“One of the randomly generated points of interest, the abandoned research tower, usually has a computer at the top where you can download the planetary survey data for the planet your [sic] on,” they wrote. “Just a tip!”
So what’s even the point of scanning things?
Why do it in the first place?
The same as anything else in a Bethesda game, busywork.
Shut up and collect your trinkets
You still need to scan individual plants resources or animals to get the Surveying perk upgrades, which gives you better zoom on the scanner, which can be useful sometimes.
You do it if you want to, it’s a game :)
You can make decent money off it, but first and foremost it should be something you enjoy. Personally I think that’s a very chill way of breaking the monotony, after having spent too much time flying around or walking through cities to complete quests. Exploring planets has got the nice plus of not having to deal with loading screens, unless you want to get back to your ship and move to a different biome.
It’s a decent way to make money, but not really worth the effort of hunting down all the different flora and fauna. One time I had a planet where I had to land near the ocean and scan fish, that one was a total nightmare.
It’s a game with exploration elements, so the idea is that an areas you’ve visited may only have estimates of what resources are available. In some cases you could be the first person exploring it or noting its qualities.
The in game reason is the survey data you get is asked of you by one of the constellation members, as their space base “The Eye” has scanned all it can. We use the scan data for finding more artifacts (though I’m assuming it doesn’t outright give more missions). You can get the survey data before this activity and sell it for about half, which is why I assume it doesn’t really affect much.
There are also missions that ask for experienced surveyors to look for hospitable planets for their colony.
You can sell the scan data to certain merchants, price seems to depend on the amount of stuff on the planet.
Damn, bethesda ubisofted starfield
My personal tip to ‘transform your planet surveys’ is to use a USB dance pad. It leaves your hands free to use a laptop, drink tea, play on a Switch/Deck, etc - so you can do something interesting during.
