So I’ve been completing some missions from the college and I keep getting isk from bounty hunting npcs. I’d like to know if bounty hunting actual players pays off. I’m still kinda of new and don’t fully understand the high sec and low sec stuff. All I know is high sec I wont get shot at as often. Can I just go out and find bounties and kill them without recourse or do I have to do this in low sec.
To be honest, the whole bounty system is quite broken, I wouldn’t waste your time.
If you did want to PvP and make some isk, then try gate camping for industrials.
Else just PvP for fun and do another side activity for isk.
The payout for killing a player with a bounty is only 20% of the value of the ship/pod (s)he is flying at the at the time.
You are not allowed to shoot at non flashy players in high, no matter what bounty is set. So if you do in highsec, Concord will get you down. If you do in lowsec, be aware of gateguns, they can be quite deadly for frigates and dessies.
So if there is a flashy toon (i.e. criminal or suspect) with a nice bounty in highsec, be aware it is quite probable to be a bait / trap, because if you engage combat, you won’t be able to jump or dock up for the following 60 seconds, and his friends are likely to be around very soon.
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You can do this in highsec, but bounties do not affect the CONCORD retibution enjoyed by other players there. That means you will be more of a hitman or assassin, than a law-enforcing bounty hunter in most cases (although you can go after criminals in highsec, they just tend not to fly very expensive things so it isn’t very profitable). So if you are willing to pay the security status and other penalties of shooting someone in highsec illegally, you can make a profit. I have occasionally had quite the payday suicide ganking a miner in an expensive ship with a large bounty, or catching their expensive pod.
That said, I wouldn’t recommend such a profession for a new player. Operating as a successful criminal yourself in highsec is challenging and probably require multiple accounts to do at all efficiently, and the rewards will be few and far between.
How do I get the security status and take care of the penalties. I’m assuming as soon as I shoot down someone Concord will be on me like flies on $hit. I really am not anticipating it to be like the guards in skyrim where you get a choice of your punishment.
The security status isn’t the immediate concern, but CONCORD is. You have to do the math, generally after scanning the target, of whether you can kill the target before CONCORD pops you. You can find their reaction times here:
http://blog.beyondreality.se/TTK-CONCORD
Generally though, you will need a high DPS ship and attack them in low security status (0.6-0.5) system to have a chance of exploding them, and many ships will be beyond you as a solo pilot.
Do some reading on suicide ganking, and then join the ‘minerbumping’ channel in game (pw: 315) if you have specific questions. Being an amoral bounty hunter is a noble long term goal to aspire to, but it will require a lot of practice and patience to be successful.
Well after reading that article you linked it seems pretty difficult to get away with your skin intacted. So It appears that if you can bring enough fire power and the cost of the bounty is more than the cost of your ship and fitting you can make a living that way. But that is a whole lot of work figuring out cost and management supply to just bounty hunt. Especially if you cannot get the ship equipment and fittings easily.
You can’t get away with your skin intact unless you have a killright or somehow catch them outside of highsec. CONCORD always gets their man or woman.
It is most definitely a whole lot of work and effort and why I don’t recommend you try it as a new player. But long term, if you want a rare and challenging profession, keep it in mind.
You can try catching them in low/null/WH sec.
Plenty of people with bounties on them there, I have one on occasion, and then I lose it again because somebody shoots me… (Note: them shooting me had no relation to the bounty at all.)
Anyone with a large bounty either:
- Only stays in high sec and never gets shot
- Is very good and never loses his ship
Usually it’s the first case
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