Engineers Beginner Question on Engineers?.

Can I go straight to the relevant engineer(s) if for example I have sufficient mats/cargo/data for some 3 & 4 star upgrades and get them installed right away or do I need to go through the grades in order from 1-5?.
 
If your engineer level is reached, you dont need to go through all steps.

Example: If you are level 4 with Felicia, you can come up and install a level 4 FSD mod.
 
If your engineer level is reached, you dont need to go through all steps.

Example: If you are level 4 with Felicia, you can come up and install a level 4 FSD mod.

Ah, thanks for that. How do I approach the engineers and is it much of a grind to unlock them?.
 
Ah, thanks for that. How do I approach the engineers and is it much of a grind to unlock them?.
Only Macro Qwent is the real grindy one to unlock. This damn Modular Terminals!
The rest aren't too bad.

You simply need to fulfill their requirements in order to meet them, and then jump through hoops to unlock them.
Then ranking up Engineers can be done via trade, bounty vouchers, exploration data, or spamming upgrades.

Ideally you need to rank up every Engineer to atleast rank 3, at about 33% towards rank 4 to unlock the next Engineer.

You can find all you need to know at inara.cz
 
To be clear, you need to unlock each level.

Depending on the engineer, this can usually be done in one of two ways.
1) spending materials to throw the dice on the unlocked upgrades. These are weighted so that buying upgrades on current level ranks you up faster than say buying level 1 upgrades when you are at level 2, 3 and 4.
2) most engineers have a secondary way to rank up...if the have a commodities market, bring lots of high profit commodities, if they have a Contacts area, bring bounties and combat bonds, if they have a Cartographics stor, bring lots of exploration data.

As mentioned above, Marco only has his Engineering shop, so bring lots of the common elemental materials, then just roll the dice over and over on a "throw away" upgrade.

Hope this helps.

Clicker
 
To be clear, you need to unlock each level.

Depending on the engineer, this can usually be done in one of two ways.
1) spending materials to throw the dice on the unlocked upgrades. These are weighted so that buying upgrades on current level ranks you up faster than say buying level 1 upgrades when you are at level 2, 3 and 4.
2) most engineers have a secondary way to rank up...if the have a commodities market, bring lots of high profit commodities, if they have a Contacts area, bring bounties and combat bonds, if they have a Cartographics stor, bring lots of exploration data.

As mentioned above, Marco only has his Engineering shop, so bring lots of the common elemental materials, then just roll the dice over and over on a "throw away" upgrade.

Hope this helps.

Clicker

About 15 grade-1 upgrades should do get him to level 3. Then do 1 grade-3 upgrade and you will get the contact information for Palin.
 
Ok I am a bit confused: So for e.g. I have the materials (micro and cargo) for level 4 FSD upgrade at Farseer but I only have unlocked and done level 1. Even though All required materials for level 4 are yellow and not red I still can not upgrade my FSD to level 4?? What do I have to do??? (I don't want to go through level 2 and 3 as one of the materials is mission only and I don't know where to get the mission from and if it is going to be easy for me to succeed it. Another reason is that I only have 1 quantity of the 2 of the 4 materials required for level 4 and I don't want to accidentaly waste them in level 2 or 3 upgrade attempts)).

Sorry for dump questions - I am a casual player and new to engineer and don;t have much time / patience to grind - want to upgrade my FSD to level 4 (and eventually 5) in my Anaconda as fast as possible and get finishing this tycoon 32 % quick to elite and then go for exploration with a 50 Lys jump range capable FSD.
 
Neutronium:

You need to get the reputation up with the engineers, unlocking modifications beyond level 1 (up to level 5 max). The fastest ways are usually to build modifications. If you're at reputation level 1, build 3 level 1 mods to get to reputation level 2. 2 level 2 mods to get to reputation level 3, et cetera.

See http://inara.cz/galaxy-blueprints to find the easiest modifications to produce and to get your reputation with the engineers up the quickest.

EDIT: You can also build lower-level mods to get reputation up, but you'll need a lot more of them than if you build the highest-level you can. 12 level 1 mods get you from reputation level 2 to 3, 48 level 1 mods get you from reputation level 3 to 4, 192 level 1 mods get you from reputation level 4 to 5.
 
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My advice is spend some time gathering as much sulphur as possible from planets.
This is the most commonly used material for lvl1 upgrades. Lol

You can then spam your way to level 3 easily. And while you're at it, probably land an epic win roll. :D

I got a lvl1 overcharged powerplant to 19%, with no downsides. Lol
Took 23 tries, but it's worth it. :p
 
This is how to get quickly to the upgrade you want:
Look at all the possible level one upgrades. One or more of them will need only easy to get stuff that you probably already have. It doesn't matter that you don't want that upgrade, you just use it to unlock the next level. Three attemps at a level 1 upgrade unlocks level 2. You then look at all the level two upgrades. One or more will need only easy to find stuff. Three rolls at that, will unlock level 3. Carry on until you get to level 5, then select the upgrade that you actually want. That means that you need only 13 transactions to get your level 5 upgrade, and the stuff you need is mainly easy to find. Don't waste your time with any of the other levels unless they're the Maximum possible.

Use the various online databases to find out what's required for each upgrade on your route to level 5. Make a plan of everything you need, then go and get it so that you can get the level 5 upgrade in one visit. It's best to take enough stuff to have at least three rolls at level 5 in case the RNG gods are not on your side.
 
Ok I am a bit confused: So for e.g. I have the materials (micro and cargo) for level 4 FSD upgrade at Farseer but I only have unlocked and done level 1. Even though All required materials for level 4 are yellow and not red I still can not upgrade my FSD to level 4?? What do I have to do??? (I don't want to go through level 2 and 3 as one of the materials is mission only and I don't know where to get the mission from and if it is going to be easy for me to succeed it. Another reason is that I only have 1 quantity of the 2 of the 4 materials required for level 4 and I don't want to accidentaly waste them in level 2 or 3 upgrade attempts)).

Sorry for dump questions - I am a casual player and new to engineer and don;t have much time / patience to grind - want to upgrade my FSD to level 4 (and eventually 5) in my Anaconda as fast as possible and get finishing this tycoon 32 % quick to elite and then go for exploration with a 50 Lys jump range capable FSD.


As others said it is a reputation thing.
You can only ask for level 5 modifications if you have acquired the corresponding reputation.
You can gain this reputation by engineering your ship, but also by selling exploration data, handing in bounty vouchers, selling commodities etc. This differs per Engineer.

Don't feel dumb for asking questions.
I've been playing this game for 2000 hours or so and I still ask questions.
 
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With farseer you can use sulphur to generate lots of level 1 blueprints (either use them or discard them depending on if the result is good) and fairly quickly reach rank three. Selling exploration data and more l1 blueprint attempts should reach l4 easily enough. 4-5 is a bit more long winded to do with low level upgrades so I took three lots of l4 materials to unlock five (that formula applies for all engineers). You *can* get to l5 rep by just attempting loads of l1 upgrades, but, as another poster said earlier, it takes almost 200 goes...
 
According to Eduardo's calc I have enough mats etc for most every upgrade I intend for my Python ie Dirty Drive, Shields and FSD and a lot more besides. Which Engineer would you recommend that I approach first for these upgrades?.
 
I would start with Farseer to unlock grade 5 FSD first, because that makes it a lot easier to fly about collecting materials or to fly the 5000LY to unlock Palin, later.
 
Hello. Just wondering, should I always, if possible, go straight to Level 5 Engineers? I am using an Engineer now for my drives, FSD and Shields. She goes to L5 on FSD but only 3 on Shields and 1 on Drives. Is it worth my time, say if I want best engineered shields, to stay with her to at least get L3, or just blow on by her to a L5 Shield Engineer? Thanks!
 
You necro'ed this post from nearly 4 years ago and I think that engineering has changed a lot since the post was last written to, so I'm pretty sure that most of the above no longer applies.

You will need to get to lvl 5 reputation with the Shield Engineer anyway, so I would go straight to them and not waste mats at the FSD Engineer. At least that is what I have always done, unless I wanted the upgrade urgently for some reason.
 
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To be clear, you need to unlock each level.

Depending on the engineer, this can usually be done in one of two ways.
1) spending materials to throw the dice on the unlocked upgrades. These are weighted so that buying upgrades on current level ranks you up faster than say buying level 1 upgrades when you are at level 2, 3 and 4.
2) most engineers have a secondary way to rank up...if the have a commodities market, bring lots of high profit commodities, if they have a Contacts area, bring bounties and combat bonds, if they have a Cartographics stor, bring lots of exploration data.

As mentioned above, Marco only has his Engineering shop, so bring lots of the common elemental materials, then just roll the dice over and over on a "throw away" upgrade.

Hope this helps.

Clicker
Treat Marco as a stepping stone engineer. He doesn't do anything to a higher level that you can't get done elsewhere. He's a pain to get to as he's miles from the system arrival point so power through to get the info on the next engineers - Prof Palin who is very useful, then never go there again.

Your option is again a cheap raw mat roll and dump or take one to G3, will depend on what mats you have. He does engineer useful stuff but just not to a very high level so that's why he's only a stepping stone
 
Treat Marco as a stepping stone engineer. He doesn't do anything to a higher level that you can't get done elsewhere. He's a pain to get to as he's miles from the system arrival point so power through to get the info on the next engineers - Prof Palin who is very useful, then never go there again.

Your option is again a cheap raw mat roll and dump or take one to G3, will depend on what mats you have. He does engineer useful stuff but just not to a very high level so that's why he's only a stepping stone
My quote included above is 4 years old...as such, engineering took an overhaul between then and now and the progression I described is no longer relevant.

I do not know about @uncle bulgaria comments either as I've not visited Marco in a while and have not visited Palin since he moved out of Maia, but they are likely correct

Cheers
 
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