Zoltan Cruiser A

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hermanJnr.
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Mar 14, 2013 4:15 pm

Zoltan Cruiser A

Postby hermanJnr. » Fri Apr 11, 2014 3:11 pm

Does anyone have any useful tips for piloting the Zoltan Cruiser? I cannot for the life of me beat the game with it.

It just seems like an awful ship. You start with pathetic shields and engines, and yet incredibly OP weapon loadout (for the first two sectors or so). So you kill everything almost instantly with the beam.

Then your enemies start getting 2+ shields, so you need to have upgraded weapons to keep using your beam...this I can manage.

However, there just isn't enough scrap to upgrade my engines + shields + reactors too, and I inevitably get smashed to pieces by missiles or drones. Even if I ration my scrap and save up like crazy, I find you end up with huge shortcomings in the power department. The Zoltan ability to put 1 power bar into a room seems borderline useless: am I just using them incorrectly? :s
itg
Posts: 130
Joined: Fri Nov 08, 2013 8:37 am

Re: Zoltan Cruiser A

Postby itg » Sat Apr 12, 2014 6:33 am

I think you have it backwards. You start with an excellent shield (i.e. the Zoltan shield), but you weapons are weak--the Halberd beam is great later on, but it's too slow for the early game, and the Leto missile chews through ammo.

With this ship, you want to upgrade your engines first, in order to make that Zoltan shield last longer. This is one of the few ships where you might go quite some time without level 2 shields. You need a new weapon soon, since the Leto is crap and the Halberd beam needs help to get through shields. If you don't find a good weapon (or even if you do), hacking is great for taking down shields to let the beam work its magic.

Getting a non-Zoltan to pilot is also a small priority, so that you can take advantage of your former pilot's power.

The Zoltan's power ability is far from useless. Early on, it saves you about 25 scrap, which is nice but not game breaking, but later on, Zoltans will let you power systems beyond the reactor cap, which is extremely useful.
Iranon
Posts: 57
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 7:33 am

Re: Zoltan Cruiser A

Postby Iranon » Fri Apr 18, 2014 4:51 pm

Also, Zoltan power can't be ioned out... 2 Zoltans in the shield room mean your shields can only be reduced to one bubble by ion weapons and your other systems are entirely safe.
I buy more Zoltans than anything else.

Zoltan shield is also one of the best augmentations in the game.

The Zoltan ships are all good if slightly awkward.
A has servicable but cumbersome weapons. B has excellent weapons but can randomly lose to hazards (or drones) and lacks the long range scanners to avoid them. C has potential but that gimped reactor is annoying.
ForceUser
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed May 14, 2014 1:13 pm

Re: Zoltan Cruiser A

Postby ForceUser » Wed May 14, 2014 2:15 pm

I've been having a ton of fun in my Zoltan A and almost beat the game with it.

You are super powerful in the first 2 sectors and you need to take as much advantage of that as possible. Learning how to maximize the hits with the beam is super important. You can do up to 8 or 10 damage in a single shot with the beam weapon for example. If you can make the most of those early sectors the rest will be easy as heck.

Getting more zoltans is great and getting a non zoltan crew member or two is also great (for piloting and manning the doors, a mantis is great for the doors) You also need to learn how to juggle power with the zoltans (I have two zoltans in my shield station at all times for example) and often I maximise engine power until they break through the shields then switch some power to the shield gen.

Getting boarded on this thing is hilarious. All you do is just open the airlocks and suffocate the intruders as they try and shoot through the super blast doors. Usually I kill the enemy ship before the boarders die. I do have to run my zoltans form room to room as they break through but they usually die before they reach the engine/O2 room.

Getting two ion weapons is just borderline OP especially if one of them is a blast 2. Just target the enemies weapon systems with your ions and soon as their shields is down hit them with the beam weapon.
ZackD. FTL
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon May 19, 2014 3:29 am

Re: Zoltan Cruiser A

Postby ZackD. FTL » Mon May 19, 2014 3:56 am

Last night I was using Zoltan A and an easy combo is glaive beam and flak 2 because you flak the shields continuously and glaive the rest until the flagship is dead and get an easy victory. *The recharge on flak 2 and flagship cloak is about same which is very anoying so wait for flagship cloak then shoot.
project_mercy
Posts: 117
Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2014 12:31 am

Re: Zoltan Cruiser A

Postby project_mercy » Mon May 19, 2014 6:29 am

Man, I love Zoltan A. The only thing bad about it is the layout, but it's not nearly as bad as B and C. I'm not a huge fan of having more than 2 zoltan crew, but the other ones' not a bad placeholder until you can find someone useful. If you can get a few new crew quickly, you can move two zoltan into the shield room. This gives you 1 bubble of shields that are immune to ion damage. This is huge, especially in environmental risks like asteroid fields and pulsars.

I love the Halberd beam. It combines extremely well with a lot of other options (flak, burst lasers, ion bursts, etc), and it can eat up ships with high evasion. It's only 1 second longer (not adjusted for piloting/augments) than the pike beam, but it eats through 1 bubble of shield. That means a burst laser I and a halberd beam, can damage a 3-shield ship, and actually do some decent system damage. Combined with a Flak I or BL2 and you can almost destroy any ship until the last sector. On some ships you can even hit 6 rooms with the thing. Early on it can be problematic on other ships, because the initial salvo from the enemy can take it down with a stray shot. But with the zoltan shield, you're pretty much guaranteed to get it off, and since it can't miss and they all have 1 shield bubble, you're pretty well set at messing up the other ship. Hit the shields, engines, and weapons in the same shot and the other ship is effectively crippled, his crew are running around fighting things, and you're open to smooth sailing. I would say it's only slightly behind BL2s as my favorite weapon.

As mentioned, the Zoltan Shield is great and generally energy efficient outside of things like asteroid fields. Instead of upgrading shields early, you can upgrade engines instead, which allows you to run the Rebel Fleet ASB and makes the shield last longer. It also puts a nice buffer between your zoltans any any early boarding ships. Combined with a defense drone (or even defense II) you can really run large portions of the game without taking a pip of damage.
MightyThor2000
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2013 4:11 am

Re: Zoltan Cruiser A

Postby MightyThor2000 » Mon May 19, 2014 3:33 pm

I've never had a huge issue with it on easy anyway, the halberd can kill ships on it's own in sector 1 and 2, they usually don't get through your shield before then, and I usually have plenty of scrap to find at least one laser and upgrade shields one time.
Levgre
Posts: 118
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2014 3:35 pm

Re: Zoltan Cruiser A

Postby Levgre » Mon May 19, 2014 7:45 pm

Zoltan A is an extremely strong ship, I'd say within the top 5 on hard difficulty. So far I've won the good majority of my games with it. The Halberd beam now is one of the most consistent weapon layouts for transitioning into mid game, because hacking compliments it so well. You don't have to go store to store fishing for a weapon, like for some other ships, which can be a waste of a jump. The leto is not bad for spamming some missiles to reduce enemy shields + weapons, until you get more suitable weapons.

The Zoltan Shield's best use is probably avoiding some random missile damage and system losses. You can by no means rely on it as a defense later on over the standard shields + engines, but it is a great augmentation until the end.

As far as what Zoltan A starts out with, it has to be at the higher end in raw scrap value.