Kruger S-65 Stingray guide: combat mode, loadout, and whether it's worth it

The Stingray changes shape between three stances. Flight stance spreads the wings wide for cruising, combat stance pulls the airframe in, and landing stance sets it down on the pad. Kruger says combat stance makes the ship more maneuverable and gives enemies a smaller target.

Kruger hasn't put numbers on either claim, or said whether combat stance touches your speed. Switch into it before you merge and see how it feels, but don't plan a fight around a number you don't have.

All six guns are Kruger laser repeaters, and they play well together. Both fire at 1,440 m/s, so you don't have to aim two groups differently, and neither overheats. Together they put out 2,638 burst DPS and 1,468 sustained. The two Axioms do more than half of that. They also have the shorter range, so treat about 2.2 km as your real engagement range, even though the wing guns reach farther.

The catch is per-shot damage. A Whiptail hits for 30 and an Axiom for 85, so a full volley is 290. Lasers also have to chew through shields before they do much to the hull. Against lightly armored targets that's fine. Against tougher hulls, a hit that doesn't clear the armor threshold won't reach the hull at all, which is why alpha damage can matter more than DPS.

If you want to go ballistic, the Star Citizen Wiki lists the S4 Relentless L-21 Gatling and the S2 Tigerstrike T-19P for these mounts. Kruger also sells ballistic Gatlings for the Stingray in the Kruger Ballistic Weapons Kit, a pledge-store add-on for the Alpha Wolf and the Stingray. Where to buy either gun with aUEC isn't documented. Before you spend aUEC on new guns, open the Stingray's loadout and check what each mount will actually take. Otherwise you could end up with guns that won't fit.

The rest of the stock fit:

The Stingray shines in rate fights. It pitches at 55°/s, yaws at 42°/s and rolls at 185°/s, rising to 66°/s, 50.4°/s and 222°/s while boosting. That roll lets you flip your guns onto a target quickly. It tops out at 218 m/s in SCM, 485 m/s on forward boost and 1,200 m/s in NAV, and it reaches SCM speed in 1.73 seconds.

Staying alive is the hard part. Don't read too much into the 10,859 HP structure figure: it's a total across all the ship's parts, not one health bar. The numbers that matter are 3,512 HP of hull and a 2,900 HP body; the ship is destroyed once the body goes. The armor cuts incoming physical damage by 25% and energy damage by 40%, with deflection of 24 physical and 19.2 energy. Those resistances don't change the basic problem: 4,320 HP of shields and a 2,900 HP body don't last long under sustained fire.

So fly it like a knife fighter. Pick PvE targets you can outturn, stay off the enemy's nose, and leave early when something bigger starts connecting.

The gun figures come from 4.10.1 data; the flight and armor figures come from 4.10.0. In 4.10.1, the only Stingray change in the patch notes is a fix for it spawning partly sunk into the hangar floor.

For now, the Stingray's only documented source is the pledge store: $175 standalone or $160 as a Warbond. No aUEC shop or rental price has been published, and the 4.10.1 notes don't add one. Check the live store for the current price and insurance terms before you pledge.

If you lose it, a claim takes 2 minutes, or 1 minute if you pay to expedite. Don't plan on hauling anything: there's no cargo grid, just 0.51 SCU of personal inventory and a rack for a rifle or pistol.