BOUNTY HUNTING
Bounty hunting is one of the most profitable careers in Star Citizen. This guide walks you through the five tiers of bounty contracts, which ships you'll face, what loadouts work best, and how to manage your criminal rating.
Strategy: These NPCs are slow and predictable. Fly head-on, out-turn them, or let superior gunnery handle it. No special tactics needed. Make sure you're legal: take contracts from Crusader Industries or your local Advocacy office to avoid becoming a criminal yourself.
Strategy: These targets have upgraded weapons and tactics. Manage your shields carefully. Aim for disabling them (target their power plant) rather than pure alpha. Use CS missiles if you have them to disable their thrusters. Don't joust head-on; keep range control.
Strategy: These are skilled pilots. You need superior gunnery, shield management, and heat discipline. Deploy multiple IR missiles to overwhelm shields. Focus on armor penetration after shields drop. Bring a buddy if you're learning; these fights are 5–10 minutes solo.
Strategy: These targets can kill you in 30 seconds if you make a mistake. Bring a wingman. Use coordinated alpha to break shields, then sustained fire to armor. Hammerheads require crew to maximize their turret DPS. Mercury Star Runners are slippery—cut off quantum escape routes. Expect 15–30 min fights.
Strategy: These are player killers. You need a coordinated squad, target lock focus, and comms discipline. Expect evasion tactics, hard maneuvers, and superior piloting. These are best attempted by org squads with practiced coordination. Single hunters should pursue Tier 4 instead.
Each crime (killing a lawful NPC, damaging their ship, theft) adds to your criminal rating. The Advocacy tracks this. At 25+ rating, you're "wanted" and can be hunted. At 50+ rating, you have a bounty on your head and cannot land at major spaceports.
Fastest method: Bounty hunting itself. Pursue criminal bounties legally (via Advocacy offices) for 5–10K aUEC per contract. Each bounty successfully closed reduces rating by ~5–10 points. Takes 30–60 min to clear a mid-range rating.
Alternative: Pay the fine at a Crusader Industries office (costs aUEC, usually 1K–5K). Reset instant.
Bounty contracts reset when the target is killed, captured (not in game yet), or the contract times out (usually 1–3 game days). Check mission board regularly for fresh contracts.
Bounty hunting loadouts prioritize DPS, missile reserves, and heat discipline. Below are proven fits per tier and ship class.
Crusader Industries Offices: Orison (Crusader) · New Babbage (microTech)
Advocacy Offices: Area 18 (ArcCorp) · Lorville (Hurston) · New Babbage
GrimHEX (Pirate Contracts): Yela · Pay-to-play, high-risk bounties, criminals only
After each bounty, repair at the nearest major spaceport (same station where you picked up the contract is ideal). Buy missiles at commodity dealers. Refuel at refinery stations. Total cost per Tier 3 hunt: ~2K–5K aUEC. Profit margin is healthy (20K–50K after costs).
- Always save before a Tier 4+ hunt. If you die, you lose your ship, loadout, and loot.
- Fly in groups for Tier 4+. Single hunters should cap out at Tier 3.
- Use IR missiles (MSD-322) vs shielded targets; EM missiles (MSD-332) are cheaper and work fine.
- Target the power plant first if the target is heavily armored. PP destruction = soft-kill regardless of hull HP.
- Monitor heat. Sustained fire overheats your weapons—cycle them to manage thermal load.