Ship Builds & Load Outs Imperial Cutter So I just bought a Cutter... tips for loadout?

[MBOmni]

Basically, title. I'm wondering how to set up her weapon hardpoints and I can't really make a decision.

I'm still working on upgrading its core internals, but in the meantime, I thought I'd ask for some suggestions and maybe tips for the Cutter's weapons and how to set up the fire groups.
I sort of had an idea of setting up a Plasma Accelerator on the Huge hardpoint, Railguns on the Large ones, and I have no idea what to set up on the remaining Medium hardpoints.
I've even been contemplating slapping turreted lasers (or something similar) on the engine nacelles and set them to "fire at will" so I don't have to deal with manually aiming those two off-center weapons. But again, I'm looking for recommendations.

Consider me a beginner-level combatant. Haven't fought any NPCs of rank higher than Expert (or ships larger than the FDL), never fought any players or Thargoids at all. I don't have any experience in flying with FA Off, so yeah, consider me a newbie.

As far as loadout goes, how are ship-launched fighters? Are they worth the cost and the income siphoned off by the NPC pilots?

And if you'll allow me to go offtopic a little bit (I personally would rather keep it all in one thread other than open multiple ones, but if the moderators decide I should create different threads for different subjects/sections, no problem), but I haven't even started going after Engineers or Technology Brokers (for AX / Guardian equipment) either. Would also appreciate some suggestions regarding these, at the very least the engineers, such as the materials I'll have to get and how/where to get them and so on.

Also I've been doing the Mainani / Ngalinn imperial route with combat missions (assassinate pirates/terrorists) and courier jobs, and I wanted to also ask if there's a more efficent (even if just marginally) method to farming Credits for my skill level. I dabbled with Asteroid mining (as soon as deep core mining was released, I just had to try it out) but I'm not experienced in this field either. Also never dedicated myself to exploring, at least not yet.

Also consider I might not take the Cutter out yet, since she's still using all the stock gear and I wouldn't want to go out into the black and get rekt due to a poor loadout.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Badman76]

Not to sound rude but why go and buy a cutter when you seem to know little about the game?

Like your asking a load of questions, Ones you should know being an owner of a cutter!

Whats your bank balance at and what other ships do you have?

 

[Speedcuffs]

Do Power Play, sign up for Aisling Duval, get the Prismatic Shield. Must have for a Cutter. I appreciate you might not have the credits for this yet, but worth bearing in mind.
Can't speak for weapons, my Cutters are never armed.
As for SLF, yeh, for PvE, I like them, But, your crew will take a cut of all earnings, whether active or not.

Edit: Seems like you've got a grasp of weapons loadout to me.

 

[GJ51]

Why not just strip it for credits and buy a ship you can load up with Class A gear and then fully engineer it?

Make more credits until you can do that with the Cutter.

 

[Speedcuffs]

Why not just strip it for credits and buy a ship you can load up with Class A gear and then fully engineer it?

Make more credits until you can do that with the Cutter.

Well, yeh, but...
Can rack up serious credits in a Cutter trading.

 

[GJ51]

Well, yeh, but...
Can rack up serious credits in a Cutter trading.

Well yeah - and you can lose a lot in re-buy costs if you get blown up cuz U don't know what you're doing...

 

[Badman76]

Well, yeh, but...
Can rack up serious credits in a Cutter trading.

Aslong as the op can evade being interdicted...

 

[Maymo]

This probably isn’t going to be what you want to hear...

Take all the weapons off it and use it for cargo hauling and passengers.

If you’re having to ask the questions you’re currently asking you should probably get a solid medium ship like a Krait and do some experimenting with weaponry and unlock some engineers. Practice your combat a bit...

Taking an unengineered Cutter out for a spin without some prior knowledge is asking for a rebuy screen, even in PVE...

The Cutter is an awesome bulk trader, i’d look into that...

...or join the rest of the galaxy and shoot rocks for more painite

 

[Speedcuffs]

Well yeah - and you can lose a lot in re-buy costs if you get blown up cuz U don't know what you're doing...

The harsh mistress gives the best lessons. ✌

 

[GJ51]

Next we go into never fly without re-buy...

 

[MBOmni]

Not to sound rude but why go and buy a cutter when you seem to know little about the game?
Like your asking a load of questions, Ones you should know being an owner of a cutter!

Because I thought I'd rather set myself up with decent ships and gear before trying to do the more "endgame" activities. For starters, I'd rather ask for help than continuously bumble around by myself without really knowing if I'm improving my skills or not.
I'm also not much of an avid player. I own the game since 2017 I believe, but I never played it much. The fact that I'm only now buying something as expensive as a Cutter is proof.
This also means I don't usually follow guides or youtubers or any external learning resources, which brings me here to the official forums. Thought it'd be the best place to learn from others.

My other ships are just a Cobra MkIII, an Imperial Eagle and an Imperial Courier. I've been doing most of my Credits farming lately with the Courier.
Current Credits balance is at around 45 million.

Do Power Play, sign up for Aisling Duval, get the Prismatic Shield. Must have for a Cutter. I appreciate you might not have the credits for this yet, but worth bearing in mind.
Can't speak for weapons, my Cutters are never armed.
As for SLF, yeh, for PvE, I like them, But, your crew will take a cut of all earnings, whether active or not.

Edit: Seems like you've got a grasp of weapons loadout to me.

Thank you for the tips! I haven't touched Powerplay yet either, but I'll give it a look.

To the others: I'm not in any hurry, so I don't have any plans on actually using the Cutter for the moment, at least until I get some basic loadout sorted out, which would require me to continue farming Credits for a while longer.

I don't mind the cargo/passenger transport tip at all, so thank you for the suggestion.

 

[Maymo]

Because I thought I'd rather set myself up with decent ships and gear before trying to do the more "endgame" activities. For starters, I'd rather ask for help than continuously bumble around by myself without really knowing if I'm improving my skills or not.
I'm also not much of an avid player. I own the game since 2017 I believe, but I never played it much. The fact that I'm only now buying something as expensive as a Cutter is proof.
This also means I don't usually follow guides or youtubers or any external learning resources, which brings me here to the official forums. Thought it'd be the best place to learn from others.

My other ships are just a Cobra MkIII, an Imperial Eagle and an Imperial Courier. I've been doing most of my Credits farming lately with the Courier.
Current Credits balance is at around 45 million.



Thank you for the tips! I haven't touched Powerplay yet either, but I'll give it a look.

To the others: I'm not in any hurry, so I don't have any plans on actually using the Cutter for the moment, at least until I get some basic loadout sorted out, which would require me to continue farming Credits for a while longer.

I don't mind the cargo/passenger transport tip at all, so thank you for the suggestion.

The Cutter is an amazing asset, enjoy it for the things it excels at first (trading/mining/evading).

Don’t go looking for death in it. Not yet anyway...

 

[Badman76]

Owning a cutter is kind of a endgame activity...

Anyhow, things that may help towards engineering your ship

A ship builder tool, very helpful https://coriolis.io/
Where to farm materials

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4HClk1cRIo

A list of engineers, what they have to offer and how to unlock them https://inara.cz/galaxy-engineers/
Where to find services like the nearest material trader https://inara.cz/galaxy-nearest/
Where to find the nearest module https://eddb.io/station
How to find and unlock the guardian weapons and mods

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M_IHxFGj9Y

 

[SergMx]

If you’re having to ask the questions you’re currently asking you should probably get a solid medium ship like a Krait and do some experimenting with weaponry and unlock some engineers. Practice your combat a bit...

Learning to fight on Krait is not the same as learning to fight on Cutter.

 

[Maymo]

Learning to fight on Krait is not the same as learning to fight on Cutter.

Not really the point I was making.

 

[Martind Forlon]

@MBOmni ... for your cutter depending on what you wrote you should aim for:

1. https://s.orbis.zone/9saQ (that shield cell bank should help you get away if fight go wrong way, make 2 wep groups, one with MCs and one with beams, MCs have only very low draw to your distributor which is not engineered yet and will drain fast)
2. with this you absolutelly should go for next engineer: https://inara.cz/galaxy-engineer/1/ ... just this one will make your ship MUCH better. For powerplant I suggest armored with monstered special
3. closely following with this one: https://inara.cz/galaxy-engineer/2/
4. above mentioned should help you make decent trading cutter
5. search for engineers which can upgrade yours multicannons and beam (overcharged to MCs and long-range to beams) (https://inara.cz/galaxy-engineer/6/ and https://inara.cz/galaxy-engineer/15/)

It is quite allot of ingame activity, have fun!

 

[LumberTubs]

I would suggest that the "Cutter" and "combat" don't really go together very well.

Even with fully engineered, a-rated thrusters and with FA off, it turns so slowly that the PA and rail guns that you mention will be largely redundant. The Cutter is designed to carry lots of stuff safely. It also has excellent straight line speed for its size (for god's sake, don't boost when you drop out of supercruise at a station) and nothing mass locks it so, if set up correctly, its basically invincible. And sexy as hell too.

By all means stick a load of turrets on it because why not but if you're expecting to easily destroy everything that crosses your path, you're going to be disappointed (I know this because I've been there myself).

 

[WhoCares]

I would suggest that the "Cutter" and "combat" don't really go together very well.

Even with fully engineered, a-rated thrusters and with FA off, it turns so slowly that the PA and rail guns that you mention will be largely redundant. The Cutter is designed to carry lots of stuff safely. It also has excellent straight line speed for its size (for god's sake, don't boost when you drop out of supercruise at a station) and nothing mass locks it so, if set up correctly, its basically invincible. And sexy as hell too.

By all means stick a load of turrets on it because why not but if you're expecting to easily destroy everything that crosses your path, you're going to be disappointed (I know this because I've been there myself).

I kinda disagree with this - at least in PvE the iCutter is a perfectly viable option. It might not be the bestest of the best or most fun to play combat ship. But the engineered shields last an eternity against single or pairs of enemies, and with the AIs habit of stand-off parking in front of you engagements, you can merrily wittle them down.
This is my current iCutter build with which I currently farm Assassination missions (targets of these are often FatCorvettes) and eat any interdictors that might get send after me in delivery missions (in my case - 24% to combat elite - usually Anacondas, mixed with Pythons, ...). In single PvE combat I am usually not even close to lose the first shield ring in that config.
Of course, that build requires a lot of engineering that the OP might still need to unlock. Nice thing about the iCutter is that I can simply swap the shield generator - 8A shield replaced by cargo rack, and 6A shield in - and go from a respectable 500 tons cargo to >700t, and still don't fear interdictors on my cargo missions. Where I otherwise might need two ships, T-9 for cargo + a combat ship, the iCutter can do it both.
From a n00b perspective it's also nice to start building it up as a cargo vessel, and slowly but surely it can develop into a respectable combat ship. But of course, the risk in rebuy is rather high, though that also depends on the actual cost of the current build.

 

[SergMx]

I kinda disagree with this - at least in PvE the iCutter is a perfectly viable option. It might not be the bestest of the best or most fun to play combat ship. But the engineered shields last an eternity against single or pairs of enemies, and with the AIs habit of stand-off parking in front of you engagements, you can merrily wittle them down.
This is my current iCutter build with which I currently farm Assassination missions (targets of these are often FatCorvettes) and eat any interdictors that might get send after me in delivery missions (in my case - 24% to combat elite - usually Anacondas, mixed with Pythons, ...). In single PvE combat I am usually not even close to lose the first shield ring in that config.
Of course, that build requires a lot of engineering that the OP might still need to unlock. Nice thing about the iCutter is that I can simply swap the shield generator - 8A shield replaced by cargo rack, and 6A shield in - and go from a respectable 500 tons cargo to >700t, and still don't fear interdictors on my cargo missions. Where I otherwise might need two ships, T-9 for cargo + a combat ship, the iCutter can do it both.
From a n00b perspective it's also nice to start building it up as a cargo vessel, and slowly but surely it can develop into a respectable combat ship. But of course, the risk in rebuy is rather high, though that also depends on the actual cost of the current build.

When I was dedicating the mission to the murders, were big when intercepting the FDL

 

[Moritz Norman]

I kinda disagree with this - at least in PvE the iCutter is a perfectly viable option. It might not be the bestest of the best or most fun to play combat ship. But the engineered shields last an eternity against single or pairs of enemies, and with the AIs habit of stand-off parking in front of you engagements, you can merrily wittle them down.
This is my current iCutter build with which I currently farm Assassination missions (targets of these are often FatCorvettes) and eat any interdictors that might get send after me in delivery missions (in my case - 24% to combat elite - usually Anacondas, mixed with Pythons, ...). In single PvE combat I am usually not even close to lose the first shield ring in that config.
Of course, that build requires a lot of engineering that the OP might still need to unlock. Nice thing about the iCutter is that I can simply swap the shield generator - 8A shield replaced by cargo rack, and 6A shield in - and go from a respectable 500 tons cargo to >700t, and still don't fear interdictors on my cargo missions. Where I otherwise might need two ships, T-9 for cargo + a combat ship, the iCutter can do it both.
From a n00b perspective it's also nice to start building it up as a cargo vessel, and slowly but surely it can develop into a respectable combat ship. But of course, the risk in rebuy is rather high, though that also depends on the actual cost of the current build.

Yep, I did this and upgraded and engineered piece by piece until and I had a fully equipped Combat Cutter.

I’m Imperial, and enjoy flying the ship, but it’s totally viable as a PvE. Best shields in the game; I used all multicannons for a while and just recently installed Packhounds on the wings. I solo Massacre missions and any PvE combat I’ve done easily.

I can convert it quickly back to a cargo ship just like you, swapping in a 6A Prismatic and swapping the bigger shields and SCBs for cargo racks. I know many people like to have a fleet of purpose-built ships, I prefer to operate with a smaller number of vessels.