An Odyssey guide for efficient rank farming
06 Oct 2024Hanchen
The ranking system in Elite is used to provide an estimation of the experience of each CMDR in five main different categories: Combat, Trade, Exploration, Mercenary and Exobiolology. Despite the rank system being mostly cosmetic only, many CMDRs enjoy treating the next rank in the category of their preference as a personal milestone, with a few completionists striving for achieving the somewhat prestigious quintuple Elite rank (or even Elite V for the most determined of them!). This guide is addressed to CMDRs looking for an efficient way to reach their target rank, by compiling useful information available online (e.g. from the Elite Dangerous Wiki) and practical tips from my own and the experience of veteran CMDRs. It also includes tips to progress in Federal and Imperial rankings for CMDRs looking for a faster manner to unlock the Federal Corvette and/or Imperial Cutter, that can respectively make Combat and Trade ranking more convenient.Combat
The most difficult to rank up of the five categories by far, the Combat rank indicates the ability of one CMDR to defeat their opponents, both in space and on-foot. The combat rank is an experience-point-based system: every kill awards you a certain amount of experience points (XP) that depends on both your and the target's ranks. The higher the target's rank is, the more XP are awarded. The higher your own rank is, the less XP you obtain in general. Reaching a specific amount of XP - estimated to be around 5000 XP for each level between Elite to Elite V - allows you to get promoted to the next rank.
| Target \ CMDR rank | Harmless | Mostly Harmless | Novice | Competent | Expert | Master | Dangerous | Deadly | Elite to Elite V |
| Harmless | 1.00 | 0.75 | 0.50 | 0.25 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Mostly Harmless | 1.25 | 1.00 | 0.75 | 0.50 | 0.25 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Novice | 1.50 | 1.25 | 1.00 | 0.75 | 0.50 | 0.25 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Competent | 1.75 | 1.50 | 1.25 | 1.00 | 0.75 | 0.50 | 0.25 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Expert | 2.00 | 1.75 | 1.50 | 1.25 | 1.00 | 0.75 | 0.50 | 0.25 | 0.00 |
| Master | 2.25 | 2.00 | 1.75 | 1.50 | 1.25 | 1.00 | 0.75 | 0.50 | 0.25 |
| Dangerous | 2.50 | 2.25 | 2.00 | 1.75 | 1.50 | 1.25 | 1.00 | 0.75 | 0.50 |
| Deadly | 2.75 | 2.50 | 2.25 | 2.00 | 1.75 | 1.50 | 1.25 | 1.00 | 0.75 |
| Elite | 3.00 | 2.75 | 2.50 | 2.25 | 2.00 | 1.75 | 1.50 | 1.25 | 1.00 |
The increasing number of XP required to reach the highest combat ranks, combined with the increased difficulty to obtain XP as you rank up makes combat ranking the most tedious of the five categories to grind by far. There are two main techniques to maximise the efficiency of combat ranking: one is space-based, while the other can be done on-foot.
Space-based combat ranking: the most straightforward and well-known of the two methods, it consists in simply outfitting a ship for space bounty hunting, and hunting pirates at a Compromised Nav Beacon (CNB). CNB are located in low security systems and can be found using the Misc Search Nearest functionality of Inara. CNB are the ideal location for space bounty hunting since they continuously spawn high rank (Dangerous to Elite) pirates, and relatively often in small and easy to destroy ships (e.g. Sidewinder, Eagle, Viper Mk III, Asp Scout). For this, it is recommended to use a weapon loadout that allows you to stay for long amounts of time in the instance without having to restock ammo. The most popular and recommended weapon setup is a combination of lasers (beam or burst depending on the distributor of your ship) and multicannons, including one with the Corrosive Shell experimental effect (decrease target armour hardness at the cost of -20% ammo capacity). I recommend to put this experimental effect preferably on the smallest multicannon engineered with the High Capacity modification. Regarding the ship to use, it is mostly a matter of personal preference, but I believe the option that provides the best balance between firepower, durability and agility is the Federal Corvette.
On-foot combat ranking: this method is significantly faster (by a factor 5 to 10 based on my experience), but also much harder than the traditional ship-based approach. It hinges on the fact that every on-foot NPC has a hidden combat rank (in addition to their mercenary rank), which makes on-foot kills contribute to your combat XP. With the appropriate on-foot weapon loadout and farming location, it becomes possible to accumulate kills at a significantly faster pace than by using a ship.
It should however be noted that this farming method definitely falls in the category of end-game content, as it requires a fully upgraded and modded dual Karma L-6 (rocket launcher) Dominator build for maximum efficiency, which is very expensive in terms of Odyssey engineering materials. Both Karma L-6 must be modified with increased magazine size, stowed reloading, faster handling and faster reload, while the Dominator suit must have the extra ammo capacity mod. The three other Dominator mods are up to personal preference (I personally went with increased jump assist, increased battery capacity and night vision), as well as the secondary weapon (although ideally, this should be a Tormentor). The key idea behind this build is to be able to constantly fire rockets that two-shot (shield and armour) any on-foot NPC regardless of their difficulty tier. By getting multi-kills on spawning groups of NPCs (that usually arrive on the battlefield in groups of six), it becomes possible to get a large amount of combat XP at a much faster pace than shooting down ships.
The best place to farm on-foot NPCs for combat rank is to pick Safeguard Missions (Odyssey on-foot mission). This type of mission requires you to defend a settlement (alongside some friendly NPCs) against hordes of incoming pirate NPCs by preventing them from staying in a specific area for too long. They are ideal for combat rank farming since they spawn very high numbers of wanted NPCs that you can kill without incurring any bounty. Safeguard missions exist in three threat levels (3, 4 and 5), with the higher levels spawning higher tier NPCs. It is recommended to pick threat 5 missions since the spawned enemies provide significantly more XP. After accepting the mission, go to the settlement to defend with your ship, disembark to start the mission, and overwhelm any group of enemies that sets foot on the planet with your rockets. Relog when the last wave of enemies is announced so that you can reset the mission, and save time in finding a new mission and traveling from the station to the settlement. This trick can be done up to 4 times (more and the mission fails, which makes NPCs stop spawning), and basically allows you to have 5 times more NPCs spawned per mission. In my experience, threat 5 safeguard missions provide around 4-5% combat rank per completed mission at ranks Elite to Elite V (with relogs). Note that even if you die during the mission and fail to complete it, any XP earned prior to this point will still contribute to your combat rank.
As a closing note, the NPCs that are spawned in ground Combat Zones (CZs) - including high-intensity ones - seem to have an abnormally low combat rank for some reason, and therefore contribute very little to combat ranking (although they are ideal for Mercenary rank farming as explained in the Mercenary section). Avoid these if your goal is to focus on combat rank.
Note: at the time I farmed combat rank (July 2023), safeguard missions had a bug with two specific Odyssey settlement layouts (Industrial #3 and Agriculture #5 in this list of Odyssey settlement layouts) where twice as many enemy NPCs as usual were spawned in the same amount of time as a regular mission. This caused the mission to become extremely hardcore difficulty-wise, but also even faster to grind combat rank if you managed to survive (8-10% combat rank per completed mission at ranks Elite to Elite V!). It is unsure if this bug has been corrected at the time of writing this guide (October 2024).
Trade
The Trade rank highlights the ability of each CMDR to generate wealth either through commodity trading or mining. It is according to Inara statistics by far the most common category to achieve Elite in, since it is simply profit-based, and based on the profits obtained from sold commodities. A summary of the trade profit required to achieve each rank is provided in the Table below.
| Rank | Profit required (in credits) |
| Penniless | 0 |
| Mostly Penniless | 5,000 |
| Peddler | 100,000 |
| Dealer | 800,000 |
| Merchant | 3,700,000 |
| Broker | 30,000,000 |
| Entrepreneur | 140,000,000 |
| Tycoon | 390,000,000 |
| Elite | 1,000,000,000 |
| Elite I | 2,000,000,000 |
| Elite II | 3,000,000,000 |
| Elite III | 4,000,000,000 |
| Elite IV | 5,000,000,000 |
| Elite V | 6,000,000,000 |
The fastest way to generate trade profit is through bulk commodity trading in trade loops, i.e. buying something cheap at location A, selling it high at location B, and repeating the process from B to A. After outfitting a large capacity trade ship (the most popular options being the Type-9 and Imperial Cutter that can both comfortably reach around 700t of cargo capacity when fully outfitted), look for the most profitable loops using Inara trade route finder and start hauling commodities. Be aware that Inara trade loop finder also lists options where the commodity supply is exhausted if filtered by decreasing profit, so make sure to pick a loop where enough commodities are still available. In my experience, with a "normal" profitable trade loop and a ship with around 700t of cargo capacity, it is usual to get between 15M and 20M of credit profit per loop.
One closing remark: occasionally, some trade-oriented Community Goals (CGs) may exceptionally cause a temporary spike in the profit of certain commodities (e.g. the Golconda CG of June 2022 that multiplied profits on Tritium trading by a factor 10). Be on the lookout for such opportunities in order to increase your trade rank faster.
Exploration
The Exploration rank reflects the experience of each CMDR in exploring the vastness of the galaxy, via the amount of celestial bodies they have scanned during their journey. In a similar manner as for the trade rank, the exploration ranking system is profit-based, using the profits acquired by selling exploration data to the Universal Cartographics. It should be noted that credits from already explored systems still count for this rank, although first discoveries come with a roughly x3 credit bonus. A Table of the necessary profits to reach each rank is provided below.
| Rank | Profit required (in credits) |
| Aimless | 0 |
| Mostly Aimless | 40,000 |
| Scout | 270,000 |
| Surveyor | 1,140,000 |
| Trailblazer | 4,200,000 |
| Pathfinder | 10,000,000 |
| Ranger | 35,000,000 |
| Pioneer | 116,000,000 |
| Elite | 320,000,000 |
| Elite I | 640,000,000 |
| Elite II | 945,000,000 |
| Elite III | 1,255,000,000 |
| Elite IV | 1,600,000,000 |
| Elite V | 1,920,000,000 |
Ranking up in exploration is also relatively easy in the sense that only a ship with a decent jump range, fuel scoop and detailed surface scanner is required to start getting exploration credits. The latter will naturally come over time as one starts to travel more, and over further distances. Nevertheless, if your focus is fast ranking, the best option is to use the Road to Riches, a tool that allows you to plot a course including systems containing highly valuable bodies to scan. I would in particular suggest to filter for both Earth-like Worlds and Terraformable Water Worlds, two types of bodies that provide a little bit more than 1M credits for each detailed surface scan (3M for a first discovery). By using such a selection criteria for plotting your route and only scanning the valuable bodies in the system to save time, it becomes possible to get exploration credits quite fast, even by staying in the vicinity of the bubble.
Mercenary
One of the two new ranks introduced with the Odyssey expansion, the Mercenary rank measures the proficiency of CMDRs in on-foot combat. The main obstacle that makes Mercenary rank the second least prevalent among CMDRs at Elite levels (according to Inara statistics) is the fact that it is more or less conditioned to fully upgrading and modding a Dominator loadout, a very lengthy and grindy process due to the high difficulty of getting Odyssey materials and unlocking Odyssey engineers. Similarly to Trade and Exploration, the Mercenary rank is profit-based, and counts the credits obtained by redeeming on-foot bounties or combat bonds. A list of the profit required for each rank is provided in the following Table.
| Rank | Profit required (in credits) |
| Defenceless | 0 |
| Mostly Defenceless | 10,000,000 |
| Rookie | 30,000,000 |
| Soldier | 60,000,000 |
| Gunslinger | 125,000,000 |
| Warrior | 350,000,000 |
| Gladiator | 465,000,000 |
| Deadeye | 880,000,000 |
| Elite | 1,550,000,000 |
| Elite I | 2,605,000,000 |
| Elite II | 4,003,000,000 |
| Elite III | 5,364,000,000 |
| Elite IV | 6,734,000,000 |
| Elite V | 8,118,000,000 |
The most efficient manner to increase Mercenary rank is to use a fully upgraded and modded dual Karma L-6 (rocket launcher) Dominator build in high intensity ground combat zones, that can be found in systems where two factions are at war, with at least one owning Odyssey settlements. As previously described in the Combat section, a dual wielded G5 Karma L-6 with the increased magazine size, stowed reloading, faster handling and faster reload modifications allow you to nearly constantly launch rockets at groups of enemies, provided that the Dominator suit also has the extra ammo capacity mod. For Mercenary ranking, high intensity CZs are the best farming place due to the very superior combat bond payout compared to bounties obtained by taking down on-foot pirates. The optimal farming loop is quite simple in principle: identify the enemy spawning points, wait for them to be dropped, unleash rockets at them until everyone perishes, and move to the next spawning point (while grabbing some ammo refill on the way). It should be noted that some Odyssey settlement layouts are easier to farm with this strategy than others, due the enemy spawning points being easier to reach or hit. The two best layouts in my experience are Military #2 (wide open courtyard where nearly every spawn point is within reach of a L-6) and High-tech #3 (very small settlement where nearly all spawn points are close to each other) in this database of Odyssey settlements layouts. For these two layouts, the average amount of combat bonds earned by completed conflict is between 15-20M in my experience. For the other layouts, expect something closer to 9-12M.
In order to reach a suitable CZ, an appropriate system should first be identified using the Inara search nearest functionality: make sure that it contains Odyssey settlements, and that it has two factions at war against each other. Try to target high population systems if possible (larger chance of finding high intensity conflicts), and preferably with military or high tech economies to maximise the chance of finding an optimal settlement layout. Two strategies to reach the CZ are then possible. The first consists in enrolling yourself at the Frontline Solutions service that is available in (space or surface) starports with large landing pads. Frontline Solutions will then bring you to the CZ using a Vulture. Once the CZ completed, relog to be instantly transported back to the starport and save the time of the return trip. The second strategy has been reported by other CMDRs to save traveling time (although I didn't have the opportunity to test it myself) and requires a SRV. First, identify your target settlement (possibly with the help of Frontline Solutions to learn about CZ intensity level). Then, travel there by yourself using your own ship, disembark in your SRV in the vicinity of the settlement, dismiss your ship, and park your SRV. Pick a location that is not too far from the settlement to minimise on-foot traveling times, but not too close either to avoid the enemy finding and destroying it during the conflict. Exit the SRV on-foot and walk towards the settlement. A message asking you to choose one faction to fight for should then appear, allowing you to complete the CZ normally. Once done, go back to your SRV, and relog while inside it. Reach the settlement on foot again to start the CZ once more. This method should allow you to save the traveling times between startport and settlement, making the rank farming faster.
Exobiology
The second of the two ranks added with the Odyssey expansion, the Exobiology rank measures the experience of each CMDR in scanning and collecting samples of alien or plant species. Exobiology in itself has a low entry point, as it simply requires a ship equipped with a detailed surface scanner (preferably with a good jump range and fuel scoop), and an Artemis suit (of any level) that is equipped by default with the Genetic Sampler tool. Like for most other ranks, Exobiology ranks are profit-based, and take into account the credits obtained by selling alien or plant samples to Vista Genomics. The list of Vista Genomics profits required to reach each rank is provided in the following Table.
| Rank | Profit required (in credits) |
| Directionless | 0 |
| Mostly Directionless | 22,500,000 |
| Compiler | 84,475,000 |
| Collector | 210,560,000 |
| Cataloguer | 532,800,000 |
| Taxonomist | 1,144,000,000 |
| Ecologist | 2,262,600,000 |
| Geneticist | 3,996,000,000 |
| Elite | 8,426,250,000 |
| Elite I | 12,969,000,000 |
| Elite II | 17,425,000,000 |
| Elite III | 21,560,000,000 |
| Elite IV | 26,070,000,000 |
| Elite V | 30,553,600,000 |
The difficulty to rank up in Exobiology is linked to two different factors: the very high rank thresholds in terms of Vista Genomics payouts, and a reward structure that very strongly rewards first discoveries. First logged forms of life or plants that have not been discovered by any other CMDR indeed sell for four times more than their initial value, but are significantly harder to find in the vicinity of the bubble. It may therefore be required to go on a prolonged trip in the black to accumulate significant profits. These aspects make ranking up in exobiology a fairly time consumming process overall.
There is however one strategy to make the ranking process faster that consists in specifically looking for Stratum Tectonicas, a type of micro organisms that are found on high-metal content planets. This specific species has three particularities that make it attractive for rank grinding: they are not rare since high-metal content planets are relatively common, are quite easy to find since they are usually in flat environments, and have an impressive payout of slightly more than 19M credits per redeemed sample (so 76M for any undiscovered Tectonica). It should be noted that this very large payout makes it more profitable than most of the other species, even after taking into account their first discovery bonus (and ignoring the bonus for the Tectonica). To rank faster in Exobiology, it is therefore advised to hunt specifically for Stratum Tectonicas by using a database of already discovered species in the bubble vicinity (e.g. like EDSM advanced search functionality filtered by Codex Entry), or by prioritising scanning high-metal content worlds with biological signals while visiting uncharted systems in the black.
Federal and Imperial ranking
The Federal and Imperial ranking systems are not measures of CMDRs experience unlike the other ranks, but are still highly sought ranks due to them being needed to unlock some Federal and Imperial-locked ships, the most two popular of them being the Federal Corvette and the Imperial Cutter. Federal and Imperial ranks are acquired by completing missions for factions respectively aligned with the Federation and Empire, and accumulating reputation. Once enough reputation has been obtained, a promotion mission will be proposed at random by an aligned faction. Completing it succesfully leads to a promotion to the next rank. It should be noted that any extra reputation accumulated before promoting to the next rank is not wasted, and carry on to the next rank.
Out of the two faction ranks, the Imperial one is the easiest of the two, and therefore the one I would suggest to prioritise first. For this, take a small or medium ship with you and head to the Hickham survey outpost in the Ngalinn system. This system is filled with Imperial factions that propose tons of courier missions going to the neighbouring Mainani system (approximately 3LY away). Pick as many courier missions as possible going to the Mies van der Rohe's Claim outpost in the Mainani system, deliver them while prioritising reputation as mission reward, and take any courier mission leading you back to Ngalinn. Repeat the loop between both systems until you get all the required Imperial reputation. Although not the most exciting from a gameplay perspective, this strategy should allow you to reach the desired Imperial rank in a relatively fast amount of time.
The Federal rank is on the other hand reputed to be significantly longer to grind, due to the absence of a pair of systems as convenient as Ngalinn/Mainani in the Imperial case. Unless you are ok with picking high risk/high reputation Federal missions like Thargoid or pirate assassination missions, my suggestion would be to head to Rangarajan's Base in the Canopus system with a well-defended trade ship equipped with a SCO FSD (ironically, the Imperial Cutter is the best choice by far for that), at a time when the Federal factions in Canopus are not affected by negative effects (e.g. war, infrastructure failure, etc.). Canopus is a low-security system with two Federal factions that tend to offer many cargo and courier missions to the neighbouring Exphiay system (approximately 8.60LY away). The principle remains the same as the Imperial rank grinding loop: stack as many Federal missions as possible in Canopus, complete them in Exphiay, stack missions in Exphiay, complete them in Canopus and repeat the process. This loop is however less convenient than the Ngalinn/Mainani one for three reasons. Firstly, with only two Federal factions being present in the system, it is more sensitive to negative background effects that may reduce the amount of offerred Federal missions. Secondly, there are two main mission destinations in the Exphiay system (James K Winston and Worlidge Hub) that may cause time wasted on travelling from one to the other. Finally, both systems are low security, which means that you will often be interdicted by NPC pirates when stacking cargo missions. In my experience, this farming method nevertheless remains more effective than the other popular alternatives such as Ceos/Sothis, or Chakpa/Ochosi.
Conclusion
This guide provided practical advice to increase rank in each of the five main categories (Combat, Trade, Exploration, Mercenary and Exobiolology) at a faster pace. I hope the tips provided in this guide will be useful to CMDRs looking to reach their next target rank, whether it is for completionist motivations or as a personal milestone.
Fly safe!
o7
CMDR Hanchen
Edit as of 29.10.2024: added an important tip that was ommitted about safeguard mission relogging for on-foot combat ranking.