Postby Arthur Dent » Thu Sep 11, 2014 11:49 am
After beating the game on Normal with most ships, I decided to delete the profile and start all over, in hard mode only. Obviously my first run was with the Kestrel cruiser.
My priorities for the first sectors were pretty standard - get second unit of shields asap. After all, the weapons of that ship will be good enough for a long time. However, when I saw a Burst Mk2 in a store, I could not resist and bought it, even if I did not have enough scrap to immediately upgrade the weapons system system so I could use both my Burst lasers simultaneously. However it was only one layer of weapons power, so I took a chance. And indeed, it didn't take long before I could fire TWO burst lasers Mk2 at once. By sector 3, I could use my 2 Burst lasers and had 2 layers of shields (artemis as a backup weapon in case the opponent would do 1 damage on my weapons system). The next sectors were mostly a cakewalk. Six shots, with a chance of breach or fire, after <12 seconds of charging, that's simply AWESOMENESS, at this point of the game - although my ship was still vulnerable especially to missiles, until I finally managed to equip it with drone control + Defense Mk1, and cloaking later on.
I did not buy any more weapons or augments throughout the rest of the game, but I was ridiculously lucky with random events and battle loot. At the end of sector 6, I had (among others which I sold) found yet another Burst laser Mk2 and a breach bomb mk 2. So I decided to improve my weapons system to level 6 even before upgrading shields to 3, and it was worth it. NINE shots of breaching laser after <12 seconds, combined with a cloaking device that would virtually guarantee a first shot, that awesome against ANY opposition.
Shortly before the end of sector 7, I entered what would be the last shop in the whole game. I still had a system slot up for grabs, fortunately they sold systems there, I could choose between teleport, mind control, and hacking. Even though my crew would be reaonably good for boarding (2 mantis among them), I went for mind control, thought this would fit better with my equipment. My weapons, I thought, were strong enough to beat any opponent faster than a boarding crew could work. So why enter the risk of losing my crew, especially when I didn't have clone bay?
When I encountered the final boss, my configuration was as follows:
crew: 5 human, 2 mantis (had unfortunately lost my engi in sector 6 or 7). The main systems were occupied by humans. The 5th human would normally sit at the doors, or do repairs when necessary. The mantis would normally sit at the sensors, defend my ship against intruders, or replace a crew that is in the medbay (or even help repairing when there is nothing else for them to do).
3 layers of shields (lv6)
level 5 engines
level 3 cloaking
level 1 mind control
level 8 weapons system (3x Burst Mk2, 1x Breach Bomb Mk2)
Level 3 drone system (1x Defense Mk1 - 1 extra level to reduce the risk of failure through damage)
Level 2 batteries, piloting, sensors, doors
Augments (both won in events): FTL recharge booster (should've sold this one early one, was of little use all things considered), Engi Med Bot dispersal (VERY useful especially in battles against intruders)
Not sure about oxygen and medbay. The reactor was strong enough so I could fully power engines, weapons and drones, and run oxygen and medbay on level 1. So the batteries were for cloaking and mind control.
What shall I say? No teleporter, but awesomeness all the same, in every respect. Watch NINE shots of laser penetrate even the 4 shields of the boss. The moment 2 of his crew start repairing, use mind control, and you can watch them killing each other instead of repairing (or putting out fires/repairing breaches). And just before the mind control is up, the breach bomb will do the rest, often making sure that the mind controlled crew isn't the only one to be taken out (one one occasion, the boss lost 3 crew to one bomb).
In the second fight against the flagship, I needed my crew to take out the ionizing drone, which was not a problem for 2 humans + 2 mantis, supported by the med-bot dispersal. Unfortunately the drone had crashed into the weapons system, but I managed to fire my 9 laser shots at thir drone room right before the drone could do any harm. It did manage to ionize the room just before it went offline, but my defense (cloaking + defense drone) would buy me enough time, especially since mind control would once again make sure that the enemy crew would kill each other instead of repearing the damage. In the end, I did not take any hull damage at all from this fight.
Fight #3 was again just about firing until the enemy was done - just make sure to repair all the inevitale damage asap, which was however no problem with my crew (although I had lost a human crew in the previous fight due to a stupid mistake). The enemy supershield went down super fast, and his attempts to mind control my crew were denied by my own mind control. It was harder than fight #1, but although I did not escape without damage this time, victory was never in jeopardy).
Final score 5281. Since this was my first run, I also have the full stats. Worth mentioning: Scott Kletzin the Mantis is now officially my record mêlée fighter: 6 (SIX) combat kills, although both my Mantis had been with me since sector 4 at least... (I thought it would have to be much more, but the number may have to do with opponents habit of teleporting their crew back just before it can be finished off)
I sold my Zoltan Shield Bypass augment, used the scrap to heal back up to 50%, got back in there and won.
