Anti-Xeno Conflict Zone Builds

AXCZ Ship-Build Philosophy

AXCZ Ships are heavily based on Solo Builds – with some modifications for the 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 in solo Interceptor fights.

• Scouts
  • Caustic missile barrages triggered by Berserkers can pile up
• 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 of 3
  • Anti-Guardian Field, melting guardian equipment that isnt resistant

Armament

• Modified Guardian Shard Cannons – Recommended Overall
  Overall the best option, good ammo efficiency, good for exerting and heartsniping.
  Good for gibbing clops.
• Modified Guardian Plasma Chargers
  Solid Option, strong for exertion, great ammo efficiency, harder to heartsnipe with.
  Less heat buildup comparibly.
  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, Glaive AGF will be no issue.
• 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
  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.
  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 so quickly that taking on Swarms every time will become a sisyphus job. Using flakless flying and strategies is recommended.

Utilities

• Shutdown Field Neutraliser – Mandatory
  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 – Recommended
  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 viable, but often inconvenient.
• 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

• Repair Limpet Controller – Heavy recommend in open Space, Optional at Stations
  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 can go for RRR, replacing with more Hull Reinforcements usualy. But keeping your repairs will not hurt you though.
• Auto FIeld Maintenance Unit – Mandatory in open Space, Optional at Stations
  AFMUs are needed to repair Module-damage. Heavily recommended in open space scenarios.
  You may drop these at Stations where you can go for RRR, replacing with more Hull Reinforcements usualy. But keeping your repairs will not hurt you though.
• Module Reinforcements
  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.
  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.