What's the farthest you've gotten with an under-level shield

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Aury
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I got past point juno in nothing more than a mammoth25

Earlier on, I stuck it out in a Class II deflector all the way into maurader territory. Stupid EMP cannons kept frying me though... :P

I beat the iocrym with NO shield too :P (uber piloting skills + megadrive + empty cargo bay - it CAN be done: I saw on the into screen the iocrym fighting an M1 auton and neither was doing anything to the other - the M1 was obviously too weak, and the iocrym couldn't reach the auton w/ short range weapons, but its disintigrator shots kept missing too!)
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digdug
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i'm still trying to beat the Arena with nothing more than a class I.
No success for now :P
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Aury
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digdug wrote:i'm still trying to beat the Arena with nothing more than a class I.
No success for now :P
How far do you get?
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Wound up taking down the Iocrym with I think the Yoroi S500 IIRC...
I've kept the vintage Class V deflector all the way into Ares territory before I finally found a decent replacement in one game.
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In my current game, I just reached Sanctuary using no shields at all.

Of course, I was lucky enough to find 4 Worldship Armour plates in an armoury just after Eridani. I would still be using them, but I found four plates of Transuranic (regen added)
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Song
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I've never used Transuranic armor, so clue me in.....does a +REGEN completely counter the decay, or does it just slow it down?


As for under-level shields....it's surprising just how far you can get with a Monopole deflector. Sung are BAD news to you when you have one, though.


I've also sometimes used a Nephren P25 right up until I can get an ion reflector+ positron reflect, Kaidran (nup, I can't spell it) or Iocrym Veil. Ranx Dreadnoughts tend to kill it pretty fast though.....as do Deimos' and Phobos'.


Wolfy<--How much pre-planning and practise/ attempts did it take before you were able to take the Iocrym with no shields? I've never even thought of trying that....I don't think my laptop would let me even if my piloting skills were up to it... (I can shoot and turn left, and I can thrust forward and turn left, but I can't thrust forward, turn left and shoot all at once. But turning right is fine when I try to shoot and thrust and turn....so that's one good thing at least....)
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Atarlost
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regen indeed cancels out the decay on transuranic armor.
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or 2 patch spiders can keep transuranic at full hp. :D
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digdug wrote:or 2 patch spiders can keep transuranic at full hp. :D
PAtchspiders have a high mortality rate however...
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Shrike wrote:I've never used Transuranic armor, so clue me in.....does a +REGEN completely counter the decay, or does it just slow it down?
Hey! Its another Kiwi!

In answer to your question, I personally use regen nanos, and a patcher arm. My shield is an ion-reflecting trenton (but I've cast my greedy eye on an ion-reflecting shield)

My freighters pretty deadly. I've just installed Dvalins Ion9 at +100% and am raining hot, pointy death on... everyone.
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Song
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Cardinal wrote:
Shrike wrote:I've never used Transuranic armor, so clue me in.....does a +REGEN completely counter the decay, or does it just slow it down?
Hey! Its another Kiwi!

In answer to your question, I personally use regen nanos, and a patcher arm. My shield is an ion-reflecting trenton (but I've cast my greedy eye on an ion-reflecting shield)

My freighters pretty deadly. I've just installed Dvalins Ion9 at +100% and am raining hot, pointy death on... everyone.
Ion reflector + Positron reflect is great against the Ares, but gets owned by Sung. Ion reflector with Particle reflect is great against Sung, but is tricky to use against Ares.....but I quite like them.......I have found both out the hard way.......sadly.

I'm doing some experimenting with shields in the Sapphire currently....using shields I normally wouldn't (same with armor, to a degree)
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For a freighter only option Dwarg Holochroal with a positron relfecting Trenton should be nigh unstoppable with regen nanos, 3 patcher arms, and a hefty enough drive to let you run away when the armor takes enough damage to stop reflecting reliably.
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Cardinal
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Freighter armours of note, working backwards.

Transuranic is tough stuff. I recommend everyone gives it a try at least once. Needs +regen though, so might need planning to make work right. Not particularly resistant to anything, but you can watch your armour meter tick down while you twiddle your thumbs, wondering whether to activate the jump drive, or invoke Domina's Protect power.

Dwarg Holochroal is pretty good, can't be bought but can be plundered in the mid-game. Renders you indestructable against the Sung, but by the time to get Holochroal, the Sung are going to be pussy anyway.

Worldship armour plates. Get them if you can in the early game - sometimes they turn up in an armour shop. You'll be immune to *everything* until about Sanctuary, and it'll save you a device slot and power rods (no shield generater needed!) Use them until something finally stings you, and then a bit afterwards if you're feeling particularly cocky.

Double titanium barricades. Early game option, nice with +50% enhancement (you can look at getting 120hp armour, not bad at all really considering you can usually flog this off a Nomad within the first system or two.


Did I miss anything notable?
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Aury
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Shrike wrote:Wolfy<--How much pre-planning and practise/ attempts did it take before you were able to take the Iocrym with no shields? I've never even thought of trying that....I don't think my laptop would let me even if my piloting skills were up to it... (I can shoot and turn left, and I can thrust forward and turn left, but I can't thrust forward, turn left and shoot all at once. But turning right is fine when I try to shoot and thrust and turn....so that's one good thing at least....)
Whoops! Can't beleive I missed that!

Anyways, I didn't try that experiment until I was already rather good at piloting, and I had to use my desktop (since it has a nice big ergonomic keyboard that allows simultaneous key-pressing in any combiniation in games... unlike my laptop, which tends to get stuck when the arrow keys are pushed in combination too fast...)

So I used titanium plate, lamplighter, actinide, and a 5GW super-efficient reactor (to make refueling a non-issue.
In short, it CAN be done. It's just stupidly hard.
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Song
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Mildly on-topic:

How far i have got with an underleveled *computer*

Image

........although, had the game not crashed a few minutes later, I very much doubt my shield would *not* have been under-levelled for that kind of caper.....8000+ Aquilas........... Tis too much for some computers, BTW.....especially if you then use gems of contrition and start the well-known
chain-BOOM-reaction. Also, if you quit at this point (as I did), your savegame WILL NOT WORK...unsurprisingly.


Next game, i think I'm going to slap a Class III on a Wolfen, with a decent level of armor, and see how far I can get. If it works for the Ranx, it might be fun for me to try....
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