Single most important key to success

[Kerensky]

In a single word: Farm.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1536527369

16 battles and 23 ships looted before I left sector 1. For those complaining FTL has way more battles than this game, this method will also sate your bloodlust for more battles, less nonsense.
Note the absolutely brimming amounts of resources I have of every type.

You really have to grind your way through a lot of battles if you're going to stand a chance. Mash that SOS beacon and summon unlimited enemies and just loot your way to success. If you can't handle the summon, don't be timid about that escape button.

Also, second most important thing:

Trying to manage resources by converting synthetics to food or food to fuel is just band aids on gushing resource draining wounds because you always convert down. As soon as I figured out every one of these 'conversion' structures is a trap, I've done much better. Not only do I get to uninstall all of them and free up valuable space for surplus power generators so my entire ship doesn't shut down when I get plinked by a single attack, but salvaging them for raw materials is a nice resource injection.

This game has potential, but it's so very raw and needs a lot of refinement.

[Greep]

Hah, SOS farming? Yeah I thought of that, mostly I just won my last game because I stayed low in crew until the last sector and kept everyon in cryosleep -__-

One convertor is very good: explosives convertor. 1 fuel + 3 synthetics for an explosive is a loss, but you simply can't get enough explosives >:D They don't seem to start appearing until sector 4 tho :( I also like keeping the convertors on the 5th ship to deal with excess resources that would've been dumped and then get rid of them later when I've got a ton of shields.

[Joeyh92989]

I mean even this tactic has a very high chance of failure. I have tried this and still lost on the first fight, where the first target had a nuke and game over. No fate and you start the next game with nothing

[Kerensky]

Originally posted by Greep:

Hah, SOS farming? Yeah I thought of that, mostly I just won my last game because I stayed low in crew until the last sector and kept everyon in cryosleep -__-

One convertor is very good: explosives convertor. 1 fuel + 3 synthetics for an explosive is a loss, but you simply can't get enough explosives >:D They don't seem to start appearing until sector 4 tho :( I also like keeping the convertors on the 5th ship to deal with excess resources that would've been dumped and then get rid of them later when I've got a ton of shields.

You need explosives? We got explosives.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1536582981

Murder hobo, it's how to properly play this game. Just kill everything and steal their stuff.

[Kerensky]

Originally posted by Joeyh92989:

I mean even this tactic has a very high chance of failure. I have tried this and still lost on the first fight, where the first target had a nuke and game over. No fate and you start the next game with nothing

If your ship can't handle the first enemy you encounter, there's something not right. It may not be your fault, some ship choices offered to the player are 100% inferior to others, and there's no reason to ever use some of these bad, awful, terribly designed ships.

[Greep]

Yeah but what if you used 200 explosives to get those 200 explosives? >:D You need more dakka man.

[Joeyh92989]

Originally posted by Kerensky:

Originally posted by Joeyh92989:

I mean even this tactic has a very high chance of failure. I have tried this and still lost on the first fight, where the first target had a nuke and game over. No fate and you start the next game with nothing

If your ship can't handle the first enemy you encounter, there's something not right. It may not be your fault, some ship choices offered to the player are 100% inferior to others, and there's no reason to ever use some of these bad, awful, terribly designed ships.

Well i think the way this game is currently setup it can happen to any ship. one hit to your power generator game over. one hit to your main weapons game over. There is no recovery to some attacks at this stage. Granted its all RNG, but there is no consistency is my main concern, and where this is little consistency your are not being strategic or "learning" you are just getting lucky.

So most of the time i can survive into sector 3 no problem, but sometimes i die to the first enemy. Same ship, same fate choices, its just too much RNG.

[Kerensky]

Originally posted by Joeyh92989:

Well i think the way this game is currently setup it can happen to any ship. one hit to your power generator game over. one hit to your main weapons game over. There is no recovery to some attacks at this stage. Granted its all RNG, but there is no consistency is my main concern, and where this is little consistency your are not being strategic or "learning" you are just getting lucky.

So most of the time i can survive into sector 3 no problem, but sometimes i die to the first enemy. Same ship, same fate choices, its just too much RNG.

I don't disagree at all. Getting hit by a shield piercing weapon right into your power generator can end your game instantly. But you can nulify that RNG by having excessive power generators. In that first screenshot, you see I have 42 power used of 80 total. EIGHTY total! I learned the hard way how important it is to have more power generators than you actively need.

At the same time, it's quite satisfying to target enemy power generators first too. ;)

Same goes for shield generators. You don't just have 1 shield generator, you should be installing multiple generator components. Having 20+ or even 30+ shields make you near invulnerable to enemy beam weapons.

Of course to make room for extra power generators and extra shield components, you need to throw out all of those garbage converter structures. Not to mention having a big ship that can have a lot of components helps too, and it really sucks that the starting ships players have access to are so bad in that regard.

[Kerensky]

Here's one of my nicer ships.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1536645472

Cavernous storage, three shield generators, 70 total power with only 41 usage, and not a converter structure nor even a cryo storage unit to be seen wasting space anywhere.

It is an unlocked ship though, and the unlocked ships are miles better than the starter ships. Maybe next run I'll go back to a starter ship and see if I can get one of those to actually function properly like this.

[bstonebalboa]

When i start SOS beacon in first sector only friendly trader ships come. Is there a way to attack those?

[Joeyh92989]

Originally posted by bstonebalboa:

When i start SOS beacon in first sector only friendly trader ships come. Is there a way to attack those?

Its random. You may get trader, creature, or enemy. I have found better success using this strategy by playing the game normally usually, all the way to the final area of the first sector without engaging the rat boss. Then park outside of the of the repair/module shop and start farming like this. Then if you do get hit pretty hard in a series of creature or pirate attacks you can repair and if you do die you at least probably got some fate points .

[Joeyh92989]

Originally posted by Kerensky:

Originally posted by Joeyh92989:

Well i think the way this game is currently setup it can happen to any ship. one hit to your power generator game over. one hit to your main weapons game over. There is no recovery to some attacks at this stage. Granted its all RNG, but there is no consistency is my main concern, and where this is little consistency your are not being strategic or "learning" you are just getting lucky.

So most of the time i can survive into sector 3 no problem, but sometimes i die to the first enemy. Same ship, same fate choices, its just too much RNG.

I don't disagree at all. Getting hit by a shield piercing weapon right into your power generator can end your game instantly. But you can nulify that RNG by having excessive power generators. In that first screenshot, you see I have 42 power used of 80 total. EIGHTY total! I learned the hard way how important it is to have more power generators than you actively need.

At the same time, it's quite satisfying to target enemy power generators first too. ;)

Same goes for shield generators. You don't just have 1 shield generator, you should be installing multiple generator components. Having 20+ or even 30+ shields make you near invulnerable to enemy beam weapons.

Of course to make room for extra power generators and extra shield components, you need to throw out all of those garbage converter structures. Not to mention having a big ship that can have a lot of components helps too, and it really sucks that the starting ships players have access to are so bad in that regard.

I have found better success doing the SOS farming once i move to right before the rat boss. I got 60 Fate points farming. I smashed the rat fortress, went through the gate, had my first encounter (not SOS) and they rocked me... I still think the RNG on this is a bit too high, but it is what it is. The pirates fired two shield piercing shots and took out both of my power generators which were on opposite sides of the ship...

Also never fighting the rat boss again. This was the first run i was able to beat it after farming for a bit, and it gave em an old Terran reactor. I mean i lost crew holding off boarders not worth it

[Greep]

Yeah getting hit in the power generators hurts. I usually end up powering down my shields, sensors, and PD just to keep my guns active. One of the reasons why ship 2 should be the default, since you're always in the game as long as that super accurate heavy missile battery is up.

For the rat boss I just fire two nukes at the same time at his shield generators and batteries. They're further away from the 3 PDS s and they're at the front of the ship so there's less time for PDS to fire at them, so one of them will get through. Yet another reason the nuke runner sucks as it can only fire one at a time which never gets through -___-.

[Joeyh92989]

Originally posted by Greep:

Yeah getting hit in the power generators hurts. I usually end up powering down my shields, sensors, and PD just to keep my guns active. One of the reasons why ship 2 should be the default, since you're always in the game as long as that super accurate heavy missile battery is up.

For the rat boss I just fire two nukes at the same time at his shield generators and batteries. They're further away from the 3 PDS s and they're at the front of the ship so there's less time for PDS to fire at them, so one of them will get through. Yet another reason the nuke runner sucks as it can only fire one at a time which never gets through -___-.

Have you gotten anything good from the rat fortress? i usually have plenty of cash or exotics to pay to get through. I found killing the fortress is feasible, but not sure if its worth the risk of losing crew/drones from boarders

[Greep]

Yeah it's definitely optional, but I've seen it drop it's heavy missile once. One of the weirdest things is that the best drops are in the triple rat attacks which sometimes drop like 5 modules.

[Joeyh92989]

ill probably skip it going forward then. Surviving the attack is one thing but losing crew can be a huge issue. i don't see too many mercenary stops.