If you're anything like me, you wanna blow stuff (and people) up. That's why you're here, it's why you bought the game. All this trading and grinding and moneymaking is just what you have to do to get to the murderin'. There's a few rules I learned the hard way that I think vastly increase your efficiency in kills/hour and your sustainability in combat.

1) Never enter combat without your rebuy cost x 2.

This should be pretty self-explanatory. You don't want to get into a rough situation where your ship is breaking apart because you accidentally ticked off seven System Defense Ships and now you're going to be blown up before you can warp out of there and have to go all the way back to Sidewindersville. If you don't have your rebuy cost twice over, go get it, then come back to fight.

2) Shields, Shields, Shields, Shields, Shields!!

It doesn't matter how fast and maneuverable and sleek your Fer-de-lance is, how great you are at staying out of the line of fire, etc. Sooner or later that Anaconda you've been beating down will get a lucky roll over on you or you will find yourself entangled with more than one fighter at a time. You need to be able to take a beating as well as give one. If you are here to fight, your biggest interior slot should go to the strongest shield you can get your hands on.

For this reason, I recommend Aisling Duval as your Power Play contact. She kind of sucks, and those Prismatic Shields eat up a LOT of power, but if you want to take a licking and keep on dishing it back out, you will find no better. If you don't like her, just dump her after you get your shield.

3) Any damage is too much damage!

This sort of ties in with the shields. If you are taking hull damage, you did something wrong. You picked the wrong opponent or let them get in too many hits, or shouldn't have taken on that wing. As soon as you are taking damage, LEAVE! I know how tempting it is to stay and WIN that fight, dangit, but it is not worth the risk. Jet out, get repaired, and come back. Do not risk getting your power plant or FSD or engines getting blown out and being stranded. If your shields have failed, you have failed, just go and live to fight another day.

Every single combat death I have ever had (aside from accidentally shooting a massive wing of space cops) has come from trying to 'push through' that combat even though I was taking hull damage. That bounty or those Power Play points are NOT WORTH the trouble.

UPDATE: This isn't as important in a small, inexpensive fighter, like an Eagle or a Viper. This mainly applies to larger, more expensive ships that will cost you millions in insurance. 100k rebuy can be replaced inside of 20 minutes. 10-30 million on rebuy costs will sting a lot more.

4) Predators do not eat other predators.

You eat prey. If you are alone, going one-on-one, or you are in a tank and taking on a wing, you go after ships and combat experience that you KNOW you can beat. If you are always taking hull damage when you tangle with someone who is Dangerous, stop doing that. If you are in a Python, do not go pick a fight with that Anaconda. It just isn't worth it. The risk vs. reward isn't worth it, the time it takes to kill them isn't worth it, spending all that ammo isn't worth it, waiting for your shields to recharge- You get the idea.

This was by far my biggest mistake I was always making when I got my shiny new Python. I would think I could go after other Pythons or even Anacondas, and then wind up with 50% of my hull left and all my missiles gone, limping back home after only 20 minutes in the Res site with a measily 150k in bounties to show for it and half of that got spent on repair costs.

Eat smaller fish than yourself, except in certain circumstances outlined below.

UPDATE: Recent comments have led me to figure my guide could benefit from discussing a few different ways you can go about your murder-for-money spree. Please keep in mind that most of this takes into account that you will be doing PvE, not PvP. PvP may be more fun, it can certainly be more thrilling and challenging, but it does not make much money. The money is in PvE.

Fighter Pilot

This is probably the most 'thrill-seeking' of the bunch, and certainly requires a great deal of skill to pull off effectively. You are in a fast, manueverable ship, and your main line of defense is on avoiding damage, not overcoming it. Eagle, Imperial Eagle, Imperial Courier, Vipers, Vultures, and Fer-de-Lances are all suitable for this role. There are others you can do this with, but these seem to be the most popular. I can't say anything about Federal ships, as I am not Fed and haven't tried them.

Now the first thing you will very quickly find out is just how squishy you are. You can't go toe-to-toe with hardly anything without taking damage. As a Shield Tank pilot myself, I can safely say there is nothing that makes me smile more than an Eagle pilot who doesn't know what they're doing letting me roll over and see them. It's like pushing over a toddler. You have to have SKILL to do this. You have to master toggling flight assist, and all your thruster maneuvers, and memorize where all the blind spots of the bigger ships are. An unmodified Fer-de-Lance will go down in less than 30 seconds if you get caught in a Tank's sights and don't know how to get out of them.

You should be running a Bi-Weave shield if you are in one of these things. Why Bi-Weave and not, say, Prismatic? Because Bi-Weave has a higher recharge rate. You should be spending more time NOT getting hit than getting hit or, again, you are doing it wrong. A couple seconds of taking a few shots will get repaired by spending 10 or so seconds out of the line of fire. Stronger shields don't make much of a difference for these smaller vessels simply because they don't add enough strength to make much of a difference. Your main defense is avoidance, not your shields.

For your weapons, that is largely up to you, but fixed do the most damage and, as a highly-maneuverable craft, you can more easily line up those rail gun shots. Even the mighty Corvette/Anaconda/Cutter pilots fear taking these shots to their very, very visible and exposed Power Plants. Learn how to land these fixed shots for maximum burst damage and you will be quite a force to be reckoned with.

Your focus is on staying behind the enemy, in the blind spots where their turrets can't reach you. Turrets will be the bane of your existence, so for that reason, I would recommend having at least one chaff on board. If you screw up and your shields fail, go silent running until you are out of the line of fire. Burn some heat sinks if you have to, but as long as you are silent running, gimbals and turret weapons can not lock on you. This makes bigger, slower ships virtually unable to target something that's speedy enough.

This style takes both a lot of practice, and you definitely want Engineering mods! Overcharged weapons, and maximum thruster speed are a must, and you would also do well to increase your power plant capacity and anything else that will let you move faster and hit harder. Another great investment is your FSD charge speed for when you need to bail. This will cut down on the time larger ships use to mass lock you and allow a speedier getaway!

Stealth Fighter

I only recently learned about this, and I won't claim to be an expert. Having tried it out a few days, I can definitely say that this is a build meant solely for PvP, not PvE. AI Pilots are better at keeping track of you than Human ones. This method essentially removes you (mostly) from radar until you're within about 1km and prevents gimballed and turreted weapons from firing on you. This is also VASTLY more effective in a wing, as I will explain in a moment.

Basically, in this mode you eschew shields entirely, get a Mirrored Hull at the outfitters, equip yourself with high-damage weapons, and use silent running toggling and the occasional heat sink or chaff to keep yourself safe.

The Diamondback Scout is the most popular weapon of choice due to relative small size, manueverability, decent weapon loadout, and, most of all, excellent heat management. Other popular crafts seem to be the Fer-de-Lance and the Imperial Eagle.

Heat management is the most important aspect here, as it lets you do silent running for longer periods of time. One tactic is to use an A-rated power plant one size category lower than you can optimally have (so a 2A plant if you have room for a Size 3). What this does is let you toggle non-combat-essential systems (Frame Shift Drive, Interdictor, Life Support, cargo hatch, etc) off whenever you deploy your weapons and exceed your maximum power supply. It does this automatically for you, so you don't have to worry about doing it yourself. It is also imperative that you master toggling Flight Assist and your thrusters off when to let yourself 'glide' towards your target without alerting them. Heat sinks can help if you get in a situation where you need to run silent longer than your heat management will allow.

Your tactics are primarily the same as the fighter, however with an important twist: You run normally when firing your weapons, then engage silent running and get out of the line of fire when your target starts firing at you. This is where your mirrored hull comes in handy, as fixed kinetic weapons are notoriously hard to land, especially on a ship like an Eagle, so your enemy will mostly have to rely on beam weapons to try and land hits on you. It is also more effective in a wing, as you are exposed and vulnerable and visible while you are firing your weapons. So when you go solo, the enemy is constantly firing at you no matter what, which makes it more difficult to effectively fire back while dodging. If you are in a wing, whoever the focus is on can go silent and become virtually untargetable by the big, dumb tank, while the others hammer it. As someone else gets targeted, the original toggles silent running off, and the new target turns it on.

This method is VERY successful against large, slow ships, allowing small, inexpensive vessels to take them down.

The Shield Tank

It's really quite simple: Be the biggest bully on the playground. Have the strongest shields and most deadly weapons. This is easy in the 'capital' ships (Corvette/Anaconda/Cutter), but an Engineer-tricked-out Python can take down an un-Engineered capital ship pretty okay. This method is the easiest to employ, but is vulnerable to the dreaded Stealth Fighter if you don't know what you're doing.

Simply put, you get your NOT BI-WEAVE SHIELDS, stack shield boosters, get some Shield Cell Banks for recharging them, and seek to outlast anything that comes against you. You do NOT choose Bi-Weave shields if you expect to be engaged in PvP. They're not even great for PvE against enemies higher than Master-level. Simply put, shield strength is more important than recharge because shields do not recharge under fire. You are big and slow and will be under fire the entire time. I recommend Prismatic Shields that Aisling Duval gives you for their superior strength, which stacks nicely with those shield boosters.

For your weapons, I do like 'all-kinetic', but doing that means I will run like hell if I meet someone in a Stealth Fighter, because I will never get a hit in unless they do something incredibly stupid. If you expect to be in PvP, you will need at least some thermal, probably at least one turret for those pesky Eagles, and you will have to learn to use gimballed weapons as fixed when your opponents use chaff or silent running.

Your tactics are pretty simple: You're not going to be moving around all that much compared to other crafts. You NEED to know how to roll your ship with maximum efficiency and speed to keep the speedy bastards in your sights. You NEED to know how to use your lateral (side to side and up and down) thrusters, you NEED to know how to toggle Flight Assist off for faster turning, and you NEED to know when to use reverse thrusters for faster turning. Just because you're bigger doesn't mean you don't need these basics down to take on faster ships.

Also, your rebuy cost is through the roof (mine is currently about 30 mil), so if your shields fail, again, you have failed. Just leave. Do not get your power plant blown out. Do not become a 30 million dollar mini-space station just sitting there watching as you get slowly nibbled to death by C1 Beam Lasers because you stayed to fight. Protect your investment and leave if those mighty shields look like they might come down.

So you've chosen the life of a Bounty Hunter! It is not nearly the fastest way to make credits (it's actually one of the slowest, right up there with mining and exploring). But it is one of the most entertaining, and you aren't here to make money. You are here to blow people up in that shiny new ship your smugglin' money just bought you! So let's talk about some Do's and Don'ts.

Bounty Hunting at a Resource Extraction Site is the way most dedicated hunters choose to play. Your bounties/hour ratio will be much higher than if you try roaming around interdicting people. You can also go to Combat Zones, pick a side, and then turn in your war credits if you want the thrill of full-on space combat between fleets, but this is far more dangerous. Finally, there is Power Play, where you go blow up another faction's ships in their systems, turn those in, and then cash that weekly paycheck (at an ungodly 50 mil credits/week at 10k+ merits).

In all of these instances, once again the golden rule of Pick Your Prey applies. You might be able to take on ships of your size, skill level, or greater, but all it takes is one mistake for you to be limping back to port for repairs instead of staying where you were and racking up points/bounties. Never take on anything that you think can break your shields. This will increase the amount of time you spend in combat, which increases the efficiency of your earnings.


Resource Extraction Sites:

Bounty Hunting here depends on personal preference and ship size. There are two ways to go about it. If you are in a fast, maneuverable ship, simply roam about scanning people until a bounty pops up. Then, if they are within your capabilities of defeating without losing shields, have your way with them.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT SHOOT SOMEONE UNTIL THEY REGISTER AS WANTED ON YOUR SCREEN, EVEN IF YOU KNOW THEY HAVE A BOUNTY.

Otherwise YOU will get a bounty, and believe me, everyone and their dog will want a piece of those sweet, sweet 400 Credits on your head.

The other way, if you are playing a bigger, tougher ship with a maxed out shield and stacked shield boosters, is to simply put a few things in your cargo hold, fly to a Res site, and just wait. Anyone who scans you that isn't a System Authority or Defense vessel is a pirate. Engage.

Unless someone bigger than you comes sniffing around, in which case jettison cargo and switch to the more active method of hunting.

It should be noted that you CAN take on bigger ships than yourself here, if you allow the System Defense to help you. Follow that Anaconda with the sweet, sweet 230k bounty around until they are inevitably engaged. Wait until they are down to the last 10% of hull or so, and then land some attacks. You will get the bounty.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT SHOOT THE SPACE COPS! DO NOT SHOOT IF THERE IS EVEN A CHANCE OF HITTING THEM!

Those same cops that just helped you get that bounty will then casually rolls towards you and murder the crap out of your pretty ship because you got that 400 Credit bounty on your head now because one of their Eagles stupidly flew in front of your laser while it was firing.

Again, the rule here is: If you take damage, go home and fix it. You are here to make money, and repairing your ship costs you money.

There are three levels of Res Sites: Low, High, and Hazardous. Low has easy prey, but very low bounties and a lot of System Defense interference who will often kill your bounties before you can even reach them. Hazardous doesn't have bounties that much higher than a High Res Site does, but it's opponents are much more dangerous, with tricked out ships and much harder to kill. The risk/reward ratio is just skewed too much towards risk.

For me, the sweet spot is the High Res. They have bounties typically between 30k-120k, and are just a little bit harder to kill than they are in Res. The System Authorities can be a hassle and kill off bounties before you can reach them, but they aren't ever-present as they are in Low, coming and going as combat swells and fades.


Combat Zones:

This fun little diversion can be super fun, or a nightmare. You can even get missions to take part in these for even more credits. First, you find one, then fly to it. Then you go to the menu mapped to your #4 button, pick a side, and let the mayhem begin.

Except not really. You have to be very careful here because there are always multiple enemies and they will always prioritize a PC ship over an NPC ship.

What you want to do is get AWAY from the center of the fighting before choosing your side. Go to where you can barely see the ships on your radar. Then look at the balance of power. Does the enemy have an Anaconda and your side doesn't? Consider leaving and coming back.

What you want to do here is fight along the edges of the main combat, picking off enemy fighters who are far away. This will be non-stop combat, so avoiding hits to your shields becomes even more important as you will often be taking on 2-4 opponents at a time without breaks. Every enemy you destroy frees up one of your ships for a time to go help out someone else in combat.

You help an ally destroy his enemy. Then you follow that ship to the next combat and kill that enemy(ies). Then you follow those two ships to the next, so on and so forth. With a little luck, your fleet is now winning and everywhere you look it's enemy ships getting torn apart. Engage and have fun!

But always keep a watchful eye out because enemy ships will respawn in groups of 2-3 along the edge and start moving in. Keep an eye on your contacts menu! Do not allow a surprise-spawned Anaconda with a size 4 Particle Accelerator and 2 tricked-out Viper escorts to sneak up on you.

Again, if you take damage, GO HOME. Especially in a Combat Zone, where at any moment 3-4 ships can decide to forget the ones who've been beating them to Hell and back and decide to target YOU.


Power Play:

The number one thing you need to remember about Power Play is that you need to find a Lawless system if you don't want to accrue a ridiculous bounty that has you getting interdicted every 20 minutes. Any bounty is too high, really, as it means more interdictions from ships you aren't getting Power Play points for. They will even interdict you in Lawless systems where they can't even claim the bounty.

Stupid, I know. Complain to the Devs!

The easiest way is to pick which Galactic Power's day you want to make a little bit worse. Go to your galaxy map, turn on the Galactic Powers button, and go to their area of the Galaxy. Now set your map to only show systems who have the Anarchy government type. These are the lawless systems. Make sure the one you pick to go to is in fact ruled over by the faction you want to mess with.

Now that you have your system (I suggest bookmarking it!), and are there with your shiny murdership and your new Class 4A FSD Interdictor, you are free to roam about the system in supercruise looking for anyone with <Enemy Faction> in the name. For instance, if you are Empire in a Federation system, look for Federal Couriers, Federal Agents, Federal Logistics Vessels, etc. Anything starting with 'Federal' will give you 30 merits for blowing up.

Interdict your chosen prey, remembering the golden rule of only picking on those weaker than you. As soon as you come out of hyperdrive, if you are in a slow, lumbering hulk of a ship especially, get that first hit off ASAP! Many times smaller ships will start boosting away from you. As long as you hit them before they are out of range, they will turn and fight without fail. Even if they're an Eagle and you're an Anaconda.

Enjoy that weekly paycheck! I can easily rack up around 500 merits/hour these days with a big, tough ship, which is easily enough to reach that 5 mil credit/week paycheck without too much hassle. Just remember to stay in a Lawless/Anarchy system!

Most people will tell you 'try it all out, see what you like!' And while that's mostly true, I've tried it all out and come away with things that I like, things that I love, and things that I hate.

Ultimately, your loadout will be determined by the ship you have and your bank account. I always, always, always recommend going out to make enough money to buy your dream combat ship and trick it out with the best power plants, engines, shields, etc FIRST, and then coming to bounty hunt. Seems counterintuitive, but you don't bounty hunt for money, you do it for fun. There are much, much faster ways to get that Fer-de-lance than grinding a Res Site.


Some thoughts on ships...

I generally prefer multipurpose ships to straight 'combat' vessels. My main ship was a Cobra for a long time during my smuggling days, before I saved up enough for a Python. Then it was my main ship until I got enough for an Anaconda. The reason for this is pretty simple: Versatility. If you buy a Viper, you are getting a fighter. And that is all it can do. If you buy a Cobra, you are getting a versatile ship that can fight almost as good, as well as allow you to run off and do other things on a whim.

Same with the Python and Anaconda. Yes, I could get one of the dedicated murderships (like a Fer-de-lance, whom many consider to be the epitome of bounty hunting ships), but I'd take a Python over a Fer because of the increased cargo room and plentiful interior slots for fuel scoops, Discovery Scanners, an extra fuel tank, a bigger shield, an SRV hangar, etc. It held absolutely everything I could ever want to bounty hunt, explore, or even smuggle/trade with 128 cargo capacity. The Anaconda is like a direct upgrade to that, with an even bigger shield, same cargo room, all the other stuff, plus room for a fighter hangar. If I get tired of fighting, I can run off to do something else without having to keep a whole separate ship handy.

Also, Pythons and Anacondas are TOUGH. For their size, they are maneuverable enough, the Python can catch most ships if you engineer upgrade your thrusters, Anacondas are hard to jump away from. They have huge shields that will forgive you if you make a mistake and take some hits. And they both pack an impressive number of hardpoints for murdering.


Fixed vs Gimbal vs Turret...

If you are a fighter, turrets are right out. Don't even think about it. I don't even have them on my Anaconda, because they are useless for anything except firing at people while running away or wielding something like a Type-9 Heavy (which should be running away anyway). They are too low damage, forget them. Forever. Don't even look at them in the store. Turn your nose up and walk away.

If you are in something small and manueverable, the superior damage of fixed beam weapons is great. If you are good enough to keep ships lined up in your crosshairs, you can't go wrong. You will tear down shields with ungodly speeds.

Fixed kintetic weapons do not fair so well. The projectile has to travel, which means it has lead times. This means unless you are an expert at this, you are going to miss with those weapons unless you are up close and personal or you are firing at a very big, lumbering ship like an Orca or an Anaconda.

If you are in something like a Python or an Anaconda, a multipurpose ship you have configured for killing for profit, I would recommend gimballed mounts. You only lose about 15-20% weapon damage, but you will be able to keep firing at those smaller ships that will zip around you much longer. The tradeoff for me is worth it, because I'm typically in a tank of a ship and can't turn as well. Also, it means you don't have to continually fly directly towards the ship, but can aim your flight reticle a bit behind it, which helps for staying behind your enemy, while still shooting them.


Thermal vs. Kinetic...

I've tried all-lasers, I've tried mixed, and I've tried all kinetic. All-kinetic is by far my favorite. I started out trying it on my Python with all multi-cannons + seeker missile loadout and loved it so much I went that way with my Anaconda, too. It sucks having finite ammo, but I find I can go 6-7 full engagements, sometimes against multiple ships, and I've barely used half of my ammo. That is plenty enough for anyone, unless your desire is to park at a Res Site for bounty hunting for hours on end, in which all-thermal all day.

Thermal weapons, of course, require no ammo but take a lot more power to fire. They have 'charge' times, but since kinetic weapons have reload times, this isn't a big issue. What I don't see talked about a lot is the kinetic weapons biggest advantage over thermal weapons: The number of Pips required to keep your weapons operating.

With Thermal weapon loadouts, if you have more than a single one, especially with Beam weapons, I typically had to keep 3-4 pips in weapons. This means less pips in Shields and Engines. All three of these are important for fighting. The more pips you have in Engines, the faster you are. The more pips you have in shields, the faster your shields recharge, AND THE STRONGER THOSE SHIELDS TOTAL STRENGTH IS.

That is important. So with my Anaconda, I have 1 Size 4 and 3 Size 3 Multicannons, and 2 Size 2 and 2 Size 1 Seeker missle racks. With this loadout, I can keep 1 pip in weapons, 2 in Engines, and 3 in Shields. This makes my shields stronger while not sacrificing my ability to murder the crap out of anything that looks my way. This setup also has the Multicannons strip shields just as well as any lasers I have ever mounted, and once those shields are gone they shred hull.

The downsides to this are the finite ammo (I've never had much of a problem with it) and the fact that lasers, due to not having 'travel times' for the projectiles, can hit further. So you don't really have any long-rage capabilities, past about 2-2.5km, you just aren't hitting enough to bother shooting.

Try things, see what fits your playstyle, but I've found where I live, and it's in Camp Kinetic.

IMPORTANT: NO MATTER WHAT YOU CHOOSE, MAKE SURE TO UPGRADE YOUR SHIP WITH THE ENGINEERS! THE DIFFERENCE IN PERFORMANCE WILL BE NIGHT AND DAY!

This is especially true in larger, lumbering ships. Anacondas are not known for thier speed, but I can still boost mine to speeds of 300+ to at least keep parity with all but the speedy Cobras to get that first hit in or hound them to death.

This is a good question! There's the normal way (trading, barf!), and then there's the Easy Way.

I made my Python money in my Cobra, doing smuggling missions before Robigo not nerfed so hard it made the whole world cry.

I made my Anaconda money by going out to the edge of the habitation bubble, where governed systems start to become rare and doing missions that had me fly to a planetary base in the same system and just blow up those little seeker drones that pop up.

When you first get out there, they don't offer many credits for these types of missions, maybe 100k for blowing up 3 drones. But as you raise their liking of you from Cordial up to Allied, they would pay me 1-3 mil to wipe out 8-12 of the drones. Stack 20 of those missions and I was pulling in 40 mil credits per hour.

The way to do this is to pick a direction on your galaxy map, and start moving your cursor out that way until you start to reach a place where there aren't many systems that are inhabited. (Use your map's search features for 'government types' and uncheck the 'None' box so uninhabited systems won't show up. Then go to where the stars stop appearing.) Now you have to fly out there and find some people that really don't like each other, preferably in a Civil War.

Search around in Outposts, Stations, and Planetary Bases until you find people who are paying money for easy missions (like blowing up sentry drones, disabling power generators, or participating in Combat Zones) that all go to one place and hit one faction who is not pledged to the faction that you are (Unaligned/Neutral, preferabbly). Stock up on these missions, logging in and out between Open Play and Solo, taking on all the missions. Yes, this part is suuuuuuper boring. Make sure you only take missions for the exact same goal, if you have to go to multiple places, you waste more time, which lowers your credits/hour.

Once you have max missions, or enough, fly over there, blow up those little drones/generators/ships, then come back for massive paydays. At first you will only earn about 5 million per hour because each mission only pays 100k-300k. As they like you more and you become Allied, those will go up to 1-3 mil, per mission.

Save up enough for the ship you want twice over. It will cost at LEAST the ship's cost again to upgrade it enough to do anything with it. The Power Plant for my Anaconda was more expensive than the Anaconda itself, for instance.

UPDATE: You can no longer stack 20 Sentry Drone missions! You can only stack a handful of them at a time now. Passenger missions have become the new big moneymaker, adjust your strategies accordingly!

If you have any suggestions for additions, please drop me a message or comment and I will consider adding them to the guide! I hope you find the information within helpful, most of it I learned through the School of Hard Knocks, so hopefully you won't have to!