Bounty Hunting, What is it?
Put simply it is destroying a ship that has committed a crime and collecting a bounty.
How do I tell if a ship has committed a crime?
In a controlled system, that is a system under control of either Fed, Empire, Alliance or an Independent faction if the ship has committed a crime against the system authority (that faction which controls the system) they will display WANTED in the target panel and display a bounty in the contacts tab. You can also Kill Warrant scan a CLEAN ship to reveal if it has committed crimes against a faction other than the controlling system authority, however even if it does; it's status in that system in still CLEAN.
In an anarchy system, you will have to own a Kill Warrant scanner as there is no system authority or WANTED indicator in anarchy systems.
What does a Kill Warrant Scanner do?
A kill warrant scanner will display bounty amount from other systems.
A kill warrant scanner is needed to determine if a ship has a bounty while in an anarchy system as there is no controlling faction.
A kill warrant scanner is also useful in a controlled system, if you are in a controlled system and see a bounty on a ship of 5,000 credits performing a Kill Warrant scan may display other bounties increasing the total value to say 10,000 credits. They do not always increase the payout.
A kill warrant scanner has no bearing on faction gains or losses and does not reveal who the additional bounties were valid for.
How useful is the contacts tab when looking at a Bounty target?
Extremely, you should ALWAYS check the contacts tab details of any ship you target and have performed a basic scan and or kw scan of and are thinking about opening fire upon. Of particular importance is the ships faction and it bounty amount, these will drive your decision on whether or not to proceed and attack. More on this below.
How does bounty hunting effect my reputation with the different factions?
From Michael @ Frontier Development, who has graciously allowed me to share the info he shared with me: Answers in BLUE
When you destroy a ship the following checks are made:
1. Was the ship wanted in the current jurisdiction – this determines whether a bounty will be issued against you by the faction that controls the jurisdiction. As far as crime is concerned – this is the only thing that determines if a crime was committed
a. Anarchy systems and conflict zones count as no jurisdiction, so crimes cannot be committed in them at all.
2. What was the ship’s faction?
a. The same as the current jurisdiction – no reputation loss occurs – the faction wanted one of their own dead, and you stepped up.
b. Different from the current jurisdiction: was the ship wanted by its own faction?
i. Yes – no reputation loss occurs, the target was fleeing justice, and you stepped up.
ii. No – reputation loss occurs with the ship’s faction – as far as they were concerned, you just killed an innocent citizen; they couldn’t care less about crimes committed in jurisdictions other than their own.
Examples:
Example 1: You are in fed system KINI and see a wanted upon basic scan. You check contacts tab which shows a bounty and Faction says 'Kini Drug Cartel'(a pirate faction).
- no crime committed, reputation loss with 'Kini Drug Cartel' AKA SAFE to Shoot as long as you do not care if the pirates hate you more.
Example 2: You are in fed system KINI and see a wanted upon basic scan. You check contacts tab which shows a bounty and Faction says 'Everate Whosits'(an independent system controlling faction).
- no crime committed, reputation loss with 'Everate Whosits'. AKA NOT Safe to shoot if you want to go to the Everate system in the future.
Example 2a: You are in fed system KINI and see a wanted upon basic scan. You check contacts tab which shows a bounty for 5000 and Faction says 'Everate Whosits'(an independent system controlling faction). You perform and complete a kill warrant scan it know shows 15,000 Bounty
- no crime committed, potential reputation loss with 'Everate Whosits' (the KWS does not reveal who the additional bounties were valid for) AKA NOT Safe to shoot if you want to go to that system in the future. Meaning KW Warrant scan has no bearing on reputation.
Example 3: You are in an anarchy system and KW scan a ship. You check contacts tab which shows a bounty and Faction says 'Kini Drug Cartel'(a pirate faction). Safe to shoot.
- no crime committed, reputation loss with Kini Drug Cartel (pirate anarchies do not issue bounties, so their ships are always “clean” to them) AKA SAFE to Shoot as long as you do not care if the pirates hate you more.
Example 4: You are in an anarchy system and KW scan a ship. You check contacts tab which shows a bounty and Faction says 'Everate Whosits'(an independent system controlling faction).
- no crime committed, potential reputation loss with 'Everate Whosits' (you will get a reputation loss unless the target has a bounty issued against it valid in 'Everate Whosits') AKA NOT Safe to shoot if you want to go to that system in the future.
Example 5: You are in Independent system EVERATE and see a wanted upon basic scan. You check contacts tab which shows a bounty and Faction says 'Federation Align Faction X'(a faction aligned to the feds).
- no crime committed, reputation loss with 'Federation Align Faction X' and Federation as a whole. AKA NOT Safe to shoot if you want to go to the 'Federation Align Faction X' system and Fed controlled systems in the future.
I seen a WANTED ship in a controlled system with a low bounty amount (~400 credits), attacking a CLEAN ship and upon KW scanning it has a large bounty (>20,000). What is going on here? Who should I attack?
What you are seeing is a NPC bounty hunter attacking a ship because it has committed a crime in another system and it was willing to take a small hit on it own bounty to collect. (Assume he plans to pay it off with his proceeds).
You should likely not attack either if you wish to avoid both a criminal record/bounty in the current system and reputation loss with either faction.
Should you feel the Clean ships bounty is worth risking a bounty of your own and paying it off with your proceeds it would be a better choice than the WANTED ship with such a low bounty. That is why the npc bounty hunter is attacking it, in this sense he knows what he is doing. You will also take a reputation hit against the clean ships faction (unless they issued the bounty, which KW scan does not reveal. The only way to know is if a wanted ship is in its own faction's controlled and its still wanted). The game is about choices and eventually you have to make some.
I see a WANTED ship and it is Green/Friendly to me. Should I attack it?
Likely you do not want to attack as it will result in a loss of reputation with its faction. Do not just run in like a blood thirsty madman and start blowing it away at least. Check your contacts tab.
Again if the bounty is high enough and you do not mind the rep loss you may proceed. BUT if you continue to kill the same faction often you will become hostile to that faction and will not be allowed to dock at any station they own and you will be pursued by system authorities in its system if it is the controlling faction. Because they now see you as the blood thirsty madman you are.
As an example if you are friendly to the feds you probably do not want to go around killing its citizens who are wanted by other factions if you plan to remain on friendly terms with the feds.
But I am just collecting bounties, why would it make sense that ANY faction gets upset at me if I only kill those flagged WANTED?
A friend put it like this. If you were friendly with the pirates and you go to a fed controlled system and see a fellow pirate that happens to be WANTED, because you guys are pirates and that is what you do. If you were to open fire and kill him just because you could without committing a crime in the system due to his wanted status you would have just ganked him, cheap shotted and back stabbed him from behind when he thought you were his friend. The other factions basically work the same except well they are not pirates but you must remember although the galaxy is in a mostly peaceful state there are skirmishes and 'bad blood' between some of the various factions. You cannot really play both side off against each other.
In other terms. Boba Fett was 'just a bounty hunter' too but because he chose to work with Vader and the Empire, Han still opened fire and he ended up down the Saarlac pit.
You can however limit your killing to pirate factions which will avoid any of the locals getting angry with you. This is why checking out a ships faction before opening fire may be of particular interest.
What kind of ships give the best bounties?
Large pirate faction ships seem to give the best bounties as a rule of thumb but this will not always be 100% true. They just tend to give more than non pirate factions, makes sense they commit more crimes in various systems. That is not to say every pirate in an Anaconda or Large ship will be a huge payoff. I have also collected several small to medium bounties from pirates in large ships.
That said do not ignore smaller ships too as they can give a healthy bounty amount as well considering they are much easier to take down that an Anaconda. Kills per hour and all that.
Is there anyway to increase the amount of bounty a claim is worth?
Yes, if you carry around some cargo and bait pirates into attacking you first they just committed a crime in that system(If you are clean and in a controlled system) and now have a little extra bounty on their head. From my observations it seems to be about 2-3k worth on bounty, I am not sure what parameters the value is set by exactly but there is a difference. Feel free to give it a try while watching bounty amount in contacts and let me know what you see.
How useful is an FSD Interdictor while bounty hunting?
While not mandatory they can still be of use to a bounty hunter. If you see a wanted to with a nice healthy bounty while in super cruise you will need one to attempt to collect it. To interdicts you must close in behind the other ship and be in range. When used you enter a mini-game and must keep the nose of your ship aligned with the other ship while they are attempting to avoid you. If a ship submits to Interdict neither ship suffers small damage. If they fight and you win, you drop out into regular flight with a small amount of damage. NOTE: You will likely want to attempt to kill warrant scan at this point as you cannot in super cruise. If they fight and you lose, only you drop out and they escape while you suffer small damage.
The damage you take and associated repair cost is negligible up to a Cobra but the more expensive ships it can add up to the point the kill does not even pay for a repair. You really do not want to interdict someone from your Anaconda, but if you own an Anaconda why would you bounty hunt in it. Go get a Cobra or Viper and park the big boy.
If a ship opens fire on me first, how does all of this apply in that case?
If a ship opens fire on you first and hits you (a miss would not count as firing at you in such a friendly fire system), you will not take any criminal/wanted status and gain a bounty nor will you take a hit to reputation.
For example: Say you have a bounty from System A and travel to System B. You are not wanted in System B so they system authorities will not engage you. However if you get scanned by an NPC bounty hunter who is part of System B's faction and he see's your bounty form System A he may decide to take a shot at collecting. The system authorities will not also jump in to help him kill you. In a twist of fate they would actually attack him for attacking you as he just committed a crime in their jurisdiction but other ships of the same faction would basically mind their own business.
Well this all sucks, so you mean I have less stuff to kill and it is more complicated and time consuming? I will make less, I hate you.
Less stuff to kill, well yes and no. You simple have to make a choice if the bounty is worth it to you. Not all faction are controlling factions, you d not need access to every star port. Do you want to be the honorable type or will you kill anyone for a buck? The choice is yours, it is just better made with all the info. Some of those ships may not be worth killing to you based on their price, only you can make that choice. Maybe you don't want to be likes by the feds and your an imperial man.
Please do not shoot the messenger. Hug it out bro.
This makes it more interesting and adds depth in my opinion.
That is all for now, will add more later. Feel free to add comments and suggestions or questions.
Put simply it is destroying a ship that has committed a crime and collecting a bounty.
How do I tell if a ship has committed a crime?
In a controlled system, that is a system under control of either Fed, Empire, Alliance or an Independent faction if the ship has committed a crime against the system authority (that faction which controls the system) they will display WANTED in the target panel and display a bounty in the contacts tab. You can also Kill Warrant scan a CLEAN ship to reveal if it has committed crimes against a faction other than the controlling system authority, however even if it does; it's status in that system in still CLEAN.
In an anarchy system, you will have to own a Kill Warrant scanner as there is no system authority or WANTED indicator in anarchy systems.
What does a Kill Warrant Scanner do?
A kill warrant scanner will display bounty amount from other systems.
A kill warrant scanner is needed to determine if a ship has a bounty while in an anarchy system as there is no controlling faction.
A kill warrant scanner is also useful in a controlled system, if you are in a controlled system and see a bounty on a ship of 5,000 credits performing a Kill Warrant scan may display other bounties increasing the total value to say 10,000 credits. They do not always increase the payout.
A kill warrant scanner has no bearing on faction gains or losses and does not reveal who the additional bounties were valid for.
How useful is the contacts tab when looking at a Bounty target?
Extremely, you should ALWAYS check the contacts tab details of any ship you target and have performed a basic scan and or kw scan of and are thinking about opening fire upon. Of particular importance is the ships faction and it bounty amount, these will drive your decision on whether or not to proceed and attack. More on this below.
How does bounty hunting effect my reputation with the different factions?
From Michael @ Frontier Development, who has graciously allowed me to share the info he shared with me: Answers in BLUE
When you destroy a ship the following checks are made:
1. Was the ship wanted in the current jurisdiction – this determines whether a bounty will be issued against you by the faction that controls the jurisdiction. As far as crime is concerned – this is the only thing that determines if a crime was committed
a. Anarchy systems and conflict zones count as no jurisdiction, so crimes cannot be committed in them at all.
2. What was the ship’s faction?
a. The same as the current jurisdiction – no reputation loss occurs – the faction wanted one of their own dead, and you stepped up.
b. Different from the current jurisdiction: was the ship wanted by its own faction?
i. Yes – no reputation loss occurs, the target was fleeing justice, and you stepped up.
ii. No – reputation loss occurs with the ship’s faction – as far as they were concerned, you just killed an innocent citizen; they couldn’t care less about crimes committed in jurisdictions other than their own.
Examples:
Example 1: You are in fed system KINI and see a wanted upon basic scan. You check contacts tab which shows a bounty and Faction says 'Kini Drug Cartel'(a pirate faction).
- no crime committed, reputation loss with 'Kini Drug Cartel' AKA SAFE to Shoot as long as you do not care if the pirates hate you more.
Example 2: You are in fed system KINI and see a wanted upon basic scan. You check contacts tab which shows a bounty and Faction says 'Everate Whosits'(an independent system controlling faction).
- no crime committed, reputation loss with 'Everate Whosits'. AKA NOT Safe to shoot if you want to go to the Everate system in the future.
Example 2a: You are in fed system KINI and see a wanted upon basic scan. You check contacts tab which shows a bounty for 5000 and Faction says 'Everate Whosits'(an independent system controlling faction). You perform and complete a kill warrant scan it know shows 15,000 Bounty
- no crime committed, potential reputation loss with 'Everate Whosits' (the KWS does not reveal who the additional bounties were valid for) AKA NOT Safe to shoot if you want to go to that system in the future. Meaning KW Warrant scan has no bearing on reputation.
Example 3: You are in an anarchy system and KW scan a ship. You check contacts tab which shows a bounty and Faction says 'Kini Drug Cartel'(a pirate faction). Safe to shoot.
- no crime committed, reputation loss with Kini Drug Cartel (pirate anarchies do not issue bounties, so their ships are always “clean” to them) AKA SAFE to Shoot as long as you do not care if the pirates hate you more.
Example 4: You are in an anarchy system and KW scan a ship. You check contacts tab which shows a bounty and Faction says 'Everate Whosits'(an independent system controlling faction).
- no crime committed, potential reputation loss with 'Everate Whosits' (you will get a reputation loss unless the target has a bounty issued against it valid in 'Everate Whosits') AKA NOT Safe to shoot if you want to go to that system in the future.
Example 5: You are in Independent system EVERATE and see a wanted upon basic scan. You check contacts tab which shows a bounty and Faction says 'Federation Align Faction X'(a faction aligned to the feds).
- no crime committed, reputation loss with 'Federation Align Faction X' and Federation as a whole. AKA NOT Safe to shoot if you want to go to the 'Federation Align Faction X' system and Fed controlled systems in the future.
I seen a WANTED ship in a controlled system with a low bounty amount (~400 credits), attacking a CLEAN ship and upon KW scanning it has a large bounty (>20,000). What is going on here? Who should I attack?
What you are seeing is a NPC bounty hunter attacking a ship because it has committed a crime in another system and it was willing to take a small hit on it own bounty to collect. (Assume he plans to pay it off with his proceeds).
You should likely not attack either if you wish to avoid both a criminal record/bounty in the current system and reputation loss with either faction.
Should you feel the Clean ships bounty is worth risking a bounty of your own and paying it off with your proceeds it would be a better choice than the WANTED ship with such a low bounty. That is why the npc bounty hunter is attacking it, in this sense he knows what he is doing. You will also take a reputation hit against the clean ships faction (unless they issued the bounty, which KW scan does not reveal. The only way to know is if a wanted ship is in its own faction's controlled and its still wanted). The game is about choices and eventually you have to make some.
I see a WANTED ship and it is Green/Friendly to me. Should I attack it?
Likely you do not want to attack as it will result in a loss of reputation with its faction. Do not just run in like a blood thirsty madman and start blowing it away at least. Check your contacts tab.
Again if the bounty is high enough and you do not mind the rep loss you may proceed. BUT if you continue to kill the same faction often you will become hostile to that faction and will not be allowed to dock at any station they own and you will be pursued by system authorities in its system if it is the controlling faction. Because they now see you as the blood thirsty madman you are.
As an example if you are friendly to the feds you probably do not want to go around killing its citizens who are wanted by other factions if you plan to remain on friendly terms with the feds.
But I am just collecting bounties, why would it make sense that ANY faction gets upset at me if I only kill those flagged WANTED?
A friend put it like this. If you were friendly with the pirates and you go to a fed controlled system and see a fellow pirate that happens to be WANTED, because you guys are pirates and that is what you do. If you were to open fire and kill him just because you could without committing a crime in the system due to his wanted status you would have just ganked him, cheap shotted and back stabbed him from behind when he thought you were his friend. The other factions basically work the same except well they are not pirates but you must remember although the galaxy is in a mostly peaceful state there are skirmishes and 'bad blood' between some of the various factions. You cannot really play both side off against each other.
In other terms. Boba Fett was 'just a bounty hunter' too but because he chose to work with Vader and the Empire, Han still opened fire and he ended up down the Saarlac pit.
You can however limit your killing to pirate factions which will avoid any of the locals getting angry with you. This is why checking out a ships faction before opening fire may be of particular interest.
What kind of ships give the best bounties?
Large pirate faction ships seem to give the best bounties as a rule of thumb but this will not always be 100% true. They just tend to give more than non pirate factions, makes sense they commit more crimes in various systems. That is not to say every pirate in an Anaconda or Large ship will be a huge payoff. I have also collected several small to medium bounties from pirates in large ships.
That said do not ignore smaller ships too as they can give a healthy bounty amount as well considering they are much easier to take down that an Anaconda. Kills per hour and all that.
Is there anyway to increase the amount of bounty a claim is worth?
Yes, if you carry around some cargo and bait pirates into attacking you first they just committed a crime in that system(If you are clean and in a controlled system) and now have a little extra bounty on their head. From my observations it seems to be about 2-3k worth on bounty, I am not sure what parameters the value is set by exactly but there is a difference. Feel free to give it a try while watching bounty amount in contacts and let me know what you see.
How useful is an FSD Interdictor while bounty hunting?
While not mandatory they can still be of use to a bounty hunter. If you see a wanted to with a nice healthy bounty while in super cruise you will need one to attempt to collect it. To interdicts you must close in behind the other ship and be in range. When used you enter a mini-game and must keep the nose of your ship aligned with the other ship while they are attempting to avoid you. If a ship submits to Interdict neither ship suffers small damage. If they fight and you win, you drop out into regular flight with a small amount of damage. NOTE: You will likely want to attempt to kill warrant scan at this point as you cannot in super cruise. If they fight and you lose, only you drop out and they escape while you suffer small damage.
The damage you take and associated repair cost is negligible up to a Cobra but the more expensive ships it can add up to the point the kill does not even pay for a repair. You really do not want to interdict someone from your Anaconda, but if you own an Anaconda why would you bounty hunt in it. Go get a Cobra or Viper and park the big boy.
If a ship opens fire on me first, how does all of this apply in that case?
If a ship opens fire on you first and hits you (a miss would not count as firing at you in such a friendly fire system), you will not take any criminal/wanted status and gain a bounty nor will you take a hit to reputation.
For example: Say you have a bounty from System A and travel to System B. You are not wanted in System B so they system authorities will not engage you. However if you get scanned by an NPC bounty hunter who is part of System B's faction and he see's your bounty form System A he may decide to take a shot at collecting. The system authorities will not also jump in to help him kill you. In a twist of fate they would actually attack him for attacking you as he just committed a crime in their jurisdiction but other ships of the same faction would basically mind their own business.
Well this all sucks, so you mean I have less stuff to kill and it is more complicated and time consuming? I will make less, I hate you.
Less stuff to kill, well yes and no. You simple have to make a choice if the bounty is worth it to you. Not all faction are controlling factions, you d not need access to every star port. Do you want to be the honorable type or will you kill anyone for a buck? The choice is yours, it is just better made with all the info. Some of those ships may not be worth killing to you based on their price, only you can make that choice. Maybe you don't want to be likes by the feds and your an imperial man.
Please do not shoot the messenger. Hug it out bro.
This makes it more interesting and adds depth in my opinion.
That is all for now, will add more later. Feel free to add comments and suggestions or questions.
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