Claim Xenon Sector Tips for Beginners (so you wont make the same mistakes i did)

[✟Scream Aim Fire✟]

Ok, so i started my first Invasion on Xenon Sectors (to save my beloved yakis) in Tharkas Cascade 15 onwards down to Savage Spur 2.
I really underestimated it and was going in on a tight budget fleet. So here are some tips for you beginner folks so you wont make the same mistakes i did.
My fleet was:
2x Syn
2x Osaka heavy
1x Odysseus E (got destroyed pretty early)
1x Rattlesnake (was useless...always doing crap and close to getting hammered every time)
- all with argon plasma (L) and argon flak (M) without mods
-> i strongly recommend going for PAR plasma here (better range and stations dont move, so proj. speed doesnt matter -> more safety for your destroyers)
1x Ray (Ion in front, net launcher in the back)
1x Asgard piloted by myself with green mods. (i recommend to get a VERY good slasher mod on the Main laser with the lowest heat stat u can get and decent mods on main shield (regen) + decent slasher mods on the L beams - yes, you rly want all beams on L and argon flak on M turrets - rest doesnt matter but i recommend somewhat decent capacity mods on support shields and a random nudger mod on engine + polisher on hull but that doesnt matter that much)
You also really want to have at least 3 repair drones on every ship AND some satellites (i was going in blind without any and it was....horror)
1x Zeus E with 22 perseus/theseus fighters with random loadouts
1x Tokyo with 39 kukri/gladius all with terran pulse
-> forget these in tharkas cascade 15 since they will die to dangerous environment and ONLY use them OOS!!! (50 can defeat a single K easy in 2-3 min without any casualties but only OOS)
1x Orca AUX (was kinda useless)
1x Herakles Vanguard + 5 L Traders filled with the right amount to build my preset Defense station + admin module
2x Osaka light (L beams + argon flak) just for anti-f support

First Advice...you def. want that Asgard and piloting it yourself. You will mainly kill K´s and I´s while your Destroyers will kill Stations. Dont put them into a fleet, they will make better decisions by themself. You still want to micromanage them A LOT, especially if they destroyed a module, they will reposition and often get to close to the station...if they message you about being attacked, it will be most of the time too late to save them.
ALWAYS go into a new Xenon sector first and alone. Especially in the beginning and if you attack the first station there, you will get swarmed by TONS of fighters and K´s/I´s....kill them first before you give orders to your destroyers.
After you claimed Tharkas 15 you can send in your Carriers too and let the fighters protect gates against SE and fighters (rly...your problem will be the SE´s, not the fighters).
Check build plot at least every 5 minutes in the beginning...strangely, 1-2 SE can magically build new stations in a few minutes and you def. want to kill these, before they are built.
If you run into the problem with stations being stuck at 0% with all modules destroyed you sometimes have to teleport out of sector for a small amount of time or order the AI to destroy the rest (happens bcause the station is basically down but in the progress of building new modules that you cant attack yet).
You can take more destroyers than i did but i wouldnt order more than 8 at a time to destroy the same station since it can get messy and even more micromanaging.
You can also take more Traders but 5 was totally ok for me, since after supplying my building station i send them to get the same materials again and they were back before the first build was finished.
I got more tips but the text is already huge..so if you want to know more about my first xenon siege experience...just ask ;)
Sorry for the bad english :P

One last advice...this challenge will eat A LOT of your time so you better finish everything beforehand and make sure the universe and your other stations are safe without you.

ship recommendation (only my opinion and just about destroying stations):
Syn - good dmg but did dumb things a few times, so they need some micro managing

Osaka - didnt like it before but these things, even though below average on paper, are SUPER reliable...not that great dmg but they just do what you order them to do

Ray - also really reliable, great range with main gun, low dmg, adds some anti-f capability

Odysseus E - ikd...just died right away vs a K despite having great main battery range

Rattlesnake - meh...sadly...i like it but it just didnt work for me against stations but maybe it was the loadout (probably different config of front/side turrets would have been better)

Asgard - just too op...ez life all the way. Killing one I and 3-4 K´s until main laser goes into cooldown and basically undestroyable against 50-60 fighters at once while also blasting them in a few minutes - you def. want one

[T600_Mod]

Argon Manticore L class ship- 2 battlestar torpedo mounts - 1 main gun
Tons of turrets - L Plasma - M Tracking Missles
My favorite ship to use as it has decent health but enormous firepower,
Most important part is its manuverability,
costs about 24 Million with all the missles and torpedos it needs.

However if you use a mod for resupply missles at set intervals it is significantly cheaper

[piep]

didn't this completely remove xenon as a threat in your game?

[T600_Mod]

My Game? not at all? I took about 100 manticores and tryed to take a xenon sector- lost most on the first 2 defence stations and fighting their fleets.
There are a ton Of Xenon Sectors They are near impossible to get rid of completely

[✟Scream Aim Fire✟]

funny thing: they even send a single K and 2 fighters from matrix 451 to my already claimed matrix 79B...man these guys building so much, so cheap and so fast, loosing a few sectors wont do them anything. (also mainly did this bcause of the yaki plot since some ppl said they lost the mission bcause the yaki HQ got destroyed by terrans at some point even after choosing that they are NOT a treat)

[uni790]

In my first save, I cleared out the entire Tharka's cascade chain of zones with a single Syn(fit out with L paranid pulses, and argon flak(modded for cowboy)) and some battlestations to claim and cover retreats (if needed) it was slow, but they never did send even a single I after me, I did see a handful of Ks(the Syn easily dispatches these) and their stations take a while to chew through, it was never a hard push though, just slow.

Also, the Ray's L turrets are top and bottom(flying one personally in my newer save), not front and back(also the bottom L turret rarely bothers to shoot at anything, lol)

[Azunai]

a syn with 8 L plasma turrets can easily melt K's and I's before they can even shoot back if you're half decent at flying big ships. an asgard is faster with its main gun of course, but that also means about half a billion for the XL shipyard and the blueprint.

add a bunch of cheap behemoth or phoenix to speed up the bombardment of the stations and you're set.

[Farrel]

Honestly? Properly modded, a single Asgard and a lot of time is all you need. Slasher mods on all the beams, Obliterator on the main gun (and secondary guns in case you overheat the main), Nanotube chassis, Whirlygig engines (because having a lower travel speed won't kill you, but having a slow turning speed just might) and either top tier shield mod... I go with Targe so I can tank an obliterator shot if it comes to it.

Beams on the turrets as those will be slowly whittling down the fighters for you.

And yes, Obliterator rather than Slasher on the main gun. The maximum damage boost is lower, but since you can roll damage boost and cooling boost, the damage over time is better, and it makes things a little more forgiving if you overheat whilst fighting a xenon capital wing.

Add in a full compliment of laser towers for emergencies, for example if your engine starts to take damage... and you're set.

But yeah, Any destroyers with long ranged guns you can add will help (Oddy, Phoenix, Behemoth) ... I found Syn and Osaka less helpful for station destruction, but they keep the number of fighters down for an even easier ride.

Lastly, if you want to remove the Xenon entirely? Target their resource ships. Damage a station and set a field of laser towers on it's build storage. After a while they'll run out of SE and resources to build more... The Xenon are finished then... Just mop up and remove the stations at your leisure.

[Xautos]

All you need to invade Xenon sectors:
2x Asgard, heavy reliance on anti-fighter/corvette turret configuration and very strong shields, both M and L sized.

Head into Tharka's Cascade from Hatikvah's Choice or Family Zhin. Attack a Xenon station and keep your second Asgard close by. The station attack will draw every single battleship, destroyer, fighter, bomber and corvette directly to you, just sit there and wait for the massive wave of Xenon ships come after you and keep an eagle eye on your map to find which direction the H's, K's and I are coming from.

Use the XL weapon on an Asgard to destroy each one while the second Asgard helps destroy the sheer amount of Xenon fighter/corvette spam that's focused around your Asgards. Eventually there will be a Xenon ship graveyard and the last trickle of ships will come through. sent one of your asgards to attack one station while you use the other asgard to take out a second station. Continue to remain vigilant in case the Xenon sortie destroyers from a nearby sector they hold.

Pretty soon the first sector will fall, push though into the next Tharka's sector and repeat these steps. Pretty soon the Xenon will run out of resources they have stockpiled and their attacks will stop coming. By that point you keep pushing into the next sector until you arrive in Savage Spur. The key to those two sectors is the quick destruction of the xenon shipyards first and their wharf's second, this will complete cripple the Xenon.

Clean out the remaining stations, M sized freighters and miners and you have given the Yaki a renewed lease on life.

[Doom]

Originally posted by ✟Scream Aim Fire✟:

Ok, so i started my first Invasion on Xenon Sectors

The main mistake you want to avoid making is:

You do not want to kill all xenon, or your game will become very boring.

I cleaned out all xenon sectors past year and basically I just used a fleet 7 or asgards (lost some, built some more), where I'd teleport in and take over the second they encounter a K or an I so I can fry it with main gun. Surely took a lot of time.

[Winter's Embers]

Everyone here takes a lot of space to say take a few ships and fight for hours upon hours upon hours upon hours (takes time). I sent in 20 Behemoths with standard loadouts on station kill.
I took another Behemoth with 80 Quasars set to intercept.
Station killer fleet takes a station in about 5-10 minutes (5 for regular, 10 for wharf/shipyard).
Interceptor fleet chews everything that comes. Tharka's 15 fell in about an hour because I was fine-tuning how to do it. Tharka's 17 fell in about 20 minutes. 79B has only the wharf left and I'm about 20 minutes in.
I've killed 30 K's, 4 I's, and enough fighters, destroyers and even miners to keep a manticore busy for about 67.4 years. I've lost a total of 8 behemoths and 25 fighters, usually due to dumb commanders deciding to fly across the station to reposition instead of around (the curse of 2-3 star pilots!). The Xenon are completely helpless now in 79B and can't even build a K in Savage Spur. My interceptor fleet ensures NOTHING gets through when positioned near the gate.
Sure, 1 or 2 ships will *eventually* win. But overkill always wins pretty damn quick!

And, yes, I have my own Shipyard with 1 S/M fab and 5 L fabs with resources to build 5 L and 20 S every 10 minutes or so. So, yeah, it took a long time to get to this point but it always does, doesn't it?

[shietinghd]

There are 2 ways to destroy xenon in my opinion.

Cheap and long:
Use capital with all turret argon laser or terran if you want it white. And wait main weapon to destroy station. Laser for fighter obviously.

Expensive and short:
Use M fighter nemesis or katana put bullet and plasma on it and let it attack. Finish
You need 50 for defense and solar station
120 for wharf and shipyard.
You have more M ship—> less time needed.

[Combat Wombat]

man I am playing at the wrong scale if thats a tight budget fleet heh. I wiped the Xenon out with 6x Osakas and my Syn.

[✟Scream Aim Fire✟]

in my case, fighters and M´s were a total waste on stations. Always going too close and even getting wrecked by only 60-80 defense drones. also asgard in AI hands is just a total waste...never did anything equal or better than destroyers

[Doom]

Originally posted by ✟Scream Aim Fire✟:

in my case, fighters and M´s were a total waste on stations. Always going too close and even getting wrecked by only 60-80 defense drones. also asgard in AI hands is just a total waste...never did anything equal or better than destroyers

The reliably wipe out sectors OOS. So you make a fleet, sic them at a sector and watch things die.

The reason to use Asgards over Osakas is because Asgard is tanky and has 8 L turrets. That's what it'll be blasting things with. Main gun is a failsafe that allows you to jump in and one-shot Ks and Is. You can also switch between asgards to fire again quickly. You also could give it an escort, to compensate for small number of turrets.

Maybe there's a super awesome L/XL ship I overlooked, I don't know. This approach worked for me on version 6. I ended up with a dull xenon-free universe and there was no achievement for this.

https://ibb.co/BfKrBdp

[uni790]

Originally posted by ✟Scream Aim Fire✟:

in my case, fighters and M´s were a total waste on stations. Always going too close and even getting wrecked by only 60-80 defense drones. also asgard in AI hands is just a total waste...never did anything equal or better than destroyers

That's mainly because the Asgard doesn't use it's main guns when AI controlled, it'll broadside with it's turrets instead.

Though all this preaching about the Asgard, it's a powerful ship don't get me wrong, but it's entirely unneeded. Any single destroyer can probably get the job done with time and patience(unless they counter with an I, you'll need help with that with most destroyers, though I nearly killed one 1v1 with my Ray, then a couple Ks turned up to back it up, and I had to flee)

I personally wouldn't use fighters against most stations, and definitely not Xenon, their anti fighter weapons are nasty. Though, some weapons may be effective, like the blast mortars. M ships would be best at intercepting hostile fighters, rather then trying to damage a station.