Missile Advice needed

[Bill Huntington]

I've picked up plenty of salvage lately in the Paranid Home Sectors. I've got enough Beluga and Hammerheads to try and use them. The Beluga is faster but the Hammerhead hits harder. I've tried to use them but the target usually destroys them with Mosquito defense. Am I missing something?

I've noticed a fair blast radius for the Hammerhead. Any idea how big? Should it take out a group of M3 and M4 traveling together?

I'm not usually a missile guy but I could use some advice. What's the best missile to take out a Hades at 15 - 20 km? How about 5 km?

When I'm in the Cobra I send 10 Flails at them and it works okay. What can I use in the Hype?

Thanks for your help!

[Timsup2nothin]

I use Tomahawks pretty regularly, and I would assume your Hyp works much the same as my Viper or Gladiator. The key is drones. Launch a half dozen drones, then follow them in using an angle that will keep you clear of the really big guns. The target's defenses will get sidetracked shooting at the drones. Find a spot where even the little guns aren't immediately blasting away at you, because a missile detonated in your tubes makes for a bad day. Fire a sufficiency of missiles from pretty close range and then BONE OUT...FAST!

There are no problems in the universe that cannot be solved by a sufficient brace of Tomahawks.

[ajime]

I usually choose banshee/remote guided to take out bombers and spamming thunderbolt is nice too. Typhoon is good at hitting out most L class too. when all are expended i depend on hurricane an spam it on everything besides capship. Most of the time i depend on missiles since i like to personally drive Phyton, yeah i know it doesn't even have flaks. And the most effective anti fighter weapon it has is CIG's and PAC.

I usually have a bomber escort following if im driving a m1. makes short work of capitals and launch the fighter wings to despatch everything else once done.

[RAVEN.myst]

Belugas and Hammerheads can't really be discussed in the same breath, so to speak, as they are seriously different: the Beluga is most akin to the RGW, while the Hammerhead is slightly stronger (in terms of payload) than the Firestorm torpedo. As such, the former is for taking out fighters and bombers (or weakening corvettes), while the Hammerhead is really too big even for most corvettes - its 1.2 MILLION damage points are best used against frigates and larger.

I've found that using Belugas or RGWs is excellent for one-shotting most M3s, and very seldom lose them to MDMs or MD turrets. I usually fire them in a preemptive strike fashion from some 15-20km while flying head-on, but usage varies. I've also from time to time fired these from longer range, sometimes in a tail-chase (especially against targets without tailguns), and not had them interfered with - I'm not 100% sure what it is I'm "doing right" as such. If I DO expect countermeasures from my target, then one very effective way is what Tim suggest - overload the point-defences by means of drones (which also add their 2c' worth of damage - bonus! ). A method I tend to favour is similar, but using other missiles as the decoys - typically Wasps against small targets, or Typhoons when shepherding through larger munitions at capital ships. However, in the case of Wasps, this will often tend to only decoy the turrets, and not the MDMs, as the latter only trigger at incoming missiles threatening a certain %age of damage. Also, timing is important if using missiles to distract from other missiles, more so than if using drones (which also may engage and deplete the target's MDMs.)

The Hammerhead's blast radius is large enough to be inconvenient and dangerous, but too small to be useful. I wouldn't try to use it as an AoE sweeper, but rather to hammer (sorry! ) larger targets, and if you happen to catch an escort or two, then bonus.

For taking out bombers, depending on what you are flying at the time. My top choice would have to be a Typhoon, but only M6s and up can use those, in general (your Hyperion can.) If you are flying something smaller, then a pair or trio of RGWs or Belugas could do the job quite nicely, though an alternative approach is to catch the Tommies it will be firing at you with your guns, as they leave their launch tubes - I find it really satisfying to atomize an enemy bomber using its own munitions against it. A decent alternative to consider is using Hornets (or Spectres, if you are flying a Terran ship.) Another alternative for use in your Hyperion is the Wraith, though this is a tricky one, as these missiles are firstly seriously over-the-top for killing a lone M8, and also suffer from really poor manoeuvreability (even against frigates!), so the timing and relative motion and facing of your firing solution are critical - generally, I wouldn't recommend this option, rather save those powerful MIRV puppies for use against capital ships.

Pardon any omissions and incoherence - it's coming up to 5am, I haven't woken up yet, and only just had my coffee while typing this
Happy hunting!

[JoeVN09]

Generally I find it more effective to fire a handful of missiles than to hope a single one will make contact with its target. Hyp can't handle the specialised M7M or bomber missiles, but a salvo of Tempests/Thunderbolts or a couple of Hornets or Typhoons should kill a Hades or any fighter dead from any range up to 25km. Belugas will do the job as well but they're some of the best missiles for their speed and damage, so I prefer to stockpile them. From 5km you can get the commonly-dropped Banshees involved. If you attack it from the front, even at range, a Hades is unlikely to turn around just to get the rear turret to shoot missiles down.

The blast radius on a Hammerhead can pretty easily take out a wing of heavy fighters, IF it connects and depending on how spread out their formation is. I prefer to send it in under cover of Wasps to reduce chances of interception. If the formation is escorting a frigate or bigger ship, try targeting that. They're less manoeuvrable and won't aggro the escort against you until it's too late. If it hits the blast radius will often take out the whole escort wing.

[Alan Phipps]

A bit of an aside on missile play.

If the Kha'ak are still in the game, there is something quite satisfying about taking out most of even a big cluster right after it splits with a common Aurora synaptic missile (dumbfire with player-controlled area effect warhead detonation). Approach speed, aiming accuracy, range, and timing of launch are all critical factors to this method which is fun to perfect.

Sure, it is trivial to eliminate the whole cluster in one go with a large yield missile before it splits, but the Aurora method seems more fun and challenging to do and seems to result in a relatively high chance of scout or interceptor bails too. You also get to practice using your lighter guns to clean up the few surviving scouts at your leisure and with negligible risk.

[Bill Huntington]

Thanks, all. Good info. I'll be trying them out.

[zazie]

I usually choose banshee/remote guided to take out bombers

I could never make the "remote guided"-part working though I tried a lot (the missile has a good price/damage-ratio). Can you explain how to use the RMGW properly??

[Alan Phipps]

@ zazie: The remote guided bit isn't working in vanilla as it was never implemented in-game (ie nothing like with Novadrones in Rebirth). RGW are just big and not very agile homing missiles.

[zazie]

Thanks; that is what I've heard too. But with X3 you never know. I was hoping that ajime had found a 'working work-around'. Remember: Boarding with marines was not implemented in vanilla X3R, but it worked in Xtended and became one of the core-features of X3TC

[jlehtone]

Back in X3R fighter escorts of Capital ships tended to be in groups of four and in Line formation. The about one click radius of Hammerhead did cover one group nicely. The damage has (inverse) linear correlation to distance from center. When the LX did show up (X3R v2), one had to choose some other ship, for turrets of LX did missile defence. The days of nobody shooting at your ordnance ...


I have seen a most peculiar sight (more than once, in X3AP). I shoot a Typhoon at a Claymore. The Claymore is far and has some fighters near it. While I watch my swarm travel innocently, someone in the destination launches what appears to be a swarm. The two swarms meet and all warheads of my Typhoon are intercepted practically simultaneously. My MDM cannot do the same.


Tornado's are dumb. Unguided. Dumb missiles do not look very good until you learn that the gerbils are a subspecies of Ravenous Bugblatter Beasts of Traal. They don't see missiles that do not have a target. However, if you have a target when you launch a Tornado, then it will have a target, will be seen and shot down.

[ajime]

Thanks; that is what I've heard too. But with X3 you never know. I was hoping that ajime had found a 'working work-around'. Remember: Boarding with marines was not implemented in vanilla X3R, but it worked in Xtended and became one of the core-features of X3TC

heh. i always wondered about how to manually guide them too, since the narrative says. now only i knew the feature doesn't exist.