Exobiology

Hello all. This post is originally from the Elite Dangerous forums. I found it and liked it so I copied and pasted it here.

The original author is KrixtinaViperX over on the Elite Dangerous Forums.
Here is a direct link to that post: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/exobiology-a-2023-updated-guide.615722/

Hi, I saw that most of the Exo guides are quite old and a bit lacking (eg they recommend using a SRV) so over the past ~2 billion credits I’ve picked up I wrote this. Hope it helps and additions welcome

Bacteria – on the flat bits outside of craters – not visible on night vision, dark puddles ~200m, become their natural colour ~100m

Fonticulua – flat bits outside craters / rocky terrain – giant mushrooms

fumerola – on rocks on flat bits

osseus – on rocky parts of large flat plains. look like big standing round flat mushrooms. Easy to confuse with rocks, but are much rounder. Night vision helps ~300m

fungoida – on high mountain sides, very small, night vision helps little dots ~200m, more define ~100m

tubus – on plains

tussoc – on plains in mountains – small grasses, fly low

electricia – on plains

concha – hilly / rocky. pretty small.

frutexa – plains / rockside in mountains / hilly area – fly low – bushes

cactoid – rocky hills, small round pebbly things

prerequisite:
An Artemis suit. The basic keyboard mapping for the sampler/scanner is 5.

A planet landeable ship with a surface scanner. Small is better, faster is much better. I use an Imperial Courier (https://s.orbis.zone/m51g) which boosts to ~850 and max speeds at without boost at 600 – it allows me to get down to the planet, cross the planet and if I can’t find a sample back off the planet and back down somewhere else as fast as possible. Going to the next place is really easy. Take a shield generator – you will bump quite a bit on landing and you may misjudge your landing speed and hit the ground. A shield means you don’t damage your hull.

Not really a prerequisite but very useful tool: Elite Observatory with Bioinsights + Botanist. Configure it by going to the Core menu item and then clicking on Bioinsights (where there is a useful legend button to show you what everything means). Click on Observatory Botanist to turn it on. Underneath click ‘start monitor on Observatory launch.

Odyssey

How to:
In system view, check planets with an atmosphere (you can see the atmosphere around the planet) and landable (there is an extra quarter arc around the top left of the planet)
You can tell if a planet has biologicals in the system view, 3rd tab on the right Planetary Information under Features at the bottom it will list if there are biologicals

Fly towards the sunny side of the planet, so you can map that and land on it later.
Map the planet with the surface scanner (shoot the probes to the white targets on the 4 corners and one at the back will usually map the whole thing) and if there are multiple biologicals select the one with the least surface area. Chances are high that the signals will overlap and you will find all the signal sources around the same place.
Look out for the greenish grey colour – too blue and too light indicate there are biologicals in the area, but the greenish blue indicates where they are. The heat map other guides talk about isn’t really a heat map, it’s a colour map and the green gray is the colour you want for the selected biological.

As you approach the planet, switch to combat mode now and again and think about the type of biological you are flying towards and what kind of terrain is best for finding them. Aim for that terrain.

Walk up to a biological, sample it (using 5 on the artemis suit). You need to take 3 samples of the same biological after each other and all the biological types have a different distance you need to travel before you can sample again (or you will get an insufficient diversity error). The lights on the sampler canister increase with each sampling so you can see how many samples you have in the canister.

Tips and tricks:
The high payouts are caused by making a first footfall or first to land. When you see a planet, there are 3 firsts: first discoverd, first scanned and first footfall. If First footfall is missing (and this still happens pretty close to and sometimes even in the bubble!) and there are biologicals then you will get a first discovery bonus of 4x the hand in prize. When you hand in, you will first get the normal prize and then after you have handed in you will get the first discovered page with the big payouts.

[big payout.png]

If you are pootling around discovering a sector, in the galaxy map go to User Data mode and turn on the filter to show only not visited stars.

Biologicals group around a certain area – if a star sector has a group of biologicals, the chances are high that other stars in the neighbourhood will have the same types and groups. Bookmark systems with good exobiology planets and look around these bookmarks.

If the planet > ~4000Ls away from the sun, don’t bother, the light will be horrible and make it tough to find stuff

When approaching a planet, it’s 70% at the 7 second mark, then 50% when the planet fills the reticule. When the planet fills the cockpit surface scan it. Land by going 50% and aiming at a point within glide range. If it’s a small planet you may have to decrease your thrust before you reach the drop off points.

I like to fly around looking for more biologicals with my landing gear down. You can slow down quickly by throwing out your landing gear and cargo scoop.

Land your ship in front of the biological you want to sample (because you get out of the back facing backwards) and sample. Some people recommend using the SRV to look around, but this is a total waste of time. Setting up the free cam alone takes time and the SRV is not very easy to drive. Get back in your ship and fly to the next biological, land near it and sample again is much faster. Also the SRV can be very buggy, sometimes leading to you needing to go back to the loading screen because the screen goes black when you get out. When reloading the game, the SRV will be back at the ship – which can be a long long walk away. And recalling your ship takes a lot of time too. I understand some people enjoy driving around with their SRV. So do I on occasion. It’s about having fun! I’m not saying you shouldn’t, I’m saying it’s slower.

Wait for the sample to register on the screen by elite (Observatory Botanist will register faster!) before getting back into your ship and searching for the next sample. When you have 3 samples, wait for the sampler canister replacement animation to finish before sampling again or getting back in your ship.

Find the perfect height for your graphics cards settings. Too low and the renderer doesn’t draw everything and certain objects (bacteria!) are hard to see. For my graphics card I need to be above 70m and the sweet spot seems to be ~230m for bacteria, ~150 for Fonticulua and for tussocs ~40. This allows me to see bacteria as darker spots / black puddles very easily on most terrain, which then resolves into the actual colour of the bacteria as you get lower (which can make them difficult to spot)

Find the perfect spacecraft speed for your graphics card settings. I need to fly at ~100, much faster than that and it redraws the grid sometimes.
Check at what height / speed it redraws rocks etc
Sometimes it helps to land at a place, get out and the game will populate the area

I understand that for some people in the Graphics options – Quality – Terrain Checkerboard rendering needs to be set to on for certain biologicals to appear

If you are having trouble finding something, turning on the composition scanner will make the HUD flash and make a sound when a biological is under your reticle. This is pretty short range. To do this you need to turn it on under a fire group, then deploy your hardpoints.

(This is the flash you will see)

Upgrades to get for your Artemis suit: extra sprint, extra jump, extra battery. To get a good suit, use this forum thread:The Great Pre-Upgraded Gear Sharing is Caring Thread https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-great-pre-upgraded-gear-sharing-is-caring-thread.576352/

Other sites:
https://github.com/Xjph/ObservatoryCore – Elite Observatory Core (including Botanist)

https://edjp.colacube.net/observatory – Elite Observatory Plugins (including BioInsights)

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa…ology-scanner-of-a-cmdrs-artemis-suit.612191/ – ArtemisScannerTracker a plugin

https://github.com/psychicEgg/EDHM/tree/main/Odyssey/3rdPartyMods/BiomeOverlay – Changes the colours of the DSS colour map to make it easier to distinguish the biome target colour

https://ed-dsn.net/en/exobiological-flora/ – information about the types of biologicals with pictures

https://trello.com/b/9GYkLyVc/odyssey-surface-biology – information about the types of biologicals with pictures

https://cmdrs-toolbox.com/billionaires-boulevard – Billionaires Boulevard – a list of sites in the bubble where sampling will make you good creds

https://browncoat.freelancers.net.nz/ed-bb/ – tracker that remembers your progress on the Billionaires Boulevard

https://spansh.co.uk/exobiology – a route planner to find loads of exobiology

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet…vf62ILHpbYzdZpJ53CqPHn3qlA/edit#gid=344475511 – Codex NSP and Bio requirements – what types of conditions are needed for different types of biologicals