Leave with the Imperial Cutter

[SpaceScania]

Ahhh the memories. Doing Imperial missions in Cubeo to get my Cutter. You don't have to pledge to get it but I agree that doing a crazy grind is not the way to go either. However, I imagine with the new choose your own reward system rank progression must be significantly easier now. In fact, I am based out of Sol now and doing Fed missions the rank seems to just be going up on its own.

One thing I'd recommend when you setup your new base of operations to do the Imperial missions. If you can earn 10-20 Mcr in exploration data first and sell it to the key systems you want to do missions with to get them to Allied. That really helps. It's planting seeds you will harvest later.

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

Hi there Commander,

Think your friend mixed up few things:

1) To be able to buy Imperial Cutter (hell of a beast!) from GUTAMAYA, which is the empire's company producing them, you need to have your standing with Imperial Navy at certain level. Don't remember exactly, but "Duke" or higher rank will do. To do so you need to perform a certain missions for Empire's military. They pop up from time to time if you have a proper standing with local faction that is affiliated with Empire;

2) Your standing with local factions affiliated with the Empire will rise quicker if you're an ally with the Empire itself. Empire/Federation/Alliance are the three Superpowers in Milky Way A.D. 3304. You can become ally with all of them or an enemy to all of them (though your life would be very difficult that way), or an ally to the Empire and enemy to the Feds etc. This all will be determined by many and various actions and choices of yours during your career as a star-pilot;

3) To tighten your bounds with one of the Superpowers (ie. Empire) you can also join one of the Powers in our galaxy (eg. the faction of Arissa Lavigny-Duval which is the empress of the Empire atm), they are the political factions within the Superpowers with their own agenda and interests, you can aid with your another various actions during your career as a pilot. Those actions of yours for the Power you'll be working for are called Powerplay;

4) If at some point you would like to leave the Power you joined previously they might (and probably will) send their agents to hunt you down and punish you for your "desertion". But they will be hunting you only for a week or so and you should be able to fight them off;

5) Your actions against the Empire or local faction that is affiliated with the Empire will reduce your standing with this faction AND your overall standing with the Empire! So please be advised your affiliation with the Superpowers can be constantly changing over time, which will have impact of how many and how frequently you'll be asked to perform a missions for Imperial Navy (or Federal Navy that is);

6) Your standing with the Imperial Navy can't be revoked though, meaning even if you start to act against the Superpower, the Power or local factions affiliated with the Superpower, your rating in Superpower's military will not drop. You'll be having harder times pushing it higher though, as mentioned above;

7) Once you'll get to "Duke" rank in Imperial Navy (it can take some time) and buy yourself one of the best ships out there - the mighty Imperial Cutter - no one will be claiming it from you no matter your past/actual/future political tights and agenda.

Hope this helps Commander and good luck with your millitary contracts!

I'm already admiral king, so this guide is irrelevant to me, but it is an absolute goldmine of good information for aspiring CMDR's looking to advance their naval ranks. +1 very well deserved rep!