Ships Imperial courier - beginner bounty hunt build

[Dragool]

Hello commanders.

I'm new to the game, about 50h in, and want to improve on fighting. I stay on small ships for now, and grinded my way to Imperial courier, since I wanna fly with style Cockpit of iCourier is amazing, and it really helps when I can look around from big windows and see where my enemy turns when flying past me, and try to adjust my own position accordingly (flying in VR).

Now, I don't have any engineering or guardian stuff yet. I have visited Felicity Farseer, and pinned some blueprints, but haven't go further than than. Now my question is, what path should I take to make my ship more capable? Faster, for the start. Will engineering take huge amount of effort, and what should I engineer first? Or is there some guardian tech that I should go to first? I play Horizons still, if that makes any difference. Currently I have 1 fixed pulse laser + 2 gimballed multi cannons.

 

[Shadowscream]

For beginner PvE/BHing try and unlock the first 4 Engineers
Martuuk, Farseer, McQuinn and The Dweller.
—> These 4 will vastly improve your Combat ship. You will need a DBx or Cobra 3 with Cargo Space, SRV and Fuel Scoop to gather and unlock though. I suggest a DBx.
This guy has a few videos on the subject :

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8EYbBN_24M

 

[d8veh]

I think you're going to struggle a bit with an ICourier. Without engineering, it doesn't really have enough fire power. IMHO, a Vulture is much better, then an FDL as soon as you get the credits. Sign up with ALD in powerplay and deliver 100T of her stuff to get the PP bonus on bounties, which are often as high as 50%, then in a high RES, you can make 100 mil in an evening. An unengineered Vulture, Python or FDL all can work quite well in a high resource extraction site with the police helping you, while you get enough money for whatever ships you want.

If you go to Hip 20277, you can pick up massacre missions to Calenero system, which can substantially increase your earnings. I make about 1/2 billion a night there using a Corvette. There are both low and high RESs there where you can kill the pirates. Don't go to where the mission tells you.

Engineeringwise, thrusters and power distributer are the first things to go for, then shields and shield boosters. The shield booster engineer depends on others being unlocked first, so is going to take a lot of work. Along the way, you have to upgrade the power plant to keep up with the rest.

I think you have two choices at the moment. One choice is to farm bounties with an unengineered ship to get loads of money. The other choice is to hold off on combat and do all the game-play for each engineer to unlock them, then do all the Guardian stuff.

I made a video series to guide noobs how to do combat and make a load of money along the way. There are 6 vids in the series, but you can probably skip the first two or three:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAe6aeh4rtU

 

[Shadowscream]

I’m going to partially disagree with the post above….and I’m a Vulture pilot!
I‘d suggest you go for the Viper 3 with light engineering before the Vulture.
Sidewinder —> Viper 3 —> Viper 3 + DBx —> Unlock first Engineers —> Vulture.

The problem with the IC is it’s way more expensive to kit out than a Viper and has bad hardpoint convergence. If you learn to fight in a Viper & Vulture you will be better in the long run.

HOWEVER, if you love the Imperial Courier go for it….it’s a game! But 100% get a DBx and unlock a few more Engineers for it.

 

[Madrax573]

100% fly what you find fun....

Courier is an interesting beast capable of going from light speed freak to heavy armoured/shielded combat monster. But it does take some time to get a real feel for it.

 

[Dragool]

I think you're going to struggle a bit with an ICourier. Without engineering, it doesn't really have enough fire power. IMHO, a Vulture is much better, then an FDL as soon as you get the credits. Sign up with ALD in powerplay and deliver 100T of her stuff to get the PP bonus on bounties, which are often as high as 50%, then in a high RES, you can make 100 mil in an evening. An unengineered Vulture, Python or FDL all can work quite well in a high resource extraction site with the police helping you, while you get enough money for whatever ships you want.

If you go to Hip 20277, you can pick up massacre missions to Calenero system, which can substantially increase your earnings. I make about 1/2 billion a night there using a Corvette. There are both low and high RESs there where you can kill the pirates. Don't go to where the mission tells you.

Engineeringwise, thrusters and power distributer are the first things to go for, then shields and shield boosters. The shield booster engineer depends on others being unlocked first, so is going to take a lot of work. Along the way, you have to upgrade the power plant to keep up with the rest.

I think you have two choices at the moment. One choice is to farm bounties with an unengineered ship to get loads of money. The other choice is to hold off on combat and do all the game-play for each engineer to unlock them, then do all the Guardian stuff.

I made a video series to guide noobs how to do combat and make a load of money along the way. There are 6 vids in the series, but you can probably skip the first two or three:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAe6aeh4rtU

Thank you for everyone for the answers.

Actually more than firepower, it's the vertical/lateral thrusters of ICourier that bothers me, but then again I love how good the view is from the cockpit. Viper III is has been easiest to fly/fight for me, but then again fun is part of it for me too, not just maxing out stuff. Vulture will definitely be in my shopping list, but I think it's better to wait till I open some engineers?

So signing up with ALD to get better bounties sounds like a good option for now, so I can make money while honing my fighting skills.

I’m going to partially disagree with the post above….and I’m a Vulture pilot!
I‘d suggest you go for the Viper 3 with light engineering before the Vulture.
Sidewinder —> Viper 3 —> Viper 3 + DBx —> Unlock first Engineers —> Vulture.

The problem with the IC is it’s way more expensive to kit out than a Viper and has bad hardpoint convergence. If you learn to fight in a Viper & Vulture you will be better in the long run.

HOWEVER, if you love the Imperial Courier go for it….it’s a game! But 100% get a DBx and unlock a few more Engineers for it.

This too I guess. I keep switching Viper 3 and IC depending on my mood, and when I feel like it's time to do something else, I'll get the BDx and go to unlock first engineering stuff. Thanks guys.

 

[d8veh]

I’m going to partially disagree with the post above….and I’m a Vulture pilot!
I‘d suggest you go for the Viper 3 with light engineering before the Vulture.
Sidewinder —> Viper 3 —> Viper 3 + DBx —> Unlock first Engineers —> Vulture.

The problem with the IC is it’s way more expensive to kit out than a Viper and has bad hardpoint convergence. If you learn to fight in a Viper & Vulture you will be better in the long run.

HOWEVER, if you love the Imperial Courier go for it….it’s a game! But 100% get a DBx and unlock a few more Engineers for it.

The Viper is not so good for noobs using gimballed weapons because two of them won't fire unless you're pointing directly at the target due to the hardpoints positioning. I recommend the DBS as a first combat ship because the hard points are all on the front, so you get the full use of gimballed weapons, which gives a lot more fire power. That more than compensates for any other characteristics that it gives up to the Viper.

 

[Dragool]

The Viper is not so good for noobs using gimballed weapons because two of them won't fire unless you're pointing directly at the target due to the hardpoints positioning. I recommend the DBS as a first combat ship because the hard points are all on the front, so you get the full use of gimballed weapons, which gives a lot more fire power. That more than compensates for any other characteristics that it gives up to the Viper

Actually that hardpoint positioning is why I switched Cobra III to Viper III, and with the Viper III I haven't felt too much trouble to keep my aim on the target. Then again Viper IV felt way too slow and unmanoeuvrable for me. So far Viper III has felt fast and easy to use and keep aim on the target. IC has better look and those big cockpit windows are cool, especially in VR. But other than that, it's vertical/lateral thrusters are something I still need to get used to. Nevertheless, it's fun to fly.

DBS is only +500 C to buy, so I guess I could give it a try. Especially because Hip 20277 you recommend to go is about 200 Ly away from me, so I need a ship with some decent jump range. Thank for the tip.

 

[AlSki]

Hi, Welcome to "Imperial Courier Anonymous".

My name is Al and I have 8 of them. I've tried other ships, I can't get over the cabling and dodgy hull panels with the Krait's, hate the way Mamba's drift, and let's not mention the seating position in a FDL (even if its the same as driving IRL for me ). I quite like the Clipper (as long as you don't want to look up in VR), mainly for it's excellent boost noise. I still keep coming back to my Couriers.

Now, I personally did do exactly what you are suggesting, so it was possible, I'm just not sure how much the game has changed since then. I got my First courier just before the time of the Emperor's Dawn wars. Bounty hunting could be done by scanning pirates, opening fire and getting backup from the security forces. Someone even had a build just with a KWS and missiles, just popping one shot per pirate and letting security handle them.

Now my question is, what path should I take to make my ship more capable? Faster, for the start. Will engineering take huge amount of effort, and what should I engineer first?

So I'm guessing you probably have something like https://s.orbis.zone/fr7q @479m/s boost. To go faster, you want to lose weight and engineer your drives.

1. Farseer.
   She wants meta alloys to unlock, which these days you can buy from Maia, see https://eddb.io/commodity/114. That's about 300 LYrs from anywhere in the bubble (aka the "populated" part of elite). Also, meta-alloys "corrode" your ship. The longer you are flying for the more issues you will have, with modules starting to fail, and eventually your hull gives up. So you might want to try a lightweight build with a fuel scoop to get there quickly, and an AMFU in case things start going wrong. A "corrosion resistant cargo rack" for the way back (https://inara.cz/nearest-outfitting...18=0&pi19=0&pi17=0#tab_galaxysearchoutfitting) will give you more time too.
   Store your modules as you swap them for lightweight ones, you want to put them back (or on a second Courier...).
   Just be careful as this would be more a tin can than a combat vessel, so you will be easy prey to any gankers in Deciat (in Open).
2. I'm going out on a limb here, but for a first upgrade, I think you can lose the most with your shield boosters
   A 0D Heavy Duty Grade 1, is almost as good as a OA, yet weighs 2T not 3.5T AND uses less power, but this means you need "Grid resistors". You just need to scoop these up, when you find them. You are now at https://s.orbis.zone/fr8t @486 m/s.
3. More boosters.
   A "Collector limpet controller" helps here, just un-target and fire one off, and it scoots around picking things up for you, or if you just one a single thing, target and launch, so it blows up when it collects that item. Just "Don't forget your limpets". Also if you already have some materials, you might be able to trade some for grid resistors at a material trader. (Eddb.io or Inara.cz for the nearest to you). This time go for Resistant or Thermal resistant.
   So now you have something like https://s.orbis.zone/fr8r @515m/s
4. Speed.
   By the time you have enough materials collected you can start to progress to G3 drives with Farseer. By doing the booster upgrades you've might have already unlocked grade 2, so grade 3 might just need a couple of extra upgrades to unlock, and good news, you need to chose between Clean and Dirty Drives. I can't remember if Dirty drives overheat with that kind of weaponry. Maybe craft one of each? Either way you are closing in on 600m/s.

By now you're starting to get the idea. Plan a build out in Coriois or edsy. Use Inara to work out what you need. Collect the materials or trade them and get the upgrade. As you unlock more engineers you can improve more things.

For an idea of what to aim for, both in terms of ideas and example builds there is a great thread https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/fast-battle-courier.508740/.

Or is there some guardian tech that I should go to first?

You can get a Grade 4 and a half power plant (so you can use a smaller, lighter one with the same power), an FSD booster and shield booster modules. At some point it is worth doing. However, you can engineer a Grade 5 power plant, and the FSD booster is no help in combat.
The shields booster modules do help though https://s.orbis.zone/fr94 .

Whenever you choose to do this, they are a long way away, so you want to use a lightweight non-combat ship again. This time with a long jump range, an SRV and a point defence. (This is how you end up with more than one Courier, each for a different task.) You will need to collect quite a few things and quite a few times. Personally I did this later, when I eventually needed a break from too many combat zones.

 

[d8veh]

Actually that hardpoint positioning is why I switched Cobra III to Viper III, and with the Viper III I haven't felt too much trouble to keep my aim on the target. Then again Viper IV felt way too slow and unmanoeuvrable for me. So far Viper III has felt fast and easy to use and keep aim on the target. IC has better look and those big cockpit windows are cool, especially in VR. But other than that, it's vertical/lateral thrusters are something I still need to get used to. Nevertheless, it's fun to fly.

DBS is only +500 C to buy, so I guess I could give it a try. Especially because Hip 20277 you recommend to go is about 200 Ly away from me, so I need a ship with some decent jump range. Thank for the tip.

The Cobra is the same as the Viper, but the other other way up. One has the larger hardpoints on the top and the smaller ones underneath, and the other vice versa, so you don't gain anything. If you're new to this, you'll find the DBS much better.

It takes roughly 1 minute per jump, so to go 200LY in a ship with 15 LY jump range would take about 13 minutes and one wit 30 LY jump range about 6 minutes, i.e. 7 minutes difference, which isn't a lot. It's often a lot quicker to start jumping rather than mess about trying to increase your jump range in an attempt to save time.

later in the game, it's always a good idea to build a super-light DBX as a taxi to use for jumping about, then call your combat ship over and make a cup of tea or check your social media while you wait for it to arrive.

 

[Dragool]

Hi, Welcome to "Imperial Courier Anonymous".

My name is Al and I have 8 of them. I've tried other ships, I can't get over the cabling and dodgy hull panels with the Krait's, hate the way Mamba's drift, and let's not mention the seating position in a FDL (even if its the same as driving IRL for me ). I quite like the Clipper (as long as you don't want to look up in VR), mainly for it's excellent boost noise. I still keep coming back to my Couriers.

Thank you for the great post! This gets me ideas. I think I'll wait a bit with engineering still, I have lot to do: find out best mappings for HOTAS, install and learn Voice Attack, learn to do planetary missions (but have to do them with monitor, In VR I almost threw up ) etc. I really like Clipper too. Wonder if I should grind to have one, and then go after engineering stuff with the Clipper, or is BDX much better for that? I also plan try some mining and trading, once I get my Clipper. So far it's mostly been bounty hunting and delivery missions.

The Cobra is the same as the Viper, but the other other way up. One has the larger hardpoints on the top and the smaller ones underneath, and the other vice versa, so you don't gain anything. If you're new to this, you'll find the DBS much better.

It takes roughly 1 minute per jump, so to go 200LY in a ship with 15 LY jump range would take about 13 minutes and one wit 30 LY jump range about 6 minutes, i.e. 7 minutes difference, which isn't a lot. It's often a lot quicker to start jumping rather than mess about trying to increase your jump range in an attempt to save time.

later in the game, it's always a good idea to build a super-light DBX as a taxi to use for jumping about, then call your combat ship over and make a cup of tea or check your social media while you wait for it to arrive.

Thanks. Watched some of your videos too, good stuff! Yesterday I bought DBS and went with it to HIP 20277, and transferred my IC, Viper 3 and Cobra 3 there too. You are right about Cobra, now I remember I had fixed pulse lasers and multi cannons, when I found it hard to aim with it. Have give it an other try too. I tried a bit DBS at the RES site too, and will have BDX taxi myself later too.

One thing tho. When I pick up massacre missions to Calenero system and went to RES in HIP 20277 instead, I couldn't find pirates of the right clan from there? Tried two RES (high and low) and spent 2 hours shooting other pirates. Then I finally went to Calenero to hunt those mission pirates where mission told me to go. Just bad luck I didn't find them from RES, or did I miss something?

Other thing, I guess I have to visit other system to get those ALD power play missions to rank up? There's nothing of that matter in HIP 202077. For RES it's perfect location, they are just next to the station. Good tip, much appreciated.

 

[d8veh]

Thank you for the great post! This gets me ideas. I think I'll wait a bit with engineering still, I have lot to do: find out best mappings for HOTAS, install and learn Voice Attack, learn to do planetary missions (but have to do them with monitor, In VR I almost threw up ) etc. I really like Clipper too. Wonder if I should grind to have one, and then go after engineering stuff with the Clipper, or is BDX much better for that? I also plan try some mining and trading, once I get my Clipper. So far it's mostly been bounty hunting and delivery missions.


Thanks. Watched some of your videos too, good stuff! Yesterday I bought DBS and went with it to HIP 20277, and transferred my IC, Viper 3 and Cobra 3 there too. You are right about Cobra, now I remember I had fixed pulse lasers and multi cannons, when I found it hard to aim with it. Have give it an other try too. I tried a bit DBS at the RES site too, and will have BDX taxi myself later too.

One thing tho. When I pick up massacre missions to Calenero system and went to RES in HIP 20277 instead, I couldn't find pirates of the right clan from there? Tried two RES (high and low) and spent 2 hours shooting other pirates. Then I finally went to Calenero to hunt those mission pirates where mission told me to go. Just bad luck I didn't find them from RES, or did I miss something?

Other thing, I guess I have to visit other system to get those ALD power play missions to rank up? There's nothing of that matter in HIP 202077. For RES it's perfect location, they are just next to the station. Good tip, much appreciated.

You haave to go to Calenero to shoot the pirates. There are a lot of ringed planets there, all with different RESs. The last planet only has a haz RES, so check out the closer ones. As you get so much money for the missions, you have the choice of whether to go to a high or low RES. It's dead easy to kill the pirates in a low RES on your own, but you don't get much bounty money. In the high RES, you get good bounty money, but you need help from the police to kill the ships. Only shoot the ships that the police are shooting, and don't shoot an Anaconda, Gunship, Crusader or Krait until you've checked "targets" tab to see if it has a fighter. If it does, don't shoot it until it's nearly dead, and then make sure that you have 4 pips to shields to tank the fighter until the mothership pops. The fighter will prioritise you and get you from behind the moment you open fire. Also, if you see the fighter pop, you're good to go. Don't waste time trying to shoot the fighter at this stage because you'll chase it everywhere, and when you get it, you turn to the mothership, but the police always get it before you get a chance to land a shot.

The most important thing is not to panic. There is a conveyor belt of new targets coming all the time, so stay relaxed and pick your targets carefully.

From time to time, you'll mess up and get a bounty on you. when it happens, you must be quick. Turn away from the police and keep boosting with 4 pips to engines and 2 to shields, turn at right angles to the plane of the rings to get clear of mass-lock. As soon as you're clear, get your FSD going into supercruise and safety, then you can relax while you plot your route to Ombiko, which is the nearest interstellar factor, who will clear your bounty, then you can return and carry on. There is an interstellar factor in the outpost by planet 4(?). I always use a big ship, so I couldn't go there, and I'm not sure of the security there, but you'll probably be OK going there instead, which will save a lot of time. Obviously, if you see any police around when you drop out there, you should jump out quick. At the end of each session or beginning of the next, you should go to that station to claim your bounties, then get your mission payout from the station in Hip 20277.

 

[Dragool]

You haave to go to Calenero to shoot the pirates. There are a lot of ringed planets there, all with different RESs. The last planet only has a haz RES, so check out the closer ones. As you get so much money for the missions, you have the choice of whether to go to a high or low RES. It's dead easy to kill the pirates in a low RES on your own, but you don't get much bounty money. In the high RES, you get good bounty money, but you need help from the police to kill the ships.

Okay, so I'll try that this evening. I do both high and low res, high to get money and low to challenge pirates on my own to learn to handle them. Getting better day by day. Thanks

 

[Dragool]

@d8veh yes, this worked like a dream, and big bucks coming in. I guess I'll spend next few days in RES