Anti-Xeno Conflict Zone Builds
For general Information on AXCZs please visit our AXCZ Guide Page.
You can find our recommended AXCZ Builds in the Tab-boxes bellow.
AXCZ Ship-Build Philosophy
AXCZ Ships are heavily based on Solo Builds – with some modifications for the prolonged conflict Scenario.
At AXCZs we will encounter multiple enemies over an extended period of time and a number of threats that we can not entirely avoid like we could in solo Interceptor fights, like special attacks.
- Scouts
- Caustic missile triggered by Berserkers can be a nuisance
- Stray fire can disrupt your synths and repair limpets
- Interceptors
- Shutdown Fields upon entry and 2nd to last Heart destruction
- Caustic Missile barrages, often banked for extended periods of time
- Heavy caustic Clouds left behind upon death
- Swarms, often agitated and will act hectic and change aggro often
- Glaives
- Spawn in high+ and station CZs in waves
- Anti-Guardian Field, melting most guardian equipment that isnt resistant through Ram Tah engineering
Find some general points and recommendations on equipment for AXCZ ship-loadouts below;
Armament
Weapon choices for AXCZs
- Modified Guardian Shard Cannons – Recommended Overall
Overall the best option, good ammo efficiency, good for exerting and heartsniping.
Ease of use. Good for gibbing clops. - Modified Guardian Plasma Chargers
Solid Option, strong for exertion, great ammo efficiency, less easy to heartsnipe with.
Less heat buildup comparibly. Very High Distributor draw.
Consider the visual occlusion by the plasma clouds when using in wing environment. - Guardian Gauss Cannons
A strong classic but some things to consider for CZs;
Low Ammo count. Relies on Rearm or frequent synthing over long fights.
Best weapon for Heart-sniping. Not great for gibbing.
Can be engineered with Anti-Guardian Zone Resistance, to counter Glaive AGF in High CZs. - Enhanced / Azimuth AX Multicannons
Generally inferior to all Guardian options. Use only when you want to focus on Scouts and Hunters in a wing environment or and dont have anything else. - Flak – Not recommended for medium ships
You can fit Flak on your ship but it is not recommended on mediums. On Large ships that have hardpoints to spare this is more viable. Extra beams for thermals and shield stripping will most likely serve you better in a CZ.
The Problem with Flak in AXCZs is that Swarms will act quite hectic, changing aggro and directions quite often.
With the concentrated firepower in CZs the Hearts of Interceptors will be destroyed quite quickly, taking on Swarms every heart will become a sisyphus job. Using flakless flying and strategies is recommended.
Utilities
Utilities and Countermeasures for AXCZs
- Heatinks – Staying cold to avoid damage is vital in any proper AX scenario
- Shutdown Field Neutraliser – Pretty much Mandatory
Interceptors will always shutdown-pulse upon jumping in. The 2nd-to-last-Heart pulse will very often be triggered by NPCs (or other players).
Hold down the trigger until the Shutdown Pulse has passed over you. Put in more pips in SYS when you expect multiple shutdowns or desync. - Caustic Sink – Optional, pretty handy
While not mandatory, these can be incredibly handy when encountering any of the numerous sources of caustic at AXCZs.
They will soak up Caustic damage to a high degree. You can launch them off like Heatsinks once they are filled.
Alternatives like decontamination limpets have fallen out of favor quite drasticly.
Overheating your ship to cook off the caustic is very viable, but sometimes inconvenient.
If you dont want a caustic Sink; you can always opt for another Heatsink instead. Or even a Xeno Scanner if you really desire. - Enhanced Xeno Scanner – Optional
A convenient, but very much optional tool. Ships with only 4 slots should think carefully before giving up a slot for these.
ModShards and Gauss can do very well without – and benefit a lot from an extra Heatsink on ships with limited Utility slots, as they generate quite a lot of heat when keeping up decent firerate.
ModPlasmas are a bit harder to hit Hearts with and generate less heat usualy – making space for a Scanner is a solid option here.
Optional Internals
Optional Internals for AXCZs
- Repair Limpet Controller – Heavy recommend in open Space, Optional at Stations with RRR
Combined with Cargo Racks to carry Limpets – having repair capabilities is very useful and heavily recommended in open space scenarios.
You may drop these at Stations where you have RRR available, replacing with more Hull Reinforcements usualy. But having repair capability to remain in the fight longer can be preferable even with RRR so close. - Auto FIeld Maintenance Unit – Definetely bring in open Space, Optional at Stations with RRR.
AFMUs are needed to repair Module-damage. Heavily recommended in open space scenarios. Module Damage from flanking Swarm-missiles will often be more of a bane than any Hull damage.
You can drop these at Stations where you have RRR available, replacing with more Hull or Module Reinforcements usualy. But having module repair capability on the go for critical damage is still very useful even with RRR so close. - Module Reinforcements – Mandatory
MRPs will give you Module damage Resistance and serve as buffers to soak up moduledamage.
A consideration you need to make is encountering Anti-Guardian Fields on the Thargoid Warfronts. If you plan to visist a High+ difficulty or Station CZ you may encounter Glaives. Guardian Module Reinforcements will be susceptible to AGF.
Usual convention is therefore to use Human MRPs for the lower sized slots, and either a Human or Anti-Guardian Zone Resistance engineered Guardian variant for the largest one.
Recommended Ship Builds
| Variant | Weapons | Armor | Repair / Cargo (T) | Boost (LDN) | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AXCZ ModShard CC Krait | ModShards | 2.419 | 5D / 64 | 537 | EDSY |
| AXCZ MPC CC Krait | ModPlasmas | 2.419 | 5D / 64 | 538 | EDSY |
| Solo/AXCZ Gauss CC Krait | Gauss | 2.419 | 5D / 64 | 538 | EDSY |
Krait Mk II Common Core at AXCZs
The Krait Mk II is the Thargoid War Meta, with unmatched versatility.
- Great Firepower due to its Hardpoint layout
- Size 7 Destributor, can feed even ModPlasmas fairly well, perma boosting
- High survivability, repair capacity, carrying space
- Less nimble than the Chieftain
The XSF mainly features the Common Core variants of the 2024 Krait Mk II Thargoid War Builds
Common Core Krait Mk II – ModShards
- Armament:
4M Modified Guardian Shard Cannons, 1L Fixed (or gimballed) Thermal Vent Beam Laser - Speed:
537 Boost (LDN), 390 Military Speed - Core Internals:
(Note: the Low Emission Powerplant, which was particularly useful when using the same ship-frame for Titanspace, can be replaced with a unengineered or armored + thermal spread 7A, or armored + ts 6A variant, if you wish so) - Survivability:
2.419 Armor, 5D Repair Limpet Controller, 64 T capacity - Utility:
2 Heatsinks, 1 Cautic Sink, Shutdown Field Neutraliser (TPN acceptable but not ideal)
Common Core Krait Mk II – ModPlasmas
- Armament:
4M Modified Guardian Plasma Chargers, 1L Fixed (or gimballed) Thermal Vent Beam Laser - Speed:
538 Boost (LDN), 390 Military Speed - Core Internals:
(Note: the Low Emission Powerplant, which was particularly useful when using the same ship-frame for Titanspace, can be replaced with a unengineered or armored + thermal spread 7A, or armored + ts 6A variant, if you wish so) - Survivability:
2.419 Armor, 5D Repair Limpet Controller, 64 T capacity - Utility:
2 Heatsinks, 1 Cautic Sink, Shutdown Field Neutraliser (TPN acceptable but not ideal)
Common Core Krait Mk II – Gauss
- Armament:
4M Guardian Gauss Cannons, 1L Fixed (or gimballed) Thermal Vent Beam Laser - Speed:
538 Boost (LDN), 390 Military Speed - Core Internals:
(Note: the Low Emission Powerplant, which was particularly useful when using the same ship-frame for Titanspace, can be replaced with a unengineered or armored + thermal spread 7A, or armored + ts 6A variant, if you wish so) - Survivability:
2.419 Armor, 5D Repair Limpet Controller, 64 T capacity - Utility:
2 Heatsinks, 1 Cautic Sink, Shutdown Field Neutraliser – for AXCZ combat (TPN acceptable but not ideal)
(4 Heatsinks – for Solo Interceptor combat)
| Variant | Weapons | Armor | Repair / Cargo (T) | Boost (LDN) | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AXCZ 4MS Chally 16t | ModShards | 2.643 | 5D / 16 | 509 | EDSY |
Alliance Challenger at AXCZs
The Alliance Challenger is the renowned Chieftains Sistership variant. Though not as agile, it can pack quite the punch.
- Hardpoint layout better suited for ModShards than the Chieftain (or MPC)
- 3 bottom Medium Hardpoints with godly convergence, 4th on top not so much
- Less nimble than the Chieftain
The Challenger is a great choice for AXCZs – being able to be flown with quite a nonchalant “let me punch you in the face” attitude. It will serve you well, be it gibbing Clopses or taking out Hydras.
AXCZ Alliance Challenger – ModShards 16t
- Armament:
4M Modified Guardian Shardcannons, 3S Fixed Thermal Vent Beamlasers (Note: you may replace some of the lrtv beams with Cytoscrambler Burstlasers for faster shield-stripping if you wish so) - Speed:
509 Boost (LDN), 328 military speed - Core Internals:
(Note: the weapon focused Distributor can be replaced with Charge enhanced, if you wish so) - Survivability:
2.643 Armor, 5D Repair Limpet Controller, 16t Limpet space (Note: you may configure for 64t of space by replacing the 5D Module reinforcement with a 6c Cargo Rack, and in turn replacing the 2x 3c Cargo Racks with 3D Module reinforcements) - Utility:
2 Heatsinks, 1 Caustic Sink, Shutdown Field Neutraliser
| Variant | Weapons | Armor | Repair / Cargo (T) | Boost (LDN) | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AXCZ Chief 64t | Gauss | 3.270 | 5D / 64 | 530 | EDSY |
Alliance Chieftain at AXCZs
The Alliance Chieftain is a great and agile ship for fighting Interceptors, as we know from the meta-Chief. Some modifications make it a great contender for certain CZ Scenarios.
- Most nimble meta AX fighter
- Sturdy Armor and good repair capabilities
- Hardpoint layout more limited compared to Krait, Chally or Python
- Gauss has low ammo capacity
The Chief is a great Heartsniper. Though the Chieftain lacks a bit behind in raw firepower and ammo capacity, often desirable for CZs, its agility and sturdiness are beloved by everyone who owns a metachief. Ammo cap can be compensated by rearms while wingmates stay in the CZ in multiplayer.(With AGF engineered Gauss; you can also resist Glaive AGF in High+ AXCZs and with any luck tank the AGF for your Wingmates in multiplayer)
AXCZ Alliance Chieftain – Gauss 64t
- Armament:
4 Medium Gauss (Feel free to Anti-Guardian Zone engineer these to have a much easier life in High and Very High CZ scenarios!), 1M and 1S Thermal Vent Beam Lasers (Cytoscrambler Burst Laser is an alternative option for the small Beam) - Speed:
530 Boost (LDN), 369 Military Speed - Core Internals:
(Note: the Military grade Armor can very well be replaced with Lightweight Alloys with the same engineering instead – trading some max health pool for more agility, which is easily compensated by the up to 64t of Limpets and ample of downtime during AXCZs to repair) - Survivability:
3.270 Armor, 5D Repair Limpet Controller, 64t Limpet space (64t space is more than plenty, fill up the amount of Limpets you feel you need – you may keep a 16t configuration of a regular Metachief if you wish) - Utility:
2 Heatsinks, 1 Caustic Sink, Shutdown Field Neutraliser
| Variant | Weapons | Armor | Repair / Cargo (T) | Boost (LDN) | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zone Fighter v3.1 Z | ModShards | 1.397 | 5D / 16 | 560 | EDSY |
| Low Engineering Python Mk II v3.1 U | Multicannons | 1.397 | 5D / 16 | 510 | EDSY |
Python Mk II at AXCZ
The Python Mk II is agile, fun to fly and packs a punch. But it does lack behind the Krait and Chieftain in sturdiness. It also has a more constricted optional Internal layout than base meta picks.
- Even more generous Hardpoint-layout than the Krait Mk II
- More Utility options with 6 Slots
- Less raw Survivability, better handling
Its Hardpoint advantage over other ships is a bit lessend in conventional AX, because the good guardian weapons are limited to Class 2/Medium size anyway. It is a great platform for Large Human AX Weapons when needed.
Zone Fighter v3.1 Z – ModShards
- Armament:
4M Modified Guardian Shard Cannons, 1L Fixed Thermal Vent Beam Laser, 1S Fixed Cytoscrambler Burst Laser (can be replaced with additional Beams or Flak) - Speed:
560 Boost (LDN), 416 Military Speed - Survivability:
1.397 Armor, 5D Repair Limpet Controller, 16T Limpet space - Utility:
3 Heatsinks, 1 Cautic Sink, Shutdown Field Neutraliser, Enhanced Xeno Scanner
Low Engineering AX Python Mk II – Multicannons
- Armament:
4L 1M Gimballed Enhanced AX Multicannons, 1M Gimballed Thermal Vent Beam Laser - Speed:
510 Boost (LDN), 378 Military Speed - Survivability:
1.397 Armor, 5D Repair Limpet Controller, 16T Limpet space - Utility:
2 Heatsinks, 2 Cautic Sinks, Shutdown Field Neutraliser, Enhanced Xeno Scanner
| Variant | Weapons | Armor | Repair / Cargo (T) | Boost (LDN) | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AXCZ Mandalay | ModShards | 2.558 | 5D / 64 | 553 | EDSY |
Mandalay at AXCZs
Being as agile as it is, combined with its sturdiness and good Hardpoints for guardian AX weaponry, the community naturally explored its AX capabilities. It is a capable package – with some caveats:
- Incredibly agile and nimble, even outperforming Chief in some metrics
- Sturdy Armor and good repair capabilities
- Non ideal heat capacity (more easily prone to spiking)
- Class 5 Power Distributor is a noticable restriction
Even though its heatcapacity is not great and the limiting factor of its Class 5 Destributor – the Mandalay is a joy to fly and very potent, very worth trying out.
AXCZ Mandalay – ModShards 64t
- Armament:
4 Medium Modified Shardcannons , 2S Thermal Vent Beam Lasers - Speed:
553 Boost (LDN), 442 Military Speed
Even without boosting the Mandalay can (almost) keep up with most Interceptors - Survivability:
2.558 Armor, 5D Repair Limpet Controller, 64t Limpet space (64t space is more than plenty, fill up the amount of Limpets you feel you need – or opt for a 16t configuration if you desire) - Utility:
2 Heatsinks, 1 Caustic Sink, Shutdown Field Neutraliser
