Newcomer / Intro Best way to start earning money?

nnhood · Apr 2, 2015

I took a small mission to deliver fruits and vegetables, but it doesn't really say where to deliver them to.

I think it was just a name. At first I thought I had to find fruits and vegetables to buy first and I couldn't find a station that had any to sell.
Then I realized I already had 4 units in my cargo hold.

I don't want to try to make millions, just enough to maybe buy a new ship or something.
I've just been jumping around from station to station without really doing anything.

Thanks,

Matt

RuleV · Apr 2, 2015

nnhood said:
I took a small mission to deliver fruits and vegetables, but it doesn't really say where to deliver them to.

Matt

It should tell you where the fruits and veg need to go (Check in the transactions section of the left UI panel), doing this kind of delivery mission (and particularly the ones that don't require any hold space) are a good way to start earning credits.

mistohise · Apr 2, 2015

The galaxy map will also have a symbol indicating the destination system for a mission and the system map for that system will have an icon on the target station.

RuleV · Apr 2, 2015

mistohise said:
The galaxy map will also have a symbol indicating the destination system for a mission and the system map for that system will have an icon on the target station.

Really? Cool, I never knew that.

Have a Rep.

purf · Apr 2, 2015

For a start, doing delivery missions isn't bad. However, I avoided the "Find and Bring Us Stuff" as the finding part is mostly not worth the time.
I'll just say what I always say: You're still in the starter area, I assume? LHS 3447? Do some of those missions, trick out your ship, accquire and cash
in some bounty vouchers and then: unless you absolutely value the presence of other CMDR around you, get out of there. Find a new home 50+ (100+)
Lightyears away and scan all the stuff along the journey.
^ this made me enough credits to buy and build a good Adder. From there on, up to you. Adder is a good start for trading - if that's your thing -
but also a capable fighter. As in: Bounty Hunting is quite profitable these days

Don Alvarez · Apr 2, 2015

Im my Sidewinder starting out, I made money from delivery missions and checking out unknown signals for wanted people and turning in the bounties.

I moved up to an Adder, and I made money bounty hunting and light trading. When I upgraded the FST and bought a fuel scoop, I made a lot of money dealing in rare commodities.

Now I have a Cobra, which seems to pretty much open up all opportunities.

Krommicus · Apr 2, 2015

I am new at this also. Only been playing for about a week. Makings credits is slow at first but snowballs. I am now close to 2 mill credits. You will need to make a few Mill to get the ships you want.
Pick a area and start doing BB missions. Start small and work your way up. If you get a "retrieve" mission for some commodity for a big profit you can use Thrudds http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk/ to find what you need. Go to the Lists page and select "I Want To Buy Commodity" Type in where you are at and pick what you are looking for and hit search. It will list where to find what you need. Do that until you can get a Hauler. Make sure you have plenty of credits to do some upgrade and have the Insurance. Strip the Hauler down no weapons and No shields (its not a fighter) and add the Largest Cargo bays you can get . I think you will end up with a total of 12 tons of cargo space. And don't forget a fuel Scoop (this will let out do the LONG runs without having to dock for fuel). Now do a search in the forums about "rares" and start doing rare runs. Just watch out for Pirates. Expect to run into them every time your are slowing down at your arrival station. You can escape if you are evasive enough and give your FSD time to reset. As soon as you can activate your FSD and get out of there. Do these runs in Solo Mode so the only pirates you run into are NPC's. You will make 200,000 + credits Per run. Depending on the Rares you are carrying.

Aelemar · Apr 2, 2015

I started playing about a week ago as well, and currently, I have about 5mil credits in my account, and a Viper with gear around the 2-3 million mark.

I tried everything when I started, doing missions, delivery missions, and explored a little bit.

My first amount of "solid" money came from exploring, a short expedition with basic scanners on my Sidewinder netted me around 200k. I messed around with an Adder, which I sold once I realized I couldn't gear it up. I tried an eagle after, which I used for a bit, but realized that it's not that much different from the Sidewinder.

A longer exploring expedition, netted me around a million (I'd say, 4-5 hours exploring, around 300-400 light years travelled).

After trying all that (and mind you, 200k/1mil is not bad money), I found that bounty hunting is probably the easiest and best way to make money starting out. What it took me to make 2 or 3 hours exploring or doing missions, I can make easily in under an hour bounty hunting.

I would suggest that you try it:

Buy a Kill Warrant Scanner
Visit a nearby RES (Resource Extraction Point) RES are most commonly found near planets with rings around them.
Scan the different ships that will be there, if you see one that's marked as "Wanted", DO NOT attack it. Wait until the System Authority Ships attack first. (Unless you are feeling confident, and wish to get some combat practice).
Once combat begins, shoot the Wanted ship from time to time once or twice, when it dies, you will get paid for "helping out".
A typical bounty can range from 5000-30000, while the bigger bounties can be as high as 180k (my highest so far).

Be careful with the bigger ships, such as the Anacondas, Pythons, and Imperial Clippers. You can experiment with these (they usually have a really good bounty on them) but don't shoot them too much, because they will focus on you if you do (and possibly blow you up pretty fast).

Do this in Solo mode, so it'll be a bit easier for you to start out.

Let's just say that my lowest profit in bounty hunting has been around 150k in one hour, and my highest was around 830k in one hour. The average I would say is 300-400k. Depends on your luck and the Wanted ships that are around.

nnhood · Apr 3, 2015

Thanks Everyone

Thanks for all the advice, all that will help. I'm actually pretty far away from the start point/station. I did some hopping around and some of the missions were in systems that were pretty far away. I saw on youtube that some people found black holes, that's pretty amazing.

Do they plan to make a quarters for you as a pilot? Like a stateroom? Might be just myself, but thought it would be neat to have a place to go to, like Picards quarters... some early grey tea perhaps.

I haven't tried this in my Oculus DK2 yet, but will have to give it a shot.

Are most of you using sticks or mouse and keyboard? I have a pretty decent system, but just using mouse and keyboard for now. Looking at Saitek products though. Would probably add to the experience and maybe ease of use. I bought Star Citizen as well so they won't go to use. Last time I had a joystick was a CH Products Flightstick Pro for playing Mechwarrior and some Star Wars titles.

What happens if you buy a bigger ship and it gets destroyed? Is there insurance you can buy? Do you always have the option in the worst case scenario to go into debt and get another sidewinder?

Thanks again for all the help, it is much appreciated, happy exploring!

Matt

Jank · Apr 3, 2015

nnhood said:
Thanks for all the advice, all that will help. I'm actually pretty far away from the start point/station. I did some hopping around and some of the missions were in systems that were pretty far away. I saw on youtube that some people found black holes, that's pretty amazing.

Do they plan to make a quarters for you as a pilot? Like a stateroom? Might be just myself, but thought it would be neat to have a place to go to, like Picards quarters... some early grey tea perhaps.

I haven't tried this in my Oculus DK2 yet, but will have to give it a shot.

Are most of you using sticks or mouse and keyboard? I have a pretty decent system, but just using mouse and keyboard for now. Looking at Saitek products though. Would probably add to the experience and maybe ease of use. I bought Star Citizen as well so they won't go to use. Last time I had a joystick was a CH Products Flightstick Pro for playing Mechwarrior and some Star Wars titles.

What happens if you buy a bigger ship and it gets destroyed? Is there insurance you can buy? Do you always have the option in the worst case scenario to go into debt and get another sidewinder?

Thanks again for all the help, it is much appreciated, happy exploring!

Matt

Not sure about staterooms, but I hear there are plans to eventually be able to go down to planetary surfaces.

I'm using mouse/keyboard, works quite well for me, as anything would once you get the hang of it.

So all ships are insured by default. If it gets destroyed, you choose to either pay the deductible for replacement (10% of the equipped ship cost) or take the free Sidewinder and lose the old ship forever. Either way you lose any cargo and redeemable bounties you had.