How do mercs make money?

Baja · Post by **Baja** » Thu May 03, 2012 1:55 am

I bought the game and got two friends to as well so our clan could try it out.

We decided that it sucked.

I wanted to give it another shot.

The issue we faced was that the merc quests did not pay us enough to even repair our three vessels. Whenever we made our mercs, we got our first merc quest to kill like 10-20 enemies which was ridiculously hard as we were always being flanked.

Then when we finally did kill them all, we were all at or below half damage. So we headed back to the dock only find out that our repairs put us at a deficit.

Was that patched?

Nubarus · Post by **Nubarus** » Thu May 03, 2012 2:03 am

It would be safer to hang around in Saphire for a while and gather materials to sell to build up a cash buffer and make some upgrades on your ship before entering combat.

Another tip is to ask someone to teach you how to fight in Inert mode since that is the only way to take on mobs of foes.

Here is a link of a video where I take on 12 foes by myself by using Inertial side sliding to evade cannon fire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXRo8jbMW6Y

49rTbird · Post by **49rTbird** » Thu May 03, 2012 2:27 am

Sorry to say but as a beginning Merc only, you won't make a lot of money. Welcome to the forum and the Sim. Have fun and hope to see you in Multi-Player sometime.

Janus · Post by **Janus** » Thu May 03, 2012 2:37 am

If you see anti-matter for sale on the commodity market, buy it if you have the funds. Take it to a constructor station, any constructor station. They will give you a fuel converter for it.
Fuel converters sell for about 600k in Sapphire. In the outer systems, they sell for anywhere from 1.5 to upwards of 2 million each.

I bought a station license at one of the player built stations for 10 million credits. I then made 24 million carrying 9 FD Torpedoes to a station where I didn't have a station license. That 10 million paid off. And now it's all gravy:D

The best way to make money is trading. The FD torpedo arms trade is very lucrative. but so is buying build and deploy constructors and such at a station where you have a license and taking them to a station where you don't.

Just be careful in the outer systems as new players have a bad rep there. But you can still dock at player stations free of charge. The hardcoded stations will charge you docking fees unless you buy a station license though.

I'm hostile in Pearl and that's my main operation area. And I have a Venture frame.

Janus

[Edited on 5-3-2012 by Janus]

Busch · Post by **Busch** » Thu May 03, 2012 3:04 am

Five basic ships equipment items are absolutely necessary, and are required of the beginning Merc. They are:

Fulcrum Warp drive
Shield Boosters
Repair systems
Cannon relay
Mine/Tractor beam

Up-grade these equipment items as you earn the credits to do so.

Adjust your ship's frame accordingly in the shipyard menu/config screen to at least accommodate these basic 5 equipment slots. Yes, you can/will trade off crew, missile, and counter-measure slots to achieve this function. Do as you like, but the above list is fairly de riguer. Larger ship's frames will grant you more (or less) armor, agility, build points, and other essentials like shield and energy core strengths and facility. That's one of the beauties of this game/sim. You can pretty much build-yer-own, any way that suits you!
And yes, build up your cash base by doing contracts and missions, mining ores and commodities for fun and profit, or seeking out that sweet trade route. Build a good, combat-ready ship, take some of the ace-kill contracts, or the miner's pirate patrol contracts in the lesser hostile, fair or moderate systems. Even a fair system like Olympus has these contracts available, and the "Reds" in-system to prove it. The good systems, like Saphire, will most likely not have combat/kill contracts. And, may have some lucrative contracts, like in Atlas, that will help build your burse without your having to deal with intruders.

Hope this helps!

light487 · Post by **light487** » Thu May 03, 2012 4:18 am

Mining is a great way to get started. All the above options are for when you're a little further on than your basic ship with a few upgrades. Sure, you could do courier missions and the like but the fastest way to make money with ZERO risk is to go to an outpost that is right next to an asteroid field and mine the diamonds/platinum to sell at that outpost. "Outpost 5" in the Sapphire system is perfect for this... it's the one where you do the IMG mission for mining asteroids.. You'll earn enough from mining to build up a decent size ship with decent equipment in no time at all.. then you can go out and start doing the stuff above.

Post by **DaveK** » Thu May 03, 2012 8:27 am

Hi Baja

Get hold of the Hint&Tips Guide from SeeJay's website

http://evochron.junholt.se/menus/downloads.htm

It is a compilation of tips and tutorials about everything in that game including combat and making money.

I started by mining (spoiler platinum) and finding the best place to sell it at max profit. There is a place in Sapphire that pays very well!

I then did contracts to gain and hone a few basic skills - navigation mainly but also ship control

IMG Quest next to get further skills (and there are very nice rewards at certain points in the quest)

EM has quite a steep learning curve, it is relatively short though - but, as you have found, if you try to skip the basics and jump straight in you can crash and burn (which I also did a lot of early on!

)

You can also get loads of help, info and advice if you fly on MP - find a server with a few experienced piolts and just ask