best squad for Gold Elite run

[shpasic]

what do you think is the best squad for the Gold Elite run? maybe some other tips?

[Kitty]

I ran Glub, Dora, Payroll, with Sally joining on 4-man missions.

Glub is great for his ability to take out a target that's difficult to hit from a defensive position, so he can reposition afterward. He's also good against high-hp tanks if you're having trouble flanking them, as his double-melee attack just shreds them.

Dora is good for just chilling in a corner and bouncing off flanking shots on everyone, ensuring she remains undamaged for most missions. She also has some useful mid-level abilities that streamline missions a little.

Someone else advised Payroll for me, as he was not my first choice, but his speed and dash-attack abilities can get you out of a tight spot better than most. He's definitely the quickest at nabbing loot or mission objectives, cutting down average mission times. He can be difficult to keep at full health though, for the amount of risky positioning his regular attacks can require.

Sally has the most useful level one ability in the game, and cleans up mobs better than anyone, but requires quite a few levels before she's fieldable outside of boss missions. Her hp is low and making best use of her abilities often means putting her in the forefront where she has the most visibility, so missing shots is not a luxury she can really afford. I run her only with handguns for that reason.

Honestly I beat Gold Elite in under 700 turns, even with redoing a solo mission 3 times to get Glub's Vampire ability in time for the boss fight. I thought I'd have to religiously keep track of my turns, but as long as you're familiar with the mechanics from a previous run, it's not tough. That's not to say there won't be lots of reloading or force-quitting before a turn finishes; losing a crewmember mid-mission means you've just cost yourself 10-20 turns for nothing, on top of the turns you now have to use repeating the mission for full star rating on it.

That being said, it is much tougher early on with no good equips. High cover is your only friend early-game. Once you get weapon damage capable of keeping up with mobs and some jump packs, splitting up becomes viable to quicken mission completion. Often it is not necessary though, the way most maps are laid out. Biggest time wasters are probably using healing or stun items, as any turn you're not doing damage, is essentially a turn you've lost. If you're keeping in cover and not doing anything crazy, besides the occasional reload from a fluke shot kill, you won't need them anyway. Equips that give passive stat increases or free offensive actions are the best.

Hat farming is best saved for after run completion, if you don't have all the common/uncommons from normal spawns. If you see a rare you don't have, and can get it in a single move, that's really the only time I can get behind it. That being said, I only saw 5 rares in that entire run, 3 of which were duplicates I already had.

[shpasic]

thank you for the detailed response!

i think it's going to be quite tough) do you think, it would be a good idea, to have two save games at a time - one with elite run, and another one just for exploring and careful mission planning?

i've only completed the game on experienced difficulty, although made many missions on higher level difficulty.

[Kitty]

Well, the fact that most maps are procedurally generated will skew the planning aspect a bit, but it couldn't hurt to familiarize yourself with the enemies you'll be facing that mission and how to go about your objectives in general. It's too bad the game doesn't have a built-in feature for duplicating saves, since the new game+ save overwrites your previous data, unless you had 2 saves already.

[HereIsPlenty]

I tried regular which was fun and not too hard, then veteran which was a step up but Elite is proving to be nightmarish. 6 reinforcements appeared in one turn then more afterwards.