Newcomer / Intro Ways to Increase Combat Rank?

BiFSXFan99

B
I've been playing for a little bit now, but there are still a lot of things I don't know fully, such as every way to increase the combat rank. Obviously, doing missions or activities that result in the destruction of another ship would go towards the rank progression. But how about pirating missions (and activity)? Does doing the destroy sentry skimmers also increase combat rank? I'd assume they would since the recommended rank always shows a combat rank, but I can't tell. So, if possible, could I have a nice chunk of information that tells me all of the possible ways to make that rank go up? I'm not looking for the fastest, just any and all. Sure, I could do the fastest way to grind the rank and remember that I pressed [X] buttons for [Y] hours, or I can look back and remember all the different fun times I had earning that rank.

Thank you for your time,

Commander Jakob S. Eisebraun
 

Dommarraa

Dommarraa
I am pretty sure Skimmers dont count, and slightly less sure that SLF dont count either.

Combat Rank is gained by killing ships. The higher the rank of the victim, the more rank you gain. It has nothing to do with the size of the ship or anything else, just the pilots rank.
You get 0 rank for killing ships more than 2 levels below you (it may not be 2, but thats close enough).
 

SMcA

SMcA
Dommarraa said:
I am pretty sure Skimmers dont count, and slightly less sure that SLF dont count either.

Combat Rank is gained by killing ships. The higher the rank of the victim, the more rank you gain. It has nothing to do with the size of the ship or anything else, just the pilots rank.
You get 0 rank for killing ships more than 2 levels below you (it may not be 2, but thats close enough).
Click to expand...

Here are the relative scores for player’s ranks against their targets.

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Combat#Ranks_and_experience
 

aRJay

aRJay
Be aware that in addition to taking a percentage of any profit you make while you are employing them NPC crew take a large chunk of any ranking points you earn from combat, IIRC it's around half of them.
 

ellay

ellay
Any ship kills count towards your rank,

When you're pushing for the higher rankings, you really want to be in conflict zones, where there are plenty of targets, but the risk of attack is obviously much higher.

The best place to start is at a Nav beacon, there'll be less aggressive wanted ships there, and system security will also give you a hand

If you're inexperienced, there will be smaller wanted freighters you can attack.

Pirates will scan you an leave you alone if you're not carrying any cargo, but if you decide to attack them then be aware that they tend to be more aggressive, and often fly in wings
 
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Dommarraa

Dommarraa
Once you get to Deadly, you will be hunting in Compromised Nav Beacons (Max Number of Small Elite Wanted Ships) as otherwise it will take FOREVER to get to Elite.
Haz Res are OK, there are a decent number of Elites but they tend to be bigger and take longer to kill. Anywhere else it utterly pointless.
 

Factabulous

Factabulous
Dommarraa said:
I am pretty sure Skimmers dont count
Click to expand...

Pretty sure they do ;) My main did zero combat for the first two years - when skimmers were added I thought I would take a pot-shot in the hope they wouldn't count - and ended up at 9% Harmless :D

So they don't count for much, but they do give combat rank.
 

Maenden

Maenden
Dommarraa said:
Once you get to Deadly, you will be hunting in Compromised Nav Beacons (Max Number of Small Elite Wanted Ships) as otherwise it will take FOREVER to get to Elite.
Haz Res are OK, there are a decent number of Elites but they tend to be bigger and take longer to kill. Anywhere else it utterly pointless.
Click to expand...

I've got to Deadly.
I don't go anywhere near Compromised Nav Beacons or Haz Res thingys.

I just wander about battering things that annoy me.
It's taken me about a month to get to 11%.
To be honest I'm not really bothered about bumping up my status.
It just happens.
 

Rob_the_Sparky

R
Maenden said:
I've got to Deadly.
I don't go anywhere near Compromised Nav Beacons or Haz Res thingys.

I just wander about battering things that annoy me.
It's taken me about a month to get to 11%.
To be honest I'm not really bothered about bumping up my status.
It just happens.
Click to expand...

Similar for me, killing off mission attackers is slowly raising my rank but if I want to move it up a few percent it would be a CNB that I would be looking for. Very similar to a HazRes but without the rocks to mass lock you if you get it wrong. Not done bounty hunting for ages though so my last Elite might take "a while" to complete.
 

Simon Templar

Simon Templar
I'm a tycoon at trading but was behind on combat. Since I was near the top of entrepreneur I have had a pretty well kitted out T10, with decent weapons/defences and a fighter bay. So I started taking haulage missions above my rank - tycoon and elite. The guys interdicting me are all dangerous-elite, and as I stack missions I often get more than one on a run. Just dealing with those in the margins of my trading moved me from entrepreneur/82% to tycoon/4% and from combat novice/41% to competent/13% in the past fortnight (and that around two jobs and four kids, so I'm not just gaming endlessly).

I get that it gets slower as you move up the ranks, but point is, my ranks started shifting pretty quickly once I was able to take missions above my recommended level, and even if my pilots (I rotate two, so they're both improving, in case I lose one) are nabbing some of my credit, they're the reason I can cope and there's still plenty of meat left on the bone for me.

(This approach also made me conveniently rich, so once I am moving towards dangerous I guess I will pick up a Corvette or something and focus on the combat from time to time.)
 

BiFSXFan99

B
Thanks for all the replies. I'll be trying the sentry missions soon enough to see how the fare on the rank progression, so I'll see how that goes. Otherwise I'll just shoot ships themselves to make better progress if I want. Thanks again.
 

Snowymonk

Snowymonk
Taking out the Thargoid scouts is another good / quick way of increasing rank.

They are reasonably easy to take down and are all deemed Elite rank.
The only risk is that they swamp you with their numbers. If you can survive their initial onslaught in a NHSS they become a good ranking option
 

Mxpower76

Mxpower76
Snowymonk said:
Taking out the Thargoid scouts is another good / quick way of increasing rank.

They are reasonably easy to take down and are all deemed Elite rank.
The only risk is that they swamp you with their numbers. If you can survive their initial onslaught in a NHSS they become a good ranking option
Click to expand...

This.

I've heard a scout is worth 4x the skill points compared to an elite NPC. And a threat lvl 4 usually has 4 scouts. So decent rank points and not over whelming when it comes to the amount of enemys. Sometimes you'll get human NPCs "helping" out.
 

d8veh

d8veh
Dommarraa said:
Once you get to Deadly, you will be hunting in Compromised Nav Beacons (Max Number of Small Elite Wanted Ships) as otherwise it will take FOREVER to get to Elite.
Haz Res are OK, there are a decent number of Elites but they tend to be bigger and take longer to kill. Anywhere else it utterly pointless.
Click to expand...
Unless something has changed in the last couple of weeks, high RES as always been the place to increase your combat rank the fastest. Haz RES and CNB are not bad, but kill rate is lower than a High RES and the rank of the ships to kill there are similar if not the same.

If you're serious about ranking up in a high RES, you need a very fast ship, ideally with long range weapons and sensors. The reason high RES is the fastest is that the police will help you there and you still get maximum points. That's why long range weapons and/or a fast ship helps because you need to get a few shots in before the feds kill the bad guys. I ranked up to Elite in Combat using only a Sidewinder in less time than most players did it in their battleships. I reckon that the total combat time was something like 150 to 180 hours averaging around 35 to 40 kills per hour. I can only estimate that. It took me 432 hours from start to triple elite in the Sidewinder, and the longest part was the trade rank because I wasn't used to doing trading, so it took a while to figure out the optimal ranking methods.

Do not use an SLF to help you rank up, otherwise it will take you literally twice as long.

I would add that I haven't compared High RES with Thargoid Scouts. In the right ship it might be faster to kill them.
 
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