Is the Mining Beam still viable for combat?

[Gunheart]

So, first time playing, and a lot of the pre-NEXT material implies I should skip the Boltcaster and stick with the Mining Beam.

Thing is, I've gotten two S-Class Mining Beam upgrades, neither of which seem to increase damage output, and a regular sentinel takes a while to bring down with the Mining Beam alone.

[Mr.Cypher504!]

It does do dmg but not that much . The Boltcaster is more DMG being its a real weapon . I think maybe adding a stronger beam to the miner might do more dmg but dont know yet . Trying get the stuff to add my higher beam

[Mosey]

The mining beam used to get pretty great after you got a bunch of upgrades, but early on weapon attachments are probably more reliable. That also could have changed with NEXT but I can't tell you that for sure.

[Kel'Ithra]

Bolt caster has its own ammo which is easy to mass produce and stacks in 1k stacks. While mining laser as weapon means you'll be constantly looking for carbon etc since if your mining it'll likely not be filled.

[Gunheart]

It sems to have changed a bit with NEXT. The upgrades I've found are focused pretty exclusively on heat management, mining bonuses and fuel efficency with no noticable changes to damage output.

[darthokkata]

Kind of, but it's the worst and last resort weapon. Even with all S class upgrades the damage is kind of crap after the Next update, but if you're playing defensively and only need a weapon to drive off hostile creatures and low level sentinels so you can escape, then it will work.

Also, you can only have a limited number of upgrades for any weapon. Three of any class of the upgrades you can buy from shops, plus the ones you can craft from blueprints don't count towards that total.

A couple of tech modules can have up to five upgrades, but most will only take three or four.

You can double up upgrades in your ship and exosuit by putting three in your inventory and three in your tech slots, but the Multi-tool only has one inventory screen, so you can't double those uprades up like you can with the other inventories.

[🐾]

Originally posted by TheGunheart:

So, first time playing, and a lot of the pre-NEXT material implies I should skip the Boltcaster and stick with the Mining Beam.

Thing is, I've gotten two S-Class Mining Beam upgrades, neither of which seem to increase damage output, and a regular sentinel takes a while to bring down with the Mining Beam alone.

Yes it is. You should have 6 S modules for your Mining beam. 3 in main suit and 3 in tech slot. Also remember to get S modules with good stats.

[darthokkata]

Originally posted by Jimmy:

Originally posted by TheGunheart:

So, first time playing, and a lot of the pre-NEXT material implies I should skip the Boltcaster and stick with the Mining Beam.

Thing is, I've gotten two S-Class Mining Beam upgrades, neither of which seem to increase damage output, and a regular sentinel takes a while to bring down with the Mining Beam alone.

Yes it is. You should have 6 S modules for your Mining beam. 3 in main suit and 3 in tech slot. Also remember to get S modules with good stats.

The Mining beam is in the Multi-tool. You can't double stack upgrades this way for the mining beam because there is no cargo inventory on the multi-tool.

You can only have four upgrades for the mining beam, and one of them has to be the Advanced Mining Laser. The upgrades you can craft don't count towards your 3 upgrade per inventory limit.

Most of your weapons should have three S class upgrades, plus a lower tier "free" upgrade that you craft from blueprints.

It's also worth pointing out that you can also double up the crafted upgrades. Meaning you can have three S class, plus the crafted upgrade in both inventories. This also includes things like rocket tubes and enhanced launch thrusters.

[🐾]

Originally posted by darthokkata:

Originally posted by Jimmy:

Yes it is. You should have 6 S modules for your Mining beam. 3 in main suit and 3 in tech slot. Also remember to get S modules with good stats.

The Mining beam is in the Multi-tool. You can't double stack upgrades this way for the mining beam because there is no cargo inventory on the multi-tool.

You can only have four upgrades for the mining beam, and one of them has to be the Advanced Mining Laser. The upgrades you can craft don't count towards your 3 upgrade per inventory limit.

I mixed it with the ship mining laser.

[🐾]

Originally posted by darthokkata:

Originally posted by Jimmy:

Yes it is. You should have 6 S modules for your Mining beam. 3 in main suit and 3 in tech slot. Also remember to get S modules with good stats.

The Mining beam is in the Multi-tool. You can't double stack upgrades this way for the mining beam because there is no cargo inventory on the multi-tool.

You can only have four upgrades for the mining beam, and one of them has to be the Advanced Mining Laser. The upgrades you can craft don't count towards your 3 upgrade per inventory limit.

This is a link to Reddit and the are screenshots of how to optimize your modules. They did say that Sentinels got harder though. I wonder if the other weapons are worth building now... They are supposed to be fighting weapons and might be much more powerful. I restarted my game as I found out that the same S class modules have different stats, and I like to max :D

https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/92bpi3/psa_how_to_optimize_your_upgrade_modules_in_next/

[darthokkata]

Originally posted by Jimmy:

Originally posted by darthokkata:

The Mining beam is in the Multi-tool. You can't double stack upgrades this way for the mining beam because there is no cargo inventory on the multi-tool.

You can only have four upgrades for the mining beam, and one of them has to be the Advanced Mining Laser. The upgrades you can craft don't count towards your 3 upgrade per inventory limit.

This is a link to Reddit and the are screenshots of how to optimize your modules. They did say that Sentinels got harder though. I wonder if the other weapons are worth building now... They are supposed to be fighting weapons and might be much more powerful. I restarted my game as I found out that the same S class modules have different stats, and I like to max :D

https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/92bpi3/psa_how_to_optimize_your_upgrade_modules_in_next/

The Blaze Javelin is the most consistent damage dealer. It absolutely wrecks sentinels and makes quick work of armored doorways.

I tested all the weapons with maxed out upgrades using a save editor. It's also how I figured out how the upgrades stack and where you can put them.

[Gunheart]

Thanks for the info, everyone! Now I just need a better multi-tool. :P

I uh, equipped a pair of S-Class scanner modules on this baby and suddenly I'm making tons of units just scanning plants and animals.

[darthokkata]

Originally posted by TheGunheart:

Thanks for the info, everyone! Now I just need a better multi-tool. :P

I uh, equipped a pair of S-Class scanner modules on this baby and suddenly I'm making tons of units just scanning plants and animals.

Yeah, making units is stupid easy. Once you know what you're doing you can make millions without too much trouble and start saving towards building a fleet. The cost is high, but units are easy to come by.

Nanites is what you'll have to grind a bit for. They are everywhere, but you'll only find them in small batches.

[HellSlayer]

What about javelin? I use it, I like it but not sure how it compares in NEXT.

[darthokkata]

Originally posted by nomansky_roamer:

What about javelin? I use it, I like it but not sure how it compares in NEXT.

The Blaze Javelin is the highest damage handheld weapon in Next. It's a charge weapon though and has a low rate of fire, and you don't have to be right in whatever's face like you do with the scattershot.

One or two fully charged shots will kill most anything in the game once you have some decent upgrades.

All the weapons are decent, but the Javelin is what you want if you want what puts the most hurt output in the game.

For your ship you'll probably want the Ballista Cannon. Again, low rate of fire, but it does the most damage per impact. Can be tricky to use in space combat though.

The Infra-Knife is probably the best ship weapon if you're not confident in your accuracy, as it has a very high rate of fire and can fire for longer than most other weapons before overheating, so you can hold down fire and adjust your aim more easily.

Though, I will say that once fully upgraded with S class upgrades plus the crafted upgrades in both inventories, you can pretty much just hold down fire for any ship weapon and it will never overheat and put out a high rate of fire.

So, get the Ballista Cannon, and only upgrade it with S class upgrades. Once you get it maxed out, you can just hold down fire and enemy ships will just die as soon as they spawn.

[HellSlayer]

Originally posted by darthokkata:

Originally posted by nomansky_roamer:

What about javelin? I use it, I like it but not sure how it compares in NEXT.

The Blaze Javelin is the highest damage handheld weapon in Next. It's a charge weapon though and has a low rate of fire, and you don't have to be right in whatever's face like you do with the scattershot.

One or two fully charged shots will kill most anything in the game once you have some decent upgrades.

All the weapons are decent, but the Javelin is what you want if you want what puts the most hurt output in the game.

For your ship you'll probably want the Ballista Cannon. Again, low rate of fire, but it does the most damage per impact. Can be tricky to use in space combat though.

The Infra-Knife is probably the best ship weapon if you're not confident in your accuracy, as it has a very high rate of fire and can fire for longer than most other weapons before overheating, so you can hold down fire and adjust your aim more easily.

Though, I will say that once fully upgraded with S class upgrades plus the crafted upgrades in both inventories, you can pretty much just hold down fire for any ship weapon and it will never overheat and put out a high rate of fire.

So, get the Ballista Cannon, and only upgrade it with S class upgrades. Once you get it maxed out, you can just hold down fire and enemy ships will just die as soon as they spawn.

Very helpful! Not sure when I will ever find s class ship, but at least I found a strat to get millions since farming plants is probably late in the game - im still following the quest of lone traveler appolo or so.

Not sure how far is vehicles to unlock them too.. Game seems have a lot of purpose and quests so Im glad on that. Too bad the often suttering and freezing is killing game mood.