Combat rank by popping scouts?

[CMDR Woland92]

Greetings, chaps and chapettes:

I’ve heard that hunting thargoid scouts is a quick way to boost your combat rank. Can anyone confirm or deny?

In the case of the former, what is the prevailing wisdom re: AX weapons, regular weapons, and guardian weapons?

I know scouts can be destroyed with regular guns but so AX weapons pop them faster? Is guardian tech overkill?

As always, your sage counsel is greatly appreciated!

o7,

Woland

 

[Faded Glory]

Greetings, chaps and chapettes:

I’ve heard that hunting thargoid scouts is a quick way to boost your combat rank. Can anyone confirm or deny?

In the case of the former, what is the prevailing wisdom re: AX weapons, regular weapons, and guardian weapons?

I know scouts can be destroyed with regular guns but so AX weapons pop them faster? Is guardian tech overkill?

As always, your sage counsel is greatly appreciated!

o7,

Woland

Yes, they bump up combat rank very fast! I believe they count as Elite ranked... I ranked up about 4% points at Deadly rank in about two fairly short sessions, and had to stop as I was trying not to get Elite at that point.

I used a Krait Mk II with two or three AX Multi-cannons (I have no Guardian stuff) and a couple of standard lasers. I did take repair / decontamination limpets so I could stay and do three or four NHSS at a time.

 

[[VR] Goooost]

yes but you will never be able to fly the thargoid ships after we make peace.

 

[Phazon Xenomorph]

yes but you will never be able to fly the thargoid ships after we make peace.

Guardian ships will look cooler anyways... provided Frontier doesn't mess up the balance and makes them god tier explorers and god tier against thargoid combat (human combat and trading can gladly suffer as tradeoffs).

Also Scouts are indeed easy to pop but after Dangerous it becomes a grind like any other... and I can't imagine going through Deadly to Elite.

 

[ShadowWolf Kell]

yes but you will never be able to fly the thargoid ships after we make peace.

I wonder what hoops you'll have to jump through for the Caustic Resistant Remlok suit?

 

[V'larr]

Yes, they bump up combat rank very fast! I believe they count as Elite ranked... I ranked up about 4% points at Deadly rank in about two fairly short sessions, and had to stop as I was trying not to get Elite at that point.

I used a Krait Mk II with two or three AX Multi-cannons (I have no Guardian stuff) and a couple of standard lasers. I did take repair / decontamination limpets so I could stay and do three or four NHSS at a time.

The fact that you only got 4% and that's considered "very fast", is scary....

Also the whole need to 'decontaminate' every fight is exhaustive, especially in connection to such an extensive grind. I'm hoping there's an option in the works that allows one to permanently avoid that threat (ostensibly for a reasonable tradeoff), else...why would I want to bother?

 

[Dillon Fallon]

It certainly faster than a Haz res or CZ.

 

[Shir]

I've tried it. The easiest and faster way was a krait with AX turrets. But, between finding the scouts and occasionally having to return for repairs due to caustic damage, they were A LOT slower than going to a compromised nav beacon and killing wanted ships.

I've also tried a comp. Nav beacon in an anarchy system, but no need really. CNBs in normal systems were better. So my recommendation is find a CNB and kill wanted ships there, the smaller the better, don't go after the big ones if in a hurry.

 

[BeppoSax]

I've tried it. The easiest and faster way was a krait with AX turrets. But, between finding the scouts and occasionally having to return for repairs due to caustic damage, they were A LOT slower than going to a compromised nav beacon and killing wanted ships.

I've also tried a comp. Nav beacon in an anarchy system, but no need really. CNBs in normal systems were better. So my recommendation is find a CNB and kill wanted ships there, the smaller the better, don't go after the big ones if in a hurry.

I understand though that every scout kill is treated as an Elite, therefore it should bump up the rank quicker than lower ranked ships, as long as you find a system with plenty of NHSS 4's. Boosting while silent running has always been a quick way to clear caustic damage? o7

 

[Alec Turner]

Yes, they bump up combat rank very fast! I believe they count as Elite ranked...

This ^^^

 

[Sylow]

I know scouts can be destroyed with regular guns but so AX weapons pop them faster? Is guardian tech overkill?

As already said: AX multicannon turrets seem to be the prefered choice against scouts. They are agile and small. The guardian shard cannon only applies a small part of its damage to a scout, as most of the shards just fly around it. The guardian equivalent to the railgun is just like that: it does good damage, but it requires you to reliably hit, which isn't too easy on such a small and agile enemy. And regular weapons still only do a fraction of their normal damage to scouts.

In contrast AX multicannon turrets can be used as gimbaled weapons and hit rather reliably for their full damage.

 

[Brrokk]

Greetings, chaps and chapettes:

I’ve heard that hunting thargoid scouts is a quick way to boost your combat rank. Can anyone confirm or deny?

In the case of the former, what is the prevailing wisdom re: AX weapons, regular weapons, and guardian weapons?

I know scouts can be destroyed with regular guns but so AX weapons pop them faster? Is guardian tech overkill?

As always, your sage counsel is greatly appreciated!

o7,

Woland

Yes, they all count as Elite and don't have shields.

Take out the Regenerators first as they buff the others.

AX multicannon turrets are the thing, unless you're amazing with fixed weapons.

They do shield breach damage, so you need strong hull and some HRPs and/or MRPs. Decontamination limpets are also good to have because they can put caustic damage on you.

 

[Requiem Mortis]

Deliberately overheating your ship above (160 % ??) will also stop corrosive damage.

Need to confirm the actual heat % level.

 

[Alec Turner]

Deliberately overheating your ship above (160 % ??) will also stop corrosive damage.

Need to confirm the actual heat % level.

I think it's more like 200% - could be wrong tho.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

I think it's more like 200% - could be wrong tho.

I tried this recently- 180% seemed to do it.

 

[Speedcuffs]

Greetings, chaps and chapettes:

I’ve heard that hunting thargoid scouts is a quick way to boost your combat rank. Can anyone confirm or deny?

In the case of the former, what is the prevailing wisdom re: AX weapons, regular weapons, and guardian weapons?

I know scouts can be destroyed with regular guns but so AX weapons pop them faster? Is guardian tech overkill?

As always, your sage counsel is greatly appreciated!

o7,

Woland

What ship will you be using?

 

[Shaamaan]

I'm also in the process of gaining the combat rank, and I was thinking of going after the little Thargoid buggers myself. But I found the process somewhat tiresome: specifically the fact that I could only find a 3-4 of them in a NHSS below level 5. After level 5 I think it becomes very risky without the proper ship (so it's a whole different battle). Admittedly, I took a bad ship for the Scouts (as it was more of a test than anything else), but that only increased my time to kill and shouldn't have any bearing on the downtime between combat encounters.

Is there a way to fight more Scouts? Something like a HazRES for Thargoids?

 

[CMDR Woland92]

I'm also in the process of gaining the combat rank, and I was thinking of going after the little Thargoid buggers myself. But I found the process somewhat tiresome: specifically the fact that I could only find a 3-4 of them in a NHSS below level 5. After level 5 I think it becomes very risky without the proper ship (so it's a whole different battle). Admittedly, I took a bad ship for the Scouts (as it was more of a test than anything else), but that only increased my time to kill and shouldn't have any bearing on the downtime between combat encounters.

Is there a way to fight more Scouts? Something like a HazRES for Thargoids?

Thanks for your responses. Is everyone using AX turretted weapons instead of gimballed because the scouts are too agile to keep in your line of sight?

Also, has anyone tried going to an AX conflict zone and focusing on the scouts? I know interceptors pop in eventually but I wonder if low-waking in and out would cause the “round” to reset.

Finally, is there a ship of choice given the reliance on turret-fire weapons? The Krait MK2 would seem a good choice with the three top mounted large hard points.

 

[Speedcuffs]

Thanks for your responses. Is everyone using AX turretted weapons instead of gimballed because the scouts are too agile to keep in your line of sight?

Also, has anyone tried going to an AX conflict zone and focusing on the scouts? I know interceptors pop in eventually but I wonder if low-waking in and out would cause the “round” to reset.

Finally, is there a ship of choice given the reliance on turret-fire weapons? The Krait MK2 would seem a good choice with the three top mounted large hard points.

Krait's good, I also use a FAS which I have found to be excellent.

 

[Guardian Kaiser]

I've tried it. The easiest and faster way was a krait with AX turrets. But, between finding the scouts and occasionally having to return for repairs due to caustic damage, they were A LOT slower than going to a compromised nav beacon and killing wanted ships.

I've also tried a comp. Nav beacon in an anarchy system, but no need really. CNBs in normal systems were better. So my recommendation is find a CNB and kill wanted ships there, the smaller the better, don't go after the big ones if in a hurry.

I agree with this completely. The time it takes to get out there, consistently find scouts, repair caustic damage, etc... it's been much faster finding a CNB next door to my home system in the bubble to work on combat rank. About half the ships are deadly and elite, and a constant supply. It just goes faster when you consider total time of everything.