So you’ve found yourself here, looking to scatter criminals and their ships across the stars, I don’t know why you’re here, maybe revenge, money, or rank, whatever it is, you’re here now. Members of the Bounty Hunter’s Guild have come together to put together this training document to teach you how to fly and kill within the Guild.
Baby Steps
Bounty hunting principles fall under the same as game principles do, don’t fly without a rebuy, and don’t combat log. Keep an eye on your contacts and don’t start a fight you can’t win, if you do, either die or jump out. Check if they are in a wing, and find their wingmates before engaging. Every hunter has gone through their first hunts with issues, no first hunt has ever gone correctly, if they did, nobody in this profession would be dead. So where do you begin? Begin easy, fly to resource extraction sites and fly close to system authority. Remember, you don’t need to kill the target to collect their bounty, one shot can get you the credits, so if you see yourself bested and the police have to help you, don’t worry, you’ll still get your credits. Once you’ve accumulated the credits and skills, you can move onto fighting pirates in extraction sites on your own. The hunt is divided between two people, the hunter, and the Fugitive. Remember to check a Fugitive's modules to know who you are up against and what they might be packing.Expectations
As a member of the Bounty Hunting Guild, we have expectations and a ruleset we expect you to follow, this is our Code. I’m not going to put together this excruciating bullet list for you guys to follow, I am going to tell you what to do, and whether you do it or not is up to you, just now it is better to do it than to not. If your Fugitive has left his ship unmanned on a planet surface while grinding for mats, it is against Guild Code to destroy an unmanned ship, if they do not return in their ship in 10 minutes, you are permitted to destroy their ship. If you’re going to be a functioning member of this Guild, you are expected to help other hunters when needed, whether you’re on an active hunt or not, you’re fellow hunters are higher priority than anything else. Hunters don’t kill hunters, this is an obvious one, but rogues do happen and we try to prevent it, if hunters go rogue and kill other hunters and it happens to you, you are required to inform a Guild Officer, known as Knights. Once this happens, the Commander that violated our Code, is excommunicated from the guild, and is marked for death. Understand that a mark for death commander may not be treated with mercy, if this commander has contacted you, you must inform a Knight or higher, if you are seen complying with said commander, you are also marked for death, unless you are communicating them in a ploy to destroy them. If you do engage in a ploy, you must inform a Knight, and keep them up to date on your operation.
Commander Hunting
Sometimes our work takes us out of the usual government contracts from minor factions, sometimes a player wants somebody destroyed because they destroyed them. If you are tasked with killing another commander, make sure the bounty is legit, don’t break the law and kill somebody just because somebody said so. Commander hunting takes a special kind of pilot and ship, your ship must be rigged out with top of the line engineering and tech, if you wish to engage in commander hunting, you must be approved to do so.Acceptable Methods of Payment
Sometimes, commander hunting comes with other benefits, depending on the risk of the contract, our commanders are entitled to earning some other reward other than the government bounty on the commander. Here is a list of materials you may accept from a commander hunt.
- High end mining commodities IE: Painite, Platinum, Palladium, Low temperature diamonds ETC.
- Anything that can be used to restore offline stations that have been affected by a Thargoid attack.
- Illegal goods (this one is not recommended, but if you can sell them through anarchy systems, go for it, if caught, the Guild is not responsible for you)
Ship Recommendations
You’re ship marks who you are and how you play, it’s a staple of who you are as a fighter. Now a ship can hunt as long as it’s got weapons, but it most likely won’t be formidable against a seasoned pirate or rogue hunter. For myself, I recommend small to medium ships, and follow hit and run tactics, in and out. Of course you can fly with a huge megaship like the Anaconda or Federal Corvette, but you’ve got to take into consideration their maneuver capabilities. Engineering is an essential to commander hunting, without it, you will never succeed in a case. Engineering is completely up to you and how you want to fly your ship, you can have a shield tank, hull tank ETC. A vulture is a great ship to start hunting down criminals as it has great maneuverability and a relatively cheat base price, just remember, it’s got a weak canopy. Every ship has a weakness, as a hunter, you need to learn those weaknesses and capitalize on them as much as possible.
Recommended Utility Modules
In this segment of your guide to becoming a head hunting savage, I will teach you what modules are a must have. Our first module is called a Frame Shift Drive Interdictor, what this module does is, essentially pull people that are in supercruise out and into regular space, enabling you to engage and destroy them. Next, we have a Kill Warrant Scanner. This module allows you to scan the target and see and collect their bounty on a galaxy wide range instead of system wide. The Auto-Field Maintenance Unit offers the ability to repair damaged modules so you may continue the hunt without having to stop for repairs. A Fighter Bay enables you to hire a second gun in a smaller ship and fight your target beside you, you can only have 1 fighter at a time, so keep that in mind, it’s one fighter, not a small army.Ranking and Structure
Our ranks are to be followed extremely closely, if this structure is broken, the Guild cannot be run at an efficient pace. Here is a list, highest rank to lowest rank. High command are Knights and Council members (Consul)
Consul: this person has been around long enough to know the ins and outs of the Guild, how it works, and what lies in the future. This person is tasked with making decisions for the future of the Guild.
Knight: A Knight has been around and actively bounty hunting and showing dedication for the Guild. Knights are tasked with training trainees until they fully understand the Code and Standards Operating Procedures (SOP) within the guild.
Member: A member has gone through training and understands SOP and Code, he is able to participate in hunts alone or with other members, this person has the ability to bring up recommendations to high command to change or improve something in the Guild.
Trainee: A trainee is a commander that is constantly escorted and helped by a Knight, this person is being trained on the SOP and Code, this person does not have the ability to bring up recommendations to the Council. This person cannot fly alone or hunt on behalf of the Guild without a Knight.
Standard Operating Procedures
Our Standard Operating Procedures are to be followed at ALL times. SOP is easy to understand and easy to follow, we made it this way so that you don’t need to think too hard about it, it’s not a lot of things, but you must understand all of it completely. First and foremost, a hunt cannot be warranted without official recognition of the crime, you cannot kill somebody because you want to, a hunt and kill must be legit. When completing your hunt, you must leave a local message saying “This hunt was on behalf of the Bounty Hunters Guild.”. We do no not allow taunting before and after a battle, remain to a professional standard. Commander hunts are sent to Knights, after the Knight reviews and investigates the Fugitive, a player picked by a Knight will be assigned to the hunt to destroy the Fugitive, this is called a case. While on a case, the assigned commander can choose, as long as they are a member or higher, to help them in the hunt. Nobody other than the assigned commander has to help with a case, this is the only time you may decide not to help a hunter. After the Fugitive is destroyed, the hunter must record the name of the Fugitive, and their galactic bounty, we do this to record success rate, and income made by the guild. How you conduct hunts, how you find people, is completely up to you, whether it’s joining groups to figure out where somebody usually docks, go for it, if you prefer challenging a person to a duel you can do it, as long as the bounty is complete and the Fugitive is destroyed. Our SOP is not hard to follow, if you are caught not following it, upon the 3rd violation, you will be removed from the Guild, publicly. Removal from the Guild means that you may not seek help from hunters, you may not represent the Guild in any fashion and you will not be reaccepted into the Guild.
Independent Hunting
Independent hunting is possible, but it is not recommended, if you are independently hunting, you are not marked for death, but don’t be surprised if you meet your end from another bounty hunter from the Guild. Being in the Guild is the one true way to hunt, you are connected to thousands of fellow hunters and you can access hundreds of resources to help you in your hunting. Independent hunters are not marked for death, but they are not protected by the Guild. Independent hunters have a tendency to “bounty-snipe” a term Guild members use when an independent hunter takes a bounty from them, this is why they are vilified from the Guild and often destroyed when crossed.
Dangers of the Hunt
Bounty hunting in the Elite Dangerous space can land you in some dangerous situations, and sometimes they are not when facing another pilot. In this section, I will explain some situations that you may find yourself in and how to get out of them. The first is fuel, if you fly a ship that doesn’t have the capacity to hold a fuel scoop or you’ve made a mistake and forgot to pick up fuel while hunting a criminal down, the FuelRats will be more than happy to help you get the fuel you need to continue the hunt, head over to their website if you need a rescue. If you find yourself getting too close to a gravity well of a planet, fly towards the horizon and slow down, and follow the instructions to glide on to a planet surface, if you misjudge the speed or gravitational pull of a planet, face upward, all power to systems and engines, and boost away from the planet, if that doesn’t work, belly flop on the planet surface and hope for the best, don’t drop your landing gear, it’ll only get shredded off.
Guild Finance
Finance is a crucial amenity for the functionally and continuation of the Guild. There will be multiple carriers dedicated to holding valuable items in case somebody in the Guild finds themselves stuck in a rut and in need of some cash. It is up to you and your fellow Guild members to supply the carrier with materials. If you take materials for payment in a case, you are required to drop 5% of the material into the Guild material carrier, for operation security purposes, the carrier will be moved once a week to avoid piracy. If the carrier is attacked, it is required that all hunters, whether on a hunt or not, protect the carrier at all cost. This is your fund, your responsible for the upkeep of the carrier and materials submitted into it. Every 2 weeks a Consul or Knight will check on the carrier and make sure we’ve still got funds and have a steady balance in case things go south.
Politics In The Guild
As some of you may be wondering, how does politics work in the Guild? What about minor factions and Powerplay? Simple answer is, when representing the Guild or when around Guild members, you may not discriminate, fight, or deny Guild code because of somebody’s alignment, if we task you with helping an imperial hunter while you are aligned federally, you will put your political background aside and help the hunter whether you like it or not, if you refuse to help or can’t put aside your differences, you will be removed from the Guild immediately. These rules apply with minor factions and Thargoid affiliation.
Guild Administration
Guild meetings will be held once a month, during these meetings, you are permitted to bring up suggestions, problems you’re having, and request you may have, after the meeting, the council will gather and debate on suggestions or requests brought up by our members. We take great pride in everybody in the Guild and we take all requests and suggestions serious (if they are serious as well). When it comes to administration, the Guild follows a very strict schedule and code of conduct, only those who are dedicated to the Guild may be a Consul.
Last edited:
