This is my story of how I reached Triple Elite status
Beginning statistics as reference. Also rough estimate how long time it takes to reach this goal, however as you can read below this estimate went so belly up its not even funny. This below status and estimate was written in 2015-04-03 and while I could have easily deleted whole thing I really wanted to leave it here as reminder of what my expectactions were when starting this. Also hopefully this helps anyone who thinks about same kind of plan to reach this goal.
Combat
Bounties claimed: 171
Combat bonds: 10
Total kills: 181
Trading
451,1 million
Exploring
12,3 million
Combat Elite ranking is 8750 kills. Outdated/incorrect info
Trading Elite ranking is 1013 million traded. I have 451,1 so need 561,9 million. I can trade 10 million a day which is 56.1 days! 
Okay so I have to trade at least 20 million per day which is 28 days, heh a month of straigh up trading then? ehhh, the horror... the horror 
Exploration Elite ranking is 119,9 million. I have 12,3 million so I need 107.6 million. Impossible to say how many millions you can make in a day as exploration usually is several days straight out in wild.
Important Update! Developers changed these exploration ranking values while I was exploring, so updated info is that to reach Elite ranking you need exploration profits of 158 million credits
Time it takes to triple Elite
1) exploration 7 days???
2) trading 28 days
3) combat 14 days
total 49 days, ETA May 22nd, maybe
Really rough date estimates. Apr 10th exploration elite. May 8th, trading elite. May 22nd, combat elite.
Timeline / Diary
Exploration Elite
2015-03-27: read OnePercent triple Elite interview in newsletter and got inspired, decided to go for this goal.
2015-03-28T23:42:02Z: started exploring, only maybe 1000Ly away from populated space.
2015-03-30T00:24:13Z: stop to unload first batch of exploration data at TSU, then proceeded to explore. Went to north armerica, cave and NGC 7822 nebulas. Then decided to go check out galactic core (not sagittarius a* specifically but just the center core).
2015-04-03: continuing towards sagittarius a* galactic center. Sagittarius A* at 2015-04-03T23:44:48Z
2015-04-04: 1955hrs decided to come back to populated space so could sell the exploration data. 25,586Ly traveling ahead of me
2015-04-05T16:43:23Z: journey continues from 15,533Ly point towards populated space. Traveling at 1,000Ly up in galaxy plane.
2015-04-06T03:52:17Z: at Droju sector had to (first time?) re-plot my route as there were so many unscoopable dwarf stars
2015-04-06T06:50:16Z: arrived at Snake Sector YV-M b7-5 
2015-04-06T07:23:38Z: arrived at Tsu and docked to Ziemkiewicz Ring. Journey is over, time to sell exploration data
Credits before selling exploration data: 27,303,155 and after 64,599,494 so made total of 37,296,339 credits. Spend time selling this cartography data 1h 21min hehe. I was really disappointed that it was THIS LOW amount, I already said if its under 50 million I will be disappointed and I secretly wished I rank up to Elite with over 100 million profit with one go... boy, was I wrong or what, huh!
2015-04-06 status:
Exploring
49,6 million
2015-04-06T23:01:49Z: Decided to go out -970,-1040,1030 coordinates and start neutron star scanning.
2015-04-07T08:35:37Z: arrived at Tsu and docked to Ziemkiewicz Ring.
Credits before selling exploration data: 64,599,486 and after 67,965,896 so made total of 3,366,410 credits. This was after 36 system visits but with focus on scanning neutron stars.
2015-04-07 status:
Exploring
53,0 million
2015-04-07T10:51:34Z: arrived to Shinrarta Dezhra to outfit exploring Anaconda for 39.35Ly jump range, then went to 2000Ly test drive
2015-04-07T12:51:10Z: arrived to Shinrarta Dezhra. Test drive was ok but ASP is still the best exploring ship, no doubt.
Credits before selling exploration data: 34,464,966 and after 35,140,002 so made total of 675,036 credits. This was about 2000Ly trip.
2015-04-07 status:
Exploring
53,7 million
2015-04-07T23:22:50Z: was in Tsu system and left to explore ("south of sol" hehe).
2015-04-08T01:39:47Z: arrived about 1000Ly away from Tsu at Wredguia XL-W c2-1. Started exploring closest systems.
2015-04-08T08:26:17Z: arrived at Tsu system to sell cartography data.
Credits before selling exploration data: 35,139,553 and after 37,792,636 so made total of 2,653,083 credits.
2015-04-08 status:
Exploring
56,4 million
2015-04-08T09:54:32Z: left Tsu to go explore neutron star fields 10-12,000Ly from Sol, for approx week I guess
2015-04-08T22:53:57Z: after sleep travel continues, not yet even close to the neutron star fields.
2015-04-08T23:30:09Z: arrived at Bleae Thua VN-D c27-3, only grid coord 500 up in the galactic plane.
2015-04-09T03:58:22Z: arrived at Traikaae KJ-O d7-0, the first neutron star in this journey. Not even close where I'm heading though.
Soon after noticed my Saitek X55 HOTAS K1 button is broken, decided to call into the shop and ask should I send it to warranty or not. If so, then dunno if I break out my Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS or play with keyboard and mouse instead.
2015-04-09T05:49:38Z: stopped for feeding break and to handle that HOTAS business. Had to ship HOTAS into repairs, tried to play using keyboard + mouse some training missions but it felt so weird heh, todays exploring momentum came to a halt.
2015-04-09T23:15:00Z: tried playing with Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS but holy smokes it was stiff stick, my muscles were sore after playing for 3 minutes! Not to mention I barely could destroy training basic combat sidewinder, ouch I want my Saitek X55 back!
2015-04-10T04:21:01Z: did final check with Thrustmaster Warthog but its so stiff and cant get the buttons to configure like in X55 so I decided to continue playing with keyboard and mouse until X55 comes back from repairs.
2015-04-10T04:47:52Z: call it quits for now, I just cant get the feeling and touch back by using keyboard. I'm constantly struggling to control my ship and scared shitless that slightest mistake causes my ship to get destroyed.
2015-04-14T10:21:50Z: Had a weekend off as my Saitek X55 was under warranty repair, today I got brand new in un-opened box delivered to me!
I cant tell you how happy I was when I get to play elite again with proper HOTAS. I continued my journey from Byua Euq EW-E c14-0 system.
2015-04-16T07:28:15Z: arrived at Bleae Aescs TS-A d1-140 system which is located in nice dense neutron star field. Now starts one week of surface scanning neutron stars and water/earth like worlds
2015-04-17T15:50:01Z: decided to head one or two thousand light years further towards the core as I felt like running light on neutron stars at my current location. Deeper into galaxy we go!
2015-04-23: Thursday; youre done with neutron stars, head back to populated space! 
2015-04-23T14:43:23Z: my voyage to home started. I was 15,942Ly away from Sol. Decided to travel by doing hop 1000Ly and then to stop to surface scan 5 systems, then continue with next 1000Ly hop looping like this until reach populated space. It was a good decision because on first hop (stop?) I found two water worlds and one earth like world
Looking at this exploration diary, just realized I was out two weeks to explore, wow nice.
2015-04-24T04:35:14Z: arrived to Snake Sector NN-T c3-13
2015-04-24T05:07:36Z: arrived to Woriosolis system (alliance) and was immediately interdicted, yikes! But I escaped. Then I proceedd and docked at Bugrov Freeport. Then off to sell exploration data.
Credits before selling exploration data: 37,791,676 and after 113,102,226 so made total of 75,310,550 credits.
2015-04-24 status:
Exploring
131,7 million
When selling the exploration data I got 75 million, which was not enough for exploration Elite status, I was super devastated. I felt like I just absolutely cannot explore anytime soon after this exhaustive set I did now... and it wasnt fucking enough
As conclusion for this April 8th - 24th exploration journey, I must say it was really exhaustive, scanning those neutron stars was tedious as was the traveling of 1000Ly hops, the constant jumping and advanced discovery scan pinging. I played on most days all day with just eating breaks. It gets to your head, into your mental health when you hammer this kind of hardcore playing.
2015-04-25T00:37:37Z: decided to just go fly around in populated space in my Python, do some combat, maybe explore those stations with missing landing pad and distance to star info, etc. I just cannot continue exploring right now after that massive two week set.
Did couple of days just chilling with exploring stations on populated space, doing some RES and nav beacon combat. I didnt explore for profit, but still got little bit credits.
2015-04-27 status:
Exploring
133,1 million
2015-04-27T01:50:19Z: left Founders World in my Anaconda (out of boredom) as I decided to go "down and right" from Sol to do some exploring. Just couple of thousand light years away.
2015-04-27 status:
Exploring
134,3 million
Shinrarta Dezhra, 2015-04-27T06:14:15Z: picked up ASP and headed towards Snake Sector, time to explore this fully
2015-04-27T07:00:38Z: arrived to Snake Sector FB-X c1-22. I explored few days but then just absolutely burnt out. Took several days break, just doing other stuff. I just could not play Elite...
2015-05-08T18:47:56Z: Back in Elite, exploration continues, not sure how actively though...
2015-05-21T01:40:14Z: was bored out of my mind so decided to head to populated space for some trading, yes I know, I'm a fucking sell out... but what can you do, I'll slit my wrists rather than being exploring snake sector anymore
credits before selling: 18,315,731 after selling: 25,874,145 so made total of: 7,558,414 credits.
exploration profits before: 134,301,056 after: 141,859,470
Next I had a just over three months break from Elite as I just was so burnt out for exploring and everything. Note: I did not play other games either.
2015-09-05T23:40:58Z: Started to play again and arrived to: Snake Sector PD-S b4-3. Plan is now to finish once and for all exploring the rest of Snake Sector.
2015-09-09T23:02:27Z: at Snake Sector GM-V c2-10 when I found latest water world, I felt so bored with the tedious exploring of this sector because it just seems so endlessly large, you constantly wait for the exploration to be complete but still more and more Unknown systems show up in navigation panel, very demoralizing and boring.
Its boring especially because this sector is mere 600Ly away from populated space and actually at the route towards galaxy core, with bonus nebula too... so pretty much all the systems are almost fully explored by CMDR's already (while the game hasn't been out even a year yet, Elite has great community).
I thought that its not worth doing something extremely boring and tedious, so I decided to head back to populated space to sell this 5 days worth of exploration data. Now I know it is not enough for me to reach Elite ranking but still, why do something which makes your mind go numb and almost gives you stress.
BTW please note that I'm not blaming elite for this, elite is not boring, the problem is me... I'm just playing it all day every day without breaks even which is way too much over long period of time. Its just not healthy. I dont give damn what game you play, with this much they all burn you out...
credits before selling: 24,215,624 after selling: 34,963,742 so made total of: 10,748,118 credits.
exploration profits before: 142,135,626 after: 152,883,744
The above sums means I'm approximately 6 million exploration profit away from reaching Elite ranking.
Exploring systems in one day, record 567, but very good day is above 400. You're lazy if its below 150. Basically 31 jumps is 1,000Ly.
2015-09-10T04:44:22Z: at Shinrarta Dezhra, got motivated by getting so close to Elite rank that I decided to man up and head back out to Snake Sector to explore until I ran out of Unknown systems or I spend three full days exploring. I believe three full days is enough to get me six million in profits.
2015-09-10T05:05:17Z: arrived to Snake Sector DL-Y d60, exploration continues. Let's do this!
In PMC EliteLog tool I reached 10,000 total jumps when I jumped to Snake Sector GW-W d1-85, 2015-09-11T00:02:35Z, heh cool.
2015-09-12T06:30:08Z: shifted location several times until I finally found another Unknown system, man wonder if I'm going to run out of them soon heh.
2015-09-12T18:24:05Z: with jump to Snake Sector JS-K b8-0 my statistics reached Systems Visited: 10,000 yeah!
2015-09-12T18:38:03Z: decided to jump the gun to celebrate 10k visited systems and head back to sell the exploration data even though I dont think I have enough for Elite yet...
2015-09-12T19:03:57Z: arrived to Shinrarta Dezhra and started to sell exploration data.
2015-09-12T19:30:04Z: I finally reached exloration rank: Elite Whohuu!
credits before selling: 34,963,742 after selling: 40,344,085 so made total of: 5,380,343 credits.
exploration profits before: 152,883,744 after: 158,264,087
You can watch My path to a Exploration Elite Part 1 (1080p) and My path to a Exploration Elite Part 2 (2160p) videos on youtube.
Trading Elite
2015-09-12T20:05:05Z: Updated TradeDangerous and break out my Lakon Type-9, its time to trade myself a Elite rank!
2015-09-12T20:23:21Z: arrived to BD-02 4304 where my Lakon Type-9 was stored, ahh its good to see my old friend again, together we have traded so many millions and we will continue to do so.
Current trading stats
Market Network: 184
Trading Profit: 452,333,846 cr
Commodities Traded: 370,130
Average Profit: 524,749 cr
Highest Single Transaction: 4,598,416 cr
Some Elite wiki page says that trading elite rank is 1,013,000,000 cr, interesting to see if that is correct. If it is, then I'll need to make 560,666,154 cr before reaching it.
2015-09-14T08:43:07Z: docked at HR 1064 and sold cargo, then purchased Hauler with plan to head to my python which was 69.52Ly away. Stopped for refuel at Palekereg Haldeman Terminal. Then arrived to Niflhel system, docked at Biruni Port at 2015-09-14T09:18:48Z. Fly my Python to Shinrarta Dezhra, Jameson Memorial station and arrived there 2015-09-14T09:38:25Z.
Now its time to purchase ship that can travel great distances quickly but also defend itself, I'm going to track down those stations that have very old data in trading tool databases, ie EDDN based like TradeDangerous (Maddavo's Market Share). Going to visit them and use ED Market Connector to send market commodity data to EDDN. Its going to be fun
So purchased ASP and outfitted it with 33Ly jump range, best fuel scoop, basic shields and gimballed pulse lasers. This way I can travel great distances quickly but also defend off any AI interdictions. Then I left and started to explore TradeDangerous olddata systems. Soon after I chatted with Maddavo and he told me about his sites editstation page which is great for tracking down Large landing pad stations without commodity market prices, so I started to visit those.
2015-09-16T05:49:10Z: arrived to HR 1064 where my Lakon Type-9 is parked, time to do few trade runs for a change.
I had left 20 hop trade route (from TradeDangerous, of course) half way through earlier so I completed it now. Quite nice route with couple of looping systems at the end, good profits.
_Dastardly_ ultimate gold trade route, 60 hops. I decided to try this trade route out as I read about it in Frontier forums.
2015-09-17T02:20:16Z: start of the _Dastardly_ guys 60 hop route
SHINRARTA DEZHRA/Jameson Orbital; Performance Enhancers
KOMOVOY/Silves Dock; Gold, 3 jumps, profit: 1217cr
LTT 4961/Conway City; Land Enrichment Systems, 4 jumps, profit: 1150cr
SKOGULUMARI/Matheson Gateway; Tobacco, 3 jumps, profit: 1144cr
SAN ZAIHE/Ackerman Orbital; Marine Equipment, 4 jumps, profit: 0cr as tobacco was prohibited, had to detour to Arevakimos/Hampson Dock to sell
HR 7221/Veron City (1800ls?); Imperial Slaves, n/a, n/a
MEHIME/Bode Vision; Palladium, 4 jumps, profit: 123cr
CD-62 1454/Baille City; Resonating Separators, 4 jumps, profit: 1124cr
JETERAIT/Mcintosh Terminal; Gold, 4 jumps, profit: 1147cr
CD-54 9671/Somayaji Terminal; Land Enrichment Systems, 5 jumps, profit: 1576cr
YAROKLIS/Marsden City; Imperial Slaves, 2 jumps, profit: 806cr
JETERAIT/Barnard Port; Beryllium, 5 jumps, profit: LOSS! 1549cr!
VEQUESS/Agnews' Folly; Marine Equipment, 3 jumps, profit: 1401cr
FUTHARK/Barker's Horizon; Imperial Slaves, 2? jumps , profit 1040cr
LAEDLA/Gusmao Prospect; Palladium, 4 jumps, profit: 289cr
YAWA/Dean Hub; Resonating Separators, 3 jumps, profit: 881cr
LFT 78/Coye Orbital; Superconductors, 4 jumps, profit: 1215cr
CHAPSUGAIBO/Schlesinger City (1300ls?); Resonating Separators, 4 jumps, profit: 1372cr
EOTIENSES/Parkinson Dock; Gold (they didn't sell gold?), 3 jumps, profit: 1035cr
KURED/Kuchner Vision; Progenitor Cells, 4 jumps, profit: 1190cr (brought performance enhancers instead)
EOTIENSES/Kaufmanis Port; Gold, 4 jumps, profit: 274cr
NGAIAWANG/Dornier Terminal; Imperial Slaves (they didn't sell imp.slaves?), 5 jumps, profit: 1543cr (brought progenitor cells instead)
AYMIFA/Hunziker Orbital; Beryllium, 3 jumps, profit: 174cr
LIU DI/Sudworth Orbital; Land Enrichment Systems, 6 jumps, profit: 1344cr
RUNO/Mitzi's Den; Imperial Slaves, 4 jumps, profit: 1188cr
SLATAS/Bennett Vision; Gold, 3 jumps, profit: 1335cr
WUTHIELO KU/Mattingly Gateway; Imperial Slaves, 3 jumps, profit: 1577cr
PERAESII/Giger Hub; Palladium, 9 jumps, profit: 1387cr
NUNUS/Antoniadi; Imperial Slaves, 11 jumps, profit: 1645cr
PERAESII/Hickham Hub; Palladium, 11 jumps, profit: 1379cr
ANGURONGO/Dahm Port; Land Enrichment Systems, 5 jumps, profit: 1469cr
URCIA/Fedden City; Imperial Slaves (they didn't sell imp.slaves?), 4 jumps, profit: 1181cr
AYMIFA/Lomonosov Colony; Gallium, 3 jumps, decided to run empty so no profit.
NGAIAWANG/Dornier Terminal;Imperial Slaves (they still dont sell imp.slaves..), 3 jumps, profit: 1163cr
EOTIENSES/Parkinson Dock; Gold (they didn't sell gold?), 5 jumps, profit: 227cr
SIDDHA/Blaauw Orbital; Imperial Slaves, 4 jumps, profit 1461cr (brought beryllium instead)
HR 494/Jordan Orbital (3200ls?); Palladium, 3 jumps, profit: 1137cr
GLIESE 58/Roth Station; Resonating Separators, 4 jumps, profit: 1650cr
LTT 542/Fowler Horizons; Superconductors, 5 jumps, profit: 1021cr
WAPIYA/Brothers Vision (2200ls?); Performance Enhancers, 7 jumps, profit: 1368cr
HERTHANS/Henry Vision; Marine Equipment, 5 jumps, profit: 1357cr
FUTHARK/Barker's Horizon; Imperial Slaves, 4 jumps, profit: 819cr
LAEDLA/Kummer Acropolis; Palladium, 4 jumps, profit: 662cr
YAWA/Dean Hub; Resonating Separators, 3 jumps, profit: 667cr
LFT 78/Coye Orbital; Superconductors, 4 jumps, profit: 1215cr
Q1 ERIDANI/Windt Terminal; Performance Enhancers, 2 jumps, profit: 1261cr
LHS 142/Watson Station; Gold, 4 jumps, profit: 1327cr
LHS 1197/Chretien Terminal; Land Enrichment Systems, 2 jumps, profit: 983cr
G 35-15/Leslie Gateway; Imperial Slaves (they didn't sell imp.slaves?), 5 jumps, profit: 1156cr
ODUDURO/Conrad Hub; Superconductors, 2 jumps, no profit decided to go empty.
ANLAVE/Hogg City; Progenitor Cells, 4 jumps, profit: 928cr
DUAMTA/Wang City; Beryllium, 4 jumps, profit: 1319cr
FIONN/Currie Enterprise; Resonating Separators, 4 jumps, profit: 1335cr
LU VELORUM/Miletus Station; Progenitor Cells, 3 jumps, profit: 824cr
KUTKHA/Ryazanski Station; Gold, 4 jumps, profit: 978cr
L 190-21/Gurragchaa Orbital; Land Enrichment Systems, 3 jumps, profit: 1352cr
I CARINAE/Somerset Station (1500ls?); Tobacco, 2 jumps, profit: 816cr
KUTKHA/Kregel Station; Gold, 3 jumps, profit: 1147cr
L 190-21/Bondar Terminal (1300ls?); Performance Enhancers, 3 jumps, profit: 1259cr
SESUANG/Drummond Enterprise; Marine Equipment, 2 jumps, profit: 844cr
SKEGGIKO O/Kuo Terminal; nothing, 2 jumps, profit: 1079cr
SHINRARTA DEZHRA/Jameson Orbital
2015-09-17T19:02:16Z: ended back at Shinrarta Dezhra where I started early this morning. It was really fun but overall exhausting route to complete it in one days time. I had to actually really push the last four or so hours to complete it, it almost felt like it was early evening already and I was only middle way through heh. But I did it, pretty much soon as I docked back to Jameson Memorial, I crashed into bed, dead tired elite trader hehe.
Now I'm really glad to have accomplished _Dastardly_ ultimate gold trade route instead of just been thinking about it. Really nice accomplishment feeling.
Hyper jumped 246 times during this 60 hop trading route (not sure how many actual unique systems I visited).
2015-09-19T08:22:27Z: picked up my ASP from HR 1064 and headed to "west down" 220Ly away to explore some new trading routes.
2015-09-22T11:46:01Z: at Shinrarta Dezhra, Jameson Memorial. Outfitted my Anaconda with trading setup as so many CMDR's out there think it is the best trading ship, hah. Now I've got it on 468t cargo capacity which means no shields. Also I didn't add any weapons as the point of using anaconda... is the longer jump range. At least that's what I think the fools are after, dunno.
2015-09-22T13:28:54Z: returned to Shinrarta Dezhra, Jameson Memorial. Sold cargo racks from anaconda, it is not better trading ship than Lakon Type-9. Those idiots who trade with anaconda thinking its better... haha, its so sad. BTW you might think this is bit harsh so let me clear something up; I dont hate anaconda and I dont hate CMDR's who trade with anaconda... I do hate the idiots who boast against common sense that its best trade ship. You can trade with eagle for all I care
Picked up my station exploration ASP and went back to get market price data for those large pad stations within 1000ls that do not have it.
120 Hop Mega Route
2015-10-01T02:55:25Z: docked at Marrallang/Alfven Hub after picking up my Lakon Type-9 trade ship from Urvane, its time for some trading again!
I updated TradeDangerous and calculated 120 hop mega trade route, its time to see how well such huge ordeal goes. I'm estimating that this will take three to four days depending on how much I get to play each day.
My current stats are total of 111,848,238 credits with trading profit of 538,825,578 credits. This current 120 hop route by TradeDangerous is estimated to bring in 107 million.
My trade rank is Tycoon with 24 percentage.
2015-10-01T04:29:39Z: at ICZ FW-V b2-7 system was interdicted by mostly mostly harmless anaconda, I thought that maybe my 5x beam lasers can take him... but I was wrong. Oh well, there went insurance money plus 532x palladium load of 7 million credits, easy come easy go hehe!
2015-10-01T08:52:45Z: was interdicted by a Python, I was timing how long it takes to jump 4 times so didn't even plan on fighting and started to boost and escape by engaging FSD. Well for some really odd reason I couldn't make it and was destroyed... damn, what kind of fucking super AI ships are there flying tonight? Killed twice in few hours now?
2015-10-03T23:29:07Z: docked and sold my last load of cargo! 120 hop mega trade route has been completed! Yeah baby yeah!
At end of 120 hop mega route my stats are total of 185,524,357 credits with trading profit of 630,560,380 credits. So I made 91,734,802 credits with this route. Trade rank vent up to 38%. Note: but what about the insurance ship rebuy and the palladium load costs? Are those deducted from your current balance? Hmm.
2015-10-07T00:37:05Z: arrived to Delkar after outfitting Lakon Type-7 for mining setup in Jameson Memorial. Its time to test mining in brand new v1.4 release. At first attempt of mining I was attacked by AI pirates and I escaped, on second attempt I was destroyed heh. Mining is tough job huh
Mining felt slow with two pulse lasers and two collector controllers, dunno. Yeah it was somewhat good credits when you returned to sell the stuff, but it took hours to mine the stuff so there is just no comparison for trading. Trading is the king.
Purchased Python and outfitted it with mining setup using two mining lasers, works very well. Python seems to be the best overall mining ship now.
Then flew around in populated space exploration ASP gathering market price data using EDMC and typing in distances from star into Maddavo's editstation page. Did also some trading but only little bit.
2015-10-16T16:31:41Z: earlier today we got official v1.5 ships list and Panther Clipper was not there, I'm very sad
For this reason I decided that okay now I'm going to concentrate on pure trading trying to reach Elite rank as quick as possible.
Did another run with tweaked ASP to bulletin board smuggling missions, made millions of credits and trade rank increased ten percent or something like that.
2015-10-17T12:16:18Z: new bulletin board smuggling mission day starts. Credits 285,5 million and trading rank tycoon status 71%.
First trip out made 48 million. Trading ranking status went up to 79%.
On second trip I returned to Robigo system, was really surprised that I get my cargo hold filled with ONE SINGLE open/private relogin as there was so many very valuable missions available. Heh I should have got Python for the cargo space
I then went to Shinrarta Dezhra and purchased Python just for this smuggling business. Python is quite nice smugling ship, except slow fuel scoop (3A) and very short jump range. But it can boost away from interdictions very nicely, not to mention it can carry weapons, a lot of guns.
2015-10-18T02:50:57Z: just reached Trading Elite rank! Wohuuu!
You can watch My path to a Trading Elite video on youtube.
2015-10-18T04:30:00Z: finished smuggling for today, last mission completed, uuh exhausted.
Using ASP earlier today did 48 million and then purchased Python and did 128,7 million for total of 176.7 million.
2015-10-18T13:21:43Z: Sothis bulletin board smuggling missions continue. Started with 420,3 million.
2015-10-18T20:31:43Z: finished with 567,8 million, total profit: 147,5 million.
2015-10-18T21:55:53Z: start with 567,8 million.
2015-10-18T23:26:38Z: back at populated space, ready to deliver missions.
2015-10-19T01:57:23Z: finished with 723,2 million, total profit: 155.4 million.
total today: 302,9 million
I was happy doing this extra day of smuggling because the next day developers tweaked the mission spawn rate to bare minimum basically killing this lucrative smuggling scheme.
Combat Elite
2015-10-19T13:43:35Z: arrived to Shinrarta Dezhra, time to pick up my combat outfitted python and start to do combat.
Started combat rank progression. Balance 723,230,942 credits, combat rank Competent 10% status.
2015-10-20: reached Expert rank (didn't note the time, sorry).
2015-10-21: End of the day was Expert 46% rank.
2015-10-22: End of the day was Expert 70% rank.
2015-10-23: End of the day was Expert 87% rank.
2015-10-24T22:13:36Z: reached combat rank of Master!
2015-10-25T09:08:24Z: End of the day was Master 10% rank.
2015-10-26T09:30:11Z: End of the day was Master 20% rank.
2015-10-27T08:16:46Z: End of the day was Master 38% rank.
2015-10-28T03:11:36Z: Took out my combat Anaconda, its the only thing it rules over other ships (anaconda is not the best explorer, its not the best trader. However its good combat ship because of massive shields etc). Initially my plan was to outfit it with top of the line stuff including the 370 million armor however I could not wait to save the missing 55 million for it by doing Hazardous RES combat so I sold the armor and replaced with stock default one. Finished the outfitting otherwise (bought 7A shields and shield cell banks) and went for the first combat trials.
Anaconda was just good in combat, not great. In conflict zone it was very useful as it was shielded good and had turrets to shoot in all directions. For combat rank progression anaconda is great in conflict zones.
2015-10-28T07:59:46Z: End of the day was Master 61% rank.
2015-10-29T11:19:44Z: Reached combat rank of Dangerous!
2015-10-29T11:43:59Z: End of the day was Dangerous 1% rank.
Conclict Zones are clearly the most useful on progressing combat rank. In Hazaroud Resource Extraction Sites you get so low amount of ships and there is a lot of waiting time, while in conflict zone you get mayhem shoot'em up constantly.
2015-10-30T10:34:43Z: End of the day was Dangerous 5% rank.
2015-11-04T07:24:33Z: took a few days break from Elite playing, got bored if not burnt out for the combat. It was refreshing to totally shut my brain off from any Elite related (gaming, IRC, web, videos, everything).
2015-11-04T10:36:52Z: picked up my combat python from Jameson Memorial in attempt to test some pulse laser setups (low heat generation) for it. It didn't take more playing than this for me to get bored for the conflict zone mindless shooting mayhem...
Python test tour was rather quick, I again picked up anaconda and continued on conflict zone fighting.
2015-11-04T17:34:55Z: End of the day was Dangerous 22% rank.
2015-11-05: End of the day was Dangerous 26% rank.
2015-11-06T08:05:43Z: End of the day was Dangerous 29% rank.
2015-11-08T13:45:32Z: themroc (EDDB author) was returning from exploration journey to galactic core, I went out to Snake Sector to meet him and to escort him back.
We arrived at HIP 72043 system, Kippax Ring station at 17:55:09Z. Mission accomplished!
2015-11-11T14:37:09Z: picked up my anaconda and arrived to Komovoy system for some continuing combat rank progression. Apparently the conflict zones were gone, only one low intensity left, hoh. Had to move into Solati system.
2015-11-11: End of the day was Dangerous 36% rank.
2015-11-12T14:35:06Z: needed a break for conflict zone grind, decided to make some credits and test bit more extensive how anaconda works in resource extraction site bounty hunting at lavigny duval 20 percent passive bonus system of LTT 2667.
Enjoyed the high intensity resource extraction site combat greatly, spend several hours there and by some miracle there was almost constant action and usually high ranking ships too which is great for my combat rank progression. Made also lot of credits, one ~3 hours stretch got me 6,4 million in bounties.
2015-11-13T04:52:03Z: End of the day was Dangerous 57% rank.
2015-11-13T16:03:28Z: End of the day was Dangerous 64% rank.
2015-11-13T19:00:00Z: v1.5 beta was released, I might take few hours if not days to test this out. I don't plan on testing for extended period of time as I get no combat rank gains, but remains to be see how much v1.5 beta playtime I get.
2015-11-13T23:12:06Z: After seeing how the developers nuked shield cell banks in v1.5 beta, I quickly launched v1.4.01 back up and continued my combat rank progression task. I decided that now I'm going to grind combat rank all day every day until I reach Elite, because certainly the combat takes a big hit in v1.5 as shield cells banks are becoming practically useless.
2015-11-14T02:00:00Z: End of the day was Dangerous 71% rank.
2015-11-15T03:22:28Z: End of the day was Dangerous 86% rank.
2015-11-15T14:54:49Z: arrived at Kaushpoos system with intentions to take part in the bounty hunting community goal.
Sometime during this time I received my highest bounty from Anaconda 405,020 credits. Now that is some juicy bounty!
2015-11-15T23:53:20Z: reached combat rank Deadly finally!
2015-11-16T00:25:51Z: End of the day was Deadly 0% rank.
2015-11-16T21:43:59Z: for accidentally shooting and killing CLEAN ship I had 7 days 6000cr bounty. It was purely accident; I proceeded for my kill just as I normally do, targeted ship that others were shooting in the hazardous RES, the ship was very low on hull percentage so I had to act quickly, but once I opened fire I noticed the warning in top right of the cockpit panel that I got fine for shooting a clean ship. Before I could react the combined fire from my ship and other (wanted heh) ships destroyed the clean ship and I got 6000cr bounty for murder.
So now I started my new day of RES combat in Kaushpoos but oddly there was wing of police ships which scanned me and started attacked so I had to jump out. That is new, never seen police in haz-res before, must be some community goal thing, dunno.
The community goal was still running for 2 days and 17 hours but I had the bounty which limited my activity creatly (for example no open play because of CMDR's shooting at me), I decided now that I'll go to neville horizons, purchase hauler, outfit it to max jump range, then go claim my bounty vouchers in LTT 2667 system as well as in all federation, empire and alliance. After that I let police (or anyone) to scan and kill me so I can get rid of the bounty.
Yeah I know lot of effort for small accident, although perhaps the MURDERED clean ship CMDR doesnt think so, heh. But I just want to benefit for the free haz-res activity in this community goal as its almost three days worth of bounty hunting.
Did all that, went through the systems that I had open bounty claim vouchers, cashed them in, then returned to Neville Horizons and stripped last remaining modules from the taxi hauler. Went outside, let police scan me after which they attacked and killed me. Bounty cleared, I'm good to go
2015-11-17T09:01:59Z: End of the day was Deadly 2% rank.
2015-11-17T20:57:48Z: aand got another murder bounty 6000cr on my head, this time absolutely without reason as in middle of the fight I had wanted ship targeted by my turrets but clean lakon type-9 mining ship flew through my laser fire, then lateron that ship was destroyed by wanted ships... and I got murder bounty... for doing absolutely nothing. Ridiculous.
Oh well now I'm not bothering to go through all that suicide by cop routine, I'll just fight my way through this bounty as wanted CMDR.
2015-11-18T08:20:07Z: End of the day was Deadly 6% rank.
Today Kaushpoos bounty hunting community goal finished, I was in top 5 percent with 28,4 million in bounties collected. I went to outfit fixed multi-cannons along with normal turreted beam lasers to my anaconda in Jameson Memorial, then headed out to Cerni system for some 20 percent passive bonus for bounties.
Had one bounty hunting session with CMDR COL.Blair which was nice.
2015-11-19T06:59:10Z: End of the day was Deadly 10% rank.
Did some conflict zone combat today as I felt frustrated in hazardous RES while getting only lower combat ranking ships and of course the usual down times when waiting for ships to appear. However the conflict zone wasnt that hot either, very few elite ships and even deadly's were rare.
2015-11-20T08:11:56Z: End of the day was Deadly 15% rank.
Was careless in conflict zone and had my anaconda blown up. Heh 4+ ships started to shoot at me and I had the nerve to try to repel them, big mistake. Anytime such number of ships open up on you, its time to jump away.
2015-11-21T11:27:17Z: End of the day was Deadly 22% rank.
New day of combat but didn't feel like playing at all, before I even started PMC Gaming computer I felt like blah combat. But I tried, one set of conflict zone but had to again escape by hyper jumping as single (1) ASP with rail gun brought my shields down while I was engaging dangerous python.
My doctrine is now that if my shields go down I drop everything and immediately jump into hyperspace which has no mass-lock to delay the jump to safety.
It really pays off to select a star system to jump into at the first thing you do while entering into conflict zone, I've had to use hyper jump escape now like the last four times in conflict zones.
2015-11-21T22:26:11Z: End of the day was Deadly 23% rank.
New day and some conflict zone combat, but under 5mins had to jump away as another 4-5 ships opened up on me taking down my shields and before I managed to jump away, hull to about 50% status. Back to hazardous RES, baby.
Got frustrated to the complete lack of elite or even more than few rare deadly ships in the hazardous RES. Decided to move into pristine reserves metallic ring system in A Lavigny-Duval control space. Some people say pristine reserves metallic rings have the best ship selections. We'll see...
2015-11-22T15:21:51Z: End of the day was Deadly 28% rank.
2015-11-23T01:35:16Z: decided to go check out Compromised Navigation Beacon's as forum posts say that they are filled with deadly/elite ships. I collected quick list of nav beacons from forums which I plan to visit to see what they are all about.
So I purchased taxi Hauler and headed to Jameson Memorial to pickup my populated space ASP Explorer.
2015-11-23T06:37:16Z: completed tour of those compromised navigation beacons with my ASP. They look very juicy, lot of elite ships there
Too bad I didn't yet find any such beacons in A Lavigny-Duval control systems where the 20% bounty passive bonus is applied.
2015-11-23T10:42:12Z: last stop at LTT 2667, where I finished my compromised navigation beacon a lavigny-duval control systems search, there is none
2015-11-23T10:46:53Z: returned my ASP to Shinrarta Dezhra, Jameson Memorial. Today no combat ranking unfortunately, all day was spent basically on futile attempt of finding compromised navigation beacon in ALD space. Although I got good data collected, none actually worked as I planned. Oh well, gotta do some compromised navigation beacon bounty hunting without the 20% passive bonus.
2015-11-24T02:28:21Z: Today we started at Jameson Memorial where we left off last night, time to go pickup our combat anaconda from empire space using another taxi hauler, then off to nearest compromised navigation beacon for some elite ship killing.
2015-11-24T03:21:24Z: Arrived to HIP 11131 system, nearest compromised navigation beacon to my starting location. Now we'll get to see how the combat is with anaconda in there.
2015-11-24T15:36:00Z: End of the day was Deadly 40% rank.
Purchased taxi Hauler and went to cash in bounty vouchers on couple of systems as they were already millions. Went to cash in Rhibonii system at Komarov Base outpost which was 125,000Ls from the star, ugh!
Found pretty decent system at Hecate, its large pad station is 525Ls away from the star, quick and easy to go rearm, repair and as well cash in bounty vouchers there.
2015-11-25T14:48:31Z: End of the day was Deadly 50% rank.
2015-11-26T17:10:19Z: End of the day was Deadly 58% rank.
2015-11-27T08:11:44Z: once again got 6000cr murder bounty, was too trigger happy in the heat of combat to shoot 4% hull anaconda... but forgot to check that hes wanted. Hoh. 6 days bounty on my head now and this Hecate system was so great for compromised navigation beacon combat with the station so close. Damn.
2015-11-27T17:07:17Z: End of the day was Deadly 70% rank.
2015-11-28T08:22:46Z: was attacking vulture and suddenly noticed that I was wanted, err what the hell? Checked transactions and yeah, 6000cr murder bounty there for 6 days. Seriously what the hell... apparently some poor clean ship flew through my turreted beams and got hit, then later AI's killed it so I was listed amongst the killers, sucks.
Was thinking oh well now I'm not going to bother to go clean this bounty off unless I start to get attacked constantly by clean ships in this beacon... Well I did, I assume thats how the fights start in hazardous RES and these beacons in the first place. So I jumped away as it leads to nothing if I have to destroy clean ships. Did the usual suicide by cop in sidewinder cheapo ship. Then back to combat rank progression.
Feeling very good for todays progress, I actually made a personal three day goal so that I'll reach on first day 70, second 85 and third finally 100% which is Elite rank by sunday 29th, night before Elite Horizons beta release
2015-11-28T20:40:34Z: End of the day was Deadly 85% rank.
2015-11-29T06:29:19Z: last day of my path to a triple elite started! Was very excited about this great journey coming to an end, and will be so awesome after all this work to be finally triple elite.
I thought to fight through this last part with wanted status, had to jump into super cruise few times to escape onslaught of ships attacking me and I actually killed several clean smaller ships who attacked me, got 53,200cr bounty in total. This was really annoying and last time I got clean ships attacking me had hull brought down to 65% before I got through mass lock and escaped. I decided to do suicide by cop in sidewinder to clear the bounty, once again. What a wasted time as I'm so close of reaching my goal...
When I reached Deadly 95% status I got actually nervous... oh man I'm going to be achieve triple elite today, is this for real? Heh.
2015-11-29T17:53:10Z: reached combat rank of Elite!
Now I'm finally Triple Elite! Wohuu!
You can watch My path to a Combat Elite video on youtube.
Triple Elite Thoughts
The journey to three elite ranks was long and extremely tough, as you just read above I had few burnouts and the one took me good three months to get over with. Such burnouts are nothing new to me from Falcon 4 and OFP/ArmA/ArmA2 editing times.
When I'm focusing on some aspect like editing or this triple elite goal, I'm doing nothing else than it. My usual triple elite journey day consisted of nothing but playing elite, only breaks were to get something to eat, rest was pure elite without interruptions like family etc that those normal people have.
Don't get me wrong I'm not thinking of being somekind of special person here, there are "many" triple elite CMDR's out there so this is absolutely nothing new or unique, anyone can reach this goal as long as they are motivated and dedicated... and many have already!
When reaching triple elite I felt incredible relief like now my elite retirement days start and I can do what I want, when I want as much or little as I want. Almost like, only NOW can I fully enjoy elite... difficult to explain what I mean here heh. Somehow elite just feels so much more relaxed to me now. For example exploration is not about "farming neutron stars" for credits anymore, not about jumping 1000Ly in an hour... no, its about enjoying what galaxy has to offer, fully taking in the breath taking sights.
For new commanders I would give recommendation which I completely dismissed myself before reaching this goal; Do not rush Triple Elite. Just enjoy the game, the ranks come eventually... no point of burning yourself out going after them like crazy person. Just, absolutely just enjoy Elite
Also dunno how to explain this, but I played original Elite with Commodore 64 back in 1986 or so, then Frontier Elite with Amiga 500 in the 90's where I never reached any specific rank even though I played original like crazy. This time Elite Dangerous is not just a game, its piece of gaming history and bigger than life... reaching the most sought after rank of Triple Elite was definitely more meaningful that just a simple "status", like said difficult to explain but hopefully you understand.
For example when I reached the last rank part (combat) and was traveling back to the nearest station as Triple Elite, I was so emotional that almost had to stop my ship in super cruise and just take a moment to collect myself as I couldnt believe that I've finally reached this goal. I was actually sitting at the stations hangar for few minutes just taking it all in...
I am extremely happy that reached this goal, Triple Elite truly is something else
2022-01-09T10:15:00Z Special note: I accomplished this back in 2015, since then exploration and mining has had a complete overhaul, if you buy the game in 2022 or later and start to grind triple elite ranking, its not as hard as it was back in 2015. Not to take anything out of newbie commanders efforts in modern era, just stating the facts. One perfect example was the 2020 july low temperature diamonds mining craze, with my second account I went from clear save to Elite Trade rank within HOURS. Just think about that for a moment... things surely have changed a lot in Elite universe.