Ships How to best maximise DPS on the Sidewinder Mk1?

IstvaanDCIV

IstvaanDCIV
So this is about the second time that I've given building a PvE combat Sidewinder a go. First I tried using a pair of gimballed cannons, because I think cannons are fun. But on the Sidey fighting with cannons is like eating a whole bowl of rice with a single cocktail stick. So I shelved the idea for a while and worked on other things. Recently I've been giving it another go, and it seems like using a fixed Efficient beam laser and a gimballed Short Range Blaster multi-cannon feels more promising. It's actually a lot of fun to fly around and keep a target in front of you while pouring fire into it.

But there's still the ones that get away. Am I doomed to always have Anacondas jump away from my Sidey before it can finish chewing through their hulls, or is there some combination of hardpoints and engineering that will allow me wring out enough firepower to bring down the big game?
 

Tifu

Tifu
I was thinking of unlocking the gimballed shock cannons (there's a fixed version too) for my Keelback but I don't know if the Sidey's powerplant or distributor can take it - however engineered.

They also have a max of 250 shots which may not be enough if they're the only weapons your ship has.
 

Three Stars

T
Vedmo said:
While on the same search myself, I ended up with a Cyto and advanced missile rack to disable the big game, but it did increase the difficulty level for smaller ships.
Click to expand...

Put Thermal Shock on the Cyto and Penetrator Muntions on the missile rack.

To get the inevitable argument out of the way...yes, Thermal Shock works on NPCs. It slows them down significantly so you gain even more of a movement and initiative advantage. Once you capture the small ship in your "web" of cyto lasers the process gets easier.

Edit: Here's mine. It has the Rodimus Prime paintjob and works best when you're playing "The Touch" by Stan Bush.
 
Last edited:

Vedmo

Vedmo
Three Stars said:
Put Thermal Shock on the Cyto and Penetrator Muntions on the missile rack.
Click to expand...
I have penetrator on the missile rack, left the experimental on the Cyto blank because I don't remember what I currently have on it, probably scramble spectrum. Don't think I've ever tried thermal shock, will give it a go some time. I do remember the PD being an issue and deciding to go eng focus, making distributor draw on weapons an even more important consideration, but thermal shock wouldn't affect that. Pretty sure I tried phasing too, and decided with just 1 cyto and no goal of destroying enemy through hull damage it didn't make any sense for this application.
 

Vedmo

Vedmo
Three Stars said:
Edit: Here's mine.
Click to expand...
Nice, been a while since I built mine and don't remember everything I tried. After looking at yours I'm wondering if the weight trade offs I made for speed are worth it, and if chaff & heat sink were a better idea than boosters for shield resistances. If in a 1v1 it's pretty easy not to get hit, but I do recall winged targets and SLFs making it a little dicey. I'll have to give her a spin again and do some thinking.
 

Three Stars

T
Vedmo said:
Nice, been a while since I built mine and don't remember everything I tried. After looking at yours I'm wondering if the weight trade offs I made for speed are worth it, and if chaff & heat sink were a better idea than boosters for shield resistances. If in a 1v1 it's pretty easy not to get hit, but I do recall winged targets and SLFs making it a little dicey. I'll have to give her a spin again and do some thinking.
Click to expand...
We were both working off the same playbook, which is Dirty Drives with Drive Distributors for 48t of mass space to fill with stuff. We just went about it differently. I love making minimum thruster mass ships.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom