I reset my save a couple of weeks ago for the heck of it, and I’ve been playing a fair bit since then. I thought it might be worthwhile to run through my early-game experience as a bounty hunter in case there’s something helpful there for new players.
First up is to go find my Eagle, which is stored at a nearby station (a bonus for early adopters, as I recall). I love flying the Eagle. It’s nimble as heck, and upgrades are relatively cheap. It’s a great starting ship for bounty hunting, which in my experience is the quickest way to get some cash flow early on. If you don’t have the benefit of the free eagle, it’s super-cheap and easy to buy after puttering around with a couple of mundane courier missions.
Once I’ve got the Eagle, I head to the nearest nav beacon, drift in the harsh light of a yellow sun, and start scanning ships (just target, point in their direction, and you’ll start scanning as long as they are in range). I’m looking for folks with the WANTED tag. It doesn’t take long. I take out some low-ranked Eagles and Sidewinders. Some of the bounties are chump change (I guess I should feel guilty for killing someone with the equivalent of a parking ticket – I don’t), but others are not too bad. My Eagle doesn’t have any upgrades at this point, so I’ve got to be careful. I avoid trying to take on wings of wanted ships, and I avoid higher ranked opponents. It’s also a bit of a game of push your luck. If your ship is destroyed before you fly back to a station to turn in your bounties, that money is lost. I do die a couple of times, usually because I accidentally mangle the hull of an unwanted ship (people can be so touchy), which gains me a wanted status and causes everyone in the vicinity to turn against me. Long story short, watch where you point those guns, and don’t shoot until you see the WANTED status on the scan.
I also shadow the police ships a bit, because I can fly in at the last moment and plink a few shots against the hull of a more powerful ship they have targeted, and I still get the full bounty. Sometimes, this strategy will net me 100 or 200k, though those bounties are harder to come by at nav beacons. For that, you need to go to resource extraction sites.
And that’s what I do, after kitting out my Eagle a bit. I start with the power distributor, and then the power plant. Then, I give her some better guns. I usually like the combo of pulse lasers and multi-cannons, because they are fun as heck. The lasers wear down their shields, and then I bring the cannons to bear against their unprotected hulls. If I can afford gimballed weapons (which help with targeting), I buy those. As I upgrade, I keep an eye on my speed, and my power capacity. I don’t want to hobble my Eagle by loading her up with heavy components - my Eagle wants to fly, damnit.
http://i.imgur.com/ks4Nqf4.jpg
Pro tip: D-rated components are light. Strip out the components you don’t need. Cargo racks? Nope. Dump them. If you’ve got a fast ship, you can generally boost away from trouble. Just put all power to engines, head away from those assholes who are sending little missives of lasery death your way, and keep hitting that boost button. Tuck away your weapons and start charging the frame shift drive. With luck, you’ll make it.
If you’re really in trouble, and your drive is going to charge too slow because of the proximity of other ships (mass lock), you can jump over to your nav panel on the left and scroll quickly down to target a nearby system. Then, engage your frame shift drive for a jump. It will charge faster because it isn’t affected by mass lock. It’ll be mildly inconvenient to haul your butt back home, but worth it if you had a bunch of unclaimed bounties. This technique, called “high waking” is also helpful if you get interdicted by a powerful enemy and need to make an escape.
As I upgrade my ship, I also need to pay attention to power management and heat. It’s a balancing act. Luckily, if I realize I’ve nerfed my ride I can sell back components at full value. It’s fun to play around with different combos and find what works for you.
It’s also helpful when you’re farming bounties to find a system with a station with a nice assortment of upgrades, and close proximity to resource extraction sites. Find a heavily populated, rich station orbiting a ringed gas giant with a shipyard and outfitting, and you’ve got a license to print money. Fly towards the rings, and resource extraction sites will pop up on your nav list. I start with Low or Medium until I’ve got my ship upgraded a fair bit. As with the nav beacons, I pick and choose my opponents. An Elite Anaconda with a 300k bounty? Tempting, but I’ll offer him a friendly wave unless I see him getting swarmed by the police. Even then, I’ll be careful because if he turns his guns on me it’s plink-plink-dead.
In your first trip out in a system, finding targets is a mild pain because everyone – cops, miners and outlaws – will show up on your scanner as orange (nuetral). Once you claim some bounties, however, the system will quickly become friendly, and law enforcement will show as green. Watch your scanner, and keep an eye out for moving orange ships. Those mining or guarding miners are never wanted in my experience. It’s the ships flying in, often in wings, that are the bad guys. Fly towards them, scan them, and assess your chances. If they are easy prey, take them out. If they are high ranked or in a significantly better ship than your own, shadow them. Sooner or later the cops will take notice, and you can join in.
If you bounty hunt in the same system for a while, you’ll improve your relationship with the factions in that system, thus potentially giving you access to better missions when you decide to take a break from bounty hunting. Turning in bounties will not improve your rank or relationship with a superpower, but it will eventually help if you’ve become friendly with factions aligned to that superpower, simply because you’ll have more access to missions that will improve your relationship. When I want to take a break from bounty hunting in the early stages of the game, I’ll often do some data courier missions. No cargo space required, and I can quickly swap in a better/heavier frame shift drive for the duration of my data runs. If I’m looking to improve my relationship with – for example – the Federation, I’ll take missions from Federal reps (those with the federation icon next to their name).
http://i.imgur.com/lZnA5QL.jpg
Also watch for fellow Commanders if you are bounty hunting in Open. Those pilots show on your scanners as hollow (rather than filled) shapes. Unless you are confident of your abilities, don’t mess with them if they are wanted. If they are out hunting bounties as well, feel free to toss them a message via the communication panel and see if they want to wing up. You will both share in the rewards. Otherwise, bounty hunting etiquette (often ignored) says to avoid kill-stealing. Unlike working with the AI to take down a ship, it’s the last shot that counts. Whoever fires that last cannon or laser shot claims the entire bounty. Needless to say, it’s a bit discouraging if you’ve been wearing down an Anaconda for the last 15 minutes, only to have a human pilot sweep in at the last moment and claim the entire bounty with a single shot. If there are a bunch of human pilots in a resource extraction site, I go elsewhere unless those pilots want to wing up. The pile-on when a wanted ship appears can be distinctly un-fun.
Another worthy upgrade for bounty hunters is the Kill Warrant scanner. Using this will give you additional bounties on a target outside of your currrent system. So, let’s say I’m in Federal space, and this ne’er–do–well has been pillaging in Alliance space. If I kill him, I get the Fed bounty plus the Alliance bounty. I’ll need to haul my ass to an Alliance station in order to turn it in, but if I build up a nice pile it’s worth the trip. The warrant scanner is a bit tricky to use. It’s slow as heck for one thing. What I will usually do is set up a fire group with my primary weapon (lasers) on my main trigger and the warrant scanner on my secondary fire button. As soon as my target comes through as wanted, I’ll start scanning and plinking at his shields. I need to keep my distance and keep him in my sites for the scan to complete. If things get hairy, I just toggle over to my lasers+cannon fire group and unload. If things take a crap, I turn and burn.
I work my way up to the high intensity extraction sites, usually after hopping into a new ship. The Viper MkIII is the natural next step for bounty hunting. It’s a bit beefier, but still pretty fast. At first, you’ll feel like you’re trying to fly a box of rocks after leaving behind your graceful little fully modded Eagle. But, after a few upgrades you and her will come to an understanding, and you’ll feel like she’s got her wings.
http://i.imgur.com/IaYAo6j.jpg
As you outfit your ships, keep an eye on the insurance cost, accessible in the first tab in the right-hand display. Don’t let your bank account dip below this amount, because this is what you’ll need to pay to get your ship back if it goes boom. If money starts to get low, maybe head back to nav beacons or low-intensity resource sites to better balance your risk-reward for the short term, or do some data courier missions (which don’t require cargo space).
And that’s the early-game bounty hunting experience, at least for me. I find the combat itself to be a ton of fun, and playing with upgrades is always engaging. Plus, you can net more than a million or more an hour even in the Eagle hunting bounties at nav becons or low intensity extraction sites in the early game.
And the scenery is amazing.
