Enemy leto and artemis:worst gamebreaker for me

[KomissarBojanchev]

These things usually take 7-10 hp from my ship per battle and thats why I extremely rarely reach more than 5 sectors when playing normal, just because they're so ubiquitous, stores and scrap are too scarce to continualy patch the damage sustained, and the majority of layouts of starting ships don't have drones or cloaking.

By the time I have enoughs scrap top pimp up my ship with antimissile stuff I'm likely already destroyed.

Has anyone compiled some effective strategies for minimizing the damage by leto/artemis barrages against nondrone/cloaking ships in the starting phase or is it just up to very nice luck survive?

[Merudo]

7-10 damage per battle is crazy. You are doing something wrong.

To minimize damage, you really need to

1. Improve evasion.
2. Disable the enemy's weapon ASAP.

[KomissarBojanchev]

Rapidly improving evasion in the beginning of the game to levels where it actually makes a difference is to costly and prevents me from upgrading other systems.

On most ships after sector 1 targeting the weapons system is impossible without disabling the shield first, which gives the enemy still a massive chance to disable my weapons before I'm ready to do serious damage against them.

[Merudo]

Engines are too costly ?! To upgrade to level 4, you only need a mere 45 scraps. I often can afford to upgrade engines to level 4 (and get 2 shields) on Hard on the first sector, so something is wrong here.

Maybe you spend too much on repairs in the first few sectors? On Easy it is very frequent that I don't need to buy repairs at all during the game, or at least only buy minimal repairs (less than 50 scraps). I'd much rather spend 30 scraps to improve my engines than spend 30 scrap in repairs.

Also, which ship do you use? I find that the Kestrel A can often use the Artemis against the enemy's own weapon system. Moreover I find upgrading the weapon system to be a priority in general - getting a second Burst Laser for example can really help take down the enemy's weapon system quickly.

I also think you overestimate the enemy's "massive chance to disable your weapons". Even if the missile does hit, it will likely hit an empty room or another system. If enemy's missile does end up hitting your weapon system, you would likely have time to shot your own weapons before - meaning his weapons would also be disabled.

[KomissarBojanchev]

It costs 45 scrap but you ommit the reactor costs.

I generally play with the nisos and slug A.

weapons as you say is a massive priority but its completely up to luck if you'll get worthwhile ones that don't cost an arm and a leg to upgrade reactor slots.

[KomissarBojanchev]

Engines are too costly ?! To upgrade to level 4, you only need a mere 45 scraps. I often can afford to upgrade engines to level 4 (and get 2 shields) on Hard on the first sector, so something is wrong here.

Maybe you spend too much on repairs in the first few sectors? On Easy it is very frequent that I don't need to buy repairs at all during the game, or at least only buy minimal repairs (less than 50 scraps). I'd much rather spend 30 scraps to improve my engines than spend 30 scrap in repairs.

Also, which ship do you use? I find that the Kestrel A can often use the Artemis against the enemy's own weapon system. Moreover I find upgrading the weapon system to be a priority in general - getting a second Burst Laser for example can really help take down the enemy's weapon system quickly.

I also think you overestimate the enemy's "massive chance to disable your weapons". Even if the missile does hit, it will likely hit an empty room or another system. If enemy's missile does end up hitting your weapon system, you would likely have time to shot your own weapons before - meaning his weapons would also be disabled.

2shields and 4 engines in sector 1 and hard!?This in total costs around 190 total with reactor upgrades included. You must be terribly lucky. I play on normal and I rarely get more than 130-150 total scrap in sector 1.

[Merudo]

I'm not sure where you get the "190" number from.

Getting level 2 shield : 50 scrap.
Getting level 4 engine : 45 scrap.
Getting 3 more power : 65 scrap.

Which adds up to 160 scrap. That's not unreasonable if you get lucky. Also, if you pick a ship with a useless augment / drone (such as slug repair gel), you can sell those and get enough scrap for the upgrade.

For the record I'm not suggesting you should upgrade the engine to level 4 during the first sector - it is usually much better to save the scrap to buy a new weapon.

Still - upgrading the weapons usually cost around 200 scrap - (85 scrap for weapon system, 50 scrap for energy, 70-ish for the weapon itself). This is substantially cheaper if you find a weapon through events, or if you exchange one of your weapon for a better one (say, selling a leto for a BL2). Again, that's something you can probably earn in sector 2.

By the beginning of sector 3 (where 2 shield ships appear), it is not unreasonable for a ship to be close to having both level 4 engine and an extra weapon.

[Merudo]

I generally play with the nisos and slug A.

That might be part of your trouble. Both of these ships have quite weak starting weaponry that can barely dent a ship with 2 shields. The starting weapons of both the Nisos and the Slug A are strictly worse than the Kestrel's. With these ships, upgrading the weapon are even more important than usual.

With these ships, I usually spend the minimum for two shields (70 scraps) and then save enough to buy a weapon. I'll often pick the Sector 2 with the most shops to maximize the odds of finding a store with decent weaponry. I also pick these ships with the understand that if I get unlucky and can't find a good weapon by the start of sector 3, I probably won't make it very far.

[5thHorseman]

Personally I've been getting up to Shield 2 and Engine 4 (8 bars between them) ASAP and then worrying about power. I am starting to almost be able to get out of sector 1 with that and 6 power between them. In the first 2 sectors, most people with a missile only have one other weapon and it's almost always a single shot weapon or a normal beam so you take the shield power and put it in the dodge, or they have 2 laser bolts so you take it out of evasion and put it in the shields. If they happen to have both, drop the O2 to get 4 in shields and 3 in engines.

But I do agree with the subject line of this thread. I've found that my losses aren't where I meet a horrible enemy that destroys me in one volley. They're when I meet 5 guys in a row each with Artemis missiles who hit 2-3 times each putting me in a position where even the weakest enemies have a chance of killing me.

[MushrooMars]

>Nisos
>Being hit by weapons
>Being hit by missiles

That measly starting Level 1 cloak is usually enough to disable all enemy weapons before they volley for Sector 1 and 2 ships. Even then, by Sector 2, you should have enough scrap to upgrade your cloaking once and hopefully grab a third low-power weapon to murder with. On Normal at least, I'm sure it's a bit more difficult on Hard.