X3TC: Omini's Guide: Newb Guide To Making Money

[Omini]

I wanted to make a bit of a guide to help out the new people to the game get some money. I'm sure we can all agree, or at least most of us, that the first few million credits are the most difficult to earn.

This small guide is written by a bit of a newb, mainly for newbs - or even people with too much spare time on their hands who are wanting to make a bit of cash.

So here are two or three ways get some money. I'm working on a fourth method too, but I'm currently getting a bit more statistics for it before I make it public. These ways require a bit of money to start with.

First, you'll need to get a bit of rep with Teladi. Do this via what ever way you can. Combat, trading, what ever. Once you do that, go to a Teladi Shipyard and buy yourself a Kestrel (M5). You should buy these upgrades for it:

• Full Engine Tuning
  Full Cargo Expansion
  Cargo Life Support System

The Kestrel is the fastest ship in the universe, with a top speed of 605 m/s. The cheapest version with minimal shielding costs about 114K Credits - which you can make back with one mission.

Transport missions correspond with the white light bulb image. Also, the Kestrel can hold about 6 or so people at a time (if you also have 5x1MJ shields, 2xPAC, 2xPRG).


Make sure to read the mission text: There are some that request a TP class ship. Ignore these ones.

You usually make your money back within 3 missions. I got one mission to transport someone of Hard difficulty where the payout was 930,000 Credits - so it's really easy enough.

This one is going to require a fast ship. Again I would suggest the Kestrel with the following upgrades:

• Full Engine Tuning
  Mineral Scanner

There are missions available from the white light bulb icons which request that you scan asteroids and get the data back to the individual. It's usually a minimum of around 12,000 credits per asteroid, and consists of usually at least 4 asteroids. They can also stretch over numerous sectors. You usually get at least 200K per mission.

This will require the most money of the three methods. It will require two ships. A fast "scout" ship, for heading to the ship itself, and a TM class ship. TM class ships are usually around the 450K price range.

With the TM class ship, you should get the following ship upgrades:

• Full Engine Tuning
  Full Cargo Extension
  Jumpdrive

Stock your TM with Energy Cells, then look for missions via the white light bulb icon that request you to retrieve a ship. Make sure it says something along the lines of that the ship was abandoned (as opposed to saying their ship was stolen).

Once the mission is accepted, use your speedy scout vessel to get to the ship asap. If you have visited the sector it was reported to be in, have your TM class ship jump to that sector and idle by the warp gate. Once you arrive get to the ship that needs to be claimed. On your way there, have your TM follow you. When you get to the ship, claim it. Repair it if you want. I would recommend manually repairing it to about 60%. Dock the claimed ship in to your TM ship (Don't auto pilot dock it until your TM is relatively close, as it'll stop to let the claimed ship dock. Also make sure your TM isn't beside asteroids, as it may cause the auto pilot to be stupid and smash your ship in to it).

Once the claimed ship is in your TM, you can either tell it to jump back to the sector it needs to be returned to, or you can dock your scout ship too - but it's not required for you to do so. Once your TM jumps back to the sector, go to your Property page and tell the claimed ship to dock in to the station it needs to go to. I recommend telling your TM to move to the station first, as it tends to be faster than the claimed ship.

The only expenses in this money method are Energy Cells, which are cheap enough anyway.

To make things even faster in these methods, if you do use the Kestrel you can install a Jumpdrive in it for short-range jumps, though I find that it's fast enough without any necessity to jump to sectors.

I hope these help new players get a bit of a head start in the money department.

Feedback would be appreciated, as well as constructive criticism.

I'll post the fourth method as soon as I get what I feel is adequate backup as to how much profit it can make you.

[Spychotic]

You don't get Kestrels from Paranid Shipyards

I started Humble Merchant and traded my way up, whilst doing passenger transport missions. You learn a lot about the economics of the X-Universe that way, which makes the later game easier, even though you don't get your first few million quite so fast as you would shooting up Jolly Parrot-shoulders.

Spike

[Omini]

You don't get Kestrels from Paranid Shipyards

Oops... When I first made the post, I was quite tired after extensive gaming Some reason I thought the Kestrel was Paranid rather than Teladi. D'oh.

On the file I'm playing now I started with Argon Patriot. Now I'm trying out little things to try and make money, and I'm sharing the ones that seem to work.

[tidurlagi]

For me the easier and profitable is always passengers transport missions. Once you have the jumpdrive of course.

[Goodfeller]

The easiest way to make money ?

Three words.

Nvidium, Nvidium and Nvidium.

Let me hear you say yeah.....

[XanII]

I wouldnt recomend Nividium to newbies. they are confused with the learning curve as it is. Nividium can classified as exploit really. and getting that stuff effectively and flippin' the stuff to actual money is a hassle. It's better to stick to basics, newbies learn the game mechanics at the same time.

[RainerPrem]

Also, the Kestrel can hold about 6 or so people at a time (if you also have 5x1MJ shields, 2xPAC, 2xPRG).

Hi,

why would you equip a Kestrel with weapons??? They only take place you can fill with more e-cells or passengers. And you can use 1 x 5MJ for only 3 cargo units.

cu
Rainer

[pjknibbs]

You can't actually install 5x1MJ shield on a Kestrel anyway--it only has 1 shield slot. If you have 5x1MJ shields in the hold then only 1 will be installed and you'll actually only have 1MJ of shielding on the ship!

[Omini]

Then I have 1x5MJ shield on it. And I equip the Kestrel because I don't like flying around unarmed. I have the 2xPRG's on the back turret. Yes it can out run anything, but even still I just don't like feeling like an easy target.

[Lord Dakier]

Cant blame yer.

[Nanook]

All three of your money making methods can easily be done with a single Discoverer of any variant. No need to get the Kestrel, or even a TM, at the start. Those are things that can come later once you've made a bit of money. In my current game, I'm playing a salvager, and I still fly around finding ships to return in my Disco Raider (which I recently upgraded through a 'buy my used ship' mission). I have 130 million+ credits, an M7, an M7M, and a whole fleet of transports of various types. And this only 2+ game days in. So IMO, the Kestrel is entirely optional and hardly a necessity.

[CHAZZ]

I started Humble Merchant and traded my way up, whilst doing passenger transport missions. You learn a lot about the economics of the X-Universe that way, which makes the later game easier, even though you don't get your first few million quite so fast as you would shooting up Jolly Parrot-shoulders.
Spike

Amen. Very same here. After thousands hours playing X2, I became there a friggin corporate manager, not a player at all, sitting the whole time on my lazy bum and watching my account bloat. Fighting was booring nobody could harm me, trading was booring because there was no pointy in earning a couple dimes over all those bilions I had, the main story was bewilderingly short etc. Now in TC with those huge super-freighters I am having a blast. Just one full load of say, something simple like ferrying Soya husks from Paranid space up to the Borons can net half a milion credits, so what the hustle? It's easy enough. But I give credits to the OP's money earning tactics: they work and there is nice diversity in them.

C.

[stimpy61]

Hey Nanook, "ships to return"
Curious, are you talking the missions?

As I've seen the hidden abandoned spoilers, grabbed a couple, but want NOT to use too many spoilers.

As for the missions. I like Chazz's idea with the TL if you got the cash.
I have found that most of the re-claim ship missions are 50/50 at best at having enough time to return them, even with 100 repair speed.

TL, dock jump, done damn deal... seams solid....

[pjknibbs]

You can do exactly the same thing with a TM, and it costs a lot less, too! Furthermore, a decent TM (e.g. Yaki Chokaro) will allow you to do low-end freight transport missions and passenger transport missions which don't require luxury...one of the most versatile ships around, IMHO.

[zijin_cheng]

Should I not have bumped up a 3 year old thread?

I bought the kestrel, fully upped to max spd/cargo.
The only missions I can do have an upper limit of 200K because 200k+ missions require more cargo space.

Is it just me or do I need to search harder?

[Nanook]

Should I not have bumped up a 3 year old thread?...

That is correct. It's best to start your own thread rather than dredge up a potentially out of date one.