Stratum Sniping - Guide
Let me tell you a tale of horrors past, a grim story that the Old Guard usually remembers all too well...
...the Odyssey release.
No, that's it, end of the horror story.
Now, let's see how we can exploit that horror story to snipe undiscovered Stratum Tectonicas, for a 95 millions payout each, with an above 80% accuracy.
The core idea
In our case, we're interested in a small but very important quirk of the Odyssey release : when populating the galaxy with shiny bios to collect, bios were placed on every world that could host them... including worlds that had already been discovered by players. That means we already have a very large collection of planets in the community databases with known characteristics but no first footfall.
Some of you already know where we're going with this : thanks to communities like Canonn, we have excellent data on the planetary conditions required for each bio to appear - using a tool like Spansh, we can then search the community data for worlds that match three criteria :
A good chance of hosting a Stratum Tectonicas (specifically the Tectonicas because it's a valuable and common bio, we can mostly filter out other bios when searching for it, and it usually spawns on flat land).
A low chance of false-positives (which means search parameters strict enough that we rarely detect something that isn't a Tectonicas).
Didn't receive an update since the Odyssey release (note that this doesn't necessarily mean that nobody visited the planet since, because a lot of explorers do not update the community databases with tools like EDMC - a lot of false positives will be due to this).
The main downside of this method ? To avoid the aforementioned false-positives, you will need to travel far away from the Bubble - anything under 2000Ly will produce catastrophic results, and going further than 3000Ly is recommended.
What You Will Need
A tool to update the community data : As this method heavily relies on the accuracy of the community data, the ethical way to use it is to run a tool like EDMC to update the community databases, in order to keep the data accurate for future commanders (not using such a tool will generate a lot of false-positives for any commander who come after). You can find the links to EDMC on the Useful Links page. Please be a responsible commander.
Small or medium ship : While the Stratum does love a nice flat, open space, it's still highly recommended to avoid large ships for this - your preferred small exploration ship or a Mandalay will be ideal.
Good Jumprange : The higher your jumprange, the less jumps you will have to do between your target systems. It will also help for the initial journey, as you will need to go quite far from the Bubble.
Detailed Surface Scanner (DSS) : Size 1 optional module - you need the DSS to get the general location of the Stratum on the planet surface. Most stations will have one, but if you want specifics you can use the Inara Outfitting search
SCO-capable FSD : Some planets may be quite far from the main star, it will massively reduce your travel time.
Fuel Scoop : You'll be doing a lot of jumps far away from civilisation, don't forget your scoop !
Artemis Suit : Required to take samples of the bios (its special tool is the "genetic sampler"). Most station on-foot shops will have one - you don't need specific grades or engineering on it, at you will only use it for the genetic sampler.
Optional - SRV : The quickest way to get samples of Stratum Tectonicas is to land directly on it, grab a sample then continue from your ship, but if you like driving a SRV - go for it.
Be far away from the Bubble : Besides the fact that the neighbourhood of the Bubble is mostly explored, being close to the Bubble will mean that a lot of your results will be false-positives, usually of the kind "a Tectonicas is present here, but someone already grabbed it without updating the community data". A minimum distance of 3000 light-years from the civilisation is highly recommended.
Preparing the route
We will use Spansh Body Search here, but any tool that can filter for body characteristics and last update date will work, if you already have a preferred third party tool/software.
We will also assume that you already know the basics of exobiology and can recognize Stratum - if that's not the case, I would recommend doing some in the Bubble first with a route like the Stratum Boulevard.
If you want a set of pre-made search parameters, you can skip ahead. Otherwise, you can find the specific Stratum data here, and the detail of the search parameters we're interested in :
Reference System and Distance : Parameters used to set your reference point for the search, the "center" of the area you'll be exploring. A good baseline is to search for a few hundred light-years around the reference system.
Distance to arrival : A quality of life parameter, to avoid bodies that would take a long time to reach even with SCO. A good baseline is to limit this to 50 000Ls, but that heavily depend on how far you're willing to travel in supercruise.
Planet subtype : for our search, we're only interested in landable High metal content worlds.
Atmosphere type : Stratum Tectonicas almost exclusively appear on planets with one of three atmospheres - Thin Ammonia, Thin Carbon Dioxide and Thin Sulphur Dioxide. For our purposes, limiting the search to those three will return a lot of results but limit the amount of false-positives.
Gravity : most Tectonicas can appear up to 0.6G, but reducing this value will very efficiently reduce the amount of false-positives we get - going down to ~0.3G maximum will filter out most other bios.
Surface temperature : Tectonicas cannot appear below 165K, and the upper bound is irrelevant for this search.
Surface pressure : most Tectonicas can appear up to 0.09atm, but reducing this value will very efficiently reduce the amount of false-positives we get - going down to ~0.05atm maximum will filter out most other bios.
Last update : A critical parameter - we're only looking for bodies last updated before the release of Odyssey (May 19, 2021).
Pre-made search parameters
If you do not wish to prepare a custom search, you can find a pre-made search here : Spansh Body Search.
In order to use this search to generate a list of potential systems :
Go back to the "Main Fields" tab.
Replace the Reference System with the center of your search.
(Optional) Adjust the values of Distance and Distance to Arrival to your tastes ("Distance" being the maximum light-years distance from the reference system, "Distance to Arrival" being the maximum distance you're willing to travel in supercruise once in system).
Execute the search to get a list of target systems.
(Optional but recommended) To get an optimised route from this list, you can use the button "Create a tourist route from this search" - the new page will ask you to enter the origin (current) system and your jump range, and will return an ordered list of target systems for your journey.
(Optional) To directly locate the interesting body in your target systems, you can either use the original system list as a reference, or use a third-party exploration tool (like Elite Observatory with its BioInsights plugin, or your preferred tool among the many available).
