Tips to beating boss on norm - spoiler alert.

[SushaBrancaleone]

i managed to beat the game on normal for the first time.

here is what i find helps

I took the crystal ship (A), cos of its weapons mostly, u wont need to upgrade them before the 3 or 4th sector.

the 1st thing to try and achieve is shields lvl 2. meantime visit stores for laser based weapons. dont buy/use guns with more than 2 slots (unless u get lucky and find the 4 slot lasers), for the final boss all u need besides the starting weapons of the ships are 2 lasers (both 2 slots each), ofc try to get the rank 2's so you get more shots.
even if you find such weapons dont bother upgrading them until you have lvl 2 or lvl 3 shields. this helps reduce dmg and thus waste less money on repairs.
By the time you have lvl 2 shields start looking for store to buy drone control bay. no need to give it power yet though, cos at this point (secot 4-6) you want to activate a 3rd weapon. Your next item on the list is a defence drone lvl 2.
a good way to achieve this is to save up credits. try to invest them on your ship at the end of sectors, so for example if you have 200 scrap and upgrade shield one lvl and give them power you should have some 50-60 scrap left, which you want to keep aside in case you find a store with any of the items you need.

If you find a bording drone keep it, it turns in handy in the 2nd and 3rd encounter with the boss, in case your drone bay gets damaged as you wait for the repairs to reactivate your defence drone (mark 2).

Sell any missile weapons and look out for vendors buying missiles for some extra $.

So if you keep to this setup 4; points in drone bay - def. drone mark II, 7 points in weapons - the 2 energy and 1 energy "ice missiles" and two lasers using 2 energy <mark 2 for 3 shots>, lvl 4 shields, you can invest the rest mostly in engines for the extra dodge, it turns in handy against the 2nd boss encounter. As for the augmentations get the one that auto repairs you after every fight and the one that improves your shields recharge by 15%, or if you cant find it take the 15% reload on speed,but you want to have the repairing one for the boss so you get back some "health" after each encounter without having to go back to a repairing planet.

As for advice on the boss fight

(lets refer to the boss weapons as A -B - C- D, as they appear on the ship.)

fight 1.
def. drone mark 2 up asap ofc. and all weapons aimed at enemy shields. you have to take the damage until the enemy shields are down. (remember to use your boarding drone if you receive damage to your drone bay it helps slow down enemy repairs.) As soon as the shields are down target all 4 of your weapons on weapon C. This weapon bay shoots 3 missiles, and your defense drone mark 2 can only stop 2, so it helps to have points in engine to dodge those, which are the most hull damaging weapon the enemy has. Make sure you keep targeting that weapon until the operator inside is dead (you may have to kill him in the second encounter) so he cant repair it. At this point u should probably target the enemy shields again, this also helps with the later encounters as the boss will have less crew if you mange to kill some in the shields room. With the shields down again your next target is the weapons room to the left of the enemies shield bay; weapon B. You don't really need to destroy the bay, you want to kill the operator. Don't bother with the weapons room on the exterior (A and D), those will not be in the 2nd and 3rd boss fight. You probably wont get to kill this guy as you will win the fight before you do, but if you did everything right and with a bit of luck you should have taken very little hull damage plus your repairing augmentation should give you back some hull integrity/life/health/whatever..

so if everything is according to plan you can hop right back into the fight without having to go to a repairing planet.

Fight 2.
The worst part of this fight is the special ability, which sends out 4-5 drones at you at the same instant. . if you have your engines upgraded to some 40% dodge (around lvl 4-5) you should be able to dodge some of the damage. But you still have to dodge at least one of the three missiles as that weapon is operative again. Also you will have to deal with a boarding drone too most prob.
So, as for the boarding drone your def drone should be able to neutralize it but it is also shooting down lasers and the 3 missiles from weapon C, so if it gets through it helps to have your doors system upgraded to lvl 2. to keep him busy getting to rooms with systems. don't go and fight him, unless he is in your weapons/oxygen/shields bay <in which case you need to take him down asap. if this is the case, abuse of your pause ability; the room you are fighting in might have a hull breach, so you need to bring in 3-4 of your men to take the drone down. Don't let the drone distract you though, pause is your friend.
So having mentioned this, as soon as the encounter starts, put up your def. drone and target all weapons on enemy shields. But don't wait for the shields to be 100% down, start targeting weapons C with 1 or 2 of your weapons, you need that to be down asap. You should have killed the operator in the first encounter with the boss so you just need to take that weapon down and you wont have to worry about it being repaired as its an isolated room and they have to teleport to get there. If your drone bay receives damage or is burning send a boarding drone before you lose all power to it. make a priority repairing it, if its on fire open the doors etc and have an engi at all time in the engines room so you can get to it fast. If you managed to put offline the enemy missiles, you should only be receiving hull damage from the bosses special ability(drones). If the enemy boarding drone is still giving you trouble and assuming the shields are down as are the missiles (right of the shields room one.. lets call them weapon C from now on...) you can target the drone bay, however only do this if you really cant take the dmg from the enemy drone.
Preferably you should be targeting all your weapons on weapon B now (the one on the left of the shields bay). Your main objective is to kill the operator if you haven't already done so in the 1st fight. It turns in handy for the last and third encounter.
If you managed to do all of the above, by now the enemy hull should be close to 0%. make sure your def. drone is up at all times when possible.

You might need to repair, but make sure you have time for it (the jump page will tell you how many "jumps you have before the enemy ship reaches your base) cos its better to give the boss a try than to lose the game to time.

fight 3
start by targeting the shields. the boss has the zoltan shields so u have to take those down first. both of the enemies weapons room should be operator-less... so you want to kill of weapon C asap. maybe target 1 weapon on it when enemy shields are almost at 0%. If you manage this you should be relatively safe, from the power surge, your drone can stop 1 or 2 shots and you should be able to dodge some too, and your shields should do the rest. When weapon C is down and hopefully with no operator to repair it, keep the pressure on the shields.Target weapon B now, make sure u kill the operator too. If you can get weapons B and C down fast, your only concerns are the power serge and boarding parties in pairs of 2, fight these in the medbay ofc. You might want to maximize your hull damage to finish the fight asap now, meaning that you should target rooms without systems to maximize hull dmg. Don't let the shields back up though, he will try to repair them with what personnel he has left, you can keep targeting the shields room with 1 or 2 weapons to kill them before they do. It might also win you the match, but overall the less crew he has the easier it is for you.

You should be able to beat the boss with something between 1/3 to 1/4 of hull integrity this way.


Sorry for the wall of text, just hope it helps some1 get there as I saw lots of posts about beating the boss on norm.

On a side note, about highscore. On beating the boss on norm my scrore was 3.7k, but My best score is with the crystal ship (b) with 4.7k obtained in sector 8 without having beaten the boss. how strange can anyone speculate on that pls?