Anvil Paladin

What this build is for

The ship 4.7 broke the old meta to make room for. S5/S6 alpha that sails over 4.7's armor threshold and rips strafing strikes out of bigger ships.

• Community shorthand: "Perseus killer"
• The answer to "what do I fly when my Hornet stopped working in 4.7"
• 15.9M aUEC at Astro Armada — the most expensive recommended-tier hull
• Worth it if your bounties end in shielded heavies that laugh at S4

The build

• Stock everything. The Paladin's identity is its 3 turret hardpoints (S5 / S6 / S5) and 6× S4 missile racks.
• Turret assemblies are integrated multi-mount platforms — don't swap them; load weapons into them at a vendor.
• Systems stock: 3× Maelstrom S2 PPs, 2× Arctic S2 coolers, 1× Stronghold S3 shield (rare for a fighter — source of the 90,000 HP), Epier S2 radar, SparkFire S2 QDrive.

On the weapons (and our data gap)

• Community 4.7 meta pick: Sledge III S5 ballistic cannon (~1,000 alpha, 3,000 m/s, 5,500m range — the canonical "Perseus killer" weapon).
• Sledge III isn't in our scunpacked-data ingestion yet — same gap we hit for the Shiv's NN-15.
• Closest verifiable analog: espr_ballisticcannon_s5 Deadbolt V (Esperia S5, high alpha, ammo-bound, capital-grade penetration). Load 2× into the side turrets; match S5/S6 in middle.
• We'll publish a follow-up build when the data catches up.

On 4.7's armor threshold (the whole point)

• Cutlass + S3 Shredders: drops shield, then plinks. Useless vs ERT-tier capitals.
• Hornet + S4 Lightstrike: clears the threshold for fighters; bounces off real cap armor.
• Paladin + S5+: goes through everything below Idris-class. (ggwtb 4.7 weapons)

Stats at a glance

Burst DPS4,500 (3-turret coordinated), Shield HP90,000, EM signature48,703, SCM speed175m/s, Cargo4SCU. Nearly 2× Hornet PvP burst at 11× shield HP — slow (175 SCM) and loud (~49k EM).

When not to use this build

• VLRT/MRT bounties. Massive overkill. Shiv (recommended) or Avenger (starter).
• PvP duels. Slow and big — doesn't dogfight. Take Arrow/Hornet.
• Stealth approaches. Loud by design. Use a Sabre.
• Anything before you can comfortably afford 15.9M aUEC. A Paladin you can't replace gets you killed faster than a Shiv you own.

What patches this is good for

Authored against build 4.7.2-LIVE.11674325. 4.7.0's armor threshold is the meta-defining event this build exists to exploit. 4.7.1/4.7.2 ship no balance changes; build is 4.7-current.