Discovery Gaming Community

Freelancing can be quite a hard business to get into. The game is called freelancer after all but it can still be quite a problem when your trying to set yourself up with a correct ID'd Freelancer. Not to mind maintaining a successful and entrtaining career afterwards. So here is a brief guide on how to set up your Freelancer character, hope it helps.

Setting Up

Now setting up is by far the trickiest and most off putting part of freelancing on discovery but if you get it right your experience and success as a freelancer will be all the better. There are _ main things that you need to get right in order to get your Freelancer set up correctly.

• Freelancer ID
  
• A Freelancer Affiliation
  
• An Appropriate Lawful Ship
  
• A Background
  
• A Slight Neutrality Amongst Lawful Houses
  

All these things do take time to get so if your expecting an easy set up then your in for somthing thats going to take a little longer. Of all these things the Freelancer Affiliation is clearly the hardest to obtain but is definatley worth it once you get into doing your job.

Ok, so youv'e launched from manhatten in your sparkly new starflier and probably a hell of alot of cash. In which case your probably already OORP (over level 40 with a civilian ID) which is the first thing were gonna fix. SO fly straight to Planet Houston. Before you can buy a Freelancer ID there you may have to make the LPI a bit friendlier so that you can buy it. So you can do this by getting bribes with the Liberty Navy or any of the many Liberty factions such as Ageira, Cryer, Interspace, Universal or Deep Space. Alternativley you can take out missions from the LPI but be careful who you fight as the smallest action against even unlawful factions can somtimes screw with the 'Freelancers' reputation. Don't worry about getting an LPI tag as it is easy to get rid of in the future, so it is recommended you keep it for now.

Now youv'e got your ID and probably a Police tag the next thing to do is to sort out your affiliation. But it's probably a good idea to get a better ship than a starflier for now, not top of the range or the ship that you had in mind, just a ship that can take a pounding if need be. So, firstly, in order to get a Freelancer Affiliation you need to get them on your list. Encountering NPC Freelancers are usually completley random so somtimes it's easy and somtimes it's not. If your really having trouble however, go to the Sigma 17 -> Sigma 19 Jump gate and jump through to Sigma 17 a couple of times until a hell of a load of freelancers appear on the Sigma 17 side. An important thing is try not to get the Bounty Hunters Guild Gaurd on your list YET, as it can pretty much make things alot harder for you. Now for the IFF. Many ways have been debated about how you can get a Freelancer tag, but here are the few that I believe work.

There is a minor allied link between the Freelancers and both the Bounty Hunters and the Zoners. So getting into these guys good books is your ticket to getting into the Freelancers.

Method One

This is my most recommended method and I believe is the most efficient method to getting the tag. Head over to Deshima station in Shikoku. Get used to it as your going to be there for a while. The idea is you accept and abort Bounty Hunter missions until they wont offer you any more. Then ask the bartender for a bribe for the Bounty Hunters and accept it. The Freelancers tag will have gone up One and a half squares or so and will do every time you accept a bribe of around $700k. Keep doing this until the Freelancers are full green.

Then abort missions for the factions that are between the Freelancers on your list and your current tag (probably and hopefully LPI), this should put Freelancers as second from the bottom on your list which is where you want them to be. Before you leave Deshima, abort missions again until the BHG are about three squares under neutral, it helps later on. Now this is the tricky bit, the Bounty Hunter's Guild Gaurd tag can sneak in on you even though you don't have it on your list. To solve this problem you need to kill a few bounty hunter ships, this will take down the Bounty Hunters Guild Gaurd down a little, It's best if you try and keep the Bounty Hunters Guild Gaurd off of your reputation list for now and is stronly recommended. Now shooting down some BHG ships will bring down your Freelancers reputation a little aswell so don't gop on a killing spree, about 2 or 3 ships should do it. Once you've done this head to a zoner base and get a Zoner bribe, this should boost your Freelancers rep back up to full and second from the bottom on your reputation list. Now head to planet Manhatten, and abort plenty of LPI jobs until your LPI tag is gone. Now one of two things will happen now. Either your tag will become Freelancers or your tag will become Bounty Hunters Guild Gaurd even though it's not on your list (believe me, it happens, it's happened to me). Either way your going to have to go to Omega 56 the Bounty Hunter Gaurd system, which can be got to via Dresden, Omega 15 then Omega 56. No doubt you will either be hostile or neutral. But the idea is to get them on your list, so that when the BHGG notice your rep with the Bounty Hunters is Neutral-ish, you will no longer have their tag and al presto! Whos next? Freelancers. It's a good idea to head there if your tag is freelancers too as it can probably come back and bite you in the ass some day. You may have to log off once or twice during the process for your rep list to catch up with the changes.

This method is pricey but is fastest and worth it if you really want that tag.

Method Two

Some people prefer to do Bounty Hunter Guild Missions against the Order as this can also increase your rep with Freelancers. All BHG missions do, it just depends somtimes who you do them against but against the Order is preferred most by the Freelancers. To get rid of unwanted tags read the second paragraph down in the method above to find out how.

Throughout these methods you MUST NOT engage any NPCs that aren't relevant to helping out your tag. Once you have the tag you neednt worry about shooting the wrong people as it will not get rid of it but decreasing it by the tinyest bit can somtimes mean an extra 5 minutes worth of work.

ALSO do not shoot down any BHG, Zoner Quasi Legal or Lawful ships as this will indefinatley decrease your Freelancers Reputation.

Now you have your tag. It took you alot of work and time and effort but youv'e got it. And no doubt your probably gonna wanna keep it that way. And unless you keep any other factions that are around 7 or 8 bars down then you will surely be undermined and you will lose that tag again.

Freelancing

Now you've got your Tag, ID, Ship and Guns and are ready to roll and chow some pirates for moneh. But how? What are you gonna do? And how are you gonna get the work? Trust me it's not easy in our day and age but there are still many ways for you to make money alongside other pilots. For those of you who still aren't sure here's a brief list on your options...

• Escorting
  
• Bounty Hunting
  
• RP Missions
  
• Get Hired by a Faction for an Faction V Faction battle
  
• Get a long term contract with a Faction
  
• Take NPC missions
  
• Minor Trading (Temporary)
  
• Running Errands
  

All of these are perfectly in roleplay for a Freelancer to do.

For those of you who aren't sure as to what each one is and what you can do within the perimiters of each job; here's a few briefs on how to successfully do each one inside RP and inside the rules.

Escorting

This one is simple. It's the first ever job you were given on Freelancer Single Player. Simply all you have to do is escort a trader be it a Rhino or an Advanced Train, and you should get paid by them for your hard work. This job isn't just hitching a ride however, it's your responsibility to ensure the safety of that cargo. So if you encounter pirates on the way be it NPC or Player, if the trader doesn't want to pay what their asking then you've got to get in there and buy them some time to get away.

Now you have two options, you can buy time for them or you can try and take out the pirate(s) if you think your capable. If you take out the pirates it's job done and you can ask the trader for any extra funds for going beyond the call of duty, if you want on top of the stuff you tractored from your enemy. This doesn't necessarily mean they have to give it to you, it's their option entirely, but they should pay you what they promised nonetheless. If you choose to buy the trader time to get away this means you try and startle the pirate and keep him occupied until the trader is out of range. Once the trader is clear you may flee after the trader and try and catch up.

Now this may mean that you cannot enter the system for some time if the pirate is still there. But sometimes the rules can be bent in this case of 'escorting' and if the pirate is no longer there then your OK for the return journey.

Bounty Hunting

Bounty Hunting is exactly what it says on the box, just because your a freelancer doesn't mean you can't be a bounty hunter. It's simple, you accept to go after a bounty on the forums and once you have done the job you can then collect the bounty with a screenshot of the death message in the same place it was posted.

RP Missions

RP missions are rare but can pop up from time to time. And it can help your reputation amongst other players if you do choose to take part. RP Missions can be missions set up by players or factions on the forum in the form of events.

Get Hired for a Faction V Faction Event

Now this can be a good money maker as sometimes factions can be low on players and require extra pilots in order to make the fights fair sometimes. This is where you come in, at this point you can offer your services and either offer or demand a price. Then you or they may choose to accept it. Make sure you can turn up for the event though, as it can damage your reputation amongst other players as being an unreliable pilot.

Long Term Contracts

Long term contracts are similar to what Trent had with the LSF. He was hired of a long period of time for a number of jobs but eventually became more integrated into the faction itself. Now you can sign a long term contract and technically work as an employee for a particular faction for a set period of time. You will get paid weekly, daily, monthly or sometimes dependant on the number of kills you get. As long as the faction at hand is a lawful faction then your free to propose a long term contract inside the rules as you wish.

NPC Missions

This is the oldest and most well known of all the money making methods on Freelancer. If you don't know how to do it then I suggest you play Single Player for a bit and come back.

Minor Trading

Now this is slightly border line RP here. Minor trading is only temporary and should not be considered for long term occupation. Simply you just trade, same way as you would if you were a trader. But Minor trading is sortof 'winged' trading. If you happen to be heading in a certain direction and could earn some money in the process by hauling a few units of whatever then thats fully acceptable. As well as carrying a bit of serplus when escorting a trader.

Running Errands

This is also a rare form of money making and is usually an order from someone rather remote wanting something delivered from somewhere very far away, or somwhere they are unable to purchase the 'materials'. The order could be for commodities or guns but you got to be sure who your delivering to as the slightest slip in RP could end up with a sanction report with a smacked bottom soon after.

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Now this should send you on your way to Freelancing successfully. Good luck out there and keep it in RP.

`Ash

Ok, guys it's been a while but i've finally completed it. Have fun, hope it's useful.

`Ash

Good manual.. one thing though.

To lower BHG Guard rep, you need to kill Guard NPCs.
Normal BHG won't do it.

And plus, killing BHG guard NPCs doesn't lower your Freelancer rep.

EDIT: Oh sorry, just re-read it.. and noticed it at the bottom of that paragraph. You might wanna make it a bit clearer there though.

For method two I find Freeport 2 In Bearing a good place to take missions.
BHG Missions to kill Xenos, Everyone hates Xenos (Except IMG) so it puts some unlawful reps up as well. Killing Xenos seems to have a very minor effect in lowering Zoner rep so every now and again you can grab a zoner bribe and just nudge Freelancer rep a little higher.
When done with getting Freelancer up you can fail the BH missions there. With Anti-Xeno missions you tend to drag all the Liberty Authoritys reps up and will probably get one of thier Tags when you fail BH missions but you can shoot on over to Manhatten and fail Navy, Police and LSF missions in one go. But do that after you have been to loose the BH Guard rep, or do that first, whatevers good for you.

Nice guide, Ash, but one mistake: It isnt important for your F8-board, if you have a faction on the list or not. Example: Even when the bounties guard are not on the F8-list, u can get a boutie hunter guard iff.