Noob Player Requesting Help

[Dannyrulx]

Hey guys! New to the forum and new to the game, I've had some successful run-thru's but never past S6. I normally get whooped around S5, and if i'm really lucky, i might get to S6 before some rebel captain tears through me.

My biggest problems are:

Running out of fuel
Random events screwing me over
Never finding enough scrap
Always running into a slug nebulae (3 times, 3 dead kestrels )
Never being able to upgrade all the things i need to.

Any remedies for this? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[5thHorseman]

(This may sound broilerplate, but that's only because it is )

Here is my personal checklist of things to do. I try to follow it with most every ship:

Before the end of sector 1, 2 shields (4 bars. And in fact my first 50 scrap usually goes to shields)
Before the end of sector 2, 4 engines (I frequently buy these before I can power them. Depending on enemies, you can take 1 shield down to power engines up)
Before the end of sector 3, 5 engines.
Before the end of sector 4, 3 shields (6 bars)

Note: This is for NORMAL mode. For HARD mode, I try to shift everything up one sector though it's pretty hard, especially with the below requirements:

Also, you need to have a way to get through:
Before the end of Sector 2: 2 shields (Most ships can do this)
Before the end of Sector 4: 3 shields (This usually means you need to buy weapons or something tricky (teleporter, hacking) in sector 3 or 4)
Before the end of Sector 7: 4 shields (or the Boss is gonna suck)

Note: to get through 2 shields, you need to do 3 laser shots. Or have 2 ions and a laser/beam/whatever. Or have a teleporter. Or a bomb. Doesn't matter what.

After I have the above, I start thinking about upgrading other things, like doors and O2 and medbay and stuff.

Most of the time I don't reach these milestones, and I end up not getting my 4th engine until midway through sector 3 or something. No biggie, as long as you keep trying.

Never, ever, ever, EVER buy missiles. Unless you simply must because you've not found a way to get rid of your missile weapon. They are the single biggest resource drain in the game if you buy a lot. The next big resource drain is repairs. Any time you show up at a store needing a ton of repairs, that's a weapon you can't buy, or drone control or a cloak or long range scanners or who knows what else. I never repair over 20 hull points (2/3 full) and sometimes I forego repairs to buy or upgrade something.

Ions are great in groups, but not so great by themselves. 2 Ions will eventually take down ANY shield so long as your opponent doesn't dodge too many of them. An Ion and an Ion 2 will reliably take down ANY shield eventually. Once those are down, you can use your other weapons to actually damage the ship.

If I may humbly suggest, I've beaten the game on camera with every ship in the game (and a few mods) on Normal and while I get into (and out of) some sticky situations, for the most part I walk over the bad guys because I stick to what I've said above. Granted, most of my videos are in the previous version but most of the strategies still work. Check out my thread here.

[Leylite]

5th Horseman covered most of the basics, so I'll just add a few other things:

- I interpret "spend the first 50 scrap on shields" as "as soon as you get 20 scrap, buy the first buffer bar, and then as soon as you get 30 more scrap, buy the second shield". Getting that extra durability means your shield can't be destroyed by the first damage it takes, which makes a huge difference. Part of what makes Hard mode so hard is that you can go two, sometimes three battles before you can get that first 20 scrap.

- It's also quite useful to buy buffer bars for weapons and piloting. Piloting 2 pays for itself almost immediately, and buying one more bar of weapons before you actually buy a new weapon also pays dividends. I try to get Piloting 2 before the end of sector 2.

- One of the new features AE added was the ability to man doors to upgrade them by 1 level. This can turn otherwise-frightening boarding parties into jokes.

[Trapex]

So adding to the previous advices

i find power management, volley control, crew management and planning beacon paths to be quite important aswell.

power management requires u to take power outta systems that don't immediately benefit from it, and putting that power into another system. 5th horseman gave an perfect example: when u have 4 engine and 4 (power bars) shields but not enough reactor power to run both, a good way is to micro your power in between the 2. Also remember if youre short on reactor power, u can always temporarily take power off oxygen. If you can adequately manage your power, this means that u can spend less scrap on ship upgrades.

Volley control requires u to turn off auto-fire and manually control the timing of your shots to achieve maximum damage. A good example is when u have flak + beam/laser weapon. u want wait till both weapons are fully charged, fire your flak first, then when the flak shrapnel almost reaches the end (right side) of ur screen, fire ur laser. for beams u want to pause and aim the beam the split second the flak downs all enemy shields.

Now crew management is an ambiguous one, its really up to personal preference. Imo ur helm(piloting) should always if possible be manned by someone whos not likely going to do any repairs/fighting boarders(invaders)/or (edit) a NON zoltan. The engines crew should pretty much be the same, reason being that the extra dodge % you receive by having those positions manned is just to critical, and is the difference between winning and losing. If a ship only starts with 2 crew, i usually like to have one on helm and one on SHIELDS (yes...shields, not engines) just because shields takes much longer to level up compared to engines(gotta always plan for the long term and think late game). And learn to micro against mind control: running ur crew in and out of a room with a mind controlled crew will prevent any system damage if executed well enough.

So when u reach a new sector, before you make a jump just hover your mouse over each beacon (be sure to have show beacon paths turn on in options, i highly suggest this if youre relatively new to the game), and roughly plan out how u want to proceed your way through. Keep in mind that this is only a rough plan as once u actually start jumping youll find ull quickly need to adapt and react to the situation. But yea, because you mentioned youre having issues with fuel, this will help tremendously as you will avoid dead ends and thus having to waste fuel and jumps back tracking.

So its alot to take in, but hope it helps. good luck!

[stylesrj]

Imo ur helm(piloting) should always if possible be manned by someone whos not likely going to do any repairs/fighting boarders(invaders)/or a zoltan.

A Zoltan should not be in a subsystem like piloting. Put them in a system that requires power so their abilities are not wasted. If you can, put either an Engi in the helm for repairs or a Rock for the health.

If you get two Zoltan, throw them into the Shield Room. Congrats, your ship is now ion-proof. No ion weapon will destroy your shield and pulsars are easier to get through.

[Trapex]

perhaps my wording is a bit wonky, i meant NOT a zoltan lol. One thing i will disagree with you on however is i wouldnt put an engi on helm unless if hes the only crew, just because having an engi that can leave his post (without losing all dodge %) and do repairs is crucial. but yea ima change the wording on that now lol, my bad.

[Twinge]

You might find my tutorial helpful: www.twitch.tv/darktwinge/c/2609597. This was made before AE, but is still largely relevant.