Modified Guardian Shard Cannons (a.k.a. "ModShards"): Everything You Need to Know

[@Astyrrean]

Thank you to all who have pointed out how the underlying music is distracting; lesson learned! Will make sure to have better background music going forward! EDIT: KZbin has allowed me to auto-remote the soundtrack from the video; as a consequence however, my voice in the first half of the video now sounds pretty robotic ... feel better than before but again apologies for the audio quality issues!

[@nemysisretrogaming3771]

I was just going to mention that myself LOL. It's just a touch loud in comparison to your voice. But otherwise, good video.

[@joepiscapo1879]

thanks for the info about the so-called "God Shard". I have one in my storage but didn't know why it's stats were so much better than the regular modshards. I forgot about doing the CG that rewarded it to me and not playing the game for a couple of years didnt help matters lol...

[@Astyrrean]

Jealous!! ;)

[@mbrsart]

Just put the finishing touches on a Mod Shard Krait, and it was the first time I've actually had fun with AX combat. These things are fuuuuuun.

[@Astyrrean]

Very popular build. I personally prefer the Challenger. But the Krait is just as good, some would say even better, as a 4x modshard platform.

[@cmdrsaigon6453]

Great video CMDR Mechan! Gauss is cool but the Modshard hammering gun nozzle sound, late at night with a decent headphone in VR is just addictive in combat!

[@cozmikal7832]

Took me all day to unlock four of these on my challenger. Now to find time to try them out.

[@draconusspiritus1037]

While their power draw and thermals are many times what is required for regular shards. They are still far less of s strain on your ship than the same number of guardian gauss.

[@OldManPaxusYT]

Ooof - plz consider no music with LYRICS in the background... It was too loud and lyrics are always a bad idea - it's very distracting! GREAT video otherwise! ← ↑ Comment for algorithm + 👍 'd #OldManPaxus Rating: ☆☆☆

[@jntracksgaming]

Great video (as always), one tip: on top of staggering your triggers as usual, with mod shards I suggest firing a full magazine from one trigger and then switch to the second to empty that magazine. By the time you do the first set has reloaded and you’re ready to go back to trigger 1. This keeps up the constant damage for Medusa and hydra that take more than 2 magazines to exert the heart. (I imagine you knew this one already but since it’s a tip video I thought it deserved a mention) Cheers!

[@Astyrrean]

Yes that's the way to do it and, in hindsight, it would have been better to show it that way.

[@Kissamiess]

I prefer modplasma to modshard, but the shard is much better at hitting hearts. When we fly in wings, we tend to have 1 plasma ship to exert and 1 shard ship to heartsnipe. However, the large gimballed eAXMC is equally good against low tier interceptor hearts and has added benefit of being good against scouts too. In mixed loadouts, I combine medium modplasmas with large eAXMCs these days. I agree with small modshard being pretty useless. It's the same with modplasma. I only use them in small meme builds, or to supplement medium ones when I don't have the hardpoints or distro to go full mediums. I also agree that stagger fire is the way to go, but it's better to empty the mag on first group completely before starting to fire, then fire the second as the first reloads. This makes the long reload time more bearable.

[@Astyrrean]

Yes re:stagger that's the way to do it and, in hindsight, it would have been better to show it that way.

[@BlueSideUp]

I use a Viper with 2x size 2 and 1x size 2 Mod Shards, plus a thermal vent beam. It's an absolute blast. Also use a 4x size2 Challenger, but honestly swap out the shard in the size 3 hardpoint regularly against a size 3 AX multicannon turret, that's helping my rythm somehow. Of course I did the Cyclops gank build with 6x2 in an Anaconda, but I just hate to fly the oil tanker. I have soooo many hours crossing and circumnavigating the Galaxy in one, I even do long distance in a Krait Phantom with the CG FSD meanwhile. Most fun cleaning AX CZs is the Viper by a long shot. It surprised me it can handle the 3 Mod Shards so well, and one thermal vent beam is enough. This build has no Heatsinks! Although I consider one with Heatsinks instead of the Xeno Scanner. The Viper does work with that setup in Gauss's, but the shotgun version is faster killing and soooo much fun. A size 3 modified Shard would be absolutely wild, imagine a Krait with 3x3 and 2x2 of them, size 3 stabilizer. Just wild. You could gank a Cyclops instantly and likely a Baselisk after the first heart. But the real build I would most like fly in all the time would be my beloved Vulture, 2x size3 plus heatsinks. That is currently not a viable AX ship, but would become one. Well, it's nice as it is. I would rather see a fixed beam style AX weapon in size 1-4, that's missing for the laser fans.

[@FtGFA]

we need videos of your great feats.

[@BlueSideUp]

@eliteyouth5 no you don't, believe me 😄. Me stuttering a commentary over a half hour, cursing if I by accident forget coming out of silent running after caustic cleaning and cooking the internals, etc. isn't worth your time. But if you want to fly together, me bringing the Viper, that's fun and can be arranged I'm sure 😉

[@Tombs42]

Awesome vid, exactly what I needed

[@Astyrrean]

Be aware Glaives are now showing up in AXCZs and they have “anti guardian fields” that disable these weapons. Might need to sport AXMCs until a solution comes up.

[@twistedphoenix2184]

this was really helpful thank you.

[@jamiemaidan8333]

I always thought the god shard was the broken version with 9 trillion damage. I had a CG gauss with that bug, you could one shot hydras. Fdev fixed it tho and now it has normal damage :( exact same thing happened with the large PA I think

[@ErosMadelung]

I guess my only question is how they stack up to the Large shards, (obviously large shards have higher spread, slower fire rate) as they do have high Armor piercing than the medium regular. (just fitting two modded mediums to the Krait as i type)

[@Astyrrean]

Versus goid hulls, medium modshards do a net 6% more damage than traditional large. Large shards do significantly more shield damage though - but that doesn't matter much in these fights.

[@mr.godzilla8331]

Can you get all of the new thargoid stuff in horizons?

[@David-84-]

Thanks for the info, but I could hardly hear you over the Coldplay song playing over what you are saying.

[@Astyrrean]

Yes, my bad in editing ... see pinned comment! Still learning the quirks of video production ...

[@David-84-]

@Astyrrean Otherwise the video was spot on mate 👌

[@HeadShot319]

I just got into zeno hunting so sry if this is a stupid question but how are some ppl able to equip 6 zeno weapons? I play on Xbox and I can’t equip more than 4.

[@Astyrrean]

You need a new module called “experimental weapons stabilizer”. I don’t know if it’s available on legacy.

[@HeadShot319]

I’ll have to look into that, thax.

[@kessilrun6754]

They are not equal to a Gauss cannon. You cannot insta-gib (old school gamer here) a Cyclops in like 10-15 seconds with a Gauss. But you can destroy hearts at the same rate. That's different. Gauss don't deal much in the way of hull damage. At least not when compared to to the Gauss's firing rate. But the amount it takes to exert a heart and to destroy it, with either weapon are similar, but the modded shard is dealing more than enough damage to exert a heart, or to destroy it, where that excess damage then converts into added residual hull damage. So, let's say it took 65 hit points to exert a heart on a cyclops (I don't know the real values) and the Gauss is supplying something like 33 or 34 hit points a pop, and I have to land two Gauss hits to exert it. The shard cannon is doing something more like 45-50 hit points in a similar window of time (more than enough to exert), so where does that extra damage go? Into hull depletion. This has actually been part of a method of mine with just normal gauss, to insure that I only need one final blow on a Cyclops to kill it, upon knocking off the final heart, before it puts up its final panic shield: If/ when I knock off each heart, I zap the thing 2 additional times? I deal extra hull damage, before it puts up the shield. this makes it so that I don't have to zap it 4-5 times before killing it after that last heart falls off. Anywho, this cascading damage effect is what gives the shard cannon the ability to take out a Cyclops before it can regenerate any of its health back and often before it puts up its first panic shield. I would say it's hella OP, but in reality all other Guardian weapons are massively under powered, making this weapon the only no-brainer that is just right for the job. PC's need a boost.

[@F4QuArL]

Thanks for this great Video! I am missing the comparison to the 3C Guardian Shard Cannon, you just say that the piercing damage is double and that means twice the damage, but whats that in Numbers? Tried to build my own mod-shards-Conda, but eather i am to slow at fireing or i have to set up riplefire (you didn´t in your Video) but the Goids are getting their shields up way to quickly

[@Astyrrean]

Large (3C) shards have 6% lower nominal damage vs ModShards. Because their shot speed is much lower and the spread is much wider however, in the real world they will likely more more like 30 to 50% less damage. As for the shardconda, only Cyclops can be Insta-killed in the way shown. Anything tougher will “panic shield” instead.

[@F4QuArL]

@@Astyrrean Thank you for that explenation, now I can try again in peace, knowing i should work, but I need to learn the skill to do it ^^

[@ninjajagyr]

how feasible do you reckon it'd be to run 6 gauss on a weapons focused distro conda?

[@Astyrrean]

In short - it isn’t. 4 is the sustainable max without spamming heatsinks 3 at a time.

[@ninjajagyr]

noted

[@Rikus1978]

What weapons should i mount in a Chieftain?

[@Astyrrean]

Typically 2 medium and 2 small guardian gauss cannons, plus a fixed flak launcher and small thermal vent gimballed beam. Watch the "Anti Xeno Academy" video for the full build description.

[@mikewaterfield3599]

I run five on a python

[@maxheadroom6183]

please get rid of that background music, cant hardly hear you over it, nice vid otherwise

[@maalekar]

So the game is set where you have all these requirements to get a weapon to help with the war and if people don't the game will implode. It's too much work to help with the effort.

[@Astyrrean]

You can use the single-unlock guardian gauss cannons - they work just as well.

[@leslieviljoen]

Down to Earth Astronomy made a "Insta Kill Thargoid - Ship Build Guide" showing a 6-mod-shard Anaconda in action. Three shots will spike heat to max, even with a heat sink, but 5 hits can kill an Interceptor.

[@Astyrrean]

Bit late to the game ;) Three Thargoids INSTANTLY REGRET hyperdicting a shardconda kzbin.infoUxpTDNgn2bI?feature=share

[@Datan0de]

This is all of the information I was looking for about Shard Cannons in one place. Thank you for making this!

[@Astyrrean]

Glad I could help!

[@jacobite1017]

turn the radio off next time, it would make it easier to digest what you are saying,;)

[@Legion6363]

So I have had enough of these _____ers hyperdicting my actions to help souls identified as humans and as you suggest that instead of using 6 shard/modshard cannons 4 is more manageable--what would you suggest for the other 2 weapons?

[@Astyrrean]

If all you want to do is swat Scythes, 4 guardian medium modified plasma chargers are the best tool for the job. 12 (fully charged, within falloff range) rounds (Ie 3 volleys) and boom they are dead. You don’t need a 5th or 6th weapons at all.

[@Legion6363]

@@Astyrrean Its the scythe's that do the hyper and interdicting? Plasma chargers it is...would the shard cannons do well though too?

[@chrisedu]

thanks for such great content cmdr, glory to mankind! o7!

[@4naconda]

The GodShards can already be obtained or not yet? Increible video, estoy armando una build con mi Krait II para targoides pero solitario

[@Astyrrean]

ModShards can be purchased at Prospect’s Deep in Mbooni. The GodShard was a one-time CG only thing.

[@nibu8743]

Couplenquestions cmmdr! If using gauss should I also use the modified versions? Also, are the medium modified shards better then the large non-modified shards? I.e. should I use 4 modified shards on my mkII in place of the two large handprints it has? And if so should I used 4 modified medium gauss as well. Thanks! (On horizons via playstation if that changes anything)

[@Astyrrean]

1. No, regular gauss is better 2. Yes, medium modified shard cannons have +6% interceptor hull DPS vis-a-vis large (non-modified) shards; they also have much higher shot speed and tighter spread so the real difference is more like 2x than 6%. The only "exception" is if you want to abuse the premium damage ammo bug that still exists on legacy. In that case, modified gauss cannons with premium ammo loaded do +120% by mistake ... your call if you want to take advantage of that error.

[@rylanross2366]

Damn good video

[@Astyrrean]

Thanks!

[@ersinbix1592]

Can u get them on console? @CMDR Mechan

[@Astyrrean]

I think so!

[@Zyziak]

are these shard cannons still so op?

[@Astyrrean]

They remain the best (AX) weapon in the game for anything that isn't subject to anti-guardian-fields.

[@phoenixjamiexera]

Anyone else recognize the theme in the background at 5:35 from Attack on Titan?

[@Astyrrean]

Good catch. Now find the one in Eagle vs Hydra!

[@phoenixjamiexera]

@@Astyrrean Hehe. Wish me luck!

[@franceschik1]

GLORY TO MANKIND 🌟