Sunday 18 January 2015

Elite Dangerous Rules of Acquisition - Running Rares in a Zorgon Peterson Hauler

The Zorgon Peterson Hauler is the lightest and cheapest ship in its class and the first real cargo carrying vessel in Elite Dangerous. Its tinfoil hull brings the weight down and pushes the range up so that - once outfitted - it makes a great space hopper. In Ship Focus - ZP Hauler I talk a little about the ship and discuss three builds, and we'll be using one of those today.

In this article we'll be demonstrating its earning potential on a rare run across the galaxy, picking a route that really shows of the ZP Haulers terrific range.

The loadout for my ship is a ZP Hauler, stripped down to bare metal with a slimline Class-D upgrade on everything except the frame shift drive which gets a premium Class-A model.  Lastly a 1A Fuel scoop is added and the cargo space has been increased to 20T. The full refit was performed at George Lucas station at Leesti, which is also the jumping off point for my run.
For 316,000 Credits we have a 20T Capacity and a nearly unbeatable 17.7-32.4 Light Year range.

I've gone for top specs on the ZP build as its racing to beat my Sidewinder build that choose a 200Ly route that made about 360,000 per hour. You can read a detailed write up here. 200Ly Rare Run in a Sidewinder
For the ZP, I'll be picking a route that really gets the most out of its range. I'm going a short 127Ly from Leesti-Chi Eridani which this sporty racer can manage in only eight jumps. You can load up to 16T of Cargo on this run and still make the jump range. By running on fumes you can carry 17T, but to be honest I'd recommend dropping the maximum cargo rack down to 16T to ensure the quickest route trip.

From Leesti the route jumps work out like this

  1. Turdetani, 16.8Ly
  2. Amalangkan, 19.6Ly
  3. Fong Wang, 18.2Ly
  4. LFT 963, 16.8Ly
  5. Crucis Sector FWW B1-5, 13.7Ly
  6. Chambo, 14.4Ly
  7. Col 285 Sector NE-R A34-3, 16.7Ly
  8. Chi Eridani, 17.7Ly
The 127Ly range was covered in only 133.9Lys of jumps, so I was heading pretty much in a straight line toward the goal every jump. You can't get trips much more efficient than that.
[Edit: Increasing your jump range to 22.3Ly will cut two jumps out of this route. With a 12T load and a half tank of gas you should manage this range.  Just only scoop up to half-full at most and you'll be fine]
I've flown a variety of routes between Leesti and Chi Eridani, usually using Fong Wang and Chambo as midpoints to renavigate. So far Col 285 Sector NE-R A34-3 is the only unscoopable star I've found on the route and since its only one stop from Chi Eridani its easy to ensure you have enough fuel to get past it.

As you can see there are a lot of big jumps and there with only two under 15Ly. The route is reversible as long as you stick below 16T and you should be able to make the outbound journey in well under fifteen minutes, including docking and all the commodity transactions.

At Chi Eridani, I got commodity prices in this range:
Azure Milk @ 18073
Diso Ma Corn @ 14317
Lavian Brandy @ 17884
Leesti Evil Juice @ 14327

(They are all about 13,900 credits profit, except the Brandy which was around 14,400.)

The highest profit per tonne was the Lavian Brandy by about 500Cr/T, but given its limited availability filling up on Juice and Corn is going to be quicker and get you on your way.
I've not factored an extra trip to Diso in my stopwatch run - but there were enough minutes at the end of the the half hour to do it so I'm going to base my figures off of 16T outbound.

Chi Eridani Marine Paste was bought at 784 credits, and I bought all 8 Tonnes. Once home at Leesti it sold at 14685 so again thats 13,900 (ish) credits per tonne.

On these numbers, it looks like the ZP Hauler can trade 24T twice and hour at 13,900 Credits profit per tonne. [Edit: This is a PEAK value, and assumes you can make it to Diso and back each trip, and that stocks are good for your rares]

Thats an unbelievable 667,200 Credits per hour, blowing the sidewinder run out of the water. Despite the slightly lower rate per tonne, the shorter trip and amazing range of the ZP means you can make two runs an hour. If you fly hard and jump quickly, running on fumes and scooping the minimum you may manage two and a bit trips per hour, but I'm pretty confident in making it twice and being happy the the result.
I was blogging as I went a long so wasted several seconds at each system, and didn't have the optimum scooping strategy. I think I could have saved a couple of minutes if I was really determined - and on a run that makes you over 160 Credits per second, saving a couple of minutes is well worth the effort.

This is one run I'll try a few more times and get a good stopwatch time, so I can really nail the credits per hour it brings in. I think it deserves a second write-up once I've got racing times down.
[Edit: With a 22.3Ly range, A Six-Jump launch-to-dock can be done in just Eleven Minutes. You have to add commodity sale time etc... on top of that. but the travel time alone is very quick.]

For my money, picking a short route and blasting through it at top speed is going to be a good earner and 667K Credits per hour is an amazing total, and on par with the 700K/Hour you will get from a Lakon-6 freighter at a fraction of the investment cost and capital risk.

With any ship build or trade route, consider the alternatives and play around for maximum profitability. This isn't the only ship that can make the 19.7 or 22.3 LY range. Other ships have good range - an Asp with a Class-B or higher FSD will do it although that's an expensive option.
Also the surprisingly nippy Lakon-6 can be stripped down and outfitted for range, but that will cost you around ten times as much as the ZP Hauler.

If you have a ship focus you'd like to see, a pilot academy article, or more rules of acquisition leave a comment below. Please like, favorite, share, and subscribe.

As always, fly casual.


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