Newcomer / Intro Beginner: leaving starting area as harmless

Altostratus

A
Hi,

Complete beginner here. Watched tutorials. Played a few hours in solo, without leaving the starting area. Learned the very basics. Did missions, some trade, some mining, some bounty hunting. Got an Adder, have around 1 million CR, "Mostly Harmless" explorer and "Peddler" in trade.

The mission which asks me to leave the PF district and go exploring has a "Mostly Harmless" recommended rating in combat. I've tried to do some "massacre" missions to get the rating up but it climbs very slowly, and I am not particularly interested in dogfighting. I'm also not very good at it. Exploring, trading, landing on planets, outfitting etc was very nice, but every "wanted" enemy I fought was recharging its shields around 10 times before I managed to destroy it. I ended up grinding through it while talking on the phone. It was not a lot of fun.

I'd like to know whether getting to "Mostly Harmless" in combat is really necessary in order to venture outside the PF district. At this rate I think it would take what seems like an eternity, and not a very interesting one.

Thanks in advance for your help.
 

YORKSH1RE NEO

YORKSH1RE NEO
Altostratus said:
Hi,

Complete beginner here. Watched tutorials. Played a few hours in solo, without leaving the starting area. Learned the very basics. Did missions, some trade, some mining, some bounty hunting. Got an Adder, have around 1 million CR, "Mostly Harmless" explorer and "Peddler" in trade.

The mission which asks me to leave the PF district and go exploring has a "Mostly Harmless" recommended rating in combat. I've tried to do some "massacre" missions to get the rating up but it climbs very slowly, and I am not particularly interested in dogfighting. I'm also not very good at it. Exploring, trading, landing on planets, outfitting etc was very nice, but every "wanted" enemy I fought was recharging its shields around 10 times before I managed to destroy it. I ended up grinding through it while talking on the phone. It was not a lot of fun.

I'd like to know whether getting to "Mostly Harmless" in combat is really necessary in order to venture outside the PF district. At this rate I think it would take what seems like an eternity, and not a very interesting one.

Thanks in advance for your help.
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My own personal experience is I left the starter area pretty much straight away. Then it was just a case of taking on whatever missions I felt comfortable with (regarding PvE). Never struggled at all as always made sure I had the best combat ship and weapons I could afford. Unlike most people I went down the all lasers route and it’s served me well. Even now at 77% Deadly for combat I run a fully engineered Corvette with 6 x beam lasers and can pretty much smack anything I come across into the next dimension. IIRC combat missions tell you what level they are before you accept them (compared to your current level) and shouldn’t be more than 2 levels above your current level.
 
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Northpin

Northpin
Altostratus said:
Hi,

Complete beginner here. Watched tutorials. Played a few hours in solo, without leaving the starting area. Learned the very basics. Did missions, some trade, some mining, some bounty hunting. Got an Adder, have around 1 million CR, "Mostly Harmless" explorer and "Peddler" in trade.

The mission which asks me to leave the PF district and go exploring has a "Mostly Harmless" recommended rating in combat. I've tried to do some "massacre" missions to get the rating up but it climbs very slowly, and I am not particularly interested in dogfighting. I'm also not very good at it. Exploring, trading, landing on planets, outfitting etc was very nice, but every "wanted" enemy I fought was recharging its shields around 10 times before I managed to destroy it. I ended up grinding through it while talking on the phone. It was not a lot of fun.

I'd like to know whether getting to "Mostly Harmless" in combat is really necessary in order to venture outside the PF district. At this rate I think it would take what seems like an eternity, and not a very interesting one.

Thanks in advance for your help.
Click to expand...

On my first account i avoided combat as much as i could.
Did combat only for what was needed to unlock engineers.
And then Lori had the audacity to ask me to be Dangerous to meet her. 🤷‍♂️ I didnt bother for quite some time, but it eventually happened.

So what i did was mostly supply/delivery missions, augmented with some courier and some fetch missions (art, black boxes, etc) then passenger missions...
I had a fully engineered Cutter when i got heavier into combat :D
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
No, your combat rating is (mostly) irrelevant.
In PvE - if you accept missions, the warning that the mission recommends a higher combat ratiing is all you get; you don't need to take the mission, and if you do, it's only a recommendation. Random NPC pirates will scale to your own rating, and if you go bounty hunting or venture into a Combat Zone, you should know what you're getting into.
In PvP - a seasoned PvPer will wipe the floor with you, no matter your combat rating. But nothing forces you to play in Open if you're uncomfortable with that - there's solo and quite a few non-PvP groups around, e.g. elitepve/Mobius. Otherwise, if you do like to fly in Open, for whatever reason, you don't need to accept being interdicted by the same player more than once; that's what the block function is there for. Some (unfortunately only a few) of PvPers add some roleplay and follow the Code as pirates, others just want to see your ship explode 🤷‍♂️. Interact with the former, block the latter (at least until you get a Corvette or Cutter of your own, when you can simply ignore them without blocking them 😁)

You will get the occasional NPC attempting to interdict you and, depending on your mission and/or cargo, trying to kill you or get a piece of your cargo. Those interdiction attempts you can ususally fight off or run from. The only time when you really need combat rank is when you want to unlock some engineers who will require rank, bonds or bounties.
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
Nothing ventured, nothing gained
Nothing will ever feel the same
You've done your time, it's time to fly
Just don't go with no re-buy
Venture forth to parts unknown
Perhaps you'll even find a home
There are things to see, and much to do
More than you'll see, if you stay where new
Get a scoop, and a weapon or two
A DSS, and good shields too
The Adder's fine, you've got the skills
Fly, now, fly, in search of thrills
Of data, credits and bounty kills
The time has come to spread your wings
In search of fun and Elite's best things
 

Ethaidan

Ethaidan
This whole starter area is a bit meh. It was only introduced a couple years ago to protect new Cmdrs in rubbish ships from the possibility of being attecked my more experienced Cmdrs in better ships. The sooner you leave, the better (for you). Just don't go near Shinrarta, or any Engineers (in Open) until you're more experienced.
 

d8veh

d8veh
I always do combat as soon as possible whenever I start or reset an account. You can make about 5 mil per hour in the high resource extraction site in Dromi, where the police will help you to kill the bad guys. Basically, only shoot at the ships that the police are already shooting. You only need a basic Sidewinder. As soon as you have 5 million, you can get a T6, which can get you 60 mil per hour doing Robigo passenger missions or 10 to 30 mil per hour doing Road to Riches planet scanning, or you can use it to start a career in mining, or you can do a second hour of combat, then get a Vulture and go to Ngalinn and do pirate massacre missions in the target system low resource extraction site for 200 mil per hour. The combat there is extremely tame. You don't need any skill or technique. The idea is to do it until you have enough billions to buy every ship you'll want thereafter or even a fleet carrier.

After that, you can unlock the Guardian modules and sort out all the engineers, which is pretty good fun compared with some other things.
 

Zak Gordon

Zak Gordon
And remember Elite is a journey, your journey. You decide what you want to do and how you want to do it (mostly), it's your chance to live that life in the future that awaits mankind assuming we don't destroy ourselves stuck on earth, so have fun and see the wonders of the galaxy.
 

Northpin

Northpin
Ethaidan said:
This whole starter area is a bit meh. It was only introduced a couple years ago to protect new Cmdrs in rubbish ships from the possibility of being attecked my more experienced Cmdrs in better ships. The sooner you leave, the better (for you). Just don't go near Shinrarta, or any Engineers (in Open) until you're more experienced.
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Altostratus said:
Thanks. This was extremely helpful in its simplicity. Can't go back now!
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I'd say the starter systems give the new players the chance to get acquainted with the game while being among their peers in an environment that is less violent and devoid from seal clubbers.

Before that, there was a solid chance the new player exiting from the station for the very first time to get exploded by a seal clubber.
Not much to learn from a such experience, right? Except maybe that there is a Solo mode...
 

YORKSH1RE NEO

YORKSH1RE NEO
Zak Gordon said:
And remember Elite is a journey, your journey. You decide what you want to do and how you want to do it (mostly), it's your chance to live that life in the future that awaits mankind assuming we don't destroy ourselves stuck on earth, so have fun and see the wonders of the galaxy.
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Since when!! It’s not at all!! It’s a grind fest where you search YouTube videos for guides on how to grind the end game content the fastest!!! (All pure sarcasm in case anyone was in any doubt) 🤣
 

d8veh

d8veh
YORKSH1RE NEO said:
Since when!! It’s not at all!! It’s a grind fest where you search YouTube videos for guides on how to grind the end game content the fastest!!! (All pure sarcasm in case anyone was in any doubt) 🤣
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In a game like No Man's Sky, where you can do just about everything in the game in around 250 hrs without using any cheats, glitches or fast earnings methods. If you do anything to accelerate your progress, you're cheating yourself out of game-play. If you were to start the game in one of the expeditions, you could get to end-game in around 30 hrs using various fast methods.

ED is completely different. Without using any of the fast progress methods, you wouldn't have done everything after many thousands of hours. Also, the grind to get stuff in ED is enormous, and many people find it tedious and unrewarding game-play. In this case, using methods to get you where you want to be can be very useful, and I'd encourage new players to use them.

I can remember when I started 7 years ago. I began with 1000cr, and after a week I was something like 3000cr in debt, running backwards and forwards trying to make a trade profit, but having accidents and getting blown up along the way. I figured that I was no good at it and it probably wasn't the best game for me, so I started looking for other games, but then I stumbled across a Youtube vid, which was the brilliant "Sidewinder to Anaconda in 24 hrs" video by Inveterategamer. After that, I played ED in just about every spare minute I had for the next 5 years.
 

Frankymole

Frankymole
Altostratus said:
I'd like to know whether getting to "Mostly Harmless" in combat is really necessary in order to venture outside the PF district. At this rate I think it would take what seems like an eternity, and not a very interesting one.

Thanks in advance for your help.
Click to expand...
Back in 2016 there was no "starter" area, no patron mission-givers for different careers, nothing but a rough map online of a "rares loop" near Lave. If I got interdicted (which was much harder to escape then) I ran - fast.

Blaze your own trail, have your own adventure, but by all means research a couple of trade routes or a "rares loop" to make your first few millions and get a Cobra Mk III in a good configuration. Most of all - have fun.
 

Skürt Avil

Skürt Avil
Altostratus said:
I'd like to know whether getting to "Mostly Harmless" in combat is really necessary in order to venture outside the PF district. At this rate I think it would take what seems like an eternity, and not a very interesting one.
Click to expand...
I was still Mostly Harmless when I got to Elite in Exploration, so no, combat isn't necessary outside the Starter Zone. You may need to learn quick escapes though.
Do what you want, there's plenty to choose from.
 

d8veh

d8veh
You can leave the starter area directly from the start without doing anything in the noob area. You don't even have to complete the starter mission.

In fact that's what I always do when I make a new start. I go straight to Chambo and scan the planets with the FSS, which gives about 60k when you sell it 20+ LS from there - enough to get some useful upgrades for a Sidewinder, then you can use "Road to Riches" to scan a few high value planets, which gets you say 5mil for a decent T6, which then gives the option of going to Robigo to do the lucrative sight-seeing missions, Hyades Sector DB-X d1-112 planet 1 to mine platinum, or stay in the Sidewinder and head to Ngalinn to make your fortune doing the Pirate massacre missions, which are dead easy in a Sidewinder as long as you only shoot the pirates that the police are already shooting. In that case the pirates don't shoot back, so money for nothing and no danger. You have to fight them in the low resource extraction site in the furthest planet in the target system. After the first trip, you can get a Vulture, forget the police and give the pirates hell. After a couple of hours, you could be earning 200 mil/hr.

If you're still in the noob area, you should really get out of it as soon as possible if you want to start making progress in the game. Progress in the noob area is very slow. You're going to have to leave sooner or later anyway. All the good places to go and interesting or helpful things are outside the noob area.
 
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