AWKWARD ZOMBIE

I tried doing a run with the Halberd Beam.

It worked great for a while, but eventually the charge time made it impractical. Next time I get one, I'm probably gonna try and use some lasers, too.

Has anyone unlocked the crystal cruiser yet?
And if they have, is it worth the trouble to unlock it?

Bombs/lasers are the best combination. Bomb their shields, then do a barrage of lasers on their other systems. Breach missiles are even better, but they can be shot down by defence drones. That's pretty much how I beat the final boss on Easy with the Kestrel. By the end I had a lot of scrap and was in the last column of reactor upgrades, so I guess I also got very lucky.
Oh, and one hint: don't underestimate the engine upgrades. They're cheap, and what can't hit you can't hurt you.

This game is hard


I can get to the last sector usually with no issues, but fuck if I can actually accomplish anything there. I just got the the final boss with the engi ship, full reactor upgrades and everything pretty much at max. I couldn't do a daisies thing to it.

I'd say boarding is your best friend, but an engi ship is impractical for that.

So I got to the second form of the final boss again, but even with boarding I couldn't do anything about drone control because I sold all my missile launchers.

Agh so close.

lol Engi ship is the only ship I can get to the boss no problem. My only other ships are stealth which sucks and the default.

Not with a boarding drone and several ion cannons. I've suffocated many crews doing just that.

HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU EVEN SUPPOSED TO FIGHT THE SECOND BOSS?


I don't understand ;-;

Stealth will help you out more than anything else, when the surge comes just his stealth and be fine, make sure you board and disable the gun that shoots three goddam missiles.
With high enough shields and dodge you can deal with most things it can throw at you save for the surge and missiles.

I never have enough crew to even think of getting the teleporter.

After not playing for awhile, I booted up, chose stealth ship, and had a daisies good run.

Got all 3 achievements for the ship on the 1 run, which unlocked the alternative.

And almost beat the flagship, bodaciously needed 1 or 2 more seconds to finish him off.

The very best way to beat the game has still been the 2nd lay-out for the Kestrel with all lasers. You can just barrage your way through everything.

So I tried another run and won fairly easily this time. This was my Kestrel (1st lay-out) at the end:
Max Shields
6 or 7 powered engine, don't recall precisely
Blast Doors (always get these as fast as possible)
Crew of 6
Drone Control+Sys. Repair (this wasn't worth it in hindsight, the sys repair was handy but not worth the price tag of drone control, I was trying to get a Mk. II defense drone but it required too much power)
Most importantly, weapons: Burst laser Mk. II, Heavy Ion, Ion Blast, Ion Blast
Cloaking Station Lvl. 2
Scrap Recovery Arm

What I've learned is that you should only get ion or burst lasers, missile and bomb weapons will have you too worried for ammunition and beam weapons don't have the focused damage you want. It's also better to get a bunch of small weapons than one strong one. Never let a crewmember die, there are very few situations where it's unavoidable. You need to have maxed out crewmembers manning your ship, this in combination with the upgraded engine gave me almost 50% evasion in the end. In continuation of this line of thought, try not to risk your crew in events too much. However, it's not necessary to buy a lot of crewmembers. I only bought one because I was 5 sectors in and still with a 3 man crew. Normally the game throws enough free crewmembers at you.

Also, you of course want to minimise hull damage during your run. Not only obviously because you want to survive, but because repair costs tend to add up. Prioritise taking out enemy weapons, even over enemy shields (though this is situation dependent). If you stay ahead of the curve and upgrade your shields diligently, enemy ships will have a hard time even scratching you. If you compare this with a cloaking station (which will also help out immensely in the bossfight) to dodge rockets, and there's little left to worry about.

(I play on Normal of course)

So that new update.

Why are the C layouts so shitty? (in my opinion)

New update is pretty amazing, fixes a lot of Quality of Life things that just about ruined the game before, so I'm getting a lot more into it than I was before.

That aside, why is it so hard to get a good run going with the mantis A ship? Start the game, first encounter, manage to board and kill successfully without losing anyone. Second encounter, enemy has a mantis that takes steroids, and the enemies mantis engi combo somehow takes down my 2 mantis combo...

And don't even get me started on drones. Can't board since theres no oxygen on them, and it's just a pain to beat them without any upgrades. You would have to use your bomb to take down their shields, deactivate it, activate the wimpy laser you get, then take 2 years to take down the drone.

And then when I finally get past the 1st or 2nd sector, things just get worse. Between antipersonnel drones, enemy ships with medbay, it's all such a pain. Getting mind control though works wonders, turn one of the enemy crew against themselves just long enough to get an advantage. I suspect hacking would work well too, to finish off those crew members that retreat into their medbay hoping to live.