Tips on gaining mercenary rank?

As per thread title, anyone got hot tips for increasing this rank? I know the usual exploration/ combat/ trade are kinda ridiculously fast, but mercenary, I've:
  • cleared out multiple settlements
  • done lots of foot- based missions
  • cleared 6 low intensity czs and got 1m in bonds
  • done multiple missions to clear scavengers

... but I'm still like 20% into defenceless.

As a contrast, I've successfully sampled one xenobiology thing for any 120k, and I've progressed further than i have in mercenary rank.
 
It's broken so top tip is to not worry about it right now.

Only CZs budge it and they do so extremely slowly. I'm still Mostly Defenseless, which is a bit of a laugh really. Reckon I've killed almost as many on foot as it takes to get to Dangerous in a ship.
 
As per thread title, anyone got hot tips for increasing this rank? I know the usual exploration/ combat/ trade are kinda ridiculously fast, but mercenary, I've:
  • cleared out multiple settlements
  • done lots of foot- based missions
  • cleared 6 low intensity czs and got 1m in bonds
  • done multiple missions to clear scavengers

... but I'm still like 20% into defenceless.

As a contrast, I've successfully sampled one xenobiology thing for any 120k, and I've progressed further than i have in mercenary rank.
Hard CZs. Mantani. Sarpong's rise. There is a pretty good layout for tagging NPC and I'm getting 1/4 of Gunslinger per 1 CZ.
 
Not sure why you'd want to grind it in its broken state right now, I don't think you get anything for it.
 
It's broken so top tip is to not worry about it right now.

Only CZs budge it and they do so extremely slowly. I'm still Mostly Defenseless, which is a bit of a laugh really. Reckon I've killed almost as many on foot as it takes to get to Dangerous in a ship.

Sounds perfect for the ED universe.

"You've massacred people? Meh..... Wait, you've blown up ships?!? How many???"
 
As per thread title, anyone got hot tips for increasing this rank? I know the usual exploration/ combat/ trade are kinda ridiculously fast, but mercenary, I've:
  • cleared out multiple settlements
  • done lots of foot- based missions
  • cleared 6 low intensity czs and got 1m in bonds
  • done multiple missions to clear scavengers

... but I'm still like 20% into defenceless.

As a contrast, I've successfully sampled one xenobiology thing for any 120k, and I've progressed further than i have in mercenary rank.

Agreed with others its broken... grinding hard (i like grinding btw) in various ways and its crawling like i am on the last one 2 or 3 stages for Elite maybe 100 million in bonds countless raids and missions and only ROOKIE

That being said.... doing HIGH CZs seems to be the fastest
 
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I have to applaud the guy who grinded played conflict zones 24/7 since release and already made Elite. o_O

actually... my sons have done 1/3 the work and have reached soldier ... its different for different people. i doubt the guy with elite had the same experience what we have
 
I did a few missions... killed about 150 scavengers in total... Mercenary rank Defenceless 14% wow hahahaha

FDevs.. you c0,ck-up literally everything you touch.

CQC ranks are a mess too.. just look at inara... See kills and actual place in the rankings ;) The shortest you can do CQC Elite is about 3 months..looks like some got awarded Elite II for "doing" it twice since the Odyssey release lol https://inara.cz/galaxy-rankings-cqc/
 
my merc rank is not broken

i see it go up and i have ranked up to warrior

Elite Dangerous Screenshot 2021.06.12 - 20.15.44.111.png
 
my merc rank is not broken

i see it go up and i have ranked up to warrior

View attachment 239664
Did you do CZs?

It goes up with every kill, I can confirm that. But it only goes up "significantly" if you do CZs. High CZs will move it at the sort of rate you'd conisder similar to combat ranking for ships (although still not nearly as fast); the way ship kills work is you get exp for every kill (irrespective of the target) but you get more exp for a kill depending on the target's rank. It's as though Fdev made high intensity CZ targets "elite" and everything else "harmless", in terms of how much you get for each kill. I say that but it's still not quite true: killing just harmless ships will get you to "mostly harmless" after maybe 5-6 kills. Not so with mercenary rank.

It's pretty easy to recreate the issue, too. Start a new commander and spend 3 weeks killing just scavengers and you'll not hit "mostly defenseless" at all. Spend a few hours doing just high intensity CZs and you'll rank up pretty fast.

The only conclusion I can make from this is that they've messed up the way we get exp towards ranking up.
 
Did you do CZs?

It goes up with every kill, I can confirm that. But it only goes up "significantly" if you do CZs. High CZs will move it at the sort of rate you'd conisder similar to combat ranking for ships (although still not nearly as fast); the way ship kills work is you get exp for every kill (irrespective of the target) but you get more exp for a kill depending on the target's rank. It's as though Fdev made high intensity CZ targets "elite" and everything else "harmless", in terms of how much you get for each kill. I say that but it's still not quite true: killing just harmless ships will get you to "mostly harmless" after maybe 5-6 kills. Not so with mercenary rank.

It's pretty easy to recreate the issue, too. Start a new commander and spend 3 weeks killing just scavengers and you'll not hit "mostly defenseless" at all. Spend a few hours doing just high intensity CZs and you'll rank up pretty fast.

The only conclusion I can make from this is that they've messed up the way we get exp towards ranking up.

i did do cz but, i have done alot raids and assassination's too

i just ranked up to warrior in a settlement raid
 
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