 At the time of recording this video the only effective way to upgrade gear and weapons in Elite Dangerous Odyssey is to run varying flavors of missions on foot and loot numerous surface settlements to gather the materials needed. In order to make that mission running and looting easier you ideally need cat-like reactions or much better upgraded gear and herein lies one of Odyssey's higher barriers. You need better gear to make getting better gear more achievable and this can be a roadblock for a lot of players. In this guide I'll take you through how I overcame that roadblock and got myself to the point where I can easily take apart just about any settlement and succeed in Odyssey's first-person shooter scenarios. Before we get into the details let's begin with a really brief overview of the method we're going to use. In essence to gather materials and upgrade my gear I run settlement raids and surface missions in a Maverick suit carrying an executioner sniper rifle as my main weapon. I employ stealth, guile and no small degree of patience to completely neutralize a target's ability to respond to my initial attacks before disabling the alarms. Once the alarms are disabled at a settlement you have almost complete impunity to take a settlement apart with little to no further significant resistance. Firstly we'll talk gear to get you started. As I mentioned you're going to need a Maverick suit and an executioner sniper rifle. Suits and weapons in Odyssey can be upgraded in two ways. Firstly with simple over-the-counter upgrades that essentially increase damage resistance and damage output and secondly engineered upgrades that generally add extra functionality like longer range on a weapon, better magnification on a weapon's sights or faster shield regeneration or quieter footsteps, etc. on a suit. The simpler damage resistance and output upgrades can be handled at any pioneer supplies outlet at a star port. The engineered upgrades require an engineer to be unlocked. Upgrading on a weapon or suit will go through five tiers with one being the lowest and five being the highest. It is possible to buy some pre-upgraded suits and weapons up to grade three over the counter and I'd highly recommend spending some time before you start your material gathering journey shopping around for this pre-upgraded gear. We've created a video before on how and where to find this and that's linked on screen now. For the purposes of this video I found a grade two Maverick suit as they're fairly common and I used a grade one executioner rifle as pre-upgraded ones are much harder to find. The ship that you use for settlement raids is important as well. You don't need a complicated build, but I'd highly recommend a small ship with at least one SRV bay in it. I'd also recommend using the Scorpion SRV. It's tougher, more stable and will keep you alive longer when things go south and things will go south on occasions. When it comes to choosing a target when you're first starting out and whilst you gain in confidence you'll need to ensure that you pick a star system with low security. This will ensure that the NPCs you're attacking will have low grade armor and if they don't know you're about they can be killed with one well-placed shot. To find a low security system go to eddb.io and click on the system button. Fill in the system you're in under reference system and choose a security level of low and then search to find one nearest your current location. Once you arrive in the system change the filtering on the left-hand panel of your ship to select settlements only and then search down the list. You're looking for a blue Odyssey settlement that has a security rating of low. The plus signs next to the settlement's name are an indication of its size but it's the settlement security level you're looking for. Once you've found a low security settlement you're good to begin your assault. Let's talk about the method then. Job number one for me is always to eliminate any resistance to my presence in the exterior zones. To do that park your ship a short distance from the settlement and try to leave the rear of the ship facing the buildings. That way when you depart the ship in your SRV you just need to drive out the way you're facing but more importantly if you need to make a quick exit your ship is already facing the right way. Once you're out and in your SRV likewise park it at the foot of the buildings facing your ship. If you're leaving under fire the last thing you need to do is steer or navigate. Upon leaving your SRV get off the ground immediately. Generally speaking whilst there are NPCs alive on the ground you want to be on the rooftops at all times. Upon reaching the roof of a building do not draw your weapon and be sure to immediately crouch. When crouched you are quieter and almost invisible to an NPC that is not deliberately looking for you. When the guards at a settlement are not expecting trouble their shields are down. If you get an executioner round into them while their shields are down except over extreme distances they will die immediately. To take your shot identify a target and follow their movements closely. Be sure to stay crouched and draw your weapon and look down the scope at your target. The patrolling guards will occasionally stop and stand still. This is the ideal time to take your shot but it's also worth noting that when you fire nearby NPCs will hear the shot and freeze in place to try and identify where the shot came from. So in a pre-engineered state without a silencer your rifle will actually cause the NPCs to stand still just by the act of firing it so there is rarely a need to lead the target. Put your crosshairs on the center of the NPCs body and squeeze off one round. At this point don't wait to see the results back away and get out of sight. All the NPCs in the local area will have heard the shot and will now be searching for you with their shields up. Do not take another shot at this point no matter how tempting it might be even at an unshielded target. If you fire again while the guards are alerted they will zero you and begin attacking. NPCs will also become alerted if they discover the body of a fallen comrade and will immediately put their shields on and begin searching for you so you need to be aware of that scenario. The more of them you kill the more likely this is to happen. Generally speaking after you've fired the NPCs will calm down again after about 30 seconds and go back to patrolling and at that point you just repeat the process working patiently through the settlement exterior until there are no more NPCs left. Remaining vigilant and aware that you may have missed someone it's now time to proceed to the next phase turning off the alarms. Gaining access to the building's interior can again be achieved in a number of ways but with everyone neutralised outside I tend to find the corpse with the highest level of access and steal their identity to gain access to the building I'm interested in. Generally you're looking for the power centre or the command buildings but the alarms can be situated in a number of different areas. After you've taken down a few settlements you start learning where they are for any given layout but you can also interrogate one of the settlements interface screens to put the alarms location on your HUD if you have the right access level or you've used an e-breach on the screen first to unlock it. When it comes to clearing buildings there are once again lots of different methods you can use some subtle some not so subtle. Personally I'm not good with subtle and after numerous failed attempts at surreptitiously cloning someone's ID I tended towards what I call the Alamo method and again whilst it's not ideal for all it has worked for me. Once inside the building immediately put your back to the nearest corner looking into the room and all the possible entry points. Crouch and turn your shields on fire off a round from your very noisy sniper rifle and then immediately reload it. Everyone will have heard it and they're now on their way. The majority of the NPCs that arrive will be civilians with no shields and they will drop with one well placed shot. Remember to look down the scope before you fire for increased accuracy. If a security guard enters the room they will have shields and will hit harder, prioritise them first and use two rounds in quick succession to kill them. During this phase in particular reload at every available opportunity until NPCs stop arriving. Once the target building has been pacified you can turn off the alarms and at that point the settlement is basically yours to do with as you please no one can raise the alarms anymore and you're free to eliminate any resistance in the rest of the settlement in whatever manner best suits you. Once the settlement is completely devoid of resistance you can loot it to your heart's content emptying your backpack into your SRV whenever it gets full. As I mentioned at the start of this guide there are several ways to come at this particular problem in Elite Dangerous Odyssey and it's important to find the method that works best for you. I've found everything I've just detailed worked great for me and I'm now the proud owner of multiple grade 5 fully engineered suits and weapons. For more granularity and details on how to tackle on foot settlements and missions I'd highly recommend also looking at the stealth boy channel on YouTube which served as the light bulb moment for me in my Odyssey journey and was the inspiration for this video you'll find that linked in the video description below. How did you get started in Odyssey first person shooter sections? Do you employ a different method or have you found this guide useful? Do let us know in the comments below. That's it for now thanks very much for watching if you enjoyed this video consider subscribing to the channel and maybe take a look at one of our other videos linked on screen right now.