Cobra Mk III - Making Money.

[Vladimar Rubicon]

From what I have seen with the Cobra (and my experience) the monees is at:

A) Rares Trading (aka cheating because you are using crowdsourced online tools, even though in reality this is what you would probably do, but that is besides the point)
B) Bounty Hunting (Nav Beacons seem to be the new hot spot, but Extraction Sites and also the Assassination Missions (which pay a bit more than the standard Bounty))
C) Mining (dont bother with anything other than Major or Pristine Reserves on Metallic Rings. Can easily get 32-36 tonnes of Palladium, Platinum, Gold and Silver which equates to good money)

I did B and primarily C. Now do normal trading in a Type 6 and saving up for my Asp

I take issue with that- I've never used tools of any type while trading Rares or anything else. Someone once typed in a post about how profitable Rares are, so I went looking for them. Thats it. Thought I'd pass on the knowledge.

 

[ollobrains]

goto where the rares are fill up, head to pand drop off 20k per unit about 700k profit per round trip. All in about an hour and a half

 

[PocketWettie]

I take issue with that- I've never used tools of any type while trading Rares or anything else. Someone once typed in a post about how profitable Rares are, so I went looking for them. Thats it. Thought I'd pass on the knowledge.

Good for you! You are one of the very very very very very very few

 

[DjordjeDtW]

For me and My Cobra Bounty hunting is profitable.
I can earn 150k - 250k per half hour on Extraction Point.

Bounty for one Cobra is 17k+ credit. I attack in group with Authority vessel, fast kills, fast money.

 

[Dissentient]

There are only two profitable activities in this game: trading and rare trading. For everything of size of an ASP and below rare trading is better. Collecting and selling 32 tons of rares will get you 500k.

 

[DjordjeDtW]

There are only two profitable activities in this game: trading and rare trading. For everything of size of an ASP and below rare trading is better. Collecting and selling 32 tons of rares will get you 500k.

But there is no word about a ASPs. We talking about Cobras and how making money with her.

 

[Dissentient]

But there is no word about a ASPs. We talking about Cobras and how making money with her.

"everything of size of an ASP and below"

 

[mattensky]

The last few days I've been at the high intensity warzone with a capital ship near khasiri (can't remember name sorry - was community goal but war zones are still there). I can earn around 1 mil in 90-120 mins in my cobra - you just need to cause hull damage to ships before the capital ship toasts them and you get the bounty -
I'm having a blast - it's a bit easy, frankly, but it's fast paced and the cap ship is awesome. I just use one medium laser beam and one medium cannon - I don't bother with the small hard points.

I have around 22 mil now in assets (about 12 mil from exploring and the rest from combat), cobra worth is about 10 mil, but keep coming back to the cobra as I just didn't like the asp - and am not interested in trading. My rough plan is to keep on like this and one day get the drop ship - as I like the look of it.

Hopefully one of the new ships in 1.2 will be a better step up though . . .

 

[Cathalo]

Back when I was flying my Cobra a lot, I usually played a class that I created myself called "The Fringer". The Fringer lives on the outside of civilized space and at the border of the empire and federation space. The Fringer is basically a scavenger/mercenary/pirate/trader/smuggler/bounty hunter all rolled into one class and thus the Cobra is the perfect ship for this. Your goal is to find an anarchy system that has a large population and is located on the edge of civilized space, get to allied with all factions in the system and you will start getting some nice missions to collect valuable cargo, assassinations, trade runs, killing authority vessels, etc. The Fringer is basically a solo exceptional, problem solver type dude. He can handle anything you throw at him but has no real loyalty to any of the factions, you're Blondie from The Good the Bad and The Ugly.
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Equip your Cobra with twin gimbaled MC's on the top and bottom, most NPC ships on the fringe of space don't have shield generators so there is little need to worry about taking down shields. Go light on parts for maximum speed, mostly D rated stuff except for shields and thrusters. Get yourself a KWS and a Cargo scanner so you can take advantage of either situation since you will be operating in anarchy space, a fringer is an opportunist and when he sees the money he takes it. Get a grade 2-A spec interdicting device so you can pull targets out when you find a nice one. Collect space junk from USS's and sell it off to the highest bidder, kill or pirate anyone who gets in your way! The life of the fringer is very low stress, indeed.

 

[Johnny Cyclops]

The BIG problem with the Cobra is it's too versatile and the new commander will likely want to equip it for all weather - trader, combat, explorer, etc. The OP's spec is neither fish nor fowl. By which I mean, if it's intended to be a trader then the cargo racks need increasing to 32+ tons. Then, grab the best power plant and FSD you can, and move everything else to Class D which have the least weight. Then drop the C1 weapons (keep the C2 pulses for defence), and drop utility mount equipment other than Point Defence and possibly Heat Sink.

Traders are all about maximising capacity and FSD jump distance (the latter through reducing the weight of outfitted items). This is a useful third party tool for planning configuration - http://www.edshipyard.com/

The best way to be flexible with ship fitouts is make a 'home' base at a high population Industrial or High Tech system, with the other system type within close jumping range. Then the two outfitters will have enough gear to readily switch to other types of play in the Cobra (e.g. for bounty hunting the Cargo Racks come out and the Shield Cell Bank go in, and some of the D grade stuff gets improved - e.g. better Shields and Life Support).

And for your final question, my upgrade path (having started in a Cobra) was to also buy a Lakon T6 (note, I didn't sell the Cobra, so I now have both ships). The T6 is fitted out for local trading only, now all A-Grade spec (actually, 'over-specced'!) and 100t capacity. The Cobra remains my general run-around, with trading removed from its role, I'm currently out on a long-distance exploring trip, but once back home will reconfigure to run reputation-building missions and bounty-hunting.

 

[bassman]

I was a little stagnant for a while in my Cobra until I got to Leesti/Lave/Diso/Orrerre area.... Full up on rares at all those stations in one sweep and then jump out anywhere 100 light years away

The best "anywhere" is Altair since it and a few nearby systems also have rares so you buy there and sell back at Lave.

 

[Mr. Woof]

I have to disagree. I hang out at extraction points, make about 100k an hour. I fly a cobra 60 light years and back in about an our I make 60 k on a good run. I have no idea how people say trade makes money. I have followed the guides, gone to the websites to maximize trade between sites and make squat for boring flight between stars not tom mention the occasional white dwarf you get trapped at and damage your ship getting out.

I really would like trade to work, so I can get a larger ship with better range and explore, but it just is not working. My cobra caries 32 and if I make 1k per ton I only make 32 k, and minus fuel and maybe damage I make under 32k. In an hour, or 45 minutes. I make twice to four times that dogfighting at an extraction point.

First lose some equipment. 40-44 tons are reasonable in a Cobra. If you want to trade don't go mucking about with an Interdictor or shield cells. Keep the weapons only if your in a dangerous neighborhood. Otherwise the Cobra is fast enough to submit and get away fast when interdicted. Get the best FSD (1) and thrusters (2) you can afford and get D modules for the rest. They are the lightest and give you maximum range. A better FSD uses less fuel. You can always buy some offensive toys in case you want to make a stint at bounty hunting again.

Profitable trading all depends on finding profitable runs and here ED's integrated market tools are wholly inadequate.
So if you are not into blindly flying around the galaxy in search for profit, try Slopey's trading tool. There a thread in this forum. It has a very powerful search routine. Use it to search for a viable route where the goods will net approx. 800Cr+ apiece. You cannot expect one where you don't have to jump at least 15-20 Ly one way. Sometimes more. Shorter routes that profitable are rare. I had one run once, about 25Ly, that netted approx. 120.000 for a return run with a 44ton Cobra. Thats pretty descent. I now run a 104t T6 with normally about 220.000 per return run.

Good luck and have fun

 

[Cmdr Jezath]

Good for you! You are one of the very very very very very very few

I also don't use any add-ons or tools

 

[Briarée]

Here are my general specs:
Cobra Mk III
2x C2 Gimballed Pulse Laser
2x C1 Multicannon
2x 16u Cargo hold
2x 4u Cargo hold
1x Shield Generator (Rank E, Class 4)
1x Kill Warrant Scanner (Rank E, Class 0)
1x Frameshift Interdictor (Rank G, Class 1)

And a pretty powerful Power Plant and Power Coupling.

-Cargo missions are really profitable, as much as 60k with a mission, and regular trading is a maximum of 25k per trip.
-Unless you think I could make much more than that with mining, please don't even mention it
-Bounty Hunting isn't too profitable unless I find something as big as an Imperial Clipper, or maybe an ASP, but it a hell of a lot of fun.
-I guess I could resort to piracy, but I would need a bit of a tutorial. Blasting at NPC ships in nav beacons doesn't work anymore, and I heard (only heard) that shooting the cargo hatch isn't very reliable. Limpets are expensive, and I heard (again, only heard) they don't work well. I'm at a loss for piracy.

To sum it up, am I supposed to haul cargo all the way up to the Type 6, and then the Type 9, in order to get to the Anaconda?

i'd try to at least have as much class D as possible, gives you better range / manoevrability for a very cheap price (and very usefull if trading), then from there, upgrade as required according to the activity, FSD for trading, possibly thruster / shield for bounty hunting.

as for weapons, i was running 2xclass 2 gimballed beam + 2x C1 gimballed canon on my viper, melts sidewinders in no time without canon, cobras are a cakewalk with the cannon, and usually i don't need to re-ammo until i racked up 300k bounty on main (not counting the side bountys).

a bit heavy on power tho, required a A powerplant, but 2xC2 gimballed pulse works nice too with a smaller powerplant.

pretty sure a cobra can pack those with less trouble

have yet to encounter a conda tho, since 1.1 came out they have vanished it seems, the only i find are clean one mining

 

[DjordjeDtW]

"everything of size of an ASP and below"

My apologies, i was blinded.

 

[KASINO]

I also fly in a Cobra, and I think that for a very long time. I´m not absessed with earning millions and millions trading from one place to another again and again, IMO is too easy to make money that way, but whatever...

I like to go from one system to another and expend some time working for local factions, until I think in my next "place to go"...assasination missions are my fav, of course with the help of friend and commander, where taking down some bad asses anacondas is challenging and fun.

I find the Cobra the perfect ship for the kind of role I play in ED, armed with MCs and Burst lasers.

See out there!

 

[Chalky]

I mine 300k an hour with a Cobra Mk III. Details:

- I mine pristine metallic planetary ring of Bhotho AB 3
- 5 slot refinery
- 1 mining laser
- 22 slot cargo
- Sell at a high-tech system. Pure profit. That 14k palladium is 14k in the bank (not 1k of profit like trading). This mitigates the need for a larger cargo bay.

Mine the 4 big ones: Platinum, Palladium, Gold and Sliver. 5th slot is for trash (keeps you from having to constantly eject garbage). Don't collect any fragments worth less than 1k. (That's 10% gold or 20% silver, etc.)

My Cobra is also reasonably combat ready, so killing any pirates that attack me is a good way to break up the grind, and earn more with bounties.

Finally, I would point out that mining is not very risky. I was doing runs in a type 6, but realized I was sinking all my cash into cargo, and one death would set me back many hours. Trading might be the most profitable profession, but without capital to buy more cargo, its about as dangerous as flying without insurance. In other words, if you die, and can't continue high-profit runs, it's another long slow grind with time being the chief currency to consider. In that sense, I find mining to be less risky, and the sights are pretty.

As a final note: I am not insane. I don't expect to be mining once I get enough credits to safely fund trading (see above). But I've made 2.5 mil from mining so far. Another 1 mil would give me the overhead I need to consider trading at a reasonable scale.

Pretty much what I've done, but at another system. I love the aspect of mining and getting money from asteroids.
I've used the credits to upgrade the Cobra to A rated thrusters, that came is very handy when I was visiting Yembo with my haul of mined metals.
Nothing makes you feel safer than knowing you can max speed away from the trouble.
I have 32T of Cargo space so it takes a while to fill up. But as someone else posted, just don't ask me how long. It's not about how quickly I can make money but the variation I get from my spec.

When mining, I'm listening to podcasts or music and I tend to log in and out of the game quite frequently. So I rarely do a mine run in one session.
I've ended up allied status with the local faction, so I occasionally run a few missions for them if I want a change of view.
I also find that I can pick up bounties easily when mining as the Cobra is suited to picking off the NPC pirates. I like helping the other NPC miners out too if I see them being attacked by pirates. I just wish they would say "Thank you!" once in a while. Maybe some better NPC interaction will come later.

My next goal is to just save up enough to do some exploring. Dilemma will be, do I change my Cobra spec, or do I park it and explore in a Hauler?
I'm tempted to go off exploring in a Hauler and leave the Cobra spec'd for mining.

 

[mattensky]

Just tried a new combat loadout for high intensity warzones --- it's the business.

One D2 gimballed beam, one D2 gimballed cannon. 2 small turreted beam lasers - set to 'fire at will'.

Everything non-combat related powered off; two pips to shields, 4 pips to weapons. Cruise around near the Capital ship at 60km/h. . . I was getting bonds for ships I didn't even see! Just a flashing blue light in the top corner saying "Credits".

I only choose to fight the bigger ships with my medium weapons - the turrets seem to take care of anything smaller than an asp - judging by the number of small bonds I scored . . .

No need to restock ammo, I cashed in after 2.5 mil; - four pips to shields if someone starts shooting at you - (the turrets will be fine, but the medium beam will suffer) - if you get down to one ring 2 pips from weapons to engine and boost away until your shield recharges. I don't even have shield cells.

I earned 1 mil in just over an hour.

I'm not going to pretend that this is a very honourable way to earn money - but it's about time there was a way to earn fast cash for combat orientated small ships - I expect it will be 'balanced' soon enough.

Edit - has anyone tried 4 turreted beams?