Triple Elite Paste

Paste detailing best ways to get Combat, Exploration, and Trading Elite. CQC Elite isn't currently needed so that's not listed. There may be some variations to all methods listed, and all methods listed are subject to change. Odds are these are going to be the most efficacious ways to grind out these Elite ranks.

All of these things do require some knowledge of the game, but likely not all of it would be out of your purview if you've put some time in. If you're opening this expecting me to play the first few or even few hundred hours of the game for you and detail every little thing you'll need to know to reach the point where these methods are viable... maybe play the game yourself first, get some ground. This is NOT the game where you can expect a quick completion, and it shows in gameplay. Do you before you do me. Not literally.

- COMBAT -

    - THE BASICS -
    So this method is interesting, because as far as I know, I'm the first one really noting it. Most people I've seen, including some
    on TA, seem to recommend Compromised Nav Beacons as the best way to level combat. I found something better... not just for certain
    achievements, like killing 200 Elite ships, but this is almost certainly the fastest way to level Combat in the game. Open up your
    galaxy map, and tab over to the tab that lists "Realistic", "Map", and "Powerplay". Select map. Set your "Show by colour" filter to
    "Government" and de-select all options available EXCEPT for Anarchy. Congrats, now your map has been reduced to a bunch of yellow
    dots. These are Anarchy systems, where nobody likes you and there's no law to really speak of. Mousing over a particular system
    will give you information both coming out of the system, and on the first tab (the one you were on before tabbing over). We're
    looking at the system's "State". We want that State to be "Outbreak". If you find one, congrats, easy part done. This will change
    often, so any system I'd tell you to use could be changed tomorrow. So you'll need to find one yourself - an Anarchy system that's
    currently undergoing an Outbreak, and as a result have likely been filled with "Checkpoint" POIs around particular stellar bodies.

    - THE METHOD -
    So you've found a Checkpoint in an Anarchy system with an ongoing Outbreak. What now? Well, this part is pretty simple: enter the
    Checkpoint and kill everything. Every last ship. Initially, you'll see a Type-9 Heavy that's very likely to be winged up with some
    Vipers. You'll want to start with that. After that, you'll be killing every single Eagle that's there. You'll note there aren't a
    lot to start out. That problem fixes itself pretty quickly -- I guarantee you'll literally never run out of ships. More Eagles
    spawn in fairly often, and the occasional already-hostile Viper MK.III drops in from time to time. So then, why is this so good?
    About 1 in 3 of these Eagles will be Elite ranked, and the 2 of 3 are still really well ranked. I've seen (from least rank to most
    rank) Competent, Expert, Master, Dangerous, Deadly, and Elite Eagles. The Viper(s) that drop in are also (at least, the main one)
    Elite ranked. You'll only see a tiny tiny minority of Competent or Expert ranked ships, and Competent only becomes pointless to
    kill once your combat rank hits Deadly -- they'll yield no progress at that point. And that's the last rank before Elite, so that
    means everything Expert and above will ALWAYS give rank upon kills. The high rate of ships with high ranks and the fact that
    they're EAGLES means that this goes by very fast... well, fast for an Elite rank. But do watch out for the occasional Hail Mary
    Viper. The random hostile Viper can and will drop in at any time, and while a Viper isn't terribly strong, it can be in a Wing.
    I've had a Wing of 3 Eagles engaged when another Triple Wing of one Viper MK.III and two Viper MK.IVs dropped in. That can and will
    kill you if you're not careful. Six ships at once, even just Eagles and Vipers, can absolutely wreck shop.

    - TIPS AND TRICKS -
    This isn't like Exploration. How fast you can kill the Eagles as well as sustain yourself will determine your rate of progress. You
    will encounter issues if you're not packing serious heat. Thermal weapons are advised - anything with ammunition will run out.
    Shield Cell Banks paired with Heat Sink Launchers (a given) are helpful. The better your shield rating, the better your chance of
    lasting. If you've taken hull damage, it's time to back out for the moment and repair at a station. Eagles and Vipers are
    very small ships, and they can and will sit in your maneuverability blindspot until you die, unless you are really, really good at
    flying and controlling your front or back thrusters, or using Flight Assist off. Even turrets can only get you so far. It's still
    the fastest way to gain rank if you're going to be doing Combat at all, but you will get no money at all from this. You come in and
    leave with what you have. Don't fly without a re-buy, and always have some spare credits for the occasional repair or two. Even
    just some Engineering will work wonders. I'm not saying you need end-game like mine, but anything you can muster will yield a long-
    term benefit.

    - WHAT NEXT? -
    Honestly, not much. Save for the Type-9 Heavy, this really yields no important materials, and 0 money. You'll also be killing your
    rep with the local factions, not that you should much care about random Anarchy systems. There are obviously some achievements
    related to combat that you won't get here, like Interdictions for example. But Interdicting in an Anarchy system is actually
    advisable, since you could just Interdict anything without risk of a fine or bounty. I don't think you even need to kill the ship
    you interdict. Once you're done with Combat, you're done with Combat. Other things require some degree of Combat, but not for rank.

- EXPLORATION -

    - THE BASICS -
    Very recently, a "Road to Riches", improved found here at [ https://pastebin.com/hCf3iwe6 ] popped up on Reddit by user 'cold-n-
    sour', detailing an un-comparably quick and lucrative route to obtaining anywhere from a few hundred to several hundred (being a
    high rank in Li-Yong Rui's power play faction triples exploration payouts, turning close to 300 million to close to 900, but odds
    are nobody reading this has any idea of what to do in power play, and take my advice, it's nowhere near worth the time) million
    credits by scanning Earth-Like Worlds and Terraformable Worlds around the bubble. I believe the current requirement is around 320
    million credits of Exploration profit for Elite. I'll link the Reddit post here for posterity:
    [ https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/6foccy/road_to_riches_improved/ ]

    - THE METHOD -
    You'll want a halfway decent exploration ship. The absolute bare minimum, besides obviously the best jump range you have, is the
    Detailed Surface Scanner and the best fuel scoop you can feasibly buy. Around 12 million is a decent price for an
    exploration ship that will yield what it does -- I don't expect everyone to be like me and have a 300 million credit value,
    stripped and engineered, Anaconda. The top 5 best exploration ships for pure jump range goes like Anaconda > Diamondback Explorer >
    Krait Phantom > Asp Explorer > Orca. I recommend using one of those and engineering it as far as you can.

    - TIPS AND TRICKS -
    You can find a lot of these on the Reddit post (as to the actual route) but I'll mention a few tidbits about Exploration. For fuel
    scoops, you want to "surf" the star. A lot of people I've known for some reason have thought you sorta pack yourself at a range and
    let it scoop insanely slowly. Most good fuel scoops could fill an entire ship's fuel tank if you're doing it right (though you
    might cook yourself with heat first depending how empty you are, to use caution obviously). Besides just scanning a system with the
    "honk" you'll be using the Detailed Surface Scanner for the listed individual stellar bodies. So you'll go system by system, planet
    by planet, until you've finished the route. Do also  note that dying will strip all your exploration data and you'd have to run it
    again (unless you glitched out and died, in which case you can contact Frontier Support). But let's assume you're done with the
    scanning on the route. That leads me to...

    - WHAT NEXT? -
    You may be wondering, what system should I turn all this data in to? Well, I can give some suggestions. There's a number of systems
    that require you to be allied with a certain minor faction in a local system to unlock: Alioth, Crom, Hodack, Isinor, Jotun, Luyten
    347-14, LTT 198, Nastrond, Peregrina, Pi Mensae, Sirius, Terra Mater, Tiliala, and Van Maanen's Star. You can look up permit guides
    for more information about where to turn it in if you're confused, but essentially you find a system local to the locked one that
    has a station CONTROLLED by the faction you need to turn the data into for the permit. Then, you turn in enough data to get the
    permit. I'd recommend turning it in system by system, instead of an entire page, so you don't accidentally over-commit. Here's one
    guide of sorts I've found listing all permits: [ https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/122593-Updated-Permit-List ]. Odds
    are you'd only ever need Sirius and Alioth, but if you've got the data, why not quickly rank the factions for free permits? It's
    not required at all though, turn it in wherever and nobody really cares.

- TRADING -

    - YOU DO MINING -
    The sad and unfortunate truth of Trade Elite these days is nobody trades goods back and forth, nobody does bulk passenger missions.
    People do Low Temperature Diamond laser mining. Use this: [ https://eddb.io/commodity/276 ] and sell at stations where Low
    Temperature Diamonds yield high values. 1.6 Million is the golden value, but this requires a faction combination of a few things.
    Boom/Investment + Civil Liberty + Expansion + Public Holiday. If that doesn't make sense, that's fine. Just look for big numbers.
    As of the Fleet Carrier update, the best system for this will be nuked by another change, so I won't list a system just yet. But
    for mining, you at minimum want Mining Lasers, a Prospector Limpet Controller, Collector Limpet Controllers, Cargo Space, a
    Refinery, and try to maybe squeeze in some shields. Fuel Scoop isn't a bad idea either but it's not hard to just do pit stops along
    the way to your selling station. You also need a Detailed Surface Scanner on at all times to scan the rings and see the hotspots.
    It's also the best money in the game bar none, so you'll want to try this. Best ships for this is commonly regarded as a Python or
    an Imperial Cutter. You'll have to play with some guides outside of this. One last note: only have as many diamonds as is equal to
    20x less then a station's demand (e.g. demand is 8,000 diamonds, don't have more than 400). Otherwise you run into a "bulk sale
    fee" and lose money, although not a lot.