Python Mk IIAX Combat

Point the best credit-bought medium gunship at the Thargoids and you get the hardest-hitting AX medium flying. The Python Mk II keeps the Python name but is a focused warship: four large hardpoints — a big-mount count most mediums never see — plus two mediums, six utilities, and a class-6 plant and distributor sized to run all of it. Since no huge AX weapon exists, four large mounts is effectively the practical AX firepower ceiling, and the Mk II reaches it from a medium pad with no rank grind.

The reason it sits at 84 rather than the top of the AX ladder is specific and honest: it has zero military slots and only six optional internals, by design. In AX, Thargoid lightning strips modules, so Guardian Module Reinforcement is near-mandatory — but on the Mk II it competes for the same six bays as the shield generator, hull reinforcement, caustic kit and decon limpets. You cannot both harden like a military-slotted hull and stay light enough to dodge like a Chieftain. The agile mediums with military slots (Chieftain, Challenger) and the high-DPS Krait Mk II edge ahead on that survivability balance; the Mk II answers with raw firepower and pad-and-credit access.

Four things make the Mk II a top-tier AX medium:

• Four large hardpoints. Four large Guardian/AX guns plus two mediums — the biggest AX weapon array of any medium, and since no huge AX gun exists, the practical firepower ceiling.
• Two Gauss-capable mediums. The Guardian Gauss Cannon is a medium-class fixed weapon; two of them on the mediums supply the heart damage that ends Interceptors.
• Power to run it. A class-6 plant and class-6 distributor fire the whole array and boost without the brown-outs that cripple thirstier Gauss boats.
• Speed and agility. 256/345 m/s and medium handling let it reposition and partly dodge lightning — far more evasion than any AX capital.

Four large mounts plus two medium Gauss give it the biggest AX gun array on any medium pad with no rank gate; zero military slots and only six optionals — tank fighting weapons for bays — cap it below the agile, military-slotted leaders.

The 84/100 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, module hardening and heat management matter as much as raw mounts.

Same class — medium-pad AX ships

Among AX mediums the Mk II is the firepower pick. The Chieftain, Krait Mk II and Challenger rate higher because in AX evasion and module hardening are survival — and they bring military slots and lighter hulls the Mk II lacks. What the Mk II offers instead is four large mounts: the biggest AX gun array a medium can carry, killing Interceptors faster than any of them. The missing military slots are exactly what hold it a few points back.

Other classes — the large AX warships

The large warships out-tank and out-harden the Mk II — military slots, capital armour and deep internals let them absorb the lightning the Mk II must dodge or out-pace. What they cannot do is land on a medium pad or skip the rank and credit grind. For most of a large ship's AX killing power, from a medium pad, with no rank gate, the Python Mk II is the value play.

The hull is ~64.7M Cr — not cheap — but it carries no rank or permit gate, so it's open to any commander with the credits. A full AX fit with Guardian/AX weapons, a capable bi-weave and Guardian reinforcement runs to ~95M Cr A-rated, rising past ~120M Cr engineered, with a modest ~6M rebuy to budget for. The real cost beyond credits is the Guardian-tech and AX-weapon unlock grind shared by every anti-Xeno ship.

That makes it the most accessible top-tier AX platform: no Federal or Imperial grind, just money. If you want elite anti-Xeno firepower without a navy ladder, this is the medium — though new AX pilots should still learn the dance in a cheaper, more forgiving Chieftain before committing this much.

Faulcon DeLacy offers the Python Mk II as an ARX pre-built package, but no variant is AX-specific. If you took one, never strip the stock cores — add to open slots and engineer the cores in place — then unlock Guardian and AX weapons at the relevant sites and outfit it for anti-Xeno work normally. For most commanders, simply buying the hull and fitting it AX is cleaner.

A firepower-led AX medium working within the hard six-optional / zero-military constraint. Gauss on the two mediums for heart damage; four large mounts carry Guardian/AX guns; the six optionals split between a bi-weave shield and the Guardian reinforcement that has nowhere else to go. Initial is buy-only; A-Rated adds the unlocked AX kit; Engineered hardens the shield, cores and mobility — AX/Guardian weapons and Guardian reinforcement take no blueprints, so the gains come from the ship systems.

Buy the hull — no rank needed — then unlock Guardian and AX weapons at the relevant sites; there is no off-the-shelf AX gun to slot first.

Out of the box only the stock cores come fitted: the E-rated Power Plant, Thrusters, Frame Shift Drive, Life Support, Power Distributor and Sensors, the stock 4C Fuel Tank, and the default Lightweight Alloy bulkhead. Every hardpoint, utility and optional internal stays empty (— in the buy-only column).

The reason is that the whole AX suite — the two Gauss, the four large Guardian/AX guns, the bi-weave shield, and the Guardian hull and module reinforcement — is unlock-gated, so there is nothing to slot buy-only. Those bays wait for the A-rated pass once the Guardian and AX unlocks are done.

AX-fitting priority for a firepower-led medium:

• 1AX / Guardian weapons — Gauss on the mediums, large Guardian/AX guns on the four big mounts. material unlocks
• 2Power Distributor & Plant → A — Gauss and four large guns are immensely capacitor- and power-hungry; this comes before tank. ~22M Cr
• 3Shield Generator → bi-weave + boosters — Fast-regen bi-weave with thermal-resistant boosters against caustic and thermal damage. ~12M Cr
• 4Bulkheads → Military Grade Composite — The Mk II carries zero military optional slots, so the bulkhead is the only base-armour lever it has. Take the heaviest composite before Guardian hardening. ~5M Cr
• 5Guardian reinforcement — Pack Guardian module and hull reinforcement into the remaining optionals; on top of the composite bulkhead, this is the rest of the hardening you get. material unlocks
• 6Thrusters → A — Preserve the speed and agility that let it dodge lightning instead of soaking it. ~9M Cr

AX engineering hardens shields, heat and mobility; AX/Guardian weapons and the Guardian hull reinforcement carry no blueprints. Pin blueprints for remote G1→G5 application; visit in person for experimentals.

Recommended order

• 1Distributor and plant to G5 first — Gauss and four large guns are immensely capacitor- and power-hungry.
• 2Thermal-resistant bi-weave and shield boosters against Thargoid thermal and caustic damage.
• 3Dirty thrusters to keep the speed and agility that let it dodge lightning.
• 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 Mk II pairs the biggest AX gun array a medium can field with a shield into the low thousands of effective points, a Military Grade Composite bulkhead pushed by Heavy Duty + Deep Plating, and Guardian HRP on top — enough armour into the low thousands, plus the speed to dodge much of the lightning. What it can't do is stack module hardening the way a military-slotted hull does — with no military slots the bulkhead and Guardian reinforcement are its only hardening — so it wins by killing fast and staying mobile, not by standing in the fire.

• No military slots: Guardian Module Reinforcement competes with the shield and hull for the six optionals — decide your harden-vs-firepower split before you build.
• Gauss is a medium-class weapon, so you get two of them; the four large mounts carry Enhanced AX multi-cannons, a plasma charger and a shard cannon.
• You can't out-tank a Corvette or Challenger — use the 256/345 m/s speed to break from lightning rather than absorb it.
• Manage heat hard with Gauss, run caustic sinks and a decon limpet, and keep the distributor topped — it's the only thing feeding six AX guns.