Challenge run, only with ion and beam weapons.

[Senzorei]

I made this challenge run for waytofail (youtube.com/waytofailself). I think this is an interesting idea, since beams are VERY specialized. Starting ships: Stealth B, Zoltan B. Allowed gear:All beam weaponry (This includes: Artilery beam, Anti-Ship Beam drone, Mini Beam, Pike Beam, Glaive Beam, Anti-Bio beam, Fire Beam.), All ion weaponry (This includes: Ion blast MK1, Ion blast MK2, Heavy ion, ion bomb.), All defensive drones (Anti-personnel drone, System repair drone, Hull repair drone, Defense drone MK1, Defense drone MK2), All of the systems with the exception of the crew teleporter. Disallowed gear: Any type of bomb weapon (with the exception of the ion bomb and healing burst), any type of missle, any type of laser, any offensive drones (with the exception of Anti-Ship Beam drones) (this includes the boarding drone.), crew teleporter, any crystal weapons...That pretty much sums it up. Have fun playing this challenge! And if i missed out on an item that is not a bomb (including specialised ones, with the exception of ion and healing burst), that is not a laser, that is not a missle, that is not an offensive drone (Excluding the anti-ship beam drone) then feel free to point that out .

[5thHorseman]

Give me 2 ions and a beam and I'll take it to the final boss.

The big problem with your challenge is that there are only 3 vanilla ships that don't have any of the weapons you ban, and one of those relies on the teleporter.

In order, I think the reasonable ships to do this challenge on are:

• Noether: It's built for this challenge. I'd not be surprised to find that I already did this challenge with that ship at some point.
• DA-SR 12: I'd hate to add an extra restriction but at least you can use everything it starts with. You need an ion weapon in the first 3 sectors, and you better get it in the first 2 to have a shot.
• The Adjudicator: You better find an ion weapon in the first 2 sectors.
• Osprey/Nisos: Almost impossible but at least you start with a weapon you can use.
• The Torus: Technically you could get lucky and either pick up a 2nd ion or a beam drone early. Until then you're pretty much screwed.

[Senzorei]

Give me 2 ions and a beam and I'll take it to the final boss.

The big problem with your challenge is that there are only 3 vanilla ships that don't have any of the weapons you ban, and one of those relies on the teleporter.

In order, I think the reasonable ships to do this challenge on are:

• Noether: It's built for this challenge. I'd not be surprised to find that I already did this challenge with that ship at some point.
• DA-SR 12: I'd hate to add an extra restriction but at least you can use everything it starts with. You need an ion weapon in the first 3 sectors, and you better get it in the first 2 to have a shot.
• The Adjudicator: You better find an ion weapon in the first 2 sectors.
• Osprey/Nisos: Almost impossible but at least you start with a weapon you can use.
• The Torus: Technically you could get lucky and either pick up a 2nd ion or a beam drone early. Until then you're pretty much screwed.

I forgot to mention that you can use other ships which start either with ion/beam weapons, its just that if they have beam weapons, but not ion you still need to use other weapons to take their shields down, so overall it makes the challenge not work out...

[zeek]

Seems like the most difficult part of the challenge is just finding the weapons. I know that I've run ships with ion and beam combinations and they're super easy to win with. I especially liked ion weapons plus the fire beam. Use the ion weapons to get the shields down and then watch the enemy crew run around like chickens with their heads cut off. It's like roasting ants with a magnifying glass. Only problem was the brutally slow and painful process of killing AI ships. It takes forever to get fires to last long enough to damage a system with no O2.

[The Captain]

Modded the Engi A, swapping in a Beam Drone for the Antiship. The Cutter got blown up in Sector 1. Cutter II did better. Found an Ion Blast Mk II at the end of Sector 2. It took a while before I got it powered, as I got third layer of Shields and fifth level of Engines (and L2 Doors) before I started upgrading Weapons. I was trying to save up for a Beam weapon, but never found one - even found the Sector 8 store - useless (there was a Burst Laser Mk II in an early store - started thinking what I had to sell to get it, then - D'oh! - not this game). Got awarded a Healing Burst two separate times.

So I rolled with two Ion Blasts Mk II, the Beam Drone, a Defense Drone Mk I, and a System Repair Drone I never used. Had the Engi Medbot Dispersal, a Shield Charge Booster (for which I sold my Scrap Recovery Arm late in the game), and a fairly useless Weapon Pre-Igniter, which I had been awarded in a middle sector.



Got the win, somewhat low score at 4212 pts (yes, Normal), only 29 ships defeated, 97 beacons explored, 1820 scrap collected, 10 crew hired. I maxed Reactor, Shields, Weapons, Cloak, Piloting and Doors; L7 Engines, L6 Drones, L2 in the rest. 73 missiles! Man, I would have killed for an Ion Bomb! Never found a Drone Recovery Arm, either - got below 10 drone parts in a late sector, so ran from a few battles where it looked like I would use 2. All the repair stations were at the edges of Sector 8, so I didn't get to them, but I had the scrap to buy up all the drones at the last few stores I went to.