What’s your favourite? Why? Lemme know! A few comments here have let me know about my confusing use of the word hardpoint - it means the mounting point on your ship, rather than the weapon itself. I legitimately had no idea, my friends and I have always used it to mean the equipment/weapons, and I’ve never been caught up on it. My bad! So yeah, I'm sorry about that. it’s surprising what you miss despite having been a CMDR so long! 🫡

Couple things I’d like to add, 0:27 On average increasing the hardpoints size infers a 50% damage increase, this is why the Anaconda can deal more DPS then the Corvette as it trades a huge hardpoint for a pair of large hardpoints. A pair of small hardpoints are worth more than a single medium on paper and generally in practice. Going from turret to gimble to fixed gives around 30% more damage. 2:39 Small, medium and especially large multicannons have a spin up time, I couldn’t find any concrete numbers but the numbers I did find ranged from half a second to 1.5 seconds to 3 seconds for small, medium and large respectively. Huge multis don’t have this, this make large multis a liability at times because they take so long to start dealing damage especially in a fire group with other weapons as they’ll waste ammo and/or distributor as they wait if you pull the trigger early to account for the spin up. 3:08 Cannons are the only weapon that has a modified breach chance unengineered (they also have no falloff unengineered, fun fact) most weapons have a 40/80 breach chance where cannons have a 60/90 breach chance. I’ll explain that in a minute the order of this is a bit weird bear with me. 4:53 Torpedoes are only really useful in a specialized assassination build with Reverberating Cascade experimental which causes 35% of a weapons damage to be applied directly to a ships shield generator, killing it even while it’s active. This can be useful if say a Prismatic Cutter is giving you trouble as as little as 5 torpedoes can deal an effective 22,000 damage (assuming the Cutter is stacked with heavy duty boosters and cell banks) leaving a shield tank ship without its only line of defense. Mines can also have this effect applied but are somewhat more difficult to deploy for obvious reasons. I should also point out that you only need 3 to kill a 5A Prismatic that the FDL carries. 5:22 Mines aren’t really going to dissuade most attackers unengineered however they can be engineered to reboot a targets thrusters, FSD and as mentioned can kill shields with ease (the same Cutter as above only needs 12 hits and the FDL only needs 8, for a slightly stupid attacker that comes easily). Mines inherit your ships momentum for one second before slowing to a stop. You can use this to kind of dive bomb onto slower, less maneuverable ships. 6:04 Ohh boy, the Armor Piercing myth. It’s a very common one but Armor Piercing has nothing to do with modules. All AP does is interact with a ships Hull Hardness, if HH is higher then AP damage is reduced based on some maths else full damage is applied. What actually affects modules getting damaged is Breach Chance, BC is the same for most weapons rails and PAs included, 40/80. Cannons have a higher BC as stated above. What this means is at 100% hull integrity any given shot has a 40% chance of damaging a module and against a hull at 0% integrity it’ll have an 80% chance. Cannons are 60% and 90% respectively meaning they’ll damage modules more often and explosive weapons have a 0% chance to penetrate unengineered. Dumbfire missiles and torpedoes can have the Penetrator Munitions experimental applied which will give these weapons a 100% BC. Notably Super Penetrator for rail guns doesn’t give any increase to BC but instead allows a shot to have a chance to continue traveling after it has hit a module. Note that this only applies to internal modules such as power plants, sensors, shield generators etc but not external modules such as utility mounts, hardpoints and drives. Despite drives being considered internal for the purposes of module reinforcements they are external for the purpose of damage. Far as I know BC in a purely background thing and isn’t shown anywhere in game, edsy.org will show you the BC but it can be misleading at times as it says the dumbfires and torps have a 100% BC (I assume this is because of the way their coded but that only speculation) while they definitely do no internal damage.

Torpedoes, along with Mines, are the only ones with Reverberating Cascade engineering modification. They can destroy a shield generator (not the shields, the Shield Generator itself) just by striking the shields. And since they have high damage, you don't need a lot of hits to destroy shields. They end up being VERY case sensitive because of that (and for being slow), and it's usually easier/better to just deal with shields (or do damage) through other means. Also, different than missiles, Torpedoes do full damage against all ships (10,000 Armour Piercing). Missiles will deal reduced damage to targets with Armour Hardness higher than 60 (majority of combat oriented ships). Also, different than Missiles, their ammo can't be synthesized, so you're stuck with constant docking for reloads. EDIT: Armour Piercing and Breach Chance are unrelated (although weapons with high Breach Chance often have high Armour Piercing). Armour Hardness reduces the damage from sources with Armour Piercing below its value. A missile with 60 Armour Piercing will deal 80% of its damage against a Type-10 Defender (60/75 = 80%). Against a Krait Mk II it will deal full damage (60 higher than 55, so no reduction).

I want to add that when it comes to plasma and any other slow moving shots, you can set your reticle to "follow" instead of "lead" in the ship tab of the right-hand menu. This shows where your shot is going to land based on your trajectory, instead of trying to guess your targets. It takes some getting used to, but I find it more useful, since it's more absolute "if you shoot now, your shot will go here" configuration.

Some people may be very confused by your wording here. 'Hardpoints' are the deployable platforms built into your ship to which weapons and other modules can be fitted - not the weapons themselves. In other words, you don't buy hardpoints - you buy weapons and FIT THEM TO hardpoints. I hope this helps to clarify. Still a good video though :O)

I love when Maurice from the IT Crowd explains details about one of my favorite video games. 😉

I advise a video on hardpoint placement and convergence on each/all ships. With your excellent camera b roll, I thought you would cover this aspect. I'm absolutely sure that video will be viewed multiple times by each commander, new and old. Like if you agree. 👍

Very nice, would like to add one thing about multi cannons: Size 1, 2 and 3 have a spin-up time before they start firing which requires more time on target before doing damage. Size 4 however will unleash their hail of deadly minibuss sized shells immediately upon pressing the trigger. As for amour penetration of cannons, NPC are much less affected by damage to modules than players which makes this less useful for pve. For a player, any damage to the power plant (once you are past your margin) means shutdowns, while NPCs will keep firing all their laser, boost and manoeuvre like they were on the first test drive in a pristine ship.

If you use a build with multicannons i higly recommend getting the Corrosive Shell engineering with high capacity on the smallest one for the very nice 25% more damage to hull from all incomming damage. In general i would try to fit one medium or small multicannon for that reason. Unless your build is fitted for no ammo use.

You are so great for putting this together. I had to 3 video in the garbage in order to find this one.

Shock Cannons are a lot of fun to fire. Sadly, no engineering to alleviate the low ammo capacity. The hidden gem for PVP: Remote release flechettes can damage modules (like the targets shield generator) even while the shield is still up. Neither point defence nor ECM protects against them.

Torpedoes are useful for non combat ships that need defense against pirates - go lightweight and a mix of reverberating cascade and super penetrator - if you can get a lock you can take out their shields and their drives (or pp) and then go restock at your next stop. You're never going to win an extended fight, so giving the pirate something to think about (especially when no one expects torpedoes) gives you time to run. Same could be said for mines.

A very good guide to weapons and hardpoints. Nicely done!

Love seeing new Elite youtubers still! Love the videos, and hope you keep it up!

I've been playing for 7 years. Although I'm not a combat guy, this video taught me a lot and gave me something to think about for my 2 combat ships. Thanks! 🖖

Thank you for this excellent analysis! The game's UI confuses us a bit about nomenclature here. To clarify, the *hardpoints* are the points upon a spaceframe (or airframe) that are sturdy enough for weapons to be mounted upon and take the recoil etc. So this rather excellent video is, to be exact, talking about the *weapons* that can be mounted upon a ship's *hardpoints*. A review of ship hardpoints might for example ask why the Clipper's four hardpoints don't converge correctly. o7

Fantastic Video - I have started playing ED again this year and have been enjoying it.

Great video! One more thing about missiles: they are great for clearing out ground NPCs on crash site missions 😀 So how about ground missions as next video? 😉

For both *Cannons* and *Torpedos,* i'd simply explain, that the time to use them are on *big ships* that have lots of weapons hardpoints, so it's not a detriment.

This is a good guide to explain size and function. Thank you

Excellent video as always. Keep it up :)

o7 Dituri, thanks for this. Glad to have new Elite content coming out in concise episodes with no faf

You were asking for uses for torpedoes, the only one I've ever seen is torpedoes with reverberating cascade, which is useful for pvp, completely disabling players shields modules, so if you're in a cutter and get hit with one of these, your 10k HP is useless.

Good summary, but I would like to add some more things. The damage per sec (dps) value is important but the damage per energy (dpe) as also important. High dpe weapons means you can fire more without draining the distributor. Infact sustained damage is mainly limited by the weapons dpe rahter then the dps. Pulse & burst lasers: They have relativly good dpe value compared to beams. So on unengineered gimbaled weapons they are better then beams. Beam laser: low dpe unengineered, but high birst dps. When unengineered best to use on fixed weapons. When engineering to efficent it become superior in every aspects compared to pulse/burst. They are fairly usable as a fixed due to its hitscan nature, but gimbaled is also common. Multicannon (MC): Maybe the best all-around weapons. Good dpe, low dpe, no heat, easy to use. Can be engineered to thermal so it becomes good against shields. A full MC build is viable. The Huge variant is a beast. High dps, no spinup, and huge dpe. The Corvette can fire its dual huge MC with only 1 pip to its weapons. However small varians are not that useful, better suited for experimental effects (like corrosive). Cannon: It is not particularly useful. Maybe the worst weapon in game. It has some niche use due to its experimental effects, but slow projectile, low ammo count and overall not good dps means it is not good. It still has good dpe though. Frag cannon: Very high burst dps, and good dpe. Only usable on close range. I prefer using the high capacity, but the overcharged is still good. Double shot is meh. The frag damage is huge, but it counters its long reload time. The high capacity make the mag size double, almost doubling the burst damage, and doubling overall damage (damage*max ammo). Double shot does not do that. The powerplay specific Pacifer is very good, as it has far less spread, but it is only fixed. Missile: They are niche. The dubmpfire is hard to use, and even if you can sue it, better to use plasma instead. Seeker ones are good but they heavily lack ammo, so the oevrall damage is low even with high capacity. They are mostly good against hardpoints, especially the powerplay specific one which peels the hardpoints. Torpedos: They are really bad. Very very low overall damage due to its very limited ammo. However the reverberating cascade effect directly damage the enemy shield generator, so a few of these torpes can stript even a Cutter of its shield in one volley. Mine: Hard to use, but at least has ammo. It also has reverberating cascade effect. Rail gun: The standard rail is not particularly good. It sounds that it has good dps, but in reality it has only around a dps of a medium fixed unengineered MC, due to its chargeup time. Also low dpe, which can't be really improved. The experimental effects makes it important in PvP (anti shield cell bank rounds, and super penetrator rounds). The powerplay specific hammer are better in dps, because they are automatic, and can fire constantly, doubling the dps, while still has the same experimental effects. However it generates huge amout of heat. Plasma accelerator: The only engineerable human weapon which deals absolute damage. However also generates heat, it has low dpe, and slow projectile speed. Efficent canb negate the heat and dpe, long range can make the projectile go faster making it easier to use. It is not particarly that good in PvE, because the absolute damage does not deal extra damage against unengineered NPC ships. In PvP however it is one of the best weapons as it deals significant extra damage and has some good experimental effects too. Shock cannon: Unlockable weapon, no engineering, but has autoload. Not particarly bad, but it lacks the ammo. Very high burst dps, and good dpe. Good agains single target hull, but not for extended use. Remote release flechette launcher: Unlockable, no engineering. Relativly bad, but the explosion ignores shield, so it can be used to damage shield generator/powerpland while the shield is still up. Enzyme missile rack: Another unlockable. Very bad. Epplies small corrosive effect like the Thargoid does, but very small, and does not bleed though shield.

Dituri never fails to deliver amazing content. Thank you for all the hard work, man!

I am here in the comments to share the Good News of Frag Cannons, available now to fill your favorite Mamba with easy peasy kill-as-you-pleasey death. Also, torpedoes engineered with the Reverberating Cascade experimental can directly damage a ship's Shield Generator when striking a shielded target, turning 3-4 torpedo hits into potentially thousands of MJs of shields going offline immediately. Very handy against slow, well shielded targets like the Type 10, Corvette, or Anaconda, or in PvP fights where a cocky opponent doesn't take a torp boat seriously. They are unpopular given their low speed and the fact that you can shoot down the torps with a little skill, but you'll see them on bounty hunter kits and the odd Big Ship Killer build.

I want to mention focus engineered pulse/burst lasers. This engineering path increases your weapon range to 6km, improves the damage falloff and is especially good for class 1 and 2 lasers because of the increased amor pearcing.

for pa shots that they inherit ship velocity as well, so they are easier to hit on boost vs 0 speed and you can use horizontal and vertical thrusters to move the reticle closer to the ship .. good video though :]

Something like this but for fighters would be really good. There are so many fighters in the game all with unique weapons.

space trucking in Elite Dangerous for 6014 hours , and listening to this video.

I do love your videos. Totally agree, torpedoes.... why?

I run an Anaconda with beams and seeker missiles, most fights start slow as i chip away the shields and then end very quickly as a hail of rockets reduce my attacker to a smouldering wreck

will you do a video in the future about trade?

Excellant Tutorial! You're a natural! One minor, weird query though....: Not sure why you're calling ship components or modules 'hardpoints'! 😂 It's almost like a typo or mistake! Does the E.D. really use this convention??! A hardpoint is the PLACE YOU PUT components, not the component itself! E.g. A 'Pulse Laser' is a module/component/item/weapon... and it gets installed into one of a ship's several 'hardpoints'.... No?

Flechettes? Oh and Reverberating Cascade for Torpedoes, they kill Shield Generators.

You keep talking about armor piercing being related to module damage but I don't think that's what armor piercing means. I myself don't fully understand it (I'm trying to figure it out now) but I know it has something to do with overcoming hull "harness" and/or resistances....I still don't really get it because there are different types of resistances and they exist for both hull and shield and....*sigh* I'm trying to figure it out and it's honestly a massive headache. But I'm 90% sure that it's not related to damaging modules. I think there are other things that relate to damaging modules. I just don't know what they are 🙃

If the amount of Hard Points amazes you you never played the X Series and had to equip a capital ship with like 18 Gamma Photon Impulse Cannons 😂 ...or had to name and equip 100+ Fighters by hand on a Carrier Type ship 😆

Why do you keep saying "hardpoint" when you mean "weapon"? A hardpoint is merely the location a weapon gets placed upon/in. It's called a hardpoint, because the hull in that area is reinforced (hardened) to cope with the forces the weapon imposes on the hull. (Edit: sorry, I see you've already addressed this in comments!)

Dude this us just basice beginners bs and not fully on point with the info you give. He said no matter if you've played 3hrs to 3000 hrs you'll learn something. Dude maybe you should play more than 3 hrs before post instructional videos

Sorry, Dituri, but I have some beef with your video. First, your use of the word "hardpoint" is truly confusing. A hardpoint is, by definition, an **attachment location on a structural frame** designed to transfer force and carry an external or internal load. There are four types of hardpoints in this game: small, medium, large and huge. That's it. What you're describing are hardpoint (mounted) modules, which are ship weapons (or mining tools). Using "hardpoint" as a synonym for a weapon or a module mounted on a hardpoint, and then using "mount" to refer to the actual hardpoint, is very confusing. Second, the way you talk about one kind of weapon and then, without a notable breaking point or a significant change in tone, begin talking about the next weapon type, is also confusing. I often listen to YT videos while multitasking and every time you did it in this video made me go WTF, like 4:16 - 4:25 ("but if you're willing to play to their strengths, frag cannons can be insanely good options for burst damage. You won't be surprised to learn that these deal explosive damage..."). I was looking away from the video at the time and my mind was like "frags don't deal explosive damage, whatthelol is he smoking...". Only then I realized you started talking about missiles. The visual indicator that you're changing subjects doesn't help, the relatively small header with the weapon type is dominated by the actual footage which takes the viewer's attention, so even looking at the video doesn't help to ease the confusion. Only if you watch this fullscreen does it become quite clear that you're now changing weapon types. I would suggest using some verbal cue, like naming the weapon type before you proceed to talk about it. These are my primary issues. There's a lot of other tiny stuff I take issue with, but most of it can be plausibly dismissed as too advanced for this video. The two above, however, really take away from how well done this video is.

The title should be "BASIC guide to hardpoints" not ULTIMATE, barely any info.

OMFG!!! That muzac is just too much to listen to. Redo the video without it.

Love your content and @bean41 covered what I would've liked to have added ;). o7