Elite Status Advice Required

[ICEx21]

Hi all,

I've recently returned to Elite Dangerous as I had stopped playing due to my HOTAS breaking. Unfortunately my HOTAS decided to stop working just before the mining nerf and it's only recently I've replaced the HOTAS. Just before my HOTAS stopped working I had gained the trading rank of Tycoon and was 89% of the way through, since returning I've been doing some Robigo passenger missions and managed to get myself to Pioneer but only at 3%.

My question is, what would be the fastest and most efficient way to get to Elite status? Grinding my way through explorer ranks is very slow, whilst I'm not sure what the fastest way to get the last 11% required through trading would be.

Any help is much appreciated.

 

[gooddoc]

Maybe mining for & selling Platinum?

 

[Speedcuffs]

Trade: Mining.
Exploration: Road to Riches (or Robigo - my preference).
Combat: Massacre/Assassination missions or Comp Nav Beacon. (Stack missions for credits)

My thoughts on this are probably out of date though.
I'll also add, that for me, none of the above ever felt like a grind.

 

[Donaldi]

whilst I'm not sure what the fastest way to get the last 11% required through trading would be.

I use(d) tools like https://eddb.io -> Single Hop Trade route before each jump to find out what goods make me the most profit toward a given target.
And then I fill up my available cargo hold with it.
I made it a rule to never fly emtpy.
Sometime between missions I received the notification that I became an elite trader (my focus was on recovery missions at that time).
As a side effect you meet some nice helpful pirates to increase your combat ranking, but your jump range scuks with a full cargo hold.

Regards, Dirk

 

[Treya]

Trade rank is profit based so mining and selling to stations (trading at FCs was exempted IIRC for obvious exploit reasons).

 

[Gwyther]

Jesus Christ... why is everyone so damn eager to get to the end of the game so fast (metaphorically speaking).
Just play at a normal rate. You will make Elite eventually. What's the rush.

All I see just lately are posts about... how do I get this done quicker, how do I get that done quicker, why is super cruise so slow, etc.....

Have some bloody patience commanders.

 

[ICEx21]

Jesus Christ... why is everyone so damn eager to get to the end of the game so fast (metaphorically speaking).
Just play at a normal rate. You will make Elite eventually. What's the rush.

All I see just lately are posts about... how do I get this done quicker, how do I get that done quicker, why is super cruise so slow, etc.....

Have some bloody patience commanders.

Everyone plays at different speeds, have different goals and the time available to them for playing is also different.
Your opinion offers nothing except your own frustration at something which shouldn't frustrate you in the slightest. Whilst everyone else in this thread has offered some helpful advise, your post offers absolutely nothing, I'm not even sure why you felt the need to post if you had nothing to add? You don't like people asking for advice, just ignore the thread instead of putting a pointless post up.

 

[rrobes]

Game play was set at a lower pace before engineering, it took determination to reach goals like Elite levels. If you think it's slow now, you should have played back then.

In comparison, it doesn't take much to reach Elite now, you can speed it along with the right equipment, a Cutter for trading and a Corvette for combat.

You should take the advice that was given in another post, take your time and play the game and let that accrue your progress.

You should set yourself goals and work forward but vary your play.

I'm triple Elite and billions in assets and the game isn't as challenging or attractive as it once was. Enjoy the journey.

 

[d8veh]

Simple A to B trading using a tool to find a loop will get you about 12 mil per trip using an Anaconda. You'd get more in a T9, but you can lose a lot if you get interdicted and don't know how to deal with it. You need something like 1,050,000,000 for Elite minus 390,000,000 for your Tycoon, which is 660,000,00. You're 89% Tycoon, so that means you need another 72.6 million, which would be about 6 trips. Each trip ca be done comfortably in 10 minutes, so that's about an hour, plus another hour to find your route and fly there. Obviously, check the distance of the stations from the star and make sure that the station has enough stock of your commodity to do the 6 trips, which would be over 2500T.

I can't see road to riches being quicker than that. You need about 200 mil to get elite from where you are, and you get something between 10mil and 30 mil per hour depending on whether you do a full scan of the water worlds. At best, it'll take 7 hours.

There's no shortcut for combat. You have to kill about 6500 ships in a high RES at maybe 40 per hour overall. you can go as high as 60 per hour with the right ship, technique and spawn if you do it right. When you reach deadly, it's about 3000 more. Killing Thargoid Scouts requires fewer kills, but you waste more time travelling to the signal sources, etc, so probably about the same time overall. I was getting about 30 Scouts per hour overall. I think the last time I did it, it took about 130 hrs from start.

 

[Commander Biscuit]

Everyone plays at different speeds, have different goals and the time available to them for playing is also different.
Your opinion offers nothing except your own frustration at something which shouldn't frustrate you in the slightest. Whilst everyone else in this thread has offered some helpful advise, your post offers absolutely nothing, I'm not even sure why you felt the need to post if you had nothing to add? You don't like people asking for advice, just ignore the thread instead of putting a pointless post up.

Actually, telling you to have patience is the best advice you can get for this game.

 

[ICEx21]

Game play was set at a lower pace before engineering, it took determination to reach goals like Elite levels. If you think it's slow now, you should have played back then.

In comparison, it doesn't take much to reach Elite now, you can speed it along with the right equipment, a Cutter for trading and a Corvette for combat.

You should take the advice that was given in another post, take your time and play the game and let that accrue your progress.

You should set yourself goals and work forward but vary your play.

I'm triple Elite and billions in assets and the game isn't as challenging or attractive as it once was. Enjoy the journey.

Actually, telling you to have patience is the best advice you can get for this game.

I'm taking a guess neither of you read my first post. I have played the game a lot, what I'm asking for is what would be the quickest way to level to Elite from my current ranks.

I took the advice from d8veh, who clearly read my original post and with his advice I managed to achieve Elite within an hour.

Thanks all

​

 

[varonica]

Jesus Christ... why is everyone so damn eager to get to the end of the game so fast (metaphorically speaking).
Just play at a normal rate. You will make Elite eventually. What's the rush.

All I see just lately are posts about... how do I get this done quicker, how do I get that done quicker, why is super cruise so slow, etc.....

Have some bloody patience commanders.

Took me a couple of years to reach Elite in anything, the only Elite rank I have at the moment is explorer, and I got that after traveling around the galaxy and amassing 1.7b in exploration credit, but anyway, I never saw getting Elite as any sort of goal, it just happened due to what I was doing at the time. That's the way it should be. I think they should use AI to analyse players activities and when obvious road to riches type behaviour is detected, basically anything designed to push to Elite rank as fast as possible, the rewards gained should be progressively lowered until the player returns to more normal game activity. That's going to be an unpopular opinion, I know, but I also don't care so that sort of balances it out!

 

[MintyBiscuits]

I'm on my way to Colonia right now. I left the bubble at 91% Pioneer. Hoping it will be enough.

EDIT: it was enough. Got my Triple Elite!

 

[gorankar]

I am guessing OP wants access to founders world and Jameson Memorial? It definitely makes buying and outfitting your ship a lot easier if you don't have to run around to multiple systems and stations to find the parts you want.

Elite trade is still the fastest. Takes about 1 Billion in profits. The first year I played I never did any mining, once I did, I got Elite in trade in something like 4 or 5 VO mining runs in a Python, back when you could mine 50 or so tons of it an hour and sell them reliably for 1.2M a ton. It's takes a little longer now, but not that much. Platinum and Osmium seem to be the current meta for mining.

The other elites came when they came for me. I think I was just finishing a passenger run when Elite Exploration popped, and was in an AX CZ for Combat Elite. Combat seemed to take so long that I stopped even looking at it. Found out later that bringing your SLF pilot along reduced rank progression speed. Meh, I still would have brought her along.

 

[here_it_comes]

...I managed to achieve Elite within an hour.

When ya really want to make sure your rank is hollow!

I'm happy combat rank hasn't been turned into a total joke like trade and exploration rank has.

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

"Where's the most efficient grind X?"

Why not just play the game to have fun, and let the ranks and credits organically percolate upwards in the background organically of you having fun?

 

[Maolagin]

There's no shortcut for combat. You have to kill about 6500 ships in a high RES at maybe 40 per hour overall. you can go as high as 60 per hour with the right ship, technique and spawn if you do it right. When you reach deadly, it's about 3000 more. Killing Thargoid Scouts requires fewer kills, but you waste more time travelling to the signal sources, etc, so probably about the same time overall. I was getting about 30 Scouts per hour overall. I think the last time I did it, it took about 130 hrs from start.

FYI this is no longer true. After the recent combat rewards rebalance, Thargoid Scouts are not considered Elite-ranked enemies anymore, and as such aren't worthwhile to farm for combat rank. I'm not sure if HazRes hunting or stacked massacre missions are the current best approach - my gut says probably the latter, but it'll be system- and instance-specific.

 

[Awesumnus Maximus]

FYI this is no longer true. After the recent combat rewards rebalance, Thargoid Scouts are not considered Elite-ranked enemies anymore, and as such aren't worthwhile to farm for combat rank. I'm not sure if HazRes hunting or stacked massacre missions are the current best approach - my gut says probably the latter, but it'll be system- and instance-specific.

Stacking makes more money, has no effect on ranking speed.
How combat elite has been devalued is easy credits making Corvettes viable as a third or fourth ship purchase. I recently got my third elite on my main account (after 4 years of small/med combat) and decided to revisit the Corvette thing. suffice to say that I was pretty horrified at how quickly you'd be able to burn through combat ranks in that thing. I reckon there are a lot of elite combat pilots out there from splatting scouts in a corvette who should really be embarrassed about that decal on the front of their ship.

 

[and_ft]

I'm taking a guess neither of you read my first post. I have played the game a lot, what I'm asking for is what would be the quickest way to level to Elite from my current ranks.

I took the advice from d8veh, who clearly read my original post and with his advice I managed to achieve Elite within an hour.

Thanks all

​

Congratulations Commander,

I just last week got my first elite in exploration after a pretty long trip. Was really nice to visit ShinDez and Founders' World, reading all the tourist beacons about Pilots' Federation.

And of course, buy and fully kit out both a Python and a Krait Mk.II for all those millions of credits I had accrued during my Galactic Sight-seeing

 

[MickyG1982]

I am guessing OP wants access to founders world and Jameson Memorial? It definitely makes buying and outfitting your ship a lot easier if you don't have to run around to multiple systems and stations to find the parts you want.

Elite trade is still the fastest. Takes about 1 Billion in profits. The first year I played I never did any mining, once I did, I got Elite in trade in something like 4 or 5 VO mining runs in a Python, back when you could mine 50 or so tons of it an hour and sell them reliably for 1.2M a ton. It's takes a little longer now, but not that much. Platinum and Osmium seem to be the current meta for mining.

The other elites came when they came for me. I think I was just finishing a passenger run when Elite Exploration popped, and was in an AX CZ for Combat Elite. Combat seemed to take so long that I stopped even looking at it. Found out later that bringing your SLF pilot along reduced rank progression speed. Meh, I still would have brought her along.

Well there is that surface port I Sota Prospect in Brestla that sells everything, just not as cheaply.