Not Gonna Believe This...

[FAD]

In an unmodded game, I managed to go all the way to Heretic using the Invincible-class shield! A level VI shield at that! Man, I knew that shield was good, but with a lot of care and tactic-and of course, powerful weapons as well, it can be done....and in the freighter to boot!

The shield was enhanced 20% (level VI shields can't use diamond crystals to boost it up 150%.) Primary weapons consisted of Omnidirectional Ion Blaster and Omnidirectional Thermo cannon (both enhanced 25%). Armor was Dwarg Holochroal Armor enhanced 50% - upping it to 300 HP. Supporting the armor was one patch spider.
Also installed was the 1GW reactor, CPU, ICX and the 100 MW military-grade thruster.

With this setup, I went up against the Ares 4-5 to 1 many times and never lost shields to them. Even the ever-changing Luminous had a hard time trying to bring that shield down. Switching between my Ion and Thermo took care of them nicely.
Even ran across a few worldships that took out the Corporate cruiser and they couldn't bring that shield down... Of course, I kept at a distance and dodged the incoming while never letting off of that Ion trigger until they fell. Took a loooong time too.
I did, however, loose shields one time to a cyberdeck: LowerShields hit. Now you know why my armor of choice was the Dwarg Holochroal, as it reflects particle. That armor took a pounding while I was disabled and held tight against the Sung. Miner damage that the spyder was happy to take care of.

As for the big finale, I swapped weapons to the QAC and Dwarg Cnidocyst cannon then made my jump. Upon jumping into Heretic I was immediately attacked by those tiny micro-greenies. That told me that my Invincible-class shield had reached its limit, I'd never survive against that big guy waiting at the other end of that system if those little greenies could deplete my shields that fast.
So I safely jumped back through the gate and docked at a Ringers shipyard and installed a Mammoth 100 I had in reserve in the hold. Enhanced up to 750 HP (can't order bulk items anymore) with a shield power cube and a few diamond crystals I'd found along the way, I jumped back through to Heretic and finished...

But, at least the Invincible-class shield, which kept me safe throughout that journey got to see the last system before having to put it to rest.

[dvlenk6]

I've beaten the Iocrym in 0.97a with a boosted Invincible.
Freighter
Dwarg Holochoral Armor, 1GW Reactor, Titan 440 Fusion Drive, ICX. Patch Spider
Omni Ion Blaster, Fusionfire Howitzer <- replaced before Heretic with QAC.

I kind of cheated . I sat on the planet and left the Disintegrator Spheres run out, then just floated along ahead of the Iocrym and pounded it to death with the QAC.

[goat not sheep]

I believe i went in an unmodded game with that shield that recharges that those hurin destroyers ues.

[Yugi]

It's called the Superconducting Shield.

[FAD]

Darn! I never thought about using the planet as a safe harbor until those spheres ran out. But, I still have the game saved in Heretic...

Hey Dvlenk, looks like we used pretty much the same setup. I had (and kept) the Fusionfire along with the omni Ion blaster until the Luminous got heavy. Then I removed the Fusionfire and installed the omni thermo to counter them.

Now I'm gonna havta try that superconducting shield against the Iocrym as well. I've used it before (not in Heretic) but didn't care about having to keep feeding it coils while at the same time trying to hit the target. But it looks like a good challenge.

[Fossaman]

When you say 'attacked' by the little greenies, do you mean that they actively swarmed you, or that you just had a lot of damage on passing through them?

[FAD]

If you were to sit there long enough, they'll swarm and continuously hit ya. Although I did make a break to get out of them as soon as the jump was complete, by the time I was clear my shields were down from 108 to 80 HP within a matter of seconds.