[JTL] Tie Interceptor PVP Guide

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The TIE Interceptor is a very special ship and requires a special type of pilot. When setting up your Interceptor keep in mind 3 things:

* Everyone has more firepower than you.

* Everyone has more protection than you.

* You are going to die.

I know that sounds sort of bleak, but that is why the pilot must be able to accept those facts and not let a fear of them influence his/her combat effectiveness. To be successful in an Interceptor you will have to be very aggressive and flying by reaction. I will get more into that when we talk about tactics.

Too many people load up a ship and head to Deep Space and then point a finger at everything and everyone but themselves as why they got vaped in the first few seconds. The Interceptor is very unforgiving. If you make a mistake, you die. Until you learn how to handle the ship and set it up to compliment your style and abilities, you will die a lot. Don't be surprised when you load into Deep Space in your shinny new squint and get a quick trip back to Endor at the hands of an A-wing pilot. That being said, lets get on to the guide.

Your chassis:

From the FAQ:

(Tier 3) TIE Interceptor: 60k Resources ~50k mass [sP: 1 Gun] 1 missile

[spdx 1.0 Acc 40 Dec 60 Pitch 300 Yaw 300 Roll 150]

First, if you don't have a 50k mass chassis... get one. You are going to need every bit of the mass. It shouldn't be hard to find one. Mine is 51010 but it cost millions of credits since it take near perfect resources. A shipwright really has to get lazy to make one less than 50k.

You should notice that the pyr (pitch, yaw, and roll) chassis mods are better than most of the other ships. That combined with the 1.0 speed modifier make up the majority of your defense. Our optimal turning speed is about 90% throttle and the range is pretty tight. You can set up a macro to set this speed if you want but I have never used one. I prefer the slider on my joystick.

With one gun and one missile slot the Interceptor will never be a gunboat. Don't expect to kill anything in one shot.

The loadout:

When outfitting your Interceptor you will need to make compromises. You will not fit a L8 engine and a L8 weapon on your ship unless you can get some super rare loots when RE'ing your gear or sacrificing a lot in the way of protection. Here is a fairly easy to obtain loadout (all crafted):

Mk2 Reactor

Mk4 Engine (crafted for speed)

Mk4 Blaster

Mk1 Booster

Mk1 Droid Interface

Mk1 Armor x2

Mk3 Shield

Mk2 Capacitor

Chaff

Now your probably thinking, that sucks. It does, sort of, but it is easily obtainable and a good place to start. You will be able to run RO4, EO3, WO3, CO4, and have CTSS4 just in case you survive getting hit.

The Mk4 engine will have about a 103 top speed with pyr of around 60, not real great for pvp. This should be replaced by a RE'd engine as soon as possible. On EO3, you be at a top speed of about 1369. The high reactor drain will prevent you from running EO4. You will have trouble turn fighting most other fighters but with some creative flying you should be ok.

The Mk4 Blaster will do ok damage and can have the best refire rate in the game. I love these for PvE, but because the chances of hitting consecutive shots in PvP are pretty slim, there is not much point. It will also have a fairly high energy per shot (eps), which will deplete your cap in no time. Also most crafted weapons tend to have high reactor drain. You can get them made with low drain and low eps but they will have drastically lower damage. Don't bother with Ion cannons and Disruptor cannons. While most people concentrate on shields, most heavy fighters (x-wings, b-wings, vaksai...) will have quite a bit of armor as well.

The Mk1 booster should be crafted for raw speed. You don't have much mass to worry about trying to get a 15 second burn time. A good Mk1 booster should have 30+ speed. This will help you keep up with those jousters as well as a few other nasty little tricks that I will get into later.

The Mk1 droid interface is required just as much as a reactor. Without it you won't be able run the critical droid commands. Don't worry about command speed. The only thing it affects, is how fast you get back into the fight. Using CTSS (providing you actually survive getting hit) is mostly effected by your cap regen rate.

The Mk1 armor is pretty much the most useless piece of equipment on you ship. It costs a lot of mass and can only be used once till you repair (via station or blaster). However, there have been too many times that I have been saved from the hard vacuum by those 100 points of armor. So I always load at least something.

The Mk3 shield should give you about 1300 f/b (front/back) protection. That plus your armor might be enough to save you from a single missile. Keep in mind that your main defense is not getting hit. Even with a 1900 f/b you will still die 90% of the time in one hit.

The Mk2 capacitor should give you around 40 recharge with 1000+ energy. This will help a lot with a crafted blaster on WO3. You should be able to replace this with a L2 RE'd cap fairly easily.

Never leave the dirt without a chaff launcher. Except for the starter ships (the one the trainer gives you) every ship has a missile launcher, be prepared. You will be a fast, hard to hit target, which means everyone will want to shoot you with a missile. A basic chaff launcher works about 99% of the time as long as you fire your chaff after you get the missile warning and before the missile hits you. Don't bother with other countermeasure types since you don't have much mass and the effectiveness isn't that different.

The Mk 2 reactor should round out your configuration with enough power for all your overloads.

When loading an Interceptor there are 3 main parts that will make it or break it and will also be the most varied depending on pilot style.

The engine:

This is arguably the most important. With a lot of work you can make due with a RE'd L6 reward engine. It should have at least 70 pyr and the reward engine will give you an 82.2 top speed. With EO4 that makes your speed 1150, which is a bit slow. Since you probably won't have access to a pre-nerf L6 engine, you should try to get a L8 engine. This will be very tricky since at best it will have a mass of about 20k (be prepared for months of looting and trading to find something that low). A good L8 engine will have a 75+ pyr and should be more than enough to turn-fight with any other ship and with a high speed QID (L8 engine from starmap quest) will be fast enough to even keep up with a high-speed jousting ship. However, it will take months to put on together so get a good L6 RE or Mk4 crafted to use in the mean time. The engine will be about 90% of your protection. Being hard to hit is the only way to be successful in an Interceptor. You will not have the mass for huge shield so most ships will kill you with one shot.

The shield:

Most loadouts use a Mk3 crafted or RE L5, mainly due to mass restrictions. Definitely shoot for a RE'd shield to cut your reactor drain costs. You will need about 1300f/b to be able to have a chance of surviving a missile hit. A L7 protecto-net (L7 shield from starmap quest) can be RE'd to have over 2100 f/b with a mass around 14k. That should be enough to take a hit from most L8 weapons on WO3 (most widely seen A-wing setup). However, depending on your choices for engine and weapon a L7 shield may or may not be an option.

The weapon:

I have used a L6, L7, and L8 in my Interceptor. With a well RE'd L8 reward weapon (Borstel or Incom Tri-cannon, Tier 4 reward from privateer and rebel squadrons) you will need a L6 engine and L5 shield or go without a shield to use a L8 engine. The L8 weapon gives excellent damage with the lowest eps in the game (14.3) but can mass about 24k with a refire of about .38. The L7 based on the Boltdriver (Tier 3 reward from Imperial squadrons) can have good damage with average eps, .31 refire and mass about 14k. A good L6 can do about the same damage per shot as a L7, due to higher vs. shield/vs. armor stats, with average eps, .38 refire, but the mass will be around 9k.

These three items make a huge difference in the performance of your ship. You should try out a wide variety of loadouts to see which you prefer.

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Advanced Loadouts:

Since the Interceptor is so unforgiving selecting a loadout to fit your style of fighting and to compliment your abilities is a must. You will see a wide variety of loadouts from different pilots as we are all different, and have different capabilities and views of what is fun. Don't be surprised if what you consider to be an optimal setup is drastically different from someone else's. Here are some sample loadouts using some top end gear:

My current loadout (update: since I wrote this I have switched back to my past loadout listed below to make my ship more useful in PvE):

L6 RE'd engine 71pyr 95.9 top speed (pre-nerf... don't expect to find one of these)

L6 RE'd weapon (slower refire than a L7 but the damage is just as good for 10k or less mass)

L5 RE'd shield (RE'd shields have a lower drain and can have the same f/b as a crafted or better)

L2 RE'd cap 40 recharge 1014 energy

Mk1 armor (crafted for super low mass)

Mk3 reactor 14700 gen (Allows me to run EO4 and WO3)

Mk3 proton launcher (nice to have for those hard to hit a-wings)

L1 RE'd droid interface (mine is a pre-nerf with 14.9 command speed but a Mk1 crafted would do the job just as well)

Mk1 Booster 33.6 speed with about a 9sec burn

Chaff

Here are some other loadouts (borrowed from another thread):

One of my past loadouts:

L6 engine 71ypr 95.9 top speed (pre-nerf... a reward engine will get to 82.2 post RE which is 1150 after EO4 as opposed to the 1342 for the prenerf)

L7 shield protecto based 2100 f/b (approximately... I can remember the exact stats, this in enough to take a L8 weapon hit on WO3, WO4 will cause some problems)

L7 weapon Boltdriver based (about 12.5k mass and about 1800 drain)

L3/L1 armor (had extra mass left over)

L2 cap (40 recharge 1014 energy... approx)

L1 crafted booster

L3 RE reactor (13300 gen 2700 mass... much better available but I just bought this one cause I am lazy)

L1 DI (mine is a pre-nerf but any DI will do... as mentioned before I am lazy and I use a macro to run my droid programs without hypering)

Chaff (never leave the dirt without it)

Loadout by Ieheeloonea Gaivee (BaconHeadIthorian on the forum) from Ahazi:

Reactor: lvl 7 31k rgr

Engine: lvl 8 20k mass 78, 78, 76, 112 ts

Weapon: lvl 6 2650 mx dmg, 8900 mass

Ordinance: 15 mk III protons 7555 dmg

countermeasures: Chaff

Booster 1k 25 speed

Cap: 1k 1200 e 37 recharge

DI: 450 mass 15.1 speed

armor: 1 slab 250 armor

Yes...I run it with no shields and only 250 armor up front. The most dangerous thing to this ship is...NPCs. but I have to say it is fun as hell to fly. Keeps you on the edge knowing that one shot and you are dead. I took it up for its maiden run the other night, and she went 5 and 1. Such a good time. I can't wait to field a squadron of these bad boys.

From Idolatry:

Current loadout that I'm building (will have to post detailed stats later)

* L5 reactor (5k mass, 15k gen)

* L8 engine (108 speed, 78 YPR, 1250 drain, 21k mass)

* L5 shield (2000 drain, 5k mass, 1250 front/rear)

* L7 weapon (1600 drain, 12k mass, 2k-3.4k damage)

* L2 cap (1000 energy, 39 recharge)

* L1 armour

* L1 booster

* Chaff

I can run WO4 and EO4. Haven't tested her yet, because a few of the parts haven't been RE'd, but I have all the components to meet those stats.

From GloriousBritannia:

Nice guide. Here is my Loadout for the Achillies. I lucked out in the sens that I was able to buy both the PRENERF DI and L6 engine on the bazaar for next to nothing. I am also able to run all OL4 programs on this setup as well, so I slightly disagree with you on not having enough firepower to one shot people. Please feel free to comment:

Engine - L6 RE

RED: 1313 Mass: 8481 PItch: 73.6 Yaw: 72.1 Roll: 72.9 Speed: 95.9

Weapon L8 RE

RED: 1676 Mass: 22,701 Damage: 2507-3876.7 Vs. Shields: 0.70 Vs. Armor: 0.68 EPS: 13.4 Refire: 0.38

Shield L5 RE

RED: 2154 Mass: 6555 F/B: 1191 Recharge: 8.69

Reactor L4 RE

Mass: 4061 RGR: 14331

Capacitor L2 RE

RED: 972 Mass: 1519 Energy: 1030 Recharge: 41

Booster L2 RE

RED: 396 Mass: 1117 Energy: 1530 Recharge: 42.2 Consumption: 137.2 Accel: 32.2 Speed: 22.9

Front Armor - L5 RE

Mass: 3046 Armor: 1244

Rear Armor - L2 RE

Mass: 970 Armor: 322

DI L1 RE Prenerf

RED: 493 Mass: 500 SPeed: 14.7

Chaff

RED: 866 Mass: 984

From Ludmyla:

TIE Avenger MK III (Razor 1)

Chassis used/max 51001/51002.3

L3 RE Reactor, 14.7k RGR

L6 Pre nerf Engine PYR 72.3/72.6/70.8 TS 95.9

L7 Protectonet 2053 HP F/R 13.8 recharge

L6 Armour Front 1350 HP

L4 Armour Rear 763 HP

L4 Capacitor 1353 energy 43.2 RR

L7 Boltdriver

L1 Droid interface speed 14.2

L1 Chaff Launcher

L1 Crafted Booster

L6 Flight Computer, RO4 EO4 WO4 CO4 CTSS4 Shield adjust front: Heavy

Some of you might recall the original 'Hypothetical' Avenger project from spaceloot, and this is the result of many hard months looting, scrounging and pleading for parts

She is perhaps a little unmaneuverable compared to most other ships, but the sheer thrill of flying her makes the sacrifice well worth the effort.

Highlights so far, flying with Loonee and Syph (also in stock squints) and forcing the 4 rebel adversaries to switch to Vaksais and ARC's (from A-wings), even then we only got beat because we were duelling each other and not paying attention to the rebel scum

I am currently working on the Avenger MK IV and i hope to include a L8 engine and a missile launcher, sacrifices will have to be made to the protection, but i am confident that if i can master flying with a L6 engine, and improving past my 50/50 win/loss ratio then i will be an horrific opponent with a L8 engine.

but it does have to be said that the Engine is the heart and soul of the stock squint and will determine the rest of your setup to a very large extent

From xTekx:

I would like to throw out another load out for you even crazier pilots. hehe.

I have a thing about challenging myself sometimes in PvP. That being running around with a L4 engine. The best ship I like to do this with is a stock Tie Interceptor. On Starsider my TI is loaded with a L7 weapon running WO4, a L7 shield.... and whatever else I can cram in there that I might need. On Bloodfin I run a L5 weapon on WO4 and stick on a L8 shield... and cram whatever else on there that I might think I need.

Yes, it sounds ridiculously crazy.... and Halyn is always giving me a hard time about it... But flying this ship with a L4 engine isn't really that crazy. What I have found is that people have a little bit of a hard time lining up shots due to the slow speed. I can get a nice turn at 85% throttle, and even though I don't have the turning mods of that higher engine, I can undercut just as easy with the slower speed. Throw in some maneuvers to keep you from getting hit and allow you to get some shots and you can easily get a good salvo off before needing to do some more maneuvers. This works especially well with Awings. Xwings take a little bit of work because they can turn so well at 40% throttle, but they're big hitbox allows you to get some good shots in before having to really start dodging.

It is a big challenge though. And one that can really keep your skills sharp because you are not relying on your equipment. You're having to fly by instinct and tactics. So if you ever find yourself going... eh.. what do I want to do, I say give this a shot. If nothing else you'll laugh at the absurdity of it.

From SyphusDeacon:

My next generation of interceptor is almost ready: Version 3

Total Mass 50953.

Reactor: Level 3 RE'd

Mass: 2474.4 RGR: 14526.1

Shield: Level 6 RE'd

RED: 1773.1 Mass: 10356.5 F/B HP: 1575.6 RR: 9.22

Capacitor: Level 2 RE'd

RED: 906 Mass: 1586.9 Energy: 1127.7 RR: 40.1

Engine: Level 8 RE'd (last piece to complete)

RED: 1265.5 Mass: 19932.9 Pitch: 79.5 Yaw: 79.0 Roll: 78+ TS: 107.0

Droid Interface: Level 1 pre nerf RE'd

RED: 493.6 Mass: 475.9 DCS: 14.6

Weapon: Level 7 RE'd

RED: 1872 Mass: 10547.5 Dmg: 2108.7-3098.5 VS S: 0.65 VS A: 0.64 EPS: 20.8 RR: 0.31

Front Armour: Level 5 RE'd

Mass: 2906.9 HP: 1094.9

Booster: Mark I Crafted

RED: 570.5 Mass: 1022.0 Energy: 861.3 RR: 22.0 Consumption: 80.3 Acc: 25.8 TS: 31.2

Counter Measures: Chaff Launcher

Mass: 869.5 RED: 943.8

Mass Used: 50172.5

Programs Run:

WO4 EO4 CTSS4 CO4 RO4 Front Adjust Heavy.

Just need to sort out my Roll on that engine and I can finally finish this off. Once the engine is finished I am thinking of trying to improve the shield to around 1600+ HP and under 10k mass. Maybe even get enough mass saved to cram in my 14xx HP C6 Armour plate for extreme frontal protection ... Maybe

From Ramona_Garcia:

Here's my squint:

Reactor: Level 3 re'd

Mass: 2113.7 Reactor Generation Rate: 14183.3

Engine: Cygnus Megadrive, Level 6, re'd.

Reactor Drain: 1209.8 Mass: 8028.5 Pitch: 72.7 Yaw: 74.0 Roll: 73.0 Top Speed: 95.9

Shield: Protectonet, Level 7, re'd, cert level 8

Reactor Drain: 1826.6 Mass: 15029.9 Front: 2207.4 Back: 2207.4 Recharge: 15.56

Armor: Level 6 re'd

Armor: 1456.3 Mass: 3815.1

Armor: Level 6 re'd

Armor: 1377.0 Mass: 4160.1

Capacitor: Level 2, re'd

Reactor Drain: 866.9. Mass: 1730.0 Energy: 1172.5 Recharge: 40.8

Booster: level 1, crafted

Reactor Drain: 355.9 Mass: 992.1 Energy: 857.6 Recharge: 21.9 Consumption: 114.2 Acceleration: 25.9 Top Booster Speed: 30.3

Droid Interface: Level 1, re'd, pre-nerf

Reactor Drain: 504.5 Mass: 469.4 Speed: 14.8

Weapon: Level 6, re'd

Reactor Drain: 1577.2 Mass: 8198.3 Minimum Damage: 1797.6 Maximum Damage: 2977.9 Vs. Shields: 0.690 Vs. Armor: 0.690 Energy/Shot: 24.9 Refire Rate: 0.370

Ordnance: Mark III Proton Launcher

Reactor Drain: 1025.4 Mass: 5377.1 Minimum Damage: 3525.5 Maximum Damage: 6244.5 Vs. Shields: 0.540 Vs. Armor: 0.540 Energy/Shot: 0.0 Refire Rate: 7.650

Countermeasure Launcher:

Ordnance: Chaff Launcher

Reactor Drain: 886.4 Mass: 945.6 Minimum Damage: 50.9 Maximum Damage: 80.6 Vs. Shields: 0.000 Vs. Armor: 0.000 Energy/Shot: 0.0 Refire Rate: 0.380

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Tactics:

So you have your Interceptor set up and you are ready to take on the whole rebel fleet. Here are some tips and tricks to help you do that, but first, we should talk about general stuff so you will understand the more advanced.

Jousting:

This is mostly for high mass ships with super fast engines and huge shields. Their main function will be to stay out of turn-fights and use their fast engine to break away from you so that they can force a head to head pass. These are very dangerous for us since most of these ships will kill us in one shot and the head to head pass gives them a great chance to do that while, with front adjusted 2555f/b shields, we will never get through in one hit.

Turn-fighting:

This is your standard dogfight, two or more ships turning as fast as they can to get a shot off at the other ship(s). This is the best situation for us as fast, maneuverable fighters. The down side to this is that while in a turn-fight we are very exposed to missile boats who can get lock from a distance then launch when they get closer.

Missile boats:

These ships are your worst enemy. These are ships that have more than 1 missile tube (i.e. y-wing, b-wing). It is easy to get a lock on you while you are distracted and you may not chaff all of the missiles they fire which will usually result in death. Best way to deal with these, unless you have friends with you, is to try to force them into a turn fight. Unfortunately, most are set up as jousters as well so they can be very dangerous.

Hybrids:

I already mentioned missile boats with a jouster setup but there are also missile boats set up for turn-fighting. These usually have a severe pyr L10 engine and way more than enough firepower to send you back to Endor. A lot of our Oppressors are set up like this to take advantage of the good pyr chassis mods and relatively small size. With Image Rec missiles these are very dangerous. Proton missile take a while to lock on so if we fly like we should it is really hard to get a lock. IR's however have a very short lock on time and we can count on getting shot at with them during a fight. The best way to handle them is the fly to avoid the lock. If they get a lock at turn-fight distance (usually less than 200m) we are toast. Use your small hitbox and agility to land a few shots quickly before they get the chance to fire missiles.

Chain fire weapons:

Most ships that you see with this sort of tactic, will be 3 gun ships with a turn-fighter loadout, but I have seen 2 gun ships use this as well. By setting up their ship to fire one gun after the other, they can put out a near constant stream of fire. As Interceptor pilots, this is really bad news for us. The reason is, that all it takes, is for them to be firing when their ship lines up with our kill zone (the area where the reticle is when a fired shot will hit us). Normally, it is fairly hard to hit, since most large ships will only get in that zone for a brief second, during which time the pilot must fire. With chain fire, the near constant firing makes it almost assured that even in a high speed turn, one of their guns will be firing at the moment their ship sweeps across our kill zone. Also, since these are most likely high damage weapons(RE L8 with WO3 possibly WO4), we will probably die from that single hit. The really bad news about all of this is, that most heavy pilots can set this up easily without even landing. The good news is, that it will also reduce their effectiveness against other heavy ships, because not all of thier weapons will hit like their opponent's. This means that you are less likely to see this in mass battles or anytime you have some heavy friends with you. The best way to deal with this is to play bait for a friend. Get the heavy pilot to chase you and fly extremely erratic to give your friend time to take them out. If you are alone... well... good luck. It will take a lot of crazy flying to dodge all that fire and still land some hits of your own but it is possible.

A-wing:

This is our Rebel counterpart. Count on them being loaded with a L8 engine and L8 weapon with possibly a L7 shield. These will be some of the longest fights you will get into. Both of you are hard to hit but the a-wing packs a bit more punch.

X-wing/Rhik:

These heavy fighters can be deceptively nimble. They are relatively easy to hit but a good pilot can change that. They have 3 weapons, which will definitely kill you in one shot. The biggest problem I have dealing with these is over turning and running into their blaster fire.

Y-wing/Firespray:

2 weapons and 2 missile tubes make this one of our greatest threats. With the right parts these can be very dangerous. Best way to deal with them is to force them into a turn-fight.

B-wing/Krayt:

As long as you don't over turn into their guns or try to joust them you shouldn't have much trouble with these. Their low pyr mods and huge hitbox make them easy targets in a turn fight. Again, a good pilot can change that.

Heavy Z-95/Heavy Scyk/Vaksai:

These can be a bit difficult to deal with. Most carry a L8 engine and L8 or L7 shield with a L10 weapon. The chassis mods are better than ours and they will turn inside your turn radius. However, if you keep your speed up these aren't much different from a-wings and a bit easier to hit.

Tips and Tricks:

The best tip I can give you is practice... don't think. With not having the protection to be able to take a hit, you don't have time to think. Practice on npc's so that when you get into a pvp situation you act without thought. For accuracy, I suggest the tier 1 spawn of Kimos near Station Star in Tatooine space. They are a low tier so you don't have to worry about getting killed and chances are you can one-shot them (also the low level loot is perfect for us). Keep your speed at the best turning speed and constantly turn and roll. Shoot only once at each ship. If you miss come back to it later. Use you radar to find and turn toward other ships (This will be very useful in mass battles). Practice lining up your shots and timing them as you turn. For very difficult practice try the tier 5 droid fighters in Endor space. Those guys are hard because they can take a lot of damage and you can't. The tier 5 AI will have them use group tactics against you so it pretty good practice for large furballs. You will need to constantly change targets, as following one will have the rest shooting at your rear. This will also improve your accuracy against high-speed targets as well as your situational awareness. However, because you don't have much of a shield there is not much room for error. Although it is definitely more room than pvp.

Your booster can be used for more than just running. A quick 1-second boost during a turn fight can greatly increase your turning ability for a second. I have heard of macros that execute a half second boost but I have never used them.

The head to head pass is one of the most dangerous times for us. Most people just fly evasive till they get within turn-fight distance. A heavy fighter or jouster may come straight at you counting on you knowing that they can kill you in one shot so you go evasive. This gives them a few threat free shots. One way to combat this is to shoot them first. Easier said then done, I know, but this works great. Start shooting at about 800m or 700m. Everyone's weapon range is about 550m, however, with 2 people traveling 1100+ toward each other that distance get smaller really fast. Your blaster bolts don't travel instantly. So if you fire at about 700m your target will basically run into your blaster bolt even though it was fired out of range, because it may have only traveled 500m, which is well within your range. This can seriously disrupt the thought process of your target long enough to get through the head to head without a missile lock or getting hit. Also, using your booster can shorten the time that you are in the head to head.

Vary your throttle in a turn-fight. You get a little boost to your turning ability (much like the booster trick although not as much) when you go from max speed to optimal turning speed. This also makes it harder to hit you. Again, I have heard of macros for this but I have never used them since it seems to me that it would throw off my timing.

Don't get into a routine. It is very easy to get into a cycle during a turn-fight. It is also the easiest way to get killed. Change direction often and randomly.

Don't fight someone else's fight. If you try to joust with a heavy jouster, you will lose every time.

If you are in a 3 or more vs. you situation, do not chase anything. An x-wing flying level is a very tempting target but resist the urge. His buddies will fall in behind you and you can't take as many hits as an x-wing.

Never ever stop. When you are flying a ship that depends on speed and agility, to stop is death. You can try to pull the "air brakes" and let the target fly by, giving you a good shot at their rear, but even if they don't vape you, it is really difficult to hit with your free shot. The risk isn't really worth it.

If you roll while you turn you will turn faster. This is sometimes called a 3 axis turn. By using all three axis you can turn faster than you would if you turn with only 2 or 1.

Always target an opponents reactor. It is not "cheating", nor is it dishonorable in any way. It is smart, like using missiles against a-wings. After you get through their shields and armor, damage will be applied directly to thier reactor, instead of the random location decided by the game when you have nothing targeted. It really sucks to get killed by someone, whose chaff launcher you just destroyed, when you could have just as easily won the fight. Don't target their engine. Even with a blown engine, they can still shoot you if you happen to fly in front of them (like right after the final shot when they stop and you don't).

Now... get out there and kill some rebel scum.

Please post any additions and I will try to include it.