You could try drones; put more scrap into upgrading drone control to mid level rather than spending big bucks on topping out weapon power. Defense drones are built for taking out missiles. Another alternative to upgrading weapons highly is to get a transporter.
Let's break down your issues: High weapon power requirement -get more scrap to afford it. Scrap recovery mod, less damage/repair throughout run, spend more time in each sector, give up other things (like drones, teleporter, mods, crew) to afford weapons. It pays to specialize. Jack of all trades end up poor and weak. -inefficient use of power. More powerful weapons cost a lot and not always better. Rethink strategy/combination. The best combination I've found is 3 burst II. Uses 6 power for 9 shots every 11 seconds. That means it knocks down shields and still can land up to 6 shots to the unprotected hull. That's a lot of damage for 6 power, but it's hard to get 3 of them. Even 1 is great because it can knock down shields in one cool down. Whatever you do, just make sure it can bring down 3 shields and still have enough to damage. Enemy missiles -high evade (engines). -stealth (something like 60% evade... Can achieve basically 100% if engines leveled). -defensive drones Since kestrel doesn't start with drones, I wouldn't advise it. Too much of a cost (drone system plus drones plus power plus drone supply and or recovery arm). As many burst lasers as possible plus high evade (stealth, engines) win the game easy with starting ship. I also like to keep stealth at power level 1 so it cools down quicker. Or you can try and unlock layout b and see if you like that layout better. It shouldn't be too hard to unlock (unlock the repair one by spending time unshielded in an asteroid field by a store, and the second by just shopping systems with no intention of beating the game).
I am trying to get a normal win with the Stealth B, this is really hard ... For the guy who asked tips with the Kestrel, this should make you win almost 100% of the time in easy: Spoiler - 1st priority is usually to get 2 levels of shield - then usually you will work on adding either more weapons or more evade, you want to have a minimum 40% evade by the end of the game - try to get a minimum of three shields - also you should try to get a drone bay with a defense 1 and another drone - if you find a hull repair drone buy it, but do not equip it during fights, use it to repair after fights, this allows you to repair between boss battles - you need a combination of weapons that can pierce 4 shields when shot together, always coordinate the weapons to shoot together if needed - the rest depends of what you find, you need to adapt your strategy in function of your picks - do not try to get 100% in everything, just get what you need, if you have extra scrap, you can always upgrade a critical system even if not powered, this allows you to be able to use the system even if you got some damage on it - the correct way to cloak against the boss is to avoid the salvo of missiles (3rd weapon from the left), when you see the salvo of missiles, press PAUSE and then cloak, you will have 100% evade if you have enough engine upgrades and you ll be able to retaliate - micromanage the power to shift to the engine to have more evade when needed - defense level 1 drone is OFTEN better than level 2 because it shoots only missiles and missiles go through the shields, defense level 2 shoots the lasers also meaning that a missile can gets through while it is reloading. If you have already alot of good weapons, it can be a good strategy to have multiple defense drones. - the second stage of the boss will have a defense drones, so if you have a single missile weapon, it is likely to be stopped, this is why you want either pegasus or a bomb for the boss, unless you have more than 1 missile weapon so you can shoot them together - mind controlling a pilot will nullify their evade allowing you to hit with all the shots, this makes quite a huge difference - get in the habit to keep some scrap for shops if you can afford to delay upgrades, being able to pick up a burst laser MK2 if you can see it makes a huge difference. - winning or losing mostly depends of your ability to win fights without taking much damage and not spending too many missiles or drones
Trying to unlock the B layout of the original ship. Able to buy enough extra systems in my 2nd attempt to get the first achievement and also almost beat the game but didn't have a missle weapon to aid. Then in next run, attempt to find an asteroid belt to get hull down to one. While I'm searching, I randomly accumulate a crew of 5 aliens, just missing the slug. Then I find the asteroid belt. Decide it is still easier to find a store after than finding a slug, I let down the shields and get hull down to one and jump away. The store in this sector is now in enemy territory so jump to next sector. 6 jumps later, fighting ships or getting invaded by intruders, just when I feel I'm going find that store... Solar flare takes me out. I love this game.
Anyone completed it with zoltan ship A.. The worst ship u ever had.. It's not that the ship layout is crappy but the given laser weapon is crap... I rather watch my toenails grow...and never had luck with better weapons.. So far I only went as far as sector 4 lol... Although I completed with other types..
I unlocked slug cruiser in quest and managed to beat the game with Kestrel using Vulcan and burst laser. Vulcan is awesome.
To those of you on the fence about this game: I was on the fence because I'm really not into strategy games. I read some of the posts in this thread and it seemed like most people were saying that everyone should own this game regardless of genre. I took the plunge and I couldn't be happier. You do not have to love strategy games to love this game. Also, I am not usually good at strategy games but on the easy setting I've finished the game twice so far. The replay factor is off the charts so I can see myself playing it for a long time. Every play through is different and I've seen something new every time so far. If you're on the fence, just buy it. Heck if you can see the fence from where you are, buy it.
When this came out I decided I wasn't going to buy it until it went on sale because I have it on PC and never played it, and I'm trying to spend less nowadays. During the first week this came out it was hard not to buy it because I love supporting Premium games, but I managed to save my money. I went into my local Target today and saw a $15 iTunes card on sale for $13.50... I don't think I need to explain what happened next.
Zoltan ship wasn't too bad. Shields are superior starting out so I held off on shield upgrades a bit and grabbed evade ASAP. That laser does 2 damage which means it handles 1 shield enemies easily, but needs to be replaced or accompanied with something beefier when 2 and 3 shield enemies start appearing. My biggest challenge with it was boarding parties and lack of new recruits since zoltans seem pretty weak in hand to hand.
If you have a high evade, you should be able to destroy their weapons in your first salvo for most of the fights in the first part of the game. Once this is done you should not be taking much damage. Some events have boarders that can bypass your shield, if you are not fighting, a good tactic is to create vacuum in your ship. You want to get doors level 2 very quickly with Zoltans.
Won two games in a row. This is the config for the Slug ship B layout I used to win the last time. I was looking forward to unlocking C layout, but I didn't remember that I had to get to sector 8 with advanced mode on... Pity. 77 games played, 4 wins. This starts to get addictive
Beat the game with 3 different ships, felt really good and confident taking the Zoltan ship out for the first time...
I finally bought it, and wow does this work well on touch screens. I love that I can now play it any time instead of having to use a computer.
Bloody crap!!! I lost two of my best mantis when I teleported there and the ship got destroyed!!!! They should auto teleport out!!!! ##### Man then a new game my two mantis got suckered away when the ship left halfway during battle omg.... ###
Look at it the other way around, it could have been worse: I had a perfect crew in level 7 with 4 of the new aliens (the ones who don't need O2). I had a clone bay, sent them to destroy a ship and suddenly I read "the ship is powering its FTL blablabla", and before I could react the ship left with my best aliens in it... And they didn't clone because they didn't die!!!!! (Prisoners of war...). I was SO frustrated...
Mantis ship has been fun. Can breeze through galaxy with ease, but the Flagship kicks my ass. Finally won. Hacking is more strategically useful than I previously suspected! Very productive run, unlocked Mantis C and Stealth Cruiser!
