CAREER MODE: Final Score, Travel Route and thoughts (2024)

First of all Difficult settings

Did not go for max Salvage/Payment (probably should have)
Went for Hard Enemy strength, I think this is quite important for achieving a high score, it allows us to find heavier mechs quicker, hence start doing high star contracts earlier. Also it improves salvage values, therefore increasing C-bill score.
Unequipped mech was turned off, all the mech parts we gain will eventually add up.

Travel route and score at 900 days (star system completion)

Numbers meaning stops, a couple of days were wasted due to me not clicking pause fast enough while changing route on jumpship.

Planning was not prefect,
systems 1，2，17，18，30，34，42 were visited twice, but could be avoidable (other multiple visits are not avoidable, will explain later)
at systems 27, 28, 30, 31, 43, I was unnecessarily forced to stay, with better planning, I could have had the chance to check contracts while on jumpship, before entering.

Final score

My original plan for the last 300 days was to farm contracts at 33/34/35, but unfortunately it didn't work out.

1. contracts don't refresh fast enough.
2. both 34, 35 should spawn urbanmech parts, which is the only mech I missed (except star league ones). But nothing showed up.
3. I needed to farm some contract against Dracanis Combine, but I am not sure if they actually spawn. These contracts are either super rare, or I was super unlucky.
I have a feeling that the same might hold true for Lyran Commonweath.

Other Thoughts

1. If I was right about the contracts against Kurita/Steiner, then we have to be-friend both of them at the same time, which means no allies can be made.

2. Selling counts towards c-bill, so all unused c-bill should be "recycled" through shop.
But even in allied space, you will lose about 90% of the value if you make purchase and then re-sell
Except mech-parts
The selling price of a full mech is roughly equal to the purchase price of 1 corresponding mech part. Hence you only lose 66% of value when you re-sell mechs.
To max out c-bill, you should buy every mech-part you see (if you can afford it), even in hostile space.

3. We should try to pass without stopping at as many systems as possible.
Even if you plan to enter the system, it is usually better to check the store and contract first, while you are still on the jumpship.

4. Since it takes a long time for contracts to refresh, it would be hard to find a loop to farm contract at the end game. Hence the best way to achieve a high score, might be to finish visiting all systems at exactly 1200 days.

To help with route planning, I would like to share 3 maps
First is an empty map, for keeping track of where you have visited.

Second map,
red number is the time to

the system, when argo is fully upgraded (this might not be 100% accurate, as I have done this by hand)
yellow number is the difficulty rating
lines are for good shops
Red for Former SLDF
Blue for Research
Yellow for Rich
Brown for Manufacturing

Edit:
Please ignore the shop tags, they are outdated. For a up-to-date shop guide, visit
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...re-store-tags-and-a-map-you-can-edit.1143506/
Also, the red numbers are not Jump Distance, argo speed modifier (at full upgrade) has been applied, and they have been rounded up.
For raw data on Jump Distance, extracted from json files, see attachment.

Third map is what I call the passage map.
The red number indicates: how many nearby system I can start my travel, so that I can pass the current system without stopping.
Note that you have to stop at a few systems, they are denoted with purple circle.
Yellow circle are where all the "neutral" flashpoints are, I assume you would want to stop at these systems no matter what.

For star systems with a score of 3 or less at the bottom half of the map, I have draw blue lines to show how you can visit them without stopping.
I have not done so for the top half of the map, because this is where most flashpoints are, you are likely to be going back and forth depending how flashpoints spawn.

is a summary of such information of all 170 systems

is the summary of the followings:
You can start in the current system and pass through any systems in column G-Q without stopping.
Column F is the total number of systems than can pass through the current system without stopping.

It is suggested to plan at most 10-20 systems at a time,
by copying the rows for "systems in question" onto a separate spreadsheet, and adjust the formula in column F.

1. At the start of the career, there are only 3 slot for flashpoints at any given time, one slot is always be occupied by "Joint Venture".
Once "Joint Venture" is complete, the number of slots seem to increase to 5.
2. Flashpoint will re-spawn if expired, you don't need to rush to it.
3. On "Hard" enemy strength setting, a 2.5 skull system can generate missions upto 4 skulls. Which makes travelling to them a gamble without the necessary reputations.
4. Being friends with everyone except pirate is possible. Edmon is on course of achieving this in his furypoint career.
5. If you travel directly to a system, it takes "jump distance*argo speed modifer" days to enter the system. However, by clicking "travel to system" on Jumpship, it usually only takes 3 days.
Hence, we should have as little planned stops as possible.
And "Total contract skulls/(jump distance+3)" is the efficiency for entering any particular non-end system.
6. Always read contract description while on the jumpship, it tells you who are the opfor, you can work out whether the system is good for reputation

In Threadmark 4: "refined route V1", 173 Jumps and 7 stops (i.e. only at end planets) have been achieved, but there are 2 major flaws.

1. Reputation has not been taken into account.
Ideally, you want to travel to systems with 2 skull or less for each faction first, before going to other systems for that particular faction

2. Flashpoints might not spawn when you are at the given system.
Ideally, you want to have some flexibility in the route, so you can adjust the route according to the order of which the flashpoints spawn.
Note that not all flashpoints are worthwhile, "White Lies" for example, is a 3 skull short (2 missions) flashpoint, which is in a 1.5 skull system. The flashpoint effectively boosts the system skull to 2.7, which is still not particularly high. Also Bellerophon has 4 employers including locals and pirates, which are likely to offer contracts that damages your other reputations.
Futhermore, reputation for Free World League is usually not hard to gather, there is no reason to force yourself to do this for reputation reasons.
For such flashpoints, if they happen to spawn while you are near the system, fine, if not, there is no real advantage to travel all the way to them, they just makes route planning a lot more complicated.
I have decided to "abandon" 4 flashpoints
"White Lies" in Bellerophon
"The Steel Beast" in Herotitus
"The Braying of Hounds" in Viribium
"Unwelcoming Guests" in Pilpala
The other 8 neutral flashpoints are more concentrated on the top right to top middle of the map.

Red circles are planned stops.
Blue circles are the flashpoints.

Early on in neutral spece, reputation is more important than "Total contract skulls/(jump distance+3)" ratio.
Building up rep allows you to gain better ratios in future systems, it pays off.

I have left top right open, the "optimal route" will vary depending on which flashpoints are available at the time.

If a flashpoint in top-right is expiring while you travel, don't worry, they will re-spawn.
There are 5 flashpoint slots available, and I have planned to enter the top right area 3 times.
There is no need to rush to them, take time in systems with good ratios.

You might want to leave at the end of yellow line, if "Defector" or "Flatten Earth" spawned. However, it is suggested to come back to green line afterwards.
Because you are unlikely to have enough rep for Davion and Taurian at this point to travel through Liao space.

Difficulty setting is hard on enemy strength, and easiest on everything else.
I have done a mass sell off.
The planned route has been adjusted, as I have managed to pick up "Flatten Earth". In fact the map above is further improved upon the actual route I used here.
"White Lies" and "The Steel Beast" did not spawn when I was there.
21 systems have been visited, we are sitting in Qalzi, with contracts cleared.

The planned contract efficiency rating was set to be 1.5 skull per day (excluding jumps).

Stops 2, 3 have a efficiency rating about 1 skull per day. I have chosen them based on reputation.
In fact, stop 3 had 4 contracts from Liao, I think this was a crucial point in the playthrough, it allowed me to bank a lot of Liao reputation.
In the Example above, I have increased the number of low skull systems on the route in the area, so that you have better chance of picking up Liao contracts, and hence bank the reputation.

In the neutral space, a few systems with efficiency > 1.5 skull per day has been skipped, (the yellow circle for example).
We do not have the rep to lose at this stage of the game.
Also, if the reps are right, it is not hard to find systems with efficiency > 1.5. In fact, most system I entered, had efficiency around 1.7, some went as high as 3 (without flashpoint).

2 travel contracts has been picked up travelling to 12, 13 (orange numbers).
I only pick up travel contracts, if it is towards where I am going, and I have enough reputation with the potential employers.

"Opportunist" and "Criminal Minds" were left to expire. I should be fine, since I will be coming back to the area 2 more times.

It seems 1000 skulls + 600 million c-bills might be achievable while going for travel completion.
Setting exp score at 60000 (allowing for some random ac20 breaching headshot, and head melee)
Mechs Chassis at 76380 (55 base game + 4 flashpoint dlc + Griffin 4N guaranteed from "criminal minds")
Giving a total score of 821380
It seems, missing out on rep completion for 1-2 factions, might not affect to ability to achieve Kerensky.