Electron Beam Mission Difficulty

[Bacon Eater]

I have begun this mission. The contact recommends going to Wei or next door to find a loose Gunboat with the Electron Beam. I've tried many times, and the amount of navy there is just huge. I have a Bactrian and almost 20 Falcons and Leviathans in tow, plus a captured Korath Raider and a Navy Cruiser. Only one time, when I boarded the Gunboat, did I find the electron beam but after capturing the ship I was destroyed by the Navy. A couple of other times I managed to capture a gunboat but it didn't have the Electron Beam. Pretty annoying. It's hard enough avoiding killing the gunboats (any advice for how to tell my ships to just disable and not kill them?) but because more navy keep arriving, it's impossible to capture and then exit the system. Any advice welcome.

[Bacon Eater]

Also I read that you have to capture the ship and make it your flagship for the mission to complete. I just tried again, captured a ship with electron beam, and immediately the navy destroyed the captured ship. Why can't I just take the electron beam and turret and then go back to base?

[jafdy]

There is a system one jump from Wai that only has single electron beam gunboats arriving. You don't need to capture, you just need to get an electron beam so looting it is normally easiest.

[Albert Newton]

if you disable a ship and board it, you can steal outfits and cargo with no risk of combat (logic). Just steal an Electron beam.

[Bacon Eater]

Finally got the electron beam done. In the process, lost a lot of ships including my Korath and Cruiser. *sob* .

Those navy fleets just keep coming. Still open for those tips because I may head back there to re-do the mission without taking the Korath and Cruiser, and just lose the more readily replaceable ships.

I still had so many smaller ships and a few big ones stashed away on other worlds so I was able to keep going and fight the navy on the next mission... but was sad not to have my Korath with me.

[Bacon Eater]

Originally posted by albert_newton1:

if you disable a ship and board it, you can steal outfits and cargo with no risk of combat (logic). Just steal an Electron beam.

Thanks... but I read somewhere that you have to make the ship your flagship to actually complete the mission. Maybe this has been fixed already. I will try your way. And thanks jafdy as well, I thought both Wei and next door would be similar based on the contact's instructions but maybe the next door one is actually meant to be the easy path to completing this mission.

[Bacon Eater]

Thanks guys, great advice, it worked fine. And I figured out, post my main body of ships a bit off center and hold position, and they won't kill every gunboat. The ones coming from far away will meet my main ship first. So, I guess it's possible to go farm a bunch of electron guns there... does that opportunity disappear after you finish off the mission, I wonder?

[dr_hallii]

Unfortunately, yes. Finishing this mission turns off the gunboats. That's why I always make multiple trips and outfit my whole fleet with beams... Also use the opportunity to cap a small cannon fodder fleet of around 30 gunboats and customize their outfits.

[Reaperrazor]

Originally posted by dr_hallii:

Unfortunately, yes. Finishing this mission turns off the gunboats. That's why I always make multiple trips and outfit my whole fleet with beams... Also use the opportunity to cap a small cannon fodder fleet of around 30 gunboats and customize their outfits.

Smart, I just grab my Bact and run suicide boarding missions for free Beetles. Its as ridiculously tedious and brutal as it sounds, and then you have 10 Beetles.

[dr_hallii]

10 Beetles with electron beams. :)

[Arkhne]

Originally posted by Reaperrazor:

Originally posted by dr_hallii:

Unfortunately, yes. Finishing this mission turns off the gunboats. That's why I always make multiple trips and outfit my whole fleet with beams... Also use the opportunity to cap a small cannon fodder fleet of around 30 gunboats and customize their outfits.

Smart, I just grab my Bact and run suicide boarding missions for free Beetles. Its as ridiculously tedious and brutal as it sounds, and then you have 10 Beetles.

Hey, Beetles are the best fodder. I tend to hop over there early in the game when I decide I need money, and loot stuff from Beetles and Bugs, then upgrade to either loot Beetles better, or cap Bugs, etc. It's quite profitable, but yeah, you can get spawnraped pretty hard.

[Ker]

Beetles are also spoilers in a help me thread. Safe to assume this is resolved. Will pm op in case they still need help.