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Okey. I admit, various mistakes I made are present in the following story.

So, I found a crashed spaceship on the moon of Slipchant-8 Hainay, named Ouchimano. She is a hell of beauty, and I fell in love at the first glance. Her pulse engine is seriously damaged: nothing but 20 zinc could save her. I don't have any, hadn't ever since I landed on this moon. Love is blind, however, and I took the challenge of finding it - I thought there must be some trading post nearby where I can obtain. I couldn't have been more wrong. (I took this a bit as a role-playing and a challenge, and I ignored I could go back to my previous ship. Mistake...)

On my journey searching for the desired material, I made a huge mistake. I called Ouchimano to an outpost. I still can't believe she made it there, with all her deep wounds, but there she was; and while I was glad to see her, I had to realize I have lost my only indicator to my previous ship's location. My ex is gone forever. There is no way back now, Ouchimano's and my fate is connected irreversibly. I shall leave the moon with her, or I shall never leave.

The moon we are on now is dead. No flora or fauna present, only some carbon-yielding mushrooms can stay alive here. Sentinels presence is minimal. I have spent the past two days (like 12 hours of pure playing time) walking on that no-man's land, barely finding any trading point, not to mention any zinc. I wish she could help me in my journey, and so does she, but she is forced to ground until I succeed in the hunting. Sometimes the scaring thought that I will never again leave this moon flashes in my head.

I need your advice. I had enough pain of walking without a path. What would be the fastest way to find that 20 zinc without a ship on this barren land?

V2Blast
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Neinstein
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    Step 1: Start a blog.

    Step 2: Outline this there.

    Step 3: Begin your personal odyssey to find it.

    Step 4: Publish your science fiction novel.

    I mean, this doesn't help with your issue, but I personally would Patreonise you

     – deworde Aug 22 '16 at 13:50
  • Do you actually need the pulse engine to take off? Or could you just repair your launch thrusters and take off? Then slowly head towards the planet of the moon you are on. And try and look for zinc there. – Lyrion Aug 22 '16 at 14:24
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    @Lyrion Yes, you need the pulse engine to take off. I know this because I'm working my way up to a 48 slot ship by finding and fixing crashed ships (which is a cost effective but very tedious process, FYI), and the only way I can get them to move is by fixing both the launch thruster and the pulse engine. – Mage Xy Aug 22 '16 at 14:59
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    Have you tried using your Exosuit's scanner to detect oxide signatures? – Dan Henderson Aug 22 '16 at 19:18
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    @MageXy How is fixing ships a way to earn money? I thought only finding and looting them yields useful stuff... – atripes Aug 23 '16 at 11:25
  • I concur. I would read this post again. I am excited about the prospect of a novel you write about your adventures :) – Jeff.Clark Aug 23 '16 at 18:18
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    @AlexAffe MageXY said it was "cost effective" not a way to earn money. It's cheaper in monetary terms to salvage a bigger ship than to purchase the equivalent from a trader as you often need a few (supposedly available) resources. That said you need to be prepared to spend time hunting for the shops and gathering the resources, so it's not as efficient as just buying them. – Zhaph - Ben Duguid Aug 25 '16 at 07:55

3 Answers3

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Three ideas come to my mind:

  1. If you found a location with a landing pad that is not occupied by your precious Ouchimano, you could wait there for other traders to arrive and check their inventory. Occasionally space ships will land and if you're lucky one will have your Zinc.

  2. If your Ouchimano has any additional tech installed (I never found a ship without tech installed) you can dismantle it (R3 on PS4) to get back some of the resources that were required to craft it. When inspecting the tech it should show you which resources you will get.

  3. If you could manage to find your old ship - or any other crashed ship - you could dismantle the tech from there. Of course, this sounds hard without a ship to search with, in the first place. You should start by looking for a beacon. They are easy to spot since they emit that red light beam which can be seen from long distance. Use the beacon to search for transmissions. The results vary and you will find different transmissions. Repeat the search until you find a Transmission Tower. At the Transmission Tower use the interface inside and solve the puzzle. It will show you a close by crash site. There even is a chance it will show you the crash site you have already been to. Your old ship should still be sitting there.

I just had a closer look on my latest found crash site. 4 installed components here gave 25 Zinc each:

  • Photonix Core
  • Pulse Jet Sigma
  • Cannon Damage Tau
  • Cannon Damage Theta

For a Reflect Enhancement Theta I even got 150 Zinc.

So there should be a high chance you get the required Zinc right from the Ouchimano itself.

Good luck!

udondan
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    expanding on point 2: if i'm not mistaken some environmental protection modules in the exosuite contain zinc. those could be "harvested" as well. – garglblarg Aug 22 '16 at 12:29
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    For point 3: "close by" is a bit relative, here... I've gotten markers for crashed ships that are 6 hours away on foot before. It's still barely a quarter of the planet's circumference away, but it's definitely more than a hop, skip, and a jump. – Mage Xy Aug 22 '16 at 13:26
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    That's why i wrote it italic. Without a space ship pretty much nothing is close by. :) – udondan Aug 22 '16 at 13:32
  • @MageXy But OP is on a moon tho, and moons are fairly small (or atleast the ones I come across) – Lyrion Aug 22 '16 at 15:04
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    Thank you for the suggestions. Ouchimano, though would give me everything he has, even she can't give me all I need; and, though it hurts me more than anything, I can't give her enough of myself. Our journey took us far away from my old partner: our road is one-way. Finding an Outpost, or another dying ship who would sacrifise herself, these seems to be our only chances. No matter how long it will take, our journey must continue. – Neinstein Aug 22 '16 at 16:17
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    @garglblarg That's actually a really good survival tip if you are looking for ships: if you aren't carrying around zinc in your cargo hold, make sure at least one suit upgrade can be recycled for it. – nailbones Aug 23 '16 at 17:26
  • crashed ships are a great resource for those pesky purple exotics as well. You don't actually need the towers BTW, on my first planet I found 2 ships on foot. – Yorik Aug 25 '16 at 20:42
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I literally had the exact same issue (apart from the ship name :P). Find a signal scanner and search for a beacon (select the transmission option). From the wiki:

A Beacon will always detect an alien lifeform at an Outpost.

And this is exactly what you want! Alien lifeforms are always at an outpost where you can trade. That is where you find your precious zinc.

Signal scanners are probably the most common building you can find on any planet or moon. Within 5 minutes of running, jumping and climbing you should have found at least one. You can also change the render distance to make sure you see them from a longer distance.

It takes time to do this, but after I had this issue I felt as if the role play in the game came to life. It was one of the best moments I ever had playing the game.

Good luck. Let me know how it goes!

Edit:

By the way. Once you're at the location the beacon directs you to there is always a landing station for a ship. You can call your ship using the computer at the edge of the platform.

Yates
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    Many thanks for providing me your way. Two path did I follow, your's and Udonan's; they lead me together. Beacon showed way to an Outpost; but had Udoan not warn me about the arriving ships, could I have not buy enough of the material. Ouchimano now flies again - and nothing could have make me more glad than the moment she first did after so much time. Our journey begins now - and forever will it last. – Neinstein Aug 23 '16 at 14:34
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Just use your exosuit's scanner and look for the yellow Oxide icon. Even a "dead" planet or moon still has a lot of rocks, and a smattering of those flowers that look the same on every planet, but have different names. The yellow flower has Zinc (there's also a blue one with Platinum, a red one with Thamium9, and ones that refill your health, shield, or hazard protection). Most of the rocky things in caverns give an oxide, too, but that's usually Iron.

Dan Henderson
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    From what the OP describes his moon has no zinc "flowers." I encountered the same problem. Only iron, carbon, plutonium could be found. The OP said he has been wandering around for hours, if he hasn't found any zinc by now there is none available as harvestable resource at all. By the way, rocks never provide zinc. – Yates Aug 22 '16 at 16:12
  • @ThomasYates I'll accept that with 18 quintillion planets, I can't say it's impossible for a planet to not have those flowers, without a quote from Hello Games or someone analyzing the engine, but I can tell you that I've been to planets/moons with biomes of "Glacial" (Flora: "None"), "Lifeless" (Flora: "Absent"), and "Scorched" (Flora: "Not present"), and all of those still contained those 6 standard plants (well, sometimes 5 on a "Lifeless" planet where there are no environmental hazards). They are a lot harder to find, sometimes only in caves... – Dan Henderson Aug 22 '16 at 19:14
  • ...but you can still find them with your scanner, which OP may not have thought to attempt. – Dan Henderson Aug 22 '16 at 19:14
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    @DanHenderson I agree with you. Zinc is a required material to fix the pulse engine, which is required to pilot your ship. I'm fairly certain that the zinc flowers appear on every planet/moon, regardless of climate, on the off chance that a brand new player spawns in that location. Forcing a new player to somehow infer they need to find a specific building in order to have a chance at progressing is way too convoluted. The flowers might be very rare, but I'm certain they exist. – Mage Xy Aug 22 '16 at 19:37
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    @DanHenderson I play on PC, and I've had the same situation as the OP. I travelled for hours upon hours scanning every time the cooldown ended. I can guarentee 100% that there are planets that do not contain all of the basic resources. This was 3-4 days ago. The planet I was on was red, no grass, tree's or whatnot, it was toxic yet never had a storm, only had iron and carbon INSIDE caves and plutonium could only be found rarely. There were no other resources. – Yates Aug 22 '16 at 19:40
  • I am currently going for the Extreme Survival trophy on a barren planet with no zinc, platinum or thamium9 plants in evidence. I've been running around it for literally hours and seen none. Fortunately, my ship is in working order though I'd like some thamium9 for an upgrade, but can't leave until I spend another three hours. Such planets exist. – Gort the Robot Aug 22 '16 at 19:54
  • @StevenBurnap I don't think those hours have to be consecutive. I had 0.8 Sols towards the first tier of that achievement and completed it later on another planet, where I actually reached 2.5 Sols; later I got the tier for surviving through 3 Sols after a short enough time on that planet that it could only have occurred due to adding to my previous total. So I'm pretty sure you can leave for some Thamium9 and come back later if you want to. – Dan Henderson Aug 22 '16 at 20:03
  • No, they have to be consecutive. You can move around in your ship, but if you enter orbit, it resets. I've tested this. I've been avoiding using the ship at all because of the bug that launches you in orbit without your intent. I heard that before the day one patch it acted as you say. – Gort the Robot Aug 22 '16 at 20:19
  • @StevenBurnap are you on the PC version or PS4? – Dan Henderson Aug 22 '16 at 22:40
  • PS4. I guess I assumed they were the same. – Gort the Robot Aug 22 '16 at 23:00
  • @StevenBurnap hmm, that's strange, I'm likewise on the PS4 version, and I assure you, my Extreme Survival time is most definitely cumulative over all the planets and star systems I've visited. – Dan Henderson Aug 22 '16 at 23:03
  • Strange. When I first started looking at this, I was at .9 sols from some prior planet. I sat on the planet for maybe 15 minutes and it didn't budget, then started going up after ~20. I got it up to 1.9, took off, sold some stuff at a starbase, landed again and it was more than 30 minutes before it budged at all again. – Gort the Robot Aug 22 '16 at 23:07
  • @StevenBurnap it only increases while you're outside during a storm. If you're sheltered ("xyz protection: replenishing"), or if it's not currently storming ("extreme storm warning"), it won't increase. Also, I've never heard of this orbit bug you mentioned. – Dan Henderson Aug 22 '16 at 23:31
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    Note for the original subject of the dispute :) during my journey I used my scanner many times, I descended deep into caves, almost got lost in one of them, and still, never had I find any zinc. Time convinced me: I will never see it again in it's natural presence until I leave Slipchant-8 Hainay. – Neinstein Aug 22 '16 at 23:33
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    @Neinstein I think I've also gotten it from killing a predatory creature, though that will probably be no easier to accomplish in your case. – Dan Henderson Aug 22 '16 at 23:36
  • It definitely does increase indoors. I am currently indoors with a timer on my phone set for 30 minutes. I literally just saw it increased while indoors 30 seconds ago. – Gort the Robot Aug 23 '16 at 02:13
  • @DanHenderson off topic, but I've had my ship launch straight into orbit a couple of times. I assumed it was a button combo I was pressing accidentally, but it could be a bug. – Kat Aug 23 '16 at 04:34