Guide to Xenoarchaeology

This guide is also on how to be an efficient and realistic Xenoarcheologist. If you don't feel like doing all the paperwork, scanning all the rock samples and things like that, feel free to ignore them and have fun hunting for artifacts. Just remember to stay organized - it is much better to work with a tidy coworker rather than someone who leaves all their stuff on the floor, doesn’t analyze their findings, etc.

## Xenoarcheologist, Anomalist: The Difference

The first thing to know is that a Xenoarcheologist is not an Anomalist. While they tend to work together for obvious reasons, their field of study, method, and RP archetypes are quite different.

A Xenoarcheologist looks for artifacts. Artifacts are those things most people think are useless, like fossils, alien spoons, bowls, those kinds of things. And, from a gameplay point of view, they are; most of them do not have any function except decoration, and the few that do have a function are not very useful. Xenoarcheology is mainly a RP job, where you give meaning to those objects. The job is also quite different from the other jobs within Science department: You do not work in a laboratory, you work outside, digging through rocks in the cold hard environment of the asteroid. You do not study experimental sciences, your specialization is in human sciences. So Xenoarcheologists are a strange breed amongst the Research team, with a very different state of mind.

An Anomalist studies the anomalies Xenoarcheologists bring to them. They are much more of a normal scientist, do not spend much time outside, do experimental sciences, etc. This job is less of a RP one, and much more closer to the rest of the station, with actual gameplay to fiddle with. However, that does not mean you should not try to put some RP in it: How was your anomaly used by the people who made it? How does it relate to the artifacts the Xenoarcheologist found with it? You are not a Xenoarcheologist, but that does not mean you should totally ignore them.

So, know the difference between the two jobs, and act accordingly.

## Preparation for expedition

You begin your shift on Exodus station, in the Research department. While the research outpost is rather well equipped and there is a base camp set up just west from it, this would be the time to bring any extra supplies you might want to bring with you. Ask yourself: what do you think a Xenoarcheologist would use on an excavation trip? Perhaps a packed lunch, knowing there are only Donk pockets at the outpost, or some kind of bag/briefcase to put the precious artifacts in? Be creative!

When ready, go starboard/east of the Research department, board the shuttle and launch.

You arrive at the Research Dock. When you get out, you will see a small Medbay in front of you. South is the Expedition Prep room, which you will use very soon to get out of the Outpost. North is the office, which leads to the rest of the Outpost. North of it are your two labs: the Spectrometry lab to analyze samples and the Sample Preparation room, which is mostly used for making more coolant when you run out. The rest of the building is mainly for the Anomalists, but feel free to explore.

The office contains many items useful for your work, pens and papers to write your reports, notes and theories, a camera to take pictures of your findings, etc.

But what you really need are latex gloves. At the extreme east of the Outpost, just next to the Long Term Storage room, you will see a smaller storage room, with various equipment in it. There is a box of latex gloves in there, take a pair. That way, if you find an anomaly, you will be able to move it without risking its activation and your death in very odd and atrocious sufferings.

You can go back to the Expedition Prep room. On the right, you will see a door, which leads to two conveyor belts. They are useful to get some of your equipment out, namely, the suspension field generator, and the two floodlights.

## Your equipment

Now, it is time to speak about the equipment you will be using, all of which are waiting for you in the Prep room.

### Essential equipment:

* **Excavation Voidsuit and Helmet**: To protect you from the harsh environment, radiation and partially against exotic particles, should you find an activated anomaly.
* **Excavation Gear-Belt**: The belt that will allow you to carry most of your equipment.
* **Measuring Tape**: Tells you how deep you already dug into your site. Useful when you lose track of your excavation.
* **Hand Pickaxe**: The largest excavation pick, does not fit in the Excavation Pick Set. Digs 30cm.
* **Depth Analysis Scanner**: Tells you if the rock wall in front of you contains something, and gives you information about the object if so.
* **Wrench**: Needed to set up the suspension field generator, which is necessary to collect artifacts.
* **Excavation Pick Set**: Absolute necessity. Contains the small picks you need to excavate your artifacts, they all dig a different distance, detailed later in this guide.

### Other useful equipment:

* **Optical Meson Scanner**: Allows you to see through the rocks to locate your precious dig sites faster.
* **Lantern**: Useful light source, though Meson goggles make it obsolete.
* **Locator Device**: Locates Tracking Beacons by tuning to their frequency and showing direction to them on display.
* **Tracking Beacon**: Choose a frequency and carry it with you, so that you can be found in an emergency.
* **Relay Positioning Device**: Tells you your coordinates on the asteroid surface. Not of major importance, but useful if you want to keep track of that.
* **Core Sampler**: Needed to take the rock samples for spectrometry analysis.

**Note:** *Anomaly Suits are not vacuum proof. Excavation suits are the only suits on the Outpost that allow you to go EVA.*

Now, you probably know the rest: An oxygen tank, available in the same room, a breath mask also available there, and the latex gloves you were told to take earlier. You’ll notice we also have a camera, which is generally used to take photos of anomalies, and other rare things like skeletons (a combination of alien fossils) and the like. If you organize your equipment that way, you have enough space in your inventory to carry some equipment of your choice.

## The Base camp

Now that you are ready for the expedition, go out through the airlock and head west to the Base Camp.

The tables and racks are quite self-explanatory, you can put your equipment there. When you organize your workspace, you are ready to head out. Activate your Meson goggles, if you haven't already, they will let you see through solid rocks, making discovering new dig sites much easier. Aside from wandering around aimlessly, there are several ways how to locate dig sites:

* Pick a direction and use your drill to make tunnels through the rock walls until you see some strange rocks
* Follow the open caves, you might get lucky and find some strange rocks in their walls
* Use the Alden-Saraspova counter device. Though this will show you distance to the nearest anomaly, you are sure to find some artifacts nearby that location

Be very careful as you get closer, not all artifacts are visible by naked eye and you might accidentally drill through one of them, destroying it in the process. When you get near the dig site, use your handheld Depth Analysis Scanner on the walls before you drill, if it pings, you're lucky and there is treasure in front of you, waiting to be extracted.

## Excavation

Using your Depth Analysis Scanner, a screen similar to this one will appear.

**Time:** The time at which the scan was made. Only for paperwork purposes.

**Coords:** Coordinates of the dig site. Paperwork purposes too.

**Anomaly depth:** How deep withing the rock wall artifact is.

**Anomaly size:** How big the artifact is.

**Dissonance spread:** 1 means it is an artifact, other numbers indicate an anomaly.

**Anomaly material:** Tells you roughly what your artifact is made of.

### Setting up for extraction

Now that you have this information, bring the Suspension Field Generator to the dig site. You will need two free tiles around the site, so that you can place your generator on one, and stand on the other one.

Affix it to the ground with a wrench, but do not activate it just yet. For now, what we need is a rock sample.

### Taking a rock sample

Now, here is the list of various excavation picks at your disposal:

You will need to dig all the way to the artifact. In the example above, digging exactly 27cm into the rock wall will leave you just a touch away from your treasure, perfect for taking a sample. Use your Core Sampler on the dig site, the image will change, indicating a sample was taken. Using it again in your hand will produce a sample bag with rock sliver inside, which you can analyze in the spectrometry lab later.

**Note:** *You only need one sample per dig site.*

### Lucky - the artifact

Now you can focus on the excavation. Since you have already dug all the way to the artifact, simply activate the Suspension Field Generator to create a field preventing damage to the artifact and use a brush from your Excavation pick set to get rid of the last bit of dust keeping you away from the artifact.

If everything went as it should, you can now disable the field and collect your prize.

But wait - there's more! It is likely there are more artifacts at the same dig site, just scan the rock wall again to get information on the depth of another artifact, if present. Just remember that you have already dug into the rock wall to get the first one, so use the Measuring tape to see how deep you are and make sure not to accidentally dig too far.

When you are done with the excavation, bring your sample and findings back to the Camp or into the Outpost, to be processed further.

### Unlucky - strange rock

If you dig through, the artifact breaks and if you dig right into it, you might get this:

This is a strange rock. While not being a total failure, it's not ideal, either. First, because you need to open it with a welder, which is one unnecessary step in the process. But the most importantly, doing so often breaks the artifact itself, so, try to dig at the exact anomaly depth to avoid these kinds of issues.

## Analysis: Spectrometry

So! You have spent some time digging and excavating, and now, you have around 6 different dig sites, maybe more. That’s good. Hopefully you organized and labeled them all according to a memorable pattern. Now, take all the samples, put them in your crate, and head back to the Outpost, for the Spectrometer analysis.

Here is the Spectrometry Laboratory. In the room, you see a coolant tank, a bucket, some nanopaste, and three spectrometers. In order to have an organized analysis, I suggest you only use one, most particularly, the upper one, since it avoids the usual back & forth to provide it with coolant. Once it is filled with coolant, take your first sample, take the rock sample in it, and put it in the spectrometer.

**Note:** *Once again, use only one Spectrometer, and start with your Dig Site 1, then 2, etc. The results of the analysis are chronologically numerated, so, that way, you will have correspondence between your samples and your results.*

Now, you have opened the Spectrometer menu. Big scary screen at first, but simple to understand.

**Scanner:** Indicates the progress of the scan, and the "health" of the spectrometer. When it is too low, use nanopaste to fix it.

**MASER:** The most important stuff. Try to match you Current Wavelength with the Optimal Wavelength best as you can, since it is what makes the scan progress.

**Environment / Internal:** The speed at which the machine functions, and the heat it endures. The faster it goes, the hotter it is.

**Radiation:** Sometimes, radiation outbursts happen during the scan. You can enable the Radiation Shielding, but it stops the scan, so I rather suggest you keep your excavation suit on yourself, since it protects you against it. That way, you can totally ignore this factor.

**Cooling:** Rather simple to understand. It is what keeps the Internal Temperature low. On this screen, you see I put the flow rate at 2 u/s : It is best to keep it that way, 2 u/s gives you plenty of time before emptying it, and avoids overheat in almost every case.

If you followed these instructions, the only part you need to focus on is the MASER field, since it is the only one that will necessitate you to fiddle with during the scan.

Now, you begin your scan, keep the Wavelength in check, and normally, the scan goes very well without any trouble. The machine pings, ejects your rock sample, and prints the result of the scan.

Now, you have some techno-babbling informations that will allow you to RP-study your artifacts later.

## Analysis: Chemistry

Obviously, the coolant in the tank is not enough to last the entire shift. It is generally empty after three spectrometer scans. You can still use water as a less efficient coolant, but here is a better solution.

Go into the room east of the Spectrometer room. Here is the Chemistry lab, which was once used to prepare the samples for the Spectrometer scans, before the system was reworked to be simpler. But it is still of use: Grab the two large beakers of the room, and make coolant. The formula is quite simple:

**Oxygen + Water + Tungsten**

Now, you have an unlimited source of coolant to keep your Spectrometer working!

## Study

Now that you have analyzed all your samples, it is time to bring all of this to the camp. Put your sample bags and reports in the crate, and drag it back there. Then, put them on their respective tables, so that you have every information you need available.

(For the needs of this tutorial, there is only took one sample here, but multiply this by 6 or more to have an idea of what your camp should look like by now.)

Now you have organized all your findings… Be RP, be creative! Look at your 800 years old weapons of your Dig Site 4. Maybe they belonged to the species depicted on this 850 years old bowl, in your Dig Site 2? Basically, make logical links between your findings, invent stories, entire civilizations, wars, religions, the possibilities are quite huge. Maybe when you have enough data, you’ll write a book about it? Xenoarcheology may be a very lonely job, but it still gives you plenty of occasions to make great RP, so just go crazy.

## Anomalies

But, while you have fun with your trinkets, old rusty knives and plant fossils, your buddies in the Anomaly department are still waiting for anomalies to work with...

The best way to locate these is to use the Alden-Saraspova counter device. This tool will find the closest anomaly and display your distance from it. Every time you change position, you can use it again, getting closer with each scan. Once you're within a few meters, you can begin to scan tiles with your handheld scanner, confident that one of them will ping and contain an anomaly. Generally, anomalies are hidden behind a bunch of artifacts, so you might need to excavate those first. You know you have found an anomaly when your Depth Analysis Scanner tells you this:

First, you will need to dig away the whole rock wall in front of you, meaning taking the hand pickaxe and chipping away 30cm at a time. When you dig 200cm deep, the external rock collapses, leaving a rocky debris. You can scan it once again, but you’ll only get another bunch of results, which are quite erratic, so don’t focus on them. For the excavation of anomalies, you do not need the field generator, just grab a small pick, smaller than 8cm, and start digging. At one moment or another, the rocky debris will collapse too, leaving you with the anomaly. This would also be a good time to take a photo, to add to your own paperwork.

Then, simply bring back the anomaly to the conveyor belts of the Outpost, tell your coworkers that the anomaly is ready to be brought inside, and let them handle the reception and analysis, so that you can go back to your own work.