Elite Dangerous | Intermediate Tutorial | Picking The Right First AX Ship

An overview of the best ship hulls for getting started in AX combat, with some general details about their strengths and weaknesses.
Viper III - Cheap, fast, and well armed, the Viper is easy to engineer and an excellent starting point for pilots looking to get started in AX combat. Its fragile, so avoid direct confrontation and take extreme care in solo fights. Best used as part of a team or with other ships around to help draw fire.
Chieftain - Accessible step up from the Viper capable of trading punches with Interceptors. Can outrun what it cant fight, and defend itself from Thargon swarms. Best at fighting interceptors and scouts, but has to sacrifice this strength to fight swarms more effectively. Makes for a poor support ship.
Krait - The undisputed king of multi-role AX combat, the Krait is easily adapted fit most playstyles, and can be easily reconfigured at any station with module storage and an outfitting screen. Fast enough to outrun lopsided fights, but weak on maneuverability, the Krait struggles to keep up with Thargon swarms, though it is more than capable of defending itself from them.
Federal Corvette - The best support ship for AX combat, the Federal Corvette can fit into any role its commander prefers. The Corvette brings heavy hitting damage, and incredible resilience to any fight it enters. While slow compared to the other ships, the Vette can stare down threats other ships must duck away from, making it the strong center of a team fight.
AXI Website: wiki.antixenoinitiative.com/e...

[@kaufmann2003]

Timestamps for each ship: Viper III - 0:28 Alliance Chieftain - 4:38 Krait MkII - 8:10 Federal Corvette - 12:19

[@cmdrim2d773]

Allow me to give some constructive feedback. If you're recommending ships to a novice combat pilot going into AX, by far a medium ship is the most versatile ship to use. It can be used at Outposts, Stations, AXCZ's and Surface Ports. The Krait Mk2, the Phantom, Challenger and Chieftain are the meta kings of AX combat. Its agile, beginner friendly and adaptable, reasonable to maintain, have great defense capabilities, cheap rebuy makes them great starter ships. The Alliance Chieftain is the cheapest AX combat ship to use and being a great platform to learn Cold Orbiting in, makes the ship a preferred AX combat fighting ship in Elite Dangerous. The Corvette, although is a great Large Ship PvPvE combat ship does not make it a great AX ship. With the introduction of the new C3 and C5 stabilizers, the Conda surpasses the Vette due to its 6-weapon convergence. The Vette really limits the convergence down to its 2 Huge and 2 Small hardpoints, making it no more useful than a medium classed ship. The two Mediums and Large hardpoints are so out of the way that it makes heart sniping awkward. The only exception would be to use gimballed weaponry or selective fire groups to optimize convergence. The problem that you've noted as well is the agility asepct of all Large Ships. A Large ship is more potent if the pilot understands basic flight mechanics in AX. For a small ship, the Vulture, DBS and iCourier is most likely a more susceptible AX fighting ship than the Viper. The main reasons why its better is because of the amount of utility slots left open for heat sinks on all ships, the Vulture having a size 5 power distro, and the iCourier for being a fast speedy boi. But recommending a small ship is still a huge no no to novice combat pilots. Its a different ship, fragile and will need special attention to how you orbit to maintain fights. Small ships tend to be less forgiving if you don't understand the basics on top of orbiting an interceptor.

[@jonathonsilbaugh2833]

I jumped straight into AX combat with my cutter. I've so far destroyed 12. That's 12 cutters not thargoids. I am now broke and back to space trucking🤣

[@thowun7614]

you need to learn to fly with fa off,in big ships there is no way around,in medium ships it works a bit better,but not much

[@Jenn-lq9yu]

I had never engaged in AX combat before the Thargoid War. I've been rocking in with my Anaconda now built as a mixed hull tank/shield tank, and using Modified Guardian Plasma Chargers. I have around 4,400 Absolute Value Armour and 4,200 Absolute Value Shielding. I've since been able to defeat 20 Interceptors, 17 Cyclopes, 2 Basilisks and 1 Medusa in rapid succession solo over a planetary base by bullying them with the damage of the Plasma Chargers while FA Off orbiting them. It's been a ton of fun.

[@cohenworrior898]

Thanks for your service cmdr. o7

[@Jenn-lq9yu]

I also tested an Engineered Vulture to see how a cheaper rebuy ship could do. An Engineered Vulture with 2 Modified Guardian Plasmas does plenty of damage and can outrun the missiles the Interceptors fire. It's a bit squishy, even with engineering, sitting around 1200 shield, and 1400 armour, but it can still tank for a little bit. The big downside is the lack of flak, but with the damage output in support of other ships it can be quite functional, and the big advantage is that it has an incredibly low rebuy cost. The rebuy for my fully engineered Vulture is only around 730K, so it would take more than 10 deaths to lose the money from a single Cyclops. Whereas, by contrast I died around 3 times fighting in a CZ last night, so I lost in total around 2.1 mil, but I made 158 mil from Interceptor kills. I'd highly recommend it as a starter ship for new Commanders looking to dip their toes in.

[@eyo8766]

Tons of fun until the ship gets destroyed... Then again, you are in an anaconda. Those ships don't go down easily

[@johnnyphase]

good choice CMDR, my Conda build is also mixed, fully engineered and with modified shard cannons, with some luck it only takes 30s to dispatch a Cyclops, can take 5-6 in a row before needing to rearm/repair, currently closing to 200 interceptors killed, made almost 2B having so much fun like never before and btw. I prefer fighting at a planetary settlement where the Goids spawn like crazy a they do not throw those annoying swarms at all!

[@kumi5015]

@@Jenn-lq9yu I flight and fight vulture too. A great - I mean, small...:) - ship against thargoids.

[@npelolli]

You distract from the only, truly viable option: The Sidewinder

[@Alecxace]

naturally

[@Angel_Underscore]

So you're part of the misinformation squad? Only the real ones know the sidewinder has too many hardpoints. Only the hauler can become the king.

[@sonhouse7731]

Excellent. Great content, well written with superb spoken delivery.

[@jimsinger4051]

Great videos...just found your channel...would love to see the coriolis print outs of your builds included in your vids. Keep up the great work!

[@War896]

Damn good video Posted this to my squadron’s AX channel I knew a lot of this already but some of the folks I fly with are just dipping their feet into AX combat this video will have saved lives and rebuys thank you

[@ovaload0019]

Thank you! This was extremely helpful!

[@TheTabCrawler]

Looking forward to the advanced real elite player tutorial - we all know its the Type 10 ;D

[@skytheannur6168]

I've ended up building a Scout killer out of my chieftain but may go back for the Krait MK2 for that now, seeing how it can be a dedicated multirole ship. Though as it stands, I am using an Anaconda as support with the limpet control, fighter, and anti scout capabilities, making it more of a rear echelon vessel than dedicated frontliner. One thing that we the player base tend to forget is actual support ships.

[@lc2131]

I have a cutter for the same role, two Gauss two AX Multi's and shield regen beams instead of thermal vents. It's seriously fun, especially when playing in open.

[@78Shockwave87]

I personally run a 3 Gauss Challenger; gets toasty but the 3 small Thermal Vent Beams help a lot. Snipes like a dream

[@wstavis3135]

I built several anti AX ships recently. Starting with a DBX then a Krait MkII, and an Anaconda. I also built a super cold running Dolphin for Titan cloud farming. I only started fighting Thargoids after Titan Leigong was destroyed, because i was annoyed by Thargoids trying to get to witness the explosion. As of today, i have killed 22 Thargoids, merely three days later. All kills have been with the DBX in the caustic remains of Taranis. Testing the Krait tomorrow. I have learned to fear the Scythes and their incredible canopy killing ability. Other than that, it has been a fun new experience.

[@plflaherty1]

Thank you for the Vid. I wouldnt mind seeing what other options there are to support the war effort.

[@yummyzerg]

I tried flying the Challenger and got my ass handed to me by a Cyclops, but I can solo a Basi in my Anaconda. I don't have the Corvette unlocked, but the Anaconda is no joke. 9500 Armor with a couple Guardian Module Reinforcement Packages, 2 Gauss 2 Mod Shards w/ bigass LR thermal vent beam and a flak gun... so good. Also, 24 heat sinks. I just can't step down to smaller ships that have like no utilities, no internals... bleh. I prefer to eat the meatballs the Thargoids shoot over.

[@beaucoupzero]

thanks for the info, great channel btw👍

[@maysinbell5765]

I personally am on one side of the spectrum or the other. If not in my Corvette, I'm in a Vulture. Hydra kills in a Vulture is simply just *chef's kiss*

[@thepathnotfound]

Been flying a vulture forever, what weapons are you using for thargoids?

[@maysinbell5765]

@@thepathnotfound Gauss, it is the only way. :)

[@thowun7614]

@@maysinbell5765 this is the way

[@Kissamiess]

Interesting viewpoints. Couple of points: The benefit of Krait's size 7 PD can't be understated. Running BW shields with Guardian and especially Salvation weapons can be too much of a balancing act with other mediums, but Krait handles them easier. I would recommend shielded build for a new player, less things to keep track of. Also, when learning to aim the Gauss, Krait's slugginshness can be bit of a benefit. If one has to use a large hull, the Cutter is the only real option for a player new to AX combat. It's the only one of them that is capable of beating the standard Interceptor speed. You got to be capable of outrunning an interceptor straight line if your bypass game is not strong yet. The Cutter drifts like crazy and is sluggish to turn, so it's hard to use offensively, but I've been trying to get it to support roles. I myself started with Krait Mk.2, but now my main AX ships are Chieftain and FAS. Aforementioned Cutter for support. Also have build an very cold running Clipper, but that will just be a Scout killer/researcher with gimballed Enh. AXMC (turreted as placeholders for now) until better Xeno Scanner comes along.

[@jspr1272]

Judging by the other comments here, it's clear the cutter isn't the only viable large ship for a beginner. While I find the AXI information useful, it's really only best for optimal solo AX combat.

[@noble_draconian]

I've exclusively been using the corvette for AX combat since the war popped off. I have over 800 kills, with 160 of them being interceptors. The corvette is really fun to fight goids in, though it struggles to avoid aggressive lightning attacks by interceptors. If you're about 1.5KM away & an interceptor rushes you, there's no dodging the lightning. Just put fill pips to shields & pop a cell bank while trying to boost away.

[@simonpotter7534]

I am feeling my way back into Xeno combat and have started with scout combat. I would be interested in the alternative roles, I'm already doing evacuations as part of the war support.

[@Caedn]

I'd love to see more about devoted anti-thargon ships. I think it will be more welcome than ever now that commanders will be able to to devote 6 hard points to AX weapons.

[@howardxu8050]

I say t10 would be a good anti thargon actually Having really bad hardpoint placement is actually an advantage on thargon destruction as more area is covered by flak

[@SewerynPas]

first ax ship was a federal corvette i made in 2 days and it does decently skill needs improvement as i only do solo ad i only have shar cannons but haven't lost it yet and have destroyed some thargoid interceptors. 50 mill repair cost be pretty bad if i do die though.

[@mikee9464]

I would love to learn about medical support for the frontlines as well as rescue missions. Also, are the any kind of ground missions that are ax? Maybe where you and 1 or 2 other people can drop down and hop in srv to assault a base of some kind?

[@Bbenkosky]

I built a clipper... I love it but I notice no one else uses it... super fast. Can carry a lot of hull. See you out there

[@I39393I]

hardpoint placement is kinda bad for heart sniping but otherwise a great ship to fly 600+ boost speed against interceptors is a god send

[@thepathnotfound]

Great info…thx

[@natefriend9751]

Personally, I use the Orca as my AX ship. 1 L thermal vent and 2 M Guardian rails, over 4k hull; all I need to defend settlements from goid control.

[@robywesq.6265]

Slf don’t always cause networking problems. Only when you spam npc commands. If you multi crew you won’t have connectivity issues

[@Sirindilable]

I remember times when 1st Thargoids appeared. I had all types of ships in my disposal but i couldn't kill even one, despite many attempts. So, no reason to return to elite. Going to watch the war on YT:)

[@zolika893ify]

Yes I fkn love the Corvette Against these flowers! (But my ship is not even built correctly for xeno hunting) I ve just strapped some ax weapons and a field neutraliser

[@chaselaver6135]

I for one am an advocate of the shieldless corvette face tanker. Although I would never recommend a new AX pilot to attempt it. I tend to press my luck with it quite often. 7k hull is a helluva drug, you dont need to be fast if you can simply outlast them. I once killed 4 cyclops while as 9% hull, I eventually hit 0% and kept on flying, no idea how. And yes, I was still face tanking them while at 9%. unfortunately lucky number 5 sent me to the rebuy screen

[@user-hl2si2gq9m]

Yep, tell us about nocombat ax missions, please

[@Newt_Newt]

Thargoids gangster till the no shield full shard cannon Corvette shows up.

[@congruentcrib]

everyone loves the Chieftain, but I personally love my Challenger. While 2 large weapon mounts is nice, I find a lot more comfort with 3 medium and 3 small. It gives it a total of 7 different hardpoints vs the Chieftain's 6. I do need to play around a little more with my builds, but I currently have a challenger with sheilds and SCBs. I do need to work on my hull though. While strong, it is mediocre at best when compared to other AX builds

[@Youda00008]

I wanted to say the same thing. Everyone recommends Chieftain, but the best AX weapons are size 2 only, so they are downsizing weapon slots. So why not a Challenger that has 3 of them?

[@tedferkin]

Why does the chieftain get mentioned as an AX ship, but not the Federal FAS? The FAS on paper seems to have stronger hull and better boost speed?

[@DryHeatAndSand]

I've seen them both used to great effect in group battles. I think the main issue is the federal rank grind. The chieftain is easier to get, so more people use it.

[@tacoboy2218]

I have a cheiftan that I want to outfit for bug hunting but idk where to start

[@Youda00008]

Question: Why Chieftain and not a Challenger? Challenger trades one size 3 slot for two size 2, and the most useful AX weapons are size 2 only so people will be downsizing size 3 slots anyway.

[@DryHeatAndSand]

The challenger makes for a great AX ship, I've built one using mod chargers. The Chieftain wins out as a first AX ship because it's cheaper, faster, and the size three slots lend well to the enhanced AX weapons that newcomers are more likely to use.

[@Youda00008]

@@DryHeatAndSand Makes sense, thank you.

[@rogerstalder7184]

Can anyone explain me why the Krait always comes on top to fight Thargoids. when the Phyton has 1 option tier 5 slot, and 70 Health points more then the Krait? to just 5% less speed? ^^ I have watched now a vew videos to the best thargoid ships, and i never saw the Phyton 🤣 but in my mind its almost as fast. for quite more HP and the same layout.

[@gunshipzeroone3546]

Hi are you playing this on xbox or p.c because alot of people said that the game is dead on xbox the devs have stopped updating the game on xbox console.

[@DryHeatAndSand]

I'm on a PC. Development for all consoles has been halted.

[@Ellscreekhomestead]

Sorry but us console players are still going strong over here and still alive it will bite fdev in the rear end later on watch

[@Bahajan13]

Are you traveling to another galaxy on the first part of the video? Why so long hyperspace jump?

[@DryHeatAndSand]

It's a background loop. I got the idea from a network bug on older versions on Elite that caused an infinite jump loading screen. What you are seeing is actually the same jump sequence with a subtle Crossfade transition played over and over at different intervals to break up the illusion.

[@tubewatchingfreak]

I fly a clipper. 2xmedium mod shards, 1xlarge shard, 1thermalvent beamlaser. Powerplant low emission 5 monstered. 7a repair limpet controller, 64 tons cargo. 1x 3a afm, The rest is armor heavy duty deep plating and slot 1 and 2 filled with guardian modulereinforcement. Paired with its speed and your repair you are immortal.

[@SGTcz90cz]

Why would you sacrifice a hardpoint to have TWO flak launchers?

[@Deathhawkdown]

I shunned the meta and picked up the keys to my mamba

[@chjeremy6538]

u forget about the other small boi, DBs, same hard point layout as viper, mobility like the viper, two more utility than the viper

[@Wiretale1]

The only ships I can actually use is falcon delacy

[@YamiPoyo]

u lost me at fully engineered what does that mean

[@DryHeatAndSand]

All parts running grade 5 blueprints.

[@joshwtorrance]

I run a 4 gauss 1 flack fdl

[@j.d.4697]

I just wish the ship designers put more effort into the models than just making them either a square or a triangle...

[@joepiscapo1879]

you can put ship kits and other cosmetics on any ship

[@I39393I]

i dont think corvette is a good choice non enginer top at 280m/s and enginerd at around 350 she is way too slow for AX combat cutter is the best choice for big AX ship imo fast (500m/s boost speed fully enginerd) tanky (7000hp hull with or without shield) and 2 very far out class 2 hardpoints to put flak on only thing cutter can't do well is turning

[@yawhatever1236]

clicking uninstall is the best ship

[@wstavis3135]

Why TF you here?

[@DrSid42]

WTF is AX ?

[@DryHeatAndSand]

Short for Anti-Xeno. Referring to weapons designed specifically to kill Thargoid ships.

[@Shinzon23]

Interesting. Pointless to me because Frontier told every console player "Get fucked", but interesting nonetheless

[@BloodravenD]

No they didn't, they realized that it would be a nightmare to actually play Odyssey on conoles as they are hardware limited. They didn't tell you to "get fucked", hell they offered free transfers to PC, as well as the game free on PC, not to mention you could still play through Horizons on console.

[@Shinzon23]

@BloodravenD So you don't consider them lying to players for quite a few months about why we weren't getting new content to not be a colossal f*** y** to every single one of us on the consoles...? Also, LOVE the REEK of superiority in that response...you realize not everyone can afford a $2500 computer necessary to play elite dangerous at the highest graphic settings right?

[@BloodravenD]

@@Shinzon23 They didn't lie, the content that was going to happen was Odyssey, but if you followed the news of it for any length of time, you would know it had performance issues even on PC. With consoles having a set hardware, and no upgrade path, it made more sense for them to focus on getting Odyssey working well on PC. It's not like you were completely out of a game though, as you still had plenty of content between the base game and Horizons. Also no where was I "reeking" of superiority in my reply. People can have different opinions, and it doesn't mean they're being hostile towards on another. I don't like you putting words in my mouth. No where did I say you needed or had to have a multi-thousand dollar PC to run the game at the highest settings. You can easily get by with cloud gaming, which requires very little investment on your part, or even a entry level or budget gaming PC which will run the game relatively well. Not to mention with building a PC you get access to games a lot cheaper(they frequently go on sale or have lower initial costs) and aren't tied down to a xbox live/playstation plus, scam like you would be if you stuck with your console. Plus you can use your PC for more than just gaming.

[@blue_beephang-glider5417]

I played this game for a year. NEVER saw a Thargoid only once saw another human controlled ship... Massive yawn 🥱

[@BloodravenD]

Then you must be either an explorer, or not bothered to visit any of the popular sites. Currently there has been a massive war going on, and there is plenty to do both in and around the bubble.

[@andreasplosky8516]

This game offers you an entire galaxy with all its stars and star systems. You will not find everything in one place. You need to go where things are happening, if you want to be in the middle of it. It is your choice. You can easily avoid Thargoids and humans, in a game space the size of a 1: 1 Galaxy simulation, but it would be your own decision, or perhaps ignorance.

[@blue_beephang-glider5417]

​@@BloodravenD It's a game. You shouldn't have to do research to play, and if you are dumped a million planets from another player... Gave up board to death 2 years back will never go back.

[@blue_beephang-glider5417]

@@andreasplosky8516 Exactly, a galaxy! The stats outnumber the players millions to one. Poor game design.

[@andreasplosky8516]

@@blue_beephang-glider5417 No, not at all poor game design. I think it is magnificent. Just like in real life, you need to go where things are happening. If you do not do that, then you can only blame yourself. This is not a CoD-size level game. This is a different type of game, with a totally different approach, and unique experience. If you are unable to adapt to that, then this obviously is not the game for you. Which in itself is perfectly fine. There are many games, that are not my thing either. I just don't play them, but do not blame my dislike on game design. That would be stupid.