The hull costs half as much as the Anaconda's, but it has the same powerful FSD class.
The important thing to remember is that the only factors determining jump range are total mass and jump drive. Since the Anaconda is much lighter, it is able to carry more and make longer jumps. Accept that and move on. For the purpose of this excercise, I will assume that you don't have the budget to buy an Anaconda yet or you want to take advantage of the (comparatively) cheap insurance.
Remember: When compared to the stock Anaconda, you have a 70 million budget for high-quality parts. The first thing you should buy is that 6A friendship drive. That means a (comparatively) good jump range with a lot of budget to spare.
Also, you can buy a paint job and the Conda can't. Sooo satisfying.
Don't grind
Grind leads to burnout. I avoid it like the plague, even in my T9. Assume you fly the T9 because you want to, not because it's the fastest way to get to the Anaconda. It's much more satisfying.
You fly the best (non-Conda) trader, even if you only take 300t.That means you don't have to carry 500t cargo in a T9, even if you "waste" module space, you're still ferrying more cargo than every T7, Clipper, or even Python.
It follows that you can actually do a trade-off between cargo space and jump range.
For example: Trade loop, 14.1 lightyears long one way. I figured out that my ship has to have a mass of less or equal than 1555 tons to make that distance in one jump. I now can fiddle in coriolis.io so that I can make my ship exactly to my tastes and get the desired mass.
For those not allergic to math, the formula that gives you the desired mass is 21947.81 divided by the desired distance in ly (assuming a 6A jump drive.)
Downgrade your standard fuel tank to a class 4.
Whether you run a fuel scoop or not (you should, see below) the trade route you're interested in should be short enough so you don't need to jump more than once anyway. In a 6A FSD, you will only be able to spend 8t of fuel per jump. Accounting for some fuel that you need to supercruise, anything above a class 4 is a luxury that just weighs you down. (Unless you're a fuel rat, of course.)
Buy massless parts
You're allowed to run a docking computers and fuel scoops - really. It's an interesting mental exercise to get rid of the "as much cargo capacity as possible" mindset. Instead, you should think like an explorer. You can take everything that doesn't add to your hull mass. If you already have achieved the optimal mass and you have module space to spare (who am I kidding, you fly a T9) - there's really no reason not to.
What if I have tons to spare?
Buy a bigger D-class shield. You get a lot of peace of mind - depending on the desired jump range, you didn't want that 7er cargo rack anyway.
Buy guns. They weigh comparatively little, and it's really satisfying to kill annoying NPCs with your space cow. I don't even use turrets or lasers, 5x gimballed multicannon = FUN!
The important thing to remember is that the only factors determining jump range are total mass and jump drive. Since the Anaconda is much lighter, it is able to carry more and make longer jumps. Accept that and move on. For the purpose of this excercise, I will assume that you don't have the budget to buy an Anaconda yet or you want to take advantage of the (comparatively) cheap insurance.
Remember: When compared to the stock Anaconda, you have a 70 million budget for high-quality parts. The first thing you should buy is that 6A friendship drive. That means a (comparatively) good jump range with a lot of budget to spare.
Also, you can buy a paint job and the Conda can't. Sooo satisfying.
Don't grind
Grind leads to burnout. I avoid it like the plague, even in my T9. Assume you fly the T9 because you want to, not because it's the fastest way to get to the Anaconda. It's much more satisfying.
You fly the best (non-Conda) trader, even if you only take 300t.That means you don't have to carry 500t cargo in a T9, even if you "waste" module space, you're still ferrying more cargo than every T7, Clipper, or even Python.
It follows that you can actually do a trade-off between cargo space and jump range.
For example: Trade loop, 14.1 lightyears long one way. I figured out that my ship has to have a mass of less or equal than 1555 tons to make that distance in one jump. I now can fiddle in coriolis.io so that I can make my ship exactly to my tastes and get the desired mass.
For those not allergic to math, the formula that gives you the desired mass is 21947.81 divided by the desired distance in ly (assuming a 6A jump drive.)
Downgrade your standard fuel tank to a class 4.
Whether you run a fuel scoop or not (you should, see below) the trade route you're interested in should be short enough so you don't need to jump more than once anyway. In a 6A FSD, you will only be able to spend 8t of fuel per jump. Accounting for some fuel that you need to supercruise, anything above a class 4 is a luxury that just weighs you down. (Unless you're a fuel rat, of course.)
Buy massless parts
You're allowed to run a docking computers and fuel scoops - really. It's an interesting mental exercise to get rid of the "as much cargo capacity as possible" mindset. Instead, you should think like an explorer. You can take everything that doesn't add to your hull mass. If you already have achieved the optimal mass and you have module space to spare (who am I kidding, you fly a T9) - there's really no reason not to.
What if I have tons to spare?
Buy a bigger D-class shield. You get a lot of peace of mind - depending on the desired jump range, you didn't want that 7er cargo rack anyway.
Buy guns. They weigh comparatively little, and it's really satisfying to kill annoying NPCs with your space cow. I don't even use turrets or lasers, 5x gimballed multicannon = FUN!