Bounty Hunter Guide

The Bounty Hunter is skilled at tracking, capturing, or killing fugitives. Carrying death warrants and legal authority to kill, bounty hunters ply the network of quadrants, seeking out criminals who try to hide and disappear into the void, an urban sprawl or untracked wilderness. Bounty hunters are expert navigators who will unerringly track down targets and mete out death warrants with skill in long-range assault and sniper rifles.

Bounty hunting can be broken down into three steps:
 * Acquire an Edict from a Contact, likely your ex-bounty hunter contact.
 * Accept missions from contacts requiring an edict, specifically to track, subdue, capture and/or kill targets.
 * Return the target to the contractor.

Bounty hunters do not just happen upon their targets, however. They must track them down either through the wilderness via exploring or even by spying to gain intel on their target's whereabouts. Once they have their target in their sights, it is only a short matter of time before the bounty hunter will accost their prey either by Blockading or Patrolling the orbit around the target's location or by landing on the planet and exploring to hunt them down.

Reading this, you ought to realize that a bounty hunter is much more than just a job in that it takes advantage of every aspect of the game. While it might be one of the most popular job choices, it also can be one of the most taxing. Given this, there are likely hundreds of variations on builds and techniques that can be used to play the bounty hunter well.

Note well, that this is but a short guide in hopes of enlightening you with some ideas perhaps not otherwise considered.

Please be advised, that no build or template is foolproof or absolute for every player and every scenario. Do not follow this expecting perfect results, and do not bore yourself into not trying anything different.

= Bounty Hunters Throw Wrenches = You heard that right. Bounty hunters excel at both ship and crew combat. Their talents are indicative of a playstyle that, if taken full advantage of, will have you both fully capable of winning ground skirmishes as well as space combat.

There are several talents this guide shall put into use, including but not limited to all of the ones on the Ship Combat Boarding page which you may wish to make yourself acquainted with.

= Template = A) Attributes - 14 strength, 25 quickness, 22 fortitude, 25 charisma, 25 wisdom, 25 resilience B) Ship - Fidelis Cutter C) Skills - Rifle 3, Evasion 5 D) Contacts - Ex-Bounty Hunter, Politician E) Experience - Bounty Hunter (Key Talents Blood Game, Thrown Wrench (Mechanic)) It is important to note that there are plenty of variations to this template and that you absolutely must do whatever you would enjoy, rather than what you have been told to do.
 * This is a combat captain, therefore, you ought to prioritize combat attributes, such as strength, quickness, and fortitude. 25 quickness gives you more initiative as well as allows you to use sniper rifles.  If you wish to use assault rifles, then you must take 25 strength instead of quickness.  22 fortitude as that is about as low as you want to go and you are welcome to reduce wisdom and resilience by one each to get two more fortitude.
 * Ships are pretty fluid, and you can choose to run another one in the beginning; however, the Fidelis Cutter is extremely powerful, and cheaper, and should allow you to get in close to the enemy without too much of a hassle. Furthermore, it is extraordinarily durable for being so cheap, as compared to the Paladin Cruiser, which is a suitable alternative.
 * Skills to focus are on Rifles and Evasion, purely for more combat prowess. Check out Dice Mechanics for more information on how increasing raw skills can make you have a better time in various aspects of the game.  In that same vein, the aspect we are focusing on is Crew Combat, so make sure to review how these dice rolls will have an effect on the outcomes of your battles.
 * Having the retired ex-bounty hunter is a must, as they will be your primary missions giver.
 * The politician gives you Diplomat Missions which enable you to become involved in negotiation between the Factions. Diplomat Missions may require Military Rank or Edict with their Faction.  Out of respect for their Faction's authority, Diplomat Missions include a +2% payment increase per Military Rank a Captain holds within their Faction.  Therefore, as you will have a high edict rank as a bounty hunter, working for a politician can net you a good amount of credits.  Also, typically enables you to recruit Diplomats, but that varies based on the contact's traits.  By recruiting a Diplomat you will gain access to the 'Magnanimous Victory' talent, which can be useful to avoid reputation loss.
 * You don't have to go bounty hunter, seriously. It is recommended, but you don't have to. Explorer and Military Officer would also work, just not as well, and you'd likely not follow this guide very closely.

Captain
This captain utilizes the Blood Game talent to board ships as early as possible. There is also a focus on the most heinous boarding victory talents so officers will be part of the initial boarding crew.

Secondary and Tertiary Captain Jobs

 * 1) Mechanic is required for your boarding party, therefore it must on your captain or another combat crew member/officer.  The talent 'Thrown Wrench' needs to be used on your first successful boarding victory, typically at distance 5 or 4.  Therefore, putting mechanic on your captain is not only logical but quite useful.  You only need five job points into mechanic to get 'Thrown Wrench', so the rest can go into bounty hunter or soldier, depending on what stats you would like.
 * 2) Soldier is the obvious choice, as it gives you an enormous amount of Rifles and Evasion, as well as some very powerful talents.
 * 3) Sniper would be logical if you chose to go with Quickness as your primary attribute.  The only awkward thing here is you are not stacking stealth, so you will not be as tanky were to have gone soldier.
 * 4) Given you shall be doing mostly patrol to garner reputation early on--and even throughout the game--you definitely should not look past the Military Officer.

N.B.: Peruse the  Bounty Hunter Reference to make any decisions or changes to stats as you see fit from the above.

Officers
Many of your officers ought to be a part of your combat and boarding crew. This way, you can use multiple jobs to synergize various talents to increase your boarding prowess.

It is highly recommended having an Explorer as an officer, and likely with Exo-Scout to stack more of those wonderful talents and skills. Check out the Explorer Reference for more information about why is logical to have decent exploration for bounty hunter missions. When going into the wild zones to search for a bounty, any extra help in reducing the damage you and your crew take from exploring might definitely pay off. You can also put Soldier or Sniper onto your Explorer/Exo-Scout and they shall be quite formidable in combat. Soldier's 'Ferocious Crossfire' is a very powerful boarding talent you ought to consider using.

If you successfully get a very good combat-oriented Exo-Scout from your contacts, you absolutely may pair them with Explorer and can consider for their tertiary Soldier, Sniper, or even something such as Military Officer. You can also put your Mechanic on this officer, as well.

If your Doctor officer rolled well, then you might consider pairing them with Spy and Combat Medic. Doing so, it is recommended to level Combat Medic to 8, then Doctor to 5, while Spy is still at 1. Then, you can decide which talents you are specifically seeking. Help with spying could be immensely helpful, and if you are stacking Intel via a Merchant, you will have a tremendous profit stream. If you do not wish to do any spying whatsoever, you can avoid those missions from your ex-bounty hunter contact, and simply go Pistoleer on your doctor/combat medic.

Having an officer as a merchant to increase the sale of the goods through 'Righteous Profits' talent is handy. Just make sure your cargo hold is full of all the same good type. Leave stashes around until you can do that. You may also couple your merchant with a Diplomat if you manage to hit a 5 or a 6 on Negotiate. This could be incredible, as you could make use of Diplomat's 'Magnanimous Victory' talent, which blunts reputation losses from ship victories.

If your Engineer rolled high on the Doctor skill, consider pairing them with Doctor and Commander This is a fantastic non-combat officer who covers a lot of bases, including but not limited to many skill saves you will need.

If any of your existing officers happened to roll high on initiative, blades, or evasion, consider pairing them with Swordsman and Zealot. You may also do just Swordsman and Commander, but two combat jobs are preferable, at least, on someone you are sending into crew combat.

Crew
It is strongly recommended to have three to five Mechanics for their 'Throw Wrench' talent, as it is extremely powerful and core for this build.

Having a solitary Soldier just for the 'Ferocious Crossfire' whenever you are boarding at range 1 is perfectly reasonable.

Hiring some Exo-Scouts as crew members can help with your explore stat from the retired explorer contact.

When your gunners have 'Supremacy of Firepower' talent, patrol in earnest to repair any reputation lost by early game missions.

You can consider having a frontline Swordsman combatant. You can promote them if you desire. If you do, you may consider Zealot and Military Officer for the other jobs. Military Officer has a fantastic boarding talent, 'Call for Surrender' as well as a few powerful ship talents that increase your boarding chances.

A Diplomat could be useful for 'Magnanimous Victory' to avoid reputation loss.

Finally, having a slew of crew with jobs you are not necessarily bringing into combat just for their boarding talents is highly recommended. It is up to you to find the balance that suits your particular needs.

= Ship = When you start out, you will not have much in the way of weaponry or defense; rather, you will have just enough to skirt by.

You may worry you do not have enough guns as you are noticing you are not doing much damage. Do not be dismayed; focus first and primarily on having massive Ship Combat advantage - so work on your ship's defense. Do not push to have five guns when two will do just fine.

While two guns cannot shoot at every range, having fewer will allow you to have enough defense to dominate the fight. Having more defense means you can sustain holding at range 3, your plasma cannon's optimal range, for longer and do more crew damage to the enemy. While holding at range 3 you can use the various boarding talents mentioned in this guide to do even more crew damage by way of Crew Combat.

A tactic you might also consider is to drop all of the small weapons, replacing them with piloting modules and moving all the dampeners/weapons to medium. This can help you get more piloting for ship combat, which will make you substantially more evasive, therefore more defensive, and succeeding in the above strategy.

Talents to get:

 * Quick boarding assault victory with 'Blood Game'.
 * Utilize the Mechanic's 'Thrown Wrench' talent to begin melting the enemy ship after your successful boarding.
 * Also, consider using Gunner's 'Sabotage Weapon' talent if you are getting hit by the enemy weaponry a lot.
 * The level 11 Pirate talent 'Burner Skid' is quite good for bonus radiation damage to further cook the enemy crew so consider having a pirate around for that too. This may be impractical until you find a  warlord contact.

Techniques to use:

 * One option is to stay at range 3 and cook the crew with plasma cannons to weaken them with the Radiation damage.
 * You also may consider lance weaponry as you can fire from range 1 and 2, but they are significantly worse for radiation damage than plasma cannons.
 * Beat the ship hull down as much as possible without blowing it up then close to range 1 and board repeatedly.
 * Avoid doing too much hull damage, as there is no victory in a ruined ship. You will make tremendous more profit if you keep the ship intact while only killing its crew.

Make your ship very evasive:

 * Get lots of Electronics and Piloting on your crew.
 * Also buy Navigation, Pilot, and Boarding Assist 4 modules.
 * Peak Velocity Matrix for +10 range change might not be bad either.
 * Buy the chaser ship Engines type as well.

Tips on Avoiding Ship Combat
In the early game, you may wish to completely avoid ship combat, so consider the ECCM Module. It gives you a bonus to escape, but it does weigh more than other mods, so take that into account.

There are many talents that allow you to avoid ship combat. You should be able to easily get crew members or officers with the appropriate jobs to obtain these talents. = Boarding Ships for Crew Combat =
 * Military Officer (1):  Stiff Salute (Milt) - When encountering a Military Officer or Zealot Captain, a respectful military salute automatically ends the encounter with a Draw; Reputation penalties may still apply.
 * Merchant (5):  Jettison Cargo (Rat) - Dumping one randomized type of our ship's cargo into space buys time to escape a Pirate before Ship Combat starts.
 * Smuggler (5):  Forged Permit (Milt) - Well-forged documents can open doors; can be used to reduce the hostility of military ships encountered in travel.
 * Pirate (5):  Terrifying Extortion (Merch) - Frighten non-violent merchants into turning over their cargo in return for a promise of being unharmed at cost of Reputation loss.
 * Pirate (8):  Faked Signature (BHunt) - Confusing or forged credentials are enough to throw even the most dogged pursuer; can be used to reduce the hostility of Bounty Hunters.
 * Spy (8):  Faked Signature (BHunt) - Confusing or forged credentials are enough to throw even the most dogged pursuer; can be used to reduce the hostility of Bounty Hunters.
 * 1) REDIRECT Please view Ship Combat Boarding for a full explanation.

= Gameplay =

Early Game
You will want to do missions from your ex-bounty hunter contact and do some trading for early credits.

Follow the story missions and actively try to get more Contacts. Of the contacts you do have, see who they shall introduce you to and see if they are an ex-bounty hunter or another similar contact. If you manage to get an ex-bounty hunter, take missions that require you to go explore wilderness zones for fugitives; these missions can be very lucrative and level you quickly. Be wary of doing too many Operations as you do not yet have the talents to benefit them and they can thus be unnecessarily difficult. Take a look at Dice Mechanics and Skill Tests for more information regarding these.

Also, take missions that require spying if you have a spy in your ranks, which is recommended, but not necessary.

You will also need to patrol to keep all the factions friendly with you to keep pirates off your back; as such, it is recommended to have a Military Officer in your officer ranks.

Mid Game
Now it is up to you to make some big decisions: do you side with one faction or try and play all sides? Only you can decide this, but the playstyles, while different, have similarities. You will want to obtain contacts from factions you are interested in. View how to get contacts to utilize and make use of these talents and techniques.

By the time your gunners have 'Supremacy of Firepower' talent, patrol in earnest to repair any reputation lost by early game missions. Your officers ought to have talents to assist with this, as well.

Continue hunting and earning more edict ranks and finding contacts that sell weapons, armor, or specialist gear.

At some point in the mid-game, you will have upwards of a million credits. At this point, you can seriously consider saving for a bigger ship.

You may choose any ship you would like, but the Vengeance Class is exceptionally good, not very expensive, and perfect for a bounty hunter's needs. You may also go on and save up for a Titan, if you wish.

Late Game
Beyond the above, late-game looks just the same as the other eras, just easier. If you end up getting a sword or something, you are absolutely well on your way to dominating the galaxy and likely don't need much else from a guide. So, congratulations!

= Final Thoughts =

Always be willing to walk away from any hand. Hitting that -6 Xeno can end your game before you even got it started.

Always be willing to walk away from any hand.

Do missions, trading, and even things such as patrolling early, if you can.

Pay attention to your contacts.

Pay attention to rumors.

Join the official Trese Discord if you have any questions.

= Resources = Noct's Template Guides

Xeno Hunting Discussion