Bounty
Bounties are rewards for destroying ships from a particular faction or destroying a specific person in a specific fleet. Both types of bounties can be found in the Intel screen, Bounties category. Completing bounties will reward the player with credits and improved reputation with the issuing faction.
General bounties
A market may issue a bounty to destroy ships of any hostile factions in the local area. The local area is the entire system and also the nearby area in hyperspace. General bounties last for 45 days.
Having a commission with a faction will grant a small bounty for destruction of ships belonging to hostile factions. This bounty mechanic is always on although inter-faction relations can change.
Person bounties
A market may also issue a bounty against a specific person, whose flagship must be killed to claim the bounty. Person bounty fleets spawn in uninhabited space.
The Intel screen will include which ship the target are piloting, roughly where they can be found, their fleet size and anything else notable about them.
Do note that they can wander quite a distance. Sometimes it is helpful to turn on the Transponder & use Active Sensor Burst, as even if you don't spot them they'll probably spot you and be along shortly.
Bounty description breakdown
A bounty target's description will tell you a great deal about them, including their rough skill level as well details about what one of their skills are (note: only one skill will be described, in the same order of priority as the skill table below):
| Description | Character skill level |
|---|---|
| "an unremarkable officer" | 5 or lower |
| "a capable officer" | 6 - 10 |
| "highly capable" | 11 - 15 |
| "exceptionally capable" | 15 or more |
| Description | Skill |
|---|---|
| "having a high number of skilled subordinates" | Officer Management |
| "being proficient in electronic warfare" | Electronic Warfare |
| "a noteworthy level of skill in running carrier operations" | Fighter Doctrine |
| "a high effectiveness in coordinating the maneuvers of ships during combat" | Coordinated Maneuvers |
| "an otherwise unremarkable officer" | Any other skill or no skills at all |
Bounty Level
Personal bounties have a hidden level element which is abstractly displayed as fleet size. The bounty level is used to determine the bounty fleet size, reward and whether they could be deserters. The base level is 0, maxing out at 10. It is increased by the player completing personal bounties.
| Bounty Level | Fleet Size | Bounties completed |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | small | 2 |
| 2 | 4 | |
| 3 | medium | 6 |
| 4 | 9 | |
| 5 | 12 | |
| 6 | large | 15 |
| 7 | 18 | |
| 8 | 22 | |
| 9 | very large | 27 |
| 10 | 33 |
Deserters
Bounties above level 3 (6 completed person bounties) could potentially be deserters instead of pirates. Deserters have equipment from one of the major factions rather than the low-quality gear pirates use, and thus can be much harder.
Bounty Strength
The leader (bounty target) will have a character skill level of 5 + 150% of current bounty level (rounded down).
Their fleet is generated based on a quality factor of bounty level / 10 (so it'll start garbage, but reach 100% quality at max bounty level). It will have 5 + (bounty level * 4) fleet points of combat ships. It may include 1 extra officer (or 2 at max level). Officers levels are the bounty level directly. It won't have any civilian ships.
Reward
Reward is a base of 30K credits + 10K per bounty level + up to 9k as a random extra + 10% per stability point.
Which market issues the bounty is weighted towards the Headquarters and also towards Military markets.
Deserters cause an additional 50% bump in bounty payout.
Notes
- Bounty can have payments withheld if the player's relationship with the faction is Inhospitable or worse, and the reputation gain will also be blocked if the relationship is Vengeful.
- Pay attention to any other bounties that are in the same general area. A bounty you decide is within your fleet's capabilities may unexpectedly have backup from another bounty fleet, which can turn a relatively easy fight into losing the majority of your fleet as you flee from a swarm of enemies.
Change History
0.9
- System bounties:
- Some of the faction's patrols pull back to defend the main colony for the duration
- Gives bounty hunters more room to operate
- Person bounty:
- Removed level-based scaling
- Added slight time-based scaling
- Person bounties:
- Stronger "deserter" type appears after completing slightly more bounties
- Increased strength of higher-level bounties
- Potentially outdated
- Game concepts