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Alliance Challenger

Price: $2.35

Alliance Chieftain owners looking for a similar ship with extra firepower and durability are offered the Alliance Challenger. The Challenger replaces one Class 3 slot with two additional Class 2 slots, increasing its overall damage in combat. It also retains the same manoeuvrability as the Chieftain, giving it the ability to keep its aim on target and evade fire. The Challenger's real power lies in its increased shield and armour, which, combined with its mobility, makes it a very difficult target to defeat. The additional internal compartment of the Class 6 allows the Challenger to carry a much larger shield pod, increasing its defensive power immensely. You have to pay for this in terms of speed, but once you get the 'A' rating the difference between the Challenger and the Chieftain is about 15m/s, and with the engineering modifications the difference becomes even smaller. Basic manoeuvrability is identical, though pitch and yaw speeds are slightly lower. The Challenger is quite capable of taking out any other mediumship, and even large ships like the Anaconda are easy to defeat thanks to its high mobility and damage output. These characteristics also make it a powerful choice for hunting down Targoid vessels.

The Alliance Challenger has an increased payload of 154 tonnes compared to the 122 tonne Chieftain. This makes the Challenger a worthy merchant and pirate, as only the Federal Gunship, Krait Mk II, Krait Phantom and Python are ahead of it in payload. It can also make a very good prospector, as it has ample sockets for all the necessary gear and decent cargo space. Its high hull strength and military compartments make it easy to defend itself without a shield.

The only real drawback to the Challenger, aside from its higher cost compared to the Chieftain, is its jump range, which is just under 24Sv before any engineering modifications are required. Since the Challenger is best suited to hull ramming, its jump range will only be reduced if it is equipped with armour, which can negatively affect its travel time to relatively distant battle sites.

The sockets on the Challenger are almost identical to those on the Chieftain, although it has replaced the uppermost Class 3 socket with two Class 2 sockets located just behind the front chassis. The external gear cells are well distributed and have minimal obstructions, with two at the top approximately in the middle of the ship and two at the bottom, slightly further to the rear. Like the Chieftain, the Challenger has a second Multicrew crew seat.

Although the Challenger is more expensive to upgrade than the Chieftain, it is still considerably cheaper than a number of other medium ships such as the Federal Gunship, Krait Mk II, Python and Fer-de-Lance, and is still able to defeat each of these ships in a firefight.

The Alliance Challenger is most often found in Alliance systems. Despite its name and affiliation, it requires no rank or reputation within the Alliance to purchase.

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Alliance Chieftain

Price: $2.35

The Alliance Chieftain is very competitively priced at just 19 million credits - significantly cheaper than other combat heavy or multipurpose ships such as the Python, Federal Gunship, Imperial Clipper, Krait Mk II, Krait Phantom and Fer-de-Lance, while still offering similar capabilities. The ship also has many internal compartments, allowing the pilot to equip shield storage, hull reinforcements or amplification modules.

As a combat ship, the Chieftain's main rival is the Federal Assault Ship. Both ships have the same internal main equipment cells, similar manoeuvrability (the Chieftain has a higher base top speed but lower afterburner speed), similar defensive capabilities (although it has a more powerful shield, the Chieftain has significantly worse module protection than the Federal Assault Ship) and a very similar base price. However, the Chieftain has slightly better firepower, it has slightly better sockets for additional internal equipment, and there are no rank requirements to get it before it can be bought, but the Federal Assault Ship can make a gravity grab. Chieftain pilots may find it worth investing in one or more module reinforcement kits, as the Chieftain's manoeuvring engines and lantern are particularly vulnerable to pitting due to their large size and exposed position.

The Chieftain does an excellent job against its intended opponent, the Targoid Interceptor. It can be fitted with a maximum of 4 experimental AX weapons, and has enough cells to mount external and additional internal equipment to counter the targoid, such as cleaning drones. Finally, good manoeuvrability makes it easy to deal with Targon swarms, as it can keep an anti-aircraft system with remotely detonated projectiles in its sights. In capable hands, it can even tackle Targoid interceptors single-handedly.

The Chieftain can also be used for non-combat purposes. It is a decent merchant or smuggling ship, as it has a maximum payload of 122 tonnes, which is considerably lower for an average ship at this cost, but not entirely bad either. It is also a very good prospector ship with its medium to small nests, good manoeuvrability, small hull dimensions and ample cargo hold size. It has a jump range of 28Sv, allowing it to travel relatively quickly within inhabited space, but it is still a poor exploration ship.

Overall, the Chieftain is an extremely powerful ship. Its most notable advantage is its low cost, making it affordable in the early stages, as well as significantly cheaper to upgrade to its full potential. It's great for combat roles such as piracy, bounty hunting and targoid hunting, and retains some of the flexibility of a multi-purpose ship.

Two Class 3 and one Class 2 sockets are located along the central axis of the Alliance Chieftain, making them suitable for the installation of fixed mounted weapons. All three class 1 and two class 3 slots are located above the cockpit, with only the class 2 slot below it. Landing gear extends from underneath the front of the ship's hull and the two rear nacelles of the moving engines.

The Alliance Chieftain is mainly found in Alliance systems. Despite its name and affiliation, it does not require rank or reputation within the Alliance.

Strengths and Weaknesses
Advantages
+ It's the cheapest ship in the medium class.
+ No superpower rank is required to purchase it.
+ Characteristic "Laconian" cockpit lantern that gives excellent visibility to the pilot.
+ High cruising speed in combat build and with engineer modifications - over 530 m/s, making it a moderately dangerous, fast enemy in PvP[k.2], and a survivable fighting machine in PvE[k.3].
+ Resilient hull - when built as a relatively combat-ready ship with hybrid protection, this ship will have over 4,500 absolute toughness, with no critical loss of speed.
+ Highly responsive ship control, comparable to the Federal Assault Ship's maneuverability.
+ As stated in the description, this is a top-notch antixeno ship, with enough external slots for antitargoid defense, and enough slots for countermeasures such as sweeper drones.
+ The gun ports are well located - at the bow of the ship, behind the cockpit, and of the 6 ports, only 1 class 2 is located in the lower hemisphere, giving you a strong hold on the enemy, both with directional weapons and gimbal-mounted guns.
+ Among medium class prospectors, this ship is quite decent at extracting rare valuables

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Alliance Crusader

Price: $2.35

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Anaconda

Price: $8.61

Pros and cons of the ship
Pros
Adequate firepower for a large class ship-8 gun ports, and an impressive number of external ports
Good maneuverability with engine modifications by engineers, slightly inferior to Federal Corvette
Good gun layout, allowing for hybrid gun types (gimbaled in the lower hemisphere and fixed in the upper).
Nice layout of the gun ports (kind of a "prism" in the frontal projection), which gives good convergence of guns (except for the class 1 slots on the tail of the lower hemisphere). This, combined with a powerful reactor and power distributor, makes it possible to use "damage-intensive" systems that can carry high-yield directional weapons like plasma thrusters, beam lasers or electromagnetic weapons, which, in the hands of experienced pilots, can make the Anaconda a threat for most ships with weak shields, and its Hull Combat is very likely to fly well against armored opponents.
The third and final big ship (L-class) with a class 4 gun port.
Highly armoured hull (in theory, an armoured Federal Corvette would have a slightly lower armour rating than the Anaconda). However, the armour rating is on the side of the Federal Corvette - 65 (Anaconda) < 70 (Corvette).
Hangar support for the fighter.
Streamlined, relatively compact hull compared to ships of a similar class, reducing the plane of defeat.
Its high jump range is nearly 21 Sv.Y. with a maximum cargo payload of 470 tons, making it an excellent choice for long-range merchant courier transports.
First-class range in the explorer's outfits - fully lightened and upgraded with engineers, the ship is capable of covering up to 80 cc per jump.
An excellent carrier for economy class passengers, it seats up to 202 in passenger cabins.
Of the "big three" ships (Federal Corvette, Imperial Cutter, Anaconda), the Anaconda is the cheapest.
No Federation or Imperial rank is required to purchase this ship.
So far, the only ship (as of 2023) in the game that has a damage model.
Cons
Low cruising speed in combat version (less than 400 m/s), making it impossible to catch up with fast targets.
Inconvenient location of 1st class combat ports - almost at the tail of the ship, in the lower hemisphere, making them practically useless due to poor melee intelligence, and low damage
Has incomparably less shield protection than the Imperial Cutter.
Rather poor visibility of the upper hemisphere from the cockpit, not to mention the lower hemisphere.
Large hull, requiring the installation of two dipole deflectors/point defence kits in both hemispheres.
Simply huge propulsion system and engines, which are vulnerable systems against real pilots and allow your ship to be quickly destroyed, even in combat configuration.
Inferior in capacity to all L-class ships, the Type 9. Heavy, Federal Corvette and Imperial Cutter, which have almost twice the capacity of the Anaconda.
Inferior to the Krait Phantom and Diamondback Explorer research ship variants in manoeuvrability in hypercruising mode, and powerplant thermal efficiency (but certainly not in hyperjump range). Also, the ship is fairly inert in emergency situations - e.g. when exiting a neutron star/white dwarf jettison.

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Beluga Liner

Price: $5.22

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DIAMONDBACK EXPLORER

Price: $2.61

Diamondback Explorer, (colloquially DbE) is the second version of the Diamondback Scout.

The Diamondback Explorer is a heavily armed research ship with good weapon slot placement, excellent thermal efficiency and a high jump range, second only to the Anaconda. It is larger than the Diamondback Scout and boasts more internal compartments, increased firepower and is generally something in between an exploration and combat ship. It is designed for those pilots who want to replace the cheaper Cobra Mk III with something more affordable than the Asp Explorer. The Diamondback Explorer is a pretty effective scouting and combat ship, but its limited interior space makes it difficult to use as a multi-purpose vessel, in favour of a more narrowly focused fit ship. The Diamondback Explorer features fully animated wings and engines that react to the pilot's actions.

The Diamondback Explorer shares the limitations of the Scout's powerplant class, but has more internal compartments and armament. Because of this, it can have power issues. With its class 5 FSD and 32-tonne fuel tank, it has proven to be an excellent long-haul and ultra-long-haul space explorer. Even in the combat version of the assembly, the Explorer continues to leap impressive distances. However, it is not recommended to mount weapons when exploring outside of central systems, as in deep space the chances of encountering another pirate player (and outside of the bubble are the only ones that can be encountered) are incredibly low. Suffice it to mention that there are over 400 billion star systems in the galaxy. The Diamondback Explorer is also quite popular with Fuel Rats, a pilot organization dedicated to rescuing pilots left without fuel. The ship also has excellent thermal efficiency, allowing it to refuel from a star for longer periods of time, deliver thermal fire and the ability to go silent for extended periods of time.

The sockets are arranged as follows: The 2 medium gun slots are mounted on the sides of the cockpit and one Class 3 slot is mounted under the bow of the ship. The large gun slot has a similar firing pattern to the Python forward gun. The guns are centered, allowing you to fire all guns at the same time on target (if you are using a fixed suspension armament). If the guns are on gimbal, this will provide a large vertical area of fire. Two utility bays are located on the wings, one above the cockpit and one at the tail of the ship.

This ship is quite heavy for its size, and as a consequence the manoeuvrability of the ship suffers. At the same time, this factor makes it more resistant to gravity entrapment when jumping through hyperspace or switching to hypercruiser mode. However, with gimbal-mounted guns, you may well be able to keep your enemy in sight. The Diamondback Explorer is totally unsuitable for mining operations, due to its high cost compared to other ships used in asteroid mining and its small cargo hold. The inexpensive Type-6 Transporter is much better suited.

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Drake

Price: $260.69

A Drake-class carrier ship is designed to both move and store ships and the owner's own and other players' possessions, and can also serve as a trading point in systems. Essentially, the carrier ship is a mobile space station. In addition to its basic station functions, it provides the owner with a cargo bay with a capacity of up to 25,000 tons (not available to other players).

The carrier ship is always present in the game, in all modes, and is available to all players. Regardless of their game mode (solo - single player, open - multiplayer or private group session), they will see the carrier ship in any case.

Commanders can only keep one carrier ship in their ownership. The owner can keep their own ships and modules on their own carrier ship, not including additional services. For other players, the owner can set up Spacecraft and Outfit services.

The ship is equipped with 16 Landing Platforms of all sizes (8 large, 4 medium and 4 small), which provide the same services as normal stations, including services such as: refueling, repairs, re-supply and more, depending on what the owner has equipped their carrier ship with.

The owner can manage docking clearance and can restrict who wants to dock. The carrier ships also have a total payload capacity of 25,000 tonnes, which is used both to store goods and to maintain the infrastructure needed for various additional services. The total fuel capacity is 1,000 tonnes of tritium. Defensive armament consists of 20 automatic defensive turrets.

Several equipment options are available for the carrier ships, suitable for certain purposes with different services, modules and even shipyards available. The owner of the carrier ship can allow or refuse docking to other pilots.[5] You can manage your ship's finances by setting tariffs and adjusting prices for buying and selling goods sold in the carrier market.

Carrier ship. Back view

The Carrier is equipped with large ship-class hyperdrives such as those used by the Farragut and Majestic classes, enabling it to travel long distances through hyperspace between star systems. The carrier ship has a maximum hyperspace travel range of 500 light years. It can travel anywhere in the galaxy except in closed systems, with carrier ships typically orbiting the system's host star. If the system is explored, a specific destination can be chosen, which may be in the orbits of stars, planets or, in some cases, their satellites (moons). It is also possible to move carrier ships within the system, where they make the same transition through hyperspace.

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Federal Assault Ship

Price: $2.35

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Federal Corvette

Price: $10.43

Built in the Core Dynamics shipyards, the Federal Corvette requires the rank of Federation Icon.png Rear Admiral or higher to purchase.
The Federation icon.png patrol ship has two huge weapon slots, and is the first ship in the game capable of carrying two class 4 guns at once. The huge slots are located at the back of the cockpit, the medium ones are located on each side of the ship, and one large slot is located under the bottom of the ship. It also has two small weapon slots located on the nose of the ship. All of this makes the Federal Corvette the biggest threat to all large ships.

If you compare this ship with other ships of similar class (Anaconda and Imperial Cutter), the Federation Patrol Ship has about the same firepower, but the most advantageous layout of the guns for head-to-head combat (all guns except one big one on the bottom of the ship are almost in the same plane and are well aimed in the upper hemisphere, And a pair of huge guns stand close enough to fire on small targets even with fixed suspension), better controllability, marginally outclasses the Anaconda in speed and by 10% in shield power and an armor rating of 5, and is inferior to the Imperial Cutter in speed and by 20% in shield performance. She is vastly outmatched by both ships in terms of jump range, severely limiting her independent travel between star systems, but has good maneuverability in hypercruiser mode, making her easier to intercept other large ships and evade interception.

The ship is remarkable for its appearance, as well as its armament. With 2 perfectly placed Class 4 slots for weapons and extra armaments, 8 utility slots, 3 internal Class 7 slots (for the shield and 2 shield pods) and a host of smaller slots, and having the second strongest shield among the other ships, the Federation Corvette is the best choice to deal with larger ships. However, because of its not particularly well placed and large gun slots (2 small, 2 medium and 1 large), it is less suited for use against small and faster ships, compared to medium-sized ships which have both the firepower and the mobility to use it. This is partially offset by the best maneuverability in its class, combined with its high protection and ability to fire its two large, fixed cannons (Lasers are preferred for smaller ships and Plasma Boosters are used against larger ships) effectively dealing a large amount of damage in a short period of time, allowing it to seize the initiative in the early moments of combat, before the opponent has shortened the attack range for maneuvering or has torn it open for retreat. Overall, the Federal Corvette poses a serious threat to any ship in direct combat, and is flexible enough to upgrade for different combat missions and combat styles, but its relatively low speed and short jump radius make it easy to evade combat in both open space and after it has successfully intercepted in hypercruiser mode.

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Federal Dropship

Price: $2.35

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Federal Gunship

Price: $2.35

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Fer-de-Lance

Price: $3.39

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Imperial Clipper

Price: $2.35

Imperial Clipper, built by Imperial Gutamaya Shipyards and sold mainly on Imperial-owned stations. But it is not uncommon to find it on Federation stations as well. To purchase it, you must have earned the rank of Baron in the Imperial Navy.

Tactical and Technical Specifications

In its price range, this is one of the weakest ships in terms of firepower. Yes, there are two large bays, yes, there are two more medium bays. BUT. The big damage-causing compartments are located on the left and right wings, respectively, and the distance between them is very small, so using two fixed guns simultaneously is impossible (Note: possible, but at a distance of over 2 km, when the damage dealt penalty is very high, it becomes meaningless). As a result, you have to juggle either by setting two gimbal weapons or one fixed / one gimbal, or setting two guns of different types (e.g. a fixed laser on the left wing, a fixed plasma booster on the right), and twisting the wings depending on which one you are going to use. Only the two middle bays are conveniently located. The next disadvantage is that not very strong propulsion system does not allow you to fully enjoy the use of energy weapons, the energy runs out rather quickly. And the last serious disadvantage - with increasing load on the ship (in the form of cargo or massive B-class modules) Imperial Clipper gets the most serious in-game penalties to its running characteristics. Many pilots in battles against NPCs on the Clipper will notice that sometimes they are extremely slow, clumsy and barely move their body in space. The answer is simply that this NPC has his hold full. To see how fast and frisky they really are, it's better to go to the conflict zones, where the galactic powers or small factions that belong to the Empire are fighting - this is where they don't fill up their holds with loot. Attack a couple of Clippers and try to get away from them, the author of the article has never succeeded, they were always forced to take the fight.

Separately we should note the size of the Imperial Clipper, in terms of size it is one of the largest ships that currently exist in the game. It is because of its size that many players disagree on its combat effectiveness. Opinions are usually split on two sides; on the price point of the ship, its combat performance and capabilities are very, very good. Two large and two medium-sized weapon slots, the ability to support class seven shields, and unusual speed and maneuverability for an object of its size. However, there is an equally reasonable opposing viewpoint based not on the cost but on the size of the ship, which means that the Imperial Clipper's shields are rather weak (considering that it's much easier to hit a large ship), and its armament is rather small and uncomfortable (relatively to its analogues in size Fer-de-Lance and Python), mainly due to the awkward arrangement of its ports and relatively small propulsion system for such a large ship (only the 6th class). Which of these two opinions is the most correct is up to the pilot of this ship to decide.

Bottom line: The ship was primarily designed by the Empire to transport VIPs and cargo as quickly and safely as possible, and it does a pretty good job of it.

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Imperial Cutter

Price: $11.74

The Imperial Cutter is an Imperial Cutter-class ship built at Imperial Gutamaya Shipyards, and is a kind of "answer" to the Federation icon.png to the Federation fleet. Like the Federation Corvette, this ship requires a superpower rank to purchase, in this case a rank no lower than Duke in the Imperial Icon.
Advantages and disadvantages
Advantages
Afterburner speed - only this ship is capable of installing Class 8 marching engines, allowing for over 450m/s in a straight line even in heavy combat.
The Imperial Cutter, like the Type-9 Heavy, is the most capacious vessel. If all internal compartments are filled with cargo racks, it can carry 794 tons of cargo (Type 9 is slightly behind with 790 tons).
It is the most protected ship. Less shield efficiency than its Federation rival is made up for by its class 8 shield. This ship, upgraded by the engineers, can withstand immense damage from its shields, while its high absolute shield strength allows it to ram opponents. Even in its trade version, the Cutter's shields are much stronger than those of the Type-9 Heavy.
Not a bad jump range for a large ship - in its engineering variant and with the Guardian booster upgrade, the ship can cover more than 30 light years per jump, even in combat configurations.
Supports the Angara fighter unit.
Moderate ship firepower - the ship has one class 4 gun slot under the bow of the ship, two class 3 slots at the top of the ship (behind the cockpit), two medium slots on the nacelles above, and two more on the bottom (behind the huge gun). In multiplayer network mode against live pilots, the combination of Turrets in the middle slots and Course Weapons in the Class 3 and Class 4 slots is quite handy, allowing you to compensate for the ship's inertia, and deal steady damage to the enemy.
The huge bridge lantern, and the forward position of the pilot module give a good view to the pilot controlling this large ship.
The disadvantages are .
High cost for modules and equipment, the ship does not have the mandatory slots below class 7, which dooms the owner of this ship to large expenses. This is the most expensive ship in the game, with more than a billion credits already spent on modules and equipment, while the ship's insurance costs over 50 million credits.
High hull inertia, uses afterburner and can take quite a long time to slow down due to its weak reversing engines, it's worth thinking twice before putting it through afterburner.
Its maneuverability is low, making it difficult to actively use your directional weapons and maneuver with inferior opponents, at least with flight assist and rotational correction turned on.
Uncomfortable landing in manual mode - the pilot will experience the same inconveniences as on the Beluga Liner: the ship takes almost the entire airlock of the station, leaving another 190 meters of hull behind the cockpit when passing the gate.
When landing, on approach to the platform, it is desirable to centre the ship relative to it, so as not to catch the gondolas on the lampposts and not to get stuck.
An "anti-camouflage" white composite hull, allowing a live enemy to fire on your ship even with the cockpit knocked out and the targeting system disabled, but can be painted for in-game "ARX" currency.
Weak power distributor, preventing you from using high-powered, high-capacity weapons in all slots and all internal equipment simultaneously. Pilots who take part in battles on these ships are almost always in a state of power shortage, and it is also important to be able to use module consumption priorities.
The smallest shield class that can be installed is 6. A smaller shield will not allow for the installation of a large hull with nacelles that increase the covered volume.
Optional
When weapon slots are active, the exterior illumination of the ship switches from bluish white to red.

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Krait MkII

Price: $3.13

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