I've been thinking about a Phantom

[Romeo India Charlie]

I've been flying an Anaconda for the past 50,000ly. I really like it but there's one thing that really annoys me in it: landing! I also prefer medium to large ships overall, so I'm starting my journey back to Jameson Memorial to build a new exploration ship. This time I'm looking for a medium ship and the Krait Phantom seems the best choice for how I like to build them.

However, and unlike the Anaconda, I'm looking for feedback on tweaks to the build I'm considering.

Some points to keep in mind. I'm not trying to maximise jump range. I'm happy with a good compromise between staying in the deep safely for long periods of time and a decent jump range.

If you could be so kind and check this build out and let me know your thoughts, that would be great.

 

[Orvidius]

Looks pretty good. But why the 4D power plant? Switching to a 3A will get you more power, for less heat and less mass.

 

[Romeo India Charlie]

But why the 4D power plant?

Because I make quick decisions based on incorrect assumptions.

As I changed the power plant to 3A, I wondered if the repair limpet controller should be A or D. Doesn't seem to affect anything repair wise while giving a minor improvement on jump range and losing quite a bit of integrity with a D.

 

[ShadowNUAR]

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

 

[Kayvan]

I've kitted out a Phantom recently as well for fast travel, exploration and long hauls. I am very happy with it. On some worlds, finding a landing spot isn't quite trivial, but it's manageable. Note that I came from the DBX, hard to beat that one in terms of parking space, and in most cases it's not an issue. But the poor fuel scoop kinda drove me nuts on longer trips. The Phantom remedies that. It also fits a twin garage with ease -- good safety net when you're as clumsy with SRVs as I am. I fit a couple of smaller AFMUs when I'm heading further out.

As for Core Internals, all I can say is that I always take care that the ship can still boost, so the power distributor can't be too tiny, because crawling along through realspace also taxes my patience too much.

 

[Romeo India Charlie]

@Kayvan my first exploration ship was a DBX and, to be completely honest, my "Curious Grasshopper" is my favourite ship in the game. I completely relate to what you wrote. It's funny that DBX and Anaconda do really well what the other doesn't. One parks well, the other scoops well. I kinda want the middle. I agree with a ship that can boost. I expect to be able to boost to 480m/s every 11 seconds with this build. Should be good!

 

[GroG79]

Downsize one AFMU (or ditch it even.. You will not need it anyways) and get a 2 srv bay. Allows for shenanigans

 

[Syke Jr]

Ditch the heatsink launcher.

I disagree about ditching the AFMUs, though. It depends how long you intend to be in the black and how often you intend to jet cone boost. If you jet cone boost often and are gonna be travelling 100kly+ I would keep both AFMUs.

 

[GroG79]

You can repair to 1% so there is no problem, No afmu will save your powerplant

 

[Northpin]

Best mediums for exploration are the Phantom and the good old AspX.
IMO, Phantom's strong points are: it can sport a 4g vehicle hangar and 5d shields while still gettin 65+ ly jump range.
Main disadvantages are worse cockpit view and being noticeably more sluggish in SuperCruise compared with AspX
You are not using any of those advantages.

AspX is quite limited by its internals, but its cockpit view is second to none and the SC maneuverability is one of the best for mediums.

Regarding multiple AFMUs - only if space to spare. Otherwise it's rather pointless. Even if an AFMU gets to 0 intergrity, reboot and repair will get it running
I'd rather get bigger cargo and a research limpet

 

[Romeo India Charlie]

I'd rather get bigger cargo and a research limpet

Here's something I never got myself convinced of using. I think I don't get it... yet. And there's not much info on it, from what I can gather. Would it be too much to ask you to kinda "sell the idea" to me?

 

[Northpin]

Guess you can use it to sample the bio stuff that one might encounter out in the black in NSP POIs
I think @Orvidius can sell it better. (if not sorry, my bad )

 

[Hedy]

Whatever build you choose I'd recommend you take into account your own play style. If you like to boost from Neutron stars, afmu for sure. Rough with srv, then take two. Like to canyon run, then extra shield capacity.
I always pack heat sinks but rarely use.
This is my preferred build.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

 

[Ascendingbike42]

Two class five afmus is overkill. The second one can be a class 2 as it only needs to be able to repair the larger one. Having the smaller afmu would allow for a class 4 planetary vehicle hangar so you could have 2 srvs.

 

[Orvidius]

I think the previous post suggesting ditching the AFMUs was only referring to ditching one of them, not both. As others have said, the second one is a luxury, but not really necessary. I like having two, so that my perfectionism can be satisfied by having them repair each other. Plus, you can repair twice as quickly. But a single AFMU will work normally down to 1%, and if it hits 0% you can just reboot/repair and get it running again.

As for research limpets. Meh. They're kind-of useful, in the "prepared for anything" or "science the heck out of this" ways of exploring. But you can only sample some life forms out there, and then you're stuck carrying cargo that's almost worthless to sell. It's better to keep a spreadsheet of what you sample, and then jettison it. But in general, the rule-of-thumb is that you can take samples from things that are roughly ship-sized. The life forms that are canister-sized or asteroid-sized can't be sampled.

Here's the most recent build I used on my Phantom. This was an expedition build, so the added shield strength is mostly to protect against accidental collision between commanders, but it also helps when checking out life forms in space. This build still got destroyed by one of the peduncle pods that decided to thrust into my path just as I hit boost. So it's hard to have enough shielding to survive that.

Phantom Explorer: https://s.orbis.zone/5ziq

You'll see that I opted to use larger slots to have a bigger shield and a spare SRV. Then I used size-3 AFMUs, which is plenty, even for neutron jumping around the map. You'll just refill a little more often. But basic refills are cheap and easy.

 

[marx]

Here's the most recent build I used on my Phantom. This was an expedition build, so the added shield strength is mostly to protect against accidental collision between commanders, but it also helps when checking out life forms in space. This build still got destroyed by one of the peduncle pods that decided to thrust into my path just as I hit boost. So it's hard to have enough shielding to survive that.

Ouch! That sounds like a painful way to die. Head-on collisions at speed hurt, and it looks like the Krait Phantom is in that dangerous area where it has a lot of momentum, but not strong shields. Thankfully, it has better internals, and in your case, you could have your build go with 850 MJ (instead of the 573 MJ you had) while only losing 0.98 ly jump range and the chaff. On an AspX though, the class 6 slot would be taken up by the scoop, class 5 by the FSD booster, so you're left with a class 3 shield only... or a class 5 shield and a class 3 booster. Hardly ideal, but the Asp has a lot of jump range already.

In any case, I'd count a minimum of 750 MJ as well-shielded. I slammed a Clipper at a near-frontal angle into a planet with those shields, and walked away with 40% hull damage. I wonder if it would have survived such a peduncle collision as well... but I'm not going to fly all the way to those regions to test that

 

[Orvidius]

Yeah, it makes me wonder if it counted that collision as two separate impacts. I clipped it with my wing, and it might have spun my nose into it, or something. It was hard to tell since it was over in an instant. It certainly was a kick in the complacency, for sure. This was during the Stellar Unknown expedition, which I only had time to partially participate in.

 

[marx]

Hm, I suppose the first impact could have thrown it in front of you for a second one... Unfortunately, I think the journal wouldn't even register this. So no way to tell now.
Then there was also someone who got sent to the rebuy screen via a collision with a metallic crystal.
At the end of the day though, it all comes down to one thing: the things you find in the NSPs are indestructible, you are not

 

[Old Duck]

I've been thinking about a Phantom

or

or

I really need to get back to work!

 

[Screemonster]

As I changed the power plant to 3A, I wondered if the repair limpet controller should be A or D. Doesn't seem to affect anything repair wise while giving a minor improvement on jump range and losing quite a bit of integrity with a D.

Aside from cooking yourself in stars (which you shouldn't be doing often, if at all, if you have sinks) and if you drop out in a jet-cone (in which case, good luck) you almost never take module damage while exploring besides FSD damage from neutron boosting. Besides, if you're packing an AFM, you can just fix it. Just D-rate it. Honestly the only limpets worth A-rating are collectors if you're using them to farm manufactured components in res sites. Nothing else really benefits from the extra range. Maybe repair limpets if you're in the habit of flying in a wing and your wingman refuses to stay close to you while being fixed?

Downsize one AFMU (or ditch it even.. You will not need it anyways) and get a 2 srv bay. Allows for shenanigans

AFMs can be restocked in the field. SRVs can not. You'd have to really mess up (or be out an incredibly long time) for an AFM to run out of integrity while exploring, and you can always reboot it to 1%.