Strategies to find extremely rare drops (Unique crew, rarest items)

[Arcesious]

Right now I've found every item in the game and researched them all to max crafting level, but I'm still missing Heavy Energy Armor, the Optronic Warp Drive, and the Venghi Death Ray. I'm also missing 5 of the 17 unique crew members. Does anyone have a strategy for finding these efficiently? Is there anything special you have to do to find them that I might be missing, like unique missions for the crew? Are the items above only found as blueprints at Tinhead stations?

[Zarinthal]

For crew, I use a shuttle or yacht for faster flying and warp recharge. Pick up an escape pod, if I don't like the crew stats, jettison and move on. As far as which system, I'm not sure, but a scavenger scanner is very handy for distress signals

[deadskinmask4]

the optronic and heavy energy drop mostly from top lvl gold stars, mostly lvl 60 fleets. but they can drop about anywhere. i got my first 2 very early on. before lvl 40. took while to find the next 2. they arent that great imo. ive never seen a death ray, i need that and another energy armor is all. i got piles of gold heavy energy and optronic anything now.
pretty sure unique crew can drop anywhere in pods but seems far more likely to find in unexplored sectors

[Jaasrg]

引用自 Arcesious：

I'm also missing 5 of the 17 unique crew members. Does anyone have a strategy for finding these efficiently?

Find a pod and savescum.
Think there was also a mechanic in place where each one you find lowers the chance of finding more so maybe restart after finding few?

[Edwyndham]

iirc hardmode permadeath increases the likelihood of finding the unique crew as well - I found 3 of them in a single run, didn't even make it to level 50.

[Nobukado]

Agreed.

Optronic Warp Drive and Heavy Energy Armor drop uncommonly from high level enemies; both attack fleets and hunter fleets. Optronic Warp is also an uncommon reward from high level "Boss" missions, including combat and non-combat mission types.

Venghi Death Ray is an uncommon drop from killing high level Venghi ships. Which means being enemy of the Venghi. I have not yet seen it drop as a Venghi mission reward as of yet. But you can always craft weapons that are better than these. In the end game, you ought not use any "found" weapons.

As above mentioned, rate of finding unique crew drops really low after you've found a few. I search derelicts and distress signals and escape pods for days, but very rare. I don't recommend save scumming: I tried that a dozen times, it's boring and it didn't actually work. Deadskin mentioned searching unexplored sectors: I honestly don't know if that works or not? Helpful if moderator could comment...

[WeaverSong]

It's certainly true that when searching already explored sectors you'll find less escape pods, and therefore less unique crew. They can be found in any escape pod, including pods from distress signals, so the fastest way is probably an explorer build exploring new sectors and especially distress signals.

[Nobukado]

Hi Weaversong, would it work to search debris? There are 6-10 debris fields in each graveyard, there is a small chance to find a random crew. Can I go back to old graveyards and find unique crew that way? Escape pods and distress signals become somewhat rarer as the game progresses. But let me know if debris fields are a waste of my time or not.

[WeaverSong]

Yes, you can find them from debris fields. It may not be the fastest way, of course, given that the odds of getting an escape pod from them aren't great, and then the odds of that pod being unique aren't great, but it is possible.

[Nobukado]

Thanks!

[Jaasrg]

引用自 9ndd：

I don't recommend save scumming: I tried that a dozen times, it's boring and it didn't actually work.

Boring it may be, but when you're just wanting to unlock them(especially crew), it's the 2nd fastest after save editing. Assuming you know what to edit.