Defense Strategies

General

Shield Types

There are two major shield types in the game: The Bi-Weave, characterised by fast recharge, lower healthpool, low power draw. And on the other side the Prismatic Shield, characterised by effectively non-existent recharge, high healthpool and high power draw. Standard shield generators are a bad mix of both, and should not be used on combat ships.

Armor Types

There are three armor types worth considering: Military, Reactive, and Lightweight.  Reinforced is the middle compromise when it's usually better to specialize, and the resistance penalties on Mirrored are too high for general usage.

• Military Grade Composite should be the default, with its strength, standard resistances, and cheaper cost.

• Reactive Surface Composite should only be used with engineering: With Heavy Duty + Deep Plate on the armor and on all but one HRP, and with Thermal Resistance + Deep Plate on a small HRP, its effective health comes out as slightly better than Military with Heavy Duty + Deep Plate, but it costs 2-3 times as much.

• Lightweight Alloy can be considered if your shields and/or hull reinforcement packages are strong enough, and you want to eke out a few m/s more speed or degrees/s maneuverability.

Unengineered Banktank Bi-Weave

This approach works well on all ships with enough power to run shield cell banks and enough shield health to allow safe double banking.

• Bi-Weave Shield in the largest slot

• At least two shield cell banks, in the second largest slots (As many as power is available)

• One or Two Module Reinforcement Packages, following similar rules as the Hybrid Hulltank

• All remaining optionals filled with Hull Reinforcement Packages

• At least one heatsink launcher. Don’t need too many, because it is safe to hotbank some shield cells

• Zero to two chaff launchers. Note that the effectiveness of a chaff launcher compared to other options is much greater the smaller and weaker shielded a ship is

• All remaining utility mounts filled with shield boosters

• Lightweight or Military Bulkheads (Judge yourself, given the difference it makes to hull health, speed and jump range)

Because shield tanking is vastly superior to hull tanking, this build should be applied wherever possible. Shield Cells should be consumed via double banking (Hotbanking in limited number is fine!), and if shield cells should not be enough, the hull is there as an “oh shit” buffer. The shield is hopefully strong enough anyways to not require shield cell banks frequently, and to negate most damage over time with the shield's natural regeneration.

Unengineered Hybrid Hulltank

This approach works well on all ships with either not enough power or not enough bare shield health to run shield cell banks.

• Bi-Weave Shield in the largest slot

• Two Module Reinforcement Packages. Approx. rules:

  • Don’t place them in a military slot

  • The larger of the two should be the biggest (or second biggest) the ship can fit

  • The smaller of the two should be a class 1 to 3, smaller than the larger one

• An AFMU in the smallest slot

• Rest of the optional internals filled with Hull Reinforcement Packages

• One to two chaff launchers. Note that the effectiveness of a chaff launcher compared to other options is much greater the smaller and weaker shielded a ship is

• All remaining utility mounts filled with shield boosters

• Lightweight or Military Bulkheads (Judge yourself, given the difference it makes to hull health, speed and jump range)

• If sufficient power is available, A-rated Life Support to keep on fighting after losing the canopy

The idea is that the brunt of the damage is absorbed by the small bi-weave shields, which then (if it's down at a faster rate) regenerates again. Sustained heavy damage is unavoidably going to hit the hull. When not under protection of the shield, some module damage may occur, which can be repaired using the AFMU after a fight.

Engineered Banktank Bi-Weave 

This strategy is based upon the unengineered counterpart, but thanks to Guardian Shield Reinforcement Packages and Powerplant engineering it can work on almost all ships available.

• Copy Modules from Unengineered Banktank Bi-Weave

• Engineering on Bi-Weave: Thermal Resistant + Fast Charge (If Distributor is one class or more bigger than the shield generator), + Low Draw (otherwise).

• Alternative Engineering on Bi-Weave, applicable to 8 booster ships: Reinforced + Fast Charge/Low Draw (see above), use some Thermal Resistant Shield Boosters to fix thermal resistances if necessary

• Replace all heatsinks with shield boosters

• Engineering on Shield Boosters: Half of them Resistance Augmented + Super Capacitors (If power draw is too much, Flow Control); The rest Heavy Duty + Super Caps

• On ships with still not sufficient base health and with extra power: Replace Hull Reinforcement Packages with Guardian Shield Reinforcement Packages

• Engineering on Chaff Launcher: Ammo Capacity

• Engineering on Shield Cell Banks: Specialised + Boss Cells

• Engineering on Bulkheads and Hull Reinforcement Packages: Heavy Duty + Deep Plating

This is basically an extension of the unengineered version, and functions quite similar. From the users point of view the biggest difference is that all banks are to be hotbanked.

Engineered Banktank Prismatic 

This strategy uses the same approach of the Bi-Weave version, but trades passive regeneration for higher upfront health.

• Anything not otherwise specified like Engineered Banktank Bi-Weave

• Select a slot for Prismatic. Either largest or second largest slot available. The former option allows for higher upfront MJ, the latter usually for higher total MJ by running larger shield cell banks.

• Engineering on Prismatic: Reinforced + High Capacity

• Swap out Resistance Augmented Shield Boosters for Thermal Resistant + Super Capacitors shield boosters, until satisfied with the overall mix of effective shield health. Since no regeneration occurs, effective shield health is more important than bare resistances, compared to the bi-weave counterpart. Do not sacrifice too much absolute shield health and effective kinetic shield health for thermal resistances!

Since unlike the bi-weave counterpart, this strategy does not come with meaningful natural shield regeneration, shields will have to be replenished eventually. This can be done either with the shield cell banks (can be worthwhile if your weapon ammo pool is likely to be limiting sustain), or by rebooting (See Shield Tanking Mechanics)

Engineered Hybrid Hulltank 

This is basically the same as the unengineered counterpart, which as fully engineered can give the superior upfront healthpool on some ships, but comes with the standard drawbacks of hulltanking.

• Copy Modules from Unengineered Hybrid Hulltank

• Engineering on Bi-Weave: Thermal Resistant + Fast Charge (If Distributor is one class or more bigger than the shield generator), + Low Draw (otherwise)

• Engineering on Hull Reinforcement Packages: Heavy Duty + Deep Plating

• Engineering on Bulkheads: Heavy Duty + Deep Plating

• Engineering on Shield Boosters: Up to three Resistance Augmented + Super Capacitors (If power draw is too much, Flow Control), On ships with many shield boosters, go for Heavy Duty + Super Capacitors on some.

• If they are unlocked, and plenty of power is free, swap Module Reinforcements for their Guardian counterpart