Purpose

I often see posts on the forums, and Reddit, that ask for assistance for getting started with the career of exploration. I have decided to attempt to put all the information for getting started on this wiki page. Going forward it should be a living document that helps new Explorers get started on their journeys.

So you want to be an Explorer

Excellent! Exploration is not difficult in the least. Exploration will, however, measure one's own level of patience. In order to get started you need to answer some basic questions about yourself, and your purpose. Do you find Supercruise so boring? Then maybe exploration isn't right for you. These types of questions should be asked of yourself before you start your journey.

You can boil the Explorer down to two arch-types:

You are out there to make credits, reach Elite, and hopefully see a few sites. The First Discovery is important to you, but you are willing to leave most of the system undiscovered. Let's call you The Cashier. You view yourself as a die hard Explorer. You want to have First Discovery on everything. You scan every planet regardless of "market price". You get up close and personal with planets to take pictures and (maybe) scan moons. Let's call you The Wanderer

Are there other CMDRs that do Exploration differently? Sure! This is just my experience.

If you are of The Cashier arch-type understand that space madness is going to be real for you. It can get boring doing point, scan, Supercruise. Rinse repeat. Over and over. However, you will find some interesting stuff every now and then, and even experience a few heart attacks.

If you are of The Wanderer arch-type then sit back, relax, turn on some music or podcast. Zone into the game. Explore. This world was meant for you. You can't go to these places in real life, but in here you can get pretty darn close. Absolutely do not worry about getting somewhere. This is what causes space madness. Experience each system like it is your first. Methodically move through the system. Document it.

To reiterate, this is all about you. Tailor your exploration to fit you and you will still have fun.

Getting Started

Ships

First, you can take any ship exploring! It doesn't matter about its size, jump range, etc. You will, however, need to tailor your expectations depending on the ship.

Things to look for in a Ship

Maximum jump range Fuel capacity Largest capable Fuel Scoop

Items you absolutely want equipped on the Ship

Largest Class-A Frame Shift Drive (FSD) Detailed Surface Scanner Discovery Scanner Prefer Advanced and go down from there. (ADS) Largest, and highest Class, affordable Fuel Scoop Class-A Power Plant

Items you should equip on your first trip

Heat Sinks (1 is probably fine) Auto-Field Maintenance Units (AFMU) One is probably fine if you get a larger, higher Class, unit.

Items that are up to You

Cargo Rack

Weapons There are currently no NPC enemies about 1000Ly out of the populated "bubble". However, that could all change at any point.

Shields

Power Distributor The Power Distributors only function is to drive shields, engines, and weapons. If you do not have shields or weapons then the distributor is not doing much. The only place it could be useful is in normal space (not Supercruise) with regard to overall speed and boosting. However, while exploring you will spend 99% of your time in Supercruise thus negating any benefits from the distributor.



Some notes for 1.4 and Horizons

The 1.4 patch allows the Explorer to find random shipwrecks/data canisters out in the black. If you are interested in collecting these then you will need a Cargo Rack .

When Horizons releases you will finally be able to land on non-Atmospheric planets. In order to travel around on these planets you will need an SRV. You must acquire an SRV equipment slot at an Outfitter station! The SRV will take up an Internal Compartment, and will come in varying sizes.

Exploration Starter Ships

Disclaimer: These ships are designed for the first time Explorer. The target audience has a restriction on money, ships, and/or knowledge of exploration in general.

Not all items in the builds may be necessary after some experience in exploration. Also, if you have more money than brains (sarcasm sheesh) you can go with larger fuel scoops, AFMUs, etc.

Some of the most expensive items are the Advanced Discovery Scanner , FSD, and the Fuel Scoop . You may compromise on the discovery scanner, however you will be spending a lot more time trying to find celestial bodies in a system. For these builds I targeted a full refuel time of around 30 seconds. On most ships this seems to be the best cost vs. refuel time I could find. However, some ships were not able to reach the target refuel time with a reasonable cost. Thus I sacrificed refuel times for those ships.

Comparison of all New Explorer Ships sorted by Max Jump Range - Full Tank.

Individual Ships in no specific order:

Your trip, your Ship

Remember this is your journey. Equip a ship how you want to play. Do you want to scoop up those rare objects out in the black? Then throw on a Cargo Rack . You paranoid of Thargoids (who isn't!) then leave on shields/weapons. Same goes if you want to play solely in Open. It is up to you. Just remember that jump range and fuel capacity will dictate where exactly you can go. Just plan accordingly.

Power Management

Leave at least one Heat Sink powered at all times! You can only fire it when not in Supercruise anyways.

Recommended to power off:

All AFMUs! If you change a module to power off, or repair, while in Supercruise you will Emergency Stop and take damage. The AFMU will only repair those items that are already marked as repair from the modules panel. It is strongly recommended that you only repair while in normal space. (i.e. not in Supercruise )

Power Distributor If you are not running shields/weapons. If you have set your PIP management before turning off then those settings are retained when you power the distributor back on. (Thank you /u/bgrnbrg)

Cargo Scoop

All extra Heat Sinks

Why power them off? Well they consume less power, and thus you have less heat. You also have a much smaller thermal signature. Why is less heat good? You do not have, as much, thermal heat build up on scooping, and if you do crash into a Celestial Body then you might take a little less damage trying to get away.

Practice those Modules

There is nothing worse than being 11KLys out from populated space with your ship overheating and you say "Huh, how do I use these Heat Sinks again?". That is a moment when I get quote my favorite game character (Borderlands: Brick) "Bwahahahahaha..haha..ha...Dumbass".

So buy a Sidewinder. Equip Heat Sinks and an AFMU. Go crash into Stars. Wait, huh!? Yes, that is right go crash into Stars. You will learn what happens to the ship, how much damage it takes, how long you should wait to pop the first Heat Sink ,etc. Then you will learn how to get away from the Star, how far you can fly away from it to reduce heat before attempting to jump. Then you get to learn how to heal yourself. Fun, no!?

Galaxy Map Setup

The Cashier

Go to View -> Map in the Galaxy Map. Turn off everything except White Dwarf Stars and Non-Sequence Stars. This will give you a good idea of where to head for interesting, or market worthy systems.

Make sure and change the "Route" to Fastest Route.

The Wanderer

It is really up to you. If you feel like truly just seeing whatever is interesting then use the Realistic Map . If you have a place in mind then use the Star Map . You can still turn off all but White Dwarf Stars and Non-Sequence Stars. The route plotter will still route through other system types.

It is recommended that you still change the "Route" to Fastest Route. The Galaxy is very, very big so you will not miss anything. (I promise!)

Controls

Make sure your Heat Sinks are tied to a Fire Group, and that your Discovery Scanner is also tied to a Fire Group. I would recommend Heat Sinks on Weapon 2 and Discovery Scanner on Weapon 1.

In-Cockpit Controls

Throttle to 0%

Throttle to 75%

Target ahead

Galaxy Map

System Map

Navigation Panel (and dismissal)

Head tracking on/off (if you are running a head tracker)

High resolution screenshot (Alt-F10)

Screenshot (F10)

Hyperspace/Supercruise

Target Next System in route

Galaxy Map Controls

The Galaxy Map will only show you so many Systems around your current cursor location. Thus you need to navigate within the Galaxy Map in order to find your next plot point.

Move along the x-axis

Move along the y-axis

Move along the z-axis

Zoom in/out

Learn the HUD and System Map

Yes, I know, that you know, how to use the HUD. Pew Pew Pew! Right!? Well, yes but, what I mean is learn what the planets look like in the HUD. Which are most likely Ice/Rocky, High Metallic, Metal-Rich, or Gas Giants? The majority of the time (not all the time) you can tell what type of celestial body it will be just by looking at the hologram.

In the System Map you should learn to recognize the planet types based on appearance and size. Remember that the Stellar object in the map can cast a color onto the planet. From within the System Map you can even listen to the audio when a planet is selected to figure out what type it is!

Learn the Stars and Planets

There are many different types of celestial bodies out there. Stellar, Planetary, Asteroids, etc. The important questions are: Can I fuel at that Star? How much is that body worth? (The Cashier)

The rule for scoop-able Stars is: F O G K A B M.

CMDR Dubardo has produced a beautifully done Visual Guide to Exploration. It shows a picture of each Star and Planet. It shows which Stars are scoop-able, and how much each celestial body might cost. I say might because the price varies depending on many different factors.

Route Plotting in the Galactic Core

As you get closer to the Galactic Core it will become obvious that plotting new routes is a lesson in patience. No, the Galaxy Map is not broken. It is just trying its darnedest to find the most optimal route.

So I am new how will I know when I have reached this point? When you click on the Plot Route icon the "completion" spinner will get to anywhere between 93-98%. Then it seems to just sit there, forever, and ever.

So how do we get around this? Through the power of Math! (queue He-Man music)

Luckily I don't have to figure out how to do this. The way more intelligent forum user Esvandiary has created an awesome article on the plotting in the core.

Jumping between Systems

Friendship Drive Engaged!! Whoo hooo! WTF!? Taking heat damage. Argh!!!11!1!

Yeah, we have all been there. Most main Stellar objects in a System that you jump to you will be fine, but there are a few that will cause you to crash into them if your engines are throttled up even 1%. So just get used to throttling down to 0% during the jump.

You may throttle down safely: when the hyperspace countdown starts, or any time while in hyperspace.

Just do it!

It takes absolutely no time to recognize that the Star you just jumped to is not a Neutron and you can throttle back up. It really hurts when you plow head first into that Neutron Star though!

If you follow this rule the only times you will have trouble is when:

You do something stupid. (I don't know, like "man I really want to get into the dwarf Star with rings. Ah, crap I just crashed into them". Never has happened to me though. Nope. Never) You jump into a System with very close orbiting binary Stars. (Don't worry "It's Fine")

&$^%& I just crashed into a Star

Don't Panic! Wait for your heat to build before considering use of a Heat Sink . Target the Star you have crashed into. Go to full throttle away from the Star. Look at your compass in the lower left of your HUD. The blue circle should become hollow and be in the center of the compass. (Thank you /u/Wuddel )

) Get a far away as you can. Your heat should should come down as you get farther away. Pop a Heat Sink only if necessary. You may not need to if your starting heat is low enough. This depends on the Power Plant you selected however. An "A" class Power Plant will handle the heat best. Engage Supercruise Make sure you are not jumping towards another system, but instead just Supercruise. If you try and Hyperspace to another system it will take much longer, and thus build more heat. (Thank you /u/Wuddel ) Align with Vector Porkchop Sandwhiches! (or GTFO)

Now you are away, and your heart is pounding! (Didn't I mention there could be exiting moments!) You brain is going Mach 2, and you are staring at your Modules like "Oh, &^$% they are hurt! I need to repair them!".

STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

Do not attempt to engage those AFMUs in Supercruise! You will just have another Oh &$#@! moment!

Just fly away from the Star until your heat dissipates. Jump out of Supercruise. Turn power on your AFMU, and then repair.

Where to Go?

Remember that this is up to you and your personality?

What's in a Name?

Reddit user /u/McGowinParker gave some useful comments concerning system names, and how to use them to look for star types.

I'll spill these beans again here. AA-A is just the first of a few suffixes I've found that are consistent across the sectors. The interesting ones come in pairs and seem to be: AA-A / BA-A CL-Y / DL-Y FG-Y / EG-Y YE-A / ZE-A There may be others, but these are the ones I've come across and verified in several sectors so far. Not all sectors have all of these groups, but many will have most of them with a handful of systems in each, and many of them will be the glowing dots on the galaxy map. The other important piece of info to go along with this is the 4th letter in the suffix just before the numbers begin. I first thought these were luminosity ratings, though they may correlate with mass of the system. Either way, they begin with brown dwarf systems whose 4th letter is A or B, and seem to go all the way up to H, where things get really interesting. Cold M-stars will usually be B systems, and the ones most likely to have Earth-likes and terraformables are C and D systems. The "interesting" suffixes listed above are almost exclusively G and H systems. With all of this info save for the numbers, you can begin searching the galaxy map for these systems with: [Sector Name] [3-letter Suffix] [Luminosity/Mass rating] For instance, BLAA DRYE CL-Y G. When searching for "H" systems, I've been most successful with the AA-A suffix, probably because there aren't enough of them per sector to have them spill over into other suffixes. H-system searches act strangely--they'll often take you to completely empty pieces of space centered on an exact coordinate on the map rather than taking you to a star or doing nothing at all. In order to find the H systems, you should include the last numbers in your search. Start low and move up in increments of 10 and you're bound to find the H group. When you do, increment the numbers down by 1 until you find the first system in the group, then back up until you find the last. They'll be numbered in succession. When you've exceeded the number by which these systems are named, your H search will finally go nowhere, so you'll know the group is lower than that number. I've seen some H systems with triple-digit numbers, so it can take a bit of trial and error to find the group. For example, that huge A-class star I posted was BLAA DRYE AA-A H45. There is also an H44, H46, H47, and H48. Most of these are Wolf-Rayets (the host star in H45 was a Wolf-Rayet). These H systems also seem to be where you're most likely to find supergiants. Using these suffixes + G or H will yield a huge amount of black holes, Herbigs, large groups of O and B stars, and Wolf-Rayets. Go get 'em!

The Cashier

Find yourself a nice juicy Neutron Star field as close to populated space as possible. Get to scanning. When space madness starts to set in (and it will for you) go play some CQC, or come back home for a bit. If you jump, honk, scoop, jump it does not take long to get back and forth.

The Wanderer

Oh man, this Galaxy was made for you. Start with something easy and fun like a Nebula. Then go on the bigger trips to Sag. A*.

Where to find Undiscovered stuff?

Go off at an odd angle from populated space. The Wanderer is actually few and far between. Most people fall somewhere around The Cashier so they have specific goals in mind. That Neutron field, tourist sites, etc. You can still do those things and find undiscovered places, but you will need to venture off the "trails".

There is a awful lot of things out there in the black. Really. More than our little brains can comprehend. If you hear people quote 6 MILLION systems scanned. Don't go "ah, man, there is nothing left for me :(". There are 400 BILLION systems in the darn game. 6 million systems is like pissing on a house fire!

How do I Discover things!?

So you have a ship and a plan in mind to find some interesting things. How does this actually work?

How you go about discovering celestial bodies in a system really depends on which scanner you are using. This section assumes that you have bound the scanner into a Fire Group. The act of "firing" the scanner is lovingly called "honking", in context you would "honk a system".

You: Honking HA, that's rich why would you choose such a thing!?

Yeah, well, that is what it sounds like. Try it out. You will see. :)

Using the Discovery Scanners

Basic Discovery Scanner

This piece of junk (nope not opinionated) only has a 500Ls scan range. Thus when you jump into a system you need to honk your scanner. Then pick a direction fly 1000Ls and honk again. Why 1000Ls? The scanner is in a sphere. Thus that 500Ls is the radius. If you travel 1000Ls then you will cover the 500Ls you already scanned plus are ready to scan the next 500Ls.

Intermediate Discovery Scanner

This piece of junk (I told you I am not opinionated) only has a 1000Ls range. So I will repeat the logic from the Basic Discovery Scanner section.

Thus when you jump into a system you need to honk your scanner. Then pick a direction fly 2000Ls and honk again. Why 1000Ls? The scanner is in a sphere. Thus that 500Ls is the radius. If you travel 2000Ls then you will cover the 1000Ls you already scanned plus are ready to scan the next 1000Ls.

Advanced Discovery Scanner

This little scanner will cover the entire system. Thus it has unlimited range. You know, it scans everything. Redundant enough yet?

Everything still says UNEXPLORED

Yep. The first step was to scan with the system for Celestial Bodies. This shows you what is in the system. Now you have to discover those celestial bodies.

Target a body and fly towards it. When you get within range the lower left identification panel (HUD) will start spinning and say "Scanning...". This is the Detailed Surface Scanner in action.

You: How close do I have to be? How long does it take?

Right, so the range is 100% dependent on celestial body model size. A very large Gas Giant is around 800Ls away. Where as a very small body can be around 10Ls away. Stars are generally between 1000Ls and 5000Ls. However, this is not a guarantee! Take Neutron stars for example. Very dense mass wise, but their model is very small. Thus you have to be very close (around 10-20Ls was my experience). Most planets, however, will be in the 80-120Ls range.

The time it takes to scan a celestial body depends on distance from the body. The farther away you are the longer it takes. Experience has shown me that there is a maximum/minimum scan time, however I do not know what that time is currently. I will update this guide when I know the time range.

What is this Level 2/3 thing?

When you use your discovery scanner to honk a system you have just performed a Level 2 scan on all bodies successfully scanned. (Remember an Advanced Discovery Scanner will scan all bodies)

When you target an celestial body, fly towards it, and scan it (using the Detailed Discovery Scanner ) you have performed a Level 3 scan on that celestial body.

You: What about Level 1?

Great question! No idea. I can speculate that it represents systems that you did not honk to discover, nor have you detailed surface scanned. However, you can still see them in the map. Think about it this way; all those systems in the populated bubble that you did not scan, but you can still see in the System Map. This however is pure speculation!

Raining Credits

Nope. You can make ok money being out in the black for a long time. Just so you know though you will not make a ton of credits per hour by comparison of trading, bounty hunting, etc. The fun part of this however is that you do make a lot of money at once.

Turning in your exploration data has a large impact on a reputation, and the background simulation, for a faction/system. Thus you can raise your reputation with a major/minor faction very quickly turning in lots of exploration data. Keep this in mind when choosing who to turn in precious discoveries into. If you don't really care then ask around in the forums as there are player groups that are on a mission to influence the background simulation. They would really like it if you turned in to their systems!

Travel to your selected system and dock at your selected station. Open up the Universal Cartographics panel in the Station Services main menu. From there you can start selling your information a page at a time. It may take awhile if you have lots of discoveries.

It is important to understand that this is the moment when you will find out if you are officially the "First Discovered" CMDR or not. This is also the time you will see your Level 2/3 statistics are incremented.

Conclusion

Alright new explorer get out there, scan some systems, take some pictures, and most importantly have fun! Remember, if you find yourself at any point not having fun then STOP! Go back to populated space at full speed and do whatever it is you do find fun. The Stars have been there for billions (ok a single year) of years. They are not going anywhere. The entire population of the game will not discover all the systems out there for over a thousand years (you heard me right). Thus you can always come back to exploration. The Stars and us Wanderers will be waiting.

Fly proud, fly safe, but not too safe!