Fitted with a double engineering Increased Range and Fast Boot, the pre-engineered FSD is currently the best available option for range, regardless of size.
This module is bought with its engineering already at grade 5, and is only available at Technology Brokers who deal in human tech - to find your nearest human Tech Broker, look for your nearest Dodec or use the Inara station search (the broker can be accessed in the Contacts panels on the station).
Side note : the pre-engineered FSD comes without an experimental, you can add that experimental (Mass Manager) at any engineer able to work on FSDs (regardless of maximum grade for that engineer).
This guide is focused on getting the pre-engineered FSD in a vacuum, alternative ways of collecting materials (like the crystal sites) will not be considered here.
FSD Requirements by size
FSD Size
Quantity
Material
Material Type
FSD 7a
1
Titan Drive Component
Commodity (Thargoid)
12
Propulsion Elements
Material (Thargoid)
16
Datamined Wake Exceptions
Material (Data G5)
28
Tellurium
Material (Raw G4)
14
Electrochemical Arrays
Material (Manufactured G3)
18
Chemical Processors
Material (Manufactured G2)
FSD 6a
1
Titan Drive Component
Commodity (Thargoid)
8
Propulsion Elements
Material (Thargoid)
15
Datamined Wake Exceptions
Material (Data G5)
28
Tellurium
Material (Raw G4)
12
Electrochemical Arrays
Material (Manufactured G3)
16
Chemical Processors
Material (Manufactured G2)
FSD 5a
1
Titan Drive Component
Commodity (Thargoid)
7
Propulsion Elements
Material (Thargoid)
15
Datamined Wake Exceptions
Material (Data G5)
24
Tellurium
Material (Raw G4)
12
Electrochemical Arrays
Material (Manufactured G3)
14
Chemical Processors
Material (Manufactured G2)
FSD 4a
1
Titan Drive Component
Commodity (Thargoid)
6
Propulsion Elements
Material (Thargoid)
13
Datamined Wake Exceptions
Material (Data G5)
20
Tellurium
Material (Raw G4)
9
Electrochemical Arrays
Material (Manufactured G3)
13
Chemical Processors
Material (Manufactured G2)
FSD 3a
1
Titan Drive Component
Commodity (Thargoid)
5
Propulsion Elements
Material (Thargoid)
12
Datamined Wake Exceptions
Material (Data G5)
16
Tellurium
Material (Raw G4)
9
Electrochemical Arrays
Material (Manufactured G3)
11
Chemical Processors
Material (Manufactured G2)
FSD 2a
1
Titan Drive Component
Commodity (Thargoid)
4
Propulsion Elements
Material (Thargoid)
10
Datamined Wake Exceptions
Material (Data G5)
14
Tellurium
Material (Raw G4)
6
Electrochemical Arrays
Material (Manufactured G3)
9
Chemical Processors
Material (Manufactured G2)
What You Will Need
Collector Limpet Controller & Cargo : While not strictly required (you can collect materials by hand), having collector limpets will massively speed up the collection process. You will also need a bit of cargo to stock the limpets and the Titan Drive Component (only physical cargo on the list)
Fuel Scoop : You will have to move quite a bit, don't forget your fuel scoop.
[Wake Exceptions] Wake Scanner : Utility module, required to get the Wake Exceptions (Optional if you already have the Wake Exceptions, or if you acquire them through missions).
[Tellurium] SRV : Required to collect the Tellurium (since we will not use the SRV scanner, Scarab and Scorpion are equivalent here).
[Tellurium] Detailed Surface Scanner : Required to get the signal location for the Bug Killer crashed anaconda (Optional if you already visited that crash site or use an alternative method).
[Tellurium] Decent Jumprange : For the Tellurium, both the crashed anaconda and the Brain Trees are roughly 380Ly away from Sol - not too far, but still benefit from having a decent jumprange.
[Titan Drive] Good sensors : The Thargoid materials can be scattered around a large (15-ish kilometers) area, having A-rated sensors will make locating them less painful.
(Optional) Anti-corrosion cargo : the Titan Drive Component is physical and corrosive cargo - if you have access to it, it can be worth outfitting an anti-corrosion cargo. If you can't, it's not worth unlocking now - it just means the Drive will be the last component you pick up, with a beeline to the Tech Broker.
Electrochemical Arrays & Chemical Processors
These two are manufactured materials, grade two and three - meaning that the quickest way to get them is to target the corresponding grade five and trade down at a Material Trader (in this case, getting one type of G5 will be enough to trade down for both materials).
To get the material, you will need to locate a "High Grade Emission" signal source in a system with specific properties : each High Grade Emission contains a large quantity of a single G5 material, determined by the allegiance and state of the faction that "controls" the signal.
The grade 5 for Electrochemical Arrays is Military Supercapacitors, found in HGEs in systems with an allegiance of Alliance or Independent, a state of War or Civil War and the highest population possible. (Inara system search - replace "Sol" with your current system)
The grade 5 for Chemical Processors is Pharmaceutical Isolators, found in HGEs in systems with an allegiance of Alliance or Independent, a state of Outbreak and the highest population possible. (Inara system search - replace "Sol" with your current system)
Once you have your chosen G5 material, head to a Material Trader that deals in manufactured materials (each Material Trader can only trade one of the standard categories of material : Raw, Manufactured or Encoded), that you can locate with an Inara station search (the closest to Sol that doesn't require a permit is located in "LHS 380", on the station "Qureshi Orbital").
Datamined Wake Exceptions
There is two main ways to acquire the Wake Exceptions : either get missions that list it as a reward (being a G5 material, it will only appear on high-end missions and usually require a good reputation with the faction) or scan high-energy wakes with your wake scanner (remnants left behind when a ship jumps to another system - the wakes left by a regular supercruise won't work).
Unless you already have a system with maxed reputations and decent missions, the simplest (albeit boring) way of getting the scans is to sit in any high-traffic instance of your choice and scan any wake left by the NPC pilots. Good sources of high traffic instances include, all ideally in high population systems :
Nav Beacons
Tier 3 stations (Dodec / Orbis)
Colonisation construction sites
Distribution Centres (present close to planets in "Famine" state systems - the FSS and Nav Beacon will not reveal them, you need to get physically close to the planets for the signals to appear)
Note that both methods rely heavily on RNG - the chance of getting a G5 material from a wake scan is quite low, so you may save a lot of time by doing any mission offering the G5 Wake Exceptions when you happen to see one.
Tellurium
To collect the Tellurium, head to the HIP 16613 system, body 1a - you do not need to actually scan the system, that body is the first moon of the gas giant (visual reference of the system map below).
You will need to map the moon with your DSS to reveal the location of the crash site - once you get the body data, a "Bug Killer" signal will appear in your navigation panel. Once that signal is located, travel to the crash site and land nearby - do not land directly on the crash site, as the immediate proximity to your ship will prevent the SRV from deploying the turret.
That crash site contains a few containers - shoot them to release a raw material, that you can then target and scoop (you can deploy your cargo scoop from your right panel if you don't know/have a binding for it, once your scoop is deployed and the material is targeted, any contact with the SRV will grab it). There is also data points present, scannable with your data link scanner (you may have to assign it to a fire group first) for various Encoded materials.
On this wreck, the containers will get you Tellurium, Antimony and Ruthenium.
Note that you will have to fully reset the instance to re-generate the containers (executing what's referred to as a "flop" or "Frontier flop") : while in your SRV or ship, fully exit the game and start from the launcher, a simple relog will not regenerate the containers.
Side note : a Thargoid may appear during your visit to the Bug Killer - it will not be agressive to you as long as you do not shoot it or hold Thargoid/Guardian materials (the Guardian FSD Booster, despite being Guardian tech, does not seem to trigger the agressiveness of those Thargoids).
Titan Drive Component & Propulsion Elements
Important disclaimer : the Titan Drive is a physical corrosive cargo. Unless you are equipped with corrosion-resistant cargo racks, this must be the last element you collect, ideally already knowing where your closest Human Tech Broker is (every Dodec station will have one, otherwise find one with an Inara station search). Flying with a single unit of corrosive cargo will not be a threat to your ship as long as you beeline for your Tech Broker.
Both the Propulsion Elements and the Titan Drive Component are Thargoid materials which cannot be traded/converted - fortunately, you can easily collect both at any of the Titan wrecks scattered in the Bubble.
Such wrecks have a special red marker on your galaxy map : if you have the permit for it, head for the one located in Sol (as it is the safest one) otherwise locate the closest to you with your galaxy map or an Inara signal search.
Once in the correct system, target the Titan Wreck with your navigation panel and head there. The wreck itself has a radius of roughly fifteen kilometers, and materials can appear anywhere in that sphere - do not hesitate to navigate with your "Contacts" panel open and/or put on your ignore list any material you're not interested in, as it will also hide it from your main radar (to do this, select any material in your contacts panel and "Add to ignore list").
Thargoid ships can appear during your search for materials : they will be agressive to anyone nearby but the sheer size of the wreck and the presence of anti-Thargoid NPCs means that you can avoid them and stay safe as long as you're careful (mostly meaning "don't fly straight into them and you will be fine").
If the NPCs fail to handle the Thargoids or other appear too fast, you can reset the instance by hopping in supercruise and dropping again on the Titan wreck - this will also reset any material present here.
Side note : Thargoids cannot appear in the Sol wreck, making it the safest one to collect the materials.
By that point, you should already have planned your escape to the nearest Human Tech Broker - either at the nearest Dodec station or by using an Inara station search.
As a reminder, the Titan Drive Compoment is corrosive cargo. If you're not equipped with anti-corrosion cargo racks, a random module on your ship will take damage every thirty seconds or so : a single unit of corrosive cargo will not present a threat to your ship as long as you beeline for your nearest Tech Broker (the worst case here is a string of bad luck with the corrosion repeatedly targeting your cargo hatch : if it malfunction, your Titan Drive will be ejected into space).
