At what point in the game should I start taking down Bounty Hunter bases for fun and profit?

Question

In "midgame" an easy way to farm data and goons is to go back to the lowest stars and take down UTA or Civilian outposts. The outposts in the very first star are in an exceptionally sorry state (outclassed my most medium hull ships) and yet contain lots of people oh so anxious to begin their new life as SPACE PIRATES. Arrrrrrrrrrrr.

However, in midgame it also happens that bounty hunters become kind of a pain in the behind and, now that I've finally upgraded my base to hold 10k rez at any one time, I noticed that the bounty maximum has also increased to match. I'd rather not be forced to give up so much phat loot to the bounty hunters. There's also a bounty hunter base in a level seven star... the level of this place is so low, it's begging to be taken down. Yet the base sports 7k hitpoints between hull and shield.

It's probably not impossible to take one such base down, but it might be unwise to try my hand at it now. When should I consider taking these targets down? What should I expect in terms of opposition? Will I gain respect and lose bounty for doing so?

Answer 1

I see that you have managed to take down a bounty hunter base but would like to offer an answer nonetheless.

Respect and Bounty are essentially tracked by the same value. Respect is positive while bounty is negative. Whenever you destroy a bounty hunter ship or base you gain respect. Whenever you destroy UTA or CIV targets in a system covered by the bounty hunters you gain bounty.

The bounty hunters have been designed to be a challenge. They are tougher than normal, there is even an achievement for destroying a tier 3 bounty hunter base, describing the task as doing the impossible. I don't think the developers ever intended these bases to be used for farming. If you really want to take these targets down then I recommend that you get huge hull ships armed with the top tier weapons in a weapons category. You should also posses high levels in shields, armor and hull before you attempt this feat. Bounty hunter bases will be rebuilt after a couple of jumps.

If you want the bounty hunters off your back the quickest way possible, I recommend doing the challenges as you can always approach their bases even if you have a bounty and the respect reward from the challenges are quite high so very large bounties can be paid off with just a couple of challenges.