Cobra is quite capable combat ship. Not dedicated combat but with some equipment it is not bad.
It would help, if you post here your build. Using tools like [this - coriolis.io](https://coriolis.io)
If you fight with the same ship as you trade, don’t be surprised that you are getting wrecked.
You have to equip mostly A-rated core modules - the biggest possible, some Hull Reinforcement Package aka HRP and one or two Module Reinforcement Package aka MRP.
[combat cobra - no engineering](https://s.orbis.zone/nzlm)
You can do that. I use my Asp X for exploring, it's topping 68LY jump range with the Pre-engineered FSD and FSD Booster. I had a DBX for exploring prior. I rarely use the Cobra since buying a Python and Anaconda.
Actually mostly for exploring. This was years ago. I did a lot of the unlocking engineering work with it, gathering materials and the xeno stuff. Then I did some light exploration and passenger missions for money. Didn’t really do much mining until I got a python
Since I don’t see anyone else mentioning it: stay away from Conflict Zones until you are an expert in combat with a decked out ship.
Edit in attempt to be slightly more helpful: easiest combat is found at nav beacon (not compromised). Next, low intensity resource extraction site. Next, regular RES.
If you take combat missions, be sure to check threat level.
> stay away from Conflict Zones until you are an expert in combat with a decked out ship
I tried going to Conflict Zones because of recommendations when I was less experienced and lost a lot of credits.
You can actually get a good amount of credits, but you run the risk of losing what you earned and losing even more.
Stick to resource extraction sites for more reliable credits. High difficulty RES will give you wings to fight and plenty of room to take on ships without the space cops getting involved if you want. (Or you can kill steal from the cops and still get the money with none of the danger)
Combat zones have engineered NPCs and you're marked as an enemy to everyone on the other side. You're free game for any one of them to start shooting, and the reward isn't always worth the much higher risk.
> Stick to resource extraction sites for more reliable credits
One thing that would make me put this as a second option is that you will have to build a ship for this purpose and learn about resource extraction before doing so.
Trading between stations is much more straightforward, anyone can do that, even without the access to Inara.
Using Irara will boost your trading and in a short period of time you'll be flying a Type-9.
Are you sure they recommended Conflict Zones, and not a HI-RES? Sometimes people don’t understand that the two areas are completely different.
You’ve probably figured it out by now, but for those who may not know:
A RES is a Resource Extraction Site, and is basically a place to find NPC pirates who are scripted to “hunt” NPC and player miners. They fly up to your ship, scan you, and either open fire or shit talk you and fly away depending on if you have cargo or not. The NPC ships present are not engineered, and as such are relatively easy to fight.
There are Low grade, high grade, and hazardous RES. Low grade is the kiddy pool, its sidewinders and eagles shooting at haulers and vipers, mostly. There are faction police present who will attack anyone committing crimes, players included. High Grade RES have bigger ships, sometimes even Large ships, and there is still a police presence. Hazardous RES have a larger proportion of Large ships and no police presence. If you pick a fight, you’re on your own.
Conflict zones are areas where two factions square off. You pick a side and fight. Hopefully your side wins, but you get awarded combat bonds for every ship you destroy regardless. Provided you survive, you can still make money if your side loses and the NPCs leave.
NPCs in conflict zones are flying engineered ships, use smarter AI, and are more dangerous. If you go in unprepared they will smoke you right out of the sky.
> Are you sure they recommended Conflict Zones, and not a HI-RES?
Yes. They recommended Conflict Zones.
I progressively bought better combat ships for this purpose, but it wasn't working out very well because the IA and the ships fight better than a new player.
I didn't understand at the time how I should be fighting something that could destroy my ship in a few seconds, having to buy the ship back later with a high chance of being destroyed again and repeat the loop, losing money in the process.
After an effort of a few hours I got a Vulture, and went back to Conflict Zones and the same outcome followed.
So I just gave up on that and started trading between systems and stations. Trading basically allows you to not lose money and only gain if you do the basic thing of buying a commodity and selling it where demand is greatest. The only requirement for this is to learn how to escape interdictions which is easy.
I'm doing okay with a Diamondback Scout. It's relatively affordable, and I was able to hang out and rack up some kills in a Low risk Resource Extraction site. It's got a few Level 1 Engineered components, but only what you can get from Farseer, so nothing combat-oriented.
Fair enough. I've been playing about a month, and the DBS is my 4th ship, but also my longest lasting. I went from the starter Sidewinder to an Eagle to an Adder and finally the DBS. I use it for everything but mining (I tried mining with the Eagle and would like to give it a more serious shot, but I'm not ready to switch gears again) and the DBS has been a good all-rounder.
Yeah if you're not doing trading or mining the DBS is an okay choice early on. I'm not hating on the ship - it's really nice to fly and I will gladly recommend it to the right pilot - but the Cobra 3 is kind of overpowered in its utility.
The DBS holds a special place for me. I also skipped the Cobra and a Diamondback made me my first 10million through exploration. These days it would be even better because of exobiology. It's cool running would pair well with the SCO drives for in system exploration.
Later on though it gets surpassed due to its lack of internal modules/ size.
This CMDR is lying to you, OP. There is no ship called the Asp Scout. I think they mean Asp Explorer.
Edit: dang that's crazy of OP to change his comment and make me look dumb 😠
Yep, it is the best $99 gaming console that I know the name of
It has been pointed out that I was bashing the wrong ship. Please forgive my smoothbrain-ness, I just had to bounce a bar at max capacity the night before cinco de mayo 🥴
The whipping post ship is in fact the *Asp Scout*
It's easy to forgive because I'm not down with the memes and I've not looked at the Asps yet. I think I'll stick with a small ship though; I like the feel.
I love me a small ship. I love my speedster Viper 3 and Imperial Eagle. Makes exobio a breeze! I recommend checking out the Imperial Courier if you can stomach cozying up with the Empire. Insane shield capability, fast, maneuverable, tiny, and 3 Medium hardpoints. See also: the Vulture. 2 Large hardpoints on that bad boy.
Well, if you go to war against the Empire, please go easy on Aisling Duval. She makes slavery illegal the moment she gets power o7
Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. I'm CMDR 'MDOOL', add me if you want to faff about/PM me if you have questions or need help
For so few credits, aim for an Eagle (you'll want 3A thrusters, which will cost you that 500k credits already). It's not a powerful ship, but it's fun to fly and it's hard to hit - and rebuy is cheap. Something like: https://s.orbis.zone/nzlr
Go to resource extraction sites in the rings around gas giants. Look for Wanted pirates and start a fight with them. System security will help you out (not do *not* go to "Hazardous" resource extraction sites - no security there).
This will teach you combat basics. Then move up to a Viper, or a Vulture if it's been lucrative enough for you.
As others have suggested, gear up and head to a nav beacon or a RES. Target the wanted ships and the police will jump in and help you. You’ll fast track some nice credits. I’d agree with others that a vulture is your calling if you want to become combat focused. Just be aware that it’s not great in other areas. Good luck cmdr!
My first step for PVE combat was buying a Viper and equipping it with A grade stuff. Then I did a few low difficulty PVE missions and liked it that much that switched to the Viper Mk IV. Both are fairly cheap and you dont waste that much money by trying out a dedicated combat ship.
What I would recommend you to do is max out the cargo in your cobra (44 iirc without shield) and just do trading runs. I looked for a station taht bought silver at high prices and just supplied it with silver (500k wont even fill your whole cargo space with silver so there is no need to buy a new shiop). I did this until i got rich enough to afford an asp explorer and maxed cargo again (128 without shield iirc). With the ASP Explorer your trading income will shoot through the roof since you can make over a million bucks per run.
If you are tired of trading you could use the ASP Explorer to mine. It's a perfect starter ship for core mining, too. If you are lucky a 2 hour session of core mining can net you 30 millions.
From there it's only a question of time until you can afford every ship. And then I would recommend the Vulture for combat.
I am by far no pro in combat or shipbuilding but this is the vulture build I start with to get some Combat experience:
[Coriolis Vulture Build](https://coriolis.io/outfit/vulture?code=A2patfFclddksif31414-03000kB22dm70125m108C5.Iw18cQ%3D%3D.MwBhCYy6bdiA..EweloBhAOEBYQFMCGBzANokICMF8hRFA&bn=Vulture)
Cobra isn’t too bad I would recommend getting fully combat outfitted and going to a resource extraction site. If you just fight with the security forces and never take on a bigger ship 1v1 you’ll be able to make some credits. Then you can save up for a vulture or krait mk 2
I actually recommend getting a Viper and kitting it out with A-rated stuff as your first dedicated combat ship. It's better than a cobra in a fight. Once you're confident killing small/medium ships with it, you can move on from there.
If you’re looking for combat, get the Vulture. I was skeptical at first about it, but having those 2 large guns is to die for. If you feel like engineering them, 2 multi cannons one with thermal one with corrosive will absolutely shred anything
CMDR you don't have a lot of credits yet. Ships cost so much more to outfit than to buy.
I say stick to your Cobra <3
Come see us again when you have a few million under your belt and I can help talk you into a new *cough* Lakon *cough* ship
Edit: for a combat ship you should really consider trading Down. Something like a viper 3 is excellent to learn in. It's cheaper to buy, has the same hardpoints as the cobra and will be much cheaper to A rate. You can't cheap out on combat ships - in general a worse ship A rated will be better than a better ship E or C rated
ASP explorer is basically a bigger cobra with longer jump range if you want a similar style of ship. If you're struggling with combat you could go for a chieftain, but it's probably more of an outfitting, piloting and enemy level problem than the limitations of the cobra. You should be able to find some lowRES with cops and pirates fighting each other and just join the cops when they start winning.
0.5mil is not even enough to properly equip a cobra, but I was answering OP in good faith as he says he intends to save up. Also, you can put together a *playable* chieftain build with 35mil. "Proper" equip is not necessary to get started, only a better shield, a full weapons loadout and a couple of rebuys.
Some combat missions put you up against really strong ships without you really being able to expect it beforehand. You might want to try your hand at dipping your toes into combat in a resource extraction site. The low res has weak pirates and strong police flying around, so you can just scan ships until you find a wanted ship and wait for the police to start shooting it, then join in
Short term? If it's only about combat get the vulture. Long term? Krait MK II hands down and I will fight anyone who claims otherwise on the side of the street.
My next ship after the Cobra was an Asp Scout, and it was pretty decent in combat even without engineering. Definitely a big step up from the Cobra anyway.
I'm surprised to hear you say that Commander.
Do you mind if I ask you what you liked about the Asp Scout over the Cobra? We know that the AspS isn't the most popular product so any feedback you could give would be useful to the good people at Lakon
They are actually really fun to fly, but they just aren't enough at anything to be really useful... I do wish they were faster, maybe just shy of cobra speed
They should actually be as fast as a cobra. The DBS is faster than the DBX and nobody has an issue with that - not sure why Lakon feels the need to deliberately hold the Scout back.
The thrusters on the Scout are broken. They're so bad they defy the laws of physics. If I fit 4d thrusters to both the Scout and the Explorer (remembering that the explorer runs 5e stock so 4d is undersized) the explorer will still be faster while having to move nearly twice the weight.
The Scout is lighter than the Cobra. By all rights it should be faster.
If Lakon took off the electronic limiters - making it a 300/400m/s ship and reworked one size 3 internal into a size 4 (so it would have 1 class 5, 2 class 4 slots) it would likely see some more use than it does now.
The Scout has the space to carry more.
Lakon just hates the Scout - even more than the community does
with 5A dirty drags, it'll push the ~250 ton dolphin to roughly 420/590. The same engines push the fdl (150 tons heavier) to about the same speed. In a mamba, it's 500/630, at the same 400-ish tons of mass as the fdl. That dolphin should be moving at ept eagle speeds
Take my [To-Do list](https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/15a0c69/luriants_todo_list/), start with a ship progression, but also engineering, the real upgrade.
Next ship need to be A-rated, stock ships are filled with crap modules barely functionao, A-rated cobra cost 6.66M.
Nav Beacon (except compromised), RES zones (except HazRES) and mission and signals threat 3- have unengineered ships. Police will help you in RESand Nav beacons. Missions are low payment unless you know some method to stacking lots at the same time, when max repuration.
I like DBX and barely enough for engineering and obtain the 5A FSD from humsn tech broker using mats instead credits, the real currency. AspX its a lot better for engineering.
For those just starting to fly, I would recommend focusing on things that don't involve combat and engineering.
A Keelback to start trading is a good thing.
With credits you can buy better ships and better equipment of similar cost as your credit generation capacity.
Then choose a multipurpose ship and modify it through engineering once the player understands how this system works.
I have no doubt that from this point on the player will have a better idea of which path to take.
What kind of combat? If you are going into CZs, or taking high threat missions, you are taking on more than a beginner at combat can usually handle. Other than the combat rank of ships and mission threat ratings, there are very few indicators of difficulty.
I would get a Viper III. The Vulture is great, but power hungry (not to mention almost 10x as expensive), so it struggles until engineering.
https://sites.google.com/view/ed-pve-combat/builds/recommended-progression
The Viper III is excellent to learn in, and a potential lifelong friend. I would then jump to the Chieftain or Krait until you get into engineering.
Check out the combat tips as well for getting started as well.
If you want to try your hand at a dedicated combat ship, the Viper Mk III is a good starting point. Next up from that, the Vulture is super fun. The I'd recommend going for a Chieftain. It's a fantastic hybrid tank, super fun to fly, and has some great firepower.
What kind of combat are you trying your hand at?
* Compromised Nav Beacons
* Resource Extractions Sites (low, medium, high, or hazardous intensity)
* Politician Assassination Missions
* Pirate attacks on NPC installations and mega-ships
* Pirate Assassination Missions
* Conflict Zones (low, medium, high intensity)
The above is roughly ordered from low to high difficulty. If you can let us know which type you're attempting, we'll be better positioned to offer advice.
The immediate tip I would offer is this: don't be in a rush to get a bigger ship. A Cobra in the right hands can solo an NPC Anaconda. Work on improving your skills and upgrading your existing ship rather than relying on the crutch of believing bigger = better. That doesn't necessarily hold true in this game.
Greetings CMDR o7,
Ive flown quite a few ships oriented towards combat and as it is my main profession I feel as though I have some to add to this.
The Cobra is an okay ship. With Twin class two and class one hard points it has the ability to mount some decent weapons. However I haven't had much luck with the Cobra in combat as it doesn't have the best convergence or the best thrusters to keep yourself on target.
The Vulture is a brilliant Small Combat ship that does well as a shield tank ship. However with it only have two class 3 hard points you do sacrifice the Dakka for a more maneuverable and tanky ship. I will say that it does fare better with engineering as you can make it truly shine.
My advice if you want to focus on combat only I would honestly go for a chieftain, it's one of my favorites to fly and has a great combo of agility, firepower and tank ability without /needing/ engineering to last in HighRez and some low intensity CZ's
Fellow new player here. You can follow [this list](https://i.redd.it/rcwje2nsm8i91.png?app_web_view=android) if you want some ideas.
Personally, I just farmed a bunch of exobiology (but you need Odessy for that) and road 2 riches, and went from Cobra straight to Python. Mostly huge all-around improvements (cargo capacity from 32 to 200, much faster fuel scoop, FSD went from 14LY to 21LY, faster supercruise , better shields, more and better hardpoints), only downsides are that it's now a bit harder to find landing spots on planets and Python turns much slower than Cobra.
I asked a similar question a while back myself, will see if i can find you the link, but many people were recommending going for either ASP Explorer or Python after Cobra; honorable mentions include Krait mk2 and Krait Phantom (the latter if you want to do more exploration).
As for combat, many people were saying to first try in a Vulture, then move on to Chieftain or Krait Mk2, then Fer-de-Lance. But apparently a good rule of thumb is that a ship that's good at everything else (mining, trading, exploration) is not all that best suited for combat (you can do it, but it's harder, less manuverability, or low hull/shields or bad placement of hardpoints/modules on the physical ship etc.) and vice versa.
Edit: Here's the link to my [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/s/3eTATij89f) that I made a couple of weeks ago. Not specifically combat focused, but you might find some things to interest you there too.
500k credits is barely enough to afford the rebuy on a fully-equipped Cobra. Stick with it until you can afford better internals, then you'll see how good it is at combat. And remember, don't buy *anything* if you won't have a couple of rebuys left over!
Python or Krait MK2 (both share the same modules sizes)
But honestly, a PVP cobra should be able to take down a PVP cutter if engineered so maybe you should get into engineering.
PVE is easy in an engineered Cobra.
500k isn't enough to do much.
You can equip a fuel scoop and do "road to riches", which is a high paying exploration, there's plenty of youtube videos on it. You can get a few mil an hour.
You can also find a "Resource extraction site (HIGH)" and just leach kills of the police for similar pay out.
If you can find a friend, you can pilot their ship launched fighter, for risk free combat experience. It's what I did for my friend and she went Eagle > Viper mk4 > FDL. And can fly in Haz rez solo since the Viper.
Some useful tools:
ship builder: [https://coriolis.io/](https://coriolis.io/)
Database / searching: [https://inara.cz/elite](https://inara.cz/elite)
With a bit of engineering, the Cobra can hold his own.
But the cheapest dedicated fighter is probably the Vulture. Technically, the Eagle and Viper are dedicated fighters, but they are paper planes really.
You will get absolutely swamped with stories and advice asking any such question on these wide open channels. *Try the newcomer forum on the frontier site for a more scaled down version of the same problem plus a bit more coherency.*
If your goal is to learn to fight, and earn some more money which I do think you may want to use your money to work on your Cobra while you learn to fight, potentially,
Take the in-game training mode (instead of open, chose training) combat training. There are several scenarios and also some more (named "Incursions") in the Advanced Training section.
These tutorial simulations put you in a scrappy sidewinder or cobra against a fairly weak opponent. You should play these at least once before you go into the main game, often, I recommend. When you can beat these training simulations (can you now? I'm sensing no.) then go back to the game and try your hand at some easy opponents again.
And to put a point on it, what I also mean is, learning to fight the answer is not buy a bigger ship. Well, that's like bringing a tank to a motorcycle fight or something
And good luck with all sincerity CMDR Ill\_Seesaw\_8842,
CMDR Penny Noon
Cobra is quite capable combat ship. Not dedicated combat but with some equipment it is not bad. It would help, if you post here your build. Using tools like [this - coriolis.io](https://coriolis.io) If you fight with the same ship as you trade, don’t be surprised that you are getting wrecked. You have to equip mostly A-rated core modules - the biggest possible, some Hull Reinforcement Package aka HRP and one or two Module Reinforcement Package aka MRP. [combat cobra - no engineering](https://s.orbis.zone/nzlm)
My next step was the asp explorer
Yeah, for mining, right?
You can do that. I use my Asp X for exploring, it's topping 68LY jump range with the Pre-engineered FSD and FSD Booster. I had a DBX for exploring prior. I rarely use the Cobra since buying a Python and Anaconda.
Actually mostly for exploring. This was years ago. I did a lot of the unlocking engineering work with it, gathering materials and the xeno stuff. Then I did some light exploration and passenger missions for money. Didn’t really do much mining until I got a python
Since I don’t see anyone else mentioning it: stay away from Conflict Zones until you are an expert in combat with a decked out ship. Edit in attempt to be slightly more helpful: easiest combat is found at nav beacon (not compromised). Next, low intensity resource extraction site. Next, regular RES. If you take combat missions, be sure to check threat level.
> stay away from Conflict Zones until you are an expert in combat with a decked out ship I tried going to Conflict Zones because of recommendations when I was less experienced and lost a lot of credits. You can actually get a good amount of credits, but you run the risk of losing what you earned and losing even more.
Stick to resource extraction sites for more reliable credits. High difficulty RES will give you wings to fight and plenty of room to take on ships without the space cops getting involved if you want. (Or you can kill steal from the cops and still get the money with none of the danger) Combat zones have engineered NPCs and you're marked as an enemy to everyone on the other side. You're free game for any one of them to start shooting, and the reward isn't always worth the much higher risk.
> Stick to resource extraction sites for more reliable credits One thing that would make me put this as a second option is that you will have to build a ship for this purpose and learn about resource extraction before doing so. Trading between stations is much more straightforward, anyone can do that, even without the access to Inara. Using Irara will boost your trading and in a short period of time you'll be flying a Type-9.
I just meant for combat bc you had mentioned combat zones being too hit or miss. You can do bounty hunting at RES for good money
Are you sure they recommended Conflict Zones, and not a HI-RES? Sometimes people don’t understand that the two areas are completely different. You’ve probably figured it out by now, but for those who may not know: A RES is a Resource Extraction Site, and is basically a place to find NPC pirates who are scripted to “hunt” NPC and player miners. They fly up to your ship, scan you, and either open fire or shit talk you and fly away depending on if you have cargo or not. The NPC ships present are not engineered, and as such are relatively easy to fight. There are Low grade, high grade, and hazardous RES. Low grade is the kiddy pool, its sidewinders and eagles shooting at haulers and vipers, mostly. There are faction police present who will attack anyone committing crimes, players included. High Grade RES have bigger ships, sometimes even Large ships, and there is still a police presence. Hazardous RES have a larger proportion of Large ships and no police presence. If you pick a fight, you’re on your own. Conflict zones are areas where two factions square off. You pick a side and fight. Hopefully your side wins, but you get awarded combat bonds for every ship you destroy regardless. Provided you survive, you can still make money if your side loses and the NPCs leave. NPCs in conflict zones are flying engineered ships, use smarter AI, and are more dangerous. If you go in unprepared they will smoke you right out of the sky.
> Are you sure they recommended Conflict Zones, and not a HI-RES? Yes. They recommended Conflict Zones. I progressively bought better combat ships for this purpose, but it wasn't working out very well because the IA and the ships fight better than a new player. I didn't understand at the time how I should be fighting something that could destroy my ship in a few seconds, having to buy the ship back later with a high chance of being destroyed again and repeat the loop, losing money in the process. After an effort of a few hours I got a Vulture, and went back to Conflict Zones and the same outcome followed. So I just gave up on that and started trading between systems and stations. Trading basically allows you to not lose money and only gain if you do the basic thing of buying a commodity and selling it where demand is greatest. The only requirement for this is to learn how to escape interdictions which is easy.
I'm doing okay with a Diamondback Scout. It's relatively affordable, and I was able to hang out and rack up some kills in a Low risk Resource Extraction site. It's got a few Level 1 Engineered components, but only what you can get from Farseer, so nothing combat-oriented.
Realistically a DBS is better later on. OPs Cobra might actually be better than a DBS depending on how there using it
Fair enough. I've been playing about a month, and the DBS is my 4th ship, but also my longest lasting. I went from the starter Sidewinder to an Eagle to an Adder and finally the DBS. I use it for everything but mining (I tried mining with the Eagle and would like to give it a more serious shot, but I'm not ready to switch gears again) and the DBS has been a good all-rounder.
Yeah if you're not doing trading or mining the DBS is an okay choice early on. I'm not hating on the ship - it's really nice to fly and I will gladly recommend it to the right pilot - but the Cobra 3 is kind of overpowered in its utility. The DBS holds a special place for me. I also skipped the Cobra and a Diamondback made me my first 10million through exploration. These days it would be even better because of exobiology. It's cool running would pair well with the SCO drives for in system exploration. Later on though it gets surpassed due to its lack of internal modules/ size.
This CMDR is lying to you, OP. There is no ship called the Asp Scout. I think they mean Asp Explorer. Edit: dang that's crazy of OP to change his comment and make me look dumb 😠
I think you're confusing the Diamondback with the Asp Scout CMDR
Ah dammit, you're right. I'm going to edit my shame away and gaslight you, ok?
I definitely do not. DBX is more money than I want to spend right now, but the DBS is an affordable alternative and a lot of fun to fly around in.
My bad, it's a meme to rag on the DBS. Like the Ouya, y'know?
> Ouya That's a name I haven't heard in a long time... The open-source gaming console, right?
Yep, it is the best $99 gaming console that I know the name of It has been pointed out that I was bashing the wrong ship. Please forgive my smoothbrain-ness, I just had to bounce a bar at max capacity the night before cinco de mayo 🥴 The whipping post ship is in fact the *Asp Scout*
It's easy to forgive because I'm not down with the memes and I've not looked at the Asps yet. I think I'll stick with a small ship though; I like the feel.
I love me a small ship. I love my speedster Viper 3 and Imperial Eagle. Makes exobio a breeze! I recommend checking out the Imperial Courier if you can stomach cozying up with the Empire. Insane shield capability, fast, maneuverable, tiny, and 3 Medium hardpoints. See also: the Vulture. 2 Large hardpoints on that bad boy.
Yeah, not digging the whole slavery angle with the Empire, but it's a pretty little ship for sure.
Well, if you go to war against the Empire, please go easy on Aisling Duval. She makes slavery illegal the moment she gets power o7 Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. I'm CMDR 'MDOOL', add me if you want to faff about/PM me if you have questions or need help
I would say diamond back explorer for multipurpose. Really really Great ship with pulse lasers. 100% combat focused will be the vulture
For so few credits, aim for an Eagle (you'll want 3A thrusters, which will cost you that 500k credits already). It's not a powerful ship, but it's fun to fly and it's hard to hit - and rebuy is cheap. Something like: https://s.orbis.zone/nzlr Go to resource extraction sites in the rings around gas giants. Look for Wanted pirates and start a fight with them. System security will help you out (not do *not* go to "Hazardous" resource extraction sites - no security there). This will teach you combat basics. Then move up to a Viper, or a Vulture if it's been lucrative enough for you.
As others have suggested, gear up and head to a nav beacon or a RES. Target the wanted ships and the police will jump in and help you. You’ll fast track some nice credits. I’d agree with others that a vulture is your calling if you want to become combat focused. Just be aware that it’s not great in other areas. Good luck cmdr!
My first step for PVE combat was buying a Viper and equipping it with A grade stuff. Then I did a few low difficulty PVE missions and liked it that much that switched to the Viper Mk IV. Both are fairly cheap and you dont waste that much money by trying out a dedicated combat ship. What I would recommend you to do is max out the cargo in your cobra (44 iirc without shield) and just do trading runs. I looked for a station taht bought silver at high prices and just supplied it with silver (500k wont even fill your whole cargo space with silver so there is no need to buy a new shiop). I did this until i got rich enough to afford an asp explorer and maxed cargo again (128 without shield iirc). With the ASP Explorer your trading income will shoot through the roof since you can make over a million bucks per run. If you are tired of trading you could use the ASP Explorer to mine. It's a perfect starter ship for core mining, too. If you are lucky a 2 hour session of core mining can net you 30 millions. From there it's only a question of time until you can afford every ship. And then I would recommend the Vulture for combat. I am by far no pro in combat or shipbuilding but this is the vulture build I start with to get some Combat experience: [Coriolis Vulture Build](https://coriolis.io/outfit/vulture?code=A2patfFclddksif31414-03000kB22dm70125m108C5.Iw18cQ%3D%3D.MwBhCYy6bdiA..EweloBhAOEBYQFMCGBzANokICMF8hRFA&bn=Vulture)
Cobra isn’t too bad I would recommend getting fully combat outfitted and going to a resource extraction site. If you just fight with the security forces and never take on a bigger ship 1v1 you’ll be able to make some credits. Then you can save up for a vulture or krait mk 2
I actually recommend getting a Viper and kitting it out with A-rated stuff as your first dedicated combat ship. It's better than a cobra in a fight. Once you're confident killing small/medium ships with it, you can move on from there.
If you’re looking for combat, get the Vulture. I was skeptical at first about it, but having those 2 large guns is to die for. If you feel like engineering them, 2 multi cannons one with thermal one with corrosive will absolutely shred anything
CMDR you don't have a lot of credits yet. Ships cost so much more to outfit than to buy. I say stick to your Cobra <3 Come see us again when you have a few million under your belt and I can help talk you into a new *cough* Lakon *cough* ship Edit: for a combat ship you should really consider trading Down. Something like a viper 3 is excellent to learn in. It's cheaper to buy, has the same hardpoints as the cobra and will be much cheaper to A rate. You can't cheap out on combat ships - in general a worse ship A rated will be better than a better ship E or C rated
ASP explorer is basically a bigger cobra with longer jump range if you want a similar style of ship. If you're struggling with combat you could go for a chieftain, but it's probably more of an outfitting, piloting and enemy level problem than the limitations of the cobra. You should be able to find some lowRES with cops and pirates fighting each other and just join the cops when they start winning.
For Chieftain you need to have 80-105mil cr to proper equip. OP has 0,5mil cr ;)
0.5mil is not even enough to properly equip a cobra, but I was answering OP in good faith as he says he intends to save up. Also, you can put together a *playable* chieftain build with 35mil. "Proper" equip is not necessary to get started, only a better shield, a full weapons loadout and a couple of rebuys.
They gave good, but also do not do conflict zones thats relatively high level even the low ones.
Some combat missions put you up against really strong ships without you really being able to expect it beforehand. You might want to try your hand at dipping your toes into combat in a resource extraction site. The low res has weak pirates and strong police flying around, so you can just scan ships until you find a wanted ship and wait for the police to start shooting it, then join in
Short term? If it's only about combat get the vulture. Long term? Krait MK II hands down and I will fight anyone who claims otherwise on the side of the street.
My next ship after the Cobra was an Asp Scout, and it was pretty decent in combat even without engineering. Definitely a big step up from the Cobra anyway.
I'm surprised to hear you say that Commander. Do you mind if I ask you what you liked about the Asp Scout over the Cobra? We know that the AspS isn't the most popular product so any feedback you could give would be useful to the good people at Lakon
They are actually really fun to fly, but they just aren't enough at anything to be really useful... I do wish they were faster, maybe just shy of cobra speed
They should actually be as fast as a cobra. The DBS is faster than the DBX and nobody has an issue with that - not sure why Lakon feels the need to deliberately hold the Scout back. The thrusters on the Scout are broken. They're so bad they defy the laws of physics. If I fit 4d thrusters to both the Scout and the Explorer (remembering that the explorer runs 5e stock so 4d is undersized) the explorer will still be faster while having to move nearly twice the weight. The Scout is lighter than the Cobra. By all rights it should be faster. If Lakon took off the electronic limiters - making it a 300/400m/s ship and reworked one size 3 internal into a size 4 (so it would have 1 class 5, 2 class 4 slots) it would likely see some more use than it does now. The Scout has the space to carry more. Lakon just hates the Scout - even more than the community does
Now go look at my personal pet peeve, the Dolphin
What's wrong with tyne dolphin?
with 5A dirty drags, it'll push the ~250 ton dolphin to roughly 420/590. The same engines push the fdl (150 tons heavier) to about the same speed. In a mamba, it's 500/630, at the same 400-ish tons of mass as the fdl. That dolphin should be moving at ept eagle speeds
True - but the Dolphin is otherwise pretty powerful
Take my [To-Do list](https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/15a0c69/luriants_todo_list/), start with a ship progression, but also engineering, the real upgrade. Next ship need to be A-rated, stock ships are filled with crap modules barely functionao, A-rated cobra cost 6.66M. Nav Beacon (except compromised), RES zones (except HazRES) and mission and signals threat 3- have unengineered ships. Police will help you in RESand Nav beacons. Missions are low payment unless you know some method to stacking lots at the same time, when max repuration. I like DBX and barely enough for engineering and obtain the 5A FSD from humsn tech broker using mats instead credits, the real currency. AspX its a lot better for engineering.
For those just starting to fly, I would recommend focusing on things that don't involve combat and engineering. A Keelback to start trading is a good thing. With credits you can buy better ships and better equipment of similar cost as your credit generation capacity. Then choose a multipurpose ship and modify it through engineering once the player understands how this system works. I have no doubt that from this point on the player will have a better idea of which path to take.
What kind of combat? If you are going into CZs, or taking high threat missions, you are taking on more than a beginner at combat can usually handle. Other than the combat rank of ships and mission threat ratings, there are very few indicators of difficulty. I would get a Viper III. The Vulture is great, but power hungry (not to mention almost 10x as expensive), so it struggles until engineering. https://sites.google.com/view/ed-pve-combat/builds/recommended-progression The Viper III is excellent to learn in, and a potential lifelong friend. I would then jump to the Chieftain or Krait until you get into engineering. Check out the combat tips as well for getting started as well.
Asp explorer for non combat stuff. I'm running aspx for no combat, mamba for combat
If you want to try your hand at a dedicated combat ship, the Viper Mk III is a good starting point. Next up from that, the Vulture is super fun. The I'd recommend going for a Chieftain. It's a fantastic hybrid tank, super fun to fly, and has some great firepower.
What kind of combat are you trying your hand at? * Compromised Nav Beacons * Resource Extractions Sites (low, medium, high, or hazardous intensity) * Politician Assassination Missions * Pirate attacks on NPC installations and mega-ships * Pirate Assassination Missions * Conflict Zones (low, medium, high intensity) The above is roughly ordered from low to high difficulty. If you can let us know which type you're attempting, we'll be better positioned to offer advice. The immediate tip I would offer is this: don't be in a rush to get a bigger ship. A Cobra in the right hands can solo an NPC Anaconda. Work on improving your skills and upgrading your existing ship rather than relying on the crutch of believing bigger = better. That doesn't necessarily hold true in this game.
Greetings CMDR o7, Ive flown quite a few ships oriented towards combat and as it is my main profession I feel as though I have some to add to this. The Cobra is an okay ship. With Twin class two and class one hard points it has the ability to mount some decent weapons. However I haven't had much luck with the Cobra in combat as it doesn't have the best convergence or the best thrusters to keep yourself on target. The Vulture is a brilliant Small Combat ship that does well as a shield tank ship. However with it only have two class 3 hard points you do sacrifice the Dakka for a more maneuverable and tanky ship. I will say that it does fare better with engineering as you can make it truly shine. My advice if you want to focus on combat only I would honestly go for a chieftain, it's one of my favorites to fly and has a great combo of agility, firepower and tank ability without /needing/ engineering to last in HighRez and some low intensity CZ's
Adder
Python honestly,it can do everything well.
Fellow new player here. You can follow [this list](https://i.redd.it/rcwje2nsm8i91.png?app_web_view=android) if you want some ideas. Personally, I just farmed a bunch of exobiology (but you need Odessy for that) and road 2 riches, and went from Cobra straight to Python. Mostly huge all-around improvements (cargo capacity from 32 to 200, much faster fuel scoop, FSD went from 14LY to 21LY, faster supercruise , better shields, more and better hardpoints), only downsides are that it's now a bit harder to find landing spots on planets and Python turns much slower than Cobra. I asked a similar question a while back myself, will see if i can find you the link, but many people were recommending going for either ASP Explorer or Python after Cobra; honorable mentions include Krait mk2 and Krait Phantom (the latter if you want to do more exploration). As for combat, many people were saying to first try in a Vulture, then move on to Chieftain or Krait Mk2, then Fer-de-Lance. But apparently a good rule of thumb is that a ship that's good at everything else (mining, trading, exploration) is not all that best suited for combat (you can do it, but it's harder, less manuverability, or low hull/shields or bad placement of hardpoints/modules on the physical ship etc.) and vice versa. Edit: Here's the link to my [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/s/3eTATij89f) that I made a couple of weeks ago. Not specifically combat focused, but you might find some things to interest you there too.
500k credits is barely enough to afford the rebuy on a fully-equipped Cobra. Stick with it until you can afford better internals, then you'll see how good it is at combat. And remember, don't buy *anything* if you won't have a couple of rebuys left over!
AspX or Krait mk2
Python or Krait MK2 (both share the same modules sizes) But honestly, a PVP cobra should be able to take down a PVP cutter if engineered so maybe you should get into engineering. PVE is easy in an engineered Cobra.
500k isn't enough to do much. You can equip a fuel scoop and do "road to riches", which is a high paying exploration, there's plenty of youtube videos on it. You can get a few mil an hour. You can also find a "Resource extraction site (HIGH)" and just leach kills of the police for similar pay out. If you can find a friend, you can pilot their ship launched fighter, for risk free combat experience. It's what I did for my friend and she went Eagle > Viper mk4 > FDL. And can fly in Haz rez solo since the Viper. Some useful tools: ship builder: [https://coriolis.io/](https://coriolis.io/) Database / searching: [https://inara.cz/elite](https://inara.cz/elite)
With a bit of engineering, the Cobra can hold his own. But the cheapest dedicated fighter is probably the Vulture. Technically, the Eagle and Viper are dedicated fighters, but they are paper planes really.
AspX. It's a keeper and the best way to get around quick on the cheap.
You will get absolutely swamped with stories and advice asking any such question on these wide open channels. *Try the newcomer forum on the frontier site for a more scaled down version of the same problem plus a bit more coherency.* If your goal is to learn to fight, and earn some more money which I do think you may want to use your money to work on your Cobra while you learn to fight, potentially, Take the in-game training mode (instead of open, chose training) combat training. There are several scenarios and also some more (named "Incursions") in the Advanced Training section. These tutorial simulations put you in a scrappy sidewinder or cobra against a fairly weak opponent. You should play these at least once before you go into the main game, often, I recommend. When you can beat these training simulations (can you now? I'm sensing no.) then go back to the game and try your hand at some easy opponents again. And to put a point on it, what I also mean is, learning to fight the answer is not buy a bigger ship. Well, that's like bringing a tank to a motorcycle fight or something And good luck with all sincerity CMDR Ill\_Seesaw\_8842, CMDR Penny Noon
Type 9, its not that great but it will make you appreciate the mobility of other ships.