How often do you get to "The Last Stand" on normal?

[SushaBrancaleone]

after having beaten the boss on easy ive been bouncing between ez and norm
i got to the boss on norm 2 or maybe 3 times.
i then went to finish all the B modes and the last ships on easy.

now i do easy to try and get a highscore (i find that score on normal doesn't diverge much from easy unless u beat the boss in at least 1 of the 3 fights) so for now im trying to improve my highscore by beating the boss on easy. Not that that happens often...

On normal I find its about receiving less hull damage as you can manage. If you manage you can spend your income on ups and weapons, if not you'll waste your "gold" on repairs and wont be ready to fight the boss or even get far...

The best way of trying to achieve this is by improving your defenses first of all (shields) and as early as possible so to reduce incoming damage. it then falls down to luck on what weapons you find. Even if you do find an awesome weapon its safer to up them after u upped your defences. As for the boss fight, on norm, huge firepower is the only way to get through the 3rd fight with the boss imo

[Dirt]

Played easy for a few days, moved onto normal. While on normal, though, I seem to get wiped out by bad luck at least 85% of the time. When I play on easy that goes down to around 20%. So actually making it to Last Stand almost never happens for me. And when I do make it, my ship still isn't up to snuff by then.

[samseng813]

Before I get Rock Cruiser, 3 out of 5 times I can reach last sector on NORMAL.
After I got Rock Cruiser, I play only Rock Cruiser (both type A and B) and I never reach last sector because I rage quit the game with below reason.

"WTH we need so much luck in order to unlock Crystal ship? No Zoltan fix my stasis pod again? Rage Quit"
"Yeah I got Crystal crew now, but WTH the remaining sector all is green/purple mean no Rock Homeworld => Rage Quit again"

Edit : Fix Typo

[Hoa_Binh]

About 20-30% of the time because I'm trying to unlock ships. I usually do strange things to get an unlock which caused my chanses to make it through drops.

[SwordofAeons]

19 Victories in 78 games, not sure how many reached Sector 8 but died. The beta patch to show node connections was a godsend, I haven't lost a game in the half dozen or so I've done since then.

[Jephrey]

The question (or rather, the answers) don't mean much without the ship and difficulty specified. I see many posters credit themselves with being highly skilled, but it seems much more likely that unlocking certain ships is the key.

[Sacarathe]

The question (or rather, the answers) don't mean much without the ship and difficulty specified. I see many posters credit themselves with being highly skilled, but it seems much more likely that unlocking certain ships is the key.

Choices are what matters, question is, when faced with 2 or more blind jumps to make, is it luck, skill, or choices that determine which you pick, for me, I say its all choices and no luck. Generally the choice is governed by the jump network and where you're going next, if it really was 50/50 with no other factors then it would be luck.

Choices = skill

I played the first 30 hours of the game on normal, then easy (beating the game after another 20 hours) now, loosing on easy is impossible if i get through the first 2 sectors (all ships). So i play normal, and as long as i get through the first 2 sectors i make it to the last stand. Make it to.... :p