Smuggle Thargoid link missions seem impossible and may bankrupt you.

[Sentenza]

So obviously these are missions you take for the thrill, not the money. Well anything that breaks boredom is welcome

Well, let's see: build a ship with everything B-rated, then engineer all modules for extra resistance. I am going to try it one of these days. After all, I have two billions and nothing to do with them!

 

[Snarfbuckle]

So...B rated modules and a few good module protector thingies combined with repair modules then?

 

[racer1]

I came to the forum to warn players not to take the missions, they don’t seem possible to complete.
My first attempt I died before leaving the station (made a ticket about it), the second attempt I got in the system and the canopy collapsed making the mission impossible to complete.
At first, I thought the fines were a fluke, 13,093,632 for the first, and 17,206,080 for the second (30,299,712 credits). Which is more that the credits I have available. I can only be thankful that my rebuy cost was 2mil each time and the second fine is not immediately payable (unless I die again), then I won't be able to buy my ship back.

These missions are awesome, and are still pretty easy to complete once you know how. These are the most intense mission fun I've had since fail on scan long range smuggling was removed.

The payouts are a little high, but FD please do not remove them. Just lower the payouts.

Here's my mission report, to help you. My ship has D rated life support, plus std mix of A and D rated other stuff.

I just saw a mission for 47 million to transport 140 tonnes 5ly, I couldn't accept it though, kept getting disconnected.

I managed to take 2 missions totaling 120 tonnes and 38 million credits.

It was hairy, merope obscured on take off, primatic shields down before I'd jumped to merope. Life support failure on merope arrival, FSD failure in supercruise, then thrusters, reboot repair, ok, but fsd malfunctions 3 times before I can get back to supercruise and then thrusters take another hit. Reboot repair again. Get to supercruise.

Mission critical message offering me a 38k bonus on 38 million if I make it in the next hour. If I survive 5 more minutes it'll be a miracle lol.

I get to the station, luckily only weapons take hits on way in. I land and I've made it, 38 million in 10 minutes. 300k in repairs. FSD, thrusters, life support all at 1-2%.

Flying a clipper with g5 dirty drives is the perfect ship I'd say.

Great fun though

 

[Jmanis]

So obviously these are missions you take for the thrill, not the money. Well anything that breaks boredom is welcome

Well, let's see: build a ship with everything B-rated, then engineer all modules for extra resistance. I am going to try it one of these days. After all, I have two billions and nothing to do with them!

Once they remove the forced-disconnect on the missions of these with over 30m in rewards, i'll definitely be doing them for money. FWIW, in the quantities you get asked to ship, B-rate + engineering won't help much.

So...B rated modules and a few good module protector thingies combined with repair modules then?

MRPs don't help either. I've tested this.

Check out my guide here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-storing-and-transporting-Corrosive-Materials

The payouts are a little high, but FD please do not remove them. Just lower the payouts.

Problem is, 144t of Unknown Links, for example, sells for =~70m on the black market. The reward must be at least higher than that to just not abandon the mission and sell them off.

 

[[VR] Deggial]

... Problem is, 144t of Unknown Links, for example, sells for =~70m on the black market. The reward must be at least higher than that to just not abandon the mission and sell them off.

From the patch notes:

Station Services

• It is no longer possible to sell stolen items that you received as part of a mission on that station's black market

 

[BDelacroix]

Am I reading that we (the players) decided not to do a CG and now are suffering the consequences but somehow it is still Frontier's fault?

Isn't that the sort of thing some people wanted? I don't have a real issue with it myself.

 

[Jmanis]

From the patch notes:

Problem? It's not hard to find black markets, and then it's basically just doing the mission anyway. Heck, you could gather together missions from disparate locations, then offload them all to one location.

 

[racer1]

I also lost all my wealth by receiving a 69m fine yesterday. Based on the mission description I had no idea about that. I dont want to complain but how is that fair?

Your ship dies in 1 minute and your bankrupt and marked as criminal.

Mission fine is in the description...

 

[Sentenza]

Once they remove the forced-disconnect on the missions of these with over 30m in rewards, i'll definitely be doing them for money. FWIW, in the quantities you get asked to ship, B-rate + engineering won't help much.

Maybe, maybe not. Even getting just 30 seconds more might make the difference between success and failure.

So, I came up with this:

https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/typ...AAVMU5BJAAAA.EweloBhBGA2ECsUCmBDA5gG2SGF9A===

100t cargo, 10ly jump range, all for 2.5M. All critical systems B-rated and engineered for resistance, save for distributor as if it dies it just remain stuck to current settings.

 

[GW42]

From the patch notes:

Station Services

• It is no longer possible to sell stolen items that you received as part of a mission on that station's black market

I understood that to mean that you could no longer simply take the mission, immediately abandon it and then sell them immediately to the same station's black market. You would however still be able to sell to black markets at other stations/ports.

I've been out of the loop since before 2.3 though, so may have entirely missed the point.

 

[[VR] Deggial]

Problem? It's not hard to find black markets, and then it's basically just doing the mission anyway. Heck, you could gather together missions from disparate locations, then offload them all to one location.

Maybe I misunderstood what the entry means. ...
But reading it again, I see the "that"!

What I thought was, that selling stolen mission haulage at black markets is generally disabled now. Sorry for the misinformation attempt ...

--

Edit:
@ GW42: I think you are right (and faster than my own epiphany).

Edit 2:
@ Sentenza:
I was more in inclined to a Cobra MkIV

Less cargo space, but more modules to disperse the damage, an AFMU to heal during the travel and a resistant rack to take away at least 2 tons of corrosive effect.
Only the FSD is modded for range (hence reduced integrity), but less jumps mean faster travels, which seams crucial here.

The whole topic sounds so fun that I might actually try it out ...

 

[Sentenza]

Maybe I misunderstood what the entry means. ...
But reading it again, I see the "that"!

Yes, I read it as "you can't immediately abandon mission and resell cargo there". You might be able to resell it elsewhere, but the catch is that you might not be able to make it to that elsewhere

 

[GW42]

@ GW42: I think you are right (and faster than my own epiphany).

Makes a change for me

More generally on the OP's point, I tried a mini version of one of these missions last night. I think it was only 6t, and only a 1 jump + 1000ls trip and only suffered about 6% damage in total. Turns out I did have 2x corrosion resistant racks which I must have fitted when I last dipped in (when the thargoid bases were found). Can't remember if racks are 1t or 2t, but it's possible I was in effect only carrying 2t of damaging stuff. multiply that damage up to 150t worth of damaging stuff, and I can see how it would get quite scary very quickly.

Sounds like fun [big grin]

ps - the destination was the asteroid base near Maia. Note to self: Turn ship lights on if trying to navigate around a very large asteroid in order to find the entrance

 

[MissMeYet]

What do you make of this one? Impossible? Probably:

https://imgur.com/a/I1MHT



[IMGUR]I1MHT[/IMGUR]

 

[BigBANGtheory [VR]]

These are some of the most exciting missions I've seen in Elite, very high risk + very high reward.

I've lost 2 Anaconda's already [yesnod] be warned the penalty for failure is also extremely high this is not for faint hearted and it can be seat of your pants flying. At last we can earn credits without grinding anything.

For god sake let players figure it out their own way don't be a and start posting You Tube instructions.

 

[Surprised Brony]

It's neat to have dangerous missions and stuff, but difficulty that is heavily influenced by RNG isn't ever a good thing. If luck decides your canopy and FSD get repeatedly hit, you're out. Weapons being broken constantly? No problem. At least the pay is good.

 

[Darksnow47]

I understand that this mission is fun for Elite players already having Anacondas and 100rds of millions of credits. But for normal casual players its a nightmare to receive a 70m fine... think about the new players with a T6 trying this mission...

Of couse it says somethink like "failing this mission might result in a fine". But how would I know that it destroys my ship in 1 minute and that I receive a 70m fine which is crazy

 

[GammaZ]

Are this somehow not affected by cargo hatch malfunctions?
I've taken one out of curiosity, around 40T in asp. Had AFMU so after first cargo hatch damage immediately set it to repair. But next tick was cargo hatch again, it malfunctioned and said about jettisoning cargo but nothing happened. Second malfunction occurred entering mailslot and... nothing happened again, no cargo lost.

 

[BigBANGtheory [VR]]

I understand that this mission is fun for Elite players already having Anacondas and 100rds of millions of credits. But for normal casual players its a nightmare to receive a 70m fine... think about the new players with a T6 trying this mission...

Of couse it says somethink like "failing this mission might result in a fine". But how would I know that it destroys my ship in 1 minute and that I receive a 70m fine which is crazy

So in your situation the risk is arguably too great, it is also fair to say if you haven't got the funds/resources then should you be able to net 70M cr quickly? I'd argue not but what you can do is go for say a 10M cr venture with less risk to you and build up to the bigger ones.

I was too greedy on my first attempt and it cost me a fortune... lesson learnt. There probably is a clever way to mitigate the risks perhaps related to a new type of ship, module or stuff a few guardian relics in with the Thargoid caro I don't know go experiment push the limits that's half the fun.

 

[MissMeYet]

Are this somehow not affected by cargo hatch malfunctions?
I've taken one out of curiosity, around 40T in asp. Had AFMU so after first cargo hatch damage immediately set it to repair. But next tick was cargo hatch again, it malfunctioned and said about jettisoning cargo but nothing happened. Second malfunction occurred entering mailslot and... nothing happened again, no cargo lost.

You never, ever lose mission cargo to a malfunctioning cargo hatch. Ever. Try it; accept any cargo mission, then fill the rest of your hold with whatever else. Launch and fly near a star so you overheat. The cargo hatch will fail, the misc. cargo will jettison, but the mission cargo will stay put.