Aegis Gladius

What this build is for

Cheap, agile, ready to fight. The cheapest combat ship you can put in a PvP lobby without throwing the match.

• Three S3 weapon mounts on a tight airframe
• You'll lose to better pilots in better ships — but you'll learn the loop
• Once you can win in this, upgrade to the Hornet F7C MK II
• A learn-PvP ship, not a meta pick

The build

• Weapons: 3× espr_lasercannon_s3 Lightstrike III cannons in the empty wing/nose mounts. alpha energy — same family as the recommended Hornet PvP build. Train timing here.
• Stock missile racks (quad-S2 + single-S3), stock power, cooling, shields, QDrive, radar. All combat-tuned out of the box.

Stats at a glance

Burst DPS2,000, Shield HP7,920, EM signature22,086, SCM speed226m/s.

When not to use this build

• PvE bounty. Use a Shiv — bigger weapons, more durable, better aUEC/hour.
• Sustained fights. Win the first trade and run, or commit to a Hornet.
• Cargo, mining, anything-but-combat. Different ship.

What patches this is good for

Authored against build 4.7.2-LIVE.11674325. Gladius stock loadout unchanged across 4.7.x. S3 alpha cannons clear 4.7.0's armor threshold for most pilot-class targets — the build clears the bar 4.7 set.