Need help and tips for smuggling

[zehcoutinho]

Hello everyone,

I am new to the game (bought it in November) and have been trading rares with my Cobra to make some cash, and now finally I have bought an ASP and have fitted it for smuggling, as I want to give this "career" a try. I would like to know if anyone has tips for my build:

All my Internal Compartments are cargo for a total of 128t.
All my Hardpoints are empty and I use only one Uility Mount for Heat Sink Launchers.
I have fitted the best FSD (5A), Thrusters (5A) and Power Distributor (4A). The Sensors (5D) and Life Support (4D) are the lightest and a small Power Plant (2A) is enough for all. I get 35.3 (Unladen) and 24.4 (Laden) jump ranges and have 290 max speed with 395 with boost.



I would also appreciate some "where to start" tips. After I decided to become a smuggler I researched a bit and found that that used to be amazing places to smuggle from like Sothis, but that they have been nerfed. Are they still worth the trip after nerf?

Thank you,

CMDR zehcoutinho

[Schmobius]

The cops are a lot more evil about scanning since the last update or so. I liked smuggling a lot better when I just had to dock at full speed to avoid them.

They interdict much more frequently, sometimes even in systems with no government, so they can't even fine you, but it will fail your shadow delivery missions. And they are better at it. And they are much harder to evade by simply boosting away. They also watch much closer than before at exiting traffic from stations, and often follow you to outposts.

If you are ok with pulling lots of fines (you'll usually still turn a profit, if a much smaller one), and failing a lot of shadow delivery missions to lose HUGE profits and have to sell your cargo at a black market for meager ones, and you do it for the thrill of dodging cops and SOMETIMES making a huge payday, then you should still enjoy it.

One thing I did learn early on is that silent running does one quadrillion percent less than nothing for avoiding scans. Definitely not worth the heat damage, and I think that sucks, as it would be a wonderful game mechanism if it actually did something. Just dock before they can finish scanning you.

[zehcoutinho]

Thanks for your reply, Schmobius. I did some "smuggling" during my rare trade routes, as some rares are illegal in some places, and didn't have much problems. But from what I read when you take a smuggling mission you're more likely to get attention from the cops, right? I'll go test this build right now and see if I have too much fines problems.

[Digga]

I did long distance smuggling in am ASP for a short while, I would add shields, shield boosters and chaff (apparently chaff can throw off scans - although I found this to be hit and miss). I also needed a scoop simply due to the 400Ly+ range I was smuggling across.

Also when you have a collection of NPC's trying to kill you, point the back end of your ship directly at the star while in scoopable range. This has the NPC's crash into the star when coming round to interdict you. Not sure if this still works though.

[Schmobius]

Thanks for your reply, Schmobius. I did some "smuggling" during my rare trade routes, as some rares are illegal in some places, and didn't have much problems. But from what I read when you take a smuggling mission you're more likely to get attention from the cops, right? I'll go test this build right now and see if I have too much fines problems.

Yes, taking missions greatly increases the chances of you being noticed by both cops and pirates. It's kind of like whoever is sending you the missions is selling you out to the NPCs.

I still do smuggling on occasion, so for all of my complaints, don't take that to mean I think you shouldn't smuggle. Just go in with eyes open, and you should see it as more of a fun challenge than frustrating. My brother is still making huge credits with smuggling; he may lose 10 million credits in shadow delivery missions in a trip, but he'll make 25 million on the next with like 8 missions stacked up.

[Roger Wilco Jr]

Yup, chaff to avoid scans if the get in range (it used to work)

Chaff & shields to avoid damage when interdicted by pirates shooting at you.

Be prepared to high wake (jump to another system, not into super cruise) if being attacked and mass locked by pirates.

Cops are hard to shake. Landing really fast at outposts was about my final defense.

[Schmobius]

I did long distance smuggling in am ASP for a short while, I would add shields, shield boosters and chaff (apparently chaff can throw off scans - although I found this to be hit and miss). I also needed a scoop simply due to the 400Ly+ range I was smuggling across.

Chaff works well against players, not so much against cops. Because NPCs cheat, apparently. And scoop is nearly mandatory for long range outtings. I will say that you attract attention while fuel scooping though, so if your route allows, it's often best to save the fill-up for a system with no traffic. I also like to keep an advanced discovery scanner on my ships for two reasons: First, I've made several million credits just holding down a button while doing whatever I'd be doing otherwise anyway. I don't bother to go for detailed scans, even though that would make more money, because it wastes a LOT of time, which doesn't make sense for just trying to take the free money on the table while trading or doing missions. Second, I've found when doing missions (smuggling or otherwise), I'll sometimes get pointed to a planetary port in a system I have no exploration data on. Without that scanner, I can see nothing but the star and orbital ports. I'd have to guess where each planet is and keep looking for the port while doing fly-bys otherwise. That is just dumb. With the scanner, I can do the scan in about 5 seconds, then find the port on my nav computer and lock it in.

Also when you have a collection of NPC's trying to kill you, point the back end of your ship directly at the star while in scoopable range. This has the NPC's crash into the star when coming round to interdict you. Not sure if this still works though.

This still works, but sometimes when I'm not backed up to the star correctly, they'll interdict me while I'm really close, and when the ship starts spinning, as it does during interdictions, I'll actually get thrown down to emergency stop, and take damage as though I'd lost an interdiction. That does usually cause the interdictor to lose the interdiction, and throw them down to normal space somewhere else, so it gets them off my back, but still not the best trip ever. This will happen when I'm fuel scooping a lot.

[moarbeer]

I parked my python and built an ASP for shadow smuggling missions. No weapons, decent shield, fastest thrusters and boost and largest jump range possible with 128t if cargo.

Basically I just used boost to avoid scans. Boost out of stations, boost into them, boost away from interdiction and boost away from scan detected.

I also sometimes would low warp out and back in, if I didn't consider a docking situation favourable enough.

Occasionally, a copper would try and chase me down, but after boosting away and hitting silent running, I found that most of the time they lost my trail.

Now I've put together a cobra for the same purpose, just to check viability. Same principles, but only 32t of cargo, but since it seems to take a while to fill the hold on just shadow missions, which I find boring, I'm okay with less cargo/less missions as I'd rather be flying anyway. I managed to squeeze a docking computer and an advanced scanner on the cobra as well. I usually just use the dc when I'm inside the station and can't easily find the pad. Other than that, on empty outposts it's okay as well.

The cobra is fast and can avoid a "scan completed" simply by boosting away at 430 m/s.

Boost, boost, boost as someone else said. Works every time. I only screwed up once when I accidentally let the DC kick in and it converted a perfect entry into a smash into the side of the station fiasco. Learned that lesson ... DC disabled in the modules screen.

Finally, I'm currently running shadow missions out of aditi. Not too far from my base. Most runs are 280 ly out from there.

[Schmobius]

Boost used to work in a python. Not anymore.

[moarbeer]

Boost used to work in a python. Not anymore.

Think you need at least 300 m/s now and that's probably scraping it.