How to progress in the campaign any further (zombies are too strong)?

[drakanor]

I'm having serious issues in beating the zombies in campaign. At level 25 I got the mission to destroy the zombie capital. Since then, I have failed at it.

I'm level 60 now (power 96), own one third of the starbases, and still can't beat it. The zombies are just growing stronger an stronger, obviously faster than me. I can't even get near a zombie starbase without getting immediately shredded by 2 zombie ships at power 120+. The zombie star bases grouped around the capital are all at power 130+.

At first I thought I'd get better equipment after conquering a lot of starbases. But it's stuck at 2 star and some 3 star stuff for some time now.

Am I doing something wrong?

[Narlak]

Hi there

You have a couple options here.

If you have a lot of starbase, chances are you have a lot of scrap too. Use the catalog to buy the parts you want, instead of waiting for a starbase to produce them.

Set bounties on targets to get others to do your work for you.

Use some longer range weapons, such as the Plasma Dispenser, Mass Driver, or Hangars.

Be sure to say out of those infector clouds, and take the fights nice and slow.

Hope this helps.

[Bozobub]

Another reason to custom-order parts, is that they are MUCH better than the average "found" part, at the same star rating. Six-star cores are one of the cheapest things you can custom order, for example, and the difference they make is HUGE.

Additionally, many powerful weapon modules are difficult (or impossible) to find, such as Plasma Cannons and Mass Drivers, without custom ordering. You can also custom order parts from a defunct faction, that otherwise has no starbases/way to buy their gear.

Re: gameplay: Your ship is probably WAY too slow; speed is king in SPAZ 2, followed closely by shields and armor. If you post your design here, we may be able to help, if you'd like; hover over the home core (to show your ship's total stats) while taking a screenie in the Ship Design screen and post it here, if so.

Edit -> If you're playing on "Insane", step the difficulty 1 notch back to "Expert"; the Insane difficulty level is intentionally NOT balanced, and the Zombies get two huge bonuses to damage (all AI ships get a boost, plus Zombies get a 2nd boost), while you do *less*.

[drakanor]

Thanks a lot for your help guys.

First of all, I didn't realize that I could actually buy stuff in the catalog. I always thought it's just a reference of what could be available in my starbases. I totally missed the purchasing option. I'll definitely go on a shopping spree now. :)

My current ship layout looks like that:

http://imgbox.com/Glv1BQvF

I'm playing on normal. ;)

[Bozobub]

First off, if you take a screenie from the ship design screen within Steam (F12), you can save it to your Steam "Content" area (under your name on the right side of the Steam menus). If you then click that pic, at the top it'll give you a URL you can copy it (right-click and "Copy Link Address", from w/in the Steam client, NOT "Copy Page URL"), and it shows automagically here, like so, if you post that URL (an *old* 15-core mid/late-game design):
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=847305333
(By turret: 4x Particle Hose, 3x Plasma, 4x Flak, 2x Zapper hangar, Attack hangar*, Zapper pod)

*Deprecated to "Defensive hangar"; use another Zapper hangar, instead, if you're rebuilding this design.

If you notice the speed and turn rate stats on my ship (304.0 and 206.8, which I consider just a little bit "porky") they're very roughly 4x higher than yours (65.9 and 58.6). While my design sports 8x lg., 1x med., and 4x small modules, with 2x "dead" slot (at bends), your design is VERY slow and has low agility (turn rate) while supporting 3x lg, 4x med., and 2x small modules with 4x dead slots; you have good shields but you're underpowered and p-u-d-g-y =x. My old build, on the other hand, has rather small shields but rarely needed 'em, even in melee...

Here's another 15-core, full synergy mid-game build; it looks like it has no "oomf" but that's a false assumption; it IS, however, punishing if you mess up. It also has zero dead slots:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=810071060
(By turret: 3x Plasma, 2x Zapper pod, Zapper Hangar; I made this one before I knew about hovering over the home core, sorry. Pardon the clutter, as well; this was before you could grind parts for resources and I was in the middle of a large war.)

I'd probably go for a horizontal 3x5 synergy "brick", if I wanted to run a 15-core game again ^^'.

Also, it's not a big deal if you cannot immediately take on the Zombie Capitol, even though the game judges you "ready", *as long as* you can keep the Zombies contained, while you develop your ship. If you're getting swamped, that won't work as well.

One thing you can do, to give yourself lots of extra time, is to "mow" an empty series of zones between you and the Zombies. You'll lose *zero* starbases, and only occasional captains. Make sure you kill any new Zombie starbases as soon as they appear! This works against any hostile faction, btw, not just Zombies =).

You should also "rinse off" (disinfect) Zombie captains (except for Zombie Alpha, of course), whenever it's practical to do so. Remember, captains and +rep are by far the two most valuable resources in SPAZ 2, and this accomplishes *both*! It doesn't hurt that Zombies also drip XP, modules, and resources, as well.

And last, as long as you can handle him — he's actually usually a *little* weaker than the strongest Zombies — you should smack around Zombie Alpha whenever you notice him, especially when he's heading for your area.

If you can do the above 3 things, you can keep the Zombies in abeyance for a long, LONG time, if you care to. And you may very well want to do so, eventually; the only 7-star subcore (yes, really) I have *ever* seen was a Zombie loot drop, when they owned roughly 60-70% of the galaxy; I now own far more and have seen *zilch* since ^^'. Zombies are the BEST farming opportunity there is in the game, that simple.

[drakanor]

Thank you very much for your detailed hints and explanations.

The Zombies are already taking over my captains in an alarming rate, so I'll gonna try your suggested countermeasures. With a better ship I might be able to handle 2 of them at once in case I need to fight them directly.

BTW, is there any formula to how strong my wingman is (relative to me? relative to my starbases?). Is it possible to actively influence his strength?

Anyway, thanks a lot for your time and help!

[Bozobub]

Any wingman is simply just another captain. This means:

• They will gain a share of any loot/XP (actually, TWO shares, because they get a % of the XP you gain, as well).
  
• They are quite often starved for resources and equipment, since they cannot forage while being a wingman.

You need to "feed" your wingman with Rez or they'll eventually "run out of gas". In addition, they WILL use gifted components, if better than what they have, so doing so is a good idea (for any member of your faction, actually, but especially your wingman).

Frankly, I never bother with a wingman, due to the horribad allied NPC AI; They simply get in the way, then die, with depressing regularity, most particularly vs. Zombies. Their habit of facetanking Zombie Bombs is ill-advised, at best ^^'.

[-=EDF=- Kouta Seto]

*sigh* at first i went in with a missle + particle hose combo with flag, i soon noticed that this was insuficient against the zombie main. I then switched, after i found the custom part shop that is, to a full particle hose outfit (large parts 3+ stars and everything for more shield and energy as well as 4 large ships acompaning me (all equiped with particle hoses and torpedo's (yes i was quiet high level, dunno what exactly i mostly play sandbox now and have no campaign save anymore), but thats what won the last battle for me. Ofc. it took some micro agains the station (first keep away, their missles and torps + their zombie asteroids shread you otherwise, kill all their escorts, after that the station is nothing to fear (learn how to target missles yourselfe thou, it can be usefull to intercept some of the ordonance). In the following fights you vastly outpower your older designs with a full 3+ star one, the only tough foe will be your own ship. Thou if you keep your escorts till then, you will have the huge advantage of drawing the fire away from you, thus you are able to make quick work and win the match.