The best money in Elite:Dangerous (2 billion credits / hr): Spire Orthrus Farming

Example gameplay of what is currently, and maybe has ever been, the most effective way at making credits in Elite:Dangerous.
Orthrus Farming Builds Info
For a "high investment" build, go with the reliable TitanKiller explained here (maybe just replace the largest HRP for a class 6 SRV bay); that will double as a Maelstrom build should you choose to go Maelstrom diving in the future - • The "Titan Killer" Kra...
Alternatively, you can kit it with missiles for a bit more DPS (Sirius pre-engineered ones being the best, but also the most "expensive" in terms of materials required), but the difference, especially in a group, isn't huge, and kit it with a vehicle hangar for SRV ops (ideally filled with Scorpions, not the default Scarabs); this is probably the most mix/maxed build for this purpose: edsy.org/s/vpfit2h
Or, if you want a "low investment / no-grind" version, something like this can be bought with credits only, requires no engineering, and works very well: edsy.org/s/vDV0fzV

[@FluxOrbit]

Hey CMDR! Thanks for hunting with us earlier today! Ended up in the instance with us. Shus and Milo were on the ground dealing with the banshees, Starwars and I, along with a few other CMDRs, were ripping open the skies. Good hunting! Quick aside, I'd recommend farming at HIP 22350, it's close by to the Invicta and Noah, but always in daylight due to tidal locking. Edit: 0:52 look ma I made it! Lol seems you caught me just after a quick RRR stop

[@Astyrrean]

Ha! Thank you for popping into the comments to clarify. As you heard I was wondering what they were up to! :)

[@chrisboyer2195]

Hey I know you!

[@derekpayne2854]

O7 cmdr. Great vid. If I'm going to try this, what is best hard point options? Probably going to use a Krait. I've AX mcs and Gauss Cannons lying around.

[@Astyrrean]

For a "high investment" build, go with the reliable TitanKiller explained here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/epKyoWZvhNCmp8U Alternatively, you can kit it with missiles for a bit more DPS, but the difference, especially in a group, isn't huge, and kit it with a vehicle hangar for SRV ops; this is probably the most mix/maxed build for this purpose: edsy.org/s/vpfit2h Or, if you want a "low investment / no-grind" version, something like this can be bought with credits only and requires no engineering: edsy.org/s/vDV0fzV

[@pseudo.Random-KF]

Is it possible to approach these sites without Odessy DLC? I have the APAS on my ship, but it's not going into glide.

[@Astyrrean]

Unfortunately not.

[@Formonitryl]

I run 6 engineered EAXMCs on my T10 along with 3 adv missile racks which is fun, but I didn’t know about these “banshees” on the ground. I wonder if they would respawn if I were to eliminate all of them before proceeding to farm. I’ll have to try this out again.

[@Astyrrean]

They do NOT respawn

[@kryswalters7809]

Can confirm they do not respawn. If you are in a wing you can take turns to resupply and repair.

[@perilousrange]

They do not respawn as long as the instance remains open. We will typically start off an instance by clearing them, then hold it open by having at least one person remain in there at all times. A Mamba is an excellent way to clear them. You are able to put three large missile racks on the hardpoints, and remove the Banshees without ever going on foot.

[@Formonitryl]

@@perilousrange I knew your name sounded familiar. I’ll see you out there cmdr o7

[@perilousrange]

@@Formonitryl Anytime. Let me know if I can be of help to you.

[@Ribouli]

Thank you for your explanations! I'm having trouble understanding English, and I'm wondering how to fix the banshee problem. They're always shooting at me :(

[@Astyrrean]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z6SqfKaqjpWsgdE

[@SGTcz90cz]

GLORY TO MANKIND

[@TakaChan569]

This looks so fun!!!...now i remember why i hate AX combat lol.

[@VerticalBlank]

Filming yourself against a dark background and using an alpha blend is a great idea.

[@Astyrrean]

The background is actually green; I was filming on a day off in weird sunlight conditions, and didn't realize the back screen was unevenly lit (resulting in the weird effects you noticed) until it was too late. Apologies for the quality issue!

[@VerticalBlank]

@@AstyrreanIt looked great to me

[@AverageJ03Gaming]

Yeah it actually looks really good, blends in almost transparent to the background of the game

[@perilousrange]

I've been thinking about the best way to farm it. I don't think that Banshee's respawn. If one player "held open the instance" when the others go to re-arm; you could probably fight entirely without shutdown missiles in the air.

[@Astyrrean]

Totally can and that’s how we’ve been doing it.

[@FluxOrbit]

Absolutely! Banshees do not respawn, and we had an instance open at HIP 22350 for almost 24 hours XD

[@perilousrange]

@@FluxOrbit Nice. We may have to start farming a different location.

[@FluxOrbit]

​@@perilousrangeHIP 22350 is our target of choice. I believe it is tidally locked to daylight.

[@perilousrange]

@@FluxOrbit We've been working all night in Hyades, near Taranis. We're racking up the bounties. We even drop fuel to our anchor ship every one in a while.

[@axlegremlingaming7023]

Just did it and 2bil is a very hard number to achieve. Pretty much requires clearing of banshees and lots of CMDRs - at least 2 wings to just DPS them.

[@Astyrrean]

Yes, that’s 50 Orthruses an hour, or just below one per minute. It is doable, especially if you go after the occasional quad-spawns. You need a GOOD wing with a mix of ModShards and ModPlasmas, or a couple of wings with more mixed weaponry. If you only go after the inbounds, it is closer to $1b/hour.

[@tekfunk6299]

Can you explore those sites on feet? Is there anything to see?

[@Astyrrean]

Yes you can. Check out my video about sabotaging spire sites.

[@noble_draconian]

Been saving up my billions in bonds so I can double them with powerplay. By the time FDev patches this, I won't have to think about money in the game for a very long time!

[@Astyrrean]

I mean past a certain point money becomes meaningless in the game. I have almost $30b stored on my carrier and I’ll regularly help new CMDRs buy carriers. Not much to do with money once you have a carrier, a full fleet, and a couple years of carrier maintenance and fuel banked.

[@Neo-vz8nh]

How can you double the bond with power play? Not really need it, i have around 15 b in bank, but i curios.

[@Holykriger]

@@Neo-vz8nh as somebody with maybe 400m in my bank and no carrier. I am curious, and I also need it.

[@RealAnimeAnalyst]

@@AstyrreanI heard you can get banned for RMT for doing that?? I have a friend that uses my carrier (doesn't play as much) but would like his own...is it safe to give him the creds?

[@Astyrrean]

@@RealAnimeAnalyst I have not heard of anyone getting banned for anything of the sort. If anything, FDEV's expansion of the market prices is actively encouraging it.

[@alz722]

07 CMDR does this still work or has it been nerfd?

[@Astyrrean]

It was made a bit harder as inbound Orthrus are now less passive, but the activity as a whole broadly holds.

[@alz722]

@@AstyrreanFantastic! Thanks for the quick reply. I had better go hunt some bugs. Glory to Mankind! 07

[@RealAnimeAnalyst]

Is this still viable? Looking at getting back into the game.

[@Astyrrean]

Yes, very

[@thebranmuffin8502]

how dose one find ax groups

[@Astyrrean]

antixenoinitiative.com/ is a good place to start!

[@soiled3858]

Is this still a thing i can do? where do I need to go to do this?

[@Astyrrean]

Join the Anti Xeno Initiative discord and ask around - you’ll be directed from there

[@Filll-kr5zv]

I have been trying recently but they break my guardian weapons super fast, there is no choice but to use normal ones

[@Astyrrean]

Anti-Guardian Fields fired by outbound Orthrus work in a very erratic manner. If you only shoot “inbound” interceptors (NOT the ones that exit form the spires) those will never fire the AGFs, and your guardian weapons will be fine.

[@thunderclipper]

Gound for a cash purchased ship only to realize its useless for literally everything even fighting npc pirates is hard

[@ph-souza]

Im new to the game, I have a Fer de Lance. Can I make it alone with FDL? Can you make more tutorial videos for new players making money fast - also in this strategy, please? Love your content! Thank you c7

[@Astyrrean]

I'll try! Alone with an FDL - short answer is no. But good news, there's lots of people still out there!

[@paulcuff8845]

Unfortunately it isn't just an FDL you need. You're gonna need engineers. You're gonna have to spend 100s of hours learning mechanics and grinding. I love Elite but unless you're in the big gang you may aswell stick to watching these videos

[@MrZlocktar]

I am pretty sure this content is actually asking for shields to be used.. don't you think? It seems they designed it with idea of forcing AXI and others out of comfort zone, so shields would be useful again.

[@Astyrrean]

Personally, doesn’t look to me like this content is inviting shields - how so? If anything it’s inviting a bit of a “combined arms” approach; go on foot, kill the banshees, then rule the skies unimpeded. The only thing actively shooting at you in spire sites are scouts … and you hardly need shields to deal with them (especially since they also do shield-piercing damage.)

[@Neo-vz8nh]

​@@Astyrreanshield helps against collision.

[@y_ffordd]

yep I use a cheeky biweave for collision, also useful when it all goes crazy with not enough commanders to clean up, caustic missiles, field neutralisers, cyclops and a milllion scouts@@Neo-vz8nh

[@fishstix4209]

Good stuff, o7

[@Astyrrean]

💯

[@piotrwaloszek2390]

Hello, what a system?

[@Astyrrean]

Check video description for the list

[@rempha]

What is your build please?

[@Astyrrean]

For a "high investment" build, go with the reliable TitanKiller explained here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/epKyoWZvhNCmp8U Alternatively, you can kit it with missiles for a bit more DPS, but the difference, especially in a group, isn't huge, and kit it with a vehicle hangar for SRV ops; this is probably the most mix/maxed build for this purpose: edsy.org/s/vpfit2h Or, if you want a "low investment / no-grind" version, something like this can be bought with credits only and requires no engineering: edsy.org/s/vDV0fzV

[@maginciajazmine9644]

Too bad this seems to only really be doable with large wings, I haven't played much in almost a year but those constant shutdowns look infuriating... Glad I made all my money when the invasion first started

[@FrozenKombat]

Do you Kombat rank increases by killing them?

[@Astyrrean]

Yes but this is not the fastest way to increase combat rank if that's what you're specifically looking for (Combat Zones are likely much faster)

[@FrozenKombat]

@@Astyrrean thanks so much. I just prefer to digest both things at the same time, Crs and rank. Thanks Cmdr

[@trumpetguy8371]

i must be doing something wrong. I get intercepted and severely damaged or destroyed before I even get to the system...every. single. time.

[@riccardogiorgi6664]

When you get intercepted: submit -> silent run -> full throttle and boost away -> when you are over 100% heat use a heat sink -> as soon as your fsd is available use it

[@Sinistic6]

Same. Everytime I see a video on how to participate in the war I get excited. But I just get interdicted on the way there and it doesn't matter how many heat sinks or silent running I do. I can get to the point where I can charge the FSD but before It's activated I get obliterated.

[@AverageJ03Gaming]

It's semi-tight timing and if your ship runs hot you may as well heatsink immediately, but it is doable

[@Sinistic6]

@@AverageJ03Gaming thanks for the tip. This all just made me realise i should just bite though and finally get the engineers done after 1200 hours :p

[@glasshalfempty1984]

Crap.... I won't be able to watch this until later. I'm looking forward to it though, very curious ... But before I watch this video I'm gonna call bullshit. Or at the VERY least, it'll be some crazy convoluted thing that is just such a pain to set up that it's barely worth it if it even is at all... Oh, or it's something that requires a full team or something so you can never ever ever do it by yourself. Okay, let's watch....(in like 8 hours after work lol)

[@FluxOrbit]

Nope! You can totally do it solo. Literally just kill all the Orthrus that spawn in the instance (keep in mind that the ones exiting the tower fire anti-guardian shutdown fields), and you're set. That's it. Shoot orthrus, get 40 mill a kill, and you're golden.

[@glasshalfempty1984]

Okay, well... While a group makes it a lot easier, it doesn't seem required necessarily. And even so, I forgot about the anti-xeno people. I didn't realize they had a private session! And although it definitely requires A ship built for xeno combat, that doesn't seem too bad actually! Getting shut down seems like it could be very annoying but yeah that seems pretty legit! I was kind of wrong. Side note though, you are insane to go into combat without cashing that 3 billion credits worth of bonds first 😂

[@glasshalfempty1984]

​@@FluxOrbityeah it really doesn't look that bad! I was shocked. And I was wrong haha

[@malkrie1444]

@@glasshalfempty1984 ​ I meant to send this 6 days ago but this got buried in my 70+ tabs, oops. Pilot's federation bonds do not disappear when you die, meaning there is zero risk once you get the first bond. The ONLY difficult parts about this is getting there without getting nailed by a glaive (ECMs work against their FSD shutdown missiles though) and not dying to Threat 12: Ground. There are the rare cyclopes that jump in, but if you have at least 1 axmc and some heatsinks (optional) you can kill it as it does not have a swarm on the surface of a planet.

[@Terrribletom]

Haha this cool game

[@hahtos]

so what is the point of this farming.....????

[@SGTcz90cz]

Munneh. Also it helps the war effort.

[@Astyrrean]

Making money. Buying carrier. Buying ships. Paying for rebuys. Using all of that to win the war.

[@CWOClark]

And it is fun! If there are only a few CMDRs at the Spire, I recommend letting the Out bound goids go, and just focus on the ones in-bound to the Spire itself.

[@phlogistanjones2722]

Oh.... So if you are level 100 super elite you can do combat in groups and make lots of money... thanks....? As a newb I'll just show myself out. Peaceful skies.

[@Astyrrean]

Fun fact about this one is you can buy a simple ship with no engineering and make just as much money.

[@JAGER686]

I've done this solo with banshees knocking me out of the skies.

[@spamhere1123]

@@AstyrreanExplain this. No seriously, that's quite a claim, and it demands an explanation. And if the answer is "have a large group that can do it for you while you tag along", I will be extremely disappointed.

[@Astyrrean]

@@spamhere1123 It's gotten harder now that the fixed the inbound Orthruses. Until last week, you could just keep shooting them even with an unengineered KMk2 and they'd just sit there and die. It was incredibly easy. Now it's still easy and still the best money in the game, but not the milk run it was until a week ago.

[@steve6290]

Play in Open! Not so many cmdrs around

[@Astyrrean]

If that’s your preference, by all means you should! My personal preference is to play in the AXI Private Group, as I find the associated sense of community makes player-to-player interactions more meaningful, and toxic behavior has consequences. AXI PG has over 5,000 registered members … so it’s “as close as open as it gets” (less the toxic behavior one can experience in Open)

[@CWOClark]

I agree!, I joined AXI PG last week. And for the last 3 night's Ive been hanging with some fun CMDRs at HIP 9108 at Spire. There is always 3-8 of us there depending time and its a blast. I think Ive earned around 5bil for a few hours of fun in 3 nights of play.@@Astyrrean

[@CWOClark]

O yeah, I finally joined in the Thargoid fun (instead of sitting at Res massacring pirates for the 1000th time) because of your content, so thank you!@@Astyrrean

[@CWOClark]

One more thing, I did the all of the farming (even the 5 Tissue Samples) at the Mael, that was a fun challenge and the Caustic Sinks make a HUGE difference in the fun level at Spires. No more worrying about slow and puny repair Decon Limpets! I would highly recommend those sinks to everyone going to Spires@@Astyrrean

[@paulcuff8845]

It's a shame that as a CMDR with 500 hours in the game. I have zero ability to get to this part of the game. It is a video for the 1%

[@Astyrrean]

That's ... surprising? Why would you say so? We have a low-investment Krait Mk2 build posted in AXI that requires ZERO engineering and works just fine ... pretty much anyone can get in on spires action?

[@paulcuff8845]

@@Astyrrean mate. I've tried Thargoid combat and I've done all the paleides stuff and traded and explored to colonia. But this honestly feels like an unattainable goal for people like me. I love the game but I am never going to see the end game because the games lack of intuition makes it close to impossible. Add the fact that just going on public and attempting to socialise results in immediate interdiction and death by some chumped up loser. Sure you might make it look easy. But in reality. It isn't

[@Astyrrean]

@@paulcuff8845 Find a group of friends! Open is unlikely to help ... try the Anti-Xeno Initiative?

[@perilousrange]

​@Astyrrean very true. The axi group is always busy. And very beginner-friendly. You can show up with a fully un engineered cash purchased ship, let the others do the heavy lifting, and be wildly profitable in no time. Simply follow the lead of the others, and it is easy. Further, there's likely no better place in the game to find a wingman to hold your hand through any unlocks you might want.

[@xenophonf]

What's stopping you? At 500 hours in, you should be able to start wing AXCZ combat using EAXMCs with unengineered (but A-rated) builds. Maybe spend some of your gaming time learning FA-off, unlocking engineers, and gathering (but not grinding for) materials.

[@torq1116]

There are so many things in this game designed to make you NOT be able to play, yet another reason so many have left.

[@cmdrriotz5283]

Please come back to Open Play. We need more people to make the game dangerous again.

[@Astyrrean]

Nah, it’s us being dangerous to the Thargoids, of course! Best done with friends in a private group :)

[@Matthias129]

People bullying trader, miners, and new players isn't dangerous, it's tedious. You want to fight other players? Start a fight club. You want to shoot people just trying to get through their 9-5 mining LTDs or whatever? There're all kinds of NPC ships that are unarmed (or not armed enough to make a difference) for you to shoot up. ;) They'll fly and die just like an unarmed human ship.

[@WobblyPage955]

You look like ben affleck lmao

[@jeremyn2626]

This is not a useful "guide" at all, my dude.

[@CharlieQuebec3Delta1]

God this guy talks too much.