Jack's tips #11: Space Debris
Space Debris is what's left of shattered cargo ships. Usually the ship is ripped open and broken into multiple pieces. The reason you would care about Space Debris is simple: each one contains one Nova in an elemental cache (Heat Cache, Cold Cache, or Gravity Cache). Popping the cache open is probably the easiest way there is to get a Nova. It seems there are somewhere over a hundred Space Debris locations within the Atlas system.
First you have to find the Space Debris. It doesn't show on your starmap, not even when you've found one. You find one by scanning around in space, looking for a blinking white beacon. That beacon indicates that there is Space Debris nearby that still has an intact elemental cache. As soon as you open the cache, that beacon will go dark. Of course, brighter beacons indicate closer debris. Unsurprisingly, much of the Space Debris is found in the vicinity of asteroid belts, although some can be found in empty space. The asteroids can sometimes block your ability to see the beacons, so you might need to move around a little bit while scanning for them.
When you're between 15 and 50 clicks from Space Debris, it'll show on your HUD as a white square with a question mark in it, with a distance reading, and (if off-screen) a directional arrow showing you which way you need to turn to see it. If you don't have the beacon visible in your HUD, that'll probably be your first indication of nearby Space Debris. That often happens when you're caught by an Outlaw Hyperspace Trap. Also, sometimes Razor (or someone) will break in to say that they're reading wreckage in your vicinity.
As you approach the Space Debris, do not fixate on the beacon. The beacon is just to grab your attention. As soon as you see the white square with the question mark, start aiming for that instead because that's the actual debris. Once you get within 15 clicks, that square goes away, and you get the usual triangular "wreckage" icon on your minimap.
By this point, it's not unusual to have attracted Outlaw attention, so you end up spending a short time sending them back home. Then when you return your attention to the debris field, you probably don't remember which part of the wreck had been marked by the white square.
To get pointed correctly at the wreckage, turn left or right until the wreckage icon is straight ahead of you on the minimap. Then point up and down until the icon is as far ahead of you as possible. When you've done that, you're pointed at the main wreckage piece.
Most of the time, the elemental cache will be found in or on that main wreckage piece. The glowing red, blue, or purple of the elemental cache is usually pretty easy to spot if you're looking at things from a good angle.
Sometimes, though, the elemental cache has come detached from that piece and is elsewhere in the debris field. It's up to you how much time you want to spent looking for it, before giving up and looking for another Space Debris.
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