Engineers Ship Builds & Load Outs Need help for my Ultimate™ Anti-Thargoid Federal Corvette build

[ZeroisVOID]

Hello Commanders ,

I've finally grinded enough of the federal rank to get my hands on a nice Federal Corvette ; money isn't an issue for this build because i have tons of it , material grinding and AX unlocks aren't an issue as well , my idea is to make the best and Ultimate™ over-engineered Federal Corvette against Thargoids ; more specifically Interceptors , it only needs to be the best specifically against them as i don't plan on fighting against normal ships or players with it.

But as i am not very experienced with these types of builds , i made a rough build of what i want to do with it :

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As you can see , there is no weapons on it yet as i have no idea on how to fight a goid and it misses a couple of things.

For the Core Internals :
I put all grade A except the sensors , which aren't necessary with the long range mod , 8D sensors will help me a bit with the jump range ; all the other modules are engineered but the modifications and special effects are subject to change (like the armor mod for one).

For the Optional Internals :
A 7C Bi-Weave shield generator , no idea if Prismatics would be better for this one , usually people use Bi-Weave.
I put two 7A SCB's , i think those might be necessary in a fight.
A 6D fighter Hangar because i love those and their ability to act like a decoy.
A Decontamination Limpet Controller + a 3E cargo rack for limpets , i was told it was useful.
All the other slots are empty because i have no idea what to put in there (normal armor ? , with what mods/special effects ? Guardian Armor ? Guardian FSD ?)
No need to calculate for a Fuel Scoop as i'll just swap a mod with a 6A scoop when i need to travel then i'll dock at a station and call the mod back.

For the Utility Mounts :
A Shutdown Field Neutralizer , important piece of equipement.
A Xeno Scanner , this one might be useless , on most build it wasn't present but i want your opinions , if useless i would replace it with a Shield Booster or an Heat Sink Launcher.
A Point Defense Turret , i don't know if it's really useful but it might be in case the small goids shoot missiles at me.
A Heat Sink Launcher , engineered for more ammo , useful because of the SCB's, i'm keeping it.
The rest are Shield Boosters obviously.

Weapons :
None yet , i'm open to opinions lol.

So that's the rough sketch it lacks a lot of things , lacks engineering and special effects , has the wrong effects on some modules probably , etc ...

What i mean by Ultimate™ :
The Corvette needs to be powerful but without emptying the WPN bar instantly , resistant ( a good balance between modifications and special effects so that it has no hull or shield resistance weaknesses against Goids (so we need to tweak the "Absolute" stat as well)) , fast , agile and having a decent jump range (because if my 'Vette can't travel , i might as well leave it in the hangar).
For an example , here is my anti-normal NPC's Anaconda Ultimate™ build (it's really a mean beauty against NPC's) :

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It has tons of power , lots of WPN Energy , lots of hull and shield resistance shared between all three weaknesses and with a high "Absolute" stat , very good speed , boost and finally a good jump range for travel.

I need your opinions and build updates to make this poor and sad 'Vette become the biggest and meanest Hurtmachine the galaxy has every seen (or the Thargoids in this case) !

 

[everstream]

Well, everybody has his own strategy and fight philosophy. Many things depend on your skill as a pilot and on your readyness to do a lot of actions during the fight. As I stated shortly - I'm not that good at flying in FA-off, evasion and similar stuff, so I configure my ship for maximum survivability without complex management.

This is my plan for the AX Corvette . I've still to get the fixed variants of guardian shards, but anything other is already there. If you want to use a fighter and only fight in the bubble, so don't need the fuel scoop, you can excahnge it for a 6D hangar. also you can swap the ECM for something else, as you don't want to fight against other players. You will then probably need to switch the secondary effect on the boosters from "super capacitors" to "flow control" to stay very close to 99% of power usage, but below this limit. As you see there is almost no module in my build except of fuel scoop which could be shut down. Probably you could shut down the cargo hatch, as you will probably will scoop the remains of the goids after the last of them is killed. And you cann play around with the priority of FSD.

But to not to have these headaches, I would do these changes: AX Corvette modified

The sensors are up to you - I would take A-rated unmodified or B-rated and lightweight 2, or something like that for maximum integrity.

 

[ZeroisVOID]

@everstream

I did small changes to your first build here and there and i got that :

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Changed the ECM to a shield booster with heavy duty and flow control.
Changed the Xeno scanner to a Heat Sink launcher engineered for more ammo.
Changed generator armored 4 to armored 5 with same special effect than before.
Swap the fuel scoop for fighter hangar , works as long as the cargo hatch is disabled.

The shield went from :
6211MJ to 7080MJ
Mass went up a bit , so the jump range has a slight decrease , from 25.59 to 25.17 but it's still fine.

For the moment it seems good , but why did you put 2 fragment cannons ?
Is it worth it compared to pulse lasers or others ?

 

[everstream]

You mean probably mean power plant I've only grade 4, because I don't like the cooperation with illegal/criminal engineers or those, who supports criminals. Even The Dweller and Lei Cheung were a grey zone for me, barely acceptable. But I've done that deal. Hera Tani is a "no go". Just my roleplay ....

Regarding the 2 normal shards: a Cyclop can be killed with guardian shards without giving him a change to engage/build his shield. More powerfull thargoids build a shield, which can be taken down also by normal thermal weapons, so lasers or ... yes exactly - why bother about different ranges/falloffs, if I can put a very similar weapon with (almost?) highest DPS and similar handling as the guardian ones? So I've just taken shards and converted them into thermal via "incendiary" effect. The efficient mod does its job too.

As for the concept in total: we have had such a discussion in other threads and I agree to the others - the Corvette is not the perfect ship to fight thargoids, Cutter could be better or is better just in regards of shield and in first position in regards of speed. The thargoids should go easily over 450, as I've read somethere, and this cutter build is then better suited for a pursuit or runaway: AX Cutter . Cutter has also better hardpoint placement and less power problems. But I don't like it's design especially from inside.

Fact is: there is no ship, which could be "ultimate thargoid killer" in the way you probably mean this (afaik). I can chew through 4 "dangerous" NPC Anacondas with my full frag Corvette or even Python. I do it even easier with full MC Corvette, but killing big goids is a harder job. Its mostly done in wings or now in CZs. I would like it very much, if there would be a ship, in which a lone wolf, who is more an engineer than a combat pilot, could smash even the hardest goid alone. Just because he has worked hard on building and upgrading his ship and the victory is the loan for this. But that seems not be be the target of the developers - either you have a perfect ship and are a (almost) perfect pilot, or you have to be a part of a wing.

Have seen something somethere about T10 defender soloing a Hydra ... must check this out again, but seems to be the first variant - hard work of a very good pilot.

 

[ZeroisVOID]

Okay , good to know.
Just another question , when fighting Thargoid Interceptors , is a xeno scanner necessary ? Or can i put a shield booster instead ?

 

[Bigmaec]

That's my AX Corvette (a recommissioned PvP Vette)

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in action:

I find it's too slow against Basilisks, got badly mauled everytime I tried.
The shard cannon instagib didn't work for me, at least not with +15% premium ammo.

 

[ZeroisVOID]

@Bigmaec
nice fight !
what's your opinion about adding Gauss cannons ? is there a clear difference between Gauss and Shards ?
also is it necessary for a beginner to use the Xeno scanner ?

 

[Bigmaec]

@Bigmaec
nice fight !
what's your opinion about adding Gauss cannons ? is there a clear difference between Gauss and Shards ?
also is it necessary for a beginner to use the Xeno scanner ?

Thx
I'm not a big fan of shard cannons, unlocked them to use them as shotguns against scouts, only to scrap them and use AX multi turrets and lasers against them.
Against Interceptors Gauss are the meta, I used to fly a 4 c2 gauss Conda but I find the 2 c1 2c2 Corvette is even better due to hardpoint placement and optionals on the Vette.

Regarding the xeno scanner I'd never go without one, against scouts they show you the hull percentage and against Interceptors they allow selecting the exposed hearts and therefore microgimballing.

 

[ZeroisVOID]

@Bigmaec
oh , interesting , so i'll replace a shield booster with a xeno scanner then but what would you put on the 2 empty M size hardpoints on the Corvette ?
normal fragment cannons with incendiary rounds ?
railguns with long range ?
or beam with efficient and thermal vent ?

 

[ZeroisVOID]

basically without dropping the armored g5 power plant , and by disabling the FSD booster + the cargo hatch when not needed i can do that build :

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if i add 2 more medium sized weapons , i'll have to switch to overcharged PP and double braced or the 8A guardian hybrid power plant , with the guardian PP i won't have to disable anything and the integrity seems a bit higher that overcharged + double braced but the heat generation is too high.
thoughts ?
is putting 2 M weapons even worth it ?

 

[Bigmaec]

@Bigmaec
oh , interesting , so i'll replace a shield booster with a xeno scanner then but what would you put on the 2 empty M size hardpoints on the Corvette ?
normal fragment cannons with incendiary rounds ?
railguns with long range ?
or beam with efficient and thermal vent ?

If I had had them, I'd put a c3 turreted thermal vent beam and two remote flak launchers in the c2s on the vette.
As I was in a hurry to return to colonia my above vette didn't equip that.

Edit: beam lightweight and if you equip two SCBs you don't need decon limpets, just fire the banks to 200 degree and then heatsink.

 

[everstream]

fire the banks to 200 degree and then heatsink.

does the thermal trick work still? How much damage will internal modules take during such decontamination action? Do the MRPs protect against this?

I've checked some videos with AX-Condas and then completely revised my AX-combat-plan. So this time it should look like this:

AX Conda

Thermal Vent beams instead of a heat sink - will they be enough? And shards as low energy version of gauss.

 

[ZeroisVOID]

@everstream
idk if the thermal trick still works but i saw your build , i have a normal PVE-Anaconda myself and i think you should swap effects on your beams from long range to efficient , it's only a S size weapon , it's draining your WEP too much for little to no effect and long range small beams truly aren't necessary.
swap it with efficient + thermal vent.

basically it looks like this :

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long range really isn't necessary on S size weapons , they eat too much energy for little effect and the weapon placement is pretty bad on those slots so you won't have them on the enemy all the time.
instead of 5 seconds till WEP is empty with 1 pip on WEP , you have 7 seconds with this for almost no change but you can also enable your fuel scoop and cargo hatch without shutting them down.

 

[Bigmaec]

Lightweight is better because it also reduces distro draw, but the thermal effect from efficient is lowering your venting.

 

[Sethiest]

This is the current meta for the vette. It's been tried and tested by hundreds of experienced Thargoid hunters.

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This is the variant I use https://s.orbis.zone/lwx

Here it is in work by another talented CMDR.

 

[ZeroisVOID]

@Sethiest look like a nice build , but it is feasible during a long expedition in thargoid territory ?
power plant is unprotected , FSD too , isn't it dangerous against enemies who deal direct damages ?
integrity on some modules is pretty low.
isn't that a glass cannon ?

if i tweak the first build you linked to how i like it , it would give that :

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dropped one of the shield cell bank with a 7D fighter hangar (because i love SLF's).
replaced module reinforcement packages with guardian module reinforcement packages (slightly better)
Life Support changed lightweight 4 to reinforced 5.
which brings the question , if i do that should i keep the two heat sinks or swap one for a shield booster.

also why is there no shutdown field or xeno scanner ?

EDIT : tweaked the build a bit.

 

[Sethiest]

@Sethiest

look like a nice build , but it is feasible during a long expedition in thargoid territory ?

I posted two, the first one is, you'd just need to tweak it to this https://s.orbis.zone/396-

power plant is unprotected , FSD too , isn't it dangerous against enemies who deal direct damages ?
integrity on some modules is pretty low.
isn't that a glass cannon ?

Did you watch the youtube video I linked? Don't take my word for it, that guy is fighting a Medusa, and they're not pushovers.

if i tweak the first build you linked to how i like it , it would give that :

Coriolis EDCD Edition

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s.orbis.zone

dropped one of the shield cell bank with a 7D fighter hangar (because i love SLF's).

Hey me too! But they're worthless. Utterly worthless. I wouldn't bother.

replaced module reinforcement packages with guardian module reinforcement packages (slightly better)
Life Support changed lightweight 4 to reinforced 5.
which brings the question , if i do that should i keep the two heat sinks or swap one for a shield booster.
also why is there no shutdown field or xeno scanner ?

You should stick to the first build I linked, that's more all round and deals with threats better if youre new. However the second link I posted takes statergy to pull off. You'll notice the Medusa doesn't try to use their shut down ability because the CMDR pulls a few tricks off. If you're cold enough, they won't see you and they won't attack. So after every heart that he destroys (from 2 onwards I think) pay attention to what he does. He cools off and shutdowns his ship for repairs without being seen. This means the medusa doesnt even try to use that attack.

 

[ZeroisVOID]

@Sethiest oh , interesting technique , i didn't know you could shutdown so close to the enemy , how come they have a cockpit but can't see you this close lol ?
does silent running works against them ?

so fighter bay is useless ?
how sad.
i'll stick with a second shield cell bank then.

build would look like this :

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cargo hatch and AFMU are disabled in combat , so it's still okay energy wise.
shield cells banks are specialized 4 instead of 3 now , still okay for energy.

EDIT : edited the build

 

[Sethiest]

Yeah Thargoids look like they use some sort of thermal vision so silent running is very effective. Not to the point where they couldnt see you entirely though. They lose you for a couple moments.