Can't manage The Osprey

[Big Boss]

Hey everyone, it's my first topic here . I'm fairly new to the game, i've just defeated the Flagship once, with the Engi ship A (The Torus) , i beat it on easy. On normal i barely made it to the sector previous to The Last Stand.
I equipped The Torus (named it Spacejam ) with the default Ion blaster, Halberd beam, Ion bombs and 2 Anti-ship drones mark 1 and a System-repair hull. As for augmentations i used: Drone recovery arm and the Scrap recovery arm (Not sure if that's the right name) as well as the Shield booster. I got max shields, cloak and drive and a tripulation of 6, i didn't lose any member until the Last Stand. It went off perfectly, however, when i use The Osprey i can't snowball enough and after a few sectors i'm taking continuous hull damage and a lot of fires.
I'm not good with a warship such as this, and i found the Artillery beam quite sluggish. Any tips/strategies??. Nothing too precise as the game is based off random events, just about upgrades or viable ways to handle it

Thanks for your time

[5thHorseman]

I give the same advice to anybody asking for general help, and it applies here. See below for that.

One thing about the Osprey, though, that beam is TERRIBLE at level 1. At level 2 it's pretty meh and at level 3 it's okay. But at level 4 it's AMAZING. Granted, it's expensive to get it there but it should be a priority whenever you have spare scrap instead of buying anything that could be considered a luxury.

Also, I consider the teleporter a detriment to this ship. Either you want that beam tearing the ship apart, OR you want to be teleporting over. If you're playing the Osprey why ignore its biggest asset to play a toned-down version of the Kestrel? With no cloak and no teleporter to worry about, that beam should be easy to level up and power.

Here is my personal checklist of things to do. I try to follow it with most every ship:

Before the end of sector 1, 2 shields (4 bars)
Before the end of sector 2, 4 engines.
Before the end of sector 3, 3 shields (6 bars)
Before the end of sector 4, 5 engines.

Also, you need to have a way to get through:
Before the end of Sector 2: 2 shields (Most ships can do this)
Before the end of Sector 4: 3 shields (This usually means you need to buy weapons or a teleporter in sector 3)
Before the end of Sector 7: 4 shields (or the Boss is gonna suck)

Note: to get through 2 shields, you need to do 3 laser shots. Or have 2 ions and a laser/beam/whatever. Or have a teleporter. Or a bomb. Doesn't matter what.

THEN I start thinking about upgrading other things, like doors and O2 and medbay and stuff.

Most of the time I don't reach these milestones, and I end up not getting my 4th engine until midway through sector 3 or something. No biggie, as long as you keep trying.

Never, ever, ever, EVER buy missiles. Unless you simply must because you've not found a way to get rid of your missile weapon. They are the single biggest resource drain in the game if you buy a lot. The next big resource drain is repairs. Any time you show up at a store needing a ton of repairs, that's a weapon you can't buy, or drone control or a cloak or long range scanners or who knows what else.

Ions are great in groups, but not so great by themselves. 2 Ions will eventually take down ANY shield so long as your opponent doesn't dodge too many of them. An Ion and an Ion 2 will reliably take down ANY shield eventually. Once those are down, you can use your other weapons to actually damage the ship.

Try to get 2 of these 3 things before you meet the flagship: Teleporter, Cloak, Defense Drones. A cloak and a level 5 engine will make you unhittable while the cloak is on, and you'll be dodging 1/3 to 1/2 of all shots fired when it's off. Add in a defense drone and you're essentially safe from most everything but the occasional lucky shot (and bombs, but those generally aren't a big deal as most can't damage hull). 2 mantises and a teleporter are your friend, make it a priority early so by the time you get to the later sectors your mantises are fully leveled up, and they will be killing machines.

If I may humbly suggest, I've beaten the game on camera with every ship in the game (and a few mods) on Normal and while I get into (and out of) some sticky situations, for the most part I walk over the bad guys because I stick to what I've said above. Check out my thread here.

[Jimera0]

Well during my plays with the Osprey I started out having some similar issues before I hit a good strategy.

Essentially, focus on upgrading your defenses (shields, engines, defense drones if you come across them) first, upgrading the artillery beam when you can. Try to keep your upgrades in these categories balanced, since higher levels of all these get prohibitively expensive. Upgrading from level 2 to level 3 shields in sector 3 won't help you as much as getting 2 extra points in engines, a defense drone and a point in artillery beam. The very first thing you should get aside from maybe basic blast doors is a second shield; this'll allow you to "train" your crew against opponents incapable of penetrating them early on. Make sure to spend as much time in the first few sectors as you possibly can because those are the fights your single Burst Laser II can easily handle and you'll need the scrap to get to the point where you can safely count on the artillery beam to win your fights in later sectors. If you get a chance to take Cloaking, make sure you get it. The artillery beam charges when you're cloaked, giving the two incredible synergy.

During battle you should attempt to disable the opponents weaponry if at all possible to give time for your artillery beam to charge. Keeping shielding down isn't as big a priority since the artillery beam pierces it, but you will want to do damage with your other weapons if you can. Just remember, the Osprey works best in drawn out battles, so build her and play her to last. If you managed to get a cloaking system don't fire your weapons while you're cloaked. That makes the cloak last less time and you want every second of charge you can squeeze out of your artillery beam. If you can get a hold of a good missile or bomb weapon, use it against opponents with particularly threatening weapon set-ups. Having a good missile launcher or bomb will save you when things get rough. Don't waste missiles on opponents that can barely scratch you or whose weapons you can disable with an ammo-less weapon though; if you can get to the final boss with a good missile count and a couple of missile weapons it'll make it a breeze. I managed to get there with two Pegasus launchers and was able to easily demolish the flagship's laser and missile weapon bays (and most importantly, allowed me to kill the crew members manning them) which made the rest of the fight almost comically easy. I didn't even scratch the shields the whole fight; everything I used pierced them.

In short, focus the Osprey around staying alive (and ideally unhurt) for as long as possible. Build up your defenses to the point where you almost never get hit and the artillery beam will do the rest. The fact that you have the artillery beam allows you to funnel scrap that you'd usually put into weaponry into defenses, and as long as you upgrade properly you should find the Osprey to be an impenetrable fortress.

[Big Boss]

Thanks for the tips, guys!!, and nice channel 5th Horseman.

I'm at Sector 4 with : 3 Shields, 4 Engines, Max Beam-weapon, A fire Laser and the B.Laser II. I will probably get cloaking, i'm not very good at boarding and my mantis hasn't got that much fighting XP. and i bought the ''Weapon Pre-Igniter'' Augmentation thinking it would power up my beam, but it doesn't :L. Anyway, on most of the fights i disable their weapons and then shield, spread fire on their tripulation and the Beam does the rest . I think i'm doing OK (I just got the Slice and Dice achievement), but i'll have to start working on defense drones.
Cheers!

''Update: I just got the Anti-Bio Beam. Should i set it and remove my other beam ? :L

[5thHorseman]

You're not going to be killing much crew. Anti-Bio beam isn't very useful. Fire Beam is better but I'd take a regular beam (or another Burst Laser) over it any day.

You've already got a great spread-the-damage weapon in the Artillery Beam. You want more pinpoint damage to take out systems that are annoying you, like their weapons, shields, and cloak.

[spacecadet13]

A few mentions in this thread about cloaking? Can you get cloaks for the Osprey & Nisos? I thought because they had the beam they couldn't get cloaks, and I can't recall having seen cloaking in stores when I've played them, though I hardly ever buy it anyhow so maybe it's been there and I haven't noticed it.

I find both ships tough work; they are really struggling for firepower against anything with two shields, and even one shield can be an issue if you're missing a shot or two each round and you've still only got one shield and no d drone helping out. As 5th said, until you've got the beam up to at least level three it is firing too slow and not doing enough damage to each system it does hit to compensate for the lack of damage from the 'normal' weapons. If you can add a ' one-bar' weapon like an Ion Blast or H laser I early on then you can really kick ass - but that's the same for pretty much all the ships, ain't it?

[Big Boss]

You guys are right, No cloaking device...
Anyway, stuff is going on pretty well, i have spare resources and scrap + Scrap recovery arm. Ion Blaster, Halberd Beam, the Starting laser and am pretty advanced on my engine, i have to start enhancing my shields and start considering the boarding system, i have spare humans and my mantis : )

[5thHorseman]

A few mentions in this thread about cloaking? Can you get cloaks for the Osprey & Nisos?

That was my fault, sorry! In my "generic tips" I mention cloaks, and I forgot to cut it out when I pasted it here. What's worse, I even mention in my post that you can't get cloaks and then I suggest you get some once you've gotten the basics upgraded.

Sorry for the confusion!

[Jimera0]

I could have SWORN I had a cloak on my Osprey, but I was probably just mixing it up with a different run. They tend to blend together after a while, y'know?

Anyway, I stand by my stance that you only want to penetrate their shields if that's what you need to do to damage their weapons system. I wouldn't use any beam weapons at all on the Osprey; powering both enough weapons to reliably down shields for long enough to use a beam weapon and powering the beam itself just overall would require more weapons upgrades than you want to make. With the Osprey you want to upgrade your weapons as little as possible. If you end up with more than 6 weapon system power you're doing it very wrong, and anything more than 4 should only be done when necessary. I ended up with 6 at the very end of my Osprey run, but that was only because I had two Pegeasus Missile launchers and over 30 missiles to play with by Sector 8. Had I not gotten the second Pegasus just prior to reaching Sector 8 I would've just stuck with 5 (2 for the Burst Laser and 3 for the missile) and would've done lower had I come across an effective missile that required less power.

The only purpose your conventional weapons have is disabling the opponents weapon system (and drones sometimes if they have particularly nasty ones). Do that and eventually the Artillery beam will take care of the rest. If you do it right you should find yourself hardly taking any damage at all. Of course, your battles will also take a long time, but that's the Osprey for you.

Also I HIGHLY recommend against investing in a Crew Teleporter with the Osprey. Since you can't control where the Artillery beam hits and have very limited control over when it fires, there's far too high a risk of killing your own crew. Additionally, buying, powering and upgrading the Teleporter takes precious resources away from upgrading and maintaining your defenses. While you could have some success with boarding, it'd be extremely risky. And before you start reasoning "well if they die I have extra crew" I need to remind you that if your extras die then you'll have a completely useless Crew Teleporter sitting there as a monument to your wasted scrap... unless you want to send out less suited crew members in their place, leaving you short staffed (which weakens your defensive capabilities that your rely on) while also risking losing even more crew. It's just much safer to go the defensive route, since if anything goes wrong with your boarding strategy you risk screwing over the entire run (due to wasted scrap and/or being undermanned). With games like this it's always important to not take risks for short term benefit that could completely screw you over long term.

[Iranon]

The artillery beam is usually not a good option if you can win fights with other means. Taking ships intact gives greater rewards, crippling the opposition quickly saves you hull damage... and the artillery beam isn't good at either.

Think of the Osprey as a slightly gimped Kestrel (lacking the starting missile, no cloak, too large for a defense drone to cover well). You have some advantages in the ability to break stalemates and a better starting crew.

Even though your shape works against their effectiveness, get defense drones - both types if you can. Without a cloak, you need to shoot down missiles. With solid defenses up, you can let your artillery beam do the work.