Speedrunning strats

[Xephyr]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's tried to beat the game as fast as possible.

The Wolfen is the obvious playership choice, due to its speed and strongest starting loadout.

Currently I'll consider a run good if I make it to Heretic by the 5 minute mark. St Kat's should be reached shortly after 3 minutes, and you're at the mercy of the RNG to find a gem of despair. More often than not its easy enough to blast a penitent shrine, but sometimes I've had to get them at trading posts when I'm already halfway to Heretic.

The hardest part isn't getting geared up from nothing - its really easy in late systems when Gaian worldships and Ares dreadnaughts are swarming Ringer shipyards. The hardest part is getting Heretic done in a reasonable amount of time. Currently I destroy the Huygens, destroy the Pteravores and let the Svalbard do its thing while I go out to the outer system, and try to get lucky on destroying sentinels around the outposts to get a research ROM.

My very best run was 17 minutes and 30 seconds, which I've since failed to get again. My next best times start at 23 minutes. Keep in mind this is 100% vanilla.

[gunship256]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's tried to beat the game as fast as possible.

The Wolfen is the obvious playership choice, due to its speed and strongest starting loadout.

Currently I'll consider a run good if I make it to Heretic by the 5 minute mark. St Kat's should be reached shortly after 3 minutes, and you're at the mercy of the RNG to find a gem of despair. More often than not its easy enough to blast a penitent shrine, but sometimes I've had to get them at trading posts when I'm already halfway to Heretic.

The hardest part isn't getting geared up from nothing - its really easy in late systems when Gaian worldships and Ares dreadnaughts are swarming Ringer shipyards. The hardest part is getting Heretic done in a reasonable amount of time. Currently I destroy the Huygens, destroy the Pteravores and let the Svalbard do its thing while I go out to the outer system, and try to get lucky on destroying sentinels around the outposts to get a research ROM.

My very best run was 17 minutes and 30 seconds, which I've since failed to get again. My next best times start at 23 minutes. Keep in mind this is 100% vanilla.

That's pretty cool. I wish I were good enough to attempt something like that.

If you've destroyed several sentinels, you should have enough segments of light Iocrym armor to cover your ship and go for the Xenophobe ark. Particle lancers can't hurt that armor, and it's pretty resistant to the ark's thermo weapons too.

Shields aren't super-important in Heretic if you have disintegrate-immune armor, so if you uninstall the shield, Domina's Restore power will bring any damaged segments of light Iocrym armor to 100%.

[gc2]

Interesting, here's a couple of questions:
How powerful is your reactor, and how did you get it?
What weapon do you use to beat the ICS, and how did you get it?
How did you make your first bit of rins to pay for dock services at the Ringer shipyards?

[Xephyr]

How powerful is your reactor, and how did you get it?

This varies from run to run - I keep the stock Nova 10 up until Heretic, and since the Thermo Cannon is only 5MW, and Gaian Worldships like to carry lots of ammo and the cannons, its entirely possible to beat the game without ever upgrading the reactor! Usually, though, I can happen upon enough weapons that are valuable to the Teratons to get a reactor upgrade.

What weapon do you use to beat the ICS, and how did you get it?

Again, this varies between runs; My best run was won with an Ares Plasma Archcannon, from a Phobos that fell victim to a Ringer shipyard. Usually I loot weapons from Ringer kills, because its usually the quickest way to do so.

How did you make your first bit of rins to pay for dock services at the Ringer shipyards?

Fortunately, the dual laser cannon on the Wolfen is powerful enough to take out the Pteravore lairs (which isn't the best strategy, since it is time consuming) so worst case scenario you end up with 6-8k rin from Pteracnium ore alone. Typically though, I rely on Gaian worldships and Ares positron cannons to get that first little bit of rin. Since APCs are repairable by longzhu spheres (100 rin), its a great investment to loot them from wrecks and shipyard defenses.

[gunship256]

I've never tried a speedrun before, but as of 1.6, there seems to be an interesting way to make the game go faster.

When the Korolov base is destroyed at Charon, there is a gift of one of each type of reactor up to and including the Nova-100. When you dock the first time, it offers the Charon base ROM. If you dock again, you can loot the reactors.

Out of curiosity, I just loaded a new game with the G.O.D. mod and gave the ship a Nova-100 reactor and Katana Star Cannon optimized +Fast with a ROM. That setup kills the ICS, though it takes a while. The Mark V, enhanced the same way, also works, though it's even slower. The Katana also has the advantage of being easily looted and repaired using longzhu spheres.

I don't think APC's can be repaired by longzhu spheres in 1.6, although I assume you're using an earlier version to take advantage of the money bug that I read in one of your earlier posts. Is there an energy weapon you prefer to use if you can't get the APC or a matter weapon?

[Xephyr]

I don't think APC's can be repaired by longzhu spheres in 1.6, although I assume you're using an earlier version to take advantage of the money bug that I read in one of your earlier posts. Is there an energy weapon you prefer to use if you can't get the APC or a matter weapon?

Currently using 1.6.1, much to my chagrin because it is significantly slower than earlier versions due to all the new graphics it has to load, hence the new stargate animations to make time to load the systems. Pre-1.0 versions would be the best to run on because Heretic is a much simpler system, but I try to always use the latest version, in vanilla, with permadeath. Needless to say its very capable of filling my spare time.

As for weapons, I cross my fingers and hope for an intact APC, which has only happened once. With fancy enough footwork and patchwork armour I've taken it down with the Katana, but a lot of runs end with just using the good old waterfall cannon.

[gunship256]

OK- that does sound like fun. What's the waterfall cannon? You mean the Ion9?

[Xephyr]

OK- that does sound like fun. What's the waterfall cannon? You mean the Ion9?

Woops, got my Iocrym weapons mixed up. I meant the Fracture cannon.

[gunship256]

Wow - you take down the ICS with that? Do you have to stay behind it and keep shooting?

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

The big Iocrym weapon is the Avalanche cannon.

For reactor-restricted runs your choices are basically thermo, omni thermo, or TM7; supplemented with missiles. Freighter pilots also have access to the Kytryn launcher, lolololol. The stock Wolfen didn't used to be able to run the NAMI heavy launcher (draws 10MW) but with stock reactors as standalone items now the Nova-10 can be enhanced to 12MW which should be just enough to fire it without going into overload. That said, you can't use it and another weapon at the same time and I don't think the damage from the heavy launcher alone is better than an enhanced thermo cannon backed up with something lighter like Red Strelkas or Lucifers.

My reactorless high score (freighter): https://transcendence.kronosaur.com/gam ... zD9cxZk%3d

[Atarlost]

That said, you can't use it and another weapon at the same time and I don't think the damage from the heavy launcher alone is better than an enhanced thermo cannon backed up with something lighter like Red Strelkas or Lucifers.

The best missile damage is going to be either Ares Micronukes (I don't know what that launcher draws off hand and it's not easy to get quickly) or strelkas. I think black will probably do better damage against the ICS, but will make focusing damage impossible. It might be best to carry a mix and swap from black to red when the shields drop.

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

Ares launcher draws 20MW, as does the micronuke cannon (a primary weapon, not a launcher). You're not gonna be able to use the Ares launcher + a primary weapon unless you're in the freighter, with an enhanced reactor, using the TM7 as a primary, and have basically no additional devices. Under extremely rare circumstances you may be able to find a +Efficient launcher but it's NotForSale so I'm not optimistic.

Are micronukes really better than Warhammers?

[Atarlost]

Ares launcher draws 20MW, as does the micronuke cannon (a primary weapon, not a launcher). You're not gonna be able to use the Ares launcher + a primary weapon unless you're in the freighter, with an enhanced reactor, using the TM7 as a primary, and have basically no additional devices. Under extremely rare circumstances you may be able to find a +Efficient launcher but it's NotForSale so I'm not optimistic.

Are micronukes really better than Warhammers?

They used to be the same for a while after 1.0 broke fragmentation I think, but probably not anymore. I tend to forget warhammers exist because micronukes are light and farmable and more than adequate for any normal purpose.

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

Can the launcher and micronuke cannon be fired simultaneously if you have them both installed? They draw from the same ammunition source.

[PM]

Primary and launcher can fire micronukes at the same time. (This is my preferred Sung fleet buster configuration.)