Your Tips & Tricks

[floatstarpx]

Hello!
Thank you all for your support of Space Crew so far! :) We really appreciate all your feedback, and it's great to see so many of you playing already.

It's dangerous out there in space, so I'm starting a thread for sharing tips & tricks you can use to make your ride a little (or a lot) more comfortable. I'll start with a few tips of my own, but please feel free to add yours, too!

There are many different things to try out & different ways to play, so I can't cover everything... Even in the Runner Duck team, we all use very different approaches when playing through the game. - so please add your own to the thread - I'd be really interested to know what's worked for everyone playing the game so far!

Beginner Tips

• Use your abilities - Crew abilities are essential. If your ship is taking a hammering - use 'Evasive Piloting'. You can also use this to prevent a docking ship from being able to line up, to buy you some time. Got a few fires or repairs to do, but there's a lot going on? Try using 'Stealth Mode' to give yourself some time. Use your engineer's "boost" the reactor and put more energy in to your shields or weapons!
  
• Prioritise repairs - repair your engines (don't forget a space suit!), oxygen generator and reactor as soon as you can!
  
• Be prepared for boarders - maybe you've seen the ship coming in the distance? maybe you've heard its docking sound? get someone ready in advance, and you'll be rid of those Phasmid boarders before they can even start to cause any chaos.
  
• Equip your ship with some thought - make sure you've got enough med kits! make sure phase rifles and extinguishers are placed near where you'll need them.
  
• Get your Security Officer on the guns - either the front gun, allowing quick access to the security station (for shield replenishing or going in to stealth mode), or the middle gun with a phase rifle nearby for taking out Phasmids
  
• A fourth gunner? - want someone else on the guns, too? Your engineer or comms officer are both strong candidates for this. If you're mostly using non-energy weapons, your Engineer can work well. If you're using energy weapons, you may want to have your Engineer using their "boost" skill to allow you to put more power in to your weapons. Or, you can move your Comms Officer to the front gun, allowing them to quickly hop back to their own station for route planning.
  
• Don't worry if you fail - replacement crew & ships improve as you go through the game, so you'll never be left with total rubbish... - but it may be wise to take on a few low risk missions if you lose everyone.
  
• Escape pods - put them on your ship & use them. if everything's gone wrong, there's a good chance of recovery (plus getting the XP gathered so far in the mission). this may also open up rescue missions for crew that don't return immediately.
  
• Take the safest route - if you're not confident yet, take the safest route.
  
• Take the fastest route... at your own risk - OK, you've got a decent crew, a decent ship... you know your abilities & skills like the back of your hand. maybe your crew could do with a bit more combat experience? go fast!
  
• Go home - don't be afraid to "Abort" the mission (abort button is on the Captain's station). Med bay gauge empty? Out of med packs? Don't think you'll survive another battle? Try to go home- you'll get the XP you got so far, and keep your ship and crew.
  
• Alien artifacts & cargo pods - you can scan or retrieve these for some extra spending resources... but, be careful - perhaps the Phasmids are tracking them...?
  
• Repairing engines - remember a space suit. oh, and don't use evasive piloting while your crew member is trying to balance on the engines... (if you do though, you can always tractor beam them back in...!)

Further things to try

• Non-energy weapons - Energy weapons need reactor power. Non-energy weapons do not, meaning they'll still be firing if your reactor power is being used to "Charge For Hyperjump". - so, if you're the type who likes to run away from a fight... you can equip non-energy weapons, and be charging without being a total sitting duck.
  
• Non-energy weapons II - If you're using non-energy weapons, you can put more of
  your reactor power in to your shields!
  
• Energy weapons - If you upgrade your reactor (or are using Engineer skills such as "Boost" or "Overdrive"), and are able to put more power in to your energy weapons - your Energy Weapons immediately become more effective. Non-energy weapons will pretty much always just stay as they were.
  
• Radiation - your rear gunner sits close to the engines, often getting exposed to radiation from them. It's worth thinking about equipping them with equipment which shields them from radiation. Later on, you'll be able to use their Overdrive skills without being affected too heavily, also.
  
• Secondary skills - at a certain point, you can give your crew secondary skills. I'd recommend giving your Security Officer + Engineer secondary skills of Weapons Officer. I'd recommend a Weapons Officer is a secondary Engineer... and perhaps have a secondary Security Officer - they're better at fighting boarding Phasmids.
  
• Gravity - do you really need that unit of power for gravity? maybe it'd be better on the shields/weapons/engines? (then again, when you've only got a short amount of time to revive a crew member - being able to get there easily does help!)
  
• Be prepared for boarders II - your rear gunner is your best bet to stop the docking ship getting to you. - use focus fire, put more reactor power in to weapons (if energy weapons) to help them destroy them before they reach you. you can use 'Evasive Piloting', too.

(I'll come back and add more to these lists as I think of them...)

If you've got some strategies you've been using, or tips you'd like to share - post them in this thread! :)

[RedCloud53]

heres some of my tips:

The rear gunner is much like the top gunner from Bomber Crew, in that he can hit almost anything, this is why you should equip him with strong weapons.

If you see an enemy champion, RUN. These guys are HORRIFYING, even the first one is terrible. Not only are they plenty powerfull on their own, they ALSO bring a powerfull squad of aliens with them! Luckily, just like the rest of the alien horde, they have a terrible grasp of object permanence, therefore Stealth Mode still works on them.

[MagicWookie]

Rearrange the equipment so that you have your guns next to your two side gunners from the start, makes repelling boarders much faster. I also highly recommend grav boots and keeping gravity off at all times, makes boarders easy and gives you an extra power slot and one less thing you care about upgrading.

[gluon]

Giving the comms officer the secondary skill of security means you can have your security officer man the front gun and move your comms officer between the two positions on the bridge so you can call in fighter support etc but also still be able to replenish shields.

[Joaquin]

Never get the fast charge shield, it's better to wait for the 1k shield life because most of the time the shield won't be able to regenerate with the amount of Phasmids coming out to kill you.

[b.ripley]

One thing I do that really makes it easier is as soon as you can give all your crew environmental masks which will allow you to purge the ship with basically no drawback as long as everyone is seated. It also allows you to use the purge as a way to put out all the fires on the ship with only using one character for a short time which makes it really easy to use the weapon overdrives and also shield overdrive since you get a bit of rad resist from the masks.

[Panfilo]

Originally posted by Pfc. J. Joaquin 508th PIR-2S:

Never get the fast charge shield, it's better to wait for the 1k shield life because most of the time the shield won't be able to regenerate with the amount of Phasmids coming out to kill you.

I was wondering about this. The benefit to a fast charge shield would be when you are under constant attack, but the very low value means its easy for fighters to knock it out then start perforating your hull for a bit before you can change facing.

In contrast, the 'slower' shields can be offset by abilities and more power to shields. Keeping them up can be done with a variety of ways with the bulk of recovery happening when things are safe.

[Ponykisser]

Originally posted by Panfilo:

Originally posted by Pfc. J. Joaquin 508th PIR-2S:

Never get the fast charge shield, it's better to wait for the 1k shield life because most of the time the shield won't be able to regenerate with the amount of Phasmids coming out to kill you.

I was wondering about this. The benefit to a fast charge shield would be when you are under constant attack, but the very low value means its easy for fighters to knock it out then start perforating your hull for a bit before you can change facing.

In contrast, the 'slower' shields can be offset by abilities and more power to shields. Keeping them up can be done with a variety of ways with the bulk of recovery happening when things are safe.

The fact the fast charge shield doesnt make the time before your shields start regenerating shorter is a travesty and would make it useful as an alternative

So far ive found dual weapons to be real good if you wanna micromanage...assuming you save up to get the upgraded ones and dont go for the base weapon plus another base weapon since its not worth it. Not to mention i usually only run one dual at a time since its heavy on management if you want to use it properly, usually on the rear or nose gun is my pick

[Naysair]

Here's some of my personal tips for people that might be struggling. This is what works for me, but obviously, feel free to experiment and find what works for you.

General Tips
Champions: What I do is just target the champion and none of the adds, then pop all your cooldowns for focus fire, overdrive, call in the fighters and cruiser, then pilot in attack mode. The cruiser and fighters will attack other phasmids randomly helping to deal with those while you focus down the champion. Once the champion is dead the adds will go away as long as you can stay alive.

Leveling: Once you get the option to pick up a secondary skill it's best to wait before picking one, especially your pilot as they won't be moving around. The reason I say to wait for the secondary skill is because the experience is divided between the two skills. It's best to focus on getting the higher levels of your main skill due to better perks and efficiency for the role the crewmember is always doing as opposed to spreading much-needed experience on a skill you may never use (exceptions for a few crewmembers listed below). You can get to level 12 faster with one skill instead of wasting that experience on secondary skills.

Ship Composition
Engines: I generally like to have my left engine be the radiation reduction engine since if it leaks it's going to start hurting my rear gunner. The right side engine I go for whatever gives me the most agility.

Reactor: I will always use the reactor that gives me the most power. Armor is nice, but upgrading the ship's armor should be sufficient to protect the engine. I also generally only keep one energy point in shields, have weapons maxed, and the remainder in engines.

Weapons: I generally like my front and rear guns to be energy weapons and the side guns as kinetic. I really like the rail guns, they seem to hit more (with fast projectiles) from my experience so far, and I generally don't like the missile launchers since they're slow and the missiles are easy for enemies to dodge if they're maneuvering aggressively. I'm still feeling these all out, but this has been my experience so far.

Gravity Generator: I don't really bother with upgrading it since I hardly use it, I also don't prioritize fixing it unless I'm not in combat. I never use the gravity generator except in cases of emergency or if I'm trying to cycle people to the Medbay between waves.

Medbay: Nice to upgrade but I only upgrade if it has more life capacity.

Oxygen Generator: Prioritize fixing this if it goes down and you aren't using O2 masks. For upgrades, I generally don't bother, even if I have the money to do so. I save money up for when the next set of more useful upgrades (ship armor, weapons, reactor).

Team Roles
Engineer: I designate my engineer for all my fire emergencies and keep gravity boots on him, as I don't use a reactor point for the gravity generator. I generally keep him on the left guns and rarely use the reactor boost except in emergencies such as a fighting a lot of hostiles in the middle of an asteroid field.

Pilot: NEVER MOVE YOUR PILOT. The only thing you want him to do is fly. In fact, I never give my pilot a secondary skill until I hit level 12 with him. He should be one of the most heavily armored crew members you have as you won't be moving him. Some tips with flying; once you're in combat, switch to defensive flying so he keeps the shields pointed at the enemy. I like to use emergency maneuvers once my shields are getting low but before they are completely gone. The reason for this is that the shields will start recharging sooner if there's some shield left. If attacking a champion or cleaning up a few phasmids and you trust your ship, switch to attack. Generally, don't just keep flying locked onto a waypoint in combat.

Security Officer: I generally keep him in the front turret and will have him pop out to restore shields. I generally don't use stealth unless there's an engine that needs to repair or fires that can't wait and your engineer won't be enough to handle it all.

Comms Officer: I try to keep my comms officer at their station as generally, I'll be using her experience gain skill and because I want to know if more phasmids are coming in. In a heated battle, I'll have her (if you have the security officer secondary which is what I prefer with the comms officer) go over to the security officer's station and use shield restore instead of pulling him from his gun station.

Right Gunner: I rarely move the right gunner but generally will give him an engineer secondary in case of emergencies but this is a personal preference. Time Your Abilities - Overdrive isn't nearly as effective without focus fire at the same time. Try to time using these at the same time.

Rear Gunner: Besides covering the rear gun, as soon as every mission starts I have him grab the gun out of the cargo room and bring it back to his station. He'll drop it on the ground as he gets back on the gun and the rifle will just float around in his area. In case of phasmids boarding the ship, I'll have him grab the rifle off the ground and go deal with the threat since he's closest and you don't want these guys running all around your ship destroying everything. because of this, I'll almost always give him the secondary skill of weapons officer so he has better damage against the boarding phasmids.

There may be more stuff but this is all I can think of as of now. Hopefully, this helps someone who may be looking for some advice.

[Panfilo]

Gunners seem to be most effective when firing at enemies approaching in a straight line and when they are chasing you it gives you the most time to destroy them before they make an attack run or try to board you. When at a slight angle you can get two and sometimes three of your gunners all firing the same target. If you are quick enough you can select a waypoint opposite of enemies to keep your butt pointed at them. This is especially useful vs boarding ships. During these approaches try to avoid doing any course changes or maneuvers, because ship movements will disrupt your crews aim. Once they start circling around or swerving away you can safely maneuver; your gunners are unlikely to destroy a target rapidly crossing their field of vision anyway. Defensive maneuvers is ideal most of the time but be aware that the constant turning also messes up your own aim.

If you ever have a enemy ship that seems to be stuck in your gunners blind spot, try switching to 'attack' maneuver for a few seconds then back to 'defense'. This can shift your ship around enough for the gunner to get a fix on their target.

[Looom55]

please keep in mind that i only just completed the first mission in the second part of the campaign

i find that keeping as many gunners as possible is required. the engineer should be on the left gun and the security officer on the front.

when it comes to my secondary skills i like to give my engineer and security gunner to help them have higher accuracy. the rear gunner should be a security officer to get rid of those pain in the back boarders. the right gunner should be engineer though he never normally gets moved unless there is more than one vital thing broken (vital things including shields, O2, gravity, reactor and engines)

i tend to just get my men to chuck things on the floor so purging isn't something i normally use (with the exeption of sector 1 in witch i use to put out the fires that the boarders make) instead i require my rear gunner and often my comms officer to kill them.

the gun choices i have may confuse people but i think they make perfect sense. on the front i have a set of missiles as they have slight homing and two sets is often enough to kill an enemy
on both the side guns i want to have explosive auto - cannons however i only have one side with it at the time of writing the side without having a regular auto - cannon. and finally on the back i have a mk 2 plasma cannon aiming to get a mk 3

also can anyone help me with mother-ships as now i just tried to complete explore the beta section and a mother-ship was there and i destroyed about 4 chargers before all my crew was dying and there was too much to manage.(when i lose a crew member or think i gunna die i leave as this is not something the developers stop you doing and henceforth is not technically cheating; the disadvantage to this is that if think i'm going to lose then i will leave even if i still could win)

overall amazing game nice and hard and i don't think there are enough games out there like this.

[Naysair]

Originally posted by legomonkey10:

please keep in mind that i only just completed the first mission in the second part of the campaign

i find that keeping as many gunners as possible is required. the engineer should be on the left gun and the security officer on the front.

when it comes to my secondary skills i like to give my engineer and security gunner to help them have higher accuracy. the rear gunner should be a security officer to get rid of those pain in the back boarders. the right gunner should bean engineer though he never normally gets moved unless there is more than one vital thing broken (vital things including shields, O2, gravity, reactor and engines)

i tend to just get my men to chuck things on the floor so purging isn't something i normally use (with the exeption of sector 1 in witch i use to put out the fires that the boarders make) instead i require my rear gunner and often my comms officer to kill them.

the gun choices i have may confuse people but i think they make perfect sense. on the front i have a set of missiles as they have slight homing and two sets is often enough to kill an enemy
on both the side guns i want to have explosive auto - cannons however i only have one side with it at the time of writing the side without having a regular auto - cannon. and finally on the back i have a mk 2 plasma cannon aiming to get a mk 3

also can anyone help me with mother-ships as now i just tried to complete explore the beta section and a mother-ship was there and i destroyed about 4 chargers before all my crew was dying and there was too much to manage.(when i lose a crew member or think i gunna die i leave as this is not something the developers stop you doing and henceforth is not technically cheating; the disadvantage to this is that if think i'm going to lose then i will leave even if i still could win)

overall amazing game nice and hard and i don't think there are enough games out there like this.:winter2019coolyul:

One thing is I'd say you're using too much kinetic. It's better to have more energy weapons than kinetic as it burns off their shields which will keep coming back if you don't kill the adds fast enough. Have plasma cannons in the front and back at least for the majority of the game. Also, probably switch out missiles for explosive auto cannon when you get the chance. The second thing is you should remove the secondary skill from your right gunner until he is maxed on his first skill, same with the comms officer. The only toons you should really give a secondary skill right away when available are the rear gunner for security (you can honestly probably even skip this, just keep the rifle next to him), then engineer with weapons (engineer perks are underwhelming, better to get the weapons going) and the security officer with a weapons skill so he has more damage and perks while on the front gun like you're already doing. I wouldn't give the comms officer a secondary skill until you at least get fighters and maybe even wait until you get cruisers.

I've never had any issues with the motherships tbh, so if you run it this way you'll probably have better results. What kind of gear do you have on your guys? Do they have enough armor? Where are you placing your reactor energy? What ship upgrades are you using?

[Looom55]

Originally posted by Hawthorne's Pool Boy:

Originally posted by legomonkey10:

please keep in mind that i only just completed the first mission in the second part of the campaign

i find that keeping as many gunners as possible is required. the engineer should be on the left gun and the security officer on the front.

when it comes to my secondary skills i like to give my engineer and security gunner to help them have higher accuracy. the rear gunner should be a security officer to get rid of those pain in the back boarders. the right gunner should bean engineer though he never normally gets moved unless there is more than one vital thing broken (vital things including shields, O2, gravity, reactor and engines)

i tend to just get my men to chuck things on the floor so purging isn't something i normally use (with the exeption of sector 1 in witch i use to put out the fires that the boarders make) instead i require my rear gunner and often my comms officer to kill them.

the gun choices i have may confuse people but i think they make perfect sense. on the front i have a set of missiles as they have slight homing and two sets is often enough to kill an enemy
on both the side guns i want to have explosive auto - cannons however i only have one side with it at the time of writing the side without having a regular auto - cannon. and finally on the back i have a mk 2 plasma cannon aiming to get a mk 3

also can anyone help me with mother-ships as now i just tried to complete explore the beta section and a mother-ship was there and i destroyed about 4 chargers before all my crew was dying and there was too much to manage.(when i lose a crew member or think i gunna die i leave as this is not something the developers stop you doing and henceforth is not technically cheating; the disadvantage to this is that if think i'm going to lose then i will leave even if i still could win)

overall amazing game nice and hard and i don't think there are enough games out there like this.

One thing is I'd say you're using too much kinetic. It's better to have more energy weapons than kinetic as it burns off their shields which will keep coming back if you don't kill the adds fast enough. Have plasma cannons in the front and back at least for the majority of the game. Also, probably switch out missiles for explosive auto cannon when you get the chance. The second thing is you should remove the secondary skill from your right gunner until he is maxed on his first skill, same with the comms officer. The only toons you should really give a secondary skill right away when available are the rear gunner for security (you can honestly probably even skip this, just keep the rifle next to him), then engineer with weapons (engineer perks are underwhelming, better to get the weapons going) and the security officer with a weapons skill so he has more damage and perks while on the front gun like you're already doing. I wouldn't give the comms officer a secondary skill until you at least get fighters and maybe even wait until you get cruisers.

I've never had any issues with the motherships tbh, so if you run it this way you'll probably have better results. What kind of gear do you have on your guys? Do they have enough armor? Where are you placing your reactor energy? What ship upgrades are you using?

i just beat the mother ship but there is a mother ship flotilla that may be a problem

my pilot and comms officer are as armored as i can make them with mk2 battle helmets, heavy armored suits mk2, heavy gloves mk2 and mk3 armored boots. all my crew have mk2 battle helmets with the exeption of the engineer who has an environmental mask mk3. the remainder of the crew are wearing light armored suits mk3 the gloves, holster and boots i dont think are worth mentioning but if you want me to then just ask and i will say this afternoon.

as for the lack of energy weapons i don't really agree. i upgraded my missiles from mk1 to mk2 earlier and my plasma cannon to mk3 and like the manager of Brazil said the rear gunner can see almost everything. one salvo of missiles is enough to remove most shields and have two missiles go through which provides a decent amount of damage. however i might have made myself unclear on where my weapons are as you say to switch out my missiles for an explosive auto cannon but hat would mean not having a plasma cannon in front and back like you say. my weapons are positioned like so:
missile launcher mk2 in front
explosive auto cannons on both sides
and a mk3 plasma cannon on the back
i am very tempted to try a railgun or particle beam. my reactor is a balanced mk2 so i have two points on shield two on weapons (witch i might change to one and add one more to shields) one on engine and one on gravity

and thats really it

eddit: my ship currently has two standard mk2 engines, mk3 armor in the process of going to mk4, a standard shield mk3, mk2 gravity, mk 1 O2 (i really don't think it is worth upgrading), a mk2 balanced reactor, a mk2 med bed and three escape pods. equipment wise i have three guns, four fire extinguishers (i should really lower that to three or two), two space suits, and the rest med kits.

[Naysair]

Originally posted by legomonkey10:

Originally posted by Hawthorne's Pool Boy:

One thing is I'd say you're using too much kinetic. It's better to have more energy weapons than kinetic as it burns off their shields which will keep coming back if you don't kill the adds fast enough. Have plasma cannons in the front and back at least for the majority of the game. Also, probably switch out missiles for explosive auto cannon when you get the chance. The second thing is you should remove the secondary skill from your right gunner until he is maxed on his first skill, same with the comms officer. The only toons you should really give a secondary skill right away when available are the rear gunner for security (you can honestly probably even skip this, just keep the rifle next to him), then engineer with weapons (engineer perks are underwhelming, better to get the weapons going) and the security officer with a weapons skill so he has more damage and perks while on the front gun like you're already doing. I wouldn't give the comms officer a secondary skill until you at least get fighters and maybe even wait until you get cruisers.

I've never had any issues with the motherships tbh, so if you run it this way you'll probably have better results. What kind of gear do you have on your guys? Do they have enough armor? Where are you placing your reactor energy? What ship upgrades are you using?

i just beat the mother ship but there is a mother ship flotilla that may be a problem

my pilot and comms officer are as armored as i can make them with mk2 battle helmets, heavy armored suits mk2, heavy gloves mk2 and mk3 armored boots. all my crew have mk2 battle helmets with the exeption of the engineer who has an environmental mask mk3. the remainder of the crew are wearing light armored suits mk3 the gloves, holster and boots i dont think are worth mentioning but if you want me to then just ask and i will say this afternoon.

as for the lack of energy weapons i don't really agree. i upgraded my missiles from mk1 to mk2 earlier and my plasma cannon to mk3 and like the manager of Brazil said the rear gunner can see almost everything. one salvo of missiles is enough to remove most shields and have two missiles go through which provides a decent amount of damage. however i might have made myself unclear on where my weapons are as you say to switch out my missiles for an explosive auto cannon but hat would mean not having a plasma cannon in front and back like you say. my weapons are positioned like so:
missile launcher mk2 in front
explosive auto cannons on both sides
and a mk3 plasma cannon on the back
i am very tempted to try a railgun or particle beam. my reactor is a balanced mk2 so i have two points on shield two on weapons (witch i might change to one and add one more to shields) one on engine and one on gravity

and thats really it :winter2019surprisedyul:

For a while I was running plasma in front and back, then a rail gun on the right side and explosive auto cannon on the back.

I'd highly recommend only having one reactor point in shields and not add more. All that does in increase the speed at which you gain back shields after they start recharging which is forever as they'll stop re charging when hit and take even longer to start recharging when depleted. If one of your shields is gone have your pilot fly defensive so he'll turn the ship to be hit where you have shields. Also make sure your security officer is hopping out of the front gun to use his replenish shields ability. With more point in weapons and more use of energy weapons your time to kill is faster and you also aren't taking damage as long. Your remainder points should go to the engines so you can dodge more damage. That will mitigate damage much more than will be helped by putting more points in shields. Also, turn off your gravity generator, you should only use it in dire emergencies, that's just a wasted reactor point. Put gravity boots on your rear gunner and engineer and maybe security officer, but in reality the security officer doesn't need them that much as he's just going back and forth from the front gun to the security officer station which is quick as it is. I've never had a guy die, never lost a mission, so I highly recommend you try this and see how it works for you.

Also, you didn't mention what your ship upgrades are that you're using. What engines do you use and what reactor are you using? Something tells me you probably need to change your ship upgrades as well.

If you still are getting killed too fast you have a DPS issue and need better weapons. The rail gun is great for kinetic because of how fast the projectile is cutting down the time to kill. Missile's aren't for taking down shields though kinetic eventually can it's just not as efficient. Plus missiles shoot slow and are easy to dodge.

Make sure you're using the efficient reactor, high energy shields, and have your ship's armor upgraded as high as you can. Use agile engines, and if you're having radiation problems throw a low emissions engine on the left side. I was using the low emissions engine on the left side but since the game has become so easy I just threw another agile engine on and when I'm in combat I just mark the phasmids, click my boosts, and have my pilot fly in attack mode and then I just sit and wait for everything to die. The only thing I have to worry about is the occasional fire from using overdrive and the shield generator needing the occasional repair. Phasmids can't even board me anymore because their ship either gets killed too fast or since I'm in attack the ship can't line up to dock as the ship is always turning trying to allow all my gunners to get on target.

[Looom55]

Originally posted by Hawthorne's Pool Boy:

Originally posted by legomonkey10:

i just beat the mother ship but there is a mother ship flotilla that may be a problem

my pilot and comms officer are as armored as i can make them with mk2 battle helmets, heavy armored suits mk2, heavy gloves mk2 and mk3 armored boots. all my crew have mk2 battle helmets with the exeption of the engineer who has an environmental mask mk3. the remainder of the crew are wearing light armored suits mk3 the gloves, holster and boots i dont think are worth mentioning but if you want me to then just ask and i will say this afternoon.

as for the lack of energy weapons i don't really agree. i upgraded my missiles from mk1 to mk2 earlier and my plasma cannon to mk3 and like the manager of Brazil said the rear gunner can see almost everything. one salvo of missiles is enough to remove most shields and have two missiles go through which provides a decent amount of damage. however i might have made myself unclear on where my weapons are as you say to switch out my missiles for an explosive auto cannon but hat would mean not having a plasma cannon in front and back like you say. my weapons are positioned like so:
missile launcher mk2 in front
explosive auto cannons on both sides
and a mk3 plasma cannon on the back
i am very tempted to try a railgun or particle beam. my reactor is a balanced mk2 so i have two points on shield two on weapons (witch i might change to one and add one more to shields) one on engine and one on gravity

and thats really it

For a while I was running plasma in front and back, then a rail gun on the right side and explosive auto cannon on the back.

I'd highly recommend only having one reactor point in shields and not add more. All that does in increase the speed at which you gain back shields after they start recharging which is forever as they'll stop re charging when hit and take even longer to start recharging when depleted. If one of your shields is gone have your pilot fly defensive so he'll turn the ship to be hit where you have shields. Also make sure your security officer is hopping out of the front gun to use his replenish shields ability. With more point in weapons and more use of energy weapons your time to kill is faster and you also aren't taking damage as long. Your remainder points should go to the engines so you can dodge more damage. That will mitigate damage much more than will be helped by putting more points in shields. Also, turn off your gravity generator, you should only use it in dire emergencies, that's just a wasted reactor point. Put gravity boots on your rear gunner and engineer and maybe security officer, but in reality the security officer doesn't need them that much as he's just going back and forth from the front gun to the security officer station which is quick as it is. I've never had a guy die, never lost a mission, so I highly recommend you try this and see how it works for you.

Also, you didn't mention what your ship upgrades are that you're using. What engines do you use and what reactor are you using? Something tells me you probably need to change your ship upgrades as well.

If you still are getting killed too fast you have a DPS issue and need better weapons. The rail gun is great for kinetic because of how fast the projectile is cutting down the time to kill. Missile's aren't for taking down shields though kinetic eventually can it's just not as efficient. Plus missiles shoot slow and are easy to dodge.

Make sure you're using the efficient reactor, high energy shields, and have your ship's armor upgraded as high as you can. Use agile engines, and if you're having radiation problems throw a low emissions engine on the left side. I was using the low emissions engine on the left side but since the game has become so easy I just threw another agile engine on and when I'm in combat I just mark the phasmids, click my boosts, and have my pilot fly in attack mode and then I just sit and wait for everything to die. The only thing I have to worry about is the occasional fire from using overdrive and the shield generator needing the occasional repair. Phasmids can't even board me anymore because their ship either gets killed too fast or since I'm in attack the ship can't line up to dock as the ship is always turning trying to allow all my gunners to get on target.

so to conclude replace my missiles with ether a rail gun or plasma cannon and change my shield type to high energy.(also i eddited my previous post to say my ship upgrades

[Naysair]

Originally posted by legomonkey10:

Originally posted by Hawthorne's Pool Boy:

For a while I was running plasma in front and back, then a rail gun on the right side and explosive auto cannon on the back.

I'd highly recommend only having one reactor point in shields and not add more. All that does in increase the speed at which you gain back shields after they start recharging which is forever as they'll stop re charging when hit and take even longer to start recharging when depleted. If one of your shields is gone have your pilot fly defensive so he'll turn the ship to be hit where you have shields. Also make sure your security officer is hopping out of the front gun to use his replenish shields ability. With more point in weapons and more use of energy weapons your time to kill is faster and you also aren't taking damage as long. Your remainder points should go to the engines so you can dodge more damage. That will mitigate damage much more than will be helped by putting more points in shields. Also, turn off your gravity generator, you should only use it in dire emergencies, that's just a wasted reactor point. Put gravity boots on your rear gunner and engineer and maybe security officer, but in reality the security officer doesn't need them that much as he's just going back and forth from the front gun to the security officer station which is quick as it is. I've never had a guy die, never lost a mission, so I highly recommend you try this and see how it works for you.

Also, you didn't mention what your ship upgrades are that you're using. What engines do you use and what reactor are you using? Something tells me you probably need to change your ship upgrades as well.

If you still are getting killed too fast you have a DPS issue and need better weapons. The rail gun is great for kinetic because of how fast the projectile is cutting down the time to kill. Missile's aren't for taking down shields though kinetic eventually can it's just not as efficient. Plus missiles shoot slow and are easy to dodge.

Make sure you're using the efficient reactor, high energy shields, and have your ship's armor upgraded as high as you can. Use agile engines, and if you're having radiation problems throw a low emissions engine on the left side. I was using the low emissions engine on the left side but since the game has become so easy I just threw another agile engine on and when I'm in combat I just mark the phasmids, click my boosts, and have my pilot fly in attack mode and then I just sit and wait for everything to die. The only thing I have to worry about is the occasional fire from using overdrive and the shield generator needing the occasional repair. Phasmids can't even board me anymore because their ship either gets killed too fast or since I'm in attack the ship can't line up to dock as the ship is always turning trying to allow all my gunners to get on target.

so to conclude replace my missiles with ether a rail gun or plasma cannon and change my shield type to high energy.(also i eddited my previous post to say my ship upgrades

Yes, have plasma on front and back then rail guns on sides. Once particle beam 2 is available, switch to all 4 guns being mk2 particle beams. Then it's really on easy mode.