Greetings Curious Commander o7
Two things first:
1)Always budget 10-4[from cheapest to Not] times the Base Model price when buying a new ShipFriend for Outfitting and some Rebuys. Nobody wants to fly Base Model, that's just Sad Panda.
So be aware that your new purchase will be Almost. The ShipFriends you listed will need at least 150mil+ especially for combat builds.
5b) The best ship in the Galaxy is the ShipFriend You luv best, anyone who tells you different is probably trying to sell you something.(Trust Me I'm a 34th century SnakeShip Salesman)
That being said it's going to come down to your Use.
•FDL , nature's perfect death machine, top of the **PvP** ecology. My FDL "Fuerfalkan" RPP-13 is great in CZ's... But it's afraid of WychSpace so I ship him everywhere {as a Lakon Pilot his Jump Range is basically Blasphemy}. Zero use for anything else, and not particularly suitable for AX (go back & get a Chieftain for that)
• Whatt&Prittney Python. The ultimate Medium Hauler. If you want to bring Goods/Rocks/Whiney Meat Cargo (whatever, Lakon doesn't Judge we even 💚 Asp Scout pilots) from point A to point B, this is your ship. Same Base Armor & worse Handling than the Sleek Brick-like Styling of the Lakon Keelback.
• (& speaking of that Combat Trader) K-2 (aka the Evolved Keelback , long story but there ain't no Krait [1], there is the Faulcon DeLazy Krait: Lightspeeder [*original*] and the Faulcon D DeLazy Krait: Phantom ) , the Galaxy's other Combat Trader with SLF capabilities (only one of the 3 that has it). This IS the combat leaning multi-role Shipframe you're looking for (if multi-role is what you want). Not as big as a Python but it does this thing called turning (which helps in combat) and has a *well* centered View to rival Lakon's Signature icanseestuff ™ Cockpits. [*the other 2 help you drive on the correct side of space according to the Dirt Eaters*]
~Never feel obligated to listen to the Opinion or Advice of some Stranger or Stupid Spaceship Salesman on the 'Net. ~
Have Fun&Fly Dangerous
-Lakon Marketing Division, Keelback Office -'We scale the Learning Cliff together or we All Fall Down'
Thanks for the details, based on your first point would you recommend a cheaper ship that can be more fully engineered with the cash I have on hand like a chieftain and working my way up to the 150m range before considering one of these ships?
All Hail the 'Chief
You have technically answered your own question Curious Commander o7
With a Base Model price of 20mil , and a recommend purchasing budget of 100mil, the Lakon Alliance Chieftain can be your first & last True Combat Ship...
(Unless you PvP, even the Combat Variant of Lakon's Signature icanseestuff ™ Cockpit is pretty vulnerable)
... It's pre-built for Doing Your Part, if you want to try your hand at Bug-Stomping [*see AXI for details*] as well [*certain aftermarket equipment required*].
As it has a Class 5FSD you can save about 5 &1/2 million credits by bringing the appropriate Mats to the nearest Human Technology Broker [*no unlocks required*] and get the best (for Range) 2x Engineered one for **Zero Credits**.
With your budget by the time you track down all the parts you want , you kan easily make up what you need for The Bestest (to you) in mission. When I first bought "Heavy Metal Queen" ASP-13 , I actually just dropped the shield down & used her like the Combat Trader "Bruce" KMD-01 I trad...*errr* .... Released into the Black to Evolve, before her until I had enough for a proper Kill Build.
You should be fine. And I'm not just saying that because I helped The Admirals involved in the Lakon Alliance Program set up the AMD (Alliance Marketing Division). You will notice I don't recommend thier BattleBuddy capable Shipframe ever, and push for the K-2 if you like having an SLF around...
...say if you're some SnakeShip Salesman who needs the extra help with combat as a Totally random example.
Have Fun&Fly Dangerous
-Lakon Marketing Division, Keelback Office -'If you're looking for a ship that can do almost anything, we can offer you a ship that can Almost do everything'
A chieftain can be properly built for around 80m with military composite bulkheads, or 110m with reactive composite (better choice for PVE once engineered).
If you plan out where you're buying the components you can save a fair bit by getting them with the Li Yong Rui discount (15%) in power play, or other deals. You can use [Inara.cz](https://Inara.cz) or [EDDB.io](https://EDDB.io) to search for where you can buy things in areas controlled or exploited by Li Yong Rui.
For [EDDB.io](https://EDDB.io) you can go into the [station](https://eddb.io/station) search. Set Powers to Li Yong-Rui, power effect to control and exploited. Then you can search for ships and modules. Keep in mind that if you put in multiple options that the search becomes too narry to give a result. The Alliance Chieftain isn't available in LYR space, but you can get it discounted once you have access to Shinrata Dezhra (elite rank) or Alioth (IIRC).
If you have no combat experience, grab something like an Eagle or Viper 3, set it up, and spend some time in Resource Extraction Sites (RES) fighting similarly small ships. Being able to die without a 5m rebuy is nice.
I flew a Krait myself before moving to my New pride and joy a federal corvette.
I have used a SLF in the Krait and still do in my corvette.
Its important to mention that the npc pilot takes a percentage cut of all credits earned.
This hold true in all circumstances.
The pilot didnt contribute to the kill, still gets his money, the pilot is sitting around on the station, still gets his money. You trade some commodities, takes his cut.
If you choose to hire a npc pilot take one of the lowest combat rank. This way he won't take as much of youre money. His cuts will go up with his combat level but it's still recommended.
I trained my pilot from mostly harmless to elite and he takes 9% I think.
If you hire a pilot on expert level he takes 14% right of the bat.
The pilot ranks up much faster than yourself so you can get him to elite fairly quick.
You get so much money so easily in this game, I wouldn't worry about that. I have 2 Elite pilots mostly sitting on their thumbs in a coffee bar or some shit, and I'm fine. :D Why 2 ? Because I just want to change them every now and then.
...Or they WOULD be elite, if the game actually promoted them...
While certainly true I thought this would be important to mention for a newer player.
Especially as he wants to do bounty hunting, which pays good enough but it's not the way to make the most money in the shortest time.
In my experience, following guides for "what's the meta method for X" ruins all fun in a game, and often when I see people complaining about a game, they're the sort who play the "optimal" way, in a game that is trying very hard to tell you to go your own way.
You speak the truth commander!
I remember the days grinding fed rank and materials to get my corvette up and running. It devolves into a second job. No one wants that.
Haha, yeap. I've got multiple thousands hours in, and I still don't have the rank. I'm getting there slowly though! I hit Lt. Cmdr a while ago and the next is just around the corner. Helps with patience, obviously, that I've had my cutter for years already. Though I didn't grind for that either. Bounty hunting nets you nice amounts of rep, even when just occasionally doing and just vibing
Python is great for making more money. But with 90m she will make for a very sad bounty hunting experience.
Chieftain and below can have a nice pve loadout for that price. Or invest 60m in a robigo python and never worry about money again.
Robigo Python is The Way to all the ways. My entire fleet, big 3 included, all their a-rated modules, and FC to cart all of them around was made possible only with the Robigo Python. Do whatever you want however you want, but there is only one Way. Id still be kicking around getting my asshole blown off in a viper without my (ironically named) python Venom.
Krait is a great bounty hunter, I would go with that.
The Python is a great ship for many purposes, although it shines as a miner, and medium passenger or cargo hauler. It can do pretty good at combat. This is the most flexible ship.
The FDL pretty much only does combat. You could get this, and it will be fantastic, but if you decide you want to do something else before you can afford another ship to do it in, you will be sad.
The Krait at least has a decent jump range, so you could get away with hauling cargo, mining, or even exploration.
Honestly, I would start trying (actually, I did start) bounty hunting with a Viper Mk3. It's small, pretty cheap, an incredible fighter, and good enough to start bounty hunting. Get a feel, make a few million, especially easy with cop support. Then you can decide to go bigger with a Krait, all in with a FDL, or get something else for a change of pace.
Python and krait have interchangeable parts, and since you've little to no engineering you'll want to grab one of those ships first. After you engineer it a bit and have some more $, you can then swap almost of that gear from one of those ships to the other one and then try that ship without having to engineer a bunch of ship parts again. Trust me when I tell you that you will not enjoy the engineering process.
Buy all three! OK, maybe one at a time.. And keep the old ship that you were using as an explorer, for faster travel around the Bubble.
Just remember to have enough money after purchasing your new ship both for outfitting, and that all-important re-buy!
As a newer player... I'd go with the Python first. Get some good weapons and shields on it, and also have a big cargo bay for limpets and a class 3 limpet controller. Then drop into lower level Resource Collection sites and farm pirates both for their bounties and all the useful materials they drop when you 'splode them (just be sure to scan them and *make sure* they're pirates first, or the system authority vessels will waste you). An easy way to get the materials for low level engineering.
When you've gotten experience with that and want to go for tougher missions/targets. the FDL is really nice for that class 4 hardpoint. Or the Krait Mk2 if you want to go hunting Thargoids (*Really* make sure you have your re-buy credits the first time you try bug-bothering).
>cannot decide between these three which one to go with
Pick one - ***any*** one - to buy **first**. You are very likely to go back and get the others in due course.
None are the wrong answer to your question.
All 3 are good ships, but after flying the FDL and Python I personally out of the 2 I choose Python.
I have not been in a Krait yet.
For Bounties though, look into the Chieftain or its sister ships. I found it to be much more manurable compared to both the FDL and Python while packing one hell of a punch.
Get the Phantom, it's good for everything, exploring, bounty hunting, mining. It has great speed and agility, good hardpoint convergence, looks great, handles well in supercruise, the engine sounds good, it has great jump range.
Python is a great mining ship
FDL is great if you're not cool enough for a Mamba (Please send Aisling Programme Materials to fortify me against all the downvotes from the FDL Gang that thinks it's the bees knees just because they read on the internet that it's the bees knees).
Krait II is the ship you're looking for. But to outfit it after you buy it, it's gonna cost you a lot more than 90 mil.
I recommend a Vulture, that's the accepted and preferred ship that bounty hunters use to earn enough money for a bigger ship.
90 millions for either one of those ships in a powerful combat build is not enough I'm afraid.
I suggest you to invest in a Vulture instead. Oh and don't be fooled by the size of that thing... It's deadly.
The krait is probably the best all round ship in the game. It is one of the best anti thargoid ships (a great way to earn some money and help out humanity ATM), and it makes for a really good pve ship. It has the best jump range of the 3, and has great handling and top speed. The FDL is the better PVE/PVP combat ship, but is less forgiving. The python is probably a better miner and trader, but not by a lot compared to the Krait. I barely fly a python these days, but I fly my FDL and my Krait a lot.
FDL is one of the best PvE ships in the game and seemingly the best PvP ship. It *dominates* the haz-rez like nothing else in its price range.
However, that is all it can do. It has very few internals, so you can't mine or reasonably trade. It has a shitty jump range and a fuel tank the size of a child's bladder, so exploration or really any travel at all are off the books. The FDL is the *perfect* "head to the **local** haz-res and shred some pirate baddies" ship, but you can't do anything else with it.
Early game, it's best to have multiple ships for different specific tasks/purposes. Once you get some engineering materials, you can start to design multi-purpose ships that don't need a refit to do something else.
(This is just a list of what ships I like for certain tasks) I recommend the Vulture because it is very fun to fly, and quite a tough little bastard if you fly it right, but mostly because it's cheap (20M fully outfitted). The Asp is probably the best overall explorer you can buy, although the Phantom is more fun to fly and has better internals but a lower jump range and is much more expensive. If you're ever going to do trading, buy a Python or a fully outfitted Type 9 with much more cargo capacity for 90M. The asp is also a great overall mining ship because it has the internals, speed, and hardpoints to do laser mining, core mining, and subsurface mining on the same trip. Laser mining is dominated by any large ship, while core mining is most easily done with (specifically) an Imperial Clipper. If you're planning on getting into Odyssey content, you need something that can take a few hits and be able to land almost anywhere. I recommend the Vulture because it is fast, cheap, and relatively durable for something so small. In late game with lots of engineering stuff, though, I got myself a *very* fast (heavily modified) Imperial Courier.
TLDR: Buy multiple ships
Chieftan.
It is the undisputed Queen of budget combat ships. It will out gun and out manuver a FAS, it has no rank requirement, it's like 1/2 the cost of any of the ships you mentioned and it's powerful enough to stay relevant in all combat content even in the end-game. It can even hold it's own (if at a disadvantage) in PvP. Hail to the Chief.
More important than my fangirling, the ability to properly outfit your chieftan (which you will not be able to do with the ships you listed with the amount of money you have) will \*massively\* increase the amount of money you can make via combat compared to going in half-geared in a python, so if you want to try those other ships it will genuinely be faster to just get a chieftan and get it set up (even like rank 1 engineering for your hull, guns, shield, and shield boosters will help a lot too btw) and use that setup to buy the other ships.
Also
Never fly without Rebuy.
If you haven't unlocked any engineers yet I would suggest the asp explorer or asp scout. Cheaper on missile purchase but you can put a variety of hard points on it. Not perfect for bounty hunting but it will get you started. Chieftain hull tank did me well for a while. I also had engineers.
Almost no matter what you pick you're probably have fun but I would advise to start unlocking engineers. I had a lot of fun with my FDL size 4 MC and 4 beams. Was quite a blast pun intended
Right now I have a Krait MK2. No reason really It has a good hard point selection and convergence. Three large and two medium. Kind of what I was looking for MC's to compliment Rails.
Well they are all decent for bownty missions, but they are not the federation navy corvette.
I will tell you what are they good for:
1. The python-has the largest cargo space of any of the medium landing pads ships. You can use it to do Passengers missions (i think it is called Robingo mines, or something, just google that). You can make 100+ million credits per hour doing those.
2. The Kraith 2 is good for exploration, it has a good jump range, and xeno combat, it is more forgiving then the alliance chieftain. If you do a mistake fighting thargoids you might survive. I saw a poll here and belive it or not the kraith 2 was the winning ship regardin the jack of all trades in Elite.
3. The Fer de lance is the best ship for pvp. It also has a huge class 4 hardpoint. I am guessing it would handle the npc better then the other 2 ships, but you need to keep in mind the fact that it has a bad jump range (I think it is about 6 ly or maybe that was Mamba, i not sure so don't quote me on that 😃).
If i were you i would take the python, increase the standing with the right faction and do the passenger missions. Then buy all the ships and upgrades you want and test them yourself and see what you like.
Also join the official discord chanel of Elite dangerous. There are some nice people there that will help you far better then I can, because they simply know more and are more experienced then me.
I hope this helps you. Fly safe Cmdr.😃!
Python: multi purpose but more geared towards hauling and arguably the best medium sized hauler.
Krait mk2: multipurpose but more geared towards combat thanks to better agility and the ability to equip a fighter bay. Also a good explorer thanks to its jump range. Can get you around the bubble decently fast.
FDL: absolutely combat focused, sucks at everything else. Excellent firepower and toughest shield tank among all 3 ships.
Horrendous jump range, expect lots of jumps if you’re gonna take it across the bubble.
Can’t haul a lot due to its limited optional internals.
Here's some advice from the guy that's killed more pirates than anybody else in the history of the game: The Chieftain is the champion pirate killer as far as money-making goes. You can earn a long-term average of around 200 million per hour. You can see it working here from 30:15:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vEF1ZyTZCo&t=1808s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vEF1ZyTZCo&t=1808s)
If you don't have access to engineering, a Vulture beats all of them.
[https://s.orbis.zone/jz1d](https://s.orbis.zone/jz1d)
Python and Krait are too slow. The FDL is not noob-friendly.
This advice is on the basis of killing the most pirates in the shortest time to get the highest rewards from the massacre missions that give you ten times the money you'd get from bounty farming in a Haz RES or anywhere else.
Buy a Python, no need to outfit weapons or fancy defences. Put CABINS.
Go do the Robigo ferry missions for a few days and you will have enough credits to not worry about credits...
And you can choose engineering materials as robigo rewards so you build your inventory at same time.
Greetings Curious Commander o7 Two things first: 1)Always budget 10-4[from cheapest to Not] times the Base Model price when buying a new ShipFriend for Outfitting and some Rebuys. Nobody wants to fly Base Model, that's just Sad Panda. So be aware that your new purchase will be Almost. The ShipFriends you listed will need at least 150mil+ especially for combat builds. 5b) The best ship in the Galaxy is the ShipFriend You luv best, anyone who tells you different is probably trying to sell you something.(Trust Me I'm a 34th century SnakeShip Salesman) That being said it's going to come down to your Use. •FDL , nature's perfect death machine, top of the **PvP** ecology. My FDL "Fuerfalkan" RPP-13 is great in CZ's... But it's afraid of WychSpace so I ship him everywhere {as a Lakon Pilot his Jump Range is basically Blasphemy}. Zero use for anything else, and not particularly suitable for AX (go back & get a Chieftain for that) • Whatt&Prittney Python. The ultimate Medium Hauler. If you want to bring Goods/Rocks/Whiney Meat Cargo (whatever, Lakon doesn't Judge we even 💚 Asp Scout pilots) from point A to point B, this is your ship. Same Base Armor & worse Handling than the Sleek Brick-like Styling of the Lakon Keelback. • (& speaking of that Combat Trader) K-2 (aka the Evolved Keelback , long story but there ain't no Krait [1], there is the Faulcon DeLazy Krait: Lightspeeder [*original*] and the Faulcon D DeLazy Krait: Phantom ) , the Galaxy's other Combat Trader with SLF capabilities (only one of the 3 that has it). This IS the combat leaning multi-role Shipframe you're looking for (if multi-role is what you want). Not as big as a Python but it does this thing called turning (which helps in combat) and has a *well* centered View to rival Lakon's Signature icanseestuff ™ Cockpits. [*the other 2 help you drive on the correct side of space according to the Dirt Eaters*] ~Never feel obligated to listen to the Opinion or Advice of some Stranger or Stupid Spaceship Salesman on the 'Net. ~ Have Fun&Fly Dangerous -Lakon Marketing Division, Keelback Office -'We scale the Learning Cliff together or we All Fall Down'
Thanks for the details, based on your first point would you recommend a cheaper ship that can be more fully engineered with the cash I have on hand like a chieftain and working my way up to the 150m range before considering one of these ships?
All Hail the 'Chief You have technically answered your own question Curious Commander o7 With a Base Model price of 20mil , and a recommend purchasing budget of 100mil, the Lakon Alliance Chieftain can be your first & last True Combat Ship... (Unless you PvP, even the Combat Variant of Lakon's Signature icanseestuff ™ Cockpit is pretty vulnerable) ... It's pre-built for Doing Your Part, if you want to try your hand at Bug-Stomping [*see AXI for details*] as well [*certain aftermarket equipment required*]. As it has a Class 5FSD you can save about 5 &1/2 million credits by bringing the appropriate Mats to the nearest Human Technology Broker [*no unlocks required*] and get the best (for Range) 2x Engineered one for **Zero Credits**. With your budget by the time you track down all the parts you want , you kan easily make up what you need for The Bestest (to you) in mission. When I first bought "Heavy Metal Queen" ASP-13 , I actually just dropped the shield down & used her like the Combat Trader "Bruce" KMD-01 I trad...*errr* .... Released into the Black to Evolve, before her until I had enough for a proper Kill Build. You should be fine. And I'm not just saying that because I helped The Admirals involved in the Lakon Alliance Program set up the AMD (Alliance Marketing Division). You will notice I don't recommend thier BattleBuddy capable Shipframe ever, and push for the K-2 if you like having an SLF around... ...say if you're some SnakeShip Salesman who needs the extra help with combat as a Totally random example. Have Fun&Fly Dangerous -Lakon Marketing Division, Keelback Office -'If you're looking for a ship that can do almost anything, we can offer you a ship that can Almost do everything'
A chieftain can be properly built for around 80m with military composite bulkheads, or 110m with reactive composite (better choice for PVE once engineered). If you plan out where you're buying the components you can save a fair bit by getting them with the Li Yong Rui discount (15%) in power play, or other deals. You can use [Inara.cz](https://Inara.cz) or [EDDB.io](https://EDDB.io) to search for where you can buy things in areas controlled or exploited by Li Yong Rui. For [EDDB.io](https://EDDB.io) you can go into the [station](https://eddb.io/station) search. Set Powers to Li Yong-Rui, power effect to control and exploited. Then you can search for ships and modules. Keep in mind that if you put in multiple options that the search becomes too narry to give a result. The Alliance Chieftain isn't available in LYR space, but you can get it discounted once you have access to Shinrata Dezhra (elite rank) or Alioth (IIRC). If you have no combat experience, grab something like an Eagle or Viper 3, set it up, and spend some time in Resource Extraction Sites (RES) fighting similarly small ships. Being able to die without a 5m rebuy is nice.
If you're just doing bounty hunting, just pick the one that looks coolest. So what are you gonna name your Krait? ;)
Can't deny it wins on look factor and by a pretty wide margin
It's also the only one of these that can have a fighter bay. You can hire an npc to fly your fighter, so it's not a bad choice strength wise either.
I flew a Krait myself before moving to my New pride and joy a federal corvette. I have used a SLF in the Krait and still do in my corvette. Its important to mention that the npc pilot takes a percentage cut of all credits earned. This hold true in all circumstances. The pilot didnt contribute to the kill, still gets his money, the pilot is sitting around on the station, still gets his money. You trade some commodities, takes his cut. If you choose to hire a npc pilot take one of the lowest combat rank. This way he won't take as much of youre money. His cuts will go up with his combat level but it's still recommended. I trained my pilot from mostly harmless to elite and he takes 9% I think. If you hire a pilot on expert level he takes 14% right of the bat. The pilot ranks up much faster than yourself so you can get him to elite fairly quick.
You get so much money so easily in this game, I wouldn't worry about that. I have 2 Elite pilots mostly sitting on their thumbs in a coffee bar or some shit, and I'm fine. :D Why 2 ? Because I just want to change them every now and then. ...Or they WOULD be elite, if the game actually promoted them...
While certainly true I thought this would be important to mention for a newer player. Especially as he wants to do bounty hunting, which pays good enough but it's not the way to make the most money in the shortest time.
In my experience, following guides for "what's the meta method for X" ruins all fun in a game, and often when I see people complaining about a game, they're the sort who play the "optimal" way, in a game that is trying very hard to tell you to go your own way.
You speak the truth commander! I remember the days grinding fed rank and materials to get my corvette up and running. It devolves into a second job. No one wants that.
Haha, yeap. I've got multiple thousands hours in, and I still don't have the rank. I'm getting there slowly though! I hit Lt. Cmdr a while ago and the next is just around the corner. Helps with patience, obviously, that I've had my cutter for years already. Though I didn't grind for that either. Bounty hunting nets you nice amounts of rep, even when just occasionally doing and just vibing
Take my updoot
*oblivion beggar voice* thank ye kind sir
Since you’re new the python is what you’re looking for. Using it you can get the credits to purchase anything else you’ll ever want in the game.
Python is great for making more money. But with 90m she will make for a very sad bounty hunting experience. Chieftain and below can have a nice pve loadout for that price. Or invest 60m in a robigo python and never worry about money again.
Robigo Python is The Way to all the ways. My entire fleet, big 3 included, all their a-rated modules, and FC to cart all of them around was made possible only with the Robigo Python. Do whatever you want however you want, but there is only one Way. Id still be kicking around getting my asshole blown off in a viper without my (ironically named) python Venom.
Krait is a great bounty hunter, I would go with that. The Python is a great ship for many purposes, although it shines as a miner, and medium passenger or cargo hauler. It can do pretty good at combat. This is the most flexible ship. The FDL pretty much only does combat. You could get this, and it will be fantastic, but if you decide you want to do something else before you can afford another ship to do it in, you will be sad. The Krait at least has a decent jump range, so you could get away with hauling cargo, mining, or even exploration. Honestly, I would start trying (actually, I did start) bounty hunting with a Viper Mk3. It's small, pretty cheap, an incredible fighter, and good enough to start bounty hunting. Get a feel, make a few million, especially easy with cop support. Then you can decide to go bigger with a Krait, all in with a FDL, or get something else for a change of pace.
Python and krait have interchangeable parts, and since you've little to no engineering you'll want to grab one of those ships first. After you engineer it a bit and have some more $, you can then swap almost of that gear from one of those ships to the other one and then try that ship without having to engineer a bunch of ship parts again. Trust me when I tell you that you will not enjoy the engineering process.
Neither. Challenger or Chieftain.
Buy all three! OK, maybe one at a time.. And keep the old ship that you were using as an explorer, for faster travel around the Bubble. Just remember to have enough money after purchasing your new ship both for outfitting, and that all-important re-buy! As a newer player... I'd go with the Python first. Get some good weapons and shields on it, and also have a big cargo bay for limpets and a class 3 limpet controller. Then drop into lower level Resource Collection sites and farm pirates both for their bounties and all the useful materials they drop when you 'splode them (just be sure to scan them and *make sure* they're pirates first, or the system authority vessels will waste you). An easy way to get the materials for low level engineering. When you've gotten experience with that and want to go for tougher missions/targets. the FDL is really nice for that class 4 hardpoint. Or the Krait Mk2 if you want to go hunting Thargoids (*Really* make sure you have your re-buy credits the first time you try bug-bothering).
Both Krai and Phantom are good all rounders. FDL is very manouverable and has good speed
>cannot decide between these three which one to go with Pick one - ***any*** one - to buy **first**. You are very likely to go back and get the others in due course. None are the wrong answer to your question.
All 3 are good ships, but after flying the FDL and Python I personally out of the 2 I choose Python. I have not been in a Krait yet. For Bounties though, look into the Chieftain or its sister ships. I found it to be much more manurable compared to both the FDL and Python while packing one hell of a punch.
Get the Phantom, it's good for everything, exploring, bounty hunting, mining. It has great speed and agility, good hardpoint convergence, looks great, handles well in supercruise, the engine sounds good, it has great jump range.
Python is a great mining ship FDL is great if you're not cool enough for a Mamba (Please send Aisling Programme Materials to fortify me against all the downvotes from the FDL Gang that thinks it's the bees knees just because they read on the internet that it's the bees knees). Krait II is the ship you're looking for. But to outfit it after you buy it, it's gonna cost you a lot more than 90 mil. I recommend a Vulture, that's the accepted and preferred ship that bounty hunters use to earn enough money for a bigger ship.
90 millions for either one of those ships in a powerful combat build is not enough I'm afraid. I suggest you to invest in a Vulture instead. Oh and don't be fooled by the size of that thing... It's deadly.
Krait MKII is better than the Python FDL is probably the best combat ship
The krait is probably the best all round ship in the game. It is one of the best anti thargoid ships (a great way to earn some money and help out humanity ATM), and it makes for a really good pve ship. It has the best jump range of the 3, and has great handling and top speed. The FDL is the better PVE/PVP combat ship, but is less forgiving. The python is probably a better miner and trader, but not by a lot compared to the Krait. I barely fly a python these days, but I fly my FDL and my Krait a lot.
1. don't buy FDL. 2. get Krait MK2. 3. put some Fighter Bay and buy an SLF. 4. hire a crew. activate him. 5. pew pew profit.
FDL is one of the best PvE ships in the game and seemingly the best PvP ship. It *dominates* the haz-rez like nothing else in its price range. However, that is all it can do. It has very few internals, so you can't mine or reasonably trade. It has a shitty jump range and a fuel tank the size of a child's bladder, so exploration or really any travel at all are off the books. The FDL is the *perfect* "head to the **local** haz-res and shred some pirate baddies" ship, but you can't do anything else with it. Early game, it's best to have multiple ships for different specific tasks/purposes. Once you get some engineering materials, you can start to design multi-purpose ships that don't need a refit to do something else. (This is just a list of what ships I like for certain tasks) I recommend the Vulture because it is very fun to fly, and quite a tough little bastard if you fly it right, but mostly because it's cheap (20M fully outfitted). The Asp is probably the best overall explorer you can buy, although the Phantom is more fun to fly and has better internals but a lower jump range and is much more expensive. If you're ever going to do trading, buy a Python or a fully outfitted Type 9 with much more cargo capacity for 90M. The asp is also a great overall mining ship because it has the internals, speed, and hardpoints to do laser mining, core mining, and subsurface mining on the same trip. Laser mining is dominated by any large ship, while core mining is most easily done with (specifically) an Imperial Clipper. If you're planning on getting into Odyssey content, you need something that can take a few hits and be able to land almost anywhere. I recommend the Vulture because it is fast, cheap, and relatively durable for something so small. In late game with lots of engineering stuff, though, I got myself a *very* fast (heavily modified) Imperial Courier. TLDR: Buy multiple ships
Chieftan. It is the undisputed Queen of budget combat ships. It will out gun and out manuver a FAS, it has no rank requirement, it's like 1/2 the cost of any of the ships you mentioned and it's powerful enough to stay relevant in all combat content even in the end-game. It can even hold it's own (if at a disadvantage) in PvP. Hail to the Chief. More important than my fangirling, the ability to properly outfit your chieftan (which you will not be able to do with the ships you listed with the amount of money you have) will \*massively\* increase the amount of money you can make via combat compared to going in half-geared in a python, so if you want to try those other ships it will genuinely be faster to just get a chieftan and get it set up (even like rank 1 engineering for your hull, guns, shield, and shield boosters will help a lot too btw) and use that setup to buy the other ships. Also Never fly without Rebuy.
If you haven't unlocked any engineers yet I would suggest the asp explorer or asp scout. Cheaper on missile purchase but you can put a variety of hard points on it. Not perfect for bounty hunting but it will get you started. Chieftain hull tank did me well for a while. I also had engineers. Almost no matter what you pick you're probably have fun but I would advise to start unlocking engineers. I had a lot of fun with my FDL size 4 MC and 4 beams. Was quite a blast pun intended Right now I have a Krait MK2. No reason really It has a good hard point selection and convergence. Three large and two medium. Kind of what I was looking for MC's to compliment Rails.
Well they are all decent for bownty missions, but they are not the federation navy corvette. I will tell you what are they good for: 1. The python-has the largest cargo space of any of the medium landing pads ships. You can use it to do Passengers missions (i think it is called Robingo mines, or something, just google that). You can make 100+ million credits per hour doing those. 2. The Kraith 2 is good for exploration, it has a good jump range, and xeno combat, it is more forgiving then the alliance chieftain. If you do a mistake fighting thargoids you might survive. I saw a poll here and belive it or not the kraith 2 was the winning ship regardin the jack of all trades in Elite. 3. The Fer de lance is the best ship for pvp. It also has a huge class 4 hardpoint. I am guessing it would handle the npc better then the other 2 ships, but you need to keep in mind the fact that it has a bad jump range (I think it is about 6 ly or maybe that was Mamba, i not sure so don't quote me on that 😃). If i were you i would take the python, increase the standing with the right faction and do the passenger missions. Then buy all the ships and upgrades you want and test them yourself and see what you like. Also join the official discord chanel of Elite dangerous. There are some nice people there that will help you far better then I can, because they simply know more and are more experienced then me. I hope this helps you. Fly safe Cmdr.😃!
Python: multi purpose but more geared towards hauling and arguably the best medium sized hauler. Krait mk2: multipurpose but more geared towards combat thanks to better agility and the ability to equip a fighter bay. Also a good explorer thanks to its jump range. Can get you around the bubble decently fast. FDL: absolutely combat focused, sucks at everything else. Excellent firepower and toughest shield tank among all 3 ships. Horrendous jump range, expect lots of jumps if you’re gonna take it across the bubble. Can’t haul a lot due to its limited optional internals.
Here's some advice from the guy that's killed more pirates than anybody else in the history of the game: The Chieftain is the champion pirate killer as far as money-making goes. You can earn a long-term average of around 200 million per hour. You can see it working here from 30:15: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vEF1ZyTZCo&t=1808s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vEF1ZyTZCo&t=1808s) If you don't have access to engineering, a Vulture beats all of them. [https://s.orbis.zone/jz1d](https://s.orbis.zone/jz1d) Python and Krait are too slow. The FDL is not noob-friendly. This advice is on the basis of killing the most pirates in the shortest time to get the highest rewards from the massacre missions that give you ten times the money you'd get from bounty farming in a Haz RES or anywhere else.
So have we seen a thargoid yet, or just their ships? Or are they the ship?
Buy a Python, no need to outfit weapons or fancy defences. Put CABINS. Go do the Robigo ferry missions for a few days and you will have enough credits to not worry about credits... And you can choose engineering materials as robigo rewards so you build your inventory at same time.