Krait II PvE Build Advice

[MishaTX]

I know, we're supposed to be moaning about Odyssey all the time, but there are so many resources in this forum that might be able to help a poor "competent" commander get better at the game, so I though I'd throw this out there.

I'm a recent convert to the Krait Kult, having always been a Python guy myself, not to mention a Bi-Weave Believer.

So here's my build, feel free to laugh, I can handle it :

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

coriolis.io

The reason for the SRV and the DSS for those of you that I know will be scratching your heads with good reason is that I can't just pass by an interesting planet without checking it out and that I can't bear leaving credits lying on the table because I couldn't DSS that ELW that I just happened upon while cruising around the bubble. Please note that I was grown up enough to realize that the utility of the the Guardian SRP far outweighed the need for a Fuel Scoop in a boat that was designed to kill stuff. Oh, and ignore the Wake Scanner. That one is only there because I had to do something with that fool Juri. It'll go as soon as I find a better use for it (any use, really).

My beef with this design, much as I love it above the Python Swiss Army Knife for its agility, is that it takes me an awful long time to make things go boom. I'm following the old "lasers to kill shields, multis to make boom" meta, which works fine, I just tend to run out of ammo a lot and get bored chewing through the sponges. Is there a better way to go about this (I'm sure there is). One caveat, though, is that being an explorer, I'm not terribly good at fancy weapons that require a lot of expert maneuvering and aiming.

Thanks in advance for anybody who were willing to wade through this wall of text.

I just want to go kill stuff as efficiently as my limited skills allow me, and I have just the place to go do so in mind, somewhere far away that could use some help with bothering people who want to meddle where they haven't the right to be meddling, because I like things shiny, and I aim to misbehave. Browncoat forever.

 

[GroG79]

Not bad at all Sir

I would replace the wave scanner with a kill warrent scanner as you will be blowing things up and not following peoples highwake as you have no interdictor

 

[Ydiss]

From your starting point, ignoring all aim type weapons, you can either go more damage but less ammo (gimble frags, overcharged and incendiary, with one corrosive, maybe one drag munitions) or infinite ammo and less damage (mix of efficient and overcharged beams).

This is assuming you're already properly engineered.

The frags option offers insane damage (up to 1500 dps). But you'll need to rely on synthesis if you want to use it in more than 5-10 fights consecutively (depending on the targets). I say gimble because you say you don't want to need to aim but bear in mind that'll mean zero dps if your opponent uses chaff. That's why I went with fixed.

I don't know of any other build that's higher dps than the beams/mc meta baseline than frags (again, ignoring any aim weapons like PAs or rails, which I found to be really strong on my mission python, combined with plasma slug).

 

[Screemonster]

I had a similar thing going on, minus the SRV/DSS, as my "fly to the other side of the bubble and kick someone's backside" boat. You're right about the scoop, an engineered krait with a booster will happily cover 200ly on a tank without economic routing.

Personally I hate large multicannons due to the spinup time, so for my CZ krait I run four efficient beams (taking advantage of that insane distro) with a corrosive frag to make chewing hull faster. I've found I'm using it less since I've moved out to the sticks - there's rarely a need for me to want to hammer out a dozen low zones back to back without returning to rearm.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

Here's what I would do with that build.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

I've added more beef to the hull whilst dropping the absolute mj value to the shields- this allows a faster recovery once they break taking advantage of the biweave you're running. For weapons I've switched everything to multis as with the incendiary mod, these just do everything. Emissive helps keep the gimbals aiming at your target and corrosive is a must if you have even one weapon that can do it. Looking at it, I'd have no problems taking this into a medium CZ.

 

[Kzak]

Or this one - three large gimballed efficient beam lasers with Thermal Vent, two medium frag cannons with High Capacity. Beam lasers to tear down the shields quickly, frags to devastate the hull. With four pips to Weapons, you can fire the three beam lasers almost indefinetly (9.2 MW weapon energy generated vs 9.3 MW used for the three beam lasers).

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

 

[Ydiss]

I had a similar thing going on, minus the SRV/DSS, as my "fly to the other side of the bubble and kick someone's backside" boat. You're right about the scoop, an engineered krait with a booster will happily cover 200ly on a tank without economic routing.

Personally I hate large multicannons due to the spinup time, so for my CZ krait I run four efficient beams (taking advantage of that insane distro) with a corrosive frag to make chewing hull faster. I've found I'm using it less since I've moved out to the sticks - there's rarely a need for me to want to hammer out a dozen low zones back to back without returning to rearm.

Yeh, using just one corrosive is a good idea. Still the same limitation on ammo (actually worse if you rely on it).

But I suppose it depends how long the op needs to stay out. If mcs are running out of ammo though...

 

[Ashnak]

This

I just tend to run out of ammo a lot and get bored chewing through the sponges

is the price for that

I'm not terribly good at fancy weapons that require a lot of expert maneuvering and aiming.

So git gud, boy .

Ok, seriously - your ship isn't that far off from my general purpose Krait that I use for anything except combat zones. No build on this PC, so I have Pacifiers (instead of your Multis) on the back and a pair of gimballed Multis (incendiary and corrosive) instead of your lazors. I also have a SLF with a (now) Dangerous NPC pilot. Sometimes, she actually hits her target - and those Guardian shards seem to hurt real bad.

I don't like the Frags/Pacifiers (and the SLF) for CZs since they tend to spray the love around rather indiscriminately, and a blast from a Pac is pretty much over the tolerance level of even the friendliest faction. So I use two ships: one for one-on-one (or one-on-many) combat with few to no friendlies around, that's the Krait Mk.II. And another with lasers and PA for CZs. I use a Mamba, but I can well imagine e.g. a chieftain in the same role. The Mamba has no corrosive effect weapons, but the chief has enough small hardpoints for that kind of stuff.

Since neither the Mamba nor the Krait are actually agile enough to take on small fighters, I also carry some gimballed weapons - the medium multis on the Krait, a couple of large beams on the Mamba - to deal with those. In single combat, the triple pacifiers on the Krait make short work of anything I can get centered in my sights and can get close up to. The downside is they go through ammo really fast (the four Dangerous or better Anacondas on the occasional mission usually clean me out), and you really don't want to have a friendly within firing range (if you read Terry Pratchett, think of Detritus' Piecemaker). The Mamba (2 cytos, the 2 gimballed beams and one huge PA) is usually good enough to clean out a CZ, if I start with the small fry, before running out of PA rounds.

 

[GroG79]

Ammo Synths costs hardly anything. Just synth till you can no more

If you run out of maths; trade down from g4-5 and repeat

 

[Screemonster]

Yeh, using just one corrosive is a good idea. Still the same limitation on ammo (actually worse if you rely on it).

But I suppose it depends how long the op needs to stay out. If mcs are running out of ammo though...

With high-capacity, if I just tap the button every so often to keep the corrosive effect up, rather than actually trying to deal damage with the frag, it'll last ages. I generally end up docking because I need a break before I end up needing more ammo.

 

[Bigmaec]

Two comments:

Your hull is a bit weak against spec ops phasing
You have nothing to counter chaff

 

[Maymo]

I’d go with 5 g5 overcharged mc’s, middle large hardpoint with corrosive the rest on autoloader. If you go into a cz enemy shields aren’t usually the problem, it’s their hull points you want to wear down.
Change your shield boosters to 3x resistance augmented g5 and let your Guardian Shield Reinforcement Package plump up the mj.

 

[goemon]

i have two pve bgs ships, who are set up for running in systems without restocking.

large longrange g1 pulses, ammo increased corrosive mc, and a beam (longrange g1 thermal vent). i shoot out the powerplant, and the beam makes it boom fast.

 

[Michael Whatever]

If you want to change thing about a bit:

The Krait runs cool enough (with a bit of tweaking) to handle 5 rail guns - if you add the plasma slug experimental effect you get "infinite" ammo. Then synthesise premium munitions, and you have "infinite" premium ammo (never reload). Infinite lasts while you have fuel - add fuel tank for peace of mind! Premium last until you reload.

It might not be (it isn't) the most efficient way to kill, but it is one of the most fun ways inho. (EDIT added - fixed weapon only - this does require maneuvering and aiming)

(and if you are really going to misbehave a hatch breaker controller? , killing before robbing seems so wasteful......so I hear...)

 

[Ydiss]

Ammo Synths costs hardly anything. Just synth till you can no more

If you run out of maths; trade down from g4-5 and repeat

I just wrote a long anecdotal reply to this then my phone browser decided to die and I lost it.

So, in short, synthesis costs time. Trading mats isn't as frequent as restocking ammo but still costs time away from whatever it is you're doing. Actually getting those g5 mats, even via shard sites, takes a few hours.

Whether it costs more time than just restocking every time you run out of ammo is heavily subjective but it's probably more efficient in the long run.

It still costs time though. Someone needs to be willing to put that time in first, before using it. I'm one of those who are willing and if the op is an explorer then I guess they're up for it too (it's a fun trip for an explorer).

 

[CptArcher]

Nice build OP! I'm also considering building an Krait Mk II at the moment. I have a Phantom, which I really do love, but I want to start working with a crewmate SLF pilot so I think an Mk II is my next ship. I've been considering this build at the moment, but I have so much leftover power that I'm not sure yet which direction I'm going. It may help to give some ideas too. I can replace the cargo rack if I want to install a planetary hanger for ground based missions, or replace any one of the shield reinforcement packages for a collector limpet controller too. I don't feel I need a guardian FSD booster because I will use it in a small area of space, so pretty much everywhere I go is just a couple jumps anyway.

Here's what I would do with that build.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

I've added more beef to the hull whilst dropping the absolute mj value to the shields- this allows a faster recovery once they break taking advantage of the biweave you're running. For weapons I've switched everything to multis as with the incendiary mod, these just do everything. Emissive helps keep the gimbals aiming at your target and corrosive is a must if you have even one weapon that can do it. Looking at it, I'd have no problems taking this into a medium CZ.

I have a question, why 6D sensors long range mod? I see a lot of people doing it and I'm not sure if I'm missing something. It seems like the 6A lightweight has less weight overall and nearly the same emission range as a 6D long range, however the 6D is much heavier.

o7

 

[Ashnak]

I have a question, why 6D sensors long range mod? I see a lot of people doing it and I'm not sure if I'm missing something. It seems like the 6A lightweight has less weight overall and nearly the same emission range as a 6D long range, however the 6D is much heavier.

The 6D has more range and uses less than 1/3rd the power. The latter is important if you want to run a cool build - or just don't like oc'ed power plants.

 

[Stealthie]

Decent enough build.

Main things I'd suggest would be related to the hull, shield and shield boosters.
And then, maybe, ask yourself whether you really need to use the ship for diverse activities or whether it'd be better to make it more focused on it's primary purpose.

Firstly, is the fancy hull really worthwhile?
Sure, it means your ship will be better protected against kinetic weapons after the shield goes down but is that how you plan to fly?
If, OTOH, you're just going to retreat when your shield breaks then you don't really need an especially tough hull.
Added to which, a suitably modded light-alloy hull, with the addition of suitably modified HRPs, will usually be cheaper, lighter and stronger than a fancy hull.
Course, a fancy hull and a bunch of HRPs will be even better... but that's where you have to start thinking about how dedicated to a specific task you want a ship to be.

Regarding SBs, it seems like it might be worth maximising specific resistances, even if that means a reduction in absolute resistance.
For example, if you just swapped the SBs for RA ones, your absolute shield would drop to 650mj but your thermal and kinetic resistances would be better than they currently are.
Also, your ship will be 20t lighter, 3m/s faster and your shield will recharge 30s quicker.
Not saying that's what you should do but it gives you an idea of how you can play with your shield and boosters to optimise performance.

Here's a link to one of my Kraits, which get used for naughty things: https://s.orbis.zone/901g

Interesting the way it's built almost entirely differently but, overall, it has very similar performance.
The main difference is that mine has significantly higher resistances due to the SB's I've fitted.
Note that I could actually improve the resistances further by fitting Thermal Resist SBs but I try to restrict myself to HD and RA SBs so I can swap them onto new ships when I sell one.

Not saying you should change your build at all.
I just think it's always worth seeing how other people build things so we can all learn from each other.

 

[Ydiss]

The 6D has more range and uses less than 1/3rd the power. The latter is important if you want to run a cool build - or just don't like oc'ed power plants.

I just use A rated long range

Love targeting stuff over 12k away. Too hard to go back on that now.

 

[CMDR DragonHorn]

Try this instead: https://s.orbis.zone/901J

Some notes:

• As a multi-purpose, weight is very-very important, so reactive is a waste, too much weight for little and rather useless effect.
• Never understood people using D long range scanner... With A light weight, you get all range you'll ever need and you cut down on weight incredibly well.
• Module and hull reinforcements are way too big, and useless on Bi-Weave Krait that will be easy to keep out of fire and regen shields instantly.
• You can swap fighter bay for cargo, just added for extra cool and as a bait in CZs, ultimately useless though.
• If you have DSS you have to have Fuel Scoop.
• Why collector limpets on Krait? One of the best and easiest ships to pick stuff up, it literally right under your cockpit, extreme manueverability and speed. It's not Python.
• Beams are practical but no fun. Plus if you stick around CZs, you really need cancelling Cell Banks, along with crazy damage potential (especially under corrosion) that's where Rails come in handy.
• When you pick Thermal Bi-Weave, you effectively need to have least MJ possible with highest resists possible. It will shorten your recharge quite well, plus cut down on weight. Heavy duty is practical with Shield Tank builds and mostly with AX combat.
• No idea why you need Frame Shift Scanner (or any Scanner to be honest) in this game. Feel free to swap it, I dunno, with heatsinks? Chaff is pointless on Krait, it's a pancake, plus if you will keep Fighter, it will be effectively your Chaff.

Overall, crunching on hull feels pointless, it's very easy to go evasive against NPCs to regen, and in PVP situations, this build will be exploding instantly either way, so, still useless. Just try not to ram anything and you'll be dandy.