Tips and Tricks

[lonewolf40000]

Hello all.

As I've played through this, there are a couple of pitfalls that, once you get past, make playing this game a lot more fun and interesting. Most of these are personal observations - feel free to add to the list.

Also, please find other threads to complain in if thats your problem. I'm having fun, so this post is so that other people can pick up neat things to try or do that make for more fun.

---- FIGHTING BASICS ---

Okay, so to start, fighting. If you've played Darkstar One, Tachyon, Freespace, or any other space-based fighting game, the basics are pretty straightforward.

Ships that are in range have a targetting lead that lights up red when you're on point. You can move up, down, left, right, brake, accelerate, and roll left and right in order to attack enemies.

Make good use of your brakes, as you can use them to quickly turn around and catch an enemy who is targeting your ship. Its easy to lose your sense of orientation - make liberal use of the R (enemy in front of you) and F( closest enemy/priority target) in order to stay on track

One thing to note is you can't cycle through targets - you can either grab whats in front of you, or the highest value closest target to you. This is a disadvantage when compared to games like Tachyon, where you could cycle through enemy subsystems and target them specifically. That said, you get used to the general layout of enemy ships, and targetting using the R key becomes important while fighting.

Which takes me to my next point:

---- Fighting Capital Ships ----

So one thing I enjoy about this game is that you are not invincible. If you take your fighter head to head with a capitol shi you're going to get torn to shreads. You have to hit and run - pick a target, hit it with your missiles and lasers, and then get the hell out so your sheidls can recharge.

Spiler for those not yet past the first or second mission to get their second ship choice:

f you are in the Strike Suit, take time to take out enemy ships to build up extra energy. They can harry you while you are focusing on a capitol ship - take them out! Your Strike Suits missile capabilities are a great way of taking down a capitol ship. Volley off a few missiles at any turret and it should explode nicely. Plus its easier to dodge enemy fire

Remember to get in and out quickly! This goes double for enemy corvettes that have beam weaponry. They can tear you apart at 3,000 meters, which is well beyond most of the missiles a standard fighter has. Get in, fire your shots, and get out.

I personally favor the swarm missiles, because I can target 8-12 of them onto an enemy craft and let them rip before running back. This has proven effective against corvettes and capitol ship subsystems. Fighter missiles work well, but with one shot at a time, its just not as fun :)

In general, capitol ships can be really difficult. Take out Flak GUns and Plasma Turrents, as they target fighters like you. If you are protecting another target, focus on the large Beam Cannons and Missile Batteries instead, since those deal massive damage to your support vessels.

Keep in mind, you don't always have backup - fall back to the ship if you are mobbed by enemy fighters, and the friendly ship*should* auto target at least a few of them while you try to recover.

---- Mission Tips ----

So, you are going to die. A lot. It happens - be aware of a fwe things

1) a collision drops your shields to ZERO. additioanl collisions will destroy you quickly. DONT RUN INTO THINGS

2) You start at the last checkpoint, but that can be pretty far back. You know whats more frustrating then blowing up four Cruisers with a bomber, almost finishing the level, and then dying? Nothing.

3) Restarting gives you full health. Don't feel too bad for going back to a checkpoint, it happens

There are two pieces to remember with each mission

1) SPeed - if you do it quickly, you get time bonuses that rack up your multipliers and give you delicious medals, and sometimes extra unlocks. Also, based on what I think I'm seeing, higher medals in a level may provide better results in the endgame. I'm not sure yet, but I've noticed the after-action report change on at least on level where I went from no medal (negative report) to a gold medal (positive report)

2) Unlocks - some unlocks are really easy. Some are designed by the Devil. Learn to let go - you can come back to a mission with new ships and powerups, and sometimes thats what you have to do to get a certain powerul. SOme levels are just ridiculous like protecting the carrier from the torpedos. You can take down every torpedo, but good luck finding time to take out even one corvette!



=== STRIKE SUIT TIPS ===

This whole section I place in spoiler tags just in case someone doesn't understand why the game is called Strike Suit Zero



Okay, I play on a keyboard/mouse so maybe its easier for other people

---- Movement ----

Oh god its hard. You can't as far as I can tell roll left or right, so if you happen to transform in an odd angle, you'll find hitting targets really hard. Use combinations of moving the mouse around along with moving left and right to try and re-orient yourself. I really hope the developers add the ability to roll/change elevation, would make fighting capitol ships tons easier


--- Health ---

Unfortunately, your strike suit is pretty brittle. You will take a lot of hits since the primary gun is still <1000 range. Your missiles are better, but still, you're going to take hits. Try to make liberal use of dodging to keep hits low, and get the hell out if your shields drop! Every hit is a chance of you blowing yourself up and losing time, which then robs you of delicious multipliers and the feels that come with beating a mission in one go


---- Combat ----

You've got a gun and missiles. Missiles drain your Flux meter way faster than the gun does, but do a ton more damage.

Use the shift key for everything It auto targets your enemy AND BRINGS YOU INTO ALIGHMENT WITH THEM. Really useful in heavy fighting.

Make sure to not use your normal gun until you are in range or else you are wasting flux!

Returns from destroying fighters is fairly small. Torpedos are great, as are corvettes and capitol ship turrets. Destroy them!


Okay, thats it for me. Hopefully this helps people. If you have additions, I'll edit the original post so people can visit this thread and get a sort of FAQ on how to play and blow the crap out of the enemy.

Cheers all

[spazer]

Movement with the mouse and keyboard is hard if you're used to old space sims. Use smooth, gentle motions. Cranking down mouse sensitivity can also help if you're having issues. Since you towards the direction of the cursor, when leading shots on an enemy fighter, you may need to slowly re-center your reticle to keep landing your shots. Finally, try not to touch A or D too much. You can navigate just fine with the mouse alone.

You can't use missiles in nebulas. If you've ever tried to lock on to enemies in strike suit mode and failed, you've probably unknowingly run into this.

You can change elevation in strike suit mode with Q and E.

If you're not constantly dashing while in strike suit mode, you're doing it wrong. Staying in one spot is a surefire way to get yourself slaughtered by flak.

Ignoring its destructive capability, strike suit mode is an invaluable manuevering tool. Using the autotargeting turns you way faster than conventional flying. Can't shoot that turret on the other side of the cruiser? Boost past it, switch modes and autotarget, and you're now in position to unload on it. The combination of boost and autotarget is the staple of any good pilot.

You can't EMP in the strike suit. Boost away or transform and dash to avoid missiles.

The guns in strike suit mode are excellent in environments with lots of weak targets. If you're in the middle of a furball, hold shift and LMB to watch the fighters melt. Need to kill a ton of supply crates? Shift and LMB. The guns have a very short range, so watch out for that.

When in need of ridiculous single target damage, circus missiles are your friend. They seem to replenish every time you enter strike suit mode, so feel free to spam.

Learn how many missiles it takes to down a fighter. You have a finite supply of missiles, so don't get too trigger happy, lest you screw yourself over on later parts of the mission.

[hunt45]

the only problem i have with the game is when you go into strike mode with your ship you instantly fall a few hundred meters that and in strike mode it's impossible to manoeuvre except for dashing which is extremely annoying since all the time you're still falling