So im in a type 6 and got about 6 million in credits so i feel im doing ok, right now all i do is trade palladium for $1600 per ton profit on this one jump route ive been running and then liquor on the way back for a little $400 per ton. now how do most of your trade routes look? is there anything that ever sells for 2k+ per ton? or should i just keep grinding this route? and what about mining? is it worth the time? i have yet to find a "pristine" area (players claim this is the only place to have a good chance of finding silver, gold, exc...) and i just want to know if there is a quicker or better method or trade route to get to those mid to high tier 17mil+ ships a little quicker
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Newcomer / Intro "mid game" money making, i need some advice
- Thread starter Jake9123
- Start date
Personally I traded rares with a T6. It is slightly less tedious and pays well if you have a T6 or an Asp with a decent jump range.
Running A > B > A trade routes is a real grind. There are slightly better ones than you suggest but about the absolute maximum I have ever had with this is 1700 one way and 700 the other giving 2400 per ton. They are out there but rarely last at that rate for very long.
I don't have much experience with mining but I think you would struggle finding a pristine in civilised space now. Perhaps others with more experience can guide you better. Having done a fair bit of exploring you'll find them off the beaten track more.
Exploring pays well now so perhaps you should also consider this but you will need a well outfitted ship with a good jump range. Check out Nutter's excellent guides in the Guides and Tutorials forum.
Hope this helps
Running A > B > A trade routes is a real grind. There are slightly better ones than you suggest but about the absolute maximum I have ever had with this is 1700 one way and 700 the other giving 2400 per ton. They are out there but rarely last at that rate for very long.
I don't have much experience with mining but I think you would struggle finding a pristine in civilised space now. Perhaps others with more experience can guide you better. Having done a fair bit of exploring you'll find them off the beaten track more.
Exploring pays well now so perhaps you should also consider this but you will need a well outfitted ship with a good jump range. Check out Nutter's excellent guides in the Guides and Tutorials forum.
Hope this helps
Exploration is a good mid-game money maker.
I did a trip out 1000LY doing an hour or two per night over a week and came back to 5m CR. Did this all in a Cobra rigged for exploration.
It's a bit of an investment getting your ship rigged but the return is pretty good. Plus you'll get your name on undiscovered systems too.
I did a trip out 1000LY doing an hour or two per night over a week and came back to 5m CR. Did this all in a Cobra rigged for exploration.
It's a bit of an investment getting your ship rigged but the return is pretty good. Plus you'll get your name on undiscovered systems too.
I have a 1.4/1.4 route with Progenitor Cells and Palladium that takes 10 minutes to complete leisurely. You could search for a High Tech system nearby to increase the second part of your route, Agri doesn't pay well. Looking for a good route can be fun, but I'd recommend to take it easy - more in the vain of 'well, another quarter million won't hurt' than 'I need ten millions'.
Bounty hunting at RESs can easily make more than a million per hour now, if combat is your thing. A Vulture would be in easy reach for you, and people seem to love it. (Can't comment, haven't got one.)
And finally, for a bit of everything (with comparable cargo space, way better combat capabilities, longer range and general awesomeness), you could aim for an Asp. With a +20 LYs FSD, looking for profitable routes with short layover times is easier. And you can collect exploration data on the way. With the new, better payouts, it's quite easy to make a million here, a million there with one without ever feeling like you're grinding.
Bounty hunting at RESs can easily make more than a million per hour now, if combat is your thing. A Vulture would be in easy reach for you, and people seem to love it. (Can't comment, haven't got one.)
And finally, for a bit of everything (with comparable cargo space, way better combat capabilities, longer range and general awesomeness), you could aim for an Asp. With a +20 LYs FSD, looking for profitable routes with short layover times is easier. And you can collect exploration data on the way. With the new, better payouts, it's quite easy to make a million here, a million there with one without ever feeling like you're grinding.
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If you like combat you could go bounty hunting at a RES. With 6 million cr you can outfit a basic (but good enough) vulture (link) and earn at least 1 millon cr/h or more, up to 2-3 million cr/h.
Here is a thread regarding T6 trading vs vulture BH: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=127371
Here is a thread regarding T6 trading vs vulture BH: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=127371
It's a decent route, and if it holds up under sustained trading, I would certainly keep doing it.
The question is: why are you trading?
If you're trading to get rich, save up the 20-odd million you need for the T7 + decent FSD. if you're saving for a combat ship, trade until you have the 20-odd million for the Vulture + decent kit. Either way, if the route supports it, keep doing it.
If you're interested in greater flexibility, 20-odd million for the Asp + decent kit will get you a ship you can take into the most dangerous systems with only slightly lower cargo than the T6 or 120t in reasonably secure space. You can also turn it into an awesome gunship for RES bounty-hunting, or a conflict zone monster with an A6 shield. (Watch out for human commanders though, they often know to target the power plant, which is the Asp's Achilles' heel.)
You can probably find another route that pays better on the return leg, but the route you're running now is not to be sniffed at, particularly if it's short (10 minutes or lower round trip).
The question is: why are you trading?
If you're trading to get rich, save up the 20-odd million you need for the T7 + decent FSD. if you're saving for a combat ship, trade until you have the 20-odd million for the Vulture + decent kit. Either way, if the route supports it, keep doing it.
If you're interested in greater flexibility, 20-odd million for the Asp + decent kit will get you a ship you can take into the most dangerous systems with only slightly lower cargo than the T6 or 120t in reasonably secure space. You can also turn it into an awesome gunship for RES bounty-hunting, or a conflict zone monster with an A6 shield. (Watch out for human commanders though, they often know to target the power plant, which is the Asp's Achilles' heel.)
You can probably find another route that pays better on the return leg, but the route you're running now is not to be sniffed at, particularly if it's short (10 minutes or lower round trip).
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I'm pretty much in your exact same position, with a bit less cash, but running a short and profitable of around 2000cr on the round trip. I do like the T6, it's nice and I'm planning on combining rare runs with some exploration over the weekend to break of the monotony of the trading back and forth. I do like it, but I think the great thing about the game is you can mix it up. So that's what I'll be doing, it may bring in the creds a bit faster, worth a go.
A quick word on the mining...precious metals are found in rings or asteroids that are metallic. The pristine part is just how big the % of each piece of rock is of said metal. It goes pristine, major, common, low, depleted. Just stick with the first two if you are going to give it a go.
Does that make sense?
Does that make sense?
Ok guys update, i totally forgot about the Vulture so now im bounty hunting again and made over a mil in an hour! With the help and distraction of the feds i was killing condas no problem and getting 100k + per kill! so ill probably grind that out until i can get myself into a type 7 then ill resume my trade route. thanks for the advice!
Also, get down to imperial space and look for a route that lets you take Palladium and/or gold one way and imperial slaves back again. If you find a good one you should be able to make 1100 -1300 per ton each way.
awesome sounds good, ill look into that
Personally I would avoid slave trading, I've been burnt a few times with outdated system stats. It seems systems change their minds regularly on the legality of slaves. In general I've found that most trade runs for around 100 cargo will give a maximum of about 250k cr profit on a return leg. I have a nice trade run 2 jumps with both stations being very close to the sun brings in about 225k and takes 10minutes maximum. At this stage though if your looking for a change trying fitting out a cobra and heading to the res. You can make an easy 500k - 1mill in a session and its more fun than trading. RES hunting is my main income now as trading was getting a bit slow, I would still run the trade route on the laptop every now and then but I prefer fighting on the big PC with the HOTAS.
Between the trading and RES bounty hunting and a couple of weeks of average game play I managed to get myself a mostly A class ASP so exploration will be my next port of call.
Mining I can't recommend. Its great for new comers to make a couple of hundred thousand credits and get that bigger ship but its not for a cobra, T6 or ASP. Just takes so long to get little reward. I enjoyed it at the start but its boring now. For example 30 minutes mining the other night netted 50,000 credit in metals. The same in trading would of been over 600,000 credits and in bounty hunting anything from 500,000 to 1,000,000 credits.
BTW little tip for bounty hunting always check the bulletin board for mission to take out pirates. Gets you some system cred and maybe an extract 20,000 credits.
EDIT: One thing that can be fun is setting out on a trade run just taking the most profitable leg each time. Gets you away from your home system and out to see some of the galaxy. Fit even a basic discover scanner and make a few extra credits from that. An afternoon of this got my 200ly from home. Actually felt like I had gone somewhere.
Between the trading and RES bounty hunting and a couple of weeks of average game play I managed to get myself a mostly A class ASP so exploration will be my next port of call.
Mining I can't recommend. Its great for new comers to make a couple of hundred thousand credits and get that bigger ship but its not for a cobra, T6 or ASP. Just takes so long to get little reward. I enjoyed it at the start but its boring now. For example 30 minutes mining the other night netted 50,000 credit in metals. The same in trading would of been over 600,000 credits and in bounty hunting anything from 500,000 to 1,000,000 credits.
BTW little tip for bounty hunting always check the bulletin board for mission to take out pirates. Gets you some system cred and maybe an extract 20,000 credits.
EDIT: One thing that can be fun is setting out on a trade run just taking the most profitable leg each time. Gets you away from your home system and out to see some of the galaxy. Fit even a basic discover scanner and make a few extra credits from that. An afternoon of this got my 200ly from home. Actually felt like I had gone somewhere.
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Word of advice - DO NOT go for T7. If at all possible, get yourself a Clipper instead. I've flown both and T7 is a horrible tub. The 5m less price tag for T7 does not justify the lack of defensibility and speed as compared to Clipper. Outfitted for trading, i.e., class 4 shields with shield boosters, Clipper can take 232 tons of cargo vs 216 for T7.