View source for Talk:Diamondback Explorer/@comment-34004391-20180119082304/@comment-74.249.115.226-20180905062054

My DBX runs a Large Gimballed Beam Laser and 2 Medium Seeker Missiles.  I can take down Expert-and-lower pirate lords reliably with 90% or better hull remaining and miniscule module damage.  The DBX has rather weak shields, but the low cost means a very cheap Military Composite armor upgrade, combined with Hull and Module reinforcements and I'm rocking over 900 hull strength with great resistances, and still have dual scanners and a 32ly jump range with a rebuy under 800k.

In short:

DBX = Combat/Explorer hybrid that's the best explorer in the game and above-average in combat.

Vulture = Pure Combat ship and probably the only light ship in a dogfight that can reliably defeat a DBX.  It also sounds like a Corvette which is enough reason to own one alone.

AspEx = Trader/Explorer hybrid that's the second best explorer in the game and on par with a Krait, Python, or Type-6 as a cargo ship but better jump range than any of them.  Easily the weakest offensive capability of any of these, though.

Keelback = Flying bathtub that makes a decent trader or an excellent miner but is most useful as the cheapest way to launch SLFs.  As soon as you can afford it, you should get a Keelback solely to try out SLFs because not everyone likes them, but if you do, you need to start saving money for the Krait ot Alliance Challenger.

Krait, Python, etc = ships that really shouldn't be directly compared to the DBX (because they're too different) but all of which you should look at eventually.  Still, the DBX makes an excellent stepping stone to any of those, or also to an AspEx.

One more little side note: the Krait and the DBX both mount Class 5 FSD's so if you're considering a Krait, that's one less thing to buy if you already bought one for this puppy.