I

The I fills the Xenon Battleship role and is the other one of two reasons why an X4 game will always end-up with a combat element to it. Forget everything you think you know about the Xenon capital threat to npc stations if you've read the Xenon K article already. It is a matter of when and not if these things show up and when they do - the clock is very much ticking if you want to keep the station alive. As with the Xenon K however, we are not able to purchase ships or construct or pilot any Xenon ships without mods or hacks but in the encyclopedia it does seam to offer space for one crew (pilot) and it does list its construction material, potentially allowing for implementation later-on as with X3.

A Xenon I needs no escorts, which when you think about it is pretty silly. The Xenon I pack a punch equivalent to a Xenon K *on each side*. Large turrets that can lay waste to stations often fire from one side onto a station whilst the ones on the other side mop-up larger npc ship and construction vessels that come-along to defend or repair the station respectively. If one of the first signs of a Xenon K appearance was the rate at which a station outside of your active view on the map appears to be losing hull then you'll find it alarming how fast a station with an I parked outside it loses hull. To make matters worse, the Xenon I often appears with a Xenon K for fire cover (which is a waste because the Xenon K will probably still go down first even if you're firing solely on the I) and can even (particularly if left) start to link-up with other Xenon I battleships raiding npc space.

These ships can be handled in one of four ways

1. Place Defense Stations with *a lot* of Plasma turrets (say a hundred, since they do a lot of damage but their poor tracking speed doesn't matter against ships of this size and you want these things gone in seconds so the damage is minimal) at strategic points that matter to you in game. As this is the equivalent of completing a Defense Station deployment mission for a faction and those are rated as hard (maybe with more cost but less of the hassle) - you won't be doing this too early on. However it does have the advantage of stopping you having to destroy every Xenon capital ship that turns-up, which is frequently once you get not even that far in to a game. Just don't go and lose it to a massive swarm of Xenon fighters.
2. Build your own Destroyers and use them as a mobile version of the option above. Again, expensive but more flexible. Obviously there's a real risk you'll lose ships (or credits if you see it that way), particularly as Xenon capitals pack a real punch for their hull size, as do all Xenon ships. Remember if you surround the Xenon I it'll just hurt you twice as much.
3. Build one gunship. (I find the Paranid Nemesis Vanguard is good for this but you can use anything, I cannot say there's a bad choice here apart from taking on a capital with it) I actually build two or even more and then have the others dock in system. Now you can personally take the ship out by flying the gunship into a blind spot and using the ship's own inertia to assist with strafing it with fire. You can't take it out this way because the shields are too strong but you can pick-off all of the modules one-by-one. Once it has no engines and no guns you can call in the rest of your gunships and take the main shields down the the hull is very weak underneath. This actually works for the Xenon I too but you need more patience and if you make a mistake you'll be punished much harder than with a K. Taking out the main L-turret batteries on the Xenon I is also very tricky so calling a few of your own ships in to finish the job is then going to be harder too.
4. Ignore Xenon capitals completely. They *will* move-on sooner or later, it just takes a long time and they may move on to station you like second having just destroyed your favorite one. As for whether they'll attack one of your own bases - pray they just don't. Not until you are very much ready for it at least.

### Production

As previously mentioned it is not possible to produce or capture xenon ships but the encyclopedia still lists its construction material

* 6,049x Energy Cell
* 5,070x Ore
* 5,090x Silicon

### Notes

The 40 turrets on the Xenon I are in fact more than three-times that of the K, with the extra turrets being assigned to anti-fighter medium lasers rather than another battery of large lasers. As with the K the medium ones sit in sizeable groups are provide a lot of fighter cover (there's eight at the front for example), protected by small Shield Generator modules nearby on the hull. The remaining turrets (six on each side in the case of the Xenon I) are large laser turrets arranged on the sides in rows of four forward and two aft and these are for engaging XL ships and bases. A couple of hits from these will destroy pretty much any subcapital fighter but they normally lack the tracking to hit those ships unless they are not moving very much. However because they're never going to be firing alone as can be the case with the K - they can destroy you instantly.

The 55 shield generators (yes, fifty-five) have a greater emphasis on overall capital ship protection than the K even for this hull size (this is why when an I and a K show-up together the K almost always dies first even with you working the I). Whilst smaller shields designed to protect the ship's outer modules from fire are still present all over the place taking the overall shield grid down is therefore going to be that much harder. This is coupled with the fact that fully-stripping those turrets is something you'll be unlikely to do as much with an I as a K. Destroying those will make whatever they were protecting much easier to destroy (especially with anti-hull weapons which are normally poor against shields). There's four XL shield generators on this ship and they provide shield protection that'll make you wish you were back shooting a Xenon K. In most cases you'll encounter this ship on full shields, despite having already battled a lot of the npc fighters and station defenses in the region it has flown through you'll probably find stations nearby totally destroyed or looking very sad. Mines and laser towers are quite simply a joke against the I and should not be deployed - save your credits.

Like the K, the Xenon I has two engine modules which if destroyed will render the ship immobile apart from a very slight rotation and strafe (zero to a fighter that's close to the hull because the ship carries it along with it) module destruction is temporary so don't be surprised if the ship starts moving again whilst you're finishing-off those shields unfortunately you're unlikely to save a station by doing this as the vessel will have parked in a good holding bombardment position anyway making this less of a benefit than with the K. Calling in other ships at any point to quickly pile on the damage is, as discussed also likely to cost you as destroying every last turret is close to impossible unless those ships you have are capital, in which case you're facing a ship that'll return fire with some still quite hard-hitting guns.