If I want to buy an Imperial Cutter at Jameson Memorial do I still need to have high imperial ranking?

[The Juggling Hamster]

I know that I Sola Prospect on planet Brestla A 1 will let me buy stuff at a 20 percent penalty charge and I don't need faction.

I'm pioneer at exploration though and wondering if its worth my time (just barely a pioneer) ...is it worth leveling tha tup to Elite to be able to buy the Imperial Cutter at a 10 percet dsisount' (I don't hsve Imperil raking so I'm no t sure if I'd even be alloed to buy it.

[Kevlar]

the Imperial Cutter is unlocked at Imperial Navy Rank 12 (Duke). Without the rank you cannot buy it.

[Wolff]

This was the fastest way for me to rank up Empire.
https://youtu.be/EeoexU6X31k

[Heimdall313]

Rank is always required for Federal Dropship, Assault Ship, Gunship, Corvette, Imperial Courier, Clipper, and Cutter, regardless of where you want to buy it.

Eagle, Imperial Eagle, and Vulture don't need any rank. Lakon ships, including Alliance Chieftain, Challenger, Crusader, and Type 10 don't need any rank. Falcon de Lacy ships, including subsidiaries (Zorgon Peterson) don't need rank, nor does Saud Kruger.

Discount is a huge difference for the Cutter: its the most expensive ship in the game, and can easily run over 1 billion credits. 10% discount is 100,000,000 credits off on a 1 billion credit build. 20% charge would be an extra 200,000,000 credits on top of a 1 billion credit build.

[The Juggling Hamster]

Do you have to have Empire Rank to purchase it at "Sola Prospect on planet Brestla A 1" though? I thought you could buy ANYTHING there and just generally pay 20 percent more.

If I'm totally stuck with leveling up Empire, what would you recommend would be the next ship that I go for.

Anaconda? I want to be able to PVE with ease but also be able to multi-role a bit.

And before I forget thank you folks for the info.

I've SERIOUS got the addiction back to play Elite Dangerous and I'm having a great time.

[HughJardon]

Originally posted by The Juggling Hamster:

Do you have to have Empire Rank to purchase it at "Sola Prospect on planet Brestla A 1" though? I thought you could buy ANYTHING there and just generally pay 20 percent more.

If I'm totally stuck with leveling up Empire, what would you recommend would be the next ship that I go for.

Anaconda? I want to be able to PVE with ease but also be able to multi-role a bit.

And before I forget thank you folks for the info.

I've SERIOUS got the addiction back to play Elite Dangerous and I'm having a great time.

Good questions. You can only get the Cutter if you have Admiral rank in the Imperial navy.

It's better to buy a ship for each task you need. Multi-role ships are not a good idea because they can't do any task well, especially combat. From Robigo or Ngalinn, in no time, you can make enough money to buy all the ships you ever need in the game, including your fleet carrier - no need to worry about discounts, when you can make a billion a day. Here's some general guidelines.

For trading: T6 - Python - Anaconda - Cutter in sequence
For combat: Sidewinder - Vulture - FAS or Chieftain - Corvette
For Mining: T6 - Python - Anaconda - Cutter
For Robigo passengers: T6 - Python
For Exploration: T6 - Diamondback - Asp/Krait/Anaconda

Note that with engineering, you can more or less use any ship for anything, but you should always engineer for the task in hand. Multi-role is never a good idea unless you don't care about efficiency or safety.

If you want do do some pew pew, make a load of money and get rank for your Cutter, grab yourself a Vulture or Chieftain (Vulture better without engineering, Chieftain with engineering) and get yourself down to Ngalinn. Do the pirate missions. Go to the low RES in planet 5 in the target system to complete them.

If you just want the Cutter as quick as posible, do a google search for fastest empire rank. there are a few stations or loops when you can get it very quickly, but remember,a tarding or mining Cutter will cost half a billion just for the ship, thrusters, PP and FSD. An Anaconda would cost about 400 mil to do anything useful. It worries me when you're looking for discounts.

[funkynutz]

Originally posted by The Juggling Hamster:

Do you have to have Empire Rank to purchase it at "Sola Prospect on planet Brestla A 1" though? I thought you could buy ANYTHING there and just generally pay 20 percent more.

You can buy anything there, but you can't buy Federal or Imperial ships without the appropriate rank regardless of where you're trying to buy it from. Except in extremely rare circumstances (for instance back in 2016 there was an Imperial CG that allowed everyone to purchase any Imperial ships regardless of ranks).

If I'm totally stuck with leveling up Empire, what would you recommend would be the next ship that I go for.

Can't really answer the ship recommendation without knowing what you're flying at the moment, and how much you have to spend (though if you can afford a Cutter at 20% markup, I'm guessing cash isn't a problem).

If you really want a Cutter though, you could always grind it...

Get yourself a small fast ship (Viper 3 is a good choice if you're short on funds). You don't want a cargo rack...

Head over to Mainani, and start grinding data delivery missions between Mainani and Ngalinn. Don't even need decent jump range once you're there, as the systems are less than 5LY apart.

Only accept jobs from the Imperial factions. Make sure you only stack missions going to the same location (sometimes you'll get missions to 2 different locations in the system, it's a pain in the ass if you're not carefully selective), so you don't have to spend extra time cruising around in system... Once you've got a full stack of missions, deliver them, rinse and repeat.

Try to only accept the reputation rewards (if you need the engineering materials they occasionally offer though, grab them). Ignore the Influence rewards, they'll affect faction states more than your rank.

If you're lucky, it might only take a day to get the rank you need. Otherwise, it might take 3...

And if you can, do it in Odyssey. Seems to spawn more of the same mission type than Horizons; makes the grinding a bit easier.

[The Juggling Hamster]

Thanks for the advice. I will start working on getting my Empire up. I bought an Anaconda and I've got its jump range to 41.something and i'm on my way to Felicity Farseer to work on engineering fsd range a bunch.

Since rigging the Cutter will cost a ton I'll put on my *be patient* hat and work on it and in the mean time enjoy the Anaconda.

*bow of respect to all*