Vulture
Template:Quote The Vulture is a heavy space superiority fighter. Featuring two large hardpoints, the Vulture packs serious firepower into a relatively small frame. Although its top speed is mediocre compared to other fighters, it is a contender for the most maneuverable ship in the game owing to its powerful lateral thrusters and extremely powerful engines relative to the ship's mass, only being out-turned by smaller, less-armed ships.
Overview
The Vulture's two large hardpoints are located above and behind the cockpit, about halfway down the hull of the ship. Due to the spacing between the hardpoints, a loadout of two fixed weapons may have slight issues with converging on smaller targets.
The Vulture has two manned stations. The pilot's station is on the centerline of the ship. The auxiliary station is offset to the port side above and behind the pilot's station.
In Combat the Vulture is one of the most powerful small ships available. It is capable of easily staying out of the firing range of tougher ships like Anacondas or Pythons and its two Large Hardpoints can quickly deal heavy damage to any ship. It is extremely nimble and can keep fixed mounts on targets very easily. Overall the Vulture is one of the best Bounty Hunter ships availble.
Defensively, the Vulture has impressive statistics on paper. It possesses the highest base shield and armor hitpoints out of all small sized ships; it has very good internal compartments (even better than the much more expensive Fer-de-Lance); and its number of utility mounts is 4, the same as larger ships such as Python and Federal Gunship. However, there is a catch: the Vulture is held back by its limited power capacity, which greatly limits viable loadout choices and encourages smart module priority control.
The Vulture suffers from over specification and is very poor in any job besides Bounty Hunting and Assassination. It has terrible cargo capacity, even for its size so it will do very poorly in any form of trading or mining but most importantly it functions very poorly as a pirate as it has very low space for plundered loot, especially when a Hatch breaker limpet controller is installed, however, its small size makes collecting cargo easier, making it easy to leave collector limpets behind. It has awful jump range at a woeful average of 22lY, in fact it has the lowest of any small sized ship making it not only useless as an explorer, it can't easily get to Interstellar Factors to clear any bounties. Unlike the Fer-de-Lance it does very poorly as an anti-Thargoid ship, as its low number of hardpoints limits its use of Ax weaponry, leaving it without many options to deal with Interceptors.
Overall the Vulture functions as a small Fer-de-Lance; unbeaten in sheer power for its size but is one of the worst ships in any other role. Because it is so limited to Bounty Hunting it has very few options and makes a poor single vessel for a commander to fly and the Asp Explorer or Keelback may be more appealing due to their multi-purpose ability.
The Vulture has an available 16 piece cosmetic ship kit that can be purchased from the Frontier store which allows you to "remodel your ship in your personal style". The ship kit does not affect gameplay.
Purchase Locations
| System | Station | Date Seen | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shinrarta Dezhra | Jameson Memorial | Always available | 10% discount, Founders Permit needed |
| Brestla | i Sola Prospect | Always available | 20% surcharge |
| Hernir | Gunn Ring | Jan. 2, 2018 | 15% discount |
| Duamta | Davis Terminal | Jan. 2, 2018 | |
| TZ Arietis | Snyder Enterprise | Jan. 2, 2018 | |
| Wolf 25 | Bonkers | Jan. 2, 2018 | |
| Chi Orionis | Carey Terminal | Jan. 2, 2018 | |
| Picoria | Kohoutek Ring | Jan. 8, 2018 | |
| Kakas | Kube-McDowell Enterprise | Jan.19, 2018 | |
| LP 926-40 | Lee City | March 7, 2018 | |
| Patani | Smith Ring | March 11, 2018 | |
| Frey | Garratt Station | April 30, 2018 | |
| Deciat | Garay Terminal | May 31, 2018 |
Default Loadout
Ship loadouts can be outfitted in various ways at certain stations. Listed below is the default loadout for the Vulture.
| Category | Default System | Default Rating | Default Class | Max Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Large Hardpoint | Pulse Laser | F | 1 | 3 |
| Pulse Laser | F | 1 | 3 | |
| Utility Mount | Empty | -- | -- | 0 |
| Empty | -- | -- | 0 | |
| Empty | -- | -- | 0 | |
| Empty | -- | -- | 0 | |
| Bulkheads | Lightweight Alloys | I | 1 | 8 |
| Reactor Bay | Power Plant | E | 4 | 4 |
| Thrusters Mounting | Thrusters | E | 5 | 5 |
| Frame Shift Drive Housing | Frame Shift Drive | E | 4 | 4 |
| Environment Control | Life Support | E | 3 | 3 |
| Power Coupling | Power Distributor | E | 5 | 5 |
| Sensor Suite | Sensors | E | 4 | 4 |
| Fuel Store | Fuel Tank [x8] | C | 3 | 3 |
| Internal Compartments | Shield Generator | E | 5 | 5 |
| Empty [m] | -- | -- | 5 | |
| Cargo Rack [x8] | E | 3 | 4 | |
| BDS | E | 1 | 2 | |
| Empty | -- | -- | 1 | |
| Empty | -- | -- | 1 | |
| Note: L = Loaned, [x#] = Capacity, BDS = Basic Discovery Scanner, [m] = Military Compartment reserved for Hull Reinforcement Package, Module Reinforcement Package, or Shield Cell Bank. | ||||
Trivia
- The Vulture was originally priced at 21,925,615 CR. After an outcry from the community that it was overpriced, Frontier lowered the cost of the Vulture to 4,925,615 CR.
- The Vulture is produced by Core Dynamics and sold to all three of the Major Factions.
Videos
Gallery
- Vulture cockpit
- Vulture Hud, slight limited visibility in the front due to the fenders around the cockpit
- Vulture side shot
- Vulture front
- Vulture rear
- Vulture Docked
- "Out of the sun" Vulture
- Vulture featuring the Black Friday paintjob and ship-kit accessories.
- Vulture Top View, Vibrant Purple
- Vulture underside, Red Vibrant Paint applied.
- Vulture with Tactical Ice paint applied
- Vulture Top view
- Cobra Mk. III meets the mighty Vulture
- Vulture landed on planet 4 in HIP 22286
- Vulture 17jpg
- A Chrome Paintjob Vulture as seen under different star types light
- Red Vibrant Paintjob on Vulture
- Cockpit view when heat is very low
- Core Dynamics Vulture Blueprint
- Vulture Cockpit
- Vulture cockpit and star rise
- Vulture cockpit overview
