Elite: Dangerous: How to be Successful When Bounty Hunting

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Successful Bounty Hunting in Elite Dangerous

There’s no Millenium Falcon or Enterprise in the world of Elite: Dangerous. No single hip that can do everything to such a degree of success that it could be described as an outright jack of all trades. For bounty hunting, you’ve really got to outfit a ship for the sole purpose of blowing others out of space.

Thanks to the amount of outfitting options present in Elite: Dangerous, pretty much any ship can be built to do any job. So it’s totally possible to get a Lakon Type-7 kitted out as a bounty hunting boat. Using it purely as a justice-bringing vehicle would do nothing more than re-enact the Titanic’s demise.

Right out of the door, the Sidewinder is a capable ship for use when bounty hunting at the beginning. It’s only got two small hardpoints so there’s not much in the way of weaponry that you can slot onto this early craft but it’ll do when starting out.

Even the insurance costs are low when starting out. It’s quick enough to escape many threats and has the maneuverability to run rings around some of the larger ships you’ll be facing.

It’s far from a long-term option though. Its small stature and overall low quality means the Sidewinder will become obsolete on the spaceways of Elite: Dangerous when bounty hunting within no more than a few hours.

If you love the idea of being in a small craft or don’t want to spend too many credits to get started as a bounty hunter, then the Eagle is a fantastic place to start.

With 3 small hardpoints and plenty of room inside for necessary outfitting options, the Eagle already has the upper hand for starting out as a bounty hunter in Elite: Dangerous over its Sidewinder brother.

Those 3 hardpoints give you the opportunity to attach a pair of basic pulse lasers with a heavy kinetic weapon backing them up. It also moves like a stabbed rat. That being said, the best ships for bounty hunting coming at slightly higher price points.

The Viper. Sweet heavens, now this is a pretty much perfect bounty hunting craft. Even before you take into account everything else this thing is built to be a symphony of death-dealing crescendo.

Why? On its prow you’ll find a quartet of hardpoints (2 small, 2 medium) which can be formed into all sorts of different configurations to take down wanted crooks. More expensive craft may have even larger amounts of hardpoints to which an array of weapons can be fitted, but in the case of the Viper this is a very nimble platform to carry around a handful of Pulse Lasers or even Multi-Cannons.

As you start raking in the cash, you may consider investing in a Cobra. The Cobra is a wonderful all-rounder, capable of absolutely everything if outfitted correctly. For the trader or explorer who wants to do a little bounty hunting on the side, then the Cobra is without a doubt the best choice.

As a career bounty hunter though, the Cobra isn’t perfect. Yes it’s got 4 hardpoints like the aforementioned Viper and yes it has enough internal space for everything you need.

What it lacks is any particular focus. If your intention is to bounty hunt from sun up to sun down, stick with a Viper for that sweet maneuverability. After these ships there’s a bit of a gap before you get to the really big dogs of Elite: Dangerous.

At the higher echelons of cost right now, ships like the Anaconda, Python, and Imperial Clipper/Federal Dropship are powerful adversaries for any opponent to face. They each have a veritable smorgasbord of hardpoints that can be fitted with incredibly powerful turrets or fixed weapons which will take out anything smaller than themselves in seconds.

The Anaconda’s 8 hardpoints are enough to get any bounty hunter’s loins warmed up but aiming for a 50,000,000+ credit Python is a good way to go.

It won’t require endless hours of work to obtain (well, not as endless as the 150 million+ Anaconda) but has 5 hardpoints. There’s 2 mediums and 3 large. That triplet of large hardpoints with a Class 3 Gimballed Pulse Laser on each will decimate anything up to an including an Asp in moments.

Enough of the ship porn now. It’s time to look at what you should be slotting into the shell of your craft for some Elite: Dangerous bounty hunting.


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Author
Chris Jecks
Chris Jecks has been covering the games industry for over eight years. He typically covers new releases, FIFA, Fortnite, any good shooters, and loves nothing more than a good Pro Clubs session with the lads. Chris has a History degree from the University of Central Lancashire. He spends his days eagerly awaiting the release of BioShock 4.