(UPDATE) Final tally on getting to Anaconda was 64 hours total. The fastest way is Smuggling and NOT trading or rares or mining, or bounty hunting. And once you get up to Lakon 6 and above it is very fast. I could have cut the time almost in half using the smuggling method had I known about it ahead of time. Over 100 (out of 200 total) million of this 64 hours was done with normal trading explained below. The other 100 was done with the faster Smuggling method (Seeking Luxuries) with about 6 to 7 million an hour with that method using a Lakon 9 with 500 ton capacity (using Class 5 shield generator instead of class 6 and maxing out cargo racks).
8 million was lost in an accident at the startport where an NPC Anaconda tried to come through as my Lakon 9 was half way through the airlock and bumped me into the steel tubing which locked the fin of the ship and got stuck, no way out of it, got finished off by the starport defenses.
The Anaconda sped up the smuggling method up as well, although I must say this ship is VERY expensive to build (was about 189 million for base hauler setup and decent FSD) and operate and carries a very hefty 8 mill insurance even in a gimped hauler build. I would definitely not be running this ship in open play considering the expense if you were to not be able to escape or fight a player interdiction or made a mistake at the starport. On a higher note, the ship is very nice. It's fast, handles about twice as well as the type 9, carries 432 ton, and has a much better jump range than the Type 9. Other than that I would never use it for anything other than a hauler personally.
So there you have it. It was a grind, but it was also fun to see how fast it could be done. There were times I wanted to ask for a sanity check, but in the end it was not all that big of a deal to do. If I were to do it again (no, no please! Not again!), I would use the smuggling method instead of trading. But who knows, they may beef up bounties and such to make it possible to do it fast with bounty hunting (and hopefully mining too).
(Original post)
Someone was asking me when I started and noticed I was in a Lakon 9 already. I had about 48 hours total time so far to get the Lakon 9. They wanted to get into an Anaconda, So I figured I'd post this for new people that want a hardcore and fast way to the upper end ships. For you veterans this information is trivial, but has a few tricks in it for new people like myself. This is not for the faint of heart nor the people that get burned out easily doing the same thing over and over. Your wife will probably think you have gone insane when you spend every waking moment before and after work to grind out credits like a madman. My wife has pretty much done everything but call the funny farm to come and pick me up at this point. Loving the game however! hahaha!
It doesn't take all that long to grind out enough credits to buy the higher end ships. I just started about 7 days ago. Another 18-20 hours and I'll have the Anaconda, but it will be used for trading only since I have found the Python to be my all time favorite combat ship and I will buy that ship back once I am done trading. I studied trading routes and tricks for lining up the starport entrances and such a few hours before I started playing. I watched alot of Youtube videos from Kornelius Briedis which were very helpful in maximizing trading efficiency.
My path was the following:
1. Grabbed a copy of Slopey's Profit calc. I took only round trip trade routes that were within a single jump of the ship and gave at least 1000 credits profit per ton EACH WAY and traded until I could get into a Cobra Mk III. Make sure you check the entire round trip or you could get 1k credit/ton one way and only 300 credit/ton coming back. If you see a trade that is over 2k/ton it is usually a database error, so don't spin your wheels looking for a 5k/ton trade when it most likely does not exist. Typical trade route profits should be in the 1200 credit/ton each way, so if you find a route you like that gives at least 1k/ton profit each way then stick with it, don't get sidetracked by trying to find an even more profitable route, it just burns up more time. Do not run without shields until you are absolutely sure you have more than enough money to cover a load and ship loss. In the Python and higher, you should not be running without shields considering the maintenance costs. Running without shields in a Type 9 however is absolutely insane IMHO, and should not even be considered. You will also want to lighten up each ship after purchase to D grade equipment, except for the frame shift drive, which you will want to be B or A grade in most cases to allow you single jumps on trade routes rather than intermediate jumps which also kill more time. Also, watch the videos on lining up the starport entrance every time so you don't take 5 minutes to get the the entrance every time you come out of supercruise. There is less hassle running solo mode if you are trying to get this done quickly. BE FOREWARNED, NEVER jump into a ship before you have enough credits for cargo racks, jump drive, insurance, and load or you risk losing everything you worked for. I know the urge to get out of the Lakon 7 and into the Python etc before you have enough money, but trust me, don't do it, it's not worth it!
2. I used the Sidewinder for bounty bounty hunting at resource extraction sites around a gas giant (Mokosh) until I could afford an outfitted Hauler (didn't take more than an hour). The resource extraction sites appear to be the fastest way to get bounties, and all the other places I hunted were much slower (asteroid belts and signal sources were not nearly as good).
3. From making money in the hauler I quickly switched to the Cobra at 60 ton capacity. The Cobra made money pretty quick and I made enough money to get into a Lakon 6 fairly quickly and worked up to an ASP, then Lakon 7. The Asp is also a decent combat ship and at 128 tons you can haul cargo well in it. You should not worry about being interdicted in the Asp, and most of these smaller ships have good enough handling to hold the escape vector during interdictions most every time.
4. Lakon 7 made money fast up to the ~72 mill I used on the Python, but is a horrible ship handling and jump wise. It is pretty much our only choice since it hauls alot of cargo for it's size. I ended up in a Python outfitted for hauling. No worries about interdictions in the Python with two large beam lasers, you can smoke pretty much anyone after you. Plus the jump range and such are very good. Also the handling is awesome, Python handles like a smaller fighter. Python is the first ship that really starts to suck fuel though. The shorter the jump on your trade route the better. Or use a fuel scoop like I did, although it takes longer that way.
5. Went from Python to Lakon 9 at 90 million and upgraded the drive immediately to a B6, and all other equipment to D grade as fast as I could so I could make at least 10 LY jumps. The Lakon 9 is a sitting duck that handles like a beached whale. Even with decent flight skills I have a hard time evading interdictions in this ship. Shields do not hold up for the FSD cooldown when you get interdicted, so an interdiction in this rig will cost 100k-600k in hull damage repairs. I use a shield cell bank to try and keep the shields up until the FSD cooldown timer runs out. This thing sucks fuel like a top fuel dragster as well so you want a very short jump (~6-8LY) or fuel scoop. Average round trips in this rig will net about 3.5 to 4.5 mill an hour profit with 468 tons of cargo.
6. Anaconda is next but it will be a hauler only to make money to get my Python back. The Conda's that I've seen set up for hauling are awesome, just like the Python you don't have to worry about interdictions by either players or NPC's, they are faster, jump farther, and are much easier to dock than the Type 9.
P.S. I have been downgrading all of my equipment on a ship to be traded in back to grade E before I sell the ship or trade up, It appears to give back some of the money for these components. Some of the veterans could probably confirm this for us, but it seems to work better than just selling or trading the ship outright.
Hope that helps some of you who want to trade up fast like I did. I'm sure we can have some of the veterans give us a few more tips and tricks as well.
8 million was lost in an accident at the startport where an NPC Anaconda tried to come through as my Lakon 9 was half way through the airlock and bumped me into the steel tubing which locked the fin of the ship and got stuck, no way out of it, got finished off by the starport defenses.
The Anaconda sped up the smuggling method up as well, although I must say this ship is VERY expensive to build (was about 189 million for base hauler setup and decent FSD) and operate and carries a very hefty 8 mill insurance even in a gimped hauler build. I would definitely not be running this ship in open play considering the expense if you were to not be able to escape or fight a player interdiction or made a mistake at the starport. On a higher note, the ship is very nice. It's fast, handles about twice as well as the type 9, carries 432 ton, and has a much better jump range than the Type 9. Other than that I would never use it for anything other than a hauler personally.
So there you have it. It was a grind, but it was also fun to see how fast it could be done. There were times I wanted to ask for a sanity check, but in the end it was not all that big of a deal to do. If I were to do it again (no, no please! Not again!), I would use the smuggling method instead of trading. But who knows, they may beef up bounties and such to make it possible to do it fast with bounty hunting (and hopefully mining too).
(Original post)
Someone was asking me when I started and noticed I was in a Lakon 9 already. I had about 48 hours total time so far to get the Lakon 9. They wanted to get into an Anaconda, So I figured I'd post this for new people that want a hardcore and fast way to the upper end ships. For you veterans this information is trivial, but has a few tricks in it for new people like myself. This is not for the faint of heart nor the people that get burned out easily doing the same thing over and over. Your wife will probably think you have gone insane when you spend every waking moment before and after work to grind out credits like a madman. My wife has pretty much done everything but call the funny farm to come and pick me up at this point. Loving the game however! hahaha!
It doesn't take all that long to grind out enough credits to buy the higher end ships. I just started about 7 days ago. Another 18-20 hours and I'll have the Anaconda, but it will be used for trading only since I have found the Python to be my all time favorite combat ship and I will buy that ship back once I am done trading. I studied trading routes and tricks for lining up the starport entrances and such a few hours before I started playing. I watched alot of Youtube videos from Kornelius Briedis which were very helpful in maximizing trading efficiency.
My path was the following:
1. Grabbed a copy of Slopey's Profit calc. I took only round trip trade routes that were within a single jump of the ship and gave at least 1000 credits profit per ton EACH WAY and traded until I could get into a Cobra Mk III. Make sure you check the entire round trip or you could get 1k credit/ton one way and only 300 credit/ton coming back. If you see a trade that is over 2k/ton it is usually a database error, so don't spin your wheels looking for a 5k/ton trade when it most likely does not exist. Typical trade route profits should be in the 1200 credit/ton each way, so if you find a route you like that gives at least 1k/ton profit each way then stick with it, don't get sidetracked by trying to find an even more profitable route, it just burns up more time. Do not run without shields until you are absolutely sure you have more than enough money to cover a load and ship loss. In the Python and higher, you should not be running without shields considering the maintenance costs. Running without shields in a Type 9 however is absolutely insane IMHO, and should not even be considered. You will also want to lighten up each ship after purchase to D grade equipment, except for the frame shift drive, which you will want to be B or A grade in most cases to allow you single jumps on trade routes rather than intermediate jumps which also kill more time. Also, watch the videos on lining up the starport entrance every time so you don't take 5 minutes to get the the entrance every time you come out of supercruise. There is less hassle running solo mode if you are trying to get this done quickly. BE FOREWARNED, NEVER jump into a ship before you have enough credits for cargo racks, jump drive, insurance, and load or you risk losing everything you worked for. I know the urge to get out of the Lakon 7 and into the Python etc before you have enough money, but trust me, don't do it, it's not worth it!
2. I used the Sidewinder for bounty bounty hunting at resource extraction sites around a gas giant (Mokosh) until I could afford an outfitted Hauler (didn't take more than an hour). The resource extraction sites appear to be the fastest way to get bounties, and all the other places I hunted were much slower (asteroid belts and signal sources were not nearly as good).
3. From making money in the hauler I quickly switched to the Cobra at 60 ton capacity. The Cobra made money pretty quick and I made enough money to get into a Lakon 6 fairly quickly and worked up to an ASP, then Lakon 7. The Asp is also a decent combat ship and at 128 tons you can haul cargo well in it. You should not worry about being interdicted in the Asp, and most of these smaller ships have good enough handling to hold the escape vector during interdictions most every time.
4. Lakon 7 made money fast up to the ~72 mill I used on the Python, but is a horrible ship handling and jump wise. It is pretty much our only choice since it hauls alot of cargo for it's size. I ended up in a Python outfitted for hauling. No worries about interdictions in the Python with two large beam lasers, you can smoke pretty much anyone after you. Plus the jump range and such are very good. Also the handling is awesome, Python handles like a smaller fighter. Python is the first ship that really starts to suck fuel though. The shorter the jump on your trade route the better. Or use a fuel scoop like I did, although it takes longer that way.
5. Went from Python to Lakon 9 at 90 million and upgraded the drive immediately to a B6, and all other equipment to D grade as fast as I could so I could make at least 10 LY jumps. The Lakon 9 is a sitting duck that handles like a beached whale. Even with decent flight skills I have a hard time evading interdictions in this ship. Shields do not hold up for the FSD cooldown when you get interdicted, so an interdiction in this rig will cost 100k-600k in hull damage repairs. I use a shield cell bank to try and keep the shields up until the FSD cooldown timer runs out. This thing sucks fuel like a top fuel dragster as well so you want a very short jump (~6-8LY) or fuel scoop. Average round trips in this rig will net about 3.5 to 4.5 mill an hour profit with 468 tons of cargo.
6. Anaconda is next but it will be a hauler only to make money to get my Python back. The Conda's that I've seen set up for hauling are awesome, just like the Python you don't have to worry about interdictions by either players or NPC's, they are faster, jump farther, and are much easier to dock than the Type 9.
P.S. I have been downgrading all of my equipment on a ship to be traded in back to grade E before I sell the ship or trade up, It appears to give back some of the money for these components. Some of the veterans could probably confirm this for us, but it seems to work better than just selling or trading the ship outright.
Hope that helps some of you who want to trade up fast like I did. I'm sure we can have some of the veterans give us a few more tips and tricks as well.
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