> Introduction
Resource Extraction Site's (commonly known as RES) is a great place for bounty hunters, because NPC miners spend a lot of time there gathering resources, which in turn attracts NPC pirates who will try to rob these miners.
In faction space, that is any system aligned with a Major Faction or is Independent, have security forces present in these RES' to protect said miners. More about these security forces later and how to use them to your advantage.
A new player can in reality go straight to a RES and start fighting, however I do not recommend this before one is familiar with combat and upgraded the stock Sidewinder to a more combat able ship. The first ship in line for this is the Viper but any ship can equip weapons and fight. Just not as effective as for example the Viper.
Therefor this guide is aimed at players familiar with combat and have moved on from the stock Sidewinder, or players whom would like a quick introduction to bounty hunting in RES in general.
I'm going to try and cover as many topics as possible, I may miss some information a long the way so don't hesitate to ask question and I'll expand as necessary.
Also please do note that English is my third language, so bare with me.
Let's get to it.
> Outfitting
I'm not going too much into depth about outfitting your vessel, that in itself is a rather extensive debate and there are other guides for that.
In short, there is 3 possibilities when having RES Hunting in mind:
- Longevity
- Fun
- Both
Basically, this means you can go for the effective long term build and stick all Pulse lasers on your ship, with biggest possible Power Distributor. This insures good all-round DPS without relying on re-arming and not worrying about heat issues.
Pulse lasers are largely underrated, but they are very effective.
Or you can go with what's fun for you.
If you think it's fun to equip nothing but Flak's on an Eagle, do it. It's not a race to the top, it's a journey.
A mix of the 2 usually works best. Try it out, see what works best for you.
Personally I use 2 Class 3 Pulse Lasers, 1 Class 3 Beam and 2 Class 2 Multi-cannons.
The Lasers takes care of most small to medium ships by themselves, and on large ships I switch to MC's when the lasers run out of energy.
A few things is important to note though, lasers receive a damage penalty when shooting above their class (size).
That means if a Class 1 Pulse laser is shooting on a Anaconda, it receives 66% damage penalty.
So always equip largest weapons possible, and if you are regularly fighting large ships, try to get fly a ship with large hardpoints.
Notice I deliberately left out Gimbal vs Fixed and I did that for a reason. It's like Console vs PC, Xbox vs PS4, Apple vs Android. It's preference and it's up to people themselves to figure what they prefer.
The rest of the outfitting is personal preference. Some use Shield Cell Banks, others don't. I like to carry them "just in case".
Don't bother with Chaff and Personal Defense Turrets. Missiles won't hurt your shield, and if your shields are down you should get out of the battle.
It's better to use those module slots for beefing up your shield with Shield Boosters.
NOTE: There currently exists a game mechanic you can choose to use or ignore. If you leave an instance and return, your shields are reset. So if you lose your shields, just leave the RES and re-enter and it will be back to full. This is prone to change, as I really doubt this is intended behavior. The more people that do it, the better chance we have of getting it "fixed" if it is indeed unintended, and if it is intended... well, enjoy it. Or don't.
Though there is good reason not to do it, since it also resets the instance. Read about " The enemies and the instance" and see why.
> Finding a RES
First things first, how to find a RES.
Any system with a gas giant that have "rings" not made of ice and a starport, have the potential to have a RES.
A RES doesn't show up on radar before you are within 1000 Ls of it, so you can't just enter a system and do a quick scan. You need to get within range to see it.
You enter a RES like you would a starport. Target it in your navigation panel and approach it like you would a starport and disengage when in range.
Finding a RES is in itself easy, what's much harder is finding a GOOD RES.
A good RES is a RES out of the way from population if you are in Open and have a starport within short range for re-arms, repairs, claiming and clearing WANTED status.
Don't forget, if you are in a large ship, you need a system with a large station to dock at. If there's only outposts you'd have to leave the system and you won't be able to claim local bounties without leaving and getting in a smaller ship.
Not much more to say about finding a RES, they are all over inhabited space
> Factions, Friendly Fire and Security.
Friendly Fire can happen to anyone. But there are ways to minimize it.
Be attentive to your surroundings, use your radar and let go of your trigger if someone gets in your firing solution.
If the target you hit have shields on, and is not your active target, there's a grace before you'd get wanted. But be careful as you progress up in ships and firepower, this grace is quickly depleted if you punch hard.
If the target doesn't have shields on, you'll get fined immediately and get WANTED.
The security forces will now treat you the same as they do the pirates, they shoot to kill.
This is where being close to a starport comes in handy. Just leave, go pay the 300 cr fine and come back. No big deal. In theory.
If you have a sweet instance, you don't want to leave and leaving just to pay off a 300 cr can be frustrating. So try to avoid friendly fire.
Another thing about friendly fire, it's not always security forces. Just because someone is shooting at you, doesn't mean you can shoot back. Always make sure your target is scanned and registered as WANTED before opening fire.
Usually the pirates coming to these RES' are of the same faction(s), so take note of them before mowing them down.
If it's a faction your care about, go somewhere else because they are going to get hostile fast if you are murdering their members, WANTED or not.
After a while, they will be hostile to you. This can be both fun and very dangerous.
They send out hitsquads for you. Not really, but the effect is the same.
Sometimes entire wings from this faction will spawn and they'll go straight for you if they spot you. This can be extremely fun if you are in a beefy fighter, like a Vulture or a gunboat like a Python.
Maybe not if it's an Elite Anaconda with 2 Clipper friends, but still.
If you don't want to fight them, just run away. The security forces will start picking on them soon enough and they'll leave you alone.
On the subject of Security Forces, use them to your advantage. Currently there exist a bug where the Security Force presence is way out of proportion. Even in low pop low sec systems, there are a lot of security forces. Please do note this is bound to get fixed eventually and it'll change the dynamic in RES quite a bit.
Right now, while you are fighting with one pirate, there's a good chance the security forces are either helping you on your current target or they are busy softening the next target for you. Or both.
You can literally go target to target where they have no shields because the security forces already did the work while you were doing something else.
Note: RES' in Anarchy governed systems also have security forces. It's part of the same bug and is hopefully looked at soon.
But in Anarchy no one is WANTED and thus the security forces will turn on you instantly if you shoot on anyone, rendering Anarchy RES' useless, unless you feel like murdering all the security forces too.
> The enemies and the instance
Everything in ED is working by instances. When you enter a RES, you join an instance if one exists.
If not, it'll make one for you. What this means is, the types of ships you get when you begin, is the types of ships you'll get in that instance. Currently you can just reset the instance by leaving and reentering. Either save and exit and then reenter or leave the RES and reenter. Same result.
A lot of people don't like doing this because it feels like cheating and I somewhat agree. It's a weird mechanic and is most likely also something that'll get changed. But use it or don't.
It's the reason why you would try not to leave an instance if you get good spawns.
Based on experience, there are 3 types of spawns:
Light: Sidewinders, Eagles and Adders.
Medium: Cobras and Vipers.
Heavy: Dropships, Clippers, Pythons and Anacondas.
It's not a definitive system, they mix a bit but in general if you see a Dropship you can be quite sure the others from same group are showing up eventually.
There are no ASP's or Vultures in RES's even though they are common in NAV's. I don't know why.
The frequency of the spawns is entirely different. One thing is getting a heavy based spawn, another is having them spawn fast enough to chain them. A good run can make millions per hour, but that's usually excluding the time to get the right spawn.
Pick a fight with the appropriate ships and mind the ranks early on. If you are new and in a low equipped ship, don't pick fights with heavy ships or Deadly/Elite pilots. They'll rip you to shreds. Test the waters and find out how much you can handle.
The AI changes behavior with rank and their outfitting changes as well. Low ranked pirates don't use FA OFF for example and usually carry lower grade modules. The higher ranked pilots tend to use FA OFF and higher grade modules and take more advantage of game mechanics.
> The economy and being effective.
Whether you are there for profit or just some pew-pew, profit is a big part of bounty hunting.
At this point it's assumed you are experienced enough with combat to know the mechanics, and know to target subsystems rather than the ship itself.
Try to target the most rewarding ships first if there are multiple enemies. Adhering to the before mentioned strategy of only fighting within your means of course. The higher rank a ship have, the higher the bounty.
All ships have a predetermined range of bounties. A minimum and a maximum. I can't find the list right now, I'll update if I find it.
But you can improve the reward on your own, using a Kill Warrant Scanner, commonly known as a KWS.
Make it a habit to scan all WANTED targets before engaging, since it can potentially double the reward.
The regular "WANTED" tag implies there is a bounty from the local controlling major faction.
However, by using a KWS you also get bounties across jurisdictions.
It's not uncommon these are quite large.
For example a Viper may have a 20.000 bounty in the local system, but after you scan it it'll have a bounty of 30.000.
That's the bounty from other jurisdiction or one of the local minor factions.
The minor ones you can pick up locally, but you may have to travel for the rest.
Either pick a RES not too far from the major factions or take a trip now and then to collect.
> In conclusion
I'm quite sure I've missed some relevant information, but I'll expand as required.
Just have fun and pew-pew.
If people show up in your RES, be friendly. There's plenty of enemies for everyone.
It's a good opportunity to try out Wings as well, talk to them and invite them to a wing.
You'll split the bounties, but the bounties should come faster when you are 2 or more.
If they are not so friendly, just go somewhere else.
There are hundreds, if not thousands of RES' so if you are bothered by another player just leave.
Don't kill steal from others, it's rude.
And if you do it anyway, make sure you can outrun the other guy because some people, including me, punish kill stealing with murder.
I hope this is helpful to people and if there are still question or there's thing people want more details on just ask.
Good luck out there Commanders, fly safe.
- Derpster Frey.
Resource Extraction Site's (commonly known as RES) is a great place for bounty hunters, because NPC miners spend a lot of time there gathering resources, which in turn attracts NPC pirates who will try to rob these miners.
In faction space, that is any system aligned with a Major Faction or is Independent, have security forces present in these RES' to protect said miners. More about these security forces later and how to use them to your advantage.
A new player can in reality go straight to a RES and start fighting, however I do not recommend this before one is familiar with combat and upgraded the stock Sidewinder to a more combat able ship. The first ship in line for this is the Viper but any ship can equip weapons and fight. Just not as effective as for example the Viper.
Therefor this guide is aimed at players familiar with combat and have moved on from the stock Sidewinder, or players whom would like a quick introduction to bounty hunting in RES in general.
I'm going to try and cover as many topics as possible, I may miss some information a long the way so don't hesitate to ask question and I'll expand as necessary.
Also please do note that English is my third language, so bare with me.
Let's get to it.
> Outfitting
I'm not going too much into depth about outfitting your vessel, that in itself is a rather extensive debate and there are other guides for that.
In short, there is 3 possibilities when having RES Hunting in mind:
- Longevity
- Fun
- Both
Basically, this means you can go for the effective long term build and stick all Pulse lasers on your ship, with biggest possible Power Distributor. This insures good all-round DPS without relying on re-arming and not worrying about heat issues.
Pulse lasers are largely underrated, but they are very effective.
Or you can go with what's fun for you.
If you think it's fun to equip nothing but Flak's on an Eagle, do it. It's not a race to the top, it's a journey.
A mix of the 2 usually works best. Try it out, see what works best for you.
Personally I use 2 Class 3 Pulse Lasers, 1 Class 3 Beam and 2 Class 2 Multi-cannons.
The Lasers takes care of most small to medium ships by themselves, and on large ships I switch to MC's when the lasers run out of energy.
A few things is important to note though, lasers receive a damage penalty when shooting above their class (size).
That means if a Class 1 Pulse laser is shooting on a Anaconda, it receives 66% damage penalty.
So always equip largest weapons possible, and if you are regularly fighting large ships, try to get fly a ship with large hardpoints.
Notice I deliberately left out Gimbal vs Fixed and I did that for a reason. It's like Console vs PC, Xbox vs PS4, Apple vs Android. It's preference and it's up to people themselves to figure what they prefer.
The rest of the outfitting is personal preference. Some use Shield Cell Banks, others don't. I like to carry them "just in case".
Don't bother with Chaff and Personal Defense Turrets. Missiles won't hurt your shield, and if your shields are down you should get out of the battle.
It's better to use those module slots for beefing up your shield with Shield Boosters.
NOTE: There currently exists a game mechanic you can choose to use or ignore. If you leave an instance and return, your shields are reset. So if you lose your shields, just leave the RES and re-enter and it will be back to full. This is prone to change, as I really doubt this is intended behavior. The more people that do it, the better chance we have of getting it "fixed" if it is indeed unintended, and if it is intended... well, enjoy it. Or don't.
Though there is good reason not to do it, since it also resets the instance. Read about " The enemies and the instance" and see why.
> Finding a RES
First things first, how to find a RES.
Any system with a gas giant that have "rings" not made of ice and a starport, have the potential to have a RES.
A RES doesn't show up on radar before you are within 1000 Ls of it, so you can't just enter a system and do a quick scan. You need to get within range to see it.
You enter a RES like you would a starport. Target it in your navigation panel and approach it like you would a starport and disengage when in range.
Finding a RES is in itself easy, what's much harder is finding a GOOD RES.
A good RES is a RES out of the way from population if you are in Open and have a starport within short range for re-arms, repairs, claiming and clearing WANTED status.
Don't forget, if you are in a large ship, you need a system with a large station to dock at. If there's only outposts you'd have to leave the system and you won't be able to claim local bounties without leaving and getting in a smaller ship.
Not much more to say about finding a RES, they are all over inhabited space
> Factions, Friendly Fire and Security.
Friendly Fire can happen to anyone. But there are ways to minimize it.
Be attentive to your surroundings, use your radar and let go of your trigger if someone gets in your firing solution.
If the target you hit have shields on, and is not your active target, there's a grace before you'd get wanted. But be careful as you progress up in ships and firepower, this grace is quickly depleted if you punch hard.
If the target doesn't have shields on, you'll get fined immediately and get WANTED.
The security forces will now treat you the same as they do the pirates, they shoot to kill.
This is where being close to a starport comes in handy. Just leave, go pay the 300 cr fine and come back. No big deal. In theory.
If you have a sweet instance, you don't want to leave and leaving just to pay off a 300 cr can be frustrating. So try to avoid friendly fire.
Another thing about friendly fire, it's not always security forces. Just because someone is shooting at you, doesn't mean you can shoot back. Always make sure your target is scanned and registered as WANTED before opening fire.
Usually the pirates coming to these RES' are of the same faction(s), so take note of them before mowing them down.
If it's a faction your care about, go somewhere else because they are going to get hostile fast if you are murdering their members, WANTED or not.
After a while, they will be hostile to you. This can be both fun and very dangerous.
They send out hitsquads for you. Not really, but the effect is the same.
Sometimes entire wings from this faction will spawn and they'll go straight for you if they spot you. This can be extremely fun if you are in a beefy fighter, like a Vulture or a gunboat like a Python.
Maybe not if it's an Elite Anaconda with 2 Clipper friends, but still.
If you don't want to fight them, just run away. The security forces will start picking on them soon enough and they'll leave you alone.
On the subject of Security Forces, use them to your advantage. Currently there exist a bug where the Security Force presence is way out of proportion. Even in low pop low sec systems, there are a lot of security forces. Please do note this is bound to get fixed eventually and it'll change the dynamic in RES quite a bit.
Right now, while you are fighting with one pirate, there's a good chance the security forces are either helping you on your current target or they are busy softening the next target for you. Or both.
You can literally go target to target where they have no shields because the security forces already did the work while you were doing something else.
Note: RES' in Anarchy governed systems also have security forces. It's part of the same bug and is hopefully looked at soon.
But in Anarchy no one is WANTED and thus the security forces will turn on you instantly if you shoot on anyone, rendering Anarchy RES' useless, unless you feel like murdering all the security forces too.
> The enemies and the instance
Everything in ED is working by instances. When you enter a RES, you join an instance if one exists.
If not, it'll make one for you. What this means is, the types of ships you get when you begin, is the types of ships you'll get in that instance. Currently you can just reset the instance by leaving and reentering. Either save and exit and then reenter or leave the RES and reenter. Same result.
A lot of people don't like doing this because it feels like cheating and I somewhat agree. It's a weird mechanic and is most likely also something that'll get changed. But use it or don't.
It's the reason why you would try not to leave an instance if you get good spawns.
Based on experience, there are 3 types of spawns:
Light: Sidewinders, Eagles and Adders.
Medium: Cobras and Vipers.
Heavy: Dropships, Clippers, Pythons and Anacondas.
It's not a definitive system, they mix a bit but in general if you see a Dropship you can be quite sure the others from same group are showing up eventually.
There are no ASP's or Vultures in RES's even though they are common in NAV's. I don't know why.
The frequency of the spawns is entirely different. One thing is getting a heavy based spawn, another is having them spawn fast enough to chain them. A good run can make millions per hour, but that's usually excluding the time to get the right spawn.
Pick a fight with the appropriate ships and mind the ranks early on. If you are new and in a low equipped ship, don't pick fights with heavy ships or Deadly/Elite pilots. They'll rip you to shreds. Test the waters and find out how much you can handle.
The AI changes behavior with rank and their outfitting changes as well. Low ranked pirates don't use FA OFF for example and usually carry lower grade modules. The higher ranked pilots tend to use FA OFF and higher grade modules and take more advantage of game mechanics.
> The economy and being effective.
Whether you are there for profit or just some pew-pew, profit is a big part of bounty hunting.
At this point it's assumed you are experienced enough with combat to know the mechanics, and know to target subsystems rather than the ship itself.
Try to target the most rewarding ships first if there are multiple enemies. Adhering to the before mentioned strategy of only fighting within your means of course. The higher rank a ship have, the higher the bounty.
All ships have a predetermined range of bounties. A minimum and a maximum. I can't find the list right now, I'll update if I find it.
But you can improve the reward on your own, using a Kill Warrant Scanner, commonly known as a KWS.
Make it a habit to scan all WANTED targets before engaging, since it can potentially double the reward.
The regular "WANTED" tag implies there is a bounty from the local controlling major faction.
However, by using a KWS you also get bounties across jurisdictions.
It's not uncommon these are quite large.
For example a Viper may have a 20.000 bounty in the local system, but after you scan it it'll have a bounty of 30.000.
That's the bounty from other jurisdiction or one of the local minor factions.
The minor ones you can pick up locally, but you may have to travel for the rest.
Either pick a RES not too far from the major factions or take a trip now and then to collect.
> In conclusion
I'm quite sure I've missed some relevant information, but I'll expand as required.
Just have fun and pew-pew.
If people show up in your RES, be friendly. There's plenty of enemies for everyone.
It's a good opportunity to try out Wings as well, talk to them and invite them to a wing.
You'll split the bounties, but the bounties should come faster when you are 2 or more.
If they are not so friendly, just go somewhere else.
There are hundreds, if not thousands of RES' so if you are bothered by another player just leave.
Don't kill steal from others, it's rude.
And if you do it anyway, make sure you can outrun the other guy because some people, including me, punish kill stealing with murder.
I hope this is helpful to people and if there are still question or there's thing people want more details on just ask.
Good luck out there Commanders, fly safe.
- Derpster Frey.
Last edited:
