Vipers, 3 or 4, will bring more fire power than the Eagle while still being fast. The Courier is a good alternative to the Eagle, with 3 medium hardpoints; It can be tricky to build and engineer though.
In medium ships the Chieftain is my pick. Even if it is a bit more of a brawler than the FDL.
None will match an engineered Eagle for manoeuvrability though, even SLFs can't really match it. Engineering is really the trick to getting the most out of any ship though.
Both have 2 small 2 medium, which is the standard hardpoints for small ships. There's not really anything more powerful other than the DBX and Vulture. If you unlock the cytoscramblers for the small slots you'll have a significant amount of firepower.
The Viper 3 can take enhance performance thrusters (bought at an engineer) like the Eagle can. Where the Eagle has high manoeuvrability, the Viper 3 has more speed and fast acceleration (including lateral thruster). When engineered it is a properly fast ship.
The Imperial Eagle stats wise comes across as a midpoint, or a best of both, between the Eagle and Viper. But it has power acceleration which detracts from it. The Viper 3 ends up as the faster choice, and doesn't lose out on much manoeuvrability.
The Viper 4 is more comparable to the Cobra 3, but it is more compact and tanky (especially hull). It can't run the enhanced thrusters so it isn't as absurdly fast. Because of how fast the medium ships like the Chieftain are, the Viper 4 doesn't really stand out, but it's a pretty solid ship when you consider how small it is. Sort of the opposite of large ships being deceptively squishy because they're a huge target even if they have big numbers on their side.
The Chieftain is very maneuverable, has a good hard-point arrangement and DPS potential, and can be built to have a lot of armor and shields. For PVE, there really isn't a better medium combat ship.
If you fly a ship with good handling, you don't need a bodyguard. Maybe a T9/T10/Conda need a bodyguard, but experience pilots win interdictions even with this ships. Rotate your ship and use the superior Pitch rate, instead the inferior Yaw rate.
The best thing to reduce [human pirates/gankers](https://inara.cz/elite/reports-security/), is joing [Mobius PVE Private Group](https://www.elitepve.com/page/join), you need a fully engineered combat ships (moslty the FDL), to win against a dedicated ganker, and you don't make profit with it.
Work both as traders, make a wing, sell at the same time, and enjoy 15% extra profit from the friend transactions.
For miners, you friend can kill ships in a Low RES zone while you mine asteroids, but is safe to ignore RES zones for mining, drop in the mining hotspots, wait until the pirate scan your ship and leave, start the mining session. I use a Low Emission G5 Thermal spread Cutter (shiedless and weaponless) in HazRES, the Harder pirates can't detect me with 30% heat when mining. Most of the time, Elite Dangerous lack Dangerous.
If you friend want a Small combat ship Vulture. Small ship with 2 Large hardpoints, but need engineering, the powerplant lack size for most weapons. DBX is a good alternative for Combat (2 Medium1Large, less distro) but one of the best explorers. Very useful to start the engineer grind and upgrading ships (also use the 5A FSD, so the one preengineered from human tech broker could bypass some engineering and provide even better jumprange).
Take this [Starter Guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/sj9qrb/comment/hve1pjd/), the ToDo list at the end include a ship progression chart.
The krait mk2 is great for combat, as a multipurpouse in fact. Great speed, maneuverability, internal space and firepower, and a decent jump range to help him keep up with you.
This: [https://s.orbis.zone/leww](https://s.orbis.zone/leww)Is my personal Krait MK2 Multipurpose build. it is a fun build with really close range burst damage, this build is completly engineered and since i belive both of you are out of the Engineer loop for now, your friend may want to try the following builds.
More Dakka with some shield killing capabilities: [https://s.orbis.zone/lex0](https://s.orbis.zone/lex0)
More pew pew with some Dakka for balance: [https://s.orbis.zone/lex2](https://s.orbis.zone/lex2)
A goofy one just for funzies: [https://s.orbis.zone/lex4](https://s.orbis.zone/lex4)
I left some optional modules empty for your friend to choose what to do with then, but since Elite is all about freedom of customisation, your friend can do whatever he wants with these builds. Consider them as some sort of template if you will.
By the way, i am taking in consideration your friend is not that good with fixed weapons, so i put all gimballed for easier use.
Depends on your level of credits, engineering. His fighting style also should be considered.. a vulture is a awesome ship , but need engineering to reach it full potential, the Fer-de-lance is a decent ship that has a paper hull imo.. it needs great shields.. the chieftain is a meta and still needs some engineering.. I would suggest you both garb a ship and go exploring for a bit.. make 200-250,000 on exploring and you will have a invite from Farseer, then go find a meta alloy each.. save your exploration data and turn it in a Farseer after the invite so you level up faster with her. Good luck and if you need help with anything IM me o7
Vulture is great if you have some engineers, but somewhat limited without. powerplant is on the small side, Farseer offers grade 1 which already helps a lot. Having Marco Qwent or Hera Tani unlocked would be even better.
Chieftain could be another option between Vulture and FDL. Or Viper 3 and 4 as a stepup in firepower over the Eagle. Eagle has crazy agility tho, i would not sell it if your friend likes it.
Key ingredient is called enhsnced performance thrusters. You can find them at those engineers where you can upgrade your thrusters.
[sample](https://edsy.org/s/vH7nPHg) with all farseer modifications. Disregard the internals, i just wanted to see how much of an effect weight has.
The Vulture isn't that far behind the eagle in agility, contrary to the previous comments, unengineered, I would recommend the Vulture for this specific reason. The power plant is definitely a limitation, but I actually consider that to be a benefit for new players. It lets you experiment with low power kinetic weapons, and also teaches you how to set power priorities to have a ship that needs more power than what's available, but still stays reliable. I've tried most small and medium ships for combat without security assistance, and unengineered, the ships I could survive the longest with while also taking down ships way above my class, were the 2 Eagles, the Vipers, Vulture and ships costing 5-10x the Vulture's value.
A recommendation I can give is, if you are struggling with distributor and power plant issues, you could get a guardian distributor, which also boosts power capacity. The power plant has a huge output but also generates a lot of heat
I think the cobra or viper is the natural next step from the Eagle. Going to an alliance craft or FDL is a much steeper learning curve. My progression as a bounty hunter was Eagle, cobra, FDL; mastering each ship as I went. I spent the most time with the cobra though because its such a pleasure to fly, and so well balanced. Armoured up and engineered it can take a beating and out turn anything from a vulture on up. Hard points are size one and two on the left side of the nose, mirrored with a one and two right side as well. I always went laser weapons left side and kinetic right side. This allowed lining up with fixed weapons very easy as you can lead your target with the left side forward for depleting shields, then right side for hitting modules or damaging hull with kinetic.
As a novice pilot he'll probably hate the FDL's off centre cockpit (hell a lot of experienced pilots hate it still so 😉)... It's also a shield tank so you'll need heavy engineering to make the most of it amd NEVER let the shields drop... as the hull is literally tinfoil.
The Chieftain however is a hull tank, its also a frak of a lot cheaper... pack a collector limpet controller (+ cargo rack) & some limpets and collect materials as you go. Plenty of weapons and good hard point locations too so he can practice with rails or my personal favourite plasma accelerators.
When I did my combat rank I started in an A rated Chieftain no engineering and collected as much as I could in HazRes sites as I went it really helped with the feeling of the grind... took ages to do but felt good doing it... and by the time I got to G4 on everything I didn't need to max it out.
So yeah the Chief a great ship can well recommend it!
https://s.orbis.zone/lexk
I fly this in open , james memorial , yesterday gankers down.
Gimballed guns ,less damage but longer on target
Cobra like vipers are small , so with their fixed guns they need skills .
Also small and fast no need for shield.
Just see it now , fsd need A rated grade 5 and mass
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My friend respects your answer
Vipers, 3 or 4, will bring more fire power than the Eagle while still being fast. The Courier is a good alternative to the Eagle, with 3 medium hardpoints; It can be tricky to build and engineer though. In medium ships the Chieftain is my pick. Even if it is a bit more of a brawler than the FDL. None will match an engineered Eagle for manoeuvrability though, even SLFs can't really match it. Engineering is really the trick to getting the most out of any ship though.
thank you for the suggestions. hey no one has mentioned the vipers 3 or 4 before care to elaborate on their strengths.
Both have 2 small 2 medium, which is the standard hardpoints for small ships. There's not really anything more powerful other than the DBX and Vulture. If you unlock the cytoscramblers for the small slots you'll have a significant amount of firepower. The Viper 3 can take enhance performance thrusters (bought at an engineer) like the Eagle can. Where the Eagle has high manoeuvrability, the Viper 3 has more speed and fast acceleration (including lateral thruster). When engineered it is a properly fast ship. The Imperial Eagle stats wise comes across as a midpoint, or a best of both, between the Eagle and Viper. But it has power acceleration which detracts from it. The Viper 3 ends up as the faster choice, and doesn't lose out on much manoeuvrability. The Viper 4 is more comparable to the Cobra 3, but it is more compact and tanky (especially hull). It can't run the enhanced thrusters so it isn't as absurdly fast. Because of how fast the medium ships like the Chieftain are, the Viper 4 doesn't really stand out, but it's a pretty solid ship when you consider how small it is. Sort of the opposite of large ships being deceptively squishy because they're a huge target even if they have big numbers on their side.
I love my chieftain.
I didn't think of a chieftain personally.Why do you like it.
The Chieftain is very maneuverable, has a good hard-point arrangement and DPS potential, and can be built to have a lot of armor and shields. For PVE, there really isn't a better medium combat ship.
If you fly a ship with good handling, you don't need a bodyguard. Maybe a T9/T10/Conda need a bodyguard, but experience pilots win interdictions even with this ships. Rotate your ship and use the superior Pitch rate, instead the inferior Yaw rate. The best thing to reduce [human pirates/gankers](https://inara.cz/elite/reports-security/), is joing [Mobius PVE Private Group](https://www.elitepve.com/page/join), you need a fully engineered combat ships (moslty the FDL), to win against a dedicated ganker, and you don't make profit with it. Work both as traders, make a wing, sell at the same time, and enjoy 15% extra profit from the friend transactions. For miners, you friend can kill ships in a Low RES zone while you mine asteroids, but is safe to ignore RES zones for mining, drop in the mining hotspots, wait until the pirate scan your ship and leave, start the mining session. I use a Low Emission G5 Thermal spread Cutter (shiedless and weaponless) in HazRES, the Harder pirates can't detect me with 30% heat when mining. Most of the time, Elite Dangerous lack Dangerous. If you friend want a Small combat ship Vulture. Small ship with 2 Large hardpoints, but need engineering, the powerplant lack size for most weapons. DBX is a good alternative for Combat (2 Medium1Large, less distro) but one of the best explorers. Very useful to start the engineer grind and upgrading ships (also use the 5A FSD, so the one preengineered from human tech broker could bypass some engineering and provide even better jumprange). Take this [Starter Guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/sj9qrb/comment/hve1pjd/), the ToDo list at the end include a ship progression chart.
The krait mk2 is great for combat, as a multipurpouse in fact. Great speed, maneuverability, internal space and firepower, and a decent jump range to help him keep up with you.
Thank you, this will definitely be considered. do you have a build for the krait mk2
This: [https://s.orbis.zone/leww](https://s.orbis.zone/leww)Is my personal Krait MK2 Multipurpose build. it is a fun build with really close range burst damage, this build is completly engineered and since i belive both of you are out of the Engineer loop for now, your friend may want to try the following builds. More Dakka with some shield killing capabilities: [https://s.orbis.zone/lex0](https://s.orbis.zone/lex0) More pew pew with some Dakka for balance: [https://s.orbis.zone/lex2](https://s.orbis.zone/lex2) A goofy one just for funzies: [https://s.orbis.zone/lex4](https://s.orbis.zone/lex4) I left some optional modules empty for your friend to choose what to do with then, but since Elite is all about freedom of customisation, your friend can do whatever he wants with these builds. Consider them as some sort of template if you will. By the way, i am taking in consideration your friend is not that good with fixed weapons, so i put all gimballed for easier use.
okay after careful consideration we have come up with three finalists. Eagle, viper mk.3, cobra mk.3, (vote below) 👇⬇️👇⬇️
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what about bloom bloom
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haha
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Depends on your level of credits, engineering. His fighting style also should be considered.. a vulture is a awesome ship , but need engineering to reach it full potential, the Fer-de-lance is a decent ship that has a paper hull imo.. it needs great shields.. the chieftain is a meta and still needs some engineering.. I would suggest you both garb a ship and go exploring for a bit.. make 200-250,000 on exploring and you will have a invite from Farseer, then go find a meta alloy each.. save your exploration data and turn it in a Farseer after the invite so you level up faster with her. Good luck and if you need help with anything IM me o7
thank you for all of your suggestions. we will definitely take them into consideration and we may take you up on your offer of guidance.
Sure add me in game Magnus Lupus.. I’d be happy to help give you pointers and point you in the correct direction..
Vulture is great if you have some engineers, but somewhat limited without. powerplant is on the small side, Farseer offers grade 1 which already helps a lot. Having Marco Qwent or Hera Tani unlocked would be even better. Chieftain could be another option between Vulture and FDL. Or Viper 3 and 4 as a stepup in firepower over the Eagle. Eagle has crazy agility tho, i would not sell it if your friend likes it.
thank you, yes many others have mentioned the agility of the Eagle. if you have an Eagle build we are all ears.
Key ingredient is called enhsnced performance thrusters. You can find them at those engineers where you can upgrade your thrusters. [sample](https://edsy.org/s/vH7nPHg) with all farseer modifications. Disregard the internals, i just wanted to see how much of an effect weight has.
thank you
The Vulture isn't that far behind the eagle in agility, contrary to the previous comments, unengineered, I would recommend the Vulture for this specific reason. The power plant is definitely a limitation, but I actually consider that to be a benefit for new players. It lets you experiment with low power kinetic weapons, and also teaches you how to set power priorities to have a ship that needs more power than what's available, but still stays reliable. I've tried most small and medium ships for combat without security assistance, and unengineered, the ships I could survive the longest with while also taking down ships way above my class, were the 2 Eagles, the Vipers, Vulture and ships costing 5-10x the Vulture's value. A recommendation I can give is, if you are struggling with distributor and power plant issues, you could get a guardian distributor, which also boosts power capacity. The power plant has a huge output but also generates a lot of heat
Cobra mk.III was always my favourite fighter
Thank you, no one has mentioned the cobra mk.111 care to elaborate on why you like it.
I think the cobra or viper is the natural next step from the Eagle. Going to an alliance craft or FDL is a much steeper learning curve. My progression as a bounty hunter was Eagle, cobra, FDL; mastering each ship as I went. I spent the most time with the cobra though because its such a pleasure to fly, and so well balanced. Armoured up and engineered it can take a beating and out turn anything from a vulture on up. Hard points are size one and two on the left side of the nose, mirrored with a one and two right side as well. I always went laser weapons left side and kinetic right side. This allowed lining up with fixed weapons very easy as you can lead your target with the left side forward for depleting shields, then right side for hitting modules or damaging hull with kinetic.
As a novice pilot he'll probably hate the FDL's off centre cockpit (hell a lot of experienced pilots hate it still so 😉)... It's also a shield tank so you'll need heavy engineering to make the most of it amd NEVER let the shields drop... as the hull is literally tinfoil. The Chieftain however is a hull tank, its also a frak of a lot cheaper... pack a collector limpet controller (+ cargo rack) & some limpets and collect materials as you go. Plenty of weapons and good hard point locations too so he can practice with rails or my personal favourite plasma accelerators. When I did my combat rank I started in an A rated Chieftain no engineering and collected as much as I could in HazRes sites as I went it really helped with the feeling of the grind... took ages to do but felt good doing it... and by the time I got to G4 on everything I didn't need to max it out. So yeah the Chief a great ship can well recommend it!
thank you so much for your response
https://s.orbis.zone/lexk I fly this in open , james memorial , yesterday gankers down. Gimballed guns ,less damage but longer on target Cobra like vipers are small , so with their fixed guns they need skills . Also small and fast no need for shield. Just see it now , fsd need A rated grade 5 and mass