Materials missing from planets?

[ReXxX]

Hi all, hope you are doing good in these otherwise pandemic times?

Anyhoo, my question:
I'm currently farting around in my newly bought and upgraded conda, on an exploration trip. While exploring, I'm also landing on bodies every now and then, if they have POI's that I can collect materials from(I've never cared about the mats before, but I started to see the need for them when I started upgrading and engineering the conda for jump range).

According to the lists I've found on the E wiki(assuming their list is complete), there are 3 materials that I've failed to find on any of the bodies I've checked: Boron, Lead and Rhenium. I've googled around a bit, and the answers regarding where to find them has been inconclusive: some say they CAN be found on bodies' surfaces in an SRV, and others are saying that these 3 HAVE to be mined. I've never mined any materials, nor am I equipped to ATM. If it's true that i have to mine for them, I will start mining when I (someday) complete my current exploration trip. This will take a while, as I'm passing the Bubble now, and my trip includes a visit(my first ever after 4 years of playing) to Beagle Point.

But, back to the question:
Can I find these mats on surfaces, and if so: what type of body should I look for? Is there any way to search for a specific material-giving body?
OR
Am I searching in vain for mats that won't be found on any body's surface?

Thanks in advance for any helping answers, and my apologies if this is the wrong subforum to ask on, I just figured that it was the closest one, as I'm doing this as part of an exploratory trip.

Stay safe out there, both in the galaxy and here at home, I hope none of you get sick, and hope things will get back to normal as soon as possible

O7

 

[Badman76]

I think you can only mine these materials from asteroids

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Yeah none of these appear on planets. I've never mined any either, seems like it would be laborious. Probably better off acquiring a bunch of other materials from driving around and then hit up a material trader. Two of these are only grade 1 anyway, so even a small amount of arsenic, mercury or zirconium will get you enough to work with. The boron's a little trickier, as you'll want to convert some antimony down to it, but any decent % planet should yield a bunch, just find a good geo site and farm it until you get bored.

 

[ReXxX]

Yeah none of these appear on planets. I've never mined any either, seems like it would be laborious. Probably better off acquiring a bunch of other materials from driving around and then hit up a material trader. Two of these are only grade 1 anyway, so even a small amount of arsenic, mercury or zirconium will get you enough to work with. The boron's a little trickier, as you'll want to convert some antimony down to it, but any decent % planet should yield a bunch, just find a good geo site and farm it until you get bored.

I usually land on one planet every day now, if they have any signals, geo or otherwise. Just during the last week, I've gone from 0 iron to nearly 300, my plan is to have all mats I can get my hands on from surface/SRV prospecting maxed out in inventory. After that, it'll be sites like Dav's Hope and the like to mine for data and manufactured mats as well.

Personally, at least so far, I don't get bored at all when I'm on a surface. I think one of the main reasons for this is that I've clocked 2800+ hours in-game, but just recently passed 1000km driven in an SRV, so I haven't touched that part of the game very much so far. I've only ever seen one Thargoid wrekage, never seen one alive, and never been attacked or damaged by corrosion, so I have lots of options still untouched in E before I grow completely sick of it On the other hand, I've visited ~25 000 different systems, and earned more than 7 billion credits on exploration alone, so it easy to see what I most enjoy doing in-game

 

[uncle bulgaria]

From what I’ve found they’re all quite rare even the lower end ones. Stuff like sulphur, iron and chromium are really common when asteroid mining (especially painite) so you can always just trade. I find selenium is fairly common for a very rare material - I’ve found it on planets and in painite asteroids.

If you’re out in the -damn swear filter... erm... bum - end of nowhere exploring miles from civilisation and a material trader I’m not sure what your best bet is - although I don’t know off the top of my head what they’re useful for in particular for synthesis.

 

[Zieman]

Am I searching in vain for mats that won't be found on any body's surface?

This.

 

[ReXxX]

From what I’ve found they’re all quite rare even the lower end ones. Stuff like sulphur, iron and chromium are really common when asteroid mining (especially painite) so you can always just trade. I find selenium is fairly common for a very rare material - I’ve found it on planets and in painite asteroids.

If you’re out in the -damn swear filter... erm... bum - end of nowhere exploring miles from civilisation and a material trader I’m not sure what your best bet is - although I don’t know off the top of my head what they’re useful for in particular for synthesis.

I'm very much in that end of nowhere, or at least on my way there I've found loads of Cadmium, Carbon, Chromium, Iron, Manganese, Nickel, Sulphur and Tellurium, nearly at max capacity with those

I'm not necessarily going to USE the materials, I just want to have them, to find them

Am I right to assume that if I try to search on, say, an Icy Body instead of an HMC, I'll find other mats, or is it the same stuff on any planet regardless of type? Is there a way to know what kind of systems yield what kind of material, or is the list in the system overview generated/calculated at first entry into the system?

I'd like to find Arsenic, Ruthenium and Technetium more often, I have nearly none of those :/

Also: Is there any point in searching for other mats on other geo sites on the same planet, or are the mats evenly distributed on each site?

O7

 

[Sapyx]

Am I right to assume that if I try to search on, say, an Icy Body instead of an HMC, I'll find other mats, or is it the same stuff on any planet regardless of type? Is there a way to know what kind of systems yield what kind of material, or is the list in the system overview generated/calculated at first entry into the system?

As a general rule, the hotter the planet, the more "metallic" the elements you're likely to find are. It is, however, a degree of RNG; you will find metals on Icy planets, they're just less probable.

There is an over-arching "metallicity" statistic generated by the Stellar Forge, which governs various aspects of system generation: the probability of certain rare planet types (helium-rich gas giants, metal-rich terraformables), the overall distribution of metal, rock, ice and gas across a system, and (presumably) the elemental composition of the planets themselves.

 

[Setu]

I have been on the lookout for rhenium for a long time. Never found it in the wild. It's not needed for anything, and you can get it from material traders, but I am getting obsessed with finding it....

 

[Badman76]

I have been on the lookout for rhenium for a long time. Never found it in the wild. It's not needed for anything, and you can get it from material traders, but I am getting obsessed with finding it....

You are mining for Rhenium aren't you? At icy or rocky rings

 

[hems303]

I'd like to find Arsenic, Ruthenium and Technetium more often, I have nearly none of those :/
O7

Hi Cmdr. ReXxX
As you mention with regard to these mats you will find them aplenty on Geological/Biological sites, afaik the mats are the same at each site on a planet, you have to visit different bodies for different mats... but without concentrating on them, just exploring away; my inventory is full of the above accept Arsenic which is a bit rarer. o7

 

[ReXxX]

Hi Cmdr. ReXxX
As you mention with regard to these mats you will find them aplenty on Geological/Biological sites, afaik the mats are the same at each site on a planet, you have to visit different bodies for different mats... but without concentrating on them, just exploring away; my inventory is full of the above accept Arsenic which is a bit rarer. o7

Yeah, I've been landing nearly everywhere the past week, and acquired LOADS of materials, codex entries, and a massive bunch of gorgeous screenshots from all over

The "problem" now, however, is that it's getting harder and harder to find the mats/entries I need. I'm ATM maxxed out on:
*Cadmium
*Carbon
*Chromium
*Germanium
*Iron
*Manganese
*Molybdenum
*Nickel
*Niobium
*Phosphorus
*Selenium
*Sulphur
*Tellurium
*Tin
*Tungsten
*Vanadium
*Yttrium and
*Zinc.

Arsenic is at 63/250, and Ruthenium is at 141/150, so I've gotten quite a few mats now Antimony and mercury are getting there, Polonium, Technetium and Zirconium still has good room left, but they pop up every now and then Now, it's more annoying if I land on a planet, and find a fumarole when I'm looking for gas vents But I'm sure I'll find them all, eventually

Edit: I've also discovered the absolute hilarity of driving my SRV on top of an erupting water geyser on a near-zero G planet, and surviving the drop Personal best so far, is being shot 3,25 km straight up, and nearly being clipped by my own conda on my way down, as it was leaving since i travelled too far away from it still had 49% hull after smacking down on the surface