1. Elite: Dangerous Achievements
2. Playing the Markets achievement

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Playing the Markets achievement in Elite: Dangerous

Playing the Markets

Reach a Trade Rank of Merchant

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How to unlock the Playing the Markets achievement

• Stryker can has

  12 Jul 2015 12 Jul 2015
  12 0 3

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  You unlock the Merchant rank after making approximately 3,760,000cr of profit on items sold in the Commodities Market.
  
  Profit from selling items through the Black Market does not appear to have any effect on your progress towards Trade ranks, so make sure that items you purchase are legal at your destination.
  
  To increase your gains, build out your ship for speed and cargo capacity. I am using a Cobra Mk. III built out for both trading and exploring*, and haven't had any problems evading interdiction. The Cobra is a bit pricey if you're just starting out, but it's worth it for the combination of potential storage space and speed. If you do get yourself yanked out of Supercruise, you want to be able to get away and recharge your FSD as quickly as possible.
  
  Thankfully, finding profitable trades isn't entirely a crap shoot. There are tools like the Elite Dangerous Database(EDDB) which generate trade routes based on data submitted by users. There are few options for route finding, with the easiest being Loop Routes (you only have to remember two destinations, and the commodities to buy at each), and the most profitable being multi-hop routes. Slaves and Imperial Slaves are almost universally illegal goods, so make sure to exclude them.
  
  *Note that if you're just focused on trading, you can keep an additional 4 capacity Cargo Rack in place of the Fuel Scoop, but if you head off to a profitable trading route far away, you must make sure to find fill-up points along the way. You don't want to get caught deep in uninhabited space. The Fuel Rats aren't always available, and instancing on Xbox Live can interfere with their ability to help.

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  This isn't going to be much to add to your solution in this post, but I thought I'd add it in case someone decides to use your Cobra build to gun for both this and the explorer rank at the same time. Your build is great for it, but I would swap the 2E Cargo Rack for the 1C Detailed Surface Scanner. The four units of cargo won't really be missed, and you'll get more profit out of any planets/stars you scan. The other change would be to downgrade your Power Plant from the 4C unit to the 2D unit. The reason is that you are only using 48% of the power you need, meaning the added weight is unnecessary for your needs. Dropping to the 2D unit puts you at 87% usage, but adds another quarter of a light year to your laden jump distance. If the D rated heat efficiency bothers you, the 2A Power Plant only drops the distance by .03 ly and brings the heat efficiency to B, but the 2D is all you really need. Also, if you get interdicted a lot, try adding a couple Chaff Launchers in your Utility Hardpoints. They've saved my skin more than a few times. Just put them on opposite triggers so you don't waste ammo. Hope this helps someone out :)

  Posted by Tervaskanto on 07 May 16 at 18:59

  Thank you! I won't edit my solution because it doesn't match my playstyle, but this is great advice for people with a different playstyle!

  Posted by Stryker can has on 14 May 16 at 20:35

  Keeping and using the fuel scoop will work toward

  The Secret Achievement achievement in Elite: Dangerous worth 23 pointsContinue playing to unlock this secret achievement

  Posted by DrJekl on 11 Jan 17 at 17:36

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• tobiasvl

  24 Jul 2015 24 Jul 2015
  4 1 0

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  To unlock this achievement you must make 3,760,000 credits from trading, and be promoted to the trading rank of Merchant.
  
  The way I did this was that I went to a station's Bulletin Board and chose courier missions and smuggling missions that had high rewards. These counted toward the trading ranks for me, although selling goods on the Black Market directly did not.
  
  Note that smuggling missions usually pay a lot more, but as the goods are illegal on your destination station, you must be a bit more careful while docking. If the police on the station scans you, you should either dock quickly before they succeed, or run away and come back for docking later.
  
  After I had stocked up on some missions at a station, I went to eddb (Elite: Dangerous Database). In their Single Route Finder I input the station I was in and a mission's destination station, and topped up my cargo racks with the commodity that would net me some extra cash.
  
  Then I just jumped around in the inner systems and made my cash.
  
  I started out trading with a Hauler, but upgraded to a Cobra Mk III after a while, which has room for two Class 4 Cargo Racks that can take 32 tonnes of goods (plus optionally a couple of smaller racks as well).
  
  Happy trading!
• Lamme Tak

  19 Apr 2016 19 Apr 2016
  2 2 0

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  Go to Orang system Bessel gateway, buy slaves sell them in Karid system Araki station (one jump away) for 3000 credits profit.
  Return from Karid to Orang with powergenerators and repeat.
  With a type 6 and a 68 tonnes payload I make 1.4 million profit an hour with low risk.