So, I've done around 15 of these, and I quickly came up with a tactic to slash the travel time by eliminating the need to ever refuel. I thought I'd share it.
So, first off, fuel tanks! I dont know if I never noticed these before, but I'm pretty sure they wernt around the last time I stopped playing. I've taken these fuel tanks and slapped them onto my trade ships to extend their maximum range. Remember, when your on the wire it's time that matters.
But that's not all. I also combine that tactic with a fuel scoop. But wait, didnt I just say that this trick involves eliminating the need to refuel? That's right. Heres what I do.
On your ship, you want to have a range of at least 200 LY before the fuel tanks empty. Most ships have ~ 50 or so, but that's fine. Use fuel tanks to buffer this up. When I setup my internals, my priorities are Cargo>Fuel Tank~=Scoop>Shields.
For your utility slots, equip heat sinks. No, they dont do squat against scans or anything once you've landed at your destination, but they're the kingpin of how this all works.
At each system with a star that you can scoop from, this is what you do:
Step 1) approach star until your in range for maximum refueling rate
Step 1a) Lay on that discovery scanner for extra profit
Step 2) Figure out where the destination waypoint is. If you have to move around the star, do so. Just slow down to 30km/s and sit there.
Note) DO NOT point at your destination. Maintain maximum fuel rate
Step 3) As soon as your FD cools down, hit it. Yes, your still sitting in the star, and are overheating like mad right? Good thing we brought those heat sinks.
Step 4) As soon as your heat reaches 98-100%, drop a sink. This will drag your heat down almost all the way, if not completely for a few seconds.
Note) Your ship will start heating up again hella fast with both the FD and proximity to the star. That's fine.
Step 5) The second your FD is charged, align to your destination and floor it.
That's it! You can add ~25% travel extra range to your ship just by doing this for each bank of heat sinks you use, so every 4 jumps or so. This works because
1) your not wasting any time between jumps. Refueling and jumping is all rolled into 1 action. Your simply using the downtime your FSD takes to scoop a bit of fuel. I dont know the exact numbers, but it's around 20 seconds or so overall.
2) When you jump, your still in the star. Your fuel scoop is working the entire time between FSD cool down, FSD charging, and the count down.
3) Instead of 1 big refueling stop where you stop and wait, you're using that downtime across multiple stars. Being that most these trips are 10+ jumps, theres minutes of downtime that you can be using to fuel.
4) The ultimate endurance of the ship doesnt matter. By the time you make it to your first destination, you get to refuel and the other areas are near by so even if you cant re-arm you still have plenty
If you've done everything right, you'll enter hyperspace with ~50% heat or so. If you fire the heat sink too early, you'll heat up much more (it wears off too soon), so you want to fire it as late as possible. It's not critical, just within 90-100%. It also makes the process a lot more involved, which keeps you busy and less thinking about how bored you are as a bonus.
Naturally, IMHO the best ship period to do this in is the ASP. Heres mine:
https://coriolis.io/outfit/asp/03A5A5A4D4A5D5C------0202020205042t43f3f22f.Iw18WQ==.Aw18WQ==
Stats:
395m/s boost unladen, great for getting away
25ly Laden range per jump
31ly unladen range per jump (great for getting back)
290LY per tank of fuel (I've gone 500LY traveling from stations with this fit and still had a third of a tank left)
96 tonns of cargo, more than enough if you stack the missions with sub 10 cargo... Or legitimate players can still stack a good few of the 30-45 cargo smuggle ones.
Cost new: 20.5 million credits (1.1m insurance)
With this ship, I never get caught due to the max thruster and distributors for boosting. It also has an ADS to make some creds on the side. I find 96T of cargo more than enough too, and I generally only need 1 bank to have plenty of fuel when I land 350+ ly away.
So, first off, fuel tanks! I dont know if I never noticed these before, but I'm pretty sure they wernt around the last time I stopped playing. I've taken these fuel tanks and slapped them onto my trade ships to extend their maximum range. Remember, when your on the wire it's time that matters.
But that's not all. I also combine that tactic with a fuel scoop. But wait, didnt I just say that this trick involves eliminating the need to refuel? That's right. Heres what I do.
On your ship, you want to have a range of at least 200 LY before the fuel tanks empty. Most ships have ~ 50 or so, but that's fine. Use fuel tanks to buffer this up. When I setup my internals, my priorities are Cargo>Fuel Tank~=Scoop>Shields.
For your utility slots, equip heat sinks. No, they dont do squat against scans or anything once you've landed at your destination, but they're the kingpin of how this all works.
At each system with a star that you can scoop from, this is what you do:
Step 1) approach star until your in range for maximum refueling rate
Step 1a) Lay on that discovery scanner for extra profit
Step 2) Figure out where the destination waypoint is. If you have to move around the star, do so. Just slow down to 30km/s and sit there.
Note) DO NOT point at your destination. Maintain maximum fuel rate
Step 3) As soon as your FD cools down, hit it. Yes, your still sitting in the star, and are overheating like mad right? Good thing we brought those heat sinks.
Step 4) As soon as your heat reaches 98-100%, drop a sink. This will drag your heat down almost all the way, if not completely for a few seconds.
Note) Your ship will start heating up again hella fast with both the FD and proximity to the star. That's fine.
Step 5) The second your FD is charged, align to your destination and floor it.
That's it! You can add ~25% travel extra range to your ship just by doing this for each bank of heat sinks you use, so every 4 jumps or so. This works because
1) your not wasting any time between jumps. Refueling and jumping is all rolled into 1 action. Your simply using the downtime your FSD takes to scoop a bit of fuel. I dont know the exact numbers, but it's around 20 seconds or so overall.
2) When you jump, your still in the star. Your fuel scoop is working the entire time between FSD cool down, FSD charging, and the count down.
3) Instead of 1 big refueling stop where you stop and wait, you're using that downtime across multiple stars. Being that most these trips are 10+ jumps, theres minutes of downtime that you can be using to fuel.
4) The ultimate endurance of the ship doesnt matter. By the time you make it to your first destination, you get to refuel and the other areas are near by so even if you cant re-arm you still have plenty
If you've done everything right, you'll enter hyperspace with ~50% heat or so. If you fire the heat sink too early, you'll heat up much more (it wears off too soon), so you want to fire it as late as possible. It's not critical, just within 90-100%. It also makes the process a lot more involved, which keeps you busy and less thinking about how bored you are as a bonus.
Naturally, IMHO the best ship period to do this in is the ASP. Heres mine:
https://coriolis.io/outfit/asp/03A5A5A4D4A5D5C------0202020205042t43f3f22f.Iw18WQ==.Aw18WQ==
Stats:
395m/s boost unladen, great for getting away
25ly Laden range per jump
31ly unladen range per jump (great for getting back)
290LY per tank of fuel (I've gone 500LY traveling from stations with this fit and still had a third of a tank left)
96 tonns of cargo, more than enough if you stack the missions with sub 10 cargo... Or legitimate players can still stack a good few of the 30-45 cargo smuggle ones.
Cost new: 20.5 million credits (1.1m insurance)
With this ship, I never get caught due to the max thruster and distributors for boosting. It also has an ADS to make some creds on the side. I find 96T of cargo more than enough too, and I generally only need 1 bank to have plenty of fuel when I land 350+ ly away.
Last edited:
