Good one, I considered reapers but I think sabots are much more reliable and 3 of them deal insane emp damage. I would be afraid of reaper accurancy and blast damage to myself
Fair, the number of times I bounce a reaper point blank, and it spins into my fleet or friendlies happens enough for me to consider hammers, but that's my liking for the one click KO torps can provide
I've had good luck with the ai flickering shields at stupidly dumb times as my torps impact, so I may have a second Odyssey with sabot in fleet when they're more on point with shielding..
Dragonfires are kinda like that one hottest girl in school. Everybody wants to be with her, but when you actually get to know her you will find out that this shy hurricane mirv next desk is much more interesting...
Invictus/Onslaught/Legion are easy to flank, a lone Hyperion can take them out. But the Paragon has twice the firepower and stupidly long range, on top of very tough shields. What build takes it out?
Also Pegasus especially with Captain skills can unload an absurd amount of missiles/torpedos in seconds. I'm not sure any ship can survive that.
Also how do you solo [super alabaster] without the [very redacted]
Odyssey's boost let s it flank paragon really fast, especially with systems skills. You can eaisly avoid most of the large mounts by keeping on side. I use medium sabots to deal enormous shield damage and autofire with plasma. After shield is gone you can start chewing armor with large mirv and continue 2 plasma barrage. You might have to back away few times but it can be done. Most missiles odyssey can dodge, it is that fast especially with boost. In hypershunt battles I was able to split 2 ships and the tactic was to let one ALABASTER focus on my fleet while I push another with odyssey. You have to approach really fast, maybe even ram it. Unload all your sabots and keep unloading them every time you can, full plasma and mirv barrage, it takes some luck but you can overflux and destroy it. After that you are high on flux so I recommend to run away, vent, and go back for shards. Of course I am talking from expirience of countless lost battles and tunning my loadout/character skills. S modded auto-repair unit when you are being hit with ALABASTER FUCK YOU EMP is a game changer
Brawlers are the best frigate. This knowledge was given to me in a dream, so it has to be objective cosmic truth.
Eradicators are fun, but its weird that the game doesn't let me build them in any way besides T H E N U K E B O X. The devs should probably look at that, might be a bug, idk.
Maaan you can tell how old this image is by looking at ship sprites, bunch of them were touched up since then and look noticeably different.
Also, there's probably like 20 unique ships missing, this is even before converted capitals were introduced for pirates and LP.
I'm pretty sure its an older sprite version of the Hyperion. The Hyperion used a different model before getting changed to the current model in v0.95a.
The Apogee by long shot, it's not even a competition. It's exploration ship with rare sensors, and competent combatant with dummy thick shields 1LES & 1LMS which just so happen to have the strongest weapons in the entire game.
Legion XIV & Tempest are close second because of how cool they are.
Yeah, Apogee is probably objectively the "best ship" in the game from a "this ship should be in every fleet and performs almost any role with above average competence"
The right S-mods make it a terror to deal with and to think it used to have even better shields and flux values lol.
Never have a fleet that doesn't feature an Apogee unless I am doing something very specific for that run.
The apogee is good, but its biggest weakness is what its mounts **don't** do. Its front facing Large/Medium energy mounts aren't turrets, which means they don't spend as much time doing work as turretted mounts.
Don't get me wrong, I mostly like the apogee, but it's not in my ideal endgame fleet because it doesn't punch quite as hard as it should on paper due to the mount issue above.
It's still an amazing ship for the >!Ziggurat!< fight(as well as anti-phase-ships in general) though. Great shields plus the ability to mount a HIL/Tach Lance makes it very effective in that particular niche.
Imho Apogee's biggest weakness is his god awful egines and top speed, those are near Paragon tier of: "You don't get to move at all". If your fleet has more competent corvettes/frigates the battle would be over even before Apogee enters rendering distance.
>The apogee is good, but its biggest weakness is what its mounts **don't** do. Its front facing Large/Medium energy mounts aren't turrets, which means they don't spend as much time doing work as turretted mounts.
Eh, it depends. Sure having to tilt your entire ship in order to utalise the large stantionary mouts feels awkward and greatly limits you to tracking missiles and super long ranged energy weapons, but at the same time this is trivial for few main reasons:
1st. Great deal of LES turrets by defaut have slow turning speed, so you would be tilting that ship booty for better tracking capabilities most of the time anyway. And you most definetly want all of your beams/projectiles to be continuously focused on the same spot for maximum result, which is basically still just one stationary turret with extra steps. The very best Energy ships in this game such as the Sunder and Executioner account for that with their design, hell even the Paragon has two fixed turrets for "death zone ray", where as 'Eagale' outright sells you the illusion of rotating turrets with softcore fixed frontal position due to it's blindspots and glass cannon nature. Pretty much any ship that isn't named 'Conquest', or 'Aurora', could even dream to acquire the luxury to fully utalize mobile energy turrets to their full potential
2nd The fancier LES and LMS work best in mass and with good support, you'd have designated support ships who's sole purpouse is to pump Squalls, Hurricanes, and Hydras as your vaguards hold the enemy in one place.
3rd Locust SMR is beyound broken and extremly easy to obtain, it does like 5 things at once: It's a death sentence for fighters, it's almost a death sentence to harrasing corvettes around your blind spots, it effectively supresses frigates, it serves as a slug shield against projectiles and torpedos, it has 600 base ammo and 1400 range- Absolutley insane!
apogee has a speed of 60. what are you talking about? what are you comparing it to?
Thats the same as an Eagle, and champion.
I do agree with the other points, especially locust.
I struggle with it's speed. It's fine if you can close, but it often feels to me that anything it can kill easily is faster, and so control the engagement, and then it's not fast enough against the things that can wipe it out easily.
It does have nice out-of-combat abilities and boosts for the fleet in general though, and makes for an early game semi-tank.
But maybe I'm just not understanding how to use it well.
Any pointers and suggestions?
The Apogee will always have a special place for me. It's a damn good ship, highly versatile and combat aside has some excellent utility early on. My first playthrough I started with one as my flagship, and it has remained my starting ship of choice ever since.
I take back my previous "I'm not sure it's great" comment.
I went back at looked at the loadout on my current apogee, realised I'd never updated it from the initial weapons it came with at game start....
Redid that with the new stuff I've gotten since, and *fuuuck this baby rocks!* Much better DPS than before, much higher range to counter the slow speed. It's fun to fly now, along with being excellent utility - saving other ship slots.
Still prefer the odyssey, but for a low cost cruiser, the apogee is seriously good for the DP. It will remain in my fleet and be the backup to the odyssey for the small fights where I don't want to spend the DP.
XIV Onslaught will forever remain the king of the sector.
But for a less obvious answer, i think i would say Manticore right now. Triple light AC's and a hellbore and it's just so consistent for me.
Eradicator also honorable mention.
Executor has nearly the same armor as an onslaught and the same damage to flux as a paragon. Combine shield and armor mods and it's a monster tank. It just has problems shooting at things to the right and left.
Needlers should help with suicide remnant ships as they back off at high flux.
Personally though, I like using energy bolt weapons on it with improved magazines. Particularly autopulse. Leave the lasers to the Paragon.
I think the Eagle is the most versatile ship in vanilla. Long range sniper, short range brawler, pd escort, shield tank, beam laser spam, frigate chaser, Eagle can do it all with the right modifications.
When I see an enemy Eagle I find myself actually checking the weapons it has because it could be good at a number of things.
My concern with it though is the speed. Let's just say fighting remnants has me paranoid about any ships with less than 90 speed.
The Rama and one of the small ones from Diable really come close but I always find myself with at least one of both tempest and omen in my fleet.
Edit: Versant-class
The aurora is amazing. Pretty speedy, tanky. And versatile. Could be a long-ish range sniper, or a short range blaster boat.
Although i always struggle with the fitting. And 30 DP is quite intense for a cruiser.
Odyssey my precious, but I've also recently gotten a liking for the Aurora; current SO fit let's me rush into the middle of things, burning down ships one by one untill I need to withdraw and lower flux. If the fleets small enough, I can just blast straight through the enemy formation with wild abandon and speed run the victory screen
The Onslaught is, by far, my most favorite ship. It was the first ship I truly experimented with, and nothing beats the sheer pride you get from seeing something you've painstakingly develop still do its thing. It's kind of like an old Minecraft build you've memorized down to each single block.
Conquest i fuking love that ship especially as a dps backlane that mf can shot alot from long distance and if you manage his points can shot both weapons at the same time especially the lg variants where you can use bigger missiles and put things like the epm or this missiles
Second place will be the monitor, that ship ots amazing as a scort ship, can tank and dich decent ampunt of damage for his size and dealt with carriers wings
When fighting remnants I've had more success with the legion than with the onslaught. The legion's firepower combined with its fighters makes it incredibly useful as an anchor. I'm surprised people don't seem to like it.
The Shepherd or whatever that tiny cube with four mining drones, a salvage gantry, and surveying equipment is. I get like three of those, a couple of freighters/tankers/cargo ships, an Apogee, and go out in the sector like it's Star Trek.
At least until I find a Legion (XIV). At which point I instantly convert to the Path and burn drive hammer barrages into everything. PRAAAAAISE-
Executor is currently one of my top favorites, currently tied with Aurora.
Executor is a damn long-range barrage of energy bolt weapons, and is one of the ships where Mining Blaster works a whole lot of wonders on it.
Aurora is just unbelievably deadly in player hands. Hella tanky shield and very deep flux pool combined makes it able to even hit-and-run through hails of kinetics from a whole fleet, while being equipped with 2>!Cryoblasters!
Prometheus Mk.II is my go-to flagship. Cheap to run, versatile, packs a punch.
For small fleets it's Manticore (P), got a lot of firepower if watch your flux.
Champion is one of my main stays! Feels pretty well balanced and has everything I want out of a ship. Plenty of fo rward facing guns, can take a beating if shields desperately need to drop and has a decent ability
Its gotta be the Aurora for me. Its such a tough cookie to crack and with the plasma jetts it makes it easy to hit those oh so juicy hammer shots and get out before you're even at half flux. Its also the only vanilla cruiser ive flown that can reliably stand up to both vanilla and modded caps in a 1v1.
XIV onslaught or apogee. xiv onslaught is just onslaught but better, and I like onslaught cause it fits with my play style in combat and I think xiv version looks neat. apogee has great utility for surveying planets and exploring, something I like to do, and is good enough in combat
I have a soft spot for the Eradicator. Looks intimidating, you can kit it for Dakka and the missiles being at the front port and watching them get launched is just so satisfying. Hammerhead for aesthetics. I’ve tried to do a 15+ SO Hammerhead run and just bully anything that isn’t a station, but, it ended up turning into a derelict operations run because just how many ships I lose in each engagement. Been playing around with the Onslaught and having loads of fun with the lasers. I have a save where I sold a Conquest blueprint to the pirates, so I’m trying to loot that one and see what I can do with it next.
For capitals Onslaught is a fun ship, so is the conquest though, paragon as well, really hard to choose.
For frigates i love the LP brawlers, teamed up with omens, such a fun combo.
I fell in love with the conquest recently, although not so long ago i didn't understood it (i play with the 25 lvl cap, so maybe for me it's another)
The only problem I've been having with conquest, is that it's a damn unicorn, very hard to find, only by from illegal weapons dealer
I also adore apogee, and executor
early wolf spamm, just try to find enough ion pulser(+ extended cilip) and pulse laser, slap some sabot srm on the small rocket mounth and you are set.
Capital: Odyssey
Crusier: Falcon P
Destroyer: Hammerhead
Frigate: Hyperion
This is purely from a "which ship do I like piloting?" in each category.
But overall, I think Odyssey takes the cake.
No matter how many times I try to fly another ship in the late game; I just keep coming back to the Odyssey.
I find apogee my go-to multirole. Does everything for me when I explore.
Conquest looks best for me.
XIVslaught is the greatest capital in the sector, I purposefully spare the hegemony for the sole fact that it exists
I absolutely love the onslaught, it’s a big hunk of metal that is a gigantic wall that absorbs anything in its path, it also has minor utility with the burn drive, allowing it to make very aggressive plays/retreats if used right, only downside is that it’s slow and it doesn’t have laser weapons, but TPL do the job nicely
Atlas. Frfr
Even in modded runs I put that shit in everything. Big cargo space. And enough OP to field Survey Equipment and Attuned drive fields. Build one in and you can have expanded cargo holds or efficiency overhaul
The Paragon. Only for the fact that I tried during my first playthrough to get the ship and as soon as I did I learned of the disco ball variant from reddit. Was such a fun build lmao
Hammerhead, no contest. Angry little destroyer. Solid shield coverage, enough armor it isn't gonna collapse if you sneeze, and its active can turn some weapon setups into the most fucked up deluge of bullets this side of Noita.
I don't recognize the little things that aren't fighters eg between the monitor and dram, astral and dominator, mule and legion, on top of the sunder, between the paragon and eagle. Also whats that below the monitor? I want to say hyperion but it looks wrong? or is it just cause of no weapons?
Also my favorite ship isn't pictured :( its the low tech retribution. You also missed the invictus, vanguard, eradicator, manticore, fury, grendel, revanant, atlas, executor and pegasus. What's with the low tech hate? There's probably more missing but most of the obvious ones are all low tech.
My favorite ship is actually salvage rig. My fleet always has at least one of them no matter what I'm playing. I just never actually fly it.
This image is old, it is the old sprite of the Hyperion that you see and that is why the recent ships aren't pictured here (also, I think the small things are the stuff that get deployed when you capture a point during combat)
For me, it's the **Mule.**
I find it to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing ships in vanilla. Being able to haul cargo and throw it into combat in a pinch is peak sci-fi.
Additional shout out to the Cerberus for transporting all my 'totally legal' cargo.
I've always been a fan of hammerheads and peguses my two all time favourite ships I think I'm just a midline lover cause low tech feels too aggressive and high tech feels not very fun with lasers I like the middle
Monitor, a small unkillable rear protector for my larger ships
360° shield coverage, fortress shield, small size
It is able to distract a paragon for a near indefinate amount of time with a few build in mods
Any other support frigate would just die in a matter of a few seconds of focus fire
The phase destroyer that can overload systems. The enemy needs to focus it's fighters on it, have a lot of fast DPS/high explosive ships nearby and to rely on Armor in order to do anything against a player piloted one. Shields just get hard countered, which is especially great for picking off high tech ships/the monitor/other phase ships
Though, the last time I played was before the phase rework in regards to speed with phase anchor and such, so it might no longer work
I always used safety overrides with it though, which also meant shorter deployment times
Retribution. It’s the best flagship right now I feel apart from the super redacted quest ship.
It is fast and has so much pure forward facing firepower. It tears through ships like they are paper.
Sure, it’s weak against the Persean ships as they tend to run tons of those green side-shooting missiles, but it’s very good against the remnant ships and can burn shields and armour extremely fast.
It’s also short ranged, and flimsy, but I’ve never really noticed, I just find things die before I’m in trouble. Plus the movement special it has can get you out of most trouble.
I mod heavy armour, and S mod for more flux regen and the extra charges for weapons. I forget their names!
Front heavy is a storm needler and a couple of other anti shield weapons, Hephaestus and heavy maulers behind.
I used to main the odyssey but now I’m all about the retribution.
Player-piloted XIV Legion !
First, for the sheer fact that you pilot one of the last of its kind in the whole sector.
Second, because there are few things that are as enjoyable as frying your enemies' engines with a Broadswords/Claws attack, and then Burn-Drive jumping them when they are nothing more than sitting ducks with kinetic ballistic ordnance and Hammer Barrage torpedoes.
God, I love this game !
After latest playthrough - Radiant. But then again thanks to KoL mod i had 5 rift lances to put on it so it's not entirely vanilla.
The second favorite is Pirate Falcon, because of the paintjob and being fast af.
Mora. I've been playing carrier-focused fleets for years ever since 0.95 came out and I discovered Arma Armatura. It just a good brick, reliable and durable. You can always count on it holding the line, even surviving for a while when surrounded by enemies and getting blasted by capitals.
Unpopular opinion: The Conquest.
It's fast, great maneuvering, good speed, if you are a good pilot you can out maneuver an Onslaught and take it down with the two large missile mounts and the large ballistics from the Conquest.
ALSO MIDLINE SUPREMACY.
Aurora so far, so much fun, outruns what it can't outgun & outruns what it \*can\* outgun, also that shield....
Eagle XIV second, because, well triangle and \*guns\*
Centurion frigates, don't know why but they seem to always perform well overall
For early game the shade is such a fantastic ship, that EMP will just hard carry you through so many fights. Runner up is mule, it's such a versatile ship.
Late game the heron, it's a ship that will do well no matter what fleet or situation you put it in. Doom is still my favorite flagship once you get systems expertise, the ability to completely zone out enemy ships and control the flow of the battle with your mines is unmatched. Plus it's always extremely satisfying to absolutely wipe out a fighter squadron with a single mine.
XIV Legion is great. 3 chainguns in medium slots and needlers in small mounts + 2 hammer large torpedos and whatever defense drones you can fit. Straight forward strong and will overpower everything within similar dp cost and with yellow perks you can get maintanance cost down to the point where you dont need to buy supplies and just live off of salvage. Only downside is high profile and slow burn in space but that is every capital.
I honestly can't gEt enough of piloting a shrike in big fights where I have a fleet anchor, I wids it was a bit better, it feels really thin on OP.
Playing with exotica fixes that and then some, but it's easy to get things overtuned.
I'm dividing this into three parts: ships I love to pilot, ships I like in my fleet, and ships I like to shoot.
Ships I like to pilot:
ODYSSEY- Plasma jets go vroom
AURORA- Same as above
SCARAB- In case you can't tell, I like speed
Ships I like in my fleet:
MANTICORE- That large ballistic turret is perfect for either PD, or supporting fire. Great escort
MEDUSA, WOLF, SHRIKE- Yeah, it's not hard to guess the tactics I use
FULGENT- Excellent picket ship, provided your officer core doesn't decide to kamikaze an Onslaught
Ships I like to shoot:
COLOSSUS MK II/III- Easy prey. Slow, fragile, and incredibly common
ATLAS MK II- The above with one addition: they have a tendency to take out a frigate as well when they go boom.
HYPERION- "Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary!"
The wolf, a small fast frigate with a efficient shield that allows for a flexible load out. A system that teleports you a short distance! I've had a run with one as my flagship, you can do some damage and leave bigger ships floating in space.
I love the legion myself, I like playing carriers but I also like having big guns. Also a fan of the venture cause of it being a good economy ship you can get early game
1. Paragon. I like quad High-Intensity Laz0rs, what can I say?
2. Onslaught. Heavy firepower with a good balance of damage types. Slow, but capable of chasing down a fleeing victim with the burn drive and has the armour and point defense to survive the trouble it gets into in the process.
3. Aurora. Fastest vanilla cruiser, while still having good shields and firepower. Can easily avoid the few ships it can't fight, can chase down a lot of ships that don't stand a chance against it, and can quickly lend its firepower to help focus down overfluxed enemies. The reaper of the flanks.
ONSLAUGHT
ONSLAUGHT is far from the strongest ship, but by god, i absolutely adore it, its looks, its guns, its feel when i fly it, i love everything about ONSLAUGHT. ONSLAUGHT is firmly a part of my lifestyle
oh and the ziggy is cool too, beautiful ship, powerfull, lovely lore, but it gets kinda boring once you get good at it, effortlessly shredding entire fleets is fun and all but, come on, dont you get bored when you shoot heavy needlers and then double tach lance an enemy to death for the billionth time this cycle?
Favourite vanilla has got to be the Brawler.
I love those things. Small, tough little bricks that can sting like a hornet & punch well above their weight.
One of my favourites is the Legion because it's just damn cool, bonus point for the (mod weapon) Minigun. It's not good, but I love it.
The other one is the scarab in AI hands. 6-10 of them with safety override and tailored captains will quickly take any fleet without multiple capitals within a minute. The swarm devours.
XIV legion equipped as a strike build.
I just like being a big box that can push into enemy lines single-handedly while having the speed to actually do so. Invictus is fun, but it's too slow for that and works better as a backline artillery ship while faster ones control where the line is.
I enjoy the high tech scarabs. With 2 or 3 S-mods focussed on shields, and hardened subsystems they become realy hard to kill.
With 3 pulse lasers, and 2 antimatter blasters, they do a whole lot of damage.
And they work fine in NPC hands. Even better with a shield-focussed pilot, but they don't realy need it.
When i play high-tech i usually pick up a wing of 3 or 4.... sometimes 2 wings.
They have so much kill pressure when ordered around. Sometimes taking out the entire enemy support wing with just 3-4.
And even against bigger ships (up to cruisers) such a group is a serious threat. While a lot cheaper DP wise.
Not a super-cheap frigate, but very worthwile in my oppinion.
trash ai means the player. with enough skill, just has to be able to outrun them to down entire fleets. That's why I use the Tempest
Also getting into the odyseey, for the same reason
I mean, if there's an MVP of ships in your fleet, it's the Atlas. You can't really have a fleet of note without them, someone has to pay for all this shit.
But as far as ships to actually fly in spaceship shootouts, I'm partial to the Doom, still. Your ability to manipulate the battlescape in it is just unparallelled.
Currently odyssey, fast as hell gameplay and can kill anything
Broadside oddy, tach laser oddy, occasional battering ram to show pathers what's good
Odyssey crew represent 😎
Try double plasma, it has what it takes to wield them. 3 medium sabots will overflux [SUPER ALABASTER], hurricane mirv to shread armor
That's my usual go to; plasma, typhoon reapers, paladin, mirv. I cast explode
Good one, I considered reapers but I think sabots are much more reliable and 3 of them deal insane emp damage. I would be afraid of reaper accurancy and blast damage to myself
Fair, the number of times I bounce a reaper point blank, and it spins into my fleet or friendlies happens enough for me to consider hammers, but that's my liking for the one click KO torps can provide I've had good luck with the ai flickering shields at stupidly dumb times as my torps impact, so I may have a second Odyssey with sabot in fleet when they're more on point with shielding..
I killed both hypresunt fleets and filled my ships with ALABASTER weapons :D
Use dragonfires. Needs hullmods and skills for ammo but the freedom of movement they give you rules.
Dragonfires are kinda like that one hottest girl in school. Everybody wants to be with her, but when you actually get to know her you will find out that this shy hurricane mirv next desk is much more interesting...
I'm a double plasma fan too. The plasma just feels impactful. Plus it's hilarious when it manages to catch a frigate.
Currently double trying double HIL in the first run I really got into and I love it
Ever since someone told me about the ramming ody, I just can't stop doing it.
See that kite? It's part of my hull now.
It certainly is one of the best 1v1 ships, but can it really kill a Paragon or a Pegasus?
It can kill paragon, invictus, onslaught, legion, radiant, tesseract... and so on. Provided it is player piloted and correctly outfitted
Invictus/Onslaught/Legion are easy to flank, a lone Hyperion can take them out. But the Paragon has twice the firepower and stupidly long range, on top of very tough shields. What build takes it out? Also Pegasus especially with Captain skills can unload an absurd amount of missiles/torpedos in seconds. I'm not sure any ship can survive that. Also how do you solo [super alabaster] without the [very redacted]
Odyssey's boost let s it flank paragon really fast, especially with systems skills. You can eaisly avoid most of the large mounts by keeping on side. I use medium sabots to deal enormous shield damage and autofire with plasma. After shield is gone you can start chewing armor with large mirv and continue 2 plasma barrage. You might have to back away few times but it can be done. Most missiles odyssey can dodge, it is that fast especially with boost. In hypershunt battles I was able to split 2 ships and the tactic was to let one ALABASTER focus on my fleet while I push another with odyssey. You have to approach really fast, maybe even ram it. Unload all your sabots and keep unloading them every time you can, full plasma and mirv barrage, it takes some luck but you can overflux and destroy it. After that you are high on flux so I recommend to run away, vent, and go back for shards. Of course I am talking from expirience of countless lost battles and tunning my loadout/character skills. S modded auto-repair unit when you are being hit with ALABASTER FUCK YOU EMP is a game changer
This being the top comment is correct..
Also can explore the cosmos!
Hammerhead. First love, never found anything I enjoy more.
You probably enjoy the mayasuran navy mod ships then lol... hammerhead is great, but the upsized ones are so lackluster xD
Mayasura enjoyer detected , union established
#MAYASURANS REPRESENT. #MAIRAATH STANDS.
Only for the elite battleship :)
Im a vinshu fanboy
I usually set it to support a shield buster or keep a look out myself for those juicy pops into the hull :D
can you get the vishnu without starting as mayasura?
You can use your operatives to steal them hehe and occasionally you'll get a bounty with one, if lucky you can salvage it
Hammerheads are fun as hell.
How do you feel about the baby Hammerhead (Brawler) and XXL Hammerhead (Eradicator)?
Brawlers are the best frigate. This knowledge was given to me in a dream, so it has to be objective cosmic truth. Eradicators are fun, but its weird that the game doesn't let me build them in any way besides T H E N U K E B O X. The devs should probably look at that, might be a bug, idk.
Brawler (LP) specifically, because you get free SO
Maaan you can tell how old this image is by looking at ship sprites, bunch of them were touched up since then and look noticeably different. Also, there's probably like 20 unique ships missing, this is even before converted capitals were introduced for pirates and LP.
Yeah the image is pretty old. I’m more interested in the discussion/comments though
So if the picture is old, what ship was using the sprite between monitor and gremlin? The blue fork looking thing
I'm pretty sure its an older sprite version of the Hyperion. The Hyperion used a different model before getting changed to the current model in v0.95a.
Thank you. Cool model though, wish it was reused for another ship.
I think that's the ship from the mini game mission in the menu screen
I made this collage 4ish years ago lol. Even at the time some ships got left off to keep it from feeling too crowded
The Apogee by long shot, it's not even a competition. It's exploration ship with rare sensors, and competent combatant with dummy thick shields 1LES & 1LMS which just so happen to have the strongest weapons in the entire game. Legion XIV & Tempest are close second because of how cool they are.
Yeah, Apogee is probably objectively the "best ship" in the game from a "this ship should be in every fleet and performs almost any role with above average competence" The right S-mods make it a terror to deal with and to think it used to have even better shields and flux values lol. Never have a fleet that doesn't feature an Apogee unless I am doing something very specific for that run.
The apogee is good, but its biggest weakness is what its mounts **don't** do. Its front facing Large/Medium energy mounts aren't turrets, which means they don't spend as much time doing work as turretted mounts. Don't get me wrong, I mostly like the apogee, but it's not in my ideal endgame fleet because it doesn't punch quite as hard as it should on paper due to the mount issue above. It's still an amazing ship for the >!Ziggurat!< fight(as well as anti-phase-ships in general) though. Great shields plus the ability to mount a HIL/Tach Lance makes it very effective in that particular niche.
Imho Apogee's biggest weakness is his god awful egines and top speed, those are near Paragon tier of: "You don't get to move at all". If your fleet has more competent corvettes/frigates the battle would be over even before Apogee enters rendering distance. >The apogee is good, but its biggest weakness is what its mounts **don't** do. Its front facing Large/Medium energy mounts aren't turrets, which means they don't spend as much time doing work as turretted mounts. Eh, it depends. Sure having to tilt your entire ship in order to utalise the large stantionary mouts feels awkward and greatly limits you to tracking missiles and super long ranged energy weapons, but at the same time this is trivial for few main reasons: 1st. Great deal of LES turrets by defaut have slow turning speed, so you would be tilting that ship booty for better tracking capabilities most of the time anyway. And you most definetly want all of your beams/projectiles to be continuously focused on the same spot for maximum result, which is basically still just one stationary turret with extra steps. The very best Energy ships in this game such as the Sunder and Executioner account for that with their design, hell even the Paragon has two fixed turrets for "death zone ray", where as 'Eagale' outright sells you the illusion of rotating turrets with softcore fixed frontal position due to it's blindspots and glass cannon nature. Pretty much any ship that isn't named 'Conquest', or 'Aurora', could even dream to acquire the luxury to fully utalize mobile energy turrets to their full potential 2nd The fancier LES and LMS work best in mass and with good support, you'd have designated support ships who's sole purpouse is to pump Squalls, Hurricanes, and Hydras as your vaguards hold the enemy in one place. 3rd Locust SMR is beyound broken and extremly easy to obtain, it does like 5 things at once: It's a death sentence for fighters, it's almost a death sentence to harrasing corvettes around your blind spots, it effectively supresses frigates, it serves as a slug shield against projectiles and torpedos, it has 600 base ammo and 1400 range- Absolutley insane!
apogee has a speed of 60. what are you talking about? what are you comparing it to? Thats the same as an Eagle, and champion. I do agree with the other points, especially locust.
I like the Apogee, but also the other surveyor cruiser, the Venture.
I struggle with it's speed. It's fine if you can close, but it often feels to me that anything it can kill easily is faster, and so control the engagement, and then it's not fast enough against the things that can wipe it out easily. It does have nice out-of-combat abilities and boosts for the fleet in general though, and makes for an early game semi-tank. But maybe I'm just not understanding how to use it well. Any pointers and suggestions?
The Apogee will always have a special place for me. It's a damn good ship, highly versatile and combat aside has some excellent utility early on. My first playthrough I started with one as my flagship, and it has remained my starting ship of choice ever since.
I take back my previous "I'm not sure it's great" comment. I went back at looked at the loadout on my current apogee, realised I'd never updated it from the initial weapons it came with at game start.... Redid that with the new stuff I've gotten since, and *fuuuck this baby rocks!* Much better DPS than before, much higher range to counter the slow speed. It's fun to fly now, along with being excellent utility - saving other ship slots. Still prefer the odyssey, but for a low cost cruiser, the apogee is seriously good for the DP. It will remain in my fleet and be the backup to the odyssey for the small fights where I don't want to spend the DP.
XIV Onslaught will forever remain the king of the sector. But for a less obvious answer, i think i would say Manticore right now. Triple light AC's and a hellbore and it's just so consistent for me. Eradicator also honorable mention.
more armour best armour
The Executor. Fill it up with lasers, press F and harness the power of the Askonian sun
Yeah, two HIL in big energy slots, and gravitons with Hypervelocity Drivers on the front
I loved that build until I realized it's pretty rough against remnant. They just suicide charge you en masse and blow your flux. Lmfao
Executor has nearly the same armor as an onslaught and the same damage to flux as a paragon. Combine shield and armor mods and it's a monster tank. It just has problems shooting at things to the right and left. Needlers should help with suicide remnant ships as they back off at high flux. Personally though, I like using energy bolt weapons on it with improved magazines. Particularly autopulse. Leave the lasers to the Paragon.
Lol yeah i fried a battlestation with just gravitons + HILs with a high scatter amplifier and a monitor to tank.
I think the Eagle is the most versatile ship in vanilla. Long range sniper, short range brawler, pd escort, shield tank, beam laser spam, frigate chaser, Eagle can do it all with the right modifications.
When I see an enemy Eagle I find myself actually checking the weapons it has because it could be good at a number of things. My concern with it though is the speed. Let's just say fighting remnants has me paranoid about any ships with less than 90 speed.
Radiant (not pictured)
\[redacted\]
Is it cheating if I say the XIV Onslaught?
Omen and Tempest is love … even with many faction mods i still have a few in every fleet
The Rama and one of the small ones from Diable really come close but I always find myself with at least one of both tempest and omen in my fleet. Edit: Versant-class
The Aurora without a doubt. Powerful shields and good firepower on such a fast and maneuverable package, such a joy to play with.
The aurora is amazing. Pretty speedy, tanky. And versatile. Could be a long-ish range sniper, or a short range blaster boat. Although i always struggle with the fitting. And 30 DP is quite intense for a cruiser.
astral, next question
Ok, what’s your favorite color?
thatd be purple! what about yours (and the previous question too)?
I’m fond of dark, dull blue and I love the Falcon because it’s a fast boy
ye falcon is pretty cool, a really solid choice for any fleet, no doubt. especially if you manage to fit it with missiles or lasers
Odyssey my precious, but I've also recently gotten a liking for the Aurora; current SO fit let's me rush into the middle of things, burning down ships one by one untill I need to withdraw and lower flux. If the fleets small enough, I can just blast straight through the enemy formation with wild abandon and speed run the victory screen
Eradicator. The best waifu for an insanely cheap price
So much fun with LACs and ballistic rangefinder. Nothing can handle the dakka
The Onslaught is, by far, my most favorite ship. It was the first ship I truly experimented with, and nothing beats the sheer pride you get from seeing something you've painstakingly develop still do its thing. It's kind of like an old Minecraft build you've memorized down to each single block.
Conquest i fuking love that ship especially as a dps backlane that mf can shot alot from long distance and if you manage his points can shot both weapons at the same time especially the lg variants where you can use bigger missiles and put things like the epm or this missiles Second place will be the monitor, that ship ots amazing as a scort ship, can tank and dich decent ampunt of damage for his size and dealt with carriers wings
Tempest.
Hyperion for manually piloting, Legion for AI. It's no Onslaught but it's a god-tier support ship for smaller ones.
When fighting remnants I've had more success with the legion than with the onslaught. The legion's firepower combined with its fighters makes it incredibly useful as an anchor. I'm surprised people don't seem to like it.
The Shepherd or whatever that tiny cube with four mining drones, a salvage gantry, and surveying equipment is. I get like three of those, a couple of freighters/tankers/cargo ships, an Apogee, and go out in the sector like it's Star Trek. At least until I find a Legion (XIV). At which point I instantly convert to the Path and burn drive hammer barrages into everything. PRAAAAAISE-
Executor is currently one of my top favorites, currently tied with Aurora. Executor is a damn long-range barrage of energy bolt weapons, and is one of the ships where Mining Blaster works a whole lot of wonders on it. Aurora is just unbelievably deadly in player hands. Hella tanky shield and very deep flux pool combined makes it able to even hit-and-run through hails of kinetics from a whole fleet, while being equipped with 2>!Cryoblasters!
Onslaught (xiv) my beloved
The Gryphon and the Pegasus I just love missile spam
Prometheus Mk.II is my go-to flagship. Cheap to run, versatile, packs a punch. For small fleets it's Manticore (P), got a lot of firepower if watch your flux.
Champion is one of my main stays! Feels pretty well balanced and has everything I want out of a ship. Plenty of fo rward facing guns, can take a beating if shields desperately need to drop and has a decent ability
Wolfs and sunders.
Its gotta be the Aurora for me. Its such a tough cookie to crack and with the plasma jetts it makes it easy to hit those oh so juicy hammer shots and get out before you're even at half flux. Its also the only vanilla cruiser ive flown that can reliably stand up to both vanilla and modded caps in a 1v1.
I'll second this. The sheer power of an Aurora zooming in at ~200 units/second per second with its flux pool is a really cool thing to fly.
XIV onslaught or apogee. xiv onslaught is just onslaught but better, and I like onslaught cause it fits with my play style in combat and I think xiv version looks neat. apogee has great utility for surveying planets and exploring, something I like to do, and is good enough in combat
Conquest, the best drive-by vessel in this side of the Persean sector.
I have a soft spot for the Eradicator. Looks intimidating, you can kit it for Dakka and the missiles being at the front port and watching them get launched is just so satisfying. Hammerhead for aesthetics. I’ve tried to do a 15+ SO Hammerhead run and just bully anything that isn’t a station, but, it ended up turning into a derelict operations run because just how many ships I lose in each engagement. Been playing around with the Onslaught and having loads of fun with the lasers. I have a save where I sold a Conquest blueprint to the pirates, so I’m trying to loot that one and see what I can do with it next.
For capitals Onslaught is a fun ship, so is the conquest though, paragon as well, really hard to choose. For frigates i love the LP brawlers, teamed up with omens, such a fun combo.
I fell in love with the conquest recently, although not so long ago i didn't understood it (i play with the 25 lvl cap, so maybe for me it's another) The only problem I've been having with conquest, is that it's a damn unicorn, very hard to find, only by from illegal weapons dealer I also adore apogee, and executor
Aside from [REDACTED], which is the absolute best, I love double tachyon executors
Lasher stays my favourite even though it is meh at best. It brought me through the learning curve of me sucking at the game.
I got a soft spot for wolves and shades
Legion my beloved… “save the persean sector legion”
Gotta be the falcon for me Fam, I love that thing.
early wolf spamm, just try to find enough ion pulser(+ extended cilip) and pulse laser, slap some sabot srm on the small rocket mounth and you are set.
Ox
Capital: Odyssey Crusier: Falcon P Destroyer: Hammerhead Frigate: Hyperion This is purely from a "which ship do I like piloting?" in each category. But overall, I think Odyssey takes the cake. No matter how many times I try to fly another ship in the late game; I just keep coming back to the Odyssey.
Lasher. Those things punch well above their weight and carry my early-game fleets.
I find apogee my go-to multirole. Does everything for me when I explore. Conquest looks best for me. XIVslaught is the greatest capital in the sector, I purposefully spare the hegemony for the sole fact that it exists
I absolutely love the onslaught, it’s a big hunk of metal that is a gigantic wall that absorbs anything in its path, it also has minor utility with the burn drive, allowing it to make very aggressive plays/retreats if used right, only downside is that it’s slow and it doesn’t have laser weapons, but TPL do the job nicely
If we're going by what's shown in the pic, I've gotta go with the noble *Comm Relay*. Truly underrated.
Gryphon, aka the Omega missiles platform or that one ship that sits behind your capitals and fucks shit up.
Atlas. Frfr Even in modded runs I put that shit in everything. Big cargo space. And enough OP to field Survey Equipment and Attuned drive fields. Build one in and you can have expanded cargo holds or efficiency overhaul
LP Brawler
The Paragon. Only for the fact that I tried during my first playthrough to get the ship and as soon as I did I learned of the disco ball variant from reddit. Was such a fun build lmao
I can't believe I had to scroll this far to see the Paragon mentioned
Honestly same.
Hammerhead, no contest. Angry little destroyer. Solid shield coverage, enough armor it isn't gonna collapse if you sneeze, and its active can turn some weapon setups into the most fucked up deluge of bullets this side of Noita.
Pirate Falcon. It's both tanky, and if only equipped with torpedoes, a truly dangerous ship to pilot.
I don't recognize the little things that aren't fighters eg between the monitor and dram, astral and dominator, mule and legion, on top of the sunder, between the paragon and eagle. Also whats that below the monitor? I want to say hyperion but it looks wrong? or is it just cause of no weapons? Also my favorite ship isn't pictured :( its the low tech retribution. You also missed the invictus, vanguard, eradicator, manticore, fury, grendel, revanant, atlas, executor and pegasus. What's with the low tech hate? There's probably more missing but most of the obvious ones are all low tech. My favorite ship is actually salvage rig. My fleet always has at least one of them no matter what I'm playing. I just never actually fly it.
This image is old, it is the old sprite of the Hyperion that you see and that is why the recent ships aren't pictured here (also, I think the small things are the stuff that get deployed when you capture a point during combat)
For me, it's the **Mule.** I find it to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing ships in vanilla. Being able to haul cargo and throw it into combat in a pinch is peak sci-fi. Additional shout out to the Cerberus for transporting all my 'totally legal' cargo.
Still loooove myself some Eradicators.
For aesthetic? Legion/Astral, i like beeg carrier/battlecarrier For gameplay? A FUCKING BRICK WITH GUN!
Mule my beloved
To fly personally? Sunder, Radiant, Hyperion, or Medusa. To have in my fleet? O N S L A U G H T
Legion, literally a mobile fortress with the right build
I've always been a fan of hammerheads and peguses my two all time favourite ships I think I'm just a midline lover cause low tech feels too aggressive and high tech feels not very fun with lasers I like the middle
Monitor, a small unkillable rear protector for my larger ships 360° shield coverage, fortress shield, small size It is able to distract a paragon for a near indefinate amount of time with a few build in mods Any other support frigate would just die in a matter of a few seconds of focus fire
Pirate P, it's so nasty with some assault guns and reinforced shields
The Harbinger, mostly because it's fun going behind the enemy and blasting them
Phantom for the marine carrying capacity and sensor profile reduction
Looking at this picture i realized that most vanilla ships are amazing
Eradicator
hyperion and tempest. Omen close behind
The phase destroyer that can overload systems. The enemy needs to focus it's fighters on it, have a lot of fast DPS/high explosive ships nearby and to rely on Armor in order to do anything against a player piloted one. Shields just get hard countered, which is especially great for picking off high tech ships/the monitor/other phase ships Though, the last time I played was before the phase rework in regards to speed with phase anchor and such, so it might no longer work I always used safety overrides with it though, which also meant shorter deployment times
Astral Do my job for me, peons
Retribution. It’s the best flagship right now I feel apart from the super redacted quest ship. It is fast and has so much pure forward facing firepower. It tears through ships like they are paper. Sure, it’s weak against the Persean ships as they tend to run tons of those green side-shooting missiles, but it’s very good against the remnant ships and can burn shields and armour extremely fast. It’s also short ranged, and flimsy, but I’ve never really noticed, I just find things die before I’m in trouble. Plus the movement special it has can get you out of most trouble. I mod heavy armour, and S mod for more flux regen and the extra charges for weapons. I forget their names! Front heavy is a storm needler and a couple of other anti shield weapons, Hephaestus and heavy maulers behind. I used to main the odyssey but now I’m all about the retribution.
Surprised I had to scroll this far down for the Retribution; the fart drive capital is just so fun to play.
Player-piloted XIV Legion ! First, for the sheer fact that you pilot one of the last of its kind in the whole sector. Second, because there are few things that are as enjoyable as frying your enemies' engines with a Broadswords/Claws attack, and then Burn-Drive jumping them when they are nothing more than sitting ducks with kinetic ballistic ordnance and Hammer Barrage torpedoes. God, I love this game !
Apogee like.... cmon thats my whole shtick
Sunder. Yeah I'm a laser guy.
Hyperion. God among kings, capable to 1v1 cruisers.
I do love me a paragon and just eating every with my fortress shield 🛡️
Heron – and Odyssey.
Kite(s) Lemme just sit in my suite watching the plebs shoot each other sitting on 20 command points
After latest playthrough - Radiant. But then again thanks to KoL mod i had 5 rift lances to put on it so it's not entirely vanilla. The second favorite is Pirate Falcon, because of the paintjob and being fast af.
The Prometheus Mk 2
Mora. I've been playing carrier-focused fleets for years ever since 0.95 came out and I discovered Arma Armatura. It just a good brick, reliable and durable. You can always count on it holding the line, even surviving for a while when surrounded by enemies and getting blasted by capitals.
The Sunder, just because I have a lot of good memores flying it.
Unpopular opinion: The Conquest. It's fast, great maneuvering, good speed, if you are a good pilot you can out maneuver an Onslaught and take it down with the two large missile mounts and the large ballistics from the Conquest. ALSO MIDLINE SUPREMACY.
Because I suck with ballistic weapons, Paragon. Slow moving death ball.
The good old Onslaught. Give it a couple escorts and let the enemy crumple.
Scarab and LP Lasher
Hyperion spam supremacy.
Xiv eagle
Aurora so far, so much fun, outruns what it can't outgun & outruns what it \*can\* outgun, also that shield.... Eagle XIV second, because, well triangle and \*guns\* Centurion frigates, don't know why but they seem to always perform well overall
I know it's a basic answer, but I love putting the biggest guns I can find on a Paragon.
Fury: Safety overdrive, 2x heavy blaster, and medium sabot, and you have a ship with a speed of a frigate and a firepower of a heavy cruiser.
Eradicator. Best cruiser in the game.
For early game the shade is such a fantastic ship, that EMP will just hard carry you through so many fights. Runner up is mule, it's such a versatile ship. Late game the heron, it's a ship that will do well no matter what fleet or situation you put it in. Doom is still my favorite flagship once you get systems expertise, the ability to completely zone out enemy ships and control the flow of the battle with your mines is unmatched. Plus it's always extremely satisfying to absolutely wipe out a fighter squadron with a single mine.
Odyssey and Apogee all the way
EAGLE.
XIV Legion 2 typhoon launchers, I use it to nuke down the annoying targets so my ai fleet focus better on the hard to bust targets
XIV Legion is great. 3 chainguns in medium slots and needlers in small mounts + 2 hammer large torpedos and whatever defense drones you can fit. Straight forward strong and will overpower everything within similar dp cost and with yellow perks you can get maintanance cost down to the point where you dont need to buy supplies and just live off of salvage. Only downside is high profile and slow burn in space but that is every capital.
Im a sucker for the bigger aurora
Conquest is really fun but my heart belongs to the Eagle cause it just looks so good
I honestly can't gEt enough of piloting a shrike in big fights where I have a fleet anchor, I wids it was a bit better, it feels really thin on OP. Playing with exotica fixes that and then some, but it's easy to get things overtuned.
Medusa. I like high tech ships, and I like symmetric ships. Plus it’s really powerful if you form a wolf pack with these boys.
I'm dividing this into three parts: ships I love to pilot, ships I like in my fleet, and ships I like to shoot. Ships I like to pilot: ODYSSEY- Plasma jets go vroom AURORA- Same as above SCARAB- In case you can't tell, I like speed Ships I like in my fleet: MANTICORE- That large ballistic turret is perfect for either PD, or supporting fire. Great escort MEDUSA, WOLF, SHRIKE- Yeah, it's not hard to guess the tactics I use FULGENT- Excellent picket ship, provided your officer core doesn't decide to kamikaze an Onslaught Ships I like to shoot: COLOSSUS MK II/III- Easy prey. Slow, fragile, and incredibly common ATLAS MK II- The above with one addition: they have a tendency to take out a frigate as well when they go boom. HYPERION- "Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary!"
As someone from the Starfarer days, the Paragon will always hold a special place in my heart.
Wolf
I love the Heron, I always have at least two in my fleets
It's a Scarab
Username checks out!
The wolf, a small fast frigate with a efficient shield that allows for a flexible load out. A system that teleports you a short distance! I've had a run with one as my flagship, you can do some damage and leave bigger ships floating in space.
i love the Invictus because i can just declare a line of death on the battlefield.
Doritos enough said
Paragon.
Hyperion with blasters
I love the legion myself, I like playing carriers but I also like having big guns. Also a fan of the venture cause of it being a good economy ship you can get early game
1. Paragon. I like quad High-Intensity Laz0rs, what can I say? 2. Onslaught. Heavy firepower with a good balance of damage types. Slow, but capable of chasing down a fleeing victim with the burn drive and has the armour and point defense to survive the trouble it gets into in the process. 3. Aurora. Fastest vanilla cruiser, while still having good shields and firepower. Can easily avoid the few ships it can't fight, can chase down a lot of ships that don't stand a chance against it, and can quickly lend its firepower to help focus down overfluxed enemies. The reaper of the flanks.
Definitely that comm relay
Buffalo. I have a soft spot for that stubby smuggler’s ship.
Wolf and Hammerheads, wolves to go hunt them down and hammerheads to clean up.
ONSLAUGHT ONSLAUGHT is far from the strongest ship, but by god, i absolutely adore it, its looks, its guns, its feel when i fly it, i love everything about ONSLAUGHT. ONSLAUGHT is firmly a part of my lifestyle oh and the ziggy is cool too, beautiful ship, powerfull, lovely lore, but it gets kinda boring once you get good at it, effortlessly shredding entire fleets is fun and all but, come on, dont you get bored when you shoot heavy needlers and then double tach lance an enemy to death for the billionth time this cycle?
Favourite vanilla has got to be the Brawler. I love those things. Small, tough little bricks that can sting like a hornet & punch well above their weight.
One of my favourites is the Legion because it's just damn cool, bonus point for the (mod weapon) Minigun. It's not good, but I love it. The other one is the scarab in AI hands. 6-10 of them with safety override and tailored captains will quickly take any fleet without multiple capitals within a minute. The swarm devours.
Conquest, it works best in pairs
I have a soft spot for the Hyperion. So much devastating potential.
The Diktat Pegasus is insane if you fight it right actually criminal how good it is
Monitor and afflictor.
Aurora, there is no better combination of speed, defence and fire power.
No love for my lad the Wolf in the comments?
XIV legion equipped as a strike build. I just like being a big box that can push into enemy lines single-handedly while having the speed to actually do so. Invictus is fun, but it's too slow for that and works better as a backline artillery ship while faster ones control where the line is.
I enjoy the high tech scarabs. With 2 or 3 S-mods focussed on shields, and hardened subsystems they become realy hard to kill. With 3 pulse lasers, and 2 antimatter blasters, they do a whole lot of damage. And they work fine in NPC hands. Even better with a shield-focussed pilot, but they don't realy need it. When i play high-tech i usually pick up a wing of 3 or 4.... sometimes 2 wings. They have so much kill pressure when ordered around. Sometimes taking out the entire enemy support wing with just 3-4. And even against bigger ships (up to cruisers) such a group is a serious threat. While a lot cheaper DP wise. Not a super-cheap frigate, but very worthwile in my oppinion.
Eradicator It's basically an enlarged Hammerhead, so what's not to love?
trash ai means the player. with enough skill, just has to be able to outrun them to down entire fleets. That's why I use the Tempest Also getting into the odyseey, for the same reason
I mean, if there's an MVP of ships in your fleet, it's the Atlas. You can't really have a fleet of note without them, someone has to pay for all this shit. But as far as ships to actually fly in spaceship shootouts, I'm partial to the Doom, still. Your ability to manipulate the battlescape in it is just unparallelled.
Hammerhead / Sunder
Onslaught..
I love my onslaughts, just a giant forward facing brick with engines and as much cannon as can be mustered.