stealth a tips?

[THE HOG-CRANKER]

Hi, currently I've played with the Stealth A for some time now, yet I really have my problems with it. In every run so far, my ship seems to always be under equipped compared to the current sector. With the amount of scrap the installation of a shield costs and the scrap for engines for evading and cloaking upgrades I never seem to have enough scrap to buy additional weapons, weapon energy or a drone system. Does anyone have a supah dupha strategy with the Stealth A layout?

[Whiskey Devil]

Some of my highest scoring games are with the Stealth A, and I'd go so far as to say it's one of the more fun ships in the game.

My general tips would be focus on getting second level cloak before bothering with shields, and perhaps even prioritize an additional weapon and energy before the shield also. The ship comes with pretty good engines to begin with, so maybe don't invest any more in them until after you have shields and plenty of firepower for everything you're fighting.

If you happen to get some mantises/lanius/rockmen from random events, a crew teleporter is a good investment, not only for the additional scrap rewards, but also for the free weapons you occasionally find on ships. If you're lucky, you won't have to spend much money on weapons at all. It's also worth noting that both the starting weapons are very efficient as far as energy consumption, cooldown, and damage potential are concerned, and both can remain a viable part of your loadout well into the run.

One more fun trick is cloaking's synergy with hacking. If you can level them both up fully, and attach the hacking drone to the enemy's weapon system, and preferably have level 3 sensors to see the enemy's weapon charge, you can basically de-fang them. Wait until they have enough weapons powered up send out a damaging volley, then activate the hacking to drop them down to empty and when the weapons charge back up and fire, cloak. By the time you de-cloak and their weapons are powered back up again, your hacking cooldown should be complete. Repeat as necessary and fire your own volleys whenever they're ready. This obviously won't work against the flagship's multiple weapon rooms, but up until then it works pretty well.

[Ray Robertson]

Just one correction. You don't need sensors to see the weapons' charge if you have their weapons hacked. Hacking weapons already give you this info.

[Employee 427]

My strategy is to INSTANTLY upgrade your cloak 1 level before going after a sheild system, this way you can always start a battle with full charge and take out the weapon systems early on, before they can do damage.

[Whiskey Devil]

Originally posted by Ray Robertson:

Just one correction. You don't need sensors to see the weapons' charge if you have their weapons hacked. Hacking weapons already give you this info.

Thanks for the heads up Ray. I never actually noticed that.

[Akurabis]

I agree, it's useful to get that extra cloak level fast in case you come up against a beam drone. "Transferring power from life support.."

But if there's no drone danger and the enemy's weapons firing time is close (it almost always is in lvl 1 I think..) then the lvl 1 cloak should let you dip those shots.

precision strikes should keep an enemy's systems screwed after that. I mean, knock the shields out with those two shots and then beam across 3-4 rooms for up to 5 damage every 11 seconds. Boo-yeah, ker-shah.

[Mister Wanderer]

Perhaps I am just really bad with stealth but I have to restart 80-90% of the time in first sector or so. Feels like the stealth only ships have too many hard counters and I always lose a tone of hull before escaping.

[Terroriza]

I just got this ship and tore it up, that thing is awesome..Your probably just not attacking right.. You need 2nd lvl cloack right off and then either another small weapon preferably a 2 shot 1dmg type then a shield.. When fight starts count to five then cloack and dont queue your attacks up.. once both attacks are primed attack with the laser first and soon as that shot hits their shields then set your beam to touch as many rooms as possible.

You just gotta time your laser shots and don't use auto attack. In my first three games I rarely even got hit in a fight other than the flaghsip.. Your laser is a 2 shot so if you aim at the weapon room first shot hits shields second makes weapon yellow, your beam will make it red plus you can also hit the shields with your beam at the same time..

The point is to cloak and then as soon you come out of cloack you want to be able to deactivate their weapons so they can't ever hit you. Last run got a halberd + stock laser 2 shot + 3 shot hull laser fairly early on and used it the entire game. Even the flagship went down the first two times quickly with that. As long as you can make 1 hit per shield the halberd will hit the flagship for like 7 damage it's insane.

[Terroriza]

Originally posted by Akurabis:

I agree, it's useful to get that extra cloak level fast in case you come up against a beam drone. "Transferring power from life support.."

But if there's no drone danger and the enemy's weapons firing time is close (it almost always is in lvl 1 I think..) then the lvl 1 cloak should let you dip those shots.

precision strikes should keep an enemy's systems screwed after that. I mean, knock the shields out with those two shots and then beam across 3-4 rooms for up to 5 damage every 11 seconds. Boo-yeah, ker-shah.

Exactly... thats why they are having trouble. Most likely auto attacking with a cloack ship where you need very precise timed attacks to take the shields first then touch as many rooms as possible.. done right you won't even get touched till the end.

[Whiskey Devil]

For less experienced players, it's also worth noting that firing any non-beam weapons while cloaked shortens your cloaking duration. Save your fire until your cloak runs out on its own. The exception to this is if you have the stealth weapons augment.

[Terroriza]

I just ran thru again today after getting this ship last night and have it down where you basically can one hit most enemies.. buy a halberd right off the bat and use the 2 shot laser w/ halber and the small beam you will 1 hit like everyone if you time it right. even double shield enemies you will 1 hit them and also unlock 2 more set ups in the process.

[Terroriza]

Originally posted by Whiskey Devil:

For less experienced players, it's also worth noting that firing any non-beam weapons while cloaked shortens your cloaking duration. Save your fire until your cloak runs out on its own. The exception to this is if you have the stealth weapons augment.

Why would you want to wait though? let's say you dont have stealth weapons and my 1 laser and 2 beams charge up even though i have 4 seconds left on cloak I would want to fire as soon as I am charged up.. I am saying this thinking about the enemy having to charge up a shot, lets just say something misses I don't want his shot to be ready b/c of the timing on the next one. I always just fire as soon as all my weapons are charged up ready to shoot regardless of how much time is left... If on stealth weapons i usually fire as early as possible too b/c i can start to recharge while stealthed

[Whiskey Devil]

Originally posted by Terroriza99:

Originally posted by Whiskey Devil:

For less experienced players, it's also worth noting that firing any non-beam weapons while cloaked shortens your cloaking duration. Save your fire until your cloak runs out on its own. The exception to this is if you have the stealth weapons augment.

Why would you want to wait though? let's say you dont have stealth weapons and my 1 laser and 2 beams charge up even though i have 4 seconds left on cloak I would want to fire as soon as I am charged up.. I am saying this thinking about the enemy having to charge up a shot, lets just say something misses I don't want his shot to be ready b/c of the timing on the next one. I always just fire as soon as all my weapons are charged up ready to shoot regardless of how much time is left... If on stealth weapons i usually fire as early as possible too b/c i can start to recharge while stealthed

There are a few reasons to wait, but they are admittedly situational. If for example you have another system on cooldown, it's sometimes worth waiting for the cloak to run out on its own, so that other system's ability can be used sooner after the battle starts back up. It's also useful if you have crew doing repairs, battling boarders, or healing, especially if any of those crew is one of your experienced system operators. This will allow you to deal with one threat at a time. Again, all situational. If nothing else is going on and all your weapons are powered, by all means save yourself the time and fire your volley as soon as it's ready.