Trade and Exploration Elite. On to Combat Rank. Need Help.
- Thread starter roastincoffee
- Start date
LOL thanks
I have it fresh in my mind. Just made about 25 runs out and back for Trade Elite.
How much did you make?
I went from 450million to 1billion+ Its no joke. I got an Orca, filled it with cabins (economy, first, biz class) and just started grinding. Go to Allen Hub in Upsilon Aquarii for the missions.
You're talking a 35-55 million payout per run. Each run takes probably 1.25 hours because I spent 50min in SC and the rest of the time scavenging the passenger lounge for missions to Smeaton. That required about 15min worth of getting in and out of Solo, Private, and Open Servers until I was full up on passengers.
Ignore ALL the Sightseeing Missions. Fill Economy Cabins with Refugees, Protestors, or Aid Workers who pay in the millions for the trip. I filled the Biz and First class cabins single rich people wanting a ride to Smeaton.
Trade Rank is all about Profit. The Smeaton Orbital runs are PURE profit. Each run out was like 5-8% rank bump. Took me a while, but its my go to "need cash fast" process.
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Yeh, they spam missiles which hit multiple modules at teh same time, it can get hairy, but MoM promises us they are not PP snipers yet, and I guess I believe her
Smart. /thumbsup
Have you seen this thread?
Mode switching for missions and Smeaton Orbital [200mill/hour]
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...for-missions-and-Smeaton-Orbital-200mill-hour
LOL
Yes. My ship isn't as big or I would have seen larger credit sums. Mode switching is a big part of the game. For better or worse. (most people think worse).
@Aashenfox finding specialized legacy firmware is proving difficult. I have lots of the other mats. But this one is rough.
https://inara.cz/galaxy-component/112/
https://inara.cz/galaxy-component/112/
You can definitely get specialized legacy firmware from surface base scans and satellites that sometimes appear in encoded emissions USS. Also the stationary satellites you can find at some locations like capital ship docks (e.g. next to Chelomey Orbital in Cubeo).
I believe you can also get it as mission reward, although in the current version it is very difficult to find lower grade materials when you are Elite rank.
I believe you can also get it as mission reward, although in the current version it is very difficult to find lower grade materials when you are Elite rank.
Yep, good advice above, When scanning the base for a planetary scan mission you will often get these, and good money usually too! Fortunately, you won't need a lot of those, just enough to level up, 15 should be enough, it is not needed for any high level recipes.
You definitely can get it as a mission reward too.
side question....when doing surface scan missions, will i always become WANTED afterwords?
Edit: So far the answer is yes. I am 2-2 being wanted and the second time i nearly lost my ship to system security. Not a fan of the Scan missions.
Edit: So far the answer is yes. I am 2-2 being wanted and the second time i nearly lost my ship to system security. Not a fan of the Scan missions.
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You don't need to do missions to get engineer data from planetary bases (although that is definitely an option). If you just find a random surface installation and scan ALL data points within a time limit you will get a bunch of random data. Many surface bases don't have any trespass zones or the layout is such that you don't need to enter that zone to scan data points. If you look around this forum (or Google) you will find detailed plans of different base layouts and suggested paths to drive around them.
How do i find random bases? Just fly around a planets surface till i see one?
The best way to get specialised legacy firmware is to go pick up a bunch of planetary scan missions from the boards. Go somewhere you already have a lot of good rep (allied with multiple factions). Note that often you will be able to scan the same point multiple times to complete the missions, I don't know why this works, but it does in 'most' cases...After you do the first scan, just back away, log out, log back in again (don't have to mode switch, go back to the same mode, or not, it's up to you), and check the nav panel for the globe type mission icon. If there is another point to scan it will be 1km away nearby. Double handy that.
I think what NecasekO means by random bases, is base running for high level data, cracked industrial firmware (the most valuable material in the game, imo) and modified embedded firmware. I do this activity regularly to get my CIF, and when I do I work from this list below, because it's about as many bases as I can handle in one run (takes a couple hours), they all have the same layout (all nodes visible from the outer edge of the main 'complex', except one which is up one of the ramps on the left) except one, which has an easy layout anyway, and they are all non hostile to me except gagnan reach for some reason...(list courtesy of a post by SweetSoccerMoves). You can only do this run once every one or two weeks (nobody seems to be sure which it is, I usually wait two weeks to be sure the datapoints have reset).
System: --------- Body: ------- Port Name: ----------- Distance to Sol: -- Notes:
LHS 380 --------- B4c --------- Altshuller Terminal -- 14 LY <----I don't usually bother with this one, it's a LOOOOONG way out.
LHS 2037 -------- 3c ---------- Springer Prospect ---- 37 LY
LHS 332 --------- A1c --------- Gagnan Reach --------- 50 LY <----This one was hostile twice, I don't go there any more, lol
LU Velorum ------ 1 ----------- Bakewell Laboratory -- 50 LY
LU Velorum ------ 5b ---------- Velho Relay ---------- 50 LY
Kokoto ---------- 3c ---------- Terry Camp ----------- 63 LY
Kutkha ---------- A2A --------- Ali Survey ----------- 64 LY
Huangais -------- A1 ---------- Stairs Settlement ---- 74 LY
Nebtete --------- A3a --------- Shaw Prospect -------- 76 LY
Nebtete --------- A7a --------- Bacigalupi Landing --- 76 LY
Tamor ----------- 8D ---------- Armstrong Relay ------ 76 LY
KZ Andromedae --- 1A ---------- Baxter Camp ---------- 77 LY
CPD-51 3323 ----- 1d ---------- Hunziker Enterprise -- 78 LY
CPD-51 3323 ----- 1d ---------- McDivitt Vision ------ 78 LY
Aasgay ---------- A4 ---------- Forstchen Terminal --- 86 LY
Miao Thixo ------ 2A ---------- Sekelj Laboratory ---- 88 LY
Miao Thixo ------ 2A ---------- Wellman Survey ------- 88 LY
Komovoy --------- B4a --------- Vogel Lab ------------ 88 LY
89 Leonis ------- 3C ---------- Ozanne Observatory --- 89 LY
89 Leonis ------- 7D ---------- Burgess Holdings ----- 89 LY
89 Leonis ------- 7D ---------- Payne's Inheritance -- 89 LY
Bestia ---------- A2E --------- Blackwell Laboratory - 92 LY
You do also get Specalised legacy firmware from the datapoints, but not as reliably as from outpost scans for planetary scan missions.
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Not a fan of these. I was marked WANTED with two factions, and nearly had my ship blown up by two security ships that showed up as I was retreating back to my ship to escape after trespassing and scanning a private data point. My SRV was destroyed.
If you do only one mission per base, the bounty you get is only 8 minutes. Park your ship out of sight of the base, and you won't have a problem, do the scan and run for the ship, the outpost defenses have very short range, trust me they're easy money missions, and the data on top.
Even if you use the same node to do multiple scans (repeat crimes increases bounty, obviously), the bounty stilll only lasts a single day. It's really no big deal, trust me
The skimmers are always wanted, you are supposed to take these missions get the data and the bouty for the skimmers at the cost of a minor wanted level with the owner of the planet. The idea is they are illegal outposts, I guess.Anyway, if you really aren't keen, try the bases in the list, you should be able to find all 4 nodes for this layout easily, scan them all in time. I'm pretty confident you will get some SLF, and you will definitely get lots of MEF and some CIF, so it won't be wasted effort anyway.
The bases are non hostile, just don't park a ship in their exclusion zone (Roughly 800m radius), take the SRV in and they don't have a problem.
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If you do only one mission per base, the bounty you get is only 8 minutes. Park your ship out of sight of the base, and you won't have a problem, do the scan and run for the ship, the outpost defenses have very short range, trust me they're easy money missions, and the data on top.
Even if you use the same node to do multiple scans (repeat crimes increases bounty, obviously), the bounty stilll only lasts a single day. It's really no big deal, trust me
Anyway, if you really aren't keen, try the bases in the list, you should be able to find all 4 nodes for this layout easily, scan them all in time. I'm pretty confident you will get some SLF, and you will definitely get lots of MEF and some CIF, so it won't be wasted effort anyway.
I was chased for a bit by system security. My SRV was shot up the second I targeted the data point. I had missiles shot at me twice as I fled the surface. It was risky business.
My SRV is what triggered the trespassing. Not the Ship.
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Allow me to explain...
Yeh, you entered the trespass zone too early.
Follow these rules for planetary scans, and I promise you won't have any issues...Firstly, and to answer your earlier question, NO it is not always necessary to get wanted. Many times the mission will be to a public datapoint, and no issues whatsoever. The only way to tell these apart is the value. Higher value missions are likely to have security responses and a private datapoint, but even they are not that risky if you know what you're doing, promise, you should be doing these, you'll get the hang of them in no time.
Park your ship 500m away from the datapoint, ideally out of sight, but even in plain sight isn't that big a problem. I try to always line up the base directly behind, so I can literally run straight under the ship on the escape, and board.
Approach the exclusion zone, if there is one. You can see it on the radar as a red rectangle around the outpost thing or whatever. It IS possible to scan the datapoints WITHOUT getting into the security zone. Always! I'ts fiddly, you gotta get pixel perfect right on the edge, anyway, once you got the scan, IF it was a private datapoint, THEN you'll be wanted. 9 times out of ten there is no gun emplacement at these things, only a couple of skimmers, just put 4 pips to your SRV shield and head back to the ship, you will not be in any danger if you don't dawdle. If there IS a gun emplacement, just do it that bit faster.
lol.They really aren't that risky, I'll do you a quick vid later.
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I am in a similar situation like op. I'm Master but never engaged in combat since the AI buff. I have 2.3b, Phyton and Anaconda in the hangar. What should I do? Currently my Phyton build is focused on passive Thardoids interaction, eg scanning them and checking out the surface stuff. Should I get another one for combat or should I get Ashen's Vulture build? I dont have all engis unlocked, should I focus on that before I go on with becoming Elite? That would be no problem, I have a dedicated engi unlock ship, an Asp called "Garret", call sign "Loot" with which I get the shiny stuff for my ships (it's also wrapped in christmas gift paper).
I am in a similar situation like op. I'm Master but never engaged in combat since the AI buff. I have 2.3b, Phyton and Anaconda in the hangar. What should I do? Currently my Phyton build is focused on passive Thardoids interaction, eg scanning them and checking out the surface stuff. Should I get another one for combat or should I get Ashen's Vulture build? I dont have all engis unlocked, should I focus on that before I go on with becoming Elite? That would be no problem, I have a dedicated engi unlock ship, an Asp called "Garret", call sign "Loot" with which I get the shiny stuff for my ships (it's also wrapped in christmas gift paper).
What should you do? Read the whole thread carefully, lots of interesting opinions and guidance provided and not just mine!
You should definitely focus on getting engies before getting combat Elite.