General Progression Thread

[Tom Foolery]

Hey im changing the title of this post and changing the description as its changed its use
This is a general progression thread so ask questions and hopefully someone will answer it
Have fun :)


Old post:

Hi guys it is me yet AGAIN for my weekly question

Anyways i got the bomb shooter and have managed to grind my way slowly to sector 34, been doing warps as soon as i can got all of them up to about diff 34.5
Still rolling with 6 bomb shooters + 2 bulk and computer and synth utilities until i reach 30ish then i retrofit and go 1 beam + 1 bomb shooter and then 2 t1 laser canons for the perm boost, still two bulks and reactor and synth utility, this works well up until sector 34 where it all kind of falls off, i was wondering yet again if theres a pretty good combo i should look into right now or if its just the grind

[Tom Foolery]

Ive been looking through a lot of the previous discussions and some of the guides and they say to focus on one thing the whole time but surely its more beneficial to focus on one thing until a certain point then focus another using a retrofit?
Also many of them suggest using a perm laser boost and i was wondering if theres a perm kinetic boost or not as i havent found the auto kinetic activator synth module yet

[Sylv]

Yes focus on one thing means focus it until you can't get as much out of it and then swap with retrofit et cetera.

You should be able to afford using higher than tier one laser cannons. Only need to do tier one if you can't afford all the upgrades on it.

There is a kinetic boost automator, but it's not as popular as it's not as good. It's going to get buffed next patch but that's not relevant yet.

Depending on how long it's taking you to get to 30ish where you retrofit out of the computer, it might behoove you to keep computer going a little longer. Outside of that though you probably just need to grind some research or synth a bit.

[Tom Foolery]

Originally posted by Sylv:

Yes focus on one thing means focus it until you can't get as much out of it and then swap with retrofit et cetera.

You should be able to afford using higher than tier one laser cannons. Only need to do tier one if you can't afford all the upgrades on it.

There is a kinetic boost automator, but it's not as popular as it's not as good. It's going to get buffed next patch but that's not relevant yet.

Depending on how long it's taking you to get to 30ish where you retrofit out of the computer, it might behoove you to keep computer going a little longer. Outside of that though you probably just need to grind some research or synth a bit.

ohhh alright i thought it was better to go with t1 lasers just to get buffs as they dont do much but yeah maybe i should, ill take it into thought next time :)

[Tom Foolery]

I worked hard at it and made it to 36! grinding out research helped a lot, gonna do some missile + beam + laser cannons for a bit

[rob_s_cat2]

exchange missiles for gatlings and it sounds like a good plan. something like 2 kinetics (support mode for armour penetration on...) 2 beamers for slightly longer range and 2 gatlings for the shrapnel the missile often miss anyway. shields don't matter if you don't get hit, but the lasers between them at lv 30 will provide perma-laserboost (60% of perma at lv 20 already), and at lv 50 do so with rapid fire. this works all through the game until phasing, where you change the kinetics for disruptors.

personally i used the missiles quite literally only on the sector they were granted. they're good in theory, but with no retargetting, they miss way too much because their target dies or they spread out too much and the multiple targets regen too quickly for them to be effective.

although it's not optimal, i've found that i only really feel the need to change utilities when prestiging, and even then mostly when i'm setting up for a challenge or chievo run. when you get it, and when you finish current content at the time of writing, the enhanced reactor and refinery are neck and neck best in slot for most of the journey, as eventually you get to a point that synth is literally finished and you're capping the computer with just crew if you need to do it at all.

[Tom Foolery]

Originally posted by rob_s_cat2:

exchange missiles for gatlings and it sounds like a good plan. something like 2 kinetics (support mode for armour penetration on...) 2 beamers for slightly longer range and 2 gatlings for the shrapnel the missile often miss anyway. shields don't matter if you don't get hit, but the lasers between them at lv 30 will provide perma-laserboost (60% of perma at lv 20 already), and at lv 50 do so with rapid fire. this works all through the game until phasing, where you change the kinetics for disruptors.

personally i used the missiles quite literally only on the sector they were granted. they're good in theory, but with no retargetting, they miss way too much because their target dies or they spread out too much and the multiple targets regen too quickly for them to be effective.

although it's not optimal, i've found that i only really feel the need to change utilities when prestiging, and even then mostly when i'm setting up for a challenge or chievo run. when you get it, and when you finish current content at the time of writing, the enhanced reactor and refinery are neck and neck best in slot for most of the journey, as eventually you get to a point that synth is literally finished and you're capping the computer with just crew if you need to do it at all.

ill definetly use this strat once i get the next ship but rn im kinda stuck with the 4 weapon slots

[Elgareth]

In my experience, the "2 laser cannons on full support, 2 beam lasers (+ x)" with perma laserboost is almost always at least as effective as any other combination, even as kinetics against armored enemies.
Apart from VERY narrow areas where bombs are mandatory to outrange enemies, and missiles to beat one or two pure swarm sectors, I basically always had best results with the standard config of 2 support lasers (1.0 until you can easily get 2.0 to lvl 95 etc.), 2 beam lasers (as high as possible once you can get the upgraded versions to ~lvl 40+. The upgraded versions have increased range as well which is important), and varying support if necessary/possible. (Charge lasers for more range against snipers/big weapons, disruptors against phasing etc.)

Even the warp with swarming armored enemies was easier / I got further with beams instead of missiles.

[Tom Foolery]

Originally posted by Elgareth:

In my experience, the "2 laser cannons on full support, 2 beam lasers (+ x)" with perma laserboost is almost always at least as effective as any other combination, even as kinetics against armored enemies.
Apart from VERY narrow areas where bombs are mandatory to outrange enemies, and missiles to beat one or two pure swarm sectors, I basically always had best results with the standard config of 2 support lasers (1.0 until you can easily get 2.0 to lvl 95 etc.), 2 beam lasers (as high as possible once you can get the upgraded versions to ~lvl 40+. The upgraded versions have increased range as well which is important), and varying support if necessary/possible. (Charge lasers for more range against snipers/big weapons, disruptors against phasing etc.)

Even the warp with swarming armored enemies was easier / I got further with beams instead of missiles.

Yeah sadly i just cant quite reach the next ship which would let me have 2 beams and 2 lasers and a weapon of my choice, i am gonna be using this once i do unlock it, hopefully i can get there by using bomb shooter, beam and 2 lasers

[Tom Foolery]

Also the only thing really blocking me from getting the next ship is sector 36 which is the one right after you get the missiles, its the one with armoured skirmisher spam which is annoying, i cant seem to deal with them even when using 2 cannons a beam and the missiles, any tips?

[Dragon]

Every time i get stuck, get your synth to unlimited for your teir, do a research run, work over the bases at the same time to max out generation, then get components for a day or 2, then prestige to the Compute utility/reactor for a day or 2, then swap utilities with a refit and just push through. this is assuming you don't need to push your synth modules too much. Some of the walls take a few days to get through while you build up warp points as well. (took me around 35days to hit sector 69)

[Elgareth]

Originally posted by michael zombies:

Also the only thing really blocking me from getting the next ship is sector 36 which is the one right after you get the missiles, its the one with armoured skirmisher spam which is annoying, i cant seem to deal with them even when using 2 cannons a beam and the missiles, any tips?

I think I did that with 2 missiles, 2 kinetic cannons on full support, and upped Synth and Compute as much as possible to oneshot the skirmishers. Depending on the damage output it might be better to go a damage core upgrade instead of more missiles, if that means one- instead of twoshotting the enemies.
Also since your base 1 grants its damage and shield bonus only after prestiging, it might be useful to prestige once or twice, when the bonus becomes something x2 and up.

(And obviously your combat stat shards should be on useful slots. Armored enemies don't take more damage from "More Hull Damage" for example.)

[Tom Foolery]

Originally posted by Dragon:

Every time i get stuck, get your synth to unlimited for your teir, do a research run, work over the bases at the same time to max out generation, then get components for a day or 2, then prestige to the Compute utility/reactor for a day or 2, then swap utilities with a refit and just push through. this is assuming you don't need to push your synth modules too much. Some of the walls take a few days to get through while you build up warp points as well. (took me around 35days to hit sector 69)

yeah just getting to automated T4 synths, ill do a research run next and then ill follow what you said and ill use elgareths core layout for the final run,
You guys are awesome :)

[rob_s_cat2]

armoured skirmishers = 1 beam 1 charge in front and 2 gatlings behind. this a,lows for slightly longer range and faster firing, a combination which is decent against skirmishers, even the ones later that fire charges stronger than the snipers in the same sector.
critical is the lv 95 upgrades in this setup with only 4 weps, insanely powerful against skirmishers, so if you can't reach them with t2 weps (should be able to, but just in case) then drop the charge and one gatling back to t1.
as with basically all laser options, once you have four of them, you want permaboost on lasers, and as strong as you can get it (hence the lv 95 upgrades being so powerful here, gatling charge cannons is fun to watch)
with this setup, the gatlings will retarget so fast you might miss it, and there'll be a literal wall of pulses coming from them, the beamer will be finishing them off pretty quickly, and even the charge laser won't be a slouch retargetting, but with only 2 shield slots permaboost on shields isn't possible, so all out attack is the easiest way.

[Tom Foolery]

Originally posted by rob_s_cat2:

armoured skirmishers = 1 beam 1 charge in front and 2 gatlings behind. this a,lows for slightly longer range and faster firing, a combination which is decent against skirmishers, even the ones later that fire charges stronger than the snipers in the same sector.
critical is the lv 95 upgrades in this setup with only 4 weps, insanely powerful against skirmishers, so if you can't reach them with t2 weps (should be able to, but just in case) then drop the charge and one gatling back to t1.
as with basically all laser options, once you have four of them, you want permaboost on lasers, and as strong as you can get it (hence the lv 95 upgrades being so powerful here, gatling charge cannons is fun to watch)
with this setup, the gatlings will retarget so fast you might miss it, and there'll be a literal wall of pulses coming from them, the beamer will be finishing them off pretty quickly, and even the charge laser won't be a slouch retargetting, but with only 2 shield slots permaboost on shields isn't possible, so all out attack is the easiest way.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ this worked so well, im never doubting lasers again!
Many thanks dude ur epic

[TRONER]

i also need some tips to progress.
Until now i was doing my own game, focusing one thing at a time. Just finished all of t5 synth. t6 ones take weeks to progress so that is not an option. Left for a few hours each of the 6 research to build them up. Can get to e34 each one. Using all level 3 in destroyer. Best i can with a lot of compute grinding is beat wave 44. After that i dont see what to do and i dont have idea how to progress further.

challenges:
4/9 - having trouble beating more but the reward seems minimal .. is this whats going to help?
3/5 - done for now
4/5 - Last one i need a lot of void total power.
3/5 - base carry done for now, need 4º base.