How many games did it take for you to win?

[E-102 Gamma]

I made a point of it to beat the game for the first time as the Kestrel cruiser, layout A, on Normal difficulty.

My first run ended in a stalemate situation in sector 6 after I ran out of fuel. I encountered the flagship for the first time within my first three attempts, iirc. My ninth attempt was the one in which I finally beat the flagship.

Mind you, I had played as the other ships and on Easy difficulty before beating the game, but that was just to unlock stuff. I believe I actually quit after getting to the flagship a few times because I wasn't playing on Normal and as the Kestrel A, and thus, refused to win.

So nine, counting only the runs in which I was playing in earnest.

[5thHorseman]

Mind you, I had played as the other ships and on Easy difficulty before beating the game, but that was just to unlock stuff. I believe I actually quit after getting to the flagship a few times because I wasn't playing on Normal and as the Kestrel A, and thus, refused to win.

So nine, counting only the runs in which I was playing in earnest.

Well based on that criteria, I won on my first try. I accidentally forgot to click "easy" and then ended up winning, so my first win was also my first game on Normal.

I'm not bragging, I'm actually saying that you have to count all those games where you were learning.

[E-102 Gamma]

Well based on that criteria, I won on my first try. I accidentally forgot to click "easy" and then ended up winning, so my first win was also my first game on Normal.

My criteria is not whether the difficulty was set to Easy or Normal. Difficulty settings are irrelevant. It's whether or not I was trying in earnest to beat the game.

I'm not bragging, I'm actually saying that you have to count all those games where you were learning.

You see, though, I wasn't playing to succeed during those other runs. I was playing to unlock alternate ship layouts and such. What might I have learned from spamming drones as the Torus or deliberately turning off my shields in an asteroid field and allowing my ship to be pelted with asteroids until it had only one hull point left while playing as the Kestrel?

I never use drones unless the ship I'm playing as starts with a drone system, btw. In my opinion, drones aren't helpful enough versus the flagship to be worth the cost of the system, its upgrades, and lots of drone parts.

[UltraMantis]

zergrush

I made ships with 1 or 2 weapon slots and 4 drone slots. Tactically limited and not the most exciting ships to play, but even drones are usefull enough to basically act as a main weapon. My main gripe with drones is one shared with the artillery beam. I can't aim the durn things and i like to aim. I need to aim.

Fun as hell though, to rampage with several drones and a single heavy laser.

[dirtyfool]

It probably took me a good 10 tries before my first win on Easy. I have now beat it on Easy with The Kestrel, The Torus, and The Osprey.

If you are having trouble beating the final boss, I highly recommend installing a teleport. As soon as the battle starts, teleport a crew to the missile launcher weapon room. Your boarding crew will take the dude out and cripple their most destructive weapon pretty quickly, even better if they are experienced fighters. Rinse and repeat with other weapon bays. Provided you have maxed shields this should help a ton.

[VanillaShark]

Beat the game with Kestrel Type B on my 8th run

It was quite the battle, I had A Halberd Beam, Heavy Laser Mk. I, Breach Bomb Mk. II, And Burst Laser Mk. II, Defense Drone Mk. I, and a Mantis Boarding Crew.

The Flagship's evasion percentage gave me some rough times, but I made it through with no casualties and 1/3 of my hull left

[UltraMantis]

Nice win. I can imagine the huge evasion being a problem, but once the Halberd Beam does it's thing, it gonna hurt. Congratz, enjoy the Fed Cruiser.

[Ora_unit_SR388]

Nice win! Don't feel bad though. My win to loose ratio is about 1:60

[Boomboofer]

I've always played on normal. I lost my first and second games at some sectors, don't remember where. On the third try I got to the flagship with Kestrel, but with lvl3 shields, lvl5 engines, no cloak, no teleporter, Artemis, Burst Laser II, Hull Laser II and Fire Bomb, my ship wasn't quite up to the task, although if I played the same ship now, I think I could win.

I beat the Flagship on my 4th run. It was a glorious battle with only two humans, a mantis and an engi. My setup was pretty much the same as the last time, except now I had no drone control, but instead lvl3 cloak and my weapons were Artemis, BL2, BL1 and Ion Blast 2. I was left with only three hull points .

It took me about 100 runs to unlock the crystal ship though

[obliviondoll]

I don't know how many times I played, but it was a little over 30 hours of playtime (although my game runs slow because my laptop sucks).

My first winning run was in the Engi A, with Ion Blast II and a standard Ion Blast, as well as a Burst Laser II that I didn't have enough power to run alongside both Ion weapons, so I only powered it up after dropping the target's shields to 1 layer. I also had Anti-Ship and Beam Drones which I ran most of the time, and a Defense Drone which I kept running until the target was weak enough to let the Beam Drone hit regularly.

Against the boss, I fought each stage consecutively with no side trips for repairs and no Hull Repair Drone to patch myself up, and still had almost 50% hull when it finally died.