So when you trade you buy bigger freighter and max its cargo which with every bigger freighter allows yo to make more and more profit. With Bounty Hunting even if you camp the sun beacon you still get fixed income rate. BHing is of course more fun, but are both activities really balanced income wise or trading is still #1 to get fast consistent income which goes up with every bigger freight ship?
Bounty Hunting or Trading
- Thread starter Shepard
- Start date
Whichever one you prefer >> whichever one you don't prefer.
Once you find a proper route trading is a lot more profitable. Though bounty hunting has been approved.
For me I would never go back to trading.. too boring. Personal preference of course, bounty hunting is profitable just not as much.
The biggest problem I see is bounty hunting in no way scales up. There is clear progression in your abilities as a trader as you invest in more expensive ships. Once you outfit a medium ship for bounty hunting you'll never get more challenge nor more profit even if you buy an anaconda. I hope this gets fixed somehow. Maybe hunting factions, like a pirate base or something, where you have to fight multiple ships at once but a group of 3 would have 10 times the bounty or something
^^ this
Personally i have made quite a nice living off being a Bounty Smuggler. Primarily bounty hunter but make a nice little tidy sideline of shifting stolen goods and Narcotics works out even better when my prize wanted panic and drop goods for me.
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Mining is way too slow and boring, forget that.
Bounty hunting will get you a WANTED status with every faction which will be very hard to expunge.
So Trading, but remember, since the Trade Nerf the max you can earn is 400C per ton and half that coming back.
So if you want a type 7 you will have to fly at least 600 Trips and save every penny, far too much.
I will play Elite again when they fix the Trading, no one is going to want to fly 600+ trade missions yet that is the only way to get a big ship.
It's OK for the Beta guys 'cos they made Millions when prices were correct but the new guys will be trading for years before they get enough Credits.
Bounty hunting will get you a WANTED status with every faction which will be very hard to expunge.
So Trading, but remember, since the Trade Nerf the max you can earn is 400C per ton and half that coming back.
So if you want a type 7 you will have to fly at least 600 Trips and save every penny, far too much.
I will play Elite again when they fix the Trading, no one is going to want to fly 600+ trade missions yet that is the only way to get a big ship.
It's OK for the Beta guys 'cos they made Millions when prices were correct but the new guys will be trading for years before they get enough Credits.
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This reply is getting obtuse. Money is a requirement for this game, so making money matters, because it matters people will try to find the most efficient way to do this, part of the fun of a game is figuring out the best strategy for progression. Right now the balance of all the major career paths is in complete Flux and until it's fixed and progression at a reasonable rare is found in all professions players are going to try and seek out better ways, adding for advice on boards is part of the seeking
Any profession can make enough money to get by in the game. I should know, I have tried nearly all of them to find what I like.
However, if you don't like trading, and go nuts trading grinding because you think it's the best way to make money, you will come to hate the game.
The thing is, there is no right answer to this question because it is different for every player.
For me, the most fun thing I have found in the game is running light cargo loads in a Viper and killing those NPC pirates who are dumb enough to interdict a combat-loaded Viper (and they are legion!)
It's not the most profitable way to play, so I supplement it with a some straight bounty hunting, but for the most part, "armed courier" is the job I play in the game and I enjoy it.
If you play this game like it is a race to have the most money or the best ship, odds are you will end up hating it in the end. That's not what Elite is meant to be. This is a game where you are meant to carve out your own niche. Blaze your own trail.
If you want to know where the biggest money is, it's in trading. But if you drive yourself to burnout trading, don't blame me because I recommended it. Because I didn't.
Alternatively Bounty hunt in an Anarchy System using a Kill warrant scanner
Agreed. +1.
Thanks guys, already got Cobra and on my way to Type-7. Keeping Cobra for when i get bored of trading and wanna do something more action oriented. I have to agree with one of the posters though. 600 trips to get another ship is just a beginning. You will need a LOT more trade runs to get to tier 3 and even more to tier 4 ships. I consider Type 6 tier 2, type 7 tier 3 and type 9 tier 4. Similar for BH ships ending with Conda as Tier 5.
Aurora - Tier 1 - easy to get. Then the next stop is Cobra fitted for trading you can get 40+, then in about a day or two of casual grinding you can have enough for Type 6. If you like me you'll grind a bit longer to get bigger cargo holds. Now Type 7 it will prolly take me 2 weeks since I barely make a million a night if even that much. Got only 2-3 hours max to play a night and I dont wanna burn out so I try to do fun stuff on the way too. Type 9 costs 10 times of Type 7. Getting ASP before Type 7 doesn't make sense, at least to me, I don't like exploring since there is nothing really to see, pretty much the same template in the same system just colors of the stars and planets change.
And exploring imho is even more boring than trading. While trading I at least imporve faction standing and get bigger missions come up from time to time. Exploring is like doing same repetitive thing as in trading - jump between systems except you push a button or two to activate scanner and then jump again.. Its quite boring since you pretty much just sweep the space for some info that you later trade for credits. Trading at least allows you to break the routine by playing with faction missions, going out of the routine when big missions pop etc.
So back to Type 9. If I dont enslave myself to ED it will take me about 20 weeks to make enough money to get Type-9 if I dont die from boredom first. So considering that I'll do thigns on the side to make things fun, plus family, job etc, I guess about 30 weeks to get Type-9. That's 7 months. I hope I am here for a long haul as well. But then there is a big BUT. I personally can't do only one thing day to day, its boring and I dont wanna burn out. I want bigger trader ship to secure money in the bank since trading is the most consistent way to make money as soon as you find a good trading route. But I also want something better than Cobra for BH eventually and other fun things to do. So you can easily say that average semi-casual player like me will probably spend 1 year in ED before he can even think of getting Type-9 or Anaconda.
I am not saying I want it NOW... but 8-12 months feels a bit like a very long stretch. If they dont improve the game I may never see the conda again. Its very quiet and settle game right now. Need more events, more informative newsfeed, distractions from day to day routine. So I hope as game progresses it wil become more and more interesting with basic core mechanics expanded and new elements added down the road. I mean they need to keep us interested otherwise people will start falling off like dyeing flies
when boredom sets in.
Aurora - Tier 1 - easy to get. Then the next stop is Cobra fitted for trading you can get 40+, then in about a day or two of casual grinding you can have enough for Type 6. If you like me you'll grind a bit longer to get bigger cargo holds. Now Type 7 it will prolly take me 2 weeks since I barely make a million a night if even that much. Got only 2-3 hours max to play a night and I dont wanna burn out so I try to do fun stuff on the way too. Type 9 costs 10 times of Type 7. Getting ASP before Type 7 doesn't make sense, at least to me, I don't like exploring since there is nothing really to see, pretty much the same template in the same system just colors of the stars and planets change.
And exploring imho is even more boring than trading. While trading I at least imporve faction standing and get bigger missions come up from time to time. Exploring is like doing same repetitive thing as in trading - jump between systems except you push a button or two to activate scanner and then jump again.. Its quite boring since you pretty much just sweep the space for some info that you later trade for credits. Trading at least allows you to break the routine by playing with faction missions, going out of the routine when big missions pop etc.
So back to Type 9. If I dont enslave myself to ED it will take me about 20 weeks to make enough money to get Type-9 if I dont die from boredom first. So considering that I'll do thigns on the side to make things fun, plus family, job etc, I guess about 30 weeks to get Type-9. That's 7 months. I hope I am here for a long haul as well. But then there is a big BUT. I personally can't do only one thing day to day, its boring and I dont wanna burn out. I want bigger trader ship to secure money in the bank since trading is the most consistent way to make money as soon as you find a good trading route. But I also want something better than Cobra for BH eventually and other fun things to do. So you can easily say that average semi-casual player like me will probably spend 1 year in ED before he can even think of getting Type-9 or Anaconda.
I am not saying I want it NOW... but 8-12 months feels a bit like a very long stretch. If they dont improve the game I may never see the conda again. Its very quiet and settle game right now. Need more events, more informative newsfeed, distractions from day to day routine. So I hope as game progresses it wil become more and more interesting with basic core mechanics expanded and new elements added down the road. I mean they need to keep us interested otherwise people will start falling off like dyeing flies
when boredom sets in.
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Trading is the quickest way to make money by a fair margin.
Bounty hunting is a lot less boring though, and if you go to the nav point in an anarchy with a kill warrant scanner you can make ~200k an hour (roughly? I've never really kept very good records!).
Assassination missions pay 150-200k for finding and killing a single Elite python or anaconda, you can do that in a well kitted viper so the cash barrier to entry is pretty low too. You can pop 2-3 of those in an hour depending on how long it takes to find the mission and your prey.
Bounty hunting is a lot less boring though, and if you go to the nav point in an anarchy with a kill warrant scanner you can make ~200k an hour (roughly? I've never really kept very good records!).
Assassination missions pay 150-200k for finding and killing a single Elite python or anaconda, you can do that in a well kitted viper so the cash barrier to entry is pretty low too. You can pop 2-3 of those in an hour depending on how long it takes to find the mission and your prey.
If Anopheles suggestion appeals, instead of USS you can just go to one of the nav beacons near all populated stars. There you'll find a constant supply of ships coming and going, a chunk of which will have wanted status and bounties on them.
There is a scaling of sorts, currently it is a lot easier to take down that big bounty Master level Pyton with an ASP or above than a sidewinder or eagle.
So as you make more moeny from BH you get bigger ships and bigger bounties are quicker to take down, thus profit per hour increases.
So as you make more moeny from BH you get bigger ships and bigger bounties are quicker to take down, thus profit per hour increases.