So You Want to be Boba Fett, Huh? A Bounty Hunter Guide

[Zizzs]

To start off, I'm posting this in the Guides section specifically so it gets more visibility, as most people don't think to look in the profession categories! I have been asked countless times what my spec is and how I make so much moneys. So here we go. Sit down, stay a while and listen.

This will be a guide on the Bounty Hunter class, including the professions required, weapons needed, and the mobs, payouts and difficulties of Investigation missions. I will be using Pistols as my main weapon choice due to the variety of damage types, so if you choose Carbines or Heavy Weapons, this may not be as useful to you.

So, Boba Fett. He's a pretty chill dude. Works for Jabba, Rides in a AV-21 (http://youtu.be/2z9XTeeA43o Please watch this), has a Jetpack, and can Bounty Hunt like no other. To be like Boba Fett, you'll have to kick your ass into gear and learn a couple things. It will not be an easy road, but at the end of it you can expect mission payouts up to 150k and sweet lewtz. Everyone loves sweet lewtz.

Refer to this when reading about the Elite Professions:
Profession Damage Calculator - http://www.swgcalc.x10.mx/
(Use the drop down to select Pistoleer)
Index:
Part 1 - Professions
Part 2- Weapons and Weapon Types
Part 3 - Missions, Mobs and Payouts
Part 4 - Recommended Consumables and Skill Tapes

Part 1 - Professions and You
I'm going to cover a lot of information relating to the professions I feel are required to maximize the payout given from terminals, while also maximizing your damage output and survivability.

I've spent a good two weeks perfecting my BH spec and I've come to realize a couple things. I will start out by saying that I recommend using Pistoleer as the class allows a huge variety of weapon types which I will get to later. I do not recommend Carbines, due to the lack of damage variety nor Heavy Weapons due to the same reason. These two specs will hinder your damage output on mobs due to specific resists.

The spec I currently use is as follows: Master Marksman, Brawler 4xxx, Scout 4xxx, Medic 2xxx, Pistoleer 3x43, Novice Commando, Smuggler x1xx, Bounty Hunter 4x4x. I'll briefly cover the four Beginning Professions and then the Elite Professions afterwards.

- Novice Professions -
A. Master Marksman
You require Master Marksman to even consider being a bounty hunter. It is a required profession to get Novice, which also requires the use of Pistols, Rifles, and Carbines. If starting out with Marksman as a fresh character, I recommend doing Rifles first as they're the longest to grind out. Then Carbines and Pistols. Note, You might want to pick up Carbineer prior to going Bounty Hunter if you plan on mastering it.. The Bounty Hunter line REQUIRES Carbine experience to master. This line can be difficult to obtain if you do not pick up Carbineer for the extra skills. By all means, if you don't feel you want to grind out a couple Carbineer boxes for better skills, you'll be forced to Leg Shot 1 humbabas for hours. But if you do not plan on Mastering Bounty Hunter, then skip getting Carbineer. Pistols is what you will be sticking with.

B. Brawler 4xxx
The main reason why I pick this line up is for Novice Commando and Smuggler. Nothing much more to say here besides, just go hit things with your fists. Make things die. It's pretty slow compared to the Carbines/Pistols tree but quicker than rifles. If you dont want Commando/Smuggler in your build, then skip this. I recommend it though.

C. Scout 4xxx
Bounty Hunter requires this line. Go harvest sharnaffs or hubabas. Nothing much here, move along.

D. Medic 2xxx
This is a REQUIREMENT for end game mobs, bosses and Bounty Hunter missions. First aid 2 gives your character the ability to heal and stop bleeds. Bounty Hunter mission targets will toss a nasty DoT on you that ranges from 1000 (Health or Action) a tick to 2000 a tick. This can drop you from full health to zero in a matter of twenty to thirty seconds. If you do not get First Aid 2, you WILL die. Getting medic also allows you to use Stim Bs, which come in handy if you're low on health and action.

- Elite Professions -

A. Pistoleer 3x43
Little Jimmy might ask himself "Man, Pistoleer 3x43 sounds a bit janky. Why not just master Pistoleer? It's better!" Well Little Jimmy, If you want to cover all damage types and get leet payouts, you will have to min/max your stats while still being a boss. Thing thing about Pistoleer is that it really doesn't have all that great of stats and defenses for the skill points given. The reasoning's behind this have come from me min/maxing my stats to get the job done as fast as possible.

3xxx - I primarily only go up to the third box due to requiring Body Shot 3. Body Shot 2 has a damage modifier of 3, whereas Body Shot 3 has a damage modifier of 4. I originally did not think that Body Shot 3 was a requirement, but boy does that 1 point matter. It's effectively a 25% damage multiplier. Body Shot 2 can get the job done, but Body Shot 3 will help you kill targets much faster. The dodge in this line is irrelevant.

xXxx (The Accuracy line or the LACK thereof) - You'd think to yourself that I'm batshit crazy for ignoring the Accuracy line! Well to put things straight, the Bounty Hunter Pistols like will give you FIFTY, yes (50) Pistol Accuracy. That is easily enough accuracy to get you going to where you need to be ontop of the accuracy you've already gained from the Marksman line and Novice Pistoleer. Little Jimmy may ask himself again "BUT ZIZZS! Pistol Accuracy while Moving! I wont be able to hit ANYTHING!" This is where planning to be a BH comes into place, and I will be talking about later: Pistol Accuracy while Moving Skill Tapes.

xx4x - The main reason why I go to the 4th box is not for Fan Shot, although absolutely amazing when you want to go AoE a bunch of shit. *Cough* Farming Hella FP *Cough* But is mainly gotten due to the +50 Defense vs Knockdown. This is vital. Unless you want to be on your ass all fight while sustaining multiple stacks of bleeds and getting your ass absolutely rekt. Grab this line first for Fan Shot, it'll make leveling the rest a breeze.

xxx3 - I used to have the 4th box of this line, but I dropped it due to my new requirement of Novice Commando. Gives some Pistol speed and melee defense. Nothing much more. The skill Pistol Melee Defense 2 sucks, don't use it.

B. Novice Commando
The reasoning behind grabbing Novice Commando is primarily to use the Launcher Pistol. This is the only Blast damage weapon in the game other than the power hammer. This is NOT a requirement, but will allow you to kill 328 Difficulty targets with much more ease. If you prefer grabbing the xxx4 box of Pistoleer and T1 box of Medic, by all means grab it. But do note. Without Novice Commando, you will be forced to use a Striker Pistol on some targets. Striker Pistols suck, good luck fighting a mob for 30 minutes.

C. Smuggler x1xx
The Granddaddy of Drugs. The King of Bestine. This may be Snoogans, the Mad Musician of Bestine that we're describing. But no, this is the Smuggler class. I will say this right off the bat. Leveling Slicing 1 absolutely blows. You will require 40 magseal slices, or 40 locked containers. I can post a guide about leveling Smuggler if the desire is great enough. But this is about Bounty Hunter! Why do I want Smuggler? I don't like drugs! Well Little Jimmy, How would you like on average 50k more credits per mission? Yeah, you read that right. Smuggler x1xx gives you the ability to slice. That means that every time you slice a BH terminal, your missions will give 20k to 50k more credits payout. This bumps up missions that normally might be 80k-90k to 130k and 140k. It's a huge jump in payouts and I recommend getting this. You'll be able to afford a mini suit of 90% RIS from Sam's in no time! Or just blow it while gambling to the wonderful tunes of Snoogans.

D. 4x4x Bounty Hunter
I will start off by saying this. While there are no Jedi's on the server. DO NOT MASTER BOUNTY HUNTER UNLESS YOU WANT THE BADGE. It is an absolute waste of points in skills and boxes you will never use. The Carbine tree has a nice Fire Knockdown that sounds nice on paper, but your damage types will be severely limited with Carbines. The Heavy Weapons line allows you to use a awesome looking gun. But it sucks. You'll miss 99% of the time. GG. When player Jedi's start popping up, Master Bounty Hunter may be useful to the possible Lightsaber Resistance on Mandolorian armor from Death Watch Bunker. But until then. Do not master it unless you want the badge. If you want the badge, Master, then drop to 4x4x.

4xxx - The Investigation Line
This is the main part of BH. This line effects the difficulty and payout of BH Missions, while also giving you the Droid skills needed to do so. There's not much to say about it besides that you start getting top end difficulty missions (292, 328, 352, 355, 367) at Investigation 3. Investigation 4 helps you by giving you better droid skills. Despite having this line, you will lose many Probe and Seeker droids to the following: Meteors, Mynocks, Space Slugs, Loss of Power, Being Stupid, and Wasting Your Time. I recommend getting the 4th box. Without it, You'll be Jango Fett. And we all know how that ended up.

xx4x - The Pistols Line
This comes back to the strange Pistols spec earlier. The Pistols Line will give you +50 Pistol Accuracy and +50 Pistol speed on top of the stats you have as Marksman and Pistoleer. This pushes you to the 1.0 speed cap on all weapons while also giving you good accuracy. There is one skill you will use during EVERY BH mission. That is Eye Shot. You will not be using this for the mind damage, as the majority of pistol skills do health damage. You will be using this for the blind. Imagine. You get shot in the eye. You cannot see shit. It's dark. You swing wildly. Now imagine you are a BH Target. Blind. Bleeding. Dead. Torso shot does little damage, so I never use it. And bleeding shot applies a mind bleed. Worthless. Focus on the Health, Not the mind.

This sums it up for the Professions. I tried to discuss each and every one as detailed as possible. Do note, this is not the only BH spec. This is just the spec that I've found to min/max my time spent killing a target, and the money I receive. If you have other spec ideas, please post. I'd love to hear them.

Part 2 - Weapons and Weapon Types

The reason I pick Pistoleer over Carbineer or Heavy Weapons is due to the wide Variety of weapon damage types. The damage types given to Pistoleers is as follows: Energy, Kinetic, Stun, Acid, and Blast. I will cover these weapon types, the pistol I use for each one, and the pros and cons for each.

Armor Piercing and Armor Types
Before I talk about the pistols and damage types, I'd like to briefly talk about what Armor Piercing does and how it effects your damage. Each mob you fight will have some sort of armor. Unarmored, Light, Medium and Heavy. Your pistols will have a "Armor Piercing" mod on them. They will be None or Light. None of the pistols have Medium or Heavy armor piecing. That belongs to Riflemen and Swordsmen. Armor Piercing and Armor have values. "0" being None, "1" being Light, "2" being Medium and "3" being Heavy. If your pistol has "None" or "0" as your Pierce and the mob you are shooting has "None" or "0" as it's Armor. You will do a flat 100% of your damage output multiplied by skill's Damage Multiplier. Body shot having 4, you would do 400% of your weapon's damage with a pistol having no armor piercing and your target having no armor. Each armor value cuts damage by 50%, and each Armor Pierce value increases damage by 50%. So if you have Light Pierce and the mob has Light armor. You'll do 100% damage. But if you have no pierce value on your pistol, and the target has Light armor. You'll do 50%. 25% against Medium, and 12.5% against Heavy.

The Pistols
Energy - Republic Blaster - Armor Piercing: None
You wont be using this much, due to the lower damage and having no armor piercing. Useful to use against one BH target specifically. Does decent damage.

Kinetic - Striker Pistol - Armor Piercing: None
This is the only Kinetic weapon available to the BH. If you picked up Novice Commando, you can skip this. It sucks. Low Damage. Sucks.

Stun - Geo Pistol - Armor Piercing: None
This is the bread and butter of the PvP Pistoleer class. Breaks through stun holes in player armor and wrecks. Too bad it's only used for one BH target. You will need one though. Get it.

Acid - Scatter Pistol - Armor Piercing: Light
If you think you're gonna be a BH, go find yourself one of these bad boys and pretend it's a shotgun. Because it totally is. A pistol shotgun. This thing destroys mobs with zero armor. And buffers your damage due to having Light armor piercing. Allows you to do more damage to BH targets, as you will be fighting mobs with higher armor values. On top of the piercing, this thing does ACID damage. 355 Bounty missions have ZERO acid resist. You'll be hitting those bad boys for 1500 damage. You will use this thing forever if you keep BH. Requires Novice Bounty Hunter to use. Best pistol in the game for PvE hands down.

Blast - Launcher Pistol - Armor Piercing: None
Requires Novice Commando to use, and is the only Blast damage weapon available to a Pistoleer/Bounty Hunter. I recommend this because if you don't use a Launcher Pistol, you'll be forced to use a Striker pistol for a couple of the BH targets. Please don't put yourself through the torture and just get one. It's awesome. Especially if you love explosions.

That's it for the Pistols. If you get Novice Commando, you will want a Republic Blaster, Geo Pistol, Scatter Pistol and a Launcher Pistol. Note, Pistoleer also has access to the Heat damage type, but also requires Master Pistoleer and is expensive to acquire. No real reason to get it as these four pistols will hit all the damage types you need. Pick up a Striker Pistol if you decide to not get Novice Commando.

Part 3 - Missions, Mobs and Payouts

So, as a bounty hunter you will be primarily doing three separate "groups" or difficulties of missions. Difficulties 328, 352, and 355. You might encounter difficulty and 292, which is a dumb'd down version of 352; and 367, which are instant death. Typically, you can expect payouts ranging from 100k to 150k for all of these. I feel they are equal in difficulty, and all do nasty bleeds as stated earlier. Here are short breakdowns on each difficulty. Note: The strategy for all targets is to get within 20m range to force them to melee, Eye Shot, Health Shot 1(Stack with Health Shot 2 post patch), then Body shot 3. Run in circles like a chicken with your head cut off until dead.

Difficulty 328 - The Nightsister, Singing Mountain Clan and the Spiderbitch
HAM: 25k
Resists: 100% All Resistances. Resistance Holes: 35% Energy, Kinetic, Stun and Blast. (Each will have two of the four)
Armor: Light (I believe)
Pistols Chosen: Republic Blaster for Energy, Striker Pistol for Kinetic, Geo Pistol for Stun, and Launcher Pistol for Blast.
Special Notes: They will use Force Drain, which will slowly drain around 300 from all three HAM pools. They will also periodically do Force Lightning as you will be running them in circles. The range for force lightning is low, so they do this often as well as lunge attacks.

Difficulty 352 - Feral Force Wielder(The Naked Bothan) and Force Crystal Hunter(Lizardman wearing Bone Armor)
HAM: 25k
Resists: 80% All Resistances. Resistance Holes: None
Armor: Medium or Light (Not sure)
Pistols Chosen: Scatter Pistol
Special Notes: I use the Scatter Pistol due to the 80% allres. There are no resistance holes, so you can use any damage type. I choose the scatter specifically due to the armor piercing. These can take a little while as you'll typically be hitting for 100-150 damage while intimidated. Note, 292 Difficulty mobs are basically the same as these with far less resists.

Difficulty 355 - The Tusken
HAM: 55k
Resists: 0% Acid, that's all you need to know.
Armor: Light (I Believe)
Pistols Chosen: Scatter Pistol. Melt his face.
Special Note: The Tusken has 0% acid resist. This allows you to do up to 1500 damage PER Body Shot 3. It's amazing. Always choose a 355 mission over any other. Pull him at around 20m as his rifle hits like a truck smashing into Little Jimmy. Gross.

Difficulty 367 - Dark Jedi Acolyte (The God of Death and Destruction)
HAM: Hella
Resists: Hella
Armor: Hella
Pistols Chosen: Burst Run
Special Note: Don't pick up a 367. You will die. Maybe when LS armor is added he might be doable. Or exploiting the bleed/run away tactic. *Cough* Remoku *Cough*. Just don't waste your time with it unless the last thing you want to see if a flash of a red light saber before Little Jimmy gets cut in half.

Once again, I primarily focus on the 355 missions due to their lack of Acid Resist. They go down fast, but remember, ALWAYS stay in melee range as you run around shooting the target. NEVER stand still, or you will be knocked down, bled, or worse. Remember to examine 328 Difficulty missions, as each has a different resist hole. Do not use a scatter against 328s as you will do zero damage.

Part 4 - Recommended Consumables and Skill Tapes

There are many different foods and skill tapes to min/max your stats, survivability and HAM. Note, not all of these are required. I just find that I have an easier time using them, and you can use other things such as accuracy foods.

A. Fewdz

Brandy - Do I even need to explain this one? You should always have a crate of brandy in your inventory. It buffs your Mind/Focus/Willpower. Makes your mind pretty beefy. Drink two before every battle if possible.

Blood Chowder - I feel this one is almost required due to the nasty amounts of Bleeds. Currently, Qin sells 26% quality Blood Chowder. This will reduce the chance of a bleed hitting you by 26%. It's pretty nice. I recommend it. ~30m buff timer. Eat one before every battle.

Air Cake - Not really needed as much as all it does is increase your "dodge" rate. Basically the mobs will just miss you more. Note, this is not related to the Dodge skill in the Pistoleer tree. ~15m-17m buff timer, It's short, Eat one before every battle.

B. Skill Tapes

I feel that Skill Tapes just help buffer the stats I believe are needed to increase your chance of succeeding (Or not dying) BH missions. You don't need them, but I recommend it. Remember, you can only have a +25 bonus of a stat you receive from Clothing Attachments(CAs) or Armor Attachments(AAs). These can get pretty pricy, but I recommend them.

Pistol Accuracy while Moving - Remember that Pistols accuracy line you skipped? Well this is how you buffer your accuracy. I recommend getting +25 of this as it helps tremendously. Despite people saying "Oh but Zizzs it doesn't work!" I can assure you Little Jimmy that Zizzs has went out and tested killing targets with the CA/AAs and without the CA/AAs. It helps.

Bleed Combat Defense - So, there are two bleed tapes. This is the first one. I don't really know which does which. But I do know they help. I believe Bleed Combat Defense decreases the enemy's chance to successfully hit you with the bleed, kinda like the Blood Chowder. I've noticed FAR less bleeds since I stacked this and started using the Blood Chowder. Try to at least get +15 total of this. +25 if you can.

Bleed Resistance - I believe this reduces the amount of bleed damage you take, or the length of bleeds on you. Not too sure. I just get it because why the hell not. I don't want to die, so might as well stack +25 of this as well.

Conclusion
So I just spent hella time writing this because I've basically typed this shit out in General chat multiple times and I'm tired of doing it. I'm lazy, but obviously not lazy enough because I wrote this damn thing. I originally went BH specifically for the badge alone. And you guys have obviously seen me toting about talking about CA/AAs and moneys. Thats because BH is the pimp daddy class of SWG. You can loot CA/AAs up to +15, some of which can sell up to 200k a point. You will be rich and successful as a Bounty Hunter if you learn your class, your weapons and the mobs you fight. It's not hard once you get the hang of it and maybe then you'll be able to afford a set of 90% RIS armor, allowing you to do far more things. Or maybe you can just tip Snoogans moneys because he's obviously the Maddest Musician of Bestine.

Little Jimmy is now Boba Fett. I also just realized that this is 3730 words. 10 pages on Microsoft Word. Do I get a 100% on my research paper Cynar?

[Wraidd]

Just wanna say....I picked up a 367....as x1xx Slicer, 3444 BH, and 3x43 Pistols...0 commando and 0 medic and I downed a Dark Adept without much of an issue....make sure you keep blind and bleeds on....use terrain to your advantage (running up and/down hills to stay just out of range)...it was my 3rd 120k+ bounty...took 6 mins with a scatter pistol but it was done none the less with not dropping below 90% of any stat....used Pikatta Pie...2x brandi, (muon for safety reasons) and citrus snow cake for acc

[Zizzs]

Just wanna say....I picked up a 367....as x1xx Slicer, 3444 BH, and 3x43 Pistols...0 commando and 0 medic and I downed a Dark Adept without much of an issue....make sure you keep blind and bleeds on....use terrain to your advantage (running up and/down hills to stay just out of range)...it was my 3rd 120k+ bounty...took 6 mins with a scatter pistol but it was done none the less with not dropping below 90% of any stat....used Pikatta Pie...2x brandi, (muon for safety reasons) and citrus snow cake for acc

This guide was posted prior to the bleed fix

[Fatie710]

Great guide!

[Veecias]

So at this point which is better? of the 2 builds I see posted here? right now I am xx1x Pistoleer and Novice BH only...Both builds seems fun Im not seeing much else ?

[Blackcrack]

This is great! Thank you! I'll be sure to follow your spec and guide while learning the game.

Are most of the things still current from this guide?

[Dirtnose]

Excellent guide, is this stuff all still viable? Interested in trying it out.

[Zizzs]

Yeah for the most part. It's a bit easier now that bleeds work. And a couple of the mobs were buffed.

[Lyris]

pretty sure your tusken does not have 0% acid anymore. heheh

[Zizzs]

Are you certain about that? I havent heard anyone say that the tusken takes much longer to kill. I havent been BH for a while, so I obviously cant check myself haha

[Lyris]

yeah he didn't have any 0% resists last I saw. they were pretty up and down tho.

[Blackcrack]

Zizzs,

Can you give some information/guide on how *exactly* to distribute your stats in the stat migration?

Currently I have everything maxed besides health and action for my BH.

[Gieb58801]

I would be interested in knowing your stat lay out as well, if your ok with that.

[cataclysmc]

Got to 3x4x BH Pistoleer 2x24 and have only done 367s. They literally can't catch you, you can press numlock and spam body shot for 3 minutes and they die everytime. Use a Krayt Scatter keep bleeds/burn up and run around in circles or in a straight line, they can't catch you. Since then I have added some Pistols xXxx for the movement Acc and it has helped a ton in the time it takes to kill the Dark Jedis. 83k missions no smuggler just pick up the missions from a Job Player city shuttle back to Kaadara and continue on. Also I do use stopping shot/suppression fire to stop or make them kneel from time to time just to get them in to better accuracy range. Only died twice once was because of a DC, and the other I wasn't paying enough attention and got stuck on a rock and got 1 shotted for 4k. Still worth it, chance at 4 drop loots with max attachment +25.

[ShadowWalker]

Got to 3x4x BH Pistoleer 2x24 and have only done 367s. They literally can't catch you, you can press numlock and spam body shot for 3 minutes and they die everytime.

Things may be changing with that once the new patch comes out, and many will have to rethink their strategies

[timex1]

Got to 3x4x BH Pistoleer 2x24 and have only done 367s. They literally can't catch you, you can press numlock and spam body shot for 3 minutes and they die everytime.

Things may be changing with that once the new patch comes out, and many will have to rethink their strategies

And I have already found a fix to that, without having to change my build. (MPistols, BH 3x4x, Novice Commando)

I have a Master SL now, Burstrunnnnnnnn. haha

367s = "You never get this" -Borat

[cataclysmc]

You mean when it becomes impossible yeah I have read. 10m range on melee is a joke, 50% lightsaber resist wouldn't be enough.

[jasonh]

Things may be changing with that once the new patch comes out, and many will have to rethink their strategies

Shadow, has the decision to implement this been made already? If so, I'd be interested to hear the reasoning...this is a game-changing mechanic in many respects.

[timex1]

Things may be changing with that once the new patch comes out, and many will have to rethink their strategies

Shadow, has the decision to implement this been made already? If so, I'd be interested to hear the reasoning...this is a game-changing mechanic in many respects.

Because ranged classes being able to kiting everything in game without getting touched just makes things way to easy.

Plus this 10m range will make melee classes more viable in PvP.

[jasonh]

I understand your opinion, Ace, but was curious of the staff stance. It really tips the balance in favor of melee classes for anything other than PvP imo; this fixes a PvP problem but causes a slew of others.