How do I kill Hydras? My guns just aren't stressing them at all.

[aXeL]

Hello, I've been enjoying all the AX fun around Sol, happily solo'ing Cyclops, Basilisks and whatnot with no challenges. Medusas are more entertaining but... Hydras, my 6x AX Enh Gim Multi's just aren't stressing them at all. I've just given up for the evening having twice emptied full magazines into a hydra, at close range, from my super cold T10. Thanks to 3x G5 LRTV beams I stayed between 1%-5% THM the whole time so I was basically just hammer down at 1km-1.5km continuously, didn't need to extend once. After I ran my guns dry for the second time, the Hydras hull was at 97% and it hadn't been stressed once.

So, what am I doing wrong? I did a search on Hydras here and got dozens of hits and people talking about killing about but on none of threads I've skimmed, did anyone say 'how'.

My previous attempt was in a Krait II with 5x Guardian gauss guns but again, emptied them at close range and the Hydras hull was still at 97%. I had thought the gauss would be good because they just shred the lesser interceptors but nope.

I'm at the point now where, when I see there's nothing left but Hydras, all I can do is leave and fight somewhere else or re-instance locally.

 

[Jmanis]

Hydras are the toughest thing in the game, and ideally are group efforts i thought?

Sure there's some people doing them solo, but it's a well- rehearsed scenario. Like... There's a reason most people don't hang round for the hydra at the end of a CZ.

 

[aXeL]

Hydras are the toughest thing in the game, and ideally are group efforts i thought?

Sure there's some people doing them solo, but it's a well- rehearsed scenario. Like... There's a reason most people don't hang round for the hydra at the end of a CZ.

That sounds interesting, could you elaborate on 'well rehearsed'? It sounds like there's a way. There was no time it was really a threat to me, it didn't seem to see me for the most part so I just need to know what weps to use and how.

 

[Kayvan]

The problem is you're using MCs. No matter how many of them you use, it will never be enough.
MCs have a Piercing value of 33.
Hydras have something like 240 Hardness.
So only 13% of your damage are getting through. So even with 6 MCs you do something like 18 DPS combined. I'm not sure how much Regen a Hydra has exactly, but it's gonna be something like that.

AX Missiles may be more effective, dunno, never tried them.

Modshards are very popular, they don't have the best Piercing but at least it's something like 90, and very good burst damage which helps overwhelming a Ceptor's Regen.

Modplasmas have the best Alpha, and very good Piercing (110), but they are less effective against Hearts than Shards, and create nasty clouds that obscure vision.

Gauss have highest Piercing (140) but are difficult to use and have low ammo, and therefore are less popular nowadays.

 

[aXeL]

The problem is you're using MCs. No matter how many of them you use, it will never be enough.
MCs have a Piercing value of 33.
Hydras have something like 240 Hardness.
So only 13% of your damage are getting through. So even with 6 MCs you do something like 18 DPS combined. I'm not sure how much Regen a Hydra has exactly, but it's gonna be something like that.

AX Missiles may be more effective, dunno, never tried them.

Modshards are very popular, they don't have the best Piercing but at least it's something like 90, and very good burst damage which helps overwhelming a Ceptor's Regen.

Modplasmas have the best Alpha, and very good Piercing (110), but they are less effective against Hearts than Shards, and create nasty clouds that obscure vision.

Gauss have highest Piercing (140) but are difficult to use and have low ammo, and therefore are less popular nowadays.

Thanks, I should've mentioned that I have tried an all shard build and I did stress a Hydra heart once but the 5x shards ( Krait 2 again ), didn't do any actual damage after that, the time window expires, rinse and repeat till guns dry and his hull is at, surprise, 97%. I don't know why it always seems to be 97% but hey, Braben.

I've not got the parts for mod plasmas but standard guardian plasma chargers, for me, seem to be broken. They don't do any damage to anything, even scouts. I've been discussing this one with someone else and he has the same problem. Doesn't matter how much charge we let them build, neither of us could get them to even do 1% to anything.

 

[Jmanis]

That sounds interesting, could you elaborate on 'well rehearsed'? It sounds like there's a way. There was no time it was really a threat to me, it didn't seem to see me for the most part so I just need to know what weps to use and how.

For context, I'm no AX pilot because my hands twitch too much to be some gauss sniper, so i can't give tips around it.

But for all the videos i see, doing interceptors is like solving a rubiks cube; once you do it once, it's the same technique regardless of the situation; cold orbit, gauss and chill. Obviously I'm trivialising it somewhat, but here's an example of someone soloing a hydra, but tbh, the techniques in that video compared to others doing the same thing feels somewhat indistinct, thus my "well rehearsed" comment, and (probably a reason) why so many got the sads with the anti Guardian field... because everyone used the same playbook which relied on cold-orbit gauss.

For example:

Source: https://youtu.be/7XUGf4dCnwE?si=MkI0Mz888SXHxgMU

 

[aXeL]

For context, I'm no AX pilot because my hands twitch too much to be some gauss sniper, so i can't give tips around it.

But for all the videos i see, doing interceptors is like solving a rubiks cube; once you do it once, it's the same technique regardless of the situation; cold orbit, gauss and chill. Obviously I'm trivialising it somewhat, but here's an example of someone soloing a hydra, but tbh, the techniques in that video compared to others doing the same thing feels somewhat indistinct, thus my "well rehearsed" comment, and (probably a reason) why so many got the sads with the anti Guardian field... because everyone used the same playbook which relied on cold-orbit gauss.

For example:

Source: https://youtu.be/7XUGf4dCnwE?si=MkI0Mz888SXHxgMU

That looks interesting, thanks. I could pop my gauss onto my AX Cutter and add a load more heatsinks to up the firing rate. I might just give this a go.

 

[Jmanis]

That looks interesting, thanks. I could pop my gauss onto my AX Cutter and add a load more heatsinks to up the firing rate. I might just give this a go.

Just remember about the Anti Guardian field stuff. You can engineer that away, but at a cost (weapon damage iirc?)

 

[Kayvan]

Yeah tbh I fail at exerting a Hydra with 3 Modshards.

Just remember about the Anti Guardian field stuff. You can engineer that away, but at a cost (weapon damage iirc?)

Afaik the only cost is the materials, which however are not trivial to get. The real problem however is that you can only fix standard weapons, not the pre-engineered ones. Realising that has made the mod worthless for me.

 

[Blaggerdy]

If you can stay in combat for a few minutes against a hydra in a Type 10 it sounds like you are well on the way (while I have killed hydras solo in one I can only do so when there is a port or station to repair after 2-3 hearts and I generally prefer to do it with another CMDR or in the AX PGI as progress is a lot quicker and less risky). I found modified plasma chargers the best weapon to land several shots in a row while managing heat to get a successful exertion

Unmodified plasma chargers and shard cannons aren't going to do much against a hydra even from 800 - 1000 metres. I thought shards did OK when I could hit but on a slow ship against a hydra good luck with that. 3 or 4 medium gauss do OK but spike heat and you'd need to use heatsinks plus switch between sides if using more than 3, and possibly also resynth due to low ammunition. I've seen videos of people taking the fight to hydras in this way but it's beyond me
e.g.

Source: https://youtu.be/_YkuqJOs3rc


Convergence can be a challenge when you use fixed weapons. From memory I used the uppermost medium and two small slots to fit 2/1/1 modified plasma chargers which are great for exertion but even then hydra regeneration may be too much. At some point I tried 3 mediums in slots 2/4/7 so I could target on the right and that had more punch. I also switched to trailing sights to determine where shots would land.

They can be used for the hearts but in a limited time window I found 3 enhanced AX multicannons subtargeting worked better. So an exertion fire group of chargers and vent, and a heart fire group of multicannon and vent. Plus try not to waste ammo on hearts when the hydra is facing away from you and shots are blocked by the 2nd set of petals

I quite like this site to work out where fixed weapons should be located, e.g. for Type 10

Elite Dangerous Ship Anatomy

Gives you info on how hard points, utilities and other viable modules and parts are placed on each ship. Elite Dangerous Ship Blueprints.

siriuscorp.cc

Anyway, ramble over and I hope this helps somewhat

 

[Kira Goto]

Yeah tbh I fail at exerting a Hydra with 3 Modshards.

I'm not sure it's possible with 3. You can do it with 4 mediums assuredly (I did once clear out the triple Hydra in solo at Jameson's with a 4 shard Krait), but dunno if 3 have enough DPS, as it already takes a lot of focus and not fumbling around outside the 2 kilometer range with 4 where damage dropoff is too much to overpower passive regeneration.

If you can consistently keep it in 1.5km(not so easy) they are still quite potent at it. Probably not as good as gauss, but the pinpoint precision that weapon requires in the chaos of AX conflict zones... nah, no thanks. I may also not be very good with them.

But yes, AXMCs only against a Hydra, wouldn't advise it. Would likely work great with another player to exert it though, or running a mixed Guardian/MC setup. (Hoping the NPCs survive long enough and are spawned in the right ships to exert a Hydra is not something I can recommend waiting for.)

 

[aXeL]

Thank you for all the input, this is really helpful. So I'm happier now that I can at least brawl with one and come away more or less intact. After the second time I ran dry and he decided, ok - my turn, I found that with silent running, after a couple of km chasing he just lost interest. Even without heatsinks the T10 ( G5 Low Em Thm Sprd PP ) can silent run for more than a minute which is plenty of time to slink away and the Hydra really seems to struggle seeing cold ships. Cruising around with weps deployed it will do 13%-17% and then there are the heat sinks. I'd be dead if it was less cold.

So, forget an all multi build and instead; gauss, sinks and decent shields on my AX Cutter will do it, mod chargers and mod shards will do it but they are hard to grind for so use mates as well.

Thanks again, I feel slightly less stoopid now.

 

[npcostes]

Thank you for all the input, this is really helpful. So I'm happier now that I can at least brawl with one and come away more or less intact. After the second time I ran dry and he decided, ok - my turn, I found that with silent running, after a couple of km chasing he just lost interest. Even without heatsinks the T10 ( G5 Low Em Thm Sprd PP ) can silent run for more than a minute which is plenty of time to slink away and the Hydra really seems to struggle seeing cold ships. Cruising around with weps deployed it will do 13%-17% and then there are the heat sinks. I'd be dead if it was less cold.

So, forget an all multi build and instead; gauss, sinks and decent shields on my AX Cutter will do it, mod chargers and mod shards will do it but they are hard to grind for so use mates as well.

Thanks again, I feel slightly less stoopid now.

Got my first hydra kills tonight in the AXI private group. Didn't join a wing, just popped in at Weber Hub and just joined in the fun. The hydras were ridiculous, groups were taking a while to take them down but I was able to pitch in a bit and get credit for several kills. Now Cyclops feel like scouts.

 

[aXeL]

Thanks to what I presume are EPIC bugs, I've killed not sure how many Hydras, at least 3, maybe 5, in one evening session. Sounds nuts but they kept getting 'stuck'. Just frozen in place and wobbling with occasional lightening attacks. My T10 with the Enh AX Multi's and a friend with Shards just sat there and would run our weapons dry, go reload at the surface port, come back and carry on with the same Hydras. Weird! Tried to take screenshots but, in VR, didn't realise I was pressing F12 instead of F10. We stopped only because we were bored. Interestingly once the Hydra is stressed it's hearts seem to go down without too much trouble, unless that's part of the bug.

 

[aXeL]

How do I delete a duplicate post. Can't see a button for it and not used the forums in ages.

 

[Hugh Jardon]

Hello, I've been enjoying all the AX fun around Sol, happily solo'ing Cyclops, Basilisks and whatnot with no challenges. Medusas are more entertaining but... Hydras, my 6x AX Enh Gim Multi's just aren't stressing them at all. I've just given up for the evening having twice emptied full magazines into a hydra, at close range, from my super cold T10. Thanks to 3x G5 LRTV beams I stayed between 1%-5% THM the whole time so I was basically just hammer down at 1km-1.5km continuously, didn't need to extend once. After I ran my guns dry for the second time, the Hydras hull was at 97% and it hadn't been stressed once.

So, what am I doing wrong? I did a search on Hydras here and got dozens of hits and people talking about killing about but on none of threads I've skimmed, did anyone say 'how'.

My previous attempt was in a Krait II with 5x Guardian gauss guns but again, emptied them at close range and the Hydras hull was still at 97%. I had thought the gauss would be good because they just shred the lesser interceptors but nope.

I'm at the point now where, when I see there's nothing left but Hydras, all I can do is leave and fight somewhere else or re-instance locally.

I've soloed many Hydras at ground stations with a 6x modshard Anaconda, doing one heart at a time, then going in for repair and waiting until the shields go down. With those weapons, it's fairly easy to exert the heart and obliterate it. It's pretty straight-forward, though tedious and repetitive. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes for each one. I'm not sure whether you could use them on a type 10 because of the smaller power distributer. It might work if you engineer it for weapons focused.

 

[aXeL]

I've soloed many Hydras at ground stations with a 6x modshard Anaconda, doing one heart at a time, then going in for repair and waiting until the shields go down. With those weapons, it's fairly easy to exert the heart and obliterate it. It's pretty straight-forward, though tedious and repetitive. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes for each one. I'm not sure whether you could use them on a type 10 because of the smaller power distributer. It might work if you engineer it for weapons focused.

Modshards are great but we already established that they're way too much trouble to get a hold of and, probably, way too late for this Thargoid plot line.

 

[Landorin]

Hydras (well, technically any combat Interceptor) are not meant to be soloed. Yeah perhaps some people did it because... they can - yet what for? It's high end content (pretty much the only one). Not a problem finding a wing these days however. It's a group effort to defend our galaxy.