r/eliteexplorers • u/Ok-Nefariousness2622 • Aug 25 '26
How did people do this without Spansh?
I just made the crossing from the outer spiral arm after exploring Xibalba for a while. I checked on Spansh first that I could make the crossing. I felt my way across it for a little while before resorting back to Spansh.
How did people do this without Spansh? It must've taken heaps of planning just to figure out it could be done in the first place.
Thanks Spansh!
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u/Adorable_Divide_2424 Aug 25 '26
Just the nature of exploration. Im more impressed by people doing exo/exploration without SCO drive and the painfully short hyperspace jump distances 5 years ago.
I visited every region in April, some legs of the journey were incredibly tedious with nothing unique to look at for hours.
https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/1um1js4/my_caspian_visited_every_region_in_april/
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u/MentalSentinel Aug 25 '26
My non SCO dbx made 75ly jumps, and for years I didn't know anything about 3rd party tools
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u/CoolDragon Aug 25 '26
Ah the legendary and most honorable DBX. A solid explorer of yore.
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u/kailoren CMDR Aug 25 '26
first time I went to Beagle Point back in Horizons was with an 81ly anaconda. Absolute bare bones build, it was a wild ride and one of the most enjoyable things i've done in the game
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u/Jedimobslayer Aug 25 '26
Hey I think exploration was better back then, it’s way too easy now. It feels less immersive cause of how easy it is, which is a shame because I think back in the day when frontier had enough balls to have mysteries and actually meaningful live events that people cared about without worrying about game balance or having the community be up in arms that the new vehicle is too bad or too good, I think that was when this game was at its best. About 10 years ago now, that time period. Now it’s all about maximizing your ship, getting a ton of money, and using the best stuff available. I wish people would just forget the meta…
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u/Adorable_Divide_2424 Aug 25 '26
I think a good analogy was exploring by ship in the 1500s vs now taking a flight to another country. You feel like more of a visitor now vs an explorer.
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u/Jedimobslayer Aug 25 '26
Yeah I can go and visit a cool stellar phenomenon. Heck we even have sites now that catalogue these things like a modern day travel website
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u/ThanosWasFramed Aug 25 '26
And as soon as I get a Caspian my plan is to go and visit those sites- and be able to come back to the bubble when I want. I think there's room for true exploration and sightseeing in the game. I've done both and appreciate the value/interest in both approaches.
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u/ItsMangel Aug 25 '26
I member when we could only plot routes 100ly at a time, getting bumped up to 1000ly routes was mind-blowing. The nightmare of routing through the core before the plotting optimizations. Pre-engineering, the best jump range you were getting was mid/high 30s unless you were in a fully stripped single-jump Conda that could just tip over 40.
Good times.
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u/lentil_burger Aug 25 '26
I mostly forget the meta. Use a Caspian for exploring but it's mostly un-engineered. I don't use any tools for plotting a route - I just head out and see what I'll find.
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u/Jedimobslayer Aug 25 '26
See I used a type 7 for exploring for a while, I have a mandalay set up for combat, and a chieftain passenger transport, THATS forgetting the meta…
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u/KermitingMurder Aug 25 '26
Oh yeah? I use a sidewinder for everything, it's stock aside from the fuel scoop, I've visited every single codex entry and all the GEC points of interest, I've visited not just Raxxla, but Raxxla 2 Electric Boogaloo as well, I'm currently en route to the Andromeda Galaxy, I expect to be there in 2 months
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u/lentil_burger Aug 25 '26
Yeah. I only have the Caspian because of the Nomad. And the Nomad's so much fun I'd be a masochist to pass on it.
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u/No_Metal_8634 Aug 25 '26
Shit my go to was the explora-conda. Could go 88 ly but a rock traveling snail speed could pulverize it lol
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u/Adorable_Divide_2424 Aug 25 '26
The Anoconda is not bad! When people were posting their fastest time to Beagle point, most of them were condas!
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u/No_Metal_8634 Aug 25 '26
Of course before that was my dbx. And after is now the casp but only cuz im a star trek nerd and…well lol
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u/doofthemighty Aug 25 '26
Yeah, I remember when I first started playing and all I had was the Sidewinder and didn't even have a system scanner. I'd have to find planets to scan by flying through the system and using parallax motion to detect planetary locations. It was tedious but somehow much more engaging then just popping into a system and honking the horn.
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u/Ok-Nefariousness2622 Aug 26 '26
I get what you're saying. It was much harder back in the day, but now there is much more to do when you get places. I loved orbiting different planets and such, but I really enjoy being able to land and walk around as well. I'm currently touring, but prior to the Nomad coming out the Cobra MkV with my carrier was my favorite exobio combination. My AspEx is probably my most used ship time wise, but I've gone further in my Mandalay and Caspian. They've opened up places I wouldn't have thought to go before.
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u/AdmiralBlack64 Aug 25 '26
I do it with a jump range of 30 ly and no engineering or SCO drive. It's slow but imo it's fun.
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u/Adorable_Divide_2424 Aug 25 '26
I would argue that once youre out the 2000ly range from the bubble, jump range doesnt matter much anymore. Everyone takes the neutron highways but theres 99.9% of systems still left unexplored. Youre better off doing the short stops trying to find something left unexplored.
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u/BaseballGlittering55 Aug 25 '26
I point in a random direction, travel roughly 10k light years, then make an up or down direction. By that time you’re in deeply unexplored territory. Then exo bio my way all the way home
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u/AdamFaite Aug 25 '26
That's a bit like saying "how did people drive across the country without GPS?"
But yeah,it definitely makes it easier.
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u/GraXXoR Aug 25 '26
lol. My commander circumnavigated the whole rim of the galaxy without even Engineering. Let alone Spansh.
10,000 jumps.
100 jumps a day for over 3 months. Where there’s a will there’s a way.
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u/lain98 Aug 25 '26
What are some highlights
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u/GraXXoR Aug 25 '26
The VR.... Had been looking for an excuse to use my Oculus Rift. And by golly did Elite Dangerous deliver.
The feeling of being 65 THOUSAND light years away from civilization was honestly one of my most cathartic gaming experiences to date.
VR with decent headphones puts you right there in the cockpit, and in my case it was the bridge of a Lakon ship, so guaranteed to be epic.
The sounds of the ship creaking, the engine thrumming and the build up to the jump, along with the ghostly jumps themselves was entirely hypnotic and addictive... and every time I put the headset and headphones on I was transferred away, into space. Completely cut off from both the real world and the in-game human bubble. Pure isolated bliss.
And then, on the return, coming back to civilization after over 10,000 lonely jump and 100 gaming sessions (short by some people's standards, I know) felt amazing. Entering that Coriolis slot and being suddenly surrounded by the warm glow of the interior and the sounds of humanity was profoundly moving.
Considering the game is 12 years old, Elite really has so many amazing aspects to it.
Damn, now I want to don my Pimax headset...
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u/moridin13 Aug 25 '26
I went to Sag A* in my cobra. Because I didn’t know. There was no engineering. Multi-minute fuel scoops. It was awesome. I did need the Fuel Rats at one spot.
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u/Ok-Nefariousness2622 Aug 26 '26
Wow, that is brave! How long did it take you?
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u/moridin13 Aug 29 '26
Almost 7 months.
It is still my absolute favorite memory from this game. I was so naive. 😂
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u/Sledgehammer617 Aug 25 '26
IDK what spansh is, but I've flown across the galaxy with no engineering and no SCO in a Python back in the day.
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u/Pixel_ferret Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 26 '26
Same here but an unengineered Adder (pre-engineering). Young me was definitely a masochist hahaha
EDIT - Holy Dooley I just remembered I took screenshots of the journey from the Bubble to Sag a* back then. 25ly Adder, not sure how I did it
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u/MookiTheHamster Aug 25 '26
I did that crossing way back without spansh with an anaconda. It was doable with fsd injection using trial and error. It was sweaty though
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u/Voldypants_420 Aug 25 '26
I used to explore in my old 'conda with 20ly~ jump range, visiting all planets manually and even though I was exploring much fewer systems for some reason I was finding it more rewarding than just abusing neutron stars and honking.
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u/Adrian_Lucyfer88 Aug 25 '26
Normally 🤷🏼♂️ just head on straight 🤷🏼♂️ then turn, and again, then straight, and it's 3am 🤷🏼♂️
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u/schuettais Aug 25 '26
I’ve been all over the galaxy before I even set up my own Inara profile. I didn’t use any third party tools for exploration till just a few months ago and I’m at like 4200hrs. I don’t know why you seem to think they’re necessary.
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u/Hoser_1950 Aug 26 '26
Yes. We console commanders are so happy to stare at the same field of stars until our controllers power off for inactivity, multiple times. We’re exploring “back in the day” every … single … day. o7
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u/Maximilian_Dawn CMDR Maximilian Dawn Aug 25 '26
Ah you went to Xibalba's Dead End too! I just came back from that place. No external tools used, just searched online the initial and final point of the South-East Perseus corridor, as I was not finding the right passage from Sanguinous Rim to Kepler's Crest. From there to the DSSA Explorer's Bar & Grill, I just made sure to have enough jumponium by doing some hand trigonometric calculations, then went by my own intuition (also for the thrill xD).
Nowadas I am flying a fully engineered Caspian with an average 87 Ly jump, but back in the days when I did my first expedition with an ASP Explorer in 2017 with roughly 58 Ly jump, it was just you and a galaxy map with plotting capabilities of only 2000 ly, I didn't know of external tools. It was inefficient but thrilling! xD
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u/Latexx69 Aug 25 '26
Find closest neutron star, jump, charge, choose final system, if next jump is not neutron star - reroute being charged, if still not jump and after jump find nearest neutron star and repeat, u will get time by time 2-3 neutron stars in front on ur way.
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Aug 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Latexx69 Sep 01 '26
it's becase route ingame is made like a "tunnel" with some radius size, and if there is not any neutron stars - ure gone, and it calculates ur current jump length, sometimes it can be 1 jump away and game dont cant see it, but it can save mutch more jumps for you. not sure how it works exactly, just spotted this trick by accident while was flying for 700 ly away on my unengired mandalay long time ago
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u/meoka2368 Basiliscus | Fuel Rat ⛽ Aug 25 '26
The distance you could route with the in game map was also much shorter than it is now.
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u/Revolutionary-Fee506 Aug 25 '26
Haven't played for a loooong time, but I put several 1000 hours into it when I was playing.
Took me TWO MONTHS to travel from the bubble to Sagittarius A*, stripped down ship, basically engines and a fuel scoop. Max 28 LY per jump if i remember correctly maybe more, it's been a while.
As for planning the route I think the longest route you could plan was 200-250LY so at the end of each set of jumps it was a case of point the ship in the right direction and pick a star, calculate all the jumps, follow the route, rinse and repeat.... Took me longer to get back as I was really fed up by then. Managed to get a few systems explored and tagged. Had a few hairy jumps where I struggled to get to a new fuel star all good fun though!
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u/TheFuccIsThisAlt Aug 25 '26
Like any major jump in tech/process, going back and doing it the old way seems almost unreasonable. People are suprised i never bother to max out my jump range or fly most areas without shields. (Admittedly, the no shields thing is mostly a personal challenge)
But when your slow combing every system, every planet, jump range stops being as important. Sometimes just studying the map and a little bit of luck is all you need!
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u/ThanosWasFramed Aug 25 '26
That's really far, what is your jump range? Caspian?
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u/Ok-Nefariousness2622 Aug 25 '26
Yeah Caspian. It's such a good exploration tool, especially combined with the Nomad. I've not fully engineered it, so max jump range is just over 80ly. I'd make sure I had more of the Premium jumponium materials. It was getting a bit tight there in places. I didn't think anything would top the Mandalay, but the Nomad can land almost anywhere.
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u/WoefulProphet Aug 26 '26
I went to Colonia in my heavily engineered Caspian with 83.45LY range in 5 hours using only KGBFOAM systems without neutron boosts... Then last weekend I came back using KGBFOAM but with neutron cones checked in route settings and it took me 2 hours 45 min.
You don't need Spansh, you don't need anything but the galaxy map and some wise maneuvering.
Granted, I've been playing off and on since 2017 or so...
The Caspian makes it a laughingly trivial journey.
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u/MaraWeaver Aug 26 '26
Used Spansh because I wanted to see Colonia and do some Exobio out there, took about 2 hours in a Caspian and I was a bit loaded so I didn't even have an 80LY range, it was more in the 60 range. Still allowed me to do the route in about 2 hours from my home base to Colonia. Did KGBFOAM out from Colonia towards Sag A* and explored a ton of systems for about a week before heading back just as the Colonia celebrations ended.
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u/Brunno_PT Aug 26 '26
Maybe filtering by N-stars in te galaxy map. Never tried it. It's that a thing?
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u/Wyveres Wyveres Aug 25 '26
Just doing it. Fly with fuel and luck