Professions | Travelling Elite: Dangerous Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

Courier/Carrier

The courier missions are the best source of income in the beginning of the game. They may not be of the best payment, but their requirements are very low. They're giving the opportunity to enhance your abilities in the matter of flying. You will be also exploring the galaxy, all of this whilst earning some money.

The most recommendable courier missions is the data delivery. All of their requirements can be summed up to the ability of navigating through t galaxy map and docking on the stations. How to squeeze the most from this mission? Accept every courier missions available on every station in a particular star system and jump into the closer system to which you are supposed to deliver the data. There, again, accept every courier data missions available go to another system and repeat it over and over again. The first mission may not be of high profits but when they sum up to a nice digit. There are also no consequences if the information is not delivered on time. What you really need to avoid is getting caught red-handed.

Other type of the delivery missions are the buying offers. In them you will have to acquire a particular amount of a specific good and deliver it to the station from which you took the mission. It requires having the space in the ship and having enough money. If you won't be able to reach the destination on time the cargo won't be marked as stolen as it was you who bought it. It works well with the merchant profession.

Discoverer

Every ship consist of a scanner, so that working in this 'profession' you can start right off. A very pacifistic career which doesn't require much form a pilot except for the basics of flying. All you here is scanning every celestial body you will be encountering.

This job can be matched with a job of a courier as both require a similar thing. The mix of these two will also increase the amount of money you will be earning.

What you are going to need is a proper scanner. The basic scanner you are getting with the ship is enough for a start but sooner or later you will have to equip yourself with something better. Is a big cost and it should concern only really devoted explorers.

To use the scanner, look at the galaxy map and find the closer area without any description. It is available for scanning.

After choosing the "unknown" system, jump there. Be careful as after the jump you will find yourself in the near distance of the biggest star. The information panel will inform you about finding a new system, but additionally to that you will have to scan the area manually. Set up the scanner and hold the right button until the scanning is over.

After finding the new astronomic object, marked as 'unexplored', approach them and select them. The scanner in the bottom-left corner of the pulpit will start gathering the information. A while later you will get the detailed information on the celestial body you have just scanned. After scanning everything in the system you are free to go on further exploration.

The obtained information can be sold in any station in the "universal cartographics" bookmark. The best price are being paid by the stations which are of the longest distance to a scanned area and the distance between this area and the station has to be at least 20 light years.

Merchant

If you like to trade, then this profession should be of your interest. It is simply a buy cheap and sell expensive kind of work, completed with a lorry driving like exercise. The first steps to partake should be finding some extra space in your hold. Knowing the basics of the trade and economy is of an advantage. The devoted merchants should be using their first money on buying a new, transport ship. The first would be then the Hauler, and the last Lakon, Type-9. Apart from that every ship can be adjusted for transportation by changing the internal compartments for a holds which come with different capacities.

A buy cheap and sell expensive is the basic rule of every trader. Looking for your cargo check the 'supply' column and pick the ones which has a MED or HIGH indicators by them as it will cost you less. Buy all you can and you will be able to move to the next step, the selling.

Now, you will have to find the station which needs the goods that you have just obtained. The market window will show you all of the stations (which import this commodity) right after you will choose which goods have been bought by you.

Another essential device for plotting you route will be the galaxy map. Go to the view bookmark and change the view to realistic. Then, choose the category to which our cargo belongs and look at the direction to which the route is pointing and go to the one which has the biggest demand.

After docking check if the demand is high enough to be profitable. If so, sell everything and count the profits and if not, you can always check other stations or even a different star system.

Another golden rule of every trader is optimizing the time in comparison to the profits. Sometimes, great routes may be found in the very same star system. All it takes is to take a while and think. If the same system consists of an industrial station (which produces the farming equipment) and a farming station, then it is pretty obvious that there may be some nice money to be made. There are many combinations like that in the galaxy, all it takes is to look around.

Bounty Hunter

Bounty hunter job is a perfect job for the hunters who are not afraid of getting paid with the blood but legal money. The right selection of the targets make it a great job even for the most basic ships such as Sidewinder. Even the advanced equipment is not required - two basic lasers will do fine for a start. It is vital to properly estimate the danger and the success chance. For a start it is good to hunt only for the ship of the same class as yours.

Before getting to hunting do one more thing. Turn off the "Report crimes against me" so that the police won't intervene in your fight. It will prevent the situations when the police will finish the enemy, thus taking the credit for your job and not giving you money.

How to find the bandits? Move around the crowded locations (except for the stations). Check the unidentified signal sources, nav beacons and the resource extraction sites (a picture above). USS appear in the random places and it is the easiest to encounter them whilst on the SC mode. Beacons are placed usually near to the main stars of the system. The RES can be found around the asteroid fields. There won't be any assurance of finding the target there, but these locations are the most possible.

How to tell apart a criminal from a law abiding citizen? Select the ship and wait for the scanner to do their job. The first one will be marked as clean, the latter as wanted. Easy.

Another (optional) step is setting up the bounty for the head of the late criminal. Go to the left panel and select the contacts bookmark. There you will find the amount of credits assigned to the head.

If you want to increase your income, you should invest a bit in order to buy a kill warrant scanner. Usually, you are getting paid only from one station which has been looking for the target. If the target is wanted in many of them, this scanner will sum um every bounty placed on his head. Using it works the same way as using the exploring scanner - select the enemy and hold the specific button until it's over, all of this whilst keeping right distance to the target.

After all of that, finish the enemy to receive a communicate showing the full sum you've earned yourself.

Information about the awaiting bounties can be found in the left panel, in the transactions bookmark. Given pieces of information are the price and the place of collection. Sometimes the bounty can be collected only in the system from which you took the mission and sometimes in any station which belongs to the fraction, responsible for giving you the task.

Now go to the specific station, then Contacts > Local security Office to collect the credits.

Apart from the usual bounty hunting there are some other possibilities. Some stations offer the special tasks in which you have to destroy a specific, unique NPC ship. These are usually very well equipped ships such as Cobra or Anaconda and they can be compared to the boss fights. Finding them is also rather difficult and requires from you to check every unidentified signal source in a particular star system as they spawn randomly. Because of the low chance of encountering the enemy, their time is usually prolonged up to couple of days of a real time.

Mercenary

A mercenary is also a profession devoted to fighting. It is very similar to being a bounty hunter, but the mercenaries also take part in the in between fractions conflicts rather than hunting single units. Usually playing as a mercenary is similar to the Team Deathmatch known from many online games. You being neutral is of an advantage but also a bit of mystery as you will never know which side of the conflict will ask for your service. Of course, you can be faithful to one fraction but it will limit your income.

The best method of earning the money as a mercenary is hiring up for the missions which are connected to one fraction or another. These can be found in the systems which are positioned in the neighborhood of two fractions areas. These missions are all about defeating a specific number of the enemy ships. The best locations to begin the mercenary job are Dahan and Eranin.

After you accept the mission, in the navigation panel search for the conflict zones and head to the battlefield. They may be of low or high intensity (which differs dependently of the number of ships taking part in the fight).

After you reach your destination, your scanner will mark all the ships neutral and it is left for you to decide which side of conflict you want to opt for. Obviously, it should be the one pointed in the briefing. Actually you don't even have to take the mission to take part in the conflict, but in this chapter the matter of earning money is being covered, thus we are suggesting you to take the mission first.

After choosing the side, the markers on the radar will change showing your allies in green and the enemies in red. Now you can star fighting and helping your employers.

Now it is the time for a little bonus. Eliminating the enemies' ships count not only as the part of the mission but also additionally independently which means that you will be getting additional money for each kill. No matter who you will kill, one side or another will pay you, thus the optionality of taking the mission. Even working spontaneously may give you some profits.

A number of eliminated ships, the sum of credits for doing so and the actual status of the mission can be tracked in the left panel in the transactions bookmark.

When the mission is done, go back to the station from which you took the mission to withdraw your money. For the additional money go to the contacts bookmark and select the combat bounds to get your money. It will be your only payment if you hadn't took up the mission earlier.

Other way of earning many as a mercenary may be responding for the Federal Distress Signal. In some systems consumed by war, the war ships may call for help. It will also appear as a unidentified signal source. The rest goes the same as taking part in the conflicts. You reach the place, opt for the side and you start to fight whilst earning the money.

Pirate

Piracy is one of the most challenging and complicated jobs in the Elite. You shouldn't mistake the pirate for a murderer as your main job will be stealing from other ships rather than destroying them. This profession can be approached in a similar way as you would to the job of a bounty hunter with some differences of course. Apart from a proper ship you will also need some holds inside of it, as you will have to have some space for the cargo you are going to steal. This job requires a lot of precision and ability of controlling the ship and the ship's sub systems. It is also very dangerous and illegal, your head will be constantly marked as wanted and you won't be welcomed in the non-anarchist stations.

The most essential device you will have to obtain is the cargo scanner. You should know whether the shooting is profitable before doing so. This scanner works in the same way as does the bounty hunter scanner.

After scanning your victim's cargo, look at the left panel in the cargo bookmark. If you think the cargo is worth the risk, you may proceed with the 'cleaning'.

Go to the "sub targets" bookmark in the left panel and select the cargo hatch. This component will be marked on the victim's ship with a red square. Shoot this particular spot until the lock brakes. The lock is placed on the rare of the ship so you will have to tail the ship constantly. The weapons mounted on the gimbaled hardpoints will do best.

The more sophisticated method of cleaning someone's cargo is using of the hatch breaker limpet, which after shooting, automatically brakes into the cargo, throwing some of the cargo into space by doing so. The amount of obtained cargo is dependable from the class of the drone. The cheapest ones will get you no more than 20% of it.

When everything fails, the most desperate method would be to force the enemy to drop his cargo into space. You will have to damage the ship (5-10% of the hull's integrity). Usually the victims will focus on fleeing and they will drop their cargo to buy themselves some time. This isn't very profitable, and if you accidentally destroy the ship, you will lose all of the cargo.

If you will manage to force the target to drop its cargo, start the reaping. Use the cargo scoop to collect the goods. Releasing the cargo scoop will be indicated by showing its system on the bottom left part of the pulpit (animated, rectangular tunnel with a target in the middle).

Now, choose the container and position the ship in the way in which the rack will be right above the cargo. Then, slowly (max. 40m/s) approach the target. When you will be close enough, the rack will collect the container and it will bring it up into your holds. All you have to do now is to sell it on the black market. More about that you can find in another sub-chapter.

Some stations of a rather dodgy reputation offer the work for the pirates directly. It is a great opportunity for a pirate. It is a delivery mission but its difficulty comes from a type of the good you will have to acquire and deliver. This may make the job very time consuming. In this case look for the trading routes and filter the particular good to see where these goods are being exported to. Fortunately the task's time is usually prolonged up to couple of days of a real time.

Smuggler

Smuggler is a unique profession. You may become one because of your choice or simply because of the coincidence. Smuggler is basically a trader which sells illegal goods (drugs, tobacco or even sugar). Even the righteous citizen may become a smuggler - usually though it is a deliberate choice. Illegal commodities are valuable on the black market, thus the game is worth the risk. Even though the most of the smugglers do know what they're doing, some of them could be called that even though they didn't want to become one. Everyone could be left with a cargo which got marked as illegal just because they hadn't managed to get to the station on time. Of course the cargo can be thrown away, but this is not the case.

To check the goods illegal in a particular system, just open the map and select the station. On the very bottom you will see the table with information on the prohibited goods. The map obviously won't tell us whether the black market exists on the station, you will have to do it personally. Another step would be the acquisition of the cargo. Do it in the station where it is legal.

Real difficulty come, of course, whilst transporting the cargo n the station where it is illegal. Firstly, don't let the local authorities scan you. Keep away from them right after exiting the SC mode.

Another step would be positioning yourself directly in front of the entrance, all of this whilst keeping the right distance of about 10km and reducing the thermal signature of the ship. To do it, go to the right panel, get yourself into modules and turn off everything except for the engines and power. Go to the station and turn on the silent running. If you can turn of the power drive to be able to drift into the station.

Flying this way will make your ship overheated, thus throwing out the radiator may be of some help (As long as you have the device connected to this task). Ask for the landing permission when you will be of about 7.5 km from the station. Get the permit and slither in to the station, dock and go to the hangar right away. Turn off the silent running and turn on all of the sub-systems.

After the safe landing, open the contacts panel and sell your illegal cargo. It is a peculiar move so be sure to practice it before you will do it for real. After all this may be your main source of income sooner or later.

The number one rule of every smuggler is; the more illegal is the cargo, the bigger the profits are. So be careful to plan your trading routes before executing the trade itself.

I wanted to say again; train the maneuvers properly before giving yourself up to the smuggling. It is easy to miss some vital step which may cause a deadly and costly result.

For those who don't like the risk, there are some small outposts which don't have any security nor patrols around them. Some of the stations are even openly the pirate ones. Many of them has the black market. Even though the pirate station differ somewhat from the usual ones - it should be the first drop point for every pirate who doesn't really care for the money.