Outfitting Weapons
Successful Bounty Hunting in Elite Dangerous
Without a good set of weapons as a bounty hunter in Elite: Dangerous, you might as well just be asking for trouble. Before you start picking up shiny shooters like a kid in a candy store though there’s a few things you’ll need to consider.
Chief among which is what weapon fitting type you want to use. Weapons can be attached to ships in Elite: Dangerous in three different ways; fixed, gimballed, and turreted.
Fixed weapons are only capable of firing directly forward so they require you to adjust your own position to get a clear shot. Gimballed weapons can self target enemy craft in front of your ship and are often the go-to fitting choice for bounty hunters using a Cobra or Viper.
Turreted weapons are able to target the enemy wherever they are (as long as their in view of the turret) but can be wildly inaccurate at times. These are often the fitting of choice for larger vessels which find turning to face the opponent difficult or have hardpoints on both the bottom and top of their ship (like a Python or Anaconda).
When you’ve decided what fitting you need, then it’s time to actually decide upon what weapon to slot in. Laser weapons use a great deal more energy than projectile weapons so when you’re using those monitoring your power and heat levels becomes quite important.
They don’t have a reload cost or time though, so can work out cheaper in the long run if you don’t mind breaking off every so often to allow your weapon systems to fully recharge.
Pulse Lasers offer a good base to take but the Beam variants are very good at letting out huge amounts of focused damage at the expense of high energy costs. Burst Lasers aren’t particularly shabby but are often eclipsed by their more predictable and pulsing Elite: Dangerous cousins.
Projectile weapons come in a wider range of formats but all follow the same ideal – launching a small metallic round at the enemy to literally rip a hole in the ship. Cannons and Missile Racks are often seen as the big hitters here but there’s much to be said for a pair of multicannons.
Two of these working in unison can throw hundreds of bullets into an enemy in seconds. Multi-cannons also require less lining up as you’re throwing so many bullets at the enemy one or two are bound to make their mark.
Flak Cannon’s shouldn’t be forgotten but they’re best used only at close range due to their rather shotgun-esque nature.
Railguns and the Mother-Of-All-Blasts the Plasma Accelerator of Elite: Dangerous are important but the majority of bounty hunters will rarely find the need to use one.
An Anaconda with a Class 4 Plasma Accelerator however is an awe-inspiring site to behold, capable of ripping a hole through Lakon Type-9 ships with a single shot.
Which configuration you take is up to you. Maybe you want to use 4 Beam Cannons to literally cut your opponent into tiny pieces or the idea of running 3 Multicannons with a Missile Rack to finish off your target gets the juices flowing. Then do that.
This is your journey, so you take it as you choose. There are a few configurations used by the community at large (and by yours truly) that have a fairly consistent success rate.
Since Lasers cost exactly nothing to fire in Elite: Dangerous, using these to take down shields is never a bad idea. It might take a little longer than using that Flak Cannon but that’s being saved for later. When the shields on your opponent are down, warm up any projectile weapons you might have and tear chunks from your target by making use of the higher armor penetration (AP) trait most projectile weapons have. Many players use a pair of Pulse Lasers along with a couple of Multicannons to do just this.
If you’re outright crazy, the idea of getting up close and personal with your bounty might be appealing. Elite: Dangerous may revel in the idea of space being a huge place but that doesn’t mean you’re without options when you just want to hug the enemy to death.
Fit a Viper with 2 powerful Pulse Lasers and 2 Flak Cannons then move towards the opponent. All the way towards them fire your Pulse Lasers and at the last second, start to veer over them and let loose a volley from your Flak Cannons. Your target will be startled, not to mention close to death if you took out their shields in time.
Take the time to experiment with different loadouts to fit your ship, your playstyle, heck even your control scheme. It might have a few misses granted, but when you come across a hit you’ll be set for life in Elite: Dangerous.
The problem now is, where the hell do you go to get some sweet bounty hunting action?
