Advanced Players: How are you beating normal?

[UltraMantis]

...Never risk it on a ship with cloak unless you have level 3 Sensors.

So wait. Now i learn that lvl3 sensors allow you to beam boarders back of a cloaked ship??

Holy expletive! i did not know that

[Gus Smedstad]

So wait. Now i learn that lvl3 sensors allow you to beam boarders back of a cloaked ship??

I'm pretty sure he means that you get to see the countdown on the cloak, so you know when it will happen. I almost never pay for level 3 sensors, though, so maybe I'm misreading this.

[SwordofAeons]

So wait. Now i learn that lvl3 sensors allow you to beam boarders back of a cloaked ship??

I'm pretty sure he means that you get to see the countdown on the cloak, so you know when it will happen. I almost never pay for level 3 sensors, though, so maybe I'm misreading this.

This. You can see the cooldown and if it's being auto-repaired.

[UltraMantis]

Ahh yes. That's still amazing though. I never though of it that way. I use lvl3 Sensors fairly often but it is to see which systems are being repaired and how much time it will take. It never occured to me to pay any attention to their cloak cooldown. But in my defense i try to take out the cloak and keep it down or ignore it completely

Still a good tip, thank you.

[peke]

I find that crew teleporter is, especially with atleast one mantis in crew, one of the best purchases early in the game. If I get teleporter on first sector I usually end up with boss-ready defensive gear (3 shields, 30%-40% dodge, lv1 cloak and possibly drone control) at around sector 5 and can spend rest of the game solely on upgrading weaponry. And after getting proper weapons I usually end up just throwing scrap around.

[UltraMantis]

Welcom to the forum peke. The teleporter is indeed a sweet little purchase early on esp if you picked up a Mantis. Usually the enemies wont have much power in the medbay or even have it at all.

By devoting earned scraps to defense (shields, evasion, maybe doors etc) you can ensure that you can survive the occasional deadly encounter and use your boarders as a weapon. Eventually you'll be sitting on a nice pile of scrap that can beef up your weaponry for the later sectors.

[Cocapelli]

i am somewhat new at this, i have not commanded the mantis ship that everyone touts (i wanna 4 square tele...), the crystal ship or the slime ship. Been rolling around in the rock ship for a while, hoping to complete those three quests. it really sucks to need new weaponry. sometimes the only offensive i have is my teleporter and two missiles.

but i have beaten the game with every other variant. i probably havnt unlocked the other ships because i refuse to play on easy.

one strategy i have not heard is the boss-beater that is the hull repair drone. it has helped me defeat the boss more than any other item. being able to heal after that second phase is amazing, and i am usually quite flush with drones, so i can easily burn 7 or so to get to max life.

if i am given one i keep it, and if i can buy one without sacrificing anything important (100 scrap is a ton), ill take it.

there are a lot of ways to micromanage and save yourself damage, but when you are otherwise occupied, the repair drone will forgive your lapses.

[Svankensen]

I had a 20%+ win ratio not long ago (screwed because of the stealth B, finally got the hang of it), and i can testify that sitting on ~100 cash is more or less necesary to have consistent wins, specially if your ship doesnt start with good weaponry. Missing a burst laser II must be the most painfull experience in the game, as it is by itself the best weapon in the game, and makes an excellent combination with other weapons too.

Anyway, i must say that after winning every ship in the game (but the crystals, those are OP) my priorities are now: Surviving (i hate repairing, but it has to be done), getting good weapons (not weapon system, just the weapons), raising EV to ~35%+, raising weapon systems so that they can handle 3 shields (this is expensive, that's the reason its after engines), getting shields to level 2, rinse and repeat until you have a decent 8 energy weapon combo or a good 7 energy weapon combo. Also, an important lesson is not to be afraid of going around with low Hull. Even the hardest fights dont drain more than 1/2 of your hull, usually way less, so theres no reason to be near max.

Also, always buy Scrap arm, almost always buy Re-Loader, Preigniter if you have the weapons (even if you dont have the weapons system), teleporter if you have 4 or more crew (shields can man itself most of the time), cloak only by the end, drones if low on hull or near the end.

The one thing i havent gotten the hang off is Ion weapons. They are good, but a tad unpredictable by my standards, so i only use them if i cant find enough lasers. Also, beams rock, but are very situational.

Weapons:

Burst laser II: Always buy
Hull laser I-II/Burst laser I: almost always buy
Burst Laser III: Last Resort, takes way too long to load
Small Bomb: Buy if you are low on lasers and have 10+ missiles, or boarding heavy
Breach Bomb II: If low on lasers and/or have boarding
Pike/Hull Beam: if you can fire a volley of 3 its a good moment to buy one
Halberd Beam: Voley of 3 too
Glaive: Voley of 4 or more, or if you have preigniter, it is an end game weapon unless combined with burst II or dual laser, and expensive to equip even then.

[UglyMug]

Notice you left Heavy Lasers off that list. I think they're the best complement for burst lasers since they have an almost identical firing cycle. Allows more and faster volleys. They also concentrate their damage against a single system instead spreading it out. Plus they have a pretty good chance of causing breaches to hamper repair efforts. With beams you often have several perfectly good weapons sitting idle while waiting for the big beam to load for the volley.

That's why I prefer beams when I'm using ions. Since ions can just be set on auto-fire and don't have to wait for volleys. It's also the case that sometimes too many shots will miss with a volley for a beam to be effective and your beam is sitting idle until the whole volley recharges. Whereas with ions, you can often just wait a few more seconds if they've haven't dropped the shield yet. Beams also have synergy with attack drones which also have synergy with ions. Synergy in that you're not waiting for or holding up a volley with the beam, but also that drones are good at exploiting the aftermath of a good beam hit when you've just torn a giant beam-shaped hole in the side of a ship. Also since beams deliver their damage in giant chunks with long load times, the drones are nice for knocking that last bit off.

Basically.

TD;LR version:

Beams are awkward to volley. That's why I prefer them with ions and drones which don't use volleys.
Heavy lasers are easy to volley. That's why I prefer them with burst lasers which use volleys.

[OmegaJasam]

Ion is probably the single best way to keep a sheild down and out. 1 ion on a sheild will make sure everything else hits. It's also a lot more relaibale with beams (No chance of the sheild returning to inturupt the beam), and drones (who usualy spend most of their time sheild blocked unless you outright destroy the sheild).

Also, unlike direct damage, ion can't be repaired.

The trick to remeber is to focus fire the sheild with the ion, and /not/ some other system, especally later on. else you'll have the sheild constantly popping back on, and one miss will let them recover a lot. With focus fire your steadally increasing the counter for how long before any can recover.

ion + firebeam is pritty nuts and cheap and gives you easy crew kill rewards if you are lucky enough to get both.