Has anyone completed this mission? I'm only asking because I've only ever gotten one (1) Terraforming Device artifact. Those things are rarer than terra planets!

yep, much rarer, as i have about 15 terra planets and i have got 3 terraformers..

There's gotta be a trick to this or something.

GP or a lot of time killing NPC's

Well, I'm gonna sit on the one that I have, just in case. Which sucks because I'm dying to use it on my best planet! UGH!

Eliminate the temptation and use it on the mission.

Yes, GP or churning tons of NPCs are the only way to get them now. I completed the mission about 2 months ago (churning BTW) and have managed to get 3 more since plus a quasi. I think your best strategy after completing the mission is to use them on Artifact planets. There's Purifiers to boost mining on toxics and data optimizers to boost research on any type of planet, but there's nothing to boost specifically Artifact unless you race change to Tatherian (from a higher ranked mission chain)

your suppose to use it on your crappest planet... regardless whether the planet is a 28x megarich dyson or a very tiny extremely sparse barren planet , itll still become a 14x collosal exotic

13x Massive, not 14x Colossal

Also, wait for the "Tracking the Contacts" mission during the Stryll/Genetarr mission chain, where the reward spawns rare NPCs. I have gotten 2 terraformers out of them.

I got 7 of 10, Non-Player Kills 4225. But I also have 3 QSE, my accepted rate is about 1 in 400 NPC = T.O. Carrier. You will find the terraformer more than the QSE, some ppl have reported having ALL terraformers, but it's just luck. Grind enough NPC, you will get these planets. By the time I get it, it will be a "modest" boost to my artifacts (like less than 10%). Patience is required.

85 npc kills, 1 troop carrier, dropped quasi

Sage-like advice from all of you. Thank you very much. I'll get on that right away.

Took me right at 5000 npcs to get my 10... and yes 13x mega.. it's very nice

tho.. I have since threw 2 more TD's on it... so it is now 15xMega.

Nice Myth... Though I've chosen to not tempt thieves quite so much. My extras have been going on an artifact planet, I now have a 12x Gaia

I finished it

Non-Player Kills 5532
10 Terraformer and 3 QSE.

oh.. i havent done the contacts yet. that might yield a couple terra for my new exotic to get 13 to 15x , and maybe a qse if lucky.

so I looked through planet list for a good named random planet, i didnt want to pay to rename it, and I found this tiny barren planet called Godbrink. Epic.

Mining 13x Mega Rich 200 units/hr
Artifact 13x Mega Rich 337.5 units/hr
Research 13x Mega Rich 387.5 units/hr

Used like 10 extractors to get everything on it, crimson base, omnibase, etc. Awesome.

thats about right. im at 3430 NPC kills and i only have gotten 5 terraformers and 1 qse. but one of the terraformers was from tracking the contacts, so im not sure i should count that.

Im above 10.2k npc kills ive got around 60 terraformers, around 30 QSE's.

I'm observing TO Carrier about 1 in 400 chance, I think it's been altered significantly to appear less since you got all those.

30 QSE's? I've killed 35,000 and only gotten 4 of those. Plenty of terraformers though. Did you mean 3? I've had bad luck with fluxes too. probably less than 10% of the time from dark arms carriers.