Newcomer / Intro Combat rank increase

Tyres O'Flaherty

Tyres O'Flaherty
Striving to become "competent" in my combat rank. Currently at 22% novice.

I've helped the Cops blow up bad guys in an HRES but that seems to get 1% per kill.

A) is there a quicker way to gain ranking?
B) does killing bigger ships equal a higher percentage increase?

Thanks!
 

aRJay

aRJay
If you have an NPC crew sack them as they will take half your ranking points. As said above the higher your target ranks above you the better the points, the reverse will also become an issue as you gain rank.

High RES Hazardous RES and Compromised Nav Beacons are potentially more likely to provide higher ranked targets however the latter two also come with no security presence for you to assist or bail you out.

Remember though that all non mission NPCs will be based around your rank so don't expect too much, if you took a mission then the NPCs would be based around the missions rank giving you more valuable targets the downside is of course that middle ranking NPCs tend to be better at fighting than low ranked ones and high ranked NPCs will not only be better again but will tend to have improvements to their ships/weapons. So don't be in too much of a rush.
 

Kenneth McGrew

Kenneth McGrew
Tyres O'Flaherty said:
Striving to become "competent" in my combat rank. Currently at 22% novice.

I've helped the Cops blow up bad guys in an HRES but that seems to get 1% per kill.

A) is there a quicker way to gain ranking?
B) does killing bigger ships equal a higher percentage increase?

Thanks!
Click to expand...


unfortunately not, a CMDR in a side winder who kills an Elite Anaconda which takes 30 minutes gets the same rank gain as a CMDR in a shield tanked death machine cutter with turrets flying in a straight line while watching 30 second cat videos on YouTube

Risk vs reward? your having a laugh!
 

Para Handy

Para Handy
Tyres O'Flaherty said:
Striving to become "competent" in my combat rank. Currently at 22% novice.

I've helped the Cops blow up bad guys in an HRES but that seems to get 1% per kill.

A) is there a quicker way to gain ranking?
B) does killing bigger ships equal a higher percentage increase?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

As stated above, it is the relative combat rank of your opponent that determines your progress.

Save and / or print this. it shows the relative "points" you get per destruction (your combat rating along the horizontal, target rating on the vertical):


pVAK3Mq.png



So you are currently in the Novice column so a "Harmless" target is only worth 0.5 "points" whereas an "Elite" target is worth 2.5 "points".

Hope that helps.


(P.S. I can't remember why there isn't a "Deadly" column in the graphic. )
 
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Tyres O'Flaherty

Tyres O'Flaherty
Para Handy said:
As stated above, it is the relative combat rank of your opponent that determines your progress.

Save and / or print this. it shows the relative "points" you get per destruction (your combat rating along the horizontal, target rating on the vertical):





So you are currently in the Novice column so a "Harmless" target is only worth 0.5 "points" whereas an "Elite" target is worth 2.5 "points".

Hope that helps.


(P.S. I can't remember why there isn't a "Deadly" column in the graphic. )
Click to expand...

Yep, that helps - thanks!

Question though: how much of a rank does a "point" count as? 1%?
 

ArchAngelofDeath

A
Good advice above. To find higher ranked NPCs Haz res some say. Personally I had the best luck at a compromised Nav beacon. They tend to spawn endless dangerous, deadly and elite wanted pirates.
Thraskas, not far from Shinrarta Dezhra, currently has a compromised Nav beacon.
I test new builds there before I PvP in them. If I can't stand up to an NPC in a new build I know I'm toast against a commander.
 
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JetsonRING

JetsonRING
Tyres O'Flaherty said:
A) is there a quicker way to gain ranking?
B) does killing bigger ships equal a higher percentage increase?
Click to expand...

Each succeeding rank doubles the number of kills needed to advance 1%. You think it is difficult now? Just wait until you are ranked combat "Dangerous" and want to advance to combat "Elite" status!

As you increase your own combat RANK other, higher ranks contribute less to your own increase in rank. There is a table clarifying this here:
https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Combat

If you are still relatively new to combat try NAV Beacons. The "regular" NAV beacons still have security ships that can help a CMDR out if he or she gets themselves into a jam. Just drop into a NAV Beacon and start targeting ships to scan them. "WANTED" CMDRs are pretty common at NAV Beacons and what you want are ships that are both WANTED as well as ranked higher than yourself in combat. WANTED ships that are ranked ELITE will contribute the most to your own combat rank when destroyed.

"Compromised" NAV Beacons operate in exactly the same way BUT: (1) compromised NAV Beacons have no security ships, so nobody will help you out if you get yourself into a jam and (2) more WANTED CMDRs tend to show up at compromised NAV Beacons and they often show up in groups of two or three.

Once you "git gud" and can afford to purchase, A-rate and outfit a Krait Mk. II you might try your hand at destroying Thargoid Scouts. All Thargoid ships are ranked combat Elite and offer maximum increase in your own combat RANK for destroying them. Thargoid SCOUT ships are the easiest to kill but they are not easy to kill.
 
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Nadreck

N
I have a question about this:

I know that an NPC SLF pilot will take 50% of my combat experience (though a rather smaller percentage of my actual earnings, dependent on rank). I also know that other CMDRs on my ship in multicrew will get some cash, though less than me if they are lower in combat rank.

But do the multicrew CMDRs take some of my experience or money (and how much of each), or do they get their own in addition, just as wing missions pay extra to other participants? And how does the combination of multicrew and NPC stack up?

Am I getting 1/3 of the experience (multicrew), then losing half of that (NPC) to end up with 1/6? Or am I getting 1/4 (me, 2 in muticrew, 1 NPC)? Or is it 1/2 (NPC, multicrew get fully paid independently)? Or do myself and the 2 in multicrew all get 1/2 (NPC gets the other 1/2)?

All I know after trying it is that I was taking forever to get out of Novice (didn't make it in the end), my new NPC went from Harmless to Mostly Harmless, and 2 new alts in multicrew got some useful starter cash and went to Mostly Harmless.
 

Lieutenant Dan

Lieutenant Dan
Excellent, informative thread, thank you Commanders! o7

This only solidifies how tough of a road I have LOL. Currently Expert at about 42% to Master....it's Grindtastic. lol

Think I'll take the 'Vette to that Thraskas beacon and give that a whirl this weekend. I usually just do High RES and Haz RES sites.
 

Banger_uk

Banger_uk
thanks @para handy , usefull table : combat rated : novice to with 34% also but I don't fly into all combat areas. because some npc's are now carrying the new pulse weapon which seems to completed disrupted your shields in one shot. If he fires it again , your going to be space dust!
 
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M.Faffy

M.Faffy
Most important factor to help the grind:

Have fun

I really, really wouldn't recommend doing this grind with only one combat competent ship, or access to numerous engineers. "Grinding" combat is mostly a breeze when you're having fun trying different ships, load-outs, weapon effects, targeting strategies, flight techniques, etc.

If you try to do this all in one sitting, with one ship, you will most likely quit somewhere before Deadly, when it really starts to slow down.
 

Lieutenant Dan

Lieutenant Dan
M.Faffy said:
Most important factor to help the grind:

Have fun

I really, really wouldn't recommend doing this grind with only one combat competent ship, or access to numerous engineers. "Grinding" combat is mostly a breeze when you're having fun trying different ships, load-outs, weapon effects, targeting strategies, flight techniques, etc.

If you try to do this all in one sitting, with one ship, you will most likely quit somewhere before Deadly, when it really starts to slow down.
Click to expand...

Perfect post and echoes my thoughts. That's why I've been collecting combat ships recently, so I can do the combat thing while having fun using different ships. Even on Expert, working towards Master, it's grindy and hard to move the needle. Elite would be dandy, but I'd at LEAST like to make it to Dangerous to unlock Ms Jameson.
 

aRJay

aRJay
Lieutenant Dan said:
Perfect post and echoes my thoughts. That's why I've been collecting combat ships recently, so I can do the combat thing while having fun using different ships. Even on Expert, working towards Master, it's grindy and hard to move the needle. Elite would be dandy, but I'd at LEAST like to make it to Dangerous to unlock Ms Jameson.
Click to expand...

Another thing that helps with the grind is to have different reasons for doing the combat, I found taking part in bounty hunting CGs a great help in that regard.
 

Speedcuffs

Speedcuffs
aRJay said:
Another thing that helps with the grind is to have different reasons for doing the combat, I found taking part in bounty hunting CGs a great help in that regard.
Click to expand...

Hm. I think that's how I got elite on PS4.
Started doing BH CGs, totally forgot about rank, boom, Elite.
 

Limoncello Lizard

Limoncello Lizard
Support a minor faction. Do combat missions (assassination, massacre), plus bountyhunting to push the faction into conflict with other factions. For elections do more combat missions, for wars do more bountyhunting or fighting in CZ, and your faction will capture assets (stations and bases) in systems and even control the systems themselves.

Your combat rank will steadily increase without you even noticing the grind.

That said, CZs are currently not a great place for quickly getting rank. The higher ranked NPCs take a huge amount of damage to kill, especially compared to equivalent pirate ships. They aren't all that balanced ATM either, as a Vulture can take twice as long as a Corvette to kill.
 

Hullreaver

Hullreaver
Lieutenant Dan said:
Perfect post and echoes my thoughts. That's why I've been collecting combat ships recently, so I can do the combat thing while having fun using different ships. Even on Expert, working towards Master, it's grindy and hard to move the needle. Elite would be dandy, but I'd at LEAST like to make it to Dangerous to unlock Ms Jameson.
Click to expand...

Agree 100%.

I never really tried to up my ranking and ended up at Expert. Then, when I hit Expert, I decided to work at it and it instantly became grindy. Got to Master at 20% and then I decided it was much better to just let it happen and not focus on watching the % meter tick up slowly. Now at 24% and really never noticed it at all. Much better doing it that way, imho. I hit a couple of CZ's, take some assassination missions, etc., but not to get the meter up, just for a change of pace.
 
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