I read of few posts on this, and most seem to agree that it wasn't worth trying to get level 5 because it costs as much as you get, but they all missed something. It can actually be very profitable. After one week at level 5, it's given me 250 million above what I would have got without it.
I did it by delivering 10,000 tons of his reinforcement. For that, you need a ship that can carry at least 250 tons a time and you at least 150 million in the bank because they cost approximately 100 million for the first week and up to 50 million the second week before you get your 50 million salary. There's one big risk. You must not become wanted in Nanomam, otherwise you'll have difficulty getting in and out of Gresley Dock. That means you have to be very careful in the no fire zone. If you exceed the speed limit, you can get suicide dive-bombers.
In week one, your outlay is 100 million, and it takes about 10 hours to deliver the stuff - less if you deliver them to Groombridge 1618, but that doesn't need reinforcing. You get the merit points anyway.
In week 2, you get a 50 million bonus, so that's half your money back. You now have to deliver approximately 5000 tons each week to keep level 5. You can pay for them, which will cost another 50,000,000, or you can get them for nothing if you're smart. You get 50 free every half hour, so at the end of each playing session, you fly to Gresley Dock and get 50 free. After that, if you can, leave your computer switched on because every half hour you can get another 50 free. The same in the morning: As soon as you get up, switch on and load another 50, then when you've had your shower/coffee/breakfast, get another 50. When you start your next session, get another 50, so you could now have your cargo hold full, so take them to the ZH system next to the ZH system where you bounty hunt. Ideally, you should choose a system that needs reinforcing to play in the spirit of power play. You can pay for any more deliveries you want to make. Do whatever you have to to get back up to 1000 merits. In my week 2, I only paid out 18 million. Don't forget that at the end of this week, you get 50 million back as a salary for level 5.
You can carry on doing that each week to get a net gain of 32 million, so you'll probably break even after three weeks, but after that, you gain 30 million each week for about 5 hours work - equivalent to 6 million an hour.
Now comes the real payback. You get 100% bonus on all bounties claimed in ZH systems. I use two ships: My FDL for RES farming and an Anaconda for the deliveries. You cannot park your delivery ship in your hunting system because it'll become locked in if you get a bounty on you there, so park it in a ZH system that needs reinforcing next to your bounty hunting one. First thing, you bring the reinforcement stuff, then swap ships and go bounty hunting, and at the end of the session, you swap ships again and go back to Nanomam to get more supplies.
Here's my figures
Week 1
Cost of reinforcements: 90,000.000 (1,000, were free because I was already level 3 and got 15 free every half hour)
Pay for delivering: 1,000,000
Net result for week: -89,000,000
Week 2
Cost of reinforcements: 18,000.000 (3200 were free because I now get 50 free every 30 mins)
Pay for delivering: 500,000
Bonus on bounties: 308,000,000
Salary for level 5: 50,000,000
Net result for 2 weeks: 251,500,000
To summarise, I'm a quarter of a billion up after one week and one day. I'm making about 5 million an hour bounty hunting (doubled to 10 million an hour), so that adds up to about 50 hours during the week. Most people won't be able to play that much, so you have to calculate what your bonus will be bearing in mind that it takes about 5 hours to do all the things to deliver the reinforcements. Just to make it clear, the above figures only relate to the additional money I got from ZH. This week in total, I gained 600,000,000. That's about 10 million an hour for every hour I play.
You can also do a bit of trading on the way to Nanomam. I was making about one million a trip by selling stuff to Groombridge 1618 and then taking stuff from there to Nanomam, until I had to change systems due to bounties on me.
Just to clear another point. You only get the free supplies every 30 minutes while you're waiting in Gresley dock. When you arrive, you can claim 50 immediately, but then you have to wait. If you buy any, the clock gets reset to zero even if you bought some with one minute to go before the next free ones become available. You can fly away, and come back after 30 minutes to claim another 50, but they don't accumulate beyond that if you're away for a long time. It works in real time, so, if you had access to your account at work, you can log on say once an hour to click the loading, which takes less than a minute so that you're cargo hold is full, ready to deliver at the start of your next session.
I did it by delivering 10,000 tons of his reinforcement. For that, you need a ship that can carry at least 250 tons a time and you at least 150 million in the bank because they cost approximately 100 million for the first week and up to 50 million the second week before you get your 50 million salary. There's one big risk. You must not become wanted in Nanomam, otherwise you'll have difficulty getting in and out of Gresley Dock. That means you have to be very careful in the no fire zone. If you exceed the speed limit, you can get suicide dive-bombers.
In week one, your outlay is 100 million, and it takes about 10 hours to deliver the stuff - less if you deliver them to Groombridge 1618, but that doesn't need reinforcing. You get the merit points anyway.
In week 2, you get a 50 million bonus, so that's half your money back. You now have to deliver approximately 5000 tons each week to keep level 5. You can pay for them, which will cost another 50,000,000, or you can get them for nothing if you're smart. You get 50 free every half hour, so at the end of each playing session, you fly to Gresley Dock and get 50 free. After that, if you can, leave your computer switched on because every half hour you can get another 50 free. The same in the morning: As soon as you get up, switch on and load another 50, then when you've had your shower/coffee/breakfast, get another 50. When you start your next session, get another 50, so you could now have your cargo hold full, so take them to the ZH system next to the ZH system where you bounty hunt. Ideally, you should choose a system that needs reinforcing to play in the spirit of power play. You can pay for any more deliveries you want to make. Do whatever you have to to get back up to 1000 merits. In my week 2, I only paid out 18 million. Don't forget that at the end of this week, you get 50 million back as a salary for level 5.
You can carry on doing that each week to get a net gain of 32 million, so you'll probably break even after three weeks, but after that, you gain 30 million each week for about 5 hours work - equivalent to 6 million an hour.
Now comes the real payback. You get 100% bonus on all bounties claimed in ZH systems. I use two ships: My FDL for RES farming and an Anaconda for the deliveries. You cannot park your delivery ship in your hunting system because it'll become locked in if you get a bounty on you there, so park it in a ZH system that needs reinforcing next to your bounty hunting one. First thing, you bring the reinforcement stuff, then swap ships and go bounty hunting, and at the end of the session, you swap ships again and go back to Nanomam to get more supplies.
Here's my figures
Week 1
Cost of reinforcements: 90,000.000 (1,000, were free because I was already level 3 and got 15 free every half hour)
Pay for delivering: 1,000,000
Net result for week: -89,000,000
Week 2
Cost of reinforcements: 18,000.000 (3200 were free because I now get 50 free every 30 mins)
Pay for delivering: 500,000
Bonus on bounties: 308,000,000
Salary for level 5: 50,000,000
Net result for 2 weeks: 251,500,000
To summarise, I'm a quarter of a billion up after one week and one day. I'm making about 5 million an hour bounty hunting (doubled to 10 million an hour), so that adds up to about 50 hours during the week. Most people won't be able to play that much, so you have to calculate what your bonus will be bearing in mind that it takes about 5 hours to do all the things to deliver the reinforcements. Just to make it clear, the above figures only relate to the additional money I got from ZH. This week in total, I gained 600,000,000. That's about 10 million an hour for every hour I play.
You can also do a bit of trading on the way to Nanomam. I was making about one million a trip by selling stuff to Groombridge 1618 and then taking stuff from there to Nanomam, until I had to change systems due to bounties on me.
Just to clear another point. You only get the free supplies every 30 minutes while you're waiting in Gresley dock. When you arrive, you can claim 50 immediately, but then you have to wait. If you buy any, the clock gets reset to zero even if you bought some with one minute to go before the next free ones become available. You can fly away, and come back after 30 minutes to claim another 50, but they don't accumulate beyond that if you're away for a long time. It works in real time, so, if you had access to your account at work, you can log on say once an hour to click the loading, which takes less than a minute so that you're cargo hold is full, ready to deliver at the start of your next session.
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