Collector Limpet Controller
One or two, 3A or 5A. A second controller roughly doubles scoop speed.
Guides // Gathering
Manufactured Materials
High-Grade Emission signals — one relog loop caps a G5 in minutes.
High-Grade Emissions (High-Grade Emissions: A short-lived supercruise signal packed with one Grade-5 manufactured material.) are short-lived supercruise signals. Drop in and it is empty except for floating canisters of one Grade-5 manufactured material. Which G5 depends on the controlling faction's allegiance and state.
The mid-2024 engineering rework made the yields huge. Each canister is 3 units, and one signal often fills that G5 from zero to the cap of 100 in a single visit. Anything written before mid-2024 understates how fast this is now.
- Method
- Relog the same signal
- Time to cap
- < 15 min
- Yield
- One signal caps a G5
- Human G5s
- 10 total
Signals are empty and non-hostile. Any ship that launches collector limpets (A single-use drone that collects, prospects, repairs, or researches. Weighs a tonne and rides in the hold.) works; a long-range explorer is the natural pick for hopping systems.
Cargo racks — for limpets only
Something like 4E + 2E (~20 t). Limpets are 1 t each and buy for pennies at any market. Loot never touches the hold.
Keep the FSD, strip the rest
Jump range matters. Weapons, SRV (Surface Recon Vehicle: The wheeled buggy you drive on planet surfaces. Needs a Planetary Vehicle Hangar.), and AFMU (Auto Field-Maintenance Unit: Repairs modules in the field from its own ammunition pool. Cannot repair the hull or itself.) come off. Shields optional, no refinery.
Clear your target before you launch them. Clear your target first. With nothing locked, the batch free-roams until the instance is empty. With a canister targeted, each limpet (A single-use drone that collects, prospects, repairs, or researches. Weighs a tonne and rides in the hold.) grabs that one item and dies.
Find one good signal, drain it, then spawn the same instance again. With current yields you often cap without a second drop.
First visit — once
Filter the Nav panel
Jump into the target system. Left panel, Signal Sources only.
Pick a High Grade Emission
Check the timer — 25+ minutes is ideal. Drop in and confirm on the contacts panel that the canisters are the G5 you came for.
The loop — repeat until capped
Deploy limpets
No target, cargo scoop out. Launch the batch and wait for “no valid collection targets”.
Relog
Quit to the main menu and log back in, into the same mode. That rebuilds the instance and refills the signal. Solo is fastest.
Re-drop the same HGE
Throttle to zero — the signal is behind you. Turn around, cruise back in, scoop again until the bin caps.
Then trade the rest. Once the easy G5 is capped, fly to a Manufactured trader and convert the surplus into the rows you still need.
Contents are gated by faction allegiance plus state. High-population systems spawn signals far more often — favour them every time.
| Material | Allegiance | State | Source | Find live |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imperial Shielding | Empire | Any (None / Election / Boom) | HGE — abundant | EDGalaxy · Inara |
| Core Dynamics Composites | Federation | Any (None) | HGE — abundant | EDGalaxy · Inara |
| Proto Heat Radiators | Independent / Alliance | Boom | HGE | EDGalaxy · Inara |
| Proto Radiolic Alloys | Independent / Alliance | Boom | HGE — with Heat Radiators | EDGalaxy · Inara |
| Military Grade Alloys | Any | War / Civil War | HGE | EDGalaxy · Inara |
| Improvised Components | Independent / Alliance | Civil Unrest | HGE — or trade | EDGalaxy · Inara |
| Pharmaceutical Isolators | Independent / Alliance | Outbreak | HGE — or trade | EDGalaxy · Inara |
| Military Supercapacitors | Any | War / Civil War | Rare — trade | EDGalaxy · Inara |
| Biotech Conductors | — | — | No HGE · missions | — |
| Exquisite Focus Crystals | — | — | No HGE · missions | — |
EDGalaxy opens the live HGE finder for that material. Inara opens a nearest-systems search set to the allegiance and state, centred on LTT 16522 — change the "from" system to wherever you are.
Manufactured is the widest inventory — ten chains, each climbing G1 to G5. HGEs (High-Grade Emissions: A short-lived supercruise signal packed with one Grade-5 manufactured material.) cap the G5 end; a Manufactured trader fills every row underneath. Cap the easy signals, then convert the surplus down.
Gather the top. One signal usually fills a whole G5 since the 2024 rework. Never trade six G4s up to a G5 if you can scoop an HGE instead. Trade the surplus down for G1–G4.
Gather the easy ones, trade for the rest
Gather these
Imperial Shielding (Empire — the main trade fodder), Core Dynamics Composites (Federation), Proto Heat Radiators and Proto Radiolic Alloys (Independent / Alliance in Boom), Military Grade Alloys (any system in War or Civil War).
Usually trade for these
Improvised Components (Civil Unrest), Pharmaceutical Isolators (Outbreak), and Military Supercapacitors (scarce even in War). The states are rare enough that converting surplus is often faster.
Never in an HGE
Biotech Conductors and Exquisite Focus Crystals never spawn in one. Cross-trade from abundant HGE (High-Grade Emissions: A short-lived supercruise signal packed with one Grade-5 manufactured material.) loot, or take them as mission rewards — Robigo passenger runs and wing (A group of up to four commanders flying together and sharing mission credit.) mining or massacre missions all offer them.