Subset Games Forum

Burst laser II, three attacks for 2 power with fast reload.

And Ion Blast II, 4 second reload ion. Will keep shields down on anything.

I'm going to be different! I like Dual lasers. Three shots for two power is nice. But two shots for one power is even more efficient!

Later in the game their efficiency doesn't matter, but early on they are incredibly handy for squeezing out all the offense you can.

I stumbled on this while playing Zoltan cruiser.

Halberd beam kicks ass. Once you set it up with some lasers to break his shield to 1 or zero even for a few seconds, halberd beam wreaks havoc to a maximum of 5 rooms, 2 damage each room. That's a whopping 10 damage in one blast. For most ships though, 4 is the maximum rooms you can line up with halberd.

Number one priority when playing Zoltan should be lasers(like 5 or 6 laser shots in a round) or ion shots, maybe. Trouble with ion is that they're one shot per round only, like bombs. And you don't have to rely on other weapons to fry their systems. All you need is to penetrate the shields for a second or two and leave it up to the halberd.

Once you get burst laser 3 and halberd running, with a cloak lvl 3, it is smooth sailing. Of course, you'd need to have the halberd on standby while waiting for your lasers to break the shields. You can't have both on autofire.

EDIT: I just discovered the Glaive beam! 3 damage per room. Boss dead in under 2 minutes. Haha! Used Glaive beam, BL2, Ion bomb, Ion cannon 1. Finally beat the game with Zoltan cruiser.

Breach bomb 1/2 : it allows you to board without needing any other weapon. Best weapon against door control/medibay
Fire bomb/beam works well with rocks
anti bio beam is funny but less efficient.

Of course, if not going for a boarding strat, the following are really good
Burst Laser 2 : for obvious reasons, as it is the best weapon to hammer enemy ships.
Ion Blast 2 : Same as BL2, best anti shield weapon that does not require energy
Hallberd or Glaive beam : huge damage output, just remember not to use them while your crew is onboard the enemy ship.

Pike beam.

I love the idea of hitting almost every room on a ship in one single charge. It is just so satisfying.

I like the weapons the Crystal Cruiser A starts out with. In fact, I liked them so much that I modded my game to make it so that you can actually get them outside of the crystal sector (they're more expensive and more rare than their normal counterparts, though).

Other than that... Ion bomb/breaching bombs. Because the Flagship is not allowed to have shields, ever.

I like the ion burst III, the anti-bio missile, and the breach beam.

I get a big kick out of the Mini Beam i gotta admit. For a beam you couldn't ask for faster reload or lower power consumption, yet it is still capable of nasty damage when shields are stripped. Pity it's not available for all ships but it would be overpowered then i guess.

UltraMantis wrote:I get a big kick out of the Mini Beam i gotta admit. For a beam you couldn't ask for faster reload or lower power consumption, yet it is still capable of nasty damage when shields are stripped.

A lot of the supposedly "backward" weapons are really pretty nice. The Dual Laser being a prime example - 2 shots for 1 power? Such a deal. Except for missile weapons, since they have ammunition expenditure.

The cheapest (including power feed) is Burst Laser mkII
The most effective - Ion bomb.
The funniest - Pegasus missile.