What Are the Blue Circles on Planets in Elite Dangerous

After landing on a few planets and bases you may start to wonder what else there is to do in Horizons. You may of heard the phrase point-of-interest and material collecting but have no idea what these mean. Well in this guide I will explain how you find POI's (Point Of Interests) and materials.

Finding POI's

POI's are randomly generated events that can include things such as secret bases, crashed ships, cargo containers etc. To start looking for POI's you need to be around 2k-3km from the planet surface (in your ship). If you are lower than 2km, your ship wont be able detect POI's (not sure why). The next thing you will need to do is to adjust your sensor range; adjusting your sensor range will make a huge difference to finding those POI's. This can be done in the controls menu, under the miscellaneous section (by binding two keys to increase and lower sensor range).

So now we need to increase our sensor range to maximum, this will make it easier to find POI's. In the radar our ship (the triangle) should look extremely small (bottom, center). With that done its time to look for a POI. So we need to travel along the surface looking for a blue circle (staying above 2km), like so;

Once we have found one, I would suggest to moving into the center of the POI. You might find that lower your sensor range helps (when you get near). When you are in the middle of the POI circle, land on the planet as normal. You will find the blue circle will disappear when you are lower than 2km from the surface. So dont worry you be still in the POI area, just that its not marked. So once you have landed on the surface, we need to switch to the SRV (help here if required).

The wave scanner

The wave scanner is a very important system for finding both materials and POI's on planets. You probably seen it and not paid much attention to it. The wave scanner is just above the radar/surface scanner in our SRV as follows;

So what does this all mean? Well lets look at the scan cycle. Every couple of seconds, the scanner makes a pass across (think of it like a radar system). In each pass any objects detected will create noise on the scanner. Different objects will create different noise, and will be shown on our scanner. Bare in mind that it only scans in the forward direction, and not behind us. To scan in another direction we will need to physically move the SRV in that direction. In the above example you can see the signature of my ship on the wave scanner. POI's generally create a double-line noise whilst materials tend to create a blimp. Its kind-of hard to explain and something you will get used to in time.

I would suggest you dismiss you ship, so you dont unintentionally see it on your wave scanner thinking its a POI or material.

Finding materials/cargo

Searching for materials works pretty much the same as searching for POI's, but we do not need to locate a blue circle. We can simply land on a surface, dismiss the ship and use our wave scanner to search for them. You may find POI's when searching for materials, as you travel across the surface. Cargo containers and materials will both be displayed on your radar (under the wave-scanner) as a white marker (when close enough);

So turn to face the white marker and select it. If you have found a material you will need to shoot it so you can harvest it. This will cause the rock to break into smaller pieces that you can scoop up. If you however found some cargo, then do not shoot it.

So now we must lower our cargo scoop to be able to pick-up the item(s). You will find this option on our right most menu, then under the functions tab;

Once lowered, simply drive over the item to pick it up. Bare in mind you can carry up-to 300 materials, and items of cargo in the default SRV. After-which you will need to transfer cargo to your ship. Remember to retract your cargo scoop when finished, as you may find that you get more damage than normal.

Transferring cargo to your ship

If you were lucky enough to find some cargo containers, you will need to transfer them to your ship. To do this call down your ship (if not already on the surface). Now once landed, head towards the vehicle entry point on your ship. Once under it instead of clicking board ship, click transfer;

On this page we can transfer cargo between our ship and SRV. To do so, move the selected items to either the left or right (depending if you want to transfer to the ship or SRV), then click transfer (make sure you click transfer otherwise the cargo wont be moved). At this point you can decide to carry on in your SRV, return back to your ship.

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Source: https://roguey.co.uk/elite-dangerous/help/finding-materials-poi/

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