Finally decided and done it.

[Shiro Akai]

Greetings CMDRs,

after long hesitate I finally tried serious bounty hunting. I say serious because I tried that activity at least two times already but it was more an experiment than actual thing. Long story short it was bad experience since I didn't know much about it. I thought it's easy enough, grab a ship, slap a weapon and go shoot stuff. Well, I quickly learned my mistake and later I was bit unwilling to jump into it unprepared.

The more I read about it, the more it looked complicated. Recently I asked about FA off thingy and after lecture I decided to give combat a proper go. I went with Diamondback Scout, for the time being. Reason: middle ground between possible options. I already have FDL but A rating her would pump my rebuy bit high for the learning purpose. So FDL have to wait a bit longer as I see this ship as my target combat one.

The other side of the spectrum - Viper/Cobra/Vulture. Cheap and expendable but somehow too weak for me. I know they may be great ships, especially Vulture (tbh tried those ships earlier) but research showed there may be issues. So more pro leaning ships. I wanted something that would forgive my initial obvious mistakes. DBS was praised for good weapon placement, it's tankiness and manuverability, compared to similar sized ships. So I got one.

A-rated modules, military hull + hull reinforcement (dunno why, extra protection probably, mental one). Weapons are:
- Pulse laser medium and small (pimary trigger)
- Multicannon medium and small (secondary trigger)
- KWS (3km)
- no chaff, no PD, no heatsinks or shield boosters for now

Initial pips were 2-0-4 and honestly I didn't have to play with that for the time being. Currently unengineered as this is for the future. Set the throttle with 25% intervals and found that 50% setting is in the middle of blue zone. Equipped like that I went fighting.

First I dropped at beacon. Five minutes later I had my first kill, then another - both mostly solo kills, gathered 48k in bonds. Empowered by the victory I went for something more demanding. Been looking for HazRez but having filters set (forgot that) couldn't find that POI. Finally dropped at CZ (intensive), hehe. Been flying and scanning ships to see "lawless" tag. lawless means? Quick google and I know, fire at will. Bit bothered that system security was fighting system security but hey. Picked a target, fired a bit upon and to save me the embarrassment - faced the rebuy. 48k worth bonds gone, ~280k down the drain for the ship and modules.

Ok, CZ is a no go, time to look after HazRez. Figured the issue with filters, got one, went there. Lots of ships. All of them clean. :/ Ok, one is wanted. Scan, approach, shoot and kill. First drop the shields with pulse lasers, then pump with both PL and MC. With throttle in the blue zone I had no issues with staying on target. Managed to take care of Dangerous AspX. Even participated in Anaconda kill. Survived wing of 2 encounter.

Overall I gathered ~300k in bonds, scored few kills and decided to call it a day for now. At the station I handed the bonds and cashed ~230k total (later i noticed I had 2 more claims for ~50k). Still below the rebuy cost I had earlier but slightly. And I didn't had any repair bill, just fuel and rearm. I was shot at but my shields soaked all the damage and I could stay behind and on top of my target so no lots of taking fire moments.

To sum things up:
- DBS played fine in the role of BH ship
- lack of engineering wasn't an issue at that time
- maneuverability was good, FOV great
- weapon choice seems ok
- lack of defensive means wasn't a problem

- KWS is a pita (I have top one at home base, can't remember if engineered for faster scan. I have eng something for faster scan...)
- pip management is atm non existent
- need to rebind weapon cycles and pips - currently I need to toggle hand between stick base (weapons and target toggle), keyboard (pips) and G13 (thrust)

In general, I survived, I liked it and I will continue.


*********************************
Questions
*********************************
1. Weapons
Are those ok or should I alter the loadout?

2. Shields
Stay with regular 3A or go for bi-weave? Stronger and slower vs weaker but faster in recharge?

3. Engineering
So far my engineering focused on trading/exploration, no XP on combat eng. What would you suggest? Defensive means for the ship or offensive for weapons?

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Not a combat expert by any stretch (currently 60% Dangerous but all from PvE) but try to answer your questions based on my experience:

1. For PvE, I found beams/pulse for shields then MC's for hull is probably the most straightforward. I'd go gimballed first, move to more funky combinations later including fixed, which can be fun depending on the ship's agility. I had a lot of fun with double-shot frags or PA's on a Vulture, but especially the latter needs engineering and the Guardian PP and Distributor are particularly useful to obtain to address power issues.

2. Personally I prefer reinforced Bi-weaves with fast-charge secondary, for ships you plan to spend a long time in combat, A-rated I fit for hit-and-run or trade ships. This even applies more to Prismatics - once these are down they stay down so you better stock up on SCB's.

3. There are so many combinations I haven't tried all of them but I'd focus on the basic stuff first, shield reinforcements, dirty-drive thrusters (in case you need to run) and overcharge or efficient-tune lasers/MC's with effects such as corrosive. Part of the fun is trying out different things.

PvP is a whole different kettle of fish so won't advise on that.

Edit: Oh and ALWAYS fit at least one Point Defense. If your shields drop some NPC's (often Eagles) tend to spam missiles.

 

[Shiro Akai]

Thanks for the input.

My current weapons are gimballed for obvious reasons. As you said, the most straightforward anti shield and anti hull set. I plan on jump into HazRez and stay till out of ammo so I guess it's prolonged fights. Looks like bi-weaves are to go for. Not planning on PvP, pure PvE BH.

As for PD - somehow noticed that in the fraction of a second before I got blown up as half of the CZ turned on me. Not that PD would help me back then but... Anyway, now I must start reading the engineering schematics. Man, how I despise mat grinding... Oh well, at least something to do while waiting for chapter update.

Cheers.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Yeah I'd definitely wait with the bulk of the mat gathering until after 3.3 hits. It'll be so much easier to find HGE's (I came across loads while playing the beta) so it won't be as frustrating/random as before, especially combined with the already existing mat traders.

I didn't spend too much in CZ's until recently, but I find the ships are way more engineered (and if you're dealing a lot of damage the enemy AI will indeed focus on you, I sometimes had to retreat in my PvE Vette as half a dozen ships or more were ganging up on me all of a sudden) so I'd probably focus more on High RES (of Haz RES if you feel more confident) until your ships are better engineered and you gain more experience.

The CZ changes in 3.3 are also a good improvement so will play that a lot more. Recently I moved to Interceptor hunting and am now able to beat Cyclopses with relative ease in my AX Challenger which has only fixed weapons (which can be tricky to control with a pad as some of that needs some FA OFF moves). The new AX CZ's introduced in 3.3 beta 4 are a lot of fun too.

There's a steady learning curve in combat, and I find it quite rewarding, but I can't see myself getting into PvP either as the min-max requirement and therefore mat grind puts me off.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Are those ok or should I alter the loadout?

Because the multicannons will do most of the hull damage, and shield damage isn't affected by hull hardness, you'll get better results versus big ships (and no worse versus small) if you go for 2 medium multicannons and 2 small lasers

Stay with regular 3A or go for bi-weave? Stronger and slower vs weaker but faster in recharge?

On that size of shield biweaves are almost always better - especially if you're using HRPs to toughen up the hull a bit anyway

3. Engineering
So far my engineering focused on trading/exploration, no XP on combat eng. What would you suggest? Defensive means for the ship or offensive for weapons?

McQuinn is very easy to unlock if you haven't already and can really boost the multicannons. (Overcharged as the base, Corrosive and Autoloader would be my recommendation for experimentals)

Dirty Drive engineering helps both offence and defence. Likewise a charge-enhanced power distributor. As a trader/explorer unlocking the necessary engineers should be pretty easy if you don't already have them.

As a trader you should be able to get shields from Lei Cheung - thermal resist with the faster recharge experimental would go well with a biweave

 

[Noctover]

I find PVE "Bounty Hunting" is basically just farming within the law.

REAL BHing would be PVP but its impossible to BH with the game the way it is.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I find PVE "Bounty Hunting" is basically just farming within the law.

REAL BHing would be PVP but its impossible to BH with the game the way it is.

I only engaged in very few actual PvP fights so far (always initiated by someone else), I just don't find the fight itself particularly fun because even when the rare case occurs where you're evenly matched (in terms of gear at least) combat drags on too long, especially if shield tanks with Prismatics are involved.

Am getting more of a buzz out of escaping to be honest, and it's a lot less time consuming.

In terms of PvE bounty hunting, if you want a challenge go take a wing assasination mission solo or try out those pirate threat 7 USS's. Both can be pretty tough depending on the ship you're taking.

 

[ilo]

If you want to make it easier for you, go to an outbreak system and look for ceremonial coms USS. You will find there a few trading ships wanted (as they are infected) and would get you some easy bounties because they will lack of combat skills and gear.

 

[Stealthie]

Gotta say, I tried doing exactly what the OP did a while a go and it just flat-out didn't work for me.

The DBS is a dinky little ship but the problem is that it's wayyy down the food-chain so most of the ships you meet will be tougher than you and that makes learning a difficult experience.
When all you're doing is losing, all you learn to do is lose.
Also, ironically, the fighters are (unsurprisingly) very twitchy so it's difficult to line up fixed weapons and that just adds to the frustration and reduces the likelihood of success.

Personally, I'd suggest using a Python, turn it into a tank and then fit it with some fixed weapons in one FG and some gimballed weapons in another FG.
Start off attacking stuff with the fixed weapons but swap to the gimbals if you need to.
At the same time, start switching FA off when you're comfortable with it and switch it back on if you need to.

Thing is, the Python is a fairly sedate ship so it's easy to aim, it's tanky so you'll be able to make mistakes without seeing a rebuy and it's beefy enough that you can take on the majority of ships with confidence.
And, once you're comfortable with that, move up (down?) to something like a Vulture and try again.

I guess the whole "thrown in the deep end" thing works for some people but a game's supposed to be fun and it's easier to have fun when you're not constantly struggling to survive.

 

[CMDR Redcrest]

If you're going to be engineering anyway: Imperial Courier.
Fast, manouvuerable, hits damn hard for a small ship and cheap on the rebuy.

 

[CMDR Redcrest]

If you want to make it easier for you, go to an outbreak system and look for ceremonial coms USS. You will find there a few trading ships wanted (as they are infected) and would get you some easy bounties because they will lack of combat skills and gear.

Well this is news to me! I thought all ceremonial comm signals were empty due to a long standing bug. I'll have to give this a try, for science. And materials. And cash. But mostly science.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Gotta say, I tried doing exactly what the OP did a while a go and it just flat-out didn't work for me.

The DBS is a dinky little ship but the problem is that it's wayyy down the food-chain so most of the ships you meet will be tougher than you and that makes learning a difficult experience.
When all you're doing is losing, all you learn to do is lose.
Also, ironically, the fighters are (unsurprisingly) very twitchy so it's difficult to line up fixed weapons and that just adds to the frustration and reduces the likelihood of success.

Personally, I'd suggest using a Python, turn it into a tank and then fit it with some fixed weapons in one FG and some gimballed weapons in another FG.
Start off attacking stuff with the fixed weapons but swap to the gimbals if you need to.
At the same time, start switching FA off when you're comfortable with it and switch it back on if you need to.

Thing is, the Python is a fairly sedate ship so it's easy to aim, it's tanky so you'll be able to make mistakes without seeing a rebuy and it's beefy enough that you can take on the majority of ships with confidence.
And, once you're comfortable with that, move up (down?) to something like a Vulture and try again.

I guess the whole "thrown in the deep end" thing works for some people but a game's supposed to be fun and it's easier to have fun when you're not constantly struggling to survive.

I tried the Python for combat early on (when I didn't really know what I was doing, both in terms of thruster control and also outfitting) and I really didn't get on with it. Different story now although I use mine as an armed trader for those 180t runs.

The Vulture on the other hand I think is a good starting point beyond say the Vipers - rebuy of 1.5m fully A-rated with most expensive hull, it's the most maneuverable ship, therefore a lot of fun to fly, and with gimballs aiming is very easy - once you're getting better switch to fixed. Again initially I didn't get on with it (plenty of cracked canopies) but my most recent build was a beast and could take down winged Elite Anacondas/Corvettes with ease.

 

[dm06]

For small ships it is safier not to start 1x1 battles. It is better to BH in hires - there are a lot of cops flying/shooting npc pirates, just fly around, keep an eye if someone starts shooting, get into the battle, make couple shots and get 500KCr for elite anaconda. Do not tank, usually there's no way that any ship can tank over a bigger ship - try to get behind instead.

 

[Hossi]

Finally dropped at CZ (intensive), hehe. Been flying and scanning ships to see "lawless" tag. lawless means? Quick google and I know, fire at will. Bit bothered that system security was fighting system security but hey. Picked a target, fired a bit upon and to save me the embarrassment - faced the rebuy. 48k worth bonds gone, ~280k down the drain for the ship and modules.

Just to be sure: You picked a faction before opening fire, right? Because if you don't EVERYONE will see you as hostile.
If you pick a side only half of the ships go red, the other half goes green.

Edit: Lawless just means that you wont get a bounty for firing at them. It doesn't mean that they will like it

 

[Ashnak]

-1. : CZ. They are not for bounty hunting, but for combat bonds, and play out differently. Before you start to shoot, you really should decide on which side you want to play. RH menu, Options (or so, rightmost tab), choose faction. After that, only half (roughly speaking) of the CZ will be after you, while the other half is helping you. If you don't and shoot, all of them will be after you... Ships in CZs tend to be tougher, with better pilots - and cobat bonds pay little compared to bounties.

0. : Ship. The DBS is a nice allround ship. Which means that a dedicated combat ship will wipe the floor with it. If you don't have the money to A-rate and engineer a Vulture, the Viper (Mk. III) is the next step in the "small and nasty" lineup. Same hardpoints as the DBS, faster and cheaper (at least for the basic hull - once you've A-rated her, that won't make much of a difference). My personal favourites are. at the moment, the Krait Mk. II with a Pacifier/Beam setup for making money fast and a ridiculously engineered Sidewinder just for laughs. The former is in the same price range as the FdL, though, and the latter requires level 5 access to most of the Engineers (and a couple of Enforcer cannon - but there are alternatives).

1.: Weapons. That is a basic (the basic) loadout. Although, as others said, it's a bit better to put the kinetic weapons on the larger mounts, because of the damage debuff against larger hulls. Personally, I'm not convinced. But as long as you rely on gimballed weapons, there's little to improve here. If you want to stick with combat, though, it's worth it to train first with fixed weapons (efficient and/or thermal vent modified beams are nice for a start) and then graduate to railguns. Depending on what you actually want to do, you'll have to balance your preference between staying power (energy/thermal weapons) and fast kills (kinetics and rails). Although a pulse laser on the H hardpoint of a FdL (or a Mamba) is impressive...
Running my Vulture (or Krait) between Kinetics and Thermal loadout, I find that it makes little difference in total Cr./hr. as long as I can find a farming ground in reasonable distance to a rearming station (not all outposts offer reload).

2.: Shields. I prefer Bi-Weaves. Again, Engineered to the hilt and usually supplemented with Guardian shield boosters in all free slots. Of course, those boosters somewhat counteract the bi-weave advantage - but the total outcome, together with engineered shield boosters in the utility slots to get the resistances up, is impressive, at least against NPCs. Or go the other way and run shieldless (in my Sidey) with upgraded and reinforced hull. Keeps your ship cool, and completely resolves the hassle of pip management.

3.: Engineering. Yes. All of them. Thrusters, Shields, Hull, Guns, Boosters,....

Why don't you tell us how much money you want to spend, and which Engineers you already have unlocked (or are willing to unlock)? I'm sure someone can come up with a build you could get friends with.

 

[Ashnak]

Do not tank, usually there's no way that any ship can tank over a bigger ship - try to get behind instead.

Tell that to the NPC Anacondas that try to outtank this Krait (ok, I admit, booth the ship and the loadout are a bit out of the scope of this discussion...).

 

[StiTch]

1) Reasonable weapon choice for a newer combat player yes

2) Stick with regular until you can engineer. Bi-weaves will drain your capacitor too fast without faster recharge. When you are engineered and can manage your pips to a reasonable level, definitely bi-weave.

3) Engineer everything.

Bonus note: Why are you leaving your utilities empty other than KWS? Huge cardinal sin right there. Use the cheapest KWS you can - you don't need the range, but you do need the power - and fit something like one shield booster and two point defense.

Because the multicannons will do most of the hull damage, and shield damage isn't affected by hull hardness, you'll get better results versus big ships (and no worse versus small) if you go for 2 medium multicannons and 2 small lasers

Normally I'd agree but the DBS has a gorgeous convergence between the small/med on each side. If you need to drop target to go fixed they literally share a crosshair. OP also probably wants to steer of any opponents too big at this point, and a C2 laser will perform quite nicely against smaller ships as a hitscan weapon.

 

[Shiro Akai]

Personally, I'd suggest using a Python, turn it into a tank and then fit it with some fixed weapons in one FG and some gimballed weapons in another FG.
Start off attacking stuff with the fixed weapons but swap to the gimbals if you need to.

This is what Vindicator Jones was showing in his FDL series. Tho he had plasma accelerator as huge slot and "greetings" shot with other weapons for sustained damage output. Since I have FDL sitting in hangar, it's something I want to do in future. Now I'm learning the ropes and developing muscle memory.

If you want to make it easier for you, go to an outbreak system and look for ceremonial coms USS. You will find there a few trading ships wanted (as they are infected) and would get you some easy bounties because they will lack of combat skills and gear.

Ha! Didn't knew that, thanks for the hint. Will try it this evening.

Just to be sure: You picked a faction before opening fire, right?

Nope
<mynoobmoment>

Because if you don't EVERYONE will see you as hostile.
If you pick a side only half of the ships go red, the other half goes green.

Edit: Lawless just means that you wont get a bounty for firing at them. It doesn't mean that they will like it

Oh, so entire CZ went after me then? Good to know. Not that it makes it less... embarrassing. Anyway, another experience to add.

-1. : CZ. (snip) Before you start to shoot, you really should decide on which side you want to play. RH menu, Options (or so, rightmost tab), choose faction. After that, only half (roughly speaking) of the CZ will be after you, while the other half is helping you. If you don't and shoot, all of them will be after you... Ships in CZs tend to be tougher, with better pilots - and cobat bonds pay little compared to bounties.

Learned the hard way, the best possible way.

0. : Ship. The DBS is a nice allround ship. Which means that a dedicated combat ship will wipe the floor with it. If you don't have the money to A-rate and engineer a Vulture, the Viper (Mk. III) is the next step in the "small and nasty" lineup.

Anything up to ... lets say Python isn't an issue credits wise. I tried Vulture once and recently read it has power issues I wanted to avoid at the very start. Viper mk3 - this was my first BH ship back then, wanted to try something more forgiving. I'm aware that DBS isn't most optimal choice. I consider it "training mode" before I get into polishing my skills and advancing in general. I should have a big bright sign "combat training course" over me.

1.: Weapons. That is a basic (the basic) loadout. Although, as others said, it's a bit better to put the kinetic weapons on the larger mounts,

Ok, got that. Will switch to that and see how it goes.

2.: Shields. I prefer Bi-Weaves. Again, Engineered to the hilt and usually supplemented with Guardian shield boosters in all free slots. Of course, those boosters somewhat counteract the bi-weave advantage - but the total outcome, together with engineered shield boosters in the utility slots to get the resistances up, is impressive, at least against NPCs. Or go the other way and run shieldless (in my Sidey) with upgraded and reinforced hull. Keeps your ship cool, and completely resolves the hassle of pip management.

Hence the question, I heard lots of praise toward Bi-Weaves. I'm a bit insecure toward hull tanking and prefer shield tanking. Worse case scenario I can withdraw, wait a bit for shield recharge and get back, with hull damaged it'd be retreat for repairs.

3.: Engineering. Yes. All of them. Thrusters, Shields, Hull, Guns, Boosters,....

Feared one may say that... Oh well, farming materials and unlocking engineers is a game too. Problem is it's somewhat required for target gameplay and it may take sooo looong.

Why don't you tell us how much money you want to spend, and which Engineers you already have unlocked (or are willing to unlock)? I'm sure someone can come up with a build you could get friends with.

Honestly, haven't thought about it. Atm I have 240-ish M Cr free and no bigger plans on future purchases. Mamba looks nice but I think I'll get her after some exploration trip. Upon testing I may exchange DBS for something else, but that would be Viper mk3 or Vulture.

Generally I'm saving for Big3 (again), re-bough Anaconda. Upcoming Chapter update and new exploration mechanic looks nice so I would like to try it. Haven't decided in which ship. To go full blown exploration in Anaconda or just low effort Adder.

As for engineers - call me slacker. I have Felicity Farseer for her G5 FSD, visited her counterpart... Elvira? but haven't progressed. And that's it. Oh, I have unlocked Guardian FSD booster and while doing so I have some mats toward other unlocks.

Willing to unlock - pretty much everyone that is required. Seeing how schematics are spread out it means almost everyone... Looks like another 6 month of playing and unlocking before I can actually start doing what I wish.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Willing to unlock - pretty much everyone that is required. Seeing how schematics are spread out it means almost everyone... Looks like another 6 month of playing and unlocking before I can actually start doing what I wish.

If you want G5 on everything, then yes, that's a lot of unlocking.

But ... the first five engineers (the two you've unlocked already plus Dweller, McQuinn and Ryder) are all very quick to unlock, and have most of the key blueprints at least at some grade between them. Even a G2/G3 upgrade is a significant performance boost over stock.

If you're not planning on PvP you don't need G5 on everything - unlock the first five, upgrade what you can from those, then decide if there's anything else you really need - or is on an engineer you've mostly already met the requirements for anyway - before continuing.

 

[KillaALF]

As for engineers - call me slacker. I have Felicity Farseer for her G5 FSD, visited her counterpart... Elvira? but haven't progressed. And that's it. Oh, I have unlocked Guardian FSD booster and while doing so I have some mats toward other unlocks.

Willing to unlock - pretty much everyone that is required. Seeing how schematics are spread out it means almost everyone... Looks like another 6 month of playing and unlocking before I can actually start doing what I wish.

Felicity also does thrusters up to G3, which would be a significant upgrade (disregard the rest of the setup)

DBS vanilla
DBS DD G3

Chances are, you already have most of the materials needed.