Imperial CutterAX Combat

Where the Chieftain survives by dodging, the Cutter survives by refusing to break. Gutamaya's flagship carries the strongest shields in the game by a wide margin — over 700 MJ at base, past 2,500 engineered — over a 720 hull, two military slots for Guardian module reinforcement, and the deepest internals of any AX hull bar the Anaconda. For attrition against Thargoids, nothing out-tanks it.

It backs that tank with four medium mounts for Gauss cannons — the AX gold standard — plus two large and one huge hardpoint for AX multi-cannons or shards. The catch is the same one that limits it everywhere: agility. It turns like the moon it resembles, and against the lightning and swarm of an Interceptor that means it cannot evade; it has to eat the hits and out-heal them with cell banks and reinforcement. It ties the Chieftain at the top of the AX ladder for opposite reasons — the Chieftain dodges, the Cutter endures. Both demand a price: the Cutter wants Imperial Duke and ~209M Cr.

Four things make the Cutter an AX fortress:

• The strongest shields in the game. Over 700 MJ base and past 2,500 engineered — a buffer that absorbs Interceptor strikes the way no other AX hull can.
• Two military slots plus vast internals. Guardian module reinforcement in the military bays, Guardian hull reinforcement and cell banks in the optionals — layered defence against lightning and caustic.
• Four medium mounts. Four Gauss cannons — the AX standard — melt Interceptor hearts, with two large and one huge mount for AX multi-cannons or shards on top.
• Brisk straight-line speed. A 323 m/s boost is quick for a 1,100-tonne hull — enough to close on a fleeing Thargoid and reposition between damage windows.

Game-best shields over a 720 hull with two military slots and four medium Gauss mounts make it the AX attrition king; only its ponderous, undodgeable agility caps it.

The 90/100 headline is a verdict against the anti-Xeno role's priority-ordered factors. Each factor carries a weight (its share of 100); this hull earns part of each based on how it performs against the whole field. The points sum to the rating.

Both tables rate ships for anti-Xeno combat specifically. The role column is the hardpoint loadout — the basis for an AX weapon suite. Evasion, hardening and heat management matter as much as raw mounts.

Same class — large AX warships

Among the large AX hulls the Cutter is the shield king: the Anaconda brings more mounts and internals, the Corvette more alpha and agility, the Type-10 more hardpoints and hull — but none of them carries shields in the Cutter's league. For pure attrition survivability behind a regenerating wall, it leads the heavies.

Other classes — the agile mediums

The agile mediums dodge the Interceptor strikes the Cutter has to absorb — and in AX, evasion is a defence the Cutter cannot buy at any price. They cost less and need no Imperial grind. The Cutter's case is the opposite philosophy: take the hit, out-heal it, and never leave the fight. It's what you fly when you've earned Duke and want an AX platform that essentially cannot be dropped.

At ~209M Cr the Cutter is the priciest AX hull there is, gated behind Imperial Duke — the top of the Imperial Navy ladder. A full AX fit with a prismatic shield, Guardian reinforcement and a Gauss suite pushes the all-in figure past 500M Cr, and the engineered rebuy lands near 26M.

It is unequivocally an endgame ship. For learning AX, fly a cheap, forgiving Chieftain first — the Cutter rewards a pilot who already knows the discipline and wants a platform that lets them stay in the worst airspace the longest. The Imperial-rank grind you run toward Squire and the Achenar permit is the same ladder that eventually unlocks it at Duke.

An AX attrition fit built around the game's best shields: four Gauss cannons on the mediums, AX multi-cannons and a Guardian shard on the large and huge mounts, a prismatic shield, and Guardian reinforcement in the military and optional slots. Initial is buy-only; A-Rated adds the kit; Engineered hardens the shield, mobility and survival.

Earn Imperial Duke, buy the hull, and unlock Guardian and AX weapons at the relevant sites.

The buy-only column is stock core internals only — an 8E Power Plant, 8E Thrusters, 7E Frame Shift Drive, 7E Life Support, 7E Power Distributor, 7E Sensors and a 6C Fuel Tank — plus a stock 8E Shield Generator in the class-8 bay and the default Lightweight Alloy bulkheads.

Every hardpoint, all eight utilities, both military slots and the remaining optionals stay empty (—) at this stage: the Gauss, AX multi-cannon, Guardian shard, Guardian reinforcement and the shield-cell stack need AX and Guardian unlocks rather than credits, so they are layered on in the A-rated pass.

AX-fitting priority for the attrition tank:

• 1Shield Generator → 8A prismatic — The tank that lets you eat the strikes you can't dodge. ~25M Cr
• 2Shield-cell stack → 8A / 6A / 4A SCB — Three Specialised cell banks recharge the prismatic between Interceptor strikes; the class-8 bank in the second size-8 bay is the dominant recovery slot. ~30M Cr
• 3Bulkheads → Military Grade Composite — A-rated armour under the shield so a dropped shield isn't a dropped hull. ~60M Cr
• 4Gauss + AX/Guardian weapons — Four 2B Guardian Gauss on the mediums, two Enhanced AX Multi-Cannons and a Guardian Shard Cannon on the large/huge mounts. material unlocks
• 5Guardian reinforcement + AFMU — 5D Module Reinforcement in both military slots, Guardian Hull/Shield Reinforcement across the optionals, and a 6D Auto Field-Maintenance Unit to repair caustic and lightning module damage. material unlocks
• 6Cores → A — 8A Power Plant and 7A Power Distributor to feed power-hungry Gauss, a huge shield and the cell-bank draw; 8A Thrusters and 7A FSD to move and relocate the hull. ~50M Cr
• 7Caustic + heat utilities — Xeno scanner, caustic sinks, heat sinks, point defence. ~3M Cr

AX engineering hardens the shield, mobility, heat and survival; AX/Guardian weapons have limited engineering (Long Range is the useful blueprint). Pin blueprints for remote G1→G5 application; visit in person for experimentals.

Recommended order

• 1Prismatic shield Thermal-Resistant plus Thermal-Resistant boosters first — the tank against Thargoid thermal strikes.
• 2Overcharged plant and Charge-Enhanced distributor to feed power-hungry Gauss and the cell-bank draw.
• 3Dirty thrusters to recover what mobility a 1,100t hull can manage between damage windows.
• 4Note: AX/Guardian weapons and Guardian reinforcement come from unlocks, not standard blueprints.

Approximate progression across the three states (figures are representative, not exact rolls):

Engineered and Guardian-armed, the Cutter's shield exceeds 2,500 MJ over a Reactive Surface Composite hull that resists caustic damage, recharged between strikes by an 8A/6A/4A Specialised cell-bank stack and backed by two military slots of module reinforcement plus an AFMU for caustic module repair — the deepest defensive stack of any AX hull. It will never dodge an Interceptor; it doesn't try. It absorbs the strikes and out-heals them while four Gauss cannons end the fight.

• Build tank-first — a prismatic shield, Guardian module reinforcement in both military slots and hull reinforcement across the optionals are the whole point.
• Accept the agility; you cannot dodge Thargoid lightning, so absorb it with shield, hull and cell banks instead.
• The huge hardpoint can only take a large AX weapon — it runs under-class; don't expect a huge-mount payoff.
• Learn AX in a Chieftain first — the Cutter is an endgame attrition platform, not a teaching ship.