Bounty Hunter Blues

Zomb Lee

Zomb Lee
So, I'm completely new to Elite Dangerous. As I said in my introduction thread, I missed out on the original and '84 by about five years, and sadly never got to experience this great game series until now.

So. I figured I'd give bounty hunting a shot. Got involved today in a firefight between a couple of Federation Security Vessels and a Viper. Being in a sidewinder I figured I'd never make it, but I gave it a shot anyway. I was holding my own fairly well after having spent a lot of time yesterday after purchasing the game practicing combat.


Anyways, sadly I put a beam into a Fed that crossed in front of me from out of nowhere, and made them quite unhappy. I'm picking away at the Viper and really, the feds don't seem to be so hell-bent on killing me. That changed when they finally got on my six and popped my canopy letting me taste sweet sweet vacuum.

So with 6% hull left, and a cabin full of icy nothing, I decide to give up on my target (whom I later found out was worth over 25K! Damn!) and make a run for the nearest station. (I know, do not go to stations with a bounty on your head), but the human brain's requirement for oxygen is quite animalistic, and so gasping and struggling to breathe in my helmet I land at the station, somehow avoiding a scan, only to have my ship explode before as my oxy ran out just before the hangar doors shut.

So...new character.


Basically, Bounty Hunting is pretty well impossible, early game, isn't it? Scanners I have can only show local warranted ships, and generally, a Sidewinder, while extremely maneuverable as I have read, is pretty well on the weak side, but any ship is only as good as the pilot, right?

Well I dunno. Just seemed like the place to talk about it after several fruitless searches for some high-bountied (to me) players and AI. But, this game is seriously addictive. I've gotten like 4 hours of sleep and can't stop playing. =D
 
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Tenshi

Tenshi
First off welcome to the game.

My advice would be to run some missions in the Sidewinder like courier missions and small trade missions to earn some money. This is the quickest way to get credits early in the game that I know of. Then start to upgrade the Sidewinder like better shields, better thrusters, power plant, power distribution, better FSD. Possibly better weapons like gimbal weapons as they will help you in combat a little bit.

Then learn how to fly the Sidewinder as you go along and when you are happy get the next ship you want for the task at hand. So a bounty hunter go for the Eagle and upgrade that slowly over time. If you do big upgrades to ships you will end up with little to no credits to cover the insurance and so if you have a mishap like you describe you will loose all your progress and end up back in the Sidewinder.

Elite is brutal like that which is why many love it.

It is quite possible to bounty hunt in the Sidewinder, just very slowly due to the weapons that it can have.
 

Zomb Lee

Zomb Lee
Tenshi said:
First off welcome to the game.

My advice would be to run some missions in the Sidewinder like courier missions and small trade missions to earn some money. This is the quickest way to get credits early in the game that I know of. Then start to upgrade the Sidewinder like better shields, better thrusters, power plant, power distribution, better FSD. Possibly better weapons like gimbal weapons as they will help you in combat a little bit.

Then learn how to fly the Sidewinder as you go along and when you are happy get the next ship you want for the task at hand. So a bounty hunter go for the Eagle and upgrade that slowly over time. If you do big upgrades to ships you will end up with little to no credits to cover the insurance and so if you have a mishap like you describe you will loose all your progress and end up back in the Sidewinder.

Elite is brutal like that which is why many love it.

It is quite possible to bounty hunt in the Sidewinder, just very slowly due to the weapons that it can have.
Click to expand...

Excellent starter points! Thank you for the help. This game is a lot to take in, but I've already had so much fun with it, and can't seem to get enough. I am definitely surprised at what the Sidewinder can do in comparison to bigger ships. I really put quite the dent in that Viper's hull before I was forced to bail. Granted it was an NPC pilot, but he was rated at Dangerous, and I can say I did most of the work, as the feds were busy trying to kill me for slicing a beam through their shields by mistake.

Again, thanks for the welcome and the helpful guidelines. Hope to see you in-game sometime.
 

Sete

S
Bounty hunt small game my friend. Its tempting to go after big game. But if they blow you up its all for naught. Amd yes upgrade to eagle as soon as possible. But carefull if the shields are down. They are a bit fragile.
 
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DMLeeroy

D
My advice would be start off by killing wanted haulers and sidewinders (novice and below) who aren't allied to the same faction as the security vessels.
Kill haulers because they are slow, a bit bigger than the sideys so there's more to aim at so you can get used to the weapon mechanics, then start picking off sidewinders. You can get sidewinders with a pretty decent bounty on their head.

Another thing I'd say is if youre really struggling for a shot invest in gimballed lasers, they help a bit as they track the target for you, although if your opponent has chaff you won't hit much for a few seconds when its deployed.

Lastly, its all about position. Before you take your first shot you want to be as close as you can get so you can do as much damage as possible in the shortest amount of time before they pull evasive manoeuvres. This tactic also ensures you won't hit the Feds with a stray pulse, as you're right up your targets jacksy.
 

Phrygian

P
I've been bounty hunting pretty much exclusively with some exploration and smuggling on the side, and managed to make over a million in the sidewinder, upgrading it as I went. +1 on the buying gimballed lasers, and also invest in a stronger power distributor and shield generator when you have the cash.

The most important thing, though, is to know when to leave a fight. If the opponent can hit you no matter where you are, leave because they have turrets and you're screwed. Don't keep on trying to kill a high bounty if it's wrecking your ship, no matter how close it seems. Find one target, lock on it, concentrate on it, and if anything else gets in the way, or even looks like it might, stop firing. If you do aggro the cops, because sometimes they come out of nowhere, and sometimes they just get annoyed because you happen to be shooting one of their mates, FSD out of there and get to a station straight away to pay off the bounty.

Also, in the sidewinder the lateral thrusters are your friend. I've lost count of the number of vipers and cobras I've managed to circle round just by boosting down, keeping my nose pointed at their belly, while matching their speed. Usually they were too busy getting annoyed and trying to circle me to boost away :) Eagles, on the other hand, are a bit more tricky, because faster, but they make up for it by being made out of paper so when you do get a lock they go boom pretty quickly.

With a bit of practice, you can even take on Pythons with fixed mounts. They just take a while.

And buy a kill warrant scanner to check all the tasty tokens on your targets before engaging. I'd suggest even getting that, just a cheap one, before any other upgrade, apart from gimballed burst lasers, that is.
 

Anton_

Anton_
Cannot emphasise enough the need to grind for money in the early stages. Upgrade to a truck with a bigger cargo space as soon as you can (e.g., hauler) to increase your speed of making money.

Evade interdictions and, if you can't, then run as fast as you until you can FS away. Do as much trading as you can with your Sidey, it's a free ship and they give you a new one fer nowt if you trash it.

When you get to being able to choose your fighting machine, while Eagles and Vipers are sexy and all that, my retro Cobra takes them out like they were tinfoil. And the Cob has a nice big boot too, if you can get hold of some of the highly rewarding fetch/carry missions (although must say I haven't seen any of those for a bit).
 

RobinsonUK

R
Things that you haven't attacked turning mysteriously red and your computerised turrets then attacking them is a bit of an issue too. I just got a 200Cr fine for that :p.

Perhaps it's not so mysterious in the code but it can be to the player in the UI. I think it needs to have a kind-of hysteresis, a bit of give in it. The game is a work in progress.
 

Zomb Lee

Zomb Lee
Wow! You guys are great! Lots and lost of helpful information here. Sadly, I was in-game doing my best to hunt in an ill-equipped Sidewinder, so I didn't see all these replies! However, I have some success stories, as well as questions for you guys, and may I say thanks in advance for any help on this information.

Okay, so, I can't even remember the system I was in, or why. I had been hunting all day, and have had players and NPCs snipe most of my kills that I had whittled away for a long while with.

A few screams that make my throat feel like gravel later, and I'm on an NPC who's small time in comparison to the 50-100K bounties I had stolen right from under me. So I knock this sucker down, and boom, FINALLY get a payout of a measly 6k. But, beggars can't be choosers, and I had approximately 440 credits to my name at this point, so I welcome the 6 grand, and continue hunting, jumping, nearly running out of fuel, until finally, BIG pay-out (for me) I run into another NPC in a Viper worth 20K. A drawn out firefight ensues, and blam, down he goes and yours truly finally gets a decent pay-day.

So here's my questions to the more experienced Fetts out there...My first payday saw me use it on a better powerplant and a powerdistributor and damn, what a difference! I've got more juice for my shields and weapons, and that's what helped me earn that 20K kill.

Now, I understand that I don't want to upgrade too fast, as I want to be able to afford my equipment insurance when I inevitably die, however that 32k I own is burning a hole in my pocket, and I had several upgrades in mind, unless of course, I'm advised by the more experienced here otherwise.

It's no secret that I've wanted to bash my face into a pulp on my keyboard as I have passed some very lucrative bounties that were in supercruise, and that I wanted to drag out of it, but alas, I can't, as I don't have an FSD Interdiction drive. Now I can afford one, however, when I go to upgrade, I notice that the drive what's to take the place of my shield system. Now, I'm all for being able to finally get to the baddies, but there's no way I'm sacrificing my shields to do so, not in a Sidewinder. Is is possible to equip both shields and a interdiction drive on a Sidewinder? If so, how?

The next upgrades I had considered were some weapons, or even a warrant scanner, but I feel the kill warrant scanner would be useless if all I can do is watch the bounty fly past me in SC. So, other than perhaps some better guns (not sure if my powerplant is really up to snuff for the bigger boomsticks) and the warrant scanner, I considered a better shield system.

Anyways, what do you guys think? Thanks again!

--Lee
 

TheBahrbarian

T
Well i started out with bounty hunting as well, and have had a blast. I had a bit of a boost since i started with an Eagle (Mercenary Edition). Anyway, you asked about an interdiction device. First off, I sold mine. I've found it more effective to start of just prowling around nav beacons and extraction points (even though they can get a bit crowded at times). Interdiction devices seem more suited for pirates to start off with. But if you want it, go for it. It DOES NOT need to take the place of your shields. As you may notice, under "shield generator" it shows the type of compartment it takes up. It says "internal compartment". You will also notice you have three of those. So you can replace any of the three things there for your interdiction device.

I would however suggest saving up for the KW Scanner. Essentially all it is, is device you use to do a preliminary scan on a wanted target before attacking. It "contacts all law enforcement agencies" to get the highest bounty. Essentially it gives you a higher bounty on a ship, because even if it has a decent bounty on X faction, but it may have a higher bounty in Y faction. So if your interested in making bounty hunting your future, it's a must have.

Have a great time bounty hunting. And just a side note: hitting feds and such is annoying. And its the worst when everyone slaughters you for tagging an ally. If some one accidentally tags you, don't attack him. Its only 200-300 credits, and is not worth the trouble you'll give him. I've actually gone as far as blocking feds shots while letting some one who hit me escape. It's the right thing to do until they come up with a solution for this.

Happy Hunting!
 

grae3107

grae3107
I think you just got unlucky by hitting the Fed. If that had not happened you would have ended up 25K richer. Keep at it.
 

Krait_79

Krait_79
Zomb Lee said:
So, I'm completely new to Elite Dangerous. As I said in my introduction thread, I missed out on the original and '84 by about five years, and sadly never got to experience this great game series until now.

So. I figured I'd give bounty hunting a shot. Got involved today in a firefight between a couple of Federation Security Vessels and a Viper. Being in a sidewinder I figured I'd never make it, but I gave it a shot anyway. I was holding my own fairly well after having spent a lot of time yesterday after purchasing the game practicing combat.


Anyways, sadly I put a beam into a Fed that crossed in front of me from out of nowhere, and made them quite unhappy. I'm picking away at the Viper and really, the feds don't seem to be so hell-bent on killing me. That changed when they finally got on my six and popped my canopy letting me taste sweet sweet vacuum.

So with 6% hull left, and a cabin full of icy nothing, I decide to give up on my target (whom I later found out was worth over 25K! Damn!) and make a run for the nearest station. (I know, do not go to stations with a bounty on your head), but the human brain's requirement for oxygen is quite animalistic, and so gasping and struggling to breathe in my helmet I land at the station, somehow avoiding a scan, only to have my ship explode before as my oxy ran out just before the hangar doors shut.

So...new character.


Basically, Bounty Hunting is pretty well impossible, early game, isn't it? Scanners I have can only show local warranted ships, and generally, a Sidewinder, while extremely maneuverable as I have read, is pretty well on the weak side, but any ship is only as good as the pilot, right?

Well I dunno. Just seemed like the place to talk about it after several fruitless searches for some high-bountied (to me) players and AI. But, this game is seriously addictive. I've gotten like 4 hours of sleep and can't stop playing. =D
Click to expand...

If you want to bounty hunt with a basic sidewinder then.

Target USS or the rock clusters. You can get some good bounties there and not too many SA ships to worry about.

Also turn report crimes against me off and finally upgrade your power distributor and power units first as it will stop your lasers maxing out after just a few seconds.
 

Zomb Lee

Zomb Lee
TheBahrbarian said:
Well i started out with bounty hunting as well, and have had a blast. I had a bit of a boost since i started with an Eagle (Mercenary Edition). Anyway, you asked about an interdiction device. First off, I sold mine. I've found it more effective to start of just prowling around nav beacons and extraction points (even though they can get a bit crowded at times). Interdiction devices seem more suited for pirates to start off with. But if you want it, go for it. It DOES NOT need to take the place of your shields. As you may notice, under "shield generator" it shows the type of compartment it takes up. It says "internal compartment". You will also notice you have three of those. So you can replace any of the three things there for your interdiction device.

I would however suggest saving up for the KW Scanner. Essentially all it is, is device you use to do a preliminary scan on a wanted target before attacking. It "contacts all law enforcement agencies" to get the highest bounty. Essentially it gives you a higher bounty on a ship, because even if it has a decent bounty on X faction, but it may have a higher bounty in Y faction. So if your interested in making bounty hunting your future, it's a must have.

Have a great time bounty hunting. And just a side note: hitting feds and such is annoying. And its the worst when everyone slaughters you for tagging an ally. If some one accidentally tags you, don't attack him. Its only 200-300 credits, and is not worth the trouble you'll give him. I've actually gone as far as blocking feds shots while letting some one who hit me escape. It's the right thing to do until they come up with a solution for this.

Happy Hunting!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the helpful information! Hope to see you in space sometime! As for the bounties, I've actually come across 3 players today who had really small bounties on them. One had 400 credits, the other 200. They were not NPCs and they were in Sidewinders, so I knew immediately what had happened. The whole accidental shooting thing, so I just ignored them.

In something so frantic and unpredictable as space combat, I can't believe the system isn't more like Freelancer's was from back in the day. In that game, you could fly to any neutral faction member, and ping them. Of course, you'd get a verbal "Hey, watch it!" but they'd attribute it to an accident. However, if you lowered their shields to say, about 75%, all hell would break loose, as it should. Afterall, you shot away about 25% and it's more than clear what your intentions are. If for some reason, a ship didn't have shields, they were a bit more sensitive, and would only tolerate about 10% hull damage oops's. And I have to say I really liked that system. It made combat with NPC allies much, much more reasonable, as they too would fly in the way all the time by mistake.

Also, good on you to shield the guy and let him get away. I wish some players were more reasonable and nice. I had an Eagle driver blow me out of the sky for no reason at all, after ripping me from SC. He was totally unprovoked, I didn't even scan him, and I couldn't evade his interdiction engine because it must've been a class A or something. I mean, I fly a sidewinder, that thing's pretty easy to keep on the ball, but there was no evading this one. 3 shots and boom, I'm dead, failing a very lucrative mission I had just accepted.

Then, I almost had a 100K kill of an adder, really flying my brains out and really fighting as hard as ever and then suddenly, surprise surprise, another eagle driver flies in and waits until I have the guy down to about 15% hull, fires off all of his ordinance into my already crippled ship, killing me instantly, and likely claiming the bounty on the guy I basically killed for him.

Kinda had to scream about that one. Ah well. This game is still amazing.
 

Ryzz

Ryzz
You could replace the C1 discovery scanner with a C1 FSD Interdictor. Definitely don't replace your shields for one, though! :)
 

Zomb Lee

Zomb Lee
That's a really good idea. I thought the scanner was necessary, as in, it was my ships main scanner, and "Discovery" just happened to be a name. But now I understand it's mostly for exploration, which I have no interest in anyways. Thanks for that!
 

Phrygian

P
On competition from other players, just fly out from where you are by five, maybe ten, systems. (at least) You'll find somewhere a lot less populated. Aim for a nice independent system with good outfitting, preferably fairly close to allied, federal, and empire space, with at least one dodgy looking faction living there (check your influence page in the UI when you arrive), then just prowl the nav beacon.

On the KWS, you can't use it in supercruise. So, that's not an issue. And, seriously, I'm always bagging Empire bounties while in Independent space, which wouldn't show up without the KWS. It pays for itself pretty quickly. Just, make sure you're down with which trigger you assign it too...... I've accidentally shot some cleans when trying to scan them more than once now, because I start scanning before my basic sensors pick up whether they're wanted in the system or not....


Don't hold back on upgrading your sidewinder. Class A the whole lot. Fully souped up, the re-buy costs are minimal, and once you get good you can make it back in quarter of an hour :) It will never punch hard, but running costs and manoeuvrability more than make up for it.

And, yeah, turn report crimes against me off! Can't believe I forgot that one :)
 

Sete

S
Hmm kill warrant. I could buy that one too. Thinking of ditching my cargo bays I need more jump distance. Need to move from sistem to upgrade my viper the one im in has no gear for it.
Also try to target drives or FSD to prevent a jump. Drives are easier but they will drift away from you at ridiculous speeds lol. I have lose a few tasty bounties because of a jump that my ship could not follow. Also yesterday I Interdicted a wanted player, but whn I got out of supercruise I was alone at the instance. Bummer.
 

Tregajorran

T
I think my free sidewinder was worth about 215k by the time I finished with it - As the others say upgrade.
Ditch the cargo slot for something useful (like a shield cell) - you are a bounty hunter, not a trader!
Get the warrant scanner - it will net you more.
+1 on going to an independent govt as you can get a local bounty as well as fed etc. ones.

XD when upgrading do not exceed max power capabilities for 'deployed' - I didn't spot I'd done that on my viper until I opened my guns and promptly stopped dead ;)
 
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