Cobra Mk III - Making Money.

[CMDR Hagglebeard]

Here are my general specs:
Cobra Mk III
2x C2 Gimballed Pulse Laser
2x C1 Multicannon
2x 16u Cargo hold
2x 4u Cargo hold
1x Shield Generator (Rank E, Class 4)
1x Kill Warrant Scanner (Rank E, Class 0)
1x Frameshift Interdictor (Rank G, Class 1)

And a pretty powerful Power Plant and Power Coupling.

-Cargo missions are really profitable, as much as 60k with a mission, and regular trading is a maximum of 25k per trip.
-Unless you think I could make much more than that with mining, please don't even mention it
-Bounty Hunting isn't too profitable unless I find something as big as an Imperial Clipper, or maybe an ASP, but it a hell of a lot of fun.
-I guess I could resort to piracy, but I would need a bit of a tutorial. Blasting at NPC ships in nav beacons doesn't work anymore, and I heard (only heard) that shooting the cargo hatch isn't very reliable. Limpets are expensive, and I heard (again, only heard) they don't work well. I'm at a loss for piracy.

To sum it up, am I supposed to haul cargo all the way up to the Type 6, and then the Type 9, in order to get to the Anaconda?

 

[Toxic_Waster]

There is so much to learn...

 

[Chazzie]

And that's where all the fun is!

 

[Toxic_Waster]

Totally!

 

[MarcusReed]

Love my Cobra. Upgraded my Engine (Reactor) and notice I could not turn on anything outside of life support. After playing with my power settings I tried to enter SC and my FSD cut out after 3 seconds leaving me tumbling in space with no power to life support. Believe it was the first Tier Engine so I ended up buying the 17k engine that had enough power output for the cobra and life support system upgrade.

For some reason the cargo door takes so much power to have on. But I thought I read somewhere if you don't have cargo door powered and have any food in there it will all go bad.

 

[CMDR Hagglebeard]

I've never had any of those problems. Thanks for the input though

 

[Swan]

Here are my general specs:
Cobra Mk III
2x C2 Gimballed Pulse Laser
2x C1 Multicannon
2x 16u Cargo hold
2x 4u Cargo hold
1x Shield Generator (Rank E, Class 4)
1x Kill Warrant Scanner (Rank E, Class 0)
1x Frameshift Interdictor (Rank G, Class 1)

And a pretty powerful Power Plant and Power Coupling.

-Cargo missions are really profitable, as much as 60k with a mission, and regular trading is a maximum of 25k per trip.
-Unless you think I could make much more than that with mining, please don't even mention it
-Bounty Hunting isn't too profitable unless I find something as big as an Imperial Clipper, or maybe an ASP, but it a hell of a lot of fun.
-I guess I could resort to piracy, but I would need a bit of a tutorial. Blasting at NPC ships in nav beacons doesn't work anymore, and I heard (only heard) that shooting the cargo hatch isn't very reliable. Limpets are expensive, and I heard (again, only heard) they don't work well. I'm at a loss for piracy.

To sum it up, am I supposed to haul cargo all the way up to the Type 6, and then the Type 9, in order to get to the Anaconda?

Just do what you want. I've been trading for the last few weekends but put it all back into a tricked out Cobra to go bounty hunting.. made a cool 120k blowing up baddies. It's good if you get friendly with a station by doing missions as well - you get lots of green blips on the radar in hot zones who help you out I would swap your weapons around though - get C2 Multicannons and some C1 Pulse or beam to take out the shields first - makes a world of difference.

 

[CMDR Hagglebeard]

Thanks, Swan.

 

[Stressfest]

My Cobras geared up towards trading, none of the faff, just lots of cargo space. Obviously armed to the hilt incase in interdiction with military spec armour, top end fixtures and fittings. Was a nice grind from sidey to the drop ship but was lovely to get back to my ol' girl again. The wire frame cobra feels like home to me.

 

[CMDR Blagbyrn]

To sum it up, am I supposed to haul cargo all the way up to the Type 6, and then the Type 9, in order to get to the Anaconda?

Cargo would be the fastest way. It's not hard to get enough money for a type 6. I felt no need to fully outfit it either as I knew I would just be trading it in for an Asp, which has way more cargo space. Just get the cargo space and jump range and you're good to go.

Also, with 40 cargo space you could fairly easily get 100,000 CR per round trip.

 

[CMDR Hagglebeard]

Cargo would be the fastest way. It's not hard to get enough money for a type 6. I felt no need to fully outfit it either as I knew I would just be trading it in for an Asp, which has way more cargo space. Just get the cargo space and jump range and you're good to go.

Also, with 40 cargo space you could fairly easily get 100,000 CR per round trip.

Where would i do that? the most I've seen in one way profit is 40k; from surya to I bootis.

 

[Draggin]

Salute folks!

Sir, Please leave the core systems. That is where you will find your cash. EVERYTHING is away from IBOOTIS.

Salute! and cya in the stars!

CMDR Draggin

 

[andygood]

-Unless you think I could make much more than that with mining, please don't even mention it

For what it's worth, I've been trying my hand at mining with a Cobra in Hyperion for a bit and I've been making just shy of 400,000 credits per run. I just found some 16t cargo racks and upgraded from the 2x 8T ones that came with the ship, so I'm expecting close to 800,000 on my next run...

Don't ask me how long a run takes, as I kind of get zoned out in the belt and lose track of time...

 

[CMDR Hagglebeard]

Sir, Please leave the core systems. That is where you will find your cash. EVERYTHING is away from IBOOTIS.

I went all the way to Eta Cephei, and I couldn't find the station ANYWHERE. Looked at neighboring system's universal cartographics, used Basic Discovery Scanner, everything. Thrudd's trade calculator doesn't work that far out, and from looking at the trade map, all of the profitable sales are over huge distances. If it takes me more than 2 jumps one-way, I'm not doing it. Is that wrong?

Also, I'm thinking of heading out past Coelrind. I've found some good one-ways by Arcturus, but I've never gone past DT Viriginis. Thrudd's Trade calc makes me feel safe out there

 

[xxThe_Dice_manxx]

I have a fairly well kitted out T6 sitting in dock collecting dust, I can't leave my tricked out Cobra , It's a bounty hunters life for me apparently.

 

[Morbad]

I went all the way to Eta Cephei, and I couldn't find the station ANYWHERE. Looked at neighboring system's universal cartographics, used Basic Discovery Scanner, everything. Thrudd's trade calculator doesn't work that far out, and from looking at the trade map, all of the profitable sales are over huge distances. If it takes me more than 2 jumps one-way, I'm not doing it. Is that wrong?

Also, I'm thinking of heading out past Coelrind. I've found some good one-ways by Arcturus, but I've never gone past DT Viriginis. Thrudd's Trade calc makes me feel safe out there

Running superconductors and domestic appliances, plus any miscellaneous missions that don't slow me down, between a high tech and industrial system near 10 Canum is netting me around 800k-1M credits an hour in my Cobra.

As for safety, I threw away everything not conducive to hold size, jump range, and speed. It's hard to be safer than in a ship nothing carrying guns stands much of a chance of catching. However, the type-6 is big, slow, and fragile, so is best kept to more secluded areas.

 

[Llyr]

I have to disagree. I hang out at extraction points, make about 100k an hour. I fly a cobra 60 light years and back in about an our I make 60 k on a good run. I have no idea how people say trade makes money. I have followed the guides, gone to the websites to maximize trade between sites and make squat for boring flight between stars not tom mention the occasional white dwarf you get trapped at and damage your ship getting out.

I really would like trade to work, so I can get a larger ship with better range and explore, but it just is not working. My cobra caries 32 and if I make 1k per ton I only make 32 k, and minus fuel and maybe damage I make under 32k. In an hour, or 45 minutes. I make twice to four times that dogfighting at an extraction point.

 

[Vladimar Rubicon]

I was a little stagnant for a while in my Cobra until I got to Leesti/Lave/Diso/Orrerre area.... Full up on rares at all those stations in one sweep and then jump out anywhere 100 light years away.... do that for a little while and you'll be swimming in extra cash and you'll have a fully equipped Asp in a few days. Forget about missions and grab for the rares.

 

[SiriusSeven]

-Unless you think I could make much more than that with mining, please don't even mention it

I mine 300k an hour with a Cobra Mk III. Details:

- I mine pristine metallic planetary ring of Bhotho AB 3
- 5 slot refinery
- 1 mining laser
- 22 slot cargo
- Sell at a high-tech system. Pure profit. That 14k palladium is 14k in the bank (not 1k of profit like trading). This mitigates the need for a larger cargo bay.

Mine the 4 big ones: Platinum, Palladium, Gold and Sliver. 5th slot is for trash (keeps you from having to constantly eject garbage). Don't collect any fragments worth less than 1k. (That's 10% gold or 20% silver, etc.)

My Cobra is also reasonably combat ready, so killing any pirates that attack me is a good way to break up the grind, and earn more with bounties.

Finally, I would point out that mining is not very risky. I was doing runs in a type 6, but realized I was sinking all my cash into cargo, and one death would set me back many hours. Trading might be the most profitable profession, but without capital to buy more cargo, its about as dangerous as flying without insurance. In other words, if you die, and can't continue high-profit runs, it's another long slow grind with time being the chief currency to consider. In that sense, I find mining to be less risky, and the sights are pretty.

As a final note: I am not insane. I don't expect to be mining once I get enough credits to safely fund trading (see above). But I've made 2.5 mil from mining so far. Another 1 mil would give me the overhead I need to consider trading at a reasonable scale.

 

[PocketWettie]

From what I have seen with the Cobra (and my experience) the monees is at:

A) Rares Trading (aka cheating because you are using crowdsourced online tools, even though in reality this is what you would probably do, but that is besides the point)
B) Bounty Hunting (Nav Beacons seem to be the new hot spot, but Extraction Sites and also the Assassination Missions (which pay a bit more than the standard Bounty))
C) Mining (dont bother with anything other than Major or Pristine Reserves on Metallic Rings. Can easily get 32-36 tonnes of Palladium, Platinum, Gold and Silver which equates to good money)

I did B and primarily C. Now do normal trading in a Type 6 and saving up for my Asp