SLFs is probably a feature I love the most about the game despite the grievances I've had with Frontier. Having a crew to manage and help you is so cool, I just hope it is expanded on. At least show your npcs in the muti-crew seats.
yeah... they should allow you to deploy two npcs and have one for the turrets so that even people that play alone could feel like they are indeed a comander and not someone flying a big ship all by hinself. There is so mutch they could improve in the multicrew department that makes me sad TBH.
I'd love for it to be a ship type thing to have many SLF They were planning something that would've allowed for a mini fleet with the support carriers, but sadly they scrapped it
@@calimany4867 Fly the fighter, have another NPC fly the other and have ur ship turreted so it can shoot on its own. Best solution if you want the feeling of having a crew. Clearly not a meta idea.
Im a noob but it would be great if the expanded on it and punished you a little less. An elite crewmember you've ranked up costing you 10% active or inactive is... why? Why are you punishing me forn using crew? Ide be okay if it was say 6% active and 3% inactive. That would feel less like being punished and thinking crew isnt worth it to more of a well that is the downside of using crew. But worth it if you want to use one. Especially if they expanded in it. Again I'm a noob but I am starting to understand the saying that elite is wide as a ocean and as deep as a puddle.
Personally i took the time to test all but the Guardian fighters. When used by an elite npc id say hands down it would be the GU-97 fixed beam as for best option due to its sheer amount of damage. even with high capacitor drain the npc has great pip management and piloting. Its able to constantly stay on target and always keep damage on the target consistently, due to its size and manuvering it is also an extremely hard target to hit. The plasma repeaters after testing i noticed that the dps in paper is way off. Blasting a small ship at close range in a high intensity conflict zone literally was doing nothing after many clips in all the ships. If i had to rate id say GU-97 fixed beam for pure dps and great manuverability followed by condor with fixed multicannons. Npc will hit most of the shots in the condor and if shot at by other ships then chaff will be used so he can stay longer in the fight especially against spec ops. Only downside is manuverability, weapon travel time as well damage to shield potential vs a energy based weapon. Also please be aware that at least on xbox side. The gu-97 heatsinks are disabled so the npc doesnt use them. Taipan just struggles way too much in tracking target. Additional armor and shields is not worth it when the amount is still so low that a few well placed hits would still destroy it. Pulse variants have higher drain for some reason than fixed beam and do way less damage than what paper says. I dont know by how much but its definetly noticible. One last thing. If using the gu-97, make sure to have at least one multicannon with corrosive effect on your ship. The damage potential as well as the piercing value are increased, making the gu-97 fixed variant way deadlier than it already is. Look forward to testing guarding fighters, I have not yet unlocked them so I dont have a way to compare them myself to what i stated above. Thanks again Down to Earth Astronomy for another great video.
Dunno if it'll apply to the heatsinks since I run Condors with multi and chaff, but if you deploy, switch to fighter, and manually enable chaff and re-bind them to a firegroup your pilot will use them again. I think after the update that gave fighters scanners it broke the firegroups for crew members.
Completely agree with you on the GU-97 w/ Fixed beam. My crew member is not even Elite yet, but they still seem very consistent in keeping fire on target. On top of this, I found the fact that their beam weapon instantly hits a target very useful for quickly tagging near death targets in Conflict zones. It has enabled me to nab some more credits before targets would otherwise have died.
I have to agree with the others here. An elite NPC in the fixed beam GU-97 does the most consistent damage IMO. I don't really fly the SLF with my commander, so I can't really comment on what's best in that situation.
@@PetesCreativeRecycling thx for the info was playing with gimballed pulse trying to rank my npc up but just got her in the GU-97 Fixed Beam and she's ranking up faster and melting shields faster thx for your comment
At the risk of thread necromancy I'd like to add that the Plasma Repeaters have a AP value of 110, meaning they are just as effective against big ships as small ones. In addition they do 50% Thermal & 50% Kinetic, making their damage relevant against all targets. For my part I like the Taipan Hull with the Plasma Repeater/Chaff Launcher. Hits hard, can take a hit, chaff vs turrets/gimbals, and doesn't turn into a spinning top if you bump into something. (In fact - Ramming with all pips to Shields is an option!)
I've tried all of the SLFs at one time or another, but have settled on the Lance as my favourite. It entertains me by the way it folds up as it enters the fighter bay, ,but the main thing is the DPS; I have an elite NPC or human pilots flying my fighters, and use them to catch runners from my *Little Red* Corvette. Often for Dangerous wings I deal with the anacondas and I can let my NPC deal with the accompanying small ships. And when I'm visiting new sites (e.g. the Thargoid Structures) I like to tell my NPC to hold position in the Corvette while I take a Lance for a spin.
The Lance is hands down my personal favourite SL fighter. Great amount of damage with instant contact. Put an Elite class NPC in one and they can single handedly exert Interceptors/ even finish them off for you. Great distractions against NPC ships to really speed up that TTK.
The difference in the Aegis variant flight stats all comes down to that point defense turret. It's lighter than the other options which has a noticeable effect on speed & maneuverability on ships this small. Also they don't actually deal extra damage over another variant with the same weapon. Those stats are counting the on-paper DPS of the turret, which doesn't actually fire at enemy ships.
The other function of the fighter is as a distraction while your main ship deals out the damage so to make it last as long as possible I go for the Taipan. I also find that taking shields down takes longer than finishing off the hull so I go for energy weapons. My fighter pilot is deadly and has a pretty good aim so I swap between fixed beam and plasma repeaters but I find the beam options seems to work best most of the time.
hm sounds useful when your ship is generally big and slow and you face some small nimble opponent that otherwise could dance around you, trying to stay in blind zones. Forcing him to take damage and/or fire upon SLF might be just what you need to rotare and hit him
Just come back to Elite after a long long break. With the Guardian fighters they've definitely been watching reruns of 'Space Above and Beyond' and 'The Chigs'.
Just unlocked the Trident, was not disappointed. I think it all comes down to your play-style for which is best for you. I tend to like both the Taipan, and Condor. Fixed plasma repeaters, and gimballed beams would be my top two weapon choices. That imperial fighter really is pretty.
14:30. In my experience with an Elite pilot, the NPC does not get in close enough to unload a full barrage of a shotgun variant... so while the shard launcher does significant damage, the NPC will be losing out on potential because it'll be firing as soon as it has charge, capacity, and is facing the target. So that being said, the shard launcher honestly looks to be best utilized for the player to use. So my subjectivities: I personally don't use fighters often, or at all. So that being said, I always give it to my Elite NPC. And so for my experiences: Plasma repeater was decent although my Elite pilot still missed shots... however, I experimented with the Fixed beams and... oh boy, did my pilot do wonders. Sure there is high damage and high draw, but the NPC's always seemed to deal significant damage, and constantly hit the target regardless of range. For a while, I let my pilot fly the Lance, and it did well. However, I still stuck with the fixed beams for raw damage and the lack for a need to rearm the fighter... too many times I'd be in a middle of a fight, then suddenly my fighter just stops shooting. Though perhaps, I need to experiment with the Plasma Charger, seeing how it does absolute damage? I figure that fighter may be deadlier in a way than my Corvette with four engineered multi-cannons and two engineered beam lasers with thermal vent (I know the build sounds wonky, but I use em primarily for the shield cell banks I have).
For me the Guradian fighters Lance and Trident (Gauss and Plama) i allways let my pilot fly them. On elite rank she hits evry shot with gauss and most shots with plasma. The damage is fairly good BUT for big ships i let my pilot use the lance and snipe the powerplant or Fsd (if i dont want my target to flee)which works very well
I’ve always used the aegis condor with the plasma repeater because I noticed early on when fighters launched that NPCs *don’t ever miss.* I felt the plasma repeater did a good balance of shield and hull damage and I didn’t care that it was a fixed weapon as I never pilot my fighters.
Mostly used the Plasma Repeater version, letting my NPC flying it on a GU-97. The NPC is quite good in avoiding getting hit with it and the aim is also nice, as most high ranking NPCs.
I find the GU-97 Fixed-Beam variant EXTREMELY rewarding to fly as a player, and it works well with NPC pilots. IMO its the best choice if you want to fit mostly multi-cannons on your main ship for general purpose pve combat... I highly recommend newer CMDRs try this model for flight training. Its an excellent way to work a little fixed weapons, FA-off, or power-management practice into the standard combat grind.
Thanks Astro. Your previous spreadsheet video got me interested in my own testing. Interestingly, my pick for NPC crew was the Plasma GU97. Nothing was able to hit her while she slowly pecked away at their shields. Going to try the Condor variant tonight. o7
I played the game when I picked it up for a while and only returned recently, when I heard that you could launch smaller ship from a larger ship I was ecstatic. Still haven't recovered for the disappointment of not being able to launch a Courier or Eagle from my Cutter.
been running the condor with fixed multi's and the gu97 with fixed beams for a while now with a size 6 or 7 fighter hanger in some of my larger ship builds I carry both and found them to be effective enough for me..
i love the Gu-97 with fixed Beam Laser, it does a lot of damage, is so maneuverable that you should basically never take fire, and you can do damage almost always as long as you dont miss to much time on target
I am flying a Krait mk2 with 2 beam lasers and 3 multi-canons. I had a Condor (I like how the combo Krait + Condor looks) with fixed beam lasers, but now I will test the plasma repeaters. Thanks.
@@ratstar4102 well almost everyone in the game who played with me, disagreed 🤣 It preformed well. Best ship I've owned. Switch to all purpose conda (mining exploring trading gathering mats and flying around)+FDL for combat and chieftain for xeno. I miss my kreit.
I like the fixed beams for my npc crew member, select my target, send him in first to strip shields and distract target so I can put 4 pips to wep in the type 10 and pewpewkablamboomyshabang.
I fly a Cutter with class 6 fighter bay for AI. GelidF is the way to go. its fast and maneuverable and has the best damage of the stock fighters. the maneuverability is what keeps it alive. I have watched as the AI solo'd Lete anaconda but that is dependent on what the Conda has for weapons. A couple of turreted beams can make things much more difficult for the fighter. the class 6 bay ensures that if you lose the fighter you can redeploy so you have nearly 100% up time on the fighter, its also good with multicrew to have 2 fighters active at the same time. i leveled the ai using the tougher fighters, they could not stay alive in the Gelid until they were leveled. I tried projectile variants but 2 problems immerged(with AI), 1. the fighter would not be able to take out shields without help on some targets. 2. If you watch the fighter engage you will notice that every time it shoots 50% of the weapons fire misses, that means the damage listed is halved. this is why it has trouble with some shields because the damage is sneakily nerfed...No...No...Bad Frontier. Back to the beams though the fixed beams wont lose damage from chaff, if you use the gimballed versions chaff will halt your damage. I wanted to use gimballed with AI for 100 hit rate but its soul crushing the moment chaff happens. My Cutter has 7A long range sensors, 13km range. in a Res high you can just scan while your fighter kills everything and that will earn you between 18-25 million/Hour depending on spawns and using the fighter to assist the police as much as possible. you could do this until your fuel runs out because you don't need to fire a single shot from your ship. Edit: the typical combat rotation in high looks like this. scan some ships, fighter attacks, 2 or 3 ships explode, order fighter to new targets usually away from the wrecks. move to wrecks, limpets collect while you keep scanning. rinse repeat. in a haz res you need to engage with the fighter they cant kill everything and always watch for enemy fighters and kill them first and fast, they will kill your fighter if you ignore them.
After playing with the lance for a bit, it can be really really strong, but you have to keep the fighter in aggressive mode or be very carful on who you send him after. An elite pilot lance can tango with most small ships, save for vultures, and some of the vipers out there, but things like ieagles, eagles, side winders ect ect, you can sick them on, and they will most of the time take them out themselves. They are great for an extra set of damage on a target and once you get shields down, you will see them just start chunking health, down side is, glass canon.
I hope multi crew will be updated for the upcoming dlc. I wanna bring my wife with me in my ship, so that she can fly my SLF but also join on space legs adventures on planets.
You can already do that. Your wife must have her own account, but she can join you in a private group. I’ve done it with two friends flying the SLFs from my Cutter.
@@CharlesDSmith-mv7zi thank you my friend, but I should have made my post more clear. I mean yes she can do that now ofc, but I wonder if multi crew will work with space legs. So that she can fly shotgun on my ship but also set foot on planets when the dlc arrives. I hope my question made more sense now, sorry I’m not English 😅
My preferences are the MC Condor and Trident. The latter mainly for aesthetics. The multicannon noticeably chips away the hull of any target once the shields are out. Lance is also nice, but running out of ammo factor is annoying on res sites and such. The NPC pilots won't say anything about that. They just stop shooting. When piloting one myself, I also like the Gu-97 quite a bit. The tanky Taipan, I feel defeats the purpose. It's also possible to have your drives blown out by a missile, leaving you drifting helplessly, unable to self destruct.
Despite all the advice. I put fighters on my ax builds. When your ai help is elite... The fighters become very useful. Ax play, builds combat xp fast. Use the shard launcher one, and have it deal swarms only.
@@Kevin-bn9ij one you have at least one of every ship fully engineered and multiple of the large class ships the same way... You don't care about credits anymore. My credit pool is just to cover rebuy now. They don't take your xp... And if you start with the lowest rated pilots, they take much less credits when trained. .... When I'm mining... Nothing beats an elite ai, that can solo kill pirates for me. I'm using a type 10 that's more than defendable... But I have to stop mining to do it.
@@emilyhofland8219 They do take your xp, they take 50% of combat. The only time I use fighters for AX is when I'm in multicrew for fun against interceptors. If im killing scouts, or soloing an interceptor I don't use it, because of the XP it takes.
FDev support states- "Crew behave the same as wing members. If you have a crew member helping you take out other ships, you share the combat rank progression equally (assuming everyone in the fight is the same combat rank). For example, if you have one crew member active and participating in a kill, you'd receive 50% of the progression you'd have gotten without that crew member active. If you have a crew member and one wing member assisting you, you'll each get a third of the progression one of you would have gotten by doing the same thing solo."
i love the trident and lance my crew member is elite and hits every shot of the trident+ the negative heat debuff it puts ont the enemy target. flying the trident self is pretty hard and not 4 everyone but i like it. dont like the standart fighters with lasers cause my conda rips any shilds away so quick so mainly the fighters are there to dmg the armor
Taipan is best with gimbal for training rookie pilots to have them elite & only 10% profit share.(*pirate bounty hunting in Qi Yomisii "Resource Extraction", missions @ Tesla & Hoshide terminals) Once they get to elite rank though you might want to switch up to fixed weapons so you will want a much more maneuverable ship so opponent is in the crosshairs, not your pilot.. and TY for pointing out that multi cannon don't run out of ammo, only ax multi run out... I assumed it ran out of ammo..
Taipan has the strongest directional thrusters of all ship-launched fighters and dissipates heat the best. This makes it the perfect choice for cold-orbiting larger targets and dumping damage onto them. A lone beam or plasma Taipan can easily tear apart a cutter in the hazres in less than 90 seconds.
Gimballed pulse lasers are not great for damage, but they make it extremely easy for a low-rank NPC to "tag" an enemy before it dies, which means they'll have faster rank progression when you first hire them. Think of it as a training tool.
If you're in a fighter, it's almost impossible to dodge gimballed or turreted weapons. When the enemy ship turns to target you:max engine 2 sys boost, fa off once you're past the ship to ensure it's still targeting you and play keep away till he targets your main ship again. Then go back on the offensive. 75% of the time they ignore you till you've pestered them enough. Slf vs slf use gimballed beam condor. Its unrivaled
Need to try out the fixed multicannon more. Found myself caught up with fixed beams plus heat sinks. It's fun... For a few seconds... Then yeah, I'm stuck plinking away with no energy left in weapons. Gauss guardian is a favorite though, hit the nail on the head with that one.
The guardian fighters finaly a good guardian weapons, which worth unlocking. They are good, the Lance is the best (with Elite pilot it nevers miss and pack a punch), looks cool, and fun to unlock.
Could folks confirm for me that a NPC on your ship causes the following: 1) inactive reduces your combat xp for ranking up to elite by 50% 2) active in fighter or with you in fighter reduces your combat xp for ranking up to elite by 50% 3) not even on your ship reduces your combat xp for ranking up to elite by 50%? Thanks in advance. GL and HF all.
If your NPC is “active” crew, you get the combat points hit if your crew or you are in a fighter because your crew is piloting your ship while you’re in the fighter. If neither your crew or you are in a fighter, you don’t get the combat xp hit. If you have two friends in a private group flying your fighters, and you’re piloting your ship, you each get 1/3 of the combat xp. The same goes for bounty money or combat bonds. Your NPC will always get it’s percentage of your profits regardless of whether or not it is active crew.
@@CharlesDSmith-mv7zi Thanks for the reply. I'm happy to pay the credits to an active or inactive crew, credits are cheap and their percentage is low but the 50% hit to my xp is beyond what I find is acceptable to me. Seems best for me to reach Elite combat (about 2 years off at the rate I play) and then get a crew.
Great video! I really like how you spell out the pros and cons of each. I've read in a variety of places that the XG9 Lance was best overall for an NPC crew pilot. But when i was flying it i though the GU97 seemed better overall. I know you presented the stats, between those two, which would you pick to supplement a CMDR that's mostly harmless in combat. Asking for a friend.
i am quite fond of the GU-97 with Plasma Repeater and Chaff. Also using a fighter that does not have Chaff is a bit of a gamble. If you encounter something with turrets you are doomed, basically.
Everyone always disses the gambled weapons, but bumbled beam is reliable! I find that a player using fixed weapons is very unreliable, and end up doing less damage overall. Gimbaled pulse is way too weak though, wayyy too weak!
I love the multi cannon condor, I fly it all the time with my NPC crew in the cutter or corvette. I struggle to make a loadout on coriolis for a small ship that has a better, usable dps value than the condor. Excluding the vulture (I just don't care for that ship). But I do find it troubling that the small ship-launched fighter has more dps than most small combat ships with similar weapon loadouts. I feel elite dangerous has a small ship problem in that regard.
@@lucasZr113 I sure hope so... a Fully Engineered Sidewinder is a force to be reckoned with! Advanced Thrusters, Enforcers, ... don't even need shields as nothing can hit you!
@@PetesCreativeRecycling I hadn't even thought about the sidey lol, but that's true as well, I had a 2 pa 2 rail viper can dish some strong punishment as well
@@lucasZr113 More or less, un-engineered and gimballed. I find the fixed weapons on fighters easy but fixed on the actual ships more of a challenge. I have struggled to create laser & multicannon builds of the viper and imp eagle, for example, that feel more powerful than a ship-launched fighter in pve.
@@washedup_adventurer well to improve your time with the fixed weapons I could recommend some engine engineering that on it's own shouldn't give you too much trouble power wise and allow you to avoid get in too deep in the engineer grind. Also consider the weapons you're pairing together if you want lasers and mc's make one of them gimballed as their "projectile speeds" have a big gap between them, something like plasmas and mc's might work better if you want full fixed. For last if you wish I could try to create some builds for you. Anyway I hope I helped
Iv found also the 3 guardian slf are completely useless against interceptors. The ax taipan is hands down the best. I think I’ll use it with the plasma repeaters rather then the GU the condor multi is always my first choice for bounty hunting. In my opinion the guardian slf are terrible in general. They should have strong armor weak shields an the ammo is a huge issue. If you have not got them don’t waste your time. I have all 3 after testing I found they just look cool an just something to have or collect not use an that pisses me off but what can you do
I have some strange issues with my npc controlled fighters. They will only fly around me in a circle unless I specifically order them to attack a target. It doesn't matter if I order them to defend or fire at will. They absolutely won't do anything other than orbit my ship unless ordered to attack. I have a ongoing support ticket with frontier about it. I can change ships, fighters, pilots and nothing changes the odd behavior. Frontier finds it interesting as well. Undoubtedly They haven't encountered this problem before from what I gather.
With a fixed beam Gu-97 an elite NPC will out fly your target and never miss. Because of this an elite NPC in a SLF is more effective in combat than a human. However, human strategic and tactical skills are far better than any NPC, so it makes more sense for them to stay in the mothership.
I actually use the fixed beam taipan, but set my fire groups to have one beam primary fire, one beam secondary. It's not perfect, but it allows me to always be applying damage instead of the times the input-reading AI decides to not give me a shot and boost ou of the way (which leaves me then waiting for my engines to recharge for boost).
I tried using the plasma repeater with AI pilots and they miss more shots than they hit it seems like. Hitscan is definitely the way to go. Fixed beams or the gauss cannon.
I had absolutely no clue about the heatsink mechanic, that's nuts, I've just been informed by my squadron that it also applies to ships although not as much - what is this witchcraft
i think they changed the npc's accuracy since my npc tends to miss the first 2-3 shots on target with the rail gun guardian and fixed multis he over shoots and misses the first salvo.
A question I've had for some time is how much Armor Piercing does these weapons have? This is especially relevant for the plasma repeater, as we know it doesn't work like the plasma accelerator at all, I'm not sure if it has high AP or low AP. The game doesn't provide these stats and I can't find them on the wiki either.
@@aeringothyk5445 I only play pve, but the javelin is outstanding. The pilot knows to get in close and pepper the enemy with shards. I’ve held back and watched the bad guys hull percentage drop with every fighter shot. My fighter pilot is ranked elite - not sure if that effects their tactics. Of all the fighters I’ve tried, it’s definitely the best.
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SLFs is probably a feature I love the most about the game despite the grievances I've had with Frontier. Having a crew to manage and help you is so cool, I just hope it is expanded on. At least show your npcs in the muti-crew seats.
yeah... they should allow you to deploy two npcs and have one for the turrets so that even people that play alone could feel like they are indeed a comander and not someone flying a big ship all by hinself.
There is so mutch they could improve in the multicrew department that makes me sad TBH.
I'd love for it to be a ship type thing to have many SLF
They were planning something that would've allowed for a mini fleet with the support carriers, but sadly they scrapped it
@@calimany4867 Fly the fighter, have another NPC fly the other and have ur ship turreted so it can shoot on its own. Best solution if you want the feeling of having a crew. Clearly not a meta idea.
Im a noob but it would be great if the expanded on it and punished you a little less. An elite crewmember you've ranked up costing you 10% active or inactive is... why? Why are you punishing me forn using crew? Ide be okay if it was say 6% active and 3% inactive. That would feel less like being punished and thinking crew isnt worth it to more of a well that is the downside of using crew. But worth it if you want to use one. Especially if they expanded in it. Again I'm a noob but I am starting to understand the saying that elite is wide as a ocean and as deep as a puddle.
@@SRNFyou can do that? Guess I need to hire another pilot 😅
Personally i took the time to test all but the Guardian fighters. When used by an elite npc id say hands down it would be the GU-97 fixed beam as for best option due to its sheer amount of damage. even with high capacitor drain the npc has great pip management and piloting. Its able to constantly stay on target and always keep damage on the target consistently, due to its size and manuvering it is also an extremely hard target to hit. The plasma repeaters after testing i noticed that the dps in paper is way off. Blasting a small ship at close range in a high intensity conflict zone literally was doing nothing after many clips in all the ships. If i had to rate id say GU-97 fixed beam for pure dps and great manuverability followed by condor with fixed multicannons. Npc will hit most of the shots in the condor and if shot at by other ships then chaff will be used so he can stay longer in the fight especially against spec ops. Only downside is manuverability, weapon travel time as well damage to shield potential vs a energy based weapon. Also please be aware that at least on xbox side. The gu-97 heatsinks are disabled so the npc doesnt use them. Taipan just struggles way too much in tracking target. Additional armor and shields is not worth it when the amount is still so low that a few well placed hits would still destroy it. Pulse variants have higher drain for some reason than fixed beam and do way less damage than what paper says. I dont know by how much but its definetly noticible.
One last thing. If using the gu-97, make sure to have at least one multicannon with corrosive effect on your ship. The damage potential as well as the piercing value are increased, making the gu-97 fixed variant way deadlier than it already is.
Look forward to testing guarding fighters, I have not yet unlocked them so I dont have a way to compare them myself to what i stated above. Thanks again Down to Earth Astronomy for another great video.
Long comment, but worth the read. Basically the same thing I would have said. GU-97 Fixed Beam w/NPC is dynamite, even with a crappy NPC.
Dunno if it'll apply to the heatsinks since I run Condors with multi and chaff, but if you deploy, switch to fighter, and manually enable chaff and re-bind them to a firegroup your pilot will use them again. I think after the update that gave fighters scanners it broke the firegroups for crew members.
Completely agree with you on the GU-97 w/ Fixed beam. My crew member is not even Elite yet, but they still seem very consistent in keeping fire on target. On top of this, I found the fact that their beam weapon instantly hits a target very useful for quickly tagging near death targets in Conflict zones. It has enabled me to nab some more credits before targets would otherwise have died.
I have to agree with the others here. An elite NPC in the fixed beam GU-97 does the most consistent damage IMO. I don't really fly the SLF with my commander, so I can't really comment on what's best in that situation.
@@PetesCreativeRecycling thx for the info was playing with gimballed pulse trying to rank my npc up but just got her in the GU-97 Fixed Beam and she's ranking up faster and melting shields faster
thx for your comment
I use a condor with multis because deploying anything else from a federal corvette should be illegal.
Fixed multi-cannon with unlimited ammo pool. what more could you ask?
Maximum dakka
don't mind me just gana add a imperial fighter to my vet
elite crew with fixed beams do the most damage
and if you have a player in one of them they can take down shields SO fast, they can even kill an Imp Courier with one beam if all pips are in weapons
Perfect one line summary for the video.
At the risk of thread necromancy I'd like to add that the Plasma Repeaters have a AP value of 110, meaning they are just as effective against big ships as small ones. In addition they do 50% Thermal & 50% Kinetic, making their damage relevant against all targets. For my part I like the Taipan Hull with the Plasma Repeater/Chaff Launcher. Hits hard, can take a hit, chaff vs turrets/gimbals, and doesn't turn into a spinning top if you bump into something. (In fact - Ramming with all pips to Shields is an option!)
I've tried all of the SLFs at one time or another, but have settled on the Lance as my favourite. It entertains me by the way it folds up as it enters the fighter bay, ,but the main thing is the DPS; I have an elite NPC or human pilots flying my fighters, and use them to catch runners from my *Little Red* Corvette. Often for Dangerous wings I deal with the anacondas and I can let my NPC deal with the accompanying small ships. And when I'm visiting new sites (e.g. the Thargoid Structures) I like to tell my NPC to hold position in the Corvette while I take a Lance for a spin.
The Lance is hands down my personal favourite SL fighter. Great amount of damage with instant contact. Put an Elite class NPC in one and they can single handedly exert Interceptors/ even finish them off for you. Great distractions against NPC ships to really speed up that TTK.
what is ttk?
@@airstuck3929 Time to kill
@@airstuck3929 I'm way late to the party on this, but TTK is Time To KIll (how fast the enemy goes down).
@@highlightning6693 1 year to late. Now ive turned to the star citizen side.
I really love the fixed beam Gu-97 for the NPC pilot, but I’m keen to try the XG9 in their hands. Great video as well
The difference in the Aegis variant flight stats all comes down to that point defense turret. It's lighter than the other options which has a noticeable effect on speed & maneuverability on ships this small. Also they don't actually deal extra damage over another variant with the same weapon. Those stats are counting the on-paper DPS of the turret, which doesn't actually fire at enemy ships.
The other function of the fighter is as a distraction while your main ship deals out the damage so to make it last as long as possible I go for the Taipan. I also find that taking shields down takes longer than finishing off the hull so I go for energy weapons. My fighter pilot is deadly and has a pretty good aim so I swap between fixed beam and plasma repeaters but I find the beam options seems to work best most of the time.
hm sounds useful when your ship is generally big and slow and you face some small nimble opponent that otherwise could dance around you, trying to stay in blind zones. Forcing him to take damage and/or fire upon SLF might be just what you need to rotare and hit him
Thank you, Very informative video.
Sort of wish the Plasma Repeaters were available as ship weapons.
Just come back to Elite after a long long break. With the Guardian fighters they've definitely been watching reruns of 'Space Above and Beyond' and 'The Chigs'.
Just unlocked the Trident, was not disappointed. I think it all comes down to your play-style for which is best for you.
I tend to like both the Taipan, and Condor. Fixed plasma repeaters, and gimballed beams would be my top two weapon choices.
That imperial fighter really is pretty.
I fell in love with the alien fighters just for the looks and sounds but I do love their weapons and the way the shields come on and off.
14:30. In my experience with an Elite pilot, the NPC does not get in close enough to unload a full barrage of a shotgun variant... so while the shard launcher does significant damage, the NPC will be losing out on potential because it'll be firing as soon as it has charge, capacity, and is facing the target. So that being said, the shard launcher honestly looks to be best utilized for the player to use.
So my subjectivities: I personally don't use fighters often, or at all. So that being said, I always give it to my Elite NPC. And so for my experiences: Plasma repeater was decent although my Elite pilot still missed shots... however, I experimented with the Fixed beams and... oh boy, did my pilot do wonders. Sure there is high damage and high draw, but the NPC's always seemed to deal significant damage, and constantly hit the target regardless of range. For a while, I let my pilot fly the Lance, and it did well. However, I still stuck with the fixed beams for raw damage and the lack for a need to rearm the fighter... too many times I'd be in a middle of a fight, then suddenly my fighter just stops shooting. Though perhaps, I need to experiment with the Plasma Charger, seeing how it does absolute damage? I figure that fighter may be deadlier in a way than my Corvette with four engineered multi-cannons and two engineered beam lasers with thermal vent (I know the build sounds wonky, but I use em primarily for the shield cell banks I have).
Yessss!! Been waiting for this exact subject to come up!
Same here! :)
For me the Guradian fighters Lance and Trident (Gauss and Plama) i allways let my pilot fly them. On elite rank she hits evry shot with gauss and most shots with plasma. The damage is fairly good BUT for big ships i let my pilot use the lance and snipe the powerplant or Fsd (if i dont want my target to flee)which works very well
Already subbed years ago but your videos still always help me, so thanks m8. 👍🏻👍🏻.
Well, i've been thinking exactly about this subject, right on time
Condor w/ multi-cannons has always been my go-to fighter..
I’ve always used the aegis condor with the plasma repeater because I noticed early on when fighters launched that NPCs *don’t ever miss.* I felt the plasma repeater did a good balance of shield and hull damage and I didn’t care that it was a fixed weapon as I never pilot my fighters.
Mostly used the Plasma Repeater version, letting my NPC flying it on a GU-97. The NPC is quite good in avoiding getting hit with it and the aim is also nice, as most high ranking NPCs.
I find the GU-97 Fixed-Beam variant EXTREMELY rewarding to fly as a player, and it works well with NPC pilots. IMO its the best choice if you want to fit mostly multi-cannons on your main ship for general purpose pve combat... I highly recommend newer CMDRs try this model for flight training. Its an excellent way to work a little fixed weapons, FA-off, or power-management practice into the standard combat grind.
Thanks Astro. Your previous spreadsheet video got me interested in my own testing. Interestingly, my pick for NPC crew was the Plasma GU97. Nothing was able to hit her while she slowly pecked away at their shields. Going to try the Condor variant tonight. o7
So basically use the GU97 beam with heatsink, along with a guardian shard or trident fighter
that's almost the opposite of what the video suggested but sure.
This is much appreciated, that said ive had considerable success with my EXPERT npc in the shard launcher fighter, so maybe ive been lucky
I played the game when I picked it up for a while and only returned recently, when I heard that you could launch smaller ship from a larger ship I was ecstatic. Still haven't recovered for the disappointment of not being able to launch a Courier or Eagle from my Cutter.
Might be able to come the big Odyssey update - Q1 2021. I'm betting on a Panther that can do just that... launch small ships, not just fighters.
Oh, i remember that stupid Epsilon Data grind... Finally got Lance
You were at 777 likes and I really hope you feel the luv. Great vid.
been running the condor with fixed multi's and the gu97 with fixed beams for a while now with a size 6 or 7 fighter hanger in some of my larger ship builds I carry both and found them to be effective enough for me..
XG9 Lance. Always. Accuracy 100%. Lot of ammo. Very good damage. Shield op.
Hey brother, love your videos, always checking for new ones, keep up the good work.
WE NEED MULTIPLE ACTIVE CREW
That’s what player multicrew is for... I just hope we have a ship that launch 2+ npc instead of 1 in every ship
I love this. Even if you don't do ED anymore thank you for all the lessons I'll cherish them forever in the void. o7
i love the Gu-97 with fixed Beam Laser, it does a lot of damage, is so maneuverable that you should basically never take fire, and you can do damage almost always as long as you dont miss to much time on target
Excellent - thanks for the clear info. Was going for beams but will go for Fixed plasma repeater. Thanks!
what happened with your test?
Nice 👌 video, loads of info and well presented and clear 👍
I am flying a Krait mk2 with 2 beam lasers and 3 multi-canons. I had a Condor (I like how the combo Krait + Condor looks) with fixed beam lasers, but now I will test the plasma repeaters. Thanks.
whats the result of your test?
@@ratstar4102 well almost everyone in the game who played with me, disagreed 🤣 It preformed well. Best ship I've owned. Switch to all purpose conda (mining exploring trading gathering mats and flying around)+FDL for combat and chieftain for xeno. I miss my kreit.
@@ateto I tried the plasma repeaters, its good but the Fighter is prone to die... than using the fixed beam lasers
@@ateto Thats why I dont do mining as if you get rich too much, you get bored when you have everything
Been waiting for this good job man!
Very good video, the charts were useful.
I like the fixed beams for my npc crew member, select my target, send him in first to strip shields and distract target so I can put 4 pips to wep in the type 10 and pewpewkablamboomyshabang.
thanks for the quality content, as usual.
Hey man,perfect explanations,I just got Guardian vessel blueprint, so I am thinking to buy one of their fighters :) ,love your videos! thanks
I fly a Cutter with class 6 fighter bay for AI. GelidF is the way to go. its fast and maneuverable and has the best damage of the stock fighters. the maneuverability is what keeps it alive. I have watched as the AI solo'd Lete anaconda but that is dependent on what the Conda has for weapons. A couple of turreted beams can make things much more difficult for the fighter. the class 6 bay ensures that if you lose the fighter you can redeploy so you have nearly 100% up time on the fighter, its also good with multicrew to have 2 fighters active at the same time. i leveled the ai using the tougher fighters, they could not stay alive in the Gelid until they were leveled. I tried projectile variants but 2 problems immerged(with AI), 1. the fighter would not be able to take out shields without help on some targets. 2. If you watch the fighter engage you will notice that every time it shoots 50% of the weapons fire misses, that means the damage listed is halved. this is why it has trouble with some shields because the damage is sneakily nerfed...No...No...Bad Frontier. Back to the beams though the fixed beams wont lose damage from chaff, if you use the gimballed versions chaff will halt your damage. I wanted to use gimballed with AI for 100 hit rate but its soul crushing the moment chaff happens. My Cutter has 7A long range sensors, 13km range. in a Res high you can just scan while your fighter kills everything and that will earn you between 18-25 million/Hour depending on spawns and using the fighter to assist the police as much as possible. you could do this until your fuel runs out because you don't need to fire a single shot from your ship. Edit: the typical combat rotation in high looks like this. scan some ships, fighter attacks, 2 or 3 ships explode, order fighter to new targets usually away from the wrecks. move to wrecks, limpets collect while you keep scanning. rinse repeat. in a haz res you need to engage with the fighter they cant kill everything and always watch for enemy fighters and kill them first and fast, they will kill your fighter if you ignore them.
Thanks man, it really helps ! Gonna gear up now ;)
After playing with the lance for a bit, it can be really really strong, but you have to keep the fighter in aggressive mode or be very carful on who you send him after.
An elite pilot lance can tango with most small ships, save for vultures, and some of the vipers out there, but things like ieagles, eagles, side winders ect ect, you can sick them on, and they will most of the time take them out themselves.
They are great for an extra set of damage on a target and once you get shields down, you will see them just start chunking health, down side is, glass canon.
Wouldn’t a fighter that’s dedicated to fighting Thargoids have heavy armor and almost no shields??
Interesting point
@@MrTimjm009 then you got the guardian fighters which are shield heavy?!
were they not to fight thargoids or were the they for something else
I hope multi crew will be updated for the upcoming dlc. I wanna bring my wife with me in my ship, so that she can fly my SLF but also join on space legs adventures on planets.
You can already do that. Your wife must have her own account, but she can join you in a private group. I’ve done it with two friends flying the SLFs from my Cutter.
@@CharlesDSmith-mv7zi thank you my friend, but I should have made my post more clear. I mean yes she can do that now ofc, but I wonder if multi crew will work with space legs. So that she can fly shotgun on my ship but also set foot on planets when the dlc arrives. I hope my question made more sense now, sorry I’m not English 😅
My preferences are the MC Condor and Trident. The latter mainly for aesthetics. The multicannon noticeably chips away the hull of any target once the shields are out. Lance is also nice, but running out of ammo factor is annoying on res sites and such. The NPC pilots won't say anything about that. They just stop shooting. When piloting one myself, I also like the Gu-97 quite a bit. The tanky Taipan, I feel defeats the purpose. It's also possible to have your drives blown out by a missile, leaving you drifting helplessly, unable to self destruct.
Despite all the advice. I put fighters on my ax builds. When your ai help is elite... The fighters become very useful. Ax play, builds combat xp fast. Use the shard launcher one, and have it deal swarms only.
You know all hired npc in crew take like half of your XP and up to 14%+ of your credits right?
@@Kevin-bn9ij one you have at least one of every ship fully engineered and multiple of the large class ships the same way... You don't care about credits anymore. My credit pool is just to cover rebuy now.
They don't take your xp...
And if you start with the lowest rated pilots, they take much less credits when trained.
.... When I'm mining... Nothing beats an elite ai, that can solo kill pirates for me. I'm using a type 10 that's more than defendable... But I have to stop mining to do it.
@@emilyhofland8219 They do take your xp, they take 50% of combat. The only time I use fighters for AX is when I'm in multicrew for fun against interceptors. If im killing scouts, or soloing an interceptor I don't use it, because of the XP it takes.
@@Kevin-bn9ij they do not... They earn what they earn. Just as you do. Or you would be sharing earned xp with wing-mates.
FDev support states-
"Crew behave the same as wing members. If you have a crew member helping you take out other ships, you share the combat rank progression equally (assuming everyone in the fight is the same combat rank).
For example, if you have one crew member active and participating in a kill, you'd receive 50% of the progression you'd have gotten without that crew member active.
If you have a crew member and one wing member assisting you, you'll each get a third of the progression one of you would have gotten by doing the same thing solo."
i love the trident and lance my crew member is elite and hits every shot of the trident+ the negative heat debuff it puts ont the enemy target. flying the trident self is pretty hard and not 4 everyone but i like it. dont like the standart fighters with lasers cause my conda rips any shilds away so quick so mainly the fighters are there to dmg the armor
I remember when I first started playing and the PR and MC on the SLF had limited ammo.
Good videos mate. I've seen quite a few now.
Taipan is best with gimbal for training rookie pilots to have them elite & only 10% profit share.(*pirate bounty hunting in Qi Yomisii "Resource Extraction", missions @ Tesla & Hoshide terminals)
Once they get to elite rank though you might want to switch up to fixed weapons so you will want a much more maneuverable ship so opponent is in the crosshairs, not your pilot..
and TY for pointing out that multi cannon don't run out of ammo, only ax multi run out... I assumed it ran out of ammo..
Great vid, but I wish you'd included recommendations specifically for CQC.
Taipan has the strongest directional thrusters of all ship-launched fighters and dissipates heat the best. This makes it the perfect choice for cold-orbiting larger targets and dumping damage onto them. A lone beam or plasma Taipan can easily tear apart a cutter in the hazres in less than 90 seconds.
1. Taipan aegis 2. Taipan fixed beam. 3 antixeno with gauss
Gimballed pulse lasers are not great for damage, but they make it extremely easy for a low-rank NPC to "tag" an enemy before it dies, which means they'll have faster rank progression when you first hire them. Think of it as a training tool.
If you're in a fighter, it's almost impossible to dodge gimballed or turreted weapons. When the enemy ship turns to target you:max engine 2 sys boost, fa off once you're past the ship to ensure it's still targeting you and play keep away till he targets your main ship again. Then go back on the offensive. 75% of the time they ignore you till you've pestered them enough.
Slf vs slf use gimballed beam condor. Its unrivaled
Need to try out the fixed multicannon more. Found myself caught up with fixed beams plus heat sinks. It's fun... For a few seconds... Then yeah, I'm stuck plinking away with no energy left in weapons.
Gauss guardian is a favorite though, hit the nail on the head with that one.
Very well done. Wish there was more info with NPC pilot
I loved flying the taipan with gimbaled weapons.
Taipan with Plasma Repeater just because it’s really cool and other than the SRV it’s the only craft that get to use it.
The guardian fighters finaly a good guardian weapons, which worth unlocking. They are good, the Lance is the best (with Elite pilot it nevers miss and pack a punch), looks cool, and fun to unlock.
Could folks confirm for me that a NPC on your ship causes the following:
1) inactive reduces your combat xp for ranking up to elite by 50%
2) active in fighter or with you in fighter reduces your combat xp for ranking up to elite by 50%
3) not even on your ship reduces your combat xp for ranking up to elite by 50%?
Thanks in advance.
GL and HF all.
If your NPC is “active” crew, you get the combat points hit if your crew or you are in a fighter because your crew is piloting your ship while you’re in the fighter. If neither your crew or you are in a fighter, you don’t get the combat xp hit. If you have two friends in a private group flying your fighters, and you’re piloting your ship, you each get 1/3 of the combat xp. The same goes for bounty money or combat bonds. Your NPC will always get it’s percentage of your profits regardless of whether or not it is active crew.
@@CharlesDSmith-mv7zi Thanks for the reply.
I'm happy to pay the credits to an active or inactive crew, credits are cheap and their percentage is low but the 50% hit to my xp is beyond what I find is acceptable to me. Seems best for me to reach Elite combat (about 2 years off at the rate I play) and then get a crew.
Great video! I really like how you spell out the pros and cons of each. I've read in a variety of places that the XG9 Lance was best overall for an NPC crew pilot. But when i was flying it i though the GU97 seemed better overall. I know you presented the stats, between those two, which would you pick to supplement a CMDR that's mostly harmless in combat. Asking for a friend.
i am quite fond of the GU-97 with Plasma Repeater and Chaff. Also using a fighter that does not have Chaff is a bit of a gamble. If you encounter something with turrets you are doomed, basically.
Nice analysis; I'd not twigged that the AX fighter was quicker. Only 9 kly to swap out my exploration Taipan =)
Fantastic video man
Honestly, I think that the Trident's Plasma charger's more like the Multi-Cannon, 'cause of the "spool-up"
Javelin for my Elite NPC pilot, I haven't gotten the Lance yet
I think we should be able to engineer our fighters.
No. Don't give them any more ideas for more grind.
Fighters would be way too powerful for such a tiny vehicle
Everyone always disses the gambled weapons, but bumbled beam is reliable! I find that a player using fixed weapons is very unreliable, and end up doing less damage overall. Gimbaled pulse is way too weak though, wayyy too weak!
With practice, fixed ends up being better
another great video, thank you
I want a fighter with packhounds
Hey, does an AI fighter pilot have to reload their heat sinks, chaff etc? So should they dock after each ship destroyed?
I love the multi cannon condor, I fly it all the time with my NPC crew in the cutter or corvette. I struggle to make a loadout on coriolis for a small ship that has a better, usable dps value than the condor. Excluding the vulture (I just don't care for that ship). But I do find it troubling that the small ship-launched fighter has more dps than most small combat ships with similar weapon loadouts. I feel elite dangerous has a small ship problem in that regard.
You're talking about unengineered ships right?
@@lucasZr113 I sure hope so... a Fully Engineered Sidewinder is a force to be reckoned with! Advanced Thrusters, Enforcers, ... don't even need shields as nothing can hit you!
@@PetesCreativeRecycling I hadn't even thought about the sidey lol, but that's true as well, I had a 2 pa 2 rail viper can dish some strong punishment as well
@@lucasZr113 More or less, un-engineered and gimballed. I find the fixed weapons on fighters easy but fixed on the actual ships more of a challenge. I have struggled to create laser & multicannon builds of the viper and imp eagle, for example, that feel more powerful than a ship-launched fighter in pve.
@@washedup_adventurer well to improve your time with the fixed weapons I could recommend some engine engineering that on it's own shouldn't give you too much trouble power wise and allow you to avoid get in too deep in the engineer grind. Also consider the weapons you're pairing together if you want lasers and mc's make one of them gimballed as their "projectile speeds" have a big gap between them, something like plasmas and mc's might work better if you want full fixed. For last if you wish I could try to create some builds for you. Anyway I hope I helped
Excellent video as usual
Is it just me or does the Guardian fighters give off some serious TIE Fighter vibes?
It reminds me of TIE Defender ))) my favorite ship in SWG
I agree 100% Good video
Iv found also the 3 guardian slf are completely useless against interceptors. The ax taipan is hands down the best. I think I’ll use it with the plasma repeaters rather then the GU the condor multi is always my first choice for bounty hunting. In my opinion the guardian slf are terrible in general. They should have strong armor weak shields an the ammo is a huge issue. If you have not got them don’t waste your time. I have all 3 after testing I found they just look cool an just something to have or collect not use an that pisses me off but what can you do
I have some strange issues with my npc controlled fighters. They will only fly around me in a circle unless I specifically order them to attack a target. It doesn't matter if I order them to defend or fire at will. They absolutely won't do anything other than orbit my ship unless ordered to attack. I have a ongoing support ticket with frontier about it. I can change ships, fighters, pilots and nothing changes the odd behavior. Frontier finds it interesting as well. Undoubtedly They haven't encountered this problem before from what I gather.
Thanks
DPS in Elite sometimes means Damage per Shot, not Damage per Second. Keep that in mind when you look at the Plasmacharger.
taipan seems to last longer! i rarely lose a taipan i always lost the others fairly quickly my crew member is ranked deadly
With a fixed beam Gu-97 an elite NPC will out fly your target and never miss. Because of this an elite NPC in a SLF is more effective in combat than a human. However, human strategic and tactical skills are far better than any NPC, so it makes more sense for them to stay in the mothership.
I actually use the fixed beam taipan, but set my fire groups to have one beam primary fire, one beam secondary.
It's not perfect, but it allows me to always be applying damage instead of the times the input-reading AI decides to not give me a shot and boost ou of the way (which leaves me then waiting for my engines to recharge for boost).
I tried using the plasma repeater with AI pilots and they miss more shots than they hit it seems like. Hitscan is definitely the way to go. Fixed beams or the gauss cannon.
For some reason the taipan feels the *most* maneuverable followed by Gu-97
(not counting guardians)
I had absolutely no clue about the heatsink mechanic, that's nuts, I've just been informed by my squadron that it also applies to ships although not as much - what is this witchcraft
I been using the Taipn F with my T-10 and my T-10 8a shields and shit ton of armor.... I like 2 tank. I feel naked when using my other ships now..
i think they changed the npc's accuracy since my npc tends to miss the first 2-3 shots on target with the rail gun guardian and fixed multis he over shoots and misses the first salvo.
But what about for NPC pilots? I heard that the fixed beam for them is the absolute best because they’re pretty much at aimbot status
They have insane aim at elite, so fixed beam unloads dumb amounts of DPS
Counter point, beam lasers are awesome 😅
I carry a condor aegis f with plasma repeater on my combat kraite
A question I've had for some time is how much Armor Piercing does these weapons have? This is especially relevant for the plasma repeater, as we know it doesn't work like the plasma accelerator at all, I'm not sure if it has high AP or low AP. The game doesn't provide these stats and I can't find them on the wiki either.
For me the Javelin is by far the best fighter for pve. Although my pilot is elite, I’m sure that makes a difference.
How does the javelin perform?
@@aeringothyk5445 I only play pve, but the javelin is outstanding. The pilot knows to get in close and pepper the enemy with shards. I’ve held back and watched the bad guys hull percentage drop with every fighter shot. My fighter pilot is ranked elite - not sure if that effects their tactics. Of all the fighters I’ve tried, it’s definitely the best.
I understand what's on paper but I see many reviews detailing a different outcome re plasmas. Any advice?
you know, if you pop your heatsink you have infinite beam ammo for a short time. fixed beam fighters are by far the best
But the Guardian Trident with the plasma charger does absolute damage?? Surely that's better??
Only in PvP -against engineered ships.
I don't think NPC's use engineered parts so having absolute damage against them is a bit of a waste.
I just bought a Krait so I'm interested In all this fighter stuff. I know nothing so far.
Same