The (not so great) Polonium hunt

Cdr Voorheez

Cdr Voorheez
I am aware this subject has been raised before but I cannot find the thread relating to it. In short I need some polonium (yes we all need some polonium I hear you all exhale).

I have tried doing missions that give out polonium as rewards..no joy.
I have tried scouring planetary surfaces for polonium..no joy.

Where are these elusive materials? Are there specific planetary types i need to be exploring? Do i need to be waaaay out of the bubble? Are there missions I can do.

Dont usually get frustrated with this game, i use it to chill to be honest, but this is not fun, help please.
 
Last edited:

Traveller_GG

Traveller_GG
Metal Rich worlds and specifically look for metallic meteorites for the highest chance of spawning ultra rare materials (two bars with the lowest at the very bottom of the scanner)

Metallic outcrops are the next best bet (two bars with the lowest just above the bottom)

Mesosiderites are worth checking (single bar) if you are near one.

Do not keep looking if you find another ultra rare as only one will spawn on each world. Go to another world. Despite the new grading, the original 3-2-1 rule applies

http://wavescanner.net/

Shows what you are looking for (outcrop 2 is the metallic one)
 
Last edited:

racer1

racer1
Each engineer has a list of planets where you can find the mats needed. It is a local news/galnet article. They are old now though so will be near the bottom I guess.

Polonium is very rare. I have only got 1 unit from missions and I've done hundreds of missions. Just ranked up for the Cutter.

The best method I saw was land on planet known to have polonium, deploy SRV, wait for stuff to spawn, takes a few seconds, circle ship looking for MM. If non found get back on ship and fly 10km. Repeat until you have enough polonium. Only bother with MM.

Another option is wait until the next patch as they are going to make it less rare.
 
Last edited:

SlackR

Banned
SlackR
I needed Polonium for the fsd grade 5 recipe and read the articles at the engineers base on Farseer. One of the reports was on how a commander had found high(er) amounts of Polonium on a particular planet... Something like wonerrati 2. Can't remember the exact name. I flew there and it took about an hour to find Polonium in a metallic meteorite.
 

Traveller_GG

Traveller_GG
Just to clarify - did it get *harder* to find polonium after the engineers came out? I know we struggled sometimes on DWE but I'm flying around with 29 of the things in my hold at the moment.
 

racer1

racer1
Traveller_GG said:
Just to clarify - did it get *harder* to find polonium after the engineers came out? I know we struggled sometimes on DWE but I'm flying around with 29 of the things in my hold at the moment.
Click to expand...

I don't think so. It always felt rarer than yttrium even though they were both labelled v. rare in 2.0.

I think there are just more people who need it now who never had the inclination to prospect before and are now forced to. So now there is more noise about it.

I am the same as you I had about 10 left I didn't use from DWE and yttrium too.

The nice thing about DWE and rare mats was you didn't need them until you'd travelled 64000 light years with plenty of planned stop offs on the way with people running ahead telling you where to find it. So even though it took a while you just collected it as you went.
 
Last edited:

Zieman

Zieman
Maybe I'm just having dumb luck, but the very first planet I landed on after a period of not using the SRV has Polonium on it:
HIP 20753 1
 

Cdr Voorheez

Cdr Voorheez
Great replies all;) I am hoping to get a lvl 5 FSD upgrade for my Conda then try and forget about polonium altogether. Have 1 unit just need 1 more. Hope my roll is good:)
 

Yanick

Yanick
I do understand the frustraitions. I've been an explorer for a good while now, but I'm fairly new to prospecting.
I spend most of the day yesterday looking for Ytirium, without any sucess. And that was on a world that many other CMDRs had found sucess on.
I've looked at wavescanner, and seen other guides to prospecting...which I only did reluctantly. Since I prefer to figure these things out for my self, wherever possible.
But even then, no joy.
Fingers crossed I can find these materials soon! :)
 

AnnuverScotinExile

AnnuverScotinExile
racer1 said:
I don't think so. It always felt rarer than yttrium even though they were both labelled v. rare in 2.0.
Click to expand...
On the 'pips' scheme, Yttrium has 4 pips and Polonium has 5, so that is no surprise.

I would certainly go outside the bubble to look for Polonium, if only because you get so many "PoIs" inside the bubble that are useless for Polonium searchers. It certainly felt to me that known sources inside the bubble were very slow to spawn, perhaps because of that. I must have spent 3 hours on Shinrarta Dezhra 1 and got nothing.

I have 8 Polonium at present. The last time I went to a known source planet, I got 3 in about 3 hours. I do not, however, play games resetting instances, etc., since I play as if I was there, and that is meta gaming. Unfortunately, I suspect that planet where I found 3 is a tad too far away for you: SPHUQOAE DR-N D6-3 A7. Before that, there were a couple on the last waypoint for the crab nebula expedition. I have got one from a mission - it did not seem to be an exceptional mission - certainly no worse than others I was doing regularly. But then I was doing missions just for the materials - if something rare or unusual was offered, I took the mission, otherwise I ignored it. The only missions I took without material rewards were ones I could stack to a place I was already going.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Yanick said:
I do understand the frustraitions. I've been an explorer for a good while now, but I'm fairly new to prospecting.
I spend most of the day yesterday looking for Ytirium, without any sucess. And that was on a world that many other CMDRs had found sucess on.
I've looked at wavescanner, and seen other guides to prospecting...which I only did reluctantly. Since I prefer to figure these things out for my self, wherever possible.
But even then, no joy.
Fingers crossed I can find these materials soon! :)
Click to expand...

I have found 25 Yttrium, so it has not been a problem. If searching for the very rares, the one thing to remember is to leave the planet as soon as you find one of the wrong type, since there is only ever one type of very rare on a planet. The one I have found most is Ruthenium. Unfortunately.
 

Cdr Voorheez

Cdr Voorheez
AnnuverScotinExile said:
On the 'pips' scheme, Yttrium has 4 pips and Polonium has 5, so that is no surprise.

I would certainly go outside the bubble to look for Polonium, if only because you get so many "PoIs" inside the bubble that are useless for Polonium searchers. It certainly felt to me that known sources inside the bubble were very slow to spawn, perhaps because of that. I must have spent 3 hours on Shinrarta Dezhra 1 and got nothing.

I have 8 Polonium at present. The last time I went to a known source planet, I got 3 in about 3 hours. I do not, however, play games resetting instances, etc., since I play as if I was there, and that is meta gaming. Unfortunately, I suspect that planet where I found 3 is a tad too far away for you: SPHUQOAE DR-N D6-3 A7. Before that, there were a couple on the last waypoint for the crab nebula expedition. I have got one from a mission - it did not seem to be an exceptional mission - certainly no worse than others I was doing regularly. But then I was doing missions just for the materials - if something rare or unusual was offered, I took the mission, otherwise I ignored it. The only missions I took without material rewards were ones I could stack to a place I was already going.
Click to expand...
I might try it. Got a 46ly ranged Asp all modded and ready for a long leg stretch pre August exped to jacques. Sounds like the perfect excuse to get away from the bubble.
 

AnnuverScotinExile

AnnuverScotinExile
Cdr Voorheez said:
I might try it. Got a 46ly ranged Asp all modded and ready for a long leg stretch pre August exped to jacques. Sounds like the perfect excuse to get away from the bubble.
Click to expand...

Then head for the Crab Nebula waypoint (look it up from the expedition threads). Nice scenery en route. Watch out for all the closed sectors, however.
 

mls

mls
i have found 3 poloniums so far but way over 100 yttrium. When prospecting it usually popped up half as much as Vanadium ... i'd share my Yt with you if it were possible :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom