First published on the 7th of April, 2018, updated on January 31 2021

Welcome to the Combat Guide!
This role will require some « Skill » to master: the Elite: Dangerous – Fighter.
Vanquish your enemies, steal their goods and protect your allies.

This will be useful to all fighters, bounty hunters, guardians, PvP, PvE or everyone else if you like to PEW PEW or DAKKA DAKKA 😉

Other guides:
Exploration | Mining | Piracy | Trading | Passengers | AX Combat

Summary:

• The role: Fighter
• Ships and Modules
• About Fighting
  • Weapons
  • Defenses
  • Outfitting Build Examples
  • Different Gameplay Types
  • Power Management and Priorities
• Tips and tricks

 

The role: Fighter

First of all, note that the following tips are from my experience, my opinion and the feedback I have been given to improve this article. There are so many gameplay, builds, strategies, ships that not everyone can be 100% satisfied. However, this is a solid foundation to understand combat; To lear and enhance your experience.

As a fighter, your roles can be multiple and your intentions different. Are you a mercenary making contracts in conflict / war zones or hunting bounties? An assassin looking for a dangerous fugitive? A guard, protecting traders? A pirate stealing from the weakest? A veteran fighter for your Powerplay Power?

Know that everything is possible. There are no key builds: only your ship’s abilities, your pilot skills and your way of playing the game.

▲ There are various combat archetypes, among others:

• Fighter
  • Versatile, large shields, nimble, mainly energy weapons.
  • For example with a Python, aChallenger or Krait MkII so you can stay in combat for a long time without having to repair between engagements.
• Tank
  • A ship with the highest armour & shields values in order to absorb a lot of damage during a long fight.
  • For example with a fGunship, Anaconda or iCutter in order to exhaust the opponent (and destroy his morale if in PvP) while inflicting constant damage.
• Hunter
  • A very strong striking force characterizes them as well as excellent defenses. The engagements are relatively short.
  • For example with a Viper MkIII, iCourier or Fer de Lance so that you can outmaneuver your targets and be untouchable while inflicting great damage.
• Stealth
  • Little seen as this gameplay has been nerfed lately (gameplay & night vision). The goal is to be invisible to the eyes of the enemy wether on the radar or direct visual.
  • For example with an Eagle MkII, Diamondback Scout or fAssault in order to hit a target without being spotted and to make locking on you very difficult.
• Interceptor
  • Equipped for the interception of targets in supercruise, they generally have weapons inflicting colossal damage at the cost of a great consumption of energy.
  • For example with an aChieftain, iClipper or Mamba in order to easily catch your targets and make hit&run maneuvers with Alpha strikes.
• Torpedoes
  • Equip your ship with various effects on your torpedoes in order to break the target’s shield generator, destabilize its FSD and inflict significant damage.
  • For example with a Cobra MkIV, Asp Explorer or Type 10 in order to have as many Class 2 and Class 1 hardpoints as possible to equip torpedoes and missiles.
• Support
  • Equipped with modules such as Drones for Repairs, Decontaminations or even Lasers with experimental effects of regeneration / reconstitution of shields.
  • For example with a Keelback, fDropship or iCutter in order to support your teams thanks to your locations of specific modules and weapons.

 

▲ These methods are used by different pilots roles:

• Pirates: They mainly attack the traders ships to steal their commodities and sell them to the black markets. You have to be precise to quickly recover the commodities before the police arrive. To do this, you have to attack the target’s cargo hold with your weapons or cargo hatch breaker limpets … or simply demand your target some of their resources.
• Mercenaries: They perform combat missions to help the factions, for example in conflict zones. Mercenaries can be loyal to a faction or perform all the missions, regardless of factions.
• Assassins: They hunt down and destroy dangerous fugitives (alone or in squads) to claim their bounties. This can be considered as a mix of mercenaries and bounty hunters. More risks, more rewards. An Assassin can also be a PvP player prepared for duels.
• Bounty Hunters: Many missions available, but also directly into space, beacons, resource extraction sites in asteroids rings around some planets, … in short all the places where possible targets could be found. They scan their targets from afar before destroying them in order to claim the bounties. Bounties on PvP players are limited at 2M Cr max.
• Guardians: What I call Guardians are the representatives of Powers or Factions. They play in Open and must outfit their ships to fight over a long period. They can protect their systems from other powers and factions, especially from other PvP players protecting their interests/assets. PP Bounties max = 6M Cr (with a Kill Warrant Scanner).
• AX Fighter: Fitted to hunt down Thargoids, an alien species.

 

Ships and Modules

Any ship can fight and fulfill all the fighters roles… but some are more advantaged than others.
Let’s see what Elite: Dangerous offers to get the most out of the ships in combat.

► The website EDSA offers a detailed view of all the ships, as well as the locations of their weapons & modules.

Here’s how to choose and equip your ship:

1. Count your credits assets. A battleship costs two to three times its base price for medium equipment. A full-fit outfit can go from seven to more than ten times the price of the ship alone! For example a top equipped Eagle MkII can reach 2 million credits.
2. What will be the use of your ship: Missions? Assassination? Powerplay? Conflict Zones? Bounty Hunting in extraction zones, beacons, interdictions? Piracy? Player vs. Player?
3. Role and use determined, choose your ship via the list below, sorted by price.
4. Equip it depending on your combat archetype & role. Do not be afraid to test out modules.
5. You can find a few builds examples below in this article.

 

▲ Suggested modules according to roles:

In red, the mandatory modules for your roles.

• Pirate: FSD Interdictor, Manifest Cargo Scanner, Kill Warrant Scanner, Wake Scanner, Chaff, Heatsink, limpets Collector and/or hatch breaker
• Mercenary: Shields Boosters (if not stealth), Chaff, Heatsink (if stealth), Hull reinforcements
• Assassin: FSD Interdictor, Kill Warrant Scanner, Shields Boosters (if not stealth), Chaff, Heatsink (if stealth), Point Defence
• Bounty Hunter: Interdicteur de saut, Kill Warrant Scanner, Wake Scanner, Chaff, Heatsink Shields Boosters (if not stealth), Chaff, Hull reinforcements
• Guardian: FSD Interdictor, Shields Boosters, Chaff, Heatsink, Countermeasures ECM, Fuel Scoop, Hull reinforcements

If you can’t afford a A rated module, buy a C rated one as it is balanced « Power/Mass/Power Drawing/Integrity ». The D rated modules are very light and unfortunately very fragile, while the A rated ones are sturdy, powerful and very expensive.

► Equip your ship for a given task and role! ◄

 

About Fighting

Offensive and defensive modules are available in game.
We will discuss their uses in detail in order for you to best equip your ship according to your gameplay.

→ Learn more about the Shield Generators & Defence.
→ Learn more about the Bulkheads, Armours & Hardness
→ Learn more about the Weapons, Damage & Penetration

 

Weapons

These are your hardpoints, allowing you to deal damage to your enemies. There are three categories:

1. Fixed // Shots in a straight line, efficient with very nimble ships, ~30% greater damage than Gimballed
2. Gimballed // Guided shots, help shooting sub-modules and maintaining aim, normal damage
3. Turrets // 360° shots but can’t shoot through your ship, ~50% smaller damage than Gimballed

I will not discuss about Powerplay or Guardians weapons in this guide.
These data can change depending on whether or not they have been modded at the Engineers.

▲ Thermal Weapons

• ✔ Thermal weapons don’t need ammunition or reloading time. Thermal damage.
• ✘ It consumes a lot of power from your Generator.
• Pulse laser
  • Ammo / per clip: ø
  • Against Shields: 1 2 3 [4] 5
  • Against Hull: 1 2 [3] 4 5
  • Penetration: 1 2 [3] 4 5
  • Power Draw: 1 2 [3] 4 5
  • Heat Generation: 1 [2] 3 4 5
  • Notes: It is possible to maintain the Pulse laser during a long time as it doesn’t draw a lot of energy from your distributor. The penetration score is interesting and you get a great deal of damage against shields and hull.
• Burst laser
  • Ammo / per clip: ø
  • Against Shields: 1 2 3 [4 5]
  • Against Hull: 1 2 3 [4] 5
  • Penetration: 1 2 [3] 4 5
  • Power Draw: 1 [2 3] 4 5
  • Heat Generation: 1 [2 3] 4 5
  • Notes: Between the Pulse and the Beam, the Burst laser is an excellent weapon to eat hull and shield if you can afford to hit with the three round burst and if you have enough power.
• Beam laser
  • Ammo / per clip: ø
  • Against Shields: 1 2 3 4 [5]
  • Against Hull: 1 [2 3] 4 5
  • Penetration: 1 [2 3] 4 5
  • Power Draw: 1 2 3 [4] 5, depends how long you fire. You will have to maintain the beam, it will cost a lot of power.
  • Heat Generation: 1 2 3 [4] 5
  • Notes: Very powerful against shields, you can also completly melt small ships with this. It generates a lot of Heat and you will need a lot of capacity and regeneration in your power distributor. It doesn’t penetrate well, it is more to spread heat and kill shields.

 

▲ Balistic weapons

• ✔ The balistic weapons doesn’t draw that much power. Kinetic or Explosive damage.
• ✘ They have limited ammunition and ammo per clip, they need to be reloaded.
• Multicannons
  • Ammo / per clip: 2 100 / 90
  • Against Shields: [1] 2 3 4 5
  • Against Hull: 1 2 3 [4] 5
  • Penetration: 1 2 [3] 4 5
  • Power Draw: [1] 2 3 4 5
  • Heat Generation: [1] 2 3 4 5
  • Notes: Efficient against the hull and great at aiming given sub-modules. It’s almost useless against shields, but it costs quite nothing from your Power Distributor.
• Cannon
  • Ammo / per clip: 100 / 5
  • Against Shields: [1] 2 3 4 5
  • Against Hull: 1 2 [3 4] 5
  • Penetration: 1 2 3 [4 5]
  • Power Draw: [1 2] 3 4 5
  • Heat Generation: [1] 2 3 4 5
  • Notes: Excellent penetration, it is used to snipe down given modules. The shell are slow so you need to prepare your shots.
• Fragment cannon
  • Ammo / per clip: 180 / 3
  • Against Shields: 1 2 3 [4] 5
  • Against Hull: 1 2 3 4 [5]
  • Penetration: 1 [2] 3 4 5
  • Power Draw: [1 2] 3 4 5
  • Heat Generation: [1] 2 3 4 5
  • Notes: Really dependent from your attack angle, it can cause massive damage to multiple modules and hull. You will have to be close to your target. Very good against the hull of small and medium ships, great against shields.
• Missile rack (Explosive)
  
  • Ammo / per class: 18, 24, 42 seeker || 24, 60, 108 rockets
  • Against Shields: [1 2] 3 4 5
  • Against Hull: 1 2 [3 4] 5
  • Penetration: 1 2 [3] 4 5
  • Power Draw: 1 [2] 3 4 5
  • Heat Generation: 1 2 [3] 4 5
  • Notes: There are two sorts of Missiles racks: Seekers and Dumbfire for guided or rockets-style. Large explosive damage in a sphere and can damage multiple modules. Useless against shields. Be careful about Point Defence and Countermeasures, they will destroy or destabilize them.
• Torpedo pylon (Explosive)
  
  • Ammo / per class: 1, 2, 4
  • Against Shields: 1 [2] 3 4 5
  • Against Hull: 1 2 3 4 [5]
  • Penetration: 1 2 3 4 5 [9,000!]
  • Power Draw: 1 [2] 3 4 5
  • Heat Generation: 1 2 [3 4] 5
  • Notes: Increased penetration, speed, damage. Focus a submodule like the generator, it will cause massive damage! Be careful about Point Defence and Countermeasures, they will destroy or destabilize them during a short time before it acquires lock again.
• Mines launcher (Explosive)
  
  • Ammo / per class: 37, 75
  • Against Shields: [1 2 3] 4 5
  • Against Hull: 1 2 [3] 4 5
  • Penetration: 1 2 [3] 4 5
  • Power Draw: [1] 2 3 4 5
  • Heat Generation: [1] 2 3 4 5
  • Notes: This is not played a lot, it depends your gameplay if you use a very fast ship Fire & Forget to create clusters of bombs. Be careful, you can also take their damage.

 

▲ Hybrid weapons

• ✔ The hybrids weapons draw a LOT of power. Thermal, Kinetic and Absolute damage.
• ✘ It needs to be reloaded quite often.
• Railgun
  • Ammo / per clip: 90 / 1
  • Against Shields: 1 2 3 4 [5]
  • Against Hull: 1 2 3 4 [5]
  • Penetration: 1 2 3 4 [5]
  • Power Draw: 1 [2 3] 4 5
  • Heat Generation: 1 2 [3] 4 5
  • Notes: Size 1 or 2 only however their damage/penetration counts as a size n+1 for the statistics. Gigantic armor penetration, you can literally penetratres through internal modules with well placed shots. Damage begings to fall off at 1000m, ignore ships’ resistances and hardness. Absolute Damage (~66% thermal + ~33% kinetic)
• Plasma accelerator
  • Ammo / per clip: 100 / 5
  • Against Shields: 1 2 3 4 [5]
  • Against Hull: 1 2 3 4 [5]
  • Penetration: 1 2 3 4 [5]
  • Power Draw: 1 2 3 4 [5]
  • Heat Generation: 1 2 3 [4] 5
  • Notes: The most powerful weapon with raw damage but it is difficult to play well. Exist only in classe 2 and 4. Its power comes from great responsibilities its absolute damage, ignoring ships’ resistances & hardness. Absolute Damage (~60%), Thermal (~20%) and Kinetic (~20%).

 

Defenses

Utility modules to further specialize or defend your ship.

• Chaff launcher
  • Greatly disturbs gimballed weapons during the temporary chaff.
• Electronic countermeasure
  • Destabilize missiles and torpedoes upon release of its charge, on a given range. Everything around you is hit! Charge it, release it.
• Heat sink
  • Used to absorb your ship’s current heat. It helps disturbing gimballed weapons and keeping your profile hidden from the radar.
• Point defense
  • Efficient against mines, torpedoes and missiles if they aren’t in great numbers. It automatically shoots them down.

 

Also count as Utility modules

• Cargo Manifest scanner
  • Used to discover the contents of a target’s cargo ship. Often used by pirates. If the target holds illegal commodities, they will be flagged as Wanted. The targets are always alerted when scanned.
• Frame Shift wake scanner
  • Used to calculate the jump coordinates of a ship using the wakes left behind when jumping. It is used to hunt down targets. Often used by pirates.
• Kill Warrant Scanner
  • Display all bounties on a given ship.
• Shield Booster
  
  • Used to passively enhance the power of your shields for a fixed rate of energy when activated.

 

Outfitting Build Examples

The ships Builds depend entirely on your ability to fly well, the ship you are using, and the task you are using it for. There is no « here is the best build », only your comfortability with a given build, your goal and your skill.

1. In PvP situations, it is very common to reinforce your Powerplant to make it more sturdy.
2. If you are not sure about your build, think Balance: Thermal & kinetic weapons, shield/armour defenses, thermal/kinetic/explosive resistances.
3. In Powerplay, certain Powers offer interesting hardpoints and modules that can propose variation to the below builds. Pacifiers, Enforcers, Pack-Hound are common hardpoints. The Prismatic Shields are also often used in-game.

► Improve your FSD Jump Range

Here are some examples of Builds used for Combat, fully modded to give you goals:

• Eagle MkII (360m/s → 525m/s, Hunter PvE) – 6M 842k Credits
  • A standard build for an entry-level player. The bi-weave shields allow it to deflect a few shots before it can regenerate in only 20s.
• Viper MkIII (481m/s → 601m/s, Interceptor PvP) – 7M 805k Credits
  • An ultra-fast and handy little demon capable of striking violent frags without ever being hit!
• Viper MkIV (405m/s → 511m/s, Interceptor PvE) – 8M 335k Credits
  • Extremely fun to play with its 4 Multicannon Rapid Fire w/ incendiary & corrosive effects.
• Diamondback Scout (350m/s → 475m/s, Stealth PvP) – 8M 577k Credits
  • Its profile, weapon placements and excellent heat dissipation allow you to play stealthy at ~1km from your target. Stay cold as much as possible to remain invisible to the radar, and use Stealth. Multicannon interchangeable with Rail Guns.
• Imperial Courier (467m/s → 634m/s, Furtif PvP) – 12M 216k Credits
  • A nice rocket, playing full mines in order to destroy the Shield Generator module of the target, while regularly disabling its Thrusters.
• Vulture (337m/s → 546m/s, FighterPvP) – 42M 768k Credits
  • Well modded, this Vulture Prisma Plasma is specialized against large ships. Be careful to manage your heat well.
• Vulture (346m/s → 560m/s, Interceptor PvP) – 33M 545k Credits
  • Long distance frag on a very mobile build.
• Vulture (323m/s → 523m/s, Hunter PvE) – 22M 118k Credits
  • Two C3 Multicannons (Corrosive + Incendiary) on a very comfortable ship.
• Federal Gunship (257m/s → 423m/s, Tank PvE) – 178M 129k Credits
  • Gameplay turrets, two fighters complete your arsenal.
• Alliance Chieftain (370m/s → 530m/s, Tank PvP) – 108M 871k Credits // PvE Conflict Zones
  • Two Pacifiers (Slow Multicannon like Large Guns), an explosive Hound Pack and 3 Cytoscramblers for a tanky armour build.
• Federal Assault (331m/s → 552m/s, Hunter/Stealth PvP) – 112M 672k Credits
  • Full Frag, all about the armour. Possibility to put Pacifiers instead to play from further away and enjoy the stealth-beast
• Alliance Crusader (284m/s → 473m/s, Fighter/Farming PvE) – 118M 443k Credits
  • A versatile build with Fighter hangar, Fuel Scoop, 8u Cargo, Collector, Interdictor… a good farmer.
• Krait Phantom (419m/s → 587m/s, FighterPvP) – 132M 505k Credits
  • 4 Railgun including two overcharged and two cascade feedback to harass the target and prevent it from regenerating its shields. A ship based on speed, agility and very long-range attack to hit… without being hit. The famous reverski!
• Krait MkII (394m/s → 541m/s, Hunter PvP) – 146M 987k Credits
  • Frag with long range in a mobile and cheap but sturdy build.
• Krait MkII (378m/s → 520m/s, Hunter PvP) – 281M 842k Credits // Krait MkII – Variante no Prismatic
  • An aggressive Krait full Frag, extremely resistant. Against large ships.
• Imperial Clipper (479m/s → 606m/s, Interdictor PvP) – 179M 678k Credits
  • Gameplay based on speed and keeping your enemy at a distance, no melee.
• Fer de Lance (402m/s → 542m/s, Hunter PvP) – 213M 391k Credits
  • 4 Frag M aligned and 1 Multicanon H underneath, all gimballed for an easier use. Watch me gravitate ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Feel good.
• Fer de lance (403m/s → 543m/s, Hunter PvP) – 216M 788k Credits // Fer de Lance – Variant no Prismatic
  • Full Multicannon with Incendiary x3, Emissive and Corrosive. Nimble.
• Mamba (480m/s → 589m/s, Hunter PvP) – 217M 762k Credits
  • Multicannons + Railgun to counter the shield cells of your enemy. Fast.
• Python (367m/s → 478m/s, Fighter/Farming PvE) – 272M 214k Credits
  • Weapons easily interchangeable for those of your choice, nice farming build.
• Anaconda (276m/s → 368m/s, Tank PvP) – 825M 632k Credits // Anaconda – Variant Prismatic
  • My Anaconda, with a « Fragda » gameplay. Yes, more Frag Cannons! Its Prismatic version also has excellent shields, but once broken it is better to flee because the Power Plant is relatively fragile… you will tell me: « yeah, try and break these Prisma first! »… but it can happen!
• Anaconda (275m/s → 367m/s, Torpedo PvP) – 818M 309k Credits
  • 1st double bursts of 8 Reverbarating Cascade torpedoes to destroy the Shield Generator, followed directly by double bursts of 8 Penetrator torpedoes targeting the Power Plant, then your seeker missiles. The rockets are used to cancel the FSD of your target and to prevent it from fleeing. Remember to slap your Heatsinks before firing the Torpedoes, because it will get hot! The goal is to counter the heavy shields, reduce the amount of energy of the enemy ship to make it inoperable and then finish it with the missiles destroying the external modules. Easily counterable if the target is aware of your build, it is to be used by surprise.
• Federal Corvette (287m/s → 373m/s, Tank PvP) – 979M 657k Credits
  • With a large amount of ammunition on your Multicannons and Cannons, your goal is to exhaust the target with your large defenses. You must absolutely keep your shields active because your Power Plant is modified Overcharged, it is therefore fragile and if the enemy targets it will quickly finish with you. As always in PvP, the Railgun is to counter the enemy recharging his shields with Cells.
• Type-10 Defender (253m/s → 310m/s, Support PvE) – 878M 338k Credits
  • You can change the Beam Laser’s effects to heal your allies’ shields. If the Guided Multicannons don’t help you, you can put two Frag C1 Turrets, they will only shoot at targets at 500m, the ones that think they can come close to you because you are not nimble… Wrong! Bang bang.
• Imperial Cutter (306m/s → 489m/s, Fighter/Farming PvE) – 1B 333M 344k Credits
  • Various weapons. Imperial Hammer + Beam in order to drop the target’s shields, then Multicanon + Pack Hound once the target’s shields are broken. Collector, Cargo, Fuel Scoop and everything you need for farming.
• Imperial Cutter (294m/s → 470m/s, Tank PvP) – 1B 049M 587k Credits
  • Prismatic, slow, long combat using mainly pulse lasers. Shields practically impossible to break with standard equipment.

► Share your best builds with us!

 

Different Gameplay Types

Like I explained earlier, there are different gameplay types. Let’s dive in a little bit more, shall we?

► The Engineers allow you to enhance your ships with Mods & Experimental Effects.

► Collect the Crafting Materials ◄

Summary of some gameplay archetypes:

• Stealth
• Fighter
• Tank
• Hunter
• Interceptor
• Torpedoes
• Support

Stealth

By far, the most complicated of all as you will need to use Silent Running while not frying your ship and your pilot down, flying with Fly Assist Off, aiming at your target… yup, you need to master your art!

Going Silent Running will close your heat vents allowing for the heat dissipation from your ship. The sensors, scanners and gimballed/turreted weapons will loose track of you, you will go off radar. The heat from your ship will increase as time goes, and it will increase even faster if you use modules and weapons until your re-open your heat vents. Stealth players need to use multiple Heatsinks.

This stealth is ineffective if you are within 300 meters of your enemy with a small ship (Ex: Diamondback Scout). It will take 550 meters for a ship as wide as a Python. From these distances, there are two variables:

• The attacker targeted you when you went into silent mode: After 7 seconds, he will lose your signature on the radar (300/550 meters)
• The attacker did not target you when you went into silent mode: You become immediately invisible on the radar (300/550 meters)

Play well away from your opponents, between 500 meters and 1.5 kilometers at the most.

Switching to silent mode cancels your shields, which is why stealth hunters do not use shields. You will need to count on a good armour and a very agile ship. Exercise your FA off by maneuvering around an asteroid or a friend of yours. Use your side and vertical thrusters!

|| Example: Diamondback Explorer VS Python (beginner) ||

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|| Example: Diamondback Scout VS Imperial Clipper ||

Summary of gameplay

 

Fighter

Fighters are hunters based with excellent shields and their great firepower to get the enemies down before losing their shields or too much hull. They are quite nimble and are designed to fight for a long time without the need to reload or get ammunition on a station. Energy weapons are therefore their favourite, but mixtures can exist.

The engagement distance of your enemies is something you must know so you don’t get outturned in melee (<500m) or inefficient at long range (>2km). Lasers are more effective when they are close. From 3 km you can hit your target but from 1.5 km the damage will become much heavier on your target. Try not to get too closed as I said, especially if your enemies are small because they will surely be more agile than you and you will not have a great angle to fire at them.

Learn how to properly manage your thrusters and FA off. That’s an excellent offensive and defensive bonus. Some ships like the Fer de Lance are excellent at 50% speed in a fight most of the time, others like the Federal Assault Ships are better if they boost quite often to help with their masses. Of course… don’t overheat!

|| Example: Fer de Lance or Vulture. Powerplay or even conflict zones ||

Summary of gameplay

 

Tank

There are not many tanks in-game as this usually requires a team to coordinate. Your role will be to be a bait, a threatening bait with no shields. You will attract the enemies, but what a chance, you’re deeply packed with resistances, hull and modules reinforcements. The enemies will have a tough time killing you or understanding that you should not be the priority target, thus losing time during the fight.

Great shields / bi-weave, are interesting, but what you are looking for is mainly in the structure of your ship. You could do both, it all depends your gameplay, for example my might Anaconda is a heavy tank with excellent shields, modules, resistances, 2 fighters, turrets, fixed, gimballed, … well yeah ok it’s a complete Anaconda. You need deep armour plates, which will reduce your maneuverability. Class A modules are therefore to be expected, especially for the power plant because if you loose your power, you’re out.

Do not be afraid to ram your target. The tanks have a very strong armor and a heavy ship absorbing damage without problem. The Federal Gunship has excellent engines which allows it to turn around very quickly if it keeps its speed within the maneuverability limit (blue zone).

Keep in mind that you will be very unwieldy at high speed and that you will not be able to run after a target. If it disengages you, you are unlikely to catch up. So take your time, walk around at a good speed and enjoy the show by shooting at will.

|| Example: Federal Gunship or Imperial Clipper. Long combats and conflict zones ||

Summary of gameplay

 

Hunter

Hunters represent the standard attack ships. These are specialized in maneuvrability in order to out-turn their opponents and weaken them constantly.

Their strength lies in their dodging capabilities, a single mistake could be fatal. If you find yourself in front of enemy cannons, I do not give much of your skin.

You will need the thrusters to be Top tiers and a great Power plant / Distributor to continuously shoot at your enemy. bi-weave shields are useful, but if they collapse, be sure to switch to silent mode so you do not take too much damage. Stay mostly in the blind spots of your targets; ie behind or where there are no weapons.

Master Fly Assist Off so you can reverse very quickly or perform translations to keep your enemy in front of you while you move. Here are the keys to an effective hunter.

|| Example: Viper or Imperial Courier. Bounty Hunting and assassinations ||

Summary of gameplay

 

Interceptor

Interceptors are extremely fast ships with the aim of… surprise … intercepting targets and preventing them from playing the way they want!
Speed ​​is the #1 priority of these types of gameplay, being untouchable and slippery.

To do this, interdict your target and attack them from afar, you have to be in their blind spots.
A good technique is to face your opponent while reversing your thrusters at high speed, to attack your target from a distance while it’ss trying to chase you.

|| Example: Krait Phantom or Mamba. ||

Summary of gameplay

 

Torpedoes

A special gameplay dedicated to alpha strikes with torpedoes. You have to quickly destroy a single target or at least disable it enough to make it flee the fight.

Launch torpedoes quickly with different effects in order to destroy the the target’s shield generator, then the power plant and finally the external modules.
To be used against slow ships, not aware of what’s awaiting them, because the torpedoes themselves are very slow at 250m/s.

|| Example: Anaconda ou Type 10 ||

Summary of gameplay

 

Support

These are ships that can offer various services to your wing, such as repairs, decontamination, shield regeneration, and weapons in turrets regularly characterize them.

|| Example: Gunship ou Type 10 ||

Summary of gameplay

 

Power Management and Priorities

The Power Plant is the core module, your ship’s heart. It provides the energy needed to power your modules. The latter has a number of « health points » represented by a percentage, in the module panel, on the right. The lower the percentage, the lower the energy it generates. The danger becomes critical at 0% life: the energy generated will be 50% of the base value. There is also a small chance your ship will explode when the Powerplant is at 0% while your foe keep damaging it. Weapons with a high penetration value are very effective in destroying internal modules; The Power Plant is one of them.

If a module fails to work, a solution is to Repair/reboot. This process completely shut off your ship in order to try a reboot on some modules experiencing issues. You will find this option in the right-hand menu, last tab, at the bottom of the list.

Even with a reboot, it is still extremely important to manage your power, so you don’t experience any loss of power.

Management tips:

• Priority 5: Non-vital // Everything you do not need in standard flight
  • Fuel Scoop, Interdictor, Cargo if you are a fighter.
  • If your weapons are not deployed, they do not draw energy: you can therefore exceed your maximum energy available! Priority 5 modules will then deactivate if you deploy your weapons.
• Priority 4: Non-fight-essential and shields // First defenses
  
  • The different Scanners, FSD if you are very fast (>450 m/s), Drones Modules, Repair System, Shields/Boosters/Cells.
  • If you have taken that much damage to the Power Plant, your shields might already be broken or even destroyed, so you do not need to supply them. Same goes to the boosters and cells.
• Priority 3: Defensive modules // Last rampart before 50% energy
  
  • Chaffs, Heat Sinks, Anti-Missile Turrets, Fighter Hangar, a weapon requiring a lot of energy.
  • If you are at this point, you will probably already have used your Chaffs and Heat Sinks ammo: let’s disable them. A weapon like a Plasma Accelerator or a Beam Laser draws a lot of energy from your PP, it falls under priority 3.
• Priority 2: Combat Essentials // Last Chance
  
  • Some Weapons, Power Distributor, 1 Anti-Missile Turret and 1 Chaff if you have multiple.
  • If you can get your Fighter Hangar in there, perfect! It is a big threat to your foes and are both defensive and offensive: your last chance to kill your enemies, if your hull still holds.
• Priority 1: Essentials // Under 50% energy, fleeing
  
  • Your Thrusters, Life Support, Sensors and FSD if it is not priority 4. The FSD is essential here if you have a relatively slow ship (<300 m/s).
  • It’s time to flee with your high speed or by jumping to another system. Depending on your amount of energy, put as many important modules below 50%.

Pour vous mettre dans le bain, essayez de désactiver tous vos modules sauf les priorité 1. Vous devez normalement consommer la moitié de votre énergie maximum. Si oui, bravo, vous maîtrisez la gestion d’énergie de votre vaisseau ! Paufinez bien les priorités, que tout ne se désactive pas en même temps.

 

Tips and tricks

1) Target a subsystem when you attack. I see too many players targeting only the enemy ship. For maximum efficiency, aim for the default Power plant. If you only want to stop your enemy, you are free to choose the thrusters or the FSD for example.

2) Do you have Gimballed Weapons and your opponent uses Chaff to hide its thermal signature? Stop targeting him. Your weapons will automatically become Fixed and you will be able to continue shooting at it before resuming targeting. Note that you will need to select the subsystem again.

3) Fed up with receiving missiles at your ship? Think about equipping Point Defenses and placing them to the right and left of your ship, or below and above. If you have a big ship, a Electronic countermeasures module also does the trick.

4) The current meta favours very fast and nimble ships with Railguns. When you see a blue line going from front to back on the enemy ship, that means he’s trying to replenish his shields! You can reduce the amount of recharged shields with a Railgun mod called Feedback Cascade.

5) During Interdictions:

→ If you are the attacker do not exceed 75% of speed. You are looking for control. Once the enemy is interdicted, no more than 50% speed and NO boost! Search your enemy calmly with full points in the engines and shields. Once the enemy is engaged, go into attack mode and re-distribute your energy for that (engines and weapons).

→ If you are the defender, go for 100% speed. You seek to escape. If you do not want to fight, you can play the mini Interdiction game and get out of here, but if you feel you will not be able to counter the interdiction by playing the mini-game, cut your engines to 0; your FSD will recharge much faster than if you loose the mini-game. Then boost and fly away. If you want to engage the fight, cut your engines directly and once out of hyper-space, look for your enemy calmly with full points in the engines and shields. Once the enemy is engaged, go into attack mode and re-distribute your energy for that (engines and weapons).

6) Always deactivate your cargo in the list of your modules to save energy and better dissipate heat; unless you are a pirate and have cargo items.

7) The weapons you will use continuously will most of the time have to be on the top of your ship; the « secondary » weapons below. Why ? Just because the weapons on the top will have more often a view of your enemy, while those underneath will cause you to lift even more the nose of your ship to shoot. The very agile ships such as the Viper or the Eagle have however their best weapons below, it’s their gameplay as they can quickly face the enemy and move as they see fit.

8) When you scan ships with scanners (cargo, bounty, …), and suddenly your target comes out of your field of view, hold the scan! Thus it will slowly decrease until your target returns to the line of sight. If you let go of the scan, it will go back to zero.

9) Learn how to manage your SYS ENG WEP energy. This represents the amount of energy you allocate to your Systems (shields strength, shields speed recharge, systems, …), your Thrusters (speed, thrust, boost, …) and your Weapons to shoot during a longer time. There is no point in putting all the points in the bars each time. You need to know the needs of your ship.

On 6 available points, I use for example a 4ENG + 2WEP on my Stealthed Diamondback Scout, a 3ENG + 3WEP on my Python or a 3SYS + 1ENG + 2WEP on my tank ship. All of these configuration change depending on if I’m under fire, if I need more speed or shields strength. Basically, if you’re fired at, your should always have 4SYS.

10) Remember that the blue zone of your speed is the area where maneuverability is the best. It manages your speed forward AND backward as well.

11) Pirates, are you looking for a black market close to you? Enter your current system and Spytec will indicate your destination.

12) You can repair your cockpit / canopy with a repair module.

13) Master your Weapons Groups, this is very important in combat.

14) Deciat, Shinrarta Dezhra, San Tu, Powerplay Headquarters and Community Goals systems are generally very active in PvP combat. Go and kill those gankers 😉

 

Any comments or tips on this fighter’s guide? Do not hesitate to share them with us.

Thanks to the players who provided us with some pictures of their ships!