Hints to beat the boss

General discussion about the game.
roidal
Posts: 14
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 5:49 pm

Hints to beat the boss

Postby roidal » Wed Sep 05, 2012 5:54 pm

I need some hints to beat the boss. What are the minimum requirements to be able to win the fight?
Because even on easy iam not able to win. I came to level two, an there it took the boss about 1 minute to kill me.
Sardonic
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 11:21 pm

Re: Hints to beat the boss

Postby Sardonic » Wed Sep 05, 2012 6:18 pm

-A cloak and stealth weapons work wonders, lets you dodge 1 of every 2 mega drone swarms.

-Having max shields helps against the swarm, takes longer for them to break it.

-Don't rely on missiles, because form 2 of the boss has a defense drone.

-have max engine going into the fight, but only power it up as other systems fail, to avoid having any 'wasted' energy not being used.

-Defense drone 2 helps in all forms.

-bring a teleporter bomb weapon with you, aim for the shield generator with it, it will help keep it down tremendously Aim all your weapons at the shield generator to keep it down and maximize hull damage on it.

- go to repair stations between forms.

-buy an extra level on things like O2 and drone control so they can take a hit without needing immediate repair.
Acid_Trees
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2012 4:47 am

Re: Hints to beat the boss

Postby Acid_Trees » Wed Sep 05, 2012 10:59 pm

There's many ways to beat the boss, actually, as long as you know what to expect.

I've found that if the boss's drones and weapons are offline, my shields can just barely withstand the drone swarms when they come. A Breach II bomb can keep the drone control locked down while your other weapons deliver the pain.
fall_ark
Posts: 98
Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2012 2:41 pm

Re: Hints to beat the boss

Postby fall_ark » Thu Sep 06, 2012 12:56 am

Huge Spoiler

First off. It helps if you have stealth. And lots and lots of missiles

The boss has 4 weapons (or "Artillery" - it doesn't actually use missiles).

1) 3 shot 1 dam lasers, 20 sec cooldown
2) 3 shot 1 dam missiles, 23 sec cooldown
3) short 2 dam beam, 26 sec cooldown (gone after 2nd form)
4) 3 shot 1 ion dam ion, 28 sec cooldown (gone after 1st form)

The biggest threat is the 3 shot missiles because they fire randomly. If you have stealth then simply cloak. Otherwise divert all power to Engine (and/or defense drones) and pray.

Stealth has 20 sec cooldown and they can't lock on you when you cloak, so technically you can choose your biggest threat and deal with them accordingly. Though of course in 2nd form this is much harder.

Now to specifics.

First form:
Using all your missiles and bombs ASAP to take down their weapons. Teleporter works as well. All weapon chambers have huge health (3-4), can fire so long as it's not completely destroyed, and are all manned. Focus your missiles and bombs on the Missile chamber to hopefully finish it quickly, and teleport your crew into either Ion or Laser chamber for takedown. - If you use teleporter you might as well use only 1 power since it'll take a long time.

The boss has a 10 sec stealth but if you have good engine/shield you can potentially survive a long while without suffering huge damage. After taking down 1-2 boss weapons it should be a cakewalk since their weapon simply couldn't pierce your shield and engine. Again focus your missiles and bombs to boss Shield and take it down accordingly.

Second form
If you don't have defense drones, you are going to have a bad time.

Apart from the first three weapons, the boss will periodically launch Boarder drones onto your ship. This is huge due to obvious reasons. So you better have at least 1 defense drone to deal with that.

Each "Warning: Power Surge" will fly a huge number of attack drones around you and they can last more than 15 seconds. If you don't have Stealth, you almost always need to fullpower your Shield and Engine to be unscathed. If you have Stealth then try to Cloak when they almost strip your Shield away.

The boss now has no Stealth, and I think 1 of the weapon chamber is unmanned. Again missile/bomb the Missile weapon ASAP. However since the Boss has a defense drone, make sure you fire more than 2 missiles at once. Using your teleporter can actually be faster in this case.

Even after the Missile weapon is down, the Power Surge can continue to be a threat if your evasion isn't high enough, so manage your energy accordingly.

Third form

The Super Zoltan Shield will block all your attacks and will recharge after each Secret Weapon charge. This is a good time to change your loadout and use multiple shot weapons/short cooldown weapons, especially ions, to deal with the shield quickly.

If you still fear the 3 shot missiles, a defense drone would be a good choice. You can have more attack options in this fight, so if you like drones, knock yourself out.

Once the Shield is down, again take down the weapons with missile/bomb/teleporter combo. Then you are basically safe: The secret weapon won't become a big problem if you have high evasion, and they have absolutely no way to damage you otherwise.

The form will have few enemy crew, and 2 of them will teleport onto your ship first. Once the weapon threat is gone, you can actually missile/bomb their Medic Bay and then kill all their crew. - This won't "end" the fight immediately, but who cares.
Last edited by fall_ark on Thu Sep 06, 2012 12:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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roidal
Posts: 14
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 5:49 pm

Re: Hints to beat the boss

Postby roidal » Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:09 am

Hi again!

So, first thanks to your answeres!

There are two more questions:

1) How i maximise the money to collect?
I tried to visit as much beacons as posible but even then i had money for level 3 shield, some engine-advantages
and weapon-energy upgrades, but not enough for cloak and drones.

2) sometimes there are ships where you get asked if you give them some fuel.
Whats the advantages if i give them some fuel? I never got something.

Kind regards!
mox
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2012 7:05 am

Re: Hints to beat the boss

Postby mox » Thu Sep 06, 2012 7:12 am

Regarding the questions:

1) Money can be maximized by not destroying enemy ships, but just killing their crew (for non-automated ships). There are a couple of great ways to do this (especially for ships without a med-bay). There are anti-personal weapons, you can board their ship or you can try to suffocate them.

Some of these tactics usually only work if you dominate the enemy ship anyway (their weapons are disabled or too weak for your shields).

2) You often get a reward for giving them fuel. If you have enough, it should on average be worth it. I once got a weapon and often got some scrap (not too sure how much, probably depends on the level).

Regarding the last Boss:

[Spoiler begin!]

I would also advise you not to completely take out the crew. At least not too early.

When I had killed all the crew (I had a very anti-person build in this playthrough), the boss switched to the behavior of an AI ship. This meant (among other things) that all systems repaired on their own. The implication was that the weapon chambers, that were inaccessible for the crew and therefore could not be repaired, were coming online again. It probably also has implications for the evasion rate if the bridge is unmanned.

Just having one guy running around the huge ship is probably better, since he can hardly repair all the systems and at the same time man the bridge.

[Spoiler end!]
zell_man
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:41 pm

Re: Hints to beat the boss

Postby zell_man » Fri Sep 07, 2012 12:40 pm

Disclaimer: I've only beaten the boss once on Easy Mode.

I didn't use any missiles, just a 3 shot hull laser and a 2 shot heavy laser coupled with an anti ship drone. I'd wait until all the weapons were charged, AND for the drone to reduce one bubble of shields, then I'd fire my hull cannon and my heavy laser to do 2-4 damage depending on whether the shields regened a bubble while I was shooting. I never disabled any of his weapons, but this strategy worked on all three forms. (however I did get pounded in the second and third form by his boarding drones/crew). I am not sure whether this strategy would translate over to Normal Mode but I may give it a try.

TLDR: I used lasers that hit a combined 5 times to nibble his 4 shields down and hit his hull for consistent (if low) damage.
azurereaver
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2012 8:27 pm

Re: Hints to beat the boss

Postby azurereaver » Fri Sep 07, 2012 9:04 pm

-- all spoiler-ish duh --

the strategy that works for me is boarding parties.

Use them to take out the weapons - but leave one of the inner two weapons with its crew member so the AI doesn't kick on. Once that is done on the first form, kill the rest of the crew in the main section (any missile weapons with crew+system damaging features targeting the medbay). Once the medbay is damaged use a boarding crew to knock off remaining crew members who should already be hurt. Now you can use your boarders to take down the shields at your leisure.

This makes the second form easy, you just teleport your crew in to drone control and shields and take them down, disabling the weapons is optional, but keep that one enemy crew member alive.

Nothing really changes for the third form, but you need to be able to take down the zoltan shield repeatedly so at least one laser based weapon is important.

Boarding crews are the most powerful weapon in the game - until you hit an automated ship with no air. (or leave autofire on too long while they're aboard! oops)
HumbleSloth
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2012 6:33 pm

Re: Hints to beat the boss

Postby HumbleSloth » Mon Sep 10, 2012 2:36 am

I am giving up on the kestrel for now. My win percentage without an away team or cloak is too low, so it feels way too common that I can lose much before reaching sector 8.

So I will use the mantis, federation, and rock ships which I am hoping might hopefully be more flexible in their ability to beat the boss.