Organic Scanning Challenge Primer

Organic Scanning Challenge Primer

Codex, News

The Canonn Organic Scanning Challenge is underway and having made a few attempts its clear that its possible to get good times without too much in the way of preparation. At the time of writing the best time is just under 25 minutes. I’m going to give you a few tips that should help you to win one of the prizes on offer.



Lets consider what a perfect run might look like. Each species has biodiversity range. When you scan a specimen you won’t be able to scan another until you have moved further than that range.


SpeciesRange (m)
Aleoida150
Bacterium500
Cactoida300
Concha150
Frutexa150
Fungoida300
Osseus800
Stratum500
Tussock200

Your perfect run might start with Aleoida. You would travel 300m to get the next two Aleoida and then scan a bacterium at the same location as the last Aleoida and so on. So the total distance covered after scanning all of the species would be 6,100m or 6.1km.

To put this in perspective the best run so far was 43.21 km. So assuming you can locate the right distribution of species it would be possible to significantly reduce the total distance traveled by doing a bit of reconnaissance up front.

Your ideal route should be a straight line to avoid turns that will cost you speed and I would recommend that you look for canyons to help you navigate. Its much easier to plot a pre-planned route if you have some memorable landmarks like canyon walls to guide you.

As you can see below the route that I picked was a bit of a random walk and should be easy to improve on.


Approximate Route Taking 25 Minutes. The mixture of terrain makes it possible to find examples of all species.

Of course finding the species in the right distribution is easier said than done. Some species are more abundant than others. The biggest challenge has been finding Osseus. Most Osseus are a few kilometres from each other. Frutexta shrubs are more abundant but are small, difficult to see and can be mistaken for Tussocks. If you are making a casual attempt at the challenge you would do well to identify your Osseus locations and start with them. Povided you know where to look, all the other species, even Frutexa are not hard to find. If you pick a location with adjacent terrain types then you won’t have to travel very far.


SpeciesRange (m)Terrain
Aleoida150Sandy plains and hillsides
Bacterium500Mostly on the flat ground in sandy areas.
Cactoida300Mainly in the sandy areas but can appear on crevasse floors in the broken rocky ground
Concha150Mainly at the bottom of crevases next to the steep sides
Frutexa150At the top of dark rocky broken ground.
Fungoida300On the flat tops of dark rocky broken ground
Osseus800On rocky outcrops in sandy areas
Stratum500Mainly on flat sandy areas
Tussock200On the flat tops of dark rocky broken ground.

Planning Your Route

You should record the coordinates of each species and the bearing to head on to get to the next sample. I used a speadsheet with a couple of formulas that are able to calculate bearing and distance but you can also simply record the details by reading them off your hud.

Min Distance KmSpeciesLatitudeLongitudeBearingDistance km
0.8Osseus Fractus – Turquoise-22.7372132.86746
0.8Osseus Fractus – Turquoise-22.9881332.708292105.39
0.8Osseus Fractus – Turquoise-23.0396432.627772351.67
0.15Aleoida Coronamus – Teal-23.0386932.626953220.02
0.15Aleoida Coronamus – Teal-23.1979632.631861782.96
0.15Aleoida Coronamus – Teal-23.1875132.71719821.47
0.3Cactoida Cortexum – Yellow-23.187532.71725800.00
0.3Cactoida Cortexum – Yellow-23.0817132.697773501.99
0.3Cactoida Cortexum – Yellow-23.0067932.93829714.34
0.5Stratum Excutitus – Emerald-23.012832.951291170.25
0.5Stratum Excutitus – Emerald-23.0599433.0641142.11
0.5Stratum Excutitus – Emerald-23.0937733.16231111.79
0.5Bacterium Aurasus – Lime-23.1133133.199171200.73
0.5Bacterium Aurasus – Lime-23.0147433.022953013.52
0.5Bacterium Aurasus – Lime-23.014733.22254903.41
0.2Tussock Caputus – Yellow-23.0729233.019572533.63
0.2Tussock Caputus – Yellow-23.1150233.012671890.79
0.2Tussock Caputus – Yellow-23.1562933.020011710.78
0.15Frutexa Acus – Green-23.1073833.011333510.92
0.15Frutexa Acus – Green-23.1312733.015591710.45
0.15Frutexa Acus – Green-23.1565733.034371460.57
0.3Fungoida Stabitis – Magenta-23.1279533.10952681.39
0.3Fungoida Stabitis – Magenta-23.1961933.183051351.78
0.3Fungoida Stabitis – Magenta-23.1503633.20686260.94
0.15Concha Renibus – Peach-23.1710733.157632450.92
0.15Concha Renibus – Peach-23.1968733.163421680.49
0.15Concha Renibus – Peach-23.2327133.199731370.91

As you can see from the video the route I planned did not have memorable locations and subsequently I got a little lost. So I was not able to get as fast a time as I would have liked, But this will give you an idea of what is possible. None of the times in this attempt are record breaking but at the time of writing this is the fastest anyone has completed a run. I recommend watching it with the sound off.


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