My Journey to Elite V
24 Jun 2022XpressioN
Pilots Federation Ranks - Elite Stars (prestige) Ranks
Elite Dangerous: Odyssey got released for PC on May 19, 2021. It is the second paid expansion for Elite Dangerous. Frontier Developments described it as the biggest update yet and a defining moment in the history of the game. Among its many features the game offers, Odyssey primarily enables players to set foot on existing airless planets as well as those with a tenuous atmosphere. It includes new mission types and new planetary features like settlements. More information at the Odyssey: Full Breakdown site
Odyssey introduced the Mercenary and Exobiologist ranks. So a commander has now the ability to rank up in five different categories in the game, and in CQC separately. Given that most commanders had achieved triple Elite, Frontier Development decided to introduce the Prestige Elite ranks, from Elite I to Elite V. This meant that apart from getting through the eight ranks to Elite, now we have five more to prove ourselves in each category. Ranking was based on progress. Unfortunately this was broken when Frontier Development decided not to take retroactive progress into account. This caused havoc and anger with those who dedicated and spent thousands of hours playing the game. The player statistics found in the game's codex no longer reflects progress with ranks.
If we take Exploration for example, an explorer who earned 4 billion credits from exploration became Elite, however once Elite prestige ranks were introduced this explorer remained with just Elite. On the other hand, another explorer happened to be in the void packed with cartographic data. While this explorer was in the void, Elite prestige ranks were introduced and after a week he docked at a station and handed in 2 billion credits worth of cartographic data. While this explorer ranked up to Elite V immediately with 2 billion credits of exploration data, the other explorer with 4 billion credits remained Elite. According to Exploration Wiki, the first explorer had to hand in an extra 1.6 billion credits worth of exploration data to get to Elite V. So discrepancy between these two explorers was 4 billion credits. The following is Frontier Development response - Ticket 35760. In my personal opinion it defeats the scope of having the Codex player statistics.
Elite Stars (prestige) Ranks not taking into account retroactive progress
STATUS BY DESIGN
Greetings Cmdrs,
This is intended - the reason being if we applied retroactive progress, a lot of our existing player base are simply going to bypass the various ranks and go to 5 star straight away, which kind of defeats the point and doesn't give players something new to aim for.
I hope this clears some confusion!
Regards,
QA-Jack
o7
My Journey to Elite V
There are five Pilots Federation Ranks categories in Elite Dangerous: Odyssey. Starting from the original ranks, they are: Combat, Trade, Explorer, Mercenary and Exobiologist. I'm going to explain in detail how I managed to achieve all categories to Elite V. I'm excluding CQC, as I believe this is another game within Elite Dangerous. In fact at the time of writing this logbook, it hasn't changed since its conception. I'm going through each one of them in order of accomplishment starting from Trade. There are many other ways to achieve these rankings, so this is purely the way I've done them. I'm sure there are other efficient ways as well. In this guide I'm going through the methods I used to grind all categories to Elite V. I'm not going to touch subjects like Ship builds, On-foot weapons or other engineering applications.
Trade
Trade ranks are earned through trade-related activities, such as earning credits through buying and selling commodities for a profit, transporting passengers in bulk, and mining and selling raw resources. There are many ways to achieve this. Quoting the Wiki: Trader is one of the three archetypal pilot roles recognized by the Pilots Federation. In its simplest form, traders purchase commodities on the market economy in one location and follow supply and demand to sell them at another location for profit. Trading links to a dynamic background simulation of the economy based on player activity, which results in changes in prices and volumes of goods in different systems over time, and even the colonization of new systems. This is also known as space trucking. Trader encompasses multiple sub-roles, including Courier, Miner, Passenger Carrier, Salvager, and Smuggler.
Although I contributed using all the above methods, I only used Courier deliveries, to get to Elite V. I started searching for a suitable system that have an Extraction economy. While I progressed by completing missions for these factions I gained full reputation. Once there, I was given high value missions. My aim was delivery of Gold and Silver.
I managed to find a system with six stations, however any number of station will do. One of them was a Coriolis, another was an Orbis, and the remaining four where an Outpost. This meant that two of them had large docking pads while the other four had a medium pad. I used a Type 9 for the large pads and a Python for the medium pads. Quantity is the reason we're going to choose these specific types of missions. We're after small amounts, usually not more than 350 tons of cargo. In the above example there's a mission to deliver 180 units of Gold and another to deliver 120 units of Silver. Note there's another mission to deliver Silver but this time 5500 tons are required. This is way too unreasonable to accept.
In order to be more efficient, I filled up my Fleet Carrier with Gold and Silver. Since the Trade rank is effected by the profits, I used Inara.cz in order to find the best buying price for Gold and Silver. Once I filled up my carrier, I started accomplishing missions. Approximately I had to fill up the carrier twice to get ranked Elite V. This was the first time I was awarded with the highest Elite rank and happened on the 12th September 2021, four months after the release of Odyssey.
Explorer
As described in the Explorer Wiki, ranks are earned through exploration-related activities, such as cataloguing new systems and selling the acquired data to Universal Cartographic, finding new materials, and transporting VIP passengers to remote tourist destinations. Ranking Elite V in exploration was next in my list. Exploration is one of the roles I like since it gives opportunities to discover other systems and planets. Unfortunately the planetary tech in Odyssey is different than that in Horizons. Despite having better colours and textures, certain features that we are used to in Horizons, such as mountains, canyons and ridges are now missing.
Ranking in Explorer is done by handing in Cartographic data. Scanning all the bodies in a system is not efficient. We're after the high value ones. Just as you pull out from witch space, and honk the system, you're already earning exploration data. When you FSS the system and analyse all bodies you gain more data. Further more, when you reach a planet and DSS, that's going to increase the value of your data. Not all type of planets are worth scanning. The following (in green) is what we're after:
Earth Like Worlds and Terraformable Water Worlds are the most profitable Cartographic data. I use Spansh - Road 2 Riches, to plot a route to systems having these high value bodies. Since Spansh utilises EDSM, there's a vast amount of these systems recorded and available.
We need to earn 1.6 billion credits, handing in data to get to Elite V from Elite. I planned different routes to avoid hitting the same systems. After several weeks in the void, on the 15th of October 2021 I was greeted with the Elite V ranking badge.
Combat
Combat ranks are earned through combat-related activities, such as destroying other ships and skimmers, collecting and turning in Bounty Vouchers, and completing missions that involve combat. In Horizons, hunting down Elite ranked NPCs yielded maximum rewards (of combat experience). Before Frontier Development decided to nerf the method, Scouts were compared as Elite ranked. Elite NPCs were not so common to find, usually you find them in Hazardous sites and in CNBs. On the other hand Scouts where available in groups between two and eight in NHSSs or AXCZs. I used this method to get my Combat rank to Elite.
In Odyssey things have changed. On-foot combat resulted in a much better way to gain Combat rank. Since the introduction of the Mercenary rank, hunting down NPCs, in settlements resulted in Combat rank experience, and a small percentage goes to the Mercenary rank. On the other hand, doing ground CZ will get more experience to your Mercenary rank and a small percentage goes to the Combat rank. Odyssey released a patch that had notably "removed the zeroing out of Rank Progression points for Combat and Mercenary Rank when killing an enemy a given number of ranks below you.
How do you get this done efficiently? First of all we have to keep in mind that there are different levels of ground on-foot NPCs. We're after the highest level and these can be found in a military settlements. We cannot just obliterate any settlement as this will get us bounties on our head and notoriety. So we need to find a military settlement managed by an Anarchy faction, preferably in an Anarchy system. Hunting these NPCs will get the best percentage in the Combat rank. Another way to gain Combat rank is to take Support (Reboot) missions, most importantly killing loads of scavengers as these will get your Combat rank increased. The later is slower process.
Statistics - To get from Elite all the way up to Elite V you will need to storm a settlement with approximately 38 NPCs, 160 times for each Elite rank. So this means you'll have to hunt down 800 settlements and killed the unfortunate of 30,400 NPCs.
The system I used is: San Tu and the settlement is Yeo Armament. This settlement might be at war, and won by a non-Anarchy faction. If the faction is at war, the settlement would have been replaced by a ground CZ and that will yield the Mercenary rank. You might have to check for another military settlement that the Dragons of San Tu Anarchy faction are occupying. There are other Anarchy factions you can use though. Using Inara Search Nearest, set:
- Allegiance as Independent
- Government as Anarchy
- Economy as Military
- Min. Landing Pad as Large
- Station type as Surface Settlement (Odyssey)
The following method was the one I used, over and over again. Once the settlement is done, simply relog and start again. Since this is an Anarchy faction, you won't loose reputation. There are various NPC levels. What we're after are NPCs with 4 shield bars.
- Go to the settlement with your ship, and dismiss it once you disembark (so later NPCs won't attack it)
- Go in front the CMD building door and wait for a Researcher (NPC) to open it for you
- Kill him and scan him, so you get access to level 2 (I use a Tormentor with a silencer mod so I don't attract a lot of attention)
- Kill other NPCs in the building and de-activate the authorizer scanner, turrets etc. (do not de-activate the alarm)
- Once you clear that building, shoot at whatever moves to bring attention. NPCs will raise the alarm for more reinforcement.
- Get inside and go straight to the stairs at the back, and stay there. From there you will see the door opening by NPCs rushing in to hunt you
- Wait there and start killing them left right and centre. Pay attention for those that come from upstairs and other rooms. but basically you're covered at the stairs.
- You can get more ammo and energy cells from the 1st floor near the stairs, and health on the ground floor.
- I used the Intimidator to kill them with one or two shots, the Dominator suit, all engineered to G5 including mods.
- Once the NPCs stop coming in, go out and clear the remaining SharpShooters and Enforcers (These are snipers and rocket launchers so take extra care).
Raiding the settlement 18 times, will gain you 10% in Combat rank. On the 20th of February 2022, I was awarded with the Combat Elite V rank.
Mercenary
Mercenary ranks are earned through combat and infiltration On Foot activities, including completing On Foot missions and killing settlement personnel. As already stated above in the Combat rank, hunting down NPCs, in settlements resulted in Combat rank gain. and a very small percentage goes to the Mercenary rank. On the other hand, doing on-foot CZ will get you Mercenary rank and a small percentage to the Combat rank.
Mercenary work focuses on practically all instances of On Foot combat. This can range from accepting missions involving objectives at settlements, which can involve both legal and illegal actions, to signing up with Frontline Solutions as a hired gun for a warring minor faction, to investigating remote points of interest and scavenging valuables from wrecks or smuggling caches. As the player kills more personnel and completes more missions, they advance their Mercenary rank. Wiki here.
In order to rank Mercenary up quickly you need good planning and this often leads to a bit of research. First we need to find a system that is in War or Civil War state. There are three levels of ground Conflict Zones, Low, Medium and High Intensity Conflict Zones. We're after the High Intensity CZ. Although not a requirement, it is highly suggested that you have a fully modified and engineered suite of weapons and a Dominator suit maxed at G5. Below is the setup I have used:
There's a whole list of settlement types. Some of these settlements are large, others are small. There are settlements that have a lot of ammunitions, health and energy cells, however there are also those with very limited resources. We are searching for a particular settlement here, one that can drastically reduce the time to get it done. This particular settlement must have NPCs respawning nearby and has lots of resources. Preferably we get day time, but this is not always possible. The settlement type I used is the Industrial (IND) - An ore extraction or processing facility, usually located close to laser drilling platforms.
For more information regarding settlements use the Odyssey Map Guide
When fighting in a Conflict Zone, you have to choose a side. Keep in mind that when you win a CZ, you gain reputation with that faction and superpower. This also implies that you will loose reputation with the loosing side. This requires some thought and strategy. If you find a CZ with different superpowers, you have to make sure you won't loose reputation from one of the superpowers. In this case you will need to alternate between them. For e.g. You get to a ground CZ involving two different superpowers, the Federation and the Empire. You have good reputation with both of them. Start by choosing a side and win the CZ. While you're in the settlement celebrating the win, exit to the main menu and relog back in. This time fight for the other side, so you will gain reputation from the side you lost in your previous session. Doing so, will stable your reputation with both superpowers. Preferably you find both sides affiliated with the same superpower, e.g. both of them under the Empire (or Federation) or perhaps Independent. Nevertheless always alternate as there's another step you have to consider.
We're fighting these ground CZ over and over again. In order to add 10% to your current Mercenary rank, you have to win 12 High Intensity CZ, so relogging is essential here. Once you decide you need a break, and would like to hand in Combat Bonds at a station, you're going to recall your ship, or call an Apex. If your Reputation becomes Unfriendly or Hostile, you will get attacked with a chance of paying a visit to the Rebuy screen. Unless you're not equipped well, the Mercenary rank to Elite V can be done in less than a month. I have managed to get this done on the 12th of March 2022 before starting my first expedition - Lost Souls 3 which will have my objective fulfilled, that of the following Exobiologist rank.
Exobiologist
Exobiologist ranks are earned through scientific On Foot activities, including using the Genetic Sampler to collect samples of alien life forms and selling those samples at Vista Genomics - Wiki. This particular category can be done in conjunction with the Explorer rank, however I decided to separate them since I wasn't yet Elite in Exobioloist when I started my race for getting Elite V in Explorer. I was able to reach that rank while I was alternating between the Combat and the Mercenary ranks. I find that this particular rank is the most laborious to do. Primarily you have to find a system with landable and atmospheric bodies, DSS the planet and hope you get Biologicals.
These fall under many categories and have different credit rewards when you hand them in. When I started Exobiology there were no tools, so this was purely a guess work. I used the in-game codex to find those systems with Bios but barely made it to Taxonomist. This was quite a daunting task and was searching for specific tools that makes Exobiology a bit more efficient. On Inara there were a couple of commanders that made it to Elite V. I managed to get hold of the flight log of one of them that had recently ranked up. This flight log consisted of those systems this commander travelled to and landed on those planets to scan Biologicals. Using a text editor to narrow the search for the landings I ended up with a list of them:
With this list I managed to rank up to Elite in Exobiologist category. While I was ranking up the Combat and Mercenary ranks to Elite V, several tools and information came along. This was just in time before starting the long awaited and prestigious LS3 expedition.
The primary tool I used was the Observatory Core and the BioInsights plugin. This particular tool is indispensable for the reason that it catches those atmospheric landable planets with biologicals the moment you FSS a system. Once you pinpoint the planets you DSS and land to scan the Biologicals.
Canonn Research has done a lot of research in Exobiology. Thanks to CMDR JJGoldberg who was one of the first commanders ranking Elite V, we get various opportunities to get valuable information on where and what to scan. From his tutorial, using Spansh with the following parameters I managed to find those discoverable systems with atmospheric planets having high value Biologicals.
Thanks to CMDR Bonquiqui the following options resulted in better findings of Biologicals, both in number and high value. Thus, removing Temperature and Landable options, as well as setting only Thin Water gave better results.
The following links helped me find and determine which of the numerous species are worth scanning
Organic Scanning Guide - Canonn Reseach
ED IECO Exobiology Top5 Reported Star Class Systems Containing Life
Surface Biology - Canonn Reseach
Vista Genomics values - Deep Space Network
Expressway to Exomastery - Spansh
During the LS3 expedition, I realised that being the First Footfall doubled the reward value. I chose to jump though K and A type stars to reach POIs. I managed to hand in enough data at the Vista Genomics to climb the Elite stars ladder one after the other every week. On the 18th of June 2022 I finally got to Elite V in Exobiologist.
It took me nine months to get all categories to Elite V. What's next? CQC? Let's go for it - lol