Seeking advice: rebuild after discovering many for the first time

[Komeiji]

Hi everyone, new player here working on my first win.

Like many I planned to go the Farcom flight hacker build. But during my current run I had stumbled on many mystries and the plan was blown out of the question.

Basically I misidentifies exits in -10/mine and got into subcaves. After discovering scraptown and dataminer for the first time, unfortunally I had to go through a core purge and tried to rebuild in -5/factory.

I was able to fabricate two sentries, and got some hovering units. Due to incoming assault, I dived into the caves and lost my sentries in fight. Now I come near an exit and my intel gives me another exit to Warlord (which I had never gone before).

Is it worth it to go to warlord area? I don't want to spoil the game too much but I do want to know my survivability of further exploring the caves and in the Warlord area.

Also, rolling with everything happened, I think I can rebuild into a hovering gunner/hacker. Is it a good strategy forward?

Current position screenshot and scoredump is attached below. Any advice is much appreciated!

[Kyzrati]

Diving into the caves was a good idea, and you should generally explore branches you haven't been to when you get the chance so you learn more about what's possible, in other words sure go ahead and check out Warlord--getting close already!

That said... your lack of storage is a big issue here, so too bad you didn't resolve that before leaving Factory (even just take something from Recycler/Hauler).
You won't be able to as easily capitalize on what you'll find out there, but you will indeed be able to get some good stuff. Main issue will be getting back through the caves to the complex afterward. I will say that Warlord is an excellent opportunity to rebuild into something else, as you'll see...

Hover in particular is the toughest play style, so sticking with it will be challenging, but if you try to avoid or outrun everything you can and only engage in necessary fights it can work out (it's a very powerful play style, just requires more expertise to not quickly lose your build in the wrong scenario). Warlord will give you opportunities to switch if you play it right.

[CaptainWinky]

Visiting these new areas is well worth it even if you die in the process.  You will get a ton of lore and advice at Warlord just like you did in Scraptown and that advice helps in future runs.  W himself might not be directly helpful and will explain why, but because you visited Data Miner you should have a way to easily access something good on this map.  What you find there is mostly random but could help with your build goal.

The lack of storage is an issue, but depending on what that protection is in the item cache above it might be worth dropping something like the orange tesla rifle or target analyzer for more armor.  With no spare hover, you want plenty of spare armor as a swap for the terrain scanner so that you can keep your hover alive for longer.  You might be able to recover a storage unit from a Packrat if there are any on this caves map, but the neutral bots' parts tend to be in poor condition so it's only a short term solution.

[Komeiji]

Thanks for all your replies! I'll definitely have a try to go to the new area, then. It never hurts when I already got (and lost) many new toys anyway.

I'm kinda feeling the pain of lacking storage and I tend to forget I can salvage from green bots, definitely will take note there.

There are so much more to learn and enjoy, and hopefully I can post my first winning run soon! Thank you all again 

[Komeiji]

Some update: This run ends at -3/research, destroyed by programmer squad.

Post mortem thoughts:

Spoiler

- The warlord room had a lot of toys to play. But only storage I can found was Humpsacks(!). I managed to salvage some wheels from warzone at front door and get out with as much as I can find.

- The assault squard left many good hovering units on the ground, which helped a lot.

[close]

- The big mistake I made was decided to get 1x weapon slot upon entering -4/fac. With the energe and heat requirements of my hovering units I cannot support firing 4 weapons anyway.

- Another problem is lack of enemy intel. In the hindsight I probably can salvage a seismic sensor from green bots. Peeking out on corridor blind, I got caught in a cargo convoy and had to dive into whatever exit nearest without many hacking in -4.

- While I already got exit intel to -2, I completely forget about that due to busy balancing my heat and weight (that extra weapon slot!), and finally got caught in group of programmers.

After all I got many new lore to read and I hope next time I can get better results.

[Kyzrati]

Nice job making it back from the caves, though yeah a 4th weapon slot wouldn't make sense for hover--would need to switch to ground prop for that. And by the time you reach Research, intel does become super important.

Definitely salvage greens as much as you need to, they have a lot of useful essentials as you can see

Getting jump scared by unexpected convoys is scary xD

[R-26 Lightspeed]

My advice for (re)building flight/hover is to get all the parts, including infowar parts and a Storage Unit ready, then switch to them at a moment where you're not in danger.

I like to play flight and i haven't yet done my first hover run, so i can't really say much more for hover, but i can say a lot more about flight.
Spoiler tagged in case you don't want my general flight strategy.

Spoiler

When without FarCom (or when planning to go to caves), you'll usually want a decent sensor array and at least an Imp. Signal Interpreter. (You can find them most easily by destroying Watchers.)
Signal Jammers are very useful in general, but mostly when near Watchers.
Personally, i like to use cloaking devices to make it more likely that i'll sense enemies before they can see me, though those usually costs a lot of energy to maintain, so i'll likely only use them for a few turns at a time, at least near the start of the game.
I also like to use Visual Processing Units/Optical Arrays to do more or less the same thing without the high energy cost,
by first moving away from where i want to go, to be able to see what i might've been unable to sense, while also being far enough away that regular enemies can't spot me. This allows me to move into open places without fear of suddenly moving into a hostile's sight range.

For Storage Units, i recommend taking the heaviest one that you could still support after bad luck.
For example, if you're using a Hcp. Storage Unit, but you can only support it because you have a Gravity Neutralizer, then you should have at least one of the following :
-A backup Gravity Neutralizer;
-An Imp/Exp. Utility Shielding; (Useful in general, for example to protect your Sensor Array)
-A lighter Storage Unit, so that you could switch to it if you need to;
This is true for other things as well. You need to either be prepared for bad luck, or have ways to prevent it from happening in the first place.

For weaponry, i like having a low-mass melee weapon (great for quick digging and destroying green bots), and maybe a melee Datajack too if you can (if you know how to use it, i mean).
You'll also want to keep a launcher (for swarmers) and the best single-slot thermal cannon you can find (for digging) in your inventory.
You don't need to be able to support their mass, since you should only need them equipped while stationary.
My favorite launcher is the Smartbomb Launcher. It's two slots, but it's great for dealing swarmers without letting them get the opportunity to attack. Used right, you can destroy most bots with it, including Behemoths!

Also, keep an eye on your matter. I tend to use a lot just by switching items, so i often have to refill by destroying Recyclers (or other green bots).

[close]

[Komeiji]

Thanks again for all your advice! I'm thrilled to report that I just got my first w0 on my new run!

Spoiler

Much luck was involved in that one, so thank Exiles (especially BIN for the mighty Flying Fortress v7), Warlord and the RNGesus for letting me win! On -1 my build was nearly broken but stumbled into the exit from the opposite side of Behemoth guards, when fleeing pass war zone between Derelicts and 0b10.

[close]

You need to either be prepared for bad luck, or have ways to prevent it from happening in the first place.

Definitely take note here.

For weaponry, i like having a low-mass melee weapon (great for quick digging and destroying green bots), and maybe a melee Datajack too if you can (if you know how to use it, i mean).
You'll also want to keep a launcher (for swarmers) and the best single-slot thermal cannon you can find (for digging) in your inventory.
You don't need to be able to support their mass, since you should only need them equipped while stationary.
My favorite launcher is the Smartbomb Launcher. It's two slots, but it's great for dealing swarmers without letting them get the opportunity to attack. Used right, you can destroy most bots with it, including Behemoths!

Also, keep an eye on your matter. I tend to use a lot just by switching items, so i often have to refill by destroying Recyclers (or other green bots).

Yeah, I had some bad moments about using up all matter. gonna avoid 'tunnel vision' on current fight without noting matter, heat and surroundings. As for Smartbomb Laucher, I had only seen it in game once and that was fun. Hope I can play with that toy more since I'm now free from worrying too much about not sticking to the easiest winning plan.