Spectral Wraith

[Pauma del Sol]

I'm fed up, I enjoy this game, but before I can make a fleet with a strength of 10k, I keep getting the spectral wraith event. This is the third different save where this has occurred. My units die instantly against it and honestly with the type of game it is, I'm appalled that the only way to respond to this thing is with military power, there should be some means of neutralizing it without killing it via a research project.

With influence functioning the way it does, can anybody recommend either a balance fix for losing starbases or creating starbases without influence costs, or a mod to remove this creature or event from the game entirely?

I've run into this type of problem in a game before and RNG has been able to evade events that lead to this type of endgame scenario occurring too early in a game, since there wasn't forethought of it occurring too early in a given file.

[Magma Dragoon]

Skill issue. Spectral Wraith is a midgame monster, endgame crisis fleets are many times stronger. It is weak in a system with a star of the same color, has no shields, has high evasion and tracking and its weapon is bad against shields, so cruisers with medium lasers or phasers, shields and picket computer kill it easy.

[Ryika]

Spectral Wraith is not an endgame scenario, it's a creature that always spawns at the mid-game timer, and is appropriately scaled for that time. By that time you should be able to beat it unless you have moved the mid-game to an earlier date, or you're bringing the wrong kind of fleet (or you're just not playing well enough).

If you can't beat it in the open, there's a mechanic that weakens it based on the color of the primary star in the system. See:
https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Guardians#Spectral_Wraith

If you really can't beat it even with that, you can also select the Wraith and use console command damage 99999

[Pauma del Sol]

As much as there's the usual nescient smarm for which gaming has been devalued as a hobby, I appreciate the insights and methods provided.

Is there a way of directing the thing toward a specific system?

If the mechanics aren't clear, it's not respectable to call that a skill issue. Given that it pulls from a slow-building resource/erases progress that isn't entirely preventable, that's just bad game design. Dark Souls tasks you with survival and has an easier path to retrieval of resources lost, or in this case a path at all. If it didn't cost influence to reclaim lost systems, as though it were claiming a feeding ground like an enemy in war, I wouldn't be complaining. This is game feedback.

I had also looked for other sources of solutions and seen that a fleet with 40k strength or more was around where one would need to be, which I see as closer to endgame certainly than the point I'm at.

[Chthonic Guardian]

Originally posted by Val Cassandra:

As much as there's the usual nescient smarm for which gaming has been devalued as a hobby, I appreciate the insights and methods provided.

Is there a way of directing the thing toward a specific system?

If the mechanics aren't clear, it's not respectable to call that a skill issue. Given that it pulls from a slow-building resource/erases progress that isn't entirely preventable, that's just bad game design. Dark Souls tasks you with survival and has an easier path to retrieval of resources lost, or in this case a path at all. If it didn't cost influence to reclaim lost systems, as though it were claiming a feeding ground like an enemy in war, I wouldn't be complaining. This is game feedback.

I had also looked for other sources of solutions and seen that a fleet with 40k strength or more was around where one would need to be, which I see as closer to endgame certainly than the point I'm at.

If you think fellow gamers telling you that you need to up your game some is devaluing to gaming, then you would have never survived tabletop gaming 50 years ago.
You would have had a nervous breakdown and never come back.
No one had time to hold your hand and give you a participation trophy for just playing.
It is constructive criticism, and your tone of implying you were being screwed over by an unfair circumstance in the game that was insurmountable made it entirely appropriate.

Can't wait to see what kind of monstrous label you put on me and this post. lol

[Fido]

Originally posted by Chthonic Guardian:

Originally posted by Val Cassandra:

As much as there's the usual nescient smarm for which gaming has been devalued as a hobby, I appreciate the insights and methods provided.

Is there a way of directing the thing toward a specific system?

If the mechanics aren't clear, it's not respectable to call that a skill issue. Given that it pulls from a slow-building resource/erases progress that isn't entirely preventable, that's just bad game design. Dark Souls tasks you with survival and has an easier path to retrieval of resources lost, or in this case a path at all. If it didn't cost influence to reclaim lost systems, as though it were claiming a feeding ground like an enemy in war, I wouldn't be complaining. This is game feedback.

I had also looked for other sources of solutions and seen that a fleet with 40k strength or more was around where one would need to be, which I see as closer to endgame certainly than the point I'm at.

If you think fellow gamers telling you that you need to up your game some is devaluing to gaming, then you would have never survived tabletop gaming 50 years ago.
You would have had a nervous breakdown and never come back.
No one had time to hold your hand and give you a participation trophy for just playing.
It is constructive criticism, and your tone of implying you were being screwed over by an unfair circumstance in the game that was insurmountable made it entirely appropriate.

Can't wait to see what kind of monstrous label you put on me and this post. lol

There's a reason tabletop gaming was changed, because it was elitist garbage that excluded people more than it welcomed them. And I say that as someone who cut their teeth on AD&D 2e in 1998.

You'll just have to mald, cope, and seethe to be living in an era where people want things to be accessible and not exclusionary anymore. Die mad, I guess.

Originally posted by Val Cassandra:

As much as there's the usual nescient smarm for which gaming has been devalued as a hobby, I appreciate the insights and methods provided.

Is there a way of directing the thing toward a specific system?

If the mechanics aren't clear, it's not respectable to call that a skill issue. Given that it pulls from a slow-building resource/erases progress that isn't entirely preventable, that's just bad game design. Dark Souls tasks you with survival and has an easier path to retrieval of resources lost, or in this case a path at all. If it didn't cost influence to reclaim lost systems, as though it were claiming a feeding ground like an enemy in war, I wouldn't be complaining. This is game feedback.

I had also looked for other sources of solutions and seen that a fleet with 40k strength or more was around where one would need to be, which I see as closer to endgame certainly than the point I'm at.

As for this, sadly there does not appear to be one. In my experience, I don't have much difficulty dispatching it by the mid-game, but I can see how it's challenging if you're not used to playing optimally. Which, I get it, some people just want to chill and vibe in a large-scale galaxy, and that's cool. And I think you should.

I've looked into this on a surface-level and the only way to avoid it is to hope another empire kills it before it reaches you, or try and colonize the event that spawns it if you find it early on, never completing it until you are ready- empires will not be able to survey within your borders, and I don't think AI will 'see' your anomaly without prior scanning?

[Chthonic Guardian]

Originally posted by DANGER ☠ POSSUM:

Originally posted by Chthonic Guardian:

If you think fellow gamers telling you that you need to up your game some is devaluing to gaming, then you would have never survived tabletop gaming 50 years ago.
You would have had a nervous breakdown and never come back.
No one had time to hold your hand and give you a participation trophy for just playing.
It is constructive criticism, and your tone of implying you were being screwed over by an unfair circumstance in the game that was insurmountable made it entirely appropriate.

Can't wait to see what kind of monstrous label you put on me and this post. lol

There's a reason tabletop gaming was changed, because it was elitist garbage that excluded people more than it welcomed them. And I say that as someone who cut their teeth on AD&D 2e in 1998.

You'll just have to mald, cope, and seethe to be living in an era where people want things to be accessible and not exclusionary anymore. Die mad, I guess.

You are the one seething in anger. Me, I am laughing at you!
Tabletop died because of computer gaming, you numbskull. Not because you didn't fit in to being in a room with other men. Now you don't have to, you can stay away from the big bad meanies who didn't treat you like a little baby and coddle your every need.

[Fido]

Originally posted by Chthonic Guardian:

Originally posted by DANGER ☠ POSSUM:

There's a reason tabletop gaming was changed, because it was elitist garbage that excluded people more than it welcomed them. And I say that as someone who cut their teeth on AD&D 2e in 1998.

You'll just have to mald, cope, and seethe to be living in an era where people want things to be accessible and not exclusionary anymore. Die mad, I guess.

You are the one seething in anger. Me, I am laughing at you!
Tabletop died because of computer gaming, you numbskull. Not because you didn't fit in to being in a room with other men. Now you don't have to, you can stay away from the big bad meanies who didn't treat you like a little baby and coddle your every need.

Weird, tabletop gaming is more booming than ever? I'm in 4 games a week. Maybe you think it's dead because nobody wants you at the table? I certainly can't blame them.

I especially think it's funny that your other thread here is an extremely newbie question that could be answered by literally just looking at the stats the game supplies you with. Guess you're not actually that good- definitely not good enough to criticize the OP.

Talk about participation trophies when you can't even do your own reading! Also, nice "no u" retort. Really showing your superior intellect, there.

[Chthonic Guardian]

Originally posted by DANGER ☠ POSSUM:

Originally posted by Chthonic Guardian:

You are the one seething in anger. Me, I am laughing at you!
Tabletop died because of computer gaming, you numbskull. Not because you didn't fit in to being in a room with other men. Now you don't have to, you can stay away from the big bad meanies who didn't treat you like a little baby and coddle your every need.

Weird, tabletop gaming is more booming than ever? I'm in 4 games a week. Maybe you think it's dead because nobody wants you at the table? I certainly can't blame them.

I especially think it's funny that your other thread here is an extremely newbie question that could be answered by literally just looking at the stats the game supplies you with. Guess you're not actually that good- definitely not good enough to criticize the OP.

Talk about participation trophies when you can't even do your own reading! Also, nice "no u" retort. Really showing your superior intellect, there.

Wow, I got my own stalker... I am honored.
I asked a question and I didn't blame the game, and I didn't make snarky remarks to people who answered and act like a victim because I didn't like the answer. Big difference.

I didn't even attack in this thread, just pointed out the validity of the responses.
But you sure came out seething.

you are here to confirm your intellect? Or do you just think others are?
You have issues beyond anything in this thread obviously. Enjoy your tabletop games with that highly honed sense of judgement. lol

[Magma Dragoon]

Originally posted by Val Cassandra:

I had also looked for other sources of solutions and seen that a fleet with 40k strength or more was around where one would need to be, which I see as closer to endgame certainly than the point I'm at.

That's wrong, you only need like 20 cruisers to kill it.

[mss73055]

You fight it in a star system of its colour.
It's a battleship, bring torpedo cruisers with picket computers.

[Pauma del Sol]

Originally posted by DANGER ☠ POSSUM:

As for this, sadly there does not appear to be one. In my experience, I don't have much difficulty dispatching it by the mid-game, but I can see how it's challenging if you're not used to playing optimally. Which, I get it, some people just want to chill and vibe in a large-scale galaxy, and that's cool. And I think you should.

I've looked into this on a surface-level and the only way to avoid it is to hope another empire kills it before it reaches you, or try and colonize the event that spawns it if you find it early on, never completing it until you are ready- empires will not be able to survey within your borders, and I don't think AI will 'see' your anomaly without prior scanning?

Thank you for this and other clear responses. Also it's cool to meet somebody else who's played AD&D.

I think I'm still learning about equipment and their varied uses, is there a guide on that somewhere? Asking generally, not just you.

Originally posted by mss73055:

You fight it in a star system of its colour.
It's a battleship, bring torpedo cruisers with picket computers.

Torpedoes, thank you, though do you know a way to draw it to a certain star system? I've noticed that it seems to bounce in a circuit, I remember that once it like turned around when I made a starbase to reclaim a system

[pete3great]

You'll notice the usual suspects didn't pop in here to comment because even they know the Spectral Wraith is potential a run killer even for experienced players. Poorly poorly balanced, but not scratching the surface of the most broken parts of this game.

[Fido]

Originally posted by pete3great:

You'll notice the usual suspects didn't pop in here to comment because even they know the Spectral Wraith is potential a run killer even for experienced players. Poorly poorly balanced, but not scratching the surface of the most broken parts of this game.

Booming, creeping and investing in very large torpedo/missile stations early makes a lot of difference here. I'm primarily an Egalitarian/Xenophile/Pacifist player, which means I prioritize bunkering up pretty hard over making massive fleets, so roaming threats tend to get station nuked with a small back-up fleet to catch most of the harm.

It's a shame the game punishes not being a Militarist or Xenophobe so hard, war is the only solution to any problem most of the time, and it kind of sucks.

[❤ Sly Succubus ❤]

Originally posted by Val Cassandra:

I'm fed up, I enjoy this game, but before I can make a fleet with a strength of 10k, I keep getting the spectral wraith event. This is the third different save where this has occurred. My units die instantly against it and honestly with the type of game it is, I'm appalled that the only way to respond to this thing is with military power, there should be some means of neutralizing it without killing it via a research project.

With influence functioning the way it does, can anybody recommend either a balance fix for losing starbases or creating starbases without influence costs, or a mod to remove this creature or event from the game entirely?

I've run into this type of problem in a game before and RNG has been able to evade events that lead to this type of endgame scenario occurring too early in a game, since there wasn't forethought of it occurring too early in a given file.

If your using the wiki for information on the Guardians mate, dont bother doing so, the wikipedia says that the Dread is using is old and outdated weapons and guns, when I think last update it was given fallen guns and armor instead. Where indeed 10k was the trivil part of crushing the wraith, the wraith is a armor eater, it does only 50% of its damage to shields, but gets a wopping 200% to armor (its hull is 100%, AKA default) so a fleet of heavy shields and crystal armor usually can do it with 10k power, however if your using pure armor fleets then that guardian will eat you for breakfest.

Now with that 10k fleet side lined, I want to note that if your going for hybrid fleets (AKA a perfect 100 to shields, armor and hull) then the actual fleet power you'll need is around 40k and given that starbases are entirely armor focused (thanks to the fact that there exists star systems that nullify shields entirely) you're looking at a guardian who is basically a base roller by its own design, however like all other ships it also is effected by stellar effects, for example it is not immune to shield nullification which is why its weak in its own birth system...

You see, the Wraith spawns in a Pulsar star system which automatically disables the shields of anything within it, meaning that if your ships are rapidly being killed, its likely a result of their shields being dead thanks to the pulsar followed by the wraiths 200% hull hitting power, basically meaning that you dont want to fight this beast in its own birth system. You can't really tell it where to go but from what I do understand its AI is akin to that of the patrolling Ambeos early on in the game, basically they just roam and dont go out of their way to seek out a fight unless said thing gets in their shooting range (save the hunters who just attack on sight)

However..it has a caught 22 situation, if you somehow attack the Wraith in a star system that matches its own hue, it gets a -50% debuff to its armor and -20% hit chance (its armor its 10k, so thats 5k knocked off by the star and default hit chance is 80%, knocking down to 60%) and while its evasion is 75% (which for any ship, 75% evasion is rather high for a mid-game npc of any sort) which means you'll want to use as prior stated, hull and shield swarms of cruisers and destroyers OUTSIDE of the star it spawns in, if you attack it in the star system in spawns in then you'll be weakened due to the loss of total shields, and given it does 150-250x2 (200% armor) that means its striking for 300-500 per gun, and it has 6, so thats 300x6=1800-500x6=3000 damage at the very least

1800-3000 damage is insane, as most midgame ships will have hypershields and neutron armor, and together thats only 1800 hull, 2200 shields and 2200 armor for cruisers alone (if properly sat up mind you) and battleships are about 3000 hull, 5220 armor and 3960 shields

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2003569220441430793/48680AF30FDB9CAF8EDCE74EADF71E5024F4D1EF/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2003569220441430859/946766633240FFFBBD49716C174420843007DA6C/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

(First is the cruiser, 2nd is the battleship), yes their guns are not the current meta but its designed to display how even with top tier research, your warships will be eaten alive, hence why the need of destroyer and cruiser swarms, it can only kill so much but it shoots every day meaning within a month this thing can take out basic fleets that are not in a swarm (IE a few heavy ships and tons of smaller ships)

[#BlackLivesMatter]

Originally posted by Chthonic Guardian:

Originally posted by Val Cassandra:

As much as there's the usual nescient smarm for which gaming has been devalued as a hobby, I appreciate the insights and methods provided.

Is there a way of directing the thing toward a specific system?

If the mechanics aren't clear, it's not respectable to call that a skill issue. Given that it pulls from a slow-building resource/erases progress that isn't entirely preventable, that's just bad game design. Dark Souls tasks you with survival and has an easier path to retrieval of resources lost, or in this case a path at all. If it didn't cost influence to reclaim lost systems, as though it were claiming a feeding ground like an enemy in war, I wouldn't be complaining. This is game feedback.

I had also looked for other sources of solutions and seen that a fleet with 40k strength or more was around where one would need to be, which I see as closer to endgame certainly than the point I'm at.

If you think fellow gamers telling you that you need to up your game some is devaluing to gaming, then you would have never survived tabletop gaming 50 years ago.
You would have had a nervous breakdown and never come back.
No one had time to hold your hand and give you a participation trophy for just playing.
It is constructive criticism, and your tone of implying you were being screwed over by an unfair circumstance in the game that was insurmountable made it entirely appropriate.

Can't wait to see what kind of monstrous label you put on me and this post. lol

as someone who got started on pong and white box 1st ed, kindly shut the **** up. 50 years ago you were the guy everyone at the comic book store warned to not join your games because your house smelled like cat piss and you were a little /too/ into WWII german memorabilia

we didn't like you gatekeeping and scaring away decent folk then and we still don't like your gatekeeping bs now - you do not speak for the hobby, you **** ****