Newcomer / Intro What to do at Maia?

[Gobin Splat]

Maia

This system was first colonised with the construction of Obsidian Orbital in November 3301. Many strange artefacts have been discovered in this region of space. — In-Game Description Maia is an Allied system in the Pleiades Nebula in the Inner Orion Spur. It is the location of Obsidian Orbital...

elite-dangerous.fandom.com

So I've driven 400 light years to Maia because I need to travel at least 300 light years to unlock an engineer but now that I'm here I'm going down to the planet to get some steel and my question is, is there any other must dos here before I head back?

 

[A C Ender]

I have been spending the last week or two in the Maia region, and for now I intend to make the area my home.

There are a variety of missions in the area. There are massacre missions taken from the Icarus station only a single jump from Maia which give about 6M for 25 pirates. There are both mining and trading missions I the area too. I would recommend picking up a few courier missions first, explore the local star systems, and scan interesting planets. There are several terraformable planets in the area, so you get quite a decent sum.

 

[IPFreely]

I have been in the Pleiades for well over 3 years now, Sometimes the Tharg interdictions get a little too frequent for my liking, but if you remain inert and allow the scans to take place, they leave and you can continue your mission without incident - The missions are very lucrative once you start gaining rank with the chosen SuperPower or local factions. - Exploration is rewarding in its personal discoveries - With the added ease of going into the black and still have a relatively close home base of operations in one of the many starports of the region -

 

[Krieger]

There is a lot of Thargoid related lore in and around Maia. It started with Unknown Artefacts in 3301 and continues to today. Here is a timeline with links to locations you can visit and in-game mysteries (many of them are still active AFAIK).

 

[Codger]

If you are planning to unlock Farseer, you could stop by Darnielle's Progress and buy a meta-alloy to give her.

 

[aRJay]

There are things you might need for other engineers such as Meta Alloys, but don't get one until you need it.

There is also the planetary base Ceres Tarn in the local area which can be a very exciting place to land without a Docking Computer especially in an underpowered over mass ship. Probably best tried after cashing in any exploration data and bounties etc, always a good idea to minimise losses.

 

[A C Ender]

I have been in the Pleiades for well over 3 years now, Sometimes the Tharg interdictions get a little too frequent for my liking, but if you remain inert and allow the scans to take place, they leave and you can continue your mission without incident - The missions are very lucrative once you start gaining rank with the chosen SuperPower or local factions. - Exploration is rewarding in its personal discoveries - With the added ease of going into the black and still have a relatively close home base of operations in one of the many starports of the region -

I've only found Federation superpower there so far, what others are there?

 

[Gobin Splat]

Lovely. Loads to do here

 

[Gobin Splat]

What's the significance of terraformable planets?

I have been spending the last week or two in the Maia region, and for now I intend to make the area my home.

There are a variety of missions in the area. There are massacre missions taken from the Icarus station only a single jump from Maia which give about 6M for 25 pirates. There are both mining and trading missions I the area too. I would recommend picking up a few courier missions first, explore the local star systems, and scan interesting planets. There are several terraformable planets in the area, so you get quite a decent sum.

 

[Codger]

What's the significance of terraformable planets?

If you scan them, they pay comparatively well.

 

[IPFreely]

I've only found Federation superpower there so far, what others are there?

All 3 superpowers and several independent factions as well,

 

[Hooplah]

Taking out many Thargoids in the Pleiades sector I might consider another play style being friends with them. But so far they don't seem to like me nor or the Frontier Devs giving us a clue. So why friendly Thargoid decals on the Frontier store? Maybe the Devs never got around to programming friendly game play...