So I played E:D for a few months earlier in 2015, and I got way into it, enough to buy a Cobra Mk.III ship (oh and a HOTAS and TrackIR IRL too) and slowly start upgrading it, but I I was just running trade routes and doing station missions, so it was a slow process.. 25k here, 50k there, maybe I got lucky and found a 60k mission but it was often many systems away so the payoff took time..

Then I did some mining for a while, which was pretty fun, but a bit of a grind (NPI) although I've heard they've added some better tools for miners in a more recent update, but still it wasn't paying off that well. I also had to deal with pirates and raiders who wanted to steal my shit! (more on that in a bit). I got tired of the grind and eventually put the game away for a while..

With Horizons around the corner, I decided to get back into the game this past week to re-familiarize myself before the big update, and after talking with a few other pilots, I've found a much better way to make cash relatively quickly, and thought I would share..

Start here, with the (partial) list of Resource Extraction Sites: http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Resource_Extraction_Site/Locations

Pick one that has a regular RES (if you're just getting started, Hazardous or High Intensity will kill you quickly), and is in a system that is under a major jurisdiction (Federation, Empire, etc), and ideally where the RES is close to a station.

I'm using the first one on that list, 72 Ophiuchi, which has a station called Gerst Gateway (I know, right?)

From the station, head to the RES in your combat-spec'ed ship (you're not going to be doing any mining). Once you get there, identify the local authority ships (i.e. the cops), there should be a few of them flying around. They are actually there to defend the miners and engage the pirates, so you want to basically join up with them and start attacking the pirates as well (just scan vehicles looking for "Wanted" markers - you may need to upgrade your ship sensors to get this level of detail).

The best part with this approach is that on top of killing pirates on your own, you can also take a few pot shots at pirates that are way out of your league (like in Pythons and Anacondas) and then just let the security forces destroy them, and you'll get the bounty anyways. I had single bounties that were sometimes worth more than 200k each after a while.

I made about 2 million credits in a few hours of playing like this (also dogfighting in an asteroid field is super fun), returning to the station every 30 minutes or so (if you die with uncollected bounties you lose them). This is why you want to pick a system where the RES is close to a station, so you can quickly supercruise there and back for ammo & repairs, upgrades, and to cash in bounties.

I'm CMDR Turbo Toaster if anyone wants to add me. I tend to play solo mostly because assholes but I'd be down for some private group gaming perhaps if we can get enough people together.

Thanks for the info! I also played for a bit then put it down, but I don't think I played nearly as much as you did, I have like 13 hours played. I always mean to play, but busy. With this school semester almost over I plan to start up again: excited to get back to my HOTAS!

I use to do this with Nav Beacons except it would take a bit before wanted ships showed up. I stopped playing power play (maintaining rank 5 became a chore though the 50 million a week was nice) so I'll go back to that and the extraction sites. Got myself a Python 4 weeks ago and finally A rated it, so it'll be nice to fight small battles in it and not huge fights that quickly turn into cluster fucks if I'm not paying attention.

If you're going bounty hunting don't forget your kill warrant scanner (KWS). Scan your target with the KWS before engaging them. It may reveal additional bounties from outside the jurisdiction you're currently in. All of those additional bounties can add up fast.

I think I will jump back into this after the first part of Horizons is out. I managed to make quite a lot of money on trading rare stuff. Was following some routes that people had made. Not sure if this is still viable though.

So a quick update on this: it seems the Horizons update did some re-balancing on missions, and farming RES doesn't pay like it used to.. There are fewer cops, and fewer high-value pirates, unless you hit the Hazardous RES which have no cops at all, so you're on your own (and up against pretty serious opposition).

I went from making 1Mil credits an hour to about 200k, and having to spend a lot on repairs.

Horizons overall is pretty awesome, planetary landings are great, but I still think they need to put more time into making the game a bit more compelling from a storytelling perspective. Not that I know the answer to that problem, but yeah..

I have nothing valuable to add as I don't play the game, but when I read the thread title/subject line I thought: Yeah I do! and was terribly disappointed that you meant game money.... cruel man... just cruel

I backed Elite during its crowd funding campaign but was very disappointed with the very slow grind. I haven't returned to Elite since it launched, and now that I have Rebel Galaxy, I'll probably never play Elite again. Rebel Galaxy is Elite's cool cousin.

However, playing Elite with an Oculus Rift is like nothing else, it's great! The feeling of space and scale are amazing, it makes you feel like a real space pirate. Just a real shame the overall game is really boring.

@ibarguengoytia said:

Haha funny you should say that, when I first posted my message I thought to myself "great I'm going to get banned for spamming..." ;-)

Although, while we're here.. A good tip for making money? Work!

Yeah I go through phases with it myself.. Sometimes I play it for the dogfighting, but sometimes I also play it for the exploration.. There's something relaxing about exploring deep space.. I haven't tried it in proper VR yet, but I do have a TrackIR which makes the game more enjoyable..

The new planetary landings are fun to a point, but I'm also hoping they add more directed gameplay as time goes on.. Right now it's absolutely a "make your own fun" type of game, and it's a pretty narrow definition of "fun" that isn't for everyone..

@sbarre: Already doing that... need to monetize my spare time.