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I am just starting out in elite dangerous and need to make 2 million for my first mining ship but I don't know he to go about doing it.

what would be a good way to make money on the default sidewinder?

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Here's what I did, which had been suggested by others when I looked into it, and it worked well for me.

  • With a Sidewinder, take up data deliver/courier missions. These missions will have you travel to other stations delivering data and such, which does not take up cargo space. In whatever station you're at/near, pick up as many of these missions as you can. As you get to your mission destination stations, pick up additional missions. Be mindful of how many different stations you have to go to, and prioritize taking new missions for stations you might already have other missions for. This is about as low-risk as anything can possible be in this game and will help you learn/practice basic flying, docking, and launching. But, you could skip this in favor of...
  • Resource Extraction Sites. If you've done some data delivery/courier missions and have a bit of money, consider getting a Cobra Mk3 for this. Resource Extraction Sites are typically in the rings of planets and feature NPC miners being attacked by NPC pirates. Depending on the rating of the site (Low, High, Hazardous, or not rating at all), there will be a different level of NPC security force presence. The level of risk, from lowest to highest, is Low -> No Rating (often referred to as Medium) -> High -> Hazardous. If you're careful, pick any non-Hazardous site near you and observe the different ships flying around. What you want to do is target pirates who are currently being attacked by the NPC security forces and are nearly destroyed, and then beginning shooting them yourself. You will begin to accumulate bounty bonds which are worth credits when you turn them in with the local authorities at a station. Do this for a while until you can fit yourself a good mining setup.

Speaking of mining setups, consider saving at least 3.7 million, which shouldn't take too long when each pirate bounty can net you tens or even hundreds of thousands of credits. Then you should be able to fit a decent Cobra Mk3, probably the most flexible small ship in the game, with a really decent mining build and a few rebuys.

A Cobra Mk3 Mining Outfit

There are also dozens of resources around for new players. Several content creators have YouTube videos available to help new players get started, plus other tutorials and guides. Also consider some of the well written guides, such as Scarecrow's Beginner's Guide, which will cover additional things like getting started in engineering and guardian modules, road to riches, and all sorts of other potential things you can do early in the game.

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  • Where does that screenshot come from?
    – Rich
    Nov 7, 2022 at 11:32
  • @Rich It comes from coriolis.io which is a ship fitting tool. It allows you to build, save (locally), and share fits (note link-looking icon in the top-right of the screen, which includes a link shortener). Here's a fit for a Mining Cutter (although I haven't used this ship in a couple of years at this point): s.orbis.zone/kuoh
    – Ellesedil
    Nov 7, 2022 at 17:39
  • Another ship fitting tool is edsy.org which is similar, but simulates a few different stats than coriolis. There are loads of different third-party applications (both web-based and locally installed) to help facilitate your life in the galaxy.
    – Ellesedil
    Nov 7, 2022 at 17:40
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I have about 100,000,000 now and this is how I did it. I did a few missions from the station until I could afford to A grade my FSD and buy a fuel scoop and then I used rode to riches to find unexplored stars each of them will give about 100,000 each if you use your FSS scanner in about an hour you could have up to 2 mill. here is the mining ship I used after i had 450k i made this it wont be nice mining in that but it will work if you want to start making money quick.

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  • Road to Riches is a viable option for sure. Also helps introduce you to exploration, which can be fun since the game is 1:1 scale with our actual galaxy.
    – Ellesedil
    Apr 22, 2020 at 17:18
  • it depends what you like to do. i didn't do bounty hunting because my computer couldnt handle it
    – Addy
    Apr 22, 2020 at 22:15

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