BEYOND UPDATE
As of 1 April 2018 (no it's not a joke)
Since the last nerf, there are some important changes to passenger missions I have been working through. Some things are still in trial, but the main cut and thrust is outlined below...and as always be aware that the exact credits per hour earning represented in this thread may be prone to buff / nerf at any time without warning by Frontier.
So, after BEYOND and hacking my way through passenger missions I thought I would share my findings. Why? Because I know how frustrating this game, and the lack of information about this game, is..SO before you go dashing out to do that passenger run as advertised on reddit or YouTube, consider the following.
Stacking Passengers Missions
The aim for most of the high payout missions is to fit the most passengers into your ship as possible. There are a couple of things to bear in mind with this:
1) The best way to get big payouts is to fit VIP TRANSPORT passengers. Yes, they can be a pain but they do pay well, and since the nerfhammer - economy passengers do not pay well at all.
2) Bear in mind we aren't after EVERY VIP that comes along. Why? A VIP that will fly in a BUSINESS cabin is much better than one that wants a FIRST CLASS Cabin. This is because you can still 'share' passengers in a business cabin but a FIRST CLASS Cabin is exclusive, meaning it limits the amount of VIP passengers you can fit into your load. As we are trying to MAXIMISE butts on seats we want as many VIPS on board our hauler as poss. You might want to hang on to a couple of FIRST CLASS Cabins - but generally, outfit your hunk o' junk with BUSINESS CABINS and maybe one or two FIRST CLASS Cabins.
Pilots Federation Rank Matters
The higher your Pilots Federation Trading Rank the higher the mission payouts you get. Most of the BIG PAYOUT missions relate to ELITE ranked Traders. If you are further down the rank table, just bear that in mind.
The Size of your Ship Matters
Sounds obvious, but yes. The more passengers you can fit in a ship the more money you can make. Buy the biggest ship and fit the most cabins you can. YES, that might mean flying sheildless -If you really want that credits.
Choose the right start and end points
So what are we looking for? Ideally you are looking for an orbital station close to the main sequence star (< 500 ls) where you can dock your big *ss ship.
What you are looking for as a destination is an orbital station further than about 200,000 ls from the main sequence star. These are guidelines and not absolutes.
Obviously you would like your mission start point to be close to your main sequence star so you can dock quickly and pick up new missions. But it’s not a necessity see ‘Looping Passenger Missions’ below for an alternative approach.
The further away from the main sequence star the destination, the higher the payouts. I have had good runs that are within the 200,000 ls range (Near to it at 177,000 though) but most are around the 300,000 – 500,000 ls range and I have done one out as far as 1,000,000 ls. Orbitals are preferred for speed but if you are happy with doing fast landings on planetary surfaces, you can find many planetary bases have good missions too.
Minor Faction Status Matters
So, once you have identified the starting location for your missions you need to consider one other thing. The types and value of missions that will be offered to you at a station is dependent on your status with the minor faction giving the mission.
Ideally your status with the controlling faction should be ALLIED, but anything above Cordial is usually a good start. Best to be at least friendly I have found. It would also behoove you to be cordial or above with every other minor faction. You may need to do other type missions like cargo delivery or donation missions to improve your status with certain factions to get a better overall potential passenger mission board, but it comes with risks. See ‘Don’t mess with the BGS’ below.
Board Flipping
So, some people regard this as an exploit – others not. Up to you. Board flipping = logging off and re-logging back in as OPEN, PRIVATE GROUP or SOLO. Every time you log of and back in you connect with a new server and get new mission potentials.
Bear in mind, it takes TIME. Be aware if you are going to do this - changing from OPEN to GROUP doesn't appear to refresh the board you need to go OPEN>SOLO>GROUP>SOLO>OPEN rinse and repeat to refresh a board.
That said with VIP missions it isn't a necessity - just a possibility.
Don’t mess with the BGS
What do you know about the Background Simulation (BGS)? EVERYTHING you do in the game affects the BGS. Every time you do a mission for a faction you alter their influence in a system and a station or base. This is the little red and blue arrows and the influence rating in the mission’s descriptions. There is a science to the BGS I don’t want to go into in detail but to avoid problems with the BGS and accidentally nerfing your own Passenger trade routes, here are some tips to avoid disaster:
1) Watch the controlling faction status. In each system there is a controlling faction. This is the faction with the most amount of influence in the system – usually above about 30% or so. You can check this by going to the right hand UI and flipping over to system status. This shows you the influence in % of each faction in the system and their status progression – blue arrow means they are gaining influence and red arrow means they are losing influence.
It also informs you of their state- Boom, Civil War etc. You ALWAYS want the controlling faction to be ahead of the other factions. If several factions within a system approach the same influence levels as a %, then it triggers a variety of states, which may include war, civil war or LOCKDOWN. These types of negative states should be avoided. If possible keep the controlling faction in BOOM.
2) Giver and Receiver. Each passenger mission affects the GIVERS influence and the RECEIVERS! Be aware of that. If you are gathering missions from multiple factions but they are skewed to benefit more of one faction at the receiving end you can still affect the station state at the receiving end while the giving end remains unaltered. When you hand in a mission check the influence changes reported to you and check the system UI panel. You will usually find a helpful text in blue or red after mission reward that states ‘Faction is less likely to experience a lockdown’ etc. Pay attention to your influence changes at both ends of your runs.
3) Sleeping with the enemy. If you take mission from a faction that is nearly at the same % as the controlling faction, you increase their influence and weaken the controlling faction and you can trigger a negative state.
4) Balance your missions. Either – lump all your eggs in the controlling factions basket by taking only passenger mission from them – which might be tricky and / or limit your earnings potential – OR – spread the love but be careful that you choose mission from lower status factions over the higher status factions. Bear in mind that as you play missions you affect the influence inside the system and you may need to continually revolve the mission you are taking – ALWAYS with an aim to support the controlling faction.
There are many mechanics at play in the BGS, as I said and other states may not be as bad. Just be aware that you are affecting your own missions by repeatedly taking missions from the same factions.
BEWARE Criminals
Pay close attention to the mission descriptions! The last person you want on board is an illegal passenger. Fine if you are taking them to a station and you are happy with speed docking – you can get in and landed before you get scanned. But if you run into any difficulty in the mail slot you could end up getting fired upon by authority vessels or denied entry to the station, and then fired upon.
Interdictions
Interdictions are a nuisance. If the passengers you carry are HUNTED then it’s likely you will get a tail try to interdict you. Look out for any warning that ‘Hostile ships may be sent against you’. If you are happy with avoiding interdictions in a Space Cow – it probably doesn’t matter but if you have a low success rate with avoiding interdictions you might want to bear it in mind.
Demanding Passengers
Used to be you could just ignore them and you would not be penalised - not so anymore. If you ignore a request you can be penalised - so try and avoid fussy VIP's.
Looping Passenger Missions
Quite a few of the high paying mission routes are really just A to B and back again runs sometimes with two way missions, sometimes not. Obviously you make more money if you NEVER FLY EMPTY, but will that automatically take you back to your starting location – after all, you spent a lot of time managing your status with the controlling factions in each system and making sure you don’t push the system into a lockdown, so you want to keep doing what you are doing.
If you are REALLY canny / lucky you may be able to find, or generate a passenger mission LOOP. Loops are potentially the Holy Grail of Passenger missions and more or less the same as either rare trading runs, trade loops, boom cargo routes etc. Spending time finding and developing these multi-drop runs is worth it IMO.
Farming is Growing
No fantastic passenger mission route just falls in anyone’s lap. You need to work at it. You need to increase your reputation with minor factions, you need to learn what to do and what not to do, you need to be flexible and you need to know when to walk away from a board and move on. There is a lot at play in ED and sometimes other commanders playing their own game will unintentionally nerf your passenger route, or suddenly make it highly profitable – a cause that is largely invisible to you and makes prediction very hard. I liken it to managing your own farm and crops only to have a sudden tornado come through and rip everything to shreds. There are some things you CAN control and some you CANNOT. Sh8t happens! Know when to walk away.
Conclusion and Top Tips
So in conclusion I give my top 5 tips:
1) Avoid highly publicized routes – the risk of nerfing is high
2) Gauge your expectations – don’t expect to just walk into a 100 plus per hour passenger loop – it’s gonna take work.
3) Manage your factions
4) Be flexible
5) Know when to walk away and try again
Fly Well Commanders o7
As of 1 April 2018 (no it's not a joke)
Since the last nerf, there are some important changes to passenger missions I have been working through. Some things are still in trial, but the main cut and thrust is outlined below...and as always be aware that the exact credits per hour earning represented in this thread may be prone to buff / nerf at any time without warning by Frontier.
So, after BEYOND and hacking my way through passenger missions I thought I would share my findings. Why? Because I know how frustrating this game, and the lack of information about this game, is..SO before you go dashing out to do that passenger run as advertised on reddit or YouTube, consider the following.
Stacking Passengers Missions
The aim for most of the high payout missions is to fit the most passengers into your ship as possible. There are a couple of things to bear in mind with this:
1) The best way to get big payouts is to fit VIP TRANSPORT passengers. Yes, they can be a pain but they do pay well, and since the nerfhammer - economy passengers do not pay well at all.
2) Bear in mind we aren't after EVERY VIP that comes along. Why? A VIP that will fly in a BUSINESS cabin is much better than one that wants a FIRST CLASS Cabin. This is because you can still 'share' passengers in a business cabin but a FIRST CLASS Cabin is exclusive, meaning it limits the amount of VIP passengers you can fit into your load. As we are trying to MAXIMISE butts on seats we want as many VIPS on board our hauler as poss. You might want to hang on to a couple of FIRST CLASS Cabins - but generally, outfit your hunk o' junk with BUSINESS CABINS and maybe one or two FIRST CLASS Cabins.
Pilots Federation Rank Matters
The higher your Pilots Federation Trading Rank the higher the mission payouts you get. Most of the BIG PAYOUT missions relate to ELITE ranked Traders. If you are further down the rank table, just bear that in mind.
The Size of your Ship Matters
Sounds obvious, but yes. The more passengers you can fit in a ship the more money you can make. Buy the biggest ship and fit the most cabins you can. YES, that might mean flying sheildless -If you really want that credits.
Choose the right start and end points
So what are we looking for? Ideally you are looking for an orbital station close to the main sequence star (< 500 ls) where you can dock your big *ss ship.
What you are looking for as a destination is an orbital station further than about 200,000 ls from the main sequence star. These are guidelines and not absolutes.
Obviously you would like your mission start point to be close to your main sequence star so you can dock quickly and pick up new missions. But it’s not a necessity see ‘Looping Passenger Missions’ below for an alternative approach.
The further away from the main sequence star the destination, the higher the payouts. I have had good runs that are within the 200,000 ls range (Near to it at 177,000 though) but most are around the 300,000 – 500,000 ls range and I have done one out as far as 1,000,000 ls. Orbitals are preferred for speed but if you are happy with doing fast landings on planetary surfaces, you can find many planetary bases have good missions too.
Minor Faction Status Matters
So, once you have identified the starting location for your missions you need to consider one other thing. The types and value of missions that will be offered to you at a station is dependent on your status with the minor faction giving the mission.
Ideally your status with the controlling faction should be ALLIED, but anything above Cordial is usually a good start. Best to be at least friendly I have found. It would also behoove you to be cordial or above with every other minor faction. You may need to do other type missions like cargo delivery or donation missions to improve your status with certain factions to get a better overall potential passenger mission board, but it comes with risks. See ‘Don’t mess with the BGS’ below.
Board Flipping
So, some people regard this as an exploit – others not. Up to you. Board flipping = logging off and re-logging back in as OPEN, PRIVATE GROUP or SOLO. Every time you log of and back in you connect with a new server and get new mission potentials.
Bear in mind, it takes TIME. Be aware if you are going to do this - changing from OPEN to GROUP doesn't appear to refresh the board you need to go OPEN>SOLO>GROUP>SOLO>OPEN rinse and repeat to refresh a board.
That said with VIP missions it isn't a necessity - just a possibility.
Don’t mess with the BGS
What do you know about the Background Simulation (BGS)? EVERYTHING you do in the game affects the BGS. Every time you do a mission for a faction you alter their influence in a system and a station or base. This is the little red and blue arrows and the influence rating in the mission’s descriptions. There is a science to the BGS I don’t want to go into in detail but to avoid problems with the BGS and accidentally nerfing your own Passenger trade routes, here are some tips to avoid disaster:
1) Watch the controlling faction status. In each system there is a controlling faction. This is the faction with the most amount of influence in the system – usually above about 30% or so. You can check this by going to the right hand UI and flipping over to system status. This shows you the influence in % of each faction in the system and their status progression – blue arrow means they are gaining influence and red arrow means they are losing influence.
It also informs you of their state- Boom, Civil War etc. You ALWAYS want the controlling faction to be ahead of the other factions. If several factions within a system approach the same influence levels as a %, then it triggers a variety of states, which may include war, civil war or LOCKDOWN. These types of negative states should be avoided. If possible keep the controlling faction in BOOM.
2) Giver and Receiver. Each passenger mission affects the GIVERS influence and the RECEIVERS! Be aware of that. If you are gathering missions from multiple factions but they are skewed to benefit more of one faction at the receiving end you can still affect the station state at the receiving end while the giving end remains unaltered. When you hand in a mission check the influence changes reported to you and check the system UI panel. You will usually find a helpful text in blue or red after mission reward that states ‘Faction is less likely to experience a lockdown’ etc. Pay attention to your influence changes at both ends of your runs.
3) Sleeping with the enemy. If you take mission from a faction that is nearly at the same % as the controlling faction, you increase their influence and weaken the controlling faction and you can trigger a negative state.
4) Balance your missions. Either – lump all your eggs in the controlling factions basket by taking only passenger mission from them – which might be tricky and / or limit your earnings potential – OR – spread the love but be careful that you choose mission from lower status factions over the higher status factions. Bear in mind that as you play missions you affect the influence inside the system and you may need to continually revolve the mission you are taking – ALWAYS with an aim to support the controlling faction.
There are many mechanics at play in the BGS, as I said and other states may not be as bad. Just be aware that you are affecting your own missions by repeatedly taking missions from the same factions.
BEWARE Criminals
Pay close attention to the mission descriptions! The last person you want on board is an illegal passenger. Fine if you are taking them to a station and you are happy with speed docking – you can get in and landed before you get scanned. But if you run into any difficulty in the mail slot you could end up getting fired upon by authority vessels or denied entry to the station, and then fired upon.
Interdictions
Interdictions are a nuisance. If the passengers you carry are HUNTED then it’s likely you will get a tail try to interdict you. Look out for any warning that ‘Hostile ships may be sent against you’. If you are happy with avoiding interdictions in a Space Cow – it probably doesn’t matter but if you have a low success rate with avoiding interdictions you might want to bear it in mind.
Demanding Passengers
Used to be you could just ignore them and you would not be penalised - not so anymore. If you ignore a request you can be penalised - so try and avoid fussy VIP's.
Looping Passenger Missions
Quite a few of the high paying mission routes are really just A to B and back again runs sometimes with two way missions, sometimes not. Obviously you make more money if you NEVER FLY EMPTY, but will that automatically take you back to your starting location – after all, you spent a lot of time managing your status with the controlling factions in each system and making sure you don’t push the system into a lockdown, so you want to keep doing what you are doing.
If you are REALLY canny / lucky you may be able to find, or generate a passenger mission LOOP. Loops are potentially the Holy Grail of Passenger missions and more or less the same as either rare trading runs, trade loops, boom cargo routes etc. Spending time finding and developing these multi-drop runs is worth it IMO.
Farming is Growing
No fantastic passenger mission route just falls in anyone’s lap. You need to work at it. You need to increase your reputation with minor factions, you need to learn what to do and what not to do, you need to be flexible and you need to know when to walk away from a board and move on. There is a lot at play in ED and sometimes other commanders playing their own game will unintentionally nerf your passenger route, or suddenly make it highly profitable – a cause that is largely invisible to you and makes prediction very hard. I liken it to managing your own farm and crops only to have a sudden tornado come through and rip everything to shreds. There are some things you CAN control and some you CANNOT. Sh8t happens! Know when to walk away.
Conclusion and Top Tips
So in conclusion I give my top 5 tips:
1) Avoid highly publicized routes – the risk of nerfing is high
2) Gauge your expectations – don’t expect to just walk into a 100 plus per hour passenger loop – it’s gonna take work.
3) Manage your factions
4) Be flexible
5) Know when to walk away and try again
Fly Well Commanders o7
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