Corellian Corvette (space)

The Corellian Corvette, as any Star Wars fan will tell you, is a small capital space ship designed to be a speedy patrol craft and used heavily by smugglers and the Alliance to run past Imperial blockades. The Corvette makes a star appearance in Jump to Lightspeed as the target of each Pilot profession's Master mission. In order to reach Ace status, a player pilot must undertake a mission to destroy one of these mighty beasts as it patrols the Kessel System. Destroying the ship is not an easy task for the uninformed, and is a great source of stress and difficulty for most pilots.

That said, it is possible to destroy the ship by yourself. But before attempting that, make sure to review the following information.

Determining Orientation
You will find many references to "top" and "bottom" throughout this guide. Because the Corvette is (nearly) symmetrical, it can be difficult to determine which side is "up". The trick to solving this riddle involves studying the mid-section of the Corvette, directly aft of the bridge and "neck". The top side of the 'vette has four guns here, which look like little grey bubbles, two on the port side and two on the starboard (the picture above is taken of the Corvette's top side). The bottom, in contrast, has a total of eight smaller bubbles, four on the left and four on the right. This is the key to distinguishing between the two sides: top has four, bottom eight.

If you're having difficulty seeing the bubbles, look at the orientation of the gunboats. Their undersides are on the same side as the Corvette's underside unless the vette is in the process of turning.

Finding the Corvette
Two Corvettes patrol the Kessel system: the Star Ravager (Imperial-aligned and the target of Rebel and Freelance Pilots), and the uniquely-named Corellian Corvette (Rebel-aligned and the target of Imperial Navy Pilots). The two Corvettes, while spawning at different times, follow similar rules:
 * Each Corvette is on a (roughly) two-hour spawning schedule; they tend to spawn on alternating hours, which means a new Corvette should enter the Kessel system roughly each hour.
 * It is possible for both Corvettes to be in Kessel at the same time.
 * The Imperial Corvette spawns at waypoint 7300, 7500, 6300.
 * The Rebel Corvette spawns at waypoint 4800 -5000 -4800
 * A Corvette will spawn with a 10-ship escort consisting of:
 * Two Gunboats, either Rebel or Imperial.
 * Two interceptor-class fighters, either A-wings or TIE Advanced.
 * Two heavy bomber-class fighters, either B-wings or TIE Oppressors.
 * Two fighter-class fighters, either X-wings or TIE Interceptors.
 * Two bomber-class fighters, either Y-wings or TIE Aggressors.
 * A Corvette will not spawn if its gunboat escort was left alive the last time the Corvette was destroyed. The Corvette in question will never respawn until the server resets, or until a player destroys the gunboats associated with the last Corvette.
 * You can press the Target Nearest Space Station (default "C" key) to target the Corvette as long as it's in your scanner range.
 * The Rebel Corvette leaves the system at -7260, 4873, 6341; the Star Ravager, at -6231, -259, -6059.

Waiting for the Corvette can take up to two hours. Be sure you bring your patience with you, as there's a good chance it will take a very long time to show. If you decide to wait at the spawn point, make sure you aren't too close... you may get an unpleasant wakeup call. Once the Corvette spawns, we can move to destroy it.

Fighter Escort
To review, there are 8 fighters and two Gunboats guarding the Corvette. The gunboats are set on the same waypoint path as the 'vette, so they will never break off and follow you. The fighters, however, will break off once they see you and give chase. You have two choices from this point: ignore the fighters and proceed to disabling the 'vette, or down the fighters first. Once you are familiar enough with the layout of the Corvette, you can ignore the fighters and easily dive straight at the ship and take out the necessary systems without taking too much damage. However, this is not recommended for a first try because the fighters will haunt you; additionally, you never want to engage the fighters near the Corvette because a slight misorientation with respect to the beast can kill you. Whatever path you choose, do NOT simply let the fighters and gunboats go. Let them get far enough away from the 'vette and then kill both the gunboats and fighters. If you do not, the ship may not respawn again. If you do take out the fighters, this will be the hardest part. You can easily lure the fighters away from the 'vette until they get bored and start to turn around; at this point, turn and engage the fighters -- you should be able to pick a few off without fighting the whole gang at once.

Approaching the Behemoth
Now to the real trick. There are 8 guns on the 'vette, and 7 of them are on its topside -- yes, only one gun is defending the belly of this beast, gun 5. Successfully destroying the Corvette all but requires disabling gun 5 immediately, which will give you considerable breathing room on the bottom side of the ship.

You'll find gun 5 slightly behind the bridge, again on the bottom side. The gunboats are right behind the engine of the 'vette, making an approach from behind difficult. Instead, approach the Corvette from its front and from its bottom so that only gun 5 sees you (if you approach from the wrong side, you'll know because there will be a ton of fire coming at you). Jink (side-to-side and up-down movement) and roll so that gun 5 has trouble hitting you as you make your first attack run. Once you're in firing range of the gun, straighten out and fire until you're almost on top of the gun. Hopefully you have managed to kill the gun in this single run -- if not, 2 runs will easily suffice, but you'll obviously prefer to have enough blasterpower to not have it shooting at your behind as you retreat.

Either way, you are now approaching the back of the 'vette where the gunboats are, meaning that those boats will now do their best at making you cheese of the swiss kind. Pull up and do a vertical 180, making absolutely sure that you are leaving the vette from its bottom side and away from the gunboats. If you panic and decide to leave in any other possible direction, you may find that you've inadvertently put yourself right next to the remaining 7 guns of the vette as well as the gunboats' 14 guns, and you may not live to make another run. We will now presume that you have managed to kill gun 5 and escape to the front/bottom side of the vette away from fire.

Taking the Shields
The next available systems to destroy on the vette are the two shield generators. These two systems are also just behind the bridge, where the body begins to expand. Fortunately, the shield generators are on the sides of the vette (one on the left and one on the right), meaning that you can hit them from the bottom side of the vette. Hitting the generators can be tricky and will likely take a few attempts to really nail down.

Approach the 'vette from the same place, being the front and bottom. You will want to come in more from the front (and possibly more to one side so that you can better hit one of the generators) than straight into the belly of the Corvette; you will have to angle yourself to hit the shield generators. No dextrous maneuvering is required this time, since nothing can shoot you from this orientation. Just remember to make your vertical 180 as you get close to the shield generators so that the gunboats can't reach you and that the topside of the vette doesn't see you. Repeat as needed until both the Shield Generator and Secondary Shield Generator have been destroyed.

Disabling the Engines
Good job if you've made it this far. You're practically done with the solo, though this last system remains to ensure that the 'vette will not leave the system. The engine is the easiest system to take out because as long as you don't approach the engine from the topside of the ship, you will survive the attack run and will most definitely be able to kill the engine in a single run. If you are worried about the gunboats (since they are right behind the engines), approach slightly below the gunboats so that only their tail turrets can take a few shots before you pass underneath them. Dive away from the engines (do not pull up towards the topside) once they are dead, and your escape should be a clean one.

Now wait a minute or two. The gunboats are stuck on the waypoint path that the 'vette was on and don't know how to stop; since the 'vette can't move, the gunboats will gradually fly past. This is the time where you must ensure that you destroy the fighters and gunboats if you haven't already. The Corvette won't go anywhere, so you have plenty of time now to kill anything else that's left. Be courteous and kill the gunboats so that the ship will respawn again for someone else.

Neutralizing the Remaining Guns
You can only destroy the Reactor from the top of the Corvette, which means the rest of the guns need to go. Fly near the belly of the 'vette and slowly creep to one side and very slightly over to the topside until you can see/shoot each gun. This requires some creeping skills that you may also develop for killing Star Destroyer guns, but fear not, if you creep too much, only one gun will be able to see you, and you can easily fly away to try again. Regardless, you definitely can kill all of the guns without them ever shooting at you, but there's little else to say on how to do this other than keep allowing yourself to see more of the gun until it starts taking damage from your shots.

Turrets 6 and 7 are the side mounts, but can be hit easily from the bottom. Gun 4 is in the same spot gun 5 was (except on top of the ship, of course), and should be destroyed before guns 0 through 3.

Vette Go Boom
The Reactor is on top of the Corvette and can be somewhat tricky to hit. It is easiest to fly up high above the Corvette and angle your ship downwards towards the Reactor; this should easily allow you to hit it. If you don't do any damage, move around until you find the right angle.

The Bridge is an easy kill; just aim for the purple window in front. The Corvette will make a good fireworks display, and reward you with 43,000 experience.

Ensuring You Get Credit
Because of the difficulty of this mission, most pilots seem paranoid about following a host of superstitions to make sure they get credit for the destruction of a Corvette. If you are destroying the Corvette in a large group, it is very likely you will see tempers rise and frustrations grow the closer you get to killing the ship, as people work to ensure they receive proper credit. Here is a quick check-list to make sure you properly get what you deserve if you're in a group.

To complete the Master mission you must do the following:
 * Have the Corvette Master Mission in your datapad.
 * Be in the Kessel System and within range of the Corvette when it is destroyed.
 * At some point in its destruction, do damage to a subsystem. This only takes a single blaster shot, provided the health of the system is decreased by the shot. You can damage any system to receive credit, including:
 * Guns 0-7
 * Shield Generator
 * Secondary Shield Generator
 * Engines
 * Reactor
 * Bridge
 * Destroying the fighter or gunboat escort does not grant credit

You do not have to go to trainer and retake mission if you die during your Corvette attack run; your mission will stay in your datapad until you complete it or manually abort.

Mopping Up
If you have trouble destroying gunboats, see Imperial Gunboat for details. Hopefully you leave time to kill the gunboats before they reach the Corvette exit waypoint; if you wait too long, they will reach the waypoint and become much harder to kill. Gunboats that reach this point will constantly circle around the exit point, making it much harder to stay in their blind spots. Therefore, it is recommended you terminate them immediately after disabling the Corvette's engines.

Miscellany
Imperial Navy Pilots can jump in a VT49 Decimator with a Master pilot and head to Deep Space, where as many as half a dozen Rebel Corvettes patrol the system at a time. Destroying any of these Corvettes will satisfy the Master Mission requirement.

Reference

 * Imperial Corvette Solo Tactic by Nokilo
 * Corvette Master Mission Spawn Information by MonsofoLexius