Newcomer / Intro New to Elite, so a few things

[Jumbik]

The quickest money I made when starting out was via bounty hunting at Nav Beacons in my free Sidewinder. I only engaged ships I had already successfully fought against in the combat tutorials: Sidewinders and Cobras, mostly.

Made enough money to buy a Hauler on my first day. Got destroyed a couple of times and lost the bounties I had not already cashed in, but never had to pay insurance, because my Sidewinder was the unmodified loaned model.

So you basically went to a nav beacon and only scanned the incomming ships? Were you in a anarchy system for that?

 

[Anuranium]

No need to upgrade your ship in my opinion. Get the best FSD you can get your hands on and a discovery scanner of any type + a fuel scoop. (The more expensive, the better the range). If you want to visit distant systems and nebulas like Sagittarius A*, you would be wise to do some trading and get a better range, however it isn't necessary. CMDR r4nger went beyond Sag A* in a sidewinder...

Really, all you need to do is chose how much you want to grind, and how long range you want.
Bon voyage!

 

[InMemoriamSirocco]

So you basically went to a nav beacon and only scanned the incomming ships? Were you in a anarchy system for that?

I think it was Eravate nav beacon. I didn't have a Kill warrant scanner at that time, as I only discovered its use much later, and I didn't have the money to install one anyway.

The first things I upgraded after making some money to cover potential insurance costs were my weapons (I got two gimballed burst lasers, and my kill rate increased dramatically) and utilities (countermeasures and chaff).

I just scanned them for whether they were wanted or not. Usually the payout was pretty nice. 18.000 for a Cobra for instance. I didn't engage Vipers, though.... I had immense respect for those combat ships. Eagles, Sidewinders, the occasional wanted Hauler and Cobras were my prey.

 

[Demiga]

No, dont go to an anarchy system for that - the passive scans (clicking on a ship, facing it, waiting for the ship info to say clean or wanted on the hud) will only show if a ship is wanted in the current system. Anarachy systems have no governement or police force, so it is impossible to be wanted there. You can use a kill warrant scan there but ill come back to that.

What you want to do is go to a system that has police force or any authority ships. These systems you can do the passive scan on ships and it will show wanted or clean. Go to the nav point in this system and do your scanning there. Whats great about doing this is the police will swoop in and help you! In my starting sidewinder Ive netted an 80k bounty from an anaconda that the police helped me kill (be carefull, those things can nearly one shot you though, let them take all the aggro) - But for the most part youll only see sidewinders, some vipers or cobras that are wanted. Just keep killing them then go turn some in at the nearest station, rinse, repeat. This is how I saved up for upgrading my sidewinder, then eventually got a viper (pretty quick too!!!)

Now, the kill warrant scan - This thing does an active scan (meaning, you assign the kill warrant scan to a fire group, you target the ship and use the scanner. This will show any bounties that are from outside your system. Careful though, if they arent wanted in your current system (only outside the system) then shooting and killing them will earn you a bounty yourself, (but youll still be able to turn in the bounty for killing them)

 

[Dommarraa]

Yes, needs repeating many times.
KWS scanner only increases the money you get, it does NOT give you carte-blanche to start shooting at people.