Newcomer / Intro My Advice for newcomers...

[Commander Jameso]

Firstly, importantly, it helps to have a decades-old affection for the original game.

That to one side:

1. Don't think about dog fighting. At the beginning the fights last for ages, you'll struggle with manoeuvring and targeting, and even if you get on top, you enemy will is likely to run away.
2. Look at Thrudds Elite Dangerous tools to pick up your best, near-by trades. Make sure, before you spend your money, that you can reach your destination. Get some money in the bank.
3. As a first upgrade for your ship, increase the jump range so you can get out of the nest of starts that you begin in and find more profitable trades.
4. If you are attacked, run away.
5. Once you have upgraded your power plant, power distributor and bought a fuel scoop, the game will open up to you. Mix it up a little with a few pirates but don't go looking for fights.
6. Continue to use Thrudd's guides to look for profitable missions in the 'bulletin' tab. Try the 'search for black box' etc missions to see if you have the patience for them.
7. Oh, and stick to 'solo' mode so you don't go mad waiting for free pads at platforms.
8. And make sure that, if you accept a mission, you have enough time to complete it. So, the kids are in bed, the wife is reading the Daily Mail wedsite/Grazia/watching Eastenders, etc.
You'll now be a few days in, and be ready for more exciting times. You'll also not have wasted a lot of time swearing and wondering why you spent all that money on this game...

 

[ReaperAlex]

as an alternative run through all the combat tutorials (the last one is more of a challenge than a tutorial, so don't worry about that one)

learn how to put the throttle into the blue zone for max manoeuvrability
get used to juggling your pips to get performance where you need it when you need it
use lateral thrusters when you dogfight to help keep your target in view
mess with boost turning and FA off turning for extra tricks, though not must haves

with that under your belt take that sidewinder out bounty hunting at nav beacons, resource extraction sites or unidentified signal sources and pull in your first credits that way.

which ever way you start the game there is a lot to take in and you will blow up a few times. also feel free to ask questions here, there are lots of players happy to help in that way as you can see from this helpful thread

 

[Skip Intro]

Also:

learn how to dock quickly by knowing where your landing pad is
disable the boost key until you are confident you won't pancakle into the station
write down the re-buy cost of your ship after each upgrade!

 

[Pyrion]

Just do what you like. What do you want out of this game? There is no race to the largest ship going on, but if you want that as a goal, be prepared to trade a lot. I like it, not sure if you will too.
If you want to fight, here are the options:
1) Nav points, extraction sites. A mix of regular clean ships, police and some pirates. Easy going, good to learn the ropes.
2) War zones. Usually chaotic, easy to die if you are not carefull.
3) Big bounty missions. Don't try if you can't yet deal with an anaconda.
4) Pirating... well, you get the idea

If you want to trade, these are your options:
1) Use a trade tool (like thrudds). Normally reliable, nice profits but a bit boring
2) Rares trading. Great for small to medium cargo holds. Should have good FSD. For the hauler or cobra, this is where you can make the most money i think.
3) Luxury trading. You need to find a luxury trader close to a high tech station. Google that. Really boring, but can make a lot of money.
4) Find your own route. Explore the edges of inhabited space and find a route that's better than anything a trade tool can give you. Those routes exist. Great trade routes that are covered by trade tools tend to dry up or at least become less profitable (cause so many people use them), so this is your chance to your own private route that never dries up. I found one, its really nice.

Then there is mining. Look for a video called "advanced mining" i think, covers it all. Boring if you ask me, but at the start it can make good money.

And then of course exploring. That one is not a big money maker, but it may be the thing that you really want to do. Do it, money will be slower, but it can be very satisfying.

 

[the100thmonkey]

I'd add:

Bind your own keys. Bind your own keys. Bind your own keys. Finally, bind your own keys.

Do it in the training missions. Don't be afraid to keep one where it is if you think it's logical, but spend an hour at least looking at the control scheme and trying to internalise it. I've not once hit a station by boosting instead of deploying landing gear. Nor have I ever unintentionally jettisoned my cargo. The reason for this was that when I was binding away, I thought "that's a daft place to put those three keys; I might boost into something or deploy my landing gear in the middle of a firefight. I'll change those."

 

[Alteph Four]

as an alternative run through all the combat tutorials (the last one is more of a challenge than a tutorial, so don't worry about that one)

learn how to put the throttle into the blue zone for max manoeuvrability
get used to juggling your pips to get performance where you need it when you need it
use lateral thrusters when you dogfight to help keep your target in view
mess with boost turning and FA off turning for extra tricks, though not must haves

with that under your belt take that sidewinder out bounty hunting at nav beacons, resource extraction sites or unidentified signal sources and pull in your first credits that way.

which ever way you start the game there is a lot to take in and you will blow up a few times. also feel free to ask questions here, there are lots of players happy to help in that way as you can see from this helpful thread

I have been playing for about a week, on my 7th clear save game, and I have yet to break 50k credits. This game just doesnt seem to work for me. Ive tried it all, trading, mining, missions, bounty hunting, nothing is profitable for me. Combat isnt too difficult for me, but I sit for 10-15-30 minutes at a time without seeing a single wanted target, when I do see one they usually fly out before I can kill them, most of the time they pop in and out so fast you cant even target them. Trading, I had 10 cargo slots and in 5 hours of play time last night my best trade run was for a profit of 1200c. I use the tools, I follow the guides, but it just doesnt work for me.

I dont see trading being worthwhile until you have a cargo space of 32 +, I guess I just have to spend 100's of hours to see a couple bounties to kill. Perhaps in a year or two of 5 hours a day I can get my first ship upgrade.

Gotta say I am extremely defeated at the moment. I want so much to enjoy this game and play it, but it seems all my effort is in vain.

I have yet to find a kill warrant scanner in any stations, high tech or not. Bulliten boards never have anything worth doing on them, I only ever see rep missions which I dont do. By far, contrary to every other post ive read, exploration is the most profitable thing to do for your first 100k. Plus, I suspect that money cant really be made until your 100-500 LY away from your starting point, i am going to try that tonight. Fly way out and see if a new area makes any difference.

 

[Evyl Minkey]

I have been playing for about a week, on my 7th clear save game, and I have yet to break 50k credits. This game just doesnt seem to work for me. Ive tried it all, trading, mining, missions, bounty hunting, nothing is profitable for me. Combat isnt too difficult for me, but I sit for 10-15-30 minutes at a time without seeing a single wanted target, when I do see one they usually fly out before I can kill them, most of the time they pop in and out so fast you cant even target them. Trading, I had 10 cargo slots and in 5 hours of play time last night my best trade run was for a profit of 1200c. I use the tools, I follow the guides, but it just doesnt work for me.

I dont see trading being worthwhile until you have a cargo space of 32 +, I guess I just have to spend 100's of hours to see a couple bounties to kill. Perhaps in a year or two of 5 hours a day I can get my first ship upgrade.

Gotta say I am extremely defeated at the moment. I want so much to enjoy this game and play it, but it seems all my effort is in vain.

I have yet to find a kill warrant scanner in any stations, high tech or not. Bulliten boards never have anything worth doing on them, I only ever see rep missions which I dont do. By far, contrary to every other post ive read, exploration is the most profitable thing to do for your first 100k. Plus, I suspect that money cant really be made until your 100-500 LY away from your starting point, i am going to try that tonight. Fly way out and see if a new area makes any difference.

KWS is in the hardpiints section, not with most of the stuff like shields. Trading can be profitable but it builds slowly unless you are going long distances. Maybe the clear saves are actually holding you back.

Good thread btw.

 

[ReaperAlex]

I have been playing for about a week, on my 7th clear save game, and I have yet to break 50k credits. This game just doesnt seem to work for me. Ive tried it all, trading, mining, missions, bounty hunting, nothing is profitable for me. Combat isnt too difficult for me, but I sit for 10-15-30 minutes at a time without seeing a single wanted target, when I do see one they usually fly out before I can kill them, most of the time they pop in and out so fast you cant even target them. Trading, I had 10 cargo slots and in 5 hours of play time last night my best trade run was for a profit of 1200c. I use the tools, I follow the guides, but it just doesnt work for me.

I dont see trading being worthwhile until you have a cargo space of 32 +, I guess I just have to spend 100's of hours to see a couple bounties to kill. Perhaps in a year or two of 5 hours a day I can get my first ship upgrade.

Gotta say I am extremely defeated at the moment. I want so much to enjoy this game and play it, but it seems all my effort is in vain.

I have yet to find a kill warrant scanner in any stations, high tech or not. Bulliten boards never have anything worth doing on them, I only ever see rep missions which I dont do.

hmm, sounds like there must be something you can do to get better results. first question is why do you clear a save? are your credits hitting zero?

sounds like you're not hunting for pirates properly, 10 mins is far too long to go without seeing a target. i suggest trying the nav beacons or resource extraction sites. those tend to be easier to work with than fishing for USS's. in open the nav beacons might be over populated with other players, which is a good sign there is money to be had there, but just to get you on your feet it might be worth dropping into solo so you get the kills.

one trick you can do is to take 1 ton of cargo, something cheap like biowaste or hydrogen fuel. if you have something in your cargo then a pirate will find it and attack you. now this might back fire as it can land you in fights when you're not ready, but it sounds like you'd prefer to get more action than no action! once you've learnt a bit about how the NPC's spawn you can go back to hunting them without baiting them. keep an eye on comms and you'll see the pirates sniffing about your ship for cargo, when you see that you'll know a pirate is scanning you and can then find them and kill them even if you're empty.

the main problem you will face is them trying to escape. when you hear your ship saying "surge detected" they means they are spooling up their FSD to make a run for it. that is your queue to go all out on the offensive. they wont be fighting back so all power to engines and guns, get in their 6 and focus on getting a steady aim to make every shot count. some will escape, but if your aim is true and your guns have enough power (4 pips for lasers) you will bag enough kills.

of the combat tricks i mentioned in the post you quoted, are there any you have questions about them?

in my first 6 hrs of gameplay i'd made and lost about 50K doing missions and then investing in metals to trade before crashing said metals into a station and losing it all. i didn't wipe my save though, i just tried again and finally got on a roll with bounty hunting. it seemed less risky to me than trading! bounty hunting pulled the credits in faster and it didn't take long to get upgrades then a new ship. so there has to be something you can do to improve the speed you're earning money

for missions i stuck to the haul from A to B, i avoided the find X and bring it back to A ones.

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KWS is in the hardpiints section, not with most of the stuff like shields. Trading can be profitable but it builds slowly unless you are going long distances. Maybe the clear saves are actually holding you back.

Good thread btw.

in addition to this, a quick note about the KWS, it's of dubious value early on in the game. when you have the basic sidewinder travelling out to cash in those extra bounties will probably put you more at risk of running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere than it's worth. the game opens up when you upgrade your FSD to ease travel. at that point reading up on rares would be a great way to make money. just fit a fuel scoop if you head out into the unknown, running out completely means you either wait till you suffocate or you self destruct.

 

[Alteph Four]

hmm, sounds like there must be something you can do to get better results. first question is why do you clear a save? are your credits hitting zero?

sounds like you're not hunting for pirates properly, 10 mins is far too long to go without seeing a target. i suggest trying the nav beacons or resource extraction sites. those tend to be easier to work with than fishing for USS's. in open the nav beacons might be over populated with other players, which is a good sign there is money to be had there, but just to get you on your feet it might be worth dropping into solo so you get the kills.

one trick you can do is to take 1 ton of cargo, something cheap like biowaste or hydrogen fuel. if you have something in your cargo then a pirate will find it and attack you. now this might back fire as it can land you in fights when you're not ready, but it sounds like you'd prefer to get more action than no action! once you've learnt a bit about how the NPC's spawn you can go back to hunting them without baiting them. keep an eye on comms and you'll see the pirates sniffing about your ship for cargo, when you see that you'll know a pirate is scanning you and can then find them and kill them even if you're empty.

the main problem you will face is them trying to escape. when you hear your ship saying "surge detected" they means they are spooling up their FSD to make a run for it. that is your queue to go all out on the offensive. they wont be fighting back so all power to engines and guns, get in their 6 and focus on getting a steady aim to make every shot count. some will escape, but if your aim is true and your guns have enough power (4 pips for lasers) you will bag enough kills.

of the combat tricks i mentioned in the post you quoted, are there any you have questions about them?

in my first 6 hrs of gameplay i'd made and lost about 50K doing missions and then investing in metals to trade before crashing said metals into a station and losing it all. i didn't wipe my save though, i just tried again and finally got on a roll with bounty hunting. it seemed less risky to me than trading! bounty hunting pulled the credits in faster and it didn't take long to get upgrades then a new ship. so there has to be something you can do to improve the speed you're earning money

for missions i stuck to the haul from A to B, i avoided the find X and bring it back to A ones.

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in addition to this, a quick note about the KWS, it's of dubious value early on in the game. when you have the basic sidewinder travelling out to cash in those extra bounties will probably put you more at risk of running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere than it's worth. the game opens up when you upgrade your FSD to ease travel. at that point reading up on rares would be a great way to make money. just fit a fuel scoop if you head out into the unknown, running out completely means you either wait till you suffocate or you self destruct.

The first time I cleared my save was because I lost all my money, and had my ship blown up twice. The second time, I managed to maked around 20k on bounties, but same thing, lost my ship a few times and my insurance was running out. I go to nav beacons and RES to find the bounties, and I have never seen anyone come up and scan me, let alone say they were going to take my cargo. And that was twith cargo on hand too, I had a load of hydrogen fuel that I was losing money on, so I jsut carried it everywhere hoping to find a place to sell it for a profit (Ended up making around 150c profit, yes 150 NOT 150k).

It really does sound like I have to leave inhabited territory in order to make money, it sounds to me like none of the habited systems have crap for money making opportunities. I did find a seeking luxuries guy that I sold performance enhancers to, made like 1k profit on it. Most definately NOT like people say it is. You cant make crap off seeking luxuries as it costs the same amount to buy the PE as it does to sell them. I sawe the video where the guy was pulling in 2m per haul, but he didnt say how it cost him 2 milion to buy either. I think I just have to grind 1200c trades up to 350k to get my next ship. that will hold more cargo and I can make 2k per trip!

 

[Ism]

If you get in the right system, metals are one of the more profitable legal commodities.
I am moving silver and with just 2 jumps, make 1100cr/unit. Then bring back a commodity that may not net near as much, but at least it pays for the fuel.
I quickly traded up to an Adder and could carry much more, then a cobra, and today a type 6 cargo hauler. (I think that's what its called). But I made the quickest money finding a system with good bounty hunting.
Could turn 40K credits in the same time it took to do one trade run.

Find stations (not starports) with black market, so that if your bounty drops cargo, you can sell it quick.
Starports always scan your ship unless you know how to get into them without getting scanned.
The weirdest sounding items seem to fetch the most money. I got some ear grubs that sold on the black market for 9K/container.....sweet
Don't fly around with that illegal cargo on board, If system authority scans you, you can get some hefty fines that will negate the profit.

 

[ReaperAlex]

The first time I cleared my save was because I lost all my money, and had my ship blown up twice. The second time, I managed to maked around 20k on bounties, but same thing, lost my ship a few times and my insurance was running out. I go to nav beacons and RES to find the bounties, and I have never seen anyone come up and scan me, let alone say they were going to take my cargo. And that was twith cargo on hand too, I had a load of hydrogen fuel that I was losing money on, so I jsut carried it everywhere hoping to find a place to sell it for a profit (Ended up making around 150c profit, yes 150 NOT 150k).

It really does sound like I have to leave inhabited territory in order to make money, it sounds to me like none of the habited systems have crap for money making opportunities. I did find a seeking luxuries guy that I sold performance enhancers to, made like 1k profit on it. Most definately NOT like people say it is. You cant make crap off seeking luxuries as it costs the same amount to buy the PE as it does to sell them. I sawe the video where the guy was pulling in 2m per haul, but he didnt say how it cost him 2 milion to buy either. I think I just have to grind 1200c trades up to 350k to get my next ship. that will hold more cargo and I can make 2k per trip!

don't clear your save again if you run short on cash. your reputation starts to build as you run missions and hand bounties in. this rep can then unlock better paid missions. if your cash is about to hit rock bottom, it's better to get the stock sidewinder back and go blow a lowbie pirate up for it's bounty. at least that way your reputation will be slowly rising. the best time to clear a save is if you are broke and have an unfriendly rep with one of the big powers (fed/imp/alliance, don't worry about independents)

that sounds really strange. sure you don't get a constant flow of pirates at a nav beacon or res site, but they should pop up on a regular basis. maybe you'd wandered too far from the beacon to see the new ships spawning in? if i've run out of targets i tend to use the compass to fly back to the beacon and then past it. there is a theory that when you drop out of supercruise the area gets given a certain type of spawn, which could be heavy on clean ships and light on pirates. so maybe going into supercruise then looping back again would be worth a shot if you seem to be full of traders and bounty hunters.

as for the scanning thing, you should get a "scan detected" when one of 3 NPC types spawn in, police, bounty hunters and pirates. the cops show up in red when they say they are scanning you. the bounty hunters generally give you the all clear after they have scanned you. the pirates show their curiosity as to what you may be hauling, then act disappointed if you're empty, or attack if you have cargo. any of those 3 types will pick a target they have not interacted with yet (could be you, could be another NPC). they will then fly over and do a scan before moving on to the next. maybe you've not noticed this happening yet as you get to grips with all the other things happening. once you've worked out who is who in your instance you should be able to spot new targets as you fly about. another thing to look out for is laser fire in the distance. if you see that it's all pips to engines and burning over there ASAP to steal the kill off the NPC's as someone is bounty to have a bounty on their head! at times you will get a pathetic payout, under 1K, that is generally a bounty hunter who missed a shot and hit an innocent. just remember you will need 4 pips to weapons if you're using lasers, they will still overheat but you should be able to get enough damage in towards to end to qualify for the kill. the very best upgrade on any combat ship is the power distributor, that gives you more shooting time, more boosting time and more shields and faster shield regen. it really is that good! with any upgrade check the blue/red numbers and make sure you're power isn't going too high or your jump distance too low.

luxury traders pay a little over the galactic average. if you paid more than the galactic average to buy the goods then yeah, there wont be any profit in it for you. in that vid the guy probably had a good source of the perf enhancers, and so was making a good profit on them. trading in general is an exercise in pulling teeth with the smaller ships. a better way to go is to get about 13Ly jump range and a fuel scoop then get in on the rare trading. each ton of rares you haul 150Ly away from the place you got it will give you 15K profit, so even with a tiny cargo bay that is still going to get you up and running a lot faster than by any other method! do some research into it though, and make sure you set your map to plot fastest route not economic, it's about twice as fast that way. you will need to plot a waypoint because until update 1.1 hits we can only plot a course of 100Ly max, and you need to go further than that to make the best profit. there are online tools to help you plot a course, you can use those to find a system to stop at before plotting the last leg of your trip. also look into how to fuel scoop, it's not too tricky but you do have to be careful about not burning up. the E rated fuel scoop is utter garbage, but a real life saver compared to none, prime candidate to get a better rating on though as the difference is very noticeable.

the heavily populated areas will be bad for trading, but fine for bounty hunting unless a particular area is flooded with players. if you do rare trading do be aware that the Lave area is a player pirate hotspot. with the vast sums of money to be made it's attracting players like a honey pot, which in turn attracts the pirates. personally i love the extra thrill, but given how much you are struggling to just get started it may be a bit too much to risk being attacked by a player. you are free to swap between open and solo whenever you like as your progress is exactly the same in both. it's also handy if an outpost is full and there are no docking ports, hopping into solo will get you docked within 2 mins tops, as opposed to 30 mins+ at a busy outpost flooded with players!

keep trying different things and keep asking questions and describing what you're doing. the more clues we get the better able we will be to point you in the right direction.

fly fun

 

[M0rdresh]

The utmost important rule in this game is NEVER render yourself in the position where you don't have the insurance money in the bank for your ship re-buy when you are killed.
When not treated carefully you can end up with a permanent 'game over' and back to start in a sidewinder and 1k credits.

The second most important one, imo, is always multiply the original purchase price of a ship you wish to purchase.
Stock fittings/load-out is nearly almost worse then your current ship and it will take a multitude of the original price often to make it on par or excellent, in short; save up some more rather then 'just enough' to comfortably buy it.

 

[ReaperAlex]

If you get in the right system, metals are one of the more profitable legal commodities.
I am moving silver and with just 2 jumps, make 1100cr/unit. Then bring back a commodity that may not net near as much, but at least it pays for the fuel.
I quickly traded up to an Adder and could carry much more, then a cobra, and today a type 6 cargo hauler. (I think that's what its called). But I made the quickest money finding a system with good bounty hunting.
Could turn 40K credits in the same time it took to do one trade run.

Find stations (not starports) with black market, so that if your bounty drops cargo, you can sell it quick.
Starports always scan your ship unless you know how to get into them without getting scanned.
The weirdest sounding items seem to fetch the most money. I got some ear grubs that sold on the black market for 9K/container.....sweet
Don't fly around with that illegal cargo on board, If system authority scans you, you can get some hefty fines that will negate the profit.

just to clarify Ism is talking about outposts. regular stations have police patrols and if they scan you and you're up to no good (any cargo you scoop in space is flagged as stolen) then you will get slapped with a very big fine, take a massive reputation hit and if you're wanted the station will just outright blow you up.

stations are the ones you fly inside first then dock. outposts are the ones you just dock at, they have very little security.

 

[Alteph Four]

I guess I cant tell the pirates from the bounty hunters in the nav points. I scan the ships, and if they say clean I dont touch, if they say wanted and their rank is low I go for it. but yea I rarely see anyone wanted near nav beacon. I do tend to fly away from it though, Ill try hanging around it. Sounds like once I get my FSD upgraded and can jump farther things will open up. I have around a 10.5 LY range right now. Gotta love working form home on a bad winters day, I can work and play Elite all day long Sure would be nice if I hit 100k tonight. Ill start by working bounties so I can upgrade my drive and see where that takes me.

 

[ImagoX]

3. As a first upgrade for your ship, increase the jump range so you can get out of the nest of starts that you begin in and find more profitable trades.

Where would you recommend? I DID notice that the starter area has a lot of "dead end" jump routes, some of which have nothing at the end of the cul de sac (meaning that I need to do 3-4 jumps sometimes just to get back to a system with good stations). I'm personally looking for an area with lots of enemies to fight (for bounties) as well as profitable trade routes (for dropping off the stuff I "find" along the way).

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I guess I cant tell the pirates from the bounty hunters in the nav points. I scan the ships, and if they say clean I dont touch, if they say wanted and their rank is low I go for it. but yea I rarely see anyone wanted near nav beacon. I do tend to fly away from it though, Ill try hanging around it. Sounds like once I get my FSD upgraded and can jump farther things will open up. I have around a 10.5 LY range right now. Gotta love working form home on a bad winters day, I can work and play Elite all day long Sure would be nice if I hit 100k tonight. Ill start by working bounties so I can upgrade my drive and see where that takes me.

PS - I've had good luck with this by hanging around Nav Beacons and shooting down Wanted targets. You can go for harder (Deadly and above) targets and/or targets in heavily-armed ships AFTER SYSTEM SECURITY ARRIVES - they will also engage the wanted targets with you and draw off fire that would otherwise be squarely be focused on you. WHen I do this, I shoot their shields away then get distance so MY shields can recharge - the security ships will hammer the un-shielded target while you recharge. Then back in for a rinse/repeat. WHen the target gets to around 10% put all energy into Weapons and hammer them until they drop. My best bounty (in the starter system in my puke lil' Sidewinder) was 54K from a single Elite-level target, with 2 other AI security ships assisting (which, also ups the bounty since he's resisting them... go figure.. total WIN/WIN). =)

 

[Evyl Minkey]

The first time I cleared my save was because I lost all my money, and had my ship blown up twice. The second time, I managed to maked around 20k on bounties, but same thing, lost my ship a few times and my insurance was running out.

How can your insurance be running out? I have a hauler, an eagle and a cobra all with upgrades. The rebuy cost is way below the insurance limit. Plus you don't need 350k for your next ship if you start from a sidewinder. An eagle or hauler cost a fraction of that and allow you to make more credits. Spend your money on upgrades to your existing ship so you can travel further, kill more, trade more. That's how you make your early credits and the game opens up as others have said.

@ ImagoX. If you want enemies and profitable trade head towards Lave or Sol. Be warned though that there are a lot of players in those areas with better ships and more experience.

 

[ReaperAlex]

I guess I cant tell the pirates from the bounty hunters in the nav points. I scan the ships, and if they say clean I dont touch, if they say wanted and their rank is low I go for it. but yea I rarely see anyone wanted near nav beacon. I do tend to fly away from it though, Ill try hanging around it. Sounds like once I get my FSD upgraded and can jump farther things will open up. I have around a 10.5 LY range right now. Gotta love working form home on a bad winters day, I can work and play Elite all day long Sure would be nice if I hit 100k tonight. Ill start by working bounties so I can upgrade my drive and see where that takes me.

pirates will almost always be wanted (i think i've had a first time pirate before, clean but looking for cargo to steal). it's the comms chatter (top left) that helps you work out what type they are.

cops and bounty hunters will both show as clean (unless the bounty hunter has hit an innocent by mistake). they will both scan you then report their findings. cops show up in red text so they are easy to spot. bounty hunters will say something like "we're all done here". if you suspect a wanted target is a bounty hunter check the contacts screen in the left UI, you can find them in there and see what the bounty is. it might be worth ignoring them if you use projectiles. if you're on lasers and they are not too dangerous then give em a kicking, it's one less NPC in the area so more chance for a pirate to show up next

pirates will be wanted, but they will drop something in comms while they are scanning you, things like "i wonder what you've got", just general curiosity as to what you may be hauling. if they find nothing they will leave disappointed, or if you have some cargo they will drop a short message as they attack.

traders and smugglers are also different. smugglers will have a bounty, traders wont. both will fly hauling type ships

10Ly might be enough, you'd have to try plotting a course to see how far it can get. any dashed lines mean you will need to refuel to make that leg of the trip. not all stars can be scooped from so with a tiny fuel tank scoop as often as you can, but keep an eye on your scanner as getting interdicted while scooping can do a lot of hull damage from the excess heat of the sun and spooling up your FSD to escape. give the bounty hunting another go first as if it works the better FSD (or even a better ship) wont take long to get.

look into smuggling, not the extreme stuff like turning your thrusters off and tumbling into station with ice on the windows, but the regular stuff like using outposts instead of stations and less extreme silent running tricks (or crazy speed tricks). having those skills is important as at some point you will shoot an innocent by mistake and have to clear your wanted status. nothing worse than losing half an hours worth of bounty vouchers to a 200cr fine!

 

[Surly_Badger]

Another suggestion:
Build your history of yourself in your head as you go. This is not a game with a central narrative - the narrative is you and what you do and why. It'll help you feel a sense of purpose if you invent your own purpose, because the game won't do it for you. Have you always wanted to be a wealthy trader? Or perhaps a sleazy trader? Or a Han Solo type who is always on the edge of disaster? Decide what kind of person you want to be in the game and then play to be that kind of person.

I keep bits of my inner narrative (as well as a few clues) on a thread about my misadventures.

Oh, yeah, and when you're trading: buy low, sell high. It always works.

 

[ReaperAlex]

Where would you recommend? I DID notice that the starter area has a lot of "dead end" jump routes, some of which have nothing at the end of the cul de sac (meaning that I need to do 3-4 jumps sometimes just to get back to a system with good stations). I'm personally looking for an area with lots of enemies to fight (for bounties) as well as profitable trade routes (for dropping off the stuff I "find" along the way).

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PS - I've had good luck with this by hanging around Nav Beacons and shooting down Wanted targets. You can go for harder (Deadly and above) targets and/or targets in heavily-armed ships AFTER SYSTEM SECURITY ARRIVES - they will also engage the wanted targets with you and draw off fire that would otherwise be squarely be focused on you. WHen I do this, I shoot their shields away then get distance so MY shields can recharge - the security ships will hammer the un-shielded target while you recharge. Then back in for a rinse/repeat. WHen the target gets to around 10% put all energy into Weapons and hammer them until they drop. My best bounty (in the starter system in my puke lil' Sidewinder) was 54K from a single Elite-level target, with 2 other AI security ships assisting (which, also ups the bounty since he's resisting them... go figure.. total WIN/WIN). =)

for combat a better power distributor is more important than FSD. helps you shoot for longer, boost more often and improves shields.

when you do get a better FSD (and you'll want one for every ship you buy after this, stock FSD's are horrible!) those cul de sac's will vanish, so it is a great upgrade, just doesn't help with combat like a PD does.

 

[Surly_Badger]

pirates will be wanted, but they will drop something in comms while they are scanning you, things like "i wonder what you've got", just general curiosity as to what you may be hauling.

I always carry a ton of palladium bars in my cobra, because the pirates can't resist commenting on them. They're useful if I get interdicted by a CMDR, too. I used to vent biowaste and coffee at CMDRs but nowadays the platinum works a lot better. I think of it as a relatively low price for great entertainment.

By the way, the "traditional" way to get rich in ED is to run trades. But you can do quite well if you learn to mine asteroids and go somewhere that has pristine metallics to mine. My first adventure was to take my wimpy little ship, outfit a refinery and mining laser on it, and go out and mine the inner ring of the Atins 2 gas giant. There's lots of platinum, gold, and silver there. One or two trips and you can upgrade your refinery to one that has 2 bins. Then upgrade to 3 bins, do a few more trips and upgrade your ship to a hauler with good shields. After that, you'll have enough capital to outfit as a trade runner for low-quantity rares, or nearly anything else. The beauty of my approach is that you start off more or less in-system. So you can sell your long-range frameshift drive (you won't need it until you kit out another ship) in favor of a better refinery. When I started out in my hauler I was living dangerously and had no weapons, no shields, just a hauler with a lot of cargo space, a 3 bin refiner, and a mining laser.

Keep your ship's value low and your insurance is low too; you can almost afford to lose a ship or two (but the contents will make you cry) I spent most of a week listening to Pink Floyd (I love classical music!), drinking beer, and mining asteroids. It's a low impact, but slower, way to get wealth. Like I said earlier: "buy low sell high" well, when you're asteroid mining, your cost of what you're selling is "zero" and you're selling palladium by the ton at 14k a ton...