Trying to get Red Devil Cartel rep

[Nemean Lion]

So, I realized far too late that the ship I want, the Damocles, is locked to pirate rep, which means I have to cozy up to the Red Devil Cartel. By this point, I've completely bottomed out in rep with them, and the only missions I can find to raise their rep are in the starter system, so they award practically no money. To make matters worse, each mission (when I can even find one) only offers me about 20 rep points.


====SPOILERS BELOW=====




















At this rate, I should be neutral with them in about a year. I heard if you betray the Militia captain when you go bust your aunt out of their prison, they instantly become Neutral with you. Is it worth it to start over and go this route, or am I missing some easier way to get out of the red with the Cartel?

[Sky Marshall Sanders]

First, if this is your first playthrough why do you have your heart set on the Damocles? It's not really a unique ship and a lot of other destroyers can offer you similar gameplay. I may be able to recommend a similar ship if it's a mechanical aspect of the craft that appeals to you.

Second you can definitely build up rep with them in later systems, just look in the Korian stations to find the missions. It is in general way easier to get in good with the pirates if you make a choice to do so from the start and don't hunt them and antagonize them (and get the large bonus for siding with the pirates over the militia early in the story) so if you really want to do it fast restarting might make things a lot easier.

[nannerpuss]

I played through and made it to Friendly with RDC. The rep system is setup so that you can't be neutral with both the Militia and RDC, so any anti-Militia missions will get your RDC rep up. When you manage to get Hostile with the Militia you will automatically go Neutral with RDC.

Also, the Damocles is pretty good, but nothing special. However, if you are Neutral or better with the RDC, you get access to the Minotaur, which is normally only available if you have a Merc Guild rating of six. So if you aren't into the Merc missions, definitely go RDC because the Minotaur is almost the best ship in the game. You will get the Polaris after it, which is way better and still agile, but the Minotaur can just about beat any Dreadnaught in-game if you play right.

However, if you go anti-Militia you will be missing the Sorcerer, which is the coolest looking ship in the game IMO. The developers made the big fins on it collide with ♥♥♥♥ way too easily, but otherwise, it's a good Dreadnaught to end the game with if you don't want the Polaris or Blackgate.

[Nemean Lion]

Well, I was set on the Damocles simply because I like how it looks. It resembles Warhammer 40k Imperial cruisers, so I like that notion.

I know the Minotaur is a great ship and everybody raves about it, but once I unlocked it with Mercenary rep, I was appalled. I just can't bring myself to fly a giant purple dild0 through space.

I'm not a fan of the Sorcerer's aesthetic and if we're going solely off performance, I would argue the Blackgate is THE most heavily armed in the game, having the largest broadside and the most turret hardpoints.

I'm currently flying an Arcturus, since it has kind of a Star Destroyer aesthetic, which appealed to me. I'm aware the Damocles has fewer weapons, but it's faster and has a smaller target profile to compensate for that...right?

[lock]

I rather die with honor in a Minotaur than in one that "looks" cool...but again, thats just me.

I have tried the other Ships that were big an klunky to stear, to me nothing beats the Minotaur in ways that the broadsides deliver the full payload on a much larger ship....including the Milta's. Having a 6 rating on everything just makes it so.

[Nemean Lion]

Which I understand and respect. I recognize that not everybody shares my position. Me, I'm more of a "form over function" kinda guy. I will knowingly and happily fly the "next best" ship if I think it looks cooler.

Back when I played EVE Online, I played as Caldari. When it came time for me to move into Battlecruisers, I opted for the Ferox because I liked turrets over missiles. Everyone raved that the Drake was so much better, but I couldn't stand it because it looked like a bent piece of cardboard to me. XD

[nannerpuss]

Originally posted by Nemean Lion:

Which I understand and respect. I recognize that not everybody shares my position. Me, I'm more of a "form over function" kinda guy. I will knowingly and happily fly the "next best" ship if I think it looks cooler.

Back when I played EVE Online, I played as Caldari. When it came time for me to move into Battlecruisers, I opted for the Ferox because I liked turrets over missiles. Everyone raved that the Drake was so much better, but I couldn't stand it because it looked like a bent piece of cardboard to me. XD

Well I like the Polaris a lot more than the Blackgate because it looks like a Reaver ship from Firefly. So I get that. I was just trying to give you another reason to get RDC rep because a lot of people forget that it unlocks the Minotaur and you never even have to join the Mercs.

As for the profile of ships, yes they matter. I like the Polaris more than the Blackgate, but the Blackgate isn't just the most heavily fortified ship, it also has the slimmest profile. It's flat, so lots of ♥♥♥♥ misses it. It's pretty much a cheat code if you put on Mk6 Neutron Beams.

[Nemean Lion]

Which is all good, but I already have Rank 10 with the Mercenary Guild. On the subject at hand, though. These pirate missions in the later zones...they come from the Korian stations, you say? Do they offer enough rep to be worth it, or am I still stuck with the miniscule bumps of 20 per mission?

Also, I understand you can't be friendly with both the Cartel and Militia, but does losing rep with Militia = gaining with the Cartel? Or is it an automatic switch that when the Militia becomes Hostile, the Cartel becomes Neutral, regardless of what my rep was with the Cartel before?

[nannerpuss]

Originally posted by Nemean Lion:

Which is all good, but I already have Rank 10 with the Mercenary Guild. On the subject at hand, though. These pirate missions in the later zones...they come from the Korian stations, you say? Do they offer enough rep to be worth it, or am I still stuck with the miniscule bumps of 20 per mission?

Also, I understand you can't be friendly with both the Cartel and Militia, but does losing rep with Militia = gaining with the Cartel? Or is it an automatic switch that when the Militia becomes Hostile, the Cartel becomes Neutral, regardless of what my rep was with the Cartel before?

AFAIK it's automatic when you go Hostile with either one, the other will go Neutral. I did every possible story mission, so I got Neutral with both Militia and RDC in the same playthrough, and when I went back to get the rep, it didn't matter how negative I was with the Militia. As soon as I hit the Hostile bar with RDC, it put me over the Neutral mark with Militia. I actually went back and forth twice on them, to do the "pop up" missions from Cofax and Meathook, and then to get the Minotaur and Sorceror after I had already finished almost everything. Every time, just needed to get negative with one rather than positive with one and negative with the other.

Also, there aren't any Korian stations. You might have mis-typed it, but there are only Militia and RDC ones, then Citizenry basic/normal ones, plus Merc and Merchant.

[Nemean Lion]

Hmm. So it sounds like it would be faster and easier to just go piss off the Militia than try to buddy up to the Cartel.

[nannerpuss]

Originally posted by Nemean Lion:

Hmm. So it sounds like it would be faster and easier to just go piss off the Militia than try to buddy up to the Cartel.

Yeah it's a lot easier because you don't see many RDC rep missions outside of the RDC stations. But when you do open the RDC stations, there are lots of piracy missions to piss off every other faction, especially the Merchants Guild. As for as rep gains later in the game, there are a few +100 missions for the Militia and RDC.

The only stations in-game are RDC, Militia, Citizenry, Merchant, Merc. So there aren't actually any benefits to being friends with Greel, Korian, Viridian, Murath. I have no idea why they even included rep bars for those factions.

[Sky Marshall Sanders]

Originally posted by nannerpuss:

Also, there aren't any Korian stations. You might have mis-typed it, but there are only Militia and RDC ones, then Citizenry basic/normal ones, plus Merc and Merchant.

There are green swirl stations in every sector that are affiliated with "Outsiders" which is the Korian Outsiders, they just don't care about how much that faction hates you for whatever reason. They tend to have missions for pirates and occasionally the citizenry, but you've seriously ignored the second most common station affiliation in this analysis.

Originally posted by Nemean Lion:

Which is all good, but I already have Rank 10 with the Mercenary Guild. On the subject at hand, though. These pirate missions in the later zones...they come from the Korian stations, you say? Do they offer enough rep to be worth it, or am I still stuck with the miniscule bumps of 20 per mission?

Also, I understand you can't be friendly with both the Cartel and Militia, but does losing rep with Militia = gaining with the Cartel? Or is it an automatic switch that when the Militia becomes Hostile, the Cartel becomes Neutral, regardless of what my rep was with the Cartel before?

Sorry the rewards are between 10 and 30ish regardless of where you get the mission, all the location will change is the reward and difficulty.

[nannerpuss]

Originally posted by Sky Marshall Sanders:

Originally posted by nannerpuss:

Also, there aren't any Korian stations. You might have mis-typed it, but there are only Militia and RDC ones, then Citizenry basic/normal ones, plus Merc and Merchant.

There are green swirl stations in every sector that are affiliated with "Outsiders" which is the Korian Outsiders, they just don't care about how much that faction hates you for whatever reason. They tend to have missions for pirates and occasionally the citizenry, but you've seriously ignored the second most common station affiliation in this analysis.

Originally posted by Nemean Lion:

Which is all good, but I already have Rank 10 with the Mercenary Guild. On the subject at hand, though. These pirate missions in the later zones...they come from the Korian stations, you say? Do they offer enough rep to be worth it, or am I still stuck with the miniscule bumps of 20 per mission?

Also, I understand you can't be friendly with both the Cartel and Militia, but does losing rep with Militia = gaining with the Cartel? Or is it an automatic switch that when the Militia becomes Hostile, the Cartel becomes Neutral, regardless of what my rep was with the Cartel before?

Sorry the rewards are between 10 and 30ish regardless of where you get the mission, all the location will change is the reward and difficulty.

"Outsider" stations have nothing to do with Korian Outsiders, other than the word 'outsider'. The girl swirl stations are just the Outsider faction, which isn't technically a faction and doesn't have rep. Citizentry rep is the closest analog to it, so I lumped that into the Citizenry rep category. Also, check the Korian logo, it's a trident. If those were Korian Outsider stations, they'd have the trident.

I guess I could have worded it differently, but Korian Outsiders don't even have positive rep missions. At least I never saw one with a true positive rep reward, nor do you ever defend or escort or help Korian Outsiders during any mission I played during two full playthroughs. You can't even get accidental Korian rep by killing their enemies. You also cannot get Greel or Viridian rep. You can earn some Murath rep I think, but again, it's pointless unless you want to make the RDC mad. Also, there are +50 and +100 rep missions for both factions, but only in later systems.

References:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/290300/discussions/0/490125103639898309/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/290300/discussions/0/483367798496318929/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/290300/discussions/0/483368526574738101/

[Schmittfeuer]

There was a friendly guy on the modding subforum who modded the Hellion as available to everyone for me.

You could probably get the same going for the Damocles. The code isnt really complicated to figure out either if you're not too lazy to get around the .pak file like me.