Newcomer / Intro Chieftain hardpoint question, general Hull tanking question and rank question

Ishmerai Killforge

I
I just bought a Chieftain, upgrading from a Vulture. The only combat I do atm is high res sites. I have always liked using multicannons so loading up all the hardpoints with multicannons was fun. I took my Chieftain out while I was throwing out bullets all over, I ran out of ammo faster than I thought I would. I topped off ammo, then went back out and yeah, I run out within 20-30 minutes of bounty hunting, which is a little annoying. For effeciency sake, should I be trying to use laser of some kind? Or am I just doing something wrong?

Also for Hull tanking. I didn't even realize what that was till I bought the Chieftain. The shields aren't great and I almost died. So how does hull tanking work? If I could just use Eve Online for example, is Hull tanking similar to armor tanking? Does your hull auto regenerate or repair in anyway? Or can you only repair Hull at a station? Am I completely not understanding what Hull tanking is? lol. Is there another ship comparable to the Chief that is a shield tank?

Last question, before I knew what the Chieftain was, I was looking at the Federal Dropship and Federal Assault ship to continue my bounty hunting. When I went to buy it I saw you needed rank to buy it. How do I get that rank? Hoping it's not from completing combat missions as those are either really hard/impossible for me, or i'm just not doing it right.

Anyways all help is appreciated.
 

Bob Lighthouse

Banned
Bob Lighthouse
Ishmerai Killforge said:
I just bought a Chieftain, upgrading from a Vulture. The only combat I do atm is high res sites. I have always liked using multicannons so loading up all the hardpoints with multicannons was fun. I took my Chieftain out while I was throwing out bullets all over, I ran out of ammo faster than I thought I would. I topped off ammo, then went back out and yeah, I run out within 20-30 minutes of bounty hunting, which is a little annoying. For effeciency sake, should I be trying to use laser of some kind? Or am I just doing something wrong?
Click to expand...

You should be killing much faster w/ the MCs, but that's a decent amount of time.
Are you using corrosive on one of them?
For PVE you probably want at least some lasers, generally in the smaller slots.

Also for Hull tanking. I didn't even realize what that was till I bought the Chieftain. The shields aren't great and I almost died. So how does hull tanking work? If I could just use Eve Online for example, is Hull tanking similar to armor tanking? Does your hull auto regenerate or repair in anyway? Or can you only repair Hull at a station? Am I completely not understanding what Hull tanking is? lol. Is there another ship comparable to the Chief that is a shield tank?
Click to expand...

No, your hull does not regenerate, and your external modules (eg weps) are very vulnerable when shields are down.
(You want biweave shields btw.)

A few missiles can take them out.
You need to upgrade bulkheads and add hull/module reinforcement packages.
Challenger, Crusader fed ships, Kraits are all often built similar as hull/hybrids

Last question, before I knew what the Chieftain was, I was looking at the Federal Dropship and Federal Assault ship to continue my bounty hunting. When I went to buy it I saw you needed rank to buy it. How do I get that rank? Hoping it's not from completing combat missions as those are either really hard/impossible for me, or i'm just not doing it right.

Anyways all help is appreciated.
Click to expand...


Any missions for federally aligned minor factions will help, especially choosing rep as a reward.
You'll then need to do "naval rank up missions" for each level, which pop up sporadically once you have enough progress.
You can see that in your right UI panel.
 

Ishmerai Killforge

I
Bob Lighthouse said:
You should be killing much faster w/ the MCs, but that's a decent amount of time.
Are you using corrosive on one of them?
For PVE you probably want at least some lasers, generally in the smaller slots.



No, your hull does not regenerate, and your external modules (eg weps) are very vulnerable when shields are down.
(You want biweave shields btw.)
Click to expand...

I had seen "corrosive rounds mentioned before, but I wasn't sure how you go about getting them.

Also to the Hull. If your shields go down your hull takes damage is that correct? So generally you will have to repair that at the station every time you go back if you took damage after your shields were down?
 

Bob Lighthouse

Banned
Bob Lighthouse
Ishmerai Killforge said:
I had seen "corrosive rounds mentioned before, but I wasn't sure how you go about getting them.
Click to expand...

It's an engineering modification.
Do you have Horizons?

Also to the Hull. If your shields go down your hull takes damage is that correct? So generally you will have to repair that at the station every time you go back if you took damage after your shields were down?
Click to expand...

Correct, assuming you could not evade the fire.
 

Ishmerai Killforge

I
Bob Lighthouse said:
It's an engineering modification.
Do you have Horizons?



Correct, assuming you could not evade the fire.
Click to expand...
Yes I have horizons and two engineers I just need to visit to complete. They're like 200ly away and have been too lazy to fly out there yet. I plan to go tomorrow though. One for MC upgrades and the other for like jump driveupgrades I think.

Thanks for clarifying the Hull thing, helps very much.
 

Bob Lighthouse

Banned
Bob Lighthouse
Ishmerai Killforge said:
Yes I have horizons and two engineers I just need to visit to complete. They're like 200ly away and have been too lazy to fly out there yet. I plan to go tomorrow though. One for MC upgrades and the other for like jump driveupgrades I think.

Thanks for clarifying the Hull thing, helps very much.
Click to expand...


Sure, the increased range FSD makes life much easier naturally.
Add the mass manager "experimental" for the Chief's FSD.

This INARA - Elite:Dangerous companion
and this https://coriolis.io/
are very useful.

Overcharged + autoloader is what you want on most of the MCs.
Just put corrosive on one of the smaller ones as it does not stack, and size doesn't matter,

You only want one large, and maybe one small MRP, and the rest HRPs.

This is my current Chieftain https://s.orbis.zone/2v68
 

aRJay

aRJay
Running out of ammunition is useful in a way as it forces you to regularly visit a station where you can cash in your bounties so that you won’t lose too many of them if you accidentally die in combat. However if you have mined the right materials you can synthesise ammunition even higher powered varieties. Lasers work better against shields while kinetics are more effective against hull.

Hull and modules don’t regenerate but you can take, the AFMU which can repair most other modules if they are switched off, some limpets and a repair limpet controller which can repair your hull, this is at the cost of hull and module reinforcement modules.

You can fit better armour to your ship but hull reinforcement is stronger per tonne mass added.

With the right engineers you can improve the strength and reduce mass of many of these things.
 

Conde

Conde
Ishmerai Killforge said:
Yes I have horizons and two engineers I just need to visit to complete. They're like 200ly away and have been too lazy to fly out there yet. I plan to go tomorrow though. One for MC upgrades and the other for like jump driveupgrades I think.

Thanks for clarifying the Hull thing, helps very much.
Click to expand...
Hi and welcome. Before you visit Tod "The Blaster" McQuinn for your Multicannons, take a look at his page in Inara. It details what you need to unlock him and if you look at the possible upgrades it will tell you what you need and gives tips on where and how to get it. Same goes for Felicity Farseer and FSD Boost.

If you find you run out of ammo too fast then "High Capacity" mod is for you. A Grade 5 mod will double your capacity, but even a Grade 1 will give you up to 36% more. Then as a special effect you can add in Corrosive shells or pehaps another one. "Auto Reload While Firing" is great fun combined with High Capacity as it can usually give a really long blast of continuous firing!

You'll find synthesis under the Inventory tab in the right hand ship panel. N.B. I'm still waitiing on the update download so I'm not sure if that part has changed or not. Fly safe and good luck! o7
 

Ishmerai Killforge

I
Thanks Conde and Lighthouse. I made it a point today to fly and get the MC engineer done and the FSD. The FSD was a little closer so I flew there first. I saw I had all req's except for the Meta Alloy. I ignorantly thought I could purchase this at a station and that was my plan once I started getting close. After around 24 jumps, and some reading I should've done before hand, I learned I can't buy this meta alloy.

So how do I get this meta alloy? I read about harvesting it from aliens or something. Is there a somewhat quick way to get it atm? Otherwise my 24 jumps were wasted :cry:. The engineer for ther MC's only needs 100k which is easy. He's another 16 jumps away.
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
You can buy a meta alloy. It's sold in Maia, or at least it used to be.

Station is Darnielle's Progress , 124k a pop.

Oh and a second station in LFT 37! (incorrect, this is a sell-to station)

Goodbye EDDB

Goodbye EDDB
eddb.io eddb.io
 
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sinisalo

sinisalo
I didn't realize there were so many that sell it. Hasn't always been that way, has it?

What's your location?

Edit: Those other stations buy it.

Maia is the only one that SELLS meta alloys.

What's your jump range? Have any money? You could always buy a good jumper and use it for this, then sell it if you want. A DBX or AspX could make it easier without too much investment.
 
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Ishmerai Killforge

I
In Borann now. As I asked that last question and before you replied, I flew a few jumps to another station on that list hoping they had it, but they don't. I flew my Cheiftain out to that engineer's location. My jump ranged is 11.7lyr. I have 7mil which should get me a decent jumper. I will try and do this tomorrow or the next day. Making close to 40 jumps today has completely tired me out. To me making that item so hard to get is frustrating, but also one of the aspects of the game that keeps me playing. I like when games dont' hand you stuff on a platter. I like having to work for things to be honest.
 

Bob Lighthouse

Banned
Bob Lighthouse
Ishmerai Killforge said:
In Borann now. As I asked that last question and before you replied, I flew a few jumps to another station on that list hoping they had it, but they don't. I flew my Cheiftain out to that engineer's location. My jump ranged is 11.7lyr. I have 7mil which should get me a decent jumper. I will try and do this tomorrow or the next day. Making close to 40 jumps today has completely tired me out. To me making that item so hard to get is frustrating, but also one of the aspects of the game that keeps me playing. I like when games dont' hand you stuff on a platter. I like having to work for things to be honest.
Click to expand...



I would make sure my ship was as light as possible for this phase.
You also want an A rated FSD first, which would bring a stock Chieftain to ~ 20ly.
Sounds like you could drops some mass if you've already done that.

I'd also suggest going material hunting before you get the meta alloy.
 

Ishmerai Killforge

I
Bob Lighthouse said:
I would make sure my ship was as light as possible for this phase.
You also want an A rated FSD first, which would bring a stock Chieftain to ~ 20ly.
Sounds like you could drops some mass if you've already done that.

I'd also suggest going material hunting before you get the meta alloy.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i hadn't invested in the A FSD yet because I wasn't sure if more costs would be involved once I got to the engineer. I was thinking if some A rated things were so expensive, I didn't want to fly all the way out there and not have money. I didnt' even think about lightning my load. I could've off loaded a lot of my hull modules. Lessons learned lol.
Material hunting? I'll have to look that up as I haven't done anything like that yet.
 

Bob Lighthouse

Banned
Bob Lighthouse
Ishmerai Killforge said:
Yeah, i hadn't invested in the A FSD yet because I wasn't sure if more costs would be involved once I got to the engineer. I was thinking if some A rated things were so expensive, I didn't want to fly all the way out there and not have money. I didnt' even think about lightning my load. I could've off loaded a lot of my hull modules. Lessons learned lol.
Material hunting? I'll have to look that up as I haven't done anything like that yet.
Click to expand...


Yeah, don't bother engineering a non A rated FSD.
Materials are the bigger expense.

You're going to want the increased range mod with the mass manager experimental effect.

inara.cz

INARA

The community site for Elite: Dangerous, Starfield, Kingdom Come: Deliverance with the game databases, information, gaming news and other handy content...
inara.cz inara.cz

That will show you the mats.
You'll probably need around 6-10x the material costs shown in each level, all added together for your first FSD

Account for a few play sessions before your FSD is completed.
 

Maymo

Maymo
For the Maia trip you could just switch to a Hauler if you’re cash starved.
A Hauler with an A rated FSD and everything else D rated can jump around 30ly, usually makes it in 20ish jumps.

Was running a Chief recently but I was trying to do CZ in one, thought I had a nice set-up with my lasers and multi’s but it was taking forever for things to drop. Switched to all overcharged multicannons with auto loader/corrosive and the difference was amazing.
Seems any thermals on your ship just slow you down in CZ these days.
I’ve upgraded to a Krait2 with the same setup.

The Fed and Alliance ships are built to be hull tanks, you can however change them into nice shield tanks with guardian shield boosters, but that’s probably a discussion best had after you get through your initial engineering phase.
 
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