I've seen a few systems that have like 500k+ merits already. Group efforts, or is there something that's way more effective than other methods? What's the best way you've found of gaining merits?
So what's the best way of gaining merits?
- Thread starter DemiserofD
- Start date
Some of those might be from the early trade/exploration data dumps people did before FD stopped it.
No idea what is the best way of gaining merits and i guess the question should be also whether you mean for yourself personally or that contribute to a specific system's progress.
No idea what is the best way of gaining merits and i guess the question should be also whether you mean for yourself personally or that contribute to a specific system's progress.
Rare commodity trading, so far.
If you're an enemy, I'm not going to tell you how to improve it.
The merits you earn depend on the profit you make, which depends on the distance, and also seem to differ between acquisiton systems and systems you control. I've been selling runs of 48t rare goods from 160 ly away to a fortifying system for 864 merits, so 18 merits/t.
Well at least you have to make some effort because rare goods are only available in small quantities. Also, at least for the moment, FC ferrying is kind of uneconomical, with the jump times and all. You're probably faster going back and forth by ship anyway.
While it will be different for each power with different applicable actions, I find a good combination is Power kills with secondary Cargo space for search and rescue, very much due to the higher number of Power Wreckage signals. The Power weapons fire signals also seem to contain a wreckage, and it is well worth taking the Black box and any Occupied escape pods. Approximately, the present merits values seem to be:
- Power kills against most vessels are 64–120 depending on rank, the latter being the toughened Conflict-zone-level ships found in Weapons fire signals.
- Salvages are Black box / Occupied pod / Damaged pod / Wreckage component with around 60 / 40 / 20 / 10 merits.
Despite my dealing something like 50–100 times the Merits damage² to another Power than I gained personally, the strategic approach seems to be a sizeable personal reward sacrifice. That is based on a loose estimation of how much Merits the progress measure seems to be worth for the systems which will disappear, although looking beyond those systems I think even that may vary.
All of the above is with the system strength and beyond frontline penalties both reading Standard, although:
- As with the original Titan vulnerability, I suspect the words are hiding specific numbers which can vary within each grouping.
- I would like to think that the personal merits are not affected—but definitely point it out if they are, for that means system choice is a critical part of the answer.
1. It would be lovely if allied Commanders would check the movements of nearby enemy Fortified systems before undermining Exploited systems which will disappear regardless.
2. After the present cycle ends, that is.
Seems like rare goods are the way to go. Like 20k+ per hour.
Rare commodities seem not to be an option for me—unless they are included within the text Transport Powerplay Commodities, which I presume refers to the quota collections from the Power contact. I imagine either it is more Power-dependent than that, or equally likely is that the listed actions make no difference and everything works for everyone!
Geez, somebody really doesn't like LYR. Good it's just an exploited system and not Fortified.
Reinforcing options are power-dependent. Undermining options are mostly power-dependent, though some are dependent on the target power (and whether there is a stronghold carrier). But even if the option isn't listed, it still works to gain merits, it's just a smaller amount. For example, scanning a ship is 3 merits normally, but 5 if it's listed as an activity for you.
It is very slow though; at this rate it will take a very long time to get the first module...
Although I am repeating myself: You can't make the blanket statement "rares are the way to go". It's very power dependant. Rare trading for those who have it listed as preferred activity seels very lucrative (like 30 to up to 40 merits per unit), while for those who don't, it's not so great - I keep saying, with Kaine, I bottom out at 19 merits per unit.
Don't blatantly spread "rares is the way" without looking at the circumstances.