Every faction you work for keeps a record of you. Do good work and you rise through its ranks: its senior agents start taking your calls, its store opens better shelves, and every job pays more. Work for its enemies and the record goes the other way.
Steps
- Open the Charter Network and pick the Career tab. Open the Charter NetworkPlay to try this
- Find the faction you want to work for. Its row shows your rank, your level and how far you are from the next one.
- Take that faction's contracts. Each one raises your standing and pays loyalty points.
- When a level opens, visit the faction's store and its higher-level agents.
Levels and ranks
Your standing with a faction runs from −10 to +10. It sets your level with that faction, and each level has a rank name.
| Level | Standing | Pays | Wardens | Cartel | Choir |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.0 | × 1.0 | Auxiliary | Runner | Listener |
| 2 | 1.0 | × 1.8 | Deputy | Associate | Chorister |
| 3 | 3.0 | × 3.2 | Marshal | Made | Cantor |
| 4 | 5.0 | × 5.5 | Warden-Captain | Family | Voice |
The manufacturers have their own ranks, from Contractor up to the inner circle. Below 0.0 a faction's agents won't work with you at all.
- Higher levels pay more and ask more: longer courier routes, bigger quotas, and at level 4 bounties in the most dangerous system nearby.
- Standing gains shrink as you near +10. Failing or letting a contract expire costs half of what it would have earned.
- Diplomacy adds 0.4 per level to the standing your level is judged on.
- When you reach a new level you get a Promoted notice, and the new agents and store offers show at once.
Loyalty points
Each faction pays loyalty points (LP) for its work: contracts, story missions, gauntlets and some world events. Higher levels pay much more of them. LP stay with the faction that paid them. The Career tab lists your latest LP, earned and spent, with what each was for.
Faction stores
Each faction keeps a store at its agents' stations. Everything costs LP plus some LUM, and each offer opens at a level. Locked offers stay on the shelf, with the rank that opens them, so you can see what you're working toward.
- Faction modules: the Wardens', Cartel's and Choir's own versions of standard modules, better than the standard line.
- Ships from the yard: the manufacturers sell their own hulls for LP and 40 % less LUM. Vorr sells the Mattock, Dray and Prospector, Halcyon the Wren, Swift and Vigil, Kessler the Shrike, Harrier and Bastion, and Ostrava the Petrel. The Wardens sell the Harrier and Vigil, the Cartel the Shrike, and the Choir the Petrel.
- Charges in bundles of 1,000, and at level 4 the parts for capital ships.
Choosing sides
Some factions hate each other. Finishing work for one takes standing off its enemies:
| Work for | Lowers |
|---|---|
| The Cartel | the Wardens, by half of what you gained |
| The Choir | the Wardens and Vorr, by half each |
| The Wardens | the Cartel and the Choir, by a quarter each |
Contract rows show this before you accept, for example −0.09 WDN. Failures don't affect the other side.
At Cartel or Choir standing 2.0 or more, their pirates hold fire unless you shoot first.