You can make money by bounty hunting
- Thread starter Stigbob
- Start date
You sure can can't you! Onyl really found this out for myself today killing Cobras in the Dakvar RES for the Tanmark community goal. Made over 275k in under an hour which compares really favourably with what I was doing in rare trades plus it does wonders for your combat ranking 
As mentioned in another thread, you can hunt Cobras in most good RES sites, which pay approx 18-20k per kill.
Killing one of these a minute or so usually nets me around 700k-1.2m per hour at the moment.
I pretty much ignore anything else, apart from killing the occasional Conda if I get bored.
Killing one of these a minute or so usually nets me around 700k-1.2m per hour at the moment.
I pretty much ignore anything else, apart from killing the occasional Conda if I get bored.
Definitely! I just started bounty hunting at Nav Beacons yesterday. It's superb, and a pleasantly energising experience compared to rare trading and exploration. I made about 150KCr in 15 minutes this morning, and 400KCr in an hour yesterday (my first sortie), chewing through Sidewinders and Vipers for 6-10K apiece in a few seconds, and dogfighting Cobras and a Python for more fun and money. Those Deadly Eagles are actually the hardest to kill. They're fast, and use FA OFF to full advantage. I had one with Cannons which I ended up running from. A-Class Cobra vs Deady Eagle. 0 - 1 to Eagle.
I must be doing something wrong then. I'm currently hunting at a res that, 95% of the time, spawns pirate cobras and I usually get about 10-15K per kill (with the occasional 20K bounty, but thats kinda rare). With the downtime inbetween fights taken into account, as the targets tend to spawn all over the res site) I usually end up somewhere in the 150-250k Cred per hour range.
Also, don't bother going for the bigger ships unless you're just taking it easy for kills and bounties. The kill reward for an Anaconda is in the region of 80-120k, but it takes a lot longer (-time), uses more ammo (-creds) and if you use shield cells or take any damage thats also bad (-creds for repair/restock).
"Don't Kill Big, Kill Smart"
At a resource site, fly slightly out of the asteroid belt, don't hang around in the middle of it too much and always keep at a low speed (don't sit and wait for stuff to spawn) - the cobras and their ilk usually spawn more often slightly out of the 'roids belt, whereas I'#ve noticed you get much more in the way of Sideys and "Clean" ships inside the belt itself.
Next, I almost religiously look at the Contacts panel every few seconds - you will see unknown Cobras appear on there muuuuuuch sooner than you would spot them in real space.
Also, look around for the tell-tale pew-pew lines of two ships in a battle. One will always be Wanted. They will often be out of range of your scanners, (>7k away), so these won't show up on Contacts.
"Don't Kill Big, Kill Smart"
At a resource site, fly slightly out of the asteroid belt, don't hang around in the middle of it too much and always keep at a low speed (don't sit and wait for stuff to spawn) - the cobras and their ilk usually spawn more often slightly out of the 'roids belt, whereas I'#ve noticed you get much more in the way of Sideys and "Clean" ships inside the belt itself.
Next, I almost religiously look at the Contacts panel every few seconds - you will see unknown Cobras appear on there muuuuuuch sooner than you would spot them in real space.
Also, look around for the tell-tale pew-pew lines of two ships in a battle. One will always be Wanted. They will often be out of range of your scanners, (>7k away), so these won't show up on Contacts.
Last edited:
You can make money doing just about anything in the game, the problem is you can't make enough money. Some of us would like to actually try more than the cheapest six ships without having to grind for days on end.
Edit: I say "days", I mean a lot longer. If you've made 20 million since launch as a bounty hunter, you can expect to buy the anaconda in about another year and a half.
Edit: I say "days", I mean a lot longer. If you've made 20 million since launch as a bounty hunter, you can expect to buy the anaconda in about another year and a half.
Last edited:
Personally I use 2 class 2 medium fixed beams and a pair of class 1 gimballed cannons, they do less damage in a hurry but you can spend twice the time hunting before you need to dock and buy ammo. Also because the gimballed cannons are mounted above the midline of my viper I can hit with the beams and the cannons at the same time whilst pulling up (which fits my flying style).
So sick of hearing this. Whiney *
Maybe wait until you can pay real money for a shortcut pack.
You could spend 2 hours running rares then combat. Rinse and repeat.
You don't have to be a trader to make money. You can trade on the side...
You can choose what you do.
I'm currently using 4x Pulse lasers on a Cobra, Maxed out powerplant/Distributor - working on my shield gen, but beyond that... in 30min I've racked up 100-150k. I'm not picky, I eat eagles that bite off more than they can chew and then cannibalize sidewinders and cobra's. I just need to learn to ease off the trigger just hair. While it is hilarious to play 'dodge the security', make sure it says wanted and not 'unknown/scanning'... Repair bills are smaller when station security isn't shooting you in the ass on the way in to clear up that bounty on your head....
I like dog-fighting what would I do with an anaconda ?. The whole point of this thread is that I play the game in a way I enjoy and make enough to afford a well equipped vulture later today which is pretty much my personal pinnacle ship.
Trading bores me I've done two rares runs in an asp (bought with bounty hunting profit) and the only part of it I enjoyed was getting interdicted. I made money by doing it, but it was a grind and I'll not do it again. Its about finding a game play style you enjoy.
I tried it and it was powerful you can run a medium beam pretty much constantly but it steers like a bus even with A class thrusters (in comparison to a stripped down viper with a mass of less than 110 tonnes) it also takes a long time to build up speed and stop which I don't like.
Its OK but not my thing, if I ever try trading again I'll use one because they are OK in a fight and can carry some cargo. But it's a comedown from a viper.
Edit : sorry you asked for a cobra comparison, I cant answer that for you I've bought a cobra a few times and A-rated it but I don't like the weapon placement and always flog it and go back to the viper
Its OK but not my thing, if I ever try trading again I'll use one because they are OK in a fight and can carry some cargo. But it's a comedown from a viper.
Edit : sorry you asked for a cobra comparison, I cant answer that for you I've bought a cobra a few times and A-rated it but I don't like the weapon placement and always flog it and go back to the viper
Last edited:
I think the received wisdom would be Cobra or Viper, mostly due to costs if you get damage, plus the smaller target size. If you've ever fought an Asp, you literally cannot miss them. A fully kitted Viper costs around the same as a base Asp, and is much, much more fun to fly. Damage costs are about 1/20th. I bounty hunt with a fully A-class Cobra. C1 Beams. C2 MCs. Rebuy cost is around 350K.
Conceivably the Asp would be better against large targets like Pythons and Anacondas, but the risk of damage with them is higher still. It's bounty hunting. Pick on stuff slightly weaker than you, and keep going until you run out of MC ammo.
EDIT: My A-Class Cobra will easily take out NPC Pythons, so long as you have chaff and keep underneath them, which isn't too hard with A Class Thrusters and some practice. As I said before, the Eagle is the hardest ship to fight in a Cobra. They're so, so fast, and the newer AI uses FA OFF, so they can actually get underneath an A Class Shield Generator and start to do hull damage. I haven't come across an NPC Viper or Cobra which can get beyond the first circle of the shields.
Last edited:
Definitely! I just started bounty hunting at Nav Beacons yesterday. It's superb, and a pleasantly energising experience compared to rare trading and exploration. I made about 150KCr in 15 minutes this morning, and 400KCr in an hour yesterday (my first sortie), chewing through Sidewinders and Vipers for 6-10K apiece in a few seconds, and dogfighting Cobras and a Python for more fun and money. Those Deadly Eagles are actually the hardest to kill. They're fast, and use FA OFF to full advantage. I had one with Cannons which I ended up running from. A-Class Cobra vs Deady Eagle. 0 - 1 to Eagle.
What weapon loadout you gone with? I recently bought an Eagle and fitted it with 2 beam lasers and a multicannon (the 6 barreled minigun) - not taking them out in a few seconds but it sure beats trading and the sun makes a good background as well
I've had zero problems with my Cobra, I don't have any A rated gear yet, And I'm running 4xpulses, Eagles actually die so fast I hit them them until the bar drops and then switch to a new target (Has anyone ever had a ship warp out, and then received the bounty after they FSD stating they were destroyed?) And thats with Flight assist still on. I've circled nose to nose with sidewinders and eagles a a few times (close enough our shields were snapping at one another while we emptied everything we had into one another. Hairiest 15 seconds of my life and scared me when the windows rattled and my screen whited out when the eagle went up in flames) I think I'll stick to my Cobra then, I like it much more than the viper for some reason, and I can always dump extra junk outta it and fit it for mining and combat at the same time (handy when I get bored and want to play 'EvE online: Dangerous Edition')