Long-range mineral scanner

The long-range mineral scanner can detect mineral deposits in the nearby areas outside your colony when manned by a researcher. It can be tuned to find different minerals, such that it will only find deposits of a certain kind.

Acquisition

Long-range mineral scanners can be constructed once the Long-range mineral scanner research project has been completed. They require 200 Steel, 6 Components, 2 Advanced components, 10,000 ticks (2.78 mins) of work, and a Construction skill of 8.

Summary

Long-range mineral scanners consume 700 W of power and do not function under a roof. Scanning falls under Intellectual work. When operated, there is a mean of 240,000 ticks (4 in-game days) of work to find a deposit of ores. Finding a deposit is guaranteed after 480,000 ticks (8 in-game days) of work. These values are then modified by the Research Speed of the users in question. Unlike the ground-penetrating scanner, the long-range scanner is tuned to a desired mineral.

When the long-range scanner completes a scan, it will trigger its respective quest on a random nearby world tile. If the tile is not entered within 30 days, then it will expire.The target area can either be unguarded, surrounded by a small manhunter pack, or have an enemy waiting to ambush you. Manhunters or an enemy may approach your colonists from the edge of the map when one of your colonists gets near the mineral lump, given that there wasn't anything else waiting at the lump.

Once the area has been cleared of hostiles, you have 10 days to mine everything before another group of hostiles arrives.

Resources

Every ore in the game can be discovered with the scanner. This includes components, which cannot be found with a ground-penetrating scanner. The expected yield and mass from a lump can be found in the table below; this is useful for knowing how many pack animals to send to various discovered lumps.

Resource	No. of Tiles	Total Yield	Total Mass (kg)	Market Value
Steel	55 - 60	2200 - 2400	1100 - 1200	4180 - 4560
Plasteel	10 - 15	400 - 600	100 - 150	3600 - 5400
Components	50 - 70	100 - 140	60 - 84	3200 - 4480
Silver	60 - 80	2400 - 3200	16.8 - 22.4	2400 - 3200
Gold	8 - 12	320 - 480	2.5 - 3.8	3200 - 4800
Uranium	15 - 20	600 - 800	600 - 800	3600 - 4800
Jade	20 - 25	700 - 875	350 - 438	3500 - 4375

Analysis

Researching the long-range mineral scanner is eventually required for the ship, as it is a prerequiste to Starflight Sensors. The long-range scanner can help find the minerals required to build the ship, or materials for the rest of your endeavors. They can find an indefinte amount of ore - your world will never run out of deposits to find.

In order to use a long-range scanner, you will need to account for the following:

Weight. Pack animals are often required to bring all the stuff back.
Travel time for the round trip. You can bring a caravan or use transport pods. Caravans can take multiple days to get to location. Transport pods cost 60 Steel, 1 Component per pod, and variable chemfuel to get to location. On the return trip, you'll need to make a pod launcher, which costs 50 Steel, 1 Component. Because metal is usually so heavy, you'll need multiple transport pods to bring all the stuff back.
The enemies around the scanner. You will need enough firepower to eliminate potential enemies on the map, which is firepower that is not in your colony when a raid happens to come.
Mood. Lowered expectations helps with mood, but your colonists will still be grumpy when sitting on the floor and eating without a table.

As building the scanner requires an advanced component, make sure to plan ahead. Keep one in a stockpile if you don't have the research for Advanced Fabrication yet.

Comparison to deep drills

The ground-penetrating scanner can find ores deposits in the ground, within your colony. A deep drill is needed to extract ores, but you don't need to travel anywhere, meaning you don't need any of the considers. The Deep Drill + Ground Scanner combination costs the same amount of research as the long-range scanner, though the latter is required to research Starflight Sensors.

Ground-penetrating scanners create much more ore per deposit (9000 vs 2300 average steel, for instance), find ores roughly 60,000 ticks (24 in-game hours) faster than the long-range scanner, and you don't have to travel to it. You don't need to consider weight, travel time, or being away from a colony. And, being in-colony makes it much easier for multiple miners to operate multiple deep drills. However, it finds random ores in random locations. You may find a deposit that's too far away to reasonably drill, and it may take a while to find minerals that you need at the moment. Finally, drilling can trigger the Too Deep: Infestation event.

In general, long-range scanners are better with great scanners, but when you are lacking great miners. The long-range scanner is also superior in almost every situation if you need a specific mineral, right now. Ground-penetrating scanners are better when you have multiple good miners available. While drilling is slow, having multiple drills expiates the process, and each scan brings lots of material. In addition, not leaving the base means that all colonists can help defend against a raid.

Version history

Beta 19 - can now find more than gold and jade, and can be tuned to the desired mineral. Now requries a colonist to operate. Lumps now expire. More than one scanner on the same map is now effective.
1.1 - power cost was increased. The time between finding ore veins is now displayed.
1.3.3200 - Work to make increased from 1000 to 10,000

Architect

Misc: Caravan hitching spot • Egg box • Grave • Marriage spot • Party spot • Pen marker • Sarcophagus • Tool cabinet • Meditation spot • Nature shrine (Large, Small)
(research): Comms console • Cryptosleep casket • Firefoam popper • Ground-penetrating scanner • Long-range mineral scanner • Moisture pump • Multi-analyzer • Orbital trade beacon • Pod launcher • Stele (Large, Grand) • Transport pod • Vitals monitor • Ship landing beacon