Newcomer / Intro Question About NPC Difficulty

[Greasetrap42]

1) Does NPC difficulty increase gradually between ranks or suddenly in steps from one rank to the next?

2) Does NPC difficulty increase beyond rank of Elite to Elite II, Elite III, Elite IV, Elite V ?

 

[Krieger]

1) Does NPC difficulty increase gradually between ranks or suddenly in steps from one rank to the next?

2) Does NPC difficulty increase beyond rank of Elite to Elite II, Elite III, Elite IV, Elite V ?

1) No big jumps in NPC difficulty. As your rank increases they get stronger, mostly because the rank of NPCs you encounter will increase with your rank.
2) Elite is the highest rank for NPCs, but their actual strength varies with the amount of engineering they have. The amount of engineering is assigned randomly from rank Master and up. Sometimes you will encounter an NPC that is quite a lot stronger than normal (one that got lucky with the RNG gods).

 

[metatheurgist]

The Elite+ ranks are meaningless rubbish.