Registered just to give my thanks to OP and everyone providing tips and tricks for collecting Guardian stuff. I'm a fairly new pilot with not much unlocked but I was determined to make the journey out here, see the cool sites, and gather everything I needed to unlock my desired guardian tech (3-4 blueprints) in one trip.
This was one of my first journeys beyond the bubble after returning from a long break post-horizons. A lot had changed in the galaxy and this trip taught me a lot about both the guardian system and longer journeys like this in general.
I'd like to share what I learned and what I wish I knew before coming out here as a new pilot:
This is kind of embarassing but as with most things in Elite I didnt fully understand half of what I was doing before I'd already outfitted a ship and launched 800ly into the abyss.
Understanding
what I was actually collecting and
why saved me halting my runs every 20 minutes to dive into google trying to find out if I was actually collecting anything of value. Learn from my hubris Commander.
Why do I want/need Guardian stuff?
Because Guardian weaponry and fighters excel at fighting Thargoids. Dont want to trade beam lasers with the space squids? Guardian modules offer benefits beyond a stylish purple shimmer. The parts are similar to those recieved from engineering with a few key differences in how they are unlocked, obtained, and outfitted on a ship. Once unlocked via a blueprint the guardian parts become available for sale alongside regular ship parts around the galaxy. For credits! No more scrounging for Theoretical Omega Pattern Beluga Emissions. This makes them very appealing to newer commanders who lack access to the more exotic matierials and locations required for engineering. Indeed the guardian FSD booster (optional slot module that adds up to 10ly of flat jump range) is considered by many a required item before setting off in search of the various engineers.
what is a Guardian blueprint?
Guardian Blueprints are essentially crafting recipes offered at by a Tech Broker. Brokers are easily accessible at stations throughout the galaxy, however the matierials they need to unlock the Guardian modules are not.
What mats do I need and where can I get them?
Each blueprint requires matierials of various grades as well as Guardian specific matierials that can only be found on guardian sites. The guardian mats include:
- Blueprint Fragments (Weapon, Module, Starship): Every guardian recipe requires a single blueprint fragment. All the weapons require 1 weapon fragment, modules require 1 module fragment etc. Obtain 1 of these by completing the environment puzzle at a Guardian Structure.
- 5 Obelisk Data Packages (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon) - Scoop the Ancient Artifacts littered around the guardian sites and then scan the glowing Obelisks. 1 scan rewards can reward several data package of pne or more types. The types of data a site gives differs so you may need to visit multiple sites to get every data type.
- Power Cells, Tech Components - Found by blasting off various glowing panels. The Power conduits can also be dropped by Sentinels. Cells are found in abundance behing panels while the tech components drop more rarely.
- Sentinel Weaon Parts, Wreckage Components, Power Conduits - Dropped after defeating guardian sentinels, hostile robots that will appear at guardian sites while attempting to explore and complete the blueprint puzzles. A downed sentinel will always drop 1 of each.
In addition to these recipe matierials, some other guardian items are found at the sites. These are used in the environmental puzzles at the sites and currently have no use outside of guardian sites. The can be sold for credits. They include:
- Ancient Artefacts (Urn, Totem, Casket, Tablet, Orb) - Glowing objects found on the ground at either sites, typically in the middle of a pile of rocks. Scoop them with the SRV. Once collected and 'discovered' for the first time they unlock the ability to scan various Obelisks. You do not need to have them in the SRV while scanning so you can run these back to the ship when collected. You'll need to as there are 5 in total and the SRV only hold 3 at a time.They are also not used up upon interacting with the obelisks.
- Ancient Relics - These are fixed to the top of spires which emerge from the ground when the player drives near. Shoot the tops to uncover and release a relic. The relics are used in the last step of the environmental puzzle. You only need to carry 1 in the SRV to finish the puzzle but the site features multiple spires, probably in case you miss the others.
Where do they come from?
The 2 kinds of sites needed to obtain these parts are:
- Ancient Ruins - a planetary POI that resembles an sparse archiological dig site. These sites were the original guardian sites and only feature obelisks and the artefacts used to unlock them. These are the main source of obelisk data fragments and many can be obtained here in a single run.
- Guardian Structures - a planetary POI that features a lot of more intact guardian architecture, an environmental puzzle, obelisks, artefacts, guardian mats, and hostile flying robots. At least 1 of every matirial needed for a blueprint including the frament itself can be found here.
Making the journey
You don't need to hoard sulphur & phosphor but don't leave home without at least some either.
I rarely had to repair, rearm, or refuel my SRV on my 10+ site runs or 5+ ruins runs and when I did the cost was small. Bring 10-20 of each grade 1 raw matierial. I can only see needing 150 of each if you didnt equip point defence on your ship and you're planning do enough runs to farm literally every blueprint.
Run light and only bring 1 SRV bay
As someone with an unengineered ship I couldnt afford the extra weight. The extra bay and craft reduced my jump ranged enough to cost me a not insignificant amount of jumps and having completed my runs I can't see why it's neccessary if you're also packing repair mats. The sentinels are scary at first but all their damage can be almost toally negated by relying on the point defence to shoot down the missles (their one legitmate threat), driving behind any of the plentiful cover at the site and throwing a few extra pips to systems.
For a quicker trip plot your route using Galaxy Plotter
Making this journey outside the bubble had me quickly realize the limitations of the in-game route plotter. The 'fastest route' it calculated was a gruelling 28 jump trip for my poor unengineered AspX.
By comparison Galaxy Plotter literally cut that journey in half. It calculated a route that progressively drained my fuel tank, increasing my range, leading up to a max range hop into a fuel star. A drastically more effiecient way of making long journeys and my go-to method of navigating in the black from now on. It doesn't recognize permitted systems though so always research your route first. Invaluable for both this trek and much longer journeys (looking at you HIP 36601).
Depend on the charity of others (at your own risk)
Forgot your SRV bay at home? Misplace your planetary scanner at your home station? There isnt a station in this system and the nearest one is several hundred LY away. Luckily the system is a popular spot for fleet carriers, some of them even selling modules though that last part isn't a guarentee. If you do need to refuel, repair, or rearm, just be sure you didnt also leave your credits at home as well, most of these carriers charge hansomely for their convieniences.
No shame in Hitchhiking
If you dont feel up to jumping all the way out to the sites try asking in system chat if any carriers are headed out to the guardian system. Judging by the number of carriers parked in and around the system its a popular destination, no harm in asking.
I've arrived
Use INARA to keep track of your blueprints
Nothing worse than wasting time cargo wiggling your SRV around trying to scoop mats that you won't actually use. Go to Inara, link your Frontier account, under My Crafting add some Tech Broker blueprints and under Missing Components it will keep track of your current mats and automatically check the required ones off your to-do list. It will even tell you if you can simply trade for the required mats at a Tech Broker using your current cargo. Using Inara saved me a lot of time as I could target only the materials in the exact amount I needed and skip picking up everything else.
Go to Ancient Ruins for a better source of Obelisk Data
Dont stay at Guardian Site trying to hopelessly farm Obelisks from the 4 that spawn amongst ed off sentinels and the galaxy's worst SRV obstacle course. Once you have what you need to from Structure site head to a Ancient Ruins site. There are tons of obelisks to scan, plenty of artefacts if you didnt get enough at structure, much more open terrain to navigate and no sentinels to worry about.
Use Ancient RelicSpires as landmarks when exploring the Ancient Ruins sites
These sites offer a ton of obelisks to scan with the downside of being sprawling and marked big large terrain features which make getting your bearings difficults. Its easy to get turned around andmiss obelisks. Luckily the spires which rise from the ground only do so when nearby. Use those as landmarks to denote which sites you've scanned during a run and avoid accidently backtracking.
I live here now
If you're farming mats for 4+ blueprints just accept that its going to take a few hours and that jetting around this site repeatedly may just compose your entire session, possibly numerous sessions. Your first couple runs at Structure will probably be spent mental mapping the site and figuring out the puzzle, being intimidated by the sentinels only to realize theyre really more of an annoyance and dissincentive to AFK farm the site. Do the puzzle, shoot the panels, hoover the tech trash, clear the sentinels and log out for the evening.
Eventually routine will set in and you'll be threading your mooncraft through pylons, mopping up components and only occaisionaly ducking behind cover to avoid sentinel fire while only kinda half paying attention. I tried to break up my time farming the structure by heading to Ruins to more freely kart around collecting data, seeing how fast I dared pilot the buggy across uneven terrain with 4 pips in engines, buttocks fully clenched, hoping, praying that some stray pixel jutting from a rock didnt clip a tire and send my only means of traversing this gods forsaken rock careening into the oribital glide. I comforted myself knowing that while maybe this wasnt the
intended gameplay loop and that perhaps I wasnt neccesarily having
capital F fun whilst doing my space chores, I'd eventually reach a point where I could kiss the blighted ground of SYNUEFE NL-N C23-4 goodbye forever, or at least until I decided I actually DID want a cool Guardian fighter for my newly christened Anaconda, taking solace in the notion that all my hard work had, if nothing else, made returning back that much easier.
