Keelback still a good ship?

[The Waffle that Lurks]

Just bought it cause I was interested in mining but after trying it I get extremely bored compared to Bounty Hunting / Piracy.

Is the Keelback good as a Combat Ship? It seems to be supremely tanky but flies like a lopsided brick (which I dont mind I like tanky ships)

[<Caeris↝]

It´s more like a trader ship with enough defences to protect you from pirates.

Cobra MK III or Vulture are good beginner ships for combats.

[Pathfinder Serza]

For Combat, I can't overrecommend the Vulture. Mine served me perfectly well right up until I bought (and A-rated) a Corvette.

[Mr Robert House]

It has a fighter bay, fighters are pretty strong, so it could do ok but it has the agility of a much larger ship and the firepower of a cobra.

[Droopy The Dog]

I definitely wouldn't recommend the Keelback for bounty hunting, it's not got enough firepower to outslug the big ships even with the extra health, and it's not agile enough to stay out of their field of fire reliably.

If you want a ship that can do both mining and bounty the AspX is way better for the bounty hunting than Keelback. But for that price you could just buy a Keelback+Vulture and have the best of both worlds (Ok Keelback is probably a less proficient miner than the AspX, but close enough), if you don't want to pay the extra for the convenience of one ship + way better jump range.

[Edit] Whoops, 30% discount for vulture and keelback is over now, Vulture+Keelback is more than an AspX now.

[uber1984]

I did some bounty hunting in the Keelback, and its real strength is when you get your harmless npc crew guy up to elite. So he/she can fly the fighter which is kinda like having a huge weapon. The other trick is to fly "backwards" and "up", to stay above the npc pirates. I suggest keeping the hull mass down, and using gimbals. You can also deploy out in the fighter and let your npc crew fly the ship for you, which is interesting to watch. If you are not using the fighter the keelback should be skipped. Getting your npc crew from harmless to elite does not take that long and nowhere near as long as it takes you to get there. I fit mine with biweave shields/shield boosters, and hull module reinforcement. I used the imperial fighter with the beams, and it only died once on its way to elite. Its an interesting ship, but its maneuverability is pretty terrible.

[JL::Jose-Juan Kenobi]

The Keelback is fun to try out for bounty hunting if you equip a fighter bay.
I had fun with it for core mining, some trading, and bounty hunting. Worth a try, and I really loved the ship, but definitively not a ship I would buy for combat capabilities alone.

If you want to have fun with combat you are better off with an Imperial Courier, or a Vulture. I mean, it all depends on your budget.

[The Waffle that Lurks]

Originally posted by uber1984:

I did some bounty hunting in the Keelback, and its real strength is when you get your harmless npc crew guy up to elite. So he/she can fly the fighter which is kinda like having a huge weapon. The other trick is to fly "backwards" and "up", to stay above the npc pirates. I suggest keeping the hull mass down, and using gimbals. You can also deploy out in the fighter and let your npc crew fly the ship for you, which is interesting to watch. If you are not using the fighter the keelback should be skipped. Getting your npc crew from harmless to elite does not take that long and nowhere near as long as it takes you to get there. I fit mine with biweave shields/shield boosters, and hull module reinforcement. I used the imperial fighter with the beams, and it only died once on its way to elite. Its an interesting ship, but its maneuverability is pretty terrible.

This is how I set it up per a discord recommendation and its surprisingly tanky. I've had my shields drop one time and that was due to a NPC Pirate suddenly going Kamikaze on me and ramming me in the face (He exploded).

Ya she does turn like a barn but equipping a Fighter with beams, having 2 Med Beams and 2 small missiles equipped she is fairly lethal as a Hunter

[Charlie Foxtrot]

Viper mk3 all the way; it's fast, cheap, maneuverable, tough and surprisingly good at an all-multicannon setup. It has the same hardpoint setup of a Cobra mk3 but for 1/3 the price

honestly I would avoid Eagle, it's barely stronger than a Sidewinder. They're so weak that even when I was Competent rank I would attack NPC Eagles no matter how high their combat rank was

[LoboFH]

I built one for boubty hunting in RES zones, with fixed muilticannons and enforcers, and a fighter bay, indeed. I think it can hold up pretty well against pirates, at least in RES with some authority presence. I still didn't try it in hazardous one because I had not the enforcers when I built it.

[Mike]

My preference for ship progression for bounty hunting is Viper MK 3 -> Vulture -> FDL -> Corvette

[Frazon]

Keelback is a brick. It'll do alright against medium-sized NPC ships with a ranking under Dangerous in a 1 v 1. But if you take that into a HazRez and go against an Elite-Rated wing of 3... you'd probably die really quickly unless you have that Keelback A-rated and G5 Engineered. And at that point... why are you still flying a keelback unless you're bored xD