Space Uber 101:
I figured I'd spend some time today documenting a very lucrative way to make some credits in Elite Dangerous...being a space taxi. (I prefer Space Uber as it's much more fantastic sounding.)
Passenger missions are available at any station, and there are four main types:
1. Bulk passenger transport
2. Short distance passenger delivery
3. Medium distance site seeing
4. Long distance site seeing
These sorts of missions can be run in any ship that has a decent amount of cargo space capabilities:
- Asp Explorer
- Asp Scout
- Cobra Mk III/IV
- Python
- Type 6 Transporter
Notice I stayed with "medium" class hulls. Medium is necessary to have the proper components to run the missions, and is also necessary so that you can keep a good balance of jump range and capacity while still being able to land at outposts (a must for bulk passenger transport).
1. Bulk passenger transport:
These types of missions ask for you to run large groups of passengers from point A to point B. The name of the game is volume...meaning the more passenger space available, the better.
When you run these missions, you will occasionally get a group of passengers that is not liked by somebody. This means NPC interdictions. So, your ship will need a defensive build...enough to boost away and get back into super cruise. You might be tempted to fight, but many of these missions will fail if you take hull damage. (Who wants to go on vacation and fly in an airplane that has chunks being shot off of it???)
Your ship build-out should be as follows:
- Defensive
- As many economy class cabins as you can fit
If you are thinking you need a big & expensive ship to make good money in bulk space uber...think again. A Cobra Mark IV can easily carry up to 32 economy class passengers. An Asp Scout, 16 economy passengers. A Type 6, 48.
The best systems for doing these missions is to find 2 systems that are at least 30 ly from any other system. This way, the transport missions will run between the two systems and make navigation a bore. In these sorts of systems, the general bulk passenger traffic is to go from outposts in System A to rotating dock in System B. Additionally, you can run regular missions too as you fill up your passenger seats to keep your total mission stack at 20.
As you work up your status with the local factions, the payouts will start to get very nice. When I run my Python loaded up with 96 economy passenger seats, I can net between 5 million and 8 million credits per hour with faction status above amiable. For a Type 6, you would be in the range of 2.5 to 4 million credits per hour. A Cobra Mark IV, 1.2 to 2 million credits per hour. Not too shabby!
The best I have done in my Python is 15 million credits in one hour. Sometimes the passengers want to change destination...and I will GLADLY haul your sorry butt to a different place for an extra 3 million credits!!!!
2. Short distance passenger delivery:
These types of missions ask you to transport a VIP, one-way, a distance of around 80 to 120 Ly. They payout well, with the good ones between 1.2 million and 3.5 million credits. While many of these will work with an economy class cabin, some do require business class or higher. They key thing here, is that accepting the mission will completely occupy the entire cabin. Said differently, if you have a passenger cabin that holds 32 passengers and accept one of these missions with 5 passengers, your entire 32 passenger cabin is occupied. So, the name of the game here is how many passenger cabins do you have in your ship so you can stack these.
The downside of these missions are the following:
- You generally need a high faction standing to get offered these. (Not an issue if you start with mission type 1)
- You have to be careful when accepting these missions...sometimes the people are wanted in different systems (will say in bold read text in the mission description.) If the police scan your ship and find a guy they don't like, they will open fire.
- The passengers for these missions are sometimes flaky...for example
--- They don't like it when your ship is scanned (and you'll fail the mission)
--- They may change their destination in a bait and switch
--- They may randomly ask you to give them various commodity items
- After you have flown a few of these, you will know how to handle these various items
As you will be travelling 80+ Ly, your ship build-out should be as follows:
- Defensive (there are always pirates, and somebody might not like your VIP)
- Good jump range (who wants to jump 8 times when you can jump 3?)
- Fuel scoop (who wants to stop for gas all the time?)
- Discovery scanner (nothing worse than losing time by having to stop by the Nav Beacon for system data)
When you stack these sorts of missions, try to arrange your flight path so that you minimize your distance between destinations!
If you do these right, you can be out, docked, and back to your home station in 30 minutes or less. The downside, is that these are not offered as frequently as the bulk passenger missions.
The best I have done so far is to stack 4 3.5 million credit transport missions. I was out and back in 45 minutes and doing the happy dance as I placed 14 million credits in my bank account for a solid 45 minutes of work!
3. Medium distance site seeing:
These type of missions ask you to transport a VIP or average Joe to multiple stops. The typical total travel distance is around 400 Ly or more. These involve going to the specific star system, then the target celestial body, and then a "tourist stop". You have to drop out of super cruise and scan the tourist stop. These will payout well...10 million credits or more for the good ones. However the good ones require high faction status.
The same downsides apply to this mission type as mission type 2.
As you will be travelling 400+ Ly, your ship build-out should be the same as mission type 2.
These missions are difficult to stack as you would end up flying all over the place. However, they are nice to stack with mission type 2.
I actually like these as you get to see pretty cool parts of the galaxy, and many of the tourist stops are unique and give great explanations as to why they are a tourist stop. (Alpha Centauri...For The Mug...need I say more?)
If you do these right, and are efficient with your jumping and fuel scooping, you can be out and back to your home station in about 45 minutes or so.
The best I have done here is to transport a wanted passenger in a 30 minute journey for the paltry sum of 15 million credits. It was such a rush to dodge the police and escape interdictions, but I was happy to have the scum off my ship...it took me 12 solar days to get his stink out of my ship...an average slave trader...pffft! Doesn't he know about how awesome the Empire is with educating their slaves and treating them like the solid 3rd class citizens they are????
4. Long distance site seeing:
These types of missions ask you to transport a VIP or average Joe 1200+ Ly. You fly out to a system, then target body, drop out of super cruise and scan something like mission 3. These can payout very high (I've seen 70+ million credits...just didn't feel like flying 26,000 Ly).
The same downsides apply to this mission type as mission type 2.
As you will be travelling 1200+ Ly, your ship build-out should be the same as mission type 2. However, if you are even contemplating traveling outside of the bubble, you should already know what your ship should be. If you don't know, your ship should have AT LEAST a 30 Ly jump range.
For me, I pick my deep space exploration first. If I can happen to find a passenger to bring along...great. However, there is a sweet spot for these missions...in the 1200 to 1800 Ly range. Lets say you have an average Asp Explorer that only has a measly 30 Ly jump range. That means that the total trip out and back will be around 80 jumps. For me, I can average around 60 seconds per jump. So, 40 minutes up, 40 minutes back, 5 minutes in super cruise at each side of the destination puts you at around 90 minutes. I'll take these missions if the payout is 8 million or higher as I'll typically take in 800 K to 1 million credits in drive-by exploration "honking" data as well...bringing this to the 6 million credit per hour range. However, grab your smoke break first before you are jumping constantly for two 40 minute time spans.
For me personally, I run the bulk passenger missions in a Python, and mission types 2, 3, and 4 in an Asp Explorer. With the Python, I can grind away 5 million to 8 million credits per hour. I do this while I wait for the passenger mission boards to populate types 2, 3, and 4. When I can stack them how I want them, I switch over to my Asp Explorer and go to town!
The Asp Explorer has an engineer modified FSD that can do 45+ Ly per jump (not too shabby). I have the smallest shield I can use, the largest fuel scoop, forego the docking computer, jam in passenger cabins, and everything else as light as possible. Nothing better than running a VIP 85 Ly for 4 million credits with 2 jumps out and 2 jumps back!
If you have any questions, just let me know!
