Hidden Cache locations

[vistarnh]

Hidden Cache locations
So far I know of 9 confirmed, and 1 optional mission stash. Here's the locations:

EDIT: Apparently some caches don't show up until certain mission checkpoints are reached, particularly in Hephaestus and Pegasus. I read through the thread but there isn't really a clear consensus on when this happens. Also loot tables are generated when first entering a system so keep a save OUTSIDE a cache system if you get unlucky or you are looking for a certain (wyvern mk2) thing.

Vaudille - North asteroids, there are TWO caches here and it's easy to run to right after getting the Mastiff. Look for a blinking cache asteroid somewhere in the west of the cluster and a Ship hull (battleship?) with a blinking white light towards the center/east of the northern field. There are many false caches just blow them all up till you find them. You should get a couple of nice prototype main guns and maybe a fighter or 2 as well as some top tier equipment. You can save/reload to get better stuff.

Solncevka - North West asteroid/dust field. It's an asteroid cache usually high or low on the plane. It helps to stay at the top or bottom of the field to avoid the strong roaming pirates while looking for it. Best loot I got was a Wyvern Mk2, 2 Emeralds, and some big guns here.

Fronn - Center asteroid field 3 squares sound and one east of the Triada Trade Station. I don't remember what loot I got here but stash loot usually has at least a couple good things.

Charon - South Western corner in a blinking asteroid I found a Hrimthurs (rank 4 missleboat). I'm not sure if it's the only stash, just the only one I could find, not that great but it's money. Of note is the Styx Station which sells the awesome "Templar" ships Raptor T, Trident T, and Gunslinger T. It also the one non-smuggler place I've found that sells top tier equipment for normal store prices early in the game (pre FTU)

XB-19 - Either near the junkyard or destroyed station. It's a blinking asteroid but may be very hard to see in the clouds. Also there are LOADS of pirates here so I wouldn't try to get it unless you are pretty strong. Last, be wary as one or two of the "fake" stashteroids will summon a pirate fleet for you to fight off. I got a couple of gunslingers and some nice top tier systems. On a side note this is a great place to gain some extra experience and money since pirates just keep spawning here.

X-220 - 5 and a half spaces west of the x203 gate is an asteroid.
I looted a wyvern mk2 Asmodeus x 2, m-82 dago and m150 tetabo x 2 post precursor mission.

Tarrot - asteroid in the SW quadrant. Lots of pirates. It had some decent stuff. I don't think you can get this unless you go the Ino co route which is bugged for me.

Precursor system - If you go east of the 1st waypoint that has all the artifacts, you'll find a Starhammer memorial in side a giant sphere. It dropped a precursor ship artifact and a precursor gun for me. I also got ambushed by 8 aliens. The precursor ship can sell for almost $120,000. Side note: I don't always get the ship or gun, it's pretty random, but aliens will keep spawning in waves until you actually destroy the Starhammer. If you are tough enough (and save enough) you can gain quite a bit of XP here (I got ~600 my last game before the missile boats got to be too much).

Hephaestus (thanks to Goblin Wizard) - I don't know if anyone mentioned that but you can get some good stuff very early in the game (right after you got Mastiff). When you flight to Elio for repainting you go through the Hephaestus (you had to navigate between automatic turrets). There are 3 rings of these turrets and lots of wrecks around. Blowing wrecks outside the rings is pointless but inside there are two big (flat type) transport hulls that drops nice stuff. 1st gave me: Emerald, Armageddon, Sigil, Avenger, and Trident fighter. 2nd: Shining, Lycathrope, Mortar, Overbank, Berserk Laser and Hrimithurs (sth like that) fighter. After several tries I realized that types of armament are fixed and only quantity of items changes (I can get up to 8 items from one wreck) so you can get 600-1000K worth stuff depending of your luck (fighter are always one, others may be multiple). To get inside you have to flight down and go under the turrets. You can start from the top too but wrecks are at the bottom so going down is faster. Beware the turrets. Mastiff goes down in 3-4 shots from a single turret. The system is totally peaceful (maybe except gates area) so that's easy money. This stash only shows up after certain mission events and I'm not sure which.

UPDATE: I can't take credit for this but I forgot who mentioned it: the small flanking turrets in the MIDDLE ring will drop shining turrets. Just go over or under to get inside the ring where they can't hit you or follow the way-point during the mission to get inside the ring. I got something like 20 Shinings without save/loading but I think that was lucky, average is probably around 10-15. That's quite the haul if you do it on your way through Heph in the early game, plus some nice turrets for the MS. Be sure to save every so often as they can get knocked around by exploding neighbors and take out your puny ship in a hurry. if you do the save/load trick/cheat you can get 32 of them! You can easily make 1-3 million just an hour into the game so I don't recommend doing this first play through or do it only on hard mode where starting money is much less. It IS nice with the mod pack if you want to hire extra pilots right away and/or buy a bigger better MS to romp around in. But just keep in mind you will be waaay OP at this point if you spend all that money on uber equipment.


Mission: Pirate stash - This is missable if you don't accept Heretic's offer right after meeting Ternie for the first time. Take his offer (and the money, lasers aren't worth it) and make sure he survives. He should let you work with the other pirate gang to get the mothership. Once you get it you should have a couple of techs plead for their lives and give you the stash location. Follow the story a bit longer and Ternie will ask you if you want to go find it, say YES! I'm not going to go into mission details except to say it can be tough for the beginning so I recommend finding some other stashes first, then do the mission.
*spoiler* In the end you must intercept Paymaster and destroy the transports for the stash; it should include a Kali or Tungsten among other top tier equipment, well worth the effort *spoiler*


*Fort Russ and XT-41 the destroyed patrol stations can drop loot


If anyone knows of any other stashes please share! Credit to Paleale for X220, Tarrot, and precursor info.

EDIT: Obviously you can pirate transports and containers in various sectors like Fronn. I didn't include these in my post because they aren't really hidden.

[paleale]

X-220 - 5 and a half spaces west of the x203 gate is an asteroid.
I looted a wyvern mk2 Asmodeus x 2, m-82 dago and m150 tetabo x 2 post precursor mission.

Tarrot - asteroid in the SW quadrant. Lots of pirates. It had some decent stuff. I don't think you can get this unless you go the Ino co route which is bugged for me.

Precursor missions - If you go east of the 1st waypoint that has all the artifacts, you'll find a Starhammer memorial in side a giant sphere. It dropped a precursor ship artifact and a precursor gun for me. I also got ambushed by 8 aliens. The precursor ship can sell for almost $120,000.

[Vaynark]

Do we have to acquire info about the locations of the hidden caches first to make them appear in the game or we can freely explore and find the caches at any time of the game and without any knowledge of its location first?

[Ruinous]

Apart from the heretic mission all the others can be freely gained without having to have paid the 5k for the info beforehand.

There is a cargo container in the bottom left corner of Prien. Shooting this spawns an ungodly number of MSF ships... haven't managed to survive that to loot the stash though I'm playing on hard this time round

[flashy]

not a hidden cache per say but in fronn if u look at the map theres an armory marked in the far north of the system

if u head up there and kill the transport ships hanging around the station u will think xmas has come early this will piss off triada but they dont send much in the way of baddies your way the transports all shoot u and i had 4 fighters i think attack me but i netted me

3 gen 2 fighters
3 gen 3 fighters
a whole host of differnt guns/systems and missles and quite abit of cargo which should sell nicely

theres other locations like this ive killed 1 before think it was another triada 1 as they disliked me anyway on a pervious game but that was a supply depo or something certainly worth hitting up though the armory was much larger quanitiy than the supply depo from what i remember, was scooping for 5min at x4 speed lol

[Ruinous]

About the heretic mission, playing on hard I didn't get either the kali or tungsten just a selection of fighter guns and a topaz (50% laser damage mitigation for motherships). One thing I did get though is there actually *is* a pirate stash near where it gets marked. Had to comb that asteroid field several times but got a gunslinger and several other bits & pieces out of it So you get the stash loot & convoy loots which wasn't too shabby hehe.

Also on this run through the traders have sold me info that Pandora contains a station which supposedly can fix your faction standings, excepting the pirates. Also that Ergelan USS station has low prices for equipment. Not stash info, but worth knowing anyway.

[superd]

Originally Posted by flashy

not a hidden cache per say but in fronn if u look at the map theres an armory marked in the far north of the system

if u head up there and kill the transport ships hanging around the station u will think xmas has come early this will piss off triada but they dont send much in the way of baddies your way the transports all shoot u and i had 4 fighters i think attack me but i netted me

3 gen 2 fighters
3 gen 3 fighters
a whole host of differnt guns/systems and missles and quite abit of cargo which should sell nicely

theres other locations like this ive killed 1 before think it was another triada 1 as they disliked me anyway on a pervious game but that was a supply depo or something certainly worth hitting up though the armory was much larger quanitiy than the supply depo from what i remember, was scooping for 5min at x4 speed lol

Maybe it is too early for me to say. but flashy has probably found a bug of this game. Why? because 1, once you have FTU access all top quality stuff can be bought with cash and 2. After blowing up all tansporters in Fronn and one cargo bay, I retreated to have a rest. And I paid Fronn another visit and WOW another 5 transporters show up. Also you won't trigger spawns of Triada if you do not attack cargo bay. I don't know if the transporters will come back if you completely destroy the station. But I will save this cash cow for future withdrawal.

After knowing this, I am now shopping like a maniac. Only buying the most expensive stuff. And I instantly lose the interest in any other caches.

[vistarnh]

Originally Posted by Ruinous

Apart from the heretic mission all the others can be freely gained without having to have paid the 5k for the info beforehand.

There is a cargo container in the bottom left corner of Prien. Shooting this spawns an ungodly number of MSF ships... haven't managed to survive that to loot the stash though I'm playing on hard this time round

I looted it but there wasn't anything special. It's really only worth looting if you are already hostile towards MSF or want to be.

[superd]

Thus far the best fighters I have got are gunslingers and tridents from these caches. I guess difficulty level does matter as I am in normal. After 10+ reloadings, I swear in normal, one will NOT get Wyvern in Solncevka and X 220. Thanks.

[flashy]

u will be able to find them without taking the mission superd i did, just takes abit of searching and i found a wyvern while playing on normal so guess its just pot luck