Acquire the Erlking?

[Pesanur]

You always can build sensor array modules (don't need to build a full station) in the sectors corners to quickly find the vaults.

[Alan Phipps]

Heh, up to 24 build tasks for your builder ship(s) with up to half of them in the Tide area if you are unlucky. Nah, I'll probably stick to the easy way for that one.

[Pesanur]

Heh, up to 24 build tasks for your builder ship(s) with up to half of them in the Tide area if you are unlucky. Nah, I'll probably stick to the easy way for that one.

Are 36 building tasks, not 24. Remember that the sectors are hexagonal, so this mean 6 corners on each sector, and as are six sector the ones that you need to cover, this mean up to 36 building tasks, but XL ships can survive the Tide without losing their shields. The only problem is that you need to build the six arrays at once to not lose them to the Tide before you cover the area (and not forget to put "data vault" in the search to quickly found the data vaults in the covered areas).

[Blaze1st]

I'm sure it was already mentioned in the mists of time on this thread but if you don't want to use the script or blanket the sectors with satellites, use a fast scout from map screen with "Data Vault" in the filter and grid search each sector to find them relatively easily if not that quickly.

[TheDeliveryMan]

But then you need to watch the map all the time. Unlike regular Data Vaults, the Erlking Data Vaults do not stay on the map after beeing discovered. They are only visible when currently in radar range of one of your assets.

I often spot two or three Erlking Data Vaults way before I am able to afford an XL Maintenance Bay. When spotting one, I immediately pause and send one of my ships to drop a satellite next to it, so the vault stays on the map.

[BitByte]

But then you need to watch the map all the time. Unlike regular Data Vaults, the Erlking Data Vaults do not stay on the map after beeing discovered. They are only visible when currently in radar range of one of your assets.

I often spot two or three Erlking Data Vaults way before I am able to afford an XL Maintenance Bay. When spotting one, I immediately pause and send one of my ships to drop a satellite next to it, so the vault stays on the map.

No you don't. When you filter map with "data vault" it will show Erlking vaults even if they are not cover area anymore.
I had 1 of data vaults outside of satellite coverage area (it was spotted by my scout while it was flyby trip) and I found it afterwards when checked the map.
In my current save I found all 5 vaults without actively finding them. All were found during NPC dropped satellites to gain visibility to sectors.

[Agamotto]

Range enhanced Sapporo and long range scans found all of mine in just a short period of time. A range enhanced Envoy in cloaked mode would probably do just as well.