Best way to earn scrap?

[thegreedyturtle]

Is every run pretty much doomed to become a boarding party game? Is there any way to get outfitted enough to tackle the last boss without killing everything in your path?

[Zalminen]

Well, at least on easy it's very much possible to win without boarding if you're lucky with the events and shops.

Just a couple of days ago I played one game where I lost most of my crew because of unlucky events so I pretty much had to forget boarding after that. To balance my early bad luck I got some nice weapons later on and upon reaching the end my ship was bristling with lasers. My shields and engine were nowhere close to max but I still pretty much wiped the floor with the boss

[spacecadet13]

If you can get them, Long Range Sensors can make a big difference to your scrap total. Being able to dodge uneccessary fights or boarding events at Ion storms & suns can save a lot on repairs, and the scanners allow you to pick beacons that definately have ships, maximising the scrap you can pick up on the way through each sector.

Side note: a fair percentage of beacons that show as 'empty' will actually have a ship, often a civilian ship being pursued by a pirate.

And with a bit of patience and good supporting weapons (ions, burst lasers), the firebeam will have the same effect as a good boarding team in eliminating the enemy crew before their hull is totalled. Firebomb can work this way too - its upside is you don't need to take down the enemy shields, downsides are it won't start as many fires as the beam, and costs a missle each time.

[UltraMantis]

You get more scrap but no guarantee that you will spend it on something usefull, or that stores will be conveniantly located.

My highest score was achieved with the Rock A by crushing everything into a very fine dust. The 2nd highest score is worse by about a 1000 pts with The Basilisk (Mantis B). Last game i played was with the Torus and i had obscene amounts of money by the time i reached sector3. That's after buying a Defense Drone MkII, upgrading shields, engines, door and smth else, finding a Rock to pilot the ship... yeah i had a good run there.

So imo wheter you're boarding or not makes no difference at all. You get slightly more scrap and maybe more crew. Not enough to make other strategies useless.

[cometbus]

This doesn't really answer your question, but I'm currently in a Fed Cruiser B run where I'm trying to see if I can beat the game without buying a teleporter. Got my Artillery Beam fully upgraded by the end of sector 3, so there's a chance! I'll let you know how it goes.

Also, ALWAYS buy the scrap collector augmentation.

[UltraMantis]

Hi cometbus, welcome to the forums.

I know you have the arty beam, but i would suggest having the teleporter at least for the final stages of the game. You dont have to use it before that if you want to play a non-boarding game. It's just incredibly usefull and you wont have a cloak either.

But have fun, let us know how it went.

[cometbus]

Thanks! And I know, I know! It's just that EVERY time I've beaten the boss, it's by teleporting, and it feels cheaply overpowered to me. It's almost a science at this point; the last few times I haven't even taken any damage in each of the 3 phases.

I just wanna see if I can do it, and it seems like the arty gives me the best shot. I'm trying to make up for lack of cloak with defense drones, and missiles to the enemy weapon room at the start of each battle are keeping my hull mostly undamaged . I'm also pretty terrible at unlocking ships, so even though I've been playing since beta, I only have the kestrel, red-tail, engi 1, and both feds. Thus, my options are kinda limited.

Will keep you posted (but only once, either when I win or explode--sorry for potentially derailing this thread).

[UltraMantis]

Well, to keep with the topic i'd say getting LR Scanners and a bunch of recovery augs would help earn scrap. In fact, i mostly use the LRS to pick fights and avoid empty beacons. It would also be extremly usefull to lose as little scrap as possible to repairs. Shieldless ships are a pain to play precisely because scrap is lost to damage repairs.

And now back to derailing. There are more interesting ways to tackle the game, so why not combine some of the Going the Distance achievements with beating the boss? True, you can't unlock them multiple times and you probably wont be setting new records on the high score table, but it can be more fun than a min/max approach. By that i mean sticking to only the best possible strategies. Try pacifism or living of the land + victory over the boss with any ship. Or you can play without shields for a much tougher game then normal. Stealth cruiser anyone?

When trying to unlock ships, it kinda helps a little to check the silhouettes in the hangar and read the tooltips. Mostly it's a matter of being in the right sector with a right crewmember, but some upgrades are also required.

[Number43]

Being unable to kill the crew and easily take out the weapon systems makes the boss battle much more likely to be a challenge, but you can definitely beat it without a teleporter if you have a really good weapon setup. Get 4 burst laser IIs or something and you'll probably finish it off before it does a second power surge (and you can dodge the first one with cloaking.)

[CrazyDave]

I never actually used a crew teleporter until I unlocked the Crystal B

It's very, very possible to beat the game without it. It just takes a little bit of luck - you do need to get some good weapons to fight the boss. A bomb of some kind does well (stick a fire bomb in the triple missle bay, or a breaching bomb).