"Flying without using a recommended build puts you and your wingmates at risk. Be courteous to your fellow pilots! Engineering is not optional, and flying without Guardian weapons is not recommended." - AXI Basic Combat Guide
I score an 8 million credit bounty in about 45 minutes with just 5 million to build a ship from scratch, no engineering, no guardian tech, no rep. Fighting the Thargoids is fun, grinding is not.
Corrections: It's a Viper mk3, not a Vulture mk3. The expansion I referred to is Odyssey, not Horizons.