Skimmers

[777Driver]

Stayed away from the whole skimmer payout madness. Decided to take on a skimmer mission that pays around 8 million credits. What is the best way to take them on in a big ship?

The mission has asked me to take out 12 skimmers. From a bit of research I can do the following.

Attack the base directly or go to POI's near the base and hunt skimmers.

In my SRV it is business as usual, in a ship I should fit dumbfire missiles. Is this still the case? Any other weapon options of choice? Could I not carpet bomb the base with cascade mines?

Cheers

 

[Codger]

I rarely attack the base. It’s much quicker and safer to find nearby POIs and kill the skimmers there. Also avoids getting any bounty if you just kill wanted skimmers. The SRV is all you need this way. Ship doesn’t matter.

 

[Faded Glory]

Personally I always do them at POI's around the base. Takes a bit longer, but quite fun scoping them out from the ship and driving the SRV. Added bonus (for me) is that most of them will be wanted so no bounties accrued. Also worth noting that you can take multiple missions from different factions to destroy skimmers from a particular faction location that will stack.

Can't say about mines I'm afraid, but yes, dumb fire missiles certainly work against skimmers.

 

[777Driver]

I rarely attack the base. It’s much quicker and safer to find nearby POIs and kill the skimmers there. Also avoids getting any bounty if you just kill wanted skimmers. The SRV is all you need this way. Ship doesn’t matter.

Thanks, are you still making videos? Haven't seen anything uploaded recently. Enjoyed your series.

@Faded Glory - So these are just regular skimmers? (forgot the name of the huge ones) From memory the smaller ones pop quite quickly.

 

[Codger]

Yeah, regular skimmers are what you usually find. They fight back now, but it's not difficult to kill them. Occasionally you'll find a POI that's defended by a ship in the air. I just skip those unless I'm feeling very saucy.

Yes, still doing videos, although I've taken a 2 month break from it. It's time consuming But with all the new stuffs coming out I have more in mind.

I haven't seen a mission for 8 million in quite a while though. It's usually 1.5-3 million, so you found a good one there.

And you can't stack dozens of them any more, so that's been fixed.

I like missions that take you down to the surface. I find it engaging.

I took an assassination mission the other day that wanted me to first scan a data point in a base -- first time I've seen that, usually it's just scan the nav beacon. When I got to the base, it was heavily defended with turrets and 3 ships in the air. And it was huge (+++ size), with a very large security perimeter. On top of that, it turned out I was allied with the faction that owned the base.

I debated it, but in the end I abandoned that mission. But it was tantalizing.

 

[Faded Glory]

@Faded Glory - So these are just regular skimmers? (forgot the name of the huge ones) From memory the smaller ones pop quite quickly.

Yes, regular skimmers, some guardians, no goliaths. Yes, they pop very easily... Generally they don't start to fight back until you've popped the first two, at which point any remaining ones will start to shoot at you. That said, if you get yourself behind a rock or some other cover they often cannot shoot at you. I haven't lost shields on the SRV since I started doing these again.

There are different types of POI, from crash sites to mining installations to small outposts and there will be different defenses including anti srv and anti ship turrets to a system defense ship that will attack you as soon as you start your attack, so there's a bit of fun variety and the potential for a tactical approach.

 

[777Driver]

Yes, regular skimmers, some guardians, no goliaths. Yes, they pop very easily... Generally they don't start to fight back until you've popped the first two, at which point any remaining ones will start to shoot at you. That said, if you get yourself behind a rock or some other cover they often cannot shoot at you. I haven't lost shields on the SRV since I started doing these again.

There are different types of POI, from crash sites to mining installations to small outposts and there will be different defenses including anti srv and anti ship turrets to a system defense ship that will attack you as soon as you start your attack, so there's a bit of fun variety and the potential for a tactical approach.

Thanks mate. @artigan99 - No plans on stacking, just some extra fun on trade runs. Seen up to 10 mill per mission, I guess it depends on location.

 

[Rocksurly]

Sir, I read your post and traveled all the way to Xi Ursae Majoris to get some of these high paying missions myself. I use a ship-launched fighter to hunt the skimmers so I have a real taste for these kind of missions. However, when I arrived I noticed that all the skimmer missions are paying in the 100,000 to 200,000 credit range. How did you manage to get such high paying missions? I have trouble making money because people keep killing me.

 

[Faded Glory]

Sir, I read your post and traveled all the way to Xi Ursae Majoris to get some of these high paying missions myself. I use a ship-launched fighter to hunt the skimmers so I have a real taste for these kind of missions. However, when I arrived I noticed that all the skimmer missions are paying in the 100,000 to 200,000 credit range. How did you manage to get such high paying missions? I have trouble making money because people keep killing me.

You get higher paying missions by being allied to the factions giving the missions. Higher ranking missions will also pay more, but even then if your reputation with the faction giving the missions isn't high, the payout / reward will be significantly less than if you are highly regarded by them.

Build your reputation with a faction and you will see mission rewards increase.