Are NPC's a viable alternative in railjack?

[Garsooon]

Title pretty much, I LOVE railjack its like my dream game of sea of thieves / gun of Icarus. The only problem is well... a lot of the players just don't know what teamwork is.
I struggle a lot with playing with other players just doing their own thing and sabotaging the game like saying "Hey Im going to use the dome charge cannon don't pilot the ship please" and like clockwork here comes captain "Mom said its my turn to pilot the railjack" to yoink it and take a crewship out of my vision. Just feels kinda bad.

So basically is the NPC route actually viable for more high level railjack missions for solo play or am I SOL.

[Razer]

I used to solo railjack before the updates that gave npc helpers all the way to the highest level. If it's viable without anyone helping then it's viable with them helping.

Gunners are generally REALLY on point. Give them weapons that hit hard, but are hard to use for a normal person. They WILL hit stuff. Especially with gunnery maxed out. Get those dudes and dudettes from Ticker.

Don't use an Engineer. Get an NPC that has good defensive stats AND engineering stats, but assign him/her as defender. When something goes wrong, assign them as engineer via the tactical screen. When done, assign them back to defender. Issue with Engineer is that if that's the default they will ignore enemies if a fire breaks out. And then they go down. If they go down, you need to revive them or they die permanently for the current mission runs. They will come back after returning to Dry Dock.

Fly the ship yourself. Don't use a pilot.

So short answer: YES

[Sceles]

Originally posted by Razer:

I used to solo railjack before the updates that gave npc helpers all the way to the highest level. If it's viable without anyone helping then it's viable with them helping.

Gunners are generally REALLY on point. Give them weapons that hit hard, but are hard to use for a normal person. They WILL hit stuff. Especially with gunnery maxed out. Get those dudes and dudettes from Ticker.

Don't use an Engineer. Get an NPC that has good defensive stats AND engineering stats, but assign him/her as defender. When something goes wrong, assign them as engineer via the tactical screen. When done, assign them back to defender. Issue with Engineer is that if that's the default they will ignore enemies if a fire breaks out. And then they go down. If they go down, you need to revive them or they die permanently for the current mission runs. They will come back after returning to Dry Dock.

Fly the ship yourself. Don't use a pilot.

So short answer: YES

Even engineers defend when they don't repair, but if there's a breach near enemies they often try to repair the breach instead of defending which can get them killed. Really I think having one of each is probably the best team, that's what I use and I've never had my railjack go down ever since they added npc crew.

Funny fact: If you use 2-3 engis then it kind of also at the same time defeats the point of having a gunner because the ship is completely indestructible with two engis.

[Mr. Smiles]

Originally posted by Razer:

I used to solo railjack before the updates that gave npc helpers all the way to the highest level. If it's viable without anyone helping then it's viable with them helping.

This, before they added the crews, I was doing veil proxima solo, it was far more difficult, but definitely doable.

Also, yeah, don't let them pilot.

[Carnasid]

Give rank 5 gunners zekti apocs and watch them clear veil proxima fighter swarms before you can get a shot off.

[Wazubaba [Wazu]]

I've never had any problems beyond them being incapable of dealing with objectives, such as destroying radiators the away team has to expose. It sucks but the best solution is to unlock the ability to teleport back to the jack via you omnitool, take care of that, and then head back in and repeat.

[BoxxyB]

had an experience when I first started the game where I was just learning railjack, my squad had left and some mega disrespectful player playing mesa called me all types of horrible things cause the mission failed and I wasted their time. anyways I use the NPCS 100% of the time unless I'm playing with friends because its easy even on steel path. once you upgrade your railjack, archgun, and archwing mods nothing in railjack will threaten you pretty much ever

[Aidenel]

for the most part yeah, gunners are definitely good to have, even if the ship is stationary. But the pilots are a bit hit and miss. Sometimes they'll nail the objective while you are sabotaging an enemy station, and other times they'll just zoom around ignoring it, until you return to the ship or exit the station, its about 50/50.

[Douchebag Extraordinaire]

They are more than viable but it's a different playstyle compared to playing with a full team.

My set up is two gunners, one that's specced for turrets and repair with a zekti turret specialty and another that's specced for gunning and combat with a rifle specialty (+crit chance), who absolutely destroy any ship that they see. Then an engineer+pilot with lavan engine specialty, is on standby for repairs and piloting when I'm not piloting, gave him a maxed out kuva zarr just in case boarders somehow get in, which is super rare with the two ladies on pinpoint turrets.

There are some bugs like them not shooting the second exterior target on some enemy vessels, but outside of that, they do great even at endgame stuff. With a full player team, everyone can split up to do jobs.

[Kobalobasileus]

My first AI pilot was an idiot. She couldn't hold a steady bead on a disabled crewship for anything, and generally piloted like she was drunk. I eventually fired her for a new guy from Red Veil, who is actually really good, like human level good.

Sometimes he's still a little slow on the uptake when it comes to shooting radiators, but is overall perfectly serviceable.

Short answer: Yes, there are good AIs for every role, but good luck finding them in Ticker's random HR pool.

[ImCalledBethy/Sparklefarts5]

Originally posted by Garsooon:

Title pretty much, I LOVE railjack its like my dream game of sea of thieves / gun of Icarus. The only problem is well... a lot of the players just don't know what teamwork is.
I struggle a lot with playing with other players just doing their own thing and sabotaging the game like saying "Hey Im going to use the dome charge cannon don't pilot the ship please" and like clockwork here comes captain "Mom said its my turn to pilot the railjack" to yoink it and take a crewship out of my vision. Just feels kinda bad.

So basically is the NPC route actually viable for more high level railjack missions for solo play or am I SOL.

My NPC crew are a god-send!

However, you're going to put in a lot of work ...

1. You want their main role ( repair, gunner, or pilot ) at 5. Combat and endurance won't matter unless they will be guarding your ship from boarding.

Try to pick a crew member who's stats are close to 5, as you will have 3 points ( command tree ) to assign to them - So, you're aiming for 5 in their main stat and either 4 or 5 in their minor stats ( if you want them to kill ).

2. Elite crew members ( command 10 ) come with an ability and a heavy price tag. You, REALLY, want to pick the right crew for the job.

a. Buy crew from the syndicates that you're rank 5 in. You will take a discount, since you will be spending millions in plat and hundreds or thousands on resources.

b. That extra ability is important, since most are considered worthless. I focus on House Lavan ( speed and shields ) so my pilot gives a +25% speed boost to Lavan engines and my gunner gives +50% damage to Lavan weapons.

My engineer, who repairs my ship and murders boarders, has a shield that pops when he takes lethal damage.

c. There's also traits, that randomly go off when a stat is 5 ( I'll provide a link at the end of this post ).

3. Never pick anyone for the defender slot. You can go through missions without being boarded, they won't repair your ship, or rez other downed crew.

Lich have been nerfed to the ground, so don't bother with him as crew or ---

4. ON CALL : Gives you another pet option in mission type which allow them. Though it's a waste if your crew member doesn't have 5 in combat and endurance and an ability that keeps them alive.

5. Flavor text - Each syndicate has "flavor text" , ranging from light-hearted moments, to inner reflect, to a one-way ticket for PTSD eternal ( Veil and Hexis ).

Please make note of your mental constitution and check the wiki, before making a decision - Chick Flick or Horror-thon.

***

My crew :

SM - My pilot talks about inner reflection, and grineer do what they need to survive.

Suda - My gunner picks apart my railjack to gain knowledge ( Suda said it was ok ), reveals she's a cyborg ( Suda rebuilds those who joins her ), and reveals the technology that runs the railjack is older than the Orokin race.

Hexis - My little psycho - repairs my ship while murdering boarders, and continues to murder through steel path ( on call ). When he, or the mission, fails - he'll stare into my railjack's reactor, scream " FOR THE TEN-ZERO " ( the Zariman , btw ) , as his eyes melt and his head bursts into blue flame.

https://imgur.com/8AadODR


wiki - https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Railjack/Crew


***

Welcome to Railjack. Feel free to bother me, BloodForCavalero ( PC) , with anything.

[Wandering Flare]

2 elite gunners and 1 elite engineer and you're set for not needing any player crew. Will have to go back and forth to destroy radiators on objectives but otherwise the Railjack will take care of itself.

[Razer]

Personally use Vidar Pulsar's on the swivel turrets. Those are for the gunners. They are a b*tch to hit stuff with as a player, but they hit like a truck. AI crew is great on this. I use a Vidar Carcinox on the main turret of the pilot. It's not the "best" gun, but it's strong enough and it's super easy to shoot. Since I do the piloting that's the weapon of choice for me. But honestly I hardly ever get to shoot anything with these ace gunners blowing up stuff left and right.

Gunners also disable enemy crew ships for easy kills with the main battery

Originally posted by Wandering Flare:

2 elite gunners and 1 elite engineer and you're set for not needing any player crew. Will have to go back and forth to destroy radiators on objectives but otherwise the Railjack will take care of itself.

Yep, just park it somewhere safe though, because if it's a missile platform or one of those ship destroyer platforms they will destroy the Railjack no matter how tanky.

Since someone here posted something about a good pilot doing work, I may give that a try. I haven't done railjack in a while.

Question though. I was just browsing through the guns for funzies and it says I have no mastery with any of the guns. But these things don't grant mastery right? Is this new? I don't see them in the profile equipment listing either.

[Wandering Flare]

Originally posted by Razer:

Question though. I was just browsing through the guns for funzies and it says I have no mastery with any of the guns. But these things don't grant mastery right? Is this new? I don't see them in the profile equipment listing either.

They don't, it's a visual bug.

[Razer]

Originally posted by Wandering Flare:

Originally posted by Razer:

Question though. I was just browsing through the guns for funzies and it says I have no mastery with any of the guns. But these things don't grant mastery right? Is this new? I don't see them in the profile equipment listing either.

They don't, it's a visual bug.

Ah ok. Good to know.

[IFearSnowman]

viable? I would call them superior