Imperial Courier Fast Battle Courier

[CMDR Cknarf]

Bounty hunting for a living?

Vulture all the way.

It’s not straight-line fast like a courier, but it handles better, can tank harder, and hurts more.

Even without engineering, you can beat up on NPCs once you get maneuvering down.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

The Imperial Courier has some mean stats but dont I need to gain faction with the Empire to buy?

What ship would you guys suggest a New player to work towards. One that would like to Bounty Hunt for a living.

I will be Starting over in the Noob area I've heard about. Shouldn't be a big loss since I only played a couple weeks before the update.

What says the Elite Hive Mind

Most common combat ship progression in Elite is Viper 3, Vulture, FDL.
For a biweave hybrid build the Chieftain is probably most popular/best bet.
For strictly PVE combat, the Krait MKII is arguably the best in the game.

 

[CMDR Cknarf]

The Chieftain is nice and affordable like the Federal Assault Ship too, except without that pesky rank lock in the way.

Almost anything else in that class is either rank-locked, or 50 million to start with.

I say this all the time, but don't often mean it. This time, I really do.

Spoiler

GG Fdev

 

[sinisalo]

Imperial Courier requires Empire rank yes, Master rank I believe. Just the third rank level IIRC, which is not hard to get.

Your question has a number of possible answers. But I will say that thinking back to when I was new, I bounty hunted in the following ships early on

Cobra 3 -- A great ship, which I recommend as the next ship after the Sidewinder. Not ideally suited to combat role, but works. Good speed though.

Viper 3 -- Much better choice for combat. Fast, and as I like to say, speed is life.

Eagle -- Wonderful little ship. A blast to fly. But an unengineered Eagle is just waiting to blow up. Too fragile without it.

Vulture -- This is my recommendation. It wasn't until I bought this ship that I really felt like I had a proper combat ship. It is hightly agile, and packs two class 3 hardpoints, which gives it the firepower you need to be effective. It has it's weaknesses. But for the money I don't think you can beat it as an early combat boat.

 

[S0rkvild]

Why no love for DBS? Really quick, agile, runs cool and cools down very fast.

 

[CMDR Cknarf]

I didn’t have a Cobra III starting out, or either of the Viper variants— I actually ended up with a DBS.

It has great hardpoint locations, and handles really well. Looks kinda neat, too. It truly is an overlooked alternative. Four utility mounts, too, so you can double up on chaff, and still have a point defense/heat sink if you want.

For small ships, I’ll still recommend the Vulture for the sole purpose of blowing stuff up, but most anything mentioned here would be viable.

 

[baudelier]

For a new player looking to get into bounty hunting I would recommend the Viper Mk IV. Not as fast as the Mk III but with better internals and a MUCH better jump range.

I did a comparison build between the Cobra III and my old Viper IV. The Viper had more than twice the Hull and shields of the Cobra and could haul more cargo. The Cobra was a bit faster in cruising and as for boosting, well, the Cobra III has always been in a class of it's own. The Cobra also had better pitch and roll but, worse yaw than the Viper IV.

In terms of jump range, laden or unladen, the Cobra III had about 3 light years on the Viper IV. The cost for either ship was almost the same, comming in with a difference of just 200KCr fully A rated.

 

[BurntJello]

The Imperial Courier has some mean stats but dont I need to gain faction with the Empire to buy?

What ship would you guys suggest a New player to work towards. One that would like to Bounty Hunt for a living.

I will be Starting over in the Noob area I've heard about. Shouldn't be a big loss since I only played a couple weeks before the update.

What says the Elite Hive Mind

I went Sidewinder -> Eagle -> Imperial Eagle -> Imperial Courier
I've never liked Viper (3 or 4) for combat, they don't turn very well.
I would assume the Courier is still 15% off in the Baldr system, but yes you need to rank grind to Master first.

 

[Innocentius]

This is what I managed within those spec requirements:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Speed 802
Shields 911 + pretty good resists
Hull 830 + pretty good resists
3 multicannons (but any light weight weapon works, with these weapons though the capacitor does not empty and I had to skimp a bit on the capacitor part. You can move to 3A if you switch one of the shield boosters from HD to resistances)

 

[S0rkvild]

This is what I managed within those spec requirements:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Speed 802
Shields 911 + pretty good resists
Hull 830 + pretty good resists
3 multicannons (but any light weight weapon works, with these weapons though the capacitor does not empty and I had to skimp a bit on the capacitor part. You can move to 3A if you switch one of the shield boosters from HD to resistances)

Really nice build and doesn't lose much with two guardian shield reinforcements. +1

 

[sinisalo]

Nice Courier Innocentius, thanks for posting. I tried that weapons config in mine at one point, but the single incendiary MC struggled stripping shields, which prompted me to go with full-weight beams. That's an additional 7t of weapons, and my speed dropped accordingly.

Your Courier is well-rounded, with good shields, speed, integrity and jump. Nice one.

 

[Voracity_T]

Cool, just remember that minimum mass on the thrusters is the point where going any lower will not help you go faster.
851 is theoretical max.

Negative. I ave 873 on my build, needs finishing though.

 

[Stabby_Dave]

If you want speed, I'm not sure you can do better than This.

Shields aren't that great (although recharge is good), but for the initial joust, chaff, heatsink and once you're on their six, you're golden.

Weapons are a bit underpowered, but with premium ammo, you'll still smoke most targets.

 

[baqar79]

If you want speed, I'm not sure you can do better than This.

Shields aren't that great (although recharge is good), but for the initial joust, chaff, heatsink and once you're on their six, you're golden.

Weapons are a bit underpowered, but with premium ammo, you'll still smoke most targets.

The link you provided didn't come with any weapons.

I'm pretty fussy about my builds, but this one not only goes faster, but jumps further too (all with the stock 3C fuel tank). However my insistence on making all of my builds exploration capable means dragging an SRV bay with me which adds another 6T of weight which hurts with a 3A FSD.

Thanks for posting your build!

 

[Stabby_Dave]

My bad. 3 lightweight multicannons doesn't decrease the speed.

 

[sinisalo]

My bad. 3 lightweight multicannons doesn't decrease the speed.

I took a few months off from Elite, and the forum, but am back and checked this thread for new ideas perhaps. When I saw this quote I was skeptical because as anyone who has built a fast Courier knows, every half-ton matters. I couldn't imagine that adding any mass would have zero effect on speed. So I added three lightweight MCs to Stabby Dave's build and while the speed reduction is small, it's still there. It reduces boost by 15 m/s according to Coriolis. And at 35 dps it can tag, but destroying ships would prove laborious

I started this thread for ideas for a viable combat Courier which was also blazingly fast. I ended up with something somewhere in the middle, and I've been flying it everyday since my return. In the end I decided that to have reasonable combat effectiveness and protection I needed to give up some speed, and did so. Even so, it's so fast that I black out often, and taking on big ships like 'Condas can take a while with such modest firepower and an energy tactics profile. But running circles around the furball, and slashing through it like a 109 attacking the bomber stream is gloriously fun. Closing speeds and escape ability are really high. And lastly, the fact that I am in a ship that is not impervious to destruction helps add a sense of mortality that I don't have in my 1700mj FDL or similar. Of course I cannot rack up the kills at the same rate, but it's way more fun.

 

[Stabby_Dave]

Thinking about it, I may have dropped from a 3c bi-weave to a 2c bi-weave to compensate, but with 2 incendiary and 1 corrosive multicannons all with premium ammo, you still pack a punch. I've gone back to the 3c now and dropped the weapons. Still boost at 873m/s. 875 is the limit, I think.

 

[sinisalo]

Thanks mate, and that's a really, really fast Courier. Mine is slower, but I traded some of it for good protection and acceptable firepower. Collisions, to me, are the biggest threat to a ship like this. It's not a good one v one ship, but in your typical RES, CNB or CZ it works great. For long time players these small, uber-fast ships are a great way to make Elite combat fun once again, after years of flying heavy hitters.

 

[Faded Glory]

Just came across this thread...

I love the iCourier and have five of them! The fastest is a simple canyon racer (652 / 885 m/s), so no good for what you are after and although it is shielded and has a couple of weapons, I don't think I'd try to fight in it.

Then I have this one, which was my original combat build. Not particularly fast, but certainly effective (and sometimes I'll swap out the PA for a missile rack, which increases speed a bit).

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

I also have a couple of others that are more multi-role, planetary vehicle hangers and the like, and they are a similar speed. But I always wanted a fast combat build, and finally this is what I came up with.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Not quite the shields that you are after, but I haven't lost them yet as it's fast enough to get out of harms way.

As has been mentioned, the downside to the iCourier against larger ships is the weapon size. I typically use these against NPC pirate lords in Corvettes, and it's just a bit tedious without the help of system authority and takes ages picking away their shields. It can be done, particularly the first one with the PA, but I usually reserve these ships for missions that take me to high or medium security systems where I'll end up with a bit of help from system authority.

 

[sinisalo]

Gnaugthy Gnat is a beast! Thanks for sharing. Ultra-fast, good jump. You must black out just by breathing on your stick

Here's mine. I think she's still this build (from last May). Considerably slower than the Gnat, but you can see I tried hard to achieve good shields, integrity and resistances while still getting at least 30 jump, which is really important since your friends will always be hunting far from where you currently are haha.

Velocity

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