Discover the most effective ways to earn credits in Elite Dangerous, updated for 2023.
This YourGlobalGamer guide will cover various methods, from exploration to combat, and highlight the pros and cons of each.
Here are the six fastest ways to make money in Elite Dangerous:
Exploration
| Earning Potential | Low |
Exploration has always been a consistent way to earn credits, especially for fresh accounts. It’s ideal for those who reset their accounts and start from scratch. Exploration allows you to earn a few million credits relatively easily.
However, surface probing with the Probulator 2000 is not recommended for efficiency, as it takes longer and can result in less money per hour compared to basic scanning.
Trading
| Earning Potential | Good |
Basic trading involves browsing the commodity market, purchasing items, and selling them in another system. Expect to make around 100 million credits per hour with a Type-9 or Cutter when doing simple A-to-B and back-to-A trade routes.
Trading Missions
Missions in trading can be hit or miss. Solo missions are generally better than wing missions, as the latter expect you to have a full 4-person team to be profitable.
Rare Goods Trade
Rare goods trading hasn’t been viable since the release of the Horizons expansion in 2015.
Mining
| Earning Potential | Good |
Mining can still be a great way to make credits, depending on the demand for materials like Dopel’s Muskerwight. In a good day, with a selling station nearby, you can earn up to 240 million credits. Realistically, expect to make around 150-200 million credits per hour.
Mined Commodity Missions
Sometimes missions to deliver small amounts of mined commodities like tritium or silver can be lucrative if you buy the required materials from another station rather than mining them yourself. Profits can be around 20 million credits for a 10-minute mission.
Passenger Missions
| Earning Potential | Good (specific systems) |
Passenger missions involve transporting people from one place to another. Most stations generate missions with varying destinations, making it hard to combine them. However, in systems like Robigo and Sotis, you can find missions to a single point, allowing you to combine multiple missions and earn up to 100-200 million credits per hour.
Combat
| Earning Potential | Medium |
Combat payouts have improved since late 2020, and bounty hunting in hazardous resource extraction sites can now net you around 30-50 million credits per hour with a well-engineered ship.
Thargoid Killing
Rewards for killing Thargoids have increased, but you need to kill the bosses quickly for it to be worth it. An efficient 4-person team can potentially make around 10 million or more per kill every 2-3 minutes.
Wing Missions
Wing missions can be profitable for combat, but you need a good ship, well-engineered guns, and a team of three other players to make it work. Earning potential can be around 200 million credits per hour when stacking wing missions correctly.
On-Foot Missions (Odyssey)
| Earning Potential | Low |
On-foot missions in Odyssey have low payouts and tedious gameplay, making them a poor choice for credit farming.
Conclusion
Elite Dangerous offers various ways to earn credits, with some methods being more efficient than others. Ultimately, finding the right balance between fun and profitability will help you make the most of your time in the game. Consider joining a community, such as a Discord server, to connect with other players and find additional help and advice for maximizing your credit-earning potential.
