Ships AspX vs DBX Long Explorer Build

[Christian-A-Hill]

Hello amazing ED community,
I got into ED couple months ago and I must say this community had been a great help in learning the ropes. I believe I have functional grasp of the game mechanics now as I dig into it deeper. I am sure most of you have seen the similar title countless as I too have been reading all the comparison, suggestion on AspX and DBX. I have gathered enough money to get both and try them out. Also did little of engineering. Based on what I understand thus far I came up with 2 loadouts for very long range exploration. My question is as far as I can see I have similar setup despite of people saying I need to sacrifice something in DBX to have a comfortable long journey. Am I missing something?
Like many people, I am also in a dilemma. I like the DBX as personal long term ship while I like the ASPX agility. It is without doubt handles faster.

To give you some background of my playing style, I am not a hard core combat person but want to do some serious combat missions along with exploration and hauling little bit of stuff here and there. I totally understand I cannot do all these at the same time and do not mind changing out my loadouts in my home system. I also never want to own multiple ships with different role just because the game allows me to own every single ship given i earn enough money. To me this is a simulation and try to keep it as close to real world as possible. After all there was only one Millennium Falcon for Han Solo right ?
I am also not a rush to get to Corvette in record time possible but enjoy the game as it was intended and do the grind/work necessary to achieve something worth while. Hopefully this somewhat gives you an idea where I am going with my ship selection. I rather not have 2 ships if I can do with one everything I want to do in the game. Either I keep DBX or ASPX.

The following 2 loadouts are solely for very long range exploration which may span over several months into the unknown. Yes, I did add multicannon, laser etc. Just so I have them when I get bored immensely and want to blow something up. I am told bordem is inevitable in this type of journey. I can break off the routine by doing some planet prospecting to find materials to replenish wasted ammo. I am fully open to all suggestions:
DBX Loadout:

EDSY

EDSY is a ship outfitting tool for Elite Dangerous

is.gd

AspX Loadout:

EDSY

EDSY is a ship outfitting tool for Elite Dangerous

is.gd

Thanks!

 

[Badman76]

Pulse wave analyzer is only for core mining so you don't need it, also i'd suggest B rated afmu is better then A rated due to having more ammo

Also have you considered getting the gaurdian fsd booster?

Plus you are missing cargo racks from both builds so you'd not be able to carry limpets for the repair limpet controller

I doubt weapons will keep you entertained for long if you get bored, i'd do away with them

Go D rated on life support

You powerplants seem to be producing more power then what you actually need too

 

[Badman76]

This is my engineered dbx build

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

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Thats how i feel your optional internals could look like, i do recommend getting the fsd booster, it'll give you a good test run with which ever ship you decide to take

 

[MK Regular]

A few things:

• Pulse wave analyzer is useless outside of mining, it can be removed if you want extra range
• There is generally no point in bringing weapons "in case you want to blow something up" simply because the odds of ever finding something to blow up are very small. There are two exceptions to this:
  • Tourist beacons like at Sag A* will have ships that can be blown up
  • Using seismic charges on asteroids is also an option, but this requires a slot dedicated to a prospector limpet controller
• If you are going to be bringing a repair limpet controller (or any kind of limpet controller), you will need cargo space to store the limpets for it
• Unless I am mistaken, you can only use a single repair limpet on yourself at a time. The size 3 repair limpet controller can repair 3x as much hull per limpet, making it the more efficient option when it comes to using materials to synthesize limpets. That said, it doesn't repair your hull any faster than a szie 1 repair limpet controller and the materials needed for limpets are very abundant, so it's not a massive issue. I would say that you are better off having a size 1 repair limpet controller than a size 3
• In my experience, it is much better to have a second SRV than a second AFMU as it is much easier to lose an SRV than it is to take enough damage to take an AFMU out of commission. You may want to swap the size 4 or size 5 AFMU for a 4G SRV bay to limit the amount of weight added. If you manage to take enough damage to lose an AFMU, you can always use the reboot/repair option to get it working again along with your power plant which probably also just stopped working
• Make sure you set power priorities and turn off modules that you don't need. This can allow you to use a smaller power plant and save weight. Generally, I set the following priorities:
  • Priority 1: life support, sensors, heatsinks, and any modules that are usually disabled (SRV bay, AFMU, repair limpets, cargo hatch, etc...)
  • Priority 2: thrusters and FSD
  • Priority 3: power distributor, fuel scoop, and guardian shield booster
  • Priority 4: shield generator and any shield-related modules
  • Priority 5: supercruise assist
• Generally, you can downgrade your thrusters to D-rated to save weight without losing too much speed. Downgrading to to 5D thrusters on your AspX will save 12 tons while only costing ~45 m/s boost (you still get over 440 with the same engineering)
• If you have Farseer unlocked, get G3 lightweight for your sensors to save weight. It might also be worth getting G3 expanded probe radius for the DSS to help get the efficiency bonus on valuable planets
• The combination of G1 overcharged and thermal spread on the power plant is great for giving you the little bit of extra power needed to run your ship with a smaller power plant while also making sure that your ship still runs cool

Going over the builds you provided, I would change them to look something like this:
AspX
DBX

Comparing these builds, the main difference is that the DBX can do an extra ~4 ly per jump, but takes ~2.5 times longer to scoop fuel. The discussions of "DBX needs to sacrifice something" don't really apply anymore since the ship got a pair of size 1 internals in the April update, giving it the same number of slots as the AspX. The question of DBX vs AspX for exploration largely comes down to which ship you prefer (which cockpit do you like better, do you want to jump an extra 4 ly or do you want spend 6-8 seconds scooping instead of 15-20, which flight model do you like more, which ship do you want to see in screenshots, etc...).

Also, as Badman76 said, the Guardian FSD booster is a great module, and I highly recommend getting it.

 

[JetsonRING]

If you want combat, fit your ship for combat. If you want to go exploring, fit your ship for exploring.
A ship with a bunch of guns that is otherwise fitted for exploration is a ride to the rebuy screen on the short-bus.
As for a recommendation, neither of these ships are very good combat ships but,
if I were trying to choose between the two ships for exploration I would go with the Asp-X, for the view, for the extra module slots and for the multi-crew capability. o7

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

Really great feedback!
I did not know about needing Cargo space for Limpets. The reason to pick A rated life support was the extra breathing room. Really great tip about the B rated AFMU! Never noticed B rated one carries more ammo. Based on the suggestions so far, here is my build at this moment with currently engineered modules:
DBX

EDSY

EDSY is a ship outfitting tool for Elite Dangerous

is.gd

AspX

EDSY

EDSY is a ship outfitting tool for Elite Dangerous

is.gd

I have not added suggested Guardian booster. Know very little about it at this moment. I believe I need to collect tech from somewhere and trade them through Tech broker to get Guardian modules? After I get one I will drop Supercruise assist on DBX and move things around to make all fit on my DBX. The only reason to have the Guardian booster is the extra jump between dispersed stars at the edge of the galaxy right?

As for combat built DBX and AspX, even fully grade 5 engineered DBX/AspX cannot be considered more than above avg. combat ship? Really trying not to add another ship in the portofolio.

 

[MK Regular]

Really great feedback!
I did not know about needing Cargo space for Limpets. The reason to pick A rated life support was the extra breathing room. Really great tip about the B rated AFMU! Never noticed B rated one carries more ammo. Based on the suggestions so far, here is my build at this moment with currently engineered modules:
DBX

EDSY

EDSY is a ship outfitting tool for Elite Dangerous

is.gd

AspX

EDSY

EDSY is a ship outfitting tool for Elite Dangerous

is.gd

While B-rated AFMUs have more ammo then A-rated AFMUs, the ammo for A-rated will repair more damage per unit. Using a size 3 AFMU as an example:

A-rated has 4000 ammo at 0.028 repair per unit = 112 repair
B-rated has 4300 ammo at 0.023 repair per unit = 98.9 repair

In this case, you would want to take a 3A AFMU rather than a 3B AFMU as the 3A will be able to repair more module damage before it needs to be refilled.

I have not added suggested Guardian booster. Know very little about it at this moment. I believe I need to collect tech from somewhere and trade them through Tech broker to get Guardian modules? After I get one I will drop Supercruise assist on DBX and move things around to make all fit on my DBX. The only reason to have the Guardian booster is the extra jump between dispersed stars at the edge of the galaxy right?

That is correct. IIRC there are a pair of systems where you can get module and weapon blueprints that are less than 50 ly apart and ~800 ly from the bubble. I wouldn't recommend getting any of the guardian weapons if you don't plan on doing AX combat. If you only plan on getting 2 modules, I would recommend getting the FSD booster and the shield booster (you can slap the shield boosters on a small ship to get some ridiculous results like having over 400 MJ of bi-weave shields on an Eagle).

The only scenario where the Guardian FSD booster may be required is in areas with low star density, but it can be very useful for increasing the range on other ships that typically have very low jump ranges (in some cases you can increase jump range by over 50%).

As for combat built DBX and AspX, even fully grade 5 engineered DBX/AspX cannot be considered more than above avg. combat ship? Really trying not to add another ship in the portofolio.

While the AspX and DBX can work for combat, they can really only be considered as being average combat ships. Yes, you could engineer them to be good combat ships, but you could just as easily spend the same amount of effort engineering a good combat ship into a great combat ship.

If you want a combat ship, I would recommend selling either your DBX or AspX (whichever one you don't use as your explorer) and buy a Vulture. The Vulture is much more maneuverable than both the AspX and DBX, has better shields and armour, and gets a bigger power distributor for sustained fire. The Vulture does have some serious power issues though, so you may find yourself a bit limited in terms of weapon loadouts until you have Marco Quent or Hera Tani unlocked.

 

[avow555]

Asp would be my preference ove the DBX.

 

[GeoJase]

If you're going out black for a few months you may as well optimise your ship as advised above. Guardian FSD boost, smaller power plant, module priorities, more SRVs, etc.

I'd ditch the weapons. A mildly talented NPC will take out most Exploration builds. If you want a boredom breaker, I'd suggest a ship with a fighter hanger. They are fast, have guns and are more expendable than your ship. Keelback if your on a budget, or Krait Mk2 if you're cashed up.

 

[GroG79]

Real explorer use A-rated life support. Ask the hull seals

Here is my long range DBX build. It is super at scooping without overheating. So I can FSS for a long time without warnings. It gets 69.69Ly and has added extra's like A rated thusters and life support

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

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[Fish172]

I would go with AspX it will fare much better in combat, I would seriously consider saving enough for a more universal ship that can do combat and exploring quite well, The Asp or Krait Phantom are both quite excellent for this. I used a Combat ready Phantom for DWE 2 and flew across the galaxy and back quite comfortably in an armed explorer build.

 

[Northpin]

You need the Guardian FSD Booster simply because it ads a flat rate jump increase. Useful if you want to move faster from A to B or if you need the range for the rarefied space at the edge of the galaxy.
A nice guide here

Otherwise, my advice would be to go for AspX. It has beautiful view, nice scooping speed, nice range and decent internals

My outfitting would be something like this (i like coriolis better) - and no, exploration, combat and hauling don't really go well together.
Unless you fly an Anaconda like my long range light combat / hauler - designed for Explorer's Anchorage Community Goal. It's impressive, but handles like a freight train.

 

[Badman76]

If you want a boredom breaker, I'd suggest a ship with a fighter hanger. They are fast, have guns and are more expendable than your ship. Keelback if your on a budget, or Krait Mk2 if you're cashed up.

This is what i have done, i swapped from my dbx build to a keelback then settled on a krait mk2, and i love the mk2. Where i sacrificed jump range and a small ship frame for easier landing I gain a stronger, faster ship with better slots and more toys to have fun with.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

coriolis.io

 

[Bigmaec]

Another ship to consider is the Krait Phantom.
Faster, more durable and versatile, at the cost of some jumprange.

 

[Northpin]

Another ship to consider is the Krait Phantom.
Faster, more durable and versatile, at the cost of some jumprange.

I'd complete the cons against Phantom with: uglier view, less SC maneuverability
And the pros: the ability to fit a 4G hangar and better reverse thrusters.
AspX reverse thrusters are really weak. It costed me a lithobraking once and in numerous occasions i flew past the landing pad. Pretty embarrassing

 

[Morbad]

'Long range' is often a metaphor for racing across large swaths of the galaxy and the DBX is worst than the AspX or even Phantom at this because it's limited to a class 4 scoop. Of course, if you are actually exploring for the duration, being able to race there or back is a secondary consideration.

Anyway, while I personally prefer to have guns on everything, because I feel that exploring is no excuse not to shoot dangerous, annoying, or disrespectful objects/people full of holes, should the opportunity present itself, you aren't going to get much use out of your weapons on most trips. A lightweight plasma slug rail is often a good addition though, as it will let you dump fuel in 20kg increments to maximize some jumps.

Some other points:

• I'd recommend taking at least two SRVs. Breaking your only one can seriously hamper a longer trip.
• You don't really need A rated life support, now that synthesis exists. D-rated will get you all the way across the galaxy with a destroyed canopy, if you've brought a sufficiently large bag of rocks with you (though this is one of those things can can turn travel into a race).
• A-rated AFMUs repair more, so if you have two of them, there is no need to make any B rated unless you like to keep one active at all times. If you only have one AFMU, it should always be big and B-rated, for the integrity, because it can't repair itself. Reboot repair can, but rebooting canibalizes the rest of the ship, most notably PP integrity, which cannot be repaired at all, so never reboot if you can avoid it.

 

[Badman76]

Another thing for the op to consider, due to you wanting to spend alot of time with the ship, which cockpit, boost sound and ship design do you prefer out of the 2?

I love the keelback's design and liked the cockpit but to me the boost sound is horrible, daft as it may sound, it was enough for me to ditch the ship

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

'Long range' is often a metaphor for racing across large swaths of the galaxy and the DBX is worst than the AspX or even Phantom at this because it's limited to a class 4 scoop. Of course, if you are actually exploring for the duration, being able to race there or back is a secondary consideration.

By 'Long Range' I do not intend to travel across as fast as possible, rather to look around, scan and find as many undiscovered planets as possible and slap my name as first finder. For that reason I am planning to plot my route as manually as possible.

• A-rated AFMUs repair more, so if you have two of them, there is no need to make any B rated unless you like to keep one active at all times. If you only have one AFMU, it should always be big and B-rated, for the integrity, because it can't repair itself. Reboot repair can, but rebooting canibalizes the rest of the ship, most notably PP integrity, which cannot be repaired at all, so never reboot if you can avoid it.

As far as I can understand there is no way to repair a Power Plant. Would a higher grade Armored PP with Monstered Expeimental be better to increase PP integrity for long voyage and have enough power to run everything?

Another thing for the op to consider, due to you wanting to spend alot of time with the ship, which cockpit, boost sound and ship design do you prefer out of the 2?
I love the keelback's design and liked the cockpit but to me the boost sound is horrible, daft as it may sound, it was enough for me to ditch the ship

Glad you mentioned this Badman76. Because I thought I was the only one cared about the aesthetic. May be I am taking this too seriously but cockpit, sound, design does matter to me. AspX engine sound like well, fart if i may. DBX on the other hand sounds like a steam engine taking off. Neither are great but acceptable given where I am in the game at this moment. Took both of them out last night for a short cruise and I must admit AspX has much better view and feel. I do like the possibility of Krait MK2 and glad to see it is also Multirole ship. I guess my main focus is these multirole ships as I am automatically being drawn to them. With my current engineering and assuming I get the Guardian FSD, I was able to push 54ly jump range on Krait MK2 on ship builder. Does not seem bad compare to all that the ship offers.

I also experienced the benefit of AspX last night when I needed to take 200 landmines to Liz Ryder. I would have to make more trips than 2 i did with AspX. With Cobra MK3 I went on a 2000ly trip from bubble to get much needed cash and to open engineers. So got to experience a true multirole ship on just exploration.

I am somewhat far from being able to afford a Krait but got a fully loaded insured AspX and DBX right now. I am leaning towards selling DBX and put all effort on the AspX and may be get a Vulture on the side to learn the ropes of Combat. By the time i m fully ready and come back from months long exploration, I should have enough to upgrade the AspX to Krait only if i need to.

I also do not want to keep jumping from one ship to another finally to a vette with billions in the bank as soon as possible. But enjoy and utilize the ships I do use to the maximum potential. I used Cobra MK3 as long as I could. Since I want to venture out in the black I am looking for the next long term ship that will serve for a while.

As for AspX loadout, I think I have a pretty good idea about the loadout based on all the amazing suggestions here. My only concern now is the PP. How to keep it as safe as possible. All my reading says I have to be pretty reckless and dont know what I am doing to wreck the PP. In which case I should not be venture out till I know lot more.

 

[Morbad]

By 'Long Range' I do not intend to travel across as fast as possible, rather to look around, scan and find as many undiscovered planets as possible and slap my name as first finder. For that reason I am planning to plot my route as manually as possible.

DBX's scoop size should not be an issue then.

As far as I can understand there is no way to repair a Power Plant. Would a higher grade Armored PP with Monstered Expeimental be better to increase PP integrity for long voyage and have enough power to run everything?

Armored themal spread, double braced, or stripped down would be my recommendation. Monstered only if it lets you run a size smaller than otherwise.

 

[Christian-A-Hill]

Final thoughts,

After trying out many loadouts on ship builder based on all the feebbacks, current and max possible engineering level, AspX coming up much higher on both combat and usability for long term for me. A half engineered combat AspX seems to easily out perform a fully engineered combat DBX in both firepower and agility. One question on the AspX thrusters. Would a 4D thruster be able to push up AspX from those intense gravity planets?

I am going to sell off the DBX and replace that with either DBS or AspS or nothing. I like the extra utility slots of DBS and higher jump. Also like the higher optional Internals of AspS. Extra optional internals seems to help build better protection and not to mention its more agile than DBS. Are more optional internals more useful than Utility internals?