Unlocking the Guardian Fighters Question

MrFailfactory · May 8, 2019

I don't need a guide.

What I do need, are people to verify that this can be done in a Phantom. Specifically, the lack of top-mounted Utility slots indicates that it can't use Point Defense to aid with the Sentinels.

Is this correct, or do side/bottom mounted Point Defense systems get a hand-wave in this application? In other words, does it shoot through the ship without damaging it? Do those shots hit?

I realize that I could simply choose any number of other ships that do have top-mounted Utility slots, but the answer to this question interests me.

Thanks.

Riôt

Retropolitan · May 8, 2019

The side mounted point defense on the Phantom doesn't work as well as a top-mounted one, but it still works. You'll take a few tumbles. Just make sure you land with the point defense on the Structure side - I don't think it will shoot through your ship. I don't think I'd want it to, personally.

Last night I managed to land my Phantom on a bluff overlooking a Structure and the point defense worked beautifully there since the ship was raised above the site. I'd say do that if you can

.

Sgt-Major Malfunction · May 8, 2019

There's a structure on the site(s) that has a roof. Drive in there, and you're fairly safe from the missiles. It's not too hard to cheese the drones from there.

Factabulous · May 8, 2019

You don't need point defence at all. Just makes it easier.

Bigmaec · May 8, 2019

Factabulous said:
You don't need point defence at all. Just makes it easier.

Yep that. Put 4 pips to sys when the missiles are incoming and lock the handbrake. After the explosions, continue blasting the sentinel.

Morbad · May 8, 2019

I just started unlocking the Guardian stuff myself, mostly without any information I couldn't find on GalNet, and a lot of trial and error.

PDTs are not anywhere near mandatory; even if it's nice to have. If you are any good in the SRV you can dodge the overwhelming majority of the missiles while gunning down the sentinels, but this can be slow.

In the name of expediency, I wound up killing most of the sentinels and charging the pylons from my ship.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccAuykh-FrQ

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3g0pkuaU4c

My current modus operandi (subject to future refinement, of course), for Guardian sites is:

1. Spawn (sentinels and pylons from the SRV).
2. Consolidate (sentinels into as tight a group as practical).
3. Annhilate (them en masse with explosives from the sky).
4. Charge (pylons, with a beam laser).
5. Retrieve (whatever it is I came for).

Factabulous · May 8, 2019

Morbad said:
I just started unlocking the Guardian stuff myself, mostly without any information I couldn't find on GalNet, and a lot of trial and error.

PDTs are not anywhere near mandatory; even if it's nice to have. If you are any good in the SRV you can dodge the overwhelming majority of the missiles while gunning down the sentinels, but this can be slow.

In the name of expediency, I wound up killing most of the sentinels and charging the pylons from my ship.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccAuykh-FrQ

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3g0pkuaU4c

My current modus operandi (subject to future refinement, of course), for Guardian sites is:

1. Spawn (sentinels and pylons from the SRV).
2. Consolidate (sentinels into as tight a group as practical).
3. Annhilate (them en masse with explosives from the sky).
4. Charge (pylons, with a beam laser).
5. Retrieve (whatever it is I came for).

Sounds slow. Has anyone done comparisons of times to complete a site via srv / ship? I would be surprised if the time to activate all the pylons, wake all the sentinels, return to the ship, kill and charge, farm the mats would be slower than just using the srv - but people keep suggesting it so I guess it can't be that slow.

Morbad · May 8, 2019

Factabulous said:
Sounds slow. Has anyone done comparisons of times to complete a site via srv / ship? I would be surprised if the time to activate all the pylons, wake all the sentinels, return to the ship, kill and charge, farm the mats would be slower than just using the srv - but people keep suggesting it so I guess it can't be that slow.

~2-3 minutes to land, do a circuit of the pylons to get them to rise, spawn the sentinels, and make it back to the ship. 30-40 seconds to take off and get the sentinels to group up. 30 more to kill them. About 30-40 seconds to charge six pylons with a beam laser.

You can mostly ignore the sentinels, if you don't want any of their materials, but the main bottleneck with the SRV only approach is the slow charge time of the pylons. It's almost instant with a large beam laser.

Factabulous · May 8, 2019

Morbad said:
You can mostly ignore the sentinels, if you don't want any of their materials, but the main bottleneck with the SRV only approach is the slow charge time of the pylons. It's almost instant with a large beam laser.

"Slow charge time"? Hmm, maybe 5 seconds from the srv? And I tend to want the mats (plus the ones from the spike things as they tend to drop tech components). Would be interested to see a full run, guess I need to rummage around YT. Thx!

Morbad · May 8, 2019

Factabulous said:
"Slow charge time"? Hmm, maybe 5 seconds from the srv?

It definitely seemed to be the slowest part of the process to me.

Factabulous said:
And I tend to want the mats (plus the ones from the spike things as they tend to drop tech components).

I usually have time to scoop all the materials from the sentinels and sticking around to harvest the others will take the same time no matter what method you use, unless you bring a really small ship that can reliably scoop them without having to use an SRV.

Factabulous said:
Would be interested to see a full run, guess I need to rummage around YT. Thx!

I'll record my next run, though as it will be only my fifth ever, I don't expect the process to be perfectly refined.

Northpin · May 8, 2019

I did it by the books, erm.. threads here on forums, using mostly a dolphin for anti-missile support and lots of srv runs.
Getting the blueprints is the fast part. The slow part is filling on the materials, more specifically tech components and patterns.

Factabulous · May 8, 2019

Northpin said:
I did it by the books, erm.. threads here on forums, using mostly a dolphin for anti-missile support and lots of srv runs.
Getting the blueprints is the fast part. The slow part is filling on the materials, more specifically tech components and patterns.

tech components seem to always drop from the same locations, so you can farm them once you spot them (usually after everything else is full and I'm ready to go).

Patterns I always find faster from the GR1 location - there's a nice spot between the G/T blocks where you can scan 4 obelisks while hardly moving, then relog for more data. https://ruins.canonn.tech/#GR1

Morbad · May 8, 2019

Yeah, I did realize the significance of heading to the spikes to get tech components, until I realized I needed them for most of the stuff I wanted and noticed I only had a tenth as many of them as anything else. They are my only unlock hurdle currently.

MrFailfactory · May 9, 2019

Thanks, everyone.

I know I don't need the Point Defense, but it's nice to have.

Looks like I need to choose a different horse to ride out there, though.

Riôt

Cmdr Nemo · May 9, 2019

Factabulous said:
You don't need point defence at all. Just makes it easier.

That's correct, CONSIDERABLY easier.

Cmdr Nemo · May 9, 2019

I made sure to locate all of the pylons first and mapped out a route. Got to close to one accidentally activated it and a couple of sentinels had to be dealt with. Having the point defense's and putting the brakes on made taking them out easy. Once I had all the pylon locations in my mind. I activated each one at a time and dealt with the sentinels each time. Again making sure the brake was on the pd took care of missles, and taken them out was easy peezy.

Once I had them all (6) activated. I started with the first ones by what everyone refers to as the alter. And charged them. Some took considerably longer to charge then other's. Having destroyed the sentinels prior made dealing with a couple of them later easy peeze.

There's a timer when you start charging them, thus one doesn't want to get involved with fighting sentinels too much during the charging process, hence my reason to activate them first, then charge them.

One more thing, put the brakes on prior to engaging in combat. Between the brakes being on and the PD's. If I was able to do it a dozen times for various blue prints, anyone can.

Speedcuffs · May 9, 2019

Attack Chimp said:
In my experience carpet bombing the entire area charges the pylons and kills all sentinels. I haven't visited the site after 3.3 dropped, so this may have changed.

What's this?
What weapons?
Sounds interesting.

DNYI · May 9, 2019

I used my Krait Phantom for the guardian module blueprints. Point defenses did just fine if they are side mounted. Bottom mounted ones not so much.

MrFailfactory · May 9, 2019

Attack Chimp said:
I was using a mix of fixed missles, with penetration/overload munitions.

Unfortunately I'm in Colonia so I can't offer to confirm until next week. During my next stay in The Bubble I'll definitely be there finishing a few last guardian thingies.

Just so I'm clear - are you saying that you used these missiles, plus spawn location knowledge, to kill them before they even surfaced? If so, does the wreckage end up on the surface after?

Riôt

Chaparral · May 9, 2019

I've done the unlock in a phantom, in a dbx, and in an asp.