Elite: Dangerous. I broke down.

[republic]

What's the best way to earn money as a newb?

You can use this tool:  http://elitetradingtool.co.uk/ to find a profitable trade route near you.  Just remember that your jump range fully laiden with cargo is much lower than your 'normal' jump range so be sure to use the correct weight when plotting your course using the glaxy map.

More than once I plotted my course THEN bought the cargo and found I couldn't get there from here.  :)

[Yskonyn]

Jomni, if you are still around lhs3447 its better to move.
The system is not very lucrative. Move up a few nodes. :)


.

[undercovergeek]

What's the best way to earn money as a newb?

I think the consensus, as we have already discussed a few times, is to start with simple local courier missions. Transport goods from one station to another for 2,000 credits here, 3,000 credits there. This is different than trading. You do not have to buy the commodity. The customer supplies it and you just deliver it.  Think of UPS in space. After you make a few bucks, continue to look for those missions, but when in transit, start looking for wanted criminals and hunt them down. You can earn very reasonable bounties this way and before you know it, you'll be earning 15,000 to 20,000 on the average per run. Eventually, after you have earned enough to upgrade into a better ship with more advanced modules, head to a resource extraction zone and start aggressively hunting criminals. This will earn you steady and reasonable income. I'm earning between 50,000 to 100,000 credits per run now and I do not even look at the courier missions. My sole source of income at the moment is bounty hunting and I would consider myself reasonably wealthy. Not rich, but definitely successful. 

Alternatively, you can skip the bounty hunting and once you saved up some money, you can buy a larger transport ship and get into heavier trading.

one day im going to ask you for a tutorial, i know fk all about combat, interdicting, wake scanning...........

[Jarhead0331]

What's the best way to earn money as a newb?

I think the consensus, as we have already discussed a few times, is to start with simple local courier missions. Transport goods from one station to another for 2,000 credits here, 3,000 credits there. This is different than trading. You do not have to buy the commodity. The customer supplies it and you just deliver it.  Think of UPS in space. After you make a few bucks, continue to look for those missions, but when in transit, start looking for wanted criminals and hunt them down. You can earn very reasonable bounties this way and before you know it, you'll be earning 15,000 to 20,000 on the average per run. Eventually, after you have earned enough to upgrade into a better ship with more advanced modules, head to a resource extraction zone and start aggressively hunting criminals. This will earn you steady and reasonable income. I'm earning between 50,000 to 100,000 credits per run now and I do not even look at the courier missions. My sole source of income at the moment is bounty hunting and I would consider myself reasonably wealthy. Not rich, but definitely successful. 

Alternatively, you can skip the bounty hunting and once you saved up some money, you can buy a larger transport ship and get into heavier trading.

one day im going to ask you for a tutorial, i know fk all about combat, interdicting, wake scanning...........

Anytime!

[Great Ajax]

This sums up exactly what I have done.  I do Bounty 'fishing' at the nav points and rake in about $100k before I need to reload on cannon ammunition.  My near term goal is to upgrade all of my Viper's equipment to the roughly sub $200k per module/weapon price point.  After this, I don't really know what to do.  The endgame tier of the Viper has most of the modules costing $500k a piece which is a lot of cheddar and seems like a massive grind.  I would love to shoot for an Anacada but you need some serious cash as I think these are about $17M for the stock model.  Bounty hunting just isn't going to get you there.  I also want to get involved in pursuing a faction and finding a system to settle down in but I don't know how to even evaluate that.  Was thinking about settling down in Imperial Space as mainly a bounty hunter with making piracy raids (as an Imperial Marque) into Federation space on the side.  So maybe a border system between the Empire and the Federation with a nice Anarchy system nearby (for blackmarket runs) would be ideal. 

I just made it into Sol and am exploring it a bit.  It is really cool to fly around Earth and the Moon.  Also ran into a Wanted Cobra Elite and thought it would be an easy bounty.  That dude blasted my Viper into space dust after two passes.

I bought the beta back in May but haven't touched it until this past week and I am totally addicted.  The Saitek 52 Pro is working nicely too.

Trey

What's the best way to earn money as a newb?

I think the consensus, as we have already discussed a few times, is to start with simple local courier missions. Transport goods from one station to another for 2,000 credits here, 3,000 credits there. This is different than trading. You do not have to buy the commodity. The customer supplies it and you just deliver it.  Think of UPS in space. After you make a few bucks, continue to look for those missions, but when in transit, start looking for wanted criminals and hunt them down. You can earn very reasonable bounties this way and before you know it, you'll be earning 15,000 to 20,000 on the average per run. Eventually, after you have earned enough to upgrade into a better ship with more advanced modules, head to a resource extraction zone and start aggressively hunting criminals. This will earn you steady and reasonable income. I'm earning between 50,000 to 100,000 credits per run now and I do not even look at the courier missions. My sole source of income at the moment is bounty hunting and I would consider myself reasonably wealthy. Not rich, but definitely successful. 

Alternatively, you can skip the bounty hunting and once you saved up some money, you can buy a larger transport ship and get into heavier trading.

[Jarhead0331]

I just bought the Cobra. I took it for a shakedown cruise and think it will be fun to put bounty hunting aside for a little and try to make some money as an armed transport of trade goods. First, I still need to make some more money by killing so I can upgrade the Cobra. I think by the end of the weekend I'll have a pretty beefy Cobra.

[SirAndrewD]

I just bought the Cobra. I took it for a shakedown cruise and think it will be fun to put bounty hunting aside for a little and try to make some money as an armed transport of trade goods. First, I still need to make some more money by killing so I can upgrade the Cobra. I think by the end of the weekend I'll have a pretty beefy Cobra.

I found the Cobra is best suited as an armed transport or pirate ship, not a bounty hunter. 

You're safe as houses running trade in a Cobra nothing much can beat you that interdicts you, and you can escape anything that can.  If you've got a good rare goods route, you'll roll in millions in no time. 

[Jarhead0331]

I just bought the Cobra. I took it for a shakedown cruise and think it will be fun to put bounty hunting aside for a little and try to make some money as an armed transport of trade goods. First, I still need to make some more money by killing so I can upgrade the Cobra. I think by the end of the weekend I'll have a pretty beefy Cobra.

I found the Cobra is best suited as an armed transport or pirate ship, not a bounty hunter. 

You're safe as houses running trade in a Cobra nothing much can beat you that interdicts you, and you can escape anything that can.  If you've got a good rare goods route, you'll roll in millions in no time.

I look forward to joining you in the millionaires club, sir.

[SirAndrewD]

I just bought the Cobra. I took it for a shakedown cruise and think it will be fun to put bounty hunting aside for a little and try to make some money as an armed transport of trade goods. First, I still need to make some more money by killing so I can upgrade the Cobra. I think by the end of the weekend I'll have a pretty beefy Cobra.

I found the Cobra is best suited as an armed transport or pirate ship, not a bounty hunter. 

You're safe as houses running trade in a Cobra nothing much can beat you that interdicts you, and you can escape anything that can.  If you've got a good rare goods route, you'll roll in millions in no time.

I look forward to joining you in the millionaires club, sir.

Join me at Lave in the club level, we'll make it rain!

In all seriousness though, it takes no time at all once you upgrade to the serious haulers.  It's ever increasing returns as your cargo space grows. 

Here's my net in just two days of trading in my Lakon...

[GDS_Starfury]

http://massively.joystiq.com/2015/01/02/elite-dangerous-server-goes-haywire-creates-instant-billionair/

[SirAndrewD]

http://massively.joystiq.com/2015/01/02/elite-dangerous-server-goes-haywire-creates-instant-billionair/

Yeah, people were duping credits either intentionally or accidentally all night last night.

Things seem to have been sorted out today though.

[GDS_Starfury]

Im still going to wait a few months before getting it.

[Jarhead0331]

Im still going to wait a few months before getting it.

You're a retard.

[Jarhead0331]

I'm noticing an interesting trend. I've been bounty hunting exclusively in one system for a few days now. I've made a lot of money and killed a lot of criminals. On a few occasions, a Federal Security ship will cross my line of fire causing an instant bounty and a 200 credit fine.  When this happens, I usually stick around and finish a few kills and then head back to the nearest dock to refit. I have NEVER defended myself against the Feds and I have never opened fire on them or destroyed any federal ship attacking me. When I return to dock, I pay the fine, wipe out the bounty and head back out into the field.

Recently, I started noticing that when returning to my hunting ground, a few, but not all, of the federal security ships are red on my radar and will attack me on sight. I do not have a bounty, or have wanted status. Additionally, I'm noticing that a few of the the wanted criminals are popping up as green on my hud and will not attack me unless I attack them.  I checked my reputation and in all systems they are all neutral, or better. What is causing this trend? Is there heat that you generate simply from engaging in combat, or have those little fines here and there somehow effected my overall reputation that is not discernible from the the reputation screen? Its starting to be a bigger problem and causing me to have shorten my runs. Shorter runs means less money.

As soon as I make enough dosh to upgrade my Cobra, I plan on leaving this system behind for awhile, but I'm still curious as to what is going on here.

[GDS_Starfury]

Im still going to wait a few months before getting it.

You're a retard.

Im a busy retard with Rome2, APOS, WoT and Civ4 to play.