Gathering Obelisk Pattern Data

Obelisks at Ancient Ruins

Unlocking Guardian modules and fighters (but not weapons) needs Guardian Obelisk Pattern Data in types Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. The Guardian FSD Booster, if that's the only Guardian tech you want, doesn't need this at all.

At Synuefe NL-N C23-4 planet B3 (the same as the Guardian module site used for the Guardian materials farming guide), there are also three Ancient Ruins sites useful for gathering Pattern Obelisk data. Select Ruin 1 and fly in. The approach is shown at left, and the goal is to spot the triple column of obelisks with raised flat areas to one side. The overview image shows the inset area, and the inset shows the landing zone.

Land your ship as shown at left. There are no Sentinels here and no dangerous flag when logging out, so you do not have to return your SRV to the ship. Land far enough from the obelisks that your SRV turret will deploy when you reach them. Landing facing away from the obelisks makes it easier to deploy the SRV but this is not particularly essential.

Note that the ship is landed on one of the raised "roads", the one closer to the center of the ruin. This helps with orientation below.

Deploy your SRV. If you have landed in the position shown, drive forward and two adjacent obelisks will light up as above: one just to your left, and the one left of that. These are termed "active obelisks" by the game.

Drive so that your SRV is roughly between the two lit obelisks as shown at right. Open your SRV turret, scan each obelisk with your data link scanner, log out to main menu, and do it again. And again. And again.

The obelisks drop five patterns (types) of data: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. The drop rates for the first three are common; the last two are super rare. Naturally, you need the most of the rare ones, and there are no traders for Guardian materials or data. The one redeeming feature of this grind is that you can gather everything you need at once; your data storage will hold enough for every unlockable at once.

You'll need data for the following modules:

  • Guardian Hybrid Power Distributor: Alpha

  • Guardian Hull Reinforcement Module: Beta and Gamma

  • Guardian Shield Reinforcement Module: Delta

  • Guardian Module Reinforcement, Guardian Hybrid Power Plant, and all 3 Ship-Launched Fighters (XG7 Trident, XG8 Javelin, XG9 Lance): Epsilon

To unlock everything, you need the following quantities: 20 Alpha, 34 Beta, 16 Gamma, 24 Delta, and a whopping 114 Epsilon. The last two are the only ones that matter, because they'll take far longer than the rest. Epsilon, particularly, splits 15 for the Module Reinforcement, 21 for the Power Plant, and 26 each for the fighters. You will log and scan and log and scan and log and scan and log and scan for a couple of hours to get this done. Alpha through Gamma types will max out storage with completely unusable stuff long before you get within shouting distance of completion. I've gone as much as 20 to 30 logins (40 to 60 scans) between drops of Epsilon (or Delta) data. But then you'll be done and you'll never need to farm this particular farm again.