I am not an expert here, but I know that sometimes balancing turrets with ballistic and energy weapons allows for the reduction of shields and some punch.

I'll leave the specifics or where and how to the guys that run those crews more often.

The word "meta" in this game comes only from the things being able to be exploited as the game is developed but I can see this game strifing away from that so that there are no meta builds. Personally I do enjoy a longer range of fire and a deadly punch when in close quarters this is my suggested build: 2 front turrets: Revenant Ballistic guns 2 rear turrets: Stock Rhinos or M7A auto cannons (to melt shields, laser cannons reduce regen rate)

Rear turret: S4 ballistic scatterguns to shoot anything orbiting or tailing us, stock lasers work as well Top turret: Revenants or Attritions S4: slightly diff damage input than stock rhino's I like this build because whether it is at longer distances or close quarter orbiting, you will think twice on approaching lol a summary of this... Pack a ballistic setup to penetrate the hull in an offensive run and during retreat you use your rear turrets to unload a massive barrage of lasers to serve as deterrent in case you get a tail.

this is my input.

I have been theory crafting this using https://hardpoint.io/#/ and https://www.erkul.games/calculator . Personally I would like to see how 4 Combine autocannons would do on the port and starboard turrets and Rev's in the dorsal and belly turrets. Unfortunately it would seem the that Combines animation is not working properly or some such so in practice they aren't a viable option until that is fixed. Also, one of the glaring downsides to this setup is it is all ballistic and therefore your going to run out of ammo, especially if you have a crew that are trigger happy. Keeping the Rev's out and staying with the stock Rhino's or putting the Combines in the dorsal and belly turrets and leaving the standard Rhinos in the port and star turrets is also a good option. Short answer to your question, the stock Rhino's are good all around to have on your HH wit current meta imo. I know Silver has messed around with other load outs, he may have a better answer for you as well. As far as systems, you can upgrade the shields and the QT drive currently and I would say on paper the FR-86 shield generator because of its faster refresh rate and/or the Parapet for max shield hp. As for the QT drive you are looking at the Erebos or Metis (I believe these are the only ones available for purchase in game at the moment), this will bump your QT time down pretty significantly imo. If that's something that you want to do but isn't necessary. As for your power plant and coolers, the stock ones are fine I think. You could upgrade them but I don't really think it would make a significant difference. Really you're just looking at whether they are Civilian, Industrial or military at that point.

Keep in mind this is all just theory crafting and I have not tested any of this in game.

I am fine with all this being theory: sometimes best thing is just try it and let it play out.

Thanks for the suggestion Roberto. Will look at the ballistic weapons to see the options, and I like the combination for different damage options.

Aepophis, I will probably start with the QT drive since that seemed to be a big part of chasing down bounties when we tried it last. Maybe the shield next, but I may do the ballistic cannons before that just to play aournd with the overall build.

I need to make a correction to my earlier post. I mentioned that the Erebos and Metis where available to buy in game. They are not, at least according to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uJia0JCt7sL3bvI_89ed-2TThnITCbMPN2yKbf-veAY/edit#gid=2124766287 . Instead you can still upgrade the QT drive to a Pontes drive which will knock off about 40 sec's from your travel time from PO to ArcCorp.