How to upgrade my ship fast enough for later encounters?

[Derek]

as title reads, i've played on easy and normal and both times it seems that after sector 5 the ships get out of control to the point where i can't fight back. i assume i cant upgrade everything so should i just steer my upgrades into a linear line or spread them out? and whats the best thing to upgrade anyways? i always upgrade my shields and engine but then dont have enough for shop items.

Sorry for poor grammar just typing this up real quick.

[Ray Robertson]

You are remaining in each sector as long as you can? Shields and engines are the most important. 3 shields and 4 engines is pretty solid vs most non missile attacks.

By sector 3 you want more offense.

[Derek]

Originally posted by Ray Robertson:

You are remaining in each sector as long as you can? Shields and engines are the most important. 3 shields and 4 engines is pretty solid vs most non missile attacks.

By sector 3 you want more offense.

i try to take the longest route to the exit. on my last run i had tier 3 shields and tier 4 engine but my weapons could not penetrade the rebel ships defence. i was doing a lot of repairs and purchases such as shield augmentations and what not. are these worth it?

[Ray Robertson]

Originally posted by ChodeSizedMonkey:

Originally posted by Ray Robertson:

You are remaining in each sector as long as you can? Shields and engines are the most important. 3 shields and 4 engines is pretty solid vs most non missile attacks.

By sector 3 you want more offense.

i try to take the longest route to the exit. on my last run i had tier 3 shields and tier 4 engine but my weapons could not penetrade the rebel ships defence. i was doing a lot of repairs and purchases such as shield augmentations and what not. are these worth it?

Being able to win fights is very important. Shield recharge augmentations are rarely good purchases. Also you should try to keep damage to your ship as low as you can.

[Derek]

Originally posted by Ray Robertson:

Originally posted by ChodeSizedMonkey:

i try to take the longest route to the exit. on my last run i had tier 3 shields and tier 4 engine but my weapons could not penetrade the rebel ships defence. i was doing a lot of repairs and purchases such as shield augmentations and what not. are these worth it?

Being able to win fights is very important. Shield recharge augmentations are rarely good purchases. Also you should try to keep damage to your ship as low as you can.

what are some good augmentations? i usually buy scrap collector

[Cobretti]

Try a Defense Drone I, they are amazing for defense.

[Derek]

Originally posted by Cobretti:

Try a Defense Drone I, they are amazing for defense.

its really expensive tho, i never can get enough scrap to upgrade my ship and defences while paying for that too

[SnakeFace]

I usually focusing on upgrading systems before buying anything from stores.

[patrick]

Every missile that impacts does 2-16 worth of damage. It can be more if the missile allows subsequent damage to go through, for example a breach missile hitting your shields enabling a bl2 to deal damage.

A drone system with dd1 costs 85 scrap. If there is a different free drone (laser/system repair) as offer, you can reload the save at the store and it will switch to a defense drone 1. (yes that‘s kinda cheating)

Of course there are situations where you can‘t afford it, but unless you are lagging behind with your systems already i‘d try to get it. Early on the missile damage is not that high and repair costs are lower, so you don‘t need it right away.

When you have a level 4 engine room it provides +20% evasion. Any crew manning the systems gives +10% evasion, and having then leveled gives +10%. So half your evasion can come from crew at that point, having them leveled instead of normal crew is worth as much as 2 upgrades to the engine (and at higher engine levels 3,33 upgrades). So your missile damage goes down considerably if you level your crew. Just consider staying at a beacon with fast firing enemies who can‘t quite get through your shields (laser drones are optimal for this) to level your crew evasion.

[Danny]

Upgrade your weakpoints.

[Meows Zedong]

I would recommend taking the longest route to the end to the sector, doing this can get you a lot of extra scrap that you will need, and try to save up your scrap, you never know what you might need and find in the shops. What systems you want to upgrade first are impacted by the kind of ship you use.

[patrick]

Trying to save up scrap is good but i wouldn't start too early with it. Aim for at least upgraded shields, doors, and 3-4 engine levels before triyng to save up for stores. Also, depening on how much scrap you have, you might want to skip stores in order to get an extra beacon which could give you rewards.

[Derek]

Originally posted by patrick:

Trying to save up scrap is good but i wouldn't start too early with it. Aim for at least upgraded shields, doors, and 3-4 engine levels before triyng to save up for stores. Also, depening on how much scrap you have, you might want to skip stores in order to get an extra beacon which could give you rewards.

oh alright, should i upgrade my weapons at all? ive made it to sector 5 with a mostly maxed out crew and like 3 shields with a level 4 engine but my weapons just didnt penetrate the enemies armour

[Meows Zedong]

Yes upgrade your weapons so ou can buy new weapons

[patrick]

Of course you should. But there is little need to upgrade weapons without actually having weapons that you can use with those new slots. The only reason for that would be to get a damage buffer, which would be useful if you have weapons that are vulnerable against getting interrupted (for example glaive beam). If you find new weapons try to get slots for them, unless defensive upgrades are more pressing. More weapons are neccercary to keep up with increasing shield strenghts/evasion rates and they can also mean that you disable the enemey weapons faster and receive less damage.

[Derek]

Originally posted by patrick:

Of course you should. But there is little need to upgrade weapons without actually having weapons that you can use with those new slots. The only reason for that would be to get a damage buffer, which would be useful if you have weapons that are vulnerable against getting interrupted (for example glaive beam). If you find new weapons try to get slots for them, unless defensive upgrades are more pressing. More weapons are neccercary to keep up with increasing shield strenghts/evasion rates and they can also mean that you disable the enemey weapons faster and receive less damage.

alright thanks ill keep that in mind