z89-1 (Galaxy 5) Fleet Resource Balance

[Diet Dr. Beta]

Not sure if it's just me or not, but the Fleet Resources in Galaxy 5 feel a little too tight. Galaxies 1-4, I never had much issue in farming up Artifacts after I beat the sector, but I now have Galaxy 5 with maxed Foothold and Resource + Stat nodes maxed and am finding myself coming up about 230 Resources short of claiming the last Artifact Trove, which is almost half of the total Artifacts you can get per-run. I am in the process of optimizing it down as much as possible with super minute saves per-fight. Namely skipping out on extra Cruisers and making do with just 1 + skipping A1A and A2A which saves 204 Resources. My closest so far is 7 Resources short.
Got it. Turns out I could save a whole ship here or there in the first half. Still way too tight for my tastes.

Stats for reference, Sector 117 Reinforce for 505 base Fleet Resources, every battle cleared and smoothed out quite a bit. There are probably more optimal ways to do some of the fights, but I don't feel like having to min/max every fight is the intended way just to claim the final node, which has always felt like a reward for clearing it, rather than another hurdle to overcome.

My suggestion would be to either raise the level cap on R5 and/or R7 to 10 or add an extra one attached to B28, but I'd love to hear other people's opinions on all this.
Nevermind, it's fine. Just needed to reach Sector 118.

[Big Hat Logan]

Ouch. I am also in sector 117, but i have only cleared about half the galaxy. I don't want to reinforce before clearing it. Reaching 118 is nearly impossible as I don't have most galaxy 4 upgrades. My opinion is that even on 116 it should be possible to get all artifacts since that is the recommended sector.

[Diet Dr. Beta]

Originally posted by Big Hat Logan:

I don't want to reinforce before clearing it. Reaching 118 is nearly impossible as I don't have most galaxy 4 upgrades.

It's going to be pretty dang boring sitting there just waiting for it. I'd say just beeline for Splicing and Reinforce for that and the Enemy strength reduction in Sector 117+. That's what I did so I have stuff to play with while I wait on the rest of Galaxy 5's upgrades. Since you aren't done with G4, definitely focus on that afterward. I'll also tell ya, Crew Splicing starts in Sector 117 and starts slow, so don't feel like you have to rush into it.

[phenir]

I haven't quite reached the end yet but I don't feel the same way. I still have one adaptive node eating up 200 resources and I haven't yet gone over a lot of the fights again since getting a good amount of ships stats and I am currently sitting at the last hazard generating node (the one that adds reinforcements to the path to the last base). I think the auto optimize AI upgrade that was added with G5 can help a lot. There was a lot of ship switching though in the latter half.

[Aaron]

Originally posted by Diet Dr. Beta:

Originally posted by phenir:

In the interest of saving myself some time, may I ask what your guys' setups were for clearing B21 the first time?

[Diet Dr. Beta]

Originally posted by Aaron:

If I recall, my first clear was 3 Cruisers by going back to claim one more from M1A (or M1B if you go top path) plus some supporting ships. Like 2 Frigates and a Corvette on default weapons.
Once you clear the hazards, they become a lot more manageable.

[phenir]

What hazards was on that one? Just laser volleys? Fighters work well against laser volleys and then cruisers can mop up

[phenir]

I've reached a6 now and I have 330 resources of the 640 needed. I can still get another 208 resources just from maxing foothold and r6-7 so I am still lacking 101 resources. I think I can get that once I rerun all the nodes after getting ship stats.
However, after dropping m1a and revising the last few nodes (I only had 3 nodes that were using 3 cruisers), I was able to reach a6 with 516/640 resources which means I can buy it in like two or three more runs. I'm currently at 25560/44640 artifacts so it will still contribute significantly to reaching the max. This is all with 555 base fleet resources (sector 118).
So overall, I think you can't expect to get to the end without the recommended resources and maybe not even with the recommended resources unless you really optimize each node and max everything out. Which seems fine? The more stuff you have, the easier it becomes just like the rest of the game, and it's not like you can't make progress on artifacts without a6.

[Aaron]

Originally posted by Diet Dr. Beta:

Originally posted by phenir:

Fighters work well against laser volleys and then cruisers can mop up

Thanks guys, I ended up going with 3 Cruisers and 2 Fighters for 80 FR on my first clear and then was able to get rid of a Cruiser and bring it down to 51.16 FR on my second clear, which I'm happy with. I hadn't ran Fleet for a few days and for some reason had it in my head that my Fighters would die nearly instantaneously like they do against the DoT hazard.

[Diet Dr. Beta]

I reached Sector 118 and my complaints have been fixed. It boosted me from 505 Resources to 555, which is way more than I expected and it gave me an extra 200 Resources in-run, which would've made this whole situation a non-issue. Nothing needs changing, I just need to learn to be patient.

[WarlockD]

Just wanted to say thanks for this. I went up straight up the tree to get splicing and enough upgrades to get stuck at 117. Been trying desperately to get that stupid 640 upgrade but it looks like you just got to reinforce more often:P

[Diet Dr. Beta]

Originally posted by WarlockD:

reinforce more often:P

Unless I am blind, you don't need to Reinforce for Fleet Resources anymore. It's just based on highest Sector reached.

[Elgareth]

Originally posted by Diet Dr. Beta:

Originally posted by WarlockD:

reinforce more often:P

Unless I am blind, you don't need to Reinforce for Fleet Resources anymore. It's just based on highest Sector reached.

This.
And don't bother rushing to splicing, complete the Galaxy Artifacts before reinforcing. Splicing only starts in sector 117, and starts exceptionally slow, it gives next to no bonus for a good while. It's not worth a reinforcement on its own.