Subset Games Forum

I play hard mode exclusively and just completed my Frigatidae experience. The first three runs ended in sector 1, the fourth one got to sector 3 and the fifth one was a win. Okay, it was kind of a hellride with three or four quite critical situations and lucky solutions (down to 1 hull-point in sector 7 for three or four jumps with no counter to missiles except for my dodge x-)), but I am really glad that it worked. Also I got a charge laser and a second mantis early on and replaced my clonebay with a medbay in sector two, which definitely helped alot. A little trick that helped me get around the weaknesses of the clonebay: I just suffocated my mantises to death when they were at low HP after a battle, so I almost had them at good power at the start of the next one.

For me, the 'Stealth' C takes the cake. No shields, no cloak (on a 'stealth' cruiser?!) and no super-weapon. The Stealth A is decent with incredibly high powered engines (useful in case you need to GTFO of a fight you can't win) and the Stealth B has the Glaive Beam (Hence why the Stealth B is my personal favorite). The Overcharger on the Stealth C takes too long to create a shield barrier for me and in any case it has very poor weapons. I've unlocked the Fed C as well and that is in effect hell on earth (or should that be space?).

I still think Rock A (Bulwark) is the worst. If it runs out of missiles (which it will) then it's as useless as a rock, plus rockmen are so slow.

The Stealth C has some charm to it. Sure the Overcharger might not hold a candle to a cloaking device, but just remember:

The Stealth C has 3 Drone slots! Only those Engi cruisers have that many!
So if can, you can get the Overcharger, Defense Drone MK.I and the Anti-Drone Drone all on the one ship.

I think my least favourite is the Noether (Zoltan C). Weakened Reactor, only weapons are a Drone and an Ion Cannon?
Please kill me now and revive me at the next Clone Bay on a way cooler ship.
Sure I won a game on Normal with that ship, and it just so happened to be better than the other Zoltan cruisers in that game, but honestly, I don't like any of the ships in the Zoltan range.

Of all the Cs I'd definitely say Fed C is my second least favorite. Whether you think it's the worst or not I suppose is something of a personal preference - Normally people remember the ship that has been the most frustrating for them recently as being the worst, and I can totally understand that.

But on paper the Fed C is actually not all that bad, at least not on easy and normal. It has a teleport and a clone bay, and a weapon that does hull damage. That means you need not fear early auto-drones the way that other pure boarders would - Yes, it can take a long time (am I the only one who would like to see a double speed button?) but you can always walk away with some scrap. The thing that really makes me unhappy about it as a ship is the flak artillery that is in every respect worse than a regular Flak 2.

Every time I've won with the Fed C, it's been on the strength of boarding, and getting things that support boarding; hacking, mind control, bombs etc. Every time I have pumped scrap into the flak artillery it has felt like a complete waste.

But the worst C for me is definitely the Stealth C. It's not without it's theoretical charms, but I just... I hate it.

Two burst lasers Mk.II and a Level 2 attack drone?

I don't think the RNG is that cruel, even on Hard.
I know on Normal the RNG is cruel in Sector 3 where you only have 2 layers of shields... and they have 3 Burst Laser 1's

I'd have to say probably Zoltan C. Could barely power anything, and spend all my scrap so I could power more than one weapon, or a weapon and a drone. Ugh.

Which is a pity, since Zoltan B is my favorite (and the ship I used when I beat the Flagship for the first time)

Well, adding on to my previous statements, I think I can safely say all the 'C' ships, except for possibly the Engi C, Rock C and maybe the Slug C, they all suck worse than even the god-damned Engi B cruiser.
-Kestrel C-Borderline acceptable weaponry, nothing special about it. The layout is rather poor with a lack of airlocks at the front, and near the vital weapons and shields.
-Fed C-virtually un-playable due to the lack of precise weapons and the crew is not brilliant either. You either die waiting for a weak flak artillery that will miss and be absorbed by shields (inferior to the Artillery Beam, which will kill any ship... eventually) or lose all your crew due to a missile to the clone-bay during a cycle.
-Zoltan C-On paper it seems alright, but if you run out of time for the battery... game over. You have no more power for shields and engines or the life-support with just 5 power (6 if you take your pilot off the helm). And if boarders enter your ship against your weak-ass Zoltans? Poof! No more power for you! At least the weapons are acceptable.
-Mantis C-you lack any form of boarding party for this ship. A Mantis, an Engi and a Lanius (sounds like the opening to a poor FTL/man enters a bar joke) do not make a good boarding team. You need new weapons since you have 2 useless bombs. And new crew to make use of that four man teleporter. And a steady flow of missiles to support 2 bomb weapons.
-Stealth C-You lack shielding, which makes it more difficult to survive beam weapons and beam drones. But don't worry-it's a stealth cruiser so you have cloa- wait, what? No cloaking? Really? Attack drones take out this ship real fast, and that overcharger is useless since it's far too slow. The anti-drone drone is even worse due to the fact that you can't activate it at the same time, and those weapons are just dire. You need Cloaking. And Shields. And new weapons. say goodbye to about 500 scrap!

Freg and Stealths B and C are obvious choices but they're more in the "so-impossibly-hard-it's-funny-ships" imho.

Worst ship for me has to be the Bulwark.

Attempted some hard runs earlier and in the hangar the ship looked decent but then you'd have to spend at least 5 missles getting rid of a simple slug interceptor minimum. That's IF every shot hits. The accuracy on those missile launchers are HORRIBLE!!!

15% chance of negation isn't enough to justify enemy ships launching missiles EVERY start of the battle. Furthest I've reached was when I sold the Hull and the Augment to get better gear.

Have yet to get the Shivan since the Achievements are also hard. The enemy never stays put in a spot when you finally set the room on fire and the damn Rocks move so slow.
True this isn't the most horrible as far as gear but it's the most frustrating to use for me.

When I unlocked Stealth A, I thought "This ship sucks more than any other ship!" I literally was unable to beat a run with Stealth A without modding. (I was able to win with Stealth B and with some luck, Stealth C.)
Then I got Zoltan C.
Okay, I can see why they gave it a L2 Battery, to counter the WORST REACTOR IN THE GAME. I would expect a Zoltan to have decent reactor, (Ya know, cuz Zoltans.) so when I turned on Zoltan C to try it out, I freaked out and died of lack of O2. (Forgot about the Battery ) The 1 drone + 1 ion wasn't too much of a difference, as that's the starting layout of the Engi Cruiser, but it doesn't work on a Zoltan ship. Why? Zoltans. They mess up all your power flow just by walking through a room, making me have to redirect the power back, then when I make them walk back to their positions (I.e. Engines, O2, etc. etc.) they mess up the power flow AGAIN! I don't know how common this is, but when I play Crystal B run throughs, if I'm against a Zoltan ship, I just have he Zoltan chase me into their weapons, and like that, their OP Leto Missile is offline. this happened to me A LOT. The one time I did make it to Sector 8 was when I fled from almost every battle, leaving a sea of red warnings behind me. I was at the flagship with the same items and drones, but no new upgrades, and less crew. Let's say I died before I got a shot off their hull. Zoltan C will go down in history, worse than Stealth A and C.