Assassination Missions NOT Worth it

[LeggoMyPancake]

Just wanted to see if anybody else agrees.

Most bulletin board reward offers on these missions are between 80k and 250k, but often times I run into pythons with turreted beam lasers in a wing with a vulture or 2. I can usually complete the mission but it takes a few tries of barely making it out of there, paying for repairs and going back. With the new repairs pricing system I just paid 90k for about 40% damage done to my Vulture (idk maybe its cuz my buyback is 1mill). Even if the mission only takes one try, repairs are still most of my reward.. I basically just do them for the influence now but it'd be nice to make money and gain rep at the sane time

 

[Poseidal]

I've seen some, payout seems good but target was a Python with Vulture+Viper escort. I now interdict, and open up almost immediately to get the shield down and destroy the mark ASAP before the escorts realise what's going on and start shooting too much.

Python is annoying as the PP is difficult to hit / easy for it to jink large projectile weapons.

Pirate Lords tend to stick to their old-school Anaconda, I think.

 

[Heater]

Did 2 back to back last night, in total, (mission + bounty) 1.3 Million cr in about 20 min.
so it works for me,

 

[tetra]

Yep, scaling for those missions vs reward + the current bugged repair costs + improved AI = pointless waste of time atm.

 

[Poseidal]

Did 2 back to back last night, in total, (mission + bounty) 1.3 Million cr in about 20 min.
so it works for me,

The pirate ones are getting a bit sparse; mostly seen ones to attack clean targets. I guess I'm the kind of assassin scum that got the Fer-de-Lance banned.

 

[Jmanis]

I don't agree?

If the wing is sideys or eagles, make sure to interdict one of them, the other goes down quick, and then go for the target.

If it's a viper + vulture escort, interdict the target and go for the throat. With a solid powerplant kill, you'll get them when they're down to roughly 60-70% hull just as the wingmen realise what's going on. Your shields might drop, squeeze a shield cell bank in if that's a problem though.

Anaconda with a viper/vulture escort is probably the biggest threat I've seen so far,, I haven't worked out something good for that yet.

 

[Stigbob]

I don't agree I'm taking assassination missions plus pirate hunting missions in the same system and making about half a million per hunting sortie (more with big bounty on the assassination target).

I happily run away if the fight goes badly so I never have repair costs other than interdiction damage (200-250 credits). Flying a diamondback scout.

 

[LeggoMyPancake]

Yeah Ive got a bunch of those wings as well and I do the same, interdict and fire fast. But most of the time their beam lasers take my shields down and malfunction my systems before I can do enough damage and I have to get 4km away to recharge. The only thing thats worked for me is destroying their weapons as fast as I can before moving on to the PP. Still end up with very little profit..

 

[Poseidal]

Yeah, you have to go straight at them. Poncing around scanning will get your shields voided.

 

[Elprez]

Just wanted to see if anybody else agrees.

Most bulletin board reward offers on these missions are between 80k and 250k, but often times I run into pythons with turreted beam lasers in a wing with a vulture or 2. I can usually complete the mission but it takes a few tries of barely making it out of there, paying for repairs and going back. With the new repairs pricing system I just paid 90k for about 40% damage done to my Vulture (idk maybe its cuz my buyback is 1mill). Even if the mission only takes one try, repairs are still most of my reward.. I basically just do them for the influence now but it'd be nice to make money and gain rep at the sane time

I ran into my first assassination mission with an elite conda last night. Before I could even get turned around he has my shields almost gone. Like you it took me 3 times escaping barely to get him. Repairs were 90k and the payoff was 220k. I will have to admit it was challenging though.

 

[Jmanis]

Yeah Ive got a bunch of those wings as well and I do the same, interdict and fire fast. But most of the time their beam lasers take my shields down and malfunction my systems before I can do enough damage and I have to get 4km away to recharge. The only thing thats worked for me is destroying their weapons as fast as I can before moving on to the PP. Still end up with very little profit..

Don't bother with weapons. Go straight for the powerplant. Also, I assumed you used Chaff. If not, use chaff. Serious. If turrets are your problem, chaff chaff chaff.

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I ran into my first assassination mission with an elite conda last night. Before I could even get turned around he has my shields almost gone. Like you it took me 3 times escaping barely to get him. Repairs were 90k and the payoff was 220k. I will have to admit it was challenging though.

This is how it should be. You're getting a reward for a ship kill equivalent to taking out seven or eight "normal" ships (for a 200-300k reward)

 

[Kazacy]

Last evening i run a couple assassination missions vs anaconda solo, anaconda + 1 vulture. Anaconda was master and i used few scb's and ofc ammo for multicannons; bounty without kws (i don't use it) was over 250k in both missions. I don't even bother to shoot the escort. For the OP maybe you need a better tank.

 

[Ian Skippy]

I do these missions in my Vulture, I don't use shield cell banks, and I don't take much damage to the hull, if at all. Chaff helps a lot. The bounty + mission rewards is usually 250k-500k, and you can do 3-4 per hour. I'll admit not having found elite conda's yet, so maybe they're different, but lower rank conda's and elite pythons are fine. I also never focus on the escorts. Just remove the shield, pop the powerplant and bail out.

 

[Monk]

UMM, okay...I just drank a bunch of coffee and went on the most tangential of tangents ever. What follows is just a experience story doing assassinations. My opinion at the bottom.

I never really did much in the way of assassinations...usually just combat missions to take down pirates.

However, last night, I was looking at the bounty system and thought, what the heck, lets raise some hell. So I took a few combat missions that amounted to taking out a dozen bounty hunters, a cheapo assassination on some loud mouthed celebrity and a big ticket assassination on some lauded bounty hunter or another. I also picked up a few pirate kill missions to help buff my rep there before I got the hunger.

So, jump over to the neighboring system (fortunately all missions were at the neighboring system, 7 LY) and nab the pirates quickly. Dock and collect my bounties. Ok, let's do this, I thought to myself. Undocked and spotted a bounty hunter right away. Followed him out of the NFZ and blammo...Clipper lasers screeching and multi-cannons chugging...500 CR: Assault....pfft....kept bearing down and then boom, my first murder. Seeing it up in lights, I felt rage mode come on.

I jump to SC, interdicting hunters and ruining their days at USSs. I think a few traders got caught up in the maw....meh. Alright, a dozen bounty hunters down, the station bar shouldn't smell so bad anymore. On to my assassination targets. The little actor fella was in a Viper in SC...laughably easy but it was only for 50k credits. The next one was a treat, Julio Clinton (curious name) with a payout of 250k credits...yum. I find him fairly quickly and see he's got two Viper escorts (Masters) to his Python (Deadly) in SC. I think to myself, I gotta go into this with a plan or they'll strip my shields and scratch my baby. So interdict my mark, and while still spinning out of control deploy hardpoints, target, and select power plant...full power to WEP. I just got B class thrusters so I was able to keep my nose pointed right at the power plant, a couple rams to bring down the shields and its over baby. Just as the shields go down, his Viper buddies show up...crap...hurry up. Then, three internal security folks show up...double crap. I see the radar blips getting closer as the Python power plant wears down to 10%...almost there! One final boost and ram into the power plant, ending it. I boost away, victorious, waving a middle finger at the angry party behind me.

I now have a near 100k bounty with that system, but am relieved that when I jump back to my mission givers and see I don't have an Empire wide bounty. I do, however, realize I left my still under construction Vulture at the other station where I'm wanted...argh...7 days before I can get my ship back...bull. So I load up a Viper, make her as fast and heat efficient as possible and jam it back to my Vulture. Slip by security, sell the Viper and get my Vulture back out. Boosting through the slot with silent running and chaff I make it clear....phew

TLDR-- I had a lot of fun trying to stay on my feet when dealing with escorts. Quickly get in, cut em up and run like hell. Plus, the bounty system is fantastic! Now I need to worry about other hunters and commanders scanning me...