There was a lot of speculation and a couple of leaks prior to the ship being activated in the game, but now it's here and I have all the details on the newest ship in the Elite: Dangerous shipyard.
What has become clear is that the data-mined information leak was more accurate, or at least less misleading that the XBOX video leak. For example, the stock ship does cost 124,755,342 CR, but the power plant is NOT Class 6 it is Class 8 but comes with the 1750CR Class 6E Power plant fitted instead of a 1,750,00CR Class 8E Power plant (those cheapskates at Lakon!). The FSD supplied is a 6E, but the slot is a Class 7. These made the specifications that appeared in the video a red herring.
So here are the speculation-free 100% accurate, taken-from-the-ship, specifications of the Type-10 Defender.
| |
Type-10 Defender |
Type-9 Heavy |
|
Top speed
|
179m/s
|
131m/s
|
|
Boost speed
|
219m/s
|
201m/s
|
|
Manoeuvrability
|
-
|
-
|
|
FSD Range laden
|
5.67 Ly
|
6.62ly
|
|
FSD Range unladen
|
6.87 Ly
|
7.71ly
|
|
Shields
|
88
|
88
|
|
Armour
|
1,044
|
864
|
|
Hull mass
|
1,200T
|
1000T
|
|
Cargo Capacity
|
220T
|
220T
|
|
Hardpoints
|
2 Small
|
2 Small
|
|
|
3 Medium
|
3 Medium
|
|
|
4 Large
|
-
|
|
Utility slots
|
8
|
4
|
|
Optional internal
|
Class 8: 7E Cargo rack
|
Class 8: 7E Cargo rack
|
|
|
Class 7: 6E Cargo rack
|
Class 7: 6E Cargo rack
|
|
|
Class 6: 6E Shield Generator
|
Class 6: 6E Shield Generator
|
|
|
Class 5: 4E Cargo rack
|
Class 5: 4E Cargo rack
|
|
|
Class 4: 3E Cargo rack
|
Class 4: 3E Cargo rack
|
|
|
Class 4: Empty
|
Class 4: Empty
|
|
|
Class 3: 2E Cargo rack
|
Class 3: 2E Cargo rack
|
|
|
Class 3: Empty
|
Class 3: Empty
|
| |
Class 2: 1E Basic discovery scanner |
Class 2: 1E Basic discovery scanner |
| |
Class 5: Military slot |
-
|
|
|
Class 5: Military slot
|
-
|
|
|
1I Planetary approach suite
|
1I Planetary approach suite
|
|
Core Internal
|
1C Lightweight alloys
|
1C Lightweight alloys
|
|
|
Class 8: 6E Power Plant
|
6E Power Plant
|
|
|
Class 7: 7E Thrusters
|
7E Thrusters
|
|
|
Class 7: 6E Frame shift drive
|
6E Frame shift drive
|
|
|
Class 5: 5E Life support
|
5E Life support
|
|
|
Class 6: 6E Power distributor
|
6E Power distributor
|
|
|
Class 5: 4E Sensors
|
4E Sensors
|
|
|
Class 6: 6C Fuel tank
|
6C Fuel tank
|
Looks
The ship is a shaved-down Type-9, but the spolier and folding wing-tips, along with the abundant engine ports, make this ship look very "race tuned". It is not going to win any beauty contests, but it reminds me very much of the old Thunderbird 2 International Rescue craft, with it's massive size and stubby bulk and huge engines.
Weapons
With nine hardpoints, this ship has a lot of sustainable firepower. Lacking any huge hard-points it is designed to be able to "tough it out" for a long battle, making this an ideal PvE combat ship and most especially one that can take the pounding dished out by Thargoids.
The two Class 1 (small) hard-points are located on the front of the ship either side of the cockpit.
There are then two Class 2 (medium) and two Class 3 (large) hard-points located on the top edge of the ship with the medium hard-point leading.
Then there are two Class 3 (large) hard-points on the underside off the outer engine bulkheads and a single Class 2 (medium) hard-point on the underside off the ship's belly, dead-centre.
In the screen shot above, you can see the Ship Launched Fighter bay lit at the dead-centre of the ship' rear underside.
Handling and speed
With Class 7 Thrusters, same as the Type-9 and more weight, you'd expect this thing to handle like a brick in a pool of treacle, but you'd be wrong! While it isn't going to fly like an Eagle, it turns about the same as an Anaconda with D rated Thrusters. Given a Grade 5 Dirty Drive tuning, it handles even better.
The stock speed is 179m/s, but even with over 3,000 armour on mine, with the dirty drives it cruises at 230m/s and boosts to 280m/s.
The all-important jump range
With a Class 7A FrameShift Drive fitted the ship has a fairly respectable 18.6Ly range fully loaded with armour and module reinforcement. However, a grade 5 engineer upgrade took my jump range to 24ly, which meant when jumping down from Shinrata Dezra to Maia, my ship made 22 jumps, while my wingmate in a maxed-out and engineered Fer-De-Lance took more than 30 jumps with his max range of 16ly.
For such a massive ship, this beast is more comparible with the Cutter in firepower and jump range - certainly my Corvette would not keep up with it.
Does it do what it was built for?
In the name of science, not fun (honest!), we took some Type-10's out to HIP 17694 and attacked a Cyclops Thargoid and despite our ineptitude, we were victorious!
It took two tries and on the first, I got destroyed! But when you enjoy losing 17M CR in rebuy, then you know Frontier have got it right.