Profitability of various jobs?

[👅 f r e a k y c y r u s 👅]

I'm looking to come back after a long hiatus. Currently docked at Colonia, but I can make my way back to the bubble. Wondering about the profitability of various things (particularly in Colonia), mainly:

Mining

Piracy, both player and NPC (I used to do low temperature diamonds, are those still profitable or any other goods which are profitable to steal?)

Smuggling

Trading

Bounty hunting/war bonds

I'm not really interested in exploration since I just did a bunch of it before I got to Colonia or tourrism, but feel free to mention those. If there's any other careers I'm missing, please mention

[fnberger]

You're not playing ED for ingame money, but for having fun, right? Maybe you want to find out what you're actually enjoying most, and do this. Some people really like mining, some rather want to shoot. Following your preferred carreer path will get you all the money you'll need for future upgrades.

[malorob]

all jobs are profit
what ever you do... minus what fuel and maintiance to fix your ship is profit....

you dont need lots of money to enjoy the game....
most people have billion's of money.... still prefer to fly there smaller ships.

and even if you have say 10 billion in the bank you can still only fly one ship.....

find what you like to do and enjoy it, till you need to find something else.

[One Eye Jack]

It’s a matter of location location location. Passenger missions pay very well and cargo missions pay very well. But only if you are in the right systems.

Not giving away where I hang out but I suggest you look on the edges of the bubble. Also boom economies on the edge seem to work nicely for raking in the cash.

But also as has been suggested. Do what you enjoy first and foremost.

[👅 f r e a k y c y r u s 👅]

I find plenty of stuff enjoyable, but I was wondering what might be the best way to make money out of the options I enjoy

[voxdei20]

Mining - wait till the new patch and see
Piracy - If you can find the low temp diamonds sure but most cargo i've found is trash
Smuggling - I've found this very profitable especially smuggling people.
Trading - I haven't found this super profitable. I'll trade in small amounts of rare commodities while i'm taking criminals for long sight seeing tours
Bounty hunting - It's not bad. Better in wings

Other things you can do
cargo missions - to boom or outbreak systems are usually really profitable especially in wings.
passenger missions - for sight seeing tours is really profitable especially if you are smuggling criminals (criminals deserve a vacation as well...they just have to pay more).

I find the passenger missions really fun. You are always going to new places with neat little tidbits of lore in them. Passengers often ask you to pick up stuff for them along the way. One criminal asked me to pick up 2 units of reactive armour for him for...reasons. Can't say no to that. They give you a little tip for it.

[Dread Lord]

just do whats most fun to you, money comes by easy enough regardless... I just checked in game I actually didnt know but I made a total of over 2 billion by a tidbit.... all just having fun never focusing on money... most of it came from bounty hunting...

[primobrainlet]

Originally posted by ｗｅｗｌａｄ:

I'm looking to come back after a long hiatus. Currently docked at Colonia, but I can make my way back to the bubble. Wondering about the profitability of various things (particularly in Colonia), mainly:

Mining

Piracy, both player and NPC (I used to do low temperature diamonds, are those still profitable or any other goods which are profitable to steal?)

Smuggling

Trading

Bounty hunting/war bonds

I'm not really interested in exploration since I just did a bunch of it before I got to Colonia or tourrism, but feel free to mention those. If there's any other careers I'm missing, please mention

Mining: Good cash normally, great cash in a good system, boring as hell though, getting buffed soon

Piracy: no.

smuggling: decent enough

trading: Huge profit obtained very easily, smuggling falls into this occasionally, use the eddb.io multi-hop route function if you want to make a quick, good trade route.
note taht you will need to do a multihop route, and you will need at least a type 6

bounties

[Explore]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but from looking at INARA it looks to me that delivery missions are more profitable than regular trading or smuggling. For instance, it would be hard to get more than 4000 credits profit per ton (for anything that you buy), so 100 tons of that would be 400,000 credits, but for hauling 100tons for a mission you'd expect to get about 800,000. Obviously though you have to find a good station for missions and develop rep with them, but I find it worth it.

[THE_RaBiD_CanuK]

Trading and passengers are the most profitable in my experience (tens of millions an hour). Mining is not very profitable imo - very time consuming for the returns you get.

Everything else is in the middle - not the most profitable thing you can do, but you'll still make noticeable money (millions an hour) provided you know what you're doing.

[THE_RaBiD_CanuK]

Originally posted by Explore:

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but from looking at INARA it looks to me that delivery missions are more profitable than regular trading or smuggling. For instance, it would be hard to get more than 4000 credits profit per ton (for anything that you buy), so 100 tons of that would be 400,000 credits, but for hauling 100tons for a mission you'd expect to get about 800,000. Obviously though you have to find a good station for missions and develop rep with them, but I find it worth it.

I find delivery missions to be more profitable in smaller ships than trading missions. But trading missions are more profitable in bigger ships.

[Explore]

Originally posted by THE_RaBiD_CanuK:

Originally posted by Explore:

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but from looking at INARA it looks to me that delivery missions are more profitable than regular trading or smuggling. For instance, it would be hard to get more than 4000 credits profit per ton (for anything that you buy), so 100 tons of that would be 400,000 credits, but for hauling 100tons for a mission you'd expect to get about 800,000. Obviously though you have to find a good station for missions and develop rep with them, but I find it worth it.

I find delivery missions to be more profitable in smaller ships than trading missions. But trading missions are more profitable in bigger ships.

Sorry, just to clarify - I meant trading missions, not delivery missions. I was comparing trading missions to actual trading on the market.

[Strontium Dog]

bounty hunting with a friend is good for making money and excitment

[voxdei20]

Originally posted by X-Strontium Dog:

bounty hunting with a friend is good for making money and excitment

Wish i had a friend :P

[👅 f r e a k y c y r u s 👅]

I outfitted a Krait for pirating LTDs but I've only been able to snag 17 at most at a time. I've never really done smuggling and the idea intrigues me, so 2 questions:

1. Anything other than slaves to smuggle? I'm not against it, just wondering if it's the only way to smuggle (also, slaves vs imperial slaves?)

2. Is the Krait a good ship for the job? It seems like it, being scanned less