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Author Topic: The Gunslinger run, and my first attempt at Extended Cogmind  (Read 7050 times)

Kyzrati

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The Gunslinger run, and my first attempt at Extended Cogmind
« on: December 19, 2018, 02:21:04 AM »

Just finished the run that's been the subject of my Twitch channel for the past month, and it's been quite the epic journey! You can find all four relevant streams archived on YouTube, linked below. (The latter two/second half is also far more SPOILERY than any runs I've done in the past.)

I wasn't planning on doing a writeup for this run, hence the lack of summaries for previous streams, but it was quite a memorable run so may as well do a written rundown here as well :D

Part 1



The stated goal of this run was to focus on a gunslinger build, i.e. doing damage purely by multiple guns and nothing else, being able to hit multiple targets with a single volley. So I went with 4 weapon slots early on, and chose legs as my propulsion.

The early game was easy, as usual, and I came out of it with a lot of Cld. Pulse Rifles, which really carried well through the middle game (being able to augment them with a Particle Charger helped, too :P).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I got the Gunslinger achievement on dropping into the Lower Caves on -6, where a squad of Swarmers were waiting in ambush and I took out three in a single volley :D

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Originally this was going to be an all-out combat run, but ended up finding a few infowar utilities and I kept attaching more and more, so ended up doing "smart combat" instead, equipped with both an interpreter and scan processor, and swapping in a sensor array and terrain scanner when not in combat. (These lasted the entire run, until I tossed them at the very end when they were no longer necessary.)

This is the latest shot I have of Part 1, before heading into the caves to seek out Warlord, part of my long-term plan. I wanted to get help from both R17 and Warlord for this run, to both trivialize Research and also be able to farm some good gun parts from Executioners.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(^At that point I was lamenting the fact that I had not yet earned the Gun Specialist achievement, because if I wasn't going for that I would have gladly and immediately attached four prototype slashing weapons! Instead they were left behind...)

Part 2



Part 2 was all about setting up the alliances, starting with Warlord. Here we're making our escape, although after this shot instead decided to go around the back exit, which was to the north.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Made it to the exit just in time. More enemy reinforcements incoming...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Extension was on the next depth, which meant rescuing A7, building the E. Grunts, and clearing out all of the Cetus guards to make way for our... other friend.

And for combat bots, facing the CGs means getting stocked up on some nice OOD gear, so from this point on (through the end of the run) we were on treads. This is the end of Part 2, as we entered Research:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Part 3 (mostly spoilers!)



With friends tearing the place up, -3/Research was easy, and we entered Quarantine, aiming for The Bounty! This is not an in-game thing, mind you, but Cogmind player MTF challenged me to take down an Alpha 7, and originally we were going to do that in Testing where one is guaranteed, but lo and behold, just inside the Q entrance we came across a dormant Alpha 7! (of course guarding some top-notch loot--an ST, which will come in handy later ;))

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Took it down with the Com. HERF Cannon brought for that purpose (well, HERF cannons are good to carry around at any time for the purposes of taking down almost any bots xD).

So MTF honored his bounty and purchased four copies of Cogmind to hand out, which is much appreciated, thank you MTF! (MTF said he might do this for some future streams, who knows)

Having all that infowar on top of good combat gear made it much easier to pick fights and safely explore Quarantine for its goodies, which included a Core Reset Matrix that was applied in order to identify and locate all the artifacts.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

With help from Warlord (who sadly died rather early while facing down a bunch of squads on his own), we ripped apart -2/Research. (Almost hacked GM even, but didn't have a Datajack and couldn't find one on short notice :/) The farming goal was definitely achieved, here having an Exp. Targeting, Exp. Target Analyzer, and several Helican Railguns, which are amazing KI weapons.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Lots of nice other loot, too (these treads lasted through the end of the run).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Since we owned Research, that made the branches at that depth much more enticing, so into Testing we went...

And in an amazing stroke of luck, we quickly found not one but two rewirable protovariants! Unbelievable.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well, by this point we've also got Tesla launchers and both SHELL and AEGIS, which together make you practically unstoppable if you play your cards right, so the stream decided we should head into Section 7, which I've personally never been to on any run before, on or off stream. So this outta be interesting...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

From here on out, the Sigix Broadsword was also an MVP. A regenerating weapon that also shields other parts from lots of damage is great, and often times I was using it to just slash enemies to death rather than firing guns (having by this point finally earned that Gun Specialist achievement!).

Also worth mentioning here is that Zyalin did some great art while watching the stream, drawing my build, with a twist:

Quote from: Zyalin
This is Bounty-Bot-7, made up from a recycled sentry core. Upgraded by the powerful KYZ-Guidance-Unit for real-time insider knowledge, and comes with a Backseat-Mounted MTF-Combat suite for maximum bounty potential.



Oh right, upon entering S7 (where the stream ended), we immediately happened upon an Integrity Redistributor, which is absolutely amazing when you've got a lot of very valuable parts, but they've seen some wear and tear.

So all those good parts are now topped off:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Part 4 (mostly spoilers!)



Well this part didn't go to plan any more than the end of Part 3, in a good way ;)

Section 7 loot wasn't great, but still decent enough and worth the trip. Picked up a pair of integrated dissipators so I didn't need to use any cooling parts, and also a second Integrity Redistributor for later.

Not much else worth mentioning there since I didn't go into the more dangerous deeper zone. I might've done that if I could place a slip node, but I left those behind earlier on, thinking I wouldn't need them (since there was no plan to visit S7, where one can come in especially handy).

I did have a stroke of nice luck when I purged alert 4 times out of 5, starting with a 30% chance on the first! Beta 7.2 machine hacking FTW ;) (didn't screenshot the last one)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

On entering Access, this build was so powerful (mainly through the SHELL+AEGIS=GOD combo, not to mention the other awesome parts) that it seemed like a waste to not take it to Command. Plus I've never actually visited Command with the intent to take out big old MC, only a few times in the past to use it as an emergency escape route when Access was going poorly. So that was the new goal.

Access wasn't too bad, especially since it wasn't long before hacking the Command location. That said, it was far on the other side of the map, and the way there had quite a few encounters. The Build basically crushed everything, and when groups became a problem, Tesla had our back.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(I think my SHELL was corrupted and dropped to the ground here, but the regen plating, shield, and SB were good enough for the time being.)

SB is also great as a "key" for accessing any area you might need, so getting into Command via the back door wasn't hard. This is good because it enabled me to hole up in there before leaving while purging all that corruption (which many times came in handy on a long-term combat build like this!).

The Command plan was to map out paths to both of the Garrisons, replicate the Sigix Terminator (taken from the spot guarded by the Alpha 7) so that we'd have two of them, and fire one into each Garrison. The first immediately triggers high security, but with a path mapped and cleared, the trip to the second shouldn't take too long, even on treads, and any assaults met along the way could be dealt with using the Teslas.

Once all the defenders are cleared, we'd have free reign over the floor and could then safely dig a little tunnel into MAIN.C's chamber (circumventing his guards) for the final confrontation. That's mostly how it all worked out, though there was a bit of catch at the end there... We'll get to that.

Here the path has been cleared to the second (northern) Garrison:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And KA-BOOM, where'd everyone go?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Then rushed southward, took out a few assaults on the way, cleared the other Garrison (and a handful of survivors), and cut through to MC's chamber. Here's the build when going in:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There are lots of ways to improve on it, but simply having SHELL+AEGIS gives a lot of leeway for mediocrity elsewhere ;)

This particular showdown, however, did not go as planned.

Phase 1 was easy enough, but phase 2 did not want to fall fast enough, and we ended up running out of all 600 matter! (even with an armor analyzer, the mechanics of which aren't broken anymore :P)

Fortunately this build is insanely tanky, so this still wasn't the end of things. We rammed him to get some more matter and hopefully destroy some parts, only managing to take out his Exp. Targeting that way. At this point MAIN.C was down two guns, with three left plus that infernal cannon. And there was no way without a lot of matter that we could sustain enough damage to hope to take him down (MC is mostly resistant to TH, with a regenerating core...)

So the idea was to run back to the eastern side of Command where earlier fights had left plenty of matter lying around, and suck all that up for a second round of combat (obviously being plinked by MC in the meantime).

Here it is, we're back in action with plenty of matter. ROUND 2!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well, we ended up completely disarming MAIN.C, no weapons left, so... of course he took off running at light speed and there's no way we could both catch him and deal enough damage.

Needed a new plan...

We scavenged several Stasis Projectors and waited in ambush, but it turns out those are not at all effective against enemies you actually want to hold for any length of time (they sure work well on you, though xD--I'll probably revisit these because it would've been nice if it worked here).

For posterity, the Stasis meme build:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In any case, after that failed the new idea was to just load up 5x KI weapons at once and let out volleys every time he'd pass by in a frenzy. He still had five hover units, but those didn't last long to all these weapons, as he got slower and slower and eventually, finally, fell.

(This long drawn out recovery process wouldn't have worked very well if we hadn't already taken out both Garrisons, making reinforcements impossible.)

(It would've been hilarious if MAIN.C was fitted with a backup laser by the Mechanics still hanging around, but he never dropped out of flee mode so that couldn't happen.)

After that it was just a matter of taking out a few prototypes that had scattered on MAIN.C's death, working our way back up to the originally heavily guarded exit, only to find it had become an empty graveyard.

Won!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And not just a regular win, either, it was my first "+" win, and also my first visit to S7, and first attack on Command. I've never aimed for any of these goals before so that's maybe not saying a whole lot in terms of skill, but it was certainly interesting and a lot of fun :D

I also earned a whopping 20 achievements, not bad since I'd already reached 50% by the time this run started. And this is by far my highest score ever (thanks to nuking all those bots in Command). I generally get wins with about 30k, and my highest ever is about 45k back when I used to farm Access with combat builds in Alpha.

One of the other interesting stats pulled out of this run is that despite its length, and focus on combat, only 46 parts were lost the entire time!

Spoiler: Score: 115,382 (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: December 25, 2018, 08:24:32 PM by Kyzrati »
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mtf

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Re: The Gunslinger run, and my first attempt at Extended Cogmind
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2018, 07:31:45 PM »

Great writeup kyz! Congrats on fulfilling the bounty, I guess that means I"ll have to think up some more ;) I thoroughly enjoyed the dramatic conclusion of this run, I've never seen MC so scared xD
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Kyzrati

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Re: The Gunslinger run, and my first attempt at Extended Cogmind
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2018, 08:29:52 PM »

Thanks for providing it, mtf! (and fulfilling your end of the bounty :D)

It sure was a pretty surprising and unique way to end it... My first ever confrontation with the great MC and we barraged the big guy into complete submission :P
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