First ever Hydra solo kill in a Sidewinder

CMDR Mechan

CMDR Mechan
First-ever Hydra solo kill in a Sidewinder. Made possible by the +120% damage of premium ammo with the small hammergauss. Took a painful 10 synths of premium ammo and 8 synths of basic ammo to do (though it could arguably have been done with "just" 8+6, maybe even less) plus 25 synths of heatsinks and 4 synths of limpets. This was my 3rd serious attempt at this fight; I have a couple bloopers of the sidey eating 128 enraged Thargon missiles, before managing to pull this fight off.

Video here:

Also, this is the first time ever I've used a Weapon Focused / Cluster Capacitors build; Full build info here: https://edsy.org/s/vN0ms1M

LiveSplit AX files here; this is the free tool I use to automatically track split times for hearts destruction (and overall): https://github.com/Astyrrean/LiveSplit_files_for_AX

Full-length (raw, unedited footage) here:
Source: https://youtu.be/4x24OKAJcew


Credits:
  • CMDR Maligno, for showing us the "way of the sidey" [ship name is dedicated to him]
  • CMDR HeliMeli (NEWP), for nagging me to do this in Horizons without taking advantage of uninterruptible synth bug in Odyssey, and for pointing out every single mistake of my very-approximate flakless flying 🙃
  • CMDR Lawson FPV (09TH), CMDR LMAO-C (Conspirator), CMDR Orlandu, CMDR Aeroblast (09TH), CMDR Sirruf, CMDR Michal17 (DUCC) for always cheering me on through my mad endeavor
  • CMDR Toyotanos (AXIN) for helping me make this video a lot better
  • CMDR Konstantine Novakov, for agreeing to create some of his awesome cover art for the edited version of this video
  • CMDR alterNERDtive (GMBT), for his amazing code for LiveSplit; "it just works"™️
  • CMDR Aranionros Stormrage, for spending his time playing GW2 and leaving all the AX glory to us 😈

Glory, To Mankind !!!

- CMDR Mechan
 

sgurr

S
That makes me want to go fight interceptors again, and learned that hammergauss are a thing (was out of the game when they were introduced i guess)

Very nicely done, congrats o7
 

Northpin

Northpin
Congrats, but... as you said... it's basically bug exploiting and bragging about it (not to take anything from the skill and endurance to pull it through -gauss hammers need more time on target and tighter limits regarding distance control than regular gausses)

Does the premium ammo bug work with normal hammers too?
Probably not since pvp-ers would be rioting already, but no Tharg will be rioting over this
 

Northpin

Northpin
Zieman said:
I haven't watched the videos, but the mention of that bug is worded so that it implies them doing this in Horizons, where the bug doesn't happen?
Click to expand...

The bug exploit is about the fact that seemingly applying prem ammo to gauss-hammers pumps their total damage not by 30% but by 120%
 

Zieman

Zieman
Northpin said:
The bug exploit is about the fact that seemingly applying prem ammo to gauss-hammers pumps their total damage not by 30% but by 120%
Click to expand...
That's different thing than the one I was replying to / querying about. :)

But if true, a bug nevertheless. Still I couldn't even imagine pulling the OP's trick off, not even with both bugs 'fully utilised'. :)
 

CMDR Mechan

CMDR Mechan
Northpin said:
Congrats, but... as you said... it's basically bug exploiting and bragging about it (not to take anything from the skill and endurance to pull it through -gauss hammers need more time on target and tighter limits regarding distance control than regular gausses)

Does the premium ammo bug work with normal hammers too?
Probably not since pvp-ers would be rioting already, but no Tharg will be rioting over this
Click to expand...
The bug has literally always been in-game, since ammo synthesis was introduced. It is not a new thing. You could say it’s part of the game.

It affects every single engineered weapon in the game, and always has.

It just so happens that the newly-released hammergauss benefit quite a bit from it, making what has historically been an impossible fight, finally (barely) possible.
 

Northpin

Northpin
Astyrrean said:
It just so happens that the newly-released hammergauss benefit quite a bit from it, making what has historically been an impossible fight, finally (barely) possible.
Click to expand...

Some things should remain impossible (in certain circumstances) :)

How about trying with an iEagle and normal gausses? it should beat the Viper record
 

CMDR Mechan

CMDR Mechan
EXE Sas ser said:
Uninterruptible synth bug... So you basically exploited a bug to get a hydra kill...
Click to expand...
You should watch the video ;)

I specifically mention I did this in Horizons to NOT take advantage of the uninterruptible synth bug (which is only present in Odyssey.)

The bug that makes this possible is a different one - it’s the fact that hammergauss get +120% damage from premium ammo (instead of the expected +30%.)

Latter bug has literally always been in the game; it’s not new in any way.

It just so happens that the hammergauss benefit from it (like any other weapon with a raw damage penalty engineering mod would).

The result is that an impossible fight is now (barely) possible, and quite the fun challenge. Still, facing a Hydra in a 700hp paper ship for a full hour-long fight with two small hardpoints and two utils is no joke.

But -yes-, and I explicitly mention it in the video, this fight would not be eligible for ranks in the Anti Xeno Initiative.

Still, it was a lot of fun to do, (and hard)! :)
 

CMDR Mechan

CMDR Mechan
Northpin said:
Some things should remain impossible (in certain circumstances) :)

How about trying with an iEagle and normal gausses? it should beat the Viper record
Click to expand...
I have tried indeed, also with the (non-“i”) Eagle.

That fight is possible but, since both Eagles have a single util slot, it requires combat synth of heatsinks WHILE firing and WHILE kiting the swarm.

So far, we have not found a way to pull that off (save of taking advantage of the uninterruptible synth bug, but then what’s the glory in that?)

I have a 3-small-gauss Eagle stocked with premium ammo and ready to go for this one … it is very much on my radar.
 

CMDR Mechan

CMDR Mechan
Zieman said:
Or did they?
I haven't watched the videos, but the mention of that bug is worded so that it implies them doing this in Horizons, where the bug doesn't happen?
Click to expand...
You’re correct. In fact, I specifically mention that I did this in Horizons to avoid that bug.

Plenty of synth interruption in this fight!
 

Northpin

Northpin
Astyrrean said:
I have a 3-small-gauss Eagle stocked with premium ammo and ready to go for this one … it is very much on my radar.
Click to expand...

I said iEagle because of the medium gauss, giving it better firepower, but not sure if the differences in flight model between Eagles can compensate the differences in firepower.
Probably not (iEagle is also faster) :)
 

CMDR Mechan

CMDR Mechan
Northpin said:
I said iEagle because of the medium gauss, giving it better firepower, but not sure if the differences in flight model between Eagles can compensate the differences in firepower.
Click to expand...
Interesting AX ship design tidbit here.

Even on the iEagle (and I built one before switching over most internals to the Eagle) you would want to use 3 small gauss in terms of firepower.

Why? Because both ships are weapon-distro-limited as far as how much damage they can dish out, and the small gauss are MORE energy/damage efficient than their medium counterparts.

The bigger Alpha of a medium is irrelevant when it’ll deplete your distro in a handful of seconds, and you’re looking at at least 45 seconds of sustained fire to exert a Hydra’s heart with that kind of firepower. So small gauss is the way to go on such small ships.

So then it comes down to whether you want more speed (iEagle) or higher maneuverability (Eagle.) The ideal weapon config is exactly the same.

In the end, it’s an almost identical fight in both ships. The core challenge remains the same: heat sink combat synth.
 

CMDR Mechan

CMDR Mechan
Northpin said:
I said iEagle because of the medium gauss, giving it better firepower, but not sure if the differences in flight model between Eagles can compensate the differences in firepower.
Probably not (iEagle is also faster) :)
Click to expand...
PS
Do watch the video … I narrate and explain many aspects of the fight. I believe you’ll find it interesting!
 
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