Elite Dangerous | Combat Guide Frag Chief

[@hookecho9609]

Note: I use flight assist on when fighting NPCs. When against FA off players I will use FA off. The most important aspect when using frags is maintaining proximity to the bandit. I find this is best done by matching the bandit's momentum. Hence FA on when against FA on and FA off when against FA off. I am a BGS player mainly, so I'm better at FA on. Note 2: I said the FDL has a longer boost. Actually it has a more powerful boost.

[@FlecheDeFer]

Actually all NPCs fly FA-OFF, that was confirmed by Fdevs.

[@golferchin76]

I suppose you use track IR?

[@hookecho9609]

@@golferchin76 yeah I have track ir. It's nice in elite, but not necessary with the sensors. If you play any other flight sims it's definitely worth getting.

[@raulmckool]

This is by far the most impressive flying I've ever seen in any ED video. Thanks for sharing the build. I'm gonna go try this RIGHT NOW!

[@hookecho9609]

Thanks. I appreciate it. Enjoy the frag chief. It's a blast. Check out my more recent chieftain vid for how to practice the maneuvers.

[@andylovegrove9469]

Interesting that you are using the cargo scoop like that. I've never seen anyone using that FAon before. We use it all the time hooning in the exact same way but FAoff. Important fact, It's not a brake, it's simply capping your top boost speed by 50% whilst leaving your boosted agility intact. Good clip bro, you fight a good fight. You'd be lethal FAoff!

[@hookecho9609]

Thanks, I fly FA off when I'm against FA off players. When I'm against NPCs or FA on players I use FA on. With frags needing to stay so close I find it best to match the opponent. I'm better at FA on though. BTW, since you mentioned hooning, If you haven't tried Fly Dangerous yet check that game out. It is a free roam and racing game with the Elite flight model. I have a couple vids about it with links to the download and the discord.

[@andylovegrove9469]

7@@hookecho9609 Ah I see, I knew I'd seen you somewhere... I Fly Dangerously often. Again nice video, keep em coming cmdr o7

[@title5960]

This is such a useful video, thanks so much for making it. I must've watched this over a dozen times by now. I'm really struggling to implement some of these techniques though. At 2:35 you boost directly at an oncoming Vulture without pre-turning and somehow don't overshoot it by 1km. When I boost at oncoming ships from that close, even with the scoop and trying to use thrusters the same way as in the video, I just overshoot and get into a never-ending joust fight. I must be missing something!

[@hookecho9609]

Try flying toward a station, asteroid, or the ground on a planet, something big and stationary, and boosting with the cargo scoop to stop yourself or at least get moving in another direction to avoid the collision. With the boost scoop and thrusters you can stop your momentum faster than just trying to zero the throttle. Practicing around a stationary object helps visualize what your ship is doing better than open space. You will get to a point where it becomes instinct, instead of trying to stop to avoid a collision, you will boost instead. There is something I learned from the Newton's Gambit racer crowd, that thrusters are additive, so full input left and up outputs 100% left and 100% up. It doesn't split the output to 50% left and 50% up, so you can use that to your advantage. Essentially you get more directional thrust when combing axes. Then you could go to a rez and you can practice a joust without even actually shooting. Just fly at them and try to get on them as efficiently as possible. And do it over and over. When practicing something it's best to isolate what you are working on. So don't worry about shooting, just positioning. At 2:35 when I'm approaching head on I'm not at full speed. Keep that in mind when closing. You need to start arresting you speed in advance of the merge. You can do that with the scoop or turning/changing your vector. The boost needs to come before the merge too as it takes a second to kick in. If you wait too long to boost by the time it kicks in you have too much momentum pulling you past him. It's all about timing. Pay attention to the leading gunsight reticle too. At that merge the vulture was moving up in my view even though he was facing me. You want to start, even if looks like a joust, not moving directly opposite of the other ship. If they are moving off in a direction, good. If they are flying straight at you add in some lateral thrust to change that. If you are perfectly opposing vectors, you would have to change your vector 180° as he goes past. If you can separate some before the merge like that instance I might only need to actually turn 120° or so.

[@title5960]

@@hookecho9609 Appreciate you taking the time to share advice. I kept at it and have a much easier time tailing targets in CZs now. Still working on separating before the merge without going too far and never getting the chance to get behind them, but I'm starting to get a feel for it

[@thetennessee]

This just inspired me to get much better at flying these things. That was crazy.

[@Lupinicus1664]

Excellent content, I've been playing since the start and seen most combat-related videos, this is one of the very best (aka 'useful') I have seen. Great job.

[@hookecho9609]

Thanks! I've been playing a few years. It was about time I passed on some of my tricks.

[@Mister_H.]

That’s about the most well explained combat advice video I’ve ever seen. o7 CMDR

[@hookecho9609]

Thank you very much. Glad you found it.

[@kemical37]

oh damn, this cargo scoop tip is broken af, now I can stay behind targets much better while chasing them compared to before. Thanks so much.

[@Crimsonedge1]

Nice video my man. Good load out on the Chieftain with well reasoned usage. I have one but haven't really done anything with it. Mostly flit between the Python, Conda or type 10 if I'm mining. Used the scoop plenty of times while mining as a way of limiting speed and keeping the thrusters up while manoeuvring around asteroids and for holding rotation but never considered it for a fight. Having seen it in action, it's kind of a no brainer really. I'll certainly be employing it from now on. Think I'll be using the frags too. I'm usually an energy weapon kind of guy but the frags definitely manage to overload shields nicely. Well played.

[@hookecho9609]

Flying around asteroids is a great way to practice. You should be well on the path

[@djwave28]

Awesome showing this. I sure am gonna try this technique with the cargo scoop. 😮

[@hullster9970]

Great stuff. Chieftan always was my fav ship. A lot of smiles per gallon.

[@hookecho9609]

Yep, that's the ship that keeps me coming back to the game

[@thorproductions6441]

Love your style. Definitely gonna break my neck and implement some of it. Thank you beast!

[@hookecho9609]

Thanks. Have fun

[@rob9709]

The best combat tutorial ever, thanks

[@hookecho9609]

Thank you for the kind words

[@senor360]

I thought I used to know how to play this game. Thx for the tips!!

[@Calysta31]

thanks for the tips. i begin high difficulty res sites, with a different build on a chieftain, but my problem is not really the build himself, but my capicity to control the speed/boost. Even with a rank 3 dirty drives, the speed and movements are really important, but it's difficult to control the inertia of the ship and have short trajectories

[@Jazod]

So the cargo scoop trick is somewhat a similar but honestly not-as-good method as just simply applying reverse thrust while boosting (boost bleeding). I have reverse thrust (not throttle) bound to my space bar. And when I am not so much planning to use the boost for straight-forward momentum, I use the space bar to put more use into my lats and verts.

[@hookecho9609]

I lurk GCI. You're mentioning those things that should not be mentioned

[@hookecho9609]

And thanks for watching. You have a great channel

[@Jazod]

lol no problem, and thanks for the views :)

[@torq1116]

You really stay on target well, and close. why not fixed for more DPS over the gimbals? Please know, I ask this from a place of ignorance, as I can't fly remotely as well as you, so gimbals are a must for me! LOL

[@hookecho9609]

Good question. I like gimbals because it takes a little work load off. I can focus more on my positioning of the ship in space vs leading shots. I find that when I run fixed guns, I tend to spend more of my thrust on reducing the lead/off axis vectors of the ships. It's hard to explain that, basically trying match velocity to have the leading reticle on/closer to the ship, and that throws me off from staying behind them. Staying out of their guns is more important that having your guns on. The frags have pretty slow velocity so that helps with the lead. The chieftain also has almost all the weapons on top and the medium hardpoint underneath is angled up too, so I figure I might as well use all the extra gun elevation the ship gives me. That's one of my pet peeves of a lot of other ships is that they have bottom mounted guns, but almost all the ships have poor visibility below the center line. Thanks for watching!

[@phib4107]

yo, the flying I see you doing is so far from what I see when I'm doing it. it's amazing - and it looks doable, but just these techniques unlock so much more potential in the game experience than I had been seeing. You're so well-oriented and your tracking/reading of the ship movement is excellent. How do you learn those basics?

[@hookecho9609]

This was really the only game I played for years so I had a ton of practice before making this video. I'm in a group that did a lot of BGS, so I have done countless conflict zones. I would try to complete CZ's as fast as possible. That was my game. But the reason I like Elite is it's just so much fun to fly. Whenever I was at a station or fleet carrier or any of those non landable space stations I would fly around them and stay as close as I could trying not to bump into them. Or if I was bounty hunting and there weren't good targets I would orbit asteroids. Landing at stations without a docking computer is good practice, just making a game out of landing as fast as you can and pushing it. Don't always approach a pad as if you're landing an airplane. Come at the pads from crazy angles. If you're waiting for something to happen just fly. At stations where they don't like me much the vipers will try to scan you, and I would try to stay on their tail so they couldn't get their nose on me. That's huge. You don't have to worry about guns or pips, you just fly and boost and scoop toggle, and you can focus on watching and reacting to their movements, and you can do that as long as you want. Isolate one skill at a time until you don't have to think about it anymore, and then add the next layer in. Advanced technique is basics well applied.

[@antwan1357]

Hey thanks for the link it really helps

[@nashandra6634]

Dude this is awesome, I’m flying my pride and joy, the chieftain. I can’t hit very hard and I get wiped in combat zones. Any tips for what weapons to use?

[@kumar174ful]

Классно летаешь , красивый бой!

[@hookecho9609]

I missed this comment. Thank you for watching

[@JoeyRodz74]

Absolute awesome stuff! Great walk through of what's going on, lots of tips in there as well. So let me get this right, you have your cargo scoop on a momentary switch on your second joystick/throttle. As long as you hold it pushed down, the scoop is closed so you can boost. Otherwise, the scoop is open during normal flight. Is that right? I suppose you can have it toggle open/close but that would need 2 button hits per open/close action.

[@hookecho9609]

Thanks, other way around, when the button is pressed and held the scoop is open. When I release the button it closes again. I have to hold the button to keep it open. Kind of a pain when actually scooping cargo, but I can deal with that. You can change that in the keybindings settings. Toggle/hold

[@kalzonenu]

Cargo brwak thx for the tip 👍

[@BigJeec]

...and some people laugh when I use a 2nd stick instead of a throttle! :D

[@1980StevieJ]

Would this work on console? I’ve used the cargo scoop to slow down in a station before but never in combat and I get stuck jousting a lot also

[@hookecho9609]

It will work if you can bind all the buttons and directions. The flight model is the same, the only limitation is the controller. I suspect my controller bind would be a little unusual. Pitch/roll on the right stick, lateral thrusters on the left stick, yaw on the triggers, and fore/aft thrust would just be some buttons somewhere. How is your controller setup? I've always been curious about console bindings.

[@1980StevieJ]

@@hookecho9609 nothing flashy just standard bindings but I’ve bound chaff instead of cycling through fire groups

[@nyxzorander]

@@hookecho9609 This is a fascinating technique that I absolutely must try. Sadly console keybinds lack the ability to yaw and lateral thrust together and even with some heavy modification of the standard layout it’s still a very tight fit for all the necessary keybinds to really out fly and out perform ships like the FDL, much less a skilled player playing with HOTAS. o7

[@roxy5265]

Shields down in 10 sec! When i brough my chieftain i use the build Pulse laser and multicanons, when i later better at combat i use this build

[@Stabby_Dave]

Can you use reverse thrust rather thn dropping the scoop?

[@hookecho9609]

Some people say that does something. I test it out everytime it's mentioned, and I don't see that it does anything. If you try flying in a straight line and boost with the throttle or thrusters on full reverse, you'll shoot right up to top forward speed. I don't know, if someone can show me how it supposedly works I'd try it out again.

[@dylanharding5720]

@@hookecho9609 I assume it's FAoff only really

[@attax7075]

Works with mamba well too ;)

[@hookecho9609]

Yeah, I've used it with the mamba some. The mamba has massive acceleration, but with the huge top speed it's easy to overshoot, so the scoop braking suits it. I've been surprised when flying the FDL, it just doesn't seem to work as well as the chief. I can't really describe it more than a feeling, but the cargo scoop just works out better with certain ships.

[@51areaspodcast]

note to anyone flying this ship......Seekers and your engines are not friends . one of the easiest ships to kill in game .

[@MrMast0]

great content! can i use the landing gear instead of the cargo scoop?

[@hookecho9609]

You sure can. If you don't have enough power to run the scoop, the landing gear will do the same thing. There's two reasons I don't use the landing gear. Since I like to have it set to hold open instead of toggle, I don't want to have to hold the landing gear button during landings. And, most importantly, the Chief looks goofy with landing gear deployed 😅

[@pyro111100]

cargo scoop OP pls nerf

[@hookecho9609]

😂🤣

[@kalzonenu]

Outmanovering a t10 😁

[@hookecho9609]

Build link: s.orbis.zone/hp1_