During Invictus week 2950, I found myself on the hype train with a number of my friends in Skeleton Krew. We were excited about the release of new ships and a glimpse of ships to come. The temptation got to me and I bought some CCUs, one of which was the sentinel which is amazing! I’m really happy with my hangar now and I feel like it has everything I need to skip the grind when the game is released.
Also during the event, the game was having serious issues due to a large volume of new backers all trying to get a glimpse of the Javelin and F8 Lightings. Some of us couldn’t even play and it was really disheartening, especially given the amount of funds we had invested in the development of the game. It got us talking about wishing we hadn’t spent so much money, instead just bought a starter pack so we could experience the game as intended for a ‘noob’ with an Aurora or Mustang.
I decided to do just that so I setup a new account and purchased the Mustang Alpha starter pack, again spending more money (I know the irony ). This new account I named ‘Ulgrosh’ and I am documenting his progress with a kind of let’s play series on my YouTube channel called ‘A New Life’ First thing I found was the base mustang is pretty weak and had to upgrade weapons and components so I earned money doing the Pro Tem, Bounty Hunter Assessment, NPC crime stat 3 and ECN alert missions which was great fun with dual joysticks. Next I wanted to do some box missions so I rented an Avenger Titan and made about 60k aUEC running FTL missions from ArcCorp area to Microtech landing pads by doing 8 at a time. This was great at the start but it took a couple hours and I had a couple of 30k crashes which was frustrating. I didn't really like the Titan though and it was too much to buy so I bought an Aurora ES from New Deal for 124k aUEC and used it to run more box missions.
To avoid monotony, I was doing a variety of missions including even the FPS bunker missions which I really enjoyed when I upgraded my weapon with a scope and suppressor. I also hammered the NPC bounties (my favorite).
I had a bad 30k crash which left my Mustang bugged and unable to claim or call so had to reset my account. This erased all my character equipment and ship components and the Aurora and Cyclone I had purchased in game. It would have been better for me if I had gone to New Deal and just bought another Mustang because the total loss value was around 300k aUEC. This is a lot of money for a noob and I was devastated.
As I have done so many times before, though, I heaved a sigh and picked up my bottom lip then got back to it. At the start of ‘A New Life’ season I didn’t want to use the Freelancer loaner because it detracted from the value of the experience (being a freebie for the 30k bugs). After the account reset, I was like, ok its broken, screw it I’m going to have some fun! So I used the Freelancer to run small amounts of Laranite from Ariel to Lorville CBD and threw caution to the wind by going all in every time. I figured, if it 30k’s again, I’ll go play Elite Dangerous with a bunch of my friends who had already gone. What I found was it didn’t 30k. I made money then went back and made more. I made more and before I knew it I was compliant with Gallog’s 50% investment trading advice. Laranite supply was good, I think because all traders have gone into hiding with the announcement of 3.10 or the 30k’s that have plagued us lately.
It got to a point where I needed to increase the investment so I spent 70k aUEC at Vantage Rentals and hired a Connie which has 96 SCU. Big investment at the time but I had enough to fill it and when sold it made me 57k aUEC. The second run had finished paying off the rental fee and I was in front so there was still the rest of the day to use it.
Running to and from the CBD was a pain though and was slowing down the return so I started running the rented Connie and the loaner Freelancer to Arial and back then taking the train to CBD to sell both. This was advice I had previously been given from Jett in Gallog Discord chat and it was a game changer. I made so much money that I hired a second Connie and made the first million in just over a day. Now, we are talking some serious grinding here, don’t get me wrong, and it was pretty boring but I resolved to think about buying a Freelancer Max with in-game money. I like the Max because it can carry 120 SCU, its fast and it doubles as a descent combat ship and ground vehicle transport. I now have an operating cash flow strategy which requires a minimum reserve of 1.3M aUEC so I can hire four Connies and fill them all then sell at same time. At one point I had five Connies and selling them all took me from 500k aUEC to 2M aUEC which is a return of nearly 300k aUEC. This is comparable to running a Caterpillar with Laranite, however, all that is at risk is 240k aUEC (one Connie). If the server 30k’s while your ship is full of cargo, it’s gone. If that ship is a Cat full of Laranite, wave goodbye to 1.4M aUEC but if it’s a Connie, only 240k aUEC and this is a lot easier to deal with . With four rented Connies I can earn 228 aUEC in just over an hour. To relieve the grind, I have been filling them then selling and walking away for an hour or so to do real life stuff etc.
My balance with Mustang Alpha starter pack account is now 2.3M aUEC and I am hoping to push that up to 3.3M aUEC by the end of the day. It will take an estimated 6hrs of play time to achieve this goal. When I get there, I’ll spend 2.1M aUEC and buy a Freelancer Max from New Deal in Lorville and swap one of the Connies out for the Max so I have less operating costs for rentals and more CCU purchasing power. Think I’ll buy a Hawk next
Big thank you to Ravier, the genius behind Gallog and the Gallog guys n girls for showing me how to trade. Also, shout out to my buddies at Skeleton Krew, you guys rock!
To watch ‘A New Life’ check out my YouTube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLnJi8Q4RPNVAyzAeWeUq-A?view_as=subscriber
My referral code is: STAR-MRLP-3N7N
Galactic Logistics
