How do I counter drones?

[e11]

I mean, whenever I go up against a ship with drones late in the game I just can't win. They disable all my incoming missiles. All I can do is survive until I can jump, and of course that won't do against the capital ship. It just wrecks me

Is the problem my weapons? I haven't gotten to the final section many times yet, but I've stuck with the beginning laser and missile, plus one more weapon I pick up along the way. I spend most of my money in hiring a full crew and upgrading the systems. Also, I've never used drones myself. Is that part of the problem?

[pi73r]

Shoot the weapons at once (make sure the least effective shots get shot by enemy drones - you want to dmg the drone room). You can use hacking. If you still can't do anytihng it just means you didn't play properly and got behind in terms of weaponry.

[gall0ws]

I like to disable the enemy's drone system with a small bomb.
Anyway, you should not rely too much on missiles... or better: you should try to be as versatile as possible. For instance, you can spend less money on crew in order to buy lasers.

[NK SemTex]

I'm assuming you are playing the Kestrel A:

Tip nr. 1: Never be dependent on missiles to win; as you said; the enemy requires only a defense drone to stop your missiles. Drones can't stop lasers (unless it is Defense Drone mark II; if you fire in a volley it can only stop one laser shot), and beam weapons never miss once you got the shields down.

2: Don't buy crew. Many events in the game, slavers or pirate sectors gives you free crew.

3: Check your galaxy map before spending scrap on upgrades; only to find a store when you jump and you got zero scrap to spend on good weapons. Make it a rule to have 50-100 scrap if you haven't seen a store in the sector you're currently in (most sectors got at least 1).

[pi73r]

@2up: in general you shouldn't be spending any money on crew: unless you got some good ocassion to diversify your crew or you got nothing else to spend money on. Crew is easily obtainable for free.

[Red Bat]

Late-game I wouldn't reccomend relying on missiles even if you have surplus. If you can get a pegasus missile launcher or 2 cheap missile weapons you might be able to make it work, but since the second stage of the flagship has a defense drone you are better off replacing missile weapons with lasers, ion weapons, or bombs.

[zverozvero]

As was mentioned - missiles for hull damage are not as good. Bombs are missiles that cant be shot down by drones, so if you want damage systems - use bombs.
Flak-1 (or even flak-2, but that cant be called pure Missile based allready) can suplement missile based weaponry against DDs, cause even Mark-1 lock on shrapnel (and speed of shrapnel is same as missiles if i remember right).

There're also 'rare' ways to overcome DD-1 (DD2 can be uncharged with any basic weaponry if timed well anyway) - defence scrambler augment or swarm launcher. Several small MLs with replicative wareheads (? i guess it was named that way - another augment so its rare) will do trick too without much waste of ammo, but it further cripples damage output.

[Aurora Yukihime]

Originally posted by zverozvero:

There're also 'rare' ways to overcome DD-1 (DD2 can be uncharged with any basic weaponry if timed well anyway) - defence scrambler augment or swarm launcher. Several small MLs with replicative wareheads (? i guess it was named that way - another augment so its rare) will do trick too without much waste of ammo, but it further cripples damage output.

Explosive Replicator is the name, just to point it out. Thought I'd leave this here for anyone just cruising through the board here~

[e11]

Originally posted by zverozvero:

As was mentioned - missiles for hull damage are not as good. Bombs are missiles that cant be shot down by drones, so if you want damage systems - use bombs.
Flak-1 (or even flak-2, but that cant be called pure Missile based allready) can suplement missile based weaponry against DDs, cause even Mark-1 lock on shrapnel (and speed of shrapnel is same as missiles if i remember right).

So wait, what is the difference between a bomb and a missile?

I appreciate the replies.

[Tealtyr]

Originally posted by e11:

Originally posted by zverozvero:

As was mentioned - missiles for hull damage are not as good. Bombs are missiles that cant be shot down by drones, so if you want damage systems - use bombs.
Flak-1 (or even flak-2, but that cant be called pure Missile based allready) can suplement missile based weaponry against DDs, cause even Mark-1 lock on shrapnel (and speed of shrapnel is same as missiles if i remember right).

So wait, what is the difference between a bomb and a missile?

I appreciate the replies.

A bomb can only damage systems.
A bomb teleports, ignoring travel time and defense drones.
A bomb takes longer to charge.
A bomb often has special effects, such as increased chances for breaching, fire, and some really unique stuff, like healing or lockdown.

[zverozvero]

Also bombs usually consume less energy for same damage.

[pi73r]

Late-game I wouldn't reccomend relying on missiles even if you have surplus. If you can get a pegasus missile launcher or 2 cheap missile weapons you might be able to make it work, but since the second stage of the flagship has a defense drone you are better off replacing missile weapons with lasers, ion weapons, or bombs.

It's defence II so the drone will shoot any projectiles so there's completely no reason to get rid of missiles if you planned on using them.
Edit: I never been a fan of missiles due to the ammo but I never realised so many people are missile haters. If I had ammo and the possibility to get some good 3 energy misisle I'd go for it anytime (especially if I didn't have that much firepower to take shields down). Good defence + breach missile and you're good to go.

[Ray Robertson]

On hard difficulty the flagship has a Defense Drone Mark I, weird that it is Mk II on easier difficulties?

[zverozvero]

If i remember right, its same DD1 on normal...

[Dr. McWeazel]

If I recall, it uses a MK I Defense Drone across all 3 difficulties.

The only change to the Flagship itself is the Laser and Missile rooms being connected to the rest of the ship. Makes boarding a bit less effective.

[pi73r]

http://ftl.wikia.com/wiki/The_Rebel_Flagship

Drones (Laser, Beam, Boss version of Defense Mk II, and Boss version of Boarding)

I didn't really pay much attention since in AE flagship is the smallest problem but I thought it was always mark II. Wiki could be wrong but I always managed to pull those rockets through on stage 2.