Handling early Drones as Mantis B

[itssirtou]

What is considered the best way to handle auto-ships as mantis B? You have no starting weapons, the Boarding Drone takes FOREVER if the rooms aren't all connected (God forbid he RANDOMLY decides to land in the helm when it has missiles) you can't port your people in there because there is no air... What do you do? Ignore them?

[mekloz]

There's no easy answer, but lvl 2 tp does let you board and come back before dying, doing two bars worth of damage. Better not lose your teleport in the meantime!

God forbid he RANDOMLY decides to land in the helm when it has missiles

Might want to stop it from breaking it so you can either whittle the hull down first with the mantis and deal the finishing blow (actually, if you board there first, the boarding drone will automatically switch to another room even if it arrives at the piloting), or so you don't stop it escaping if the extended battle will make you take much more damage.

[Nulien]

Yeah, if you only have level 1 teleporting, your only option early on is the boarding drone, and just hope it doesn't land in a room that isn't connected to any others... automated drone ships will never repair a system that has a hull breach, so your boarding drone will be useless then.

[itssirtou]

I've ran into SOOO mnay drones in this mantis run. I've literally (yes I mean real literal, I've been counting) ran into half again more drones than regular opponents, thats even counting the Lanius encounters.

And I finally got a decent weapon... that I can't equip. That one is my own fault

[mekloz]

Rebel sectors and nebulas have higher amounts of auto ships, might want to stay away from those with a ship like this.

[Skinny Pete]

Have level 2 teleport, board weapons room, wreck weapons (especially missiles), go home, board piloting if it is one of those drones where that is the only room by itself, send boarding drone (it won't be able to hit the fully occupied cockpit), boarding drone will finish it off.

As always level 2 shields is helpful. So if you don't have to, don't board with crew at all.

[itssirtou]

Originally posted by Skinny Pete:

Have level 2 teleport, board weapons room, wreck weapons (especially missiles), go home, board piloting if it is one of those drones where that is the only room by itself, send boarding drone (it won't be able to hit the fully occupied cockpit), boarding drone will finish it off.

As always level 2 shields is helpful. So if you don't have to, don't board with crew at all.

Mantis B comes with level 2 shields, woo!

And yeah thats basically what I did. Except for one that hacked my teleporter, didn't wanna risk it since my Boarder landed in their weapons/hacking. AFKd to wash dishes while I waited for that fight to finish...

And despite all my b♥tching this was my first win. Go figure ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Originally posted by mekloz:

Rebel sectors and nebulas have higher amounts of auto ships, might want to stay away from those with a ship like this.

Good to know. Still trying to figure out all of the sectors

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Originally posted by Skinny Pete:

Have level 2 teleport, board weapons room, wreck weapons (especially missiles), go home, board piloting if it is one of those drones where that is the only room by itself, send boarding drone (it won't be able to hit the fully occupied cockpit), boarding drone will finish it off.

^ this

Lvl 2 Teleporter allows you to JUST board your crew in, do about 2 points of system damage, and run off home. Spend your starting 30 scrap (if you're on Easy) upgrading it. You'll probably reap the reward after five jumps or so.


Keep in mind breaches stop auto-scouts from repairing. Therefore, DON'T send in your Boarding Drone at the beginning of the fight with one of the autoscouts that has separate rooms. That's because you need him to do your last point of damage... and if he lands in the helm and blows that up, you've got no way later to do 1 more point of hull damage.

Question: Do systems repair themselves if they're being attacked / there's some guy in the room (without any breaches?)

[mekloz]

Originally posted by aidenpons:

Therefore, DON'T send in your Boarding Drone at the beginning of the fight with one of the autoscouts that has separate rooms.

You can send it, if it lands in piloting, disable it (the drone), if it lands in weapons, all the better. Unless you're gonna board the pilot with crew so even if the drone gets there, it 'switches' to another closest room

Originally posted by aidenpons:

Question: Do systems repair themselves if they're being attacked / there's some guy in the room (without any breaches?)

Yeah, the only thing that stops auto-ships from repairing are breaches and fires. @edit And both of those reset the progress, which is why I mention fires (aside from trying to be accurate) - a fire bomb or beam may not do damage (it takes a lot of luck for the fires to stay around long enough for that), but it will make the repair start over.
In contrast, the only thing that resets the progress for manned ships is if there aren't any enemies in the room, but fighting or anything else to make them busy is enough to halt it.

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by mekloz:

a fire bomb or beam may not do damage (it takes a lot of luck for the fires to stay around long enough for that)

If you have an otherwise harmless ship and a fire beam and need that last point of damage, you'll eventually get it by setting systems on fire. It's just probably not worth the hassle if the thing can cause damage to you because it can take quite a lot of tries.