Ultimate Dreadnaught Loadout for Pew Pew Dead

[Riktoven]

Obviously as content is added and balancing changes made, my opinions on this will change.

I'm an Engineer, which is pretty broken in and of itself, so for the purposes of this discussion, I'm ingoring skills.

I've also assembled tons of great blueprints already, so my ship is a damn sight more formidable than the game (or at least the current AI) was intended for. I'm about to lay the game down until new content becomes available, as I grow weary of trying to figure out where to find blueprint pieces for the Disabler Torpedo, Super T-Drive, and SR Salvage Beacon. If anyone knows, I'm all ears, as I'm still holding at 1 piece of each and I'm at 7.5 million EXP.

Onto the Ultimate Loadout Pitch:

Crits. It's all about crits. Why? Crits work quickly against all targets, be it small and fast or thick and strong. Crits are also the only way I know of that work simultaneously as offense and defense both, so not only will you drop targets faster, you also vastly cut down the ammount of incomming fire.

Current Helios Dreadnaught Officer and Weapons Loadout:

Officers:
Tactical - ARX-400 Blueprint officer
+20% LW Dmg
+10% CTC (integral for this build, there are other officers that can sub for Mr. Data)
+15% Shield Strength (offense and defense in one officer? Sold.)
+ 5% System Repair Speed (you won't need it)

Navigation
+10% Accuracy
+10% Speed
+10% Maneuverability
+15% T-drive radius

Engineering
+10% Chance to Shoot Through Shields (rails only) Since you can't crit without hitting hull, this gives us a solid way to knock shield generators offline without hammering the shield bubble for too long to start getting our critical hits in.

Weapons:
RHYNO Railguns on all 4 LW quarters.
ATHENA Missiles on all 4 HW quarters.

LW Enhancements:

Syntha III on front quarter. The firing arcs on the front 5 turrets are so wide that these guns seem to fire all the time, and the 50% battery recharge rate is necessary to keep these in the fight. The extra range is very nice, and offers the ability to stand off against static plasma defenses. Of course, a bit of extra crit and crit damage works well with the build. You sit at 15% Chance to crit on this bank, but it can fire forever.

Shogun III on the other 3 quarters. These combine with Mr. Data to give you a passive 25% CTC on your side guns, 30% more crit damage, and a 5% Accuracry boost. That's an enhanced damage critical hit on average once per salvo, and salvos firing every 0.4s. The kill speed and narrower firing arcs eliminate the battery energy concern we have on the front quarter.

I have yet to farm an area that can repulse this ship in less than an hour, WITHOUT using any skills mind you.

I just cruise at even power distribution with auto fire on, and start flying a little dolphin wave pattern up and down when the enemy begins firing, turn a bit if necessary to bring the side guns to bear, and wait a few seconds for them to disappear.


And that's it. Virtual invulnerability without using skills.

[Animal Robot]

cool setup!
how did you get so many blueprints?!?!?!?!?!
some help as to where to farm them would be greatly appreciated. :)

few questions for ya:
what other officers are you using (other than the android BP officer)?
what perks do you use?
how many hours of gameplay do you have? (i'm up around 250hrs and blueprints are sloooooooow going)
did you use mods to get your special weapons?

helios has the lowest battery capacity of all the dreadnoughts and carriers, so i've avoided using it. i've got about 4 dreadnoughts and 4 carriers all set up with different weapons and enhancements, each with their own pros and cons.
i'm a huge fan of the jupiter dreadnought with it's 195 battery capacity, and the tzar carrier is hard to avoid cause of it's high troopers and cargo.

[Animal Robot]

also, i have about 250hrs cause i've got each a commander, gunner, and engineer up at level 79.
mostly working on blueprints for my commander these days though..
:)

[Riktoven]

I have so many blueprints due to a glitch that allows you (at least for weapons and fighters) to use the blueprint over and over without losing it, so long as you can afford to buy more.

I've got at least a dozen RHYNO and STRYKER rail guns. Dozens of wings of ASSASSIN bomers, CANIS interceptors, and LUPUS fighters as well for my carriers.

I too overlooked the Helios for a long time due to stats, but the firing arcs on those front 5 guns is a nearly 180 degree arc left to right, leaving two ig sweet spots where you can bring 9 turrets to bear on a single target. That's just ridiculous.

The cloak also pairs well with the Engineer's broken rift ability, which with all my points in it, creates a no fly zone that cuts your speed y 60% and subjects you to 15+% hull damage per second. I cloak, fly into a group of dreadnaughts and carriers in formation, turn the rift on, and 7-8 seconds later scavenge the wreckage of the battlegroup.

THAT last broken ability is how I farm blueprints so fast. You can completely take control of enemy stations and encricle them with orpheus mines, SETHs, and literally camp them for hours.


I think different pieces tend to drop different places. Can't prove that though. The Triangle region at the bottom right of the map is tough fighting, but seems to drop RHYNO, STRYKER, AXIS, and TENANT parts. Stick to the edges of the triangle and you should be fine. Don't go into the middle unless your cool fighting 4-7 Helios dreadnaughts at a time.

The Tranquility region on the left side of the map is easy hunting, but drops lots of less usefull blueprints as well (grappler stuff just isn't appealing).

[Riktoven]

My engineering officer is Ellan Blanke (Purchased at Osaka station, sector 310). 10% Chance to shoot through shields.

He costs 20,000 a month. The officer that does 9% chance to shoot through shields only costs like 2,200 a month for an alternate. You can purchase her on Abydos (sector 135).

My Navigation officer is Lucilia Pugsley (Purchased at Stillwater Station, sector 281). Good all around stats, the accuracy specifically is what helps this build. This is the one officer that can be played around with without giving up much. I wish there was an officer that gave accuracy and PTE charge time.

[Mongo]

Good read. how so you have your skills and perks set up?

Oh and what Equipment layout do you keep?

I want to try and get Blue prints using your mine idea.

Thanks.

[Riktoven]

I've spent millions respeccing over and over playing with the options, but only with the Engineer. My best friend went gunner which is the only reason I know anything about those talents. I don't know jack about the commander class.

Perks:

Given that my flagship is a Helios with Railguns and Missile Launchers, I have 3 points in railguns, 3 in missles, and 2 in Large Ships.

The other points are currently in Hawkeye and Scoundrel.

Obviously this is endgame, no longer give a darn about capturing anything, everybody dies kind of approach.

Skills:

Engineer is kind of broken in terms of skills it would seem.

I'm currently abusing the rift ability. All points into this, with a split between radiation damage and trap so there's no way out of the radiation. Creates a small anamolly that does 15% hull damage per second to everything within ~500 unit radius. That's 7.5 seconds to kill, well, anything in the bubble.

Ridiculously OP and will certainly be patched.

Falling back from that, is the Energize skill, specifically throwing all points into the Overload skill which results in +850% Critical Hit Damage, which works unelieveably well with this setup and results in super fast kills gun kata style, and virtually no return fire once a salvo or two lands.

[Mongo]

Wow have to say this ship with this layout is super badass now I don't have any special weapons i am just using baracuda III & Corona missles with mines and seth to grab blue prints in the Triangle area.

[Mongo]

"I have so many blueprints due to a glitch that allows you (at least for weapons and fighters) to use the blueprint over and over without losing it, so long as you can afford to buy more. "

How do I use this glitch? I have plenty of money yet I bought sryker weapon and it used up my blueprint. That really pissed me off as long as it took to farm it should be once you get a blueprint thats it you can use it forever.

[Wrathinside]

Well, that's the proper minmaxer, thumbs up!
Now it would help and be MUCH more accessible, if you copied\restructured your post into a guide. Otherwise it not only will die in the wave of "how to wipe my rear side" threads, but also will be much more annoying to edit and add.
Also, what did you mean by "Crits are also the only way I know of that work simultaneously as offense and defense both, so not only will you drop targets faster, you also vastly cut down the ammount of incomming fire."?
How do you know they reduce your chance to be critically hit?

[Riktoven]

Glitch to reuse blueprints:

Instead of buying Light Weapon/Heavy Weapon/Fighter Wing from Systems tab (which will consume the blueprint), equip the item from the loadout screen. Undock from the station, redock, and go back to loadout screen. You will still have the blueprint and can buy another....and another.

Wraith, I'm old, I only use computers for games, work, and pron. I could write a guide, but I couldn't host it, and don't want to learn how :-)

As for the offense and defense at the same time, what I meant was the repeated critical hits will take systems offline very quickly, including their weapons, so they often times can't shoot back at all or at least not for long. There is no direct chance to reduce enemy crit chance in this, though after seeing this in action, I may swap out my nav officer for theh one that reduces target accuracy and CTC 25%. DO NOT want to be on the receiving end of the enemy using this setup when they make updates.

I've also noticed this makes the damage amplifier more effective as well.

I'm not entirely sure I understand the damage mechanic going on. Most systems have 500HP.
Does damaging those 500 System hitpoints also damage Hull? Or does the damage go to the system, and whatever is left after the system is destroyed goes to hull? Or does the damage just move on to the next random system?

In testing with the Artemis III and STRYKER, in conjunction with a damage amplifier and a fully pumped Overload skill, it looked like I was taking down dreadnaughts in 2-3 crit hits after the shields went down. I don't recommend this route per se, as the time needed to get those critical hits leaves you too exposed, but still, it's weird watching a single railgun (not even the whole battery) inflict what looks like ~4 or 6 thousand damage to hull.

[Wrathinside]

Why does everyone call me Wraith... where does this "i" come from... Ahem.

So your whole explanation is that "offense is the best defense"? That crits are better against systems just because they, just like in every damn game, seem to be the only endgame damage modifier? Not that much of an argument, but I won't dispute.

Also, the officer reduces "target" accuracy, so it will affect only 1-3 ships. It won't help in bigger fights, at least not drastically, and 1-3 ship fights probably do not require such lengths. Actual manoeuverability and accuracy may be more overall beneficial.

And the guide is not some special website guide or youtube video(which actually should be more possible for older person than for a kid), it's simply Steam guide, http://steamcommunity.com/app/236150/guides/
Basically copy/paste of all your post/posts under different sections for easier perception. And much easier to manage, as you can edit/add each section, instead of bothering with thread posts.

[vampyre111]

I have found several blue prints and every time I get the item I lose
it. I had the super tired drive and lost it for example. It's very frustrating.

[SpiralRazor]

The whole blueprints-only-used-once thing made me quit playing the game.

Congrats LGM!

[Riktoven]

Originally posted by Wrathinside:

Why does everyone call me Wraith... where does this "i" come from... Ahem.

So your whole explanation is that "offense is the best defense"? That crits are better against systems just because they, just like in every damn game, seem to be the only endgame damage modifier? Not that much of an argument, but I won't dispute.

Apologies on the name butchering, I blame dyslexia.

My explanation is simply that critical hits are the only way to take enemy weapons offline.

There are other ways to kill just as fast, but most of them involve being closer to your target, and all will have the enemy still firing at you with everything they can even with only 1 HP left.

Focusing on crits gets fast kills, with virtually no return fire after a the first few shots touch their hull.

Heavy Plasma loadouts are a good example. Capable of killing a single target faster than rails, but only at a closer range (more incoming fire), and facing full enemy return fire right up until the target is dead.

With the critical hit strategy, you don't even want to focus fire most of the time, as a single battery will cripple most targets in a few seconds. You may take a bit longer to kill everything in a big battle, but the enemies are essentially just derelicts waiting to be killed and you walk away with full shields, as opposed to waiting 10 min to recoup what you just long. Makes for more efficient blueprint farming.