This will be a bit of an amalgamation of a few posts, mixed with things that I've come to find myself through playing. I couldn't find a post like this, so I thought I'd share. Special s/o to /u/0NightFury0, who in my opinion provided some of the best info but didn't get much recognition for their post.

Basics

If a creature has spawned and you haven't yet scanned it, it will appear as a red dot in your scan visor. Different genders are treated as different scans, but only one gender of a species is needed to 100% a planet. Previously scanned creatures (and genders) appear as green dots. Pesky birds? Shoot them down with your laser - you can always scan a dead animal.

• Flora doesn't count.

Finding Creatures

If you're having trouble simply finding animals, send out a scanning pulse and enter scan mode - look for small white pulsing circles because this is where a creature (or a pack) will be. Not to be confused with a white circle within a white circle, which is a waypoint to a "settlement." Walking is slow and running is impossible in scan mode. With a fully updated jetpack, you can use the punch-jump move, glide, set off a scan, and enter visor mode to view a larger area much quicker.

HG has set it so that larger creatures (>3 meters) spawn from further away than other fauna (and will also spawn when you're in your ship), so if you see a red or green dot that you think is somewhat far away, it's a bigger animal. This works for larger water creatures as well, but I'm not sure what the size threshold is (it seems to be >2 meters). Thus, if you see a white dot on land or in the water, it's probably a smaller animal or fish.

• White-dot indicators in water are either bugged or inconsistent, as sometimes they will pop up, but no sea creatures will be there.

Finding That Last Creature

If you're like me, reaching that 90% mark is easy, but the last one is much more difficult. The greatest hint is to check the discoveries page and see which position in the the list is missing, because there's an order to how the species are displayed:

Ground (including hovering, I think) *>** Air (includes flying fish) > Caves > Water*

• Crustaceans are tough because it seems like they can fill multiple roles.
• Cave areas are not always covered; "cave" land can be distinguished by the types of rocks that are around.
• Aggressive creatures are listed first in their category. They also seem to appear more often in later times of the day.
• The discovery order moves left-right down the page, as below (number of creatures varies per planet):

Challenges and Bugs

It usually isn't too difficult to find a flying creature (flying fish are particularly common spawns), however, I've found the most difficult scan to be the wedge after the first bird. That could mean that cave creatures are difficult spawns, but in my experience if there is a cave creature, it is very common in caves. It could also be a flyer that has a very low spawn chance Maybe a bug? In any case, I usually move on if this is last on my last.

When there are more than 14 species (the maximum listed on the discoveries page), the game has trouble recognizing 100% completion, even though the blue box in the bottom right corner will acknowledge 100% completion after you've scanned the last critter.

On occasion your game may default to a 100% completion mark even if you haven't found all species. This happens sometimes when leaving the planet, infrequently when closing the game and returning, and I believe every time you leave a system and come back. Not sure if a bug or intentional to push players to move on. You can't upload these "bugs" as completed towards the milestone, but *you can upload planets with zero wildlife (albeit for no credits)*.

After three (or so) pages in the discoveries journal, finds are no longer accessible. Hopefully HG fixes this in the future because the discovery is a large part of why I play this game and it would be a shame to be unable to go back and view your work.

Everyone feel free to input and I'll update accordingly.