Suit Loadout For Long Exo Exploration Journey

[Safester]

Apologies if this has been covered before but I could not find any threads (neither here or Reddit, YT videos, etc) with the kind of info I'm after.

As the title suggests I'm about to embark on a long exploration mission and recently purchased Odyssey for that very reason, so I don't have much experience with it. I've been grinding out the engineer unlocks but now that's done I'm not sure of the best suit loadout for my trip and would like some input from other CMDR's with more experience in this area.

I've already installed the Improved Battery Capacity but am struggling what to fit next. My thinking is Reduced Tool Battery Consumption as I won't be able to buy Energy Cells in the black but then I can always restore power via my SRV or ship.

Then there's Increased Sprint Duration but with bunny hopping is this beneficial? Does your sprint stamina replenish while bunny hopping or only while your feet are touching the ground?

Improved Jump Assist is another option which I'm considering but I don't think I'd need Increased Sprint Duration if I went for this module (or vice versa). Of course this will help with my sprint and bunny hops but another advantage I can think is that I could boost myself up high to get a look at the surroundings when searching for the bio's. Would this be the better option over Increased Sprint Duration?

Finally there's Night Vision. I've heard it's good for searching out bio's both during the day and night. I don't plan on doing too much searching at night so again wonder how much I'll use it. Are there bio's that are only found in darkness?

Maybe I'm over thinking it but would like to hear some opinions from others before I go and kit out my suit.

Thanks in advance.
CMDR StryphZ'

 

[idahosurge]

If you have not already my first suggestion would be to get your Artemis suit to G5. I have three mods: Reduced Tool Battery Consumption, Improved Battery Capacity and Night Vision. I have yet spent enough time away from my ship that I need to go back and recharge or use a spare cell to recharge.

You really need Night Vision for those times on the dark side of the planet when you are looking for hard to find BIO.

I use a AspX and rather than walk / jump / sprint around I hop my AspX from one BIO to the next. If I know there are three BIO (like Tussock) samples within a circle that only have to be 500 meters apart then I do jump / sprint between them, other than that I hop in my AspX. I have never felt the need for the jump or sprint mods. If FD every lets you have more than four mods then I might go ahead and add both to my suit.

I read someplace that if you have the Improved Battery Capacity mod you really do not need the Reduced Tool Battery Consumption mod. You might do a search on the forums for this topic and see it any threads popup supporting one view or the other. My suit has both and I am not going to spend the time and resources modding other suits just to test the theory.

I have spent enough time looking for BIO to know I don't need any of the other mods since I am using my Artemis suit only for BIO sample gathering and my AspX is never far away if I need to recharge or need air. Besides, you can carry 100 extra cells and just using one on occasion that will last you a long time. Out in the black you can always detour to Colonia or Exjplorer's Anchorage or a fleet carrier in you area to replenish your cells.

 

[Crank Larson]

For exploration you need nothing more than the biology scanner, which comes as standard.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

If you're going to be primarily using your ship or SRV to get between plants to scan them, then you don't really need an upgraded suit at all.

In terms of usefulness:
- improved jump assist can let you stay permanently airborne on low-G worlds. That's not necessarily useful (bunny-hopping is faster), but it's fun enough to be worth having and might help you out if you fall off a cliff or something.
- improve sprint will mean you can make it from your ship to the elevator in a single run when the time comes to sell up. On high-G worlds it might also be better than bunny-hopping, though high-G worlds with bio signals are rare
- reduced tool battery consumption is probably still the next most useful after those, though if you already have improved battery capacity it's going to be only very marginally useful
- night vision you can almost always get away without by just going to the light side of the planet to do your scanning. There aren't any darkness-only bios in the general sense, but you could in theory get a planet where one bio was confined to a few isolated valleys or mountain peaks which just happened to all be on the dark side ... even then, your ship and SRV both have night vision, and both those and your suit have a torch, so you could probably get by without it even then.


Final item - not for the suit: get a G2 Executioner and fit the Scope upgrade to it. The zoom lens can come in useful for deciding which way to go next.

 

[K-NINE]

I'd agree with the last two comments that - with your ship and/or SRV close to hand - you don't need much beyond the standard Artemis suit.
For what it's worth though: mine's at G5, gets used fairly frequently and I find both the Night vision and Improved battery capacity mods useful. (The other two I've installed are Improved jump assist and Increased sprint duration.)

I've never felt the need for the Reduced tool consumption on the Artemis suit seeing as you can only scan one specimen at a time before having to move on find another (and you'd usually do that either via your ship or SRV). It's not like the Maverick suit where you can be cutting locks or overloading terminals numerous times within a couple of minutes and where battery consumption can become an issue.

 

[Safester]

Thank you all for the quick responses, seems like additional modules aren't that important which is probably why I was overthinking it. However, I've got the space and materials for them so may as well put them to use.

I did not think about restocking on a fleet carrier, hopefull I'll not need to with 100 spare energy cells, but good advice all the same.

As for the suggestion about fitting a scope to a G2 Executioner, I did read this somewhere already and have it on my wishlist. My current Executioner is G5 without any modules yet so I'll take that with me.

 

[Greasetrap42]

With the standard suit I rarely have any need to go below 50%. I don't have night vision, pressing the sample tool gives a night vision type pulse. I do wish I had extended sprint for running.

For exobiology I have used several different ships, and settled on Viper4 and Eagle MKIII. Both have a really small landing footprint allowing me to land in very difficult locations. They both have quick accel, speedy, and quik to land. This significantly reduces the on-foot time and rarely use the SRV, the ship almost always drops me right where I want to be and its quicker to jump back in the ship and hop to the next sample. --> as a result I spend very little time running on foot. Even dificult terrain posses little problem.

Edit: I originally used medium sized ships. AspX and Chieftan. They often required me to land away from the bio sample requiring me to use SRV or run on foot. I did alot of running in mountainous areas. And areas with rocks & rubble strewn everywhere. Not so much anymore.

 

[Marvin the Martian]

I'm still using my stock G1 Artemis suit and I'm nearly Elite IV.

You're never out of the SRV long enough to need anything else.

 

[Darrack]

Apologies if this has been covered before but I could not find any threads (neither here or Reddit, YT videos, etc) with the kind of info I'm after.

As the title suggests I'm about to embark on a long exploration mission and recently purchased Odyssey for that very reason, so I don't have much experience with it. I've been grinding out the engineer unlocks but now that's done I'm not sure of the best suit loadout for my trip and would like some input from other CMDR's with more experience in this area.

I've already installed the Improved Battery Capacity but am struggling what to fit next. My thinking is Reduced Tool Battery Consumption as I won't be able to buy Energy Cells in the black but then I can always restore power via my SRV or ship.

Then there's Increased Sprint Duration but with bunny hopping is this beneficial? Does your sprint stamina replenish while bunny hopping or only while your feet are touching the ground?

Improved Jump Assist is another option which I'm considering but I don't think I'd need Increased Sprint Duration if I went for this module (or vice versa). Of course this will help with my sprint and bunny hops but another advantage I can think is that I could boost myself up high to get a look at the surroundings when searching for the bio's. Would this be the better option over Increased Sprint Duration?

Finally there's Night Vision. I've heard it's good for searching out bio's both during the day and night. I don't plan on doing too much searching at night so again wonder how much I'll use it. Are there bio's that are only found in darkness?

Maybe I'm over thinking it but would like to hear some opinions from others before I go and kit out my suit.

Thanks in advance.
CMDR StryphZ'

If your out in the Black gardening (like i am atm) you only really need a G1 Arty with Night Vision, for when you have no alternative but to land on the dark side of a planet.
But if eventually you do get a G5 my recommendations would be:

Night Vision
Improved Battery Consumption
Improved jump Assist (Hills!!)
Increased sprint duration.

That's my loadout and its served me very well.

O7

 

[Safester]

If your out in the Black gardening (like i am atm) you only really need a G1 Arty with Night Vision, for when you have no alternative but to land on the dark side of a planet.
But if eventually you do get a G5 my recommendations would be:

Night Vision
Improved Battery Consumption
Improved jump Assist (Hills!!)
Increased sprint duration.

That's my loadout and its served me very well.

O7

Thanks for your reply but I'm already a few days into my journey, left the bubble last Friday and hadn't seen your suggestions until now though that's exactly the loadout I went for!

 

[Safester]

With the standard suit I rarely have any need to go below 50%. I don't have night vision, pressing the sample tool gives a night vision type pulse. I do wish I had extended sprint for running.

For exobiology I have used several different ships, and settled on Viper4 and Eagle MKIII. Both have a really small landing footprint allowing me to land in very difficult locations. They both have quick accel, speedy, and quik to land. This significantly reduces the on-foot time and rarely use the SRV, the ship almost always drops me right where I want to be and its quicker to jump back in the ship and hop to the next sample. --> as a result I spend very little time running on foot. Even dificult terrain posses little problem.

Edit: I originally used medium sized ships. AspX and Chieftan. They often required me to land away from the bio sample requiring me to use SRV or run on foot. I did alot of running in mountainous areas. And areas with rocks & rubble strewn everywhere. Not so much anymore.

I have a Cobra MkIII which I use to zip around the bubble when collecting mats and I did a lot of this to unlock the on-foot engineers prior to leaving on my expedition. It is also good for landing almost anywhere quickly, it was great for practicing bio searches as it skimmed along the planet surfaces nicely. It has a decent jump range of around 50LY and I contemplated using it out in the black but opted for my Phantom instead due to the length of time I may be away and the additional modules which are installed.

 

[Greasetrap42]

Phantom instead due to the length of time I may be away and the additional modules which are installed.

Phantom is a great choice.

I forgot to include in my post that the tiny ships are great for exploration if they are being launched from a fleet carrier. Not so awesome on their own. Phantom is fantastic for long distance exploration. Enjoy your travels!

 

[Sinister Hedgehog]

Have done planet exploration and bio gathering a bunch over the last year. My take (for what it's worth):

• In the bubble - Krait Phantom is good as you can also equip for gathering any HGEs you come across (limpets, cargo racks etc.)
• If you are near a carrier - you can't beat a DBX - it can land on anything! (The three landing gear makes it much easier to land in awkward places if you need to) - but it's a bit fragile/ short on modules for a solo trip (don't get me wrong DBX is great for explo/scanning but if you're gonna be landing on lots of planets to look at plants then sooner or later you will take some damage) - you can squash in a repair limpet, cargo rack, shield and AMFU - if you're away from carrier / solo them I would definitely do this.
• AspX is great if you're on you're own because its smaller than Krait, but can still hold enough things like repair limps & AMFU for when you "bump" and can land almost as good as DBX.
• Use an SRV (which I recommend) for bio gathering as it is just so much quicker - then the suit loadout doesn't matter that much as you recharge/reload when you get back into SRV. Having said that - my Artemis suit is this as well....

Night Vision (<--- not vital - nearly all bio planets have sunny sides so just land there - never really needed it)​

Improved Battery Consumption (< --- if you have this then you don't need the reduced tool power)​

Improved jump Assist (YES - 'cos walking is tedious)​

Increased sprint duration (YES - 'cos walking is tedious)​

 

[DjVortex]

I don't even know how I could even upgrade my suit. (Well, I mean, obviously you upgrade it in space stations, duh, but I mean that I have zero idea where to get any of the materials needed.) Never felt the need.

The idea of running on foot from one plant to the next has never even occurred to me. It would take forever. Rather obviously I just hop on the SRV and drive at full speed far enough to get a new sample. By far the easiest and fastest way. Just remember to mine sulphur and phosphorus from time to time in order to be able to refuel the SRV. (And turn its shields off. You don't need them, and the fuel will last for longer.)

 

[Val Sylvana]

I've got Improved Battery Capacity, Increased Air Reserves, Improved Jump Assist and Night Vision.

The genetic sampler does use quite a bit of power, but you're generally not far from the ship or SRV when using it. Night Vision is great for seeing the terrain if you are on the night side of a planet, which may be necessary if it's especially hot. I also carry an Executioner with a scope, since it's the closest we have to binoculars or a telescope.

 

[SlickPBW]

I got to Elite V in Exobiology with the following on my G5 Artie: battery capacity, night vision, sprint duration and jump assist. Never once did I ever drop down to 75% battery, although I wouldn’t argue with someone who added reduced tool consumption. I have an Executioner with a scope equipped, but never needed it. I usually just jumped out of my DBX to scan plants that I could literally land next to, then jumped back in and flew to another patch to rinse and repeat. On occasion I would use my SRV to travel to the next plant, just for a change of pace. All this being said, a G1 Artie wouldn’t have hindered me a bit, and the lights from my ship/SRV actually made my night vision a luxury. So my advice is: splurge if you’re into it (I was) but absolutely no upgrades or engineering is needed, nor do they make exobiology any easier, faster or frankly less boring.

 

[DjVortex]

So my advice is: splurge if you’re into it (I was) but absolutely no upgrades or engineering is needed, nor do they make exobiology any easier, faster or frankly less boring.

Except you may want to engineer your FSD to max. Getting to that next nebula is so much faster when you can make 42 ly jumps instead of 22 ly. And getting to places is the meat of exploring.

 

[SlickPBW]

Except you may want to engineer your FSD to max. Getting to that next nebula is so much faster when you can make 42 ly jumps instead of 22 ly. And getting to places is the meat of exploring.

This thread is about suit mods.

 

[Ashnak]

Just found this thread - right now 3 klys out from Colonia, with a DBX and a pretty much basic Artemis suit (whatever I was able to pick up at a station, might even be a grade 3, haven't done any suit engineering yet). Started out with a Phantom, did three or so planets, then returned back to Colonia to switch to the DBX. In most cases, I can land the DBX directly next to the plants, I'm working on landing her right on top so that I don't even need to leave the blue circle. Which pretty much negates the need for any suit modifications - or using the SRV.

 

[Sinister Hedgehog]

Just to finish off some thoughts here (in case some folks don't realize this). Remember your ship (and when you deploy it) your srv can hold 100 energy cells. Your energy and suit health are repaired just by getting into srv. Your artemis suit will hold energy cells (by default if you have them in storage on your ship). The danger of running out of power is miniscule. So if most of the time you drive up to the plants, jump out and scan them - you really don't need any engineering on your suit to .... go and smell the flowers Fly safe!