Flagship Best way to deal with hacking drone?

[mb2bm55]

Hey Guys,

I can't get a shot off if the drone attaches to my weapons. What is the best way to prepare for this? It's not like I'm using long cooldown weapons exclusively either. I had 2 burst laser mark II's last time and could barely get a shot off. I had what I thought would've been a nice build. Dual Burst II's, Glaive Beam, Dual Ion Augments (making me immune to Ion damge), full evasion, 4 shields, full crew with 3 Zoltans, defense drone mark I, etc. I lasted a long time but couldn't even get the hacking down for more than a second, let alone get more than 1 decent glaive beam shot off (which was repaired rather rapidly even though it hit an unshielded ship).

I got killed on another build with a Vulcan cannon, bombs and a burst laser II and couldn't get a shot off then either. I have won several times but never when the hacking drone goes for my weapons. Any other system and I can at least get enough shots off to disable whichever weapon has its corresponding defense disabled by the hack.

Thanks!

[stylesrj]

Either shoot that drone down constantly or jump away and come back and hope it'll hit something else

[Leylite]

Yeah, the drone landing on weapons is very bad, and adds a significant amount of RNG to phase 1 (although usually not a make-it-or-break-it extent). Part of the problem is that if hacking and cloaking get into a certain alignment (the hack activates very soon after the Flagship comes out of cloak) then it can be very difficult, sometimes impossible to actually charge a weapon up all the way. (If it activates during cloak, it's less of a problem since you wouldn't be charging your weapons up anyway during that period, and can charge them up when both hack and cloak are on cooldown. This happens when the first drone lands, and usually the nightmare scenario occurs when it's the third or fourth instead, or you have a Zoltan Shield or something.)

Here's one tip that might help when you have a Defense Drone I - when the hacking drone starts to arrive on your part of the screen, pause rapidly and observe how your Defense Drone rotates to track the drone landing. If it looks like the hacking drone is going to land on a harmless system (like sensors, doors, or medbay) turn off your defense drone before it fires its laser and let the hacking drone land; otherwise let your defense drone shoot it down and look again.

Anyway, it's situations like this that make me think it would be a good idea for the Flagship to only have level 2 hacking instead of level 3, because level 3 can be really nasty. (It only has level 2 cloaking for similar reasoning, I presume.)

[mb2bm55]

\ Part of the problem is that if hacking and cloaking get into a certain alignment (the hack activates very soon after the Flagship comes out of cloak) then it can be very difficult, sometimes impossible to actually charge a weapon up all the way. \\

That was precisely the problem. I guess I shouldve just jumped away. I didnt realize the cloak and hack were going to sync up until too late. Any good ways to counter hacks in general? Hack it back? Will it get shot down? Weapon preigniters weren't available at any store I arrived at so that can't be the universal solution.

[stylesrj]

Don't hack Hacking. Hack something important.

Best solution is to run away and try again. If you can't do that... try cloaking before the drone lands? See if you can get it out of sync?

As for counters to Hacking in general? Keep calm and destroy the fools before too much damage can happen. Oh and Level 2 Oxygen is your friend in case they have a Level 3 Hack.

[5thHorseman]

I solve it by being ready. I try to have at least 2 of these if not 3 when facing the final boss, in this order:

L2 O2. If it gets hacked at L1, you can DIE. If it gets hacked at L2, it's almost as if the enemy didn't hack.
Hacking, to hack their hacking if they hack something I don't like. This is the most reliable, but as you have to wait for the cloak to come down it's not the best timing-wise.
Fast weapons, so if weapons DO get hacked, I can usually suffer through. I like fast weapons anyway so I frequently jut have this.
Defense or Anti-Drone drone, to shoot them down. This is a common one as well as I like defense drones. The hack can still sneak in past them sometimes though.
Full systems, to give them more targets. Oh no, you hacked my scanner. Whatever shall I do?

And if all else fails you can always jump away and try again. Well, so long as you meet the boss quickly. When my ship doesn't feel hacking-proof enough, I'll try to hit the boss the same turn it gets to the base.

Don't hack Hacking. Hack something important.

While I agree with this, if your Glaive beam/Ion 2/Ion combo gets hacked, hacking IS something important.

[Swapbox]

Don't hack Hacking. Hack something important.

While I agree with this, if your Glaive beam/Ion 2/Ion combo gets hacked, hacking IS something important.

Ever since cloaking was added to the flagship, Ion can be countered unless you have 3 ion 1's

[stylesrj]

Ever since cloaking was added to the flagship, Ion can be countered unless you have 3 ion 1's

You mean Hacking, right? Because that ship has always had Cloaking.

[5thHorseman]

Ever since cloaking was added to the flagship, Ion can be countered unless you have 3 ion 1's

Also, an Ion 1 and an Ion 2 ARE 3 ion 1's. Same number of shots, same amount of ion damage per shot. One less weapon slot and one more power requirement, of course, but for flagship killin' they do just fine.

[onehitparry]

Leylite already mentioned defense drone 1, but it's worth reiterating. Defense Drone 1 protects against a lot of the stuff, especially things the Boss throws at you. Missiles, hacking probes, and boarding drones. Defense Drone 1 is just a nice thing to have in general.