Newcomer / Intro BEGINNERS GUIDE TO BOUNTY HUNTING

[WallacEngineering]

I always submit now too, but don't play in open much. Im guessing some pilots are really good at the mini-game or they've found an engineer who boosts your chances of winning

The engineers sounds highly likely.

Right-hand panel > Modules tab. If your power use is over 100%, setting your power priorities by navigating left or right on the highlighted module) will change the number. The higher the number, the earlier it turns off. Priorities range from 1 to 5.

I have core systems like thrusters, sensors and life support set to 1. Weapons, shields and utility mounts set to 2. Fuel scoop, cargo hatch and SRV bay set to 3 and FSD interdictors set to 4 (you can't use it in normal space anyway).

That allows the ship to keep operating if the power with hardpoints deployed is over 100%, as it will turn priority 3 and 4 modules off when you get your guns out.

Cool, thanks man! The Diamondback is fine how it is considering I now have the Vulture, however I will use this in the future!

 

[Ozram]

The engineers sounds highly likely.

Cool, thanks man! The Diamondback is fine how it is considering I now have the Vulture, however I will use this in the future!

There’s no Engineer I know of that directly creates an advantage once the interdiction minigame is initiated.

 

[the100thmonkey]

The bigger the interdictor and the higher its class, the harder it is to resist. A 4A interdictor is pretty powerful.

 

[Faded Glory]

The bigger the interdictor and the higher its class, the harder it is to resist. A 4A interdictor is pretty powerful.

Unless it's changed, the size / class of interdictor only affects the range at which it can interdict, it plays no part in the actual interdiction process. According to devs back in the day.

 

[Ozram]

The bigger the interdictor and the higher its class, the harder it is to resist. A 4A interdictor is pretty powerful.

I’m pretty sure it just has longer reach but the minigame is otherwise unchanged.
Ninja by a mile ^^^

 

[the100thmonkey]

Shows how often I use one!

I stand corrected.

 

[gpcady]

Hello WallaceEngineering,

Thank you for this great post. It came at a perfect time for me as I was starting to have interest in combat. I have done well working various missions that have given rank in trade, and I have jumped around a lot giving some rank in exploration. Your post was quite thorough, and not at all too long IMO. There have been a lot of opinions presented here. I have not read them all, but for the first few pages at least, the tone while working through the differences of opinion was refreshing. I appreciate folks not getting all '3rd-grade-idiot' when having differences of opinion. Indeed, I cherish those differences - it makes me realize my own opinions thus far hold some fraction of merit, even though I am completely new at the game.

I am struggling, though, to find anything close to what folks claim as possible bounty hunting. I am in a system with 10 ringed planets and two asteroid belts. I have dropped by most every CZ and RES... in over three hours, I have found *just one* wanted ship. It is very frustrating to hear everyone talk about the plethora of millions they have collected per hour, when I cant even find a target to shoot at.

I am thinking that perhaps this is due to my location within the Federation. I am not far from Sol. I am, in fact, in Ross 104, about 22 ly from Sol. Do I need to travel to more distant solar systems, perhaps those with an anarchist lack of leadership? I am working on increasing my Federation rep, and would like to do so while honing my combat skills. I am Mostly Harmless, but I have a completely "A" decked-out Cobra MKIII...

Suggestions? (Thanks in advance!!)

 

[Ozram]

Hello WallaceEngineering,

Thank you for this great post. It came at a perfect time for me as I was starting to have interest in combat. I have done well working various missions that have given rank in trade, and I have jumped around a lot giving some rank in exploration. Your post was quite thorough, and not at all too long IMO. There have been a lot of opinions presented here. I have not read them all, but for the first few pages at least, the tone while working through the differences of opinion was refreshing. I appreciate folks not getting all '3rd-grade-idiot' when having differences of opinion. Indeed, I cherish those differences - it makes me realize my own opinions thus far hold some fraction of merit, even though I am completely new at the game.

I am struggling, though, to find anything close to what folks claim as possible bounty hunting. I am in a system with 10 ringed planets and two asteroid belts. I have dropped by most every CZ and RES... in over three hours, I have found *just one* wanted ship. It is very frustrating to hear everyone talk about the plethora of millions they have collected per hour, when I cant even find a target to shoot at.

I am thinking that perhaps this is due to my location within the Federation. I am not far from Sol. I am, in fact, in Ross 104, about 22 ly from Sol. Do I need to travel to more distant solar systems, perhaps those with an anarchist lack of leadership? I am working on increasing my Federation rep, and would like to do so while honing my combat skills. I am Mostly Harmless, but I have a completely "A" decked-out Cobra MKIII...

Suggestions? (Thanks in advance!!)

I think what you found is a bit of a fluke, but it does happen. Try another system but same thing with looking for rings that contain Res sites. High Res is your safest bet if you’re just starting out but usually Haz is more bountiful.
Personally zi tend to hang out at V886 Centauri. Lots of options in that system as well as a star where you can supercharge your fsd. Cheers and good luck.

 

[gpcady]

I think what you found is a bit of a fluke, but it does happen. Try another system but same thing with looking for rings that contain Res sites. High Res is your safest bet if you’re just starting out but usually Haz is more bountiful.
Personally zi tend to hang out at V886 Centauri. Lots of options in that system as well as a star where you can supercharge your fsd. Cheers and good luck.

What a georgeous system... so many rings, an asteroid belt... and a ton of planets to land on. Not to mention the bases to restock and repair. I am not giving up on combat... obviously my experience is unusual... it has to be. Otherwise what is the point. Just saying. I have my Sol pass. I dont really care about visiting there. I will move a little out and try the 'water'. Thanks for your input.

 

[d8veh]

Hello WallaceEngineering,

Thank you for this great post. It came at a perfect time for me as I was starting to have interest in combat. I have done well working various missions that have given rank in trade, and I have jumped around a lot giving some rank in exploration. Your post was quite thorough, and not at all too long IMO. There have been a lot of opinions presented here. I have not read them all, but for the first few pages at least, the tone while working through the differences of opinion was refreshing. I appreciate folks not getting all '3rd-grade-idiot' when having differences of opinion. Indeed, I cherish those differences - it makes me realize my own opinions thus far hold some fraction of merit, even though I am completely new at the game.

I am struggling, though, to find anything close to what folks claim as possible bounty hunting. I am in a system with 10 ringed planets and two asteroid belts. I have dropped by most every CZ and RES... in over three hours, I have found *just one* wanted ship. It is very frustrating to hear everyone talk about the plethora of millions they have collected per hour, when I cant even find a target to shoot at.

I am thinking that perhaps this is due to my location within the Federation. I am not far from Sol. I am, in fact, in Ross 104, about 22 ly from Sol. Do I need to travel to more distant solar systems, perhaps those with an anarchist lack of leadership? I am working on increasing my Federation rep, and would like to do so while honing my combat skills. I am Mostly Harmless, but I have a completely "A" decked-out Cobra MKIII...

Suggestions? (Thanks in advance!!)

You're doing something wrong, but without video, it's difficult to say what. Here's so advice:

Only go to a high RES. The cops will help you there and there's plenty of bad guys to shoot. Low and medium RES have fewer ships and lower bounties for the same work.
You must target the RES in your nav panel, then drop out when you get the blue "safe disengage". You should see at least a dozen ships within a minute.
In Federation space, you can go to Brani (13), Freng, Aphra and Kremainn. All have at least one well-populated high RES. You can jump from one to the next each time you make a mistake and get a bounty on you.

 

[WallacEngineering]

I just got my first ever Fer-De-Lance

In case anyone is curious, here is my build, dubbed the "Death Dealer MK V": https://coriolis.io/outfit/fer_de_l...oBhAOEoUwIYHMA28QgIwV0A=&bn=Death Dealer MK V

This builds advantages: Extremely tough shields that basically never go down even when taking on wings of 3 ships, very good damage output versus both shields and armor, very high survivability should your shields go down (very long shield recharge rate), very easy to use; and reliable, high rate of damage makes this build simply a joy to pilot. Its only drawback is slight maneuverability issues due to weight.

This will become my Flagship Bounty Hunting Vessel, I have been told that with shield engineers, you can get the shields up to and beyond 2000 MJ, so I will be working on that next.

 

[Ozram]

I just got my first ever Fer-De-Lance

In case anyone is curious, here is my build, dubbed the "Death Dealer MK V": https://coriolis.io/outfit/fer_de_l...oBhAOEoUwIYHMA28QgIwV0A=&bn=Death Dealer MK V

This builds advantages: Extremely tough shields that basically never go down even when taking on wings of 3 ships, very good damage output versus both shields and armor, very high survivability should your shields go down (very long shield recharge rate), very easy to use; and reliable, high rate of damage makes this build simply a joy to pilot. Its only drawback is slight maneuverability issues due to weight.

This will become my Flagship Bounty Hunting Vessel, I have been told that with shield engineers, you can get the shields up to and beyond 2000 MJ, so I will be working on that next.

Gain access to prismatics if you want to really shield tank, but yes. That looks like plenty of tank and power to own them NPCs out there.

 

[WallacEngineering]

Gain access to prismatics if you want to really shield tank, but yes. That looks like plenty of tank and power to own them NPCs out there.

I was thinking about the Prismatics however I cant seem to find the power necessary for them. Oh well, engineering it is

 

[Ozram]

I was thinking about the Prismatics however I cant seem to find the power necessary for them. Oh well, engineering it is

Overcharged pp

 

[aRJay]

I just got my first ever Fer-De-Lance

In case anyone is curious, here is my build, dubbed the "Death Dealer MK V": https://coriolis.io/outfit/fer_de_l...oBhAOEoUwIYHMA28QgIwV0A=&bn=Death Dealer MK V

This builds advantages: Extremely tough shields that basically never go down even when taking on wings of 3 ships, very good damage output versus both shields and armor, very high survivability should your shields go down (very long shield recharge rate), very easy to use; and reliable, high rate of damage makes this build simply a joy to pilot. Its only drawback is slight maneuverability issues due to weight.

This will become my Flagship Bounty Hunting Vessel, I have been told that with shield engineers, you can get the shields up to and beyond 2000 MJ, so I will be working on that next.

Very nice. You will find rolling up behind your target and then emptying the capacitor into them via that 4A beam to be both satisfying and effective. My FDL build was quite similar until recently, as an experiment I am now running an all multi-cannon build which makes keeping 4 pips in systems easier, the shields are still Bi-Weaves for the faster recovery time.

 

[CmdrWill]

Tutorial

Excellent tutorial, many thanks! This has been extremely useful!

 

[Maymo]

Good guide. Bounty Hunting, despite its apparent simple concept, is actually an exhaustive subject in ED, I could talk about it for hours.

A quick tip for a budding hunter zipping around in a starter ship:

Find a cop Anaconda and follow it around a HighRES. It’s not for protection, it’s because the Anaconda usually have the final word in all fights taking place in a RES and their sensors are usually better at sniffing out enemies than your own. Follow the Anaconda and you’ll be able to cash in on their victories.

Keep your damage low! It may be tempting to outfit your ship for max carnage but its only going to get you shot at. You want to stay invisible, a mere gnat that’s easy for npc’s to ignore. My requirements nearly always lead me to a Viper3, it’s small, well shielded/armoured and it can break over 400m/s so it can easily escape if things go south.

Use a Kill Warrant Scanner. It’s free credits, why wouldn’t you want that. Plus it builds your reputation with multiple factions per kill which leads to lucrative contracts in the future. (Clicky)

 

[Ramsteinn]

OUTSTANDING write up, I built a Vulture just for BH and took the Fairchild "Thunderbolt II" A-10 aka "Warthog" as my inspiration. Power plant issues as well. that 4 SUCKS worse then a gnome getting kicked by a ogre.

 

[Spaceman Si]

Very helpful text, thanks very much OP! Going to try poking a few things with my 'winder tonight...

 

[Happy Daze]

This has been very helpful even a year later. If the OP WallaceEngineering wouldn't mind (or another seasoned hunter) to write an updated version for 2018. As a NOOB I have no idea what has changed in the last year, but I would imagine some things have.

Meanwhile, I am doing what CMDR Maymo suggested, following an Anaconda and his guards in a High Res Site. Still in my first ship with no upgrades planning to get a Viper 3 soon (maybe even tonight!)
I am a bit concerned with putting too much in the guns and causing the pirates to pay me notice, which I have found is a Very Bad Thing! More Shields & Armor!

Man this is fun!
Fly Safe
Jibs
CMDR Happy Daze flying Dorable.