Vulture

Vulture
Overview
Manufacturer	Core Dynamics
Years Produced	3300-Present
Type	Combat
Cost	4,925,615 CR
Specifications
Landing Pad Size	Small
Dimensions	43.1m x 34.7m x 12.3m
Pilot Seats	2
Multicrew	Yes
Fighter Hangar	No
Hull Mass	230 t
Mass Lock Factor	10
Armour	288
Armour Hardness	55
Shields	293 MJ
Fuel Capacity	8 t
Manoeuvr-ability	5
Top Speed	215 m/s (default) 244 m/s (upgraded)
Boost Speed	348 m/s (default) 397 m/s (upgraded)
Unladen Jump Range	7.93 ly (default) 22.36 ly (upgraded)
Cargo Capacity	8 t (default)
Outfitting
Hardpoints	4× Utility Mounts 2× Large Hardpoints
Internal Compartments	2× Class 1 Compartments 1× Class 2 Compartment 1× Class 4 Compartment 1× Class 5 Compartment
Reserved Compartments	1x Size 5 Military Compartment

The Vulture space superiority fighter sacrifices hardpoint flexibility for manoeuvrability. Advanced manufacturing techniques have allowed the Vulture to integrate large hardpoints into its relatively small frame, offsetting the ship's limited weapon count. The Vulture excels in the role of heavy fighter in strike missions against larger, well defended targets, but its nimble flight characteristics make it equally devastating against smaller targets. A limited cargo and passenger capability has not stopped it becoming a preferred personal transport for those who like to project a certain attitude in their dealings.

— In-Game Description

The Vulture is a heavy space-superiority fighter manufactured by Core Dynamics. Featuring two large hardpoints, the Vulture packs serious firepower into a relatively small frame and excels at combat, but has difficulty adapting to other roles. Although its top speed is mediocre compared to other fighters, its one of the most maneuverable ships on the market thanks to its powerful lateral thrusters relative to the ship's mass, only being out-turned by smaller, less well-armed ships.

Overview

In combat, the Vulture is one of the most powerful small-sized ships in combat. It is capable of easily staying out of the firing range of tougher ships like Anacondas or Pythons and its two large hardpoints are capable of dishing out heavy damage. However, the small number of hardpoints means weapons such as Missiles, Mines, Torpedoes or Railguns are not viable as they have limited ammo capacities and are not available in Class 3. As for weapon mount types, both fixed and gimballed mounts are viable due to the Vulture's nimble nature, but turreted mounts are inadvisable due to their higher power consumption, lower damage and that they don't take advantage of the Vulture's manoeuvrability.

Defensively, the Vulture has impressive statistics on paper. It possesses the highest base shield and armor hitpoints out of all small sized ships; it has very good internal compartments (even better than the much more expensive Fer-de-Lance); and its number of utility mounts is 4, the same as larger ships such as Python and Federal Gunship. However, there is a catch, as the Vulture is held back by its limited power capacity. This greatly limits viable loadout choices and encourages smart module priority control.

The Vulture suffers from overspecialization and is very poor in any job besides bounty hunting and assassination. It has terrible cargo capacity, even for its size so it will do very poorly in any form of trading or mining but most importantly it functions very poorly as a pirate as it has very low space for plundered loot, especially when a Hatch Breaker Limpet Controller is installed, however, its small size makes collecting cargo easier, meaning collector limpets are not needed. It has awful jump range at a woeful maximum of 22.36 ly without engineering, the second lowest of any small sized ship making it not only useless as an explorer, it can't easily get to Interstellar Factors to clear any bounties. Unlike the Fer-de-Lance it does very poorly as an anti-Thargoid ship, as its low number of hardpoints limits its use of Ax weaponry, leaving it without many options to deal with Interceptors. Against Scouts it also suffers as it will struggle to keep a sightline on the quick moving ships; since it cannot make much use of turreted mounts and they will quickly tear the ship to pieces.

Overall the Vulture functions as a small Fer-de-Lance; unbeaten in sheer power for its size but is one of the worst ships in any other role. Because it is so limited to Bounty Hunting it has very few options and makes a poor single vessel for a commander to fly and the Asp Explorer or Keelback may be more appealing due to their multi-purpose ability.

The Vulture's two large hardpoints are located above and behind the cockpit, about halfway down the hull of the ship. Due to the spacing between the hardpoints, a loadout of two fixed weapons may have slight issues with converging on smaller targets.

The Vulture has two manned stations. The pilot's station is on the centerline of the ship. The auxiliary station is offset to the port side above and behind the pilot's station. Because turreted mounts are a very bad idea on a Vulture and it has no fighter bay it is one of the least useful ships for Multicrew.

The Vulture has an available 16 piece cosmetic ship kit that can be purchased from the Frontier store which allows you to "remodel your ship in your personal style". The ship kit does not affect gameplay.

Purchase Locations

System	Station	Date Seen	Notes
Shinrarta Dezhra	Jameson Memorial	Always available	10% discount, Founders Permit needed
Brestla	i Sola Prospect	Always available	20% surcharge
Duamta	Davis Terminal	Jan. 2, 2018
TZ Arietis	Snyder Enterprise	Jan. 2, 2018
Wolf 25	Bonkers	Jan. 2, 2018
Chi Orionis	Carey Terminal	Jan. 2, 2018
Picoria	Kohoutek Ring	Jan. 8, 2018
Kakas	Kube-McDowell Enterprise	Jan.19, 2018
LP 926-40	Lee City	March 7, 2018
Patani	Smith Ring	March 11, 2018
Frey	Garratt Station	April 30, 2018
Deciat	Garay Terminal	May 31, 2018
109 Piscium	Ising Dock	Jun 18, 2018	15% discount
Chona	Smoot Station	2018-07-03

Default Loadout

Ship loadouts can be outfitted in various ways at certain stations. Listed below is the default loadout for the Vulture.

Category	Default System	Default Rating	Default Class	Max Class
Large Hardpoint	Pulse Laser	F	1	3
	Pulse Laser	F	1	3
Utility Mount	Empty	--	--	0
	Empty	--	--	0
	Empty	--	--	0
	Empty	--	--	0
Bulkheads	Lightweight Alloys	I	1	8
Reactor Bay	Power Plant	E	4	4
Thrusters Mounting	Thrusters	E	5	5
Frame Shift Drive Housing	Frame Shift Drive	E	4	4
Environment Control	Life Support	E	3	3
Power Coupling	Power Distributor	E	5	5
Sensor Suite	Sensors	E	4	4
Fuel Store	Fuel Tank [x8]	C	3	3
Internal Compartments	Shield Generator	E	5	5
	Empty [m]	--	--	5
	Cargo Rack [x8]	E	3	4
	BDS	E	1	2
	Empty	--	--	1
	Empty	--	--	1
Note: L = Loaned, [x#] = Capacity, BDS = Basic Discovery Scanner, [m] = Military Compartment reserved for Hull Reinforcement Package, Module Reinforcement Package, or Shield Cell Bank.

Trivia

• The Vulture was originally priced at 21,925,615 CR. After an outcry from the community that it was overpriced, Frontier lowered the cost of the Vulture to 4,925,615 CR.
• The Vulture is produced by Core Dynamics and sold to all three of the Major Factions.
• One of the Ship Kit pieces will obscure the pilot's view slightly, making it the only ship kit to somewhat affect gameplay.

Videos

Raw Power - Elite Dangerous Vulture

A man stands in the darkness... Elite Dangerous Vulture ad

Vulture - Core Dynamics Elite Dangerous

Multi-crew Vulture Cinematic (GONE VIOLENT)

Gallery

Vulture-ship-top-hardpoints-planet.png

Vulture top with hardpoints deployed

OQ0HpRZ.png

Vulture Docked

Vulture cockpit

Vulture Hud, slight limited visibility in the front due to the fenders around the cockpit

E4TgoDv.png

Vulture side shot

1DItvQM.png

Vulture front

20180701042048 1.jpg

Vulture flying by Earth-like planet.

BFfNG8t.png

Vulture rear

20161129222219 1.jpg

Vulture featuring the Black Friday paintjob and ship-kit accessories.

Elite0007.jpg

Vulture Top view

Vulture cockpit overview

Vulture landed on HIP 22286 4.PNG

Vulture landed on planet 4 in HIP 22286

Vulture firing at horizon.png

Chrome vulture under different star light.jpg

A Chrome Paintjob Vulture as seen under different star types light

Core Dynamics Vulture Blueprint

Vulture Cockpit.jpg

Vulture Cockpit

Vulture cockpit and star rise

Vulture-ship-weapons-deployed.png

Vulture with weapons deployed

Vulture-Ship-Docked.png

Vulture docked

Vulture-ship-top-view.png

Vulture docked top view

Vulture-Ship-Profile-Image.png

Vulture ship profile

Vulture ship flying sideview

Vulture-spaceship-docked-front-hardpoints.png

Vulture docked front with hardpoints