Updated on 13/02/2021

Welcome to the Passengers Carrier Guide: start your new life as a Liner!
I hope to bring you my veteran techniques & other tricks that will make your life as a Liner much smoother!

Have you always dreamed of becoming a space taxi or an exploration guide?
Meet the deadlines, take your passengers wherever they want, and collect your credits, a lot of credits!

Other guides:
Exploration | Mining | Piracy | Trading | Combat | AX Combat

You can read this guide while listening to this music-video from W4Z.

 

Summary:

 

The role: Liner

As a Liner, your goal will be to transport passengers of various types to their destinations. This could be 1 jump, or even a complete expedition to the other end of the galaxy! The rewards are quite big, especially for the expeditions, but that’s not counting the time that these missions take: from a few minutes to potentially several weeks. You will travel a lot and discover many landscapes and Lore details that your passengers (and yourself) can not wait to discover. They also want to come back alive… so take care of them!

Passenger missions are a good way to earn credits while increasing your reputations, superpower/exploration/trading ranks. Focus your ship on Exploration modules to quickly complete your missions and make better profits.

Great landscapes, strange points of interests, distant beacons, … become a private taxi and complete the missions to collect your well deserved credits and exploration/transport ranks.

The basics:

  1. A ship with large internal spaces, called cabins, for your passengers.
  2. Cabins of various sizes and classes to meet the different types of passengers.
  3. A well thought outfitted liner: Detailed and extensive scanning modules, excellent Frameshift Drive, a fuel scoop if needed, cabins, heat sinks, as well as excellent defensive modules as passengers generally hate to see the ship in danger 😉
  4. A jump range as high as possible to go fast and far. Here, we aim to taxi the passengers as fast as possible while scanning things on sight without going too much in the details.
  5. A robust Power Plant to better dissipate heat and power your modules. It would be a shame to roast the internal modules and scare the passengers. Even worse: roasting the passengers!
  6. Knowledge of the passengers’ types and their desires, scoopable stars and experience to land on the planets’ surfaces of high Gs.

 

Ships and Modules

Every ships can be a Liner in Elite: Dangerous… but some are of course better than others. Let’s see what Elite: Dangerous offers to maximise your profits as a professional and qualified taxi driver, or Liner.
Whether you’re flying in an Adder or a Beluga: you can be a Liner; The income will simply not be the same.

The ships below are ranked from the cheapest to the most expensive. Each of the links will lead you to the build I prepared in order to start a comfy long exploration trip. Note that they are built with very good modules, which explains why they look expensive.

► The first important mod to have is the Enhanced FSD Drive to jump farther, thanks Mrs and Mrs Engineers!

  • Adder (34LY, 10 eco cabins) – 728k credits
    • Ready for short range missions, in the human bubble. Boot your career as a taxi cab!
  • Cobra Mk III (35.38LY, 28 eco cabins) – 3M 893k credits
    • Still in a short-range taxi in the human bubble, you will be transporting more people but I haven’t fitted any shields on this build. You can add one but it will take a Class 4 slot so you will loose 8 economy seats. Note that passengers are afraid of hull damages, so it’s up to you if you are confident enough to fly shieldless.
  • Imperial Courier (31.88LY, 12 eco cabins) – 3M 694k credits
    • Do you play with the Empire? The iCourier does not excel in this short range missions, but it remains an Imperial option for Roleplay.
  • Type 6 (36.78LY, 26 business cabins) – 8M 262k credits
    • Your first ship to complete long range missions! It’s still a small ship but it’s a very practical Liner.
  • Asp Explorer (44.51LY, 13 business cabins et 12 1stclass) – 18M 896k credits
    • Enough to venture far with your passengers, on three long-range missions simultaneously. Take it as an improvement of the Type 6 in jump range, refueling time, and transport capacity.
  • Federal Dropship (25.75LY, 64 eco cabins) – 38M 537k credits
    • The Federation alternative, Dropship is aptly named. Core Dynamics ships are extremely heavy, so we will remain in the bubble at close range to transport Federal citizens in our 64 seats.
  • Orca (38.25LY, 20 luxury cabins) – 81M 269k credits
    • A specialized Liner ship, the Orca can attract the most VIPs of VIPs thanks to the Luxurious cabins. These can bring you a load of money and customers want to be amazed with long-range expeditions and discoveries.
  • Python (30.49LY, 20 business cabins et 36 cabines 1stclass) – 83M 196k crédits
    • The Python is the king of versatile medium-sized ships. You have an interesting jump range, a large number of cabins allowing you to take on 5 missions at the same time, you quickly scoop fuel, … in short: an excellent Liner of medium size for long or short range transport. Note that you can transport 128 passengers in economy cabins and you have a medium pad.
  • Beluga (36.12LY, 12 business cabins et 24 luxury cabins) – 228M 026k credits
    • The longest ship in the game! It is not the « best » Liner but it is the biggest. You can take many missions simultaneously and transport your rich passengers. The long range missions will be exhausting for a Beluga, and it is not very maneuverable on the surface, you could scare your passengers. Note that you can transport 120 passengers in economy cabins.
  • Anaconda (41.72LY, 30 business cabins et 36 cabines 1stclass) – 230M 304k credits
    • The Anaconda is a better long-range carrier than the Beluga because it will reach its destination faster. You also carry a large number of passengers. Note that you can transport 144 passengers in economy cabins.
  • An additional fit for the Dolphin, ~10M 741k credit, the Orca’s and Beluga’s little brother.

 

How to test my Outfit

I usually use two websites to prepare my outfitting. E:D Shipyard & Coriolis, depending on your needs and preferences. Don’t forget that selling your ship is a net gain of the ship’s gain -10%, but the modules are sold 100% of their prices! Don’t be afraid of trying builds with your ships.

 

About Passengers Transport

Your ship is ready, all you have to do is take on passenger transport missions to start your adventures as a Liner!

It involves transporting groups of passengers or VIPs to their desired destinations. It could be nebulae, planetary surfaces, tourist beacons, a station, … anything.

Read our Complete Explorer Guide, you will need some knowledge for long-range missions.

 

Passengers types and Cabins

○ There are 4 cabins classes:

  • Luxury – Only for Dolphin, Orca and Beluga
  • First Class
  • Business
  • Economy

The latter are available in certain classes and therefore offer cabins of different sizes. It is possible to place passengers requesting « Business » in « First Class », however it is not possible to place them in lower cabins types. They are all equipped with escape pods in case your passengers are extremely unhappy and leave the ship.

○ Passengers have traits. They could be wanted and ask you not to be scanned, or they could be terrorized by possible damage to the hull or even have a strict schedule and ask you to hurry. A lot of information are available before accepting a mission: read them! If you do not respect their terms, their satisfactions will diminish and your reward will be greatly reduced. They could also ask you for missions during the flight; Declining them will lessen their satisfactions while accepting them will increase your rewards. So make sure to keep them happy, to make a better profit.

○ There are different places to find passenger missions depending on faction states. Going to a system in a state of Civil War could offer transport missions for refugees seeking a transit; On another hand, a system in a state of Election would see many politicians travelling. Generally passenger missions can be taken from anywhere, but prefer the high population systems, or those where you have a good reputation with the system’s factions.

 

Short range Liner & Rescue

Here comes dat Liner boi! O waddup, you’re in the « Passengers Lounge » now; This is a service that many stations offer. You will find various Liner missions proposed by the system’s factions, and it works like standard missions: Look at the details, accept the mission and place the passengers on board.
Note that a mission = 1 cabin for VIP passengers: they don’t want to be mixed with others.

Choose your mission depending on its range in LY, its rewards, and finally the passengers’ traits. It can be dangerous to transport criminals, because other ships could potentially scan you and destroy your Liner if it is not well defended. Once you’re done selecting your mission, you will have to allocate a cabin to the passengers for that given mission. You can upgrade your passengers to better cabins, but you can’t place them in cabins of lower ranks. If you have 4 cabins, try to take 4 missions to maximize profits.

This done, open the galaxy map, and then go to the destinations requested by your passengers. Pay attention to the potential timer a passenger gave you, if you approach T0 time, they will become unhappy, and eventually leave your Liner.

Short Range missions are usually missions in the bubble of Sol, where the population is high. Some passengers could request you to visit some tourist beacons near the bubble of Sol. Check out the passenger’s types and the rank rewards; If it’s Trading rank → short mission, if it’s Exploration rank → medium or long range mission.

◘ Rescue

When the stations are attacked by the Thargoids, it’s your time to shine as a Rescue ship!
For this, equip your Liner only with Economic Cabins and go to these stations to extract the survivors.
Bring them to the nearby rescue Megaship, just in front of the burning station. Check this Megaship in your left panel, navigation.

To find these stations under attack, check out your galaxy map and the filters « Damaged or Attacked Stations ». They will only appear during Thargoids Assaults, and these are quite rare at the moment.

It’s also an excellent way to rapidly earn Credits & Materials.

 

Long range Liner, expedition

Same process as the short range missions, however some expeditions can take you extremely far: Sagittarius A*, Colonia or even Beagle Point to the other side of the galaxy. So pay close attention to range requested and don’t be too greedy.

It’s often with these kind of missions that you blossom the most as a Liner, you will discover the best landscapes chosen by Frontier and the community, nebulae, geysers, great points of interests and planets in resplendent colours.

Long Range missions are usually missions outside of the bubble of Sol. While some explorers just want to visit one given point of interest, others might want to visit many places, so take that into account as well. Check the passenger’s type/traits, the rewards and the detail of the mission. These missions are 99% Explorer rank.

 

Tips and tricks

1) You can reach very high jump ranges by buying a ranked A Frameshift Drive and then setting your other modules to ranks D, the lightest ones.

2) The Power Plants rank A have the best weight/performance ratio and better dissipate heat during fuel scoops.

3) If you’re good with weapons, prefer turreted weapons like pulse lasers. They draw relatively little power from your capacitors and inflict damage that may repel some NPCs. Remember you’re not a combat ship, you may have great defenses but you won’t withstand long before a great combat ship. It will only help you escaping if you’re mass locked.

Jurema, above the galaxy plan

4) In terms of Defensive, I only take Heat Sinks. Thus, no problems to sit near the stars and other black holes. This also allows you to switch to stealth mode effectively if your shields are broken and an enemy tries to target you.

5) Quick links for the most important info, if you want to explore a little during your missions:Visual + Values

7) For optimal time management results, I advise you to only scan the black holes, neutron stars, earth-like/water/ammonia worlds, as well as metallic planets in the livable zone of the systems: those that are terraformable. To recognize the terraformable planets, nothing more simple, find the equilibrium point of the hot/cold location in the system.

8) If you ever try to boost your FSD’s range on a neutron star or a white star… and you “fall” into the ejection cone:

  1. Don’t panick!
  2. Thrusters to 0, you can’t fight this powerful strain.
  3. If you have a repair module AFMU, immediatly starts repairing your cockpit.
  4. Once your FSD is ready, charge it and try to align your ship away from the star. The latter should be behind you. Maximum boost to try the alignment, it is not an easy thing.
  5. Use your heat sinks to counter the damages.
  6. If you are still in the cone, hold tight! Try again by charging your FSD, and align toward the end of the cone.

9) It is not useful to always fly with 100% fuel. Don’t forget that fuel increase your mass, and decrease your jump range. Check it out:

10) To search for specific stars, open your galaxy map, View, then Maps. Here you can sort the states, governments, … and also Spectral types. It is even possible to calculate the jumps only with the chosen types of stars! ABFOGKM for example ?

11) After the hyperspace tunnel, you arrive near a star. The latter will be displayed in red on your sensors (radar in the center). Do not try to jump to another star if this is red, you will heat up too much! Wait until it passes orange and keep the same vector before charging your FSD for a new jump. Doing so will no overheat your ship.

 

Any comments on this guide? Please share them with us! 🙂