little of both find a good paying mission do that, tractor in all the junk and sell that and that will make you a little profit

I pirate and once when I needed like 150,000 fast to buy a Titan, I took some missions from the corsairs. Trade is a great way to make mega cash though if that's your desire. Even with a Rhino you can make a nice profit of a good route.

A good route? Give me an example.

I did the sp campaign and worked on getting to planet Crete where I found out that the missions there start at 95K-100K but alot more that were 130K...

So basicly 2 missions (they're all kill 'bounty hunters guild' ships or installation) and your at the next level...

Also found some nomads ships there too

im at lvl23 all i do is get a humpback freighter then load up on Engine Cores at Yokohuma Shipyards (225) then take them to Planet Cambrige and sell them (1275) makes me a thousand dollar profit per unit, and in the Humpbacks hold i can get a 250,000 thousand profit per trip... im up to well over 2 million now, in only 10 trips, its getting old fast...

I smuggle artifacts from Leon Base to Planet Manhattan. I make over 1000 credits per unit and since artifacts are banned you have to be creative and lucky to get the shipment there.

Of course you have to be on non-hostile terms with the Corsairs.

What happens when the police catch you with illegal stuff?

You either have to dump the cargo or fight your way through.

I'd suggest you buy diamonds from New Berlin and sell them at New Tokyo. It's Profit of $1200 per unit and with a humpback freighter which you can buy at New Berlin, you can make about $300,000 per run. If you take jumpholes, each run takes about 10~15 minutes. As for hostiles, either bribe them or stop at bases in between and save.

The best trade route is buying engine componets at planet los angelese to sell them at freeport 4.
You make about 950 profit per item and it is only through 1 jump gate and two trade lanes.

With a humpback you can make 100,000 in one run (3 mins)

RaptorMC is right about his trade route, wrong about profit per unit. Its 375 basically profit per unit.

This is an excellent trade route. If you start a new mp game, you can do like 3 missions for someone go there, then start running the route, save up enough money from it to fill up your 20 cargo ship and buy a rhino, then save up enough to fill up a 80 cargo ship, (roughly 80,000) and a humpback (roughly 170,000).
Then make the run to Rhineland in your rhino and buy the humpback (its hard but its very possible) on your way back to los angels go ahead and buy engine components at Planet texas (junkers will probably ask you to drop them, but you can actually still manoveur your ship while the "Drop cargo" dialogue is up, and get into a trade lane, then hit cancle to the dialogue when you are like 9k away from them) Run it back to freeport 4, you make double your profit on the run but it takes much longer then its worth, luckly its on your way back. Then you quickly start filling up your humpback and once you get about 250,000 dollars all you make is profit in your Humpback and the actual profit per-run on that is about 93,000. Do that about 7 more times and you will have a million. This all takes about 2 and a half hours. The Run is 6 minutes round trip if you are good at "last minute speed docking". A lot of people have more profitable runs but they take a very long time to run. Plus nearly 100,000 k per run is not bad at all.

Usually after I get my million in 2 and a half hours, I find the best way to go about getting a titan, is to go to rhineland, buy the Valk from their Navy, then go to Sigma13 via Frankfurt, then Sigma13->Sigma17 Jump hole(roughly on the line of 5E and 5F towards the bottom of their shared line). Then Sigma17->Onicron Theta(upper right E6) dock with the freeport in Theta. Go to the bar and purchase friendship with corsairs. If you feel that you have fine piloting skills then go ahead and go to Omnicron 41 (jump whole to there from Theta is at C5) to go Leon base in Omnicron 41 (which I'm gonna say is near the bottom left of D5) you can buy your titan their and have very profitable runs (highest I've seen is 250,000). The beauty of runs from corsairs here is that you only fight red Hessians which I personally don't like at all. So no one really gets mad at you for it that you should care about and they drop TONS of good weapons and missles (a lot of which sell for over 1,000 a pop). You usually make double what the mission pays you because the profits from loot will run about the what they were paying for it. Needless to say you can make another millions in about 6 missions.

Actually, using this Trade Route, if made enough money to "retire", which means: I am only friends with the corsiers. Everything else I shoot down, except for the Rheinlanders

I think I have flown every pilotable ship in the game except for the Anubis and the Patriot.

I actually decided NOT to buy the Anubis. It was cheap, yeah, but I had only slight problems finishing the campaign in my Hawk and I think with the Anubis it might even have been too easy.

I love the game. Love it, love it, love it.

I especially love Sigma 17. Its beautiful. Awesome. And that was the only time I ever collided with stellar objects (like planets or suns) when I ran into a star corona because I was paralyzed by the view.

Cheers from Rheinla.... umm... Germany
Sid

I agree, the sigma-17 view is breathtaking.

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I don't own this base, but I do have a sizeable stake in its operations...

I played through the game, mostly makeing money through missions. Sometime carrying cargo in my fighter.

Some good one way routes are:

buy diamonds from Red Hessan controlled Ronneburg Base, Omega-5 ($198) and sell at Planet New Tokyo, New Tokyo ($1650) $1452 profit per unit.

buy Niobium from IMG controlled Falkland Base, Tau-37 ($160) and sell at Leipzig Station, Dresden ($1600) $1440 profit per unit.

These routes may seem long but if you use the Sigma and Omicron sytem Jump holes its really not that much of a hassle.

There are many more that will get you rich, but these will work only after you complete the SP story.

Always aim for center mass.