Hi!
I just won my first game (adventurer mode) and I couldn't be more ecstatic. I watched the Pwning the Early Game stream by the dev and used a similar build - legs for propulsion, semi-random assortment of EM, kinetic and thermal weapons and launchers for getting out of sticky situations. I stayed away from all branches and managed to traverse most floors by sticking to the edge of the map and hacking terminals to find the exits.
Fast forward to Access -1. This was my first time reaching this level. I started at the top of what seemed to be relatively narrow and high map, so I decided to head south to find the exit. After a lot of unsuccessful hacks I finally managed to hack the location of the final exit from a low security terminal. Luckily, it wasn't far so I headed straight there, fighting some programmers on the way without much trouble. Before I knew it, I found the final terminal. I tried hacking it to open the doors and of course, miserably failed, locking up the terminal and dispatching an investigation squad. After some head scratching I came up with a brilliant strategy - I went to the room north of the exit and started digging my way in (after some research I found I was not the only one thinking that this would work
). While I was desperately trying to dig the final wall, a squad of enforcers came into the room, probably investigating who the hell was trying to open the door to the surface. I finally decided to check how tough the wall was and realized that my brilliant strategy was not so brilliant after all. I welcomed the investigation squad with few volleys of proton missiles and realized I was out of ideas of how to reach the final exit. Naturally, I resorted to the almighty internet.
So it turns out you can just blast your way in from the other side. Great, a corridor south of the exit seemed to lead to the other side so I headed that way. At the end of the corridor - a behemoth. I thought for sure this was the final boss, I must defeat it and then I win, simple! So I equipped my two enhanced nova cannons and started blasting. After a prolonged fight and many lost parts the boss was finally defeated. Only then had I realized that the only thing it was guarding was an empty corridor, leading the opposite way I was trying to go. Frustrated, I started digging my way to the right side of the exit. After a short tunnel I was greeted by the real final boss - two behemoths. I was not prepared. I burned through almost all my parts when dealing with the last behemoth and to top it all of, a programmer was closing in from the tunnel I just dug. I decided to rush for the exit and started blasting my way through the force shield. With all the fire heading in my direction I was in full panic mode and after some semi-successful volleys I managed to dig through three layers of the force shield. And then my weapons got destroyed. All I was left with was some EM weapons, linear accelerators and quantum rifles, all of which couldn't penetrate the shield. Ready to give up I drove into the hole of the force shield I just made and continued to fire my remaining weapons at it, to no avail. I was sure this was my final resting place.
And then suddenly the force shield was lowered. I could see the stairs. I could also see that the two behemoths now had even better line of sight of me than before. Panic mode kicked back in and I limped behind the access shell, trying to shield myself from the oncoming fire while I figure out how to get through the shell. As I turned the corner, the shell lowered and just like that (after a few knockbacks from behemoths) I was out!
I'm so happy! And little confused, that's why I came here, seeking answers (I don't really mind spoilers).
- Why was the force shield lowered? I was sure (at the time, not so sure now) that my remaining weapons couldn't penetrate it further.
- Why was the access shell lowered? Is this done automatically when you come close or did behemoths accidentally destroy it for me?
And, if you don't mind a generic question: Where do I salvage more armor? I managed to find a bunch of it laying on the ground in the lower levels of Research, which lasted me a good while. After that I tried salvaging it from sentries by firing EM weapons at them but they only seem to drop threads and weapons.
Lastly, I hope the story wasn't too confusing. I didn't take any screenshots because I was busy biting my nails. I found this in the scores file and annotated it a bit, hope it helps
Scores file:
https://pastebin.com/raw/VafYa8Xh(Edit: added scores file as a pastebin link)
