Exobiology - My First Impressions | Elite Dangerous 2024

[@CMDRaudaxius]

That "rubbish" audio is just the echo of comms in the cockpit. I honestly thought it was intended.

[@arha-z1v]

My recommendations: Ship - small, maneuverable and therefore easy to land. Dolphin is perfect for this. Ship is much faster for looking for specimen than SRV. Speed and jump range are secondary - once you're a couple hundred LY beyond the bubble it's about the quantity of systems, not the distance. (however, Dolphin has great jump range too). Locating bio planets - bios are present almost exclusively on planets with atmospheres (which must also be landable, duh). If the system's been scanned already - you can open the system map, click on each planet and see in "planetary info" if it has any biological signs. If you're the first to scan the system - that same information will show up in FSS when scanning the body. Certain bios do not require atmosphere but they are a rare exception. Looking for bios - cycle through available bios on the planet and see if there are obvious overlaps/areas bordering each other so you dont have to jump into hyperdrive to relocate for another bio. While looking at the ground level - it is generally optimal to fly the ship at 25-45 degree angle to the ground, keep the elevation below 100m and speed between 70-150m/s (depends on the pilot). Some bios are very easy to spot and stand out from 500m, some are very hard to spot and require flying lower/at steeper angle. Bacteriums can be very hard to find on certain planets/soils BUT bacterium renders in as a black blot by default (and then the model/texture changes to whatever it should be) - that's a little cheat to find even the most sneaky bacteriums. Always land on the sunny side of the planet. If you keep mistaking shadows cast by rocks for bios - maybe change the flight direction. Also - flying in a straight line is advisable to make sure you dont leave the biome or circle back to specimen you've already collected. Also also, some bios have hidden spawn conditions that do not correspond to the planetary heat map (like special soil, rocky outcrops, mountainous areas) and you could be looking for them completely in vain. If that happens just try a different landscape or abandon hope. Cash - being the first to scan any bio yields 4x its basic payout in bonus. First footfall ensures you will be the first to scan bios present on that planet. Because of this - if you want to make serious cash you have to get off the beaten path (small exception in the next point). Different bios have different spawn conditions and different payouts - you can learn those/look them up (or use an addon). There is a lot of variance. Most of the really profitable bios have low gravity (under 0.27g) as one of those conditions. Meta - one of the most profitable and easy to find bios is stratum tectonica, which happens to show up on HMC worlds with various different atmospheres and any gravity. You can find lists of already scanned HMC worlds on spansh. Since exobiology was/is very niche (payouts were trash until recently) - there is a high chance nobody bothered to scan all those stratums (or found HMC worlds before odyssey). Each stratum with first scan bonus is worth almost 100m (+ planet scan payout). Because of this some players limit their exobiology to farming pre-discovered HMC worlds. Misc info - for new players, exobiology can provide really good payouts even as a side activity with almost no entry cost. For example - if you were to go to Raksha system in the bubble - planet scans are 9m, bio scans from one of the moons are another 9m credits. Remember the guardian site farmed for FSD booster? The moons in that system are rich in bios and the scans are worth upwards of 50m credits!

[@crazygolm]

Good video, glad to hear you found out about trees!

[@TwelvePaws]

Getting 1st footfall (4 x multipliers on the life form totals you scan on that planet) is on - next is Hunting Stratum Tectonicas, but for this you need to be 3000 ly out, and use of 3rd party tools (spansh and Elite observatory Bio insights) are the key. Stratum Tectonicas attracts a 19m base price, with first footfall that's 76m. Its easy to get 3 Billion in 12 hrs or so plus you'll often also be the first to map a system, so cartographics also add up too. The Krait Phantom is a great ship, the Diamond back exp has the edge with its smaller foot print in really rocky places with the compromise of having less module room for back ups

[@Garryck-1]

Not quite. You get 19M for the Stratum, PLUS another 76M bonus for the first footfall. Making 95M in total. So the multiplier is 5x, not 4x.

[@maximpikalev9538]

you've gotta be one of the best ED youtubers out there. love your videos, they're close to perfection - short, concise, and they detail methods that (usually) differ from the current meta, being way more fun than just endless relogging

[@MicraHakkinen]

- Night vision can sometimes help with spotting stuff on the surface, though it can also make it more difficult. Bacteria are already the most difficult to find, and on some planets or under certain light conditions, night vision can make it even harder. Most often it helps though, but it's good to know it doesn't always. - Personally I think the best exobio ships are the Imperial Eagle (with a support carrier) and the Viper Mk IV (with or without a support carrier). Both ships are nimble, can land virtually anywhere, and very important: you exit at the front. Trust me, you will get sick of having to run around your own ship every single time if you fly anything that doesn't have you exit at the front. - When flying over the surface, don't fly too fast. Make sure that rocks and such are being rendered. If you're going too fast for the game / your pc to keep up, then you may miss stuff simply because it never got a chance to render within your view. Keeping a slightly nose-down attitude and using the vertical thrusters in combination with a little bit of forward thrusters can make it easier to regulate your speed and altitude while also optimizing your field of view, all at the same time. - Get the pre-engineered surface scanner, it'll make your life so much easier. I'm not even talking about the efficiency scan bonus, which isn't worth much in terms of credits, but the pre-engineered scanner just makes it so much easier to complete your scans, even on large and/or ringed worlds, even if you happen to be at an inconvenient angle or distance. - Although often times it's the most efficient / quickest / easiest to use your ship to travel between sample sites, bringing an SRV can't hurt. It can provide a nice change of pace if nothing else. - When searching for biologicals, make sure you select the firing group that has your composition scanner in it, be in analysis mode, and have your hardpoints deployed. This way when your reticle passes over something biological (ie something you can scan), it will light up and make a characteristic 'blip' noise. This is another reason to limit your speed, as the faster you go, the harder it can be to find the position again where you got the 'blip'. - If a planet has no first footfall recorded yet, then you know beforehand that anything you scan on that planet will have a first discovery bonus. That's all I could think of right now, I hope there's some useful bits in there, and thank you for all the videos you've already made, they're exceptionally great! O7

[@Garryck-1]

*"very important: you exit at the front. Trust me, you will get sick of having to run around your own ship every single time if you fly anything that doesn't have you exit at the front."* Nope. I do all my bio-scanning (I focus on nothing but first-footfall Stratum Tectonicas) with the aid of an SRV in my DBX. Much faster than land/scan/take off/fly/land/scan, ad-nauseum. So front/rear exit is irrelevant.

[@nostatic6448]

One trick for finding many biologicals is using night vision, even on the daylight side of a body. It will highlight their outline, which can make them easier to spot. One exception to this is bacterium, which is never highlighted by night vision. But oddly, that means it can help find the stuff. Since night vision highlights most of the terrain but never bacterium, you can sometimes spot the bacterium as a "hole" in the otherwise noisy green of the night vision display. Sometimes patches of bacterium are easy to find from the air because they're a color that contrasts nicely with the ground. Other times they're very similar in color to the ground and they're damn near impossible to spot. Either way, bacterium seems to only spawn in large, flat areas so it's usually fairly easy to land nearby if you can find it.

[@57thorns]

I found nightvision also shows rocks in excruciating detail. But everyone try and see what works for them.

[@fcsuper]

Just earned my Elite status of Exobiology, already almost at Elite I. Let the money FLOW! Some people like a well-equipped DBX, but if you are carrier based, long jump range of the DBX is more detrimental than helpful. And the DBX is still too large to park in the mountains at many locations. You'll definitely have issues parking a Dolphin from time to time. The Adder can be very well-equipped for Exobiology, and it can be parked on a dime (almost literally). You'll still struggle to find a parking spot sometimes, but the Adder is your best chance to park near your biologics. With the Adder, you will find that you don't need your SRV nearly as often. Just land, hope out on foot, get your scan, get back in the ship and hope to the next location. This is good because you only have one SRV hanger in small ships; so not using your SRV as often will save time, fuel and SRV health with literally no downside to the Adder. There's a lot more advice, but picking the right ship is the most important thing after getting your suit.

[@Garryck-1]

Stick to just first-footfall Stratum Tectonicas, and mountains aren't a problem. So I do just fine in my DBX/SRV, raking in around 3 billion per 12 hours play.

[@r4dios1lence92]

You can also get exobio data from Spires, by the way (each spire counts separately). On the petals up top. And since you'll be there, take some time to tickle the greens with with your taser, and steal the thing in the middle after that. Fun times, no alien shooting required (but some scouts might shoot your ship, so make sure it's not a paper-thin one). Seeing the learning process was awesome! Hope to see more on this format for the rest of Ody content.

[@naidr0x]

I've recently started my journey with ED. I chose exobiology as my 'get rich quick at the start' tool and within one day amassed over 200 mil credits using just a slightly modified Sidewinder and spansh's exobiology plotter. 100% would recommend if you know what you're doing.

[@papadragon_i3908]

So any tips, well first if a planet is scanned in fss there´s a box in the top right corner. If the planet has any biosignals it will be said there, if it is more than one bio signal you can check that planet out. If it has only one it is most likely a bacteria which can be very hard to spot on some surfaces. And only pays around 1mil, so not really interresting. Secondly if a planet is scanned with a DSS you have to land in the areas that are marked blue otherwise there will be no plants. Also where to land depends not just on the color of the planet but some plants are only in mountain ranges others are only find in flat terrain. Even if the Terrain is marked as blue that is something to keep in mind when searching the surface. Different Plants have different payouts and there´re variation of the same plant in terms of colour mostly. But the most valuable plant you can find is stratum Techtonitas which has a base value of 19mil. How to get rich with exobiology is simple, go exploring when you find an planet with live were no one has landed before / set foot on it you will get a multiplier on yours plant payout which is a five times multiplier so a stratum techtonitas is around 100mil worth. That´s all i can think of in term of exobiology. But I can say that without third party tools like Elite Observatory help out there a lot as they can predict what is on that planet in terms of plants. o7

[@DiturisElite]

Massive thanks CMDR, very handy 🫡

[@cmdrvalsylvana2129]

MattG's BioInsights plugin for Observatory is a tremendous help.

[@thomasblasquez6495]

"Despite the many requests I've received for it" *shows two of my comments* 😅 glad to see you jumping in!

[@luphinus]

New player here. I've tried every small ship available. Best one for point to point ship-hopping for biodiversity is the Asp Explorer. The see-thru floor of the AspX is by far the easiest to spot the perfect place to land close without having to roll sideways 90 degrees. Even that bacterium that's next to worthless with the time it takes. 9/10 times I can stick the tail on a spot and not have to move more than 2m.

[@srgtcolon1493]

:) just in case it wasn't yet said: 1. As soon as you honk a system AND while you are IN the system, you can check for Biological signs on a planet by selecting the planet, then "Planetary Information", that is the 3rd icon from the top on the right side of the screen. Look for "Biological (n)" under Features in the planetary info popup. 2. When DSS tells you which type of lifeforms are present on the planet, check the Codex to a) see how they look and b) what distance is required for that species for genetic diversity. 3. While descending to the surface towards a species preferred biome (strong blue area) switch between combat and analysis mode, to check what geological formation corresponds to the species hotspot area (valleys/hills/rough/smooth terrain etc.) to be able to orient yourself while on the surface.

[@CMDR_Niceygy]

PS you can right click (or the secondary fire button) to scan nearby. It will highlight the plants to scan in green :)

[@damienf4581]

The big bucks come when you scan exo-bios on undiscovered planets and you get the first footfall bonus and some bios more than others give you the big payouts - like cactoida vermis, statum cucumisis, fumerola extremis (81.01 million), tussock virgam (71.57 million), osseus discus (64.67 million) - the only bacterium I've found that gives a good return is baceterium nebulus (26.45 million) - the rest are 5 million (with first footfall). Anyway - exo-bio is a pretty good distraction during the long discovery trips.

[@nevilovermann797]

This channel is EPIC! Thank you!

[@marioawario6125]

New player here. I did my first bio scanning while trying to prospect raw materials for pre-engineered FSD (which i was doing after watching your video on it). After finding one plant, i started driving around trying to find more and got 3 separate species on the planet i looked up on inara for Tellurium. This for me 4mil space bucks. Now I'm not doing exo-bio specifically, but when there is a promising looking planet in the system I'm at and i got time i land to scan a few. When i was returning to the bubble from crystal garden farming, i landed on 3 or 4 plannets, grabbed a few samples on each of them and got 68mil in total for it. Kind of boring in the long run, but nice that you can do something else if you want

[@meoka2368]

It should be obvious, but just in case it wasn't, bio is easier to see on the sunny side of the planet. So land there if you have the option. Bacteria is the hardest to spot, sometimes nearly invisible. The hardest is ice planets around a dark coloured star, because then there's no contrast on the surface to see. There's a couple of tricks for spotting bacteria. In your ship, make sure to set your composition scanner to a fire group, and have that fire group selected. The little circle will flash when it's over something that can be scanned, which includes biological things. You can scan them, though it's not worth much. The point is to give you the flash to let you know you passed over the thing. If you're in your SRV, you can do the same in the turret. Be in scan mode and sweep the area. Lastly, change your settings so directional shadows are on low (settings > graphics > quality > directional shadow). This will cause bacteria to show up first as a black spot on the land when it's at the edge of the render range. It does the same to other bio sources as well, but by that point you should be able to spot them already by other means, such as night vision.

[@Law_Rence]

I thought the live Dituri commentary was very entertaining! I don't know anything about Odyssey, so all I can do is cheer you on!

[@Durpeyes]

Landing on the day side of the planet makes things much easier and you can toggle seeing the set bio filter by toggling analysis/combat mode :)

[@Pflanzenturio]

Well... the ship was aboslutely spot on, one of the two small explorers best suited for exobiology 😁

[@TCPWestwood]

You can earn discovery bonuses worth tens of millions on top of the scan data itself if you find and scan lifeforms in a system that hasn't been explored before.

[@alexzk3]

Most fun is to collect fungus. Sometimes it takes a week :D It prefers high-lands. Some planets has 2 small areas per whole the planet, and then you should walk those areas through :D Any way, different species prefer different grounds. Keep that in mind.

[@bobbinbob]

Did my first exobiology based on a planet on billionaires boulevard - I got 4 out of the 5 specimens listed and got 40mil credits can’t. Grumble at that - took me about 1.5 hrs of actual searching good fun 😊

[@selbie]

The audio may be scuffed, but it does convincingly sound like you're in the actual dolphin cockpit or exosuit helmet 😁 The reverb effect could work for Let's Play style videos with some tweaking.

[@VikingGuard]

Excellent video :)

[@Tectonicbg]

Just to say it, I still do the "Mini-game time song" when I do it even knowing it's not one...

[@MrNedinator]

I haven't read any of the other comments with paragraphs of tips, but just in case it isn't said, find a planet without a first footfall. I generally aim for 3 biological signs, but 2 is fine too sometimes. I got 100M credits from one planet with 3 biologicals scanned just because no one else had done it yet.

[@lagrangepoints9970]

I’ve made so much money on this especially on my first Colonia visit which started only about 3 weeks ago? But some life is SO hard to find despite what the surface scanner says.

[@KingArthurFleck]

I just flew out to Jellyfish Nebula for my 5000 ly engineer unlock and along the way made some exobiology first finds. Just one stratum techtonicas first find netted me 100,000,000 creds! All in I made 300,000,000 creds scanning plants LOL ***EDIT*** I relogged and handed in more at the genomics NPC and was notified of all my "newly discovered" species and was given a 400,000,000 credit bonus for 2 days to Jellyfish and back

[@c44448]

you get about 25 mil. for already discoverded Stratum Tectonicas, If you find it in the wild and first discover it, i got as much at 100 mil. per scan.

[@saltydog4556]

Rock Snot is my biggest frustration

[@bauxite13]

Braindump: - Your DSS will show different shades of blue/green. The green parts are the flattest area's to land. - Sometimes your DSS will indicate that a certain bio should exist in the area, but you can't find them. Some bio's have some extra criteria for spawning for example sometimes bio's only spawn in mountain area's - For your last sample, make sure to let the animation play out completely before entering back into your SRV/ship, otherwise it might not register completely. - For the best payout you can get, you have to get first footfall on a planet which grants a 4x bonus (so you'll get 5x the base value), so if you're going for money you have to go outside of the bubble for quite a bit. If you have questions after reading this lmk

[@arha-z1v]

ackshually first footfall is just a guarantee you were the first to scan it (which is what gives the bonus) - it is possible that somebody else had first footfall, but you were the first to scan bio/sell the data - the bonus will be there

[@kelalatir]

I once searched a whole planet for a particular species to eventually discover it only grew on the south pole, despite blue being in several places around the planet.

[@ShinigamiGrin]

I'd like to try it, but I can't get past the point of understading how to find things to scan 💀💀

[@Filbo_Fraggins]

first!, good video cmdr

[@FalconDS9]

is there anything in odyssey i could miss if i only want to fly ships? anything that makes ships better? if its strictly only "on foot" content, im more than happy to simply ignore that complete addon. but if they are hiding some sort of ship content inside it, i wasnt able to figure that out yet.

[@cmdrhumbo9067]

Probably the millionth comment to say this but look for atmos planets with no "First Footfall" and 2 or more biological species. Also try to get away from the bubble a bit - preferably not on the galactic plane as its all been explored to death. If you discover a species and get first footfall your cash reward goes up massively. I've comeback from fairly brief trips and received hundreds of millions of credits- and you get to see some gorgeous planets in the process.

[@88dejw]

I'm about two weeks in the game and bought my asp explorer with 5A fsd after doing about 7-8 exo planets with stratum. Also, seasoned played I would like to ask what other explorer could I buy. I don't really 'feel' the asp. I don't want to go conda from the start. Maybe phantom or diamondback?

[@DiturisElite]

Well done! I can’t recommend the phantom enough, it’s my forever exploration platform. The diamondback gets insane range and is compact, but the fuel scoop can be an issue. If you’re open to getting a little less range for benefits elsewhere, maybe the courier, dolphin, clipper or even type-6 can be nice choices. If you’re just getting stuck into exploration though, maybe a little engineering or unlocking the guardian FSD booster could be a good idea. Totally get the ‘feel’ issue though 🫡

[@88dejw]

@@DiturisElite thanks, I was looking on the phantom, it's so damn cool. As for the jump enhancer, I've read about it, but leave it for the future. Thanks Commander!

[@OldManPaxusYT]

comment + 👍'd

[@johannes7941]

making 100mil from first footfall on hmc planets with stratum is amazing !! making billions while exploring the dark

[@MuffnLauncher]

Hey, really liked the unscripted bits!

[@Cohen.the.Worrier]

Try to get first footfall, it will raise your earnings significantly.

[@sinntaxdagreat]

Lol good stuff. Enjoyed it

[@Tallisar]

Lovely content! I recommend going to the moons, since the normally have the most life. The more diverse life it has, the better credits you earn (according to me)! Keep up the great content bro!

[@Ledabot]

When a planet has a whole bunch of stuff on it, it always seems to be dominated by 2 things and then the other things are just impossible to find. Not being able to partially collect multiple things had me flying past rare thing then never being able to find them again. Absolutely demoralising. I spent 3 hours on a planet trying to find fungi thing number 3 a week or so back. Now I just don't do it anymore. I could make far more just by doing 1 more jump. Sorry to be such a downer, but I really think this is just awfully unfun, and thats saying something in a game like elite where busywork is a thing I normally like!

[@ronrolfsen3977]

Noticed the same. Had one of those weed ones that where supposed to be everywhere. However most of the area was covered by something else. Only place I could find that weed was in the mountains where that something else did not grow.

[@Sloganlogo]

Look for first footfall and Stratum Tectonicus.... 100,000,000 a body. 1 billion in about an hour

[@TheBelfastBikerOfficial]

I think I'd watch more unscripted stuff 👍🏻 the echo just makes it sound like your internal monologue 😂 I saw a video once where the sampler was a minigame, but I guess they got rid of it?

[@Neo-vz8nh]

The biggest problems with exobiology: - stuff rendered very wierdly and badly. You have to stare to something for seconds to actually rendered. This make hunting something in a ship very very hard, as you move faster then it renders. - no exobiology compatable SRV, so to scan if something is distant enough, you have to exit the SRV, and the transition is really bad. - you can only scan something at once, otherwise it will wipe progress. This is a real cancer, sole reason I don't like exobiology. It is just a clear time wasting mechanism. - the heat map on planets after surface scan, is not really a heat map. Barely usable to find anything. There use to be biomes on the planet where there are many more of that plant, but this is barely visible on the heat map. It could be a relaxing good fun, but these problem often makes it frustrating, hence it is not really popular.

[@EiriUesugiKun]

I won't search for bacteria exept on icy worlds.. Anymore.. Spent way too many hours trying to find bacteria from a black, rocky wordl that is way too far away from a red dwarf.. xD