The Best Ships for the Bounty Hunter
Today we’re going to discuss the ships that best suit the Bounty Hunter. There are now three obvious choices for bounty hunting in Star Citizen, the Anvil Aerospace Hawk, the Avenger Stalker and the Cutlass Blue, but there are a few others that may also work well.
The Anvil Hawk
A small, light fighter with an emphasis on weaponry, the Hawk boasts an impressive arsenal of lethal and non-lethal weapons, making it a perfect ship for independent bounty hunters or local security looking for a little more punch.
The Anvil Hawk is designed to not only safely take down the ships of your bounties, but also effectively pursue them on the ground. A purpose build window is located below the pilot to allow for more visibility while engaging prey on the ground.
The Hawk is a single pilot spacecraft made to be used as an entry level bounty hunter ship. It has both lethal and non-lethal weapons so you can defend yourself and disable your prey with the same loadout. Overall size is small coming in at only 4m tall, 16m long, and 13m wide.
The Avenger Stalker
Originally designed as a frontline carrier ship, the Aegis Avenger has since been relegated to civilian and militia use as more capable spacecraft have taken on its original role. This means that the Avenger can be found in large numbers and for relatively cheap. Once you add in the prisoner transport module (which comes standard on the Stalker variant) you have an inexpensive, capable bounty hunting ship.
The standard loadout of the Stalker comes with two Suckerpunch distortion cannons to disable the enemy without killing it and the Avenger standard Tigerstreik cannon on the nose. As of the writing of this article, distortion cannons don’t really work well so you’re better off changing them out for something else. In the future, they should be great for disabling a ship rather than destroying it.
The Avenger Stalker is really the base level ship suitable for Bounty Hunting. I see it more as a way to transport your bounty from point A to point B rather than a ship that is going to be seeking bounties in space. If you plan on being the type of Bounty Hunter that runs solo and scoops up your bounty in a dark alley or in the back of a cantina before throwing them in your ship for the long flight back to your payday, then this is a good option for you.
The Cutlass Blue
Drake’s Cutlass Blue is another obvious choice for the Bounty Hunter. This is a significant step up from the Stalker and offers a much better platform for a small group of Bounty Hunters to work out of. With a crew of up to three people, you can either take more dangerous bounties or you can focus on the same targets as a Stalker pilot but do it much safer. Drake claims the Blue is aimed at police forces because it comes standard with holding cells in the back, but it finds more use with militias than police forces due to its above-average armament.
Equipped with more missiles, bigger engines and bigger shields than the other Cutlass variants, the Blue can hold its own in combat. This makes it an excellent choice for taking down bounties that may be trying to escape it Freelancer and smaller sized ships. With a decent pilot, taking out Constellations should not be too much of an issue.
The Cutlass Blue is the biggest ship we currently have that has holding cells. It’s also well-armed and armored, has room for three crewmembers and should be relatively cheap to repair and maintain. All of these make it a great choice for a small Bounty Hunter crew.
The Cutlass Red
This variant of the Cutlass may be even better for bounty hunting than the Blue. Designed from the ground up as a space ambulance, it comes with a full med bay in the back and an Autodoc. It’s currently being redesigned but the information that we have says it comes with the standard Cutlass shields, but lacks a manned turret and missiles. Even with less armament, the Red should be almost as capable in combat as the other Cutlass variants. On top of that, if your bounty should get a few extra holes in him, the Autodoc can keep him alive until you get your money.
The Freelancer/Constellation
MISC’s Freelancer and RSI’s Constellation are capable multi-crew, multi-role ships. While they don’t lend themselves well to bounty hunting at first glance, that is also their greatest advantage. A crew in a Freelancer or Constellation could covertly land on a planet, scoop up their bounty, and take off without anyone being the wiser. I certainly wouldn’t recommend taking them on every bounty hunting run, but it would be great to have one available for those times when being seen but not noticed is more important than having a lot of guns.
They also allow you to take on other non-combat missions if the need arises.
VectorWhite’s Thoughts:
I wouldn’t consider myself a Bounty Hunter, but I have done my fair share of snatch and grabs. I’m a Cutlass fanboy so I’d probably choose the Cutlass Blue if I was going to make bounty hunting a full-time gig. Just paint it red, throw some crosses on it and call it an ambulance. No one will be the wiser until the missiles start flying.
I also like the idea of running completely under the radar in a cargo ship of some kind. Play your cards right and you can smuggle some black-market merch into an area, sell it, and then smuggle out your bounty. Never fly anywhere for free. That’s my motto.
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