Am I on the right track?

[Grathagis]

I am currently in sector 34 for the past week and I cannot seem to get ahead.
My weapon loadout is Beam Laser lv2 and 3 Kinetic Cannons lv2.
I get about 1600 warp essence per warp core.
Currently I am trying to unlock as much as possible in the 2nd base, and try to unlock as much as possible in the warp drive upgrades.
I am also researching all 3 Unbound Researches.

My synth does not seem to get ahead. It would take me 88days to unlock the orange ultra alloy to infinity.
Can someone tell me if I am on the right track to simply get enough warp essence to unlock as far as I can in the upgrades, or am I missing something?

Edit: I did a few challenges, but only gotten as far as level 2.

[Dwane Dibbley]

You cant build base, research and synth at same time. Not effectively. You have to focus only on one thing at the time, get corresponding utility for it, right modules, shards and reactor boost. Its all multiplicative so you always want as many multipliers for single, focused aspect as possible.

[Grathagis]

I do that. I keep switching the V-device layout depending on task. And I use the retrofits to switch between synth and research utilities.

[justdrop]

Here's what I did as of yesterday: Start with advanced computer lab and push full void/scrap gain and engine levels to about 1.0e5x damage and shield boost, second reactor was enhanced reactor to push harder then swap to research. I'm currently idling in sector 35 while I focus on finishing every research and have only research station upgrades on with a focus on scrap and research gains to upgrade it.

The run to 1.0e5x takes a couple of hours but I just closed the game a couple of times until I got there. I have a day or so (it fluctuates between 18 hours and a day) left on knocking out Material Research.

[Zanzou]

You're definitely on the wrong track, you've a weak point somewhere.. I'm in the 40's and I still haven't been stuck on a stage for close to a week though that might be changing soon, I can't really remember it too well as I kinda breezed through that part. 1600 per core sounds kind of low to me, are you getting as far in each of the different warp areas as you can and have you unlocked warp delta with 22B getting that up for a higher multiplier as well? If so then it might be where you're spending your points holding back, if not then your warp drive is definitely what's holding you back. Your weak link definitely isn't research, I didn't do unbound research until about stage 41'ish, so don't worry about researching for now. I know synth at that point seemed really unreasonable as well, I just finished maxing out all oranges so I don't think synthing is your weak point, I was mainly focused on making materials for damage/shield boosts at that point as far as synthing goes, I think that's about the point I swapped to power generator in modules as well so i could do higher levels on my reactor bonuses (don't touch battery unless you're pushing reactor levels it's pointless.) Challenges also aren't your problem I didn't start going for any tier 3 challenges until somewhat recently.

I do know by that point I was using 2 bomb launchers though. I was still using computer lab and synth station at that point of the game as well, i didn't swap to reactor until somewhat recently and only use research station when I'm doing a research run. My basic strategy is to max out as much computer as i can and run as much salvage gain on the highest stage i can for about 8-12 hours, building up synth materials in the mean time with as much synth multiplier as i can spare outside of that (synth shard was almost perpetually in my red slot), my reactor was on synth, compute, and salvage then i swapped to boosting damage and shields in reactor to push stages after i'd gotten myself as beefy as I could with core upgrades, computing, and module upgrades.

What I can tell you for sure is there is something you're overlooking on accident because I'm only getting stuck on stages for maybe 1-2 days in the low 40's and nothing longer than that in the 30's either.

-edit- I went to load backups i had to see where I was at, on 8-27 my latest backup until tonight I was still on stage 26, Unfortunately I didn't have one around stage 34 to compare with you so I could give you a better idea of where to look :(

[Richard]

As the above post mentions I too think it must be your warp. I have just reached sector 34 and mine is up to 2864.71 for level 34.5(I cant clear this). This is with 5 areas at that level.

Your research is way in front of mine i still have about 3 left of each before unbound. My next goal is to get the 4th synth slot then try fot the 3rd synth challenge. When i foucs on Synth my speed is 1e6 and i have just got all infinite on T4

[Kad]

That may have been around the time I realized I should have also been focusing my bases a bit better and after doing a day or two of just pumping base components for the bonuses or strictly upgrading my buiilding materials then I took off again. The realization came a bit late but gave me time to push research knowing i had no goal of advancing. It most likely wasn't the best method.

[Kreuz]

The only things I can think of are weapons, bases, and shards. Around 36 iirc I still used a gatling laser but it's been so long it feels like ages.

Looking back at the shards that are available, it is most likely a good idea to start with the computer thing to help you get high computer levels, then once you get enough swap to synth and then make sure you push with both the battle shard and the damage shard equipped. It also helps to have a shard setup specifically for farming extra salvage to get more levels on your gear.

As for me, I'e mostly been winging it and am stuck at 65-ish after 36 days total so...yeah. Let's just say things get kinda ridiculous later.

[Bammbulance]

Originally posted by Richard:

I have just reached sector 34 and mine is up to 2864.71 for level 34.5.

What the... I'm missing something, I'm at sector 35, Warp 36 and I'm only getting 393 per warp core?

I feel like I've sped to this position in fairly good time! Does it go up naturally every time? xWarp completions or something?

Edit: I am also struggling with sector 36, the moment I hit it I am swarmed by countless tiny ships and my weapons are too slow to handle them, what setup should I go for next? (I've unlocked the rocket launcher for the next run).

[Dwane Dibbley]

Originally posted by Bammbulance:

Originally posted by Richard:

I have just reached sector 34 and mine is up to 2864.71 for level 34.5.

What the... I'm missing something, I'm at sector 35, Warp 36 and I'm only getting 393 per warp core?

I feel like I've sped to this position in fairly good time! Does it go up naturally every time? xWarp completions or something?

Edit: I am also struggling with sector 36, the moment I hit it I am swarmed by countless tiny ships and my weapons are too slow to handle them, what setup should I go for next? (I've unlocked the rocket launcher for the next run).

Are you unlocking aditional warps? Do you have warp multiplier from warp upgrades?

[Bammbulance]

I've got 7 warp cores so far and have put very few "Warp essence" into warp upgrades.

I've got 63 unique warp completions? (Only unlocked warp a few days ago, maybe a week at most).

I'm thinking that is my main problem, early days?

I assume if I do a warp run and then overload by using additional warp cores that they will still all count towards the unique multiplier?

Edit: Ohh no, looks like overcharging and using multiple cores at once does to count for 'unique completions', think this is where I have gone wrong D:

[Dwane Dibbley]

I mean how many warps you got, not cores. You unlock more warps by clearing sectors with elite enemies. More warps on higher lvls = bigger warp multiplier.

[Bammbulance]

Edit: I was making a mistake using 'overcharge' to miss out on the multiplier, sorted now, thanks all :)

[Dragon]

What Dwane is trying to point out is you should have 2 extra types of warps, so 5 in rotation. you earn the extra 2 by taking the alternate "elite" sectors that should be very easy once you reach sector 34. I just unlocked warp like a week ago, my warp difficulties are only at 33-34 and i'm getting 1400-1600 a warp (single core use).

[Bammbulance]

Oh, yes, I totally got what he said, however my mistake was just running one of the warps at the highest level and ignoring the others because they were too low level.

I didn't know at the time that unique completions = a massive multiplier as I misinterpreted the mechanism. (Thought 1 run = unique completion and it would build up... not pushing all warp locations which I've now done, powering me up enough to unlock more locations).

[Twogs]

Originally posted by Bammbulance:

Oh, yes, I totally got what he said, however my mistake was just running one of the warps at the highest level and ignoring the others because they were too low level.

I didn't know at the time that unique completions = a massive multiplier as I misinterpreted the mechanism. (Thought 1 run = unique completion and it would build up... not pushing all warp locations which I've now done, powering me up enough to unlock more locations).

Also when you do auto warps (from AI upgrades) you will want all of them as high as possible as auto warps are based on the lowest one you still have. (capped ones are ignored)