PVE Cobra for a noob

[GHKtruc]

Hey !,

I kinda want to try the current community goal of kicking Rochester into the *****, but I'm fairly new and no idea how to outfit a ship. I've about 7 mil so I don't want it to break the bank either. When I asked about an Eagle build, I've was told to basically slap a bunch of hull-reinforcement and call it a day. I assume that the same holds true for the Cobra ?

tldr, Cheap MKIII for pve, thoughts? : https://s.orbis.zone/ci4a

[Edelweiss ✿]

You're gonna have a rough time in warzones with a cobra. The NPCs there are basically at or near max rank and fully engineered. You dont need cargo racks. Your powerplant and thrusters are quite weak. Your shields are very low. Your energy weapons should be in the smalls, bullets on the mediums.

[AJ24]

This is my Cobra. It's a general purpose that can hold its own at a nav beacon but I wouldn't be taking it into a conflict zone: https://s.orbis.zone/ci5o

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Edelweiss ✿:

You're gonna have a rough time in warzones with a cobra. The NPCs there are basically at or near max rank and fully engineered. You dont need cargo racks. Your powerplant and thrusters are quite weak. Your shields are very low. Your energy weapons should be in the smalls, bullets on the mediums.

It won't be easy, but its doable, although I'd probably go for rails/PAs instead to get past the damage resistance that the engineered ships will have.

OP - regardless of what I just said, pay attention to what Edelweiss said as well. Even a Low CZ is not easy in a small ship and you will want some engineering.

If you want that weapon loadout, i'd probably make the beams small and the MCs medium. Small MCs are going to do very little damage to medium and large ships due to the damage reduction they suffer against larger hulls. Lasers on the other hand you're using against shields and the DR doesn't kick in for that. Plus in CZ its not the shields that are usually the issue, the issue is the insane hit points the damn things have.

You're going to have to focus on subsystem targetting as well, taking out power plants. If you try and take out the hull you'll be there all day on anything bigger than a small ship.

About the utility slots, chaff is nice, but you'll be in the CZ a while, and not sure how long those chaff will last. And remember, enemies with fixed weapons, especially rails and PAs (and big ships in CZ love to equip PAs) won't be affected.

You might be better served with another PDT. I say this because CZ ships often have a missile rack as well and the moment your shields drop you will get shot at with missiles.

Main advice though, stick to the edges of the battle, pick your targets, ideally only small ones, and even better if the enemy already has an ally on them. Never allow yourself to get into a situation where there are multiple enemies against you. The CM3 is fast, use that to choose your targets.

Overall though, i think you are simply too inexperienced to even be considering CZs. What you want to do would be a challenge even for an experienced player.

As an aside, even my fully engineered CM4 which has hitpoints up the wazoo is still a challenge to win in a CZ and it has more DPS, shields, and HP than what you have there.

[GHKtruc]

So huh you kinda make it sound like Low intensity and Medium/High are the same types of ennemies ?

[Ratt]

Originally posted by GHKtruc:

So huh you kinda make it sound like Low intensity and Medium/High are the same types of ennemies ?

Low-intensity combat zones are only low-intensity relative to other combat zones. They're war zones; the NPCs there are soldiers, and they're better equipped than most pirates.

Even a low-intensity combat zone is already more dangerous than interdictions, smuggling, nav beacons, and resource extraction sites (low, medium, high, or hazardous; it doesn't matter). The only harder things are PvP, alien hunting, wing assassinations, and the higher-intensity combat zones.

When you go in, there'll be a bunch of NPCs on both sides, so if you're lucky, you might be able to stay in a big enough ball of friendlies to not get shot for a while while you shoot what they're already shooting. You'll do almost no damage, though, and you'll blow up pretty quickly if anything decides to target you anyway.

[GHKtruc]

Would any other small ships be better suited for that ? DBS seems kinda limited by the lack of optionals internals.

[Jack left town]

Obviously A rate it instead of D rating, except for life support and sensors. Lazor/Multi is a perfectly valid workaday combo, gimballed is fine cause cobra's hardpoints are a mess. I suggest you swap them around: small laser, medium gat, because cobra's power distributor is pathetic. If there's one thing the cobra's great at it's running away, so don't worry about dying, as long as you don't get your drives taken out (boost and flip FA off to fly backwards at full speed).

[Jack left town]

Originally posted by GHKtruc:

Would any other small ships be better suited for that ? DBS seems kinda limited by the lack of optionals internals.

Viper mk3 has the same hardpoints while being faster and tankier.

[Mr Robert House]

You want the largest shield possible, Hull reinforcement in all other slots except 1-2 which should have module reinforcement.

Core modules should be A rated, but life support and sensors can be D rated

Optional slots and weapons are personal preference, but no matter what you do a CZ will be rough in a non-engineered cobra

You definitely want panic chaff

[misc65]

Originally posted by GHKtruc:

Would any other small ships be better suited for that ? DBS seems kinda limited by the lack of optionals internals.

Courier, vulture, viper 4 are all capable when fitted and engineered

[master4arms]

Here is my advice for what it is worth to you.

Go unlock Tod the blaster, grab a mining laser and collector limpets and mine some raw mats in a hot spot(not ore), or hit up a collection point on a planet with a SRV and get some raw mats to get max level 1 long range. You just need Sulphur for level 1 long range. You can also do missions and get raw mats as the reward and trade them as well. It takes about 45 mins to 1 hour if you bother to google what to do.

Here are the basic combat builds that I have up for open use that are either unengineered or lightly engineered for noobs in my squad. I do not post short links as they have a history of not working after a while.

Basic Cobra MK3 (no engineering) https://coriolis.io/outfit/cobra_mk_iii?code=A4pataFaladasaf4271b241800032b2bB32727m3m13x.Iw18cQ%3D%3D.MwBjEYUgmXvSUxgCxA%3D%3D..EweloBhBGA2EoEMDOAHEMJYTiQ%3D%3D

Basic Cobra MK3 (lightly engineered by Tod the blaster) https://coriolis.io/outfit/cobra_mk_iii?code=A4pataFaladasaf4272a242900032b2bB32727m3m13x.Iw18cQ%3D%3D.MwBjEYUgmXvSUxgCxA%3D%3D.H4sIAAAAAAAAA%2BP4F87AwPCXEUj8AWIGLREgIfSCmYFBQgcoKHmBnYFBG0T850RSmYZD5X8uJEXMeI3jJsa4%2FyAnAQCbg4L7owAAAA%3D%3D.EweloBhBGA2EoEMDOAHEMJYTiQ%3D%3D

Viper MK4 (no engineering) https://coriolis.io/outfit/viper_mk_iv?code=A4pataFal5dasaf4271b241800032b2bB42927m3m1253x.Iw18SQ%3D%3D.MwBjEYUgmXvSUzICxA%3D%3D..EweloBhBGA2EoEMDOAHEMJYTiQ%3D%3D

Viper MK4 (lightly engineered by Tod the blaster) https://coriolis.io/outfit/viper_mk_iv?code=A4pataFal5dasaf4272a242900032b2bB42927m3m1253x.Iw18SQ%3D%3D.MwBjEYUgmXvSUzICxA%3D%3D.H4sIAAAAAAAAA%2BP4F87AwPCXEUj8AWIGLREgIfSCmYFBQgcoKHmBnYFBG0T850RSmYZD5X8uJEXMeI3jJsa4%2FyAnAQCbg4L7owAAAA%3D%3D.EweloBhBGA2EoEMDOAHEMJYTiQ%3D%3D

Viper MK3 (lightly engineered by Tod the blaster) https://coriolis.io/outfit/viper?code=A4p5t5F5l5dasaf22a2729240003292929B5m1m13x.Iw18UA%3D%3D.MwBjEYUgmXciZhA%3D.H4sIAAAAAAAAA%2BP4F87AwPCXEUj8SQMSWiJAQugFMwODhA5QUPICOwPDf04kRQw4FGmDVXIRYxw3kiJmvMb9B9kGAJlyQQ2jAAAA.EweloBhAWEoUwIYHMA28QgIwV3fEQA%3D%3D

Viper MK3 (no engineering) https://coriolis.io/outfit/viper?code=A4p5t5F5l5dasaf21b2718240003292929B5m1m13x.Iw18UA%3D%3D.MwBjEYUgmXciZhA%3D..EweloBhAWEoUwIYHMA28QgIwV3fEQA%3D%3D

If you can manual dock then drop the Autodocker for a 1D hull reinforcement. Should you need to travel swap a cheap B rated fuel scoop into a module reinforcement slot and STORE the module reinforcement. (If you can afford an A class scoop then use one.) When you get to where you need to be then have your module reinforcement shipped there. That or buy a new one if they sell it there and remotely sell the old one. STORE your fuel scoop! Not all places sell them and you do lose some money if you keep rebuying them. That way if you go to a system that does not sell what you need you can have it shipped to you.

I don't care if you change things to your liking in the builds provided. Use them as they are or mod these builds to your taste. This is only helpful advice for someone who asked. I am not here to play the "my build is better than your build" game. These are set up as intro builds for those that have no idea what they are doing. I've run these in both high combat zones and HasRez sites to test how well they do. They are boring builds but work.

Enjoy and good hunting.

[GHKtruc]

Thanks ! If you say basic engineering takes only 1h to do then I might give it a try. I see you don't use energy weapons ? How long until you run out of ammo ?

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by GHKtruc:

Thanks ! If you say basic engineering takes only 1h to do then I might give it a try. I see you don't use energy weapons ? How long until you run out of ammo ?

Not the person you are asking, but i have plenty of ammo to last a CZ or two if in a medium or large ship. My small ship has just enough for one run because you need to shoot so much more to take out ships you burn through the ammo quicker.

And yeah, basic engineering of a few things doesn't take long and not onerous on materials/data.

Its more an issue of travel times if you don't have something with a good range and a good fuel scoop to get around the bubble with.

PS: Calculate your engineering requirements before going anywhere and go to material/data traders to trade for what you need (but don't trade away something you do need!). Fortunately data/material traders are in a lot of systems.

You can use a site like inara,cz to calculate your engineering requirements and where to find traders.

Or you can use a tool like EDDI as well.

[GHKtruc]

I know this is a bit old, but I though the event was running until the 18th, so I did not make it to the comunity goal system in time. Now question, what do I do now ? I've read passenger missions where a good way to make cash, is this a good way to start ?

[Thiran]

Originally posted by GHKtruc:

I know this is a bit old, but I though the event was running until the 18th, so I did not make it to the comunity goal system in time. Now question, what do I do now ? I've read passenger missions where a good way to make cash, is this a good way to start ?

Strip out everything except shields (until you're confident you can survive or dodge interdictions consistently, then pull them out for cargo as well), put max cargo racks into every slot possible and use this: https://eddb.io/trade/hops

Let the site calculate a few hops around the bubble and find one that suits you best. In some cases depending on how much cargo you can haul you can make upwards of 20 million in 5 minutes or less (its rare though, and this is usually only doable with a Type 9). Don't blindly follow the multi-hop route it calculates though, find a single trade that gives you the most cash and just repeat it for as long as you manage to not die of boredom.

It's boring but its VERY effective (you can legit make a few billion within days). Also highly recommend unlocking the guardian fsd booster, regardless of losing 64T cargo cap. The increased jump range can lead to more lucrative and shorter hops then having to jump additional times.

edit: also be mindful of the distance from star to whatever station you intend to fly toward. Even if it looks juicy racking in a ton of credits with a single trade, it isn't gonna make it any more effective if you have to travel for 15 minutes just to reach that station (+ interdictions can get on your nerves on longer trips as well)