Best weapon loadout

[XELANAMYT]

I'm using the Guardian Interceptor as my current ship and wondering what is a good weapon loadout?

I generally try and board once I've done a bit if damage, so my torpedoes get a bit of use then my lance beam is used once close enough.

I was looking upgrading to better weapons, but the increase in stats don't seem all that impressive. Along with that I think I have too many weapons, 1 med torpedo, 1 med lance, 2 small railguns, 2 small torpedoes... I never use them all so what would be a good replacement for them along with the optimal weapon loadout?

[Funfrock]

I recommend the gravity driver. It has a powerful cripple that reduces both armor and shields.

For replacing the weapons, it depends on what you do and what your ship needs, but more fuel, mission cargo or medical can be good options. In the small component category, pilot assist and nav assist modules are especially powerful.

[Outlaw2044]

I load 4 small torps. Melt them at range 5. Once they are about 50% down. I close and board using talents after range 3. All other weapons are swapped out for upgrades.

[cadfan17]

I don’t think there’s just one answer on weapons.

One option is to pick your favorite range, then make sure you have enough weapons to fire while you’re moving to there and then to fire while you’re there. So if your favorite range is 3 and it costs 4 to move, maybe you keep two torpedoes at 2 engine points per shot, because that’s 2+2+4 is full engine use while closing. Then maybe you add eight engine points of high end guns that are optimal at range 3.

As for what to replace extra guns with... the pilot module is very popular because it contributes to accuracy and evasion. I personally like the targeting module because it only weighs 50 and sometimes that lets you get rid of a mass reducers and add something else nice.

Medical bays help heal during and after battle.

Shields reduce crew injuries in the first place. So does void and radiation resist.

Healthier crews die less and are better at boarding.

[cadfan17]

I don’t think there’s just one answer on weapons.

One option is to pick your favorite range, then make sure you have enough weapons to fire while you’re moving to there and then to fire while you’re there. So if your favorite range is 3 and it costs 4 to move, maybe you keep two torpedoes at 2 engine points per shot, because that’s 2+2+4 is full engine use while closing. Then maybe you add eight engine points of high end guns that are optimal at range 3.

As for what to replace extra guns with... the pilot module is very popular because it contributes to accuracy and evasion. I personally like the targeting module because it only weighs 50 and sometimes that lets you get rid of a mass reducers and add something else nice.

Medical bays help heal during and after battle.

Shields reduce crew injuries in the first place. So does void and radiation resist.

Healthier crews die less and are better at boarding.

[Grigsey]

for my hard mode palace interceptor playthrough I started w/ the missile torpedo boat style (got the unlock for 10 ship battles with that method) after I got that I realized I had set out to accomplish all that I wanted for the playthrough, so I started messing around. Got a bankroll to trick out the ship more. Ended up w/ a Grav cannon thing for my one medium slot, one small plasma cannon, and 3 autocannons. Once I hit range 2 things either get disabled or die very quickly. Bonus: it is super fun to fire all your ship's weapons at once.

For OP's guardian interceptor swapping one or two of your less used guns for systems that increase your overall defense/increase your ship dice pool isn't a bad idea at all.

[Drunk-Side Jedi]

What I'm curious about is if anyone has tried Burner Skid (level 11 Pirate Talent) with 4 x Torps. With +80 radiation damage and 20% critical it seems like you'd disable ships very quickly but you pretty much have to self-inflict an electrical fire to use it.

[Trese Brothers]

It's a highly popular Talent among disabling builds from what we have seen.

[nDervish]

My basic theory is that I never want to rupture the enemy hull with my weapons, under any circumstances, because of the rep hit for destroying a ship. (If I want it destroyed, I can always blow it from the post-battle screen after disabling it.) So I choose weapons for a high cripple chance and radiation/void damage, but low base damage.

At the moment, that's a pair of top-tier torps for range 5/4, a top-tier railgun for 3/2, and a starter lance at range 1 (the higher-tier lances do much less radiation damage) while I board, board, board. I'm not really that happy with the railgun, though, so I'm constantly debating over whether to pull it out and just use the lance starting at range 3.

[nephilimnexus]

You want to do boarding? I've got you covered. Here's the perfect weapon's layout for your boarding ram-ship:

Here it is.[media.giphy.com]


So what you're going to do instead is pack in as many Pilot Assist 4s and Sensor Boost 4s as you've got room for, then make sure you're crew is large and/or skilled enough to run those all up to 200%.

Your ship will become effectively untouchable by enemy fire[startraders.gamepedia.com] and you can charge head-first into anything with ease in total safety.

I stumbled upon this almost by accident. I was tweaking out my ship as a spying specialist, and that meant cranking up the electronics pool to unholy levels and just trying to run from everything. It worked, because electronics add standard dice to evasion and I had, like, ninety of them. Eventually when I realized that nothing was able to hit me anymore that I didn't need to run away at all - I could just board them, instead, and use those unauthorized access talents that I had laying around. Turns out my spy captain's ship was more effective at boarding ships that my pirate captain's ship, go figure.

[Outlaw2044]

I don't worry about rep loss. I have several large factions that I have high rep from and I patrol their systems. When I hunt, I go to enemy factions and blockade or spy always salvaging the ships after multiple boardings. I think my negative rep is 1000+.

[nerdcommando.gamestudios]

2x 4 RP Railguns or 1 such Railgun + 2x Plasma Cannon at range 3 are just the best. Long range is crap because it's too risky, you don't want to engage in missile vs missile combat. And out of short range nothing else will work as well while consuming minimum amount space. MB 2x big gravcannons on really big ships but their crippling effects are not as soulcrushing.

[Sugarat]

Originally posted by nerdcommando.gamestudios:

2x 4 RP Railguns or 1 such Railgun + 2x Plasma Cannon at range 3 are just the best. Long range is crap because it's too risky, you don't want to engage in missile vs missile combat. And out of short range nothing else will work as well while consuming minimum amount space. MB 2x big gravcannons on really big ships but their crippling effects are not as soulcrushing.

This. I am running 4 small plasmas on my gladius but 1 rail + 2 plasma's are probably the best. Good electronics + gunnery and the crippling effects are great. I have not gotten a lot of complete engine disables with them but I do not care that much with this character since I do not engage that much in ship combat. The plasmas does great hull dmg and does a tmp engine disable which lowers their reactor. 1 or 2 volley and they are sitting dead in space while I decide to withdraw or board.

[Grigsey]

So I did something stupid w/ the palace interceptor, scrapped a small weapon for a cargobay (5 since you need at least one on your ship) medium wep slot went to fuel tank, and the large cargo slot went to the vengeance gravcannon. leaving a small lance and 2x autocannons.

And this so far has been my most effective and efficient ship i've built for destroying enemy ships without taking damage. (not going for disabling or boarding this playthrough, if i board it is once to steal intel)

It should be noted that I am doing a command/electronics/pilot heavy playthrough on hard.

[Seswatha]

I had a lot of success with this corsair build on Impossible, 72 confirmed ship kills in 5 years :)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1498511437

I used to build ships for missiles and balance nav and piloting because I was afraid I won't be able to close in with low nav but it doesn't seem like it matters much. Stacking piloting for short range combat gives the most survivability.

[Drunk-Side Jedi]

Any suggestion for xeno?

I'm messing around with plasma cannons and burner skid on a Warhammer to stack on radiation damage and while it's very effective at getting disables very quickly against most targets it doesn't seem to faze xeno. I just had a really bloody fight where I had to take them to rupture. And plasma does pretty mediocre hull damage so you can imagine how long that took.

Which makes me wonder a few things:

Are xenos particularly resistant to radiation?

Would gravcannon + stacked damage talents be a better choice...

Or

I noticed when I checked the logs there was a xeno component called something like "regeneration pod" - do those bastards REGEN component and crew health?!?