Ship Builds & Load Outs Viper Mk IV Viper Mk IV Combat built - some advice needed :)

[Cmdr Black Jaguar]

hello fellow commanders! o7

i am pretty new in the game, 1-2 weeks now. after cobra mk3 and python, i just bought a viper mk4 to built it as my small combat ship (bounty/assasin) for PvE/solo, later also PvP. i liked the cobra mk3 so far for bounty hunting in high res zones, because its fast and agile, but i wanna use it more for delivery missions and material/data grinding.

i was reading and watching tutorials alot, so i kinda understand already how it all works. but i am no expert as of now and it would be nice to know if i have done it right or not and if you have any recommendations for me.

this is my viper mk4 built: "Rambo IV" https://s.orbis.zone/b5i1

with ~283T i am just below optimal shield mass of 285T, what seems to be very important. i have chosen 4D FSD for less weight, wanted to take 3D sensors too for that reason, but better to see enemies earlier...or you think i gain more advantage with with 3D sensors and less weight?

i am also not sure about my armour decisions (HRP/MRP) and my power management. with hardpoints i will have to play around to find whats working best for me. i also bought medium gimballed multi-cannons, but i wanna try the rocket launcher for now because rockets are fun ^^. the multi-cannons would be on the bottom side tho and for finishing off at close range while turning, thats not very optimal. in most cases the enemies pass me at my upper side when flying towards me. but then i still would have the lasers...

also some engineering tips/recommendations for later would be appreciated! i am not much into engeneering right now, i just unlocked felicity farseer and i will try increased boot sequence FSD in this built for dicey situations. jump range doesnt matter in this ship.
i think i will overcharge a smaller powerplant, which one would be best here? does it make my ship faster and more agile if i loose more weight, when i am already below optimal thruster mass?
also dirty drive tuning, shield modification and rocket or multi-cannon mod will be interesting. i defo wanna engineer the hell out of "Rambo IV"

what about guardian modules, like hybrid power plant and stuff?

i wanna make it as fast and agile as possible, but still strong armour, heavy shields and deadly weapons.

thx for every advice commanders!

o7

 

[Lowbee]

Stand by for a plethora of build comments!

There are far more qualified Cmdrs to talk about weapons, and it's really a personal style preference after a fashion, but if you're not planning to hang around near systems with stations you might consider a fuel scoop at some point just because. You might also consider a kill warrant scanner for bounties, etc.

It's worthwhile to play around in the Shipyard with seeing how different hardpoint layouts affect your offence metrics. Having big weapons (especially lasers) won't help much if your capacitors drain too quickly. Engineering lasers for long range will help defeat the 600m damage falloff as well. A mix of energy and ballistic weapons is good at this ship size.

Overcharged power plants have their place, as do dirty drag drives. You want maneuverability in normal space for sure!

As for guardian stuff, the FSD booster is a real boon, as are the reinforcement modules.

The biggest boosts to your success in combat will be getting really good at flying with Flight Assist off; if not all the time, at least knowing when to switch back and forth, and pip management during combat. Having the capacitor propping up shields, weapons, or engines at the right times will be invaluable.

Now I'll wait and see what the real combat experts here come up with.

Good hunting!

o7

 

[Viscera]

First thing. Consider the module protection on a Viper MkIV

It is quite prone to module damage wirhout it, as the shields are low and drop (They are strong for the size etc but only go so far as its not a big number).

I tend to look at a size 4 module protection, with an additional size 1 to raise its resistance. If you have the power capacity, guardian ones can be used.

Second thing: Shields. They are never going to be the highest out there, and some weapons will take them down fast. You are a small ship.

I prefer bi weaves on my Viper MkIV, and actually find I get better use out of size 3 rather than 4. The fast return time tends to give me a feeling of more shields in a long engagement rather than the normal ones.. I engineer for thermal resist grade 4 and fast charge. Add one grade E booster engineered for resistance, and thermal secondary. This gives me a reasonable base shield, with very high resistances, that returns fast.
Until you unlock the engineers though, a size 4 is probably your best bet, with a grade A booster. I would still consider a bi weave though, as it will recharge faster in res sites so giving less waiting around time..

Third thing: Weapons

Very down to tbe individual pilot, and how they fly. I like some fixed weapons on tbe medium slot, for big impact and damage. They dont tend to have huge times on target, so getting those snatch shots off that hit hard is very useful.

I have tried a lot of combinations over a year or so (i use the beam/seaker fit on my pirate Viper MkIV) and found a pair of cannons can be a very good fit in there. Not everyones choice for sure. Rails work well, as do Plasmas. But the size 3 distributor does not contain the most power out there so you have to be judicial in your firing regime with these high impact weapons.

Plasmas and Rails, with the plasma slug secondary are actually a very good fit on this ship, as it has a large fuel capacity.

The smalls tend to go for lasers to strip shields, and I will run gimbals, which allow me to keep constant pressure up whilst manouvring. I favour efficient, with some sort of annoyance modification, like scramble spectrum. A laser and a high capacity multi with corrosive can also be paired here... A useful combination.

Some insights that may help, take what you want from them, your own experiance will override them in the long term.

 

[Viscera]

For your build as it sits, i personally would make a few changes, without compromising it too much..

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Size 2 rack rather than a size 1 : if you need to synthesise limpits, they are made in quantities of4. Also black box etc recovery missions have 4 at most, giving you an addittional use for your ship...

Modules protection adjusted to a more mathmatical efficient set up..

Cannons on the mediums... High impact weapons... Personal choice... Try varients... Maybe a pair of frags is more you... You need low juice requirements as you using beams imo.

Get some armour on it. Essential. Military grade is a good start.

Shields... Consider bi weaves..

 

[Cmdr Black Jaguar]

...but if you're not planning to hang around near systems with stations you might consider a fuel scoop at some point just because. You might also consider a kill warrant scanner for bounties, etc.

fuel scoop i wont need on this one, not planning to go much around with it.

The biggest boosts to your success in combat will be getting really good at flying with Flight Assist off; if not all the time, at least knowing when to switch back and forth, and pip management during combat. Having the capacitor propping up shields, weapons, or engines at the right times will be invaluable.

yes i have noticed in videos that cmdrs are turning flight assist on and off and was wondering. i didnt know that assist is doing anything while you fly around. i have to check the keybinds to turn that off/on and guess i will leave it off in the fight. how does it help me switching back and forth?

pip management i already kinda know to use


@Viscera

that info defenetely helps! i will play around a little and try. for synthesis i have to get into, dont know yet how that works. the collector limpet i have atm for some black box missions where i was getting attacked by 4 high ranked pirates attacking me in my cobra without having any cargo...boosting away and trying again, it was the same story and i read that is a common issue since an update. not sure if i will keep the limpet here.

for the military armour: many cmdrs saying in small combat ships it is better to go with leight weight alloy and have better agility, rather than heavy armour. but i will try here too.

but why is the shield section in your coriolis purple and mine is blue, what does that tell me?

power management is ok?

there is a lot to learn and its very complex, but i like that

 

[Viscera]

Purple shields on coriolis as it is a bi weave. Blue is normal. I think imperial shields are another colour too.

When a shield of that type takes a hit in game, it flashes with that colour.

So you know an enemy has a bi weave if it flashes purple when you shoot it.

 

[Morbad]

I would not recommend undersizing and overcharging a power plant on a vessel that cannot easily front-load shielding. Your shields will go down early and often, but if your power plant is fragile, someone or something will cause a malfunction or destroy it, and those shields won't come back up again.

You'll also want a fairly large MRP. On any hybrid vessel.

I think imperial shields are another colour too.

Prismatics are green.

 

[Viscera]

Viper mkIV can get away with being a heavier build. Its agility is less effected by weight I feel. This ship is a tank, and responds well to the protection offered.
I have no issues with mine in combat, (and will add I do not fly fa off) but I have spent a lot of time learning how I can fly this ship.
If you can get on with fa off, do so, it is just another weapon in your locker.
The best pilots will use both methods.
My combat build features lightweight military armour with layered plating, but tbh, it does not make any huge differences to the flight.

 

[Cmdr Black Jaguar]

good intel so far! HRP/MRP i have changed and now on the way to get my bi-weave shields

FA i need to test, but what is the difference in theory? i mean i understand its handy when approaching the mail-slots, but in theory i do not need that crap while flying and fighting, especially when i dont know what it does

btw: a bummer that the liveries on this ship are trash. will get either way "ice" or "graphit"

 

[Viscera]

Madrax is your man for fa off and viper mk4.

I expect he will be on soon and can explain it so much better.

I find the squadron black is my top paint for this ship. Graphite or any of the other plain military/tactical can also look pretty good.

 

[Vedmo]

Lots of great advice in here I won't repeat, OP, but so far as Guardian modules, the only one I use on any of my Viper4 builds is the shield reinforcement package.

They can lead to something like this. Even with all the power draw on that build an armored PP did the job, no need for OC.

Here is another fully engineered build I use that shows how crazy hull values can get on them.

The only PvP I do is running, so I won't address that, but for PvE it is my favorite combat ship for pure fun factor and is fully capable of just about anything.

If you can fly it well enough for combat, you can land it on your own too! Ditch that auto docker when you are comfortable, every module slot is a boon for defenses.

 

[metatheurgist]

Optimal shield mass matters to Hull mass. That's fixed and never changes, it's not your ship mass btw.

 

[Madrax573]

good intel so far! HRP/MRP i have changed and now on the way to get my bi-weave shields

FA i need to test, but what is the difference in theory? i mean i understand its handy when approaching the mail-slots, but in theory i do not need that crap while flying and fighting, especially when i dont know what it does

btw: a bummer that the liveries on this ship are trash. will get either way "ice" or "graphit"

Morning mate.

Good choice of ship the V4. It's got a silly small profile for such an armoured beast!

As above it does really well as a hybrid tanked ship. BiWeaves and armour. It can get silly hull numbers for it's size and the thruster on it are some of the best.

For your FA-off question though I will simply say the V4 is one of the BEST ships to fly FA-off. For a few simple reasons.
1. Boost profile is one of the best. The duration just works so you can do all sorts of stuff FA-off.
2. Boost multiplier is one of the best. This gives you nigh on instant acceleration, in any vector!
3. The lateral, vertical and reverse thrust is brilliant in this ship and having your lat/vert/rev top speed limited by FA-on really does this ship a disservice IMO.
I would say that FA-off and with good boost knowledge this ship is probably the most agile ship in the game. The only other ones that get close are Hoon fit V3's and standard eagles. And if space is limited then it can outfly even those... It is a ship that really rewards pilot skill I find.

 

[Tifu]

I recommend an armoured power plant which increases it's toughness while adding a (small) boost to power generation.

 

[Cmdr Black Jaguar]

so after playing a while and testing, i run this built now https://s.orbis.zone/b74i

- the military composit i will test now, before i used the reinforced for the better weight and i guess better agility(?).

- the collector limpet i have thrown out, because when i am focused on fighting i dont care about material collecting.

- also the docking computer i have thrown in the bin, after trying a little i am fine now with landing myself and it works pretty good (unless i hit the boost button by accident inside the station, as it happened just before lol ^^)

- kill warrant scanner is a damn good thing for higher bounty rewards

- hardpoints i tent to switch around depending on the purpose or my mood. the beam laser is really good, but it doesnt make "pew pew" and i like pew pew
i tried the plasma accelerators, but as they only come fixed and i have a hard time hitting with them while maneuvering, its not for me. i switch between seeker missle rack and gimballed multi-cannons. i know seeker and gimballed have their downsides, but works better for me

- fuel tank i dropped to 2C because its enough for a combat and gives me less weight

- for FA: i tried it and it totally confused me first. what i dont understand is why the engine sound disappears when FA is turned off, that makes no sense at all. first i thought engines are off, but they are still on. whats the purpose of that, is that a bug? i tried a bit in the fight but i still cant manage it too well so far, so i just use that in a few situations and see if i get better. the right keybinds here are important! (i play on xbox with controller)

- i was looking into powerplay weapons and i think i wanna get packhound missles and enforced multi-cannons. i just dont wanna get molested by pirates all the time when flying thru other powerplay systems, so i will see how that goes

i also wanna mention that it is not always the best choice to simply have everything A-rated when you build a purpose orientated ship. every module size and quality has its pros and cons (weight, power, capacity, range etc), depending on what you are focused on

- i have chosen the "tactical-ice" paintjob, it just looks awesome

OFF TOPIC: maximum 400 free ARX per week and way too high prices to buy them, as what you get for it, is just another downer in this game. the amount of arx you have to pay for absolute crappy paintjobs and name/id fonts that every 10 year old can make, is just a big rip-off imo. if they would make really nice ones and a bigger variety of them for a less amount of arx it would be fair and i would spend a few bucks on it. but like this you have to wait forever to pimp up your space ride and thats pretty sad. why not just buying cosmetics with ingame credits and charge a few bucks more on the game itself?

Optimal shield mass matters to Hull mass. That's fixed and never changes, it's not your ship mass btw.

now confused again, because i understood from reading in other threads that its about the total ship mass. the hull mass relating to optimal shield strength makes sense tho, because why would it effect the shield strength if the ship is simply more heavy? it would make more sense tho if it is about the size of the ship...

 

[Madrax573]

so after playing a while and testing, i run this built now https://s.orbis.zone/b74i

- the military composit i will test now, before i used the reinforced for the better weight and i guess better agility(?).

- the collector limpet i have thrown out, because when i am focused on fighting i dont care about material collecting.

- also the docking computer i have thrown in the bin, after trying a little i am fine now with landing myself and it works pretty good (unless i hit the boost button by accident inside the station, as it happened just before lol ^^)

- kill warrant scanner is a damn good thing for higher bounty rewards

- hardpoints i tent to switch around depending on the purpose or my mood. the beam laser is really good, but it doesnt make "pew pew" and i like pew pew
i tried the plasma accelerators, but as they only come fixed and i have a hard time hitting with them while maneuvering, its not for me. i switch between seeker missle rack and gimballed multi-cannons. i know seeker and gimballed have their downsides, but works better for me

- fuel tank i dropped to 2C because its enough for a combat and gives me less weight

- for FA: i tried it and it totally confused me first. what i dont understand is why the engine sound disappears when FA is turned off, that makes no sense at all. first i thought engines are off, but they are still on. whats the purpose of that, is that a bug? i tried a bit in the fight but i still cant manage it too well so far, so i just use that in a few situations and see if i get better. the right keybinds here are important! (i play on xbox with controller)

- i was looking into powerplay weapons and i think i wanna get packhound missles and enforced multi-cannons. i just dont wanna get molested by pirates all the time when flying thru other powerplay systems, so i will see how that goes

i also wanna mention that it is not always the best choice to simply have everything A-rated when you build a purpose orientated ship. every module size and quality has its pros and cons, depending on what you are focused on (weight, power, capacity, range etc)

- i have chosen the "tactical-ice" paintjob, it just looks awesome

OFF TOPIC: maximum 400 free ARX per week and way too high prices to buy them, as what you get for it, is just another downer in this game. the amount of arx you have to pay for absolute crappy paintjobs and name/id fonts that every 10 year old can make, is just a big rip-off imo. if they would make really nice ones and a bigger variety of them for a less amount of arx it would be fair and i would spend a few bucks on it. but like this you have to wait forever to pimp up your space ride and thats pretty sad. why not just buying cosmetics with ingame credits and charge a few bucks more on the game itself?



now confused again, because i understood from reading in other threads that its about the total ship mass. the hull mass relating to optimal shield strength makes sense tho, because why would it effect the shield strength if the ship is simply more heavy? it would make more sense tho if it is about the size of the ship...

My preference for armour is Reactive with Heavy duty/Deep plate for it to get maximum raw HP. Then add in a class 1 HRP engineered with Thermal/deep plate to balance out the resistances. You won't get a better balanced raw HP, good resists etc. Don't worry about the mass as the V4 is very forgiving for that - meaning it doesn't affect agility/speed as much as it would on a lighter smaller craft.

FA-off you won't get 'engine noise' as it's actually thruster noise and unless you are actively thrusting (which is constant with FA-on, hence the constant noise, and heat generation) You'll only hear noise when you are thrusting. One other 'bonus' of going FA-off is that you generate much less heat in general as you only generate heat whilst actively thrusting...

 

[Cmdr Black Jaguar]

My preference for armour is Reactive with Heavy duty/Deep plate for it to get maximum raw HP. Then add in a class 1 HRP engineered with Thermal/deep plate to balance out the resistances. You won't get a better balanced raw HP, good resists etc. Don't worry about the mass as the V4 is very forgiving for that - meaning it doesn't affect agility/speed as much as it would on a lighter smaller craft.

noted, thx!

FA-off you won't get 'engine noise' as it's actually thruster noise and unless you are actively thrusting (which is constant with FA-on, hence the constant noise, and heat generation) You'll only hear noise when you are thrusting. One other 'bonus' of going FA-off is that you generate much less heat in general as you only generate heat whilst actively thrusting...

yes noticed that. makes sense tho as there is no atmosphere in space and you dont need to thrust all the time. that being said, with FA we are wasting a lot of fuel i guess

but for gameplay it would be better imo that it still does that as i have set my controls like that. i am limited with the xbox controller and i thrust with RB+LB in 25% steps. with FA-off i would like to do that too. so this screws my controller settings, or i didnt find out yet how to change that...? its a bit confusing how that works and how to adjust it to my preferences. will need to have a look again in the controller setup

 

[metatheurgist]

now confused again, because i understood from reading in other threads that its about the total ship mass. the hull mass relating to optimal shield strength makes sense tho, because why would it effect the shield strength if the ship is simply more heavy? it would make more sense tho if it is about the size of the ship...

Total ship mass matters for thrusters and FSD; they could've been referring to that.

 

[Madrax573]

noted, thx!
yes noticed that. makes sense tho as there is no atmosphere in space and you dont need to thrust all the time. that being said, with FA we are wasting a lot of fuel i guess

but for gameplay it would be better imo that it still does that as i have set my controls like that. i am limited with the xbox controller and i thrust with RB+LB in 25% steps. with FA-off i would like to do that too. so this screws my controller settings, or i didnt find out yet how to change that...? its a bit confusing how that works and how to adjust it to my preferences. will need to have a look again in the controller setup

You can easily get good enough with controllers for FA-off flight. You probably will need to remap some of the control inputs etc but TBH if you go down the FA-off route more you'll probably do that anyways to find which setup suits you better.

 

[Cmdr Black Jaguar]

You can easily get good enough with controllers for FA-off flight. You probably will need to remap some of the control inputs etc but TBH if you go down the FA-off route more you'll probably do that anyways to find which setup suits you better.

yeah will try it out for sure