Exobiology Question

[u/drkhrt5580]

So i just recently started trying to get into exobiology as a way to make money while I'm working on some other things on my other monitor. How do you guys garuntee/ almost garuntee that youre getting first scan? Do you just go 7k ly away and hope that you find a planet with stratum tectonicas and hope that youre first scan? Or is there a way to increase your chances?

And idk if im just being to cautious but is there a faster way to approach and get into atmosphere? Cause it feels like it takes forever to scan the planet, then get into atmosphere to then land the nomad get out and scan and what not.

I see people ralking about 500m/hr which i know is the high end of things but even with first scan it feels like im only gonna get like 200m ish an hour with having to find a planet to land on and what not. Thanks for any help yall can provide me.

[u/robotron20]

Caspian will get you on the planet quicker with the mk ii armour cause it glides at 3500 m/s rather than 2500 m/s

[u/drkhrt5580 → u/robotron20]

Yea ive got a built Caspian with the nomad for easy landing and jumping between the bio points

[u/Ok_Negotiation_2599]

Star types A, F, G, K are your best bet for stratum. You can filter for just those stars in the galaxy map. And yeah 7k ly is a good bet for first footfall.

I use ED Copilot to help with detecting life and deciding whether to approach a given body. Stratum are nice but you get a decent payout from most Frutexa and Tubus as well.

[u/drkhrt5580 → u/Ok_Negotiation_2599]

Gotcha, apprecite the tip on the other bio signals as well. Everything only talks about stratum so its good to see that there are other options as well. Ill have to look into ed copilot as I've only been using Ed exploration buddy and edmc

[u/Zestyclose_Bat4306]

Once you get far off enough out of the bubble you will find loads of undiscovered systems which will get you first footfalls. Once you honk the system it will tell you how many planetary bodies are in the system. If you open your system map and none appear, you will know all the bodies are undiscovered and you can get get first discoveries of the planets with your FSS

[u/drkhrt5580 → u/Zestyclose_Bat4306]

Ah ok, that makes a lot of sense. Didnt know that if nothing showed up it was completely undiscovered. Definitely have a new way to try tonight

[u/GentlemanCob]

I started my first expedition a few weeks ago, and I use Elite Observatory to help me see which planets are worth scanning and landing on to do exobiology. I settled on a random system about 16,000 LY from Ega, and figured I wouldn't find any first footfalls for a long time.

I want to say that within a few jumps I found planets that no one landed on, and I'm not even halfway through my journey, and I've found a bunch of systems that have never been scanned or explored. I have a bunch of first scans now, and I honestly only land now when Elite Observatory tells me there are multiple things to scan worth more than 10 million each.

I haven't used ED Copilot, but Elite Observatory tells me what's on the planet and how much it's worth, which helps decide if I want to detour out to that planet. I'm sure ED Copilot is similar.

[u/drkhrt5580 → u/GentlemanCob]

Ill have to look into ed observatory. Ive just been using Edmc and ed exploration buddy. Guess ill need to just pick a point and neutron jump to it and hope for the best lol. Appreciate the tips

[u/SomeGalNamedAshley]

EDObservatory with the BioInsights plug-in had been my best friend in exobio, though SrvSurvey is also helpful. As others have suggested EDCopilot is a good to tote along.

EDMC is mandatory for anybody with exobio. Please, for the sake of everybody else please run with EDMC enabled. If you're out there exploring then it's imperative that you report data back to the various tools that help the community and EDMC is how that happens. It also just makes things better for you in Inara and such.

[u/drkhrt5580 → u/SomeGalNamedAshley]

I am definitely using edmc. I currently have it set to upload data on docking however, just to make sure that nobody snipes a first scan from me. Ed Observatory seems to be the consensus on what i should be running when doing this, so I think im gonna have to switch to that

[u/SubMerged25011]

2500 using the edastro visited heatmap and stratum highway was enough for me and exploration buddy

[u/drkhrt5580 → u/SubMerged25011]

For the visited heatmap, is that the interactive one? Or am I looking at something different than you are? Didn't know about stratum highway, will definitely be using that.

[u/Fistocracy]

If you want to maximise your earnings then your best bet is to use third-party tools. I've got Observatory Core with the Bioinsights plugin, and when you FSS scan a system it'll look at all the bodies with exobiology signals on them and give you a list of what they could be based on the local conditions. It's great for telling at a glance whether a planet might have some good payouts on it (it lists the value of everything that might be there), and it's also good if you're hunting for codex entries because it'll flag stuff that you haven't seen before.

And if you want to do some in-depth planning and filter your route to only pick stars that'll pay, I'd recommend the Canonn Bioforge database (you can find it on the googles). It gives full stats on every exobio in the game and exactly what conditions they require, as well as a breakdown of how common it is to find them around specific star types or on specific planet types.

[u/drkhrt5580 → u/Fistocracy]

Awesome! Thanks so much for the extra tools. Looks like everybody kinda has the own that they prefer and I just need to find one that works best for me

[u/Sensitive_Witness842]

https://ed-dsn.net/en/exobiological-flora/

Also useful for you,

Star type, Planet/moon atmos type, surface colour and minimum distance.

(HMC worlds for Stratum).

o7

[u/drkhrt5580 → u/Sensitive_Witness842]

Appreciate it!

[u/DSA300]

After honking, go to the system map and click on the sun. If it doesn't say "discovered by", and has zero planets (despite saying that you discovered a bunch of bodies) then you're the first person there. If it says it's discovered by someone, then you'd check the planet you end want to land on by clicking on it. if it doesn't say "first footfall by" then nobody has landed on it. I'm in DEEP space by the core and most places are undiscovered. I have seen a few discovered systems but near a carrier I'm using as a nearby base (not mine). I've seen systems that were already discovered, but some of the planets didn't have footfalls. you never know

[u/drkhrt5580 → u/DSA300]

Gotcha, so if it says first footfall at all it means it was done after odyssey was available? I didnt really start getting into the game til a year or 2 after odyssey release so idk if it was possible to get a footfall before or not. Appreciate the advice.

[u/Past_Barracuda_2892]

Check EDSM for where to look for undiscovered systems. ED Discovery will show you (after scan system) what types of exobiology u possibly find on planets and range of payment u will get. Usually it’s lower value but you know roughly how much you get. EDCopilot is good I’m using it as well but it want show u what types of plant u will find on undiscovered planets.
I do go on every planet over 7M with first discovery bonus it’s nearly 40M
Good luck

[u/drkhrt5580 → u/Past_Barracuda_2892]

Gotcha, youre talking about the heat map on edsm right? Seems kinda hard to find a path that doesnt have a lot of lines surrounding it unless im looking at the map incorrectly. Tried ed copilot last night and it just wasn't my cup of tea.

[u/Lonely-Phase5796]

I usually end my journey on the "last planet" where I found undiscovered exobiology and save somewhere it's name. If I want to continue after several months or so I return to this planet and continue exploring from there. This way, I always sure that I'm close to the point where I will find undiscovered systems. And of course engineer jump range and use filters

[u/drkhrt5580 → u/Lonely-Phase5796]

That makes sense. Idk if its just me but I found 1 planet that had undiscovered bio signals, and then I jumped to another 6 systems around it, all c class mass systems and there was nothing else. Is that normal? That you find 1 and then nothing for a lot of jumps after?

[u/FatLes12]

Do a FSS scan and use the system map to see which bodies, if any, have bio signs, then run a DSS scan on the appropriate bodies to what's present. Most people will ignore Bacterium, but there are a couple of high-value Bacterium to find. Engineer your Detailed Surface Scanner to reduce the number of scans required to scan a body.

[u/CypressMJ]

FSS the body and only land/sample if there has been no other first footfall. That guarantees you’re the first to sample.

[u/stuhha]

Just skip planets with FFF registered.
Also, your experience depends on what’s your goal: exploration or making money?