KeelbackMultipurpose

The Keelback is Lakon's combat-hardened take on the Type-6: a cheap medium hull that trades a little cargo for a tougher airframe, two extra small hardpoints and — uniquely at its price — a ship-launched fighter bay. As a multipurpose ship it can do a bit of everything: haul a modest load, mine a ring with limpets and a refinery, scout systems with a scanner and fuel scoop, or run light bounties with an SLF for backup. Nothing in its class lets you sample so many activities for so little money.

Its virtues are price, toughness and the fighter bay; its limits are size and pace. The optional internals top out at class 5, so cargo and module room are tight; the hull is slow (200 m/s, 300 boost) and turns lazily. It is a genuine jack-of-all-trades but master of none — outclassed at every individual job by ships that cost more. For a commander who wants one cheap medium hull to try the whole game, though, the Keelback covers a lot of ground.

Four things make the Keelback a credible cheap all-rounder:

• A fighter bay at a budget price. No other hull this cheap carries an SLF — a force-multiplier for combat, mining defence or escort.
• Cheap, rank-free and tough. Under 3M credits and far more durable than a Type-6 — an easy hull to learn many roles on.
• Genuinely versatile. Hauls, mines, scouts and fights a little — switch by swapping a few cheap modules at a station.
• Medium pad. Lands at the vast majority of stations and outposts, unlike the large all-rounders.

A sub-3M-credit, rank-free medium that hauls, mines, scouts and fights a little with a unique cheap fighter bay; light firepower and class-5-capped internals hold it mid-field.

The 60/100 headline is a verdict against the multipurpose 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 multipurpose use — versatility across combat, trade, exploration and more. The role column is the maximum cargo capacity in tonnes as one measure of capacity; versatility is judged across all roles.

Same class — medium all-rounders

Against the established mediums the Keelback carries less, jumps shorter and flies slower — it trails them all. Its only edge is price: it does a little of everything for a fraction of their cost, and is the cheapest medium with a fighter bay. Where the Kraits and Asp are endgame all-rounders, the Keelback is a starter one.

Other classes — the budget all-rounders

Among cheap all-rounders the Keelback sits just above the small hulls: it carries more, lands a medium pad and uniquely fields a fighter, but it is slower and clumsier than any of them. A Cobra Mk III is the sharper pick for speed and fun; the Keelback's case is the bigger hold and the SLF for the same kind of money.

At ~2.95M Cr with no rank gate the Keelback is one of the cheapest medium hulls in the game, and a balanced multirole A-rated fit lands around 7M Cr. Building stored module sets for hauling, mining and scouting — plus a fighter and pilot — pushes the practical investment to roughly 15M Cr.

That is cheap enough to be an experiment rather than a commitment: a hull on which to try the whole game before deciding what you actually want to specialise in. The value case is breadth for little money, not throughput.

A balanced budget multirole fit — light guns, a bi-weave shield, cargo room, a scanner and the fighter bay — ready to re-tune for any one job. Initial is buy-only; A-rated is the multirole baseline; Engineered targets mobility, range and a little defence so the mods carry across role swaps.

The buy-only column is deliberately bare: take the hull (~2.95M Cr) on its stock E-rated cores — 4E power plant, thrusters and FSD, plus stock life support, distributor, sensors and fuel tank — on the factory Lightweight Alloy bulkhead, and add a single 5E cargo rack so it can earn while you save.

Every hardpoint and utility mount is left empty at this stage, and so are the shield, fighter bay, hull reinforcement, AFMU and surface scanner — weapons, defence, the heavier bulkhead and the SLF all wait for the A-rated pass.

A-rate the core internals first — plant, thrusters, FSD and distributor serve every role — then build cheap role-specific module sets (cargo, mining suite, fuel scoop, fighter bay) in storage to swap in as needed.

A-rating priority for a budget all-rounder:

• 1Core internals → A — 4A power plant, thrusters and FSD plus a 3A power distributor serve every role; A-rate first (life support and sensors drop to D for mass). ~3M Cr
• 2Shield Generator → 4C bi-weave — A bi-weave generator plus a 0A shield booster for survivability across combat, mining and hauling. ~1M Cr
• 3Weapons + fighter bay — A light gimballed set (2F multi-cannon and pulse, 1G multi-cannon and pulse) and the 5D fighter hangar for combat capability. ~2M Cr
• 4Bulkhead + defensive internals — swap the stock Lightweight Alloy for Military Grade Composite, add a 2D hull reinforcement and 2A AFMU plus chaff and heat-sink launchers for staying power. ~1M Cr
• 5Role module sets — Cargo racks, 1I surface scanner, mining suite and fuel scoop to swap. varies

A light all-rounder engineering pass — mobility, range and a little defence. Felicity Farseer (maxed) carries the FSD; pin blueprints for remote G1→G5 application.

Recommended order

• 1Mobility and power first — Increased-Range FSD, Dirty thrusters, Overcharged plant serve every role.
• 2Bi-weave shield plus a Heavy-Duty booster for survivability across jobs.
• 3Overcharged multi-cannons (one Corrosive) for the combat side and the SLF.
• 4Engineer once; the modules carry their mods between role swaps.

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

Engineered, the Keelback hauls a modest hold, jumps ~30 LY, soaks hits on Military Grade plate pushed past ~640 raw by a Heavy Duty roll, fights a little and can launch a fighter — a cheap hull that does several jobs adequately and none of them well. It never leads a category; the appeal is sampling the whole game on a budget with the bonus of an SLF. The 1I Detailed Surface Scanner stays stock — it takes no engineering.

• A-rate the cores first — they power every role; then build cheap storable module sets to swap.
• It is the cheapest hull with a fighter bay — if the SLF doesn't appeal, a Cobra or Type-6 is a sharper budget pick.
• It's slow and turns poorly — expect a relaxed ship, not a nimble one.
• Class-5 optionals cap everything — treat it as a sampler, not a hull to specialise hard in.