Stealth B is one where you have to pick hacking in the store in sector 2 if you can't find shields. With cloak 3 and hacking 2 you can still instakill most sector 3 ships before they can hurt you. But you want to find shields after that ASAP.
The halbert was indeed the jackpot and the rest has also been quite lucky so this should be an easy run.
As for the event I find it a good gamble because losing a crew member is 20% and you still get back low scrap (7-10) which isn't a horrible deal. Compare it to picking high scrap (19-23) from a slaver over extra crew - it's worse obviously but this is the bad outcome. And the positive ones are great even if you just sell the weapon/drone.
No store in sight and it's also important to upgrade weapons now as there will be enemies with 2 shields, so I'll invest 85 scrap into weapons-5. This will allow the BL2+halbert to be used together and will be enough for any immediate fights. I'd like to get weapons-6 too to add the artemis and have a buffer point but I'll wait with that as there are still cloaking and mind control to purchase, as well as a fourth weapon. Interesting that all fights since I bought the fire bomb have been auto-ships and now we'll be up against the lanius.
I'll still explore around looking for stores so I know whether I've passed them or they are still ahead, although it will take some time before I can go to one. After spending the 85 I'm down to 6 scrap, and need to get at least 1 power bar to have enough for both weapons and both shield bubbles. Now I have enough for only 1 shield bubble so I'll probably need to hack their weapons to buy enough time for the halbert, and it will really help if find a safe fight where I can fire the halbert to train the weapons guy fully.
Beacon 2 (29)
Not the best trade, but I'll take it and upgrade that power bar.
Beacon 3 (30)
Again a trade but this I'll decline. It will only force me into a store before I'm ready and I may not even find one in time. Plus, there may not be enough fuel to buy and the profit would only be 12 scrap.
Turned out that the next planned beacon is a store so it would have been nice to have taken the trade but it is what it is. I'll probably explore along the arrows to maximise scrap before the store and to get the best chance to find the second one.
Beacon 4 (31)
Oh, well. No point trying to visit both stores so I'll circle around one and then head to the exit with the option to bail and take the upper route if I don't get enough scrap for the store.
Beacon 5 (32)
A very serious adversary so hack weapons and be ready to divert power to shields and engines by switching the halbert to artemis and turning off even that momentarily for the counter strike. If they survive the halbert that is
They didn't. The first shot took the shield down and then the halbert took piloting out guaranteeing one more hit.
Beacon 6 (33)
This one wasn't as dangerous and I was fairly low on drone parts and headed to a store so decided not to hack here. The flak did hit weapons but the BL2 managed to fire two shots before that. A little early but the halbert got their weapons a moment before their shield came back online taking the flak down, and then finished them off on the second swipe.
Beacon 8 (35)
Made it to the store with 90 scrap. Too little for cloaking but it's still sector 3 and the backup battery will serve nicely.
I was also tempted to buy the laser charger with the remaining 55 scrap, but it won't come online for a while and I'd rather use the scrap now to repair (from the next sector repairs will be more expensive) and also to buy some fuel. Left the store with 23 scrap, full hull, and 13 fuel.
Beacon 12 (39)
The next 3 beacons were empty and the exit offered a reactor upgrade. Too bad this is still a 20 scrap one and I'm very low on drone parts but I'll take it.
No choice for the next sector - it's rebel controlled.
The nebula looks nice but I'll head upward first to check for a store even if I can't afford it right now.
Beacon 2 (41)
Made a serious miscalculation here thinking that the heavy laser two will fire after the halbert, but luckily it cost me just one heavy laser hit.
Beacon 4 (43)
The missile can cause plenty of trouble if it hits weapons or shields, so hack and halbert. The boarding drone caused 1 damage before I killed them. Interestingly this is the first ship where I could have got a crew kill in 38 beacons since I bought the fire bomb but it was too dangerous.
Beacon 5 (44)
No store in sight and I'm about to head into the nebula so I used 35 out of my 124 scrap to upgrade hacking. Hopefully this doesn't cost me cloaking but the enemies are becoming stronger and this gives me the option to hack through 3 shield bubbles in case the BL2 goes offline.
Beacon 8 (47)
Rather unpleasant and I'd rather have the most reliable focused damage so artemis+BL2 this time and if hacking is still up after their missile hits then hack engines.,The battery will be used for a second shield bubble and be transferred into engines for the missile and then to hacking.
Their leto will hit weapons but we have a 2 point buffer and hacking will be fine.
The plan worked but a beam drone came up...
The BL2 took out the beam drone so I dropped one level of shields as the battery came offline, and was able to repower the artemis. Now I waited for the combat drone to fire, and you can see me bringing down the shields to power hacking. The artemis is already on the way to their drones.
My following volleys missed and their leto came back and scored another point, but I finished them off during the next hack.
Beacon 10 (49)
Another plasma storm search and another weapon - this is indeed a lucky run.
Beacon 11 (50)
A simple fight but I didn't realise that the heavy laser will fire soon enough after the chain laser. Took 2 damage whereas if I had put the pilot in shields, they would have recharged in time.
A great reward but I have just enough jumps to visit all remaining beacons so ignore.
Beacon 13 (52)
Found the store and no cloaking but I'll get mind control. This should make fights much safer by delaying repairs in the weapons room and works very well with the fire bomb. Also got the hull laser 2 as the final weapon - it doesn't leave power for the artemis, but will give me 6 shots and a very high chance to breach. It also means I can keep the fire bomb in the last slot and use it situationally when it's safe.
The second page had a long range scanner and I got it too. Also bought fuel, the 2 drone parts, and repaired to 29 with the rest of the scrap.
Beacon 16 (55)
Reactor upgrade at the exit, which gets me up to 11 bars plus the battery.
Here I'll go with the homeworlds because even though they have an extra dummy beacon (if you don't have an engi), it will give me a choice for the next sector in case the green one is zoltan, and the follow up nebula could also be nice with the LRS. And depending on the play order, it can make sense to buy an engi and try for the quest. But I think I like doing the A->B->C of each ship best and so quest unlocks won't matter.
The only thing left to buy now is cloaking so I'll focus on fights and scrap and not search for stores.
Beacon 2 (57)
Flak 2 is dangerous and the lasers had a chance to score damage, so hacked weapons right after the basic laser fired and the halbert was going to shoot again before the flak even if it hadn't come offline.
Beacon 3 (58)
It was a forced jump to the store unless I backtracked, and then the other stores showed up and couldn't have be positioned in a worse way. The current one has cloaking but no good way to circle back to it and in general there is no good way to collect some scrap, visit a store, and continue to the exit. If I hadn't bought the hull laser 2 I would have had enough for cloaking but also it's quite unexpected to end up in the middle of the stores like this.
Not sure what the best way out of this conundrum is, so will pause here and come back to it later. Btw the store also has an engi so I could buy it and explore as many beacons as possible for the quest, but am still thinking to go A->B->C and then it doesn't matter. There are a couple of other goodies too. BL1 so I could sell the hull laser and buy it with the idea that it will come online sooner and can be used with the artemis. And there is an automated reloader.
Either I suck or the Advanced content really changes the decision making, because there were several times you went left when I would have gone right . Really enjoying the reports, thanks!
When was that? Here at the start of sector 5 I took the fight over the distress beacon because it's guaranteed scrap and I intended to turn left and back. If the forced beacon was a store and had cloaking as turned out to be the case, I though that there would be plenty of time and room to circle and revisit, but didn't expect the 2 other stores to block the sides.
Decided that the most important thing is to pick up cloaking even if that repeats a few beacons. Between selling the artemis and the guaranteed fight it should be doable. I'll follow the red path and then there are a few possible continuations depending on whether the other store also has cloaking and what the reward at the end is. I marked the two main ones with yellow and green arrows, and then I can use the orange connection to get to the exit.
There is also fuel to think about but I have enough to get back to a store so I won't buy yet.
Beacon 4 (59)
No cloaking in the other store but it does add a twist with BL2. Still, cloaking is more important.
Beacon 6 (61)
Since the other store didn't have cloaking we are following the green path. The first beacon wanted to upgrade my oxygen for scrap so no good, but the second gave us this which will be enough (together with the scrap from the guaranteed next fight). We'll also have at least 9 extra scrap so I'll buy 3 fuel when I pass through the store before the next fight.
Beacon 8 (63)
The missile is either hermes or breach. If hermes I don't think there is a certain way to prevent them from firing.
Mind controlled the engi to do 1 damage to weapons, then hacked shields and swiped the halbert from engines to piloting. This also pulled the pilot to repair shields guaranteeing 0 evasion and the BL2 finished them off.
Beacon 9 (64)
Sold the artemis and bought cloaking and the 4 fuel. We now have out final systems and weapons, and just need to upgrade to weapons-8 to use them. Not sure if this was the best way to play it since we lost 3-4 jumps but I'm happy with the end result.
There isn't enough time to get to the exit so we'll have to dive, but we have cloaking and get to visit two extra beacons.
Beacon 11 (66)
Pirate briber. Not particularly scary and hacking medbay so I'll try to do it without hacking to save a drone part.
Cloaked for the missile and mind controlled the pilot to drop evasion for the BL2. Then waited for the third shot to hit to see what happens with their weapons, and since the missile went offline I'm not targeting weapons with the halbert to avoid it coming back up. Killed on the second stoke.
Beacon 12 (67)
Mantis with 2 heavy laser 2s but it's completely not a problem with cloaking. I may even try to crew kill.
Two of the heavy lasers made it past evasion
Mind controlled the pilot to ensure the heavy laser goes down, and the second time targeted just weapons with the halbert to save hull. The BL2 also started a fire and it was an easy crew kill from there.
Beacon 13 (68)
Two mantises in shields. I'll try to flush them to medbay and will cloak the first missile and then possibly hack weapons if it doesn't go down.
Unfortunately the missile remained on so I hacked because the fight could drag on if they hit weapons, and with the hack it's an easy crew kill.
Ready for our first dive. Upgraded to engines-4 and hacking-3 and pre-vented piloting and engines to be able to flush boarders from there faster.
Beacon X (exit dive)
No teleporter but a big missile and BL2 so hack to disable and cloak the ABS. We didn't take any damage.
Next I'll go with the mantis because we don't need stores and it's safer and easier to crew kill. Also, if the green sector 7 is zoltan it will be much better to go to the nebula instead.
(February 20th, 2025, 23:32)thrawn Wrote: Decided that the most important thing is to pick up cloaking even if that repeats a few beacons.
I would not have done this - virtually never repeat a beacon, and absolutely never three. There will be more stores later. Use the scrap for your third shield bubble instead in the meantime - that's a perfectly good use of it too.
Are you playing on normal or hard difficulty? On normal you can get away with flaws like that, on hard you can't.
. Really enjoying the reports, thanks!
