Subset Games Forum

We are planning on reworking a lot of how the boss works eventually (especially phase 3). Don't know exactly how we'll go about it yet though. I have a few ideas. I'm not sure I want to make it "easier" per say, but definitely more fair.

One thing I might suggest just for phase 2 is since the boss uses drones for however many seconds, that it loses all weapon function while the drones are deployed. It just seems to me that having that many drones deployed would be a huge power drain. Also maybe make it an easier scenario if the drone bay is destroyed? Such as less drones spawn when they are used, but the boss retains some weapon function since the power drain isn't as severe.

I don't know if that would make him too easy since I have yet to beat him and I like the challenge, but I just feel that he has no worry for power allocation at all. It is a big ship, but even warships have to worry about power consumption since their weapons are more advanced and use more power.

I don't think I've ever seen a boss in any game that's just as 'fair' or powerful as any other enemy in the game. They usually employ a unique mechanic of some sort.


Anyway, here's some suggestions:


1)Employ a cloaking device. Time it right, and a fully powered cloaker can help you dodge the flagship's missiles and special attacks.

2) Anti-ship drones really help. It's like having two burst lasers attached to your ship, and they rely on a separate subsystem. They also fire much faster.

3) Teleporters and mantis boarding parties can take out the flagship's weapons fairly quickly, making it a lot less dangerous.

My strategy for the final boss in normal mode:

First encounter: hit the shields.
Second encounter: hit the shields.
Third encounter: hit the shields.

Sad but true.

I found the artemis missile launcher the best weapon for this: low energy consuming, fast cooldown and good damage. And I believe the small bomb would be useful too. Missiles or bombs to disable shields and then, fire your burst lasers and, of course, pray. Nothing exotic.

All this talk of Teleporters and Cloaking, both expensive upgrades that, at leats in the games I've played, have never been either affordable or supportable.

Gomisan wrote:All this talk of Teleporters and Cloaking, both expensive upgrades that, at leats in the games I've played, have never been either affordable or supportable.

Minimize incoming damage as much as possible to save scrap on repairs.
Don't overspend - I usually keep a couple of hundred scrap spare in case something useful (like cloak or teleporter, or a useful weapon/crew member) turns up in a store.
Kill enemy crew whenever possible for additional scrap, instead of destroying the ship.
Pick the options that give you the most scrap - always attack pirates/slavers/mercs, salvage AI ships.
Explore as much as possible - ideally, you only want to jump to the next sector when the rebel fleet is about to occupy the exit node on the next turn.

With that and a bit of luck, you can easily get to the end boss with fully upgraded shields + engines, a lvl 2 TP and 3 cloak, and decent enough weapons (or drones) to make it fairly easy. I usually have enough scrap left over to upgrade things a few times so that I've got spare power blocks in case things get damaged.

Board + destroy the weapons first (missiles take priority), cloak on specials, and you should be ok. Kill all the crew, but leave the heavy laser guy alive - that way the AI won't start auto-repairing everything, but you're free to warp onto the main ship and wreck subsystems as you see fit.

I came here to agree with this. I was so disappointed with this, I quit playing the game and didn't touch it for a week. I think I will come back to it now, but it really did shock me, and not in a good way.

Well I finally defeated the boss! A combination of tactics learnt, a prertty well kitted out Torus (Glaive Beam used well is rather nasty! I can squeeze 12 damage a shot out of it if I get 4 rooms lined up!)

I also think the final battle has been tweaked a little, and for that I am thankful. I still had a real sense of achievement defeating the boss, but it felt doable, and the battle was nice and tense.

Now to repeat on Normal .. I know, I'm a wuss

I have to agree, disabling the drone systems on the boss ship should shut down the Drone Swarm attack. As is, there's NO way to stop it. You can stop about every other attack they do, the missiles, everything, but the drone swarm just can't be stopped. You can stop the boarders, but that's it. I've been playing for a while, and NEVER been able to beat the boss. The drone swarm just kills me dead. Got through the first form no problem though.

OrangeBottle wrote:Having a fully upgraded cloaking device helps, believe it or not. It allows you to evade the super-attacks from the boss ship.

Actually, on the 3rd boss fight you want to power the cloak to only one or two bars. The super weapon shot is a very short duration, so you don't need the cloak to last that long, and cutting it to a shorter duration will give you a shorter cooldown, meaning you have it available to use before the super weapon is up again.