Just got over a million credits by grinding in my Sidey and have had my eye on the CobraMK3 as a good jack of all trades starter ship being that I'm not sure which way I'm going to go in ED. I saw this article in Reddit a few days ago where the post was 3 years old which was a Cobra build for under 1 mil credits. Just wondering if this build is still doable for a 3 year old post? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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Newcomer / Intro 1st Ship upgrade
- Thread starter timedriver
- Start date
It is trying to be multi-role which is a nice idea but doesn’t quite work with one set of modules. As you can buy an sell modules without loss it makes more sense to configure your ship to what you are doing.
There is nothing really wrong with the build but some of the modules are definitely compromises.
The article mentions the power pack rightly pointing out that C is the compromise choice, the rest of the build is mostly D rated for low mass to help jump range.
Using a B rated fuel scoop is a good idea as they work almost as fast as the A’s but can be substantially cheaper, but if you are on a long flight the small size will mean scooping can take an age.
The vehicle bay is definitely a module I would only fit when I intended to use it, the Cobra is not so large that you can afford to waste slots, so the automation modules could probably also be removed.
There is nothing really wrong with the build but some of the modules are definitely compromises.
The article mentions the power pack rightly pointing out that C is the compromise choice, the rest of the build is mostly D rated for low mass to help jump range.
Using a B rated fuel scoop is a good idea as they work almost as fast as the A’s but can be substantially cheaper, but if you are on a long flight the small size will mean scooping can take an age.
The vehicle bay is definitely a module I would only fit when I intended to use it, the Cobra is not so large that you can afford to waste slots, so the automation modules could probably also be removed.
It's hard to give build advice unless we know what you plan to use the ship for.
But for now I'll assume you're going to carry cargo, do some trading or missions.
This is what I consider a starting point. Note that the 4A Frameshift Drive is 1.6 million all by itself, though. If you can't afford it you can go with a 4D, but you won't get as much jump range.
If you're planning combat, you'd want a very different build (with weapons, for one thing).
Anyway, here's a starting point from which you can build out what you want.
But for now I'll assume you're going to carry cargo, do some trading or missions.
This is what I consider a starting point. Note that the 4A Frameshift Drive is 1.6 million all by itself, though. If you can't afford it you can go with a 4D, but you won't get as much jump range.
If you're planning combat, you'd want a very different build (with weapons, for one thing).
Anyway, here's a starting point from which you can build out what you want.
Yep my golden advice would be to build for the activity you're interested in. In ED, yes some ships excel at doing some activities better than others, but how you build it usually matters more.
So then, it's worth mentioning that in ED when someone says a ship is 'multi-role', it doesn't really mean that it can be a jack of all trades at the same time. It's more like "this ship can be built to be any role you want."
(Having said that, you can build it to do all roles at the same time, but I don't think it would be a particularly pleasant experience. That's is what the Reddit guide is pointing you towards though)
If you have any specific gameplay you're interested in, let us know and we could probably tweak a few things in that build to gear it more towards what you wanna do
So then, it's worth mentioning that in ED when someone says a ship is 'multi-role', it doesn't really mean that it can be a jack of all trades at the same time. It's more like "this ship can be built to be any role you want."
(Having said that, you can build it to do all roles at the same time, but I don't think it would be a particularly pleasant experience. That's is what the Reddit guide is pointing you towards though)
If you have any specific gameplay you're interested in, let us know and we could probably tweak a few things in that build to gear it more towards what you wanna do
Hiya Cobra3 is a pretty good ship and would be a solid upgrade from the sidewinder. You'll find that specialisation is key to having effective ships - making one that does everything will lead to poor performance overall. In the early game you'll have to switch modules in and out until you can afford extra ships or parts. For example if youre trading, do you really need a sheild or weapons - they'll reduce your jump range and reduce the profit per run. If you're exploring, you need a hangar bay and planetary scanner but if you're not then they're dead weight.
i would suggest you use trade as a way to gain fast credits so you can start climbing the ship ladder. Bigger ships are significantly more profitable than smaller ones so you always want to upsize as soon as you can afford the ship and a cargo load for it so you're making best use of your time. If you run silver from extraction or refinery systems the cost is 33,000 - the sell price is 49,000 in a high tech / industrial system = 16,000 per item. Based on that we can work out max potential profits per run for each ship, if we kitted it with only cargo racks maximising the capacity.
From the above we see its hugely more effective to have a bigger ship and that the upgrade cost is very much worth it as each step up in size make the profitability of a each sale run significantly higher. You could earn 5x more per hour spent trading if you upgrade to a Cobra mk3 over the Sidewinder
i would suggest you use trade as a way to gain fast credits so you can start climbing the ship ladder. Bigger ships are significantly more profitable than smaller ones so you always want to upsize as soon as you can afford the ship and a cargo load for it so you're making best use of your time. If you run silver from extraction or refinery systems the cost is 33,000 - the sell price is 49,000 in a high tech / industrial system = 16,000 per item. Based on that we can work out max potential profits per run for each ship, if we kitted it with only cargo racks maximising the capacity.
| Ship | Cargo Capacity | Profit per sale (16,000 per item) |
| Sidewinder | 12 | 192,000 |
| Hauler | 22 | 352,000 |
| Cobra Mk3 | 60 | 960,000 |
| Type-6 | 108 | 1,696,000 |
| Type-7 | 304 | 4,864,000 |
| Type-9 | 784 | 12,544,000 |
| Type-10 | 528 | 8,448,000 |
From the above we see its hugely more effective to have a bigger ship and that the upgrade cost is very much worth it as each step up in size make the profitability of a each sale run significantly higher. You could earn 5x more per hour spent trading if you upgrade to a Cobra mk3 over the Sidewinder
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The cobra Mk3 is a fantastic early-game ship, especially before you've got engineering unlocked and have to start worrying about the logistics of storing and transferring your engineered modules around. You'll probably start wanting to think about getting some more ships with more specialised loadouts to switch to, like maybe putting a dedicated combat ship, a dedicated exploration ship and so on, but while you're still sticking to a single ship you could do a lot worse than a mk3.
A-rate your core modules except sensors and life support, which should be D-rated.
Otherwise, the internal slots are your oyster. Just fit them with "whatever module you need to use for whatever you're using it for right now".
A-rate your core modules except sensors and life support, which should be D-rated.
Otherwise, the internal slots are your oyster. Just fit them with "whatever module you need to use for whatever you're using it for right now".
Here's the 3 year old Reddit link to the graphics the OP was posting.
This deserves to be stated more emphatically:
For @timedriver, that is very much the case; the Cobra 3 is an excellent early asset because one can change its equipment to suit a lot of different activities, but not all of them at the same time! Without knowing whether you intend bounty-hunting, mining, trading or such, I would go so far as to say that most module advice will be substandard in some way.
Without comment regarding optional modules before knowing the activity in question, I will say that I disagree conditionally with a fair amount of the core module suggestions here. The reasons vary, although a common theme is focusing too closely on jump range and sacrificing too much quality elsewhere, hence some fixation on D-rated modules. With conditions, my suggestions are—
For @timedriver, that is very much the case; the Cobra 3 is an excellent early asset because one can change its equipment to suit a lot of different activities, but not all of them at the same time! Without knowing whether you intend bounty-hunting, mining, trading or such, I would go so far as to say that most module advice will be substandard in some way.
Without comment regarding optional modules before knowing the activity in question, I will say that I disagree conditionally with a fair amount of the core module suggestions here. The reasons vary, although a common theme is focusing too closely on jump range and sacrificing too much quality elsewhere, hence some fixation on D-rated modules. With conditions, my suggestions are—
- Armour: Excepting very long-distance travel, leaving the Lightweight armour installed means that you promise yourself to be really careful not to get attacked nor collide with anything. I understand that armour can be expensive, though consider that Reinforced makes your hull around 50% stronger, where the extra mass will cost around one light-year of jump range. Military Grade is around 100% stronger for around two light-years range. Far too many traders are jumping around with "paper planes"!
- Power: At your early stage, the biggest effect is that better Power plant rating means lower heat. C-rated power should be cheap enough and will halve the heat. If your other modules do not require that much power, note that you can save some credits and mass by using a smaller module, in your case 3C rather than 4C. A-rated power is very expensive and is only slightly better for heat than C-rated.
- Thrusters: Without getting into mass thresholds, personally I love having capable movement on any vessel, and would say to upgrade as much as budget allows. Traders and explorers may choose differently here and just go with 4D because Supercruise is unaffected by Thrusters, at least until they crash and explode while attempting a planetary landing without checking the gravity display.
- Frame Shift Drive: Everyone needs jump range; this upgrade comes first, and you should get 4C minimum.
- Life Support: 3D will make it lighter and give you 50% more emergency oxygen, 7.5 minutes rather than 5. Do not let anyone tell you not to get more, though—experienced pilots often forget that newer pilots will not have raw materials ready to synthesise oxygen. Every moment counts if you need to rush to a port to fix a broken canopy, or if you ever need rescuing!
- Power Distributor: 3C minimum; boosting is very useful and is painfully infrequent without a good Distributor. Even with 3C you may find that it has trouble supporting a class 4 Shield Generator; this is a slight deficiency of the Cobra 3 in being a borderline medium-mass vessel as far as some of its module classes are concerned.
- Sensors: 3D will make it lighter, although if you go bounty-hunting then please get 3A immediately. Many Commanders eschew this without ever realising how disastrously blind they are without it!
The ship progression for my first account was: Sidewinder, Cobra Mk3, Asp Explorer, Krait Mk2, Python (as a mission/cargo runner while the Krait remained as a combat ship), Imperial Cutter. Then many others followed - generally speaking past this startup ship progression, i would be building dedicated ships for each role i needed
On an alt account, my ship progression was: Sidewinder, Adder, Cobra Mk3 (combat) / Type-6 (cargo), Dropship (combat/cargo/missions) then the rest of the classics (Krait mk2, Python, Cutter, Corvette)
Regarding the ship, I would advise you to make more credits before attempting to jump ship if i may say so.
And regarding the build, i would go for something like this - sure it's more expensive but credits are not that hard to get by* - but i would not get that ship unless i have at least the required price and cash for at least 4-5 rebuys (so 3-3.2 millions)
Regarding outfitting, generally speaking you'd want the smallest A-rated power plant that can support your power needs, the best A-rated FSD, while everything else can be D-rated - that is for core systems. One mention for Power Distributer - sometimes is recommended to A-rate the PD too - at least till you unlock engineering - for more often boosting and for combat.
*(take your sidewinder in a High Res, wait a bit for the local pirates to start messing with the natives, then watch the System Authority ship clashing with the pirates and tag the pirates ship when they are low on hull - when they explode, you will get the bounties too. Alternatively, settling in a system and running missions can get decently lucrative once you get allied with the local factions)
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I stayed with the orig Sidey for a long time. I put an extra size 1 or size 2 fuel tank on it. I did combat by following the space po po around and tagging ships already engaged with the security services, good money, low risk, but do not shoot anyone but the intended target.
And then I also used the road to riches to use the sidey for exploration by Fss scanning around the bubble. This is where the 2nd fuel tank really helped out.
After the Sidey I progressed through the ships via a CM3, then T6, then Dbx, then AspX, and finally Python. Remember to buy as much as you can (ships and modules) from Li Yong Rui space for the discounts on ships and modules. It can save you ALOT over time.
And have fun. Good Luck Cmdr, o7
And then I also used the road to riches to use the sidey for exploration by Fss scanning around the bubble. This is where the 2nd fuel tank really helped out.
After the Sidey I progressed through the ships via a CM3, then T6, then Dbx, then AspX, and finally Python. Remember to buy as much as you can (ships and modules) from Li Yong Rui space for the discounts on ships and modules. It can save you ALOT over time.
And have fun. Good Luck Cmdr, o7
Surprised nobody has mentioned the Hauler step as the first ship after the Sidewinder. Great jump range that enables a good first "exploration" trip to raise the credits to buy and equip the next ship. (With Odyssey, bios on that first trip could finance a fleet. - I seem to remember the OP saying they didn't have EDO though.)
- I seem to remember the OP saying they didn't have EDO though.)
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Big Thanx.
Thanx again for everyone's input....which gives me so much to work with.
Looks interestingSurprised nobody has mentioned the Hauler step as the first ship after the Sidewinder. Great jump range that enables a good first "exploration" trip to raise the credits to buy and equip the next ship. (With Odyssey, bios on that first trip could finance a fleet.
I was very much into shooting stuff when I started rather than exploring so I didn’t get a permanent* Hauler until quite recently, my progression wentSurprised nobody has mentioned the Hauler step as the first ship after the Sidewinder. Great jump range that enables a good first "exploration" trip to raise the credits to buy and equip the next ship. (With Odyssey, bios on that first trip could finance a fleet.
- Sidewinder
- Viper III, for possibly two days I just didn’t like it.
- Sidewinder
- Cobra III
- Asp Explorer
- Start of multiple ship ownership
There was a time when it was common to buy a Hauler do just enough to it to give a reasonable jump range then fly across the bubble to where you wanted to go then sell the Hauler, they made a great bubble taxi.
I keep a souped-up jumpy Hauler at the starting location of all my accounts. That way when I get blown up I just choose the freewinder, jump into the Hauler and go about my business. Plastic-man, like iron-man in not having any insurance claims but without having to re-qualify the engineers.
What was your loadout on the Cobra?
Good grief that was 6-7 years ago, I have been sober, occasionally, since then.
It would at times when going to a fight have been something like this, but keep in mind the number of slots available was lower back then.
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I had read somewhere that you got better protection for the mass from reinforcements over armour but I might have fitted reinforced I don’t remember.
No engineering as I wasn’t running Horizons until after the AspX IIRC.
I do have a Cobra now but it isn’t that ship and is sort of a racer.
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