Newcomer / Intro Selenium

[Fyren]

Hello CMDR's!

I desperately need some help with the acquisition of some selenium.

I started engineering a couple of days ago and the lack of selenium is stopping me from progressing further.

I have very limited experience in mining and planetary exploration. I did a bit of both yesterday and the results are quite abysmal... Each activity lasted about 45 minutes in order to compare them fairly.

First I tried mining in the Low RES of an ice ring. Started shooting at random rocks which yielded tons of fragments but very, very little materials, most of which were iron and carbon. (Aside from the tutorial, this was the first time I fired mining lasers , so when I say "limited" experience, might as well say "none"...)

Then I went planet-side and started driving around randomly. Found two meteorites that yielded some carbon, sulphur, and germanium. Found a bunch of canisters protected by 4 skimmers. Finally found 6 occupied escape pods in the middle of some debris. Decided to call it a day when my SRV's hull reached 50% (yeah, I did have some fun too [big grin]).

I don't remember the exact locations, but in both cases, the selenium content were about 2.5% (as per eddb.io). I know I could get better but I wanted to test it out closest to my current location.

Thank you for any advice you may provide!

 

[Rock Hunter]

I’ve haven’t tried mining yet but have done a fair bit of SRV minerals searching, comparatively anyway.

Have you got the wave scanner website in your favourites?

http://wavescanner.net/

Random searching planetside isn’t the way to go if you’re trying to pick up materials inside an hour. I still haven’t mastered exactly what minerals/materials are going to be where the scanner suggests especially when there are two different types showing up. It does, even for this rubbish SRV pilot, show me where on the surface some stuff is.

 

[aRJay]

All I know about it is that it can be found using the SRV (not by mining in rings) but I don't know what sort of world and source you need to find, it is also a mission reward material, it is a rare material so trading other raw materials for it at a trader is probably going to be expensive in terms of the exchange rate.

 

[Ashnak]

Errmmmm... you were mining in an ICE ring?

Last time I looked, Selenium was a metal (ok, half-metal, actually), so if I were in your place, I'd at least go for a metal-rich or metallic ring.
However, as Se is a pretty high grade material, it may spawn only rarely or not at all from a ring. The highest tier mats don't spawn from rings.

SRV is more like it. Yes, use the wavescanner. And, as Se is rare, your chances of finding it are best in metallic meteorites, somewhat possible in metallic outcrops and pretty much meh everywhere else.

Since you brought up eddb: you know that you can search for materials around your current position and then sort by material percentage? Se is pretty rare, but there are enough worlds with close to 5% around.

 

[Rock Hunter]

Errmmmm... you were mining in an ICE ring?

Last time I looked, Selenium was a metal (ok, half-metal, actually), so if I were in your place, I'd at least go for a metal-rich or metallic ring.
However, as Se is a pretty high grade material, it may spawn only rarely or not at all from a ring. The highest tier mats don't spawn from rings.

SRV is more like it. Yes, use the wavescanner. And, as Se is rare, your chances of finding it are best in metallic meteorites, somewhat possible in metallic outcrops and pretty much meh everywhere else.

Since you brought up eddb: you know that you can search for materials around your current position and then sort by material percentage? Se is pretty rare, but there are enough worlds with close to 5% around.

I realised my advice really wasn't that helpful, but looking into it further eddb is the place to go. It seems, using the material searcher that 4.9% selenium is about the highest percentage you'll find anywhere but the whole first page is a list of bodies that are 4.8 and 4.9% selenium. Then its down to you and the wave scanner.

 

[Fyren]

All I know about it is that it can be found using the SRV (not by mining in rings) but I don't know what sort of world and source you need to find, it is also a mission reward material, it is a rare material so trading other raw materials for it at a trader is probably going to be expensive in terms of the exchange rate.

Yeah. Grade 4, so no favorable trade... I'm considering trading Tellerium for it at a 6:1 disadvantage. At least I know where to get Te but its going to take a sh*tload of it considering Se is used both for my drives and my beams.

I'll start looking at mission rewards too.

Have you got the wave scanner website in your favourites?

I do now!

Still, I was driving half-randomly I guess. I did keep the white spots on the scanner in front of me but they never led to anything...

 

[Dural]

... NVM

 

[Fyren]

Errmmmm... you were mining in an ICE ring?
Last time I looked, Selenium was a metal (ok, half-metal, actually), so if I were in your place, I'd at least go for a metal-rich or metallic ring.
However, as Se is a pretty high grade material, it may spawn only rarely or not at all from a ring. The highest tier mats don't spawn from rings.

I though I had read somewhere that it could be found in Ice rings. I'm probably wrong though. Only been playing for a bit over a month.

Since you brought up eddb: you know that you can search for materials around your current position and then sort by material percentage? Se is pretty rare, but there are enough worlds with close to 5% around.

Yeah. I was getting a feel for each activity. I think I'll go with planet-side. If I get frustrated, at least I can goof-off with the SRV.

Any tip on finding meteorites (flatland, craters, canyons, etc) or is it pure RNG?

 

[Codger]

I was just in need of Selenium myself.

I went to the system CPD-51 3323, planet 1 d a.

I found a nice flat area in the whitish part (rather than the blue canyons, I was up on the plains).

Shot every rock, outcrop, and meteor I could find with the scanner, and picked up everything that dropped. I stayed there for about 3 hours, just driving from one rock to the next, no real pattern.

Came back with 80 Selenium and a lot of other stuff (even a few Arsenic) that will be handy in the future.

So, that worked for me. And I won't need more for quite some time Good luck!

 

[Darth Llama]

Easiest way is to go to https://eddb.io/body

Put in what you're looking for and where you are. When the results come up, sort them by highest percentage. You should be able to find a planet near you with at least 4.5% Selenium.

When I needed it, that's what I did, and even though I still found little Selenium, I did find other minerals that were supposed to be more rare. I got a descent haul of Selenium, and then I went off to a Material Trader and traded a few chunks of very rare mats for the rest that I needed.

You don't necessarily have to find Selenium, if you get lucky and find something more rare, you can always trade it for what you need.

Good luck.

 

[K-NINE]

@OP:

I find that Selenium is most easily obtainable on ice worlds. Use the "Bodies" finder on EDDB (https://eddb.io/body), type Selenium in the "Material Finder" field and input your current location in the "Reference location" field.
Once it's returned the results, look at the third column ("SE"): anything over 4.0% is good. Take an SRV and you should have a handy supply of the stuff after an hour or two's prospecting.

 

[Fyren]

Easiest way is to go to https://eddb.io/body

You don't necessarily have to find Selenium, if you get lucky and find something more rare, you can always trade it for what you need.

Good luck.

Yeah, but nothing trades favorably with Se since it's a Grade 4... I know where to find Tin (same row, Grade 3) and Tellerium (previous row, Grade 4) if it comes down to trading.

Aside from using EDDB.IO, do you have any standard procedures once you arrive? Landing zone preferences, etc?

 

[Fyren]

@OP:

I find that Selenium is most easily obtainable on ice worlds. Use the "Bodies" finder on EDDB (https://eddb.io/body), type Selenium in the "Material Finder" field and input your current location in the "Reference location" field.
Once it's returned the results, look at the third column ("SE"): anything over 4.0% is good. Take an SRV and you should have a handy supply of the stuff after an hour or two's prospecting.

Thanks! But once you arrive, do you look for a specific landing zone? (read that landing in a crater is a good spot. Is it?) Do you just drive around randomly with some white scanner bands in front of you?

 

[d8veh]

Use this to find any surface materials using an SRV:
https://eddb.io/body

Lots of Selenium in Shinrarta Dezhra. Two planets with 4.2%:
https://eddb.io/body/44

 

[Dommarraa]

Metallic meteorites are your best targets. 2 bands near the bottom, use the wavescanner site above to properly identify them. You will get the hang of it pretty quickly

 

[Fyren]

Metallic meteorites are your best targets. 2 bands near the bottom, use the wavescanner site above to properly identify them. You will get the hang of it pretty quickly

Yeah, I definitely need to spend some time deciphering what the scanner is trying to tell me... Thanks!

 

[Ashnak]

Thanks! But once you arrive, do you look for a specific landing zone? (read that landing in a crater is a good spot. Is it?) Do you just drive around randomly with some white scanner bands in front of you?

Regarding materials, the different regions on a planet are equal, i.e. presumably it's pure RNG, with the exception of permanent surface POIs (downed ships, geological features, botanical features, barnacles). All of those are supposed to be harvestable with a greater concentration of materials.
So, unless you know where/how to find these surface features, your best bet is to find a nice big flat area where you can gun the SRV. So, if you get a choice, everything being equal, between a rocky high g world and a low g ice world, choose the latter.

I didn't drive randomly in 2.4 and have only driven around once in 3.0. On that one occasion, the concentration of shootable rocks turned out to be much higher than in 2.4, so following the scanner resulted in more random driving. In 2.4, it was "choose a direction, then gun it until something comes up on the scanner". In 3.0, it was more like "start up, then decide which of the echoes you want to go for first".

Yes - follow the scanner. The further away the target is, the less well defined the scanner bands are. As you get closer, the bands get sharper and narrower. When the rocks show up on your radar, the bands are down to maybe 15% of the scanner width (for a single rock). Natural resources show up at the bottom half of the scanner, artificial objects on the top half.

 

[Fyren]

Regarding materials, the different regions on a planet are equal, i.e. presumably it's pure RNG, with the exception of permanent surface POIs (downed ships, geological features, botanical features, barnacles). All of those are supposed to be harvestable with a greater concentration of materials.
So, unless you know where/how to find these surface features, your best bet is to find a nice big flat area where you can gun the SRV. So, if you get a choice, everything being equal, between a rocky high g world and a low g ice world, choose the latter.

I didn't drive randomly in 2.4 and have only driven around once in 3.0. On that one occasion, the concentration of shootable rocks turned out to be much higher than in 2.4, so following the scanner resulted in more random driving. In 2.4, it was "choose a direction, then gun it until something comes up on the scanner". In 3.0, it was more like "start up, then decide which of the echoes you want to go for first".

Yes - follow the scanner. The further away the target is, the less well defined the scanner bands are. As you get closer, the bands get sharper and narrower. When the rocks show up on your radar, the bands are down to maybe 15% of the scanner width (for a single rock). Natural resources show up at the bottom half of the scanner, artificial objects on the top half.

Thank you! Excellent info!

(I thought the top meant far and bottom meant close... No wonder "close" never yielded anything!)

 

[Ashnak]

Thank you! Excellent info!

(I thought the top meant far and bottom meant close... No wonder "close" never yielded anything!)

Ah... check the Wavescanner.net site again. Each type of object has a specific scanner signature, and a specific sound. Main problem is that outcrops and metallic meteorites have a very similar signature, unless you happen to see these two side by side.

 

[Fyren]

Main problem is that outcrops and metallic meteorites have a very similar signature

Yeah, noticed it too. I guess I'll get used to it with practice.