A good way to quickly farm credits mid-game

[Flame Noir]

In my experience playing this game so far (two playthroughs), I have found that around mid game (mk3-5 equipment), there is a sudden spike in the prices of the upgraded components one must buy in order to stay on par with enemy ships. This spike in price (mk5 turrets costing 1.5 million a piece and such) can make it difficult to keep up, and in both of my playthroughs I was forced to backtrack and grind up some money in less challenging systems.

This time, however, I have discovered an expedient and effective way to do this, with relative ease.

It works like this: get the fastest ship you can find. The fastest in the game is the Barracuda, but the Turath and Hammerhead are close (I used the Turath).
For the execution, it is ideal to have some reputation with the Merchant Guild, so that you can equip your ship with the medium/large Guild Cargo Extender and (ideally) EMP Ablation.

Finally, you need to euip the highest level of Null-G booster you can afford.

Now, to make the credits: take a cargo mission (from the merchants guild, perhaps) that has a high risk rating by merit of leading to a high-level system. Don't bother with the missions that require you to get the goods yourself; the payout is good, but these missions take too long.

Then, travel to the mission destination, but don't fight the enemies that attack you--while you may miss out on some cargo or equipment, it would be dangerous, time-consuming, and maybe even impossible to defeat the large numbers of high-powered enemies that are generally spawned by such transport missions.

Instead, we literally ignore them and run past them. Just hold down your boost, and between the high base speed of your ship, the sustained high-acceleration boost, and the slow reduction from EMP ablation, I guarantee you can outrun even the large swarms of Greel Leechers. When you get to the station, pay no mind to the blockade--just sail right past, dock, and collect your payday! Bonus points if the station spawns ANOTHER cargo mission to take when you leave.

If not, you can always fly to the system's Merchant Guild (fleeing from encounters along the way) and take MORE high-risk/high-reward cargo missions.

Battling is fun, but it is time consuming and, depending on the difficulty, sometimes very costly. I was able to rack up 4 million credits to help upgrade from Mk4 to Mk5 in less than 10 minutes with this method, and that is including a large time-wasting battle in which I painstakingly killed a fleet of Leechers that was higher-level than me (it was after that point that I decided to ditch battling altogether for the purposes of profit).

Maybe some people have already discovered this for themselves, but I felt that I should post about it to maybe help someone savve time!

Happy New Years,
Flame Noir

[GenBrien]

1st time I'm playing and doing exatly that

got a mission worth more than 1M $ with my Icarus but it was only Mk3 and it didnt survived/passed the final ambushed.
Now with my Baracuda I pass anything (mix of Mk4-5) but cant find anything that pay more than 300 000$..... :(

[Digger]

Originally posted by GenBrien:

1st time I'm playing and doing exatly that

got a mission worth more than 1M $ with my Icarus but it was only Mk3 and it didnt survived/passed the final ambushed.
Now with my Baracuda I pass anything (mix of Mk4-5) but cant find anything that pay more than 300 000$..... :(

You should try the high paying merchant guild drop missions, they are as difficult but often you can bribe the guy (by using comms) standing between you and your target. Just remember to carry 3 units of meteoric diamonds when you go there.

edit: You can farm the best missions by taking the ones you don't want then abandoning them undocking then re docking.

[WillieSea]

I never saw a reason to use bribe, with the right tactics, and booster/engine upgrades, you can usually fly past them all and dock before they have a chance to react. Especially if you lead them away from the station first, in another direction.

[GenBrien]

I just went to the most extreme system and it still pays between 90 000 and 350 000
Think I must advance the main story more (just unlocked the 3rd upgrade/10%boos ffor scanner)

[Digger]

If you've ever been leach locked by a greel fleet, 'missiles inbound...engines impaired', over, and over, until they eventually catch up, the best way out is bribery :)

I think you get the really high pay missions only from the guild stations, but I could be wrong.

[GenBrien]

Originally posted by Digger:

I think you get the really high pay missions only from the guild stations, but I could be wrong.

those prices were from the Merchant Guild

[WillieSea]

Originally posted by Digger:

If you've ever been leach locked by a greel fleet, 'missiles inbound...engines impaired', over, and over, until they eventually catch up, the best way out is bribery :)

I think you get the really high pay missions only from the guild stations, but I could be wrong.

I have been, but with the Trell upgrades, and the slamjet booster, I can easily outpace them all. Even if I do get leached.

[Flame Noir]

Originally posted by Digger:

If you've ever been leach locked by a greel fleet, 'missiles inbound...engines impaired', over, and over, until they eventually catch up, the best way out is bribery :)

Lol dude with Null G boosters and a reasonably fast ship you can easily outrun a Greel leecher swarm.

Especially if you took the Trell upgrade for boosters--the long burn from your booster rockets takes you well above base speed even while leeched, and takes only a few seconds to recharge. It usually takes me less than 1 full boost to escape a Greel gank-squad.

But either way it's more than worth it to grind some Merchant Guild missions and buy EMP ablation--with that subsystem, you could even use my strategy with a medium or slow ship.

[WillieSea]

Same with the slamjet, which hauls ass faster than the Null G boosters. The slamjet gives instant super speed, and recharges in a second with the upgrades. The Null G gives minimal speed increase compared to the slamjet but over a longer time frame. But to each their own.

[Flame Noir]

Yeah, fair enough. Point is, though, you can DEFINITELY escape Greel leech-lock.

[Digger]

I like the null-g better, mainly for the control in keeping targets in the right range, and they are a defense for leach attacks. But if you get an early big mission and don't have all that fancy gear, you can still do the mission and bribery is key to pulling that off.

The big guild payday missions are still rare, you have to churn the missions (take them, abandon them, undock/redock repeat) at the station to get them to show regularly.

[WillieSea]

I thought it was odd there was no detriment to abandoning a mission. Its so easy to leave a contract in this game. It should cost you 10% of the reward you would have gotten. Something. And a more dynamic mission board, instead of always to same number available. Have 2 to 12 missions available, not always a static amount.

But, I guess its an arcade game, not a simulation.

[Cookie]

Equipment starts becoming the most valuable reward around the MK4 or MK5 mark. Mission rewards pale in comparison to a single MK6 turret worth millions.