Hunting the Hive
This page is intended to provide links to information about the Hive as well as anti-Hive tactics.
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Links To Information About The Hive
Anti-Hive Tactics
General Tactics
- Hit-And-Run
Unless aiming for specific types of bots, it is best to try and position yourself so that you can jump easily. Either stay 3000 m away from large objects or get near the storm exit point in ion storms. If necessary, jump away as soon as you have sustained too much damage. Disable your "flight assist" and always strafe and move fowards/backwards.
Hunting A Queen
The first step to hunting a Queen is to find it. Wait in a sector full of collector bots for them to fill up (this will take a while - don't attack any of them and dodge the ones attacking you) and then tail a bot as it attempts to warp away. Select it as a target and if you are close (1000 m or less) you should be able to see where it warps too. (In this regard, the Vulture and Centurion are very good for this role.) Then once you have located the Queen, attack it! Be aware that in some sectors there may be two Queens in the same place at the same time.
The Queen is usually surrounded by a dozen or so escorts but are pretty defenseless themselves. They are slow, lumbering targets, making them easy prey for missiles. Your goal once you warp into the sector is to immediately plot a way out on your nav map and are ready to jump (fast charge power cells help). The Queens are mainly in empty space making it easy to jump away if you are heavily damaged. Quickly approach the Queen and dodge the escorts, either by barrelling through them and ignoring them or luring them away from the Queen then turn around and then make a run for the Queen. Be aware that it is rather easy to crash into a Queen! Avoid this as it causes heavy damage to yourself. Be prepared for a heavy concussion to your ship after the Queen explodes.
It is best to work in groups in attacking the Queen - some can lure the escorts away while others make an attack run. Others can also provide medical support. Once the Queen is destroyed, the XP points will be divided amongst the group, with the one who killed the Queen receiving the most points. You will all get credit for killing the Queen.
It is also quite possible to hunt a Queen by yourself. There are two ways to do this.
The first is with energy weapons. In this method, you will want an extremely thin-profile ship (such as the Corvus Vulturius), and you must be able to strafe well. It is recommended that you purchase two Mk.II Neutron Blasters, as they have the highest damage-to-energy ratio among commonly available small-port weapons. When you enter the system containing the Queen, you will want to position the Queen between you, and the mindless swarm of Hive bots. There are two reasons for this: Firstly, you will not have to dodge as much energy fire from the bots. Secondly, the bots are capable of, and often do, hit with fire, and bump the Queen in attempting to get at you. If you can position the Queen in this way, you should be able to pour your Neutron fire into the huge target, while avoiding its Positron and Gatling Turret fire. If you are damaged, jump to a nearby station, and jump back, within a reasonable amount of time. Once the Queen is extremely damaged, on its last sliver of health, you have two options. You can sacrifice your ship by dying in the explosion, or you can get a ship with some missiles to finish it off from a distance further than 500 meters. Keep in mind that when you destroy the Queen, you may not be able to find the weapons it dropped (Hive Positron Blaster, Hive Gatling Turret), especially if you die, or leave, and have to re-enter the system. My name is Daggoth Korronoth, and I endorse this system.
The second way is much simpler, and involves mainly huge masses of missiles. A Ragnarok is best. Enter the system, set an escape route, target the Queen, boost towards the Queen while spamming it with missiles. As soon as you've emptied your missile tubes, jump out of there, and return to a station to restock missiles. Rinse, and repeat. Make sure that you are more than 500 meters away from the Queen when it explodes.
Remember, the most frustrating part of hunting Queens by yourself is finding the Hive weapons afterward. But when you do pull a Hive Positron Blaster out of your own kill, it's very rewarding.
NOTE: The previous strategies apply to hunting queens before they were equipped with regenerative shields, and had their weapons disabled. The following tactic is now seen as the generally accepted way to hunt Hive Queens:
-Group-
In a group, destroy the hive bots guarding the queen. Do not pursue the queen itself until all the other bots are destroyed. Once the other bots have been destroyed, if you are in a large enough group with energy weapons, approach the queen, and begin firing on it all at the same time. If you time it right and empty each of your batteries, the shields will usually drop. Another method is to all spam the queen with missiles, although in a large group this is often seen as overkill. Once the shields have dropped, grab energy weapons and begin pelting away at the hull.
-Solo-
You must destroy all the hive bots guarding the queen, all by your lonesome. Grab a vulture or centurion fighter, and start learning how to dodge 10 angry bots at a time. Strafing towards the outside of the group while moving backwards, and rolling out of AGT fire can keep you alive without having to repair for the whole fight. If you are unable to fight large groups of bots, it is recommended that you spam the guard bots with missiles, and run away to reload and repeat.
SOLO TIP: Use flares to cause splash damage to all the escort bots in range. Fly in with a triflare valk or triflare maud, back roll away from the escorts till they are all in front and let loose. A round or 2 of flares will kill all/most of the smaller bots and damage the larger guardian bots. Then you can come clean up with an energy fighter.
Once all the guard bots are dead, you will need a ship with at least 2 large-port weapon slots, preferably a Ragnarok, as it has 3 small-port weapon slots as well.
Here are a few recommended loadouts for taking down a queen's shield by yourself:
Dual Megaposi
Ragnarok MkIII
Heavy Battery
3 Sunflare Rocket Launchers
2 Megapositron Blasters (If you have not already killed 10 queens, you will need to purchase these from someone who has)
Approach closely, then let loose with sunflares, and as they start hitting, megaposi. The queen may try to dodge, keep it in your sights.
Spam Rag
Ragnarok MkIII
Fast Charge Battery
3 Gemini Missile Launchers
2 Chaos Swarm Missile Launchers
Fire the missiles away from the queen first, slowly (~80 m/s) getting closer with your volleys, so that they all make impact at approximately the same time.
All energy
Ragnarok MkIII
Heavy Battery
3 Plasma Cannons HX
2 Megapositron Blasters (see above)
Since you need to land as much energy as possible in the shortest time while your battery dries up, you cannot simply follow the Queen and fire: you wouldn't be able to drop its autoregenerating shield fast enough; by the time your battery runs out, the Queen will still have enough shield left. So you need to fire at the Queen while it flies toward you, thus increasing the damage/time ratio.
This will need some practice and some observation of its movement patterns. Suffice to say that when it goes in a straight line, you have enough time to turbo past the bot, do a 180°, wait for your battery to be full again, and fire all your weapons at your incoming prey, vaporizing the shield. Once the shield is depleted, it's easy to destroy the massive ship from a safe distance (~500m) with the megaposi autoaim.
Hive Hunt
Hive Hunt missions are good for developing all three combat-related skills quickly. Currently avaliable at Xang Xi stations in Sedina, they offer enough monetary reward to keep your ship flying while you are doing the missions, and are short enough to allow you to go away to do something else should you need to take a break from botting.
Before taking a mission, scout out the asteroid sectors for storms. That way you can avoid taking a mission in a storm. When taking a mission, take one that has 4-8 bots in it. Such sectors are wiped out with relative ease in one go. Sectors with many bots in them are likely to have a Queen or a Leviathan, so avoid them unless you want to kill one of those.
Once in the target sector it can sometimes be a bit difficult to find the hive, as they may be positioned outside your radar range. Usually flying straight in the direction you were pointing in when you entered the sector for 1000-2000m will put you into radar range of the hive. Another way of finding the hive is to go in the direction the first bot to attack you came from - bots can see beyond your radar range, and as soon as you enter the sector one bot is dispatched to take care of you.
Using a Warthog allows you to carry a heavy weapon as well as a light weapon, hence gaining experience in both light and heavy weapons. Neutron blaster and a megapositron offer a good combination. If you don't have access to a megapositron, plasma devastator will do a fine job.
During the shootup, the bots will come at you one at a time. Holding down Q and A will prevent most of the damage they will deal (they will only hit you if they are shooting at you from the side, so facing the attacking bot will prevent all damage dealt to your ship). To kill a bot in one go, fire a concentrated long burst as they come towards you and pass the 100m mark. If the bot survives the burst, it will adopt one of two tactics: hug you, or hold its distance. If the bot proceeds to hug you, strafe to the side and kill it, minding the blast wave that might damage your ship. If the bot decides to hold distance, do not shoot at it until it closes to within 100m again, and shoot another burst at it, which should kill it. If the bot does not close to 100m, instead preferring to hover at around 150m, let go of Q and A, and use ADRF keys to do short strafes whilst firing at it. As the bot attempts to follow, it will end up standing almost still, whilst your dodging will be enough to throw its aim off.
At the end of the mission the bots will start running away. This is a perfect opportunity to earn an easy extra thousand experience points. Position your ship at their exit point, and blast them as they come at you in a straight line without shooting back.
If you must take a mission in a storm, use the radar range extender addons. Since their range increase stacks together, and for a good usable range you want 3000m view around the ship, having 3 extenders and a hornet in addition to an energy weapon should work well.