As the majority if you know, Graphite plates are a rare and valuable resource. But they are a tad hard to find, (unless you are a pirate. CX)
If you have a safe and effective way of making mass amounts of cred, this guide is for you!
First of all, this is not a *cheaper* method of farming, but it does take much less skill and can be done (albeit slowly) by ships of any tier. I have found that farming Mk2 upgrades is a wonderful method of gaining resources. If you can gather about half a million cred, you can gain 2 Graphite plates and 3 Silicon plates per salvage. All you have to do is buy, and upgrade the “Tetroxide injector V” to Mk2 then salvage it! The money is easiest made in PvE or Invasion, with PvE being the safer and easier rout. Residents has made a thread detailing quite a few salvage recipes, but I didn’t realize this until after I posted, so whoopsie. So far, salvaging has been my fav feature. I really hope they don’t “balance” it. >.>
In my opinion, buying and upgrading and then salvaging modules isn’t worth the expense. Yes, it’s easy and not cheap, but so much so that you’re better off just going into T5 and hoping for good loot on wins. At least then you aren’t dropping millions of credits into plates. I did it for a batch when I had several million and it just felt like a waste once I was done considering the time it takes to get 10 million credits for a mere 20 plates.
Fort Muerto has the highest Impure Graphite drop rate I have found. There is an asteroid belt near the Raider Range gate that has Valuable Mineral deposits. Most of the time, if they don’t drop credits, they drop raw graphite. From there, it is a quick jump to Raider Range where you can drop a load off on the Scrapyard Gate Cargo Drone.
Fort Muerto has the highest Impure Graphite drop rate I have found. There is an asteroid belt near the Raider Range gate that has Valuable Mineral deposits. Most of the time, if they don’t drop credits, they drop raw graphite. From there, it is a quick jump to Raider Range where you can drop a load off on the Scrapyard Gate Cargo Drone.
Profit.
Research center in Fed space has those and a drone *in the system*. I used to farm graphite there, but started farming Mk2 salvages instead.
Sanctuary in Jericho space is a great spot for crystal shards and graphite and Osmium. Very high drop rate and density. It can be dangerous though. one minute everything is fine and then the next you have 10 cybers on you with shrapnel cannons. Best to do it with 2 or more ships. Load up and take the gate to ancient ruins and use the drone on the gate to monolith remains. collect a load of minerals there too and search for the mysterious container half way up the column closest to you.
