4Game

What's up, party people? Welcome to my new and improved guide to unlocking most engineers with minimal effort; now with added engineering information! As with the previous guide, all information you can provide to improve the guide is greatly appreciated, and will be added after proper vetting. Due to Reddit character count restrictions, some things from the previous guide will be omitted, but I'll do my best to get everything. The old guide can be found here. This guide will start with a basic outline of what engineers are, along with how to get engineering materials as quickly as possible. Then, we'll dive into the order.

What are Engineers?

Do you feel like your ship isn't fast enough? Maybe the shields are dropping too quickly, or you're trying to increase your jump range. Whether you're a bounty hunter, explorer, or Sun Praiser, engineers can improve your ship.

Engineers are NPC's based at various planetary bases. They all modify specific modules to improve your ship in various ways, while also giving minor drawbacks. An example of this would be Tod "The Blaster" McQuinn, who can give you a significant damage increase to multi-cannons, at the cost of power draw and ammo capacity.

These engineers don't require any Cr to buy their mods, but instead require engineering materials, in the form of raw, data, and manufacture materials. These materials don't require any cargo capacity to hold, but do have a hard cap on how many you can hold, per material. Once you have every material to buy an upgrade, you have to buy that same upgrade a certain number of times (usually 2-4 times), before you rank up the module. You have to do this at the engineer themself to rank up the engineer, but you can pin a specific upgrade's blueprint, which will allow you to upgrade at any station.

Where do I get materials?

Engineering materials are everywhere, but some places are better than others for finding them. Generally, data is found by scanning ships, wakes, and beacons. Manufactured materials are found from destroyed ships, and certain settlements on planets. Raw materials are found in random outcroppings on planets, and are also earned while mining. However, there are three places that are particularly good for farming a specific material type.

Manufactured Materials: Dav's Hope (Hyades Sector DR-V C2-23, Planet A 5, Coordinates 44.818, -31.389 )

Data: Jameson's Crashed Cobra (HIP 12099, Planet 1 B, Coordinates -54.38, -50.358)

Raw Materials: Crashed Anaconda (Orrere, Planet 2 B, Coordinates 43.8122, -173.9722).

Specific raw materials can also be found at various locations around 1500 LY outside of the bubble. This post does a great job of listing the locations of the G5 raw materials.

I got a bunch of materials, but not what I needed.

There are material traders throughout the bubble that can swap your materials for others of the same category. While you can't search for them in-game, you can search for material traders via https://eddb.io. You can determine the material type that the trader works with by looking at the system economy. Industrial systems trade manufactured materials, extraction systems trade raw materials, and high tech systems trade data.

What do I need to get started?

To make reasonable progress in this guide, you'll need the following:

-A ship with a solid jump range, and 50+ cargo space. The AspX, Anaconda, and Krait Phantom are all good options.

-A combat ship that can get 5-10 NPC kills in one trip.

-10 million Cr to burn

-Free time.

-A significant chunk of engineering materials, acquired at the locations listed above.

During this guide, buy a commodity at every station you land at, and sell it at the next station, up until you unlock Lei Cheung. This will potentially save you hours. Additionally, some engineers require commodities to be donated to unlock. Some fleet carriers offer these commodities near the engineers, but I will not include them in the guide, as they're dependent on player decisions.

For those of you who have used my previous engineering guide, you will notice that a lot of the following has been copied and pasted. Most of the engineers haven't changed, and those that have, have had only minor changes. A big reason why this post is being made is that the old guide is archived, and with the arrival of Odyssey coming up, having a guide that I can edit and have input on will be nice. Additionally, I have not included any Colonia engineers in this guide, as a vast majority of players live in the bubble.

The entire engineer unlock tree is here.

Step One: Felicity Farseer

Time: Short

Best Module: Frame Shift Drives

Requirements:

-Scout Rank (requires 270,000 CR profit from Exploration)

-Donate 1 Meta Alloy

With a Universal Discovery Scanner and at least 1 Cargo Rack, jump down to Maia and honk every system you jump through. In Maia, you can buy 1 Meta Alloy at Darnielle's Progress for 113,355 Cr. If you don't want to spend the money, you can mine Meta Alloys at in the Merope system at Merope 2 A, but you will need a Detailed Surface Scanner and SRV to find and acquire them.

Once you have the Meta Alloy, go to Eurybia, and turn in your Universal Cartographic data to the Eurybia Blue Mafia. This should give you the appropriate funds to reach Scout, while also helping you with Liz Ryder down the road.

Proceed to Deciat, and donate your Meta Alloy to Felicity Farseer at Farseer Inc. Craft mods with Farseer until you receive information on Juri Ishmaak, then head to the Ngurii system.

Note: It is recommended that you improve your Frame Shift Drive with the Long-Range mod as far as possible. This will make the entire guide considerably easier.

Step Two: Elvira Martuuk

Time: Shortest

Best Module: Frame Shift Drives

Requirements:

-Travel 300 LY from your starting Location DONE

-Provide 3 Soontill Relics

Now that you are in Ngurii, go to Cheranovsky City. There, you can buy 3 Soontill Relics for 19,885 Cr per ton (You will need the cargo space). Travel to Long Sight Base in the Khun system, donate the Soontill Relics, and upgrade your modules until you receive information on Zacariah Nemo and Marco Qwent.

Step Three: Marco Qwent

Time: Long

Best Module: Power Plants (Grade 4)

Requirements:

-Gain Access to Sirius System (Invitation from Sirius Corporation)

-Provide 25 Units of Modular Terminals

Grab your best exploration ship, and plan a route 5,000 LY away from your starting system. At the very least, honk every system with your discovery scanner, but some scans with a Detailed Surface Scanner will also help down the line. Once you are at the end of your route, select your starting system to ensure it is more than 5,000 LY away, or check the exploration section of your Codex, then head to the Procyon system. Turn in your data at a station owned by Sirius Corporation until you are invited to the Sirius system and acquire the Sirius permit, then go to 78 Ursae Majoris and turn in the remaining data to a station owned by the Alioth Independents. From here, fit at least 30T of Cargo Capacity, buy a cheap commodity, and take a Data Delivery mission, preferably with Modular Terminals as a reward, but it's not necessary.

Once you land at the end of the Data Delivery mission, sell the commodity and buy a new one. Take a new Data Delivery mission for Modular Terminals (or not), rinse, and repeat, until you have 25 Modular Terminals. This will help you down the road with Lei Cheung, as well as unlocking Qwent. For the sake of Player Minor Factions, always try to take their missions if possible.

Go back to Sirius with your Modular Terminals, complete a mission to unlock Marco Qwent (provided at any station in Sirius), donate your Modular Terminals to Marco Qwent, and rank him up until you receive information on Professor Palin and Lori Jameson.

Step Four: Professor Palin

Time: Short

Best Module: Thrusters

Requirements:

-Have a maximum distance of 5,000 LY from your starting location. DONE

-Provide 25 Sensor Fragments (Previously known as Unknown Fragments)

Head back down to the Maia region with an SRV on hand, and go to the system HIP 17403. at HIP 17403, land at planet HIP 17403 A 4 A at the coordinates -34.98, -141.30. There will be a crashed Thargoid ship with Thargoid Sensors and Sensor Fragments scattered about. Pick up 9 Sensor Fragment drops (They count as materials, so they don't require any cargo capacity). Hop to Arque and turn in your Sensor Fragments, and you've ended the Elvira Martuuk line!

Step Five: The Dweller

Time: Moderate

Best Module: Power Distributors

Requirements:

-Sell to 5 Black Markets.

-Pay him 500,000 Cr.

Head on over to the Arcturus system, and land at Brennan Depot. Buy 5 tonnes of Narcotics, then sell them to the following stations' black markets: Mastracchio Park (Bolg), Frimout Legacy (LHS 3006), Zindell Platform (Ross 1003), and Kuo City and Edwards Ring (Aulin). Only sell 1 at a time. When you're done, head to Wyrd, and land at Black Hide, donate 500,000 Cr to The Dweller, and rank him up until you get information on Lei Cheung.

Step Six: Lei Cheung

Time: Long

Best Module: Shield Generators

Requirements:

-Have traded in over 50 Markets

-Donate 200 tons of Gold

You should be well on your way to having traded at 50 markets by now, if you've been buying and selling commodities as you go. Finish up your trading at various stations around the Laksak system, then land at a station in the Laksak system. From there, buy as much gold as you can fit (All stations in Laksak sell Gold, with Pinto City and Hedin Hub being the least expensive), and donate it to Lei Cheung at Trader's Rest. Rinse and repeat until you have donated 200 Tons, then rank Lei Cheung up until you get the invite from Ram Tah.

Step Seven: Tod "The Blaster" McQuinn

Time: Short

Best Module: Multi-Cannons and Rail Guns

Requirements:

-Earn more than 15 Bounty Vouchers

-Provide 100,000 Cr worth of Bounty Vouchers to Trophy Camp in Wolf 397

This one's pretty straight forward. Kill some wanted NPC's at the Nav Beacon in Wolf 397 until you have 100,000 Cr worth (typically only 1-2 ships), then turn them into Trophy Camp. This assumes you have bounty hunted before, and have claimed 15 vouchers previously. Rank up Tod McQuinn until you get information on Selene Jean.

Step Eight: Selene Jean

Time: Longest

Best Module: Armour and Hull Reinforcement Packages

Requirements:

-Mine and refine at least 500 Tons of ore

-Provide Selene with 10 Units of Painite

This one sucks, unless you're a mining kinda guy. Go back to 78 Ursae Majoris, and get allied with the Alioth Independents, and friendly with the Alliance as a whole. This should be done from the 5000 LY sprint you did earlier. From there, grab your best trading ship, outfit it for mining, then find a pristine metallic ring. Mine there until you've acquired 10 Painite, then move to a pristine icy ring, and mine out the rest of the 500 tons while saving all of the Bromellite possible. Do not leave until you have 50 Tons of Bromellite and 10 Tons of Painite!

Go to Kuk, donate your Painite, and rank up Selene Jean until you get information on Didi Vatermann and Bill Turner.

Step Nine: Bill Turner

Time: Shortest

Best Module: Plasma Accelerators and Sensors

Requirements:

-Gain Friendly Status with the Alliance and Allied Status with the Alioth Independents to get a permit to access Alioth. DONE

-Donate 50 Tons of Bromellite to Bill Turner

Take your 50 Tons of Bromellite to Bill Turner in the Alioth System. That's it. You already did all of the work during Steps 3 and 8.

Step Ten: Didi Vatermann

Time: Moderate

Best Module: Shield Boosters

Requirements:

-Have a trade rank of Merchant or higher

-Provide 50 Units of Lavian Brandy

Due to your conquest of the galaxy's markets for Lei Cheung, you should be relatively close to having the Merchant rank already. If not, run a few cargo missions until you get there, then head to the Lave system.

Once in Lave, go to Lave Station and buy the max capacity of 12 Tons (10,365 Cr each). Take them to Vatermann LLC, donate them, then head back and do it again until you've donated 50 units. You have now completed the Tod "The Blaster" McQuinn line!

Step Eleven: Liz Ryder

Time: Moderate

Best Module: Missile Racks and Torpedo Pylons

Requirements:

-Gain Cordial or Friendly Status with the Eurybia Blue Mafia DONE

-Provide 200 units of Landmines.

You should already be friendly with the Eurybia Blue Mafia from way back in Step One, so all you really need to do is complete the engineer invitation mission and source 200 Tons of Landmines to donate at Demolition Unlimited. Rank Liz Ryder up to grade 3-4, and you should get an invite from Hera Tani.

Step Twelve: Hera Tani

Time: Moderate

Best Module: Power Plants and Detailed Surface Scanners

Requirements:

-Become and Outsider or Higher in the Empire.

-Provide 50 units of Kamitra Cigars

Find a nice Empire system with a station near its star, and grind out a few missions until you get an Imperial Rank Up mission. Complete that mission, head to Kamitra, buy the maximum 14 Tons of Kamitra Cigars (6218 Cr Each), donate them to Hera Tani in The Jet's Hole in the Kuwemaki system, then do it again and again until you've donated all 50 Tons. Rank her up until you receive information on Broo Tarquin and Tiana Fortune.

Step Thirteen: Juri Ishmaak

Time: Moderate

Best Module: Mine Launchers, Detailed Surface Scanners, and Sensors

Requirements:

-Earn More than 50 Combat Bonds

-Provide Juri with 100,000 – 1,000,000 Cr worth of Combat Bonds (it changes).

Juri's pretty straight forward. Find a system in a War or Civil War state on the Galaxy Map, go to a Conflict Zone, and side with a faction in the communications panel. Fight with them until you've destroyed 50 enemy ships (You may need several trips to and from a station to do so), then save up 1,000,000 Cr worth of bonds. Head to the Giryak system and turn in the bonds to unlock Juri. Rank him up until you get the invite from The Sarge and Colonel Bris Dekker.

Step Fourteen: Broo Tarquin

Time: Short

Best Module: Beam, Burst, and Pulse Lasers

Requirements:

-Gain combat rank of Competent or higher DONE

-Donate 50 Units of Fujin Tea.

Dealing with Tod "The Blaster" McQuin and Juri Ishmaak should have you at Competent, or close to it. Finish out the rank at a Resource Extraction Site or Conflict Zone, then head to Fujin Spaceport in the Fujin system. This one takes a while, as Fujin Tea is only sold 5 Tons at a time, but has a low cost of 397 Cr. Make your trips to and from Broo Tarquin at Broo's Legacy in the Muang System until you've delivered all 50 Tons.

This is the end of the guide. Certain useful engineers are omitted from the guide, because they don't chain well with the rest of the guide. The unlocking guides are available in my previous guide, but at this point, you are likely seasoned enough to be able to figure them out for yourself.

Thanks for reading, and again, let me know if there's anything I should add or change.