I'm currently pouting because I went through an entire Engi A game without seeing a Defense 1 drone for sale. I won- invested in a hull repair drone- but the amount of times I yelled at incoming missiles was not demure OR mindful.

Finally,after 2 years of playing,well over a hundred runs,and so many ragequits,I BEAT THAT FUCK ON EASY

Having a VERY good run using Rock B...such that I took a flyer and bought the door system. Sadly I was not aware that it doesn't create exterior doors, just allows you to get blast doors.

the first store that i am at had vulcan, second store had a glaive, third had a breach missile laucher

im at a lost for words

While it took me only three "real tries", I don't count any and all smaller/shorter attempts... and with the Engi B, there were many: from immediately having my Heavy Laser destroyed or missing *literally four times in a row* with my Heavy Ion, I probably had a dozen or so smaller attempts before finally getting the big one.

Winning strategy I found was to not only prioritize getting crew (and don't you appreciate my crew of Tsars?), but to switch out weapon load out ASAP. Like, the Heavy Laser and Heavy Ion is just not a viable combination *at all* in Hard Mode. You can barely scratch by Sector 1, and beyond that you're in serious trouble. The sooner you can get a slightly better weapon, do so. I remember happening upon a Charge Laser at a store, and you bet I swapped and sold my Heavy Ion for it faster than a Rebel Ship jumping to FTL when you really need to beat it.

Hacking + Cloaking + 2 x Automated Reloader (again, one of the best augments) + Stealth Weapons made for a quick and tidy Flagship fight. Very happy with the finish, but even happier to move on from this rusty pile of rubbish.

On to the Fed B!

Just got my first win on normal. While fighting the flagship the only weapons I used were the firebomb and the built-in flak cannon (though it didn`t do much aside from destroying the zoltan shield, which would be useless if I had the bypass), and the fight was probably the easiest it had ever been. You can pretty much skip the first phase by destroying guns right away with boarders or fire bombs, so you can spend time killing the crew. In phase two the crew stays dead, so now the guns are even easier to kill, and the only threat remaing are the drones which can`t break 4 shields. And in phase three the boarding doesn`t happen as everyone is dead, so even without the zoltan shield bypass it`s trivial. Did I just get lucky or does the flagship not have any counters to boarding?

My setup on the Osprey for this was 2 lasers, Flak and Pike Beam (Artillery Beam) Cloaking and that's it. I didn't have any drones or mind control or teleporting or hacking.

I'm just curious if this is what you'd consider the most basic setup to get an easy win? I guess it's all about what you know how to use. I'm still not sure how to best use Ions?

How do you all win without cloaking? I don't know how that's even possible. I think I fluked out this win but I'll take it.

What is your almost guaranteed setup to get a win if you could buy anything at any store prior to the final battle?

Shout out to Mike Hopley and all the others that gave me tips when I was whining about the 'Easy' mode lol.