Odyssey Mercenary ranking requirements?

Hooplah · May 3, 2023

Greetings,

Has anyone dialed in the Mercenary ranking requirements? Lots of early Odyssey release posts on the Forum and Reddit but nothing all that conclusive. Some go by number of kills. The ED Wiki website goes by profits which seems close. Then there are standard bounty credits and victory reward credits with 125,000 low CZ and 300,000 high CZ after winning the battle. Zero if losing. What are victory reward credits used for?

ED Wiki says 125m credits to reach Gunslinger. Per my Codex I made it with 122m bounty credits. Maybe ED adds the victory reward credits but doesn't show up in the Codex? If added together then it is about bounty credits in high GZs are the priority with victory credits just icing on the cake. Also I was in a battle when I got a message upgrading me to Gunslinger even though I lost the battle (maybe got excited) and no bounties or rewards turned in yet. That suggests that the number of kills is in play.

With a G5 suit and weapons and picking a familiar settlement (some are easier than others) I win most battles versus playing too long, getting tired and making a mistake. Still getting to Mercenary Elite 5 at 8+ billion credits will take forever unless I get more aggressive and move faster to lower the time in battle. Or is it more about kills? Overall it is a lot of fun but if I don't mix it up with suits, weapons and different CZ combat play styles it becomes just another grind in the ED sandbox. Maybe that is what the Devs designed.

Meanwhile per ED Wiki I have the Gunslinger silver body, torso, arms, and legs liveries and need to get to Warrior to get the silver helmet. I'm faking it with a Skirmish Olive helmet for now.

What are your thoughts playing this better than me?

Regards

metatheurgist · May 3, 2023

Don't get fooled by Frontier. The ranks are not content. They don't need to be "done". They are just mile markers for what you actually have done. If you like ground CZ (like I do) just do them and the rank will accumulate. There is no point in getting it "done".

I have no idea if it's based on kills or CR. It does seem like it goes up faster when I make more CR, and I don't think it's counted when you cash it in, it's counted when you make it. Otherwise you could be really good, never cash in your bonds (which is possible now since you can't lose them) and never rank up.

Doing it better? If me, using a controller, never liking FPS games and not being a spring chicken can clear a High CZ without dying - anyone can do it.

Fixitman · May 3, 2023

I've always just let ranks like that increase as they will while having fun. It seems less of a chore that way. I don't want it to feel like a chore if there's nothing unlocked for the effort.

I did find a reason to work on mercenary rank a little more though. While wiping out a settlement on foot tonight, my combat (not mercenary) rank hit expert. The commander I was playing hasn't seen space combat in over 2 years. It looks as though mercenary rank "points" either affect combat rank "points", or some of them are going to the wrong rank. Either way, this commander could use some rank-ups in combat for an EDH engineer unlock.

Hooplah · May 3, 2023

Wierd per normal combat Elite and Mercenary Elite progression. Given the issues with the game over the years go for credits to both.

metatheurgist · May 3, 2023

Yep, apparently some Merc rank points go to ship combat. Whether this is intentional or not is anyone's guess.

SteveWW57 · May 3, 2023

I do very little ship combat and got to combat Elite doing ground activities. I believe that merc elite may be reached at about 1.3 billion in bonds, and elite I is probably around 2.6 billion.

0% progress to merc elite II.
So, if it takes about 1.3 billion to progress, 6 x 1.3 - 7.8, not far off the 8 billion the OP estimated.

As far as rewards for a CZ, I typically find a high CZ pays out at least 5 million, but 8 million is possible depending on the kills. Winning or losing* has little impact on the pay out, it appears to be kills, with a high CZ kill being worth 50-80k each. * Losing is very, very rare, so I am going by distant memory.

When I was into counting the number of high CZs to gain a 1% of progress on the bar, I believe that it was 3-4 completed.

The overall stats are:

With low ground CZs paying about 600k and mediums about 1.5 million, 400-500 high CZs is probably about what is required to gain a merc elite rank level.

Steve

Ian Doncaster · May 3, 2023

metatheurgist said:
I have no idea if it's based on kills or CR. It does seem like it goes up faster when I make more CR, and I don't think it's counted when you cash it in, it's counted when you make it.

I'd agree it's counted on making it - I've ranked up mid-fight quite a few times - so it's probably kills rather than CR directly, but as the most convenient way to get a lot of kills quickly is CZs most people who've reached Elite already probably got it mostly from that and so have very similar CR values.

Afterglow [SecB] · May 3, 2023

Mercenary

The Mercenary role involves working as a gun for hire. On Foot Mercenary work is recognized by the Pilots Federation, which bestows ranks to commanders based on their success and profits. Mercenary work aboard ships, which requires fighting in Conflict Zones and amassing Combat Bonds, is tracked...

elite-dangerous.fandom.com

BDelacroix · May 3, 2023

I have no idea. Got gladiator (gold suit) recently.

Carc0sa · May 3, 2023

If I understand correctly, you earn points for each kill, but tougher enemies award additional points. It's similar to ships, where taking on novice targets is easy but yields less money and slower rank progression, whereas targeting elites results in faster rank progression.

SteveWW57 · May 3, 2023

The only way to progress through the merc ranks at best possible speed is to hit those high ground CZs. A lot. It will still take time.

When a ground CZ with a good layout is found, put the effort in then. When that ends, wait until another comes along. Keep your hand in in between by doing a few of the ones that are not ideal.

Steve

Felix DiCestria · May 3, 2023

Fixitman said:
I've always just let ranks like that increase as they will while having fun. It seems less of a chore that way. I don't want it to feel like a chore if there's nothing unlocked for the effort.

I did find a reason to work on mercenary rank a little more though. While wiping out a settlement on foot tonight, my combat (not mercenary) rank hit expert. The commander I was playing hasn't seen space combat in over 2 years. It looks as though mercenary rank "points" either affect combat rank "points", or some of them are going to the wrong rank. Either way, this commander could use some rank-ups in combat for an EDH engineer unlock.

The NPCs do have combat rank which counts to your own, though it's usually low.
Merc rank seems based on credit values assigned to the NPCs so you do get both ranks for the same kill.
That said having ranks based on the number of credits you made does leave it a bit meh.

Chaparral · May 3, 2023

metatheurgist said:
Don't get fooled by Frontier. The ranks are not content. They don't need to be "done". They are just mile markers for what you actually have done. If you like ground CZ (like I do) just do them and the rank will accumulate. There is no point in getting it "done".

I have no idea if it's based on kills or CR. It does seem like it goes up faster when I make more CR, and I don't think it's counted when you cash it in, it's counted when you make it. Otherwise you could be really good, never cash in your bonds (which is possible now since you can't lose them) and never rank up.

Doing it better? If me, using a controller, never liking FPS games and not being a spring chicken can clear a High CZ without dying - anyone can do it.

Skins are content. Ranks get skins. Don't judge if people want external representations of progress.