Newcomer / Intro T6 trading vs viper/vulture bounty hunting?

Vergoth · Mar 16, 2015

As per the title I am looking for some advice.

I used a viper to grind enough money to buy and fit a t6 for trading and am now running a profitable route that works out at 14500cr/t/h or 1.45m cr an hour.

My dillema is that I am a much better combat pilot than a trader and the recent buff to bounty hunting is making me think about either buying a viper again or saving a bit more to Buy a basic fit vulture. I currently have 5m in the bank and my t6 is worth about 2.5ish.

I hear tales of people making anything up to 3m an hour bounty hunting with a little luck from the RNG gods. Should I sell up or stay the course?

andyraptor · Mar 16, 2015

You can certainly earn good money bounty hunting now.

To have a decent Vulture set up you're looking @ purchase + 20 million upgrades.

Why don't you rebuy your Viper and do T6 trading AND bounty hunting

Vergoth · Mar 16, 2015

But if I can make the 1.45m cr per hour in a viper/vulture then I will. Trading takes a lot of work before the payout in terms of research. Where as bounty hunting relies more on your piloting skills which I prefer.

Is the vulture not worth it in its default state?

Kuroshio · Mar 16, 2015

Why not buy a Viper and keep the T6? This way, you can do both - trade when you want a quite time, bounty hunting when you want excitement, until you can switch from Viper to Vulture.

It's nice to have a trading option available - for fast recovery from insurance claims, for example.

InMemoriamSirocco · Mar 16, 2015

The last time I had so much fun bountyhunting was when I flew an A-kitted combat fitted Asp into battle.

The Vulture is definitely worth saving up to. With ~30 million in the bank, you can kit it out nicely for RES Bounty Hunting.

Pulse Lasers is all you need. They just keep firing when Beams and Bursts already overheat. Mine is A-rated except for Sensors and Life support, and also carries some exploration gear and a small shield cell bank.

mistohise · Mar 16, 2015

Combat is definitely more of an option now. I'm currently working a slow path around the 71 stop rare trading route, with some intermingled bounty hunting. In pure time/credits it's an even contest now between BH and rare trades as to which is more valuable.
I would still imagine that a good quality trade route will bring you more [reliable] credits per hour, but, of course, this is not everyone's cup of tea, so now there is a choice in the matter.

ETA BH is a lot more fun now than it was before. I did a bit of work at a nav beacon earlier, there was a really good mix of enemies, both in wings or not, at varying skill levels - and the enemies are more reactive. I saw NPCs turn red and help out their pirate clanmates, and if you carry a bit of cargo it does seem like some of the pirates will now try to go for it. Also, I had a random interdiction where a pirate closed on me, and a few seconds in his buddy showed up to help.

Edited again to add - I'm doing this in an Asp. I'm a fairly average (rubbish) pilot, but I took on a deadly (I think) python after a couple of NPCs had striped the shields, and that was alright for me. I also took on a dangerous (I think) Anaconda - that was more of an even match and I bugged out at 82% hull compared to 84% on the Anaconda. The Asp is not an ideal BH ship so I think if you had a Viper or Vulture and you're a reasonable pilot you could make a lot of cash.

sp0q · Mar 16, 2015

I have a T6 and a Vulture and there is no way I'm going back to trucking wares. Not in a T6 at least.

I bought my Vulture with only 2mln of extra cash, bought two large pulse lasers and some other cheap upgrades, and went straight to a RES. Don't hold yourself until having more cash, buy it the moment you are able to, you'll have a blast. It doesn't have to be kitted out to destroy any PvE.

Vergoth · Mar 16, 2015

sp0q said:
I have a T6 and a Vulture and there is no way I'm going back to trucking wares. Not in a T6 at least.

I bought my Vulture with only 2mln of extra cash, bought two large pulse lasers and some other cheap upgrades, and went straight to a RES. Don't hold yourself until having more cash, buy it the moment you are able to, you'll have a blast. It doesn't have to be kitted out to destroy any PvE.

This is what I wanted to know.

Realistically if I could get myself up to an imperial clipper without trading I would be happy.

I don't enjoy trading, but prior to 1.2 it was the best way to reach my goal.

andyraptor · Mar 16, 2015

What you going to do then?

BH in a Clipper? Iol .... it's best role is armed TRADER ... lol

you have of course checked out the Vulture jump range for the fetch & courier missions on the way to Empire Baron rank ?

Rob_the_Sparky · Mar 16, 2015

sp0q said:
I have a T6 and a Vulture and there is no way I'm going back to trucking wares. Not in a T6 at least.

I bought my Vulture with only 2mln of extra cash, bought two large pulse lasers and some other cheap upgrades, and went straight to a RES. Don't hold yourself until having more cash, buy it the moment you are able to, you'll have a blast. It doesn't have to be kitted out to destroy any PvE.

Agreed, my Vulture was bought with a similar amount of cash but you don't even need a Vulture. I made good money from RES site BH out in the sticks are the far and of my rare run (in a Cobra). Only the thought of buying a Vulture really got me to complete the loop! Not looked back. As long as you stay away from the pointy end of an Anaconda then RES/nav hunting is great fun in even a fairly basic Vulture.

Profits for me though have varied, sometimes big bucks, sometimes very little (either number of targets or cash per kill)

andyraptor · Mar 16, 2015

Nail on the head really .. Same profits in a well fitted out Viper or Cobra ..... with lower buy back.

Porina · Mar 16, 2015

I'm relatively new to combat but did swap my Cobra for a Vulture and have been camped in Lugh over the weekend. I'm getting an estimated 800k/h in the low intensity combat zone, haven't tried the others yet. I hope to remain in the 10M+ goal band which will be more cash than I ever had. I've got a pair of bursts which do drain the power, but it does recharge pretty quickly too. Will have to try pulse when I rekit.

I did trading in a T6 previously. The increase in interdictions when 1.1 came in made it much less fun so I quit doing that. I also didn't enjoy trying to find the profitable routes in the first place. To me it isn't all about the credits, but what is more fun getting those credits. I hope after Lugh I can afford a pimped out Asp to try a deep exploration.

Vergoth · Mar 16, 2015

andyraptor said:
What you going to do then?

BH in a Clipper? Iol .... it's best role is armed TRADER ... lol

you have of course checked out the Vulture jump range for the fetch & courier missions on the way to Empire Baron rank ?

I'm allied with empire and already got the rank, thank you for your concern though I appreciate it.

As for what I'm going to do with it? What is the end game in elite? What's the reason for playing at all? To buy and anaconda and then that's it game complete? Nah.

This guy sums it up:

Porina said:
To me it isn't all about the credits, but what is more fun getting those credits. I hope after Lugh I can afford a pimped out Asp to try a deep exploration.

I just like the whole imperial thing, the ships look good from the inside and out. It's a shame the clipper has terrible hard point placement but other than that it seems a good all rounder.

I'm hoping the courier turns out just as well if not better.

Think I'll rebuy a viper and see how I go. My old load out was fixed pulses on the bottom, gimballed multi on the top. But I may go for 4x fixed pulses and see if the cap runs out too quick.

andyraptor · Mar 16, 2015

You are of course correct Vergoth

good luck with your quest CMDR

Starfox One · Mar 16, 2015

I dont think that you need 20+ mio to outfit a vulture for bountyhunting. I bought mine yesterday when i had about 10 million and it was an incredible upgrade (combat) to my old cobra. Those large hardpoints take down big ships in seconds, i made 2,5 million in 1:06 at a ressource extraction site. So if you enjoy fighting more than trading, go and buy a vulture, its worth it

andyraptor · Mar 16, 2015

that's roughly 38K a minute .... you sure NPC's Spawn that quick?

makes my 300k look sad .... and some friends in Lugh conflict zones made half that (750K - 1m) an hour with top decked at Vultures

mmmmm

willowfan · Mar 16, 2015

If you get into a RES that's spawning a few anacondas and pythons with high tariff bounties and a sprinkling of clippers, the earnings can get very high very quickly.

Vergoth · Mar 16, 2015

I think the mechanics are a little fuzzy at the moment. Big ships such as clipper/dropship/conda seem to spawn together and same with Eagle /cobra /sidey. Or so I'm led to beleive.

I have a limited understanding of the spawn mechanics, I just know there is a fair bit of rng at play.

andyraptor · Mar 16, 2015

willowfan said:
If you get into a RES that's spawning a few anacondas and pythons with high tariff bounties and a sprinkling of clippers, the earnings can get very high very quickly.

you really think this guy has enough power in a sub standard Vulture to keep C3
weapons going to solo this amount of stuff

.....Jeez Willow.... keep the fantasy alive mate

Starfox One · Mar 16, 2015

andyraptor said:
that's roughly 38K a minute .... you sure NPC's Spawn that quick?

Yes they do. There seem to be two instances at RES, one with only Eagles/Sidwinders, the other one with a lot of big ships and almost no little ones. Seems to be 50/50 to me, if i happen to be in the "small" one i jump out and directly in again.

And its not about to "solo stuff", there is a lot of help from the system authorities. Let them burn down the shields of Pytons/Anacondas and then target the reactor for a quick kill. Furthermore many Dropships/Clippers with Bountys 100k+ spawn without shields and they are really easy to kill (get under/behind, target reactor, fire, 100+k in 5 sec...)

The way RES instances are right now its definitely possible, try it!