Ships Challenger Owners Club

Turnspit

Turnspit
The Challenger indeed has the better defensive possibilities, that's true, but lacks in evasiveness compared to the Chieftain due to its inferior maneuverability, which should roughly set those two on par in terms of overall damage soaking capabilities. Just did a quick test run with the Chieftain yesterday and I indeed took less hits with it than with the Challenger.

Damage-wise, comparing my two builds, 1 L hardpoint is superior to 2 M hardpoints. With MCs in those slots, the Challenger has superior damage against small ship hulls, but against medium and large ships the Chieftain has the edge.

Challenger SDPS against stock Gunship hull: 35.4
Chieftain SDPS against stock Gunship hull: 38.1

Challenger SDPS against stock Corvette hull: 30.3
Chieftain SDPS against stock Corvette hull: 32.7

So combat-wise with the way I build my ships, the Chieftain is cheaper, more maneuverable and has slightly more firepower.

Still, I don't think the Challenger is totally useless. The extra weapon slot and bigger internals give it more flexibility and I think I will build one for Thargoid hunting in the future.
 

Gamsir

G
The Challenger is my favorite medium ship. Perhaps my ultimate favorite. I really enjoy flying my Vulture, but the Challenger gets most of my attention.

This is a repost from another thread, but it sums up nicely what I love about the Challenger.

A well engineered challenger is a beast, good manouverability, almost no drift, good shields, excellent armor and extremely versatile in armaments.

My challengers 4 focused burst lasers will chew any shield, and snipe any module. The large MC will chew any large hull. And if you go up against a ship that spam SCBs, use the railguns. It’s also quite energy efficent compared to beam setups or anything with overcharge. Base dps is so high anything above is overkill. And you can always switch to the rails if need be.
In this base configuration it’s also a great mission runner.

My build:
https://coriolis.io/outfit/alliance_challenger?code=A4pktkFflmdpsff47l7i7i7i12292904040400B13d0229v62f1J2b2J.Iw18ZQ%3D%3D.MwBj4yIFjXyA.H4sIAAAAAAAAA42SP0vDYBDGr6YpSVPzzzZNi1K1UUFE6ugiHRQcxMlJHBR0cXJQ6NDBUZxExC5F%2FAiOfgA%2FhIOzOHRwcFBp77yL5EWkkGZ4eOD33OXueAENABjoLP1rFmvvi8i7%2BCaK7h0AyuCa8KzwNosR9okcdwEgeNMA%2FGaOQ2MYqCanLE7E9cUeS0mahA9cXj8pc1LDqkq2kqT%2FaAEU2yVOvjChLK5ISBO%2B%2BcG8%2B0pEOq6q0nMWs4BE%2BRsPYEbcrLg5cfPiKIcHSRNffr3c%2BCSqxMjAXdVJuL41BVBp9Yjq8c4m7iSl%2FUuWcrPG%2FIonry9lmOdTuJXCCyl8%2FHe%2B%2BOaHMl83ZL7%2FzvPJpcj%2Bw4%2BGcAc31H5dOaJc1W%2Bc8X2fTIDas80hd5SQN0poArfVOscSkiG89QE%2FIVd4gIuqya08sTu29vQkh8T5cvNIHFX%2FJzsq2VFJcUQw5PsB9pDhDMwCAAA%3D.IwegTCDMIAwsA2EAOEBTAhgcwDZpPDEUA%3D%3D%3D&bn=Gamsir%20Challenger

Coriolis is way off on manouverability and speed. At 2 pips to eng turn rate is about 49-50˚/s whis is very good. Especially without drifting. Boosting is just shy of 500. Base top speed with 2 pips is about 280 I think.
A less known feature of this ship is that you don’t really loose any turnrate setting thrusters to 75% compared to the sweet spot in the blue (50%). What you gain is a higher base speed that helps with less speed management during combat. It’s very rare that you need to speed boost during combat. The Chieftain and FAS are quite drifty also, especially when turning tight in the blue zone. The Chief will easily ‘stall’ and lose momentum. This basically never happens with the Challenger at 75% thrusters.
Managing FA/off in combat is unnecessary also in my experience.
 

Simon Templar

Simon Templar
Gamsir said:
The Challenger is my favorite medium ship. Perhaps my ultimate favorite. I really enjoy flying my Vulture, but the Challenger gets most of my attention.

This is a repost from another thread, but it sums up nicely what I love about the Challenger.

A well engineered challenger is a beast, good manouverability, almost no drift, good shields, excellent armor and extremely versatile in armaments.

My challengers 4 focused burst lasers will chew any shield, and snipe any module. The large MC will chew any large hull. And if you go up against a ship that spam SCBs, use the railguns. It’s also quite energy efficent compared to beam setups or anything with overcharge. Base dps is so high anything above is overkill. And you can always switch to the rails if need be.
In this base configuration it’s also a great mission runner.

My build:
https://coriolis.io/outfit/alliance_challenger?code=A4pktkFflmdpsff47l7i7i7i12292904040400B13d0229v62f1J2b2J.Iw18ZQ%3D%3D.MwBj4yIFjXyA.H4sIAAAAAAAAA42SP0vDYBDGr6YpSVPzzzZNi1K1UUFE6ugiHRQcxMlJHBR0cXJQ6NDBUZxExC5F%2FAiOfgA%2FhIOzOHRwcFBp77yL5EWkkGZ4eOD33OXueAENABjoLP1rFmvvi8i7%2BCaK7h0AyuCa8KzwNosR9okcdwEgeNMA%2FGaOQ2MYqCanLE7E9cUeS0mahA9cXj8pc1LDqkq2kqT%2FaAEU2yVOvjChLK5ISBO%2B%2BcG8%2B0pEOq6q0nMWs4BE%2BRsPYEbcrLg5cfPiKIcHSRNffr3c%2BCSqxMjAXdVJuL41BVBp9Yjq8c4m7iSl%2FUuWcrPG%2FIonry9lmOdTuJXCCyl8%2FHe%2B%2BOaHMl83ZL7%2FzvPJpcj%2Bw4%2BGcAc31H5dOaJc1W%2Bc8X2fTIDas80hd5SQN0poArfVOscSkiG89QE%2FIVd4gIuqya08sTu29vQkh8T5cvNIHFX%2FJzsq2VFJcUQw5PsB9pDhDMwCAAA%3D.IwegTCDMIAwsA2EAOEBTAhgcwDZpPDEUA%3D%3D%3D&bn=Gamsir%20Challenger

Coriolis is way off on manouverability and speed. At 2 pips to eng turn rate is about 49-50˚/s whis is very good. Especially without drifting. Boosting is just shy of 500. Base top speed with 2 pips is about 280 I think.
A less known feature of this ship is that you don’t really loose any turnrate setting thrusters to 75% compared to the sweet spot in the blue (50%). What you gain is a higher base speed that helps with less speed management during combat. It’s very rare that you need to speed boost during combat. The Chieftain and FAS are quite drifty also, especially when turning tight in the blue zone. The Chief will easily ‘stall’ and lose momentum. This basically never happens with the Challenger at 75% thrusters.
Managing FA/off in combat is unnecessary also in my experience.
Click to expand...

You guys are seriously making me think about picking up a Challenger as my first Alliance ship. In the market for a dedicated combat ship, something not too small (have a Cobra, don't want another small ship right now) and not too big (T10 is my main ship). Both my Cobra and my T10 are fully engineered. Sounds as though an engineered Challenger could be my combat missing link?

Thanks for posting your build - much food for thought.

o7
 

Madrax573

Madrax573
Well I have pretty much stopped using my FDS and using the challenger for it's replacement for combat operations. In a CZ it murders things all over the place.
 

Simon Templar

Simon Templar
Got my first Challenger last night. Love it so far. Only half engineered so far, but has a wonderful combination of module space, speed, handling, jump range and hardpoints. Can't wait to see how good it will be when I'm finished with it, but early signs are very good. I use my Cobra MkIII as a mat gatherer and light combat/mission trading ship. The Challenger now gives me 64T of cargo, still with the SRV bay for mats but with genuine combat ability and decent jump range. So for me it has become a grown up Cobra and a real go to ship.
 

sibullski

sibullski
at this point I've named mine cockroach because it's so hard to kill. Dirty drives grade 3 was all I needed for that To me this ship outclasses every other medium and it's the one ship I love using in conflict zones, can't wait to use in the new ones when the patch finally drops. mine is reasonably engineered. the ability to easily tank and yet be maneuverable enough to evade large ships makes it the apple of my eye, plus the 7 hardpoints are amazing imo and yeah I brought this up before but an extra class 6 means scb that can fully regen shields.
 
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Gamsir

G
sibullski said:
so has anyone else notice the new green colored cockpit is this a glitch because it does not look good.
Click to expand...

There was always a little green hue in the cockpit.
But if you avtivate nightvision it gets enhanced.
I rather like it actually - it sets the alliance ships somewhat apart and breaks up all the orange
 

sibullski

sibullski
Gamsir said:
There was always a little green hue in the cockpit.
But if you avtivate nightvision it gets enhanced.
I rather like it actually - it sets the alliance ships somewhat apart and breaks up all the orange
Click to expand...

fair enough it is a subjective criticism. I can see why some people would enjoy it which is good for them.
 

Gamsir

G
Ceekay said:
I'm currently using a Challenger for mining sounds crazy but the weapon convergence and hard point quantity make it ideal as a mid sized miner, you also need decent agility to use drill missiles and plant seismic charges and being a medium vessel it can manoeuvre "inside" the cracked asteroid to collect the loot.

https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/all...BGA2EDM8CmBDA5gG2SGF8hRFA&bn=Challenger miner
Click to expand...

Mining Challenger actually feasible?
Cool! A must try when my rdr 2 mania recedes.
 

Ceekay

Ceekay
Gamsir said:
Mining Challenger actually feasible?
Cool! A must try when my rdr 2 mania recedes.
Click to expand...

Extracted around 20 mil from 6-7 asteroids using deep core, for deep core mining the seismic charge launcher and abrasion blaster (for exposed surface deposits) are all you need the mining laser and drill missile are a bit redundant TDH.
 

SupraOptimo

SupraOptimo
Turnspit said:
I just fiddled around a bit on Coriolis with the Chieftain and made a comparative build to my Challenger one:

Challenger:
https://s.orbis.zone/-1l

Chieftain:
https://s.orbis.zone/-1-

And tbh, at least in my case the Chieftain seems superior, so I can partially understand the trash-talking about the Challenger now...

- Same damage against shields
- Superior damage against hull (against medium and large ships)
- Pretty much identical shields and hull
- Faster & better maneuverability
- Cheaper
- Higher Jumprange
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat as you. I flew the Challenger for a long time, since by the time I was ready to graduate from my Vulture I had enough cash for it. Never really considered the Chieftain. I got bored one day, played around with the Chieftain in Coriolis and realized that the difference between the two was minuscule enough that I couldn't (and still can't) understand what the Challenger offers that's worth that ten million price increase. I used to run a trio of OC multis on the Challenger's medium hardpoints with a burst laser up top and three long-range rails in the small points, but found early on that even with gimbals, the two rear medium hardpoints don't have a lot of overlap in their fields of fire, so I was usually only able to get two guns to bear on an enemy at close range. Since half the time that third medium hardpoint wasn't even contributing to the fight, I was effectively trading one medium weapon for a large one.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Challenger and have a lot of happy memories flying it. After joining the forums and seeing this thread, I even went back to the Challenger for a couple of days this week. And now, having a lot of time in both ships, I honestly can't get away from the Chieftain.
 

Simon Templar

Simon Templar
SupraOptimo said:
I'm in the same boat as you. I flew the Challenger for a long time, since by the time I was ready to graduate from my Vulture I had enough cash for it. Never really considered the Chieftain. I got bored one day, played around with the Chieftain in Coriolis and realized that the difference between the two was minuscule enough that I couldn't (and still can't) understand what the Challenger offers that's worth that ten million price increase. I used to run a trio of OC multis on the Challenger's medium hardpoints with a burst laser up top and three long-range rails in the small points, but found early on that even with gimbals, the two rear medium hardpoints don't have a lot of overlap in their fields of fire, so I was usually only able to get two guns to bear on an enemy at close range. Since half the time that third medium hardpoint wasn't even contributing to the fight, I was effectively trading one medium weapon for a large one.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Challenger and have a lot of happy memories flying it. After joining the forums and seeing this thread, I even went back to the Challenger for a couple of days this week. And now, having a lot of time in both ships, I honestly can't get away from the Chieftain.
Click to expand...

Isn't the rationale that you can't get a fighter hangar in a Chieftan? That's certainly why I went for a Challenger. Please don't tell me I backed the wrong horse!!

o7
 
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