o7 Commanders, I'm back with another edition of "Things the guides don't tell you."
Like many of you, I've been running rescue missions, and I've been reading the same guides most of you have. I wanted to add some things that I've discovered that I think will help players that are either on the fence about joining the rescue effort, or to help those that are, but are struggling a bit.
(Some of this may have been covered in video guides. I don't watch video guides as I prefer write-ups.)
Here's what I've learned:
- Hyperdictions are not guaranteed: I've been running rescue missions in HIP 23716, and over the course of two days, I've been hyperdicted roughly 63% of the time. (I've gone in 147 times by my count, and have been hyperdicted 94 times total. Of those 94, I've died twice. Both deaths were avoidable.)
- When escaping after being hyperdicted the usual advice works with the following caveat: You can't spool up your fsd while you have your hardpoints deployed (heat sinks!) but what you can do is: pop a heat sink, retract hardpoints, spool up your fsd, and after that you can pop as many heat sinks as you need to. Edit: If you hotkey the heatsinks, you can fire them without deploying hardpoints.
- If you do get hyperdicted, you will not have yet reached the system you are jumping to: This is how I died the first time, because I didn't understand how hyperdictions work. When it happens, you can still High-wake to the system you had originally planned on jumping to. Don't be like me and assume you already are there and try to low-wake out. It didn't end well.
- For rescue missions you don't need much engineering: My rescue python has G3 Dirty drives with no experimental effect (couldn't afford drag drives, didn't care enough to go get the mats I needed) and I stole the FSD off of my AspX. G3 Dirty drives let me hit 430 m/s which is plenty fast enough to run away. I did install a Guardian FSD booster, but that was less for the additional jump range, and more for the better fuel economy. I keep seeing people post their ship builds, and everything is engineered to the gills, and I think this drives some of the misconceptions players have about being involved.
- Take a small amount of cargo space (or more if that's your thing): In addition to passengers, there are injured people in escape pods that need rescuing as well. You'll find that under the "Transport" category on the missions screen. These don't pay well, but they do provide small amounts of materials, and are great for bringing up reputation with the factions at the station, as well as the governing faction of a system. (25 tons of space is more than enough. I only once filled up all 50 slots in my cargo hold, and that was more work than it was worth.)
- For rescue ships with shields: Don't use silent running. Popping a heatsink will drop your heat down to zero (or close depending on your build) and at that point you should be boosting like a maniac to get away. Silent running will turn off your shields, which is bad.
- The small speed loss of a full-size power distributor is made up by how often you can boost: Most of the rescue ship builds I see for Pythons use a G6 distributor in order to save weight and squeeze out a few more m/s. The problem with this is boosting will take almost your full engine charge, and will not be full by the time you need to boost again. A G7 distributor will allow for 2 boosts on a full charge, and one boost will recharge fully before you drop below 400 m/s.
I really hope this is helpful for anyone who would like to take part in rescuing our hapless NPC citizens. I feel like rescue missions are a great way to get introduced to the Thargoid war and some of the tactics necessary to survive. Plus nothing is as pants-shittingly terrifying as the first time you get hyperdicted and the murder-flower sends out the swarm. And nothing feels quite as good as getting away. Except maybe murdering them back, but I don't know about that yet. (soon……….)