And so, at last Rebel flagship has been shot down by me last night after 67 unsucessful plays total on Easy difficulty (yes, not very brave of me).
When I first unlocked Engi Cruiser and tried it I was disappointed and tried again Kestrel (or Stealth, currently can't remember).
But not so long ago I've tried this little guy again. And who would've presume that useless Engi Cube will help me to win the game?
So, let's get down to business to defeat the Rebels, shall we?
Engi Cruiser summary
Screenshot made by (C) TenLetters
Starting crew:
2 Engi
1 Human
Starting upgrades:
- Systems:
- Shields: 2
- Engines: 2
- Life-support: 1
- Weapons: 3
- Drone hub: 3
- Medibay: 1
- Subsystems:
- Navigation room: 1
- Sensors: 1
- Doors: 1
Starting weapons:
- Ion Blast mkII
Damage: 1 Ion
Fire rate: 1
Cooldown: 4 seconds*
Power bars: 3
*Pay attention: this is really low cooldown so place someone in the weapons room as soon as possible to have a him or her up his/her skill very quick. Manning weapon systems reduces cooldowns in total 19% and this is almost 0.8 seconds!
_____________________________
Starting drones:
- Anti-Ship Drone mkI
Constantly fires at enemy ship until both destroyed or escaped
Damage: 1
Parts per use: 1
Power bars: 2
Special augmentations:
Engi Med-bot Dispersion. Heals the crew outside of the med-bay at a reduced rate of healing.
Note: the augmentation will be deactivated if the med-bay is deactivated, and upgrading the med-bay does affect med-bots' regeneration rate.
Pros:
- Two Engi in crew which is really helpful when you need to repair something.
- So far I consider drone warfare the most successful tactics for grinding Scrap.
- Engi nanobots will help your crewmembers to sustain more damage from enemy intruders allowing them to survive and even to develop their Boarding skills.
- Engi Cube is the smallest playable ship. At least it's very compact in comparison to Slug cruiser or Federation battleship.
- If you are out of drone parts, you gonna have a bad time.
- No offensive weaponry, only Ion blaster.
- Similar to every Layout-A Cruisers: not every system could be manned from the beginning. Need more crew!
Final build
Sorry, no screenshots. Was too busy killing that Rebel bastard...
Crew:
- Enlisted personnel:
3 Engi
3 Human
1 Mantis
1 Rockman - Crew designations:
Navigation room: 1 Human (Piloting skill is maxed, Boarding skill is level 1)
Engine room: 1 Engi (Engines skill is lvl 1)
Shield room: 1 Engi
Weapon room: 1 Engi (Weapon skill is maxed), 1 Mantis (Boarding skill lvl 1)
Life support: 1 Rockman
Drone hub: 2 Humans
Upgrades:
- Reactor: MAXED
- Systems:
- Shields: 4
- Engines: 7
- Life-support: 2
- Weapons: 6
- Drone hub: 5
- Medibay: 1
- Subsystems:
- Navigation room: 2
- Sensors: 2
- Doors: 2
I always was relying on shields and weapon systems when I was playing The Kestrel. But this will not do any good to Engi ship. Also one of my friends once told me that sometimes it's better to upgrade engines instead of shields. I took his advise and was very satisfied with dodge percentage. Also i was too naive to think that I will have a chance to power another Drone. Alas! Not with my weapons. But it was worth it.
Another my mistake was to spend my Scrap every time I earn it. Also I was very lucky to have some "Holy shit it's a floating weapon!" events so it's just matter of play.
Weapons:
- Ion Blast mkII
Wouldn't sell Ion Blast by any chance. Free skill upping for my gunner, yay!
Damage: 1 Ion
Fire rate: 1
Cooldown: 4 seconds
Power bars: 3 - Heavy Ion
Heavy Ion on the other hand is a best 'medium choice'. Always used it to disable weapons systems.
Damage: 2 Ion
Fire rate: 1
Cooldown: 13 seconds
Power bars: 2 - Ion Bomb
OMG that Ion damage plus defense ignoring plus so minor energy consumption! Farewell, four-level shields! Not very good when fighting Zoltans, but Drones and Ion blasters will take care of their extra-shield before bomb will warm-up.
Damage: 4 Ion
Fire rate: 1
Cooldown: 13 seconds
Power bars: 1
No one could sustain so much ion damage. Those are weapons for all occasions! Thanks to high fire rate, Heavy Ion Mk-II will disable as much enemy ship's systems as possible at one time. That bomb... My description is saying enough. =D
Drones:
- Anti-Ship Drone mkI
Damage: 1
Parts per use: 1
Power bars: 2 - Anti-Ship Drone mkI
Damage: 1
Parts per use: 1
Power bars: 2
Some tactical tips for you, Drone Warfarers!
- Remember to watch over your drone parts count. It's really vital for you to search for any opportunity to buy/obtain them. Without drones you are good only for fast fleeing.
- Though it was already been told in the game itself, I will remind you: carefully choose your targets for Ion weapons. Drones will pick their targets independently, so don't mind them. Use autofire. Usually the most vital systems are of course Shields and Weapons. Use Heavy Ion to turn-off their weapons, Ion Bomb for Shields and Ion Blaster for additional support to other Ions.
Also don't forget about Cloaking devices. Delay their cooldown as long as possible! - It would be wise to have additional shield bubble. Just for your information...
- When at last stand, and you're lucky, you'll have few repair stations nearby and even a merchant. I has received two last humans with his help. Those guys saved the ship by roaming between damaged rooms and fixing them.
- Try to make your Humans, Rockman and Mantis fight as much as possible. It should be very good if they will receive skill levels in process.
Rebel Flagship Tactics
When I fist met that Behemoth my thought was "Omg what is that?! Can I beat it?" As it appears, I couldn't. At all desire, I could not.
Totally I had almost 10 times from 67 when I have reached the Last Stand sector. Once I've realized that Rebel Flagship is a three-stage boss fight, I was hoping that it will not do some dirty tricks in process. But second stage was just devastating. I was overwhelmed with those drones and was quickly shot down.
I can't tell you how literally to shoot this beast down. I can only point you at some vital things you must keep in mind.
Firstly, don't forget about tips I wrote above.
- Stage 1. Omg wtf Behemoth!
- The main problem here is his cloaking device. Use bomb to disable shield, shoot at cloaking room, ignore weapon shots - your engines will for sure dodge most of them. Have any damage? Your crew should deal with it quickly. Don't forget to maintain your drones on-line.
- Stage 2. There's too many of these little bastards!
- When you meet Behemoth second time, you will find that it has activated it's drone systems. A pair of drones will not make the big problem until that awkward moment when you see a red sign telling you about some system surge. A whole swarm of drones will attack you. So your main aim in this fight is to disable shields with bombs and drone control with Ion blasters.if you're lucky enough to survive, let's go to final battle!
- Stage 3. Emergency defense protocol!
- Goddamn, this ship has extra shields like Zoltan ones but even tougher! No worries, drones will break through it along with Ion blasters. But the main problem is the remaining Rebel crewmembers that decide to desperately invade your ship. Make them pay for that! Force them to come with you to the shield or weapon room and show them power of united Mantis, Human and Rock fists and laser pistols! While fighting filthy insurgents, keep busy Behemoth's shield (with bombs, of course), weapons and teleporter so they won't go back to heal!
I hope guys that you understood and enjoyed this little article of mine and you had a chance to try this particular build. I also hope that this guide helped you to look at Engi Cube from another point and to beat the Rebels.
Good scrap hunting for you guys, I wish you luck and Faster Than Light speed along the road to the victory!