Talk:Empire/Ranks/@comment-73.203.32.186-20170203054232

Here to confirm that the HP 10716 loop still works. Courier Missions and deliveries to Wui Guinagi (only 1 jump or 11 lightyears away from HP 10716), and plenty of charity missions still available. Go to HP 10716 and land at Morgan Depot to start. You will immediately realize why everyone is coming to this system to start their rank grind to Duke.

Here's a small guide and some obersavtions I made along the way:

BRING A MEDIUM SIZE SHIP: To get the most missions per run, you'll need a medium sized ship that can land at medium sized landing pads and outposts (Type-7, ASP Explorer, Python). Most of the missions are Courier Missions (which can pay between 25,000-128,000 credits), but often times there are Delivery Missions you can stack as well. Delivery Missions to Wui Guinagi will often pay between 200,000-2.5 million credits, with loads ranging from 8-100 tons. I perfer to run mostly Courier Missions because doing the Delivery Missions is a sure way to get interdicted and assaulted by pirates.

Another important point about bringing a medium sized ship is that the Rank Up Mission will often times spawn as a delivery to an outpost. If you're using a large ship, you will not meet the requirements of the mission! The Rank Up Mission is not dependent on what ship you're using at the particular time it drops. In my experience, the Rank Up Mission popped up a handful of a times while I was stuck at a certain rank and because I was using a large ship, I couldn't accept the mission. Not to worry, if you're in a situation like this, the game will still apply reputation towards the next rank, you just won't be able to rank up until the RUM pop ups for a large ship. Just be aware that in this loop, often times the RUM won't spawn for a large ship.

NO PASSENGERS TO WUI GUINAGI: Some people in the comments section claim to have used a large ship for the HP 10716 loop as they scooped up Passenger Missions, but as of 2/2/2017 I haven't seen ANY passenger missions to either system.

I CHOSE TO BRING A PYTHON: I chose to bring an A-Rated Python with basic engineering upgrades to the FSD and engines. For my FSD, I chose the Faster Boot Sequence upgrade; there's only 1 jump in the loop and it's only 11 lightyears. Might as well shave a few seconds off the boot sequence, which could save you tens of seconds, maybe even as much as a minute, off one run depending on how many times you get interdicted. It's also handy when you get interdicted, you can escape a few seconds quicker.

Luckily I had a few hundred million credits sitting in the bank, so buying a Python and upgrading it was easy. I went to my favorite star port (Zhen Dock, Xhie) to outfit my Python and then used my long-range Anaconda to get out to HP 10716 faster. When I docked at Morgan Depot, I used the Transfer Ship option, which took about 40 minutes if I remember correctly. You can run missions in a large ship, but you won't be able to dock at the 3 outposts in the loop. This is why having a medium ship is important. So for the first 40 minutes of my grind, I used my trading Conda (which wasn't optimal at all) while my Python was being transferred.

I chose Dirty Drives for the added speed; approaching/leaving bases, outposts, and star ports is a bit quicker and not to mention I can run from Anacondas. In a fully outfitted Python, there's not much that threatens you. Anacondas are the only troublesome thing for me and they can easily be outran. My outfit also has weapons so that I can fight back against weaker pirates and foes which breaks up the grind and nets me a decent bounty to cash in.

I also have 192-tons of cargo space. Like I said, Delivery Missions are common within the loop. You can often times stack up delivery missions from HP 10716 to Wui Guinagi, but they aren't as prevalent as Courier/Data missions. You will also amass commodity items as rewards, which can be used for engineer reciepes.

BE CAREFUL TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT MISSIONS: Not all the missions are for the Empire or will count towards your ranks. ONLY TAKE MISSIONS FROM VENDORS THAT HAVE THE EMPIRE INSIGNIA (a.k.a the Y-shaped eagle logo). The only exception to this rule is if a rank up mission is offered from a vendor that doesn't have the insignia (but I haven't seen if this can actually occur).

RANK UP MISSSIONS: The rank up missions will stick out from the usual crop because they will say either NAVY or IMPERIAL in the mission title. If those words appear in the title, than that's your rank up mission. Sometimes these missions don't drop quite often enough, but DON'T WORRY... If it appears you're stuck at the 100% mark of a certain rank, THE GAME WILL STILL APPLY REPUTATION TO THE NEXT RANK! Like I said earlier, RUMs in this loop are mostly deliveries to outposts, so if you're using a large ship you may not meet the requirements for the mission - which is another reason why you should be running this loop in a medium sized ship!