Are Guardian modules worth the grind?

[Gilesey]

Probably been asked before, but I'm new to this. Been playing on and off for a while but recently decided to check out the Guardians.

Picked up a bit of data and some material drops and looked up what they can be used for. Had a look at the FSD range extender and it looks useful, but they're asking for a ton of data and materials (energy cells / conduits etc). Question is, is it worth the grind? Looks like I could be farming for a while and I know I can log out/inn and repeat but will still take a long time to get everything I need.

Apart from FSD are any of the others worth persuing - are they any better than a fully engineered module for example? I'd be grateful for any opinion.

I tend to play Solo with a focus on exploration, hence the interest in the FSD, but are the weapons any good also - better than maxed out beams/MCs?

 

[Speedcuffs]

Just the FSD booster for exploration.
The weapons are good for Thargoids, not very good against human.
Honestly, I don't think it's much of a grind for the FSD booster.
Read up on it beforehand.

 

[Ozric]

I'm not going to be able to add anything in terms of the weapons because I've not used any of them, but my understanding is they are only better against Thargoids and not as good as G4 or 5 engineered weapons against Humans/NPCs.

The FSD was my only interest. I only explored two of the new Guardian sites and I got more than enough of the cells/conduits etc to buy the blueprint. So it's not a grind at all.

 

[Jmanis]

Everyone will cite the FSD Booster.

I'll also throw on there the following:

• Guardian Hybrid Power Generator / Distributor
• Shard Cannon
• Guardian Shield Reinforcement Package
• Guardian Module Reinforcement Package
• XG7 Trident Fighter

Everyone always (correctly) says that the GHPG/GHPD are outstripped by equivalent G4/5 variants. But they're still entirely servicable and a massive step up from vanilla fittings, at no material cost beyond the initial unlock, unlike G4/5 engineered variants which you'll be paying out mats for every time.

Shard Cannons against humans are basically anti-shield frag cannons, and do equivalent damage (to shields) as G5 double-shot + screening shot frags. If your armour damage is already sufficient these are a perfectly viable substitutions. Anecdotally, for me the shot report (being big, blue bursty things which have a small "splash" effect which lasts a second or two after impact) is far easier to track than that of Frag Cannons, so for me personally, confirming shot efficacy (how many frags hit the target) is way easier.

Guardian Shield Reinforcement Package is a unique fitting option and not available humans otherwise. Personally I don't use them because I err on hull tanking for combat, but nonetheless, their uniqueness makes them worthwhile.

Guardian MRP is, as far as I recall, just outright superior to standard MRPs, neither of which can be engineered.

XG7 Trident Fighter on paper might not seem great compared to the other fighters, but it's the only fighter packing absolute damage. This can make it a superior option against targets with higher resists.

Overall, it's correct that highly engineered modules are superior to the relevant guardian fitting, but in many cases they're still a G3/4 equivalent for no material cost beyond the initial unlock, so fitting them is way less effort, and generally a vastly superior option to vanilla fits. You mention your use case as solo/ exploration.... if that's the case then i can guarantee guardian fits aren't a dealbreaker for any encounter you might hit.

Edit: of course, you throw thargoid fighting in there, and suddenly gauss cannons and GHRPs become useful too (That single-GHRP configuration people have discussed)

 

[Bigmaec]

GFSD Booster is a no-brainer. Just get it.

What I also use are the power plant and power distributor for non-Combat builds when I'm too lazy to engineer stuff.
Also the pp and pd are useful in power hungry niche cases when you're up to 4% over the power requirements.
For an exploration build the pp is not so good because it runs an efficiency of 0.50 which is quite hot.

The module reinforcement is a bit better if you have the power to spare. I got them last week and could fit them on
nearly all my hulltanks for a bit better module protection. Not useful for explo builds though.

The Lance and Trident I use in my exploration builds as a fighter to have fun, because they have awesome cockpits and look cool.
I don't use them to fight, but I only unlocked the Trident last week, haven't tested the absolute damage yet.

The weapons are imho only useful if you plan to fight the thargoids.

 

[Iskariot]

Everyone will cite the FSD Booster.

I'll also throw on there the following:

• Guardian Hybrid Power Generator / Distributor
• Shard Cannon
• Guardian Shield Reinforcement Package
• Guardian Module Reinforcement Package
• XG7 Trident Fighter

Everyone always (correctly) says that the GHPG/GHPD are outstripped by equivalent G4/5 variants. But they're still entirely servicable and a massive step up from vanilla fittings, at no material cost beyond the initial unlock, unlike G4/5 engineered variants which you'll be paying out mats for every time.

Shard Cannons against humans are basically anti-shield frag cannons, and do equivalent damage (to shields) as G5 double-shot + screening shot frags. If your armour damage is already sufficient these are a perfectly viable substitutions. Anecdotally, for me the shot report (being big, blue bursty things which have a small "splash" effect which lasts a second or two after impact) is far easier to track than that of Frag Cannons, so for me personally, confirming shot efficacy (how many frags hit the target) is way easier.

Guardian Shield Reinforcement Package is a unique fitting option and not available humans otherwise. Personally I don't use them because I err on hull tanking for combat, but nonetheless, their uniqueness makes them worthwhile.

Guardian MRP is, as far as I recall, just outright superior to standard MRPs, neither of which cannot be engineered.

XG7 Trident Fighter on paper might not seem great compared to the other fighters, but it's the only fighter packing absolute damage. This can make it a superior option against targets with higher resists.

Overall, it's correct that highly engineered modules are superior to the relevant guardian fitting, but in many cases they're still a G3/4 equivalent for no material cost beyond the initial unlock, so fitting them is way less effort, and generally a vastly superior option to vanilla fits. You mention your use case as solo/ exploration.... if that's the case then i can guarantee guardian fits aren't a dealbreaker for any encounter you might hit.

Edit: of course, you throw thargoid fighting in there, and suddenly gauss cannons and GHRPs become useful too (That single-GHRP configuration people have discussed)

What an excellent and useful response. Great information.

 

[Ethaidan]

Perhaps most importantly, the Trident looks awesome and is great fun to fly. Just don't try to get as close to lightning strikes as possible in search of blinding screenshots - all it takes is one wayward strike and poof!

 

[Northpin]

Not much to add to Jmanis' post.

Just another vote to Guardian Shield Reinforcement. It really shines on small ships, but it still maintain usefulness even on larger ships.
They are even better if you go for Thermal engineering on ShieldGen and use the GSR to compensate for MJ lost. (they benefit from resists shield boosters, but they're not affected by heavy duty shield boosters)
But they have a major downside (also valid for Guardian Hull and Module reinforcements): you can't turn them off and you cannot adjust their priority - they'll be stuck at Priority 1

Also meet my Scout Hunter, also used as a training platform for rail/gauss aiming. Minimal engineering. Lots of guardian stuff
If you replace the Large AX MC turret with a medium gauss, you can try your hand at interceptors too...

 

[Bigmaec]

Not much to add to Jmanis' post.

Just another vote to Guardian Shield Reinforcement. It really shines on small ships, but it still maintain usefulness even on larger ships.
They are even better if you go for Thermal engineering on ShieldGen and use the GSR to compensate for MJ lost. (they benefit from resists shield boosters, but they're not affected by heavy duty shield boosters)
But they have a major downside (also valid for Guardian Hull and Module reinforcements): you can't turn them off and you cannot adjust their priority - they'll be stuck at Priority 1

Also meet my Scout Hunter, also used as a training platform for rail/gauss aiming. Minimal engineering. Lots of guardian stuff
If you replace the Large AX MC turret with a medium gauss, you can try your hand at interceptors too...

Duh...

I knew I forgot something

Yep, they are useful too.