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[Valguris]

Preface

This build no longer exists since Beta 11. Feast your eyes upon the power of stacking mass support utilities.

This guide focuses on assembling a very fast stealth build with a lot of machine hacking power. Such build can reliably transition into a good build to approach extended game. It says very little of how to actually play it; in partical it says nothing about how to approach certain challenging areas.

Looting Imprinter

Play 2-prop combat (e.g., wheels) until ZDC, while evolving only utility slots). In addition to the usual preparation for ZDC (not part of this guide), take something to salvage Imprinter. Like a Plasma Cutter and some allies (A8 code allies and derelict hunters have some -salvage, but Plasma Cutter can ovecome it). You can get some targeting (or guns with +targeting), salvage computers (makeshift ones are the best) and guns (cannons don't work with salvage targeting computers) instead of a Plasma Cutter + allies. But no launchers.

Important! Imprinter heavily relies on her huge evasion, and since you don't want to use launchers against her, this leaves you with large targeting bonuses. Walk up to point-blank range for +15%. Stand directly adjacent to her, rather than diagonally - at ~20% chance every 3% makes a difference. Wait until you stabilize. Targeting Computer(s) are a huge help as well.

Fire Traps help against Z-Lights that accompany Imprinter. Note that Imprinter is immune to melting (which also means she's not receiving full heat transfer, thus she's not penalized with targeting and evasion) and she runs ahead of Z-Lights (she has a Metafield, remember?), so you'll need to place FIre Traps at their spawn. Which is where you spawned on the map. Do NOT use Dirty Bomb traps, as they have -10 salvage modifier each.

Building from ZDC

Items from ZDC that make this build:

• Metafield  - Actually it's optional, but the most fun part. You can get great speed via exp. thrusters instead, but you may want both.
• Light DM reactor - Great energy/mass efficiency. Tons of heat, but if you use only 2 props, you generate little heat anyway. You may want to carry a backup one.
• Suspension Frames - 10 support for only 2 energy is very energy-efficient. Can get 2 if Z is at -6 and you're willing to sacrifice all your processors. You may want to take a backup signal interpreter to replace the discarded one in this fashion. Suspension Frames are 4th and 8th utilities built by Golem Unit. Together with Golem Unit (2 slots) you need 6 or 10 utility slots respectively.
• Mak. Hacking Suites and Mak. System Shields - These are dropped by Z-technicians. Slightly worse than improved versions.

Optional ZDC items:

• Asb. Biocell Array - Only 1 mass and 1000 energy storage! Unfortunately, can't be detached and held in inventory.
• Zio. Biocell - 1 mass heavier than Asb. version, but you can keep it in inventory.
• Light Carapace - 400 coverage, 2 mass; Heavy Carapace might be too heavy with its 8 mass.
• Adv. Reaction Control System - Dropped by Imprinter.
• Adv. Phase Shifter - Dropped by Imprinter.
• Surveybot scanner and chip - Dropped by semi-rare broken bot. The chip is the best terrain scanning processor, with 2000 density (double Exp. Terrain Scanning Processor in a single slot).

Asb. Nanovents have 1 mass and 0 energy upkeep, but using only 2 props means you shouldn't need those. Asb. Alloy Armor is too heavy for it's coverage, and its resists are not as important as more coverage for this build. Better to equip a Light Carapace or, later, Powered Armor. Asb. Combat Suite grants you 8% dodge chance, but it's not worth a slot, unless you're stacking it with Adv. Reaction Control System, but even then it's iffy. You probably want only Exp. Utility Shielding for your defence, maybe followed by Light Carapace. You will prefer more hackware over avoidance for quite a while.

Items to bring:

• 2 flight units - It's not really important which flight units you'll take here. You will have plenty of spare mass support for a while. By the time you need more mass support, you'll get better flight units, perhaps even fab exp. ones.
• sensors and signal interpreter- You're probably going to be using them on your way there anyway. You may want to bring a backup signal interpreter, in case you discard your original one to get more golem utilities.
• melee weapon - Melee weapons are very light and strong enough to break walls. Plus they kill haulers relatively fast and sometimes can even sneak attack Watchers. Especially with a lot of speed, which this build has.

Optional items to bring:

• Weight Redistribution System - Can be salvaged from a hauler. Not needed if you brought 2 flight units or you're building 2 Suspension Frames.
• backup Signal Interpreter - If you want 2 Suspension Frames at -6, you'll need to discard your original interpreter.

Note that the minimal functional package consists of Suspension Frame that supports Light DM Reactor that powers up Metafield. Sensors setup, high speed and a melee weapon allow you to easily avoid most enemies. A Biocell comes really handy for when you want to use Metafield and/or ECM for possibly long time (such as running past enemies, where there is no guarantee that you will reach a safe spot shortly). Terrain scanning can be useful for digging around enemies. Builds with low attrition can rely on efficient Fusion Compressors for energy, which allows them to use very energy hungry items, such as gaining more support, achieving extreme speed, using Metafield, ECM, Phase Shifter, and Force Field simultaneously. All these synergies are combined into a single build. You can use hackware on top of that to find exits easily, or just stack some defensive utilities for more "flying brick" approach. Or maybe come up with something different! Feel free to replace some of the above building blocks with your own

Playing past ZDC

You're evolving only utility slots. Even with just your mak. hackware you'll have enough of it to hack for good schematics.
Midgame items to get:

• Exp. Sensors + Exp. Interpreter
• Exp. Utility Shielding - The only shielding you'll ever need. Your other parts won't get hit much at all. Consider having a backup one, since it can die quickly if you step on a wrong trap / a reactor explodes near you.
• Exp. Cesium-Ion Thrusters - 25 speed ones; DM sometimes has their schematic.
• ECM Suite (adv. or exp.) - Sometimes it may be best to just fly past enemies or otherwise get spotted. ECM allows you to quickly lose pursuers. Especially swarmers will stop chasing you after ~3 turns. This item consumes a lot of energy, but that's why you have Biocells!
• Powered Armor - Light and insane coverage. Even turned off it has enough integrity, given how little damage this build receives. Repairing it should also come easy, if needed.
• Fusion Compressors - Great mass and slot efficiency. This build barely uses matter otherwise and it's easy to restock once in a while. Improved one generates 40 energy! The main drawback of relying on Fusion Compressors is that they're hard to find, so most builds want to evolve a power slot anyway, just to be safe. Stealth flight builds such as this one are however very good at preserving their parts, so the main drawback of this item is completely nullified.
• 1-2x mass support utilities - At high speeds these are more energy-efficient than flight units. Also, these are always more slot-efficient than flight units.
• prototype hackware - There's a piece of prototype hackware at W stash, and you can try harvesting DM for their hackware.
• adv. hackware
• launcher - There are other ways to deal with swarmers. Mainly just avoiding them, otherwise via speed and ECM. If you want the additional insurance, feel free to carry a launcher.

These can be gotten via fabbing or simply found on the ground, or found inside haulers I use manifests on every floor. Keep in mind that items of rating x and x* start appearing are on the floor 11-x, where they are most common as well, i.e., exp. sensors and exp. interpreters are most common on -6. At floor 11-x you can also hack for schematics for rating x parts on SL1 terminals, but you'll need 1 floor higher for prototypes, i.e., floor 10-x for rating x*. Using SL2 and SL3 terminals allows you to hack to schematics of items 1 and 2 ratings higher, respectively. E.g., rating 7* schematic can be hacked for at -3 at SL1, at -4 at SL2, or at -5 at SL3.

An example of a "good enough" build entering factory right after ZDC (before drag mechanic was introduced, legs could be used as massless armor, though even then it was suboptimal):

A spare Golem Unit was taken to build 2 Suspension Frames at a later floor.

In the factory I run sensors setup + Exp. Utility Shielding + golem parts + hackware. Maybe storage if needed. Sometimes using Metafield or ECM. This build is good enough to reach the surface. It relies on gathering intel from terminals, fabbing the necessary parts (such as Exp. Utility Shielding to make sure you never lose any vital part) and stealth.

The most useful hacks:

• Access(branch)
• Access(main)
• Index(terminals)
• Index(fabricators)
• Index(machines)
• Recall(extermination)
• Manifests
• Layout(zone)

You are supposed to dig around enemies or use your speed to get partially spotted (i.e., get in view of an opponent, then out of his view before the turn ends; most enemies will come investigate the spot without ever shooting you). Getting shot at can be avoided for entire floors, but when it's necessary, you can equip the Metafield and a few additional defensive utilites and just fly through without losing any items. You may want to repair some items if such scenarios occur repeatedly, but, with this much hacking, repairs shouldn't be a problem.

Preparing for extended game

The remainder of this guide is about preparation to the extended endgame and therefore contains spoilers.

We will prepare to transition into a melee build that is able to defeat both bosses.

At -4 at SL2 (security level 2) terminals you can start getting rating 7* schematics for Imp. Fusion Compressor and Exp. Melee Analysis Suites. Optionally Adv. Powered Armor is available at these terminals too. Expand your storage capacity when you need to carry more items. This will likely require of you to attach some good mass supporting utility (or replace a Suspension Frame, which, while very energy-efficient, starts to be slot-inefficient). Attaching a Fusion Compressor may be required at this point.

Items you can start collecting before -3 (and can be found on the floor or inside haulers before -1):

• mass support utilites: 5* Gravity Neutralizing Apparatus, 7* Inertial Stasis Machine, 8* Quantum Shading Machine, 9* Dimensional Manipulator
• 1x Imp. Fusion Compressor, rating 7*
• ~2x Exp. Melee Analysis Suites, rating 7*
• ~2x armors: rating 6 Imp. Powered Armor, rating 8 Adv. Powered Armor (1 mass heavier than earlier armors, but at this point it shouldn't matter)
• 1x Adv. Reaction Control System, rating 9
• ~4x Nanoswords (you may want 3-5 weapon slots in this build, and maybe 1 backup Nanosword), rating 8*
• other melee weapons, if you can't fabricate all those nanoswords, but you found some good ones, e.g. Plasma Lances (also dropped by Strikers) or Vibroblades
• Exp. Terrain Scanner + Exp. Terrain Scan Processor - They're mostly helpful in -1 branches. Exp. versions have 5* rating, but slightly weaker versions should also suffice. Surveybot Chip is better than Exp. Terrain Scan Processor
• Mni. Fusion Reactor, rating 7* - is slightly lighter and generates more power than Zio. Light DM Reactor.

9* items to collect (obtain schematics at -3 SL3 terminals at the earliest):

• 1x Femtoactuators
• 1x Exp. Armor Integrity Analyzer
• 1x Exp. Phase Shifter
• 1x Exp. Force Field
• 1x Exp. Actuator Array
• ~3x Dimensional Manipulator

Useful branches:

• ZDC - Namesake of this build, good loot from Imprinter, useful parts from Golem Unit, useful parts in Zio. stashes, hackware from Z-technicians, possibly Surveybot scanning and Shado's cloaking.
• DM - Useful schematics, can drop up to 4x prototype hackware.
• Armory - Fabrication network has 3000 matter stores there!
• S7 - Consumable AAs (can replicate one of them with a Subatomic Replicator from Q), teleporters to get to A0.
• Hub - Defensive hacking bonuses for destroying network hubs.

Other branches worth mentioning:

• Lab - If you get A7's Data Core, you can loot it for 1x prototype hackware, possibly AEGIS Shield, consumable AAs and a teleporter to get to A0, without starting intercept squads.
• W - 1x prototype hackware in his stash. His event almost guarantees obtaining enough Plasma Lances from Strikers and an Adv. Armor Integrity Analyzer from Executioners. With enough speed you can still fab a few items and learn a few schematics before the machines get locked down.
• Zh - Can have energy AA, has a teleporter to get to A0.
• Q - SB is great armor and can be used to get through any wall easily, CS is useful against A-series bots in A0, SR can copy a consumable AA, and can contain teleporters to get to A0.

Final builds:
- Beta 7.2; Fusion Compressor energy generation is not accounted for in energy balance; Terrain Scanning is very useful in Command and A0.

- Beta 8; includes some items from Exiles; it is recommended to use more weapon slots, but this build can do Inspector Gadget achievement and win an extended game in one run

- Beta 8.2; disabled Powered Armor still provides coverage and you usually don't need to turn it on; here I already dropped my storage units and mass support to free slots to fight MC