The Basilisk: Putting the MAN in MANTIS

All your guides, strategy discussions, request for help on how to play go here. Please use [SPOILER] if relevant.
Mister Sammy
Posts: 71
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2012 4:50 pm

The Basilisk: Putting the MAN in MANTIS

Postby Mister Sammy » Sat Oct 06, 2012 12:44 pm

I love this ship. I love it so damn much. It's so much fun!! There are probably more expansive and well-written guides out there, but I just have to write up on this beautiful, magical ship.

1. Starting Out

(Note: WHEN I TALK LIKE THIS it is simply an important point of note, OR I AM MAKING A CHEAP ATTEMPT AT COMEDY.)

For those of you who haven't gotten your hands on Mantis B(asilisk) yet, or haven't read up on her; she starts with TWO shields (mmmm), a boarding drone and defense 1, (oh yes), and, her key gimmick, the FOUR-ROOM TELEPORTER (SO SEXY!) But, to compensate for her overpowered strengths, she pretends to be weak and runs no starting weapons, and only two Mantis crew.

Pros: Nigh-invulnerable in the early sectors thanks to shields and drones.
KILLING THE ENEMY CREW MEANS TONS OF SCRAP!
Teleporter opens some BLUE OPTIONS

Cons: Bend over for the Random Number God in Sector 1, because you want as few auto-ships as possible and NO ZOLTANS. Very luck dependent as it is invincible in the early game.
Ship starts out grossly understaffed, more Mantis are not guaranteed.

Now, the game likes to be cheeky and throw a lot of auto ships at you. These are annoying, owing to the fact that you will suffocate your crew boarding them without an UPGRADED TELEPORTER, but not impossible to take out.

Don't be afraid to send both Mantis in, leaving your ship to drift aimlessly. YOUR LEVEL 2 SHIELDS will laugh in the face of the inadequately armed, AND YOUR DEFENSE DRONE MK 1 IS HUNGRY FOR THEIR MISSILES. FEED HIM.

NEBULAS ARE YOUR FRIENDS - sure you might find yourself in the midst of a Plasma Storm staring down an Auto-Assault, but the WEAPONS DEALER (Disclaimer: You're only hunting this guy out of spite and anger, attacking him only starts an ordinary encounter with an ordinary chance to find a weapon.) and the BEACON-AVOIDING SMUGGLER are what you're hoping to encounter! Revel in your ability to take these ships intact early game! Show the arms dealer just how dangerous the Nebula REALLY is! Yes, you more likely than not will encounter LOLBOARDED events in a Nebula - just view them as EXP for your death machines!


SECTOR GUIDE: POSSIBLE FREE MANTIS: ENGI, PIRATE*, MANTIS (NATURALLY)

*BRING A WEAPON, SOME SLAVERS ARE COWARDS AND HIDE BEHIND ZOLTAN SHIELDS.

For sector 2, you ideally want to pick either an Engi sector to charge into! If unavailable, REBEL or SLUG. The reason you want the Engi sector is because of the chance at a FREE MANTIS due to the WELL-ARMED ENGI SHIP EVENT. With Rebels, you will encounter a lot of PLAIN, NON-ZOLTAN HUMAN SHIPS to board and this buys time for you to gain a weapon.

Slugs will pull the gimmicky system shutdowns on you a lot, but as far as combat goes they are equal to humans and just as easy to kill in hand-to-hand combat. After sector 2, for sector 3 if you still haven't gone to an engi, you'll ideally want a Pirate controlled sector! In a pinch, Civilian and Nebula will do as well.

The reason you're wanting the Pirate sector is because you want to pick a fight with the Slavers for a chance at a GUARANTEED MANTIS if all the slaves survive the battle.

If you upgraded your Teleporter, you can also steal a slave for FREE MANPOWER. But does this MAN end in TIS? Probably not. But it's nice to be staffed.

From there, try to make your way to the Mantis Homeworlds, upgrading your doors and medbay - if you meet your old friend Kazaak; you'll have another Mantis! If everything went well for you, you now have a full boarding party! It not, don't fret, you don't need a four Mantis party though it is very convenient. Rocks are excellent, too, Humans and Slugs work in a pinch. Crystals are nice, but you're already bending over for the RNG, no need to do so backwards.

If you're feeling REALLY lucky, go through Mantis Controlled sectors - you might come across the escape pod. Open it with caution!

2: How to deal with annoying automated attackers in Sector 1

AUTO-SCOUTS
These guys are a piece of cake. Throw a boarding drone at them and go make a sandwich. If they happen to have a missile launcher, pull out your defense drone, go make a sandwich, then eat half of it and come back. If the missile launcher is GREEN but not shooting, then it has exhausted its supplies and you may now throw your boarding drone. Go back and enjoy that other half of your sandwich. You've earned it. It will proceed to blow up every room, dealing 1 damage each! The ship will then repair its systems, allowing itself to take more damage.

Advanced Technique for those who have no patience or bread: The pause button is your friend here. Launch your boarding drone while you FANTASIZE ABOUT THE SANDWICH YOU COULD BE HAVING. When it fires its missile, wait for that pesky projectile to show its nosecone, then PAUSE. Switch power over to your defense drone, and as soon as that laser is out for blood, PAUSE again, switching power back. Enjoy the fireworks, and if done correctly, your boarding drone won't lose a shot.

AUTO-ASSAULTS
Now, THESE assholes don't WANT you to go eat a sandwich. Unless they have a missile launcher. Obviously, it's because they have no doors. "Oh, that's fine, I'll just throw a boarding drone at it and the same system will be destroyed and repaired over and over!" The problem HERE, and the reason you can't go get your sandwich, is because of the way repairing works: If there is a hull breach, the damaged system cannot be repaired until that breach is gone. Apparently, this applies to automated ships, too. But as of the version of writing, they lack the ability to repair any holes you tear in them. So therefore, you must save the boarding drone for last.


YOU WILL NEED: 1 upgrade to your teleporter, 1 upgrade to your power to keep your medbay juiced
At least 1 boarding drone
Your best friend, Pause

Now what you'll do here is warp your mantis into the airless hell of their weapon room. Keep destroying it over and over - pausing and pulling your nearly-dead crew out of there as soon as your teleporter recharges, and sending them to patch themselves up. Once you get the bastard to 1 hull left, throw your boarding drone to finish him off. THEN go make your sandwich. WAIT FOR HIM TO REPAIR THE DAMAGED ROOM - Your boarding drone might just land in it while it's still red and SCREW YOU OVER.

WATCH OUT FOR CLOAKING - If you aren't confident you can destroy it before it goes off cooldown, jump away from drones with cloaking systems. DO NOT LET THEM LAUGH IN YOUR FACE AS YOUR MANTIS DECOMPRESS AND SPURT GREEN GOO ALL OVER THE FLOOR. If you REALLY must go in YOU WILL NEED A BOMB: They, like any weapon, can target an enemy ship even if it is cloaked SO LONG AS YOU ARE BOARDING AND THEREFORE HAVE VIEW OF THEIR INTERIOR! But beware: This won't work unless your bomb is pre-charged, bombs act like any other charging weapon when the enemy cloaks. So let the bomb charge, then send your mantis into the cloaking room and pull out ASAP. If it's level 2 or 3, Your goal here is to get it ORANGE, not RED. In the next attack, destroy the helm. Keep that bomb charged, and if he cloaks, BLOW THE THING UP, LAUGH IN HIS FACE, and pull your mantis out for healing.

EDIT: WHAT IF I encounter an auto-ship event, but my teleporter isn't level 2 and it's an auto-assault/I sold my boarding drone for a weapon but don't have the scrap to juice it?

DON'T LET THAT SCRAP SLIP BY! ENGAGE the ship, and then wait for your engines to charge. Jump out, upgrade where necessary, then slip back in. The civilian ship isn't going anywhere, nor is the storage facility.

EDIT: THIS IS ALSO GOOD FOR ZOLTAN SHIPS. IF YOU FIND A WEAPON, JUMP BACK TO WHERE YOU LEFT THEM, IF THE FLEET ISN'T THERE YET.

EDIT AGAIN: Can also be applied to the Kazaak event, if you jump out of a sun/asteroid field and right into him WITH NO CHANCE TO UPGRADE YOUR MEDBAY. (This happened to me but my medbay was burned out so my softened mantis couldn't take their boarding crew out, then a lucky stray laser killed one of my commandos while I was repairing the O2.)

3. The meat: BOARDING

GENERAL TACTICS

Starting out, EXPLOIT CRAMPED SPACES AND FORCE THE ENEMY TO FIGHT ON YOUR TERMS. If you MUST, throw a boarding drone to soften up the enemy crew waiting their turn to fight.

Acquiring your THIRD MANTIS, send your crew into FOUR-SPACE ROOMS. The smart thing to do would obviously be: Pull everyone off and fight four-on-three. But most ships will keep one man on the helm, giving you an even fight and a quicker end once it's three-on-two. Only now will the captain come down to fight, too little too late.

Ships with Med-Bays:

EARLY ON: Throw out your boarding drone and send your Mantis in. If necessary, starve the enemy of missiles with your defense drone or alternate power if you don't mind abusing your space bar. Hopefully, the enemy crew will split up: They clearly didn't watch enough Scooby Doo to realize that this is a horrible idea. What you want to do here is try to get one man wounded and running for the medbay. CHASE HIM DOWN AND CUT HIM TO PIECES. His friend will try to chase you in there - with any luck you'll have him isolated too. It may take awhile, but TRUE HUNTERS ARE PATIENT.

EDIT: If you have a pilot, say you picked up a human, but no other MANtis yet, let him have some fun. Send him into the ship and board a four-space room with your commandos. Once the enemy is down to two crew members, what you want to do is get one low, then send your mantis into the medbay. Keep the pilot tanking the other one - ideally you want an Engi. Yes. I said that. You want your repairman FLINGING HIS NOODLY ARMS AT THE OTHER CREW, DOING LESS DAMAGE AND THEREFORE TAKING MORE TIME BEFORE HE GOES TO HEAL!

WHEN ARMED AND STAFFED: Send your Mantis to the enemy shields, or a four space room if the shields are two-space. Their crew will begin medbay cycling - but the AI has a tendency to just let anyone who can't fit in the medbay die if they have a level 1 medbay. Once there's only two suckers left, soften up the ship's shields while they heal as much as needed to let your beams and lasers knock the medbay offline. Then, send your two most undamaged Mantis to finish the crew off.

IF THEY HAVE CLOAKING: AGAIN; TRY TO KEEP A BOMB HANDY. Bombs can target enemy ships through their cloaking system! DESPITE THIS, Bombs will not charge if an enemy is cloaked, so DON'T RELY ON THIS TOO MUCH. EDIT: ANY WEAPON can target a cloaked ship so long as you are boarding it.

AGAINST A LEVEL 2 OR GREATER MEDBAY: You'll still tend to pick people off here - but you're not going to get
your privacy for your Mantis to do their thing. You'll need to focus everything you've got on the Medbay and hope to bring it down to red. BOMBS AND MISSILES ARE YOUR BEST FRIENDS HERE: Hold out until the enemy leaves the helm unattended because of rampant cycling. Then, with the enemy's dodge chance cut severely, explode the medbay as severely as you can.

ENGI
EAT THEM FOR BREAKFAST, LUNCH, AND DINNER. Medbot dispersal can be a pain to deal with, but usually Engi sectors appear early on when ships don't have medbays as frequently.

ZOLTANS
IF YOU MEET THEM IN SECTOR 1: See Auto-Scouts. As in, go make a sandwich. I'll stop making this joke now, I promise. Literally the only thing you can do unless you luck out onto a weapon and have upgraded enough to use it is to sit back, and wait for the FTL to charge.

Now, if you have a weapon, Zoltan ships become cakewalks once those shields go down. Simply beam your Mantis aboard and rip through them like paper mache.

MANTIS
The mirror madness matchup of doom. Because you're on equal footing, your advantages are lost unless your mantis are seasoned veterans. However, fret not! More often than not, as you may know, these dicks have TELEPORTERS, JUST LIKE YOU. HOWEVER, THEY ARE TWO-ROOM. LAUGH AT THEIR INFERIORITY WHILE ASSURING YOURSELF YOU ARE NOT COMPENSATING FOR ANYTHING. BUT WAIT, why are enemy teleporters a good thing again? Well, Hopefully you'll have your doors upgraded: trade boarding parties and asphyxiate the visiting team. From there, the other helpful tidbit comes in: what's most often left is a single mantis and his Engi friend. The boarding party suffocates on your ship, and you, provided your Mantis gets the first hit on the left side, should be able to take them down with no trouble.

Against larger Mantis ships: Exploit four-space rooms as necessary, while shutting down the medbay if needed. Again: The enemy tends to fight with only three, with one piloting the ship. Because they are suffocating their remaining manpower, you should be safe.

ROCK
They may have high health, but don't let that intimidate you. Warp into a 4-space room and swarm them - their slow speed will mean that the odds will always be in your favor as they shamble in to reinforce their dieing brothers.

IF YOU HAVE LESS TO WORK WITH: Warp your crew into a two-space room to prevent being surrounded. If your Mantis are untrained, then you'll likely have a situation where neither bug is fit to tank the last Rock. If your Teleporter is compromised or you feel confident, pull out some string and KITE THE BASTARD. Send the Mantis he's after in and out of the door, switching rooms, while your stationary bug gets FREE HITS on him until he CRUMBLES TO THE GROUND to join his brethren.

SLUG, HUMAN, AND ARR PIRATES
Slug and Human ships are where you truly shine boarding. Bring all the frustration of having bugs infest your ship to the enemy, and revel in the carnage as you cut them all down! Now PIRATE ships are of note; without LEVEL 2 SENSORS, these are a gamble because of their DIVERSE CREWS. You'll get WACKY HIJINKS like ROCKS in ZOLTAN SHIPS. TIP: USE YOUR BOARDING DRONE FOR EARLY INTEL: See a pirate ship? Throw him in and see what they respond with and act accordingly!

4. SHOWING THE BOSS WHO'S BOSS
YOU WILL NEED: Lots of Engine power and/or cloaking
AT LEAST LEVEL 3 SHIELDS

Phase 1

The REBEL FLAGSHIP cannot comprehend the TRUE POWER of your BOARDING CREWS. First thing's first: THE TRIPLE MISSILE LAUNCHER. Board it, kill the operator, and destroy it. Then, do the same for the Triple Ion. LEAVE THE TRIPLE LASER ALONE. THE BOSS DOES NOT REALIZE THAT HE IS NOT MANLY ENOUGH TO BRING YOUR SHIELDS DOWN ONCE YOU HAVE CRIPPLED THE OTHER WEAPONS, and if you kill everyone; THE AI TAKES OVER AND REPAIRS EVERYTHING AT ONCE. If you don't have level 4 shields, go ahead and take the beam out, too. From here, board into his shields. Hold out until he cycles his pilot off the helm. UNLOAD EVERYTHING YOU HAVE INTO THE MEDBAY! Pump as much firepower as you can into his cloaking system afterwords, don't let your guns sit idle just because he can't harm you here. Once the crew is dead, rip his shields a new one, and pull your Mantis out.

From here, ENJOY YOUR FREE TARGET PRACTICE.

Phase 2: Deploy your defense drone. BOARDING DRONES? WHAT BOARDING DRONES? Immediately re-destroy the triple rocket launcher. Then, send your mantis into the empty husk, and EAT HIS SHIELDS AGAIN. MMM, DELICIOUS. Once his shields are down, either use your mantis to destroy his drones, or shoot them with your guns. Either way, make sure that drone system goes offline! When the drone swarm comes, as you probably already know, cloak and enjoy watching everything miss - don't fret if you lack it, REAL MEN DON'T NEED TO CLOAK ANYWAYS, an upgraded engine should do. It should be smooth sailing from here!

Phase 3: The Rebel Flagship hailed the Basilisk, the pale and terrified lone triple-laser gunner trying his best to look brave in the face of certain doom, haunted by the distant and terrible cries of his dieing comrades.

"Foolish Mantis! I'll swat you all like the bugs you are! For I have acquired your terrible weakness!" He taunted in a wavering voice. The Mantis staffing the ship looked at each other in fear.

"You have RAID BOMBS!? Impossible!"

"What? No...I uhh...just have ZOLTAN SHIELDS! THE ONE THING YOU CAN NOT DEAL WITH! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The captain frowned, rubbing his mandibles with a thin claw. "Bitch, please. ARM THE GUNS!"


Dust your defense drone off again. You've been through a lot together, haven't you? Well now it's time for the FINAL STRETCH, because you can't board straightaway, you need to minimize the amount of ordinance coming at you from the triple missile launcher. With no one at the helm, it is PATHETICALLY EASY to bring that shield down. Once the shield is down, board as necessary, cloaking if you have it during the power surges. Once his shields are down, ENJOY MORE TARGET PRACTICE, AND ENJOY WATCHING THIS FATASS EXPLODE.





...Make yourself a sandwich, you've earned it--*SHOT*

I hope you enjoyed my guide, and it was an entertaining timesink to write it. :) Now go forth with the Basilisk! PUT THE MAN IN MANTIS!
Last edited by Mister Sammy on Mon Jan 27, 2014 12:25 am, edited 21 times in total.
UltraMantis
Posts: 2141
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:17 pm

Re: The Basilisk: Putting the MAN in MANTIS

Postby UltraMantis » Sat Oct 06, 2012 1:12 pm

Hands down funnest ship to play along with Rock cruiser.

One thing i didn't see you mention is that the Basilisk starts with pretty much no engines and without a pilot is a sitting duck anyway. Lvl2 shields are crap against anything that fires more than 2 shots. Defense Drone MkI can only cope with one target and some sneaky enemies have two launchers...

If you get hit in the teleporter, say goodbye to your guys, they aren't coming back. To secure the ship, get a pilot and upgrade those engines. To stay alive or possibly retreat.

You know what else is fun? Metting Zoltan in s1. Still withot weapons. But in an asteroid field... revenge! :twisted:
Report spam using the handy Report Button Mod.
Mister Sammy
Posts: 71
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2012 4:50 pm

Re: The Basilisk: Putting the MAN in MANTIS

Postby Mister Sammy » Sat Oct 06, 2012 1:18 pm

UltraMantis wrote:Hands down funnest ship to play along with Rock cruiser.

One thing i didn't see you mention is that the Basilisk starts with pretty much no engines and without a pilot is a sitting duck anyway. Lvl2 shields are crap against anything that fires more than 2 shots. Defense Drone MkI can only cope with one target and some sneaky enemies have two launchers...

If you get hit in the teleporter, say goodbye to your guys, they aren't coming back. To secure the ship, get a pilot and upgrade those engines. To stay alive or possibly retreat.

You know what else is fun? Metting Zoltan in s1. Still withot weapons. But in an asteroid field... revenge! :twisted:


Well, usually in Sector 1 the enemy ships are fighting you with weapons like Leto missiles and heavy laser 1, or my favorite, beam drone 1 and mini beam! XD Sector 3 is when things start to heat up, and by then you have someone sitting in to pilot wishing he could be on the enemy ship having fun.
Zauron
Posts: 23
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2012 4:26 pm

Re: The Basilisk: Putting the MAN in MANTIS

Postby Zauron » Sat Oct 06, 2012 4:47 pm

Any tips on how to deal with a ship with a medbay when you don't have any weapons yet? That was the part I was most interested in but you meantion using lasers/beams/bombs to take out the medbay. If you don't have any weapons yet, is a ship with a medbay = run away like a Zoltan ship?

I've tried to take these out but only rarely was successful and usually ends up in a stalemate or I get desperate and end up losing one of my crew in the attempt and end up just restarting.

If anyone knows any tricks to take out a crew that has a Medbay when you don't have any weapons yet, that would really help, because then the only thing I can do nothing about is a Zoltan shield (that isn't in an asteroid field) and an auto-assault when I don't have an upgraded teleporter yet.
Taron Millet
Game Director & Programmer for Crazy Viking Studios
UltraMantis
Posts: 2141
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:17 pm

Re: The Basilisk: Putting the MAN in MANTIS

Postby UltraMantis » Sun Oct 07, 2012 2:11 am

It is possible, but you somehow need to distract the enemy crew long enough to destroy the medbay. Usually they wont let you, but if they let just one guy do some damage there alone.... Most of the time you must give up and move on.

Mantis boarders are vicious. If the enemy has little health it's possible to finish them despite the medbays effect. This only works with a lvl1 medbay and Mantis with some experience in combat. Not sure how much but it's not a full green bar. When at max combat experience (yellow) the damage Mantis deal is enough to overpower even a medbay lvl2. But the enemy must be at low health or it will take too long since you guys are loosing health. lvl3 you can forget about, need a weapon for that.
Report spam using the handy Report Button Mod.
icepick
Posts: 344
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:18 pm

Re: The Basilisk: Putting the MAN in MANTIS

Postby icepick » Sun Oct 07, 2012 3:51 am

One time I had 4 boarders and the game was glitching and letting all 4 into the medbay. That was awesome. :D Didn't last through save/reload, though.
Mister Sammy
Posts: 71
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2012 4:50 pm

Re: The Basilisk: Putting the MAN in MANTIS

Postby Mister Sammy » Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:26 am

Zauron wrote:Any tips on how to deal with a ship with a medbay when you don't have any weapons yet? That was the part I was most interested in but you meantion using lasers/beams/bombs to take out the medbay. If you don't have any weapons yet, is a ship with a medbay = run away like a Zoltan ship?

I've tried to take these out but only rarely was successful and usually ends up in a stalemate or I get desperate and end up losing one of my crew in the attempt and end up just restarting.

If anyone knows any tricks to take out a crew that has a Medbay when you don't have any weapons yet, that would really help, because then the only thing I can do nothing about is a Zoltan shield (that isn't in an asteroid field) and an auto-assault when I don't have an upgraded teleporter yet.

That's when your boarding drone comes in handy. It comes down to getting lucky and splitting the enemy crew up. You can survive a 2-on-1 fight in a level 1 medbay, it's just imperative that you finish the poor bastard off before the other guy gets there. I'll update my guide to reflect this, I'm sorry I wasn't clear enough.
UltraMantis
Posts: 2141
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:17 pm

Re: The Basilisk: Putting the MAN in MANTIS

Postby UltraMantis » Sun Oct 07, 2012 10:47 am

I was refering to an equal fight in a medbay. Just wanted to point that out.

And i completely forgot the boarding drone existed :D
Report spam using the handy Report Button Mod.
greenwood
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2012 3:50 pm

Re: The Basilisk: Putting the MAN in MANTIS

Postby greenwood » Tue Oct 09, 2012 3:53 pm

I love it, hands down a rood guide, and funny to boot.
Createx
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2012 6:55 pm

Re: The Basilisk: Putting the MAN in MANTIS

Postby Createx » Thu Oct 18, 2012 4:11 pm

I unlocked it today and took it for a spin, and... oh my god!
I love boarding, and I think boarding is overpowered already, but this baby... It just rips everyone apart.
I got 4167 points on easy with it and took the boss down without taking even one hull damage. Granted, it was an extremely lucky run, but I had fully upgraded shields by sector 4 I think and the engine soon followed.
You make metric tons of scrap by killing the crew, and you usually don't waste that many missiles or drones.
Missile to the medbay, jump in, kill.
Chat with fellow FTLers!
Find us on quakenet in #fasterthanlight, the unofficial channel for FTL.