where should i start?

[Leafynite]

so, i have not played since June of 2020, (i know, that's a while) and a friend recently gifted me the new (new to me, lol) Odyssey DLC but before I play it, I wanted some opinions from others who are more active about what i should do first. better safe then sorry

[ShelLuser]

I'd say just start playing the game, since you're already established you may want to pick up on a tutorial (found in the main menu) to brush up your skills. Then just dive straight in, Odyssey comes with its own tutorial so... plenty to discover.

[Leafynite]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

I'd say just start playing the game, since you're already established you may want to pick up on a tutorial (found in the main menu) to brush up your skills. Then just dive straight in, Odyssey comes with its own tutorial so... plenty to discover.

Alright, thank you very much

[Agony_Aunt]

Yeah, learn how to do the new missions. They can be lots of fun. Learn how the stealth mechanics work as there are always covert missions available which require sneaking into a base to either grab something or upload something.

[Alrik]

1) get a Maverick suit ASAP.
Many planets and moons in Odyssey have signal sources with crashed ships/satelittes, and you can harvest those wrecks with the arc cutter in the Maverick.
Ground based NPCs in signal sources are best engaged with dumb fire missles from a ship.
Ships with hard point near the center line are good for that:
Eagle, Viper, Diamondbacks

Also use a SRV to store loot and change space suits while away from your ship during looting.

2.) don't bother with upgrading or modding Grad 1 or 2 weapons / suits.
Pioneer supplies sell also Grad 2 & 3 suits / weapons, sometimes with pre-installed mods.
The only exception to this rule are suits & weapons with end tier mods like Nightvision or Scope,
Best day to look for those is Thursday after the server refresh, best place are outposts & planetary starports with low player visits.

3.) best mods:
Nightvision (all suits)
Extra Backpack capacity: Maverick for looting
Quiter footsteps: Maverick & Dominator for stealing / assasination
Increased Tracking: Maverick & Dominator for stealing / assasination

Noise suppressor: all pistols, most other guns
Faster handling: all pistols, most other guns

4.) best main weapon:
TK Aphelion Grade 3: damages shields & suits
Manticore Executioner Grade 3: kills unshielded NPCs with one hit from far
Manticore Tormentor Grade 3: kills unshielded NPCs with one hit

5.) worst weapon
Manticore Opressor, even at Grade 3 useless.

6.) get the Odyssey material helper to keep track of materials

7.) barter low value materials at the bar tender to higher value materials before you run out of inventory space. Keep at least 200 units of free space for looting.

[Agony_Aunt]

Some good advice from Alrik.

However, personally, i wouldn't bother with quieter footsteps. It doesn't help against the noise you make when landing and when walking you have crouch mode which is like auto quiet mode and you're less visible as well anyway.

Increased tracking can be useful, but personally i go tag each employee on a terminal as soon as i land and that works decently.

For me jumping and sprinting boosts are much more useful. Especially for when you need to get out of sight or run like mad because you've been detected.

A weapon with noise suppression is good, but its worth noting there are 2 types of noise suppression, one for in atmosphere, one out of atmosphere. Some people go with the audio masking (the one for no atmosphere) and empty a building's atmosphere before firing, but first you have to find the console for that, have the security clearance, and sometimes you want to shoot before doing that. You can use the zapper of course, but no good when guards are alert with shields up. Turning the atmosphere off also alerts everyone inside the building, and they can turn atmosphere back on.

So, for your stealth builds, a weapon with both types of silencing is useful.

I would not use a Dominator suit for assassinations. A stealthy approach is best and targets can be always taken down silently unless you plan to just barge in guns blazing. A lot of assassination require you to do it without raising the alarm or without killing anyone but the target, so best get used to doing them quietly.

Regarding Point 6, totally agreee. The ED Odyssey Material Helper is a godsend. Wishlists are great for keeping track of what you still need and also it tells you which materials/data are useless.

[Alrik]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

I would not use a Dominator suit for assassinations. A stealthy approach is best and targets can be always taken down silently unless you plan to just barge in guns blazing. A lot of assassination require you to do it without raising the alarm or without killing anyone but the target, so best get used to doing them quietly.

They can't rise the settlements alarms if everyone in the PWR / CMD building is dead and the Alarms are shut off... :big evil grin:
Also you get at least one dead level 2 or 3 NPC to steal his ID.

Yeah, sometimes Odyssey plays like a mass murder simulation IN SPACE!, but it lacks gore and NPCs begging for their lives ;-)

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Alrik:

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

I would not use a Dominator suit for assassinations. A stealthy approach is best and targets can be always taken down silently unless you plan to just barge in guns blazing. A lot of assassination require you to do it without raising the alarm or without killing anyone but the target, so best get used to doing them quietly.

They can't rise the settlements alarms if everyone in the PWR / CMD building is dead and the Alarms are shut off... :big evil grin:

Hah, true.

[Leafynite]

Sounds like you guys really like stealth. XD

[lefty1117]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

The ED Odyssey Material Helper is a godsend. Wishlists are great for keeping track of what you still need and also it tells you which materials/data are useless.

Is this a 3rd party site?

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by lefty1117:

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

The ED Odyssey Material Helper is a godsend. Wishlists are great for keeping track of what you still need and also it tells you which materials/data are useless.

Is this a 3rd party site?

Downloadable tool.

Here's the latest version.

https://github.com/jixxed/ed-odyssey-materials-helper/releases/tag/1.60

[Alrik]

Originally posted by lefty1117:

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

The ED Odyssey Material Helper is a godsend. Wishlists are great for keeping track of what you still need and also it tells you which materials/data are useless.

Is this a 3rd party site?

No, it's a tool that reads your Elite Dangerous log file to keep track of the materials you have and get.
It also has all upgrade / mods recipies and you can wishlist the one you want.
It's also possible to filter useless goods out, so you can easily sell them.

[Rragar]

Originally posted by Alrik:

3.) best mods:
Nightvision (all suits)
Extra Backpack capacity: Maverick for looting
Quiter footsteps: Maverick & Dominator for stealing / assasination
Increased Tracking: Maverick & Dominator for stealing / assasination

Noise suppressor: all pistols, most other guns
Faster handling: all pistols, most other guns

4.) best main weapon:
TK Aphelion Grade 3: damages shields & suits
Manticore Executioner Grade 3: kills unshielded NPCs with one hit from far
Manticore Tormentor Grade 3: kills unshielded NPCs with one hit

5.) worst weapon
Manticore Opressor, even at Grade 3 useless.

Everything that you said in the cited points is very specific to your personal gameplay style. You can't know if the person asking about this is gonna want to play the same way as you do. I don't play the way you play.

Instead of calling things best or worst which is entirely relative with respect to personal perspectives, you could explain how you found one thing or the other beneficial during a specific situation so that the people reading this can determine whether or not those recommendations are useful for them based on whether or not they put themselves in the same circumstances or do the same things you do in the same circumstances.

And the Oppressor is far from useless. The problem is that you didn't test it properly at grade 5 and with mods. All weapons have shortcomings of some sort when unmodified and at lower grades than 5.

[Rragar]

Originally posted by Leafynite:

so, i have not played since June of 2020, (i know, that's a while) and a friend recently gifted me the new (new to me, lol) Odyssey DLC but before I play it, I wanted some opinions from others who are more active about what i should do first. better safe then sorry :p4g_sweat:

I want to add something that the in-game tutorial doesn't tell you and I believe wasn't mentioned in the other comments:

If you don't have anti-noise mods in your weapons but you need to do silent kills, use your power transfer tool set to overload mode. You'll have to use it at point blank range and on unshielded enemies (shields block the overload). It is completely silent. Do try to be quick or ensure you're not spotted since people will notice what you're doing and react defensively.

Also, if you're sent to assassinate a target that doesn't belong to a lawless faction, you might get a murder bounty on you. For that reason, I recommend you quietly scan the target before the assassination; a lot of these targets will have bounties on them and getting a positive bounty scan on the target will prevent a murder bounty from being placed on you. It must be done specifically before you kill them, cause a positive wanted status on the target won't remove a bounty that has already been placed on you.

[Planewalker]

Originally posted by Rragar:

It is completely silent.

Just remember that a zap-kill won't trigger the mission objective unless so stated, in turn making you have to go to supercruise to reset the instance.

Some takedown missions require you to use a weapon.

[wolf]

Originally posted by Rragar:

...the Oppressor is far from useless. .. All weapons have shortcomings of some sort when unmodified and at lower grades than 5.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2709080368

I can verify this: The Oppressor is nothing like it was to me back when it was a G3 rifle, let alone a default rifle. This is everything I wanted it to become, only one must learn how to use it properly for it to shine (i.e. aiming down sight makes it accurate like the best Aphelion but with kinetic damage on top of the thermal where hip fire will make it spray like nothing else, great for close quarters against group targets).