The Federal Dropship Review - A Midshipman's Reward? [Elite Dangerous]

The Federal Dropship from Core Dynamics in Elite Dangerous is the first ship offered when climbing the ranks of the Federal Navy. It's a combat orientated ship that has potential as a multirole, but that potential is squandered due to a single design decision.
All content taken from Elite Dangerous: Odyssey.
#elitedangerous #odyssey #FederalDropship #CoreDynamics
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[@ARGHouse504]

This was my first medium combat ship and I still love it, primarily I now use it as a combat trader/data courier. I love it when pirates try to interdict me, only to find out I'm armed to the teeth.

[@Lukas_Miglioranza]

Same, but from yesterday, the sturdiest ship I have. One of the most exciting moments since I started the game. I'm very very very happy. My enemies aren't. Wow My Federal Dropship!

[@RRC6490]

What’s the most amazing sound in E:D besides an asteroid cracking?
“Welcome to this Federal Starport, Commander!”

[@strangejune]

I don't know, the Keelback thruster boost comes close.

[@tiberiusdave252]

Great vid as always. There are those though that use this ship for the ground missions where you need to blow up the settlement turrets (not the odyssey on foot missions; the horizons missions that were put in) or sometimes the destroy turrets on mega ships if you ever do those.

[@williamvorkosigan5151]

I haven't flown this, or owned one, for a good few years. I made the school boy error of putting off engineering for later on the way up. It was fun enough as I worked my way through the combat ships. Now I am slowly working my way back up again and getting the very, engineered to the max, best out of every ship. Currently loving the Courier in place of the Phantom for travelling around and landing on planets with an SRV in the bubble. I love that I can just slam the Courier down anywhere when doing Stratum and just jump out the back door. Engineered Enhanced Thrusters for the win. What were we talking about again? Oh, yeah, the Fed Drop ship. Yes, I had one once.

[@cmdrTremyss]

5+ years into the game, first time I hear about advanced thrusters (Enhanced Performance Thrusters to be more precise)

[@williamvorkosigan5151]

@@cmdrTremyss Yup. Enhanced Performance. You are correct. Shame only Class 2A or 3A. 3A Enhanced Performance Thrusters with Dirty Drag Drives puts a little mustard in it. Not built for Maximum speed but still does 564 m/s and 765 m/s Boost every 6 Seconds.

[@gamingsnipsandbits]

Massive love for Enhanced Performance drives with full Dirty / Drag engineering - it's basically a staple for "small light ship that needs to be yeeted into and out of a hotzone".
They don't take additional mass too well IME, but when you get the weight right, they really, really do shift

[@cwolfxuk-other]

The one thing I never understood. The Dropship is... a dropship, implying troops... Yet they use Vultures for dropping people into hotzones! I know you mention it but it is such a big point!

[@williamvorkosigan5151]

Yes it is. There is clearly no room to carry more than one pax in a Vulture (in that seat) where do the other 5 go. Do they sit on the stars or something?

[@cwolfxuk-other]

@@williamvorkosigan5151 if you notice you deploy where the cargo would be. So basically most of the Optional modules have been replaced with a troop one.

[@connorwalsh5464]

My favorite ship ever. Love the flight model

[@knowlesy3915]

Ive played this game since 2016 and never flown this thing:
Until yesterday and had a lot of fun in it.

[@potteryjoe]

haven't tried out any of the Federal brick ships yet, but someday I'll give it a go. Definitely a shame they're not actually used as dropships

[@_Just_V_]

Great review o7, but I have to respectfully disagree. I’ve recently brought my dropship out of the garage for some local BGS stuff in a contested system; it’s been a charm. Consistently dropping 10-15 bodies in CZs. I do concede that there’s QUITE the nuance in piloting the ship, I find that Role Playing a wasp while flying around the FLOT is very effective. Enough pips to engines and you can boost engines while lighting someone up with beam lasers indefinitely. And as atrocious as the shields are, investing in a few boosters will keep you at 75% shield strength one on one provided that you’re an experienced pilot and allow that insane hit box to do its thing. This is all PVE though… so yeah lol.

[@fredh8733]

ive always LOVED how this looks! a pure industrial armored ugly military dropship. the convergence is terrible for the 2 side weapons, which i am trying to compensate by using overpowered weapons there since only one will fire at a time (unless the target is RIGHT in center)... but this beast has a very low rebuy cost, and the armor is decent. im building up a combat version for the upcoming powerplay. the rebuy on this is appx 2 million, where my super tanked corvette is about 30 million rebuy. wish me luck CMDRs

[@Datan0de]

I have one outfitted as a general mining ship, with a mining laser, mining lance (underrated module, IMHO), abrasion blaster, seismic charge launcher, and subsurface displacement missile launcher. It's... okay. I haven't done much core mining since the days of the Borann LTD rush. If/when i get back into that, I'll likely do a lot of reengineering, since she has issues with both heat and WEP capacitor draining.

[@ashleyphotog]

It's ship that has a purpose and a role, neither of which are in the game though.

[@mikee9464]

Wish it would function as a better "true" dropship. So we could drop in your coop co pilots to assault bases n stuff. I just love the heavily armored look

[@TogglePr0]

If you want the hull strength you can get a Challenger instead, it's similar but overall a better ship.

[@gamingsnipsandbits]

The Challenger is probably the first ship that properly taught me it's OK not to have a shield - that thing can soak up the hits well - it's base armour is weaker than the Dropship, but it makes up for that with a higher hardness rating. Plus if you choose the throw a shield onto it, it's base shield strength is much higher.
To be fair to the Dropship though, The Challenger is twice the price. The Chieftain on the other hand, is only a few million more...much more attainable if you're coming into the galaxy and don't have grinding credits down to a fine art.

[@TogglePr0]

@@gamingsnipsandbits well all 3 ships outfitted A rated, the challenger is about 50% more expensive than the dropship while the chieftain is only about 30% more expensive than the dropship. Chieftain's hull isn't as tanky but, it more than makes up in hard points position, speed and agility.

[@TogglePr0]

In my opinion it's just better value to stay with a Vulture or what you got before and save up some credits to buy a better ship. Maybe even a FAS if you like the federal ships. Unless you aim to learn how to fight in a large ship and get used to the feeling before you actually buy one, the Dropship is not worth it, it only has good internals.

[@gort5583]

The bottom line with most ships in Elite is that very few of them are built to perform the function they are purportedly deemed designed to do! I do not know why this is but it is a fact. On the plus many ships deemed to be for luxury cruising like the Cutter make a better cargo hauler. Not sure if this is all deliberate or indicative of people who know little to nothing about functional requirements for a ship to do what it is deemed designed to do.

[@HarenunHoppus]

My combat doorstop and quite expendable! But i prefer my dropship for pirate stuff. Also that bugs me when they didnt use these in ground conflict zones.

[@gamingsnipsandbits]

Glad I'm not the only one it bugs - I've been continuing to dabble with this ship between recording and whilst I'm better than I was with it, can't help but prefer the FAS / FGS for federation space-bricks

[@scottterry1659]

The fas does everything

[@TheLotw]

I bought it and hated it.

[@Tamburello_1994]

Hard pass.

[@googleiscancer]

When I first played I felt like a beast for earning a few mil for this ship
How naieve I was lol
Killing it man