Other M. Volgrand's guides:
The art of open bounty hunt.
Ah, lovely trade community goals! Such an easy way to get money while making friends... until those pesky pirate commanders arrive there. They will interdict you, rob you or simply kill you for the fun of it. Aw man, that's not fair!
Sure, a less brave commander would activate its dimensional shift drive and jump to an alternate dimension where he will not have to deal with those people. However, we aren't! We are there because we will not let those guys get over us, we will keep going on no matter what they do!
So I present you the guide "How to survive to trade Community Goals". Or a more poetic title: "The art of blockade running".
1) THE BASICS
So, you need to get valuable to a system, but you know that some commanders will be there waiting for you. The first problem you will need to overcome is the Interdictions. the second problem will be to get inside the station in one piece. The final problem will be to get OUT of the station in one piece.
Piece of cake, right?
2) AVOIDING AND INTERDICTION
Well commander, you are about to jump to the destination system. This is your checklist:
You got all checks? Perfect, let's start.
Firstly, as soon as you jump into the system, you will immediatly check your radar for hollow squares or triangles. It is not always easy to figure out which one is dangerous or not. A good hint: if you see a combat specialist ship, that commander is likely to be a pirate.
Try to assess the situation: Does it look safe? If you are unsure play the "Oh, I'm just scooping, nothing suspicious here" tactic. This tactic consists on start fuel scooping the local star (even if it is not a OBAFGKM star) but pointing your nose away from it. This way if an enemy commander wants to interdict you will have to make a very obvious turn around the star, crashing in it gravity well or giving you enough time to react.
Second, do you see any friendly faces? If so, ask them if it is safe. Yeah, it does work! Traders tend to warn you if there are enemies present, so listen to them! But if they tell you that it is safe, keep in mind that it JUST looks safe. Space is always dangerous, you know...
Third: When you supercruise to the station, keep always an eye on the radar. ANY SHIP IMMEDIATELY BEHIND YOU IS SUSPICIOUS. If a ship starts turning towards your tail, red alert! She's trying to interdict you! You can then perform an emergecny FSD drop: you will likely get some hull damage, but avoid a pirate from destroying you or even worse, Getting your cargo!
Fourth: IF you manage to get to the station do not follow an straight line. Most interdictions will happen when you drop your speed to drop from SC, as the pirates will have the chance to get closer to you. Instead of that, turn around the station following an spire trajectory; this will make it difficult to anyone from interdicting you.
If you managed to get to the station, jump to section 4. If you got interdicted, jump to section 3.
3) HOW TO SURVIVE AN INTERDICTION:
So, you got interdicted. Don't panic! You still MAY survive the experience! Just follow those steps.
The most likely outcome of this will be the enemy following you and shooting all its weapons. You will need to estimate how fast you are getting away from him (IF you are faster than your enemy) and how likely are you to escape before he drops all your shields. There are then two possible options for you:
4) HOW TO GET IN AND OUT THE STATION:
You made it to the station, congrats! Now you need to get in but... those pesky pirates are destroying ships! Damn, time to come back? No way! You came to deliver a cargo that these people need, and you are going to do it!
Now, trust me on something: If these people are blockading the station is because they can, because their ships are very good. Your best bet here is not great shields, but stealth and patience. So:
5) SHIP LOADOUT:
So you need a fast, sturdy ship, with cargo capacity and a reasonable management of heat? My selection will always be the cobra mkIII, no matter how many millions there are on my bank account.
A rate your FSD and drive. You may want to consider using military grade composite armor plate, but it iwll affect your speed and handling. D grade your sensors, life support and any extra modules. You don't want any weapons, this is not a combat ship and they will only slow you down.
For power plant, select the one just enough to power up all your systems, the lower the heat generation the best.
If you have access to engineers, you want to apply a reduced fsd cooldown at the highest possible rate. It will make your life a lot easier, allowing you to jump much faster if interdicted. Clean drive tunning will give you extra speed while maintaining the heat generation low, and a low emissions powerplant will help you to remain longer in silent run.
Improved shields are a good option, but not a requisite. If so, I recommend the Heat resistant shields to even your chances against any weapon loadout you face.
6) COMMUNITY TIPS
There you have some tips given by cmdrs after reading this guide. I'm adding a few personal notes when needed (or jokes just for the fun of it)
Stealthie:
Well, if they do... damn, my perfect plan wasted!
Cmdr Goro:
The Cobra I picked up should be understood as my personal choice. Picking a bigger ship will let you sneak in more cargo, but also will make you an easier target. You should choose the ship and build that better suits up your flight style.
And anyway, in my opinion not everything is about getting to the top 10%.
GreyAreaUK:
Very true, I totally forgot to mention that.
UnhappyDEV:
If that happens you may want to consider equipping a few pont defenses or maybe an ECM. Anyway, this is Elite: Dangerous and you may always find a cmdr that no matter what you do, will be better than you.
ARC:
I just learnt about using the contact history to find commanders. Good tip! I don't agree about using the bandwidth monitor as I find it immersion breaking. But if you don't, feel free to use it!
Susanna:
Nothing to add here, although I am not completely sure if an smaller A rated pp would run cooler than the biggest one.
MarkAusten:
That is some good advise, similar to my recommendation of approaching the station in an spiral. You should however keep in mind that most times your ship will slow down due to the proximity of gravity wells, which can let you in range of an interdiction.
Lupin:
Optimal_909:
While it is true that Rinzler gives a lot of useful tips there, I think that his build would be unable to go through a proper blockade in an station's entrance. However watch his video, certainly you will learn a lot from him.
So, there you are commander! You just completed this theoretical course on "The art of blockade running". Be wise out there, and fly safe!
The art of open bounty hunt.
Ah, lovely trade community goals! Such an easy way to get money while making friends... until those pesky pirate commanders arrive there. They will interdict you, rob you or simply kill you for the fun of it. Aw man, that's not fair!
Sure, a less brave commander would activate its dimensional shift drive and jump to an alternate dimension where he will not have to deal with those people. However, we aren't! We are there because we will not let those guys get over us, we will keep going on no matter what they do!
So I present you the guide "How to survive to trade Community Goals". Or a more poetic title: "The art of blockade running".
1) THE BASICS
So, you need to get valuable to a system, but you know that some commanders will be there waiting for you. The first problem you will need to overcome is the Interdictions. the second problem will be to get inside the station in one piece. The final problem will be to get OUT of the station in one piece.
Piece of cake, right?
2) AVOIDING AND INTERDICTION
Well commander, you are about to jump to the destination system. This is your checklist:
- Plot a route making your destiny part of it. This will allow you to easily select a new system if you need to jump away from destruction.
- Hotkey the command "select next system in route". Once again, this will help you to run away from a lost combat.
- Check all modules integrity. We don't want a poorly maintained drive to fail in mid of combat, right?
- Check all consumables. Ammunition, heat sinks, point defense ammunition, shield boosters...
- Check you got the needed cargo. Yeah... I did not take my cargo once.
You got all checks? Perfect, let's start.
Firstly, as soon as you jump into the system, you will immediatly check your radar for hollow squares or triangles. It is not always easy to figure out which one is dangerous or not. A good hint: if you see a combat specialist ship, that commander is likely to be a pirate.
Try to assess the situation: Does it look safe? If you are unsure play the "Oh, I'm just scooping, nothing suspicious here" tactic. This tactic consists on start fuel scooping the local star (even if it is not a OBAFGKM star) but pointing your nose away from it. This way if an enemy commander wants to interdict you will have to make a very obvious turn around the star, crashing in it gravity well or giving you enough time to react.
Second, do you see any friendly faces? If so, ask them if it is safe. Yeah, it does work! Traders tend to warn you if there are enemies present, so listen to them! But if they tell you that it is safe, keep in mind that it JUST looks safe. Space is always dangerous, you know...
Third: When you supercruise to the station, keep always an eye on the radar. ANY SHIP IMMEDIATELY BEHIND YOU IS SUSPICIOUS. If a ship starts turning towards your tail, red alert! She's trying to interdict you! You can then perform an emergecny FSD drop: you will likely get some hull damage, but avoid a pirate from destroying you or even worse, Getting your cargo!
Fourth: IF you manage to get to the station do not follow an straight line. Most interdictions will happen when you drop your speed to drop from SC, as the pirates will have the chance to get closer to you. Instead of that, turn around the station following an spire trajectory; this will make it difficult to anyone from interdicting you.
If you managed to get to the station, jump to section 4. If you got interdicted, jump to section 3.
3) HOW TO SURVIVE AN INTERDICTION:
So, you got interdicted. Don't panic! You still MAY survive the experience! Just follow those steps.
- SUBMIT! Yeah, I know, it is tempting to try to escape the interdiction, but trust me, if you fail YOU ARE DONE!
- HIT YOUR "SELECT NEXT SYSTEM IN ROUTE" HOTKEY. Trust me, do it.
- POINT YOUR SHIP TO THE SELECTED SYSTEM AND BOOST! You want to get out of there as soon as you drop from supercruise. All pips to engines and shields and BOOST AWAY! Do not turn at any pointt, it will only make you an easier target. So boost in an straight line.
- CHECK ON YOUR ENEMIES! Use the "select next/previous target" buttons to check on all ships following you. Keep an eye on the ship type and the distance you are getting from them.
The most likely outcome of this will be the enemy following you and shooting all its weapons. You will need to estimate how fast you are getting away from him (IF you are faster than your enemy) and how likely are you to escape before he drops all your shields. There are then two possible options for you:
- If you can outrun your enemy, do it and go back to supercruise. As you did submit to the interdiction the enemy will need almost 40 seconds to cool the FSD before jumping after you.
- If you CAN'T outrun your enemy, jump to the selected ystem. Jumping to another system will avoid any mass lock to delay your jump, so you should have no problem at all with it.
4) HOW TO GET IN AND OUT THE STATION:
You made it to the station, congrats! Now you need to get in but... those pesky pirates are destroying ships! Damn, time to come back? No way! You came to deliver a cargo that these people need, and you are going to do it!
Now, trust me on something: If these people are blockading the station is because they can, because their ships are very good. Your best bet here is not great shields, but stealth and patience. So:
- HIT SILENT RUN AND MOVE AWAY. Yeah, I mean it, move away from the station and assess the situation from the distance. Are there shots being fired? Any known pirate commander? Rememmber that even if you are far away, a commander could ses a disturbance in the radar and realize that you are hiding somewhere. Keep your distance at about 7-8 km from the station at least.
- LINE WITH THE STATION ENTRANCE. This is the best moment to use a heat sink. Jump to step three at the same moment it is ejected from your ship.
- BOOST! Hit boost and aim for the mail slot. Then deactivate flight assist and let physics do the rest.
- ASK PERMISSION TO DOCK. Don forget that. I did. Once.
- GET THROUGH THE SLOT, AND YOU ARE (mostly) SAFE! Activate flight assist if you need it and deactivate silent run.
- DOCK! PROFIT!
5) SHIP LOADOUT:
So you need a fast, sturdy ship, with cargo capacity and a reasonable management of heat? My selection will always be the cobra mkIII, no matter how many millions there are on my bank account.
A rate your FSD and drive. You may want to consider using military grade composite armor plate, but it iwll affect your speed and handling. D grade your sensors, life support and any extra modules. You don't want any weapons, this is not a combat ship and they will only slow you down.
For power plant, select the one just enough to power up all your systems, the lower the heat generation the best.
If you have access to engineers, you want to apply a reduced fsd cooldown at the highest possible rate. It will make your life a lot easier, allowing you to jump much faster if interdicted. Clean drive tunning will give you extra speed while maintaining the heat generation low, and a low emissions powerplant will help you to remain longer in silent run.
Improved shields are a good option, but not a requisite. If so, I recommend the Heat resistant shields to even your chances against any weapon loadout you face.
6) COMMUNITY TIPS
There you have some tips given by cmdrs after reading this guide. I'm adding a few personal notes when needed (or jokes just for the fun of it)
Stealthie:
"Hope that the guy coming after you don't read this guide".
Well, if they do... damn, my perfect plan wasted!
Cmdr Goro:
"Good luck getting in top 10% with Cobra..."
The Cobra I picked up should be understood as my personal choice. Picking a bigger ship will let you sneak in more cargo, but also will make you an easier target. You should choose the ship and build that better suits up your flight style.
And anyway, in my opinion not everything is about getting to the top 10%.
GreyAreaUK:
"As an added wrinkle to this: don't forget that you can charge your FSD without it pointing at the destination system, so charge your FSD as soon as it's cooled, don't wait until you're pointing in the right direction."
Very true, I totally forgot to mention that.
UnhappyDEV:
"Hope that the guys coming after you don't have FSD rebooter missiles."
ARC:
"instead of checking your scanner for hollow squares and triangles, check your contact history. It will show a tick next to the names of all CMDRs in your instance. Also have your bandwidth monitor (CTRL + B) running as anything near 6000-10000 means at least 1 person is in your instance"
Susanna:
"As for power plant, you are better off fitting the largest A rated pp you can. It will run much cooler as you are using less load from it. This may seem overkill, but if you want to follow these instructions, I'd suggest getting your temp down as low and for as long as possible. Also, you will be automatically detected when within 900m of the target and certainly within 500m. So keep your distance wherever possible from the ship hunting you."
MarkAusten:
"If you are being chased and getting close to your destination station, you could always try the over-run trick. To do this do not throttle down to 75% when the timer reaches 6s and you'll go screeching past. As soon as the FSD goes into over run throttle back to a lower speed and start turning back to your target. The over-run stops as soon as the target is behind you, that is the compass shows a hollow dot instead of a solid dot.
if you do this manoeuvre correctly you will end up just a short distance away from the station on the other side from your enemy and have a little more time to get to the station in normal space.
Increase your throttle again and set it to 75% when the countdown is 6s. As soon as the speed indicator on your left-hand panel goes into the white, go to full throttle and prepare to drop out quickly. Then boost like hell to get into the no fire zone as fast as you can.
This is a last ditch manoeuvre!"
if you do this manoeuvre correctly you will end up just a short distance away from the station on the other side from your enemy and have a little more time to get to the station in normal space.
Increase your throttle again and set it to 75% when the countdown is 6s. As soon as the speed indicator on your left-hand panel goes into the white, go to full throttle and prepare to drop out quickly. Then boost like hell to get into the no fire zone as fast as you can.
This is a last ditch manoeuvre!"
That is some good advise, similar to my recommendation of approaching the station in an spiral. You should however keep in mind that most times your ship will slow down due to the proximity of gravity wells, which can let you in range of an interdiction.
Lupin:
"AVOID popular times. e.g. USA and UK evenings."
Optimal_909:
"I'm baffled no one has linked Rinzler's excellent guide on this yet.
While it is true that Rinzler gives a lot of useful tips there, I think that his build would be unable to go through a proper blockade in an station's entrance. However watch his video, certainly you will learn a lot from him.
So, there you are commander! You just completed this theoretical course on "The art of blockade running". Be wise out there, and fly safe!
Last edited:
![[VR] optimal_909](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/109/109067.jpg?1553781733){kind=avatar}
