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[RPG Wizard]

Hit ratio is the same for all weapons in the game, right? At least it's not acknowledged otherwise anywhere. Of course, a single shot will have a lower chance of hitting at least once than two shots.

The Heavy Laser is the one that fires once for 2 damage, right? Yeah, not the best weapon in the game. If used against a shield it does the exact same as a Basic Laser, and if used against no shields, any beam is probably better. According to the wiki it takes as much energy and shoots as fast as a Basic Laser, so I guess it's better by definition; on the other hand, that's not exactly an accomplisment.

Burst Laser II is the best power value/damage weapon in the GAME. (That you can buy. It incidentally has a very high rarity.) You're getting 3 shots for 2 power, which means that a full array of four is unstoppable. Burst laser 1 is strictly worse than the dual laser, but on the same note is STILL two shots. (And two shots are better than one!) Similarly, Heavy Laser is not a bad weapon, but you'll want stuff that gets more hits or missiles to back them up. That said, Hull lasers are great. They're 2 for 2 or 3 for 3, which is not a bad deal at all.

 

[Hero]

Getting hang of the game now but is there anything I can do to not die to being boarded? I upgraded my blast shields but they seem to walk right through them.

 

[inky]

Getting hang of the game now but is there anything I can do to not die to being boarded? I upgraded my blast shields but they seem to walk right through them.

If your doors are not yet upgraded and they seem to have the upper hand, just pause the game, open all the doors and let the oxygen out in every room but a few key ones (where you plan on fighting or having one of your crew stationed), then lure them to the medbay (don't vent the medbay of course). It is impossible to lose a fight there. As soon as you have them where you want them, just press the close all doors button again.

If they TP to a room close to a vent door and you have the doors upgraded just vent that room and open the rest in stages. They will lose a lot of health just trying to open the doors. Remember, if there is no oxygen they will prioritize the next door and leave the ship's systems alone.

 

[Hero]

If your doors are not yet upgraded and they seem to have the upper hand, just pause the game, open all the doors and let the oxygen out in every room but a few key ones (where you plan on fighting or having one of your crew stationed), then lure them to the medbay (don't vent the medbay of course). It is impossible to lose a fight there. As soon as you have them where you want them, just press the close all doors button again.

If they TP to a room close to a vent door and you have the doors upgraded just vent that room and open the rest in stages. They will lose a lot of health just trying to open the doors. Remember, if there is no oxygen they will prioritize the next door and leave the ship's systems alone.

Ahhh gotcha, thanks for the tip!

I also didn't realize that since I switched to the second ship two of my guys were Engi's and had reduced combat efficiency.

 

[EvilDick34]

Fucking Gaf, this game!!! Started it about 1130pm and now it is 115 in the morning, wtf. I was doing so well to. I made it to Zoltan space and was still doing well even though at one point i had 6 crew members with my original crew of Picard, Data and Riker..but the wheels came off at the end . I let the last two die of asphyxiation ARGHHHH. I forgot to close the air locks to space as they went in to repair the Oxygen SIGH, ironic kinda huh? LOL.


Edit: DAT MARK III laser, pew pew pew pew pew laid waste to many ships as i spammed my artemis missiles in the beginning of the game and ran out several times.

 

[balddemon]

I think we need a race that doesn't need oxygen, similar to how the rocks are immune to fire. Maybe make them as rare as Zoltan or Slugs, otherwise similar to Humans.

 

[Balehead]

FTL 2: Rise of the Machines

 

[evangd007]

I just did a fantastic run of the Stealth Cruiser Type A on normal, I feel I finally have its early game down and can get to sector 3 with just starting equipment and save up scrap for shields and weapons.

Over 4000 points, my highest score yet, and I obtained a Glaive Beam for the first time. That thing is pimp. However I died on phase 2 of the flagship. I swear it was a glitch: I stealthed right as he did his power surge and avoided all the damage, but right when I came out of stealth he immediately power surged again. I could not recover from the damage I took. It also didn't help that my bombs kept missing. I also need to manage the boarding drone in that phase better. In hindsight I think it was a poor decision to keep my boarding crew on my ship to fight it when I still could have taken out two of their isolated weapons systems (I had already taken out the missiles, #1 priority).

I think we need a race that doesn't need oxygen, similar to how the rocks are immune to fire. Maybe make them as rare as Zoltan or Slugs, otherwise similar to Humans.

I think Boarding Drones, Anti-Personnel Drones, and System Repair Drones are supposed to fill that void. Also Crystals take less suffocation damage, but they're extraordinarily rare.

 

[Parallacs]

The first time I won the game, my pilot was named Charlie. Ever since then, I always name my pilot Charlie.

I then proceed to say ChaRRRRRRlie like that annoying Candy Land Mountain video, the whole time I am playing.

I know it is stupid, but it's a great way to relieve stress when it gets hard.

 

[Weltall Zero]

I swear it was a glitch: I stealthed right as he did his power surge and avoided all the damage, but right when I came out of stealth he immediately power surged again.

Was it a long cloak? Power surges are every 20 something seconds or so, while a level 3 cloaking is 15 seconds long, and cloaking cooldown (in general) is about 20 seconds. That's why you want to cloak with the lowest level (1 bar) and drop it immediately after the power surge is over, otherwise you'll eat a second power surge five seconds into your cooldown.

I think we need a race that doesn't need oxygen, similar to how the rocks are immune to fire. Maybe make them as rare as Zoltan or Slugs, otherwise similar to Humans.

The secret

Spoiler

race has exactly that (not complete immunity as that'd be a game breaker, but much decreased HP loss) as one of its abilities

.

 

[RPG Wizard]

I just did a fantastic run of the Stealth Cruiser Type A on normal, I feel I finally have its early game down and can get to sector 3 with just starting equipment and save up scrap for shields and weapons.

Over 4000 points, my highest score yet, and I obtained a Glaive Beam for the first time. That thing is pimp. However I died on phase 2 of the flagship. I swear it was a glitch: I stealthed right as he did his power surge and avoided all the damage, but right when I came out of stealth he immediately power surged again. I could not recover from the damage I took. It also didn't help that my bombs kept missing. I also need to manage the boarding drone in that phase better. In hindsight I think it was a poor decision to keep my boarding crew on my ship to fight it when I still could have taken out two of their isolated weapons systems (I had already taken out the missiles, #1 priority).

Any tips for the stealth challenged, like me? I tend to go for every ship I can in the first two sectors, usually upgrade stealth one level, and scream in rage when pit against beam drones. I tend to try to wait for the last second before cloaking, and time my dual laser shots so that they're right before cloaking and my mini beam right after. I always hit for 3 or 4 with the mini beam as well.

Anything I'm missing, should be doing, or are doing wrong?

 

[evangd007]

Was it a long cloak? Power surges are every 20 something seconds or so, while a level 3 cloaking is 15 seconds long, and cloaking cooldown (in general) is about 20 seconds. That's why you want to cloak with the lowest level (1 bar) and drop it immediately after the power surge is over, otherwise you'll eat a second power surge five seconds into your cooldown.

It was a long cloak, but I was working under the assumption that, like everything else, it stops charging while I am cloaked. It also only occurred in that manner once, which I find odd if it does indeed occur every 20 seconds, no questions asked.

Any tips for the stealth challenged, like me? I tend to go for every ship I can in the first two sectors, usually upgrade stealth one level, and scream in rage when pit against beam drones. I tend to try to wait for the last second before cloaking, and time my dual laser shots so that they're right before cloaking and my mini beam right after. I always hit for 3 or 4 with the mini beam as well.

Anything I'm missing, should be doing, or are doing wrong?

Combat tactics: You need two strategies based upon the loadout of the enemy you are facing:

If they have beams or offensive drones, cloak immediately so that you can most certainly get the first volley in. Aim for the weapons if they have beams and the drone control center if they have drones. If you are lucky, you'll cripple them and they won't be able to fight back.

If they don't have beams or offensive drones, wait until the enemy has fired their weapons to cloak. The in-transit projectiles will likely miss and their weapons cooldown meters will be frozen, giving you nearly a 2 volley advantage.

In both cases do the dual laser mini beam combo where you activate the beam right after the shields fall to the laser.


Encounter logistics: I'd advise against going after every ship you see, try to strike a good balance between ship and non-ship encounters. Sure non-ship encounters may be nothing, but they also may be those scientists who give you free loot and a weapon or drone. For ship encounters, don't be afraid to run away if you feel outclassed. You start with 4 engines which charges up your FTL pretty damn fast.

Also, when faced with a choice as to whether to fight an enemy or not, be judicious. If they are offering free stuff and they look like they'd take some hull points from you, just take the loot and leave. Take into account your current situation (weapon strength, hull left) and try to make educated assumptions about the enemy based on their visual. Unlike other ships, early on for the Stealth Cruiser Missile=good matchup and Beam=bad matchup. Only 1 weapon likely means they have drones.

Try to save up ~150 scrap (count weapons and drones you intend to sell) then hit up stores to pick up a shield or pimp weapon. Prioritize cloak if you have spare scrap.


Advanced tactics: Using the Stealth Cruiser taught me the value of evasion, pause, and power management. Don't be afraid to reroute power from your Medbay and O2 to combat systems like shields, engines, and weapons. Use pause to time your mini beam shots right after the shields go down. Using pause also gives you the necessary time to use cloak at the absolute last moment before a projectile will hit you, and can be used to reroute power to engines from O2 and Medbay while projectiles are in transit. Remember that the only advantage of having high engine power while the enemy isn't shooting at you is faster FTL charging, so you can repower O2 and Medbay while the enemy's weapons are on cooldown.


PHEW... that ended up much longer and more comprehensive than I intended. Though after trying and failing with the Stealth Cruiser for so long I had better know a lot about it.

 

[mercviper]

Has anyone tried to find a surefire way to kill anti-ship drones? I read that it will happen randomly if your laser fire runs into the drone, and I've had it happen to me plenty of times. Does this mean if you time your salvo properly you can hit anti-ship drones 100% of the time? This could be really huge considering that I haven't seen the computer replace any lost drones, but that only applies to on-board ones. I haven't really paid attention too much to see if they replace their space drones. If they don't, you can really cripple enemy ship firepower that use drones.

Playing with the Bio Beam yesterday I killed a bunch of service drones, and yes, the AI replaces drones readily. So I guess this theory is bunk.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

I'm a terrible teleport user. I almost never want to send my guys over, I feel like they'll get killed all the time or I'll destroy the ship while they are on it.

I also learned that AI ships don't have oxygen the hard way had a freak run where I had 7 crew on the first level due to random pickups, sent my insect and rock guy over there and they choked to death while the 1 bar teleport cooled down FROWN.

 

[toddhunter]

I'm a terrible teleport user. I almost never want to send my guys over, I feel like they'll get killed all the time or I'll destroy the ship while they are on it.

I also learned that AI ships don't have oxygen the hard way had a freak run where I had 7 crew on the first level due to random pickups, sent my insect and rock guy over there and they choked to death while the 1 bar teleport cooled down FROWN.

Yeah 2 bar teleporter is the key. It is a cheap upgrade and means no matter what goes wrong, you can get them back.

 

[fierrotlepou]

Why is this game so good? It's so simple, yet I love it. Together with Hotline Miami these are great games.

 

[Weltall Zero]

It was a long cloak, but I was working under the assumption that, like everything else, it stops charging while I am cloaked. It also only occurred in that manner once, which I find odd if it does indeed occur every 20 seconds, no questions asked.

It was more or less obvious to me that the power surges ignore the "no charge while cloaking" rule (like they ignore most other rules), since, well, it can finish charging them and fire them without a problem WHILE you are in the middle of a cloak. But still, I looked it up and the wiki itself confirms:

Although most enemy weapons cannot charge up during cloak, one notable exception is the Rebel Flagship's Power Surge in its second and third forms, which fires on a timer independent of targetting.

I also found it cool that they recommend the exact same strategy I posted a few days back, above, i.e. keeping it at the lowest charge and firing immediately after to deplete the cloak timer.

As such, when fighting the Rebel Flagship, one should either keep the Cloak system on a lower power level so that it is available during each volley, or fire a weapon immediately after Power Surge ends to decloak and begin the cloak cooldown.

Playing with the Bio Beam yesterday I killed a bunch of service drones, and yes, the AI replaces drones readily. So I guess this theory is bunk.

Wait, the Bio Beam can kill drones? I guess it makes sense from a "videogame" standpoint, but them being, well, not biological, I assumed they'd be invulnerable. Although by that token, the Engi should too...

I'm a terrible teleport user. I almost never want to send my guys over, I feel like they'll get killed all the time or I'll destroy the ship while they are on it.

That is a well justified fear and it will happen to you a few times, but I realized early that the only way to learn how to board effectively is, well, to board. The experience you'll gain is more valuable in the long run that any crew member you lose. Some tips, though:
1) Do not board a severely damaged ship that's on fire: each system being destroyed by fire (turning red) deducts a hull point, and this can and will eventually destroy a ship, potentially with your crew inside.
2) This should be obvious, but shut down your weapons when boarding it unless absolutely neccesary. Not only do you risk destroying the ship, you risk hitting your crew themselves with them.
3) More so than destroying the ship, a very big risk with boarding is the ship FTLing away. It comes out of nowhere the first few times; since you stop attacking they have more time to charge their FTL, and also you usually can't disable the cockpit or engines without damaging the ship. I THINK ships that don't start FTLing away at the very beginning, will not start doing so from crew loss, so as long as you don't attack them too much you should be fine.

Any tips for the stealth challenged, like me? I tend to go for every ship I can in the first two sectors, usually upgrade stealth one level, and scream in rage when pit against beam drones. I tend to try to wait for the last second before cloaking, and time my dual laser shots so that they're right before cloaking and my mini beam right after. I always hit for 3 or 4 with the mini beam as well.

Anything I'm missing, should be doing, or are doing wrong?

After maxing cloak, pump engines to compensate for the shields. The good news is that no shield will leave you with lots of scrap and power bars to put towards them.
I actually don't agree with holding on the use of the cloak until they fire a salvo: for one, cloaking is awesome combined with slow weapons; using that strategy lets them charge their weapons, then miss with one-two of them, then you're left with a long cloak that will have all your weapons ready halfway through, but also the rest of them a few seconds after you decloak. I'd rather use the first cloak to charge my weapons, then get the first strike with devastating firepower, usually giving me enough time to cloak again. Using the cloak as soon as possible and synching it with my weapons gives me the largest percentage of cloak time too.
There's more tips in my huge-ass post a few pages back, but evangd007's tips are very good too.

Why is this game so good? It's so simple, yet I love it. Together with Hotline Miami these are great games.

Why "yet"? "Simple" is a GOOD quality. It's "deep" that you want, not "complex". Go is simple. Chess is simple.

 

[RPG Wizard]

Wait, the Bio Beam can kill drones? I guess it makes sense from a "videogame" standpoint, but them being, well, not biological, I assumed they'd be invulnerable. Although by that token, the Engi should too...

Clearly drones are also made of nanites, and the bio beam is calibrated to kill nanites.

After maxing cloak, pump engines to compensate for the shields. The good news is that no shield will leave you with lots of scrap and power bars to put towards them.
I actually don't agree with holding on the use of the cloak until they fire a salvo: for one, cloaking is awesome combined with slow weapons; using that strategy lets them charge their weapons, then miss with one-two of them, then you're left with a long cloak that will have all your weapons ready halfway through, but also the rest of them a few seconds after you decloak. I'd rather use the first cloak to charge my weapons, then get the first strike with devastating firepower, usually giving me enough time to cloak again. Using the cloak as soon as possible and synching it with my weapons gives me the largest percentage of cloak time too.

Well, no, I fire everything that's not a beam right when I cloak. (Thus they miss, I hit, do damage, and often knock their stuff offline while preventing the rest of their stuff from charging) Generally my weapons finish charging right about when they fire, so it's a triple synch. If I get better stuff, I do start moving toward the alpha strike strategy. (Though that's...not too common an occurrence.) Also, "slow weapons" assumes that I've gotten something better than the starting stuff, which I have difficulty pulling off. I usually get up to sector 4 with a burst laser 1 in addition to my other stuff, and then get get nailed by a 5% missile or something equally infuriating.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Clearly drones are also made of nanites, and the bio beam is calibrated to kill nanites.

Heh, that might also explain why you can construct any kind of drone with "Drone Parts". I guess those are simply vats of nanomachines?

Well, no, I fire everything that's not a beam right when I cloak. (Thus they miss, I hit, do damage, and often knock their stuff offline while preventing the rest of their stuff from charging) Generally my weapons finish charging right about when they fire, so it's a triple synch.

Um... but what about ships with weapons faster than yours? There's no way you can fire your weapons before them, meaning you have to choose between either cloaking before your weapons are ready (wasting cloak time when you fire), or take the first hit.

If I get better stuff, I do start moving toward the alpha strike strategy. (Though that's...not too common an occurrence.) Also, "slow weapons" assumes that I've gotten something better than the starting stuff, which I have difficulty pulling off. I usually get up to sector 4 with a burst laser 1 in addition to my other stuff, and then get get nailed by a 5% missile or something equally infuriating.

Hmmm. I've only tried once in Normal with the Nesasio ever since I finished the game on Easy with it, and I got to sector 8 that time with my strategy... I'll try again sometime and let you know how it goes.

Also, here's my idea for a race. Make something like one of those guys:

Yeah, plant people. Pros: They generate oxygen at a slow rate. Cons: Take extra damage (150% or 200%) from fire.

 

[hom3land]

How do you deploy droids? I have one in my cargo and can't figure how to use it.

and nevermind. got a new ship and now I understand.

 

[mercviper]

How do you deploy droids? I have one in my cargo and can't figure how to use it.

You spend 80 scrap for a drone system, and then you can power it up.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Victory on Normal with the Rock Ship A (Bulwark). I really don't like that ship (dislike missiles), but it wasn't so bad once I got a few normal weapons (mostly, a Glaive Beam I bought, and later on, looted a Burst Laser 3 from a ship that offered me a weapon for 65, scammed me, then I killed its crew ). Those two combined with the cloak were a death sentence for everything that crossed my path, including the flagship.

Two things I already knew but were really reinforced this run:
1) A teleporter and two mantii (and a way to disable Medbays) will make your life much easier. Rewards for boarding are so, so much better than destroying (to say nothing of surrendering, worst of the three). I already knew this, but in the late part of this run the difference was amazing. I literally didn't know what else to upgrade.
2) If you can kill all the enemy crew except for the second-from-left gunner (the tri-laser) during the first form, and you have a cloak and teleporter, you've basically won. You don't even need weapons to pierce the 4 level shields!

I still didn't get even a single achievement for that ship. :/

 

[Jackben]

What's a good playstyle to use for gettling the unlockables? The only secret ship I've unlocked are the Torus and the Osprey. Also I can never get a slug to join my crew, they seem so damn rare.

 

[Snuggles]

What's a good playstyle to use for gettling the unlockables? The only secret ship I've unlocked are the Torus and the Osprey. Also I can never get a slug to join my crew, they seem so damn rare.

I've found plenty of slugs but I never run into the quest required for the unlock.

 

[Weltall Zero]

I've found plenty of slugs but I never run into the quest required for the unlock.

Me neither. It's the only ship I've not unlocked yet. :/ I've let go dozens of slug ships in exchange for their cargo, but so far none at all have yielded the next quest step as per the wiki.

 

[TerminalDogma]

I finally did it! After 28 Hours with this game I finally beat the Flagship (on easy, lol). And this time it was a cakewalk too. I think my main problems before were I would never take out their weapons, for some reason. I never thought of boarding and destroying the weapons, and this time I did (along with some very timely cloaks during the second and third phases). Unfortuantely the boarding thing bit me in the ass a little bit, since I had my two manti on board as it was destroyed in the first phase. I was still able to handle anything boarding my ship in the second and third phases though, even without my poor manti. I would have had a no death run if I had only gotten them back on board in time. But either way, hoooo haaaaa! I FINALLY beat that bastard ship! Now to move onto normal.

 

[sangreal]

I've found plenty of slugs but I never run into the quest required for the unlock.

make sure you're letting every slug ship surrender. speaking of... I fell 1 jump short of the nebula achievement for the slug ship... because I unlocked one of the other ones (view every room) and thought I had completed it

What's a good playstyle to use for gettling the unlockables? The only secret ship I've unlocked are the Torus and the Osprey. Also I can never get a slug to join my crew, they seem so damn rare.

play on easy... long range sensors probably help too, but i've never needed them. the only other advice I can give is pay attention to the map at the end of each sector. depending on what ship you're going for plot as many red or as many green as you can

 

[RPG Wizard]

AGHHHH.

Spoiler

Stage 3

of the final boss, Nesasio. Managed to get REALLY lucky and get a Burst Laser 2 in the store (GOD TIER) and then upon completing the Zoltan quest, got a Hull Buster II (ALMOST AS GOOD) along with my dual laser meant I was shooting 8 at a time. (Also sold everything for a pre-igniter in sector 4. SO DAMN GOOD.) More than enough to pierce shields and rack up damage! With that much firepower, managed to buy shields and get them up to level 3, so I was rocking level 3 shields, 4 engine, and 8 lasers. (I did TERRIBLY on crew this run. Got a Charlie in sector 7, and bought two humans in sector 8 because I needed a boarding party to wipe out the weapon crew.)

Spoiler

Stage 2 screwed me due to my defense drone missing the boarding drone -> Boarding drone knocks out oxygen -> Have to run boarding team over to kill drone, shield guy over to repair hull breach and oxygen -> All three lasers hitting the shields, and me being forced to either cloak prematurely to deal with the two attack drones or take a hit and cloak for the power surge. Opted for the former, but got caught on the tail end, and then tried the latter but got my cloak hit.

Managed to get out with 5 hull left, and decided to go for it. (I WISH I had had a hull repair drone. That game was MINE.) Wipe out the zoltan shield, send in boarders to wipe out the missiles, cloak to dodge missiles and first power shield, CANNOT LAND LASERS (2 full batteries), mis-time a cloak SLIGHTLY and get nailed by missiles right before they go down from the boarders, taking out my cloak, and then the surge goes off and I explode.

3500+ points, but agh, didn't get dodging 9 points (That seems finicky!) and still haven't managed to wipe out a foe in one cloaking. *sigh* I really need a glaive beam or cloaked shooting, but neither one showed up.

Still, almost had it. Just a little better luck and I'll get it. Now I'll play 10 more runs that just go belly-up right off the bat.

 

[Weltall Zero]

OK, I found the game's Hard Mode.

Mantis B, Normal difficulty. Holy freaking crap. In a handful of tries I've not been able to get past sector ONE. :S So damn frustrating as well, having to repair half the systems of the ship with just two mantii.

I think I'm done with that particular challenge for now...

 

[Balehead]

Is this the run? Found

Spoiler

Augment: Stasis Pod on sector 3.

edit: Nope. 3 sectors of nothing after that.

 

[Forkball]

Don't attack mantis ships.

Even on easy.

Dammit.

 

[fierrotlepou]

Upgrade doors first and foremost. It'll obviously delay them when they have to beat down doors. Second point to that, vent whatever rooms they are in to slowly drain the O2, and slowly kill them that way. Thirdly, always try to lead them to the first aid room. You want to be fighting them while you regain health.

How do you 'vent' one specific room?

 

[evangd007]

I actually don't agree with holding on the use of the cloak until they fire a salvo: for one, cloaking is awesome combined with slow weapons; using that strategy lets them charge their weapons, then miss with one-two of them, then you're left with a long cloak that will have all your weapons ready halfway through, but also the rest of them a few seconds after you decloak. I'd rather use the first cloak to charge my weapons, then get the first strike with devastating firepower, usually giving me enough time to cloak again. Using the cloak as soon as possible and synching it with my weapons gives me the largest percentage of cloak time too.
There's more tips in my huge-ass post a few pages back, but evangd007's tips are very good too.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

Insofar as the holding of cloak, I find it very useful early on when enemies generally only have 2-3 weapons all of CDs of 9-11 seconds. Accounting for projectile travel time it's quite doable to dodge everything.

I just finished a highly, highly unlikely successful Slug Cruiser run. Got two ship achievements (vision of enemy ship without sensors and travel to 30 nebula locations) to unlock Slug Cruiser B and defeated the flagship, 3830 points total.

I though my loadout was absolute shit. I obtained a ton of weapons over the course of the game, but they were all beams, bombs, and missiles. I was praying and hoping for an ion or laser something but it never really came until I bought a Burst II in a late sector. Still, I was struggling to take out enemy shields to the point where I thought that the flagship would wipe the floor with me. Not the case evidently. Teleport spam to the weapons neutered its offense, with my 11th hour Defense Drone II taking care of everything else that got through. Defense Drone II is stupid good. After that I could take my time to wear down the flagship, even if that meant praying I can kill it before I run out of missiles. Not a bad outcome for my second try at the Slug Cruiser.

RIP my two starting slugs, who perished when they were in a room on the flagship that was targeted by my lasers. Damn autofire.

 

[O.DOGG]

Damnit, had 2 out of 3 to get the *secret* (

Spoiler

it's a secret!

) ship, and ran out of sectors. Well, on the upside I beat the game with the Rock ship for the first time but that's a small consolation

 

[Typographenia]

I'm so terrified right now. I've somehow managed to reach the very last sector on my first playthrough, and my ship is at like 1/3 hull integrity, I have like 2 missiles, and 9 scrap. You've served me well, my crew, but I fear our journey ends here.

It has been a pleasure to know you all.

 

[jon bones]

finally copped this game after hearing so much about it. super rad, itches that rougelike fix i've been needing since dredmor.

 

[Typographenia]

The S.S. Motley Hotdog is no more.




I wanted to take my first ship slowly and try my best to see how far I could get. I honestly didn't expect to make it even half way across the map, but I managed to reach the very end. Shoot, I got more attached to my crew than I did to most game characters this last year. Luckily, I never once lost a crew member until the very end when our ship blew apart in a blaze of glory. It was a ton of fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing how things change in my next runs. Great, great game. I have much to learn, and Weltall Zero's posts seem to be the kind of information I was lacking, hahaha.

*salutes the SSMH crew*

 

[Weltall Zero]

The S.S. Motley Hotdog is no more.[...]

Wow, you reached sector 8 on your first try without any tips? That's an amazing accomplishment in itself! :O

I'm glad that my tips will be of service to you and your crew in your future assignments. I should get my lazy ass to update them with stuff I learned both from other GAFers and on my own. It's amazing how

Ah, one thing I learned on the official forums and I did update my tips about it, but haven't mentioned it after the fact. Apparently beam weapons DON'T decrease the stealth timer, so you're free to use them from stealth with impunity. Of course, the occasion where this will actually be useful are very limited, as typically you'd need to weaken their shields first, but hey, it's there.

 

[RPG Wizard]

Ah, one thing I learned on the official forums and I did update my tips about it, but haven't mentioned it after the fact. Apparently beam weapons DON'T decrease the stealth timer, so you're free to use them from stealth with impunity. Of course, the occasion where this will actually be useful are very limited, as typically you'd need to weaken their shields first, but hey, it's there.

Hence why I'd fire the lasers, activate stealth and then beam weapon. Get full stealth time with it.

 

[fierrotlepou]

FUCK THAT LAST FIGHT! I HAD EVERYTHING.

I guess it's really necessary to have cloak...

 

[McNum]

FUCK THAT LAST FIGHT! I HAD EVERYTHING.

I guess it's really necessary to have cloak...

Cloak is nice. But you had a teleporter and a rockman. If you send him and a human to the missile launcher they can beat up the guy there and break it. Repeat for each weapon if you want to, it'll render the Flagship harmless for the rest of the battle.

Now for what comes after, you want cloaking. But keep breaking the missile launcher.

 

[fierrotlepou]

Cloak is nice. But you had a teleporter and a rockman. If you send him and a human to the missile launcher they can beat up the guy there and break it. Repeat for each weapon if you want to, it'll render the Flagship harmless for the rest of the battle.

Now for what comes after, you want cloaking. But keep breaking the missile launcher.

All right, thanks for the tip. Going for it!

EDIT:

DAMN IT. Now I died at the second stage, while the first stage was so easy.

Used my Cloak too soon.

I feel sad that I only discovered this game now instead of much earlier. There's no activity here.

 

[balddemon]

All right, thanks for the tip. Going for it!

EDIT:

DAMN IT. Now I died at the second stage, while the first stage was so easy.

Used my Cloak too soon.

I feel sad that I only discovered this game now instead of much earlier. There's no activity here.

Yeah it's pretty dead, but I check the thread every day still. I just haven't played the game lately lol. Saints Row the 3rd, Serious Sam 3, Civ 5 are taking up my time.

 

[McNum]

I deliberately didn't mention the Power Surges. Some things are just meant to be seen on your own. Second phase: A defense drone is nice. Just a Mk. I will do. Keep cloak at two power or cut it early yourself when there's a Power Surge and it's over.

Also, three shields is minimum, four is better. Likewise, the more Engine power, the better. You can have a dodge rate of 50-ish% with a good pilot, engineer and full engine power.

Keep at it, no one bets the final boss on their first shot. And even people who can beat the game don't win every time.

 

[fierrotlepou]

Fuck this, I had everything and I just made some wrong jumps so I had to fight three rebel ships in the last stage before I could even reach the flagship. I returned for a repair and by then they were already at the base.

I would've won for sure. Quitting for a while now.

 

[Weltall Zero]

I deliberately didn't mention the Power Surges. Some things are just meant to be seen on your own. Second phase: A defense drone is nice. Just a Mk. I will do. Keep cloak at two power or cut it early yourself when there's a Power Surge and it's over.

Also, three shields is minimum, four is better. Likewise, the more Engine power, the better. You can have a dodge rate of 50-ish% with a good pilot, engineer and full engine power.

Keep at it, no one bets the final boss on their first shot. And even people who can beat the game don't win every time.

The one stumbling point for many people, actually, is phase 2's defense. With level 4 shields, a medbay preventing straight boarding, and that damn defense drone, some combinations simply can't get through 4 shields without using missiles, and therefore can't do a thing against it. It just happened to a friend of mine today, who happened to fight phase 2 for the first time. I can tell he wasn't pleased.

 

[Orcastar]

Whew, finished the game on normal on my 17th attempt with a final score of 4406 using the federation cruiser!

I really didn't think I had any chance of finishing, especially after some major screw-ups early on. For one I lost my mantis/rockman boarding party because I forgot to turn off my artillery beam while they were on board an enemy vessel. After that I skipped reading the event text in one event and ended up choosing the wrong option, which cost me another crewmember.

Even so I was doing pretty good by the time I got to sector 8, with a defense drone II, two burst laser IIs, a breach bomb and glaive beam (which I never actually used). Those in addition to the federation cruiser's artillery beam were shredding through everything that came my way, but my ship did have a glaring weakness: no cloaking! I think I saw the cloaking system on sale in the first sector, but after that I never saw it again in any of the stores I came across.

As it turns out, I didn't need no damn cloaking! First phase of the flagship was a breeze. The second stage was a lot tougher with all the drone flying around, but I pulled through with around 50% health. At this point I was gonna go back for repairs, but what do you know, the flagship decided to jump to the only star in the sector with a repair facility. Oh well, I thought I had no chance without cloaking anyway, so I went straight for it.

It was gruelling at first with the flagship's power surges and missile launcher, but somehow I managed to whittle down the initial Zoltan shield and get my mantis/human boarding party on board to take out the missile launcher. That afforded me some breathing room and I managed to repair all my damaged systems, by which time the flagship had regenerated the Zoltan shield (cheater!). However, with my full shields, defense drone and 40-something evasion, I managed to survive the power surges and the flagship's lasers long enough to get its shields down, after which the combined might of my burst lasers and artillery beam took it out in one fell swoop!

 

[Parallacs]

Final boss spoilers:

Spoiler

Phase one is the hardest of the three as long as you do the right things:

First, take out the missile launcher with a teleport crew (it is middle right).

Next, take out both side weapons.

DONT take out the three laser burst. Keep that guy alive.

The hardest part is taking out the human crew in the middle of the ship. I play the entire game for this very act. I try to have two sets of bombs. You don't need any other weapons at this point. No lasers or missiles. Killing the humans can be very hard with that med bay up. Teleporting to the med bay is a death sentence. It is time to get creative.

The best way to deal with it is to teleport to either the door control or bridge and start killing the person there. Before he runs to the medbay, immediately teleport over a bomb to disable the system. If you hit it hard enough, the human won't leave for healing. You can be devious and teleport over a firebomb to roast the crew while they are repairing it. Just keep bombing the medbay until they give up. Perhaps try to firebomb the cloaking just so you can keep recharging bombs. You really need about 30 on normal to get this done.

With the humans dead, save the laser dude, teleport over to the ship and take out the shields. If the fires are burning, sit back and let it burn down. Maybe keep a laser on hand to speed things up if the oxygen is getting low. Don't want that last guy to die.

With phase 1 done, the next two phases are cake. Remember to take out the missile immediately. I actually cloak the first few times on the missile salvos instead of the power surges. Teleport over to the vacant ship to take out drone control to prevent boarding. DON'T KILL LASER GUY.

TLDR: BOMBS and FIREBOMBS are all you need (and a small laser to take down the green shield).

 

[Mindlog]

Seeing the thread so active again inspired me to do another run.
Slipped it on easy for no good reason and broke my scrap record. What am I supposed to with 2758 scrap? I finished with ~500 scrap left over after buying everything useful from stores and upgrading everything on my ship.

I need to disable that easy mode.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Final boss spoilers:

Spoiler

Phase one is the hardest of the three as long as you do the right things:

Yep, that's the most solid strategy right now if you can afford it.

Spoiler

Bombs are ideal as they don't damage the hull. However, needing 30? I've never needed that many.
You actually CAN kill enemy crew without disabling the medbay first. One method is teleporting to the cockpit, and have a second boarding party teleported to the room immediately below it to hit the guy on his way to the medbay. Ideally, use rocks for the first and mantii for the second.
Another, devious one, is to simply hit the medbay with a bomb/missile just as he arrives to heal. With any luck you'll damage or even take it down and kill the injured crew in one fell swoop. Then it's a matter of having four guys on the destroyed medbay and praying (again, a combination of rocks and mantii, plus dominion over the technique of "switching fighting places" helps a lot).
Finally, if you simply can't manage to kil them all (and sometimes you can't), destroying the flagship the "normal" way isn't THAT hard, as long as you can get past Stage 2's defenses.

Seeing the thread so active again inspired me to do another run.
Slipped it on easy for no good reason and broke my scrap record. What am I supposed to with 2758 scrap? I finished with ~500 scrap left over after buying everything useful from stores and upgrading everything on my ship.

I need to disable that easy mode.

Definitely. After a few Normal runs, Easy becomes boring as all hell. Well, unless you play Mantis B or something I guess.

(I have to try an Easy Mantis B run just to recruit four mantii and have the murderous time of my life.)