Oh yes I remember this 71 route from a year ago. As missions were too cheap, I started this. But it got really boring too soon. As for exploration, I was considering that but decided to postpone those expeditions until more realism is added (teardrop shaped stars, giant kilometers wide asteroids, more landable planets, realistic black holes etc.). Sadly most of that will probably never happen so for now I'm still trying to make bounty hunting lucrative enough. But tnx. Really good suggestions.
Robigo runs vs legitimate way to make tonnes of cash
- Thread starter njc
- Start date
Oh yes I remember this 71 route from a year ago. As missions were too cheap, I started this. But it got really boring too soon. As for exploration, I was considering that but decided to postpone those expeditions until more realism is added (teardrop shaped stars, giant kilometers wide asteroids, more landable planets, realistic black holes etc.). Sadly most of that will probably never happen so for now I'm still trying to make bounty hunting lucrative enough. But tnx. Really good suggestions.
I was also doing that but 2 mil an hour? It was before the limpets but still. I could never mine that much. So unless they tweaked it a bit. But I tend to avoid rings because they lowered their graphics by a lot. No more rock shadows, no more fog etc. Rings now look arcadey for me and that breaks immersion. I hope they fix that sometime back to the way it was.
Ok lets pretend in the best case scenario you can make your 10m/hr.. As a smuggler I can make double that with less effort, and dont need a faction bonus (which takes time and effort to acquire and maintain)
Also for you to make 50-60 million would be an insane grind in a CZ for 5-6 hrs straight. Also the reason you couldnt actually average 10m/hr over 5hrs is because you would need to go back to a station to repair/refuel/blink your eyes/resupply/ and if youre smart hand in some missions so you dont lose everything if you make a mistake. But 5-6 hrs straight ? In a CZ? I couldnt do it... but I sure can do 3hrs straight of smuggling, as about 75% of the process is watching Youtube/tv while i flip through menus aaaannd make twice as much. Sorry, but its not balanced vs other activities.. not even close.
Jane Turner
Volunteer Moderator
In pristine metallic rings and working as a team scouting for very high yield
Oh right yes that makes sense. I was in the pristine rings, but alone it still takes some time to find platinum and palladium.
Fully kit out your Vulture, pledge to Hudson, kill 10 ships in a military strike (Expansion system), cash in the merits. From the next Thursday you will have a bonus to bounty claims in Hudson systems. Go to BR Piscum. There's a HazRES about 1ls from the second outpost. Cabrerra port, I believe it's called. Start by only engaging smaller targets in the HazRES until you build confidence and work your way up to bigger targets.
Cash in bounties at Cabrerra port.
Just make sure you have at least 100 merits each week before Thursday (I tend to stack up a load so I don't need to do it every week, you keep 50% per week for a maximum 4 weeks).
Doing this will give you a high amount of credits that will scale up as you get better at combat. Just be really careful to only engage what you think you can kill. But a fully kitted Vulture can destroy 95% of targets in a HazRES (the 5% being those really nasty wings of NPCs that occasionally crop up... You can still kill them though, just wait for them to engage other targets then take out the weaker ships first).
Maximum profit potential is about 5-8m an hour. But even 4m an hour is excellent profit for a new player so don't feel you need to push it too hard.
If you have tons of time to play and really want to smash the credits, get 10k merits (1k kills in a military strike or 334 undermining kills). Then you get a huge 100% bonus to bounties for 1 week (you'll need to maintain rank every week though so you will need a lot of time for this).
Cash in bounties at Cabrerra port.
Just make sure you have at least 100 merits each week before Thursday (I tend to stack up a load so I don't need to do it every week, you keep 50% per week for a maximum 4 weeks).
Doing this will give you a high amount of credits that will scale up as you get better at combat. Just be really careful to only engage what you think you can kill. But a fully kitted Vulture can destroy 95% of targets in a HazRES (the 5% being those really nasty wings of NPCs that occasionally crop up... You can still kill them though, just wait for them to engage other targets then take out the weaker ships first).
Maximum profit potential is about 5-8m an hour. But even 4m an hour is excellent profit for a new player so don't feel you need to push it too hard.
If you have tons of time to play and really want to smash the credits, get 10k merits (1k kills in a military strike or 334 undermining kills). Then you get a huge 100% bonus to bounties for 1 week (you'll need to maintain rank every week though so you will need a lot of time for this).
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Only 50M per week! How much do you need for outfitting/insuring a Vulture?
I think he means 50m isn't worth it for the time invested.
He can still get good money from pledging though. No need to grind to 10k merits. 100 merits will do.
I make about 3 m in an evening. If I'm lucky.
People should start posting the prerequisites for those high pay jobs.
Rank (combat/trade/explorer), faction, alegience, ship (maybe loadout). Maybe things like preparation time/travel time.
If you're somewhere below max, I don't think the 10m/hr is possible.
If you depend on missions, 90% of them will be unobtainable at lower ranks.
If you depend on Bountyhunting, you need a semi-decent combatship and there's a learning curve and you can still lose it all in one stupid crash with an anaconda
If you depend on anything RNG related (like rare commodities spawn, which can be from 1-x), it will average out over time, so that one brilliant 10mio run might be a 3 mio run next time.
And maybe mention that grinding anything you don't actually enjoy for hours and days of gameplay just to increase that credit counter is the best way to get fed up with the game
Rank (combat/trade/explorer), faction, alegience, ship (maybe loadout). Maybe things like preparation time/travel time.
If you're somewhere below max, I don't think the 10m/hr is possible.
If you depend on missions, 90% of them will be unobtainable at lower ranks.
If you depend on Bountyhunting, you need a semi-decent combatship and there's a learning curve and you can still lose it all in one stupid crash with an anaconda
If you depend on anything RNG related (like rare commodities spawn, which can be from 1-x), it will average out over time, so that one brilliant 10mio run might be a 3 mio run next time.
And maybe mention that grinding anything you don't actually enjoy for hours and days of gameplay just to increase that credit counter is the best way to get fed up with the game
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So far, I've only found bounty hunting to be a decent money maker.
I'm not a fan of smuggling, trading or mining because they're all pretty dull. Smuggling can be exciting but I've yet to figure it all out.
In the system I bounty hunt in, 'Pemoeri', I can easily rake in 4-5 mil an hour if I get a good spawn. There's also currently a Federation/Indy Civil war going on to enjoy too. And on top of that you can cash in federation, Indy, and Empire bounty in 1 station.
It's all a bit grindy, but it makes good money while still being engaged in something exciting.
It's where I came to originally save money for my Vulture, then Python ( which is now an FDL).
I'm not a fan of smuggling, trading or mining because they're all pretty dull. Smuggling can be exciting but I've yet to figure it all out.
In the system I bounty hunt in, 'Pemoeri', I can easily rake in 4-5 mil an hour if I get a good spawn. There's also currently a Federation/Indy Civil war going on to enjoy too. And on top of that you can cash in federation, Indy, and Empire bounty in 1 station.
It's all a bit grindy, but it makes good money while still being engaged in something exciting.
It's where I came to originally save money for my Vulture, then Python ( which is now an FDL).
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Is there any legitimate way to make so much money so fast? Trading slaves is just not my thing. I'm currently in a financial crisis. I bought a Vulture but my current incomes are not enough for outfitting and insurance costs. basic bulletin board and bounty hunting is simply not enough. I found some tips on how to make more money but it seems that nothing comes close to slave trading. Or am I missing something? I don't have enough time for powerplay and even if I did, it's still just 50M per week. Which is like just one Robigo run.
Also it seem a bit weird that someone would offer so much money for slaves. I mean how could a slave possibly work so hard to justify such price for the owner? And these are just the smuggling costs. Others had to acquire slaves, then someone has to feed them, house them, instruct them, guard them etc. Unless the cargo you carry is 1t of slaves and not just one slave in a 1t canister. That would make more sense but how could you stuff a dozen people in that tiny canister? These high costs suggest some more sinister stuff that happens to them. Maybe they are not just workers but also sex slaves, forced organ donors, gladiators etc.
And even if they were just workers it's still beyond my moral capacity. So whenever I acquire slaves, hostages, occupied escape pods or imperial slaves, I never sell them on a black market because I think that means slavery. I just jettison them while docked assuming I'm setting them free. I'm not sure if that's helping them though since they are then stuck on some station with no money and probably have to sell themselves anyway. It would be great if there was some faction offering enormous sums of money for killing slave traders and bringing slaves to them so that they can set them up and set them free. Maybe not paying as much as the Robigo cartel pays but still. Considering all the tree huggers here in the real world, I assume there would be a lot more opposition to slavery if it was real to such an extent.
So is there any way to make so much money in ED? Right now it seems that if you want to strike it rich then you either have to be a slave trader or a pirate. But doing moral/legitimate things means being stuck with cheap ships or playing really long hours. Which brings me to another question; Are the majority of players with Anacondas mostly pirates and slave smugglers?
Don't tell me it's just a game and just go trade slaves. I know it's a game. That's why I like this slave trading concept and pirating being available options. But for me, gaming immersion is all about realism. Knowing that if I was really there, I would not sell slaves, so trading slaves would be boring for me as I couldn't get immersed. Slave trading would then for me be just a chore that I simply have to do to be able to afford doing other things.
PS. Also, it would be great if you could kidnap slave smugglers and traders and sell them into slavery.
Nate,
I love your approach - I was the same as I went through the game. Smuggling Slaves is a mugs game especially when there are many sites that sell Palladium at 12500 and there are many sites that buy Palladium at greater than 15500 earning a nice profit of about 3000 per ton. Equally there are a few places that sell Land Enrichment Systems at about 2500 less than the buy prices at others (I have seen 3500 difference at one place). Use the following site to find the best in your area (not all areas are as good as others):
https://eddb.io/trade/loops
This will help greatly and you don't have to trade anything you do not wish to. Unfortunately, the Federation sometimes asks you do some illegal things to progress in Naval rank.
CMDR StarRaker
Federation Post Commander
Empire Prince
It has been mentioned quite some times already but I can conform it.
1. Pledge to a Power of your choice that will give you a bonus to Collected Bounty (e.g. Hudson if you're roaming around in the Federation or Arissa Lavigny Duval if you're inside the Empire) Collect 100 Merits and see to it that you stay above 100 Merits so you are at least Rating 2 inside the power - this will give you at least 20% Bonus on collected bounty, or more if your power is within the top 3.
2. Find a nice system with a Resource Extraction Site [High] (High RES for short).
Upon entering that High RES watch out for spawns of other ships. If you spot a wanted pilot but they're flying a small craft like an Eagle, Sidewinder, Cobra, Diamondback Explorer, Adder or Imperial Curier leave the RES.
Super Cruise about 500km away, turn around and re-enter the RES.
3. Rinse and repeat until your wanted ships are big ones. Asp Explorer, Vulture, Fer-de-Lance, Federal Drop Ship Python, Imperial Clipper, Anaconda. Mind however that sometimes larger ships can have escorts which can be smaller ships - in this case you do not need to leave.
4. Bounty hunt away! (<- this is the ???? part)
5. Profit! ... about 4-10 Million per hour
Oh and don't forget a Kill Warrant Scanner!
Careful though: don't attack ships in a wing, especially those in a wing of 3 if you're not absolutely sure what you're doing!
Even inside a Vulture or a Cobra 2 Eagles can and will hurt you... a lot!
You can however rely on local law enforcement to attack those pirates and when they do you can take your chance at grabbing the bounty as well.
Also don't ever do this with cargo on board!
1. Pledge to a Power of your choice that will give you a bonus to Collected Bounty (e.g. Hudson if you're roaming around in the Federation or Arissa Lavigny Duval if you're inside the Empire) Collect 100 Merits and see to it that you stay above 100 Merits so you are at least Rating 2 inside the power - this will give you at least 20% Bonus on collected bounty, or more if your power is within the top 3.
2. Find a nice system with a Resource Extraction Site [High] (High RES for short).
Upon entering that High RES watch out for spawns of other ships. If you spot a wanted pilot but they're flying a small craft like an Eagle, Sidewinder, Cobra, Diamondback Explorer, Adder or Imperial Curier leave the RES.
Super Cruise about 500km away, turn around and re-enter the RES.
3. Rinse and repeat until your wanted ships are big ones. Asp Explorer, Vulture, Fer-de-Lance, Federal Drop Ship Python, Imperial Clipper, Anaconda. Mind however that sometimes larger ships can have escorts which can be smaller ships - in this case you do not need to leave.
4. Bounty hunt away! (<- this is the ???? part)
5. Profit! ... about 4-10 Million per hour
Oh and don't forget a Kill Warrant Scanner!
Careful though: don't attack ships in a wing, especially those in a wing of 3 if you're not absolutely sure what you're doing!
Even inside a Vulture or a Cobra 2 Eagles can and will hurt you... a lot!
You can however rely on local law enforcement to attack those pirates and when they do you can take your chance at grabbing the bounty as well.
Also don't ever do this with cargo on board!
Making money in this game is much easier now than it was this time last year.
I took a ten month break or so after playing quite a bit and ended with only a viper and ten million credits through combat.
In the short time I've been playing since then I now have a fully kitted out vulture, a decently outfitted asp explorer, the viper, a cobra, a nice eagle, a random sidewinder I used to test planetary landing and about 30 million credits and that is pretty much all from shooting stuff in hi/haz res.
It can still get a bit quiet at times but nothing like it was a year ago where you'd only see sidewinders for miles and miles. I generally end a play session with around 3 million or so of bounties to cash in, ignoring the ones that I'd have to take a trip to redeem.
You can easily earn decent money from res farming without even faffing about with that boring power play lark.
I took a ten month break or so after playing quite a bit and ended with only a viper and ten million credits through combat.
In the short time I've been playing since then I now have a fully kitted out vulture, a decently outfitted asp explorer, the viper, a cobra, a nice eagle, a random sidewinder I used to test planetary landing and about 30 million credits and that is pretty much all from shooting stuff in hi/haz res.
It can still get a bit quiet at times but nothing like it was a year ago where you'd only see sidewinders for miles and miles. I generally end a play session with around 3 million or so of bounties to cash in, ignoring the ones that I'd have to take a trip to redeem.
You can easily earn decent money from res farming without even faffing about with that boring power play lark.
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There should never be a way to make more money legitimately than illegally.
Why? From a game balance perspective, legal bounty hunting requires more skill and/or much better equipment than illegal smuggling. It is also considerably more dangerous.
From a realism point of view you don't need to look far to see people making money hand over fist legally, or to see criminals with nothing.
Not sure about that, when did "seeking luxuries" hit? I missed that boat.
Oh is it? I did not know. My numbers then, are skewed from this.
Well I know now that my big payouts for BH/Combat were "bugged." So you might be right there.
The reason I'm doing $10Million/hr is that I am not exploiting the BB by mode switching. I stay in my group, and do chores for 10 minutes at a time, checking the BB 3-4 times before setting off. So I'm putting in 30-40 minutes upfront, waiting for missions. I'm just entrepenour rank, so I don't get the crazy awesome $5-6Million missions. I grab a few $3-4Million missions for $15-20Million total, and take about an hour dropping them off (approx 7 stops).
I enjoy the game play. I'm not trying to squeeze every cent I can out of it.
If you have a t6 with 100tons of cargo space, about 10 minutes. If you have a cobra with 50 tons of space, 25 minutes?
I disagree. I've come just as close to losing my ship smuggling as I have bounty hunting. Mostly due to the weak shields and light armor my smuggling ship carries, and boosting into stations to avoid scans. But the end result is the same. It's not that hard to Bounty Hunt. Find a RES. Find a wanted ship. Point your KWS at them, start shooting until they explode. If you have a properly fitted ship, it's not exactly a gauntlet. My Vulture hardly breaks a sweat in a HAZ RES, until the wings of Anacondas start showing up. And that's as simple as jump out and back in to reset the instance. And even if I do take a beating and have to hi-tail it to a station, I don't loose all my accrued bounties. You actually have to DIE to lose everything, which, at leats to me, is hard to do if you're awake. Unlike the shadow delivers, where you do fail your missions if you screw up slightly. Turn to your escape vector to soon after an interdiction? Fail. Take 30 seconds to long to dock at at station? Fail. It's far easier to fail your Long range missions, and come away with no profit after an hour of work, than it is to lose your ship in a RES or CZ, IMO.
That is a blatant lie! Just like most of our PP description (see: bonuses)