What is the least painful way to get "raw" micro-materials for engineers?

[Jon_J]

A bit of background: I usually play in solo mode, and I usually do either exploration or station-to-station trade missions. Exploration gives the cool views and sense of scale; trade missions give cold hard cash and the satisfaction of finding ways to earn money at an ever-more-ridiculous rate. The interceptions on trade missions can also sometimes give a bit of interesting combat. Other than that, I only engage in combat in service of some higher goal (eg. the engineer that needs X bounty vouchers to unlock). As a result, I have no problem getting enough manufactured/data materials - but I struggle to get "raw" materials.

Here are th "raw" material gathering methods that I'm aware of (thanks to the wiki):

1. Surface prospecting

• Really slow - You have to find a planet with the right resource and land, before you can even begin. After that, it can take a while to track down useful deposits.
• Poor controls - The SRV is either tediously slow or a bouncy mess. The bounciness was fun for a while, but it gets old fast.

2. Asteroid / ring mining

• Tedious - I don't understand how anyone can enjoy this. I went out with a fully-equipped Asp (probably the smallest ship that can equip every mining tool and both types of limpets) to a pristine metal-rich ring, took a while to figure out the mechanics of each tool, took a bit longer to make sure I had understood... and I never want to do this again. (But I'll probably have to if I ever want to unlock Marsha/Selene.)

3. Signal sources

• Inefficient - As far as I can tell, if materials are generated then they might be of any of the three types. Since I have no problem getting the other two types from other sources, this is overall a very slow way to find "raw" micro resources.

At the moment, the least-painful of these would have to be surface prospecting - but that's also not particularly appealing.

Are there any other ways to get the "raw" micro resources?

Is there a way to just buy them - either from AI or from a player who enjoys mining?

Am I missing something? For example, have I massively misunderstood the appeal of mining?

 

[Northpin]

Try this:

Guide / Tutorial - How to fill all of your Raw Materials bins using Crystalline Shards.

How to fill your boots with Raw Mats using Crystalline Shards Some of us have discovered a new form of materials gathering that can, with a little effort, be used to gather every material needed to compeletely fill all of your raw materials bins. I have decided to share that knowlege here with...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[Zieman]

No pain, no gain!

 

[Eraden]

You might also try Jameson's Crash Site. In addition to the crash site where you can get lots of data, the moon (B) also has 10 geological feature sites that will net you a LOT of raw mats. It's sister moon, A, has another 13 geological features to harvest. Honestly, I fill up quite nicely on only one of those moons. There is just so much raw materials to obtain there. Chromium, Niobium and Mercury are among the common ones found there. You will find a lot of the other really common stuff too. For the rarer ones you will find Selenium and Ruthenium but even for these, working just one of those moons will put you at capacity.

 

[goemon]

also, as you haven't mentioned it - geological and biological sites as revealed by mapping a body give the materials of a planet; that also includes barnacles. less driving. if you don't want to take the trip to the crystal shards region.

 

[Bottom Hat]

Yup, geological sites with surface prospecting.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Also Bio sites will 'harvest' raws nicely and be a pleasant distraction from solely Geo sites. If you are sneaky and visit any of the Thargoid 'Barnacle' sites you can get a reasonable amount of raws, plus meta alloys if the site is active, so be able to unlock Corrosion Resist Cargo Racks if you fancy some Tharg artefact collecting.

 

[Northpin]

Also Bio sites will 'harvest' raws nicely

Now, since you mention this, one of my favorites is WREGOE AC-K C22-5 8 A - 11 sites of brain trees that will produce Selenium and Tin - things that one will not be able to find in Crystalline Shards. All 11 bio sites are easy going large craters - a joy to drive in/around them.
Percentages of Selenium/Tin are not very favorable, but still ok-ish.

Courtesy to:

Brain Trees Harvest Tour from the Irkutsk Bureau of Peculiar Devices

www.webomator.com

 

[Rat Catcher]

Now, since you mention this, one of my favorites is WREGOE AC-K C22-5 8 A - 11 sites of brain trees that will produce Selenium and Tin - things that one will not be able to find in Crystalline Shards. All 11 bio sites are easy going large craters - a joy to drive in/around them.
Percentages of Selenium/Tin are not very favorable, but still ok-ish.

Courtesy to:

Brain Trees Harvest Tour from the Irkutsk Bureau of Peculiar Devices

www.webomator.com

Copied to Yellow Note: Thanks - I may just pay a visit

 

[Yaga-Shura]

Why bother with the SRV?

Source: https://youtu.be/3WN3GmSO26w

 

[Northpin]

Why bother with the SRV?

How else to get stuck in a Brain Tree? Or impaled in a Crystalline Shard?

 

[kurush]

3. Signal sources

• Inefficient - As far as I can tell, if materials are generated then they might be of any of the three types. Since I have no problem getting the other two types from other sources, this is overall a very slow way to find "raw" micro resources.

What signal sources produce Raw materials?

 

[Retropolitan]

Now, since you mention this, one of my favorites is WREGOE AC-K C22-5 8 A - 11 sites of brain trees that will produce Selenium and Tin - things that one will not be able to find in Crystalline Shards. All 11 bio sites are easy going large craters - a joy to drive in/around them.
Percentages of Selenium/Tin are not very favorable, but still ok-ish.

Courtesy to:

Brain Trees Harvest Tour from the Irkutsk Bureau of Peculiar Devices

www.webomator.com

There are actually better deposits of many of those materials in the full list of those local Brain Tree sites; I picked the systems for the Harvest Tour by their nearness to one another and (sometimes) the number of bodies in each system.

Thanks for the plug, BTW .

 

[Retropolitan]

How else to get stuck in a Brain Tree? Or impaled in a Crystalline Shard?

I, erm, did get my Phantom hung up on a Brain Tree once. But I don't like to talk about it.

 

[rrobes]

The means to collection are set in stone:

Fly
Drive
Scan
Shoot
Scoop
and the worst.
Trade

The rest of it is to learn the patterns, methods and conditions for the best results.

FD has decided that your enjoyment is paramount, so collecting these items are meant to be joyful rewards for your efforts.

Just buying them would be tres déclassé.

 

[VirtueXOI]

Why bother with the SRV?

Source: https://youtu.be/3WN3GmSO26w

Seem like a tonz of fun thx

 

[Jack Wilmslow]

Hey there!

For Raw Materials (Elements) I use these following systems for Grade 4 Raw Materials. And use a Material Trader to trade down and trade for Selenium (which you can only get from Mining). 2 trips to here will pretty much cover all your needs.

Outotz HD-J d9-3	B 8 D	Antimony
HIP 36601	C 1 A	Polonium
HIP 36601	C 1 D	Ruthenium
HIP 36601	C 3 B	Tellurium
HIP 36601	C 5 A	Technetium
Outotz LS-K d8-3	B 5 A	Yttrium

For Data, I use Jameson's Crash Site in HIP 12099 B (use a DSS to locate the site) to get G4 (Atypical Encryption Archives) and G5 (Adaptive Encryptors Capture) data, and then trade down at a Material Trader. Basically I find the neared Material Trader near the crash site, take my cheapest ship with an SRV, collect and relog until max out. Auto-Destruct and you'll return back to that station. Trade down and rinse and repeat. I do this about 15-20 times to cover all of the data.

For Manufactured Materials. There are a certain systems that are the best for these sort of things.

Core Dynamics Composites | Proprietary Composites	Federation, Election/None
Military Grade Alloys | Military Supercapacitors	Independent or Alliance, War/Civil War
Improvised Components	Independent or Alliance, Civil Unrest
Imperial Shielding	Empire, Election/None
Pharmaceutical Isolators	Independent or Alliance, Outbreak
Proto Heat Radiators | Proto Light Alloys	Independent or Alliance, Boom
Proto Radiolic Alloys	Independent or Alliance, Expansion

Look for at USS's in the relevant systems.

The other option, is Dav's Hope in Hyades Sector DR-V c2-23 A 5 which has a bunch of G1-G4 randomly spawning Manufactured Materials each login. Drive round, collect everything, relog and rinse and repeat. About 30 odd times. But I would only use this as a top up. Getting G5 materials at the above places is much more efficient, and doen't require a million relogs.

I hope this information helps.

 

[Retropolitan]

And use a Material Trader to trade down and trade for Selenium (which you can only get from Mining).

...or from Geological and Biological surface sites. I guess maybe you consider that mining?

 

[Jack Wilmslow]

...or from Geological and Biological surface sites. I guess maybe you consider that mining?

Oh can you get Selenium from those sites? Never seen them tbh. Only ever got Selenium from Laser mining.

 

[Nikephorus Phocas]

Dav's hope, Jameson Crash site. If you do mining in the triple hotspots (lase) you'll easily fill up sulphur, nickel, iron, etc. Material Trader will be your friend. Inara too....