since the % has been removed its hard to tell if my progression in combat is moving? i cant see any progress, im half way to elite from dangerous i hand in 5m bounty credits but i dont see any progress on my combat bar, is it broken or has the grind just got worse?
Progression bar in combat dosnt appear to moving
- Thread starter bloodhound62
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1) The next step from Dangerous is Deadly, then Elite;
2) Combat rank is not based on bounty creds but on number and combat rank of kills;
3) Once you reach a high rank, low rank kills stop giving combat XP altogether. So if you're at Deadly, only Expert and above kills will give any XP at all. To progress smoothly you need to kill enemies equal or higher in rank (so Deadly and Elite for you). Power of their ship doesn't matter, thus fastest way of gaining Combat rank through ship killing is destroying a lot of small Elite ships.
Here's an old guide I put together for a classic way of farming Combat Elite:
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When solely doing ship combat, when reaching Dangerous/Deadly both bounties and combat bonds will be less effective for increasing Combat rank. To reliably (yet quite slowly) increase rank, you'll need to predominantly blow up Deadly/Elite NPCs.
Or alternatively you can strangely enough gain Combat rank through on-foot kills (the higher the security level of the settlement, the better).
Or alternatively you can strangely enough gain Combat rank through on-foot kills (the higher the security level of the settlement, the better).
Probably doesn't apply to CZ's, since after killing over seven thousand soldiers my Combat rank didn't noticeably increase.
It doesn't look like it, if there's any increase doing CZs it's very, very marginal. There is however a significant increase if you blast NPCs outside of CZs though, in fact I'd wager that it's easier to progress through Combat with on-foot shenanigans than ship combat. For instance, it took me ages to get drom Deadly to Elite in vanilla, but since Odyssey dropped I made it halfway through Elite I.
Interestingly, I'm also about halfway through Elite I in combat, and the I-V ranks were only introduced with Odyssey. I have been doing a fair share of non-combat killing on foot, certainly...
To get Combat Elite the old-fashioned way without excessive grind would be to farm anarchy outbreak systems or compromised nav beacons for lots of small Deadly and Elite craft, using something with a lot of firepower like a Corvette.
where abouts i done see that in the menu?
I just did my fair share of High CZs back when they were still neverending affairs. About 7.5K kills, of course primarily focussing on the higher tier NPCs.
The "problem" with using CZs for rank grind is that they have fatter ships with more hp bloat, so it takes longer to kill them. And you also have to be moving around seeking targets all the time. In the places I mentioned, targets are squishy and come to you... But of course it is a matter of efficiency; I agree CZs are more dynamic and fun.
In the look down menu where u access the srv from.
But doing ground CZs increase mercenary rank, right?
No one seemed to mention this so it may be the cause. I recently had this issue and then my progress ground to a halt. Couldn’t figure it out. I then noticed my slf pilot ranked past me. I have no numbers to back it up but when I shoved her back into the crew lounge and got another newb pilot, my tank started to move again.
Of course, that's the reason for doing them, apart from combat bond profits and (potential) pvp.
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You turned your HUD... red?Of course, that's the reason for doing them, apart from combat bond profits and (potential) pvp.
Yes, having NPC crew on board will halve your combat XP.
It goes well with my black ships and red lasers/engines.
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If you have an NPC pilot, you wing up in a team or you let the system defence ships get any shot in on your target - they all steal combat rank from the kill.
Best way I found was to head to a compromised nav beacon, alone, with no NPC pilot deployed in an SLF.
Deadly to Elite still takes a long time, even so. Apparently Thargoid Scouts used to be the easy way, but that was toned down a long time ago.
Best way I found was to head to a compromised nav beacon, alone, with no NPC pilot deployed in an SLF.
Deadly to Elite still takes a long time, even so. Apparently Thargoid Scouts used to be the easy way, but that was toned down a long time ago.
That's not my experience in ship CZs, I've been carrying an SLF for ages and it has contributed to almost every kill I made in there. There's still slow, but steady progress in Combat.
Sure, the SLF contributes (peanuts compared to your own damage output), but it also takes away half of the XP earned for kills, thus stalling your progress. You're better off without NPC crewmates (or multicrew for that matter) when grinding for Combat rank.