Skip off the Void

[deviousity]

I just lost my third game in a row because I ran into a Terrox cruiser before I had Skip off the Void.

I checked the comparison before I started combat. All the margins were razor thin. That means I have a chance, right? Right???

I go Evasive Maneuvers and try to escape. They go Wild Flying and I'm like "I got this."

Then they proceed to hit me with literally every attack. In the 4th round I had 4 stacks of Evasive Maneuvers, which were completely ineffective. By then it was really already over. In the 7th round they ruptured my hull. Maybe it's just me, but encountering a Xeno ship before I get Skip off the Void is game over, 100%.

Anyway, this is the Tips and Tricks section so I brought a tip.

If you hate losing to early game Xenos in ship combat, make a Navigation officer. Officers only need 2350 experience to get their first level 11 talent. Crew need 3800. I'm going to have one in every game from now on.

Hope this helps someone. Have fun out there.

[Trese Brothers]

Another good tip -- if you're trying to get away from xeno, they are very deadly at long range with torpedoes. They're accuracy is quite high.

Therefore, if your plan is to flee then consider stacking the strongest Escape buffs you can (Pilot -- Sharp Steering, Navigator -- Fast Getaway) as opposed to try to "hang in there" defensively.

When it comes to xeno, you can suffer a few hits and Escape, you've won. If you suffer a few hits and haven't Escaped then you probably have to turn and fight.

[deviousity]

I just don't do ship combat. To me, ship combat is just an unskippable interactive cut scene before the game over screen. The risks outweigh any conceivable benefit. Unless your ship is utterly untouchable, even if you win, the profits from ransoming are completely used up by repairs. Hopefully you didn't lose any experienced crew.

I don't accept missions that require ship combat to complete, including vignettes. I take talents for reducing hostility. ALL OF THEM. I bribe everybody that'll take my money. I get Skip of the Void ASAP. Once I get that I can relax and save up money for a bigger ship, which I still won't fight in. My ship is just a vehicle for my real unstoppable killing machines.
My combat crew.

Here they are in action:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2736593197

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2736599395

Here's my ship in action:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2736594437

Feels like a waste of time.

[Tomcat]

Pacifist games, yes Skip off the void is a worth beelining for. Otherwise, I personally never use it. Having Military Offficers and upgraded components can just escape fine. Using a dodge talent can protect from a torpedo hit.


Ship combat helps you train crew exp. Money wise, not important.

The best paying missions are the ones that involve ship combat though. But it's the ones that involve prisoner cells. Higher edict and military rank will provide the best gains.

[davea]

Playing on Hard, I can usually get my escape dice high enough to actually escape those early xenos without burning an officer slot on navigation. Next time you are in combat, look into the combat log to see how many range change dice you are rolling for escape vs the xeno. Nav assist 4, ECCM, and various other components raise your dice.

I do agree that ship combat is not for the early game. My captains start with big dreams of being the best BH or XH or whatever, but recognize they have to start out with cargo runs first. Usually my second ship is for high crew capacity to start conscripting high level crew, and my third ship is a big ship killer.

[lextreides]

Another shortcut to "skip off the void" is to get a boosted navigator (or two) from a contact right at the very start of game, even level 10ish can initially get you "ahead of the curve" far enough (magic number is level 14 because that's 11 job ranks for crew) so you have the "nope button" ready when the game starts throwing random xeno ships at you (around captain level 11ish).

You can get said contact as a starting one (it's the Merchant) and do the "proving the charter" with him, should be comfortably enough to get sufficiently boosted navigator, well if said contact didn't get really bad rng on influence (which you could try to fix with intel, or just reroll the rng).

[davea]

Getting a high level navigator from a contact is another relatively new benefit of the rebalance on contact crew levels. Until, maybe 6 months ago, recruits from contacts were never high level enough to be useful. I think this rebalance was a big improvement.

[peddroelm]

just buy lvl 14 navigators from contacts .. Then , with the pressure of you can take your time to save up to get combat crew and combat ship to access more of the game systems ..

[Dr. Spendlove]

In case you don't want to spend a contact starting slot on Merchant, you can do the same kind of thing with the Judge in Erik Faen's first quest (which is nice and easy to boot). She'll buy intel, so if you have a spy or two (from a different contact?) you should be able to feed her intel and get a rank 14 navigator or 3 to replace your starting navigators without too much difficulty.