Can you outgun the Flagship with only 3 weapons?

[Evoxrus XV]

I want to win with Engi A on Easy with Advanced Mode on. It is the only type of ship that I haven't won with yet. However, the thing about Engie A is that it disrupts my usual go-to plan for taking the flagship down. My usual take down plan is one Teleporter, one Cloak and either Hacking or Mind-Control which I use to kill off the entire Flagship crew(except laser bro) and to destroy the ship inside out for my weapons to punch in. However Engi A denies me this strategy I rely on so much, so I need to change plans. Worse, it only lets me have 3 weapons. 3.

So my plan is that I will just use the teleporter to take out the missiles only(and maybe the drone bay in phase 2) while I use cloak to hide from the missiles. I'll be using drones to basically tank and protect me while I do so. I just want to gun the damn ship down. What weapon combos should be enough for me to destroy the Flagship completely?

[mkzzz12]

Have you actually started the run? Don't make specific plans, it works out worse than going with what you get. Anyway yeah of course you can outgun the flagship with 3 weapons. You can do that without a teleporter, too, just by getting support for your weapons and destroying (but below Hard tp is still pretty much a supoer reliable missile disabler so pretty damn worth it).

Or you can kill the entire crew without hacking/MC or without cloak, all it takes is a few hits to the medbay or to their crew at the right time. Once you break the relevant weapons bays, it can be good to make a trip or two to break down some of the flagships doors so you have room to move around just in case it cloaks on you on low health or something. Then even without any support a good crew can kill the crew.

[Evoxrus XV]

Originally posted by mekloz:

Have you actually started the run? Don't make specific plans, it works out worse than going with what you get. Anyway yeah of course you can outgun the flagship with 3 weapons. You can do that without a teleporter, too, just by getting support for your weapons and destroying (but below Hard tp is still pretty much a supoer reliable missile disabler so pretty damn worth it).

Or you can kill the entire crew without hacking/MC or without cloak, all it takes is a few hits to the medbay or to their crew at the right time. Once you break the relevant weapons bays, it can be good to make a trip or two to break down some of the flagships doors so you have room to move around just in case it cloaks on you on low health or something. Then even without any support a good crew can kill the crew.

Alright, thanks! c:

[Shogal]

Two volcans can gun down anything, because their reload rate is faster than shield recharge. The only problem they are very power-hungry and you should protect weapon from breaking (because it will reset chain counter).

[Skinny Pete]

Twin Halberd Beams and Burst Laser II with Level 3 Hacking will kill anything.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

I've beat the AE flagship with nothing more than
- Def II drone + Anti-Combat
- Flak I + BL 2 + HL
- Hull Repair

No hacking, no teleporter, no mind control, not even a Backup Battery. In fact, not even any sensors. (Curse those stores!)

... of course, the Hull Repair helped...


I've also had immense success with 2x IB 2. One IB2 keeps the shields down and the other hits cloaking / missiles.

[Evoxrus XV]

Originally posted by Skinny Pete:

Twin Halberd Beams and Burst Laser II with Level 3 Hacking will kill anything.

Originally posted by Shogal:

Two volcans can gun down anything, because their reload rate is faster than shield recharge. The only problem they are very power-hungry and you should protect weapon from breaking (because it will reset chain counter).

I see, thanks!

[David]

You can definitely outgun the flagship with 3 guns

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=252599212

[Agenta]

Originally posted by 2X Pocketknight:

You can definitely outgun the flagship with 3 guns

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=252599212

WTF is that. How is that even possible?

[Evoxrus XV]

Originally posted by SSAgenta1999:

Originally posted by 2X Pocketknight:

You can definitely outgun the flagship with 3 guns

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=252599212

WTF is that. How is that even possible?

It is possible. Use hacks, take out missiles and lasers since you are probably not boarding, then keep hacking the shields and laser them to death.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

The trick with three weapon slots is to go for more power-intensive weapons:
- Breach
- Halberd Beam
- Charge II
- Flak II (not so great with the IB2)

all of which are, yes, very good weapons, but stuff you DON'T want to pick up includes:

- bombs of any kind unless you have Rock boarding
- Ion Blast I
- Heavy Laser (phenomenal on a four-slot ship, not great on a 3-slot)
- low-level 2 power weapons (BL 1, Charge I, Chain Laser...)

Abuse the fact you get three drone slots - you'll definitely want a Def I, maybe a Def II if you can get it, an Anti-Combat isn't bad at all for Phase 2, and a Combat 1 helps a lot with taking out the Zoltan Shield (though you have an IB2 which will murder shields anyway).

[mkzzz12]

Originally posted by aidenpons:

- Ion Blast I

That one is pretty neat on engi a, you can continue to break all shields with that amount of ion and even hit weapons a lot more on lower shield ships or take out their o2. Takes a solid third or pretty good defenses to take deal with the flagship, but if you find the balance it's pretty nice. I'd not really hesitate to use weapons like hl or bli early, though for the flagship you want a combination that works, they won't always be able to do that.

Stealth A can work with small weapons better. I wouldn't recommend going with less laser than you expect shields, though, just remember mini beam is awesome. Combat drones or hacking can help out with shields.