I've had my Eagle for a few days now and almost have enough for the Cobra MK3 already. The main things needed are FSD wake scanner, Interdiction beam, a more powerful KWS. I don't have enough room on the Eagle for everything I want like missile launchers and chaffs and the turreted missile defense systems. I don't want to take out my cargo bay for the Interdiction beam because I like doing the random hauling missions for 10-15k each
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Newcomer / Intro What's needed to be a real bounty hunter?
- Thread starter PeeB4uGoToBed
- Start date
Welllllll.......
Shipwise.. anything will do as the ship is merely an extension of the pilot or intelligence that is within.
Pilot: gotta be cold, ruthless, willing to get the job done with maximum efficiency and minimum risk to self or ship. Planning is imperative... gotta know where your mark is before he gets wind of the fact that you are hunting him. Once you find your mark... watch for idiot behavior that will make your job easier.... going in like gangbusters is great for Bollywood but you get noticed and marked as a Hunter. Then like a Very Large Shark in a very small lagoon,,, all the prey fish scatter and hide until the threat is known to be gone. not cool at all.
Shipwise.. anything will do as the ship is merely an extension of the pilot or intelligence that is within.
Pilot: gotta be cold, ruthless, willing to get the job done with maximum efficiency and minimum risk to self or ship. Planning is imperative... gotta know where your mark is before he gets wind of the fact that you are hunting him. Once you find your mark... watch for idiot behavior that will make your job easier.... going in like gangbusters is great for Bollywood but you get noticed and marked as a Hunter. Then like a Very Large Shark in a very small lagoon,,, all the prey fish scatter and hide until the threat is known to be gone. not cool at all.
LOL 
Except the targets usually don't behave like fish. Wasps, more like.
Actually you don't need the interdictor. Not necessarily. If you spot a wanted ship in Supercruise, just make yourself a tasty target. Get in front of him, show him your back. Wiggle it a little. Usually it doesn't take long before he interdicts YOU. Then you just pull back your throttle and submit. It has one more plus side - no hull damage from emergency stop.
Although one thing can be priceless, especially if you plan on bigger... ehm... fish. Well, two, actually. If your target has turrets (And higher ranks have them) you need chaff launcher. And if that fails Shield cell is a nice "oh crap" button to save your day.
Except the targets usually don't behave like fish. Wasps, more like.
Actually you don't need the interdictor. Not necessarily. If you spot a wanted ship in Supercruise, just make yourself a tasty target. Get in front of him, show him your back. Wiggle it a little. Usually it doesn't take long before he interdicts YOU. Then you just pull back your throttle and submit. It has one more plus side - no hull damage from emergency stop.
Although one thing can be priceless, especially if you plan on bigger... ehm... fish. Well, two, actually. If your target has turrets (And higher ranks have them) you need chaff launcher. And if that fails Shield cell is a nice "oh crap" button to save your day.
I liked the idea of playing a 'proper' bounty hunter too, but it just isn't worth it at the moment.
I have given up on the wake scanner. Tried them in beta and gamma, and once since live, and have never been able to find any target by following his wake, so not sure if they are even working.
In addition, Unlike some previous elite games, bounty hunting no longer relies on you actually tracking a specific target through space, unfortunately. you simply get a tip from an npc in a uss, then go to that system and trawl through more uss's until the missiontarget appears. Which is a pity, there was a lot of depth in analysing exit clouds, ensuring your jump drive was fast enough that you could beat your target to the destination and then waiting by the exit cloud for him to appear so you could blow him away - since timeshifting is difficult, if not impossible to achieve in a realtime multiplayer game, this doesn't work.
interdiction can be fun, but is a relatively slow and sporadic process. Waiting in the middle of a system, looking at all the fsd contact list, finding a viable target, closing on it, getting behind it, inderdicting it, then scanning and killing the one target, then re-entering fsd to start the hunt again - can be a twenty minute wait between payouts
missile defence systems are similarly almost useless. While they do have (situational) usefullness, in a cobra or eagle, you can dodge almost any missile thrown your way. In addition, they dont seem to do a hell of a lot against shields, so more often than not, i just let them smack my shields to almost no effect (especially in a cobra)
in essence, to be a bounty hunter as the game stands right now, all you really need are some functioning weapons and a kws
Upgrade your power distribution systems for max recharge rates, your powerplant to allow to to fit more/better weapons and shields and go nuts. Not a lot of room for customisation in the eagle, but once you get to the viper and cobra, you get a few more slots to start looking at shield cells and utility mounts etc
I have given up on the wake scanner. Tried them in beta and gamma, and once since live, and have never been able to find any target by following his wake, so not sure if they are even working.
In addition, Unlike some previous elite games, bounty hunting no longer relies on you actually tracking a specific target through space, unfortunately. you simply get a tip from an npc in a uss, then go to that system and trawl through more uss's until the missiontarget appears. Which is a pity, there was a lot of depth in analysing exit clouds, ensuring your jump drive was fast enough that you could beat your target to the destination and then waiting by the exit cloud for him to appear so you could blow him away - since timeshifting is difficult, if not impossible to achieve in a realtime multiplayer game, this doesn't work.
interdiction can be fun, but is a relatively slow and sporadic process. Waiting in the middle of a system, looking at all the fsd contact list, finding a viable target, closing on it, getting behind it, inderdicting it, then scanning and killing the one target, then re-entering fsd to start the hunt again - can be a twenty minute wait between payouts
missile defence systems are similarly almost useless. While they do have (situational) usefullness, in a cobra or eagle, you can dodge almost any missile thrown your way. In addition, they dont seem to do a hell of a lot against shields, so more often than not, i just let them smack my shields to almost no effect (especially in a cobra)
in essence, to be a bounty hunter as the game stands right now, all you really need are some functioning weapons and a kws
Upgrade your power distribution systems for max recharge rates, your powerplant to allow to to fit more/better weapons and shields and go nuts. Not a lot of room for customisation in the eagle, but once you get to the viper and cobra, you get a few more slots to start looking at shield cells and utility mounts etc
LOL
Except the targets usually don't behave like fish. Wasps, more like.
Actually you don't need the interdictor. Not necessarily. If you spot a wanted ship in Supercruise, just make yourself a tasty target. Get in front of him, show him your back. Wiggle it a little. Usually it doesn't take long before he interdicts YOU. Then you just pull back your throttle and submit. It has one more plus side - no hull damage from emergency stop.
Although one thing can be priceless, especially if you plan on bigger... ehm... fish. Well, two, actually. If your target has turrets (And higher ranks have them) you need chaff launcher. And if that fails Shield cell is a nice "oh crap" button to save your day.
I noticed that after I bought my interdictor, I find it hard to use it and most of the time when I do see someone in supercruise that's wanted, he'll interdict me like you said, I'm about to sell it back because I can hardly use the thing
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Yeah, I've been focusing on my weapons and power distributor as well as power supply, and unfortunately I have been having a hard time finding better gimballed pulse lasers and multi-cannons. I haven't tried any other weapons yet like the rocket launchers and mine fields
If by 'better' you mean higher rated, you won't find any.
Unlike internal modules, weapons don't seem to have multiple versions with different ratings. Instead, their rating is fixed according to the weapon type and class of the weapon.
For example, all Class 1 fixed Pulse Lasers are rating F. There are no higher (or lower) rated Class 1 fixed Pulse Lasers. A Class 2 fixed Pulse Laser is rating E.
You can check the stats of most weapons on the wiki. For example, the following page shows all the types of Pulse Laser that are available:
http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Pulse_Laser
(Apparently in some of the pre-release stages there were 'special' versions of some weapons like 'Overcharged' or 'Low Energy' versions, but afaik no one has found any of these since release.)
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If you try and bounty Hunt in an Eagle chances are you wont last that long. the best approach depends on what you mean by bounty hunting. if you mean taking missions for 160k then it is likely your prey will be in an Anaconda or the like so you will need shield cells and some serious punch. I have gimballed beam lasers and twin missiles on my cobra. The main thing however is to get an A4 power plant and A3 power distributor so you can fire for longer, fly faster and charge shields
If you mean bounty hunting by making a living catching wanted 'bad guys' just go to any resource extraction site and fill your boots- they are everywhere.
If you mean bounty hunting by making a living catching wanted 'bad guys' just go to any resource extraction site and fill your boots- they are everywhere.
I'm hoping to save up for the Cobra next, I just upgraded the hell out of my Eagle, spent nearly a million on it so far
Is the Cobra the next step up in fighters or is it the Viper? I hear a lot of people use the Cobra for trading...
Viper is the better dedicated bounty hunting tool. Cobra is ok if you also want to trade. Personally I have a T6 for trade and a viper for bounty hunting.
I knuckled down to trading early on to earn enough funds for the T6 and now that pays for itself and gives me the beans to buy vipers in whatever system I find myself. I tried a cobra but I prefer the viper. Besides the viper is cheap to fix and maintain and is faster.
I knuckled down to trading early on to earn enough funds for the T6 and now that pays for itself and gives me the beans to buy vipers in whatever system I find myself. I tried a cobra but I prefer the viper. Besides the viper is cheap to fix and maintain and is faster.
I forgot you have to store any extra ships where you want them because you can't pick them up anywhere, I'd rather keep it simple and stick solely to bounty hunting until I'm sick of it th en trade in my bounty hunting ship for a trader
InMemoriamSirocco
Banned
All you need is a battle-ready ship. FSD Wake Scanner, Interdiction module, Kill Warrant Scanner... all of these are just extras.
What you really need is an armed ship with good shields, thrusters, weapons and armor. Then you just have to go to any resource extraction site and scan for wanted ships.
NOTE: Your basic sidewinder is not the best bounty-hunting machine, HOWEVER it is free to replace, if unmodified. Keep that in mind!
What you as a pilot need is EXTREME trigger discipline. NEVER fire on a vessel that you have not yet scanned for "Wanted" status, whether that vessel shows as red and is attacking you or not is irrelevant. Also, proceed with extreme caution around Authority vessels. If you so much as graze their shields briefly, you will immediately become a target to them, get fined and achieve Wanted status yourself.
If you do so, try to reach an outpost (better not a station if possible) where you can pay the fine and get rid of your wanted status again, BEFORE you continue on any bounty hunting endeavour.
What you really need is an armed ship with good shields, thrusters, weapons and armor. Then you just have to go to any resource extraction site and scan for wanted ships.
NOTE: Your basic sidewinder is not the best bounty-hunting machine, HOWEVER it is free to replace, if unmodified. Keep that in mind!
What you as a pilot need is EXTREME trigger discipline. NEVER fire on a vessel that you have not yet scanned for "Wanted" status, whether that vessel shows as red and is attacking you or not is irrelevant. Also, proceed with extreme caution around Authority vessels. If you so much as graze their shields briefly, you will immediately become a target to them, get fined and achieve Wanted status yourself.
If you do so, try to reach an outpost (better not a station if possible) where you can pay the fine and get rid of your wanted status again, BEFORE you continue on any bounty hunting endeavour.
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I've been bounty hunting fine in my Sidewinder and Eagle. I hang around Nav Beacons as I come across lots of wanted ships that way (if it's a busy system). The Eagle has been great for me and I've not been blown up yet (touch wood). Just learn to pick your battles. In saying that, I still took on an Anaconda and almost had him (he was at 11% hull and jumped, which was before I had leant about targetting subsystems).
So depending on how confident you are in your ship and your skills (both in combat and escape), you decide on how skilled a target you are willing to take on. Bounties vary, but I get high bounties even for easy relatively harmless ships. So some nights it pays well, other nights not so much, but I enjoy it, so that's the key. I'm saving up for an Adder next but will keep my Eagle as I enjoy it and will change between trading, bounty hunting and exploring depending on my mood and keep plenty of ships around the place for me to change between.
So depending on how confident you are in your ship and your skills (both in combat and escape), you decide on how skilled a target you are willing to take on. Bounties vary, but I get high bounties even for easy relatively harmless ships. So some nights it pays well, other nights not so much, but I enjoy it, so that's the key. I'm saving up for an Adder next but will keep my Eagle as I enjoy it and will change between trading, bounty hunting and exploring depending on my mood and keep plenty of ships around the place for me to change between.
All you really need for bounty hunting is a Kill Warrant Scanner, an FSD Interdictor and an Anarchy system. From my (limited) experience most NPCs in an anarchy system have a bounty on them somewhere, just interdict everything and see what is what.
Obviously the better your ship and upgrades the easier your life will be, but you can stick to interdicting smaller vessels who's rank is harmless initially and build up as you go.
Obviously the better your ship and upgrades the easier your life will be, but you can stick to interdicting smaller vessels who's rank is harmless initially and build up as you go.