Upgrading FSD Question

[Whoamus]

I have been out of the game for a couple of years and slowly relearning everything. Having an awesome time getting back in and enjoying space flight again. Been flying a Sidey, practicing landings and driving the SRV, I had left soon after the SRV's made it in the game. Also picked up Voice Attack and the Astra pack, so also adding to the learning curve.

I parked an AspE and Cobra all filled with the best gear of the day. I have read a little of the requirements for upgrading, I already was ranked Pioneer for exploring, it's what I liked back then and would like to continue going forward. For upgrading my Asp FSD, I would like to do the busy work in the Cobra, better jack of all trades ship. While I am still getting accustomed to playing, I was curious if I have to fly the Asp to the engineer for the upgrade or if I collect everything I need it can be done at the dock I am parked. Did not see this as of yet in any guides or maybe missed it. Thanks

 

[Andovar]

Yes, you will need to fly to the engineer the first time. (felicity farseer for your FSD)
Once there you can pin a blueprint, so for future upgrades you can do it from any station. With the exception of the bonus/experimental effects. you always have to go to an engineer to get those.

In your case, I'd recommend gathering all your materials using the cobra, then once you're stocked up, just switch to the asp head over to farseer.
Also, there's a really nice 3rd party tool called EDEngineer. It keeps track of all your materials, and lists how many upgrades you can make of each type. Really useful if you plan on a lot of engineering.

 

[Stigbob]

Once you've unlocked the engineer you can pin a blueprint and do it remotely at any station with outfitting. You can only add experimentals at an engineer and you need to be at the engineer to rank them up to 5.

Check if you can put the smaller ships FSD into the larger ship, if you can pop the smaller FSD into storage and transfer it to the engineer once you arrive so you can do both in one trip. You can also just transfer the ship to a close by station (more money). Once you've hit 5 you stay there, buy an extra module they can engineer and rank it up with random stuff you don't need just to get 5 if you need to.

 

[Whoamus]

Thanks, Now I can plan properly.

 

[Stigbob]

If your stuffs unengineered you don't need to transfer it. Consider buying and engineering all your bits by popping lower class items for your other ship into the bigger ship at a nearby station, powerplant distro shields all kinds of stuff can be fitted at less than their max rating. Then you just need to transfer them back.

I tend to transfer the ships to keep things simple but I'm space rich and waste money.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Once you've unlocked the engineer you can pin a blueprint and do it remotely at any station with outfitting. You can only add experimentals at an engineer and you need to be at the engineer to rank them up to 5.

Check if you can put the smaller ships FSD into the larger ship, if you can pop the smaller FSD into storage and transfer it to the engineer once you arrive so you can do both in one trip. You can also just transfer the ship to a close by station (more money). Once you've hit 5 you stay there, buy an extra module they can engineer and rank it up with random stuff you don't need just to get 5 if you need to.

The bold part is incorrect.
Experimental effects don't rank up and you can remotely engineer to G5.

I've also never understood the ranking up with a random unneeded module approach.
You automatically rank up on your first module, and never need to do it again.
That seems like a vestige from the old system.

 

[Stigbob]

The bold part is incorrect.
Experimental effects don't rank up and you can remotely engineer to G5.

I've also never understood the ranking up with a random unneeded module approach.
You automatically rank up on your first module, and never need to do it again.
That seems like a vestige from the old system.

Them in that sentence refers to the engineer not the module and you need to be at an engineer to level up the engineer, I thought the context was obvious.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Them in that sentence refers to the engineer not the module and you need to be at an engineer to level up the engineer, I thought the context was obvious.

It's not.
-10 pts for disjointed, run on sentence.


The random module still makes no sense.

 

[Stigbob]

It's not.
-10 pts for disjointed, run on sentence.


The random module still makes no sense.

Its not my problem if you are drunk.

 

[Whoamus]

The bold part is incorrect.
Experimental effects don't rank up and you can remotely engineer to G5.

I've also never understood the ranking up with a random unneeded module approach.
You automatically rank up on your first module, and never need to do it again.
That seems like a vestige from the old system.

So I am leveling the engineer unless I want an experimental effect? I read about pinning a blueprint somewhere and you could take that back to home base and upgrade FSD there. Is that correct?

 

[Stigbob]

So I am leveling the engineer unless I want an experimental effect? I read about pinning a blueprint somewhere and you could take that back to home base and upgrade FSD there. Is that correct?

The engineer has to be levelled up to 5 so you can remote engineer their pinned blueprints elsewhere to level 5. You can only level the engineer up at the engineer. You level the engineer up by modding things.

Experimental effects can only be added at an engineer. You need to be at the engineer to pin a blueprint.

So the low effort way to engineer a module is mod it to G1 and add the experimental effect at the engineer, pin the blueprint and wander off to finish it later.

Pinned blueprints can be done anywhere to any module, except on legacy mods (you can ditch them or visit an engineer to convert them). You can pin only one blueprint per engineer.

 

[Whoamus]

Okay. Going to be a few weeks anyway since still working out the fundamentals. Maybe fly over to her, just under 300Ly from current location and will be good practice.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

So I am leveling the engineer unless I want an experimental effect? I read about pinning a blueprint somewhere and you could take that back to home base and upgrade FSD there. Is that correct?

You will level up the engineer just by using them.
Once you take a single module up to G5 the engineer will also be leveled up, but mods done remotely don't count.
Leveling up takes more rolls than subsequent mods.
G1 might take 5-6 rolls the first time, but only 1 after you've leveled up that engineer.
You can only do experimental effects at the engineer bases.

So for your first module with an engineer, I suggest it's best to do the whole thing at the engineer base and get it over with.
Any subsequent mods can be done by pinned blueprint.

I also suggest making a shopping list and having all of the mats before hand.
Learning how the material trader works and hunting mostly high level mats will make it much quicker.


If you must pin the blueprint and do it remotely, do the experimental effect right away since you can't do those remotely at all.
For increased range FSD, you want to use mass manager for sizes 5 and above, and deep charge for FSDs size 4 and below.