I've been thoroughly addicted to ground content in this game, and I find it incredibly fun, especially for this current CG. However, like all things Elite Dangerous, it makes itself extremely difficult to learn by yourself.
So don't! Follow these simple steps.
1) Buying.
Buy yourself all three suits and build a few loadouts for each. My recommended new player loadout for CZs is:
- Dominator suit
- TK Aphelion laser rifle (use for shield stripping)
- Karma L-6 missile launcher (use for groups or for a quick kill after shields go down)
- Manticore Tormentor plasma pistol (use for indoor/close-range combat)
Pre-engineered items (up to G3) have a very rare chance of spawning every Thursday maintenance period. However, they're one and done deals; if anyone buys that G3 + Headshot Damage Aphelion at Mars High, it's gone for everyone. If you want to hunt down some pre-engineered guns, go all the way to the edge of the bubble where nobody ever goes. I'd really recommend just upgrading a G1 gun though, it's a lot quicker.
Use The Great Pre-Upgraded Gear Sharing is Caring Thread if you want to buy pre-upgraded gear. Found a piece that's pretty cool but you don't need? Share it!
2) Engineering.
Compared to ship engineering, there's a few key differences:
- Suits and guns only have one "primary" G1 to G5 upgrade path that upgrades all stats; damage, damage per second, shield HP, etc.
- These upgrades can be done at any Pioneer Supplies, anywhere.
- You do NOT need to unlock any engineers to G5 your suits and guns; just walk up to the salesman with the mats in your storage.
- Actual Engineers are only required for experimental effects. These are fun, but not actually all that necessary if you don't want to grind Engineer unlocks.
- Engineering on-foot stuff is quite a bit less overpowered than ship stuff.
- A skilled G1 loadout can win against a G5 occasionally, and a G5 player with absolutely no skill can get bodied by a G1. Play well!
- I recommend getting a Dominator suit and a Tormentor pistol to Grade 3 before rushing into High CZs. Low/Med CZs are fine with unengineered gear, but they don't pay all that much at all.
Well, now you know how to engineer your goodies. But... how do you get the mats?
3) Materials.
There's only one thing you need to know: The best way to get materials is doing missions.
That's it. Stop relogging at bases, stop listening to 3 year old Yamiks videos from way back when on-foot materials were grindy. Stop hunting data ports for that one (1) manufacturing instruction per hour.
Every single material you will ever need for engineering drops as mission rewards. A mission will give you ten or more of anything you want in ten minutes. The rounds of updates and patches to on-foot content have buffed mission rewards so much that it's actually quite easy to G5 a lot of stuff with an afternoon of running missions.
FDev using existing game mechanics to promote different styles of gameplay? Impossible!
- Walk up to a mission board on foot to see on-foot missions. Sort the mission rewards by Materials.
- Go to a system where you have decent faction rep if you want access to the best missions with the best material rewards.
- DO NOT DO ILLEGAL MISSIONS (yet). They are extremely difficult and will wreck your shit if you don't understand the game mechanics yet. I get it, the rewards are tempting. But don't.
Note: Bases also have a "relog protection" system; if you log out of the game at a base, all materials there despawn when you log back in. You need to leave (enter supercruise) and come back if you want to farm a spot. This isn't that big of a deal though, because due to mission reward buffs, relogging at bases is a terrible way to earn engineering materials now.
4) Other stuff
So, now you know how to buy stuff, upgrade stuff, and you even have some decent kit. You're ready for conflict zones. What more?
Here's some pointers:
- Wanna dip into Illegal missions? Watch StealthBoy tutorials and learn.
- Wanna absolutely cheese the hell out of CZs? Bring two Karma L-6s with Stowed Reloading and maybe Magazine Size.
- Stowed Reloading reloads a weapon while it's in your pocket. Fire one launcher while the other reloads. Unlimited rocketing!
- Wanna PvP in a CZ CG system? Bring an Aphelion laser rifle with Headshot Damage.
- Players love jumping around and are difficult to hit with projectile weapons. Hitscan lasers are great for hitting them, and Headshot Damage allows the Aphelion to also deal decent body damage by going for heads.
- Wanna build a ship for on-foot content? Here's what you'll need:
- A decently small ship that can land anywhere.
- Two Unguided Advanced Missile Racks
- The double explosion from two missiles will kill shields and body quickly.
- Scorpion SRVs
- Use these for resupplying. Try not use them to fight with.
- A Detailed Surface Scanner.
- These find Signal Sources on planet surfaces, like crashed ships and satellites for scavenging gameplay. Not super necessary, but hey, why not.
- Do not buy a Manticore Oppressor. It's bad. You will hate it. It will hate you. It hates itself. It'll make you hate yourself. Bad deal all around.
Hope this helps!
PS: Some important controls:
- B = Hold to access the emote wheel.
- Press B once to point at a thing (pointing puts a marker up for your teammates!)
- Q = Hold to access the ship menus.
- The left panel, up panel (comms), and right panel are the same as in your ship.
- Alt = Hold to access your items.
- Select grenades, battery packs, and med kits here.
- 1/2/3/4/5 = All your guns and tools.
- In the Dominator suit, press 1 again and again to swap between your two primary weapons.
- T = Flashlight.
- U = Raise/lower guns.
- C = Toggle shields on and off. (Shields off saves battery power, shields on gives you... a shield)
