PythonAX Combat

Point the most flexible medium in the game at the Thargoids and you get a tough, accessible AX hunter. The Python brings three large hardpoints for AX/Guardian multi-cannons, two mediums for Gauss, four utilities and ten optional internals — deep enough to layer Guardian hull and module reinforcement, caustic kit and a strong bi-weave shield. With no rank gate, a medium pad and a hull under 56M Cr, it's one of the easiest AX warships to get into a Conflict Zone.

The reason it sits at 80 rather than higher on the AX medium ladder is specific and honest: the Python has no military slots, so every Guardian Module Reinforcement has to come out of an optional that would otherwise hold tank or cargo. It carries only four utility mounts — tight for a full Xeno-scanner, caustic-sink, heat-sink and shield-booster kit — and it turns ponderously, so it cannot dodge an Interceptor's lightning the way a Chieftain or Krait does. Its case is durability and value: it absorbs the hits a lighter hull evades.

Four things make the Python a workable medium Xeno hunter:

• Three large hardpoints. A heavy AX battery — three large AX/Guardian multi-cannons backed by two Gauss-capable mediums for heart damage.
• Ten optional internals. Deep enough to layer Guardian hull and module reinforcement, a class-6 bi-weave and caustic kit — the room that compensates for having no military slots.
• Strong base shield and heavy armour. The toughest of the classic combat mediums tanks the caustic and thermal damage that strips lighter AX hulls.
• No rank, medium pad, low cost. No grind, lands anywhere, and re-roles to a hauler or miner between AX sorties.

A tough, no-rank, sub-56M-Cr AX medium leads on hull depth and three large mounts plus two Gauss, but ponderous 230/300 m/s agility is the limiter that holds it to 80.

The 80/100 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 — medium-pad AX ships

Among the AX mediums the Python is the tough, accessible workhorse. The Chieftain, Krait and Challenger out-fight it because agility is survival in AX — they dodge the lightning the Python must soak, and most carry military slots it lacks. What the Python offers instead is three large mounts, the deepest internals in the class and no rank gate, ahead of the Crusader and Federal Assault Ship.

Other classes — the large AX warships

Step up to a large pad and the dedicated AX warships out-tank and out-harden the Python comfortably — military slots, more utilities and far greater durability. But they demand rank, cost, and a large pad. Until you want those, the Python delivers a tough, no-rank AX medium that lands anywhere and re-roles to hauling or mining for a fraction of any large ship's price.

At ~55.3M Cr the Python is mid-priced with no rank or permit gate — one of the cheapest viable AX warships. A full AX fit with AX/Guardian weapons, a capital-grade medium shield and layered Guardian reinforcement runs to roughly ~90M Cr A-rated, rising past ~120M Cr engineered, with a modest ~6M rebuy. The Guardian-tech grind for weapons and reinforcement is the real cost of admission, not credits.

It is an excellent first AX warship: cheap enough to rebuy without pain, tough enough to survive learning Interceptor hearts, and re-rollable to other work between sorties. If you want peak medium AX performance, the Chieftain or Krait dodge better for similar money; if you want one durable, no-rank hull that does AX among everything else, the Python is the value pick.

A tough anti-Xeno medium that tanks rather than dodges: three large Enhanced AX Multi-Cannons, two fixed Guardian Gauss on the mediums for heart-kills, Guardian reinforcement layered into the ten optionals (no military slots), and a tight four-utility AX kit. Initial is buy-only cores; A-Rated adds the unlocked AX kit; Engineered hardens shield, hull, heat and mobility.

Initial is buy-only stock: the hull with its default Lightweight Alloy plating, plus the E-rated Power Plant, Thrusters, Frame Shift Drive, Life Support, Power Distributor and Sensors, and the stock 5C Fuel Tank. Nothing else is fitted at purchase.

Every hardpoint, utility and optional starts empty (— in the buy-only column). The three large AX multi-cannons and two Guardian Gauss can't be bought from a shipyard — they're unlocked at the relevant sites — and the class-6 bi-weave, Guardian reinforcement and the four-utility kit (Xeno scanner, caustic sink, heat sink, shield booster) all arrive in the A-Rated pass, not at purchase. The Military Grade Composite bulkhead is an outfitting buy too, not stock.

Stock, it has no weapons, no shield generator and no hardening — just the bare Lightweight Alloy hull; fly it that way only to ferry it to outfitting before the A-Rated step arms, plates and tanks it.

AX-fitting priority for the medium:

• 1AX / Guardian weapons — Gauss on the mediums, AX multi-cannons on the three large mounts. material unlocks
• 2Military Grade Composite bulkheads — swap the stock Lightweight Alloy for Military Grade; with no military slots the bulkhead is the hull's main armour multiplier, so plate it before anything optional. ~7M Cr
• 3Guardian reinforcement — Guardian MRP and HRP layered into the optionals; with no military slots this is the only way to harden modules. material unlocks
• 4Power Distributor & Plant → A — Gauss and a strong shield are power- and capacitor-hungry; the class-7 cores matter most. ~16M Cr
• 5Shield Generator, cell bank & booster — a class-6 bi-weave with a thermal-resistant booster against caustic and thermal damage; the 6A cell bank runs a lightweight experimental to keep the heavy hull moving. ~9M Cr
• 6Thrusters → A — Recover what agility the heavy hull allows, to keep Gauss on a heart. ~7M Cr

AX engineering hardens shields, hull, heat and mobility; AX/Guardian weapons have limited engineering. Pin blueprints for remote G1→G5 application; visit in person for experimentals.

Recommended order

• 1Distributor and plant to G5 first — Gauss and a strong shield are power- and capacitor-hungry.
• 2Thermal-resistant bi-weave and HRPs against Thargoid thermal and caustic damage.
• 3Dirty thrusters to recover what agility the heavy hull allows, to hold guns on a heart.
• 4Note: AX/Guardian weapons and all Guardian reinforcement come from unlocks, not blueprints.

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

Engineered, the Python is a tough, affordable AX medium: a shield into the low thousands, Military Grade plating pushed by HeavyDuty G5 and Guardian HRP into effective armour in the thousands, two Guardian MRP soaking the lightning, and three large AX guns plus Gauss that end Interceptors steadily. It stays slow — that's the trade — so it wins by absorbing the fire a lighter medium would dodge.

• No military slots — Guardian Module Reinforcement has to come out of the optionals, trading tank depth for module hardening.
• Only four utilities: budget them deliberately across Xeno scanner, caustic sink, heat sink and a shield booster.
• You can't dodge the lightning like a Chieftain — layer shield and Guardian hull tank and plan to absorb it.
• It re-roles cheaply: swap optionals to haul or mine between AX sorties without buying a second ship.