Returning after years, need advice

[CasualQuad]

I'm starting to get back into elite dangerous but upon returning I am at an impasse. Apparently years ago I had stopped playing while on a distant worlds expedition. My little explorer ship is currently at sagittarius A at the very heart of the galaxy.

Where should I be headed for the new content? I am completely out of the loop on everything new. It seems like while I was gone thargoids actually became a thing could actually do. \

Super excited to try my hand at that but there's probably a metric ton of stuff I need to do to be prepared for that. Is there any way to purchase a new ship in order to avoid flying with all the way back to civilization systems? I'm scared to think how many hours it would take of just jumping to get back if I had too..........

 

[He$$eeTant]

Since you where last around there is a station at sag A now called Explorers Anchorage, if your close I would go there and cash in any exploration data you have, might be worth more than you think.

Then leave the station, jump literally anywhere then self destruct your ship. You’ll be offered to respawn back at Explorers Anchorage in your ship OR back in the bubble in a sidewinder. Choose the sidewinder, you’ll lose your ship and data but be instantly back in the bubble.

 

[Valorin]

Since you where last around there is a station at sag A now called Explorers Anchorage, if your close I would go there and cash in any exploration data you have, might be worth more than you think.

Then leave the station, jump literally anywhere then self destruct your ship. You’ll be offered to respawn back at Explorers Anchorage in your ship OR back in the bubble in a sidewinder. Choose the sidewinder, you’ll lose your ship and data but be instantly back in the bubble.

What you can do immediately and out there, given you own Odyssey, is looking at exobiology. Your detailed surface scanner can be assigned to a fire group now and shoots probes at planets in order to map them (which was implemented before so maybe you already know that feature). You also need to map systems via the full spectrum scanner, which can be assigned a keybinding. You have that one automatically.
You need to be in analysis cockpit mode in order to use it.

1. Go to Explorer's Anchorage, which is near Sag A* and get yourself an Artemis suit, which automatically gives you a genetic scanner.
2. Equip the suit using the loadout option on the lower panel in your ship.
3. Look for landable atmospheric planets, look at the info panel of the planet on the system map (right side, second button I think, where also materials are listed). If you see bio signals, go there.
4. Map the planet via surface scanner probes and you'll get a heatmap where you can toggle through the biosignals the heatmap applies to.
6. Pick a signal you want to check out and target a turquoise-esque area. Land there.
7. Look for strange looking ground thingies while at about 50m altitude, and if you find one, land there.
8. Get out of your ship on foot, get out the genetic scanner and scan the thing. You need three to complete a scan and the thingies need to have a certain distance from each other (ranges from 150m to 800m) and you need to complete a triple scan before scanning another bio type.
9. You can sell exobio data at the vista genomics booth in a station. On foot.

After you mapped a planet it will always show the heatmap. You can toggle that but switching to combat cockpit mode.

There's more to it, but there's also lots of tutorials online.
Have fun exploring!
Oh, and if you are an explorer at heart, you want to check out the Mandalay... Best exploration ship ever! Only in the Arx Store for now, but also available for credits in a few months.

 

[Ashnak]

Is there any way to purchase a new ship in order to avoid flying with all the way back to civilization systems?

Yes... but you may not like it.
Ok, so others have already pointed out
1) hie yourself to Explorer's Anchorage, one jump away from Sgr A*, and get all your businesses in order (unclaimed exploration profits mainly, I'd guess).
Then - it depends.

• You could check out the Fleet Carrier Owner's club at Discord and look for a ride, either from Explorer's Anchorage or Colonia (I'll get to that in a second) back to the Bubble. That'll take you a few days (until the carrier leaves, then another day or so for the trip).
• You could simply self destruct and then, on the rebuy page, forfeit your current ship and select the starter sidewinder. That will transport you immediately back to the (a?) starter system in the Bubble, at the price of losing your current ship and all the modules within.
• You could also (this is where Colonia comes into play) commit a crime within the vincinity of Explorer's Anchorage and let them destroy you. That will transport you and your ship to the next detainment facility (i.e. prison), which, in that case, should be in Colonia. Ahh... strike that. Just checked, Explorer's Anchorge also has a nearby prison ship. So that trick won't let you shortcut the 10 kLy to Colonia....

If you don't want to wait for a carrier and don't want to self destruct and lose your ship, you'll need to fly. There are, however, two methods to accelerate that journey

• colonia prison taxi
• neutron jumping via the Neutron Fields

You may be temted to first fly to Colonia and swap ships there before a self destruct, in order to later have your ship transferred to the Bubble. Sure, that's a possibility - but not one that is often taken up. Using ship transfer on the Colonia route will cost you more than that ship's (and all the modules) are worth and take a lot of time.

 

[HRDiagram]

A more convoluted alternative could be to see if one of the many FC stationed in that area have shipyards selling Sidewinders or other small/cheap ships. You could buy one of those and then self destruct, so that you don't lose your exploration vessel with its modules.
You would respawn in the bubble with a stock sidewinder, but your explorer would still be available (although it could be pricey to have it transferred back to the bubble)

 

[Valorin]

Yes... but you may not like it.
Ok, so others have already pointed out
1) hie yourself to Explorer's Anchorage, one jump away from Sgr A*, and get all your businesses in order (unclaimed exploration profits mainly, I'd guess).
Then - it depends.

• You could check out the Fleet Carrier Owner's club at Discord and look for a ride, either from Explorer's Anchorage or Colonia (I'll get to that in a second) back to the Bubble. That'll take you a few days (until the carrier leaves, then another day or so for the trip).
• You could simply self destruct and then, on the rebuy page, forfeit your current ship and select the starter sidewinder. That will transport you immediately back to the (a?) starter system in the Bubble, at the price of losing your current ship and all the modules within.
• You could also (this is where Colonia comes into play) commit a crime within the vincinity of Explorer's Anchorage and let them destroy you. That will transport you and your ship to the next detainment facility (i.e. prison), which, in that case, should be in Colonia. Ahh... strike that. Just checked, Explorer's Anchorge also has a nearby prison ship. So that trick won't let you shortcut the 10 kLy to Colonia....

If you don't want to wait for a carrier and don't want to self destruct and lose your ship, you'll need to fly. There are, however, two methods to accelerate that journey

• colonia prison taxi
• neutron jumping via the Neutron Fields

You may be temted to first fly to Colonia and swap ships there before a self destruct, in order to later have your ship transferred to the Bubble. Sure, that's a possibility - but not one that is often taken up. Using ship transfer on the Colonia route will cost you more than that ship's (and all the modules) are worth and take a lot of time.

Going the self destruct way you can also just buy a sidewinder and selfdestruct it. Leaves your explorer 20k ly away from the bubble, but at least it's not gone then.

Hm. OR look for a ride back to the bubble on a carrier, buy a Sidey, go to the carrier and get the Sidey delivered to the carrier. Swap to Sidey, selfdestruct for insta-ride to Bubble.
When the carrier arrives it will also bring your exploration ship...

 

[Ashnak]

you can also just buy a sidewinder and selfdestruct it.

... once you made that 10 kLy trip from Sgr A* to Colonia. Just checked on Inara - there's supposedly one carrier 8 kLy from Sgr A* that may be selling a Sidey, otherwise the nearest shipyards are in the Colonia region.

 

[Valorin]

... once you made that 10 kLy trip from Sgr A* to Colonia. Just checked on Inara - there's supposedly one carrier 8 kLy from Sgr A* that may be selling a Sidey, otherwise the nearest shipyards are in the Colonia region.

Anchorage doesn't have a shipyard... That makes sense. But ouch.

 

[mtfatboy3006]

Another option if any of the carriers at Sag A with shipyards have open docking permission (surely one of the many will)...
Carriers with shipyards at Sag A


Buy any pre-built ship with ARX. There's an AX Chieftain jumpstart that could dip your toes in AX combat, for instance.

Sell your exploration data at Sag A

Deploy your pre-built ship at the shipyard in someone's carrier at Sag A

Self Destruct, don't rebuy, and respawn with the stock sidewinder in the bubble. You can re-deploy your pre-built ship in the bubble after, and you won't lose your explorer. Nothing will be lost except the ARX you spent on the ship, and you will always have the ship to show for it.

Or, fly home like a true explorer. o7 Whatever you do!

BTW I personally don't recommend AX combat. Blasting scouts is unsatisfyingly easy. Everything else has an excessively steep and expensive learning curve, in my egotistical opinion. Powerplay 2.0 might be interesting, but more promising things (colonization/basebuilding) are allegedly on the horizon.

 

[uncle bulgaria]

Depending on the value of your current ship you could just fly to Colonia and buy an AFMU and Neuton boost back to the bubble. If you have a decent range ship you can do it in a few hours, say 4 for normal decent range exploration build (I’ve not done it in years but I’m sure I did it comfortably under 5 hours in a DBX). You need an AFMU to repair your FSD as neutron booting damages it each time.

Find something to watch (the 2 Sunday footy matches on Sky for example or a box set) and just make your way back. Use Spansh for the route plotting.