How do I proceed from here?

[JohnBWatson]

Killing the ICS is possible with almost any level 8 weapon. Killing the lobsters before they trash the stations requires one of the level 9 or 10 fuel hogs or a well enhanced ammo weapon unless you manage to rush the missions before the lobsters start arriving.

The Lamplighter and APC are what I've used for that. Both reasonably easy to acquire, too.

And both draw too much power to use with a top end shield on a Koshiba 500.

The Lobsters target the stations and have awful range. There's no need for an excessively powerful shield.

[Ultimate Chicken]

I'm sorry to say, you won't be able to complete every mission before the lobsters start arriving. This is where you need a Titan or Megadrive just to get to the scene of attacks before they reach'em. In a pinch you can safely ignore stations you already completed the missions for, but you WILL want to keep some stations alive at least. Because once everything dies, they start going for YOU.

As for the Koshiba, you can make it go further by using about 30+ Heliothorpe Fuel on it. It's the last reactor in the game that can be enhanced this way - the only way to improve the Gigawatt is by Domina's grace. <_<'

Killing the ICS is easier if you helped the Antarctica. And even brainlessly easier if you are in Domina's good graces and you have some of her powers. You don't even need to reach max level, just enough to learn Defend.

As for fuel, if you still have enough Reactor Assemblies you can donate them in 15s... I think... to the Sisters of Domina. You should get a different message other than "good intentions" if you do this correctly; every time you get this message you can use Pilgrim's Aid to refuel your ship (or Repair, or Contemplate for a random useful effect, but refuel is the most important...). This works on a credit system. Useful if you're affected by the Commonwealth Navy fuel glitch.

(Helium3s can also be used... in 20-30s IIRC)

Hurins, Ventari and Ares capships drop Petracnium Fuel. Hurins drop a TON and are less dangerous to fight than the other 2 (more annoying due to instant regen, but less dangerous nontheless). If you want to keep friendly with the Hurin, don't worry, EVERYONE in the game loves to "accidentally their whole ships". While they're still red, you can lead them on a merry chase to friendly stations, and let them score kills for you. :3

Solar Armor - really not advisable late game, but you can make a 4 Solar Armor + 1 Panel Array work as long as all your equipment takes less than... 200-250MW around while you're idle (otherwise, you still drain even when you are on top of a Sun). It's hard to find a cheap shield setup that will last you to the end of the game however... while there are decent shielding that take 150MW or less, they do crack easily late game.

If you're really fast on your fingers you can use the Superconducting Shield Generator. It has 0 Crack recovery time in exchange for no regen. The aforementioned Hurins drop TONS of the coils, which instantly recharge the shield to full from whichever state its in.

There's also the R9, 400HP for 150MW, tho only its early game resists are good.

I don't like the Trenton unless you have a reliable way of repairing your armor, but if you do, the only thing you need to be concerned about is you do need disintegration protection at one point in the game.

The Invincible is great IF you can get it improved to +50% AT LEAST. Anything less is not really desirable by Jiang - I found the Huari final mission nearly unplayable with just +20% on. This is because once it cracks it EMPs your ship and leaves you helpless - even through Domina powers.

There are pretty good weaponry that won't even take more than 20MW, all of which are unfortunately ammo based. The best ones are by far the Micronuke Cannon (Launcher preferred, but its easier to obtain the Cannon so you can use that as a stop-gap), the Akan 30 (600 preferred as its Omni, but the 600 version is milspec), and believe it or not, the humble NAMI Launcher.

Ares are Micronuke pinatas once you find Communes, Ranx Akan shells are dropped so often that the game SPAMs you with them, and the NAMI Launcher's most powerful missile is the Lucifer - does MORE damage than an unupgraded Fusionfire with the same range, and has the Stiletto's homing property. Brittania Gunships are armed with Lucifers and they are plentiful in armories around Jiang's if you need to buy them on your military ID or Black Market discount :3

The Thermocannon (Omni preferred) is ok too, but the pinatas for Thermocannon ammo are horrendously hard to take down without high power weaponry and patience.

The Qianlong Archcannon (8MW) is the cheapest antimatter weapon to run by far, although you will need to conquer a pretty challenging questpath to get it and it uses valuable Dragonballs (>_>) to run. It does about the same damage as the Lamplighter IIRC, and you get it much earlier in the game.

[Atarlost]

None of these belong in the Beginner's Luck subforum. Keeping any but the most powerful shields up late game is not for beginners. Relying on an ammo weapon as primary is not for beginners. The superconducting shield and quianlong are not for beginners. Swapping your whole loadout for the first part of Heretic and then back for the ICS instead of buying a better reactor is not for beginners.

The simplest, most straight forward way to play the game is to upgrade your reactor as soon as the right kind of fuel is showing up as loot (because bigger reactors are usually also more efficient), get the best armor you can with a focus on ion effect immunity, get some way of repairing armor since stations won't repair badly damaged armor (I forget the threshold) but patches and stuff will, get a weapon that doesn't require you to track an additional resource for general use, and avoid stuff that requires extra button pressing like the plague. Advanced or challenge stuff should not be dumped on new players asking for help.

[catfighter]

...get some way of repairing armor since stations won't repair badly damaged armor (I forget the threshold) but patches and stuff will...

I believe the threshold is 25% health.

If cargo space becomes an issue and you don't want to lug around a bunch of armor patches, tinkers can build you a nifty little repair device that barely drains any power. Another option for keeping armor going is an external device called a patch spider, although it can be damaged if your shield goes down.

[Atarlost]

...get some way of repairing armor since stations won't repair badly damaged armor (I forget the threshold) but patches and stuff will...

I believe the threshold is 25% health.

If cargo space becomes an issue and you don't want to lug around a bunch of armor patches, tinkers can build you a nifty little repair device that barely drains any power. Another option for keeping armor going is an external device called a patch spider, although it can be damaged if your shield goes down.

Those fall under "and stuff," but you're probably right that they deserve specific mention. I find patch spiders more trouble than they're worth, but repair kits become farmable in the mid-late game because Ranx gunships carry them so at that point there's no need to hoard them. You can just dump them for higher value loot in the knowledge that you can always get more as long as you've left a ranx station alive. That's also when the patcher arm starts to approach its limits.

[PM]

I prefer patch spiders over patcher arm for two reasons: One, I usually have no more device slots by mid to late game. (I usually play Wolfen.) Two, they can repair armor over level 10, great after I find Iocrym armor. The only not too obvious thing about patch spiders is spiders getting damaged when taking hits on armor. Otherwise, they are not too hard for newbies. Even I used them during my first few playthroughs, and I liked them because of their slotless nature.

[catfighter]

I prefer patch spiders over patcher arm for two reasons: One, I usually have no more device slots by mid to late game. (I usually play Wolfen.) Two, they can repair armor over level 10, great after I find Iocrym armor. The only not too obvious thing about patch spiders is spiders getting damaged when taking hits on armor. Otherwise, they are not too hard for newbies. Even I used them during my first few playthroughs, and I liked them because of their slotless nature.

Exactly: drive + shield + cargo upgrade + (mid-game) solar panels + launcher + guns (and sometimes + Quantum CPU) and then I get desperate for some way to repair in the middle of combat if I'm hoarding ammo, and even Point Juno can't repair light Iocrym plate.

I don't know what the max armor level for regenerating nanos is, but I've used them up through the Omsk series of armor as a substitute.

[josh19967]

Exactly: drive + shield + cargo upgrade + (mid-game) solar panels + launcher + guns (and sometimes + Quantum CPU) and then I get desperate for some way to repair in the middle of combat if I'm hoarding ammo, and even Point Juno can't repair light Iocrym plate.

I don't know what the max armor level for regenerating nanos is, but I've used them up through the Omsk series of armor as a substitute.

Regenerating nanos CAN be used on light Iocrym plate (at least last time I checked), but it's WAY too slow to be worthwile. I'd keep a stack of repair kits/patches for that.

[PM]

The +Regen mod on armor regenerates 1 hp every 30 seconds, five times slower than the slowest armor repair from armor repair devices (patcher arm, spiders, Novaya device) or builtin armor regen (Duralloy or powered armor), which is 1 hp every 6 seconds if regen is set to 1.

+Regen is a convenience mod, so that you do not need to micromanage spiders every time Iocrym or other armor takes a few points of scratch damage.

[Ihlosi]

None of these belong in the Beginner's Luck subforum.

Well, the caption of the forum is "Ask any question about playing and surviving in the Transcendence universe. ". As long as I haven't managed to complete the game, I'll consider myself a beginner. And I don't really see a forum for more advanced gameplay-related questions.

I noticed that mining during the early game is significantly less lucrative than it used to be. The asteroids in the early systems only contain one or two tons of ore (though sometimes high-level ore, which wasn't the case in earlier versions). I've started to skip my early-game mining runs.

Is it no longer possible to install defective weapons to repair them with the appropriate weapon enhancement? I remember that I used to be able to install e.g. a defective x-ray laser, pop in a laser amplifier and it'd work again.

[Ultimate Chicken]

Yeah, nobody wants to mount defectives for.... 10+ versions now, except for armor slabs - and even for armor slabs, the moment you try to remove anything at 25% and below in a hangar, it gets removed from the game.

PS: Amatuer or not, I'm not too iffy about recommending ammo based weapons where the launcher and ammo are trivial to find. It's easier to keep track of your cargo hold and ammo count than it is to make sure your L8+ weapon/shield combo doesn't instantly switch off the moment you take some damage while firing. >_>'

(Also, take note that a common newbie mistake is to upgrade to Koshiba or Hyperion before realizing that half the stations out there can no longer refuel you. <_<)

[Ihlosi]

My last game seems to be going pretty well.

I have visited (and ROM-mapped ... it's an odd compulsion of mine) all systems except for Heretic. Right now, I have an omni ion blaster and the +50% Akan 600 from Dvalin, and a plasma torch. I'm still using a somewhat (+20%) enhanced Invincible-class shield and Koshiba reactor. The systems I'm working on right now have the first Luminous assembler, and the shield is starting to feel a bit ... lacking.

As far as missions go, I've done the militia missions, so I'm a colonel now. I've dropped off some things at Dvalin's lab, too.

So, could I technically grab a suitable weapon and shield and go fight the ICS? Or should I do more of the missions first?

[JohnBWatson]

Plasma torch and omni ion blaster won't be effective against the ICS. The former is too short range to be effective, and the latter is heavily resisted and lacks WMD damage. At the very least, get a MK V howitzer and enhance it a few times. Also, you'll want a point defense weapon(either the cannon or the ICX, both work).

In addition, you may want a better shield. It probably won't matter, but getting the Invicible's stun effect during the fight with the ICS is certain death.

[josh19967]

I've actually beaten the ICS with an IM90... just fly around in circles and avoid the sentinels as they pop out...

[sun1404]

The IM90 is the best weapon for those with patience. Three independent omni ion cannons, with respectable range and damage (when summed up). As an omni weapon it allow the most flexible fighting style, you can dodge and swerve all you want and the shots will still hit. You can even flee the battle while still shooting the enemy. It's not as devastating as an APA, or the Fusionfire, but it's certainly worth it's level 10 label. Even nerfed as it is.