Spotlight: The Kill Warrant Scanner

The main function of the Kill Warrent Scanner is to check if a wanted vessel has any hidden bounties from other systems. Many bounty hunters use this utility to add a small bonus to their nefarious activities, but the real power of the KWS often goes unseen and unappreciated.

To understand the full potential of the KWS a CMDR needs to first understand how reputation works in ED.
The three superpowers of the Federation, Empire and Alliance all have their own reputation bars in your commanders statistics. Completing positive actions like missions or trades for any of the superpowers will have a small but positive effect on your reputation with them, destroying their ships and failing or abandoning missions will reduce it.

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Like many things in ED, the actual benefit of being allied with a superpower isn't explained or easily noticed. And to understand it you need to take a closer look at the mission boards at your local starport.

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When completing missions for a minor faction that is allied with the Federation for example your reputation with them will increase, from neutral to cordial at first and then from friendly to allied. But the speed that that reputation bar increases is directly modified by your superpower reputation.

A CMDR who has no reputation with the Federation will take twice as long to gain allied status with one of its minor factions. That's twice as many data missions, twice as many cargo deliveries, twice as many assassinations.....etc

And it's here that the Kill Warrent Scanner starts to look a little more powerful, because the one thing that pleases all superpowers the most is handing in bounties. A KWS has the ability of increasing your Empire reputation while bounty hunting in Federation space and can also maintain your Federation reputation while hunting in Empire space by unlocking the hidden bounties issued by the superpowers.

It's a tool of galactic domination.
 
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Have some rep sir

Another KWS scanner fan here - unless I'm in my Type-7 or Dolphin, i never leave port without a KWS fitted and in a RES i scan everyone before engaging, it really does help
 
Thanks guys, glad it was useful...

This topic actually opens up a whole can of worms to be honest and I could go on for pages, thought it better to just discuss the gist of it.
 
Have some rep sir

Another KWS scanner fan here - unless I'm in my Type-7 or Dolphin, i never leave port without a KWS fitted and in a RES i scan everyone before engaging, it really does help

Interesting - in a RES I attack the first person who scans wanted unless he is in a wing. You will soon find out who the rest of the good guys are.
 
Great post. Do you know if the KWS increases the bounty in the current system you are in? I used to use one a lot but found I wasn't always going and collecting the bounties outside the system I got thm in, or forgetting when I was there!
 
Great post. Do you know if the KWS increases the bounty in the current system you are in? I used to use one a lot but found I wasn't always going and collecting the bounties outside the system I got thm in, or forgetting when I was there!

Oh yeah, it'll definitely increase...

Basically, if you go bounty hunting in a system without a KWS the bounties you receive from kills will be split fairly evenly between the superpower and the main controlling faction of that system. For example a session of bounty hunting in Eravate:-

Federation - 1,567,789cr
Adle's Armada - 1,100,678

When you add in the KWS you'll unlock additional bounties issued in that same system + any bounties from the other two superpowers. So the exact same session would build more reputation with the other factions of Eravate and also contribute to and/or maintain your reputation with the other superpowers.

Federation - 1,567,789
Adle's Armada - 1,100,678
Eravate Network - 567,070
Independent Eravate Free - 120,000
Eravate Life Services - 80,000
Empire - 67,000
Alliance- 45,000

You'd then want to hand those bounties in at Eravate for maximum profit and local rep gain.

If however you're just zipping around doing missions and you get interdicted by a pirate and you KWS and make the kill it's probably not going to be worth traveling to a specific station to hand in the bounty. Better to wait until you run into the next Interstellar Factors Contact.
 
Oh yeah, it'll definitely increase...

Basically, if you go bounty hunting in a system without a KWS the bounties you receive from kills will be split fairly evenly between the superpower and the main controlling faction of that system. For example a session of bounty hunting in Eravate:-

Federation - 1,567,789cr
Adle's Armada - 1,100,678

When you add in the KWS you'll unlock additional bounties issued in that same system + any bounties from the other two superpowers. So the exact same session would build more reputation with the other factions of Eravate and also contribute to and/or maintain your reputation with the other superpowers.

Federation - 1,567,789
Adle's Armada - 1,100,678
Eravate Network - 567,070
Independent Eravate Free - 120,000
Eravate Life Services - 80,000
Empire - 67,000
Alliance- 45,000

You'd then want to hand those bounties in at Eravate for maximum profit and local rep gain.

If however you're just zipping around doing missions and you get interdicted by a pirate and you KWS and make the kill it's probably not going to be worth traveling to a specific station to hand in the bounty. Better to wait until you run into the next Interstellar Factors Contact.

Thanks for the numbers, always good to have some facts in there! I will have to speak to Outfitting about the KWS again once I am back in a combat ship.

Sorry, no more rep so just a 'Fly safe CMDR o7' =]
 

stormyuk

Volunteer Moderator
Yeh, utility slots are precious. At the moment I have 3 Shield Boosters and 1 Chaff on my Mission running / General purpose / scanning / ferry Python, is the loss of shields really worth the KWS? I am not sure.....
 
Yeh, utility slots are precious. At the moment I have 3 Shield Boosters and 1 Chaff on my Mission running / General purpose / scanning / ferry Python, is the loss of shields really worth the KWS? I am not sure.....

Maybe not for a well established CMDR...

But when you're first starting out it's one of the best tools at your disposal.

BH with a KWS is one of the fastest ways of 'adopting' a new home system that you plan to do business in and many of the engineers require a specific status or rank with the superpowers and their factions before they will even look at you.
 

stormyuk

Volunteer Moderator
Yeh, my combat focused Vulture absolutely has a KWS on for BH and RES's etc. I totally agree if you want to get good rep fast locally it works well.

If you are a bit nomadic and wandering I just wonder if while trucking around and interdicting being interdicted, looking for USS and that kind of stuff if its worth having a KWS fitted. I am curious how much of a payoff it gives. I have had at times where being attacked by pirate NPCs wondering if only I had a KWS I would make more off them. :)
 

stormyuk

Volunteer Moderator
I'm thinking of it on a 'Killer-de-Lance' ;-)

Yeh must admit its looking more likely I need to upgrade my Vulture to this as I really want to get into CZs, I probably won't sell the Vulture of course. ;)

KWS on the Vulture is no brainer for me, and I guess on any combat ship FDL included KWS all the way. I need to start looking for builds. So much to do! Still need my MCs upgrading on the Python, I could do with a KWS on the Python considering all the NPC interdictions I am dealing with at the moment :)
 
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