7:30 as an absolute weirdo who flies an imperial eagle into these combat zones just want to say thanks to everyone who has saved me with their shutdown field neutralizer you all are the true unsung heroes.
As someone who flies a hulked-out Dolphin I echo the sentiment. Alternative is just to turn flight assist off, pick a non-ground direction and boost before it hits.
Don't use reactive armor! Thargoids deal absolute and caustic damage. Reactive armor increases the resistances and your rebuy cost, not the hull points, therefore you get no additional protection.
@@sleed48 This. Exactly. (Some people even use lightweight alloys as they can be engineered without adding on weight. It depends on the ship and your style if you can make something out of the extra mobility. I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner.)
The only downside of reactive is the rebuy cost, the only upside is you can repurpose the hull for pve or pvp without re-engineering. Credits are easier to get than engineering mats.
When I was first getting into AX builds, all the recommendations were to stay away from the plasma chargers, but when I tried them I felt like I'd been lied to, because they're absolutely wonderful, especially the modified ones! So it's nice to see a build where they're finally getting some love!
Two different point here really. PAs not being recommended is for the most part because of the cloud their slugs create on hit, which is just annoying to deal with. Not to mention soooo many people mess up often and all they contribute is panic shields. As for pack hounds, that opinion is coming from the PvP community, especially those that participate in group fights. Pack hounds create a lot lag, making the fight possibly bug out. Use them all you want when engaging with PvE, they indeed are an awesome module, not to menton very fun to fire.
Gotcha, I had never heard about that because frankly I can't find people who want to PVP and I only randomly attack people if I'm in my Sidewinder =) If anyone wants to PVP I'd love to get online sometime @@edvordo
@@jl3114 I don't do PvP, sorry, but I've heard of groups that participate in that regularly. Unfortunately, I don't remember what they are called, but I'm sure you could find them on inara or on the fdev forums (:
I absolutely hate the fact that if I want to get into AX combat, it's like 40hours of farming stuff b4 I get anywhere... I'm always like: "I feel like I want to try a bit of combat." then I watch a build guide and go "oh... guess im gonna go play something else...."
A tip when using these plasma chargers is to change your gunsight mode to trailing, that way you just aim at the exposed heart and let go and the plasma will hit where you aim.
This is a great comment and once I made the change it was much easier to land shots on hearts. The only downside I had was aiming flak on swarms with trailing, not sure if it's functioning correctly in that regard but for hearts it was fantastic
For those wondering about the Mbooni permit, there are missions available from both the "glorious prospect" megaship and also at Renelle's Port (I am pretty sure that's not the right spelling tbh). Azimuth has factions at each station and you can pick up data courier AND megaship datalink infiltration missions from both factions and run those pretty quickly without having to do any fighting (or pay off any fines). I think it took me about 2 or 3 hours of running around to get allied.
Now we have the build, please do a video on how to fight interceptors with this build .. i.e. avoiding thargoid mechanics and swarms, cold orbiting and fighting flakless.
Me singing whilst getting the plasmas and heat sinks: Grind grind grind away, grind your life away. Merrily merrily merrily merrily life is but a grind.
Indeed! I ALWAYS write nasty comments to anyone who makes a how-to/tutorial video WITHOUT time-stamps... Totally unprofessional and lazy and lame! Even some of the biggest youtubers fail this simple step! Like movie trailer channels or even the UFC!
Hey nice video. Can someone tell me how to unlock pre-engineered Guardian weapons. I already unlocked the normal ones but I don’t know how or where to unlock the pre-engineer ones. Anyone knows?
PLEASE READ!! D2EA I love your videos but PLEASE consult the AXI before publishing a build vid. There's so many flaws here like the only 1MRP and the Reactive surface composite. Consult any mentor or I would choose personally EuanAB as he is the best AX player and knows what he's doing most out of everyone. Also, the life support can be D Rated as its lightest and if this is for around stations you aren't going far to repair a broken canopy. There's a lot to be fixed here but again consult the AXI please. This isn't meant to be an attack just giving advice. Either way, fly dangerously CMDR o7
Plus how to use the thermal vent beam laser effectively--it's **NOT** by draining the weapon capacitor down to the bottom and then firing all your plasmas!
I have a similar build but with a Krait Phantom, probably less armor, but is faster, never-ending boost, runs almost 590ms, so easy to dodge swarm and you can get in and out of the fight in a blink
Replace reactive surface with military grade, place 3 guardian module reinforcements instead of 1 and you're golden. Modules are knocked out way earlier than hull. And goids do absolute damage, no point in resisntances
You have all the time you need. The 'Goids will be around for a LONG time...Having plenty of Re-But credits is more important than all the trick stuff combined..
How does everyone in videos avoid getting shot? My identical Krait II build starts getting shot as soon as I target one and looses hull nonstop even with my poppin off heatsinks and keeping hull at 0 with a laser... I still only last 4 no make that 2 minutes till the ship is gone and a $8mil rebuy message pops up... over $100 mil lost so far and zero kills... I can do all the NPC level 8 missions non-stop, but thargoids just insta kill me.
Please log this build in Commander's Toolbox. I'm working on filling up on my mats and will need to go back to this once I'm ready. The Toolbox is a great fast resource.
Gauss cannons are objectively the best AX weapons, IF you can hit with them consistently (which I can't), because of their penetration. Plasma chargers however are much more forgiving and allow you to take on the lower level interceptors if you're not as consistent with your aim - they also allow you to stay much cooler. If you charge them up fully there's minimal thermal cost. One downside is that the shot impact will obscure the view of the thargoid heart which is very annoying for your wingmates, so that's something to consider. Also, if you're planning to fight around stations, you can easily stick to 2 pre-engineered heatsink launchers (that's 10 heatsinks,I find that's plenty before I need to land and repair my hull/modules anyway) and fit a xeno scanner so you can see what you're dealing with a little easier.
I’m alto using a Krait against bugs. Good ship. I’m using two more Guardian Module Reinforcement in order to have more protection for modules (canopy in particular). Modified Plasma Charger is great, better in a wing with someone with Gauss Cannon for the heart.
I made this build, it's legit. I took down 2 intercepters in around 45 minutes, which is good for me. I did add repair limpets to my build and thanks for the info DTE.
Guardian grind is a joke. Goids literally invading the bubble but we have to spend 6 hours grindibg blueprints and mats to have weapons that actually do something agaisnt them. Makes no sense. If the AX weapons were half decent or had more variety it wouldnt be such an issue but you may as well self destruct if you're trying to fight goids with a pure ax build. This shit is dumb.
I'd been thinking about getting back to ED for a while and decided to boot her up and start to unlock this system so I could get some of those pre-engineered weapons. Nope, can't do it. While running missions for faction rep. every time I try to approach a planetary installation, or even enter orbit from supercruise, I crash with Orange Sidewinder. The game is more or less unplayable now. If I thought buying Odyssey would resolve this I'd spend the money, but I don't think it will. I was landing on planets long before Odyssey was released. :/
Best tip ever, keep mats, data and raws fully stocked, don't waste materials on life support engineering UNLESS you NEED to jump far as possible. Combat ships life support be A rated with no engineering on them as its a waste of material and losing mats to low rolls whist engineering is a waste. Also you''ll get the top timer to jump back and get repaired with A rated.
I i'm a zero experience dude in thargo fight, so i just replicate the build but with 2 type 3 ax multicanon and 1 type 3 ax missilles launcher and i keep the 2 others pre inge guardian PC. I will see but i wanted to try more different weapons and not start my first battle with the ultime best ship and dps directly XD
This is not a good ship for AX! Be warned! It is costly to build and requires more skills to takedown an actual interceptor than other alterative builds, people recommends.
@D2EA: I made your build and am currently eradicating HIP21380 of thargoids with it and it is awesome. I did, however, make one change: I ripped off the class 3 beamer and replaced it with a remote flak for the swarm as when it comes to the cyclops, the swarm is arguably just as up to more dangerous than the interceptor itself and it is nice to whack them when they're getting pesky. The ship rarely, if ever, has heat issues and when it does I have 12 heatsinks to take it away. Also I use the heat to burn off caustic. I have some crazy thoughts burning in my brain of trying out a mine dropper with reverberating cascade to permanently put the interceptor's shields out of commission as since the change the interceptors use their shields randomly rather than just when they lose a flower petal. I don't know if it will work, but it would be hilarious if it did! Special emphasis on having people get the A rated life support. This ship can take an absolute beating, but your life support and canopy can not, so you will lose it when you get to your second or third interceptor and it is nice to have the 25 minute buffer. With this ship you can ABSOLUTELY solo an AX combat zone and even take on a Medusa all by yourself, but you're going to take a beating. I've been doing AX for a long time now and swore by the gauss, but now I am using these plasma chargers and loving them. They are devastating to scouts too. The changes that were made to AX combat somewhat ruined the usefulness of Gauss cannons and I never would have made the switch without you recommending the chargers.
Alright, so after several billion credits in bonds I have some ideas and observations... The Interceptors can activate their shields anytime they take a particularly hard hit. This makes nailing hearts problematic when you have blown off one or two because you can do ~38 hull damage in one hit. This means that you'll drop the shields and sometimes not even get to take another shot before the interceptor activates shields again. I recommend either shooting half charged or set up a fire group with only two chargers in it. Use four to get the shield into single digits, then two at a time to break the heart. Otherwise just use half power shots to break the heart. When the thargoid is at ~40 hitpoints, use all four maxed out, then quick fire again and you can many times kill the interceptor before you're at the minimum kill threshold. It might behoove people to also take the A rated sensor package. You end up running away sometimes to either avoid caustic missiles or to go repair and it is annoying to have to try to find your target in a swirling furball of scouts and NPC's from long distance. Lastly, I tend to try to get the interceptor to use its meme lightening on me for the simple reason that when it does that, it won't activate the shield no matter what and then you can absolutely go to work on it. If I have competent help who will just shoot the interceptor, I can easily kill a cyclops after one petal has been removed with this build.
Ive built and tried it and I think its ok. When you fight above a planetary station, where you don´t have to deal with these swarms, its great but in space I think the chieftain, with 1 Flak, works better. Ive also tried to hunt normal pirates with this build and you know what? It works fantastic, even 500-750k bounty pirates 😀Their shields and hull dies pretty fast ^^
OUTSTANDING! (video tut) ... Also, since Krait Mk II is my fav ship atm, this is right up my ally! ← Comment for algorithm + 👍 'd #OldManPaxus Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Build is really good holds up amazingly so far have been able to solo cyclops with ease, baslisk much tougher more repair , and medusa insane amount of repair during the battle canopy damage is insane i changed out one of the small hull modules for an afm for canopy repairs and all the battles were planetary base so no swarms. So be safe and have fun
So would you recommend it? I am getting into AX combat and the cold orbit method doesn't work for me. I don't enjoy it very much. I can't decide between modshards and these modified plasma chargers.
I’ve just tried out the Plasma chargers using your build guide. Yes they are very effective against scouts and interceptors. However I find them very hard to aim with, especially against an interceptor. For example, if your aiming for a thargoid heart and you miss it leaves that strange cloud thing after impact. It makes it very hard to see what your doing. I’m sticking with the Gauss cannons.
Honestly, I would try out the enhanced shard cannons if you prefer not having to charge the shot and time the release and there's no cloud created when you fire. I find my challenger build with 3 of them has enough pew pew to solo a cyclops without having to refuel/repair/rearm at the station. Sometimes I do enough damage that they die while still having hearts left, which is oddly satisfying to me lol
Another trick that you can use to get where you need go. Take out that tier 6 slot and put a 6A fuel scoop. Make sure you have your engineered hull reinforcement in storage (don’t sell it). Find station one system away from your target system and make sure it’s not under attack. Use your fuel-scoop to get to that station quick, then transfer that hull reinforcement (or whatever you might want to trade out, weapons, etc…) to that station. Swap modules, then jump to your target system. When you’re ready to go elsewhere, jump back to that first system, swap out for a fuel scoop, and go. Rinse and repeat. Also works good if your looking to engineer multiple pieces and you can’t fit all of them on your ship.
Let me give some pointers to you D2EA and to those who want to build this build. I am someone who uses MPC exclusively. do NOT use 4 mpc. It DESTROYS power draw, even an anacondas and vetts struggle with 4 of them. 3 is more than enough damage and it lets you have an extra slot for whatever you want. He said this is meant for lower level goids, but i can confirm 100% that you CAN solo hydras and everything else with it. Just be aware the smoke is a bit obnoxious when theres a lot of people using them. Please be considerate when in AX Conflict zones.
Only one Module Reinforcement will be gone before you've lost a quarter of your hull; reactive armor is just more expensive against thargoids. You should consider swapping the reactive for Military Grade, and swapping two of your smaller HRPs for MRPs, while upgrading your C4 GMPR to a C5 GMRP; that should give you about enough module reinforcement so your modules and hull will fail at approximately the same time. Using all Plasma Chargers is a fun idea, but it takes some forethought. They use far more power than a krait can generate, which DOES allow more time before needing to get on target, but if you try spamming them incorrectly you'll waste a lot of ammo for not much damage. I personally prefer combining them with modified shard cannons, which have great DPE and heart damage but lower raw DPS. Either can work, though.
A plasma weapon just annihilates, period. ...and the moment you ready to SHOOT, you release... 😏 solid Hull loadout in the Optional Internals but I will go Shielded and double Braced in the Core Internals just for the Gangksters in Open mode.
Huh, why did you use reactive surface composite? Military grade composite has the same Hull strength, but is cheaper - and this also affects your rebuy costs... Hmm, maybe I should give the plasma chargers a try.... Until today I use Gauss cannons for cold orbitting - and the Pre-engineered shard cannons for clearing out those conflict zones around stations.... They really shred scouts, Cyclopses and Basilisks....
Gah, I really want the enhanced Plasma but the idea of working for the Azimuth scum disgusts me. Burn them down, take their stuff, and distribute it properly I say. Ah well, my own RP hang ups aside thanks for the vid!
So, with the new experimental weapon stabilizer I couldn't resist and built Anaconda with 6 of these plasmas. I was hoping for a ship with enough damage output to exert and take out Hydra's hearts on its own and I got it. This means you can defend planetary settlements solo with this. As a nice bonus, if you perfectly time your shots and manage WEP capacitor, this ship can kill a Cyclops in less than 30 seconds (sic!).
And then nobody gets why the Interceptor's shields comes up all of a sudden when the heart is exposed. Then we have a Interceptor swinging left and right with a glowing heart and nobody can damage it. There is a damage threshold the Goid will bear with after exposing the heart, if the cap is hit, the Shields come right back up before the heart is done with. It's because there is a lot of people storming the Thargoid with Salvation's Plasma Chargers and Shard Cannons and missing the heart and filling that threshold. LITERALLY making goid combat a infuriating task for everybody else who knows how to do it.
even with 100% allied status with Azimuth Biotech you will not get permission or access authorization for the Mbonni system - but clicks are more important than correcting this Video here - very unsympathetic
Thanks for the build :-) Can´t wait to try it - but anyone knows why i can´t engineer the 3 "normal" Hull reinforcements? I can´t choose them in the Engineering section - only the one added in the Core section...
I've been using this build for about a week now. Insanely fun and satisfying after running Gauss Chieftain. I wonder how is its DPS compared to multi-cannons.
I got my plasmas reaching top 25% in CG's our Builds are similar but tonight I'm having to hit a Heart 3 or 4 times. Running away mostly now as the cmdr's in open are disappearing fast.
Shame that to grind the Azimuth faction you need to travel 82k ls and then you can't even do missions for them because the mission board bug still isn't fixed
put your lead on trailing cmdr, aims better ,and OC chargers also good for Hydra's and just turn on sillent running and shoot your weapons a few times if you wanna cook your caustic off
I was wondering if anyone knows how to get Thargoid tech or weapons for your ship? I was in a dog fight with a Cobra MKIII and his ship was decked out with this tech. Man was it effective.
Can't even get the game to patch, have it on steam and when i load the game the loader give options for legacy or live, going live start a patch that doesnt do anything, 0m/bs being used when i checked the network settings
Hey just a heads up, your caustic resistance doesn't really matter for the majority of the fight as the thargoids cannon deals absolute damage. You would probably be better off just having more engineered HRP's instead of the guardian ones
I've been using the new Plasmas since the Maelstroms got here. I'm pretty sure even against bigger 'goids they've got more damage without rearming than either Gauss. Either way, I think they're top -tier for heart exertion. Also the shards are pretty effective for people who aren't so amazing at point aiming. I think the Challenger might be the best bet for them if you consider the slots (two medium shards, one medium plasma, one flak), though I have decent luck with a single shard on my Superlight Advanced Thruster Courier. Anything bigger than a Basi and I'm probably up shit creek but against 'Clops and Basis I can wreck em solo
Not sure. I haven't changed much, my Anti-Xeno Challenger still rocks with a large Shard, three Medium Gauss and 3 small long range Beam Laser turrets to shed the heat. A descent pilot will do more damage with the Gauss than the new preEng Plasmas. You don't need a scan of the Bug either. I have a human tech only Maelstrom build based on a Krait MKII and the new MCs, a real scout shredder and good up to every bug you can scan, would just not solo a Hydra. With the Challenger that's no Challenge, at least not near a station. Then again, to each his own...
@@BlueSideUp you don't need to scan to use the Plasmas. And yeah raw dps the Gauss is still king, I'm more saying that 4 Plasmas can kill more medusas than 4 Gauss before having to rearm or synth ammo Due to the reduced jitter and way better AP, in p sure the level 2 preengineered shard beats out the large.
@AhrenAKADan got you. The total DPS per load has become a lot less interesting with the stations around to rearm, even in the middle of the fight with a couple hearts killed. Before that it was a pain to synthesise (and grind the materials again), I see your point. I thought you need at least a little help aiming at the hearts with a sub lightspeed weapon. Guess you can estimate the aiming point from the vector of the whole Interceptor somewhat? The advantage of light speed weapons is that you can just aim for the hearts visually, not caring about the Goids vector at all, and still burry the full DPS of all Gauss's in one heart, making hearts a one shot exercise. Well, doesn't matter much outside the Maelstrom systems, Thargoids are now easier than ever to kill there, no matter the preference of weapons. We need better human tech or not deteriorating Guardian Hybrid weapons for the Maelstroms. Guess it's intentional to make clearing the Maelstrom systems a kind of boss level.
@@BlueSideUp Yeah with the increase of speed of the pre-engineered Plasmas it's not bad at all to aim, especially using trailing aiming. Also the Gauss charge time can make it difficult to get a shot off during an arc. I know there's a mouse and FA off control scheme that makes it very easy to aim though and I'm interested in trying that out. I think we're gonna get some AXCZs that don't have a rearm available. Kinda just planning in advance for them. And yeah I'm actually looking forward to the gimballed AX Multicannons. Got a chieftain put together already to use two larges and two small Plasmas for exertion. I usually run with at least one other person so if we can get a scan I can target the heart, and while they have aggro I can go get rid of scouts. Wish the AP was better though. If they allowed us to engineer the human stuff at least it'd be nice, could pop Sturdy and Autoloader on the Multicannons. Also I've realized the AX Multicannons are apparently really good for taking down interceptor Shields and since they don't generate much heat you can cold orbit while firing. Against a cyclops you might get a panic shield but anything bigger and it should be fine.
@AhrenAKADan the speed of the new Plasmas is nice. The Turreted AX MCs have 4000m/s as well now, with 3 large on a Krait Scouts really don't exist anymore, at least for long 😉 Gimbals with increased DPS would be nice. Fixed loose the extra DPS because you can't aim that accurately. Gauss and Rails I play with Stick and Thrust Levers in VR, no FA off Mouse "cheat" required. It's really a matter of experience, gets second nature to start the shot in the right moment so you are on target when they discharge. I spent many hours in a Rail FDL, Rail whatever really, most agile ships with 3+ medium slots are absolutely a blast with short range in PVE. A little different engineering for PVP. But the rhythm of the shooting remains the same. And most CZ Cutters die from two 5km shots into the power plant, saves so much time.
I got the permit by going to Rennie Orbital in LHS 1163 and taking on missions there. Once I was Allied I only had to accept the permit "mission" and was instantly rewarded with the permit, didn't have to do anything for it! Might be a bug, but one I'm quite glad for haha.
Two of us went to Mbooni to get the plasma chargers. I already had some so I know how it works, I wanted more for a new build. We both had all the necessary materials. We tried everything, but we both had to leave empty handed. Is it bugged or is there some trick to getting them?
This worked for me, go into tech broker go to the weapons section scroll right down to the bottom and they're right there, it doesn't actually say 'Guardian' plasma charger until you unlock it for some reason
Tnx for the excellent instructive video, one question thou, you never mention WHERE do you go to engineer those Guardian Plasma Chargers and I noticed they are engineered to only ONE level?
This build looks fun, I'll try it once I've filled up on materials again. If Thargoid weapons ignore resistances, does it make a difference whether armour is Reactice Surface or Military Grade? I think I have the latter in my current AX Krait.
@@DowntoEarthAstronomy would 'near to ground stations' mean anywhere within the orbital cruise area? Just wanting to know where I can safely assume there wont be a swarm to worry about :)
Thanks for this build information..i will be converting one of my kraits today..judging how it performed in your video, for me, this could well be my meta , as I’ve only ever killed one thargoid and that was 2 years ago 😊 ..I’ll be back to review it in a day or two.
14:15 and what when i will get killed? If i have money to rebuy, then that Pre-engineered Plasma Chargers will be again on my ship, or i will have to get new materials and buy them again in LESTI?
Do you have someone to do all the grinding for you? Guardian this, Class A that, Grade 5 everything (of course), PRISMATICS on everything, yada-yada-yada...What's a poor boy to do?
My advice is to do a little at a time to hit a goal. No reason to grind everything all at once. If you can't use this build that's fine find a beginner build that you can. Turning the game into an endless grind for yourself is just painful.
@@badger_ninja8681 No, I'm good thankx..That wasn't the point anyway. I've got all that crap & holding my own - just would like to see more EZ builds to try & fly myself and for others..
@@hanswichmann5047 ok that's good. I agree more new player friendly builds would be great. Well not even new player really just players that want something that works without a week of doing things they don't like.
7:30 as an absolute weirdo who flies an imperial eagle into these combat zones just want to say thanks to everyone who has saved me with their shutdown field neutralizer you all are the true unsung heroes.
Mind to share your build? iEagle sounds fun
As someone who flies a hulked-out Dolphin I echo the sentiment. Alternative is just to turn flight assist off, pick a non-ground direction and boost before it hits.
I had to sacrifice my single heat sink on my iEagle build in order to put one on because people always miss the timings :(
Don't use reactive armor! Thargoids deal absolute and caustic damage. Reactive armor increases the resistances and your rebuy cost, not the hull points, therefore you get no additional protection.
Which armour should we use for a build like this?
What would you recommend instead?
Military grade composite with heavy duty 5 and deep plating
@@sleed48 This. Exactly.
(Some people even use lightweight alloys as they can be engineered without adding on weight. It depends on the ship and your style if you can make something out of the extra mobility. I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner.)
The only downside of reactive is the rebuy cost, the only upside is you can repurpose the hull for pve or pvp without re-engineering. Credits are easier to get than engineering mats.
By the time I finish Engineering an AX ship, the war will be over. Especially if they keep changing what we need.
When I was first getting into AX builds, all the recommendations were to stay away from the plasma chargers, but when I tried them I felt like I'd been lied to, because they're absolutely wonderful, especially the modified ones! So it's nice to see a build where they're finally getting some love!
That's this game in a nutshell. Tons of misinformation online. People say Packhounds are lame too, which is incredibly false
Two different point here really.
PAs not being recommended is for the most part because of the cloud their slugs create on hit, which is just annoying to deal with. Not to mention soooo many people mess up often and all they contribute is panic shields.
As for pack hounds, that opinion is coming from the PvP community, especially those that participate in group fights. Pack hounds create a lot lag, making the fight possibly bug out. Use them all you want when engaging with PvE, they indeed are an awesome module, not to menton very fun to fire.
Gotcha, I had never heard about that because frankly I can't find people who want to PVP and I only randomly attack people if I'm in my Sidewinder =) If anyone wants to PVP I'd love to get online sometime @@edvordo
@@jl3114 I don't do PvP, sorry, but I've heard of groups that participate in that regularly. Unfortunately, I don't remember what they are called, but I'm sure you could find them on inara or on the fdev forums (:
@@jl3114 There are loads of fight nights every week and many communities on discord. Easily found on google.
I absolutely hate the fact that if I want to get into AX combat, it's like 40hours of farming stuff b4 I get anywhere... I'm always like: "I feel like I want to try a bit of combat." then I watch a build guide and go "oh... guess im gonna go play something else...."
Hit the ball out the park again Dave - Ive came back to ED from SC cause of your uploads. Thanks for that.
A tip when using these plasma chargers is to change your gunsight mode to trailing, that way you just aim at the exposed heart and let go and the plasma will hit where you aim.
This is a great comment and once I made the change it was much easier to land shots on hearts. The only downside I had was aiming flak on swarms with trailing, not sure if it's functioning correctly in that regard but for hearts it was fantastic
Today i learned that a Beam Laser with Thermal Vent is mandatory for Plasma Chargers or Gauss Cannons
For those wondering about the Mbooni permit, there are missions available from both the "glorious prospect" megaship and also at Renelle's Port (I am pretty sure that's not the right spelling tbh). Azimuth has factions at each station and you can pick up data courier AND megaship datalink infiltration missions from both factions and run those pretty quickly without having to do any fighting (or pay off any fines). I think it took me about 2 or 3 hours of running around to get allied.
Stop beaming all the time. All your doing is killing the distro faster and the Thargoid knows where you are all the time.
Now we have the build, please do a video on how to fight interceptors with this build .. i.e. avoiding thargoid mechanics and swarms, cold orbiting and fighting flakless.
Me singing whilst getting the plasmas and heat sinks: Grind grind grind away, grind your life away. Merrily merrily merrily merrily life is but a grind.
I always appreciate you adding chapters to videos. Thank you for that.
Indeed! I ALWAYS write nasty comments to anyone who makes a how-to/tutorial video WITHOUT time-stamps... Totally unprofessional and lazy and lame! Even some of the biggest youtubers fail this simple step! Like movie trailer channels or even the UFC!
Maybe its just me, but the cockpit pops everytime out of the station, no less than 2 minutes
Hey nice video. Can someone tell me how to unlock pre-engineered Guardian weapons. I already unlocked the normal ones but I don’t know how or where to unlock the pre-engineer ones. Anyone knows?
Cool build. Too bad about the plasma grind :(
PLEASE READ!!
D2EA I love your videos but PLEASE consult the AXI before publishing a build vid. There's so many flaws here like the only 1MRP and the Reactive surface composite. Consult any mentor or I would choose personally EuanAB as he is the best AX player and knows what he's doing most out of everyone. Also, the life support can be D Rated as its lightest and if this is for around stations you aren't going far to repair a broken canopy. There's a lot to be fixed here but again consult the AXI please. This isn't meant to be an attack just giving advice.
Either way, fly dangerously CMDR o7
Thank you for this hint CMDR! Joining AXI and beginning to learn from scratch, this video was a bit too advanced for me.
Plus how to use the thermal vent beam laser effectively--it's **NOT** by draining the weapon capacitor down to the bottom and then firing all your plasmas!
I have a similar build but with a Krait Phantom, probably less armor, but is faster, never-ending boost, runs almost 590ms, so easy to dodge swarm and you can get in and out of the fight in a blink
Replace reactive surface with military grade, place 3 guardian module reinforcements instead of 1 and you're golden. Modules are knocked out way earlier than hull. And goids do absolute damage, no point in resisntances
New to AX can't help but wonder, Why is there no shield on this build?
Thargoid caustic damage goes through your Shields so little point in running them. More armour let's you tank the damage for longer tho
Since I finished this build, I feel more comfortable fighting against the Thargoids.
Thanks for this
That's just placebo, Commander.
This thing's a shitfit.
Another amazing video! Concise, descriptive, well researched, and super fun.
Can you make a build for effective thargoid material collector. Planning to collect decent amount of mats to fight in malestorm with my human-ax.
i have 4 modified plama chargers and wanted a fifth , went to mbooni but there is no settlement , have the been removed from the game?
There still there i had to re explore mbooni for the settlement to come up
Great. Haven't unlocked any of those systems or have any guardian matierals... I guess I can join the fight in a month or two. ;)
You have all the time you need. The 'Goids will be around for a LONG time...Having plenty of Re-But credits is more important than all the trick stuff combined..
You can buy ax multi cannons and start killing scouts right now.
Merry Christmas and O7 CMDRs!
How does everyone in videos avoid getting shot? My identical Krait II build starts getting shot as soon as I target one and looses hull nonstop even with my poppin off heatsinks and keeping hull at 0 with a laser... I still only last 4 no make that 2 minutes till the ship is gone and a $8mil rebuy message pops up... over $100 mil lost so far and zero kills... I can do all the NPC level 8 missions non-stop, but thargoids just insta kill me.
Please log this build in Commander's Toolbox. I'm working on filling up on my mats and will need to go back to this once I'm ready. The Toolbox is a great fast resource.
Should already be there; ;)
Gauss cannons are objectively the best AX weapons, IF you can hit with them consistently (which I can't), because of their penetration. Plasma chargers however are much more forgiving and allow you to take on the lower level interceptors if you're not as consistent with your aim - they also allow you to stay much cooler. If you charge them up fully there's minimal thermal cost. One downside is that the shot impact will obscure the view of the thargoid heart which is very annoying for your wingmates, so that's something to consider. Also, if you're planning to fight around stations, you can easily stick to 2 pre-engineered heatsink launchers (that's 10 heatsinks,I find that's plenty before I need to land and repair my hull/modules anyway) and fit a xeno scanner so you can see what you're dealing with a little easier.
I’m alto using a Krait against bugs. Good ship. I’m using two more Guardian Module Reinforcement in order to have more protection for modules (canopy in particular). Modified Plasma Charger is great, better in a wing with someone with Gauss Cannon for the heart.
I made this build, it's legit. I took down 2 intercepters in around 45 minutes, which is good for me. I did add repair limpets to my build and thanks for the info DTE.
Guardian grind is a joke. Goids literally invading the bubble but we have to spend 6 hours grindibg blueprints and mats to have weapons that actually do something agaisnt them. Makes no sense. If the AX weapons were half decent or had more variety it wouldnt be such an issue but you may as well self destruct if you're trying to fight goids with a pure ax build. This shit is dumb.
Thank you very much for this video, I'm going to try your fit proposal 😀
I'd been thinking about getting back to ED for a while and decided to boot her up and start to unlock this system so I could get some of those pre-engineered weapons.
Nope, can't do it. While running missions for faction rep. every time I try to approach a planetary installation, or even enter orbit from supercruise, I crash with Orange Sidewinder. The game is more or less unplayable now. If I thought buying Odyssey would resolve this I'd spend the money, but I don't think it will. I was landing on planets long before Odyssey was released. :/
Best tip ever, keep mats, data and raws fully stocked, don't waste materials on life support engineering UNLESS you NEED to jump far as possible.
Combat ships life support be A rated with no engineering on them as its a waste of material and losing mats to low rolls whist engineering is a waste. Also you''ll get the top timer to jump back and get repaired with A rated.
I i'm a zero experience dude in thargo fight, so i just replicate the build but with 2 type 3 ax multicanon and 1 type 3 ax missilles launcher and i keep the 2 others pre inge guardian PC. I will see but i wanted to try more different weapons and not start my first battle with the ultime best ship and dps directly XD
Interesting build. Did you compare that to the Chief with the same load out for caustic hp?
This is not a good ship for AX!
Be warned! It is costly to build and requires more skills to takedown an actual interceptor than other alterative builds, people recommends.
How much would a full build cost with ship.. new player been grinding trade got 120 million
@D2EA: I made your build and am currently eradicating HIP21380 of thargoids with it and it is awesome. I did, however, make one change: I ripped off the class 3 beamer and replaced it with a remote flak for the swarm as when it comes to the cyclops, the swarm is arguably just as up to more dangerous than the interceptor itself and it is nice to whack them when they're getting pesky. The ship rarely, if ever, has heat issues and when it does I have 12 heatsinks to take it away. Also I use the heat to burn off caustic.
I have some crazy thoughts burning in my brain of trying out a mine dropper with reverberating cascade to permanently put the interceptor's shields out of commission as since the change the interceptors use their shields randomly rather than just when they lose a flower petal. I don't know if it will work, but it would be hilarious if it did!
Special emphasis on having people get the A rated life support. This ship can take an absolute beating, but your life support and canopy can not, so you will lose it when you get to your second or third interceptor and it is nice to have the 25 minute buffer. With this ship you can ABSOLUTELY solo an AX combat zone and even take on a Medusa all by yourself, but you're going to take a beating.
I've been doing AX for a long time now and swore by the gauss, but now I am using these plasma chargers and loving them. They are devastating to scouts too.
The changes that were made to AX combat somewhat ruined the usefulness of Gauss cannons and I never would have made the switch without you recommending the chargers.
Alright, so after several billion credits in bonds I have some ideas and observations...
The Interceptors can activate their shields anytime they take a particularly hard hit. This makes nailing hearts problematic when you have blown off one or two because you can do ~38 hull damage in one hit. This means that you'll drop the shields and sometimes not even get to take another shot before the interceptor activates shields again. I recommend either shooting half charged or set up a fire group with only two chargers in it. Use four to get the shield into single digits, then two at a time to break the heart. Otherwise just use half power shots to break the heart. When the thargoid is at ~40 hitpoints, use all four maxed out, then quick fire again and you can many times kill the interceptor before you're at the minimum kill threshold.
It might behoove people to also take the A rated sensor package. You end up running away sometimes to either avoid caustic missiles or to go repair and it is annoying to have to try to find your target in a swirling furball of scouts and NPC's from long distance.
Lastly, I tend to try to get the interceptor to use its meme lightening on me for the simple reason that when it does that, it won't activate the shield no matter what and then you can absolutely go to work on it. If I have competent help who will just shoot the interceptor, I can easily kill a cyclops after one petal has been removed with this build.
Ive built and tried it and I think its ok. When you fight above a planetary station, where you don´t have to deal with these swarms, its great but in space I think the chieftain, with 1 Flak, works better.
Ive also tried to hunt normal pirates with this build and you know what? It works fantastic, even 500-750k bounty pirates 😀Their shields and hull dies pretty fast ^^
I've used these modified plasma chargers for pve massacre missions since they first came out. Absolutely my favourite weapon in the game
How are you dealing with swarms with this build?
OUTSTANDING! (video tut) ... Also, since Krait Mk II is my fav ship atm, this is right up my ally! ← Comment for algorithm + 👍 'd
#OldManPaxus Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Thanks for the guide, I wanted to try Thargoid stuff and was lost.
Why not use a fighter hangar with NPC though?
Build is really good holds up amazingly so far have been able to solo cyclops with ease, baslisk much tougher more repair , and medusa insane amount of repair during the battle canopy damage is insane i changed out one of the small hull modules for an afm for canopy repairs and all the battles were planetary base so no swarms. So be safe and have fun
So would you recommend it? I am getting into AX combat and the cold orbit method doesn't work for me. I don't enjoy it very much. I can't decide between modshards and these modified plasma chargers.
So I went to LHS 1163, mission boards not working, so fed up with this game.
Holy crap you were one shot one killing the scouts, that was epic. OK I'm convinced ill be grabbing these plasma chargers next.
As I said they hit like a truck.
Swarm in missile mode might completely destroy your modules with just one module reinforcement
Then you just make a tuch and go to repair
guess what am doing today, cheers Astro
Works great against scouts - need to find an interceptor for further testing
It would be good if you prove that Reactive Surface was the best option.
Grind Grind grind grind grind grind for new things.. dont they have any better ideas after so many years?
anyone know if pre-engineered guardian weapons are on core (console version of elite)?
trying a no shield cutter. the dings and scratches shall be expensive
I’ve just tried out the Plasma chargers using your build guide. Yes they are very effective against scouts and interceptors. However I find them very hard to aim with, especially against an interceptor. For example, if your aiming for a thargoid heart and you miss it leaves that strange cloud thing after impact. It makes it very hard to see what your doing. I’m sticking with the Gauss cannons.
Honestly, I would try out the enhanced shard cannons if you prefer not having to charge the shot and time the release and there's no cloud created when you fire. I find my challenger build with 3 of them has enough pew pew to solo a cyclops without having to refuel/repair/rearm at the station.
Sometimes I do enough damage that they die while still having hearts left, which is oddly satisfying to me lol
Trailing targeting will let you know where your shots will land.
Thanks - excellent guide!
Thanks
Thank a lot. (and yes I did get it)
dang it, i have to go back to the guardian site again huh?
Another trick that you can use to get where you need go. Take out that tier 6 slot and put a 6A fuel scoop. Make sure you have your engineered hull reinforcement in storage (don’t sell it). Find station one system away from your target system and make sure it’s not under attack.
Use your fuel-scoop to get to that station quick, then transfer that hull reinforcement (or whatever you might want to trade out, weapons, etc…) to that station. Swap modules, then jump to your target system.
When you’re ready to go elsewhere, jump back to that first system, swap out for a fuel scoop, and go. Rinse and repeat.
Also works good if your looking to engineer multiple pieces and you can’t fit all of them on your ship.
Thank you. Love these types of videos
I'm on the base, there are no pre engineered plasma chargers anymore.
Let me give some pointers to you D2EA and to those who want to build this build. I am someone who uses MPC exclusively. do NOT use 4 mpc. It DESTROYS power draw, even an anacondas and vetts struggle with 4 of them. 3 is more than enough damage and it lets you have an extra slot for whatever you want. He said this is meant for lower level goids, but i can confirm 100% that you CAN solo hydras and everything else with it. Just be aware the smoke is a bit obnoxious when theres a lot of people using them. Please be considerate when in AX Conflict zones.
I just arrived at prospects deep but couldnt find the modified plasma charger in the brokers menu. Am i at the wrong place?
As Astro said in the video. System Mbooni. There‘s only one surface station in the whole system. No mistake possible. They ARE there. O7 Cmdr
Only one Module Reinforcement will be gone before you've lost a quarter of your hull; reactive armor is just more expensive against thargoids. You should consider swapping the reactive for Military Grade, and swapping two of your smaller HRPs for MRPs, while upgrading your C4 GMPR to a C5 GMRP; that should give you about enough module reinforcement so your modules and hull will fail at approximately the same time.
Using all Plasma Chargers is a fun idea, but it takes some forethought. They use far more power than a krait can generate, which DOES allow more time before needing to get on target, but if you try spamming them incorrectly you'll waste a lot of ammo for not much damage. I personally prefer combining them with modified shard cannons, which have great DPE and heart damage but lower raw DPS. Either can work, though.
A plasma weapon just annihilates, period.
...and the moment you ready to SHOOT, you release... 😏
solid Hull loadout in the Optional Internals but I will go Shielded and double Braced in the Core Internals just for the Gangksters in Open mode.
Huh, why did you use reactive surface composite? Military grade composite has the same Hull strength, but is cheaper - and this also affects your rebuy costs...
Hmm, maybe I should give the plasma chargers a try.... Until today I use Gauss cannons for cold orbitting - and the Pre-engineered shard cannons for clearing out those conflict zones around stations.... They really shred scouts, Cyclopses and Basilisks....
Gah, I really want the enhanced Plasma but the idea of working for the Azimuth scum disgusts me. Burn them down, take their stuff, and distribute it properly I say. Ah well, my own RP hang ups aside thanks for the vid!
So, with the new experimental weapon stabilizer I couldn't resist and built Anaconda with 6 of these plasmas. I was hoping for a ship with enough damage output to exert and take out Hydra's hearts on its own and I got it. This means you can defend planetary settlements solo with this. As a nice bonus, if you perfectly time your shots and manage WEP capacitor, this ship can kill a Cyclops in less than 30 seconds (sic!).
And then nobody gets why the Interceptor's shields comes up all of a sudden when the heart is exposed. Then we have a Interceptor swinging left and right with a glowing heart and nobody can damage it.
There is a damage threshold the Goid will bear with after exposing the heart, if the cap is hit, the Shields come right back up before the heart is done with.
It's because there is a lot of people storming the Thargoid with Salvation's Plasma Chargers and Shard Cannons and missing the heart and filling that threshold. LITERALLY making goid combat a infuriating task for everybody else who knows how to do it.
even with 100% allied status with Azimuth Biotech you will not get permission or access authorization for the Mbonni system - but clicks are more important than correcting this Video here - very unsympathetic
Thanks for the build :-) Can´t wait to try it - but anyone knows why i can´t engineer the 3 "normal" Hull reinforcements? I can´t choose them in the Engineering section - only the one added in the Core section...
I've been using this build for about a week now. Insanely fun and satisfying after running Gauss Chieftain. I wonder how is its DPS compared to multi-cannons.
pretty impressive
I got my plasmas reaching top 25% in CG's our Builds are similar but tonight I'm having to hit a Heart 3 or 4 times. Running away mostly now as the cmdr's in open are disappearing fast.
Loving the MPC, but I'm very new to thargoid combat and had a question. What do you do about thargon swarms without the flak launcher?
If you're building it around the idea of quick docking, wouldn't you want a smaller life support?
Nice
To fight a thargoid we rather need anti-ganker build.
Cuz thargoid cannot kill you, griefers will.
Shame that to grind the Azimuth faction you need to travel 82k ls and then you can't even do missions for them because the mission board bug still isn't fixed
I'm loving the faster Phantom for AX, but the MK II has the fighter hanger and I'm trying to get an NPC to elite.
put your lead on trailing cmdr, aims better ,and OC chargers also good for Hydra's and just turn on sillent running and shoot your weapons a few times if you wanna cook your caustic off
I was wondering if anyone knows how to get Thargoid tech or weapons for your ship? I was in a dog fight with a Cobra MKIII and his ship was decked out with this tech. Man was it effective.
Can't even get the game to patch, have it on steam and when i load the game the loader give options for legacy or live, going live start a patch that doesnt do anything, 0m/bs being used when i checked the network settings
For the love of God use military grade alloys you raise your insurance for no reason LMAO.
Nah. The best and easiest krait is the shard cannon krait. Guess I gotta make a vid of mine cuz I haven't seen anyone doing it
Hey just a heads up, your caustic resistance doesn't really matter for the majority of the fight as the thargoids cannon deals absolute damage. You would probably be better off just having more engineered HRP's instead of the guardian ones
I'm loving my cold orbit long range guardian shard challenger.
I guess I need to retire first. That sounds like a lot of grinding just for guardian tech. 😅
is it possible that class 3 plasma chargers can't be unlocked?
The modified shards also very good. We need C3 of them.
i dont know why frontiers stucks up with only medium weapon and limits.... its stupid, doesnt make sense and we are at war for god sake
@@mathspodethemighty3484 Yea, and it makes the large ships less effective
@@Neo-vz8nh its completly useless anyway i gave up on frontier they dont know how to make good gameplay
I've been using the new Plasmas since the Maelstroms got here. I'm pretty sure even against bigger 'goids they've got more damage without rearming than either Gauss. Either way, I think they're top -tier for heart exertion.
Also the shards are pretty effective for people who aren't so amazing at point aiming. I think the Challenger might be the best bet for them if you consider the slots (two medium shards, one medium plasma, one flak), though I have decent luck with a single shard on my Superlight Advanced Thruster Courier. Anything bigger than a Basi and I'm probably up shit creek but against 'Clops and Basis I can wreck em solo
Not sure. I haven't changed much, my Anti-Xeno Challenger still rocks with a large Shard, three Medium Gauss and 3 small long range Beam Laser turrets to shed the heat. A descent pilot will do more damage with the Gauss than the new preEng Plasmas. You don't need a scan of the Bug either. I have a human tech only Maelstrom build based on a Krait MKII and the new MCs, a real scout shredder and good up to every bug you can scan, would just not solo a Hydra. With the Challenger that's no Challenge, at least not near a station. Then again, to each his own...
@@BlueSideUp you don't need to scan to use the Plasmas. And yeah raw dps the Gauss is still king, I'm more saying that 4 Plasmas can kill more medusas than 4 Gauss before having to rearm or synth ammo
Due to the reduced jitter and way better AP, in p sure the level 2 preengineered shard beats out the large.
@AhrenAKADan got you. The total DPS per load has become a lot less interesting with the stations around to rearm, even in the middle of the fight with a couple hearts killed. Before that it was a pain to synthesise (and grind the materials again), I see your point. I thought you need at least a little help aiming at the hearts with a sub lightspeed weapon. Guess you can estimate the aiming point from the vector of the whole Interceptor somewhat? The advantage of light speed weapons is that you can just aim for the hearts visually, not caring about the Goids vector at all, and still burry the full DPS of all Gauss's in one heart, making hearts a one shot exercise.
Well, doesn't matter much outside the Maelstrom systems, Thargoids are now easier than ever to kill there, no matter the preference of weapons. We need better human tech or not deteriorating Guardian Hybrid weapons for the Maelstroms. Guess it's intentional to make clearing the Maelstrom systems a kind of boss level.
@@BlueSideUp
Yeah with the increase of speed of the pre-engineered Plasmas it's not bad at all to aim, especially using trailing aiming. Also the Gauss charge time can make it difficult to get a shot off during an arc. I know there's a mouse and FA off control scheme that makes it very easy to aim though and I'm interested in trying that out.
I think we're gonna get some AXCZs that don't have a rearm available. Kinda just planning in advance for them.
And yeah I'm actually looking forward to the gimballed AX Multicannons. Got a chieftain put together already to use two larges and two small Plasmas for exertion. I usually run with at least one other person so if we can get a scan I can target the heart, and while they have aggro I can go get rid of scouts. Wish the AP was better though. If they allowed us to engineer the human stuff at least it'd be nice, could pop Sturdy and Autoloader on the Multicannons.
Also I've realized the AX Multicannons are apparently really good for taking down interceptor Shields and since they don't generate much heat you can cold orbit while firing. Against a cyclops you might get a panic shield but anything bigger and it should be fine.
@AhrenAKADan the speed of the new Plasmas is nice. The Turreted AX MCs have 4000m/s as well now, with 3 large on a Krait Scouts really don't exist anymore, at least for long 😉 Gimbals with increased DPS would be nice. Fixed loose the extra DPS because you can't aim that accurately.
Gauss and Rails I play with Stick and Thrust Levers in VR, no FA off Mouse "cheat" required. It's really a matter of experience, gets second nature to start the shot in the right moment so you are on target when they discharge. I spent many hours in a Rail FDL, Rail whatever really, most agile ships with 3+ medium slots are absolutely a blast with short range in PVE. A little different engineering for PVP. But the rhythm of the shooting remains the same. And most CZ Cutters die from two 5km shots into the power plant, saves so much time.
I got the permit by going to Rennie Orbital in LHS 1163 and taking on missions there. Once I was Allied I only had to accept the permit "mission" and was instantly rewarded with the permit, didn't have to do anything for it! Might be a bug, but one I'm quite glad for haha.
Most permits where you need an ally status with a faction work like this.
Two of us went to Mbooni to get the plasma chargers. I already had some so I know how it works, I wanted more for a new build. We both had all the necessary materials. We tried everything, but we both had to leave empty handed. Is it bugged or is there some trick to getting them?
Unless they broke it within the last few days ot should work
This worked for me, go into tech broker go to the weapons section scroll right down to the bottom and they're right there, it doesn't actually say 'Guardian' plasma charger until you unlock it for some reason
Tnx for the excellent instructive video, one question thou, you never mention WHERE do you go to engineer those Guardian Plasma Chargers and I noticed they are engineered to only ONE level?
They are pre-engineered. So you can't engineer them your self, but you have to buy them with materiales
This build looks fun, I'll try it once I've filled up on materials again.
If Thargoid weapons ignore resistances, does it make a difference whether armour is Reactice Surface or Military Grade? I think I have the latter in my current AX Krait.
No that should be the same
What about the swarm? how does this build deal with the swarm as there is no flak?
I usually ignore them, or fight near ground stations where the interceptors don't deploy a swarm
@@DowntoEarthAstronomy would 'near to ground stations' mean anywhere within the orbital cruise area? Just wanting to know where I can safely assume there wont be a swarm to worry about :)
This game is so good. It really is cool
Thanks for this build information..i will be converting one of my kraits today..judging how it performed in your video, for me, this could well be my meta , as I’ve only ever killed one thargoid and that was 2 years ago 😊 ..I’ll be back to review it in a day or two.
Its has been a while.. so, is it worth it?
14:15 and what when i will get killed? If i have money to rebuy, then that Pre-engineered Plasma Chargers will be again on my ship, or i will have to get new materials and buy them again in LESTI?
You will keep them. No need to get them again
@@DowntoEarthAstronomy thank you
PS - i just wanted to tell you, that your channel is one of the precious gems of all time :)
Thank you for your work
Do you have someone to do all the grinding for you? Guardian this, Class A that, Grade 5 everything (of course), PRISMATICS on everything, yada-yada-yada...What's a poor boy to do?
My advice is to do a little at a time to hit a goal. No reason to grind everything all at once. If you can't use this build that's fine find a beginner build that you can. Turning the game into an endless grind for yourself is just painful.
Do you need credits?
@@badger_ninja8681 No, I'm good thankx..That wasn't the point anyway. I've got all that crap & holding my own - just would like to see more EZ builds to try & fly myself and for others..
@@hanswichmann5047 ok that's good. I agree more new player friendly builds would be great. Well not even new player really just players that want something that works without a week of doing things they don't like.