Anvil Arrow Light Fighter – Ship Buyer’s Guide
Welcome to a Star Citizen Ship Buyer’s Guide for the Anvil Arrow – Meet Anvil’s ‘light fighter of the future’. Featuring an ultra-aerodynamic frame, slight profile, and the most advanced maneuvering thruster tech available, it’s the most agile ship in its class. It can also hold its own in a knock-down-drag-out thanks to a generous standard weapons package that includes quad missile racks and a full complement of countermeasures. The Arrow is designed specifically to leave would-be interlopers thoroughly bewildered. After all, how can they kill what they can’t catch?
Vital Stats
- It’s a Single Pilot Light Fighter
- 16m Long, 12m Wide, 4m High, this is a tiny profile compared to even a Gladius which is 20x17x5.5m. The Wings of the arrow fold upwards to allow for an even smaller footprint when landed.
- The Ship is flyable now and available from $65 warbond or $80 with a gamepack, these both come with LTI IF using credit/upgrade or buying an upgrade the value is $75 and it comes with 72 month insurance.
- It is significantly lighter than the Gladius , Avenger, 300 series and even a bit lighter than the Mustang Alpha.
- Weapons wise it has 3 Size 3 Gun Mounts coming with 2 S2 GT-215 Scorpion Gatling Guns and a remote turret with 2 S1 Bulldog laser repeaters as standard.
- You are able to have 3 Size 3 fixed guns across those mounts making the ship extremely combat viable.
- The Ship also has 2 size 3 missile racks and 2 size 2s loaded with a total of 6 s2 missiles by default.
- When it comes to shield generators though typically ships of this size and class have 2 small generators, the Arrow only has 1.
- But the rest of its systems are pretty much the same as any light fighter with various small system, 1 powerplanet, 2 coolers, a single powerful main thruster, 2 retro & 8 Join Maneuvering.
- There is no living or cargo space on the ship.
Considered the most agile fighter in its class, the Arrow’s velocity and dexterity will leave would-be interlopers thoroughly bewildered.
It’s after burner speed is a solid 1235 & an SCM currently of 270. After the new flight model though I am expecting this ship to have extremely good acceleration and top speed it is intended to be best in class when it comes to agility, for a human ship anyway.
The Ship does have quite a small QF capacity, so it will require fueling between Crusader and Hurston trips.
It is intended for short range mission within a area of a planet & it’s moons, to be deployed from a carrier of some kind OR be supported by fueling ships.
You’ll be able to store a lot of these on carrier ships.
The Arrow is flyable now as I said but has a bug, where it’s mass switches and you need to put your landing gear in and out to fix it.
It is a very cool little ship and the natural upgrade patch from a Starter Ship OR Avenger Titan for those pilots that want to go into combat missions.
It is also suitable as a 1 person shuttle.
It is a short range ship though, so if you want to keep moving large distances in a system it’s going to be efficient with you having to fuel regularly.
3 Size 3 weapons on a ship of this size is extremely potent & I expect these to be a very common sight in the verse, a lot of the time as well I think it’s more likely pilots in these will bug out & retreat after taking a couple of hits rather than risk being destroyed.
It’s price point is very pleasing for a combat ship & we’ve needed a focused “newer” military light fighter.
I like the idea of this ship being able to disengage at will, players fighting against them in the PU might see them being pushed back and retreating rather than getting a kill on one.
The ship doesn’t want to get hit much though, it is for combat BUT it’s not a brawler.
It is one of my favorite looking ships and certainly is a refreshing price point.
Unmatched design, blazing top speed, and ultra-responsive maneuverability make the Arrow the most agile scrapper in its class. And, a robust weapons package provides firepower to spare. Is This y the classic light fighter updated for the next generation of combat? Please tell me what you think in the comments below.
There was an error that listed the ship as a “stealth” ship BUT it is a light fighter.
However if the ship manages it’s emissions via smart usage OR with stealth oriented components it could certainly fit that role.
The Arrow can handle extremely poorly in game currently, this is due to an IFCS bug, cycling your landing gear up and down fixes it.
It is intended to be one of the most agile ships of the light fighter class, this should be more reflected in the new flight model in 3.5
The Hawk and Gladius have a higher top speed than the Arrow BUT the Arrow is more maneuverable.
The Arrow has Joint Thrusters (which have no really been mentioned before) – A gimballed thruster has multiple vectors of thrust whereas a fixed thruster has a single vector of thrust. A joint thruster is a subset of gimballed thrusters and refers to the range of movement. A few examples of gimballed thrusters they use are joint, roll, and flex. The Arrow uses joint thrusters, which means the thrusters can change their pitch in a 90-degree arc. The Aurora uses roll thrusters, which pitch in a 180-degree arc. The Hornet uses flex thrusters, which pitch and yaw in 90-degree arcs. There are more configurations of thrusters, but these are the most common. The more vectors a thruster can hit, the more complexity it adds, and generally reduces maneuverability.
The light fighter category encompasses many ships for many play styles.
The Arrow, Gladius, Mustang Delta, and Blade are all dedicated fighters and their flight characteristics and loadouts differ. The Aurora LN and 125A can both carry cargo while having combat capabilities. The Hawk can carry a prisoner and packs an EMP, making it ideal for bounty hunting. The Reliant Tana is meant for long range combat and features multi-crew gameplay. The Khartu-al is a scout ship meant to get in and out and use its unique maneuvering agility rather than firepower.
Compared to The Gladius (which is the ship it is competing with really), the Gladius has superior missile hardpoints and its dual engines should out-accelerate the Arrow in a straight line. To get the price that low, Anvil included a cheaper turret mount with Size-1 weapons, and users may want to purchase larger weapons to get the most from the Arrow’s hardpoints. As always, balance is still being worked on and is subject to change.
The Arrow was built to be a short-range fighter and mainly to act as a ship deployed from a carrier where it can refuel and restock. As such it has a very limited Quantum Fuel Tank, meaning in the PU currently it needs to refill at least once between Hurston and Crusader.
Customization
The Arrow can use Military, Stealth and Civilian components and comes stock with Military components.
The top turret mount was designed to only accommodate weapons. Currently the attached turret can hold two Size-1 weapons, but it can also be removed to add either a single fixed Size-3 weapon or a gimballed Size-2 weapon. The mount was designed to be flexible in this aspect. There are no plans to allow other utility options.
In the future you will be able to use a Computer Blade to turn the turret into a AI Controlled Turret akin to a Point Defense System, however on such a small ship you may be using up all (or more than 50%) of the blade slots to do this leaving you with no other options to upgrade.
What will it fit in though?
The Arrow has a small form factor and folding wings to accommodate fitting them in a carrier. Any ship that is built to be a dedicated carrier, such as the Idris, Kraken, or Bengal, will be able to fit an Arrow. Many other ships will be able to carry at least one like the Javelin, Endeavor’s Hangar module, 890 Jump, and Polaris. The folding wings prevent it from being stored in a Carrack as that bay is designed specifically for the Pisces. There may potentially be others too BUT some ships are still being concepted and built out.
The Ship has no cargo space but In the future, they want each ship to be able to store a personal weapon for the player. Currently, the Arrow does not allow for that, but may include a slot for a personal weapon or emergency kit in the future.