In the thread Freelancer Done Quick - hints and partial walk-through T-Hawk has posted his experiences using the Rhino during missions 1 and 2 and making a whole lot of cash on the way by looting H-fuel from the depot near Baltimore Shipyard. Another reason for using the Rhino - beside the additional income - was that the only opportunity for getting shield busters before California Minor (en route to mission 3) is Pittsburgh but Pittsburgh sells only Stunpulse turrets which the Starflier cannot use.

I agreed in principle but I thought that some things could be done differently, so I had to try this out. Bought a Rhino on Manhattan and took it to the Detroit Debris field, in order to get some combat experience against Bloodhounds and to explore the merits of various loadouts. It turned out that even 2 x Javelin + 1 x Stalker was not enough to dispatch a Bloodhound reliably without making a dent in its armour first; with missiles in the three weapon slots and a Stunpulse in one of the turret slots this would leave only three forward-firing turret slots for achieving good hull damage. So I decided that I would use a simple pair of Javelins plus plenty of hull guns for mission 2.

Then I looked at the finances for mission 1, and Pittsburgh turned out to be a toughie. Even with the $750 bounty and $336 pharmaceuticals trade profit (in addition to the $2000 mission reward and $129 'training loot') there would be only about $750 credits left for equipping the Rhino. Anything extra would have to be paid from loot. In order to maximize the looting chance during the first leg of the mission - and since the Rhino would need a bit more firepower than 2 lasers and a Stunpulse anyway - I decided to buy a Lavablade Mk I for the first leg of the mission and reuse it on the Rhino later. This would cut $96 from the trade profit but I even a single additional looted nano/batt would more than compensate this. In order to increase the loot chance further I decided to ignore the rule about leaving the mopping-up of almost-dead hostiles to NPCs.

The mixed loadout 2 x Justice Mk I + 1 x Lavablade Mk I for the Starflier worked surprisingly well. I managed to make good time (docked with Pittsburg @ 0:09:10) and brought in $1635 of loot: 4 nanos, 4 batts, scrap metal, water. This left me with $1884 for equipment after purchasing the Rhino - not quite enough to buy two Stunpulse turrets and one or two laser ones as I had hoped. Flying the mission again and toasting some more of the bonus Rogues at the Pittsburgh tradelane (in order to get a couple more batts/nanos) had little chance of success since the loot was already more than $400 above average even for a Starflier maxed out with plasma guns. So I purchased a single Stunpulse turret and two Starbeam turrets, and proceeded with the mission.

In order to minimize the disadvantage from the Rhino's horrible turning rate and to maximize the effect of its brute firepower (4 lasers, a plasma gun and a Stunpulse are quite a lot for mission 1) I concentrated on taking out enemies that were already within or near the forward firing cone, rather than attacking the nearest one as with an agile LF like the Starflier or Patriot. This tactic worked well and I clocked Criminal Base Destroyed at 0:16:58 with 30 kills and $2400 in loot (3 nanos, 9 batts). I lost all of the nanos/batts at the DSE H-fuel depot when two wings of three Patriots came gunning for me and barely made it into the tradelane with only one third of hull armour left, but I did manage to tractor the 64 units of H-fuel as proscribed by sensei T-Hawk.

At Manhattan I paused the game to do a bit of math and it turned out that I would not be able to make expensive purchases like class 3 guns/turrets and still keep the net worth above $52,183 as seems required for reliable class 4 gun drops. So I purchased just a pair of Javelin launchers including ammo and a Justice Mk I turret for the remaining forward-firing turret slot. In the third gun slot I put the Lavablade, because it is more powerful than the lasers. In Colorado near the jumpgate I hit a snag: after stunpulsing the shields of the artifact smuggler I fired a pair of Javelins at point-blank range but one of the missiles missed. I seems that the missile turned around and hit the smuggler or King after the cutscene had commenced; anyway, I was failed for 'attacking a friendly object' after the cutscene ended.

So I had to fly again from the Criminal Base Destroyed savepoint. This time there were no Patriots near Baltimore Shipyard, just a couple of Rhinos, Starfliers, and a Junker who tried to cargo-jack me while I was busy with the H-fuel pods. I did not lose any nanos/batts but decided to use the same loadout for mission 2 as before anyway, so the net worth was $55,121 after I had hit the DSE H-fuel en route to Colorado. The loadout worked very well - each fired missile pair equated a kill except for the smuggler (who does not die anyway) and Ashcroft (who got two pairs for good measure). Got a Raphael drop near Pueblo Station and another near Ft. Bush after I had smashed another H-fuel pod in order to fill the remaining cargo space of the Rhino. Docked with Battleship Missouri at 0:39:06 with 42 kills, and after selling the 80 H-fuel I had $68,525 net worth and $58,349 cash. The Raphaels are almost as good as Hellflurries/Rippers and so they represent another $7k value for not having to purchase such guns.

With so much cash burning a hole in my pocket and a pair of Raphaels on my hands I decided on the only logical route: I bought a Defender. I hit the DSE H-fuel once more one the way to California Minor, where I bought a Slingshot launcher and an Adv. Stunpulse as usual. So the loadout for mission 3 was Javelin + Slingshot + Adv. Stunpulse + 2 x Raphael + Stunpulse turret. This setup worked like a charm, except that the Outcasts dropped a Dragoon turret instead of a Dragoon gun . On the way out I hit the Balboa but bypassed Willard; I was docked with Planet Manhattan at 1:08:03 despite being lane-hacked and encountering a convoy pileup at the New York jumpgate in California.