From ZERO to CORVETTE in one go? Not quite but close...

[Shiro Akai]

o7 CMDRs,

last week I did rank 0 to 12 (Duke) with Imperial Navy within a week. It wasn't bad experience, unlocked Cutter but being short on credits I only bought Courier and Clipper. Feeling good after that success I decided to rank up Federal navy and unlock Corvette. Prepared my iCourier and set destination to...

(in)famous Sothis/Ceos. I did some reading before, found few alternatives but decided for Sothis/Ceos anyway. When I arrived at Ceos, Monday 12th my starting conditions were as follow:

Superpower rep: cordial
Rank: none (0)
credit balance: 129 M

I was picking data delivery missions only. As a reward I was picking REP+++ only (over the whole course I misclicked twice: one for INF+++ and the other for some material reward). It took me 8 sessions, mostly 1h-1.5h long. I had 2 shorter sessions (less than 30m) and final one took me 4h straight. 12h+ overall time spent. Below you have a rundown of my sessions, credit income and rank progression.

session:
#1 - 135.6M (+6.6 M), rank 1 RECRUIT
#2 - 146.2M (+10.6M), NO rank up
#3 - 157.6M (+11.4M), rank 2 CADET
#4 - 174.4M (+16.8M), rank 3 MIDSHIPMAN (session start), rank 4 PETTY OFFICER (session end)
#5 - 181.9M (+7.5M), NO rank up
#6 - 187.2M (+5.3M), NO rank up
#7 - 190.5M (+3.3M), rank 5 CHIEF PETTY OFFICER
#8 - 224.0M (+33.5M), rank 6 WARRANT OFFICER, rank 7 ENSIGN, rank 8 LIEUTENANT, rank 9 LIEUTENANT COMMANDER, rank 10 POST COMMANDER, rank 11 POST CAPTAIN, rank 12 REAR ADMIRAL.

totals:
Cr 95M income
Rear Admiral
unlocked Corvette
unlocked SOL system, along with several other.


My final conditions were as follow:

In total it took me whole week to get from NONE to REAR ADMIRAL. Over the week I spent similar amount of time as I did for Imperial navy. On top of that I had few evenings during the past week, literally doubling the time investment. I could have done the whole run faster if not the boards not spawning rank up missions.

My circle was Ceos (single station) - Sothis (station + mining outpost) - Ceos. It may took a bit longer than simple A-B-A but my way I had 3 places to spawn rank up mission. Which, with above rundown, didn't play well. First 4 sessions and I ranked up just as high as rank 4 out of 12. Since Tuesday till Saturday it was desert. Wasteland. Total void. No rank up missions at all.

Mind that I was flying iCourier with 4t cargo space. Outfitted for intel missions, no weapons, no interdictors, no cargo hold for anything larger than a hand baggage. During the week I noticed once or twice Fed Navy rank up mission, but it was strike (pirates that require interdicting) or supply us (way over my capacity, nearest source of wanted goods was 250-300 LYs away). By the time I get proper ship, go there, buy and deliver I would do 3 circles with data so I skipped on those.

Fun fact - as I noticed that I can strike, for ex., it meant I can rank up for I have enough rep acquired. I knew next rank is granted, I only need proper mission to spawn so I can finalize it. Two days later, still no mission. Hard way you want to play, hard way it is. Starting Saturday I board hopped. I managed to snipe Fed Navy data delivery and ranked Chief Petty Officer. Not even half way.

Then yesterday came, I had bit more time and could sit bit longer. As you can see - within single day I did more than half of entire rank up. Some luck: ranks 8-10 I did one after another, ranked 8, picked data mission for rank 9, delivered and picked dat mission for rank 10. Ranks 6, 7, 11 and 12 picked via board hopping.

Yesterday was a special in a way - not only I got data missions I used for ranking up, rank up missions were spawning all right. Even though the ones I wasn't interested in, like 180t delivery, 50t supply or 16 pirates strike. Seeing those it was a sign I can start board hopping to get data delivery.

Overall I'm glad it's over. It took me just a week to unlock Corvette. It must have been insane to do it week after week for weeks and reach three or four ranks. Anyway, I had 129 M when I started, when I finished I had 224 M. As a reward for reaching high Federal Navy rank and unlocking 3rd of BIG SHIPS - the Federal Corvette, I bought :

That's right - for Federal money, earned while ranking up Federal ranks I bought Imperial Cutter

 

[Aashenfox]

I must say I admire your staying power, I can't grind more than a few hours before I want to kill myself. Thankfully, the Beyond changes were enough for me to make the final sprint through the last Fed rank in about 2.5 hours and I now have my vette, but I can't imagine spending every play session for a week doing something specific for rep or credits. Kudos, your rank grinds are a thing of the past. I'll start again in Emp space soon.

 

[lecorsobreton]

I unlocked the rank for the Corvette on Saturday. I was Lieutenant. It took me 2 or 3 days to unlock the missing ranks and even if it's way faster now than it was, I did not enjoy that grind. It takes some kind of stubbornness, dedication or madness to do what you did. I don't know which, maybe a mix of all. So congratulations, I guess!

 

[S~P]

Congrats, finished my imperial rank the other night. Did think of doing my fed rank but have lost the will to do the grind.

 

[Shiro Akai]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm rather lazy, been postponing ranking for 15 months. And stubborn when I set the goal. Or rather patient? When I set a goal I usually achieve that. I think I just switch out for the time being and do things mechanically. Some relaxing music in the background and then, even grinding, feels like zen. A week is not that long after all, few evenings and done. But it's over and I wouldn't like to repeat that all over again.

Admiration worthy are those who cleared their saves and done all the rank up all over again.

 

[CMDR CPT. Boris]

i'm 1.1 rank away from the corvette... can't wait

 

[lokvette]

I thought for sure this thread would be awash with "your playing the game wrong as its not the way I would ever do it" "kids these days" "do you want a I win button" "back in my day" and other meaningfull posts.

Hats off to the OP even more so for buying the cutter at the end of it

 

[c00ky1970]

Well done!

I have been working in the bubble ranking up FED an went from Ensign to Post Commander and have given up, just doing data delivery missions and bouncing round about 5 systems is not very fun.

I am pleased I am now post commander but I am off to some CZ sites to practice my pew pew and will probably head to attacked stations and rescue some citizens for the time being, I don't have the staying power to carry on to get to Rear Admiral at the mo.

 

[Shiro Akai]

I admit, I had my break down. Around Friday. Having few days in a row without single rank up felt bad. Especially when I was freshly after Empire rank run which took me 3 days. Empire rank up missions were spawning frequently and regularly. Probably location specific. Anyway - Fed ranking had more variety and I was focusing on a single aspect - data delivery. So any opportunities with cargo haul, black box or pirate strike were a no-no. Heavily limiting my options.

But there's something to the whole picture. As general question for Empire is "WHERE" to run missions, then for FED the question was "WHERE TO FIND RANK UP MISSIONS". Other people had the same issue - simple lack of those. I found few alternatives but I was unwilling to endure 20k Ls flights. So I stayed in Sothis/Ceos, running circles between 3 places in 2 systems. In the end board hopping helped.

Now I'm considering returning there and run those missions a little bit longer, for credits only. I noticed that FEDs value their missions more than Empire. Bonus is the same but base payment is higher, 70k per mission is not rare sight. Having almost empty account I really could use some extra money. With rep focused I was doing ~10M/hr. I wonder if I could triple that with credits focused approach.

Other option is to use iClipper in a cargo version. Decisions, decisions...

 

[Askorti]

I finished my rear admiral grind yesterday, doing it around Lembava, especially in Spocs 111, Kehperagwe, Pikum, 47 Arietis, Lan Gundi (This one was a destination for most rank up data missions), Woda and some others. It's also good to pick missions from factions other than the federal ones, as they might be sending data *to* federation factions, so you still get navy progress.
When it comes to rank up missions, I did not have any issues with them at all. I didn't have to go look for them, they just popped up as I was doing rounds with the data. It could be thanks to the fact that I was visiting far more than just two systems on my route.

 

[akaliel]

I had no Imperial ranking and was a Post Commander for Federation before this wknd. Played for about 2 hrs on Saturday and 4 hours on Sunday and now I'm a King and Admiral. But most of all, I'm thrilled that I'll never have to rank up in Elite, ever, EVER again.