AFK Build Works as a Money Maker

I have seen several posts here recently that wonder whether an AFK build would still work in Odyssey as a money maker. It does. Here is my experience this weekend:

I completed a T-10 Heavy AFK build on Friday night. (This build is almost identical to the build suggested by Hawkes Gaming in this YouTube video; his build appears in the description.) My build varies from his in a few ways:

• — military grade composite armour, engineered, in place of unengineered light armor;
• — thrusters with Dirty Drive and Drag drive:;
• — an Overcharged power plant, in place of Armored;
• — long range sensors and shielded life support;
• — a prismatic shield generator;
• — a little more cargo space and one fewer guardian hull reinforcement.

Weapons, shield boosters, and point defense are all the same. Everything A-rated and Tier 5 engineered where possible.

I already had reputation with factions in Gliese 868, having farmed massacre missions there for a long time in my Corvette. So I picked up a bunch of solo massacre missions, making sure to avoid wing massacre missions and assassination missions . I also equipped the Taipan fighter with pulse lasers, to avoid the fighter running out of ammo. And I loaded up 20 units of silver as pirate bait.

With missions in hand, I went to LP 932-12 and headed straight to the lo-res extraction site. I deployed the turreted lasers on my ship and deployed the fighter. Then I camped about 2k from the lo-res target and . . . just sat there.

This build never got below 80% shields, and then only when a I was targeted by two 3-NPC wings at the same time. I watched one full round of massacre missions, just to be sure. Then I was ready for AFK. I refilled the missions and went back to the lo-res. Then I did something else . . . from midnight Fri-Sat through now, around 11 p.m. Sunday, replenishing missions as needed.

During that time period, I earned a little over 1.6 billion in credits, while being able to run another game at the same time on the second monitor. Or watch a movie. Or read a book. Or sleep.

I have a second EDO account, and I used some of the time to get within 80 jumps or so of Beagle Point on my Krait Phantom on that account.

I played other games too, mostly with a space theme. I played a short game in Galactic Civilizations III; and I continued to work on learning Stellaris, which is beginning to grow on me. Those strategy games took the place of the BGS in ED, with much more complicated and challenging gameplay.

I had the most fun revisiting Mass Effect, through the Legendary Edition. The transition from the strong story line of Mass Effect to the open-ended gameplay in ED was actually very satisfying: it almost felt like the same game in different modes.

Back to the point: I never lost my AFK ship. Hatch-breaker limpets never stole my silver. Earning 1.6 billion in credits made a good dent in my progress towards getting a second carrier on my alt account (which I will locate in Colonia.)

I would have made a lot more if I had done nothing but massacre mission farming with my Corvette through the same time period. But the AFK route gave me the freedom to do combat or not, and I had the pleasure of earning money while doing something completely different.

This outcome did depend on a few things. First and foremost, Hawkes Gaming's suggested build is excellent, even if I didn't follow it to the letter. And his guidance on how to farm set the pattern for me. Second, I have plenty of cash; A-rating the build cost between 700 – 800 million (I didn't check so I can't be precise.)

Third, I have been following the "farm when I feel like it and no longer" approach for a while; so I had all the materials I needed to engineer up to Tier 5. Fourth, I had already unlocked all the bubble engineers. It took me about 4-5 days, 2-3 hours per day, to fly around the bubble for all the engineers. Finally, I had access to all the guardian modules I needed: shield; hull; and module.

With those things in place, however, I have found a new way of enjoying the game: AFK farming of massacre missions in low-res, while doing something else with my time. This is certainly not the only way to make a bundle in ED, or even the best way, but I am having fun with it.