Well I reached 500K credits a couple of days ago so bought my Cobra yesterday. Nearly back up to my 500K but will hopefully be up to about a million later today. I'm looking for the best way to arm it. I've made some upgrades already and the current setup is:
Cobra Mk III
Power plant upgraded to D
Power distributor upgraded to C
Thrusters upgraded to D
Sensors upgraded to D
FSD upgraded to D
Cargo upgraded to 36T
ECM
Heat sink
Docking computer
Currently the arms are as standard
1 x Pulse laser (bay size 2 - fitted 1F)
1 x Pulse laser (bay size 2 - fitted 1F)
1 x empty (bay size 1)
1 x empty (bay size 1)
The docking computer is only there for convenience today whilst running a bit of a monotonous trading route.
I was thinking of two size 2 beam lasers and 2 size one guns..... Does that sound ok? The budget is around 500-600K
How much difference does it make going from D thrusters to C or B? There are a couple of stars that always scar the $£%£ out of be in FSD whilst on this route as I can only just turn quick enough to avoid them. Will the thrusters help there?
Thanks
I mainly use my cobra for completing missions, bounty hunting and trading, all of which happens in the same lap. I pick up a mission, fill up cargo, go to the nav beacon of where I am supposed to complete the mission, do some bounty hunting, then complete the mission, do trading and repeat.
I've managed to gather quite a lot of cash this way. The first thing I upgraded was my power plant and then the second thing is the power distributor and the thrusters. Try upgrading your weapons next and then your FSD. 36T cargo is pretty good. Consider getting a fuel scoop to eliminate all fuel costs.
As far as weapons go, I have 2 size 2 multi-cannons as my main guns (fixed) and 2 size 1 beam lasers (gimballed). I use the lasers to take down shields and also to take down smaller craft like haulers, adders, eagles and sidewinders. I use the multicannons for anything harder.
You really need the better thrusters imo, to compete against the more maneuvrable vipers, eagles and sidewinders if you are gonna go combat.
Also consider getting a chaff launcher and a shield cell bank. They help a lot in taking down Anacondas, even though you probably can do fine with just the chaff launcher and an ECM.
If you like my setup, I'd suggest getting the guns and power plant first with your current assets, and then work your way up from there.
So in total I have:
2 x E1 Beam Lasers (G)
2 x F2 Multicannons (F)
A4 thrusters (303 top speed unladen, 415 boost speed unladen)
A4 power plant (15.60 MW)
A4 shield generator
A3 Power distributor
D3 Life Support
A4 FSD
A3 Sensors (range is really helpful in not allowing bounties escape me at nav beacons & resource collection sites)
A2 Fuel Scoop
36T Cargo space
I0 Chaff Launcher
C2 Shield Cell Banks
C0 Kill Warrant Scanner (3km range, again good for not spending more time than necessary on chasing a bounty)
If I want to go exploring I sell my shield cell banks and get an advanced discovery scanner and a surface scanner. If I'm going long-range I sell one of the 16T cargo racks and get an A4 fuel scoop.
On a sidenote, I have not observed that thrusters make a difference in maneuvring while in FSD.
If you plan on going PvP, I'll suggest getting size 2 rail guns and size 1 beam lasers.