Bounty hunting is the tracking and elimination of hostile targets in return for rewards. Some bounties also call for the rescue of non-hostile targets. Bounty hunting contracts are provided by Guild Leaders. Currently, all targets are NPCs.

All bounty contracts are provided by Guild Leaders in Taverns owned by Mercenary factions. Once completed, rewards for the bounty are collected from a Guild Leader in a Tavern owned by the same faction which issued the contract. Guild Leaders also sell Tracking Fobs to new hunters and those who have been careless enough to lose theirs.

The successful completion of bounty contracts earns Reputation. Reputation is earned in proportion to the difficulty of the target. Reputation can be lost by failing to complete a contract in the manner or timeline specified.

Reputation can be spent to unlock a new rank, more challenging contracts, and a corresponding increase in rewards. All hunters begin their career with zero Reputation and the rank of Probationary Hunter. Reputation can also be spent at the Guild Vendor, see below.

Bounty hunting is a demanding career, and requires specialized equipment. All hunters are cautioned to bring the best armor and weapons that credits can buy, in addition to support in the form of Droids or NPCs; bounty targets will defend themselves fiercely. The following additional equipment is required to successfully track and claim a bounty.

A bounty puck is a small squat cylinder which contains a miniature holographic emitter. Bounty pucks store all relevant information about a single bounty contract. Accessing the information about a bounty requires the use of a Tracking Fob, see below. Bounty pucks are provided by a Guild Leader upon accepting the contract, and are reclaimed by the Guild Leader upon return.

Bounty contracts are only provided to a single hunter. However, anyone with a blaster and enough courage can engage your target, if they find the target first. Allowing someone else to kill a target means you cannot claim the bounty, although they can claim it if you give or sell them the puck. Failure to kill the target before the deadline expires also results in a failure of the contract.

Giving away, or re-selling, bounty pucks will cause you to lose 75% of the amount of reputation lost for a failed contract, if the contract ultimately fails. Additionally, you will only earn 25% of the reputation reward if the player you transfer the puck to completes the bounty. Turning in a second-hand puck only rewards you 75% of the reputation reward, while you will be responsible for 25% of the reputation loss upon contract failure.

A tracking fob is a miniature yet sophisticated tracking device which contains a small hypercomm receiver and a readout display. Inserting a bounty puck into a tracking fob allows the hunter to view the relevant information about the target, track their location, and confirm their rescue where applicable. Tracking fobs are very specialised devices which are generally not available on the open market. They can be purchased from a Guild Leader.

Wherever there is a Guild Leader, there is a Guild Vendor. This individual will sell useful items and other entities or the Hunter, in exchange for credits and Reputation.

The Guild Vendor has a limited selection which refreshes once per week. Items are randomly chosen from a larger selection and presented to the Hunter.

Accessing the Guild Vendor requires a minimum rank of Associate Hunter. Higher ranks will unlock a greater selection of items and increase the number of offered items at a time.

Potential Vendor Items

The number of bounties available from a Guild Leader is randomly generated each week, but influenced by the hunter’s diplomacy.

All Guild Leaders offer the same bounties per week. Therefore, visiting a different Mercenary faction tavern will not generate additional or different available bounties.

The location of a bounty contract is randomly generated from a list of Darkness and Quest worlds. Bounty targets will not be located on Ocean, River, or Volcanic terrain.

The difficulty of a bounty contract is randomly generated, but influenced by the hunter’s reputation tier. The tiers of difficulty are Trivial (1), Easy (2), Standard (3), Challenging (4), and Daunting (5).

The deadline of a bounty is randomly generated, with a minimum duration of 180 days and a maximum duration of 365 days.

The credit reward of a bounty contract is randomly generated, but scales with the difficulty of the contract. The base pay is 750,000 credits. The hunter receives 95% of the reward, and the faction which owns the tavern where the contract was issued receives the remaining 5%.

Rescue contracts have a 1.25x modifier to credit rewards.

Bounty contracts have a 1% chance to reward an item in lieu of credits.

The experience reward of a bounty contract is 250 XP for Kill contracts and 750 XP for Rescue contracts.

Use of the Tracking Fob rewards 10 XP.

The reputation reward of a bounty contract is based on the difficulty of the bounty and a random bonus, i.e. a Trivial bounty contract (level 1) earns between one and five reputation, an Easy bounty contract (level 2) earns between two and six reputation, etc.

Tracking a bounty using a Tracking Fob required the hunter to scan for the target's location. If the scan is successful, and additional location-based criteria are met, the hunter will learn a new piece of information about the target’s location. A tracking fob is not sensitive enough to determine the exact ground location of a target; it can only lead the hunter to the closest terrain grid location.

There are four levels of information available about the target’s location: Region, System, Planet, and Surface. Refining the target’s location requires increased proximity, as follows:

• The target’s region can be determined anywhere in the galaxy.
• The target’s system can be determined from any star system within the target region.
• The target’s planet can be determined from within the target star system.
• The target’s surface location can be determined from orbit of or anywhere on the target planet.

Tracking a target is not possible while the hunter is moving, as the tracker requires a stable motion-damped platform to integrate enough spurious signals to provide location data.

Tracking a target is not possible in deep space. The tracking device relies on leakage from hypercomm signals, which are only strong enough to detect when present within star systems.

After each scan a Scan Confidence level is given. This is a measure of how effective the scan was from the perspective of the user. It does not take into account the skill level of the user or the target.

A target scan can be initiated once every two hours.

Tracking the target requires an opposed skill check. Regardless of the skill check result, the scan has a minimum success chance of 10% and a maximum success chance of 90%. Each additional scan of the target at the same level of location knowledge, while it is in the same location, increases the chance of success by 3%.

Bounty targets are, on an individual level, equal to or stronger than bandits. Targets of Trivial difficulty will be roughly as strong as high level bandits, while targets of Daunting difficulty are substantially stronger than the support NPCs a hunter can bring, with skills and equipment to match.

Bounty targets are supported (or guarded, in the case of rescue missions) by a number of additional NPCs. Each increase in difficulty level increases both the quantity and strength of supporting NPCs. Targets of Trivial difficulty are surrounded by a small number of moderately trained and equipped guards, while targets of Daunting difficulty are surrounded by an entire squad of highly trained and well-equipped guards.

Combat with a bounty target and their support squad follows the normal Ground Combat rules. Rescue targets are not hostile, although they may appear as such on scanners after combat with their captors.

When the bounty target requires rescue, the hostile captors must first be eliminated. The hunter can then approach the target and use the tracking device to register their rescue. The hunter must have a free slot in their party to rescue the target. The target must be escorted to the Guild Leader to claim the bounty.

Bounty targets are fighting for their lives, and will look for any opportunity to escape.

Engaging a bounty target while the hunter is “Badly Wounded” provides enough of a window for the target to escape to a different part of the planet. The target will need to be located again using the Tracking Fob and re-engaged.

Landing in the same surface grid as the target provides enough warning for the target to escape to a different part of the planet. Approaching cross-terrain via foot or in a vehicle is low-profile enough to enter the same surface grid and hunt for the target.