Elite: Dangerous

[Anonymous Bosch]

Questions:

• If my AI pilot dies in the Fighter ship, does he "die" or does he just come back to the mothership and wait to be re-deployed?

I haven't done much with ship-launched fighters and NPC pilots myself but from what I recall, NPC pilots have permadeath. So once they're gone, they're gone for good.

• I visited my first engineer last night, but am really not sure what it all means even after reading a guide (like this one). It looks like I'm "unlocking" new builds by using them - but do I have to spend 5 components each time I upgrade something that way now, or is it just the first time while they're learning it?
• I noticed later in another station that I had an unavailable option to apply an engineer upgrade. I think I could have "pinned" the upgrade I bought at the Engineer - but how does that work? Do the other stations access those pinned upgrade specs, and how many can I "pin" at once?

Here's a useful video guide that helps explain the entire Engineering process.

[Paingod]

Here's a useful video guide that helps explain the entire Engineering process.

Perfect for getting started understanding what's going on. Thank you. Even the "beginner" guides I was reading seemed to throw a lot of things in with assumptions. I may be suffering information overload as I was jump-started by UsulofDoom and past all the stages where I may have had to stagger through this or that one step at a time. Instead I'm staring into a bank account with 87m credits in it and desperately trying to understand all the things I can do with it before I do anything with it.

Buying that Asp Explorer last night was a big leap (27m credits) and probably enough for me to play around with for a while before I return to engineering. I'm hoping to at least pay back it's value in one run, and hopefully pull together enough credits to move up to something bigger. Who knows, I might end up really liking mining. I've done stranger things in games before.

What's blowing my mind with this game is the sheer amount of player-generated data you have to absorb, from locations and resources to guides and tutorials, in order to succeed.

[Paingod]

Planet landings have been a pain in the ass for me. I basically fly over the city and drop straight down. It seems there's a better way.

[Paingod]

I suppose I'm a miner now? First trip out with the Asp Ex. It ended with me cracking a Painite Core that almost topped off my cargo hold, but was mostly me cruising and using the Pulse Wave Analyzer to find glowing rocks that (more often than not) threw Painite at me in a double hotspot. Being a double-threat for mining paid off. This took about 90 minutes total, including travel time. It was kind of fun poking at rocks, but I tossed maybe half my Limpets out the window to make space for ore (I started with 80). I'm not complaining about wasting 4,000cr to earn 70m. Before I go back out I'm adding a third mining laser and re-arranging my Refinery to a smaller one, and moving up my Fuel Scoop to 3A instead of 2A. I only ever utilized one bin; a 3A was pointless.



*Edit: Ended the night with 199m credits in the bank. I had to cut my second run out short, but on that run I was bumping into more Painite Deep Cores than I was finding deposits. It was strange, but still effective as I didn't need to collect and refine however many to get one sell-able block. The hotspot looked quite spent when I went back to it (it was much smaller and no longer overlapping another). Again I felt very justified in having a Surface/Core dual purpose mining rig instead of one or the other. This might be why EliteMiners on Reddit also mention going to Depleted Void Opal areas - the number of brightly glowing rocks was almost cut down to just the ones with Cores. I think Void Opals will be something I try next, but I'm not sure if I want to build out a new ship or keep using the Asp Explorer for now. I don't mind *only* making 144m in one run (if I get 90 Void Opals), and I feel like the smaller ship makes me more nimble and keeps options open for landing and selling.

Now that I'm capable of harvesting cash at a strong rate, I'd be happy to pass on the blessing that UsulofDoom gave me and hand down a cargo-hold filled with valuable minerals to a newbie to the game (or anyone who's had it for a while and struggling to break into the millions needed to get going). I'm not even that far along, time-wise, but have tremendous earning potential and it's all thanks to that head start I was granted. The only thing I'd ask is that you have a decent cargo hold and collector limpets. I should have had both when I agreed to accept the offer and felt badly for spending half the night bumping expensive cargo across open space and letting the feds snatch some of it because I was so slow. The ship build I linked is something you can very easily buy after your first night of adjusting to the game and running newbie missions in the tutorial areas. After that, we'd just meet up somewhere outside a station that would buy the cargo for a good price that's close to where you are currently. The meetup involves using your Cargo Scoop effectively (without catching on fire) and plotting a course in the galaxy map - skills you'd learn during the early missions. Just inform me of your intention to take me up on that so I have a couple hours to collect what you'd need to forge ahead at light speed.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Nicely done!

You may want to consider upgrading to a Python outfitted for deep core mining with 192t of cargo after your next haul (or tweak it for painite mining, if you prefer). Either way, it'll dramatically improve your income in fairly short order. If you're able fill the hold with void opals, three trips in the Python ought to be sufficient to get you ranked up to Elite status as a trader (which gives you a 2.5% discount on all in-stock ships and modules, and also grants you the permit for Jameson Memorial in Shinrarta Dezhra that sells every ship and module in the game and grants an additional 10% discount upon them).

[Paingod]

Nicely done!

You may want to consider upgrading to a Python outfitted for deep core mining with 192t of cargo after your next haul (or tweak it for painite mining, if you prefer). Either way, it'll dramatically improve your income in fairly short order. If you're able fill the hold with void opals, three trips in the Python ought to be sufficient to get you ranked up to Elite status as a trader (which gives you a 2.5% discount on all in-stock ships and modules, and also grants you the permit for Jameson Memorial in Shinrarta Dezhra that sells every ship and module in the game and grants an additional 10% discount upon them).

I had heard about Jameson Memorial being a good port, but didn't realize how good. I know you advocate deep core mining as a quick path to vast wealth. The EliteMiners of Reddit would say the better route is Painite double-hotspot mining. I agree that both are valid ways to rake in hundreds of millions in short order after toying with both (though my core mining was also for Painite).

I'm planning to spend some time today poking around at different builds. I was honestly trying out mining last night to see how I felt about it. How I feel is that it's something interesting (for now) and it opens up a lot of other possibilities. I don't know if it's something I'd want to settle down and do for a whole evening, uninterrupted.

I was looking at a slightly less expensive Krait MkII build that I could overhaul later into my fighter/carrier ship, but the Python seems to have it beat for straight mining, though the Krait MkII isn't bad at it - it's halfway between the Asp Explorer and the Python. I don't really need a halfway ship, though. An odd alternate I was thinking of is the Beluga Liner. If I did one more run of Painite (or Void Opals) in my Asp Explorer, I could afford one and the rebuys. The heavier mining ships kind of scare me, in terms of being plodding targets with lower shields. Like the Type-9, which I could get without another run, but couldn't rebuy unless I did.

(Type-9 Heavy/Beluga/Python/Krait MkII)
Cost: 191m / 217m / 140m / 120m
Rebuy: 9.55m / 10.8m / 7.01m / 6.03m
Unladen Speed: 148 / 218 / 267 / 278
Unladen Boost: 227 / 305 / 348 / 383
Pitch: 19.86º / 24.53º / 30.74º / 33.06º
Yaw: 9.08º / 18.53º / 11.60º / 11.60º
Unladen Jump: 18.29ly / 23.60ly / 18.50ly / 20.55ly
Fuel Range: 149.88ly / 246.01ly / 127.44ly / 147.97ly
Refuel: 3.1m / 6.2m / 1.6m / 3.0m
Shields: 247 / 236 / 548 / 390
Cargo Space: 576 /272 / 192 / 160
Bins: 10 / 8 / 8 / 6
Collectors: 3 / 3 / 3 / 3
Prospectors: 2 / 2 / 2 / 2
Supercruise Assist: Yes / Yes / Yes / No
Docking Assist: Yes / Yes / Yes / No

Statistically, the Python makes good sense unless you're dealing in ABSOLUTE bulk, then the Type-9 does... but the Type-9's poor flight characteristics scares me as a solo player. I feel like it's better suited for someone in a group that has other people to help them. The Beluga just seems really weird as a mining vessel after putting it to paper.

This also really demonstrates the effects of putting too much mass into a shield. When you're up near the max mass it can cover, it really drops in power. The Python's shield is near optimal. The others are being stretched thin.

[UsulofDoom]

Now that I'm capable of harvesting cash at a strong rate, I'd be happy to pass on the blessing that UsulofDoom gave me and hand down a cargo-hold filled with valuable minerals to a newbie to the game (or anyone who's had it for a while and struggling to break into the millions needed to get going). I'm not even that far along, time-wise, but have tremendous earning potential and it's all thanks to that head start I was granted. The only thing I'd ask is that you have a decent cargo hold and collector limpets. I should have had both when I agreed to accept the offer and felt badly for spending half the night bumping expensive cargo across open space and letting the feds snatch some of it because I was so slow. The ship build I linked is something you can very easily buy after your first night of adjusting to the game and running newbie missions in the tutorial areas. After that, we'd just meet up somewhere outside a station that would buy the cargo for a good price that's close to where you are currently. The meetup involves using your Cargo Scoop effectively (without catching on fire) and plotting a course in the galaxy map - skills you'd learn during the early missions. Just inform me of your intention to take me up on that so I have a couple hours to collect what you'd need to forge ahead at light speed.

I glad I was able to help out.

One thing to keep in mind is the materials you collect. They can fill up your bins fast. You should use the material traders to upgrade them any time they are getting full.

You need lots of materials for engineering.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Statistically, the Python makes good sense unless you're dealing in ABSOLUTE bulk, then the Type-9 does... but the Type-9's poor flight characteristics scares me as a solo player. I feel like it's better suited for someone in a group that has other people to help them. The Beluga just seems really weird as a mining vessel after putting it to paper.

BTW, here's a more versatile Python miner build with 196t of cargo I found mighty useful when going for painite. It includes all necessary mining tools (allowing you to grab surface, sub-surface, and deep core deposits), along with a shock mine launcher for defense that helps significantly when evading foes and interdictors. If you prefer flying with a docking computer or supercruise assist, you could swap out the 2E cargo rack for the relevant flight assist module.

[Paingod]

I upgraded to the Python and went Opal hunting. After an hour in the field, I had 16 to show for it. Back to Painite. :/

[Anonymous Bosch]

I upgraded to the Python and went Opal hunting. After an hour in the field, I had 16 to show for it. Back to Painite. :/

Keep at it, and try not to get discouraged. Alas, the hunting process for void opals certainly can seem difficult at first, particularly in comparison to double painite mining. The key to remember is there's only one particular shape and model used for each type of deep core asteroid in the game (e.g. icy, rocky, metallic etc). So it does take a little time and patience to become accustomed to exactly what it is you're seeking. Unfortunately, especially while first starting out, wishful thinking can lull one into thinking any seemingly-bright asteroid that shows up with the Pulse Wave Analyser could be a deep core asteroid. There's no getting around the fact that you have to learn the precise size, shape, and texture of the specific asteroid you're after. So once you do locate one, the sensible thing to do is to really take your time flying around it so that you can carefully examine it from various angles and distances. Pay attention to the overall Jack Be Little pumpkin-shape of the model, and check out the surface shapes and details while flying closely around it. Doing so will definitely help train your brain to more easily recognise it from further away and, more importantly, learn to avoid misleading false positives. The following video from Down to Earth Astronomy does a good job of illustrating what you're after and demonstrating how to more easily identify 'em:



Also, if you're playing the game at a higher resolution than 1920x1080, this video highlights an important difference in how void opals / deep core asteroids may appear.

[Paingod]

I do appreciate the tips. Prior to heading out, I studied the asteroid appearance for some time and tried to memorize the general shape. I flew to every single asteroid that even roughly resembled it and hit it with a Prospector. I flew around the ones I did find and didn't see any difference between them and the pictures I studied. I just had complete shit luck, and with my limited play time, I'll take consistency over luck. I did go to a "Depleted" ring, having read that this helps avoid false positives and that the number of cored asteroids doesn't change based on "Depleted" to "Pristine"

My Python has 2x L2 Mining lasers on it and seems to be able to sustain them. This rips surface deposits off with good speed. I think that Painite will be okay for me, and I may still crack 100m per hour.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I do appreciate the tips. Prior to heading out, I studied the asteroid appearance for some time and tried to memorize the general shape. I flew to every single asteroid that even roughly resembled it and hit it with a Prospector. I flew around the ones I did find and didn't see any difference between them and the pictures I studied. I just had complete shit luck, and with my limited play time, I'll take consistency over luck. I did go to a "Depleted" ring, having read that this helps avoid false positives and that the number of cored asteroids doesn't change based on "Depleted" to "Pristine"

My Python has 2x L2 Mining lasers on it and seems to be able to sustain them. This rips surface deposits off with good speed. I think that Painite will be okay for me, and I may still crack 100m per hour.

Yeah, there's no denying double painite is the more consistently reliable means of bringing home the bacon with mining.

However, if you're going for painite, it definitely pays to go for a ship with with the largest cargo hold you can possibly afford. So if you're looking to make serious money quickly with double painite mining, you'll do better going with a Type-9 Heavy with 512t of cargo, three medium mining lasers, and a boatload of collector limpets. Three medium mining lasers means fragments are cut off much more quickly. This saves a huge amount of time over an hour long mining session, all the moreso with nine A-rated collector limpets harvesting fragments. Price-wise, it ought to be slightly cheaper than a decently-outfitted Python. Granted, it flies and handles akin to a breeze block, but an hour or so of mining double painite with that behemoth will easily bring in the better part of 200 million credits, and a full cargo hold = 400 million+ credits. Pirates can eat you alive though, so I wouldn't recommend using it on open.

[Paingod]

I started the night with 99m in the bank and ended the night's play with 392m in the bank, and played for almost 4 hours. Running the calculator on that gives me approximately 75m credits earned per hour - and that's not just mining time. That includes flying back to sell as well and returning to the mine (each leg being ~15m, with a few minutes in the hangar), some faffing around online, and dealing with dogs that needed to go in and out while I was up. Half of the night I was running a less efficient build on my Python, but I don't think it can get much better now, except through engineering. What I was missing were more Collector Limpet controllers. I'm up to 5 now, but can no longer auto-dock. When I found myself sitting on my hands, waiting for 3 limpets to pick everything up, even when I had myself near the floating minerals, I knew I needed to fix it.

The double Painite hotspot I'm using is two of them overlapping so closely that they're literally like 2m km apart; I don't think they can ever split and become two separate deposits, so it's consistently double. The first double spot I was using had split by the time I returned, breaking the super-overlapped bonus. For the one I'm using, I aim at one of the two hotspots from Frame Shift, drop in at the other, and slowly make my way towards the first one I have constantly set as a waypoint. This prevents any concerns over doubling back on myself and wasting time chasing a depleted asteroid.

I'm not sure how many more nights I'll keep mining for. My only objective here is to simply get set up so I don't need to worry about cash for a long time coming. I have barely scratched the surface of combat, never really done trade or passengers, and have a long way to go with the Feds before I can buy any of their ships. Nevermind Engineers and their insanity...!

The Type-9 you showed scares me for being so slow and plodding. I looked at those, and while I'd only need to make one trip back to sell at the end of the night, if I was accosted by any pirate, even an NPC, I think I'd be crapping myself. I get jumped by an NPC pirate half the time I'm coming home with Painite now, but have shaken the interdictions without dropping out of Frame Shift. How well does the Type-9 handle those with its remarkably poor handling?

However, if you're going for painite, it definitely pays to go for a ship with with the largest cargo hold you can possibly afford. So if you're looking to make serious money quickly with double painite mining, you'll do better going with a Type-9 Heavy with 512t of cargo, three medium mining lasers, and a boatload of collector limpets.

I'd counter with a tweak. That one has 640 cargo, and 1 more collector limpet. I added small mining lasers to see if I could ride precisely on the overdraw line of the power plant and distributor with 4 pips in Weapons. I cut back on the Refinery as I selectively mine just Painite. I pulled the detailed surface scanner (assuming this thing is for known hotspots and not exploring); it doesn't help with mining once you know where you're going (unless you need the DSS to see what you've already found), right? I've gotten better at manually docking since forcing myself to abandon it in favor of more purpose-efficient modules, so I dropped the docking assist. I swapped out the shield booster with a heatsink launcher - if I get pulled over by a Pirate, I'm hosed anyway. I bumped up the thrusters so I could scoot between asteroids quicker with 4 pips in Engines. A full hold of Painite, selling for 788,000 would be a 504m payday.

I think, with the Type-9 being just 112m credits, I may try it out. It'd be pretty dang awesome to pull up to a station and unload it once each night and make a massive payday.

[Anonymous Bosch]

The Type-9 you showed scares me for being so slow and plodding. I looked at those, and while I'd only need to make one trip back to sell at the end of the night, if I was accosted by any pirate, even an NPC, I think I'd be crapping myself. I get jumped by an NPC pirate half the time I'm coming home with Painite now, but have shaken the interdictions without dropping out of Frame Shift. How well does the Type-9 handle those with its remarkably poor handling?

Very poorly. So submitting and evading interdictions is crucial with the build I suggested (its poor manoeuvrability makes it much harder to win the interdiction minigame). Fortunately, a hefty ship like the Type-9 Heavy has a useful advantage when trying to escape interdictions after submitting. All that mass has the benefit of not getting mass-locked by anything except Anacondas, so with a decent thruster escaping is fairly simple as long as you don't mess around after an interdiction. Suffice to say, I don't believe I've ever lost an interdiction attempt in my Type-9 against NPCs.

However, if you're going for painite, it definitely pays to go for a ship with with the largest cargo hold you can possibly afford. So if you're looking to make serious money quickly with double painite mining, you'll do better going with a Type-9 Heavy with 512t of cargo, three medium mining lasers, and a boatload of collector limpets.

I'd counter with a tweak. That one has 640 cargo, and 1 more collector limpet. I added small mining lasers to see if I could ride precisely on the overdraw line of the power plant and distributor with 4 pips in Weapons. I cut back on the Refinery as I selectively mine just Painite. I pulled the detailed surface scanner (assuming this thing is for known hotspots and not exploring); it doesn't help with mining once you know where you're going (unless you need the DSS to see what you've already found), right? I've gotten better at manually docking since forcing myself to abandon it in favor of more purpose-efficient modules, so I dropped the docking assist. I swapped out the shield booster with a heatsink launcher - if I get pulled over by a Pirate, I'm hosed anyway. I bumped up the thrusters so I could scoot between asteroids quicker with 4 pips in Engines. A full hold of Painite, selling for 788,000 would be a 504m payday.

I think, with the Type-9 being just 112m credits, I may try it out. It'd be pretty dang awesome to pull up to a station and unload it once each night and make a massive payday.

I wouldn't bother with small mining lasers, as they're not even remotely efficient. Stick with mediums only. I recall reading somewhere that it takes three smalls to mine the same number of fragments per second as one medium. So three medium mining lasers dramatically increases your mining efficiency. My preferred mining tactic is to shoot until the asteroid's at 50%, wait for the distributor to recharge and limpets to get working, then take out the last 50%. Turn, fire off a prospector into the next asteroid, and continue. I found it to be remarkably effective. Having said that, much of the fun with this game is tweaking and trying out various builds for yourself to find what works best with your own style of play. So by all means experiment and see how you get on.

[Paingod]

I wouldn't bother with small mining lasers, as they're not even remotely efficient. Stick with mediums only. I recall reading somewhere that it takes three smalls to mine the same number of fragments per second as one medium. So three medium mining lasers dramatically increases your mining efficiency. My preferred mining tactic is to shoot until the asteroid's at 50%, wait for the distributor to recharge and limpets to get working, then take out the last 50%.

No loss if I do include them (except some tonnage), but knowing the Type-9 can't fully sustain 3 medium mining lasers infinitely, I don't see a reason to add the smalls. I was intending to squeeze more mining power out and cap out the power distribution by trying to fire off all five lasers, not replace the mediums. It sounds like there's no point.

[Anonymous Bosch]

BTW, this video demonstrates another useful tip on using the 'Loop of Shame' to help avoid NPC interdictions altogether:

[Paingod]

I've never intentionally done the loop of shame, but have a few times accidentally. I have, however, plotted a course to destinations where I intentionally came in from an odd angle, not directly from the sun on a course someone would commonly take for trade. I don't know how much that matters to NPC's or if it might just throw off human pirates?

I also like how that guy just falls out of the sky and says "Screw it" to trying to glide. If I could learn how to glide more effectively, I feel like planetary bases would be more fun to land at. As it is, half the time I have to pull up into space and try again.

I've been playing with ship designs today and am not sure which combat ship I want to go with. Light and fast, medium and rugged, big and powerful. Each seems to have ups and downs. I still want to make a Krait MkII fighter carrier, but then I trick out an Anaconda with a fighter, and it's just better in every way except speed and handling (with a 300m price difference, but price is clearly not a real problem).

Then, of course, I think I'd like to make my Asp Explorer look like this some day. A long ways off.

Tonight, though, I plan to put together the last mining vessel I may need in the Type-9 Painite Miner.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I've never intentionally done the loop of shame, but have a few times accidentally. I have, however, plotted a course to destinations where I intentionally came in from an odd angle, not directly from the sun on a course someone would commonly take for trade. I don't know how much that matters to NPC's or if it might just throw off human pirates?

Dunno how effective it is with human pirates (I generally stick with solo myself, so as to avoid the ganking on open), but in my experience it definitely appears to be effective with NPCs.

I also like how that guy just falls out of the sky and says "Screw it" to trying to glide. If I could learn how to glide more effectively, I feel like planetary bases would be more fun to land at. As it is, half the time I have to pull up into space and try again.

For planetary base landings, I typically rely on a similar approach to what's shown in this tutorial:

[Paingod]

So it doesn't matter how often you've been to a ring? Without the DSS, I saw no hotspots. Revising Type-9 build to include it.

[Anonymous Bosch]

So it doesn't matter how often you've been to a ring? Without the DSS, I saw no hotspots. Revising Type-9 build to include it.

Yup, you do need a DSS to find hotspots and to have them show up as selectable navigation points afterwards. So removing the DSS from your ship and returning to a previously scanned ring = hotspots are no longer marked.

[Paingod]

Well, that's mildly frustrating, but I suppose they do fluctuate over time so having the scanner kind of makes sense. It just means I'm down 2 Collectors. I flew all the way to my hotspot to figure this out, but thankfully there was a Large landing pad in the system that sold the DSS for me.

Last night I simply couldn't keep going (my big hint was when I almost flew into a sun while I was "resting my eyes" during a hyperspace jump) and only spent a little while mining, so I didn't get to see the big payday - or any payday.

I'm going to go back and look at your build for the Type-9 again, with the collector limpets in the size 7 spot and just 512 cargo. I'm still finding myself waiting for collectors before moving on, and think this sort of thing I'm doing is strictly about time efficiency. I'm not having a problem moving between asteroids or finding Painite, but I am waiting on limpets to pick everything up. I need to break open the bottleneck to get more efficient, even if it means I'm not riding home on 640 tons of money. Maybe something like this, with 13 Collector Limpets and 512 Cargo spaces.

I have discovered that the Type-9 is a whale in terms of handling. I've slammed face-first into a couple asteroids now because I overestimated how quickly it could stop. Typically, if I'm going max speed to an asteroid, with full pips to Engines but without boosting, I coast to a stop within mining distance if I cut my throttle to zero at approximately 1.3km. Problem is, I'm often boosting and chasing a Prospector Limpet towards a target. It makes contact at 1.5km out and even with the throttle in reverse after that, I still face-plant.

In regards to human pirates in Open Play - I've been playing Open exclusively since I started (not out of any kind of dedication to PvP or masochism, but genuine curiosity) and aside from a handful of hollow squares I've seen around Nav Points and stations, I haven't had any human interaction. Not in my Sidewinder, Cobra MkIII, Asp Explorer, Python, or Type-9 Heavy. I've been playing for over a week now. I was honestly expecting to get railed left and right. I did once see a human at my Double Painite spot, but they were leaving as I was coming in - and I imagine that once my Frame Shift Drive (FSD) trail goes cold, it's pretty damn hard to find me in the asteroid belt. In the place I'm mining, I'm not even being accosted by NPC pirates when I arrive.

Now I haven't been selling my old ships, so I could re-purpose them later. I think my fleet so far will become:

Sidewinder: Free, The antique shuttle
Adder: 112k Credits. A frumpy dustbin
Cobra MkIII: 8.3m Credits. A fun little fighter - needs to be repurposed from Exploration/Combat/Cargo to just Combat
Asp Explorer: 25.7m Credits. Currently set for mining, but should be a long-legged exploration vessel, maybe for a LONG trip into the unknown some day. One build I put together had it at 61Ly per jump, and still had all the bells and whistles.
Python: 139m Credits. 192 Cargo sexy mining vessel for resources that missions and Engineers may request
Type-9 Heavy: 167m Credits. The cash cow

Planned future purchases:
Krait MkII: 146m Credits. Medium combat ship with fighter, combat mission runner

What kinds of ships do you have in your fleet?

Another question: One of the online utilities sent me to a station, with data recently pulled (like 11 minutes old) but when I got there, the station didn't exist in the system. I know I was in the right system - I found other stations and locations that were supposed to be there - but the station I was looking for was just gone. How often does that happen? This is the second "missing" body I've had in the game where something online sent me to find it and it was nowhere to be found.

[Anonymous Bosch]

What kinds of ships do you have in your fleet?

I don't have a fleet of ships. After earning a billion-plus credits and getting access to Jameson Memorial (which greatly simplifies the process of quickly and easily building and outfitting whatever I need), I haven't had much reason to keep an entire fleet on hand. But I'm currently in an Imperial Cutter.

Another question: One of the online utilities sent me to a station, with data recently pulled (like 11 minutes old) but when I got there, the station didn't exist in the system. I know I was in the right system - I found other stations and locations that were supposed to be there - but the station I was looking for was just gone. How often does that happen? This is the second "missing" body I've had in the game where something online sent me to find it and it was nowhere to be found.

I don't recall running into anything like that myself. Which particular system and station were you looking for? I'd suggest first 'honking' the system with the discovery scanner and then checking the local system map. Failing that, did you try scanning with the FSS?

[Anonymous Bosch]

BTW, one important tip I recall completely overlooking even after I'd be playing the game for a while: you're likely familiar with using the "Repair All" button on the station services menu after docking at a station, right? But what you may not realise is that it doesn't actually repair everything. Two things that are not repaired are your paintwork and ship integrity.

Paintwork obviously doesn't really matter, and you may in fact prefer your ship to have a more weathered appearance. But low ship integrity can be dangerous. The lower your ship integrity, the more susceptible to damage and malfunctions your ship becomes. That value lowers naturally over time to represent wear and tear on the ship, but can also be accelerated by heavy combat. So to fix it, you need to use the "Advanced Maintenance" section of the station services menu and go to repair, then click on the somewhat obfuscated option on the top right for "Ship Integrity".

[Paingod]

Another question: One of the online utilities sent me to a station, with data recently pulled (like 11 minutes old) but when I got there, the station didn't exist in the system. I know I was in the right system - I found other stations and locations that were supposed to be there - but the station I was looking for was just gone. How often does that happen? This is the second "missing" body I've had in the game where something online sent me to find it and it was nowhere to be found.

I don't recall running into anything like that myself. Which particular system and station were you looking for? I'd suggest first 'honking' the system with the discovery scanner and then checking the local system map. Failing that, did you try scanning with the FSS?

If I run into this situation again, I'll be sure to report on the exact specifics. I don't recall the station that was missing, though. I did try everything short of FSS to find it; it wasn't in the Nav list, the system list, or the ports listed in the System tab. It was just gone.

I suffered my first piracy loss last night. When I logged in at my mining spot, I was immediately set upon by an NPC demanding a cut of my cargo. Every time I've dropped in from Frame Shift, I haven't had a pirate bother me. The time I log in with 87 Painite in my hold, there's one sitting there up my ass. I suppose it could have been worse.

On my return trip from mining I had three NPC's threaten to steal from me, sending me messages about the haul they were looking for. Two I avoided by jumping to different systems before they could get to me and the third I beat at the interdiction minigame. I didn't feel like testing out the Drop & Shift method with 300 Painite in the hold and hours of time to lose if I screwed it up.

When I was mining in my Python I think I had an NPC try and accost me once. The game must spawn extra ass to throw at plodding pack mules.

My experience with the Type-9 Heavy was positive. In 60 minutes of mining, I stuffed 125 Painite into my hold - meaning I was "earning" 97.5m credits per hour of mining. Where I fell short was my personal time and ability to stay awake. I couldn't get into the game before 9:45 and was unable to stay awake past 11:30. I refused to log out in the mining spot again and lose more cargo when I came back, so I took the 15 minutes needed to get to a station and sell. That didn't leave much time for profit.

BTW, one important tip I recall completely overlooking ...

One video I bumped into yesterday was "5 things you didn't know" for Elite Dangerous. As a new player, I figured I was in their demographic. It listed 4 things everyone here had already taught me - plus the Advanced Repairs for system internals... but this is absolutely good to know. The guy even covered the history of why it's a separate tab - they introduced the costs for repairs and people screamed about how high their repair bills were, they removed the cost and people screamed that the game was too easy. They compromised by hiding it as a sub-repair to satisfy both parties.

That brings me to a question that's been floating around in my head for a little while now. Are there people who play this game without mining, or is it more-or-less standard that people do that to bulk up their finances before doing anything else? I mean ... I'm not even two weeks into the game and the most expensive ships are within my reach, easily. A part of the game that was scaring me off was the righteous talk of never-ending grinds. Cash doesn't seem to be the thing to grind for, as I haven't been mining long enough to get bored with it yet.

[Anonymous Bosch]

That brings me to a question that's been floating around in my head for a little while now. Are there people who play this game without mining, or is it more-or-less standard that people do that to bulk up their finances before doing anything else? I mean ... I'm not even two weeks into the game and the most expensive ships are within my reach, easily. A part of the game that was scaring me off was the righteous talk of never-ending grinds. Cash doesn't seem to be the thing to grind for, as I haven't been mining long enough to get bored with it yet.

Given the sandboxy, free-roaming nature of the game, I suspect it's largely subjective. One of the initial goals I set personally was to get access to Jameson Memorial and rank up to Elite ASAP just to make life easier in terms of purchasing and more easily outfitting ships (which are akin to 'characters' within the E:D universe). After having done plenty of trading and making several million with the Road the Riches method, mining just seemed the most reliable and obvious means of earning the necessary billion-plus credits to rank up to Elite and secure the permit for Jameson Memorial. But there are numerous other ways of playing and enjoying the game. When I tire of unlocking Engineer and Guardian tech, I'll likely join the private Mobius PvE group to explore more of the community aspects without the worry of getting ganked.

[Paingod]

I appreciate your perspectives.

I'm still not entirely sure what my long term goal is in the game. I've been mostly accelerated to what feels like near-end game mode within the first couple weeks. I'm not complaining. I like just going out and dropping 150m credits on an idea and not sweating it.

Last night I pulled in 402 Painite in exactly 3 hours. Selling for 788,000 that's 316m credits in the bank, or just over 105m per hour I was mining. It put me up around 650m in the bank, so I turned around and wandered off to go find a Krait MkII nearby for sale. I wasn't able to make it the final version at the port I was in, but I was able to pick up a combat mission and maul a Fer-De-Lance NPC for 50,000 Credits and a Rank 2 rare material. It felt good to get into a fight and win it, and felt even better to actually fly something with controls again.

I'm probably going to go back to my Type-9 Heavy long enough that I can unlock Jameson Memorial. It sounds like the place I want to be.

I don't know if I have the stamina to mine through to more than 1 or 2 billion credits before dropping mining and moving into the rest of the game. Last night I was doing good until I got to 200 Painite in my hold, and then felt an urge to go cash in and do something else. Instead I gritted my teeth and kept going until I had 400... but still with enough time and Limpets that I could have gotten to 500+. I just didn't have it in me, though. I was tired of staring at rocks and left. On the way to sell I caught fire in a star that my mule couldn't pull up from after jumping and my hold leaked out 4 Painite. Then on the last leg towards the station, an NPC decided to accost me - which I successfully dropped out of Frame Shift on, then re-Framed before he could get a Hatchbreaker limpet on me. I don't have point defense and think I might want it now. I actually heard a message saying I avoided one. It'd stink to lose cargo like that when I could have prevented it.

Knowing that my personal tolerance for mining is around 400 units of cargo in 3 hours, I'm considering a different ship, or maybe just a different build on the same one... but after looking at builds, there's really no easy way to rebuild the Type-9 with 400 cargo and have it still be as efficient for mining, so maybe I'll go out knowing it's not a 512 haul, but a 400.

I'm very curious as to what the next big thing will cost (the indestructible fleet carriers). That might be a grind-worthy goal, at least to get a base model I can tote around with me, if not a fully kitted one.

So for "End Game" combat, should I go for the 816m Anaconda, 995m Federal Corvette, or the 1.29bn Imperial Cutter?

I'm not sure I built them to the best they could be (not having experienced heavy combat), but my comparison based on what I know is below...


Based on that, I'd want the Cutter for sexy travel, trade, mining, or showing off. I'd want the Corvette if I wanted to fight. I'd want the Anaconda if I couldn't afford the other two? Folks online talk about Vultures or Fer-De-Lances being able to rip up Corvettes and Cutters by riding in blind spots and out-maneuvering them, so clearly size isn't everything.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Don't forget, prior to earning Elite status, when purchasing and outfitting a new ship you can save a decent amount of money (especially with pricier ships like the Anaconda) by using EDDB.io to locate the nearest station with the ship you're after that is controlled by Li Yong-Rui (systems controlled by Li Yong-Rui provide a 15% discount on outfitting, including modules, weapons and all ships).

Start by clicking the 'Stations' section, and then type the ship you're after in the 'Station sells Ships' section at the top. Choose 'Li Yong-Rui' in the 'Powers' section and 'Control' in the 'Power Effects' section. Finally, in the 'Reference System' section, type the name of the system you're at, then hit 'Find Stations'. You can do the same thing with modules and weapons by entering them in the 'Station sells Modules' section. Also, if you're looking to save money on larger cargo racks, stations controlled by Edmund Mahon provide a 20% discount on cargo racks and hull reinforcement packages. Here's a list of all discounts you may find handy.

[Paingod]

With money coming out my ears, it didn't seem necessary to crawl across the galaxy looking for deals. I've just been hitting whoever is closest. My feelings on that may change, though, when I get into high replacement costs. Those are based on the initial sale value of your ship and modules, right?

I'm not overly attached to my Krait MkII yet - maybe I can fly it to another station that sells it cheaper and trade it in... and get 5% of my cost back? It's a 90% trade in, plus selling modules first so you get 100% from them, right? If I'm going to be learning to fight with a 150m ship, it might make sense to have the replacement costs lower.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Yeah, that's why I mentioned it. For larger and pricier ships like the Anaconda and such, you can save tens of millions by purchasing and outfitting in a Li Yong-Rui-controlled system vs. the typical prices elsewhere.

[Paingod]

Last night I did the final nudge needed to go from Tycoon (90%) to Elite. I had to log off and back on to get in, but I have access to Jameson Memorial now and flew my Kriat MkII there to touch it up.

I also got into a scuffle with a Novice pirate (part of a mission) where I had the opportunity to test out my Chaff voice command, as well as my Shield Cell voice command. I believe he was flying a Fer-De-Lance and had turrets that picked me apart while I was chasing him. I didn't think that was overly funny. It was less amusing when I clearly had the upper hand and system security ganged up on him for me; I'm just glad I had done 40% damage to him before they started. I think I got to hit him with two more volleys after that.

Also picked up a Harmless AI pilot, who's currently getting a 2% cut for riding along. I need to find some tamer fights to train it. I've read that one good method is to deck my personal ship out with turrets and pilot the SLF myself. I think I need to find a low-threat combat zone and pick a few fights there, cutting them down with my SLF and waiting for the AI to finish them. The big thing seems to be making sure my AI pilot gets the kill, not me, and they should level quickly.

[Paingod]

Re: Combat

I spent some time trying to learn to fight and discovered a few things.

• Playing as a dogfighter in a Combat Zone (CZ) isn't as fun as it sounds. Prolonged engagements don't end well, and it seems like you draw the ire of two for every one you kill.
• It feels a lot fairer to play in a Resource Extraction Site (RES) and gun down a never-ending parade of pirate scum who come at you one and two at a time, often with time to mop up the Materials you're scattering as you kill them.
• It's relatively easy to flee from a fight and Frame Shift out to safety. It seems like dying is more a result of negligence and complacency than anything else.
• AI Fighter ships are utterly disposable. Replacing them costs less than replacing a single round of Plasma Accelerator ammo.
• AI pilots do not die unless your mothership dies. Send them out early, send them out often, send them out. I imagine they're remote-piloting the ship like a drone.
• The Plasma Accelerator exists. Bang for the buck is an understatement. 2,000Cr per shot.
• 3x Plasma Accelerators against a Cobra MkIII is an insta-kill.
• Don't get hit by enemies firing Plasma Accelerator shots. Boost at angles away from them until you can get behind them.
• Don't joust with enemies. If an enemy wants to come straight at you, it's for a good reason.

This is my Krait MkII build now. It's power-hungry on weapons and heats up something toasty, but makes AI opponents soil themselves pretty easily. I had to adjust after finding that Multi-Cannons were taking far too long to break down enemies and I was spending a lot of time running back to stations to repair. The 3x 3B Plasma Accelerators are harder to hit with, but when they hit... ... even an Elite Imperial Cutter noticed and couldn't run from me.

Changes I'm considering for my ship:

• I'm not entirely sold on the Beam Lasers. I like the shield-stripping and ease of use, but if I let them run too long they sometimes draw so much power that I can't fire all three of my PA's at once. If I drop the lasers entirely and rely on just the PA's, I can better control my heat and power draw.
• Considering dropping the Kill Warrant Scanner and adding either Point Defense or a Wake Scanner. I don't really need the money a Kill Warrant generates and only have it there assuming I get a little free faction boost when I turn them in. I haven't run into anything that specifically requires a Wake Scanner yet, and don't know if any mission does, or if that's more of a thing I'd use if I was acting as a Pirate or doing PvP. I have been hit with more than one or two missiles, so PD seems like a smart choice for survivability.

My AI sidekick is 50% of the way up through Mostly Harmless and sees a lot of action. She's still pretty useless in fights, but likes to talk about helping. I have the 2x Fixed Beam Laser Taipan Gelid F model. VoiceAttack has been really nice for telling her to Attack/Hold/Defend/Follow/Dock without breaking concentration on a fight.

I'm okay with the handling and cargo capacity, but wish I had a couple more utility slots so I could include a Wake scanner and Point Defense.

My current goal is to work up the Engineering chain for the G5 power plants, which seem like a requirement for higher-end anything.

Question for those more experienced than myself: Which weapons are your favorites, and why? Or is it entirely situational? I'm not into PvP and am doing just PvE.

*Edit: As a note to myself in the future, a "Wishful Thinking" Anaconda exploration build (that I'm nowhere near). Me and my AI co-pilot off exploring the universe, with SLF's for occasional jaunts and ground vehicles for planetary exploration. A ship that feels like home, not stripped to the bones.

[Anonymous Bosch]

My current goal is to work up the Engineering chain for the G5 power plants, which seem like a requirement for higher-end anything.

That's a solid plan. Doing so exposes you to a great many areas of the game you may have otherwise overlooked. Here's a useful step-by-step guide to unlocking engineers.

Believe me, you'll definitely want to install the incredibly useful EDEngineer tool to create a shopping list of necessary engineering materials, data, and cargo and keep track of them all. The EDPathFinder tool is also very helpful for efficiently farming planetary data points.

In terms of outfitting for gathering engineering goodies, you're basically going to want a ship with a good jump range, room for an SRV, a wake scanner, cargo rack, and a 3A collector limpet controller + limpets. Here's the unmodified Asp Explorer build I used while gathering engineering materials.

Also, here are some helpful videos on the subject of engineering courtesy of CMDR Exigeous:

• Engineering Explained: Complete Process
• Engineering with EDEngineer
• Material Gathering Made Easy(er)

Question for those more experienced than myself: Which weapons are your favorites, and why? Or is it entirely situational? I'm not into PvP and am doing just PvE.

I think it's largely subjective and depends on your preferred ship and tactics. I found pulse lasers with rapid fire mods can be great fun, but YMMV.

[Paingod]

My current goal is to work up the Engineering chain for the G5 power plants, which seem like a requirement for higher-end anything.

That's a solid plan. Doing so exposes you to a great many areas of the game you may have otherwise overlooked. Here's a useful step-by-step guide to unlocking engineers.
I think it's largely subjective and depends on your preferred ship and tactics. I found pulse lasers with rapid fire mods can be great fun, but YMMV.

That is a substantial list of tasks. I've already been through some of it in my travels, which may make it easier - like gathering and refining 500 ore (done) and bringing 10 Painite to somone (easy). Once you get through the exploration leg of this, it seems like it would be better to switch to something with more cargo space (or am I mistaken?).

Believe me, you'll definitely want to install the incredibly useful EDEngineer tool to create a shopping list of necessary engineering materials, data, and cargo and keep track of them all. The EDPathFinder tool is also very helpful for efficiently farming planetary data points.

It's probably time for me to add those. It's been discussed before, but I wasn't ready.

In terms of outfitting for gathering engineering goodies, you're basically going to want a ship with a good jump range, room for an SRV, a wake scanner, cargo rack, and a 3A collector limpet controller + limpets. Here's the unmodified Asp Explorer build I used while gathering engineering materials.

I have an Asp Explorer and Python on standby, neither of which is doing anything, and both are outfitted for mining. I was wondering why you went with missiles, though, instead of guns.

[Anonymous Bosch]

My current goal is to work up the Engineering chain for the G5 power plants, which seem like a requirement for higher-end anything.

That's a solid plan. Doing so exposes you to a great many areas of the game you may have otherwise overlooked. Here's a useful step-by-step guide to unlocking engineers.
I think it's largely subjective and depends on your preferred ship and tactics. I found pulse lasers with rapid fire mods can be great fun, but YMMV.

That is a substantial list of tasks. I've already been through some of it in my travels, which may make it easier - like gathering and refining 500 ore (done) and bringing 10 Painite to somone (easy). Once you get through the exploration leg of this, it seems like it would be better to switch to something with more cargo space (or am I mistaken?).

You should be able to rejigger an Asp Explorer to add sufficient cargo space as you find the need for it. I kept it fairly minimal to start with though, just to squeeze the most out of its jump range as the process does involve a great deal of travel.

I have an Asp Explorer and Python on standby, neither of which is doing anything, and both are outfitted for mining. I was wondering why you went with missiles, though, instead of guns.

I found the missile racks useful for killing external modules. Which made farming chemical manipulators from the T9 transports in Anarchy/Outbreak systems nice and simple by taking out their power plant. But guns can work just as well. Besides, it's probably better -- and easier on one's conscience than slaughtering outbreak refugees -- to farm chemical manipulators from Dav's Hope instead.

[Paingod]

unmodified Asp Explorer build

I've finally figured out why you included the Wake Scanner. You're not interested in chasing down NPC's, but rather collecting Wake Data. It's taken me until now (when I was finally getting into understanding Engineers) that there's a LOT more to collect than bits and bobs. Scan data from ships is valuable sometimes. Wake data is always valuable. Distress beacons are sometimes valuable. Mining asteroids is always valuable. Ship combat is always valuable. All these elements are needed to craft upgrades - and you need a LOT of these elements, you never walk up to an Engineer and just "get" an upgrade in 2 or 3 attempts, and you need to work your way up the ranks the Engineer offers in order to take advantage of them. Engineering is, in short, a massive undertaking. Bigger than I actually thought it was.

Last night I spent some time around a Nav Point just scanning High FSD Wakes to stock up on a pile of data I was sorely lacking. When I get to Elvira I look forward to being able to actually upgrade my Frame Shift Drive.

I did find a Raw Materials Trader last night and swapped out 200 Iron for other elements and brought my total resources back down under control so I could collect more of them. I had been throwing away Iron because I couldn't hold anymore while I was mining.

It's increasingly apparent how powerful web utilities like Inara are in terms of being able to play the game. If these sites ever went dark, Elite would become extremely difficult to play, moreso than it is. It is absolutely critical that a player can search for materials, goods, ships, modules, and locations without exploring 400 billion stars looking for what they need. It's bad enough that what you need is often 30 jumps away, but if you didn't know that you could literally play for 100 hours just searching station after station for one thing and never find it. My hat is off to the pioneers of the game who had no idea where anything was and started collecting data to help each other.

The sheer scale of the grind needed to utilize Engineers is finally sinking in, too. I now get why a person wouldn't want "A Fleet" and instead they focus on one ship. It's super easy when I'm ship designing in a web tool to just say "This is a G5 component with this experimental upgrade..." but in reality that one component at G5 probably requires 30 hours of searching for components, because when you use Engineers...

• Each Engineer has their own Rank with the player.
• Each component of a ship must be upgraded individually, from G1 to G5.
• Getting G1 might require 5-9 attempts (with associated common materials)
• Getting G2 might require 5-9 attempts (with associated uncommon materials)
• Getting G3 might require 5-9 attempts (with associated moderately rare materials)
• Getting G4 might require 5-9 attempts (with associated high-grade rare materials)
• Getting G5 might require 5-9 attempts (with associated top-tier rare materials)
• Getting a G5 Long Range Frame Shift Drive with Mass Manager might take up to:
  • 24 Atypical Disrupted Wake Echoes
  • 18 Chemical Processors
  • 9 Phosphorus
  • 9 Strange Wake Solutions
  • 9 Manganese
  • 9 Chemical Distillery
  • 10 Eccentric Hyperspace Trajectories
  • 9 Arsenic
  • 9 Chemical Manipulators
  • 9 Datamined Wake Exceptions
  • 3 Galvanising Alloys
• Not a damn one of those things can be traded for with other players or bought. Every single one needs to be harvested by hand, or converted at an extraordinary loss from other elements into those elements at Materials Traders (who come in different flavors for each type of Material)

With all of that in mind, I'm considering putting a screeching halt to running the Engineer gauntlet with my Krait MkII. I never figured it was my end-game ship, but thought it would be a good ship to use while I got familiar with the way everything works. Now I'm thinking about all the time I'll spend upgrading components that can't be carried over into another ship just to unlock the Engineers. That time would be better spent upgrading the components of an Anaconda instead. Or, alternately, I keep bucking the expectations and continue enjoying my Krait MkII, be damned it's lack of more than 26ly range at full tuning (instead of 65-70 with the Anaconda). It handles better and I won't feel like a lumbering giant when I'm in a fight.

It's taken this long to figure out why everyone hedges towards one good "multipurpose" ship and sticks with it. When you spend 30 hours upgrading an Engine, it's hard to put that in a storage bay and forget about it.

I'm also getting my head around armor values and internal damage, as required study for decimating hapless civilians. It seems high armor penetration will push through armor and damage internals directly - or, alternately - when you've broken down the hull, the armor values decrease, making internals easier to get to. I now understand why the Plasma Accelerator is so expensive to run and limited on ammo. It has the highest direct armor penetration, letting you get right to those delicious internals. That explains why NPC's in big ships try and NOPE away from me after I hit them a couple times. Problem is, you're throwing money at them. 1 volley is 6000cr. If I miss too many times, the bounty on a target won't cover the ammo replacement cost. So I'm looking at efficiency, in terms of staying out without expensive ammo replacement costs, and it seems like Long Range Burst Lasers with Inertial Impact might be okay in regards to that arena. It solves the issue of them having a short damage drop-off, and converts half the damage to Kinetic... but it's still got crap armor penetration, so you're ripping hulls apart and not destroying internals.

[Anonymous Bosch]

The sheer scale of the grind needed to utilize Engineers is finally sinking in, too. I now get why a person wouldn't want "A Fleet" and instead they focus on one ship. It's super easy when I'm ship designing in a web tool to just say "This is a G5 component with this experimental upgrade..." but in reality that one component at G5 probably requires 30 hours of searching for components...

Yeah, the grind to fully unlock engineers certainly can seem daunting. Also, from what I understand of open gameplay, engineering is a necessity for anyone hoping to realistically defend themselves from human foes. But if the engineering grind rubs you the wrong way, don't be afraid to mix it up a bit. Unless you're planning on building an uber-fleet for PvP, there's no need to fully unlock every engineer all at once. The videos I posted above will ease you into using EDEngineer and farming the necessary materials you're likely to require (or at least build up a sufficient supply of materials that you're able to use material traders to exchange for other items you may need). So you can always just start with the basics, like getting to rank 5 with Felicity Farseer and range-modding your FSD along with some G3 thruster mods. Then you can revisit the engineering grind as you become more comfortable with your style of play and develop a better sense of exactly which aspects of your build you're most interested in improving.

[Anonymous Bosch]

One other tip for engineering: when ranking up with a particular engineer, don't forget about selling your exploration data, as that can certainly help, too.

[Hrdina]

One other tip for engineering: when ranking up with a particular engineer, don't forget about selling your exploration data, as that can certainly help, too.

That only works with certain engineers, though. Farseer is one of those.

[Paingod]

One other tip for engineering: when ranking up with a particular engineer, don't forget about selling your exploration data, as that can certainly help, too.

That only works with certain engineers, though. Farseer is one of those.

I wasn't sure about that. I got to Khun last night (Elvira) and after unlocking her, I sold off 1.1m credits in exporation data and was at Rank 3 instantly with her. I think that maybe if the Engineer has a Cartography option after you unlock them, it might be a way to gain rank. Can't you also do missions for them as well?

But if the engineering grind rubs you the wrong way, don't be afraid to mix it up a bit.

I spent a good hour or two last night not running for Engineers and instead just ran some missions. I know there's no rush, but I'd like to make some improvements as early as I can. Every upgrade I make is seconds saved on each action, which, over time, can add up to a lot.

So you can always just start with the basics, like getting to rank 5 with Felicity Farseer and range-modding your FSD along with some G3 thruster mods.

Make no mistake that a G5 Long Range FSD is my first target. I'm already at G3 and it feels like an accomplishment. I just ran out of materials to get to G4, and can't even start thinking about G5 yet. The gain in range is already very nice, even if it's not substantial.

My Kombat Krait isn't having issues with NPC's of any level, as long as I don't go into a CZ and stay there too long. I've gotten pretty good at smashing hostiles quickly and moving on. My AI co-pilot is up to 30% Novice as well and doing her part. I'm not feeling a compelling rush to Engineer everything, but it IS a goal and something that takes a while to achieve. If I didn't have Horizons, I'd probably feel like I had already beaten the game.

[Anonymous Bosch]

One other tip for engineering: when ranking up with a particular engineer, don't forget about selling your exploration data, as that can certainly help, too.

That only works with certain engineers, though. Farseer is one of those.

I wasn't sure about that. I got to Khun last night (Elvira) and after unlocking her, I sold off 1.1m credits in exporation data and was at Rank 3 instantly with her. I think that maybe if the Engineer has a Cartography option after you unlock them, it might be a way to gain rank. Can't you also do missions for them as well?

There are other ways of ranking up with other engineers (the Galaxy Engineers page on Inara shows the details when you click on the relevant engineer). Broadly speaking, the most efficient way of gaining rank with engineer upgrades works as follows (which is also mentioned in the above-linked video on using EDEngineer):

3 Grade 1 upgrades -> Grade 2
3 Grade 2 upgrades -> Grade 3
3 Grade 3 upgrades -> Grade 4
3 Grade 4 upgrades -> Grade 5

Another alternative is most engineers have grade 1 upgrades that require ultra common materials, so if you have 100+ of the required material it's fairly effortless to just keep making those to improve your rank with them.

In terms of selling exploration data, from what I recall, something like 8-12 million credits worth of exploration data is sufficient to get L5 access with Farseer or Martuk. So one simple method of rapidly ranking up with the engineers that accept exploration data to gain reputation is to go for some 'Road to Riches' exploration on your way to their location.