Just give me the build already!
If you’re the “just want the build link already” type… here it is: https://edsy.org/s/vZY78rP
If you’d like to spend a few more minutes learning about it, this video may help:
Note that by jumping straight to the “build ship” step you are missing out on a lot of information on how to use it; if you want to learn more, keep reading!
A brief introduction to Titanspace
Maelstroms are the most unforgiving environment in the game.
We refer to the area inside of a Maelstrom’s caustic cloud as “Titanspace” for simplicity.
Even merely getting to Titanspace requires specialized equipment. Namely a Thargoid Pulse Neutralizer (“TPN”) and a Caustic Sink Launcher (“CSL”.)
Titanspace is uniquely challenging, being filled with asteroids, mines, hostiles, and the Titan itself.
It is very difficult to maneuver, let alone fight, in Titanspace.
“We refer to the area inside of a Maelstrom’s caustic cloud as “Titanspace” for simplicity.”
All Thargoid Maelstroms have a permanently active Anti-Guardian Field (“AGF”).
Guardian Modules and Weapons cannot be used in Titanspace, with the exception of Guardian Hull Reinforcement Packages and modules with Anti-Guardian Zone Resistance.
“Thargoid Maelstroms have a permanently active Anti-Guardian Field”
Maelstrom Combat Equipment
Since Guardian weapons are less effective with the engineering required to bring them into Titanspace, most Maelstrom Combat builds rely on human weapons with few exceptions.
Human Anti-Xeno weapons are comprised by various generations of Anti-Xeno Multicannons (“AXMCs”) and Anti-Xeno Missile Racks (“AXMRs”). As a general rule AXMCs are the better generalist weapons as they can both exert and destroy interceptor hearts. AXMRs are a more specialized weapon, as they are a lot more effective at exerting hearts, but their lack of breach damage means that they cannot destroy hearts.
| Variant | ”Go-To” Hardpoint | Notes |
| ”Original” | Large, Fixed | Obsolete |
| ”Enhanced” | Large, Fixed | Most typical |
| ”Sirius” | Large, Fixed | Sidegrade, costs materials |
| “Advanced” | Small, Fixed | Requires materials for AX ammo synthesis; bypasses experimental weapons limit; only variant which can damage interceptor hearts |
[Original] Anti-Xeno Missile Racks
The “original” Anti-Xeno Missile Racks were among the first weapons available to mankind in their fight against the Thargoids. They are still widely available for purchase, and the only version which can be stocked for purchase on carriers.
They have been effectively rendered obsolete by their enhanced brethren and have thus fallen in disuse. Their only purpose nowadays is to complete the throwback “snake eater” challenge of the Anti-Xeno Initiative.
“Original” Anti-Xeno Missile Racks are only available in fixed and turreted variants, and only come in Large and Medium (no small) sizes. The turreted variant is further plagued by the inability to track beyond its falloff (not maximum) range.
Like all AX Missiles (save for the special case of Advanced Missile Racks), these weapons have practically no breach damage and, as such, are incapable of destroying interceptor hearts.
Enhanced Anti-Xeno Missile Racks
Enhanced Anti-Xeno Missile Racks have become a popular weapon of non-guardian AX builds and have superseded in all ways the original version. They are available for purchase for credits (no materials needed) at Rescue Megaships.
Enhanced Anti-Xeno Missile Racks are available in fixed and turreted variants, and only come in Large and Medium (no small) sizes. The fixed variant is by far the most popular.
These weapons rarely appear on solo combat builds (given their lack-of-breach-damage limitation), but are very popular as Thargoid Banshee destroyers and as Orthrus hunters.
Specialized wings can also effectively make use of these weapons, if appropriately mixing and matching “gunship (AXMC) boats” and “missile (AXMR) boats.”
Pre-Engineered “Sirius” Anti-Xeno Missile Racks
A special “pre-engineered” version of the “Original” Anti-Xeno Missile Racks is available for purchase at tech brokers on Sirius Megaships. They require a specific set of materials and are a per-module (NOT a one-time unlock) purchase, making them comparatively expensive.
These weapons are dubbed “Sirius” AXMRs after the corporation that developed them and took them to market. They have high capacity and rapid fire engineering, at the cost of -3% damage, +70% mass, +20% power draw, and a new 0.5-degree jitter.
“Sirius” Anti-Xeno Missile Racks are available solely in the fixed version, in large and medium (no small) sizes.
“Sirius” AXMRs are a sidegrade compared to Enhanced Missiles racks. They have higher sustained DPS and double the ammo, but their missiles travel speed is just above half that of their enhanced cousins, making hitting anything that is moving extremely challenging.
“Sirius” AXMRs are more typically employed against static or slow-moving targets (such as Banshees and Orthruses.) Against faster interceptors, Enhaned AXMRs are typically preferred.
Still, their marginal benefit and their expensive cost in terms of materials means that they are not commonly seen on the battlefield. Treat them as a luxury for niche/specialized purposes, which you don’t really need, and will rarely use.
Advanced Anti-Xeno Missile Racks
Advanced Anti-Xeno Missile Racks are a special case. They are available for purchase for credits (no materials needed) at stations that either sell all modules (such as Jameson Memorial) or are controlled by the minor faction Zende Partners.
Advanced Anti-Xeno Missile Racks are only available in fixed variant, and only come in Medium and Small (no large) sizes. As such, they are the ONLY AX missile rack capable of harming Thargoid interceptors which can fit in a small weapon hardpoint.
Advanced AXMRs do not normally do AX damage. Instead, they require special AX ammunition synthesis in order to convert them to AX-damaging weapons. Such AX ammo synthesis is required every single time you want to use AX ammo. Stations do not restock AX ammo!
In addition, Advanced AXMRs are the ONLY weapon of their kind NOT to be subject to the experimental-weapons limit on a ship. You can, for example, fit a Type 10 entirely with Advanced AXMRs, whereas you are limited to 4 (or 6, with a c5 experimental weapon stabilizer) Enhanced AXMRs.
A unique property of Advanced AXMRs is that their breach AX damage (when using their special AX-ammo synthesis) was NOT nerfed. Advanced AXMRs have a hefty splash-breach damage of 20, making them capable of destroying interceptor hearts (and not practically useless as the Advanced AXMC relatives.)
Still, the extreme material-intensity required in order to make these weapons AX-capable has resulted in them being broadly despised by the player community.
Recommendation: Only consider in the most dire situations when trying to build the most-powerful-possible AX missile boat, and only for the small hardpoints specifically, when you do not mind the painful material requirements of their AX ammo.
Note that Advanced Missiles have the shot speed of “original” and “Sirius” MRs. If you’re going to mix and match small Advanced MRs with anything – mix them with Sirius MRs. Mixing them with Enhanced MRs will make aim practically impossible (as the two aiming reticles will hardly ever overlap.)
Maelstrom Combat Build Theory
Maelstrom combat Ships need to meet the following requirements:
- No Guardian Weapons or Modules without Anti-Guardian Zone Resistance (except GHRPs)
- Naturally low (<20%) heat, and similarly low heat while firing
- As much survivability as possible
- As much sustained damage as possible, with enough ammunition to remain on-station for a reasonable amount of time
We already went over the guardian equipment. Let us explain the others.
Low heat
Titans get angry. And angry Titans have the bad habit at shooting at you with both repeater turrets and missile turrets. Even worse, angry Titans will summon patrolling interceptors and hunters – generally in bigger numbers than you can hope to handle.
In order to shoot you directly however, the Titan needs a target lock on you. If you stay below 20% heat, the Titan will generally not be able to get a target lock on you (unless enemies assist the Titan by providing it with a lock on), and thus its turrets will not fire at you. You still do need to worry about patrols and the Torus special attack.
Remaining cold at all times has the additional benefit of allowing you to avoid triggering seed mines (unless you get REALLY close), avoiding most interceptor direct cannon fire, and attracting less attention from patrols to begin with. Note that Thargon Swarms disregard heat and remain a primary threat even to cold ships, and that Hunter repeater guns do not require a heat lock to hit you. They can whittle away the hull of a distracted commander quickly.
All in all, a “hot” ship will get you killed quickly in Titanspace. Stay, quite literally, frosty – and your dives will last a lot longer.
Privilege survivability
Getting to Titanspace takes a while. Carriers cannot be stationed in a system with a Maelstrom. Hyperdictions jumping into a Maelstrom system have roughly a 50% chance to occur. Once there, interdictions (which you cannot successfully fight) are relentless. Even when you do manage to get to the Maelstrom cloud, you need to cross the caustic area and reach Titanspace proper.
If you log out while in Titanspace you will be placed outside of the Caustic Zone. If you die in Titanspace, you will have to trek all the way back. Consequently, you will want to make sure that you die as little as possible, as each death is a waste of your time and, worse, each death leaves your wingmates with one pilot down for an extended period of time.
We’ve already talked about the core element of survivability in Titanspace: running a cold ship.
Beyond that, there’s three other key elements that matter:
- Speed and Agility: You need to be able to keep moving, at pace, while weaving in and out of the asteroid field, around mines, around the Titan itself and, in general, “be where you are needed.” A still ship is a dead ship in Titanspace. You want mobility, and plenty of it. This paradigm will privilege medium ships over large ones. The T10, Anaconda, and Corvette are simply too slow. The Cutter is fast enough but has awful maneuverability.
- Hull and Module buffers: Try as you may, you will take damage in Titanspace and there is no friendly station nearby to repair if your canopy (or ship) blows. You need sufficient buffers on both hull and module protection for your ship to not fall apart when the first bullets start flying or you slam into a rock. This generally means at least 2k hull, and at least 3 module reinforcement packages – the largest of which should be a class 5 if at all possible.
- Repairs: You need to be able to repair yourself out there, as your wing depends on you and there is no way to repair otherwise. That means kitting the largest repair limpet controller and one or more AFMUs. You will also need a cargo rack to carry the limpets needed for repairs. It is recommended to have at least a few emergency synths of limpets available as your cargo hatch will inevitably be damaged and malfunction, leading to the ejection of all your limpets, likely in a spot you cannot easily retrieve them.
Do a good deal of damage
You are in a combat ship after all, aren’t you?
As discussed in the equipment section, gimballed enhanced anti-xeno Multicannons are the go-to weapon for Maelstrom combat presently.
The difference in damage between the large and medium variants is significant. We want a ship that can fit as many as those large ones as possible, while also meeting the other criteria’s listed above.
Keep in mind you will also need to power those weapons and cool them. The power distributor and heat factors come in prominently in designing a Maelstrom build.
The TitanKiller Krait Mk2
After hundreds of hours of experimentation and testing, we have converged on the Krait Mk2 as the platform of choice to best balance out the grueling requirements of Maelstrom Combat. We dubbed the resulting build “TitanKiller.”
Other medium ships, such as the FDL, the Chieftain, the FAS, the Mamba can work too (and the otherwise unpopular Clipper actually isn’t all that bad for a Maelstrom build) but will generally be far from optimal. The Python and Krait Phantom are the two ships that come the closest, but both are direct downgrades from the KMk2 (the Python for agility, the Phantom for firepower.)
We carefully designed the TitanKiller Krait Mk2 to use 3 Large and 1 Medium Gimballed Enhanced AXMC, coupled with a single medium Gimballed Long Range / Thermal Vent beam laser. In such a hard point configuration, the KMk2 flies and fights at a very agile and speedy 0-3-3 PIPs, with enough distro to indefinitely power its weapons and enough cooling to remain at 0% heat while firing at a hostile.
The TitanKiller is meant to be flown turning off FSD, Cargo Hatch, and AFMU upon arriving at Titanspace. With such a power configuration, it will stabilize at 18% heat under thrust. Be careful with your boosts – boosting without sinking beforehand can spike your heat and get you in trouble. Short of such uncovered boosts, this is a ninja build – you will be permanently unlockable by both enemies and wingmates unless you get too close.
The build privileges speed over hull buffer. 2,508hp is “light” by combat KMk2 standards. But the ship boosts to 543 m/s laden, enough to shake even a Basilisk if need be, and has agility to match. Module protection is conversely excellent (94% protection with 525hp first-buffer integrity) and not something that was compromised in any way.
Firegroups-wise, we recommend the following setup:
- A) All AXMCs; B) Beam Laser plus Xeno Scanner
- A) Repair Limpet Controller; B) Beam Laser plus Xeno Scanner (and optionally other non-combat scanners)
- A) Caustic Sink Launcher; B) Thargoid Pulse Neutralizer
Note that your heatsinks are intentionally unbound and will rely on a keybind to deploy. If using a keybind for heatsinks excessively irks you, replace 2B above with the heatsink trigger.
The TitanKiller can be flown in combat either FA On or FA Off. There is no substantial difference in practice. Both flight models can be made to excel with it.
The TitanKiller relies on its beam for cooling while firing. If your beam is off-target for an extended period of time, consider holding fire on the MCs, lest your heat spike.
Now, finally, armed with all this knowledge you can go and build the ship with an actual idea of what you’re supposed to be doing with it. Congratulations on making it this far!
The build is here: https://edsy.org/s/vZY78rP
