best way to get merits?

[Axiolot]

with the new powerplay, whats the best way to get merits?

[Verienkeli]

There is a lot of discussion about this. It definitely was rare goods trading for week 1, and that's likely still the case even if the amounts of rare goods have dropped (whether nerfed or fallen due to "living economy" in-game). I've seen someone taking a Python Mk2 (I made a Ferdie along the same lines, but I haven't tried it) claiming you can get 10k/hour blowing up fighters (but not full ships) around enemy Stronghold Carriers. What's the fastest? That's still up in the air, especially as FDev are still poking around the balancing.

[Mazzle Dazzle]

IMO stacking wing bounty missions. Its not really the best for the merit payouts but its pretty good. The real win comes from the billions you get doing it in a wing with friends and sharing wing missions as well as the tons of engineering materials you get on top by selecting the engineering material rewards.
The best strictly for merits is using a fleet carrier and stacking rare goods from boom systems.
I got 35k on the day power play released as I took off from work bounty hunting all day, however people rare goods trading got 60-70k. I got 35k spending all yesterday doing on foot missions.

[Axiolot]

Originally posted by Verienkeli:

There is a lot of discussion about this. It definitely was rare goods trading for week 1, and that's likely still the case even if the amounts of rare goods have dropped (whether nerfed or fallen due to "living economy" in-game). I've seen someone taking a Python Mk2 (I made a Ferdie along the same lines, but I haven't tried it) claiming you can get 10k/hour blowing up fighters (but not full ships) around enemy Stronghold Carriers. What's the fastest? That's still up in the air, especially as FDev are still poking around the balancing.

hmm, i'll see about trying that python thing, thanks

[Verienkeli]

Originally posted by Axiolot:

Originally posted by Verienkeli:

There is a lot of discussion about this. It definitely was rare goods trading for week 1, and that's likely still the case even if the amounts of rare goods have dropped (whether nerfed or fallen due to "living economy" in-game). I've seen someone taking a Python Mk2 (I made a Ferdie along the same lines, but I haven't tried it) claiming you can get 10k/hour blowing up fighters (but not full ships) around enemy Stronghold Carriers. What's the fastest? That's still up in the air, especially as FDev are still poking around the balancing.

hmm, i'll see about trying that python thing, thanks

The Youtube channel Multiverse Trade Union made a video showcasing it with an EDSY link to their Python build in the description.

[Axiolot]

Originally posted by Verienkeli:

Originally posted by Axiolot:

hmm, i'll see about trying that python thing, thanks

The Youtube channel Multiverse Trade Union made a video showcasing it with an EDSY link to their Python build in the description.

coolio, thanks

[Agony_Aunt]

There's apparently a new exploit where you can earn 30k/hour.

Haven't gone looking for it myself so can't/won't provide further info.

[ждун]

I just started pp2.
Made 10k merits fighting in power combat zone for about 1 hour.
Each kill is about 65-150 merits, depending on their rank. For rookies you get about 65 and for elites you get up to 150.

This is actually not so hard. Normal combat zones are much tougher. The power combat zones are like hazres. You don't really need defences, only dps. Enemies are as tough as regular hazres pirates, maybe a little bit tougher. They also don't really gang up on you. Power combat zones are also endless like hazres. When one gets killed another one spawns. So you can do it forever staying in same battle. Also they are all much closer together than in hazres so you don't have to fly over long distances between fights. You kill one and right after that pick the next one. So you score kills faster than in hazres. Up to 100 per hour is doable if you use an offensive combat build. My Ship has 539 dps :-) You also don't have to scan them, there are no civilians and no any risk getting bounties on you.

I just looked for the nearest contested system on the powerplay map. There I found a few power combat zones and joined the fight. However it was a fight between two powers that are both hostile to me. That is awesome because than you can simply kill both sides.

[Sabertom]

That's definitely a lot more than I've done so far. Stealing the data from the settlements only earned me about 400 Merrits per settlement (stealing 4 datas). To do this, you first have to fly to the surface, switch off the alarm and then sneak to the data ports and download the data. Or doing reboot missions at the settlements which takes even longer. I started playing ED with the PowerPlay update after a long time. So I'm a bit rusty. But it still takes at least 20 minutes per site. Escape pods also only bring about 30 merrits per pod. Also time-consuming in contrast to the CZs.

I also tried to submit Exobiology data. That gave no points at all?! Although it was specified as a task for that system

[Hootman]

Also don't forget to Scan, Scan, Scan, even in your daily business. You never know when you might happen to be in a system where that works to get merits. Same with wake scans (I think) and just killing enemy power AI where ever you are. Scans are only 5 merits, but it's quick and easy, and adds up.

So just make that grind part of your daily routine, same as collecting mats (you should be scanning all the time anyway to get encoded materials).