PvE - most efficient way to harvest manufactured ....

[SENA-]

Hey Commanders,

I rise this question for you guys, especially the ones with experience ( I am a new guy with under 1000h ...) - how do you gather manufactured materials ?
I, personally, I was going for USS on my first months, influenced by the guides in Tube... Later I realized that was, by far, not the best way - you lose so much time for only a dozen items, and after I completed the grind for both, Imperial and federation ( getting both the Vette and the Cutter), step by step, using trial and error, I reached to my optimal build/ship, and that is, for me, a fully engineered Vette, with near 5k shields, NO cell banks ( because you have a very limited recharging cycles), and a pair of efficient gimballed beams with vented ( beam is still best on inflicting max dam over short an interval of time, ideal for those pesky little buggers - you delete them in just 1-2 seconds, and killing them fast is important when they are in wings of 3 ....) , for the Huge HP.s, - and I can fire them almost non-stop, cooling my ship in process - coupled with 3 rails (I fitted a class II rail in a class III slot in order to hit harder and to keep my power on level...) and for least, a corrosive MC pair with cheap refill from synthesis.

I was carefully to get a mix of weapons with cheap ammo ( the rails use plasma slugs, so I never run out of ammo) and with this mix I can stay on fighting spot hours with no need to refill.
I load a 7B collector limpets and some 7B limpets, for range and numbers ( so I can have 4-5 limpets orbiting my ship and gathering materials from kills non-stop FAST) and in 1h I get 2,5-3 millions and enough materials to be forced to visit a material trader in order to "empty" my filled spots... I run also the kill scanner ( on pair with beam, upgraded for fast scan, at 2,5 seconds, so when I fire the beams I scan the NPC on the same time - this doubled the amount of credits from bounties) AND the Wake scanner, so I get a fair amount of encoded in process, also.
I do prefer to load 10 12- high value items on my cargo bay, so I do not need to chase pirates, they come to me ...

I usually search for systems with high population, in Boom, War, or Famine, with High Tech, then I sit my big, fat ass on Nav Point and I start collecting. I love the fight, with fast and maneuverable ships, but I am on that stage where I run always out of engineering materials, so killing juicy NPC and being unable to get the materials is frustrating for me ( dedicated hunters like FdF cannot load collectors AND cargo bay without downgrading the ship at crap level...) - so for me the answer was clear - BEST tools for manufactured materials harvesting are, buy far, big ships - Condas, Vette, etc - that kind. They just have enough room to load effective modules.

But, since I am new, I ask you guys, with more experience - do you use another path / strategy - for harvesting materials ? And if so, can you share here, please, your "recipe" ?

 

[WhoCares]

I wouldn't call it a strategy, but for ship signal data it is even possible to collect these while docked down in the hangar of a station.
Via contacts you can still target individual ships in the station instance, and with that scan any ship that goes in and out of the slot. I don't claim that to be an efficient way to do it, but it's possible
Just thinking about it, you could also do that in Open in the CG station(s), but I don't know whether player ships give rarer scan data

 

[SENA-]

I wouldn't call it a strategy, but for ship signal data it is even possible to collect these while docked down in the hangar of a station.
Via contacts you can still target individual ships in the station instance, and with that scan any ship that goes in and out of the slot. I don't claim that to be an efficient way to do it, but it's possible
Just thinking about it, you could also do that in Open in the CG station(s), but I don't know whether player ships give rarer scan data

Well, you can do BOTH things in the same time, in Nav Points, where you get a lot of traffic from Sys. Security ships, so is 2x better ( you get BOTH kind of materials at once...) - with a modded wake scan for long range you get scans at 8-9km.... and you get at least 3-4/min from the ships passing that Nav Point... reason why I do not lose time anymore collecting ONLY encoded... I think one must find a way to combine, in the most effective way, the fun with the grind...

 

[Zannry]

I prefer to collect manufactured materials by stacking combat missions. You can top up on almost everything other than Military Supercapacitors which you can just trade your excess materials for. If do don't like combat This isn't for you. If don't think you can take 3-5 federal corvettes on at once don't stack 20 missions. Stick to 3-5 and you'll be okay.

Combat for materials: Stack a mix of massacre pirate missions (15 targets 8.8 Million) and elite (non-wing) pirate assassination missions (1 target 2.5 million). Equip collectors. Hit mission signal sources and kill and collect abundant grade 3-5 materials. 40-50 minutes game time. A 4:1 assassination mission to massacre mission ratio is a good balance to making some credits while taking the material payouts. 2-3 Million in bounties and 30 million in mission rewards with the material payout.

Combat for everything tips:

All these mining updates and patches. So combat updates when?

I’ve noticed, as have others, when you kill an NPC and get a message saying something like 492,000cr bounty awarded. You actually only get 350k when you turn it in. So there’s some sort of payout cap, and it’s really damned annoying. Combat payouts on NPC’s should be unrestricted, as this cap...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[goemon]

But, since I am new, I ask you guys, with more experience - do you use another path / strategy - for harvesting materials ? And if so, can you share here, please, your "recipe" ?

well ... the most effective way i have found is taking a t6, winging up with a guy in a corvette who goes for a High CZ, leave the wing once in the same instance, and collect all the materials he is leaving behind. did that for my tertiary account.

i'm not sure why you are against USS - i can say, having a collector and dropping into high grade emissions on my way between engineers while engineering a ship with routeplotter boom/investment/war/outbreak/famine usually gives me all i need. but hey, people differ.

 

[SENA-]

well ... the most effective way i have found is taking a t6, winging up with a guy in a corvette who goes for a High CZ, leave the wing once in the same instance, and collect all the materials he is leaving behind. did that for my tertiary account.

i'm not sure why you are against USS - i can say, having a collector and dropping into high grade emissions on my way between engineers while engineering a ship with routeplotter boom/investment/war/outbreak/famine usually gives me all i need. but hey, people differ.

Well, I have nothing against USS method, but think a bit - how is to lose 3-5 min at least between 2 USS points, when in a "fat" traffic Nav Point you can get in the same time 6-12 times more materials ? Add the fun from the fight. Add the encoded materials from scans.. Add the credits from bounties.
Make the total, and you will come to my conclusion - is not worth the time, by a mile !
And most important, you do not need a wing man.

 

[Mohrgan]

I get my Manufactured materials by defeating Pirate Lords. I never take the time to collect mats in a RES. But, after blowing up a 'Conda or 'Vette pirate lord I can scoop up the mats in peace. Encoded mats I get just by scanning the ships I will eventually destroy. That's what I get from RES. I have to get in a buggy and search for stones for Raw mats. I have the most trouble with having Raw mats available when I need/want them.

 

[SENA-]

I prefer to collect manufactured materials by stacking combat missions. You can top up on almost everything other than Military Supercapacitors which you can just trade your excess materials for. If do don't like combat This isn't for you. If don't think you can take 3-5 federal corvettes on at once don't stack 20 missions. Stick to 3-5 and you'll be okay.

Combat for materials: Stack a mix of massacre pirate missions (15 targets 8.8 Million) and elite (non-wing) pirate assassination missions (1 target 2.5 million). Equip collectors. Hit mission signal sources and kill and collect abundant grade 3-5 materials. 40-50 minutes game time. A 4:1 assassination mission to massacre mission ratio is a good balance to making some credits while taking the material payouts. 2-3 Million in bounties and 30 million in mission rewards with the material payout.

Combat for everything tips:

All these mining updates and patches. So combat updates when?

I’ve noticed, as have others, when you kill an NPC and get a message saying something like 492,000cr bounty awarded. You actually only get 350k when you turn it in. So there’s some sort of payout cap, and it’s really damned annoying. Combat payouts on NPC’s should be unrestricted, as this cap...

forums.frontier.co.uk

True, this also work nice, I did-it several times, but sometimes can get ugly, I have once some 11-12 assassination missions stacked, all high profile ( rewards between 1 and 3 millions each) and I miss a "detail" : 3/4 of them were in the same fraking system !

So, I go after first one, he sent his scout-boys to interdict-me, and when I was engaging 2 of his partners, he drops - in to kill me - no big deal, I was in my Vette, he was also in a Vette and his friends were Vultures or other medium/small ships, no problem to deal with 3-4 of them at once.
I killed them all in a nice 5 minutes confusion, lost 2/3 of my shields, and I was repairing when sudden another Vette dropped in my location, then a Conda and another Conda, all Elite, all targets on my list.

I was forced now to fight for my life, killed one, but I was at limit, so I put my tail between legs and run away from the 2 other Condas...
Point is, getting too many assassination missions with most of the targets in the same system, you risk getting overwhelmed and/or ambushed by all of them, in the same time...
You get materials, indeed, but not so much like you get in a Nav Point with heavy traffic AND with your own private bodyguards wings - system security ships !

In a good system you can get waves of 3 + 3 attackers each 2-3 minutes, usually easy & fast to kill ones, 1 / 3 of them medium ships and 1/10 heavy ones... You can keep those collector limpets buzzing non-stop and filling your ship with materials almost with no break...

 

[Bottom Hat]

Haz res and trade down when you're full. Plus you get a bunch of bounties! The same works for nav beacons as others have covered.

To be honest though I rarely grind for anything under grade 5s, but ymmv of course.

 

[SENA-]

I get my Manufactured materials by defeating Pirate Lords. I never take the time to collect mats in a RES. But, after blowing up a 'Conda or 'Vette pirate lord I can scoop up the mats in peace. Encoded mats I get just by scanning the ships I will eventually destroy. That's what I get from RES. I have to get in a buggy and search for stones for Raw mats. I have the most trouble with having Raw mats available when I need/want them.

My solution to raw was to go painite sucking, once or twice in a week, a 512 tones of painite ( my mining Cutter max load) will give you enough basic raw for at least a week ( Iron, Phosphorus, Nickel, etc) and for the damn Selenium, I do not trade any more high grade materials like I did before, like a fool - going 1500-2000 yl away in order to spend 3-4 hours only to fill my ship with Polonium, Yttrium, and some more tier V materials ( a very bad exchange, bad deal, to trade grade V materials for the damn Selenium !) .
Instead, I used this " https://spansh.co.uk/systems/search/D1F76D86-FEAC-11EA-97D5-A57F94EB4526/1 " to search for Selenium pristine hot spots and in 20 min I got 60-80 tons of Selenium, at only 50 yl of my home base, with no sweat...

 

[CMDR Harada]

I usually get them at a CNB. Easy, plentiful. All in a small area. Select a target and blow them away, let the limpets do their thing while I choose a new target. Most times I don't even use my thrusters much. Use the LR beams to draw aggro, and let the Vette's firepower do the rest as they rush in.

If I'm in a hurry, I can work a HazRES the same way, but sometimes you have to chase the pirates down and they aren't as plentiful. So for MATs gathering I don't use this as my main tactic.

Don't bother to try and select what you're collecting. Just scoop it all up and head to a trader. Get enough grade 1 items and you can trade up.

 

[SENA-]

I usually get them at a CNB. Easy, plentiful. All in a small area. Select a target and blow them away, let the limpets do their thing while I choose a new target. Most times I don't even use my thrusters much. Use the LR beams to draw aggro, and let the Vette's firepower do the rest as they rush in.

If I'm in a hurry, I can work a HazRES the same way, but sometimes you have to chase the pirates down and they aren't as plentiful. So for MATs gathering I don't use this as my main tactic.

Don't bother to try and select what you're collecting. Just scoop it all up and head to a trader. Get enough grade 1 items and you can trade up.

Yup, you right, I try them all and THIS is the fattest, faster way to fill your ship in the shortest time... Fully agree.

 

[CMDR Harada]

My solution to raw was to go painite sucking, once or twice in a week, a 512 tones of painite ( my mining Cutter max load) will give you enough basic raw for at least a week ( Iron, Phosphorus, Nickel, etc) and for the damn Selenium, I do not trade any more high grade materials like I did before, like a fool - going 1500-2000 yl away in order to spend 3-4 hours only to fill my ship with Polonium, Yttrium, and some more tier V materials ( a very bad exchange, bad deal, to trade grade V materials for the damn Selenium !) .
Instead, I used this " https://spansh.co.uk/systems/search/D1F76D86-FEAC-11EA-97D5-A57F94EB4526/1 " to search for Selenium pristine hot spots and in 20 min I got 60-80 tons of Selenium, at only 50 yl of my home base, with no sweat...

Interesting. I will have to try this. I've been doing the long range thing once or twice a year and I always dread it.

 

[Stealthie]

Thing is, there's different "groups" of mat's, with minimal overlap.

If you explode ships in CZs you won't get the mat's you'll get from exploding Belugas or Pirates.

As a rule, I have a session exploding one of the above types of ship once every few days and then trade-up any manufactured mat's that I have over a hundred of.
In "normal" play, that usually leaves me with around 100 G1 to G4 mat's and 40-odd G5 mat's in stock to create mod's.

If I'm ever modding a whole bunch of ships at once, or building new ships, I'll farm HGEs for IS and then trade for extra mat's.

 

[CMDR MERANGO]

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/eh9bg3

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/eh9bg3/the_fastest_ways_to_gather_any_engineering/

 

[Drelthar]

Scoop stuff that drops from the ships you destroy.
Drop into USS's as you travel about.
Choose mats when completing missions.

 

[Felix DiCestria]

I get my Manufactured materials by defeating Pirate Lords. I never take the time to collect mats in a RES. But, after blowing up a 'Conda or 'Vette pirate lord I can scoop up the mats in peace. Encoded mats I get just by scanning the ships I will eventually destroy. That's what I get from RES. I have to get in a buggy and search for stones for Raw mats. I have the most trouble with having Raw mats available when I need/want them.

Raw mats is pretty simple, hit the volcanic locations (usually the innermost moon at a gas giant) and knock off the crystals (rare) and cobbles (common).

 

[Jmanis]

Manufactured are tres easy.

• Find a system where there's just one anarchy faction within 10Ly of it (not including the system itself)
• Stack assassination/massacres... they should all target that system with the anarchy faction
• Go blat ships in the neighbouring system, scoop the mats, hand in missions and take mat rewards.

Doing this once, I got something like 60-odd G5s in half an hour.

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/eh9bg3

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/eh9bg3/the_fastest_ways_to_gather_any_engineering/

God, I only recommend those techniques if you hate yourself. Things like this are why people think the game's a grind.