This may have been answered (but I did look for it)....

I'm new and I've been reading a lot in here and want to first-off thank everyone for all the tips for newbies.

I'm rank 4 now and I'm searching for a second planet to colonize and I've noticed that the % goes down for successfully finding a planet after I find one. How do I increase this so I can keep searching? I need/want one that will be good for research but so far I have found nothing to extremely sparse. Will the % naturally rise over time so I can keep searching?

And while I've got your attention....

One thing that I haven't quite understood yet is claiming mineral shipments. My cargo is at 65 currently. If I let the mineral number rise above that from my beginning planet, will I lose the excess? Or do I just receive what my cargo can hold and the rest stays on the planet?

In order to increase your scan %, you will need to build additional scanners. You will find these under the 'Devices' slider on your ship.

When you receive a shipment, it will only debit the amount you can store in cargo.

Good luck!

Buying & installing scanners on your ship will increase the percentage. The common practice is to get as much scanning power as possible, scan til it drops to 15% success, then sell your scanners til you research a couple more tech levels.


Minerals aren't in your cargo until you receive the shipments. The mineral bar on the trade window that determines your total capacity. Cargo is just how much you can work with at 1 time. Also, any uninstalled ship modules take up cargo space.

Thank you guys for your quick responses! So I'm at 48% with 3 Mark II's equipped....what should I do from here? Build more to max capacity and scan it down to 15% or just keep scanning from here?

depends on you really. Do you REALLY need a new planet now? sure scan away down to bout 15-20%.

I need a new planet for researching really....I don't have one yet. Thanks for the advice!

If it were me, I would scan as much as possible, and use any artifact that will add to your percentage. You could do it over time but you wouldn't gain anything by doing it that way. This game tends to reward an all-at-once approach, which frees up your deck & cargo space once you can no longer scan reliably.

Anyone know the %s for scanning? My last attempt was the +40 beacon, 3@100 and the AI thing, plus 10% scan bonus. I was down to 9% chance of finding planets (started at 11%, found 3 planets in 280 or so energ). i have found 71 planets thus far. Really, with the cost of the new scanners I've researched, I'm afraid to buy them to find that I still have craptastic results. If I install 3 of the level 2 ones, it'll cost well over 1 mil resources. (lots, I'm POOR!). So, I'd like to know I have a reasonable chance.

Nobody's done the math yet as far as I know for a scan % chart, but I'd love to see something like that!

11% is much too low to start scanning, in my opinion. You should get your chance up to at least 50% with scanners alone, and then add any artifacts you can. If you install your best scanners and still have a crappy chance, cut your losses and try again later.

See, if I spend over 1 mil in res.. I'll probably do what I can to spend all energy I can muster on scanning. Once or twice, when I had too much energy and too close to a level, I've bought scanning stuff and scanned at 5% chance. Since the energy would be wasted anyhow.. But, now that the costs are insane (to me, since most of my planets haven't been that great), I feel the need to scan even at lower percents.

1 million is not an insane amount. If you get a kurenite in mining, that would cover your costs. IF it is insane for your current credits, perhaps you should increase your mining. Sensors are not cheap, yet not ridiculously expensive. Scanning @ 11% wastes too much energy

See, I WANT to increase my mining.. I guess I have some OK mining planets, but really, I just want some overall better planets.. Most of the 60some I've found are pretty mediocre in capabilities or size.. So, I need more.. so, I need to scan for more planets..

I was lucky enough to get a kurenite at rank 18.

as you get higher in ranks you will get higher chances of getting better minerals, i.e. i just got 3 kurenite from a 1231 shipment, so around a .0025% chance of kurenite at around rank 115