Another run to level -1

[jimmijamjams]

THIS IS THE RUN FOR THIS WEEK!  DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU ARE INTENDING TO PARTICIPATE IN THE WEEKLY SEED #2

This is posted on Weekly Seed #2, but I thought I would post the story here for people who might miss it.

As always, there are some spoilers in regards to enemy types, but I've kept most of the weapon stats out of the post.


Here's the run-down:

Level -10:

Spoiler

This level was tough!  I don't know how everyone else dealt with it, but right from the start I bumped into several squads of Swarmers.  I found a few exits along the way that I suspected were the Mines (due to location/layout) and my core was down to only 21 from the early (almost catastrophic) encounters.  I managed to gear up after taking out some more Swarmers and flew around until I found a likely exit to Level -9.

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Level -9:

Spoiler

I forgot to take any screenshots of this level... After a few engages I was forced to equip Treads for movement and offset the slower movement by equipping armour.  After a few engages I upgraded to Legs and made it easily to the exit.

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Level -8:

Spoiler

After a shaky start on Level -10 I was starting to feel more powerful.  I had been hacking a few terminals and picked up the schematics for for a Sentry.  I didn't know exactly how much matter I needed to build it and I was just holding onto Medium Matter Storage Unit in case I came across a Fabricator.  In this level I had found a Large Storage Unit and was slowly collecting the right gear to change to a speed/stealth build when the opportunity came up.

This was my build towards the end of Level -8.  Right before I saw a nice cache of Armour and Missile Launchers.

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Level -7:

Spoiler

I had been building up my hacking ability and in this level I learned something I never knew about the map layouts and exits.  I found a Terminal very early on and it had the option to hack the location of the Maintenance robots (I was purposely not using Manual Command this run to explore some of the other options).  This is a very powerful hack in that it indirectly gives you the size of a level and your relative location within it. 

I worked out I was in the lower left corner of the map so I deduced that I needed to head to top right if was to find an exit to the level.  After several engages with Grunts and Programmers I was forced further into lower left corner of the map and there was the exit!  My assumption that I needed to go top right was wrong and it turned out to be a fairly easy level.  Below is a shot of me on the exit showing my knowledge the Maintenance robots and a shot of my current items:

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Level -6:

Spoiler

At this stage I was starting to become even more dangerous.  I was using mainly melee and taking out Programmers to slowly convert my Propulsion to Hovers.  There's not much to say about this level and I only have the one shot of this very nice Cold Plasma Cannon that I found.

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Level -5:

Spoiler

I started the level like this:




By the end this is all I had:




I made several glaring errors, but mostly I was caught out by several squads of Hunters and Grunts.  When ever I tried to run I would hit a room with a Sentry in it, forcing me to back out.  I relied too much on my melee weapons earlier not realising I had lost my Melee Analysis Suite, by the time I noticed what was going on I had lost all my propulsion and had to drop everything to make a get away.  One thing I remembered to do (which is something I often forget) was to make sure I had a power source and propulsion in my Inventory so when I did come across something useful I wouldn't be struggling to use it.

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Level -4:

Spoiler

This was going to be a tough level.  I found a Terminal early on and found out I was at the bottom left/middle of the map judging from the location of the Maintenance robots.  After some searching I found some very timely caches of gear and then was completely surrounded by Grunts, Programmers, and Hunters.  I didn't stick around long this time and ran back the way I came and there was the exit.  Below is a shot which shows my movement from where I started, to the Terminal, to the exit. 




Once again the closest exit was essentially behind me relative to the rest of the level and I was able to gear-up again.  I even had to switch to Treads as the number of Legs I had were not enough to give me the optimal speed.  At this stage I had also destroyed some Watchers and was able to have a partial stealth kit.  The only thing I needed to round it out was some speed.

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Level -3:

Spoiler

Moving slowly but with the ability to see through walls worked really well, but very early on Programmers were called to my position right next to a Behemoth.  I thought I would try my luck and due to some heat mismanagement and being heavily out-gunned I had to run, but not before I grabbed several Improved Anti-Grav Systems from the dead Programmers.  I left the Behemoth in my wake.




The speed was good, but my Advanced Signal Interpreter and Neutrino Core were non-functional after the encounter.  I had a back-up Improved Signal Interpreter, but at this stage I was already at 7% Corruption and was expecting to get lots of false reads on the radar.  This didn't seem to be the case and I have a funny feeling that even though the Advanced Signal Interpreter was non-functional it was still providing the buff that stopped the radar glitches.

This was my kit about halfway through the level:




This was my kit after getting cornered by Swarmers, Grunts, and Hunters in a one-space corridor that I couldn't escape.  I walked right into it hunting down a couple of Watchers that were jamming my radar.




I ran through the level, out-ran another Behemoth, and just made it to the exit.

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Level -2:

Spoiler

My starting kit was looking dire.  I had a Disruptor Cannon I couldn't use and my trusty, non-funtional Advanced Signal Interpreter.  I didn't even get a chance to put anything useful in my inventory before everything went haywire.  Something I think I need to learn is when to realise that an encounter can't be fought out and to stash important gear when that happens.

Everywhere I went I kept bumping into Behemoths:










I briefly acquired a Nuclear Pulse Array (propulsion) which helped me to make it to the next level, but it too was taken from me by a stray Behemoth rocket.  By the end of the level I had the makings of potential comeback with a Light Quantum Reactor and an Advanced ECM Suite, but little else.

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Level -1:

Spoiler

My current kit, once again, was not great.  Everything I found was either a weapon I couldn't use or some utility I couldn't carry due to the weight.  Until I found an Improved Plasma Cutter.  I wish I took a screenshot of it because, despite the short range it saved the day.  That weapon enabled me to take out some service robots without using any precious matter and allowed me to gear up with some higher tier gear. 




I then spotted another Behemoth, but was out of sight before it spotted me:




Close by I found a serious weapon and utility cache I could access and finally was up to the task of fighting back.




I went straight back to the Behemoth I found earlier, obliterated it, and the became the Behemoth!






Never had I felt so powerful in this game.  I was taking out Hunters like they were nothing, bullets were just bouncing off my armour.  Until, I discovered a fatal flaw, I ran out of matter...  I had not been economical with my volleys, I even had an opportunity to convert to some more energy-based weapons where I killed the Behemoth, but I didn't...  Slowly I was pelted to death by what felt like a thousand paper cuts as well over a dozen Hunters sent volley after volley every time I moved.  Service bots would be caught in the friendly fire and I would crawl to a meager portion of matter in the hopes it would give me enough for another shot.  But it wasn't enough...







I learned a lot about the value of Matter and I have a pretty good idea how to get through to the end next time.  With this current build (Alpha 2b) it seemed more possible than ever to win with a combat-heavy build, but my mistake was the weapons I choose with the resources I had available.  There was no one build I stuck with for any length of time and there were several stages where I went from a flying Beserker bashing in robots, to sneaking around like a fat ninja at low/high speeds avoiding conflict, to hacking for key information about the map layout, to finally becoming a complete tank with powerful yet limited weapons. 

Funnest game I've had yet

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EDIT:  I miss-posted the run I was participating in    Sorry to anyone who read this before having a chance to have a shot at the weekly seed...

[zxc]

Wow, you looked seriously strong by the end there. This just might tempt me into trying more combat-heavy builds. It's also nice to see complete comebacks so late in the game.

[jimmijamjams]

Wow, you looked seriously strong by the end there. This just might tempt me into trying more combat-heavy builds. It's also nice to see complete comebacks so late in the game.

The comebacks were a bit of luck along with some positioning.  I followed some advice you mentioned in another thread and looked out for secret doors in the early rooms.  It really helped me sneak around and scavenge for gear without being too vulnerable.  Also, with this new build I'm really noticing my Security Threat not being as large an issue and never had the problem of there being a squad waiting around the first corner.

The main thing I noticed was that I never stuck with one particular build.  I was always attempting to build up to a stealth/speed kit, but it never quite came together.  That said, it was fun to work with multiple styles of play through the levels and often starting from scratch forced me to do that.  With the kit I had for the last Behemoth I was able to take it down with only two or three volleys and I was seriously tanky afterwards.  If only my weapons didn't rely on so much matter, I think I could have made it to the end