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I have enough self respect to not horde 50k nanit3s to upgrade my class A tool so where do I find a class S? The highest I can find at the stations are Class A. Am I just unlucky or is there something else?
*edit* I posted a Revised Guide which is a bit more concise and (I hope) easier to understand. Probably a good idea to read this one as well though. The revised guide was posted in October of 2019.
This is just a little guide to try helping out people that want to find a good multiool in S class, a request which I often see posted, and is an attempt to not only show how to find a good MT, but also to illustrate the mechanics behind how they spawn and what ones can be forced to spawn as S class. This is compiled using research I did using 30 different star systems (10 poor, 10 mid wealth, and 10 rich economies). I chose systems that had at least 4 orbiting bodies. So with the space stations included, that gave me at least 5 different MT pools to draw from. The result was I had over 150 different MT pools in the mix.
The methodology worked like this: After warping into the system, I checked out the space station cabinet to see what class it was, and noted it. Then I chose a planet to explore to locate minor settlements. I noted the class of MT in each one and recorded the name of the MT as well. This served to allow me to determine how many tools were in the planetary pool. I marked one minor settlement of each regular class (A, B, C) as well as an S class if I could find one. I stopped searching when I found all four classes of cabinet, which reasonably often happened without having to find a lot of cabinets. In poor systems I made sure to find a minimum of 25 minor settlements, but gave up after about 75 (I went to over 100 in a couple systems though, as the planets I chose seemed to have a lot of them). I never found an S class cabinet in a poor system.
After finding and marking the different class of cabinets with beacons (color coded to the class so I could distinguish easily), I then flew off to each planet and the space station one by one. Land, reload, and fly back to check all the cabinets. Record the tools found. This revealed tools in all the planet pools of each class (sometimes there were none of a particular class, and sometimes there were multiples).
The result of all this is posted below.
What I Know For Sure:
The class of cabinet in the Space Station has no bearing on whether or not there is an S class cabinet in the system. So if you warp into a system and the space station's cabinet is C class, this doesn't mean you can't find an S class cabinet on one of the planets.
There can be from 1 to at least 5 MTs (possibly more, but the most I've seen is 5) in any given planet's MT pool.
Landing on a planet,moon, or the space station, exiting your ship to create a save point, and then reloading will switch the pool of tools you draw from to that body's MT pool. I used the Autosave slot for this, although I did test a few times to see if the Manual save slot showed anything different. It didn't.
In mid and high wealth systems, you can find all 4 classes of cabinets (A,B,C, and S) in the same system, even on the same planet.
A particular MT cabinet will always have the same extra tech (geology cannon, combat visor, etc.) installed in the MT and the same slot layout even when you change pools. Different cabinets of the same class can and will vary in slot layout and extra tech though, and may vary in the number of slots too.
It's possible to find more than one S class cabinet in a single system. There's no real reason to do so, however, other than maybe getting a better slot layout.
What I Think Is True:
S class cabinets do not spawn in low economy systems. I can't say this with 100% certainly (because you can't really prove a negative), but with over 300 minor settlements visited in low economy systems and no S class cabinets found, I'm pretty sure they're not there. You can find A,B, and C class though.
Alien and Experimental MTs are not associated to any particular race, system, or economy. At least, I've not been able to discern any correlation.
The Mechanics As I Understand Them:
MTs in any given planet pool are assigned to what I think of as a 'native class'. They tend to show up as a specific class when you check the MT cabinets. But they can also migrate up or down one level. For example, if a tool is a 'native' B class, it's possible it will show up as C in a C class cabinet or as an A in an A class cabinet. This is regardless of whether or not there is a different tool that's native to that class in the pool. I believe this is just an RNG effect that weights the chance of a tool showing up in a cabinet as more likely to be the 'native' tool in that class but can sometimes draw from a class one higher or lower. I've never seen a tool skip up or down more than 1 level.
So this complicates things when you're looking for MTs and checking out the pools on each body in the system. Because if you find a sweet MT in a B class cabinet, is it a native B class (which means no chance of it showing up as S class) or is it a native A class that just happened to pop in a B class cabinet (which means you could find it as an S class)? About the only way to gain any certainty is to find a number of B class cabinets and see what tools pop up. As a general rule, if it's native to a different class, it won't show up as often. For the most part, though, it's just easiest to assume if a tool first pops as a specific class, then that's its native class.
MT cabinets in minor settlements are what I think of as 'soft coded'. They will almost always be of a specific class, but can show a tool as a different class if the planet's pool that the tool is drawn from doesn't actually contain a tool that's native to that class. As an example, let's say you find an S class cabinet, then fly to another planet save and reload so you're drawing from that planet's pool. You go back to the cabinet only to find it now shows a tool that's A class instead of S class. What's going on? Well, the planet's pool only has tools up to a 'native' B class. Since tools can't jump two levels, the cabinet shifts to show the tool as the best it can be, which is A class.
Space Station cabinets are 'hard coded'. They don't adjust their class but instead if they can't display a tool without making it jump two levels, they'll draw from a different pool to display a tool of the class in the station cabinet. I saw this on two occasions where the planet pool only had a single C class in the pool and the space station was S class (A on the other occasion). The space station, instead of jumping that tool up 2 or 3 levels, displayed the tool from its own pool instead.
Bottom line for MT hunters looking for a great S class MT is there are basically 3 methods:
Simplest is to warp from system to system and just check the space stations until something good pops. That may involve dozens or scores of warps though.
Keep flying from system to system and checking space stations to see if you get an A or S class cabinet. If you find one, go to each body in the system and save and reload. Fly back to the space station and see what pops. Rinse and repeat. If you find a tool you really like, you can try to find an S class cabinet on one of the planets and grab it there.
Find a system with a good number of orbiting bodies and choose a good planet to search out a minor settlement with an A or S class cabinet (if the space station only has B or C class). When you find one, mark it with a beacon or a base computer so you can find it again, then go to each body in the system and save and reload. Fly back to the minor settlement you marked to see if there's a tool you like. I suggest a system with a number of bodies since it gives you a larger pool of tools to draw from. That's not to suggest systems with only 1 or 2 planets won't turn up something nice, but there's obviously a decreased chance, and it also may not provide a decent planet to hunt for minor settlements.
Of Note: There are other ways of possibly obtaining an S class MT as well: you can check the Anomaly to see what the class is on that. You can talk to NPCs and sometimes they'll offer you a MT. You can also check monoliths and may be offered a MT if you choose the correct answer to some of the puzzles. Crashed starships also have a chance of offering a MT depending on the answer you choose from some distress signal scenarios. None of these are reliable enough to count on though.
Conclusion: Other than being very lucky, finding an S class MT is time consuming and not a sexy or exciting process. It's basically brute-forcing your way into getting one. You can increase your chances of finding an S class cabinet by checking in high wealth systems, though. Choose a planet where you find it easy to spot structures and do a systematic search.
***ADDENDUM*** u/citizencoyote pointed out the following: "One important note, for those who want to share their finds: multitool styles and pools are shared between platforms (PC, PS4, XB), but class is not. An S-class box on the station on PS4 could be an A-class on PC, for example. So if you find a cool MT and want to tell others how to get it, be sure to specify your platform."
**If anyone has any info to add or think something is amiss in this guide, feel free to let me know.**
Looking for a new multi-tool and do i stick to my third leatherman wave or something’s else better for my bucks? Thanks guys!
Just started using S Plus again and noticed that the multi tool pick up gun isn’t actually picking up structures. It’s set to pick up and it makes the pick up new sound bite but it won’t pick a single thing up.
I’ve read that there is potentially ini settings that I can change on my server to allow this to pick up as the mod dev disabled this based on what the Ark devs intended.
Anyways I would like to have the feature back and no want to use Super Structures - the mod is kind of laggy for me.
Any help would be awesome!