Tankiest possible ship

[Myrmidon]

Just curious/interested, not necessarily an ambition of mine but very curious. Would it be a fully engineered type-10? But Myrmidon do you mean shields? Hull? Hardness? Well that's kinda loose I mean any in isolation, combination or together... I imagine different ships can have higher hull integrity for example whilst perhaps not also simultaneously having the same highest shields. But on top of that hulls and shields can be resistant to specific things as well... So just throw some crap at me... Really interested but realise the parameters don't overlap completely and there are different answers.

[Ratt]

The one that bugs out and doesn't die when its hull reaches 0 or doesn't have a hitbox is the tankiest. For a better answer, tell us the purpose of the tanking; there are no raids in ED.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

I would go the Imperial Cutter. Biggest shields you can have in the game, yet pretty fast to last long enough to escape players several times in a row.

[Maxpowerammo]

I believe the Anaconda can have the highest hull hp at 10963. That's with military armor and crammed full of hull reinforcements, all engineered with heavy duty + deep plating.
Max hull Conda[s.orbis.zone]

Since some ships have similar hull hp but better hull hardness, they might be able to compete:

The T10 can have 10121 hull hp but has a hull hardness of 75 (highest of any playable ship) vs the Conda's 65. Max hull T10[s.orbis.zone]
Corvette can reach 10436 hull hp with 70 hardness. Max hull Vette[s.orbis.zone]

Highest shields go to the Cutter with 13456 MJ. With an 8A Prismatic w/ reinforced + hi cap, 8x 0A boosters w/ heavy duty super capacitors, and internals full of shield reinforcements.
Max shield Cutter[s.orbis.zone]

What about total health (shields + hull)?
Here I kept the heavy duty hull reinforcements and armor, added heavy duty boosters and devoted the biggest slot available to a reinforced hi cap prismatic.

Looks like the Cutter wins again, can't beat those shields, 11350 MJ + 9223 armor.
Cutter tank[s.orbis.zone]
Corvette is pretty good too, 9144 MJ + 9698 armor. Vette tank[s.orbis.zone]
Anaconda isn't bad, 7076 MJ + 10225 armor. Conda tank[s.orbis.zone]
T10 has poor shields (and less armor than the vette), 5858 MJ + 9384 armor. T10 tank[s.orbis.zone]

Obviously I left out a lot of factors here, this post is big enough, although to answer the question in the title, it would seem that the Cutter is the tankiest possible ship (what a surprise).
Edit: And the T10 is kinda bad, would've expected it to be better actually.

[Myrmidon]

Originally posted by Maxpowerammo:

I believe the Anaconda can have the highest hull hp at 10963. That's with military armor and crammed full of hull reinforcements, all engineered with heavy duty + deep plating.
Max hull Conda[s.orbis.zone]

Since some ships have similar hull hp but better hull hardness, they might be able to compete:

The T10 can have 10121 hull hp but has a hull hardness of 75 (highest of any playable ship) vs the Conda's 65. Max hull T10[s.orbis.zone]
Corvette can reach 10436 hull hp with 70 hardness. Max hull Vette[s.orbis.zone]

Highest shields go to the Cutter with 13456 MJ. With an 8A Prismatic w/ reinforced + hi cap, 8x 0A boosters w/ heavy duty super capacitors, and internals full of shield reinforcements.
Max shield Cutter[s.orbis.zone]

What about total health (shields + hull)?
Here I kept the heavy duty hull reinforcements and armor, added heavy duty boosters and devoted the biggest slot available to a reinforced hi cap prismatic.

Looks like the Cutter wins again, can't beat those shields, 11350 MJ + 9223 armor.
Cutter tank[s.orbis.zone]
Corvette is pretty good too, 9144 MJ + 9698 armor. Vette tank[s.orbis.zone]
Anaconda isn't bad, 7076 MJ + 10225 armor. Conda tank[s.orbis.zone]
T10 has poor shields (and less armor than the vette), 5858 MJ + 9384 armor. T10 tank[s.orbis.zone]

Obviously I left out a lot of factors here, this post is big enough, although to answer the question in the title, it would seem that the Cutter is the tankiest possible ship (what a surprise).
Edit: And the T10 is kinda bad, would've expected it to be better actually.

Thank you very much for doing this.. This is damn interesting, I didn't think engineering could take things so high. I was thinking my modest half a billion credit Anaconda was approaching the limits of "vanilla" i.e. non-engineering with 4k hull and 1100 shield but christ I didn't think ships could climb that high with engineering.

[Jankules]

Shield tank...hull tank,hybrid? pve, pvp?
big ships cant be hull tanked as medium because of powerplant easy subtargeting.
Federal assault ship is your choice if you going to hull tanking...shield tank...cutter

[Myrmidon]

Originally posted by Jankules:

Shield tank...hull tank,hybrid? pve, pvp?
big ships cant be hull tanked as medium because of powerplant easy subtargeting.
Federal assault ship is your choice if you going to hull tanking...shield tank...cutter

Like I said I'm asking generically. The above poster gave a very interesting reply showing max shields, max hulls, different hardness, mixtures, engineering, tanky is a loose term in this thread deliberately because I'm not after anything specific. One day I want a tanky ship, don't know which ship, don't know what tanky will consitute in terms of a hull-shield-hardness-resistances ratio.. That's why I just want to learn about things such as the above so I can create my own mixture when I'm more knowledgable and experienced of the game.

[Spicy_Satoshi]

Without module reinforcements your tank will be knocked out pretty quick.

[kraul59]

Here is my PVE T10: https://s.orbis.zone/5t1z

Not perfect but...

[CMDR Predator_Blade]

Imperial Cutter all the way

[neuroperson]

Cutter has most base shield, Anaconda, most base hull I believe

[Squirrely Wrath]

the bigger you are, the easier you are to hit. are you manuverable enough to stay on target? tankyness is relative to the pilots skill, for what i have seen so far from players is not really mind blowing. its always the same cookie cutter shield meta (pun not intendet).

you may consider a fas or dropship for speed and hull, other ships have their merrits in terms of shields, but the best protection is not to get hit in the first place. i strongly advise you to try things out for yourself that work for you and your piloting style

as for a type 10, a vulture can and will take you down if given the patience, its just the death of 1000 papercuts, same goes for any other big ship