Summary
When Frontier Developments added ship engineering toElite Dangerousin patch 2.1, players quickly began to complain about the grind of gathering materials to engineer their ships. Back then, it was not uncommon for a player to spend several weeks collecting the materials they needed tofully engineer a ship. In the 3.0 update, material traders were added so that players could trade unneeded materials for ones they did need.
In 2021, the Odyssey expansion was launched, and players found that ground weapons and space suits could be engineered and upgraded, and a second materials grind was now in place. Although there are no material traders for Odyssey materials, some limited cross-trading is possible using the Bartender found in every station concourse. In short, gathering materials inElite Dangerousis a bit more complicated than otherspace games.
1Peng Industrial
A Great Place To Farm Odyssey Materials
Peng Industrial is a settlement in a high-security system, so be careful here. Don’t let any of the NPCs spot actions such as stealing materials. This settlement is a good location to loot materials because it has such a small footprint, meaning less running around.
Consider sneaking into the power building first, silently killing the NPCs, and switching off the base alarms. Don’t get spotted taking out the NPCs, as this is a high-security system and will result in a fine, bounty, and a kill count added to the player’s notoriety score.
2Martins Shelter
Farm Odyssey Materials Safely In This Anarchy System
Another great ground settlement to farm Odyssey materials, Martins Shelter is in a system that has zero native population. This means that this is an anarchy system by default, and crimes committed here won’t carry serious implications.
Furthermore, as this is an anarchy system, NPC kills won’t generate notoriety. This means that the player can safely take out all of the guards before killing the NPCs in the power building and shutting off the settlement alarms. They are then free to loot the entire settlement at their leisure.
3Mission Terminals
Farm Materials As Mission Rewards
For players who only need a handful of a specific material, it can be worth checking out mission terminals. Be sure to set the mission filter to only show missions that offer materials as a reward. There are quite a few different types of missions that the player might have to tackle, which means being equipped to complete any potential mission scenario. With this in mind, here are some recommendations for a ship and modules.
As long as the player has good standing with all of the factions on the station, they should have a decently long list of missions to select from. Mission terminals update every 10 minutes, with older missions dropping from them, and new missions being added.
4Hot Jupiter
Fun Farming By Looting Destroyed Ships
The previous three entries dealt with farming Odyssey materials for upgrading suits and personal weapons. This and the next two entries will cover materials needed for ship engineering. Hot Jupiter is a planet in an anarchy system that has plenty of orbital traffic.
Players can sit just out of the orbit of Hot Jupiter. They can have somefun space combat, and quite safely destroy any NPC ship that comes along, with no legal repercussions. Once a ship has been destroyed, collection limpets can be used to collect the spilled cargo and materials. Don’t forget to open the cargo hatch first before firing off a collection of limpets.
5Dav’s Hope
Relaxed Material Farming In An SRV
Dav’s Hope is an abandoned mining settlement. Set the navigation panel filters to show points of interest before trying to find this location. It can be tricky to locate, and the player might need to scan the system navigation beacon before the location pops up. If that doesn’t work, the player will need to fly closer to planet A5 and let their ship perform an initial autoscan.
There are 10 random materials dotted around the settlement (each with a stack of 3 materials, so 30 overall), which can be collected using an SRV. Don’t forget to open the cargo hatch first before trying to pick up materials. It is also worth scanning the main settlement data point for encrypted materials as well.
Logging out to the main menu and switching between solo and group play modes will respawn the entire settlement. This means all the materials will be back. So keep repeating this over and over, collecting materials, until a fair amount is stored, and then these can be cross-traded for other needed materials at a material trader.
6Jameson Crash Site
Fill Up On Tier 4 And 5 Encoded Materials In 15 Minutes
Players of the originalElitegame will remember that they played the character of Commander Jameson, flying the iconic Cobra MK III.Space explorationis a big part ofElite Dangerous. A player named CMDR Junior discovered a crash site on planet 1B in the HIP 12099 sector. Upon exploring the site, they discovered it to be an easter egg, as the crashed ship was none other than the original Cobra MK III flown by Commander Jameson.
This POI has 4 data points named Comms Control that can be scanned using the onboard scanner on the Scarab SRV. These scans give multiple grade 4 and 5 encoded materials for each scan. By using the same trick for respawning the POI covered in the previous entry, the player can quickly fill up on these, which can then be cross-traded for other encoded materials as needed. Remember to set the navigation panel to show points of interest before trying to find the crash site.
7Sanguineous Rim
One-Stop Shop For Raw Material Farming
The Sanguineous Rim is a region of space that is quite close to the bubble. A ship with a decent frame shift drive can make the trip in 40 to 50 jumps. Within the Sanguineous Rim are several systems close together, each of which has fantastic amounts of one of the tier 5 raw resources. So with a single trip to the Sanguineous Rim, the player can stock up with enough raw materials to cross-trade for any others they may need. A Detailed Surface Scanner will be required toscan the material sites. Here is a table, showing which raw material is found in each of these systems.
HIP 36601
B5A
Biological 1
It can take some time to fill up every raw material. The player will undoubtedly have to rearm their SRV several times, so they should verify they have enough raw material on hand to do this through the synthesis system. It is also worth bringing a spare SRV, just in case the original one gets stuck on the terrain, or damaged and destroyed.
