I hate Vermillion's Tower Defense Mode

[Draco18s]

https://youtu.be/-U2I6Z03lg4

It's a game mode that functions as a DPS check without giving you the necessary tools to make that check. Took me four tries to record things properly (once my audio was too low, the next two I forgot to start recording).

The last run in the video was the best run I've ever had by far and I will probably never touch it again.

[- Torq -]

Interesting choice of crew & weapons there (no sarcasm intended, genuinely interesting). Fantastic providing the video so we can see what you're doing, too, much appreciated!

Remember that DPS checks have two components (i.e. a ratio).

• Damage Output per Time : Damage Required per Time

If you can't find a way to increase the first part of that ratio, you can try to reduce the second part.

Using crowd control can drastically reduce the Damage Required per Time value. Corrosia Slime Slow and Doc Magnetic Field Slow are very good examples (but not the only ways). For example, build a slime fortress at the chokepoint you're already in from your video and the dynamics change dramatically. Suddenly you need a lot less DPS because you have a lot more time to apply it and kill the enemies.

Also, you can try to split the battlefield into two sections so you end up with two of the above ratios happening simultaneously.

For example, using an AoE long range weapon to apply damage at range and defeat weak targets, combined with a close range single-point weapon to apply damage for the tougher stuff that makes it into your killbox.

This method basically creates two ratios (long range weak enemy cluster ratio AND close range strong enemy ratio). Which means you can solve for each ratio independently by splitting the DPS check into two parts, not having to have a one-size-fits-all solution for the entire battlefield or reducing the entire battlefield to a single choke point.

Anyway, those are just some ideas for motivation if this challenge nags at you and you ever wanted to try again :) Good luck, pilot!

[Draco18s]

I gave things a shot, swapping out Wolf for Slime and... it's more consistently able to get me "about as far." But it still suffers from a hell of a lot of luck. :\

Of the three tries I did, one I didn't record but got all the weapons and crew fairly easily, the second NEVER gave me the slime weapon, and the third gave it to me late and had to spend some rerolls in the shop to avoid picking up literally useless things (which meant snagging an extra cube from the mine and suffering tower damage).

But it still wasn't enough, I still hit a spot where my DPS falls short, suddenly, and unexpectedly. For example, this run (the 3rd), where I pick up two +tesla damage and despite the huge increase in DPS, just get obliterated, losing 120ish tower health in about 15 seconds (and another 10 a bit earlier). The previous chunk of 130 damage disappeared in ~7 seconds and was only saved from death because it was Boss Time: I got pressured out of being able to defend the gap by taking hull damage, so I was unable to keep the slow covering the lanes entirely and all the small fast units got through.

Didn't even get Slime until 7:42 game-clock time.

https://youtu.be/Dd9_YOo3GQs

[- Torq -]

I can see from your video (dunno why it says zero views, I watched it twice myself) you're doing a lot of the "good" things here. Or rather, the things I also used to be successful on it.

I just did a solo run on this challenge to see if I could spot my differences (no other crew, no other weapons). Here's my summary of what I did, some of which you're already doing :)

My tactics:

• Intercepting the horizontal waves that come from the left by going over to the left side to get them as they enter the map. This also lets you get Gold Refinery and Time Cube Outpost, which is important. You're doing this, and it's important for mobility and economy gains - don't let these suckers dominate the space! :)
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3044641140
  
• Once you have a wave under your DPS and range control, push outwards to the left again, don't just idle comfortably in the Super Plasma Outpost while the enemies fly into you. This gets you back into dominating the space quicker and able to collect the Gold Vault and Time Cubes again. That doesn't mean boost out there. Slowly but surely inch left into the path of the incoming ships, pushing into their territory and recapturing it.
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3044642561
  
• Reserve Super Nova Outpost for the times when you don't quite get back in time to engage the first few ships from the vertical waves. You shouldn't need it for any other time.
  
• Upgrade to around 5-8 boost quickly. You need to be able to bounce back to the right hand side instantly when the vertical waves happen. Don't take the Boost Block Damage upgrades though.
  
• Prioritise upgrading Fireball if that's your main weapon of choice. Try going solo on that to get a feel for it, you technically really don't need any other weapon, and spreading your upgrades too thin can make it so by wave 90-120ish you'll get overwhelmed. Second priority if you're using crowd control weapons is to get them up just enough to maximise their slow benefits, don't take a single upgrade for them beyond that point.
  
• Upgrade Super Plasma Planet - it helps! I had spare points because I took no other weapons, so this was quite handy.
  
• Banish rather than Reroll if you can. Prioritise banishing weapons you aren't using.
  
• Don't take any tank/survivability upgrades (Max Hull, Hull Repair per Pickup, any of the Shield ones, any of the Invincibility ones). You don't need them as you should never get hit by anything in this challenge -- the tower is the thing every enemy is flying at :)
  
• Take Gold Vault upgrades, but if you aren't getting offered them early, take Gold Find. Do NOT take Gold Outpost upgrades.
  
• Use MANUAL AIMING pretty much all the time, except very early on where your fireballs aren't particularly large or ranged. But once you have Supers, ALWAYS use manual aim. The reason is in the next point below...

#1 tactic I think most people don't realise...

When you park your ship to start focusing on waves chokepoints, don't park in the centre of their incoming line. Instead, park offset and manually aim your fire roughly 45 degrees to create a wall of fire.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3044641845

Why, you ask? It's because your fireballs aren't just effective when they are flying out, when they come back to you and are next to your ship for a moment in their "idle" position they are basically creating a large death-circle around you, including behind and to the sides. This can be used to kill one whole stream of the enemies as they'll smash into it. The other streams get taken care of by the fireballs flying out on their back/forth action. You should attack the streams in this way all the time -- don't take the waves head on in line, offset them.

DO NOT try to manually aim at each stream by flipping back and forth. That's not what I mean. Park, then manually angle fire, and just sit there and keep aiming at the same spot.

If you also make sure to do it when you are parked inside the Super Plasma Outpost (I do it just offset from the Super Nova boundary), you enable the incoming enemies to be at two different ranges, which enables the Super Plasma Planet guns to focus fire rather than constantly switching targets and rotating about.

The guns will target the nearest enemies, and if you park in the right spot and angle 45 degrees, your fireballs will be killing the enemies from one stream before they get in range of the guns, and the guns will be able to focus on the ones that you aren't aiming at but that your fireball-shield will be killing.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3044642454

The above park-and-angle-fire method and the early intercepting tactics are I believe the most useful things I've found for effectively and consistently beating this challenge, even in self-imposed solo mode.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3044642202

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3044648090

[Buster]

Use corrosia as a co-pilot. Build the Trails where they spawn, and park on the plasma planet.
They fly right into the slime trail. Making this mode super easy.

[Draco18s]

Still having trouble. I'm somehow doing worst after that, Torq.

引用自 Buster：

Use corrosia as a co-pilot. Build the Trails where they spawn, and park on the plasma planet.
They fly right into the slime trail. Making this mode super easy.

As if that's all I have to do. 🙄
First I have to acquire two specific upgrades (which I sometimes don't see).
Then I need to upgrade the weapon a sufficient degree that it does enough damage/does enough slow.
And figure out where to actually draw the slime as it moves in parallax with the paths...

'Cause "just having" the weapon and crew isn't sufficient, given that I get overwhelmed by fast-moving medium health units.

引用自 - Torq -：

Intercepting the horizontal waves that come from the left by going over to the left side to get them as they enter the map. This also lets you get Gold Refinery and Time Cube Outpost, which is important. You're doing this, and it's important for mobility and economy gains - don't let these suckers dominate the space! :)

Yeah, the only time I can manage to do that is at the very beginning (waves 1-4) and then the first four waves after an elite. I just don't have the DPS to chew my way leftwards far enough to intercept before they split wide just above the repair depot and I have to duck back under the cover of plasma turrets. I've tried a bunch of times. :\

Haven't done a solo run yet, though. Hm.

[- Torq -]

引用自 Draco18s：

Still having trouble. I'm somehow doing worst after that, Torq.

Pilots everywhere cry out in anguish as another fallen comrade bites the dust :( it can be frustrating, that's for sure! When everything "clicks" you'll be able to make your way through repeatably, I'd recommend doing some of the other challenges or Endless mode to get into the groove and develop a feel for the mechanics a bit, it'll start to come into focus I reckon.

引用自 Draco18s：

'Cause "just having" the weapon and crew isn't sufficient, given that I get overwhelmed by fast-moving medium health units.

Yeah, having the relevant Captain upgrades (Space Cube upgrades) fully done and the Space Cube general upgrades fully done does give an advantage in these time-limited challenges. Not really in regular Champion mode, but for Solo and Challenge modes with objectives other than "just survive" it can be a huge benefit.

For example, starting with Corrosia with a massively long trail and already upgraded 6 levels is significantly different to starting with a tiny trail and no upgrades. You still have to roll the weapon, but once you have it, bam it's already level 6.

Same with the Fireballs etc.

[Draco18s]

引用自 - Torq -：

For example, starting with Corrosia with a massively long trail and already upgraded 6 levels is significantly different to starting with a tiny trail and no upgrades. You still have to roll the weapon, but once you have it, bam it's already level 6.

Same with the Fireballs etc.

Oh for sure.
But I don't see a way to automatically start with crew, or did I misparse?

[- Torq -]

引用自 Draco18s：

Oh for sure.
But I don't see a way to automatically start with crew, or did I misparse?

This is the reward you get for completing a Loyalty Challenge with a captain. It unlocks the ability to have that captain automatically added as a crew member in your ship.

In the Upgrades menu you can toggle Loyalty on/off for each captain which will determine whether they are automatically added into your ship or not.

Then when selecting a Captain at the start of a run, you can right-click to banish any crew you don't want, and only the ones remaining will be added automatically (up to the limit of 3 of course). If you have more than 3 crew unbanished in that screen then it adds them in order from left to right (i.e. Azurene -> Corrosia -> Vermllion -> etc...)

[Resident Asswhole]

This challenge is do able at low level with Slim/Static/Wolf Pack and Fireball. It is not easy, but you can do it. I would encourage waiting on this challenge until you have upgraded the station cannons, they make a huge difference in DPS when they are upgraded in late game and make this challenge much easier.

[ShiZbanG]

what happens when you complete all the pilots 8/8 modes? anything unlock?

[Trollhand]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3045688360

Hi. This mission shouldn't be too diffucult. Invest as many space cubes as you can in Vermilion, Super Plasma Planet and Gold Magnet. If you have spare cubes and you want to use more than 1 captain, invest into Doc, Corrosia and Luna/Azurene. Doc and Corrosia are for pickup range, Luna/Azurene for boosts. Having these captains will save you some time when you collect time cubes between waves, but they are not really needed.

Upgrade only these 3 things: Fireballs (including range), Super Plasma Planet, Gold Pickup (not outpost/vault).
Whenever you have free time cubes, banish everything else. If you don't have time cubes, the upgrade menu allows you to convert your levels into them. Don't waste time cubes on rerolls. Or at least only reroll in the time cube shop since it's much more efficient.

When you begin the game, collect all time cubes and the gold vault on the map, then position yourself as shown on the screenshot. You might want to move towards the bush a bit to the lower right in some waves. Manually aim your fireballs, also as shown on the screenshot.

Ideally, you'd want to upgrade your fireballs to super versions by wave 25, otherwise it will be difficult to clear the mission with no damage to the tower.

You can leave your position only during the preparation period every 20 waves (sometimes you can visit the shop during easier waves).

[Draco18s]

And beat.

I went in one last time to do a "solo" run and failed a few times, but realized that I should pick up the Static Field to handle those wide lanes after the first boss (I just wasn't getting enough Fireball to be able to take care of those routes).

[- Torq -]

引用自 Draco18s：

And beat.

I went in one last time to do a "solo" run and failed a few times, but realized that I should pick up the Static Field to handle those wide lanes after the first boss (I just wasn't getting enough Fireball to be able to take care of those routes).

Congrats!!!

Ahhh you should be proud mate, based on the stats the overhwelming majority of folk on Steam give up when anything isn't instantly winnable :)

[Draco18s]

Like I said, at least it's actually difficult instead of cake-walk. I just think this mode might've been too time-pressure-y in a way that the default run mode just isn't.

[cloph]

Also gave that challenge a shot yesterday, and I can somewhat understand the reservations people have. Initially it seems hard and unfair - leave the tower in the wrong moment and of course that is when the vertical wave starts and you don't have enough boosts to make it in time and stuff like that.
So either you have to memorize the wave patterns so you can position yourself correctly, or you need to be incredibly lucky with the update RNG.

Also this mode has builtin "hard mode" in the sense that there definitely are crew members that hurt you instead of helping (well, in the sense of wasting your updates on them): Azurene for example, the plasma weapon is pretty much useless in this mode due to its wide spread/positioning to make use of that is hard and it takes way too long to update/is too reliant on the RNG to get the spread reduction to deal enough DPS on the waves to be worth it.
However it just as well has an "easy mode" - or rather a very easy to use build that turns the whole thing into a do-not-move challenge:

• Corrosia and slime - for CC/slowing/covering a big area
  
• Raven and her rockets - the main source of damage, overclock the s*it out of that one
  
• Luna and wolfpack - secondary source of damage, synergises well with slime in general
  
• obviously Vermillion and her fireballs - lowest update priority, the other weapons deal with the waves at long range, so it is enough to update it later/for the more tenacious waves as the last defense

The key to make Raven work in this mode is to disable manual aiming for the rockets, similarly also disable manual aim for wolfpack, the formation doesn't really have any benefit. Manual aiming the rockets has a weird trajectory and doesn't allow to actually focus what's right in front of you/the choke point. Auto aiming works wonders and since the waves are so packed the explosion damage is right where it is supposed to be.
If you invest a few updates in gold pickup range (only pick it if there are no weapon updates) and after having leveled up slime you can draw a a nice slow zone at the choke point that also covers the vertical entry paths and then camp at the super plasma outpost for the rest of the game, it is enough to move a little to pick up the gold vaults that are dropped in your vicinity and to visit the vault and time cube generator in the prep-phase after a boss. That gives you enough time to redraw the slow-zone as well. (at least if you leveled up the captains with space cubes - if lacking those pre-updates it'd be more important to farm those close to cooldown early). I think I only went to the time-cube-update-shop twice in my run, all other time-cubes were used to banish useless update choices...