Good Ship for Bounty hunting (Currently mostly harmless Rank)

UA1456Y

U
Can anyone recommend a good ship which I can use to do some bounty hunting? At the present I got two ships - one medium size non combat ship which I primarily use for exploration expeditions and the other one is Eagle which I have designated as my bounty hunter ship. Although Eagle is agile ship with good manoeuvrability and a Burst laser as well as turreted multi-cannons as my hardpoints, It doesn't do well when it comes to defence. Even though I have put in a shield booster and what not - If a good size ship decides to attack me, my ship gets destroyed instantly. So as I result I'd rather just sell it and get suitable replacement ship for combat.

Any recommendations?
 

Dillon Fallon

Dillon Fallon
I'd go for a Viper mk3, possibly something like this: https://s.orbis.zone/qA7y

The shields on most of the small ships aren't great, but the Viper allows you to pack in more hull while still being a very manouverable ship. While you're learning it gives you a much more palatable rebuy (every combat pilot has been a regular visitor to that screen at some point) than something like a Vulture or Imperial Courier, which would be the next step on from there.

Engineering is a massive help as well, so I'd get going on that as and when you feel like it, but so long as you're keeping to other small ships you should be fine. Medium and large ships can be brought down with a small ship, but that does take practice, so don't get disheartened if you are getting spanked by them initially.
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
You don't mention how you are for credits.

You can do bounty hunting in almost anything as long as you do it somewhere you will have police joining in on your side. Whether it be a RES or a Nav beacon. The police take some time to arrive, faster in high security systems, so ideally just wait for a pirate to start attacking a trader, then get stuck in, and police will turn up and help you. In an eagle you can really stick to the engines of almost any enemy and keep shooting their thrusters. Once those are gone they are fairly easy to deal with, unless they are high ranked big targets, then your weapons alone won't be enough really.

I'd say your first stepping stone towards a good combat ship though is the vulture if you can afford it. Its a solid combat ship and one many people stick with for a long time. Due to the large hardpoints it doesn't suffer the damage reduction against big ships that smaller hardpoints face.
 

aRJay

aRJay
I started bounty hunting in a Sidewinder, mainly by attacking ships that the police had almost killed. My next ship was the Cobra mk3 followed by my first medium pad ship an Asp Explorer which I used for bounty hunting until I had the funds for an Fer de Lance.

The best ship for bounty hunting for you will be
  • 0ne you can afford to buy and A rate and rebuy, so one that costs less than about a fifth of your budget to buy the hull
  • One you enjoy and can fly well
  • One with enough punch to kill targets
  • One tough enough to survive whilst you Brave Sir Robin when it all goes wrong (again)
The Eagles are nice ships but can be lacking punch and toughness especially for the less gifted amongst us but they are cheapish and fun.
The Vipers have a good reputation but aren't a ship I enjoyed when starting.
The Vulture is a contender but some don't like only having two guns.

Just because a ship is usually considered to be a non combat one doesn't mean you can't get it to work.
 

UA1456Y

U
imski said:
Cobra Mk3 is a decent all rounder to begin with, ultimately though it's all about the FDL and Mamba
Click to expand...

Yeah Cobra Mk3 is is my next probable choice - will have look thanks.



Dillon Fallon said:
I'd go for a Viper mk3, possibly something like this: https://s.orbis.zone/qA7y

The shields on most of the small ships aren't great, but the Viper allows you to pack in more hull while still being a very manouverable ship. While you're learning it gives you a much more palatable rebuy (every combat pilot has been a regular visitor to that screen at some point) than something like a Vulture or Imperial Courier, which would be the next step on from there.

Engineering is a massive help as well, so I'd get going on that as and when you feel like it, but so long as you're keeping to other small ships you should be fine. Medium and large ships can be brought down with a small ship, but that does take practice, so don't get disheartened if you are getting spanked by them initially.
Click to expand...
Viper MK3 is also in list for me - I will have a look. With regards to Engineering, I haven't got there yet - I did few messages from few NPC Engineer but haven't dedicated to engineering yet. Yeah Small ships against large ships can be a challenge but it is doable - I haven't just got enough combat experience yet.
 
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UA1456Y

U
Agony_Aunt said:
You don't mention how you are for credits.

You can do bounty hunting in almost anything as long as you do it somewhere you will have police joining in on your side. Whether it be a RES or a Nav beacon. The police take some time to arrive, faster in high security systems, so ideally just wait for a pirate to start attacking a trader, then get stuck in, and police will turn up and help you. In an eagle you can really stick to the engines of almost any enemy and keep shooting their thrusters. Once those are gone they are fairly easy to deal with, unless they are high ranked big targets, then your weapons alone won't be enough really.

I'd say your first stepping stone towards a good combat ship though is the vulture if you can afford it. Its a solid combat ship and one many people stick with for a long time. Due to the large hardpoints it doesn't suffer the damage reduction against big ships that smaller hardpoints face.
Click to expand...

Dillon Fallon said:
Yep, this is it for me. Definitely the biggest question is how much someone would be willing to spend on a rebuy.
Click to expand...

Well put it this way I got approx 30 million credits so far - I am planning to go on exploration trip again later in week when I'm off and would probably cash in quite few credits there, My aim is to get the new ship when I return back.
 
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UA1456Y

U
aRJay said:
I started bounty hunting in a Sidewinder, mainly by attacking ships that the police had almost killed. My next ship was the Cobra mk3 followed by my first medium pad ship an Asp Explorer which I used for bounty hunting until I had the funds for an Fer de Lance.

The best ship for bounty hunting for you will be
  • 0ne you can afford to buy and A rate and rebuy, so one that costs less than about a fifth of your budget to buy the hull
  • One you enjoy and can fly well
  • One with enough punch to kill targets
  • One tough enough to survive whilst you Brave Sir Robin when it all goes wrong (again)
The Eagles are nice ships but can be lacking punch and toughness especially for the less gifted amongst us but they are cheapish and fun.
The Vipers have a good reputation but aren't a ship I enjoyed when starting.
The Vulture is a contender but some don't like only having two guns.

Just because a ship is usually considered to be a non combat one doesn't mean you can't get it to work.
Click to expand...

Yeah me too - Started with sidewinder then sold it for Eagle which I currently have, It is a good ship - but not as good as other ships out there and besides I think it makes sense to upgrade to something more sensible. Currently got 30 million credits or so but that is going to change once I complete my next exploration trip. Hopefully I'll be in better position to afford a reasonable ship.
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
UA1456Y said:
Well put it this way I got approx 30 million credits so far - I am planning to go on exploration trip again later in week when I'm off and would probably cash in quite few credits there, My aim is to get the new ship when I return back.
Click to expand...

Then wait and see how much you have and then come back and let us know.

Remember always keep enough for rebuy and you can plan your build and the cost on coriolis and edshipyard
 

aRJay

aRJay
UA1456Y said:
Yeah me too - Started with sidewinder then sold it for Eagle which I currently have, It is a good ship - but not as good as other ships out there and besides I think it makes sense to upgrade to something more sensible. Currently got 30 million credits or so but that is going to change once I complete my next exploration trip. Hopefully I'll be in better position to afford a reasonable ship.
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Well as something to think about during the explore, 30 million is about enough for an AspX but wouldn’t leave you much cash, but it would get you a very good Vulture with credits left over and apart from being a little short of power for things unless you build carefully or engineer it is a potent combat ship.
 

Viscera

Viscera
Can't believe nobody has mentioned the Chieftain.
Great ship, has good weapon slots, and handles well.
And won't break the bank.
 

aRJay

aRJay
Viscera said:
Can't believe nobody has mentioned the Chieftain.
Great ship, has good weapon slots, and handles well.
And won't break the bank.
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But at nearly 20 million for the hull alone it is going to eat up around 100 million fitted out which is certainly going to bend the bank for someone with only 30 million.
 

Viscera

Viscera
aRJay said:
But at nearly 20 million for the hull alone it is going to eat up around 100 million fitted out which is certainly going to bend the bank for someone with only 30 million.
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You don't need to A rate it immediately. You can start out with cheap d/c/b rated gear just as easily and learn the ship as you earn.
 

Screemonster

Screemonster
As much as I love the viper mk4 now, back when I was starting out I found its shields a bit thin - it hulltanks very well but given how missile-happy NPCs are when your shields are down it can suffer unengineered.

The imperial courier shieldtanks way better than the V4, is faster, and has the same distro. The convergence is awful if you're using fixed, but odds are you're using gimbals starting out anyway and having four utilities on a ship that small means you can get some crazy shield strength.
 

Dillon Fallon

Dillon Fallon
Screemonster said:
As much as I love the viper mk4 now, back when I was starting out I found its shields a bit thin - it hulltanks very well but given how missile-happy NPCs are when your shields are down it can suffer unengineered.

The imperial courier shieldtanks way better than the V4, is faster, and has the same distro. The convergence is awful if you're using fixed, but odds are you're using gimbals starting out anyway and having four utilities on a ship that small means you can get some crazy shield strength.
Click to expand...
The V4 is a lovely ship, but mine is G5 engineered. I'd agree that I'm not sure how lovely it is when you only have 30 million and probably haven't unlocked much in the way of engineers.

Although the Courier was an absolute dream to fly in my early game phase. Still one of my favourite ships even now.
 

tolm

tolm
You’d need some - but not much - Imperial rep to unlock the courier but potentially a good shout. I’ve never flown one so can’t comment! Maybe I should try one …

For me, I tried the Vulture when I first started combat but with no engineering to speak of at the time it wasn’t very good (for me) as I found it very underpowered for what I wanted to run on it. So I tried the Viper Mk IV and was much happier. Despite the weapons being smaller, the 4 hardpoints seemed more versatile than two.

Nowadays … well, the Chieftain is great and I used one for a long time but I don’t like the cockpit so haven’t got one currently.

My favourite combat ship ATM is the FAS which I have persevered with despite the C2 hardpoint placement really annoying me at first. Now I have rails in ‘em it works very well, though.
 

HRDiagram

HRDiagram
When I started (and wasn't really into combat) I used the Cobra MK3, as I found it quite complete.
I tried Eagles and Vipers, but never really enjoyed them (until much, much later, as in after getting to Elite, flying Cutters and getting the hang of FA Off), they were too weak for someone who was unable to fly/aim (which I still am, mind you).
That is when I discovered the Vulture.
It's a small ship that punches well above its weight. It can be hard to balance its power requirements in the beginning, but you can drop in a RES with it and go after small as well as big ships, and actually do some serious damage!

I fought my way through much of the combat ranks with the Vulture.
 
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