Marooned in St K's

[The Wicked Flea]

The best game I've had so far has practically ended already.

The first few levels were wrought with hunting down enemies and selling their goods. Following closely on the heels was mining through the mining laser I found and then with some experimental mining grenades I put together. I made almost 30k until I hit the system two hops back from St K's: Z7--something. There were suddenly Viking II's and Barbary's in packs hunting me, accompanied by a few Marauder platforms and even a few missile ships. This wasn't a problem, not hugely so, because of my ship configuration:
Std Sapphire Ship
4 ablative blast plates; 60, laser immune, blast-thermo resist
1 Solon Shield generator (laser immune)
1 Missile system (custom in a larger mod I'm working on)
Shuriken Blaster
50 MW reactor
Tritium propulsion

I was slowly getting chewed up by the assortment of ships for awhile as teh EMP took periodic effect. At least, that was until the Sung came in with particle weapons that killed me lickety-split! My primary weakness on my shields and armor was particle damage. Because I was loathe to permit this to happen I resurrected. I repeated this three times. Worst yet, the second to last time I bought a Yuri100 to try and increase my survivability. My Shuriken kept getting disabled, leaving me to try and chew them all down with my missiles.

Eventually I get through and escape to the next system. Can you guess which it was? CHARON!! Not to mention the 6 strongholds and the 1 fortress I was totally outmatched without a 75MW reactor. I quickly deflected some of the attack and retreated to St K's to prevent my death.

Now I'm stuck with the equipment I listed and only 10k in the bank. I can't think of any way to make money and until I find a way I am doomed. My reactor has decent lasting power because I have fuel. But, at the same time, my weapons and shields are really chugging down the power.

What is your advice? I'm not too optimistic here...

(Edit: I made more money, but I'm topping out at 17K here.)

[Sponge]

There's nothing good to buy in St. Ks? The next level up of Yoroi shield (And maybe even the one you have now) should be able to handle Charon. That's a good source of cash. You also mentioned you have a mining laser- any asteroids in St. Ks?

[The Wicked Flea]

I ditched it for that Shuriken unfortunately. Also, as I've noticed here in the forums and the game itself only the red colored asteroids are mineable and St K's is chok full of white asteroids.

Nothing is very good to buy in St K's... only one weapon's dealer and stock at Rassermeir and the CommonWealth station is poor. I just don't have the power to support my present weapon so I might have to strip it and start over there.

[Sponge]

Yeah, that's a big weapon for 50MW. I'm usually still using an Omni Turbolaser for a few systems after St. Ks. If you can pick one up, I suggest doing so. An upgrade or two and you have a decent omni weapon that uses VERY little power. As I said, that Yoroi should be able to keep you alive for some time in Charon against laser weapons. Stay next to the gate, and avoid the missiles. Jump out if you're about to start taking damage. Loot and repeat.

[The Wicked Flea]

WAAAAY back when I discovered a Quantum CPU ... which I installed and disabled just in case. Well I just uncovered a quantum datacube that enhanced my shields to 120 HP. That was nice until the Fortress of the Charon Pirates waxed me good.

This game has just been crazy. Nothing particularly good, just somehow I made it up here with decent stuff. Buying the Shuriken was a huge mistake, and I'll definitely grab an omni-turbo if I can find it. Usually I opt for the weapon efficiency upgrade (+fast ) but boosters and a laser collimator helps me live longer with the freighter.

Particle damage was the only threat to my ship, which was nice for a change, but the fortress has some 4 omni particle cannons that just shred me to pieces! Usually all I get is a targetting ROM from Korolov, but I had that in the 3rd system.

I think I'll just start over instead of resurrect again.

[Frumple]

It's a little (well, incredibly, really) cheap, but there's a pretty easy way to take out the pirate fortress (or almost any station, for that matter) if it's really giving you a headache -- providing you have an omni weapon of some sort, that is.

What'cha do is find a decently sized rock (planets work just fine, too), park yourself either on top of it or just behind, and scoot forward untill your shots are just barely going past the edge of the rock. With an omni-weapon and a lock on the station, you can position yourself so that the station's guns are hitting the rock instead of you and you're whittling away at its health. Might take a bit, but if you're sitting on top of the rock, you can usually just hold down fire and turn autopilot on, safely hidden from pretty much all enemy fire.

Simple, effective, and very, very, cheap.

[Petrus]

Why don't you just go past Charon and get some better shields? There are probably going to be things in the next system that you can kill without much trouble. If worse comes to worse just start taking out black market stations.

[The Wicked Flea]

I wish it was that simple. My problem was the reactor wasn't strong enough to power my weapons, and those weapons weren't omni either. So I attacked, overloaded the reactor and disabled my primary and would have to fall back to rockets as I retreated. I had the Yoroi S100 +20HP, a Shuriken Neutron Blaster, (later) a Flenser Relativistic Cannon, plus a Tritium Drive Upgrade all on a 50MW reactor!

It was a mess so I started a new game. :s

[Cardinal]

I've found that a great way to preserve money in the early game is to install solar armour, don't know if that will help you much though.

[Fossaman]

I'm pretty sure that the white asteroids do very rarely have ore...just lower grade and less frequently than grey or red ones.

[FAD]

I'm pretty sure that the white asteroids do very rarely have ore...just lower grade and less frequently than grey or red ones.

This be true. Usually not worth mining but only in a pinch.

As for needing money for a reactor (before Charon or St. K's) , there's always the arena...and a convenient Shipyard in that system too. You should be able to earn enough to get that 100MW reactor there. With that rig that you had, it would have been a breeze pecking off all those contenders in the arena.

[OddBob]

I encounter this situation pretty often and there's a mild to moderately risky way to get some cash (even without a shield). Hop on into the next system and see if there is a black market. Grab a smugglers hold there and buy all the drugs you can afford. Sell them at the Victorian in St. K's. Repeat.

Slavers are the only threat you can't outrun (and when I say this i mean anything else will take too long to catch up - you'll be at the gate or the market before they get close - the danger is the return trip - you're hoping the system layout is such that the spawns are at your back most of the time), and thankfully they aren't generated in horde amounts - hit sustain and run to the black market/other friendly station and then let them take them out. If something spawns out a gate you're approaching you just have to gun it through them and hope you don't die. That's the moderate part.

Anyway, if you got no luck in the first system, the next two PROBABLY don't have really tough enemies (comparatively) - although if there are no CW stations the trip gets increasingly longer.

[Cardinal]

I'm pretty sure that the white asteroids do very rarely have ore...just lower grade and less frequently than grey or red ones.

This be true. Usually not worth mining but only in a pinch.

It's certainly harder to find ore in them, but I don't think the grade is any worse. I just got a few tons of Duralloy out of one. I don't remember ever having mined titanium out of one.

Edit: Just now I mined a large white asteroid and pulled 66 tonnes of Palladium Ore, and 1 ton of Gold ore. Not to bad a haul from one asteroid.

[Ttech]

I'm pretty sure that the white asteroids do very rarely have ore...just lower grade and less frequently than grey or red ones.

This be true. Usually not worth mining but only in a pinch.

It's certainly harder to find ore in them, but I don't think the grade is any worse. I just got a few tons of Duralloy out of one. I don't remember ever having mined titanium out of one.

Edit: Just now I mined a large white asteroid and pulled 66 tonnes of Palladium Ore, and 1 ton of Gold ore. Not to bad a haul from one asteroid.

One of the red ones I got 5 tons of Gold or (2x on 2 diff astroids) and a bunch of other ore types that the ringers loved.