Best Weapon Combos

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joepfern
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 5:25 am

Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby joepfern » Wed Feb 18, 2015 4:38 am

Is there a absolute best combo or is it based on your own play style? i want know please help.
JonasTheRoman
Posts: 34
Joined: Tue Oct 01, 2013 4:41 pm

Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby JonasTheRoman » Sat May 02, 2015 9:15 pm

joepfern wrote:Is there a absolute best combo or is it based on your own play style? i want know please help.


I think there is no absolute best weapon combo. There are many different possible weapons you can find which form many different possible weapon combination which can work pretty well in the end game.
In the end it often comes down to what weapons you actually find in your run. Then you have to decide which weapon strategy you want to go for this time. :)


Now to my question:
What do you guys think is the better combination?
- Vulcan and Ion Burst Mark 2 or
- Vulcan and Halberd Beam
(each combined with a small bomb)
I am playing the Mantis C, so this weapons will be combined with boarding.
I just can't decide which one is better. :? The game was throwing weapons at me, as I killed the enemy crew of every ship which had crew :D Now I'm very unsure on what to use, standing at the beginning of sector 8. Both combination worked out, as I am boarding the enemy and killing the crew, but this is also the reason I can't really tell which works better.

I could also use the Ion Burst Mk II combined with the Halberd of course, but I was quite happy as I found the Vulcan and would like to use it... Although, finding a Ion II is also quite nice... 8-)
The Captain
Posts: 390
Joined: Thu Mar 28, 2013 1:44 am

Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby The Captain » Sat May 02, 2015 10:33 pm

joepfern wrote:Is there a absolute best combo or is it based on your own play style? i want know please help.

If speed is what you're looking for, I don't know if you can beat L3 Hacking + 2 beams + other weapons, where you can do 22 HP of damage in one volley - that'll one-shot the boss each round (well, except for the last one, where you have to get the Zoltan Shield down first). But many combos can win the game, so in part it's what you like to do. But I recommend trying to get good at winning multiple ways, because you might not get your preferred combo.

JonasTheRoman wrote:Now to my question:
What do you guys think is the better combination?
- Vulcan and Ion Burst Mark 2 or
- Vulcan and Halberd Beam
(each combined with a small bomb)
I am playing the Mantis C, so this weapons will be combined with boarding.

I don't think the Vulcan goes very well with boarding, as it takes so long to get going. And once it does, you have to remember to untarget it, so you don't kill your boarders (of course with Clone Bay, maybe that's not a consideration).

If I use a Vulcan, I want my other weapons to be able to do some damage until the Vulcan is on rapid fire, so of the choices you listed, I'd want the Halberd Beam. But even that's not so good when the enemy gets enough Shields & Evasion where Small Bomb + Halberd isn't effective. I'd rather have some multishot laser (Burst Laser Mk I or II, Hull Laser Mk I) or Flak Mk I instead of the Vulcan, so that the Halberd could do some damage.
JonasTheRoman
Posts: 34
Joined: Tue Oct 01, 2013 4:41 pm

Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby JonasTheRoman » Sun May 03, 2015 11:37 am

You are right of course, but these are the weapons I found, I cannot get more lasers.

How I do it currently is disabling dangerous systems with the small bomb (Med-/Clonebay, missiles, ...).
I combined this with a defensive ship (high evasion, cloaking, defense drone, 4 level shields) to give the boarders more time.
The drone and the cloak get me through the time the Vulcan loads up. As soon as it is ready I can disable the weapons/drones/medbay/whatever completely and don't have to rely on the small bomb anymore.

This is not optimal for a boarding strategy, but it works. I discovered that the Vulcan is especially ineffective against a defense drone Mk. 2. That's where the bombs come in.
But I am still not sure whether I should use the Ion Blast or the Halberd. The Ion Blast gives me the possibility to make single damage in crucial systems (with the Vulcan) earlier. With the Halberd I could damage crew more precisely.
Ion + Halberd would enable me to do the same, but it would be more unreliable against high evasion enemies.

Edit: I just discovered that the Ion Blast also stuns enemies fairly often if I am fighting in the shields room. I didn't expected it to happen so often, so the Ion Blast may be the way to go. ;)
The Captain
Posts: 390
Joined: Thu Mar 28, 2013 1:44 am

Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby The Captain » Sun May 03, 2015 7:54 pm

Oops, I overlooked the Sector 8 part. I guess you didn't find the store?

Defense Mk IIs are a pain for your loadout. I remember using a Vulcan against one, but once it got going full speed, the DD couldn't quite keep up with it and my other weapons. But until then it was a bit frustrating.
SPACKlick
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 11:28 am

Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby SPACKlick » Tue Oct 06, 2015 11:59 am

Just had an insane run on the Zoltan C (Cerenkov)

Was running with a slug captain and 7 Zoltans, managed to get a huge haul of scrap early and a Chain Vulcan in Sector 2. Got a second in Sector 5 with a combat 2 drone.

The final boss my set up was

Weapons 8* - 2x Chain vulcan
Drones 8 - 2x Combat II drone
Oxygen 1
Clone Bay 3 - running at 1 power
Engines - 4*
Shields - 6* (7 on the last fight to provide one protection)
Mind Control - 2

Pilot 2*
Doors 1
Sensors 1
Augments - Zoltan Shield, Automated Reloader


I had a scrap recovery arm for most of the game and sold it at the store in sector 7 to get my last shields.
Once I got going the damage output was insane but there were some very hairy moments early on in the boss fights and I never had enough scrap the whole way along.

Was pretty sweet at the end of the fight though with 2 shots every .7 seconds from the vulcans and more from the combat 2's just burning through the boss's HP. Won't see a run like that again any time soon without a trainer.
Potatoes
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2014 6:13 am

Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby Potatoes » Tue Nov 03, 2015 1:09 am

Chain Vulcan + Ion Blast II = fun (and monstrous rate of fire). The use of the combo is fairly self-explanatory (energy-intensive, though).
Chloe10
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 5:45 pm

Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby Chloe10 » Mon Dec 14, 2015 5:49 pm

I believe overall for lasers, it's important to sync them up or you are at a disadvantage. So having lots of the same kind, whatever they may be, is very good.
Aphid
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri May 30, 2014 10:16 am

Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby Aphid » Tue Dec 15, 2015 2:22 pm

I've recently had the opportunity to enjoy a ship that could use more than 8 weapons power through its pre-igniter on the first volley. I'd say this takes the cake when it comes to ridiculous weapon configurations.

You could have say 4 burst laser IIIs and fire 20 lasers.

Best though would probably be 2x Flak 2, 2x Glaive Beam. potential ~40 damage right there (just a little overkill for anything except flagship phase 3, where with a little luck this can in fact destroy it in one volley (1.8% chance of hitting all flak shots. You can get 4 rooms x6 = 24 damage in with the beams)).

The trick to using it is to charge the weapon set you want to fire second (the beams, usually) before jumping to a new beacon. When those are charged, pause the game, switch power to the other weapons, and jump. Immediately pause after a battle starts, fire the first set of weapons, then quickly power the second set of weapons. They should be ready in a couple seconds if the timing is tight enough. Using weapons that take longer to fire (burst lasers) makes this technique harder to execute, as un-powering a burst laser mid-fire animation will cause it to stop firing, only releasing a partial volley. It works best with weapons that fire all projectiles instantly as the first set of weapons. For the second set, this obviously doesn't matter. Good candidates for the first set are big missiles and Flak guns.
Crystalman Ruwen
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2016 6:29 pm

Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby Crystalman Ruwen » Wed Mar 09, 2016 6:33 pm

The first time I defeated the flagship I used 3 flack gun mark 1's and a beam drone mark 2.
I was using the vortex, I have no idea how my first completion was with the vortex of all things.
Anyway flak/beam combo is a strong one.