly: make sure music is unmuted, and stellar cartography music is on. Also, if you have headphones, I recommend setting the "Optimise for" option to "Night Time". Unless you have an expensive, high quality headphone setup.
You can find a sample of how it should sound like here, and I also recommend reading the guide to planet sounds if you wish to know more.
You can test if your setup is working correctly by calling up the system map for a known Earth-like planet - for example, like Earth in Sol. They don't get more Earth-like than that!
Also, the original figures for the odds were from 2017. March: I've left the original counts in, but also updated them with the current EDSM data. (Didn't sort things to subtract non-natural (terraformed) ELWs and inhabited systems though.) It's impressive to see how many more have been found in almost two years.
K's are your friend 
I just got back to Jameson from my initial 3.3 release voyage and of the 11 EWs I turned in 6 were from K's, 2 from A's, 2 from F's, and 1 from a G. So yeah, The Galloping Ghost loves him those special K's.
I just got back to Jameson from my initial 3.3 release voyage and of the 11 EWs I turned in 6 were from K's, 2 from A's, 2 from F's, and 1 from a G. So yeah, The Galloping Ghost loves him those special K's.
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Did another update on this. Besides some general clean-up, there has been some new content: I added some Codex-related stuff about biologicals, and more importantly, what differences mass codes might mean outside of the F (and A) stars, as well as the core and rim of the galaxy. Thanks to Orvidius for making the charts on those!
Great guide, I will be using this going forward!
One question though, there is something I am not understanding: In the guide it says that the first letter refers to the Star type. In my exploration travels so far (I'm still a newb) Ithe first letter does not seem to match up with the Star type. Here are two examples: OA-K a118-1 would indicate an "O" type star, but on arrival it turns out to be an "M". Another example is "JW-C d37" which would indicate a "J" type star which turns out to be an "F" type star upon arrival.
I'm pretty sure I am missing something I just can't quite figure out what it is.
Thanks in advance for any replies!
One question though, there is something I am not understanding: In the guide it says that the first letter refers to the Star type. In my exploration travels so far (I'm still a newb) Ithe first letter does not seem to match up with the Star type. Here are two examples: OA-K a118-1 would indicate an "O" type star, but on arrival it turns out to be an "M". Another example is "JW-C d37" which would indicate a "J" type star which turns out to be an "F" type star upon arrival.
I'm pretty sure I am missing something I just can't quite figure out what it is.
Thanks in advance for any replies!
I think you misunderstood this part: "The bold letter is the system mass code. It goes from A (least massive) to H (most massive). The mass code corresponds quite well to the main star type: for example, the vast majority of class F primary stars are in mass code D systems." The second sentence is a bit more complicated than it needs to be, so I rewrote it.
In your examples, you misunderstood the mass code letter: it's not the first one after the sector name, but the last one before the numbers. In your examples, OA-K a118-1 is mass code A, JW-C d37 is mass code D.
There is the part about the galaxy map and star types there: "When you look up the exact star types on the galaxy map (or in the journals, via third-party apps), you'll see stuff like "G4 VAB", "A9 VI" and so on. Out of these, the first letter is the star type, and the number is the star's luminosity. It goes from 0 (most luminous) to 9 (least luminous).", that refers to the star types, not the system name. Will edit this too to make it a bit more clear.
In your examples, you misunderstood the mass code letter: it's not the first one after the sector name, but the last one before the numbers. In your examples, OA-K a118-1 is mass code A, JW-C d37 is mass code D.
There is the part about the galaxy map and star types there: "When you look up the exact star types on the galaxy map (or in the journals, via third-party apps), you'll see stuff like "G4 VAB", "A9 VI" and so on. Out of these, the first letter is the star type, and the number is the star's luminosity. It goes from 0 (most luminous) to 9 (least luminous).", that refers to the star types, not the system name. Will edit this too to make it a bit more clear.
Thanks for the reply
That kinda makes sense. I think I may be confusing Star type with Star class. I am thinking of Star Type as the "KGBFOAM" one's but I am realizing that this is not the same as the star type you are referring to. "KGBFOAM" is the class - not the type. Am I getting warmer?
That kinda makes sense. I think I may be confusing Star type with Star class. I am thinking of Star Type as the "KGBFOAM" one's but I am realizing that this is not the same as the star type you are referring to. "KGBFOAM" is the class - not the type. Am I getting warmer?
Hm? Star type and star class are the same thing. Both "class K" and "type K" refer to the same K stars. I think you're mixing in mass codes there, but that's a completely different matter, one that's specific to Elite only - while star types (/ classes) are from real world astronomy.
In any case, system names don't contain the types of stars. System names contain the one-letter mass code.
Also, you wrote that "In the guide it says that the first letter refers to the Star type", but this doesn't refer to the system name. The galaxy map will lists stars in a system for you as "G4 VAB", "A9 VI" and so on: since that was what the relevant part was talking about, the first letter there refers to the star type. "G4 VAB" is G, "A9 VI" is A, and so on. These are listed in the top left tab in the galaxy map, when you have a system selected.
In any case, system names don't contain the types of stars. System names contain the one-letter mass code.
Also, you wrote that "In the guide it says that the first letter refers to the Star type", but this doesn't refer to the system name. The galaxy map will lists stars in a system for you as "G4 VAB", "A9 VI" and so on: since that was what the relevant part was talking about, the first letter there refers to the star type. "G4 VAB" is G, "A9 VI" is A, and so on. These are listed in the top left tab in the galaxy map, when you have a system selected.
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After two years, I've finally done a more substantial update. Specifically, I cleaned a few obsolete things out and updated others, but the most important part was that I added some more information, with a longer part on boxel metallicities. (I didn't go into detail on the reasons why, but I did include a link to the in-depth thread on that.)
Odyssey didn't change much on this subject, by the way: I only had to edit a few references, and add the Odyssey mapping bonus to the relevant part.
Oh, and a bit of clarification on that galactic regions (for example, the Inner Orion Spur) don't matter for ELWs.
Odyssey didn't change much on this subject, by the way: I only had to edit a few references, and add the Odyssey mapping bonus to the relevant part.
Oh, and a bit of clarification on that galactic regions (for example, the Inner Orion Spur) don't matter for ELWs.