Ship Progression After the Beloved Sidewinder

[Warspawn]

Hey ya'll! Having a blast here, and learning as I go. I feel like I'm progressing really well, not overwhelmed, although it did feel like I was drinking through that fire hose initially.

What I need to ask now is some advice from the vets. I parked my Sidewinder; it served with honor to get me started here in Odyssey. In fact, I made enough running missions in the starter area (around Chamberlain's Rest) that my next move was into the Cobra MK III. OMG, what a nice ship! I haven't found anything yet that it can't be equipped to do as a new player. I'm sorta running a generic, comfy build with all 4A gear in the giddy-up-'n'-go parts for speed running expensive cargo, with a chaff launcher and shield booster to evade what I can't kill. I could mount some extra cargo; now I'm only carrying 44t worth, but that's still with all the approach/assist/docking gear on instead of slapping on an extra 6t in those slots.

I did go with a 4C bi-weave instead of a standard 4A shield. The A booster keeps it charged up enough for surprises. I haven't found a 4A bi-weave, so maybe they don't exist? I've considered using the regular 4A shield with a point-defense turret instead of the booster, but haven't needed it yet. Maybe that's a mistake I'll regret. I've also considered slapping on some hull reinforcement instead of the lazy gear that let's me click & fly above.

The weapons are pretty vanilla Pulse Lasers + Multi-cannons; the gimbaled mounts are nice. What's frustrating is that the 2E multi's and 1F pulses are as good as I can find. I need some input about the merits of putting in Burst/Beam lasers. I was also really wanting to try turreted weapons to keep up damage output as I maneuver; maybe some 2D turreted fragment cannons. I have yet to play with missles...looking forward to it!

I really don't see the need for the Viper or Diamondback; from just looking at those ships in the equivalent range of my Cobra, there's no glaring advantages to using those chassis over what I have. Heck, I don't really want to 'upgrade' to the Mk IV from my first Cobra and lose the agility and jump distance I'm enjoying now.

Anyhow...long post --> sorry! If you have any input I'd love to read it about what choices you made, and what you might have done differently.

Thanks!

<S!>
~War~

[malorob]

here is a small tip.

each ship can do some thing well and something not so well.
even tho you can use anyship to do everything. " just not wonderful"

with out direction.

Cobra , everyones goto for smuggling
viper and dbx scout great little fighters
dbx explorer best small exploring ship in game.

again just depends on where and what you want to do in game.

me i always go mining first to unlock jamersons memorial and then once that station is unlocked i can then choose to do other things.

mining is the quickest way to unlock that station. "you only need to mine 1.2bil credits.|
and it is not as hard as you may think

[Oggmeista]

well i'd forget turrets in such small ships. they generally output less damage for equivalent size they are usefull in large ships, because those ships lack manouverability, ...because of the housing the the automated machinery or soldier etc think copola in a wwii bomber etc. bio weaves are gr8 though because they come online faster, anyway it's preferences at the end of the day, but from the sw yeah i went to the cobra....and after that the asp explorer which is great for travelling longer distances...better than the anaconda i have now. the only ship i have which carries turreted mounts...but also check out the vulture for an over gunned beast of a ship....particuarly when engineered you'll hear more about that as you play Krait and finally the Anaconda . though i have my eyes on the cutter, though it's a grind to get one.....but i will say that unlike most i made my money from transporting people....can't say anymore than that lol....

[Walrus-Sama]

Asp Explorer is probably your next step up from Cobra MK3.

[Heimdall313]

Cobra III is a nice ship, its multipurpose. You can cargo, explore, mine, even good for piracy and combat. You picked a great ship.

Biweaves are only in C class. Less overall strength than a regular shield, but actually recharges. good on small ships. Next upgrade is the ASP Explorer for anything non-combat, or Vulture if you want a combat specialist. ASP Scout is bad - Explorer is good. Explorer is a ship people use for a very long time as its pretty much always useful early/mid game for everything, and late game its fantastic for grabbing engineering materials and unlocking engineers. I strongly recommend that as a next goal, but Cobra III will do you a lot of good even after you have an ASP.

I went from Sidewinder to Imperial Eagle to ASP Explorer, my early game grind was the Nanabozho bounty grind, but you kinda need a friend with a good combat ship to help you on that one.

Weapons, ignore the letter grade, it doesn't mean anything. Its just Size (1,2,3) and mount (fixed, Gimbal, Turret). Stick to Gimballed, most friendly system for new players. Just get a feel for what you want to do: cargo, mining, bounty hunting, etc.

Oh, Viper you mentioned. Viper III is VERY fast small combat ship, its fun, but bad for anything that isn't combat. Viper IV is similar to Cobra III, more tanky, same firepower, just less versatile.
Diamondback Scout is the premier stealth/smuggling ship, but needs engineering. Diamondback Explorer is fairly decent in combat, but its mostly a high-performance, budget explorer until you can hit the ASPX.

[Tell]

Noob here. Went Sidewinder->Adder->Cobra MkIII->Asp Explorer->Krait Phantom->Python->Type9->Krait MKII->Anaconda->Diamondback Explorer. Currently using Krait MKII for various reasons. Advice is to enjoy the journey.

Edit: Bought a Dolphin in between Anaconda and DBX late/early one night/morning.

[JL::Jose-Juan Kenobi]

My progress was: Sidey -> Imperial Eagle (combat was really itching me) -> Cobra, Viper Mk4 (why not 3? I thought "4" is better than "3" :-) ) -> Type6 , Hauler, Type7, Keelback, and the rest.

My early money makers was the Hauler; passengers mainly. then the Typ6 with Painite mining craze, and the AspX with exploration road 2 riches plus a Ammonia worlds Community Goal.

Everyone progresses at their own pace and through their own ships, all I can suggest is try to enjoy it, credits come easy and is very tempting to jumping straight to like Python, Anaconda, and skipping everything in between, and I really enjoyed that part; the Type7, the Keelback, Viper, Eagle, Courier, etc.

In other words, chose your own path, have fun!

[Sev]

My ship path was Sidewonder > Cobra Mk3 > Asp Explorer > Python > Krait Mk2 > Anaconda

The Cobra is a decent all rounder, I did have a friend help me out mining which helped in buying a python very early.

If you aren't sure on what you want to do, I would try to grab one of the allrounder ships like a Krait eventually. Highly customizable with decent stats in all aspects.

I take it mining, transport, combat, and delivery. It may not have the ridiculous jump range that the explorers have, but engineered it's above average for most ships while always able to defend itself no matter what you're doing. Plus having a fighter bay to have an npc fighter to help protect you, or a friend able to jump in at anytime is always a plus.

[Sighman]

Originally posted by BB SevenFangs:

My ship path was Sidewonder > Cobra Mk3 > Asp Explorer > Python > Krait Mk2 > Anaconda

Same, minus the Krait which I think was added in Horizons? Or was that the large alliance ships?

After Anaconda I went for the Corvette, then ranked up to get the Cutter. I don't like the Cutter in combat, turns too slowly for me.

The Python is a nice ship but I didn't enjoy combat in that either. I love combat in the Vulture, Krait MkII and Corvette.

[EngineerDoge]

Krait Phantom for exploring (My favorite ship)
Corvette for killin
Python for core mining
Krait MkII for general purpose missions

[ждун]

first ship i would go for after sidewinder ist diamondback explorer. I would configure it for exploration (engineered fsd as soon as possible) and do road to riches to gather some starting capital and reputation. Next get into trading with maybe a python and grind up about half of a billion of credits. Then consider unlocking engineers.

[Warspawn]

Originally posted by Walrus-Sama:

Asp Explorer is probably your next step up from Cobra MK3.

Got the Asp Explorer. I went to the Li Yong-Rui controlled area for the 15% discount and got it all outfitted. NICE ship! Of course the Cobra MK III is just so awesome I'll be going back to it for fun. I was doing cargo runs in it with Blast Lasers and Frag Cannons mounted up, and pirates that dared to interfere with the run paid with their scalps; bounties are always a nice bonus, lol!

I have the Asp X sorta outfitted to run some cargo for cash; I assume I'll be playing with it quite a bit and do some exploration (someone mentioned that road to riches trip. Wondering if I should run the Asp X to do that...)

I seem to be enjoying so much...guess that's pretty common. I really need to get my combat skills up, so that may be the direction I go to next. No idea yet whether I'll go for the Krait or Python next. Someone said above that they didn't like the Python for fighting in, so I'll have to look at the Vulture as well, although I may feel like the Vulture is a bit of a downgrade from the Asp X. I'm wondering about some of the faction ships as well, with Alliance/Federal/Imperial choices.

<S!>
~War~

[Planewalker]

The superwinder and adder are still a lot of fun to fly for me.
(superwinder is hiperf thrusters & ubergineered w adv weapons)

I only just recently bought the CM3 (i know x).
-it is a nice ship indeed.

[Warspawn]

Hmm, one thing I hadn't considered is the landing pad requirements. My new Asp X is pretty huge. Just walked out to the hangar and was like....OOOOohhhh.



~War~

[Heimdall313]

Originally posted by Warspawn:

Originally posted by Walrus-Sama:

Asp Explorer is probably your next step up from Cobra MK3.

Got the Asp Explorer. I went to the Li Yong-Rui controlled area for the 15% discount and got it all outfitted. NICE ship! Of course the Cobra MK III is just so awesome I'll be going back to it for fun. I was doing cargo runs in it with Blast Lasers and Frag Cannons mounted up, and pirates that dared to interfere with the run paid with their scalps; bounties are always a nice bonus, lol!

I have the Asp X sorta outfitted to run some cargo for cash; I assume I'll be playing with it quite a bit and do some exploration (someone mentioned that road to riches trip. Wondering if I should run the Asp X to do that...)

I seem to be enjoying so much...guess that's pretty common. I really need to get my combat skills up, so that may be the direction I go to next. No idea yet whether I'll go for the Krait or Python next. Someone said above that they didn't like the Python for fighting in, so I'll have to look at the Vulture as well, although I may feel like the Vulture is a bit of a downgrade from the Asp X. I'm wondering about some of the faction ships as well, with Alliance/Federal/Imperial choices.

<S!>
~War~

Vulture is top dog of Small combat ship, and really the best combat ship short of about 17 million benchmark. Chieftain is the cheapest Medium combat ship, it's very agile and hits pretty hard with excellent armor. Same with Federal Assault Ship, but no rank grind. Vulture and Chieftain are excellent for combat, but bad at anything else.
ASPX has 6 hardpoints, but that's mostly for mining gear. The armor and shields are weak, though speed and agility are good. ASPX really excels at non-combat roles. Trade, mine, explore, and later is your go-to for engineers and materials.

Krait MkII and Python are great ships for everything including combat. Python hauls more and is more tanky, Krait is faster, more agile, and has the option of a ship launched fighter drone.
Phantom does not have fighter bay, has lower cargo, and less firepower, but is very fast and agile; it's a straight upgrade of the ASPX as a fantastic explorer.
Krait has a glass bubble canopy like the ASPX, Python has a more protected canopy like Cobra III.

[indigo]

I parked my Sidewinder as soon as I could afford to and gave the Adder a try for a little while. It was decent for a time, then I moved to a Keelback, and used that until I accidentally bought a Type-7. Made great money with it, and it paid for itself in no time. After that, I went to an Orca, and that's still my go-to ship for nearly anything. Some time later, the Beluga came out, as did the Dolphin, and the Beluga started to eclipse my Orca. My Dolphin made me a fortune twice over studying the Guardian Ruins, since it can land in places even a Diamondback can't fit.

Worked my way through all the ranks, Imperial and Federation, and bought the Cutter and the Corevette, neither of which have more than 100 hours on them. Bought at least one of every ship, tried each at the various activities, and discovered what works best for me:

Combat: Beluga
Trade: Type-9
Mining: Type-9
Search and Rescue: Orca
Exploration: Beluga
Piracy: Not Telling, sorry.
Salvage: Asp Scout - yeah, it is great for picking up trash
Passenger Hauling (aka Cargo that Talks): Orca (short to mid range) or Beluga (Long range)
Skimmer/Base Raid: Scarab
Courier: Imperial Courier, oddly enough
General Mucking About/Don't Know What I Want to Do: Orca

Of the small ships, I find only the Dolphin and Imperial Courier worthy. I hated my Cobra, Viper only slightly less, and the Vulture was the only ship I'd sold - though that was due more to me just not really understanding it. Once I figured it out, I wound up buying another, put maybe 100 hours on it and haven't any idea where I parked it.

The real secret to figuring out what ship is best for you is to understand what it is you want to actually do. Once you get this figured out, you'll find that your choices of ships limit themselves, as each ship is really good at something, ok at something else, and not so great for that other thing - with one, maybe two exceptions:

The Python - The Python is absolutely the best ship at being absolutely just OK for any task. It's cheap knock-off, the Krait, which is exactly the same ship with the hardpoints upside down, is almost as good at being perfectly OK at just about anything.

Still longing for a mid-sized Saud Kruger ship - Hammerhead maybe? Mako, dunno.. but they really need something in a mid-size.