Powerplay Faction: Li Yong-Rui Earning Li Yong-Rui merits through combat activities?

Is there a way? All I see in the power contact tabs are delivery tasks. I've read somewhere I could earn merits by undermining other powers, that being done by killing or robbing specific ships. Is there a place where I could find clear info on this, or did I just join a nation of pacifists?
 
All powers undermine (UM) via combat, but from memory Li Yong Rui (LYR) does not use combat to expand like some other powers do. You can also use combat to oppose rival powers when they expand by blowing up their ships in system.
 
If it involves shooting something, I don't really care how it's called - expansion, control...whatever. Funny though...they're not into fighting, and yet they're spreading packhounds like candy.

In any case, I take it from your answer that I'm bound to find what I'm looking for. If only the game would make it more clear how...
 
To UM go to a rival powers control system (not a system thats labelled exploited). To find them look on the starmap with the Powerplay filter on and go through the powers or go into the Powerplay tab and the fortify page- you'll see them all listed here. The description will tell you what to look for. Remember only ships that belong to that power who control that system count!

Powerplay is best done as a team, take a look at the LYR discord for fellow capitalists https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...he-powerplay-community-for-each-power.542833/
 
To UM go to a rival powers control system (not a system thats labelled exploited). To find them look on the starmap with the Powerplay filter on and go through the powers or go into the Powerplay tab and the fortify page- you'll see them all listed here. The description will tell you what to look for. Remember only ships that belong to that power who control that system count!

Powerplay is best done as a team, take a look at the LYR discord for fellow capitalists https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...he-powerplay-community-for-each-power.542833/

Thanks!
 
Remember only ships that belong to that power who control that system count!
So, was that a change to PP some time ago? I remember when I first started doing undermining you could shoot down any opposition ship and it would be counted, so long as it wasn't someone aligned to the same major faction. It does make more logical sense for only the ships belonging to that power to count though.
 
So, was that a change to PP some time ago? I remember when I first started doing undermining you could shoot down any opposition ship and it would be counted, so long as it wasn't someone aligned to the same major faction. It does make more logical sense for only the ships belonging to that power to count though.

Yes, it was changed a while ago.

@Cherokeedog - the guide is accurate enough for your needs. not much has really changed in Powerplay.

There is also this one, which is more general> http://remlok-industries.fr/the-complete-powerplay-guide/?lang=en
 
Important to note, taking a look at the guide you quoted, as LYR is "Independent", you can undermine by killing target ships of powers that are aligned with one of the superpowers. However, if you want to undermine another independent power, then undermining is done by pirating the respective transports - very tedious compared to just killing.
By killing, flights of one or two targets you may be able to kill before the FSD cooled down (depending on the ship you bring and your skill, of course), and you get 30 merits per kill. Pirating for the cargo, you must not kill the targets, but hatch-break them and scoop up the (illegal) cargo (10 merits per container), which makes you a target for other pirates (actually not sure about that one) and the normal system police force (about that one I am sure). While as long as you keep killing just the enemy power ships, your standing with local system police and factions does not change.

Also important to note, despite what the game tells you, you can not just kill the transports, but also the power-specific militia. Like I am currently undermining Edmund Mahon for the Smurf princess, so the game tells me to kill Alliance Bureaucrats in EM control systems, but killing Alliance Enforcers equally counts toward the undermining score.

Some general undermining tipps,
  • generally about your scanner, to find ships in supercruise, going faster gives you a bigger range on the scanner (game logic o_O; same seems to apply to the speed of the enemy ships)
  • usually I can find one batch of enforcers and/or bureaucrats dropping to the Nav Beacon, very helpful in biiiig systems
  • if you intercept a flight of 2 or three targets, always interdict one of the escorts, and always first kill the escorts, as once the transport dies, the escorts jump away
A kind of subjective suggestion, if you are just in for the merits, I'd suggest to attack control systems of Edmund Mahon, as with 137 control systems he is by far the fattest pig and absolutely deserves a thorough spanking.
 
Last edited:
Important to note, taking a look at the guide you quoted, as LYR is "Independent", you can undermine by killing target ships of powers that are aligned with one of the superpowers. However, if you want to undermine another independent power, then undermining is done by pirating the respective transports - very tedious compared to just killing.
By killing, flights of one or two targets you may be able to kill before the FSD cooled down (depending on the ship you bring and your skill, of course), and you get 30 merits per kill. Pirating for the cargo, you must not kill the targets, but hatch-break them and scoop up the (illegal) cargo (10 merits per container), which makes you a target for other pirates (actually not sure about that one) and the normal system police force (about that one I am sure). While as long as you keep killing just the enemy power ships, your standing with local system police and factions does not change.

Also important to note, despite what the game tells you, you can not just kill the transports, but also the power-specific militia. Like I am currently undermining Edmund Mahon for the Smurf princess, so the game tells me to kill Alliance Bureaucrats in EM control systems, but killing Alliance Enforcers equally counts toward the undermining score.

Some general undermining tipps,
  • generally about your scanner, to find ships in supercruise, going faster gives you a bigger range on the scanner (game logic o_O; same seems to apply to the speed of the enemy ships)
  • usually I can find one batch of enforcers and/or bureaucrats dropping to the Nav Beacon, very helpful in biiiig systems
  • if you intercept a flight of 2 or three targets, always interdict one of the escorts, and always first kill the escorts, as once the transport dies, the escorts jump away
A kind of subjective suggestion, if you are just in for the merits, I'd suggest to attack control systems of Edmund Mahon, as with 137 control systems he is by far the fattest pig and absolutely deserves a thorough spanking.

Funny enough, I had already decided to go gunning for Mahon, because I get a chance to kill bureaucrats. It's an opportunity to vent lots of real life issues :)

Putting that aside, that's very useful information. While I do intend to build a decent combat ship for this, I'm not yet comfortable with the idea of taking them on in batches, so pirating one at a time might prove to be more profitable in terms of merits quantity. Well...provided they drop me more than 3 containers at a time.

Thanks a lot for your input.
 
Funny enough, I had already decided to go gunning for Mahon, because I get a chance to kill bureaucrats. It's an opportunity to vent lots of real life issues :)

Putting that aside, that's very useful information. While I do intend to build a decent combat ship for this, I'm not yet comfortable with the idea of taking them on in batches, so pirating one at a time might prove to be more profitable in terms of merits quantity. Well...provided they drop me more than 3 containers at a time.

Thanks a lot for your input.
San Tu is a good spot to undermine Fat Eddy...

It’s an anarchy system so no legal trouble. I did the full 10,000 merits there last week using a FAS, I need to return tomorrow for another 5000...

LYR is a very solid choice. As a dedicated underminer at rank 5 you’re getting 300,000credits per kill for the first 150ish ships each week and 200% profit on exploration data...

There’s even a 10% reduction in the price of high tech goods in LYR systems which maybe has potential if you’re into trading, especially with commodity prices currently being overhauled...

Edit.
A quick disclaimer! San Tu is also the pvp capital of the galaxy I think, so if you fly in open be careful.
 
Last edited:
Funny enough, I had already decided to go gunning for Mahon, because I get a chance to kill bureaucrats. It's an opportunity to vent lots of real life issues :)

Putting that aside, that's very useful information. While I do intend to build a decent combat ship for this, I'm not yet comfortable with the idea of taking them on in batches, so pirating one at a time might prove to be more profitable in terms of merits quantity. Well...provided they drop me more than 3 containers at a time.

Thanks a lot for your input.
You're welcome!

It's not optional - you either have to kill ships of enemy powers aligned with enemy superpowers, or pirate from ships of powers aligned with the same superpower.
Going with LYR and targeting Fat Eddy, you have to kill the ships aligned with Mahon. You can also pirate them (sometimes they also drop their cargo while you kill them), but those containers will not earn you merits. And with a value of "0" they are also literally worthless on the black market.
And no, the few times I tried it (against a different power also aligned with the Empire like Aisling), they didn't drop particularly many containers, but that might also have been me not being an expert in piracy...

Regarding the target flights, they come in various strengths. Plenty of solo flights to pick on, but just as often with one or two escorts. Most common they seem to be "Competent", but occasionally also "Dangerous" and very rarely "Deadly". And it can be a Diamondback escorted by two Eagles, but it can also be a T-10 escorted by Vipers or Cobras. And that's just the Bureaucrats, the Enforcers add some more combat ships to the mix. So yeah, be careful regarding the targets you pick.

Nice side-effect of undermining - you can scoop up a lot of materials from the killed ships and scan data in supercruise.
 
Last edited:
You're welcome!

It's not optional - you either have to kill ships of enemy powers aligned with enemy superpowers, or pirate from ships of powers aligned with the same superpower.
Going with LYR and targeting Fat Eddy, you have to kill the ships aligned with Mahon. You can also pirate them (sometimes they also drop their cargo while you kill them), but those containers will not earn you merits. And with a value of "0" they are also literally worthless on the black market.
And no, the few times I tried it (against a different power also aligned with the Empire like Aisling), they didn't drop particularly many containers, but that might also have been me not being an expert in piracy...

Regarding the target flights, they come in various strengths. Plenty of solo flights to pick on, but just as often with one or two escorts. Most common they seem to be "Competent", but occasionally also "Dangerous" and very rarely "Deadly". And it can be a Diamondback escorted by two Eagles, but it can also be a T-10 escorted by Vipers or Cobras. And that's just the Bureaucrats, the Enforcers add some more combat ships to the mix. So yeah, be careful regarding the targets you pick.

Nice side-effect of undermining - you can scoop up a lot of materials from the killed ships and scan data in supercruise.
Yeah, the enforcers drop the same mix of mats as you’d usually find in a conflict zone (electrochemical arrays/polymer capacitors) but they’re lower rank and much easier to kill.

Another note is that Keelbacks/T9/T10 will frequently launch an SLF....the SLF is worth an additional 30 merits so they’re well worth targeting first.
 
San Tu is a good spot to undermine Fat Eddy...

It’s an anarchy system so no legal trouble. I did the full 10,000 merits there last week using a FAS, I need to return tomorrow for another 5000...

LYR is a very solid choice. As a dedicated underminer at rank 5 you’re getting 300,000credits per kill for the first 150ish ships each week and 200% profit on exploration data...

There’s even a 10% reduction in the price of high tech goods in LYR systems which maybe has potential if you’re into trading, especially with commodity prices currently being overhauled...

Edit.
A quick disclaimer! San Tu is also the pvp capital of the galaxy I think, so if you fly in open be careful.

I went with LYR for the pack hounds. The top level bonus is sweet, but I'm afraid it requires a tad too much grinding than I am able to invest, time wise.

Thanks a lot for the system pointer. I was actually pretty much confused where to start. Too many options. And also...thanks for adding that disclaimer. I will be able to build a decent PVE vanilla combat ship, but definitely not something that's PVP material.
 
You're welcome!

It's not optional - you either have to kill ships of enemy powers aligned with enemy superpowers, or pirate from ships of powers aligned with the same superpower.
Going with LYR and targeting Fat Eddy, you have to kill the ships aligned with Mahon. You can also pirate them (sometimes they also drop their cargo while you kill them), but those containers will not earn you merits. And with a value of "0" they are also literally worthless on the black market.
And no, the few times I tried it (against a different power also aligned with the Empire like Aisling), they didn't drop particularly many containers, but that might also have been me not being an expert in piracy...

Regarding the target flights, they come in various strengths. Plenty of solo flights to pick on, but just as often with one or two escorts. Most common they seem to be "Competent", but occasionally also "Dangerous" and very rarely "Deadly". And it can be a Diamondback escorted by two Eagles, but it can also be a T-10 escorted by Vipers or Cobras. And that's just the Bureaucrats, the Enforcers add some more combat ships to the mix. So yeah, be careful regarding the targets you pick.

Nice side-effect of undermining - you can scoop up a lot of materials from the killed ships and scan data in supercruise.

Got it. I haven't actually tried piracy yet, but I understand I don't have to take down their shields for the hatch breaker to do its job, so it might prove to be somewhat lucrative.
 
Yeah, the enforcers drop the same mix of mats as you’d usually find in a conflict zone (electrochemical arrays/polymer capacitors) but they’re lower rank and much easier to kill.

Another note is that Keelbacks/T9/T10 will frequently launch an SLF....the SLF is worth an additional 30 merits so they’re well worth targeting first.

Nice. I was wondering if I should start farming materials. Maybe doing this will also cover some of my needs in this regard.
 
Top Bottom