How did you beat the boss?

[iamdanthemanstan]

I've gotten to the second form of the boss four times but have never done well there, and haven't even seen the third form. I hear a lot of people talking about beating it, so let me ask you, what was your ship setup and tactics for the final fight?

[LillithMenarra]

Cloaking and Engines, very important to survive the 2nd phase of the final boss when it launches all the drones. I assume since you get to the 2nd phase that you already know you need the weaponry to punch through 4 shields and still get hits in.

I've got a post on here with one of my best-case-scenario setups posted where I only took 3 total hits from the boss through all 3 phases and just STOMPED it into dust.

linky::
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=657

Honestly, learning to use spacebar pauses to optimize your attack/defense and juggle power between systems is vital. You need to micromanage.

Also, Zoltans = win. More power bars help SO DAMN MUCH.

[Samson]

Personally I make sure I've got at least lvl 2 cloak, full sheilds and boarders. I try and get a few extra into engines if I can but it all depends on how much scrap I have.

The sheilds are important for obvious reasons, the thing has a lot of guns. Cloak is also important to make sure that those really hurty specials don't hit you. The boarders I use to beam into the weapon rooms to take them out. You have no idea how nice it is not to have to worry about the 3 missles every battle.

[LillithMenarra]

oh I have every idea, that's the first thing I do is board the missile launcher and take it out.

Also, NEVER KILL THE WHOLE ENEMY CREW!!! If you do an AI takes over and things start to Auto-Repair.

And as far as shields, I didn't have full shields on that 'easiest kill so far'. I had it fully upgraded but I only powered 2-3 shield bars. With high enough Evasion and rank 3 stealth, you wait until AFTER the probes launch, wait carefully until a few of them START to fire and hit cloak. At this point you outlast their duration. this entire time you pound the hell out of their ship.

Stage 3 is extremely easy with lvl 3 Cloak, and very hard without it. it's overload Hull Blaster is a serious threat, but if you stealth right as it fires, you're fine.

[taylorott]

The times I've beaten the boss, I've always had full shields and full cloak (really helps with missiles in stage 1, and special attacks in stages 2 and 3). Anti ship drones and burst lasers help to keep their shields down. I know the boarding method is powerful, but I've never really had any luck with it. I've had the best luck with the torus and the opsrey. Oh yeah, as LillithMenarra said, zoltans are the bomb. Energy is generally the limiting factor on my final loadout. Two zoltans can mean that you could put an extra anti ship drone or an extra burst laser online. Though, the likelihood that you will get two zoltans and enough stuff is low. Take 'em when you see em!

[Gorlom]

Heh. I've had a run (on easy though) where i had 4 zoltans and nearly everything maxed out.

[Luringen]

board the missile launcher and take it out.

This, send two crew over and whatever weapon you send them to will go down after a short while of fighting. Just remember to send your folks out before he escapes (i was just too late once, made it much harder, but won anyways).

Edit: Weapon takedown priority:
1. Missiles
2. Lasers
3. Ion blaster
4. Laser

...but don't bother with the laser. When the others are down, the laser can't punch through anyways, except in special circumstances, like not being able to cloak during a drone/superlaser barrage. The Ion should be low-priority too.

[LillithMenarra]

I had a run on normal with 5 zoltans once, though usually I have zero or one.

[timaeus]

Weapon takedown priority:
1. Missiles
2. Lasers
3. Ion blaster
4. Laser

I prioritize taking down the ion blaster over the lasers. The ion blaster will take your shields down for a much longer period than the lasers do, making the beam weapon an actual threat. I should note that I usually only have 3 shield bubbles, at least in normal mode; if you have 4 shield bubbles it's less of a problem, but that's difficult to manage in normal mode without making huge sacrifices elsewhere.

[Strech]

I used the engi ship, the one with the drone bay and the two ions. At the final boss i had 2 attack drones I and 1 defence drone I, 2 ions I and 1 burst laser I. I almost maxed out engines, full shields, and nothing more.
I found quite easy to take down the boss with that ship, i just spawned ions on the shields until they went down and the attack drones could hit it, while the high evasion and the defense drone defended me incredibly well against lasers and missiles...