MSFS 2024 Career Mode: User Guide

Gameplay Mechanics & Strategies

The scoring and payout systems are only partially understood, especially Passenger Satisfaction and Airline Procedures. The job listing shows maximum payout excluding Bad Weather bonus, including Base Income, No-Skip bonus, and Reputation bonus.

Reputation bonus is calculated from reputation at the start of the mission, and applies as a percentage of the payout you actually earned (not the full listed amount).

Scoring system

• Base Income: core mission payout (partially performance based, unclear).
• Reputation Bonus: percentage based on tier (example: 10% A-tier, 20% S-tier), applied to earned payout.
• No-Skip Bonus: awarded for completing flight phases without skips. Most impact comes from not skipping descent. Taxi/takeoff/parking skips have minimal impact. Sim rate changes do not reduce it.

Factors affecting payout

• ATC compliance, including timely acknowledgements.
• Adherence to speed limits, gear/flap operation.
• Passenger Satisfaction and Airline Procedures appear inconsistent and may be bugged.

Tips for maximising income and reputation

• File flight plans via EFB to avoid penalties.
• Taxi smoothly and keep speeds sensible. The game cares about ground speed.
• Expect occasional scoring penalties due to bugs.

End game strategy

Passenger missions with the Boeing 737 offer the highest payouts, from hundreds of thousands to 19 million (and higher with Bad Weather bonus).

Zen and the Art of Aircraft Maintenance

In Freelancer Mode, maintenance is essential. If you delay required checks, planes may suffer mission failures or become unflyable. Crew on an aircraft increases wear.

When buying used

• Don’t sell all aircraft to buy another, especially used. Keep a backup earner.
• Review wear levels before buying. Don’t buy what you cannot afford to maintain.
• Worn engines are risk. Caravan 208 can overtorque/overheat easily.
• Test “Skip to Descent” in Employee Mode for each aircraft. Behaviour varies.
• Wear & tear trick: file a low cruise altitude, hit it quickly, skip to descent, land, earn partial payout with less wear.

Regular maintenance checks

• Required maintenance is scheduled and must be completed. Warnings appear. Due every 25 flight hours.
• Recommended checks after hard landings or damage notices (overtorque/overheat).

Repairing aircraft

• Repair cost for a part is the same regardless of wear until “Out of Order”, then it costs more.
• Delegated maintenance can repair early and waste money. Drilling down can save Credits.
• Unless you land hard or overstress, checks every 12 to 16 hours are often enough.
• Keep spare Credits for unexpected repairs.
• Insurance recommendation: buy top insurance until you can self-insure or have spare planes.

Gameplay Features

Passive income

• Assign Pilot = On for aircraft you own to earn passive income while you fly other missions (not Free Flight).
• It earns nothing when you are not flying.
• Passive earnings depend on aircraft and company.
• Insurance is not charged on planes earning passively. You pay only for the plane you are flying.
• Airliners can be bad passive investments due to maintenance costs.

Co-pilot communications

Automated callouts may include V1 Rotate, passing 10,000 ft, altimeter above FL180, gear down, flap overspeed. Informational only, you’re still responsible.

Notes on Various Missions/Aircraft

Sim Rate

• Use bindings for Sim Rate Increase/Decrease to speed up or slow time.
• Rates: ¼x, ½x, 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x.
• Higher multipliers can be dangerous.
• Sim rate affects ATC and control timing. ½ rate can help on radio and on final after skip.
• EFB stopwatch can help estimate current sim rate.

Understanding Airspeeds

• IAS: handling and limits. At altitude IAS is lower than TAS.
• TAS: true airspeed corrected for density, used for planning.
• Ground Speed: TAS plus wind. Impacts arrival time.
• Taxi: don’t exceed about 22 knots on taxiways.
• Below 10,000 ft: stay under 250 knots IAS. Gusts often mean aiming closer to 240.

Dirt and Wear Effects

Mostly cosmetic visual wear and dirt over time: faded paint (no detected effect), regular dirt, leaks, runway grime, mud, dust. Developer Mode can force these to preview.

Paint & Cosmetic

Repainting currently does nothing and does not affect passenger satisfaction in testing. In future may allow livery selection.

Headquarters

HQ upgrades over time, likely tied to level and/or aircraft owned. Keep levelling and buying bigger planes to reach Executive Suite (might require owning a 737).

Dealing with Mission Stuck States

• Try ATC: request different arrival/runway.
• If an objective exists, try completing it even if you must take off again.
• In air: report missed approach to attempt reset.
• On ground: drive around. You may get dinged, but Skip to Parking often appears.
• If it won’t complete, abort and try another mission.

Disaster Recovery

If your only plane is broken or you sold it and cannot afford a new one, return to Employee missions until you can repair or replace it. A career reset is rarely worth it.

Can’t Buy Company / Access Missions

• To buy a company you need the required specialisation, enough funds for the company, and enough funds for the first aircraft in that company.
• Meet prerequisites, complete the Golden Mission if needed.
• After buying the company, you must buy a compatible aircraft to see those missions (example: can’t do Charter VIP missions in a Vision Jet G2).

Special Missions

These are coded yellow (more than Golden Missions) and have an asterisk. Cause unknown, possibly level/reputation related.