Super powerful NPCs?

I got into a fight with an Anaconda NPC (in a Krait MK 2) and twice in a row, it completely obliterated me in a matter of seconds. One burst with whatever it was shooting at me, and my shield and hull were totally wrecked..second shot, bye, bye.

I never had experienced such a powerful NPC (and I've been in quite a few fights).

Is this something new or am I missing something?

Are there any new shield technologies I should be looking for, as the modules I have (which are pretty solid grades) appears to be completely useless now?

Thanks.
 
Is your ship engineered? An Anaconda has enough firepower to take down an un-engineered ship pretty quickly unless you have sufficient piloting skill to avoid it's fire.

I would also have to ask what the NPCs rank is, compared to yours. An Elite Anconda can chew up a green pilot pretty quickly. Perhaps you bit off more than you can chew at your current skill level. Do know it's not impossible though, Anacondas are my favorite prey and I fly a Krait mkII.

If you aren't engineered, even basic Thruster/Shield engineering will do wonders for you. Guardian Shield Boosters are really handy on the Krait as well. They are easy to get, just bboorriinnggg.
 
You shouldn't have to use engineers to play ED but hey ho, FD forced thought this dlc was a great idea make ED more 'meaningful'. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
If you found this Anaconda through a wing assassination mission and thought "yeah, that one pays well!" you probably ended up fighting not only an elite, but a fully engineered anaconda.

You can only fight those with a fully engineered ship of your own. Preferably one of the big 3.
 
You shouldn't have to use engineers to play ED but hey ho, FD forced thought this dlc was a great idea make ED more 'meaningful'. :rolleyes:

I have no problems taking down Elite NPC Anacondas in an un-engineered Krait in HazRes. Skill matters. That being said, engineering can help the OP.

I too have to wonder if he took on a Elite Wing Assassination. Those can be some tough cookies solo.
 
I dropped in to a pirate massacre mission USS, and for some odd reason, most of the NPC's were trying to use missiles on my heavily shielded but weak hulled Anaconda.
I laughed as I one by one began to take them out.
Then an Elite Anaconda dropped in, I believe it was chasing me in supercruise prior to my drop.
That thing hammered my shields!

I normally don't panic, but when 1 Elite Anaconda and about 6 Viper are all firing missiles at me, with hull percentage rapidly counting down, I was in a bit of a panic.
But I still low waked, with 37% hull left.

I throttled back to assess the damage. Most of my weapons were heavily damaged, I'd left my SLF behind, and everything well fairly ruined.

Did a quick flick of my shield boosters to bring my shields back online and....


Interdicted by an Elite Anaconda...

Was tempted to run, but 1 on 1 is usually easy. Despite my shields being less than 1 ring, I killed the Anaconda without them dropping. :D

Then I went home to repair.
 
To answer the question: I was hauling cargo and got interdicted.

Never was the NPC this powerful. In both fights, it would destroy my shields and around 80% of hull, in a single, head-on burst.

This wasn't a wing mission. Just an NPC after my cargo.
 
Nonetheless, but basic things still rule:
- stay away from enemy fire line
- good aim
Tanking is less effective.
 
Last edited:
^^My combat rank is Novice and I hold a federal rank of Admiral.

Take Navigarre's posts with the flavour they're seasoned with, he is not a fan of engineers, believes they ruined the game. While I respect the view, I can't agree. For many, engineers are an essential part of the game, comparably with other MMOs with enchanting your gear. As you get better at the game, complete missions and increase trade rank and federal rank, and accept higher level missions you are going to face harder NPCs. It is possible that this new patch has produced an unusual spike in the effectiveness of certain NPCs, but the truth is when you start accepting high level missions that include 'hunter' type NPCs, you need to be tooling around with at least 600-1000 effective health between shield and hull in order to be anything less than a victim, and that is is as it should be.
 
I like the occassional NPC boss fight. Keeps you on your toes. I find elite condas spam shield cells and once you run them down they pop easily as no hull or module mods. The nose to nose things suits me too as I pump em full of PA's. Job done. Kamikaze npc, I love it. Saves ammo. Met a hull taked FAS thing, that took some hammering with cannons but again, I enjoyed the tension of whos hull will last longer. Fortunately mine did. Have had to navigate by the white dot for repairs a few times. I quite like it all tbh.
 
I don't have much RL time to screw around with engineering (though I might give it a try some day) so I'll probably focus on evading these encounters all together. Unless they made evading interdiction harder than before.. :D
 
I don't have much RL time to screw around with engineering (though I might give it a try some day) so I'll probably focus on evading these encounters all together. Unless they made evading interdiction harder than before.. :D

Hey Kenan,

You mentioned that you had "pretty solid grade" modules. In my experience anything other than A grade modules on shields and shield boosters on a not engineered ship is not enough anymore. It's strange that you were attacked by an Elite, since I thought you could be only interdicted by a ship 2 ranks above what you are, but maybe they changed that.

I'm with the other friends above who said you need engineering to continue to play the game without any incidents like the one you described. You might indeed spend sometime doing something that you don't love in the game, but with each of the upgrades on your ship/ships you'll be able to enjoy activities that you couldn't before.
 
Last edited:
I like that NPCs can now put up a decent fight. Not only are they tougher, but they're smarter too. If they are losing, they'll make a run for it rather than just battle it out to the death. I've had several get away since the update, and that almost never happened before.
 
Back
Top Bottom