Ship Builds & Load Outs Ships Bubble Hoppers

kebman

K
Hi! I wanted to find out which ship is the best bubble taxi or hopper, so I did a few quick comparisons in Coriolis. Then I thought that I might as well share it with you, and even get some input on the builds as well. ^^

Ideas
  • Build for jump range and speed.
  • Downgraded shields just for basic crash protection.
  • Downgraded power plant where it helps jump range without hurting performance too much.
  • Best fuel scoop, because no waiting allowed.
  • Heat sink just in case.
  • Fuel tank trick for that sweet extra Ly.
  • Detailed scanner, in case you are like that.
  • Enhanced thrusters where applickable, bcos moar speed.
  • Otherwise standard A-rated build with Life Support and Sensors D-rated.
  • No engineering, bcos I just can't be bothered. It's supposed to be an easy ship to fit up in a pinch for when you suddenly need to move.
  • No big and expensive ships taken into account either. It's a bubble hopper, not a limousine service.
Here are the ship-builds, ordered after Ly and modules:
Conclusions

Yes, you can build up the Sidewinder to be a decent bubble hopper, but almost every other ship in the game will be a better alternative.

If you need a really cheap but still viable bubble hopper, the Hauler is a steal at only 1.6 M Cr with quite good jump range right off the bat. It's great first taxi. Its competitor is the Adder, which can be fitted with enhanced thrusters for quite a jump in price compared to what early pilots are willing to pay. But of the ships with enhanced thrusters, it's also the one that makes the longest jumps.

The Eagle has the same jump range as the Imperial Eagle, but the latter can fit enhanced thrusters giving it a boosting velocity of over 600 m/s and cruise at 460 m/s. Just make sure you don't crash into the back of the station! :)

Both the Diamondbacks do quite well, with the Scout clearly being a well-rounded but affordable alternative to the more expensive, but clearly farthest jumping Explorer. Interestingly the Dolphin jumps just as far as the Asp Scout at only a smidge more credits.

Even though the AspX jumps four Ly less than the DBX, it still costs three times as much, at least when you use that particular build. In either case I'd probably go for the DBS as a starting bubble hopper myself, and perhaps the DBX when I got a little more credits.
 

Maymo

Maymo
My designated bubble taxi is the DBX.

When starting a new CMDR I often make it my priority to get one set up as quickly as possible. Then off to Maia to do the Farseer run for her FSD upgrade...

The modified 5A FSD can then be dropped into other ships (Type7/Krait/Python) further down the line.

The DBX has such a nice set of internals. I like it for salvaging materials and running rare goods, also good for sightseeing tours when you want a cash injection. Its large hardpoint can be used to ferry engineered weaponry to less jumpy ships like the Vulture. Small enough to land in guardian ruins.

It can also be a fierce little fighter when its been engineered. My own DBX, ‘Beetlejuice’, has claimed the lives of many unwary traders...
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A4095A83-1BED-41DE-AA22-D24163FE09F3.jpeg
 

Cmdr Nemo LXXI

Cmdr Nemo LXXI
My bubble hopper is an engineered modified explorer Conda with a range of 66 ly's; I utilize it for all my gathering of materials and wake scans in and out of the bubble.
 

Hooplah

Hooplah
Greetings,

Well, there is certainly a lot of effort here. Congratulations. Still building a non-engineered economical ship for jump range and speed in the bubble is only part of the equation. What is the purpose of that ship once they arrive at a given destination? One has to consider the many ways each of us play the game. Maybe your post is providing a starting point but jump range and speed isn't always that important versus having the right ship to accomplish a player goal.

I have all kinds of ships from friendly meet-n-greet, Frontier live stream get together when Ed Lewis was around, upsetting Gankers from a fly-on-the- wall to defeating their engineered weapons, combat, trading, exploration, Guardians, Thargoids and even rescuing refugees at a failing station.

Jump range especially with Guardian boosters (the easiest ones to acquire any new player can get) has been vastly improved. Jumping around is no big deal. I've got a Pytnon parked at Ceos whenever I decide that I need more than the current 8 billion credits I have and lots of grade 5 materials with Robigo runs. I can take my Asp Explorer taxi with 10 jumps or my combat Cutter or Corvette with about 20 jumps. At 1 minute per jump that is another ten minutes. Not a big deal. then I can upset a few Gankers.

My latest engineered ship was a combat Mamba in conflict zones. It takes out everything but slower than a Corvette with kills per minute and no cargo space. My engineered Krait Mk II takes care of any Guardian needs including already owning all the three fighters and weapons. It is a game and something to do.

Great engineering and player experience beats jump range and speed every time. Short of Colonia I've upgraded every engineer on two ED accounts (the 3rd is PS4) out of three to grade 5. It is so easy to do once a player knows what to do. My Orca 10,000 LYs out with my explorer account to Colonia will complete this...Maybe. I like the bubble more.

So I applaud your efforts to assist new players. But ED is so much more than just looking at jump range and speed.

Regards
 
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Ceekay

Ceekay
I reckon you need a small fleet of bubble hoppers so I settled on the Dolphin primarily because of it's great range of optional slots allowing you to fit a large scoop (the DBX can jump farther but it has to scoop slower because of it's limited internals).
Additionally the ship needs to be low cost as you need to move them around to use as taxis an Anaconda will have the best jump range but transferring it wont be cheap.

https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/dol...eloBhAOEEZQFMCGBzANok8K5FAoA==&bn=Dophin Pod
 

Northpin

Northpin
It takes less than 10h of gameplay to unlock Felicity Farseer and Guardian FDS Booster.
Then you save a lot of time jumping around the bubble for the rest of your gaming experience.

This DBX has only the FSD engineered and nothing else. And it can jump close to 70ly while still being fully equiped for exploration / mats gathering.

If you invest a little more time and scan some systems along the way, including surface scanning for some elw/ww/hmc then you will have a decent amount of credits as well out of this experience
 

kebman

K
That's a sweet DBX, Northpin! Thank you so much! Also big thanks for your Dolphin build, Ceekay! The Dolphin is the only ship I've ever taken to the centre and back. I unwittingly clcked "yes" to what seemed like a well-paying tourist mission lol... Boy was I in for a surprise! I'm kind of a completionist, so it took me over a week to get it done, while probing most planets down on the way too. Was it worth it? Well, it's how I got my first 100 million, but in credits per hour, hell no, definitively not! :D Was still a great experience, however.

Yeah, the builds are definitively targeted at beginners, but there might also be something in there for those of you who do not enjoy the engineering grind as much. You can actually do quite well without it, also in PVE. But yeah, for that sweet, sweet jump range, there is no way around it. I kinda enjoyed the guardian grind though. I'm sure it's a lot easier with point defence, so I'm gonna give that a try next.
 

Hank

H
The DBX is a great shuttle. I have a SW and iEagle for shuttle service atm. The Sidewinder is so cheap to ship from one place to another I have to keep it. Its engineered for jump range and nothing else. The iEagle costs a little more to ship but its so cool looking; my stylish taxi.
 

baqar79

baqar79
It's might or might not be worth mentioning, but Felicity doesn't just do G5 FSD's, she also does G3 Thrusters, G3 Sensors, G1 Power plants, and G1 Shield Boosters.

Here is a Northpin's DBX but with those additional Felicity Farseer mods (G3 Lightweight sensors, G3 Dirty Drives with Drag Drives, G1 Armoured power plant with lightweight mod):
Northpin's DBX with even more Felicity engineering

With G3 Dirty drives w/Drag Drives you increase your base speed from 258m/s to 334m/s, and with the lightweighting on the G3 Sensors and G1 Armoured power plant you can squeeze out a little bit more jump range, surpassing the 72Ly maximum jump range. You can also get G3 expanded probe radius for your Detailed Surface Scanner.

So as far as engineers go, she is pretty decent value; and if you are going to allow an engineered G5 FSD from Felicity in your builds, you might as well make use of those other engineering modifications she also provides.
 

Cmdr Nemo LXXI

Cmdr Nemo LXXI
One can not generally from the start obtain a Grade 5 status with any engineer. Unless they do some engineering to mods they didn't intend on doing the first trip to them. One may only wish for an FSD upgrade, and generally can only get her/him up to a grade 3 by doing so. Engineering other mods that will be useful in the future can get her/him to level 5 on the first trip. Providing of course one has ALL the necessary materials.
 

NecasekO

N
OP, did you consider the Type-6? I remember from pre-engineer times that it made a pretty good budget explorer ship.

The Type-6 can't fight and may have overheating issues, but for the price it has great jump range and plenty of internal space for big scoop and whatever else you may want to carry. It is also quite fast in normal space if you don't load it with cargo and use lightweight modules.
 
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