Tips on gaining mercenary rank?

[Jmanis]

my merc rank is not broken

i see it go up and i have ranked up to warrior

View attachment 239664

Did you do CZs?

It goes up with every kill, I can confirm that. But it only goes up "significantly" if you do CZs. High CZs will move it at the sort of rate you'd conisder similar to combat ranking for ships (although still not nearly as fast); the way ship kills work is you get exp for every kill (irrespective of the target) but you get more exp for a kill depending on the target's rank. It's as though Fdev made high intensity CZ targets "elite" and everything else "harmless", in terms of how much you get for each kill. I say that but it's still not quite true: killing just harmless ships will get you to "mostly harmless" after maybe 5-6 kills. Not so with mercenary rank.

It's pretty easy to recreate the issue, too. Start a new commander and spend 3 weeks killing just scavengers and you'll not hit "mostly defenseless" at all. Spend a few hours doing just high intensity CZs and you'll rank up pretty fast.

The only conclusion I can make from this is that they've messed up the way we get exp towards ranking up.

Yup. CZs is the only place I've seen my rank go up, but even then progress is slow. Granted I only did low-CZs, but I would have expected clearing a handful (<6) of low CZs should have pumped me up to Mostly Defenceless ->Rookie, given the same amount of Low-CZs in a ship would achieve a comparable result for Elite rank.

As a contrast, a single Exobiologist discovery got me 1/3rd of the way to the next rank. I'd put that on-par with clearing a low-CZ (if not clearing a low CZ is more effort than a single scan). With a dozen low-CZs under my belt it still took me a month or two of doing massacre missions/assasinations to get Mostly Defenceless. That can't be right.

As another contrast, my new account hit Mostly Aimless/Mostly Harmless/Mostly Penniless in a day.

 

[Ydiss]

i did do cz but, i have done alot raids and assassination's too

i just ranked up to warrior in a settlement raid

Yeh, I ranked up to "Rookie" killing a scav at an IM POI but that's because I was already very close to the rank up after spending time at a CZ.

If you actually watch the bar after a single high CZ compared to killing the same number of scavs, the difference is immeasurable; the former moves the bar, the latter simply doesn't move it enough to notice. The game currently gives a much higher value of exp per CZ kill (and the highest is for high intensity). I'd actually challenge anyone to get "mostly defenseless" from a new commander via scav kills exclusively and report their findings (i.e. count their kills) and then do the same with a ship to get "mostly harmless".

I have no issue with the rate per high CZ. It's the snail's rate for all other kills that needs addressing. More so because killing scavengers is way tougher than killing CZ targets, due to swarming and you being the only target of scavs.

Yup. CZs is the only place I've seen my rank go up, but even then progress is slow. Granted I only did low-CZs, but I would have expected clearing a handful (<6) of low CZs should have pumped me up to Mostly Defenceless ->Rookie, given the same amount of Low-CZs in a ship would achieve a comparable result for Elite rank.

As a contrast, a single Exobiologist discovery got me 1/3rd of the way to the next rank. I'd put that on-par with clearing a low-CZ (if not clearing a low CZ is more effort than a single scan). With a dozen low-CZs under my belt it still took me a month or two of doing massacre missions/assasinations to get Mostly Defenceless. That can't be right.

As another contrast, my new account hit Mostly Aimless/Mostly Harmless/Mostly Penniless in a day.

Low CZs is still very slow but you'll hit mostly defenceless or near to once you've unlocked Hero. That's 10 CZs.

Consider that getting "mostly harmless" takes about 3-5 ship kills...

We don't want this process to be fast but we do want it to make sense. We're talking about the lowest level here. Can you imagine how many scavs you'd need to kill to get from the equivalent of Deadly to Elite? The whole process for combat rank is about 1300 kills. I'd suggest it's that many just to get to rookie via scavs at the rate I've seen.

 

[762s]

Yeh, I ranked up to "Rookie" killing a scav at an IM POI but that's because I was already very close to the rank up after spending time at a CZ.

If you actually watch the bar after a single high CZ compared to killing the same number of scavs, the difference is immeasurable; the former moves the bar, the latter simply doesn't move it enough to notice. The game currently gives a much higher value of exp per CZ kill (and the highest is for high intensity). I'd actually challenge anyone to get "mostly defenseless" from a new commander via scav kills exlusively and report their findings (i.e. count their kills) and then do the same with a ship to get "mostly harmless".

I have no issue with the rate per high CZ. It's the snail's rate for all other kills that needs addressing. More so because killing scavengers is way tougher than killing CZ targets, due to swarming and you being the only target of scavs.


Low CZs is still very slow but you'll hit mostly defenceless or near to once you've unlocked Hero. That's 10 CZs.

Consider that getting "mostly harmless" takes about 3-5 ship kills...

Yup. CZs is the only place I've seen my rank go up, but even then progress is slow. Granted I only did low-CZs, but I would have expected clearing a handful (<6) of low CZs should have pumped me up to Mostly Defenceless ->Rookie, given the same amount of Low-CZs in a ship would achieve a comparable result for Elite rank.

As a contrast, a single Exobiologist discovery got me 1/3rd of the way to the next rank. I'd put that on-par with clearing a low-CZ (if not clearing a low CZ is more effort than a single scan). With a dozen low-CZs under my belt it still took me a month or two of doing massacre missions/assasinations to get Mostly Defenceless. That can't be right.

As another contrast, my new account hit Mostly Aimless/Mostly Harmless/Mostly Penniless in a day.

guys ... im not doing cz to solely rank up .. i did some cz but, not alot of them, maybe, 25 and that was to get the engineer, 10 high and 10 low cz, thats it!

i have done more killing outside of the cz and i have seen my progress move in the merc section ...

the progress in my merc warrior status in the pic i posted is all from assassination an raids, not cz!

 

[Ydiss]

guys ... im not doing cz to solely rank up .. i did some cz but, not alot of them, maybe, 25 and that was to get the engineer, 10 high and 10 low cz, thats it!

i have done more killing outside of the cz and i have seen my progress move in the merc section ...

the progress in my merc warrior status in the pic i posted is all from assassination an raids, not cz!

Not suggesting you are.

But I've done 15 low CZs and 19 High (I recorded a video for them all and just counted) and I'm "Soldier" (around 30% through) and... I've lost count of the scavs I've killed... Must be hundreds by now. Not to mention all the NPCs I've killed outside of missions, which must be even higher than that.

Something isn't adding up. Because the only time I saw my bar move was when I did those 15+19 CZs.

Perhaps the game works differently for you.

 

[762s]

Perhaps the game works differently for you.

yes, the game works very different for everyone

i have decent to excellent fps ... many commanders have 0~20 fps
many commanders encounter missions bugs one after another ... i do not
and even with ranks there is different experience ... idk???

im not sure why some of us have much different experiences with the game ... is it soley in the pc each commander is using ??

is it rng, hehehe

 

[Ydiss]

yes, the game works very different for everyone

i have decent to excellent fps ... many commanders have 0~20 fps
many commanders encounter missions bugs one after another ... i do not
and even with ranks there is different experience ... idk???

im not sure why some of us have much different experiences with the game ... is it soley in the pc each commander is using ??

is it rng, hehehe

It's not related to our FPS.

 

[762s]

It's not related to our FPS.

i know rank is not related to fps ...
i was just stating things that are different for each commander in the game

 

[Jmanis]

Not suggesting you are.

But I've done 15 low CZs and 19 High (I recorded a video for them all and just counted) and I'm "Soldier" (around 30% through) and... I've lost count of the scavs I've killed... Must be hundreds by now. Not to mention all the NPCs I've killed outside of missions, which must be even higher than that.

Something isn't adding up. Because the only time I saw my bar move was when I did those 15+19 CZs.

Perhaps the game works differently for you.

Yup... this one. Nobody saying the bar isn't moving, and not suggesting it isn't moving reliably for some; nobody thinks you're making stuff up.

But likewise, I've been doing CZs, massacres and assassinations for well over a month now, and only just made "mostly defenceless", and handed in tens of millions in bonds/bounties. That doesn't seem right.

 

[[VR] Deggial]

Not sure why you'd want to grind it in its broken state right now, I don't think you get anything for it.

I think, the rank does affect the success chance when negotiating a better payment with mission givers?

 

[Jmanis]

I think, the rank does affect the success chance when negotiating a better payment with mission givers?

Nothing allied rep can't overcome though.

 

[Ydiss]

I think, the rank does affect the success chance when negotiating a better payment with mission givers?

I'm Soldier and haven't noticed much there. Can test maybe.

A bit tough to judge though, given the way the chance is presented.

The main driving force behind ranking up, for me, is getting higher threat missions that pay more. There's no evidence that's happening as I rank up.

 

[Jmanis]

Before a high-intensity CZ:

After clearing two high intensity CZs and handing in 5m in bonds:

That can't be right. As a contrast, while money is more forthcoming from Trade, 5m in profits would get you promoted by almost 4 ranks.

 

[bagofholding]

I feel like it is more tied to the rank of the NPC you are fighting just like the ranks of ships you would fight. This is why high cz's would move it more (npc's with 5 shield bars).

NPC's basically have 3 ranks, 1 shield bar, 3 and 5. Unless this is all wrong and it gets tied to money/bonds earned from the kill.

 

[Drelthar]

I went up to rookie while just doing my normal murder spree in a settlement yesterday.

 

[Northpin]

I went up to rookie while just doing my normal murder spree in a settlement yesterday.

so... is it fixed?

 

[Drelthar]

so... is it fixed?

Didn't know it was broken till I found this thread, never cared about the ranks - just adding some info to the thread for people.

 

[Gizzard]

A day of High CZ's not solid took me from Warrior to Gladiator. That was using mostly the Plasma shotgun and rocket launcher combo to try and maximise kills. Its grindy, but not sure its as bad as Space Combat Elite rank.

You also get the odd new skin unlock for the dominator suite.

 

[Sighman]

I've done a fair bit of ground combat and I'm towards the end of Soldier rank at the moment.

It moves slowly, but it does move. High CZs are my thing, although I think they'll get a bit easier when I start engineering my gear.

 

[762s]

ive been killing civies in the anarchy zones and watching the progress bar move up slowly

all civi kills ...

before and after pics ...

 

[taekni]

I’m not convinced the rank system is working properly at all.

I dropped 24M of exploration data on Wednesday that pushed my Elite rank up by 7% -grumble, grumble, Elite should be the max rank, grumble, grumble - yesterday I dropped nearly 30M and it only went up 2%. All according to INARA as we can’t see in game anymore.

I'd second this, had been eyeballing and checking inara and the credits / percentage didn't seem consistent.

Combat rank had also been showing different progress between panels 3 and 4, but that's likely a UI bug.