Ships Up trading Low grade raw mats for High grade - Is is viable?

Christian-A-Hill

Christian-A-Hill
This is a mining related question. Since raw materials mostly used for Engineering, I thought it would be appropriate to ask here.

I live in Colonia, far from Crystal Shard sites. Assuming I do not mind mining at all, is it possible to gather large quantity of low grade widely available materials, then up trade for higher grade? Assuming I like mining of course.
My logic says it is, since we can always down trade. Whether it is a good use of time that besides the point.
If it is possible, is there a tool somewhere to calculate how much of low materials I need for specific high grade version?

Or is it worth the time to make the trip to Crystal shard from Colonia and fill as much as high grade mats I can possibly carry?
 

Surprize960

S
Search on eddb for bodies with at least 4% of the high grad material you are looking for. On each geological site, you will find 9-18 (maybe more) of them. 4 Sites per hour per material and you have enough Selenium, Polonium and so on you will need for Grade 5 engineering a Cutter, a Vette and a Conda.

The crystel shard sites are more efficient, of course, if you plan to leave Colonia anyway.

(Horizons advice, I am on PS)
 

Christian-A-Hill

Christian-A-Hill
Surprize960 said:
Search on eddb for bodies with at least 4% of the high grad material you are looking for. On each geological site, you will find 9-18 (maybe more) of them. 4 Sites per hour per material and you have enough Selenium, Polonium and so on you will need for Grade 5 engineering a Cutter, a Vette and a Conda.

The crystel shard sites are more efficient, of course, if you plan to leave Colonia anyway.
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Thats an excellent idea! I use eddb to find modules, never thought of using it to find bodies. A quick search did reveal planets with higher grade materials. My engineering requirement is very low. DBX and Crusader that I have been primarily flying are already fully engineered the way want them. The future T9 probably going to need quite a bit of mats.

My mats are primarily used during exploration in SRV, AFMUs etc. Like to keep those topped off before any long journey.
 

Christian-A-Hill

Christian-A-Hill
Stabby_Dave said:
IIRC, there's a "volcanology" spreadsheet (probably out of date) which shows the highest concentrations of a lot of mats.
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Were you referring to this?
https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/95g5gk
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/95g5gk/i_created_an_excel_spreadsheet_to_help_with/


It does show the grades and maximum amount we can store in our ships. But it does not show the conversion rate for the raw materials. Would be great to know the actual rate.
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
Obviously this isn't ideal, with the exchange rates. But full bins need room so trading up is necessary. I do it often, to even out my stocks and make room for more. I wouldn't advise it if not full, or in desperate need of a higher grade mat to complete a modification.
 

d8veh

d8veh
I get all my raw materials from mining and trading them at materials trader. Laser mining is good if you need credits. You get the materials for nothing.

From each mining location you get slightly different raw materials, so if you find the right spot repeatedly, you can get a goood idea of how many of each you get from each trip. I normally visit the the material trader after three trips and trade all the low grade high frequency materials. It can take a few weeks of evenings to completely fill all raw materials, but you would have maybe 10 to 15 billion cr at the same time.

I get manufactured materials and data from farming pirates in a haz RES, which I find nice and relaxing while I watch Netflix. In fact I'm normally watching Netflix while mining too. Playing the game or watching Netflix are not enough to keep my mind occupied on their own, which is why I like to do them together.

I've never had the need to visit special sites to get materials, though sometimes if I see a high grade emission, I'll stop to get the high grade materials, but most times I'm more focused on my main task or earnings rate to stop.
 
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BetaToaster

B
To answer the math/tool question:
Trading up materials is done at 6:1 per grade. See the tables at https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Material_Trader#Raw_Materials_Trader . Every step to the right multiplies the amount of materials needed by 6. Add another factor of 6 if you want to switch between categories (rows).

If, for example, you wanted to trade Nickel into Cadmium, that's two steps to the right and a different row, so 6*6*6=216 Nickel per Cadmium.
Worst case would e.g. be trading 6*6*6*6=1296 Carbon for 1 Antimony. That's steep, but doable if you're going to mine a lot for other reasons. If you mine in different places, you should however take advantage of the better 216 Lead -> 1 Antimony conversion, and convert your Carbon into Vanadium/Niobium/Yttrium instead.
That's a general rule with materials: always prefer to upgrade (or downgrade from easily farmed high-grade mats) to fuel your crafting, or to ensure have enough space to pick up things. Only change the category (row) if a whole row is significantly fuller than the other.
 
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