Win without shields?

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Kolkko
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2012 1:55 pm

Win without shields?

Postby Kolkko » Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:47 am

Has anyone beaten the game without shield system? I think even the boss should be beatable without shields if you have very good other systems. Obviously a lot of luck is needed to get there!
Megas Domestikos
Posts: 55
Joined: Tue Dec 11, 2012 3:51 pm

Re: Win without shields?

Postby Megas Domestikos » Tue Jan 01, 2013 10:10 am

You need 4 shields and a teleporter to win this game. The latter can be compromised if you have particularly good guns (and lots of them) but I so far haven't been as lucky as to win without 4 shields and a teleport.

Without shields you simply can't win since no matter how fast you act the enemy will be able to fire at least one salvo and beams at you, and if they all hit you are pretty much toast before you can say "I regret this".
Space Roman
Kolkko
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2012 1:55 pm

Re: Win without shields?

Postby Kolkko » Tue Jan 01, 2013 11:10 am

Well, I gave it a shot with DA-SR 12 and got to the second round vs boss. I had pretty good luck, but crucially found no defense drones at all. Second boss round is the hardest because of the attack drones. I think you must have defense drone mkII.

Megas Domestikos wrote:You need 4 shields and a teleporter to win this game. The latter can be compromised if you have particularly good guns (and lots of them) but I so far haven't been as lucky as to win without 4 shields and a teleport.

Without shields you simply can't win since no matter how fast you act the enemy will be able to fire at least one salvo and beams at you, and if they all hit you are pretty much toast before you can say "I regret this".


They can't fire when you are cloaked. I always get max cloak with DA-SR 12 asap. I turn the cloak on to dodge their first shot. This way I can usually get first hit even with the slow glaive beam.

[Edit] Screenshot. I think these weapons are good enough, just need those defense drones. :(
Image
UltraMantis
Posts: 2141
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:17 pm

Re: Win without shields?

Postby UltraMantis » Tue Jan 01, 2013 1:20 pm

Winning without shields is possible, but extremly rare and difficult. MAX engines are highly recommended, and lvl1 cloak is a must when dealing with power surges. DefDrone MkI to shoot down incoming boarding drones is aslo very valuable.

Here is zzandrio's video, he makes it to stage2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiPNwiQUchs
I have also made it twice to stage 2, and a third time to TLS but had starter weapons and had to die :) The best ship to attempt this in would be the Nesasio. Good luck, and also check out my own latest attempt: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xwd40w ... videogames

To my knowledge only two people ever succeded. The boss is easy, but getting there in one piece is the problem. One massive tip is to NEVER EVER use the cloak for anything else except power surges. Only use 1lvl cloak so that it recycles in time. Take whatever damage you have to, but DO NOT CLOAK! Wait for the surge. Take care of the weapons/drones another way...

@Kolkko

Yep, those are dream weapons there. :D
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rannl
Posts: 335
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 11:13 pm

Re: Win without shields?

Postby rannl » Tue Jan 01, 2013 5:40 pm

Wow, watched zzandrio's stealth run no shield gameplay (boss fight only) and was impressed.
I would say one would have to be extremely lucky on dodges for a no shield run to work, as obviously the cloaking should be reserved for power surges, and again, with on the millisecond timing for the activation of the cloak.
Definitely worth an uber-achievement for a successful completion.... especially with the stealth B which is one tough cookie....

PS - zzandrio's defeat of the 1st boss level, where he loses a couple of mantis's to the boss FTL jump = priceless :twisted:
Floyd
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 6:35 pm

Re: Win without shields?

Postby Floyd » Tue Jan 01, 2013 6:39 pm

Megas Domestikos wrote:You need 4 shields and a teleporter to win this game. The latter can be compromised if you have particularly good guns (and lots of them) but I so far haven't been as lucky as to win without 4 shields and a teleport.

Without shields you simply can't win since no matter how fast you act the enemy will be able to fire at least one salvo and beams at you, and if they all hit you are pretty much toast before you can say "I regret this".


I have never had the teleporter or 4 shields, and I can beat the boss on normal no problem. Winning with zero shields is pretty tricky though.
UglyMug
Posts: 46
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2012 8:09 am

Re: Win without shields?

Postby UglyMug » Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:26 pm

You're going to need attack drones for the second phase; time is working against you, you can't survive the powersurge, so you need to kill him before the swarm comes and pretty much just cross your fingers that weapons fire before then doesn't hit anything critical. It's possible, but you need attack drones to do it. zzandrio didn't have particularly good offense in that final battle so he didn't really have a hope of doing it.
herbert
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2012 11:34 pm

Re: Win without shields?

Postby herbert » Wed Jan 02, 2013 12:38 am

Funny you are asking this today ;), because I just succeed in doing that.
After watching zzandrio second attempt at a no shield run I tried to do the same. Now the very sad thing is that I didn't record my success :evil: . Before starting the game I was like "this is my first attempt, no need to record, I must first train how to play properly with the stealth ship..." and here it is, I did it and it was my second victory in normal with the stealth ship A (I don't like those ships so I don't play them ;)).
Also I did nothing what you guys are suggesting ; but I was very lucky and you need that.

At the end my ship had:
-----------------------------
6 bars in engines (not enough to have 100% dodge, I had like 98% )
7 in weapons ( 1 pike beam, 1 burst laser III, 1 ion bomb)
6 in drones (1 anti ship II, 1 anti ship I)
0 in shields 8-)
1 in O2
1 in medbay
1 in teleport
3 in cloak

enough energy to power everything except the medbay and the teleport
-----------------------------
2 in pilot
2 in sensors
3 in doors
-----------------------------
6 crew members
1 mantis
1 rock
4 humans
------------------------------
1 long ranged scanners (because asteroids fields are gg)
1 weapon pre igniter (previously it had 1 scrap recovery arm)
1 stealth weapons


At the start I aimed a lot at the fights beacons to get a lot of scraps. I was lucky for the most part with the encounters, I had to flee 2 battles in the 2-3 first sectors, one was near a sun with boarding mantis.
It went so well My first repair at a shop was at sector 5 (I unlocked the corresponding achievement), take into account that I still had repair encounters (but not a lot, maybe 1 or 2).
The first thing I augmented was the cloak at level 2 then the weapons to 3 bars (it's cheap and prevent very bad situations) then doors to level 2 because I had very few crew members.
Very early I had a shop with a scrap recovery arm and a stealth weapon (it also had some systems like shields and drone and teleport), of course I bought that asap. I then augmented the cloak to max.
But I had no luck in finding weapons, I bought a ion bomb but even with that It was getting hard in the mid level sectors (3-4-5). I had no choice but to buy a burst laser III. The problem is that the cool-down is very slow and it misses a lot (had to flee one guy because of too many misses in 2 attempts!, and It was only a lvl 3 shield) oh, and I almost forgot, it costs a lot to power up (it costs a lot in scraps too) .
The stealth weapons helped A LOT, I took very few damages and could upgrade the weapons and buy some good stuff. The next system I bought was the teleport but I used it only twice during fights and I don't think I had a blue event with it. During all that time I had only 4 in engines, so I upraded it a bit after that.
The last system was the drone control with an anti missile one. Later I bought an anti ship in case my offensive power was not enough. Finally I bought an anti ship mark II because of the zzandrio video, to beat the boss.
The pike beam came very late in sector 7, the weapon pre igniter at the start of sector 7 or end sector 6.
With all that the run was very easy (at least for someone knowing the game well enough, still had to flee sometimes). I didnt get a lot of scraps during the run but I did not have to waste it on repairs, on the other hand I had to buy a lot of things. In the end I had just enough to run my systems and power my offensive threats.

the boss:
phase I was a walk in the park, ion bomb on the shields, 2 attack drones (mark I an II), then laser III on the shields and pike beam from the stealth room to the shields then across the ship starting with the beam room to the heavy laser. Cloak was used to dodge the missiles. Phase I was cleared with 1 hull damage.
phase 2 was living hell, same tactic as phase I, bomb on the shield then laser 3 on the shield then pike beam across the weapons. Cloak was used at start, still cloak level 3, just before the beam drone attack. missed some Ion bombs
I couldn't kill it before the power surge, and the cloak don't last enough if you use it at the start of the battle like I did. I had to survive long enough for my drones to take the shield down before I could pike beam him to hell.
I survived the power surge with 11 hull left, weapons where on fire and down to 2, sensors and doors went down. the engines and cockpit had like 1 damage each. Luckily the drones where good till the end.A few seconds later and I was dead, maybe I should have cloaked later and focus on the beam+drone room with the pike beam.
There was a repair beacon nearby, but 3 jumps were not enough to go there and go back to the mother ship.
phase 3 was harder than expected. The shield lasted a long time, ion bomb missed, too much misses. Cloak was used for the missiles, I let the heavy laser hit me because I was too hesitant. The cloak ended just before the power surge hit me...I evade most of it but I was also targeted by 3 missiles before I took the ship down, 2 of them hit me. I was barely alive, one more volley and I was dead.

Conclusion:
The lack of a 4th weapon slot is deadly against the boss, the firepower with attacks drones and the weapons is barely enough to survive long enough. The stealth weapon is a must have, it makes the run easier and prevent a lot of damage from the last boss, stealth should be kept on level 3. Weapons pre igniter buy some time, maybe it's the little thing that makes you win the game instead of dying.
I was very lucky to get the ideal augments for the stealth ship: pre igniter and stealth weapons.
I still don't know what's the best weapon combo, ion bomb is just overpowered and makes you win the game in a normal playthrough. A beam lets you do guaranteed hits, but you have to go past the shields and it's hard with just 3 slots. Maybe the ion bomb + laser III was very good after all, maybe a halberd beam would have been better than the pike beam.
Still, phase 3 is hard enough if you cannot repair yourself. Surviving phase 2 is not enough, but it's the hardest phase for sure.

session stats:
Ship defeated 30
Beacons explored 89
Scrap collected 1528
Crew hired 6
Final score 3772
UltraMantis
Posts: 2141
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:17 pm

Re: Win without shields?

Postby UltraMantis » Wed Jan 02, 2013 12:48 am

To be fair to him, that is an old video. Judging by my own old videos and the mistakes i was making, it's very possible that he improved much since that.

EDIT - Woah, hell of a tale to tell herbert. Congratulations on making it so far. Stage 2 is hell for sure. My strategy would be to ignore my offense and focus on disableing the boss weapons. Only with it's weapons down would i switch to attack. Unless! i had incredibly powerfull weapons, then i wouldn't care. 2 Halberd beams + Burst Laser MkII maybe. :)

Great fight, best of luck to you if you ever try again. It's remarkable that a ship without shields can even get that far in an unforgiving game.
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Number43
Posts: 177
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Re: Win without shields?

Postby Number43 » Wed Jan 02, 2013 5:33 am

Megas Domestikos wrote:You need 4 shields and a teleporter to win this game. The latter can be compromised if you have particularly good guns (and lots of them) but I so far haven't been as lucky as to win without 4 shields and a teleport.

Without shields you simply can't win since no matter how fast you act the enemy will be able to fire at least one salvo and beams at you, and if they all hit you are pretty much toast before you can say "I regret this".


I usually only get 3 shields. 4 shields is a luxury.