Juri Ishmaak and the combat bonds... can you turn them in bit by bit? Or must get 50 without dying?

[n13L5]

EDIT: Following everyone's helpful advice here, I got a bunch of combat bonds and went to turn them in at the nearest station in a FEDERAL aligned system:

- I turned in the combat bond(s) (multiple combat bonds show up as only one combined bond in station?
- Checking the "x-of-50-combat bonds" on Juri Ishmaak's page, it still showed 0-of-50-combat bonds
- I realize it has to be Federal combat bonds. Well both factions in the CZ were "Federal factions", what gives?






I don't like CZ's: pitch black background, little rectangles that pop in and out, depending on your orientation...
In EVE, they were at least permanent. I'd never choose to do this, but without it, I can't unlock The Sarge... Annoying...

Its like your parents saying "you can't have any pudding if you don't eat your meat", but you hate meat and want to be a vegetarian...


(I don't dislike combat per se - in Ice belts, its quite nice, cause you have decent lighting. Its just more pleasant. You can see the details of the ships when you fly close and so forth...)




So, I followed the general advice: pick a faction, shoot only at stuff they're already shooting.

This worked alright for an hour, I got just over 30 combat bonds, thinking "great, I'll never have to do this again"

Then, for no apparent reason, the whole mob turned on me. I lost shields and thrusters simultaneously... dead in the water... reboot? nah, died long before that completed. Fine, I thought, the re-buy is no problem, FAS isn't that pricey, regardless of what you stick on it, and you don't loose your engineering mods.

The problem is, that all the bonds are gone too - I guess the same way as bounties and exploration data...



So, to avoid doing this over and over again, like Groundhog Day, I'd like to ask a few questions:

- Can I deliver combat bonds to Juri Ismaak bit by bit or do I need all 50 to get permission to land?
- Should I rather take an FDL, Cutter or Corvette into the CZ, instead of my FAS? (I only owned that for planetary bases, but refitted it for this)
- How do you find CZs with a capital ship? I heard those have a much lower chance of the enemy faction ganging up on you...
- Is it true, that you get more aggro if the heat of your ship rises from using beams, for example? (I was using long range beams to dispatch shields, followed by MCs)

 

[Robert Maynard]

Piecemeal delivery is permitted.

 

[Codger]

Yes you can turn them in piecemeal.

I can’t answer the rest. I rarely do a CZ, and when I’ve needed to I took a well engineered Anaconda or Corvette.

 

[n13L5]

Yes you can turn them in piecemeal.

I can’t answer the rest. I rarely do a CZ, and when I’ve needed to I took a well engineered Anaconda or Corvette.

Thanks to both of you! - time to find a CZ in or near Juri's system, I guess

My Anacondas are elaborately fitted for exploration and passengers... I'd hate to pull those apart and later try to find the mods again.


Since I'm not trying to nail things hard, but just do a little bit of damage within the last 10 seconds - without being noticed, maybe I should take a C8 shielded Cutter with 2 small long range beams.

 

[[VR] Enexemander]

So, to avoid doing this over and over again, like Groundhog Day, I'd like to ask a few questions:

- Can I deliver combat bonds to Juri Ismaak bit by bit or do I need all 50 to get permission to land?
- Should I rather take an FDL, Cutter or Corvette into the CZ, instead of my FAS? (I only owned that for planetary bases, but refitted it for this)
- How do you find CZs with a capital ship? I heard those have a much lower chance of the enemy faction ganging up on you...
- Is it true, that you get more aggro if the heat of your ship rises from using beams, for example? (I was using long range beams to dispatch shields, followed by MCs)

1) You can do it one at a time if you want.

2) FAS and FDL will be roughly equal, depending on how each is built. FAS is a hull tank and should be beefy with HRPs, MRPS, and an AMFU to top up. The FDL should have great shields, lots of boosters, and banks to top up. Cutter/Corvette- easier if you have access to them.

3) You don't want to fight with a capital ship (on either side). They will kill steal everything. Otherwise I don't know if there is any way to tell beforehand if a capital ship will spawn in a certain CZ. But if one WILL spawn, it will ALWAYS spawn on zone in.

4) Maybe? Just by a factor of making your ship resolve on scanners from further away. I've never noticed a real difference between aggro levels of my Corvette (2 huge long range beams makes it toasty) and any other ship. In a CZ, it's more about situational awareness and not letting yourself fall behind enemy lines. If I can do it in an Eagle MK II, you can do it in an FDL/FAS/Corvette/Cutter. It's seriously better to teach yourself situational awareness than it is to try and outwit the AI targeting programming, imo.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

1) You can do it one at a time if you want.

2) FAS and FDL will be roughly equal, depending on how each is built. FAS is a hull tank and should be beefy with HRPs, MRPS, and an AMFU to top up. The FDL should have great shields, lots of boosters, and banks to top up. Cutter/Corvette- easier if you have access to them.

3) You don't want to fight with a capital ship (on either side). They will kill steal everything. Otherwise I don't know if there is any way to tell beforehand if a capital ship will spawn in a certain CZ. But if one WILL spawn, it will ALWAYS spawn on zone in.

4) Maybe? Just by a factor of making your ship resolve on scanners from further away. I've never noticed a real difference between aggro levels of my Corvette (2 huge long range beams makes it toasty) and any other ship. In a CZ, it's more about situational awareness and not letting yourself fall behind enemy lines. If I can do it in an Eagle MK II, you can do it in an FDL/FAS/Corvette/Cutter. It's seriously better to teach yourself situational awareness than it is to try and outwit the AI targeting programming, imo.

I'm not good enough, so I avoid CZ's.

 

[Dan Bender]

Are you talking about the 50 Federation combat bonds you have to earn to get the invite, or the 100,000 Cr. in bonds you then have to donate to him to unlock him?

For the latter, you definitely can turn them in on different trips, just like any engineer unlock that requires more than one of anything.

As for the former...do you even need to claim them, or simply to earn them? Look at your engineer's listing in the right-hand panel; if it shows progress for the unlock, then you got credit for those 30. If not, then you need to earn them again and claim them before you die. Earn some then bug out and head back to the station before you stick your neck out too far. Having Farragut support is a good way to help in not-dying, but it will make it take longer because it steals kills real good. Or are you stealing kills from it?

 

[Spacecat]

Once you have enough that you would hate to lose, turn them in.

*works for all engineer unlocks*

 

[El_Hefe]

You have to claim them,you dont need to do that at Juri's base though iirc. You just need to hand them in in the system you earn them in. 50+ of them.

After that when he unlocks, you travel to him with 100k credits worth of unclaimed bonds to donate to him and hes done.

 

[Ashnak]

Dan Bender is right.

You first need the invitation from Felicity, so you officially know about Juri in-game.
Next, you'll need to get his invitation, which you do after cashing in 50 combat bonds. Doesn't have to be in the system - in fact, he'll shoot you down if you try to land at his station. Just find a comfortable high intensity CZ somewhere, choose a side and start killing. High intensity CZs have a higher turnaround rate for decoys allys, so you're rarely alone with all of the remaining opposition after you.

As for your ship choice - think small. Small and fast. That Corvette or Cutter is just a big, slow, high profile target. Just another Eagle or Vulture or, if you really think you need to, Python won't stand out that much. And will be easier on the rebuy. Make sure you can get out of there very fast, if when the need arises. Good thrusters are essential when you have half a dozen FAS/FDS/FGS's after you. And either leave your FSD running, or at the very least get it modded for fast boot. When you and your remaining sole ally suddenly face a full new wave of enemies, sticking around is not an option.

 

[El_Hefe]

I love the FAS for CZ's,max out the thrusters with dirty drive mods,even at grade 3 its well fast enough to escape if needs be.

Also if your struggling,stay on the edges of the combat area. Wait for an enemy ship to stray over to your side and then go after them. Getting yourself right in then middle of the zone is a bad idea.

 

[n13L5]

Thanks for all the replies and the details!

I went building a "sneaky" CZ build on Coriolis for FDL, FAS, Clipper, Cutter and Corvette....

In the end, to use the Cutter, I would have had to pull shield boosters from other builds and I decided to just go with the Cutter which had everything save for my little trick to be less noticed!

Just tested this and it worked charmingly! Its not the most heroic way to do a CZ for sure, but it got me a bunch of bonds while I was mainly just focusing on picking up materials!

The build? All A-rated with grade 5 engineering mods on everything. Everything overcharged Multicannons, except for the main trick: 2x S1 long range (6km) laser turrets with Friend or Foe experimental.

All I had to do was take one shot at something and the two puny laser turrets kept going and going, earning me combat bonds without getting aggro, while I was collecting materials.
The only time I got serious aggro was when the enemy faction respawned, so I jumped out and docked in the station to turn in my combat bonds.


This is where things bombed:
- I turned in the combat bond(s) (multiple combat bonds show up as only one combined bond in station?)
- Checking the "x-of-50-combat bonds" on Juri Ishmaak's page, it still showed 0-of-50-combat bonds

So basically, today's efforts were wasted the same as yesterday's. This game is so tedious, because nothing is self-explanatory or intuitive..

Anything you're doing for the first time, you either have to go to the forum or google or spend from days to weeks trouble shooting why things aren't just working - like in other games.
I don't recall a game I've ever had to read a manual for - since the 90's...

 

[El_Hefe]

It may take some time for them to register.

 

[JohnRoberts]

50 Federation Combat Bonds?

 

[n13L5]

50 Federation Combat Bonds?

Yes, that's what the game says on the engineers page you can bring up in your ship from the right side panel...

I guess good ole Juri favors the Federation for whatever reason...

Its beyond me, but then, I'm still working my way through 2016 content... what do I know...



It seems to be of benefit to quit playing for a few years - upon logging back in after a sufficient number of patches, the game feels almost rich with content for a couple of months!


EDIT: Someone's answer in this thread said that the turned in Bonds might take a while to register on Juri's page. That was correct!
After being logged out of the game for a few hours (not to mention downloading a new patch),
the turned in bonds now showed up - counted towards the unlock