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Be ready for drone warfare strategy that will make your day! If someone has already said you that Engi cruiser is usless - don't listen to them! (actually only second layout is really worthless) If someone already developed that build, I am really sorry for unconsciously copying it.

And so, at last Rebel flagship has been shot down by me last night after 67 unsucessful plays total on Easy difficulty (yes, not very brave of me).

When I first unlocked Engi Cruiser and tried it I was disappointed and tried again Kestrel (or Stealth, currently can't remember).

But not so long ago I've tried this little guy again. And who would've presume that useless Engi Cube will help me to win the game?

So, let's get down to business to defeat the Rebels, shall we?

Engi Cruiser summary


Screenshot made by (C) TenLetters

Starting crew:
2 Engi
1 Human

Starting upgrades:

• Systems:
  • Shields: 2
  • Engines: 2
  • Life-support: 1
  • Weapons: 3
  • Drone hub: 3
  • Medibay: 1
• Subsystems:
  • Navigation room: 1
  • Sensors: 1
  • Doors: 1

Starting weapons:

• Ion Blast mkII
  Damage: 1 Ion
  Fire rate: 1
  Cooldown: 4 seconds*
  Power bars: 3

_____________________________
*Pay attention: this is really low cooldown so place someone in the weapons room as soon as possible to have a him or her up his/her skill very quick. Manning weapon systems reduces cooldowns in total 19% and this is almost 0.8 seconds!
_____________________________

Starting drones:

• Anti-Ship Drone mkI
  Constantly fires at enemy ship until both destroyed or escaped
  Damage: 1
  Parts per use: 1
  Power bars: 2

Special augmentations:
Engi Med-bot Dispersion. Heals the crew outside of the med-bay at a reduced rate of healing.
Note: the augmentation will be deactivated if the med-bay is deactivated, and upgrading the med-bay does affect med-bots' regeneration rate.

Pros:

• Two Engi in crew which is really helpful when you need to repair something.
• So far I consider drone warfare the most successful tactics for grinding Scrap.
• Engi nanobots will help your crewmembers to sustain more damage from enemy intruders allowing them to survive and even to develop their Boarding skills.
• Engi Cube is the smallest playable ship. At least it's very compact in comparison to Slug cruiser or Federation battleship.

Cons:

• If you are out of drone parts, you gonna have a bad time.
• No offensive weaponry, only Ion blaster.
• Similar to every Layout-A Cruisers: not every system could be manned from the beginning. Need more crew!

Final build

Sorry, no screenshots. Was too busy killing that Rebel bastard...

Crew:

• Enlisted personnel:
  3 Engi
  3 Human
  1 Mantis
  1 Rockman
• Crew designations:
  Navigation room: 1 Human (Piloting skill is maxed, Boarding skill is level 1)
  Engine room: 1 Engi (Engines skill is lvl 1)
  Shield room: 1 Engi
  Weapon room: 1 Engi (Weapon skill is maxed), 1 Mantis (Boarding skill lvl 1)
  Life support: 1 Rockman
  Drone hub: 2 Humans

Upgrades:

• Reactor: MAXED
• Systems:
  • Shields: 4
  • Engines: 7
  • Life-support: 2
  • Weapons: 6
  • Drone hub: 5
  • Medibay: 1
• Subsystems:
  • Navigation room: 2
  • Sensors: 2
  • Doors: 2

I always was relying on shields and weapon systems when I was playing The Kestrel. But this will not do any good to Engi ship. Also one of my friends once told me that sometimes it's better to upgrade engines instead of shields. I took his advise and was very satisfied with dodge percentage. Also i was too naive to think that I will have a chance to power another Drone. Alas! Not with my weapons. But it was worth it.
Another my mistake was to spend my Scrap every time I earn it. Also I was very lucky to have some "Holy shit it's a floating weapon!" events so it's just matter of play.

Weapons:

• Ion Blast mkII
  Wouldn't sell Ion Blast by any chance. Free skill upping for my gunner, yay!
  Damage: 1 Ion
  Fire rate: 1
  Cooldown: 4 seconds
  Power bars: 3
• Heavy Ion
  Heavy Ion on the other hand is a best 'medium choice'. Always used it to disable weapons systems.
  Damage: 2 Ion
  Fire rate: 1
  Cooldown: 13 seconds
  Power bars: 2
• Ion Bomb
  OMG that Ion damage plus defense ignoring plus so minor energy consumption! Farewell, four-level shields! Not very good when fighting Zoltans, but Drones and Ion blasters will take care of their extra-shield before bomb will warm-up.
  Damage: 4 Ion
  Fire rate: 1
  Cooldown: 13 seconds
  Power bars: 1

No one could sustain so much ion damage. Those are weapons for all occasions! Thanks to high fire rate, Heavy Ion Mk-II will disable as much enemy ship's systems as possible at one time. That bomb... My description is saying enough. =D

Drones:

• Anti-Ship Drone mkI
  Damage: 1
  Parts per use: 1
  Power bars: 2
• Anti-Ship Drone mkI
  Damage: 1
  Parts per use: 1
  Power bars: 2

Because they do all the job and do it well! Drone warfare is a shoot'n'forget method because the chance for enemy to particularly shoot them down is very low. No, really. While drones are slowly reducing enemy hull points you can pay more attention to your crew, possible intruders and various breakdowns.

Some tactical tips for you, Drone Warfarers!

• Remember to watch over your drone parts count. It's really vital for you to search for any opportunity to buy/obtain them. Without drones you are good only for fast fleeing.
• Though it was already been told in the game itself, I will remind you: carefully choose your targets for Ion weapons. Drones will pick their targets independently, so don't mind them. Use autofire. Usually the most vital systems are of course Shields and Weapons. Use Heavy Ion to turn-off their weapons, Ion Bomb for Shields and Ion Blaster for additional support to other Ions.
  Also don't forget about Cloaking devices. Delay their cooldown as long as possible!
• It would be wise to have additional shield bubble. Just for your information...
• When at last stand, and you're lucky, you'll have few repair stations nearby and even a merchant. I has received two last humans with his help. Those guys saved the ship by roaming between damaged rooms and fixing them.
• Try to make your Humans, Rockman and Mantis fight as much as possible. It should be very good if they will receive skill levels in process.

Rebel Flagship Tactics

When I fist met that Behemoth my thought was "Omg what is that?! Can I beat it?" As it appears, I couldn't. At all desire, I could not.
Totally I had almost 10 times from 67 when I have reached the Last Stand sector. Once I've realized that Rebel Flagship is a three-stage boss fight, I was hoping that it will not do some dirty tricks in process. But second stage was just devastating. I was overwhelmed with those drones and was quickly shot down.
I can't tell you how literally to shoot this beast down. I can only point you at some vital things you must keep in mind.
Firstly, don't forget about tips I wrote above.

• Stage 1. Omg wtf Behemoth!
  • The main problem here is his cloaking device. Use bomb to disable shield, shoot at cloaking room, ignore weapon shots - your engines will for sure dodge most of them. Have any damage? Your crew should deal with it quickly. Don't forget to maintain your drones on-line.
• Stage 2. There's too many of these little bastards!
  • When you meet Behemoth second time, you will find that it has activated it's drone systems. A pair of drones will not make the big problem until that awkward moment when you see a red sign telling you about some system surge. A whole swarm of drones will attack you. So your main aim in this fight is to disable shields with bombs and drone control with Ion blasters.if you're lucky enough to survive, let's go to final battle!
• Stage 3. Emergency defense protocol!
  • Goddamn, this ship has extra shields like Zoltan ones but even tougher! No worries, drones will break through it along with Ion blasters. But the main problem is the remaining Rebel crewmembers that decide to desperately invade your ship. Make them pay for that! Force them to come with you to the shield or weapon room and show them power of united Mantis, Human and Rock fists and laser pistols! While fighting filthy insurgents, keep busy Behemoth's shield (with bombs, of course), weapons and teleporter so they won't go back to heal!
  Once you've beaten The Rebel Flagship you will be rewarded with achievement, new ship and inscription that says that your little ship saved the Federation, that it has destroyed Rebel Flagship which caused Rebels to spread across the known galaxy and blah-blah-blah. Then you'll see end titles. Touchér!

I hope guys that you understood and enjoyed this little article of mine and you had a chance to try this particular build. I also hope that this guide helped you to look at Engi Cube from another point and to beat the Rebels.

Good scrap hunting for you guys, I wish you luck and Faster Than Light speed along the road to the victory!

This is a very good idea indeed, but have you ever considered using just 1 Anti-Ship drone and 2 Ion Blast MkII? It works very well, shooting the shields then the drone can just pound anything elce. With this tactic, i didn't even need to upgrade the engines or max out the shields.

Proficient for sure althought there is one major downside:
- The Ion Blast MkII can sometimes be quite hard to obtain. I was as lucky to find mine just as I was to jump.
- The drone can sometimes just have a complete "Strop" and miss everything, causing lots of dammage to you.

Engi A is regarded as one of the strongest ships in the game.

Engi B is regarded as the worst. A guide for that (that doesn't involve selling all of its gear for better stuff) would be impressive.

KardaKAX wrote:This is a very good idea indeed, but have you ever considered using just 1 Anti-Ship drone and 2 Ion Blast MkII? It works very well, shooting the shields then the drone can just pound anything elce. With this tactic, i didn't even need to upgrade the engines or max out the shields.

Proficient for sure althought there is one major downside:
- The Ion Blast MkII can sometimes be quite hard to obtain. I was as lucky to find mine just as I was to jump.
- The drone can sometimes just have a complete "Strop" and miss everything, causing lots of dammage to you.

Ion Blast II + any other Ion weapon is more than enough, and with a Heavy Ion you have an extra power bar freed up to do whatever else with.

A Beam Drone is more effective against ships with no shield. It never misses and it can hit multiple rooms sometimes. Anti-Ship drones are better when you need help stripping shields.

And you're pretty lucky to beat the flagship without high engines and shield with just an anti-ship drone. A lot can happen in the time it takes for that drone to slowly plink away at the flagship health, it can miss, and if your Ions miss too many times the cloak goes back up on the first phase and then you get to take more damage. It's certainly possible, but not reliable.

Thanks for the comments, guys. =)

FDru wrote:And you're pretty lucky to beat the flagship without high engines and shield with just an anti-ship drone. A lot can happen in the time it takes for that drone to slowly plink away at the flagship health, it can miss, and if your Ions miss too many times the cloak goes back up on the first phase and then you get to take more damage. It's certainly possible, but not reliable.

I suppose you didn't read my guide carefully, because I has almost fully upgraded engines and two drones. This is enough when you wield so many ion weapons. =)

KardaKAX wrote:This is a very good idea indeed, but have you ever considered using just 1 Anti-Ship drone and 2 Ion Blast MkII? It works very well, shooting the shields then the drone can just pound anything elce. With this tactic, i didn't even need to upgrade the engines or max out the shields.

I had that build once, it didn't helped me much because when your enemy has more than two shield bubbles even blaster drone could not help you.

KardaKAX wrote:Proficient for sure althought there is one major downside:
- The Ion Blast MkII can sometimes be quite hard to obtain. I was as lucky to find mine just as I was to jump.
- The drone can sometimes just have a complete "Strop" and miss everything, causing lots of dammage to you.

1) That's right, so my build is more possible though Ion Bomb is pretty rare, too.
2) It's always happens and not only with drones. Once my weapon master Yakko missed so many times that my ship been crushed. Moreover, that's why my goal is to have two Drones - if one misses alot, another will for sure hit the target. Also I suggest to change target of your weapons if constantly miss.

CrashSanders wrote:Thanks for the comments, guys. =)

KardaKAX wrote:This is a very good idea indeed, but have you ever considered using just 1 Anti-Ship drone and 2 Ion Blast MkII? It works very well, shooting the shields then the drone can just pound anything elce. With this tactic, i didn't even need to upgrade the engines or max out the shields.

I had that build once, it didn't helped me much because when your enemy has more than two shield bubbles even blaster drone could not help you..

No, if you had 2 ion mk 2 you should be able to quickly take down any level of shielding completely so your drone can hit it, probably about as quick as with the 3 ion weapons you listed. You'd have to miss the ions several times in a row before the shield can go back up. All the second attack drone does is make it take half as long to finish them off.

If you want to finish the enemy off really quickly, the way would be with 3 ion weapons and 3 attack drones, one of them a mk II drone. Mk II attack drones really do fire much quicker, in fact they average a speed of slightly faster then shields can recharge after being hit with lasers. With enough patience a mk II drone by itself will damage through any level of shield (though it will take quite some time if they have a good dodge chance, especially when you consider the slightly variable time between shots.)

Sometimes it's hard to find MK II drone. I found it only once. Also I don't rely on weapons and drones that consume more than 3 power bars. Sometimes it's really hard to find scrap to upgrade systems to high level. And don't forget that we have limited number of power bars in reactor. Which makes things difficult.

No, if you had 2 ion mk 2 you should be able to quickly take down any level of shielding completely so your drone can hit it, probably about as quick as with the 3 ion weapons you listed. You'd have to miss the ions several times in a row before the shield can go back up. All the second attack drone does is make it take half as long to finish them off.

If you want to finish the enemy off really quickly, the way would be with 3 ion weapons and 3 attack drones, one of them a mk II drone. Mk II attack drones really do fire much quicker, in fact they average a speed of slightly faster then shields can recharge after being hit with lasers. With enough patience a mk II drone by itself will damage through any level of shield (though it will take quite some time if they have a good dodge chance, especially when you consider the slightly variable time between shots.)

Indeeded this is true. Also I do believe that Ion stacks up per more times hit, does it not? (I.E. Hitting a 3 Ion dmg on one system then 4 again on the same system stacks up to 7 Ion dmg, or am I mistaken?)

My Engi A strat :

Ion mk2 x1
2+ shot laser x1
Any Bomb or Gun (optional) x1

Attack drone mk1 x2
Defense drone mk2 x1

Drone Recovery arm

Battle strat :

- Deploy all drone, or just 2x attack drone and then swap to def drone when need.
- Ion mk2 on Shield
- Laser on Cockpit

On my second engi attempt, I had terrible weapon luck but still managed to win with a lot of tough micromanaging.
Final setup (Seriously, this was the best I could find) included the starting ion mk2, and a fire bomb for weapons. :c I had to sell the nanobots for the bomb too. The only drones I could find were two beam mk1s, so I had those two and the starting anti-ship drone. Scrap and drone recovery were my only two augmentations. What I -did- have going for me were two mantis that an escaping enemy stole in sector 7, a backup attack team of a rock and a human, and four engis expertly manning their four stations.

The boss fight involved taking out the missile and then ion weapons with boarders while I firebombed the heck out of their shields. Once they gave up repairing them, I spent something like 25 missiles trying to bomb their med bay and keep it dead long enough to kill off their crew.
Round two was hell; I thought I was a goner for sure, but at least my drones were finally useful for something (Eating that zoltan shield super fast) and I took them down after dodging one surge but getting shredded by the second and third ones. Luckily the boss dies really quickly once shields are down, against two beam drones.
Third form wasn't all that bad since I spent some time waiting to get my hull repaired, and took him down without too much trouble.

In the end, I think I would have had a -much- easier time if I have some actual weapons, a nicer layout, some zoltans so I didn't have to cut off half my systems every time I wanted to attack, or any number of the advantages that other ships get. Eng ships are underpowered.