The history of money making in Elite Dangerous

Miczi

Miczi
I don't think it's that bad. I don't even try to make money, and so far I've made over 200 mill + Cobra with full equipment + Vulture with full equipment + Pinguin with full equipment. That's enough for a big ship as far as I know (equipping is another story).
 

B1rdy

B1rdy
Alec Turner said:
Wasn't the thing with Sothis/Robigo that, because they were so far away from the bubble, you could stack (board flipping if necessary) dozens of delivery missions (all back to the bubble and all hight profit) before heading off. Never really understood why they got nerfed. It was classic risk/reward stuff. Sure the rewards were high but you'd have packs of NPC antagonists from each of those separate missions chasing you all the way back so the risks were high too and it was usually a nail biting ride which didn't feel (to me at least) remotely like an exploit.
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You are right regarding the first slave smuggling missions from Robigo, since you had bounty hunters on your tail and you would fail all missions when you were successfully scanned. Those missions were truly exciting, but they were overpaying compared to all other in-game activities. I consider them the start of the "credit exploit of the latest patch". After that every(?) patch brought a new major money making method, way more profitable than anything else.
 

Phisto Sobanii

Phisto Sobanii
I know it's a bit off topic but some of these gold rushes were great for Open Play shenanigans.

Quince was my all time favorite. We'd been up there shooting everything that moved, ambushing ships at the tourist beacons, and generally causing a ruckus. Of course this attracted the good guys and it escalated into a proper cops and robbers situation.

In fact, one night a group of locals formed a posse and ambushed us at Gaylen's Ascension. Turned into a full blown 8v8 shootout at the OK Corral. Absolutely bonkers.
 

Miczi

Miczi
B1rdy said:
You are right regarding the first slave smuggling missions from Robigo, since you had bounty hunters on your tail and you would fail all missions when you were successfully scanned. Those missions were truly exciting, but they were overpaying compared to all other in-game activities. I consider them the start of the "credit exploit of the latest patch". After that every(?) patch brought a new major money making method, way more profitable than anything else.
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When people buy new ships, some of them buy new paintjobs, maybe that's the reasoning behind it ;)
 

Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
When I started playing a little over a year ago I shuffled data missions (it took an accident to realise I could stack them!) until I could afford a T6 - I literally shuttled biowaste from one station to an agriculture system a half-dozen jumps away, sold at a 10x markup, bought produce, sold at first station... didn't take long to afford a T7 - rinse & repeat. I did that for around a month and made enough for the 'new' Krait 2, then went out exploring. My biggest credit maker is exploration :)
 

Blasphemous One

Blasphemous One
Can't recall everything atm


.Rare trading
.17 Draconis & Brestla massacre stacks
.Skimmers
.Long distance passenger missions
.Quince Planetary scan missions
.Robigo Slave trading (yeah that was a thing)
 
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Krash

Krash
My first reliable credit maker was the Data Courier missions to Hutton Orbital. With 20 missions the payout ranged from 40-80mil. This worked in early - mid 2018 before they nerfed it.
 

DragonIV

DragonIV
Mine in order since launch:

1. Rare Trading
2. Seeking Luxuries (this was an adventure I'll always remember--went from the type 7 to a type 9 in one night).
3. Long Distance Passengers
4. Quince
5. Mining

However, I've still made most of my money from trade and delivery missions over the years.
 

Phil JMac

P
I think of all of them Quince was the most boring and overused one I can remember.. I had a look but the idea of buying a sidey, stacking missions scanning one beacon then self destructing sounded very, very boring.

The only time I ever board flipped was poo hauling from Ceos , made some cash but it still felt a but cheap

Made most of my cash trading
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
zimms said:
I'm very happy I got to experience the 1.0 ship progression. I still remember how happy I was to be able to buy an Adder, Viper, or Type-6.
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Some of my favorite memories were made in that Adder!

Oh, and I still have my Viper III to this day - it's a very fun little ship IMO.
 

zimms

zimms
Old Duck said:
Some of my favorite memories were made in that Adder!

Oh, and I still have my Viper III to this day - it's a very fun little ship IMO.
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Same for me. I could never sell that Viper. It still has its dakka dakka and golden paintjob. :D
 

VR Jay Le Chardon

VR Jay Le Chardon
babelfisch said:
No, I am not a Nigerian prince.

Anyone interested in creating a timeline for the various forms of money making in Elite, most rewarding professions, exploits, etc? Since I've never been good at making money I probably get it all wrong, so it would be great if you could help me out (and ideally share a few intersting anectodes).

I remember that rares were pretty good in the early days, bounty hunting got a serious buff and used to be one of the most profitable professions. Normal trading was in a good place for the first two years maybe? At some point everyone used to haul Biowaste from Robigo or Sothis. Was there something about stacking Skimmer missions? From end of 2018 until present the most profitable profession is probably mining. Does anyone remember the exact dates or other activities?
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I only joined at horizons launch, so this isn't a completely exhaustive list of it all. But it does cover a few of them...

At 2.0 launch, go to money making schemes were rares trading, A<-->B trade loops with imperial slaves, and long range smuggling missions from robigo or other such places if you knew of them, but robigo was the goto. I knew of these but only did a few robigo runs to keep my going in rebuys.
After 2.1 Robigo got nerfed, then the money-making-meta became long haul missions from Sothis and Ceos back to the bubble, missions were offering millions of credits to deliver poo or hydrogen fuel ~500LY, I never touched these. That and skimmer swatting from a main ship with dumbfire missiles.
2.2 brought guardians, and passengers stuff. Passengers became the best way to make money, I was chasing exploration elite, so did a lot of long range passenger missions, typically a jump focused conda, with a stack of passenger missions was netting me about 300M every three weeks of jonking my way around, and getting to see some pretty things enroute. Ram Tah had missions associated with obtaining guardian logs, the mission was worth 100M, and stayed in for quite a while, with numerous how to guides appearing in all the usual places.
2.3 crazy money was there to be made at quince, passenger missions to the tourist beacon in that system and stacking 20 data scan missions, do one of them and they all completed. I think quince was the first 100m/hr exploit
2.4 the money making meta was performing pailins mission out of obsidian orbital, 20M for 4 units of thargoid gubbins sourced from a planets surface 4 jumps away.

I could go on and on, but if you want a complete list of credit exploits, just look at down to earth astronomy's elite dangerous playlist for details of what and when :p
 
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