Newcomer / Intro How do I find my targets? (Contracts)

[Shoshke]

So I got a contract to hunt and kill 2 traders.

I was given 3 systems to look for them I went to all systems and I can't find them.

Am I missing something? How am I suppose to identify which ones are my targets?

And yes I'm new to Elite

 

[cmdr lowest]

So I got a contract to hunt and kill 2 traders.

I was given 3 systems to look for them I went to all systems and I can't find them.

Am I missing something? How am I suppose to identify which ones are my targets?

And yes I'm new to Elite

I've never done a "kill traders" mission but it should work the same as "kill pirates".

Fly to one of the systems mentioned then use your navigation tab to locate a Nav Beacon or a Resource Extraction Zone.

Fly around in there as ships will spawn in and out at regular intervals. Each new ship do a basic scan on them to see if they are wanted, examine the type of ship they are flying, is it a traders ship or a combat ship? If it's something like a Hauler, kill them and check if your tally went down by one. Repeat until you have reached your goal.

Of course if you are in an anarchy system you can kill any trader vessel, wanted or not.

 

[Surly_Badger]

They also might show up at "unidentified signal sources" - that's where you find a lot of the stuff you're sent specifically to find (black boxes, named targets, etc)

I usually head in for a nav point, fly around and kill stuff, and keep an eye out for unidentified signal sources cropping up near me, then pop over there and investigate.