Elite: Dangerous PvE - Mobius

I've been dabbling in power play for the past few weeks, currently pledged to my first power Zachary. I've not been especially gung-ho but I have been maintaining rank 2 for the bounty income. However, reading more about it and the decay rate of merits I am wondering if it is really worth it.

From what I can tell basically in order to achieve/maintain a rank each week you have to earn twice as many merits as your goal rank. While the bonuses and benefits are icing on the cake I'm just wondering if there is something I've missed. Being pledged to a power I'm a target of other power's NPCs, there are "hostile" systems if I stray into another power's territory, and as mentioned you must constantly earn merits.

I don't mind the extra challenge of fighting enemy power's NPCs from time to time but since I lean towards being an explorer/trader the hostile systems tend to be a nuisance.

I'm considering reverting to an non-pledged status. I think this would add to my freedom as an explorer/trader and of course it won't affect my faction levels. Although I'm currently allied to the Federation not being pledged to a power should make travel to other power's areas less dangerous right?

Anyone have any advice for or against this? I'm looking to convince myself one way or another and would appreciate input in case I'm overlooking something.

Hello,
Pretty much the only reason I pledged to Asiling Duval was for the prismatic shields. Not really into any expansion and control stuff except for the Order.
Some people are really into the PP stuff and if you want to be really into it then you've got to check out the sub reddit, the forums, etc. Do a net search and you can find groups devoted to your power. Usually that's where all the meta game stuff like expansion planning, etc happens.

Have fun, fly safe. o7

Blue Ice wrote:I've been dabbling in power play for the past few weeks...

From what I can tell basically in order to achieve/maintain a rank each week you have to earn twice as many merits as your goal rank.

So merit retention is hard to see and understand till you have been a part of PP for a while. The thing to remember is that is is not your total merits that are halved. The way it works is that the merits you earn "live" for three weeks after they have been earned, but are halved every week then added together.

Week 1 = 750*+ 0 = 750
Week 2 = 375 + 375*= 750
Week 3 = 187 + 187 + 376*= 750
Week 4 = 94 + 94 + 188 + 374*= 750
Week 5 = 00 + 47 + 94 + 187 + 422*= 750
Week 6 = 00 + 00 + 47 + 94 + 211 + 398*= 750
Week 7 = 00 + 00 + 00 + 47 + 105 + 199 + 399*= 750
Week 8 = 00 + 00 + 00 + 00 + 52 + 100 + 199 + 399*=750

In this example I just worked up you are trying to reach rank 3 and stay there for 8 weeks. The numbers with the * represent how many merits you must earn each week to maintain the required 750 total merits. So you end up farming about 400 merits a week to maintain and if you think that is worth doing then go for it.

All in all I find rank 2 is the rank that you buy and rank 3 is the one you earn. When you choose to deliver cargo for your power at rank 2 you get 15t free per 30 min and can collect how ever many you need to maintain that 100 merits, this usually done in conjunction with a bit of tv watching and looking at the timer during commercials or after the episode. It is simple and if you are impatient you can pay 10k credits per ton to rush the process and make you delivery in under 10 min to be done for the week.

Rank 3 requires you to do a small amount of farming to the tune of about 40 kills for the 400 merits, if I remember correctly. This can be done in a wing in a very short time as each commander gets full credit for the kill instead of splitting merits.

So is it worth it? I don't know your status in the game but your sig says you have an ASP. I don't think it would really be worth it to me if I was in an ASP because I am not sure how many bounties I could bring in per hour in an ASP. The bonus to bounties really adds up and if you can kill relatively quickly. The best payout I had before 1.5 and 2.0 while flying a battleconda under ALD when she was in 1st with 50% bonus to bounties was over 30 million in an hour. Since 2.0 many people with Corvettes will telly you that making 12-15 million in an hour without PP is not even hard to accomplish so choose for yourself.

Falcon_D wrote:Hello,
Pretty much the only reason I pledged to Asiling Duval was for the prismatic shields. Not really into any expansion and control stuff except for the Order.
Some people are really into the PP stuff and if you want to be really into it then you've got to check out the sub reddit, the forums, etc. Do a net search and you can find groups devoted to your power. Usually that's where all the meta game stuff like expansion planning, etc happens.

Have fun, fly safe. o7

I love the prismatic shields and they are the reason I will be going back to Asiling in a few weeks, but I have to acquire some of the other powers weapons just in case they are able to be modified by the engineers.

StaticRadion wrote:

Falcon_D wrote:Hello,
Pretty much the only reason I pledged to Asiling Duval was for the prismatic shields. Not really into any expansion and control stuff except for the Order.
Some people are really into the PP stuff and if you want to be really into it then you've got to check out the sub reddit, the forums, etc. Do a net search and you can find groups devoted to your power. Usually that's where all the meta game stuff like expansion planning, etc happens.

Have fun, fly safe. o7

I love the prismatic shields and they are the reason I will be going back to Asiling in a few weeks, but I have to acquire some of the other powers weapons just in case they are able to be modified by the engineers.

Once you have achieved rank 3 for four weeks you can purchase a Power's special equipment. Are you still able to purchase that equipment if you switch to another faction or are you only able to purchase it while aligned with that power and at that rank?

Only when aligned.

And if you switch you have to work your way back to the level and wait 4 weeks.

I maintain level 2 with ALD for the BH bonuses. It doesn't take much time or effort, really. I do merit combat once every 2-3 weeks for about an hour and have enough merits to carry me through for a few weeks. With the weekly decay, if you have 0 merits then grind 400 in one week, you don't have to get any more merits for the next two weekly cycles. Or if you grind 250-300 every 2-3 weeks, you'll be set. Not bad at all really.

I've only briefly tried PP with Antal, I am just wondering how much of a hassle is it to travel in other power's zones, are you interdicted often by your 'enemies'?

Kiltrathi wrote:I've only briefly tried PP with Antal, I am just wondering how much of a hassle is it to travel in other power's zones, are you interdicted often by your 'enemies'?

No more than anywhere else, only when you are in hostile territory getting interdicted = free merits.
Oddly you get nothing for fending them off in your own power's territory...