The Imperial Clipper is the quintessential Imperial ship. It epitomises elegance of form while delivering speed and agility. Because of its balance of speed, luxury and strength it is used for transporting valuable items and personnel of importance across the Empire. With the navy ships these can come as standard, and not available for civilian, or export models.
— In-Game Description
The Imperial Clipper, built by Gutamaya, is one of the Empire's ships and thus are generally sold at Stations that are aligned with the Empire. To purchase the Imperial Clipper players must have earned the rank of Baron with the Imperial Navy.
This ship is quite popular with pirates, traders, and some combat pilots. It is a reasonable pirate ship due to the large cargo capacity and heavy armament. Traders may find this ship appealing due to its superb cargo capacity and defensive capability; while it is more expensive than the Lakon Type-7 it can easily defend itself against a pirate.
Overview
Pilots of any profession may appreciate its speed; with fully upgraded Thrusters, it is comparable to that of smaller ships such as the Cobra MkIII and the Imperial Eagle. Additionally, its pitch rotation and yaw speed are higher than most ships, making it feel like a very hefty, weighted-down Eagle with a boost speed that is higher than that of the Viper. Its only manoeuvering drawback, and likely the reason for its low overall agility rating, is its poor lateral thruster capability; the vertical-lateral thrusters are very weak compared to those of other ships. This weakness, combined with very weak shields for its size and wing-mounted hardpoints ill-suited for fixed weapons, limits the Imperial Clipper's efficiency as a PvP combat ship even if the shields are upgraded to maximum. The Imperial Clipper is also currently the fifth widest ship controllable by players, which may pose a challenge with docking. Compared to the Alliance Chieftain, which has a similar pricetag, it has better shields, but less damage output and worse armour. However, the Clipper is better at multipurpose roles.
Speed and manoeuvrability fall off more heavily when loaded than other ships, bringing it back to more common speeds and turn rates when hauling cargo. However the ship is capable of carrying 248T of cargo. While this is quite a lot less than what the Type-7 can carry, the Clipper is very capable of defending against pirates and its high maneuvorability lets it dodge interdictions easily, making the Clipper viable for armed traders. The ships high speed also lets it escape with ease.
The ship is a good Miner with high cargo and lots of internals. The downside is the ship has only two medium hardpoints with two large. Youll either have to sacrfice a huge amount of damage output in putting medium Mining lasers in large ports or have subpar mining speed. The ship's large body can also prove problematic in clustered asteroid fields and Planetry Rings.
With around 28Ly of jump range, the Clipper is an average vessel for exploration; its more than capable of doing the job and is a good choice for jobs that require going long distance but is not the best for a dedicated explorer.
Both the ships interior and exterior are luxurious in design, the engines sport a radically different sound than other ships, and the large cockpit canopy features an unobstructed view of space. The Imperial Cutter has a similar appearance to that of the Clipper, albeit much larger.
The weapon hardpoints are located as follows: One Class 3 large hardpoint on the top of each wingtip nacelle (total of two class 3 mounts), and One Class 2 medium hardpoint on the underside of each wing where the wing attaches to the main fuselage (total of two class 2 mounts). The wingtip mounts are very far from centerline and will have trouble converging their fields of fire unless used with gimbaled or turret mounted weapons. The underside mounts although closer together, also suffer the same field of fire convergence issues although to a lesser degree than the wingtip mounts. Due to this, fixed weapons generally are not easy to use with this ship. However, if two fixed weapons are placed on the same side of the ship, it is much easier to use fixed mount weapons.
The pilot's seat is offset to the right of the centerline of the ship while the copilot's seat is offset to the left of the centerline.
Purchase Locations
| System | Station | Date Seen | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shinrarta Dezhra | Jameson Memorial | Always available | 10% discount, Founders Permit required |
| Brestla | i Sola Prospect | Always available | 20% surcharge |
| LTT 11103 | Korniyenko Terminal | Mar. 11, 2018 | 15% discount |
| Baldr | Keldysh Gateway | Mar. 11, 2018 | 15% discount |
| Bandizel | Hahn Orbital | Mar. 11, 2018 | 15% discount |
| Eotienses | Parkinson Dock | Mar. 11, 2018 | 10% discount |
| V374 Pegasi | MacKellar Hub | Mar. 11, 2018 | 10% discount |
| Alit | Rittenhouse Dock | Mar. 11, 2018 | 10% discount |
| Wong Guin | Heiles Terminal | Mar. 11, 2018 | 10% discount |
| Achenar | Dawes Hub | Mar. 11, 2018 | Requires permit |
| Achenar | Bell Terminal | Mar. 11, 2018 | Requires permit |
| Ra | Kazantsev Dock | Mar. 11, 2018 | |
| Alectrona | Marley City | Mar. 11, 2018 | |
| LFT 78 | Coye Orbital | Mar. 11, 2018 | |
| Arigens | Ordway Ring | Apr. 21, 2018 | |
| Sauraratec | Murakami Ring | Apr. 26, 2018 |
Outfitting
- Main article: Outfitting
All ships are highly customisable through the Outfitting menu of Station Services. Listed below is the default load-out for the Imperial Clipper.
| Category | Default System | Default Rating | Default Class | Max Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medium Hardpoint | Pulse Laser (L) | F | 1 | 2 |
| Pulse Laser (L) | F | 1 | 2 | |
| Large Hardpoint | Empty | -- | -- | 3 |
| Empty | -- | -- | 3 | |
| Utility Mount | Empty | -- | -- | 0 |
| Empty | -- | -- | 0 | |
| Empty | -- | -- | 0 | |
| Empty | -- | -- | 0 | |
| Bulkheads | Lightweight Alloys | I | 1 | 8 |
| Reactor Bay | Power Plant | E | 6 | 6 |
| Thrusters Mounting | Thrusters | E | 6 | 6 |
| Frame Shift Drive Housing | Frame Shift Drive | E | 5 | 5 |
| Environment Control | Life Support | E | 5 | 5 |
| Power Coupling | Power Distributor | E | 6 | 6 |
| Sensor Suite | Sensors | E | 5 | 5 |
| Fuel Store | Fuel Tank [x16] | C | 4 | 4 |
| Internal Compartments | Cargo Rack [x64] | E | 6 | 7 |
| Shield Generator | E | 6 | 6 | |
| Cargo Rack [x8] | E | 3 | 4 | |
| Empty | -- | -- | 4 | |
| Empty | -- | -- | 3 | |
| Empty | -- | -- | 3 | |
| Cargo Rack [x2] | E | 1 | 2 | |
| Empty | -- | -- | 2 | |
| Planetary Approach Suite (H) | I | 1 | 1 |
- (L) = Loaned Module
- [x#] = Capacity
- (H) = Requires Elite Dangerous: Horizons, reserved solely for Planetary Approach Suite
Videos
Gallery
| Playable |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| NPC-only |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| Lore & Concepts |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| Ships marked with H can only be purchased and operated by players who pre-ordered Horizons. | |||||||||||||||||||||