The Eagle MKII Guide

Ever wondered how to make the cheapest combat ship in the game viable at higher ranks? Well here's how!

Introduction

Hi! I'm Heartbreak One, and in this guide I should (with a bit of luck) explain exactly how to make the humble Eagle MKII take on ships more than a hundred times its price and come out alive!

Talk about value for money!

Section One: The Eagle MKII and all its statistics

The Eagle is a proven combat fighter with a distinguished history. It is one of the smallest fighters available with jump capability. It has the distinction of being the only ship that has been so successful versions have been built for both the Federation and Imperial navies. This role has been superseded by the respective navies' short range fighter programmes, but the Eagle still sees extensive service across human space. Core Dynamics are no longer building these ships, but do still provide parts and servicing due to their popularity.
- In-Game Description

You got that? I'd like to draw special attention to "proven combat fighter" and "so successful".

So, taken direct from the wiki, here are its stats (anything in bold is something i'm drawing attention to!):

Dimensions	31.2L - 29.7W - 7.1H
Type	Light Fighter
Cost	44,800 Cr
Insurance	2,240 Cr
Top Speed	239 m/s
Boost Speed	349 m/s
Manoeuvrability	10
Shields	78 MJ
Armour	72
Hull Mass	50t
Cargo Capacity	2t
Fuel Capacity	4t
Unladen Jump Range	8.47 ly

Section Two: What do these statistics mean?

What's that?
"Heartbreak, you made me look at a a bunch of numbers, not fair!"

So here's what those stats mean for you, as you sit in the cramped cockpit of your brand new eagle!
(Not my image, thanks to Tim Wheatley and his YouTube channel!)

You see the 72 MJ of shield you have? That's not a lot, by any means. A 3A generator will get you up to 102 MJ, but even then that's not much, only 250 shielding with 4 pips to systems.

Now, if you put a Bi-Weave generator on, however, you get something much more effective. The advantage of the eagle is it can easily get out of the line of fire, giving its shields time to recharge. Combine this with the 1.8/s recharge rate of 3C Bi-Weave generators, and you get something much harder to take down. Just, for the love of god, don't try and tank.

Another thing to note: 10 in the Manoeuvrability department. 10! A properly piloted eagle can outfly God and all his angels. Even a badly piloted one is a pain in the arse to hit. This here is what turns the Eagle MKII from space dust to... to... not space dust.

This means you have to fly like this guy if you wanna survive.

So i'd suggest practicing your dogfighting first, eh?











Weaponry we'll cover in the next section, but we'll talk about the utility slots now. You have one. One measly utility slot. So, what ya gonna put in it?
A shield booster? Really? Not effective anyway, and the 1.2 MW of power consumption hurts.
Heat Sink Launcher? Ehh.... not so bad a choice, but i never found a use for it.
Chaff launcher? Bingo! We have a winner!


You see it? Just there, under the wing?
Your main enemies are gonna be turrets, and to a lesser extent, gimballed weapons. Guess what the chaff does? That's right, disrupts gimballed weapons and turrets!

Section Three: Rooty tooty point 'n' shootys

*Title Translation: Guns

So, you wanna be the very best, like no one ever was? You'll need some guns. Fortunately you can infact, get these in Elite: Dangerous [citation needed]. And the Eagle can mount 3 of them, only small ones albeit, but size isn't everything!

Another plus for the Eagle, amazing hard-point positioning!

The first hardpoint is located above and behind the cockpit:
Here i'm using a pulse laser.









Whilst the other two are literally right next to eachother on the underside of the ship:
Here with twin Railguns, more about that later!









Another great advantage of the Eagle MkII's agility is it lets you very effectively use fixed weapons which offer a substantial damage increase over their gimballed and turreted counterparts. Why? Game balance, probably.

It's the user's preference wether they go for Multicannons (MC) or Lasers, as both have a similar DPS, but it is important to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of both:

Note: If you find it hard to hit with non-hitscan weaponry, try changing your gunsight. The game has two options, leading and trailing, experiment to see which one works best!

MC's
+No thermal gain
+Insanely low Distributor draw
-Finite ammunition supplies
-Reloads are a pain
-Travel time

+/- Does kinetic damage

Lasers
+Hitscan (Well, basically, unless your target is going FTL)
+Infinite Ammo
+Versatile (Pulse, Beam, and Burst are all best in different scenarios)
-Higher Distributor Draw
-High Thermal gain, at least with multiple lasers firing

+/- Does thermal damage.

I put the damage types as neither an advantage or disadvantage, as I believe they don't make too much of a difference, especially with engineer mods letting MCs do Thermal damage and lasers kinetic.

"But Heartbreak, I want something that does a little more than 10 DPS!"

Now you have three options:
1. Frag cannons
2. Plasma accelerators
3. Railguns

Since Plasma Accelerators don't come in a C1 variant, you're SOL there. So now we'll discuss Frag Cannons:

(Yes, i know this is a Cobra, and those are C2 Frags!)



So, space shotguns, eh?
These are usually not so useful on larger ships, as you cannot get close enough to make the most of the hideously powerful amount of submunitions. In the Eagle? Not a problem! If you ain't up their exhaust pipe you ain't close enough!

+High DPS
+OK Reload
-Low effective range. Like seriously low.
-Low ammo count. 3 rnd mags, 90 reserve.

Overall, not a bad shout, just so long as you don't mind low combat endurance. I can't say too much about these, as i've never really used them. If someone does wanna offer their thoughts, feel free, in the comments section.

The Cyan Dragon has some words on these things:
They are shotguns, yes, but up close they put out so much damage that even against shields they are terrifying. Three smalls on an Eagle can drop 24% of a Federal Gunship's hull in a single pass. They're amazing, and they're only downside is the damned ammo, but, Engineering sythesis fixes that very easily.

-The Cyan Dragon

Railguns:

Now these, I do have experience in. My iCourier (That is the topic of most of my forum posts, love that ship!) packs one, my old Viper MkIII packed two. Why? Once you get around the oddities of its operation it becomes seriously powerful.

A C1 Railgun has a stated DPS of 37/s. This is almost double a C4 Multicanon. You won't get this high however, due to the Railgun's flaws, but you can get pretty damn close!

+High damage
+Hitscan (The projectile is so fast it basically is)
+Combo of kinetic and thermal damage
+Long range
-Low ammo count (30 reserve with one chambered)
-Odd firing mechanic
-High heat gen
-Huge Distributor draw

So yeah, there you go. The odd firing mechanic is that the railgun has to charge before it fires, think of it as reloading before you fire, so you have to make sure you're still aiming at the target when it goes off. If you can master this, you'll slaughter small ships and deal heavy damage to larger ones, the only limitation being your ammo count.

For context, 30 rounds was enough to take out an Expert ranked Vulture solo (with 2 railguns).

However, if you factor in engineer mods you can do something very, very cool. One of the RG's special effects is called Plasma Slug
This does 2 things:
+Converts it to do solely Thermal damage (also, -20%, but that can be fixed with the mod itself.)
+Makes it draw ammo from your fuel supply, giving you near infinte ammo if you have a fuel scoop.

So essetially a hit-scan PA with ammo made of fuel. What's not to love?

The Different Types of Laser

I'm putting this mini section here as people underestimate the differences between the lasers, so here they are!

Pulse
+Most Versatile
+Lowest power consumption
+Lowest Heat generation
+Good for all ranges
-Doesn't really shine at any range

Beam
+Highest DPS
-Monstorous power consumption
-Huge heat generation
-Close range only
-Has to be held on target to do any significant damage
(think of it like a laser pointer jacked up on steroids!)

Burst
+Close - Medium range
+High DPS
+High Burst DPS, good for fighting fast and agile ships, where you need to do full damage in a split second
-High Power Draw
-High Heat

Section 4: My Eagle

So, as a demonstration of the rest of the guide, i figured i'd show you my eagle.
Here's a list of things I know it can take on:
-Competent FDL
-Master Federal Dropships
-Expert Vulture

Things that have kicked my ass:
-Deadly Sidewinder
-Elite Imperial Eagle

Note that the most difficult targets are other fast and agile ships like your own. Whilst nothing can out-fly you, the Imperial Eagle's combination of similar agility and higher speed alongside its upgraded guns can give you some serious problems.

The most important thing after the 2.1 AI update that put most AI pilots through the Top Gun School, is not to underestimate your opponents!

Front right: You after reading this guide, Front Left: Your best friend who dies in a tragic accident after reading this guide, Back: AI pilots.

My Eagle

There are many like it, but this one is mine...

Hardpoints:
Top: C1 Pulse Laser (Fixed)
Bottom: 2x C1 Railgun (Fixed)
Utility: Chaff Launcher

Core Components:
Reactor: 2A + Overcharge to 10.11 MW
Thrusters: 2D (lightest, with low power draw)
FSD: 3A
Life Support: 1D
Power Distributor: 2A
Sensors: 2D

Optional Internals
+3C Bi-Weave
+2A Fuel Scoop
+1C Fuel Tank
+1D FSD Interdictor

Note: for the last three slots exchange for whatver you want, and also for bulkheads.

As explained in the earlier section, the Railguns let you hit hard and fast, whilst the pulse laser acts as a back-up.

The downside of the Twin-Rails build is the power consumption, hence only 2D thrusters and the overcharge engineer mod.

So, what does the build get you statistics wise?

Stats
Mass: 81.1t/135t
Speed (Regular/Boost): 243/355 m/s
Jump Range: 19.02 ly
Total Effective DPS: 81.9
Shield Strength: 84

Total Cost: 1,277,860 Cr
Rebuy (At 95% insurance): 63,893 Cr

Now, this is a bit on the pricey side. You can shave off a couple of hundred grand by downgrading the FSD to a B grade, and the same goes for the Power Distributor too.

Do keep in mind this is customised for my own use, so your mileage may vary.

Current Project: The Glass Cannon

Recently i've been making some changes to my Eagle, one of them included putting a Gimballed Beam laser in the top slot, which was stupidly powerful.

But my main goal is to put Enhanced Propultion Systems (3A) on to my Eagle. Performance wise, these blow every other engine so far out of the water they end up in orbit, at one cost:

5 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mega watts of power consumption

So, i'm gonna wait until Thursday, when i'll have access to the Imperial Hammer, stick that on my iCourier, leave ALD, go to sirius, do whatever (or whoever) to get my rank up and unlock Marco Quent, and overcharge my powerplant to Grade 5, which means my Eagle is gonna be damn near unhittable.

UPADTE:

Been doing some trickery with engineers and what now, and with out Quenties' help, i've made it work. Just.

Hardpoints:
2x C1 Railgun (Plasma Slug)
1x C1 Multicannon (Gimballed)

Utilities:
-None-

Internals:
'A' Grade powerplant, overcharged to 11.01 MW with a lucky Grade One roll.
'A' Grade Enhanced Performace Thrusters - Grade One Clean Drive tuning
'E' Grade Life Support
'B' Grade Power Distributor
'D' Grade FSD
'D' Grade Sensors

Optionals:
2A Fuel Scoop
Class One Cargo Hold
Class One Fule Tank

Now, I know what you're thinking.

'This looks like ♥♥♥♥.'

A 'd' Grade FSD? What the ♥♥♥♥ am I thinking? That's ♥♥♥♥♥! MY gran could jump father, and she's dead! Although, she didn't have twin railguns, so....

Also, the only reason i can power this ♥♥♥♥ is because my Cargo Hatch and Fuel scoop are permanantly disabled. That gices me an extra 0.99MW, putting me exactly at 12MW. Guess what all this adds up to?

12MW.

This thing would go critical if I tried to charge my phone from it, I swear to god.

Here's why it's all worth it:
524 m/s boost speed. That's without Dirty Drive tuning too. That's quicker than Bolt running the 100m whilst on crack. So yeah, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fast. Quicker than my Courier, that's how fast it is.

I'm pretty sure I broke the MNV scale too. Still 10/10, so I can't base it off that. To put it lightly, I get motion sickness if I go FA-OFF. It's that bad/awesome. Badawesome? Bawsome?

All jokes aside, even now when it's half finished, this thing is ungodly in a fire-fight. I've been testing it in the Pleiades Conflict Zones, and i've only died twice:

1. Suprised from behind with a C4 Plasma Accelerator while flying to another fight. Was already at 74% Hull. Shields went 'lol, nope' and buckled and the Plasma Accelerator ripped through my hull. ♥♥♥♥ you, Imperial Clippers.

2. Duelling a Python, kicking ass (as usual), he was at 17% and boosted, I... didn't get out the way in time. That sucked.

So if you're out there, and see an Eagle speeding around, say hi!

Still waiting on the Sirius Permit, hoping they go to war with someone sometime soon, so I can collect some bonds and rank up quicker. So that's still a WIP.

Section 5: More ships like this

Alternate title: I'm a sissy who wants something more forgiving to fly

If you're willing to sacrice the ungodly agility for some extra speed and a C2 Hardpoint, the Imperial Eagle is available, although its ridiculously high rank requirement of zero might put some people off. All joking aside, a solid, if pricier choice.

The Imperial Courier handles much like a bigger brother of the Imperial Eagle, having 3x C2 hardpoints, and even more shielding. A very, very good choice.

Suprisingly, the Imperial Clipper too, if the Eagle was a 700t ship with ♥♥♥♥♥ weapon spacing and bad shielding.

If you don't wanna grind rank, but still wanna throw down with the big boys, i'd reccomend the Vulture. At a measly 5 Million you get a top-class combat ship, which might be slow as ♥♥♥♥ but is just about the only thing that can match the Eagle in a dogfight. Did i mention it packs 2x C3 Hardpoints? Yup, it's got some serious bite to it's bark.

Section Six: Engineer Mods

You're looking for the outro? Yeah, sorry, that's section seven now.
That's right, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, this guide just got updated!

Anyway, with the most recent patch, engineer mods are much easier to require aquire (sorry, my inner idiot was leaking out there), which is great if you're like me and are too lazy to actually go out there and spend hours searching for Mechanical Components, which never ever seem to drop because RNJesus is laughing at you behind your back.

Thanks, RNJesus.

Now, what mods do i reccomend? Well, if you'd be patient i'll tell you!

FSD
I never thought i'd say (write?) this, but the Faster Boot-Up mod is probably a better choice. My reasoning?

In the Eagle, things can go from 'Hahaha! I'm out-flying this sucker easy!' To 'FUUUUUUU**!' in about five seconds, or two if you ♥♥♥♥-up. At grade 5 this mod can reduce the charge-time by 75% maximum. 75%! Which, also reduces the effective mass disruption factor by 75% too.

So when that Deadly Anaconda starts swinging around its Class 4 huge ****, you can get out without too much dodging, saving you the oh-so hefty rebuy costs.

Of course, the Longer Range FSD mod remains a solid choice, if you want even more range, i'm not 100% on the numbers, but I reckon with a light Eagle build you could scrape 30ly. Not bad for 'the smallest jump-capable fighter', eh?

I say 'light Eagle' but the whole thing weighs about 300 grams anyway.

Engines
First off, ♥♥♥♥ you, strengthened drives, you are useless.
ahem
With the recent patch, AI's frequency in targeting Sub-Systems has dropped or even been removed, which makes it even more useless! Besides, anyone who's actually firing on your engines is gonna be shredding your hull anyway! So yeah, don't even think about this mod.

Does anyone actually aim for drives? I always go for the powerplant, because that way, you knock out all their systems at once! Anyway...

So, clean or dirty drives?

Dirty Drive Tuning

+Biggest Speed boost
+dust cloud spells out profanities
-Increased Thermal load
-higher power draw

Clean Drive Tuning

+Lowered Thermal Load
-Lower Speed Boost
-Dust Cloud censors chat log

Note: Both increases speed by quite a significant amount but- Sorry, what?

What's thermal load?

Right, go into normal flight, all systems on, hardpoints out, full throttle. Check your heat guage. If you're in a Diamondback, it should be pretty low. If you're in a Fer-De-Lance it's probably at 200%, cause that thing has ♥♥♥♥♥ radiators.

The point is, this is your ships base operating temperature, which is the thermal generation from your core components balanced against the heat effeciency of your power plant. Generally, its higher on big ships, aside from the Diamondback range which is so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cool that you can barely see out the cockpit because of its sunglasses.

Seriously though, without going into too much detail, since this is the Eagle Guide, not Diamondback Guide, the Diamondback range (Explorer and Scout) will be hard to pick up on scanners, especially with our ♥♥♥♥♥ 2D grade ones. I usually pick 'em up at around 1000m, usually more though.

Back to drives!

I'd go dirty, unless you're running some PvP Stealth Rail Eagle build. If so, you came to the wrong guide. But yeah, more speed.
I feel the need...






The need for speed!










Power Plant
If you've paid any attention to the rest of the guide, you'll know this thing uses a lot of power, like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, that kind of power.

With the new patch, the overcharged power plant mod costs one ultra-common material (I had 32, so no excuses!). Just re-roll until you get something good!


Railguns

Three options:
Super-Penetrator
heh...
+Damage all modules along the rounds path
-longer reload
+/- round and muzzle flash are yellow

5/10, i didn't really notice much of a difference.

Feedback Cascade
+Overloads SCb's
+Get revenge on those SCB -♥♥♥♥♥♥!
-Lowered damage

?/10, never used 'em, so can't say much, but I can see the appeal.

Plasma Slug
+Ammo draws from fuel
-20% damage drop
+/- Purple muzzle flash/round trail
+/- Thermal damage

8/10, damage drop minor, and easily countered, in exchange for much more ammuntion? ♥♥♥♥ yeah!

Easy way to get the railgun mods?

My current set-up uses the Short-Range Blaster Grade One mod, reducing the maximum range to 2400m, but reducing the damage debuff to 13% (-20+7). These are available from Todd 'The Blaster' McQuinn (Wonder who gave him the nickname? The crowds, or his girlfriend...).

Todd's Alliance aligned, so if you're in Power Play watch it. His rep can be easily boosted by handing in Alliance Bounties at Trophy Camp on Trus Mardi.

No, as you probably know, you can sacrifice 2 levels of REP to force an experimental effect of your choosing. What this translates into is around 300-500 thousand Cr per upgrade. Best way to get the Allaince bounties is with a KWS, which if you're bounty hunting, you should have anyway.

Section Si- no, wait... Seven: Outro

Note how i've thrown numbering conventions out the door? Ooops!

So, thanks for reading my first guide, and i hope it's at least semi-coherant.

As a thank you, enjoy some 'cool' screen shots of my eagle in action:






Good luck out there, CMDR!


Update Log:
29/1/16: Added engineer mods section
9/8/16: Fixed up some ♥♥♥♥♥ formatting, added on to the 'My Eagle' section.
16/8/16: Added more about the Glass Cannon project, added comment about Frag Cannons. Seems like someone was actually ballsy enough to use 'em.

[SchlomoLePhoque]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwTzHbIXSlI&ab_channel=GARRISON

[I'm losin' my marbles]

I've played an eagle for about a half year now, and I love it more than any other combat ship!

[Tickled Pickle]

Glad to see my favorite ship in the game get some love.

[zmey]

eagle is not agile enough to compete with ships bigger than a sidewinder.
OP is straightn't

[EightByteØwl]

no u

[BoSmoke]

HEY THIS IS GREAT!!

[Ol' Ratman]

Have your tried Redouts or blackouts in an eagle? Kind of bull the ship takes over when you do...

[Snow]

Hehe..a badly piloted eagle is harder to hit than a good one...

[EightByteØwl]

Oops. I guess I should not answer Elite questions at 2am.

[Heartbreak One]

Sorry for causing some confusion there, but the 'official' name is the Eagle MKII, it's from the older Elite games, where there was an Eagle MKI too (and the MKIII, which salad pointed out is the iEagle). I figured I should stick with the wiki names to keep it consistent.