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[Baxter]

I've heard how much fun the branches are. I haven't explored them much, so I decided to with a leg + melee build.

Came across

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Warlord for the first time and stuck around a little too long; ran through the front entrance with 10+ hostiles firing at me, and made it to the stairs.

Then, on -3, I was discovered and had to shed everything and make a break for it. Got a little lucky and found the stairs to Quarantine with, um, a pretty light load-out (see screenshot). At that point, security was so high that several patrols landed on my position, and that was that!

A few notes:
- Drones are amazing. The Splicer Drone Bay, in particular, is helpful and super fun.
- Used traps extensively for the first time. Very deadly, very satisfying.
- Melee is enjoyable -- especially when you knock out two enemies with a single volley.

What a blast! Look forward to exploring and learning more.

[lyrabold]

Part of your issue wasn't just that patrols found you: It's that you entered a (non-armory) research branch while aligned with Farcom. All hell breaks loose when you do so, in the form of Maximum Security (6 assaults straight to your location every 100 turns or so). It's survivable, but you need to be fast as hell or able to grin and bear it.

I see you also visited Zhirov. If you think drones are fun, wait until you print his Assault Drone bays, or the Combat Drones from another branch... They're quite powerful, especially in swarms of 4+ (there's only 2 drones per bay, but you can deploy from multiple as long as you have only one attached). You just have to keep an eye on them in order to recall them to repair if they take too much core damage, or keep them away from programmers / brawlers (100% EM vulnerability == 0 to fully corrupted in no time flat).

[Kyzrati]

Oh man, looks like quite the adventure, and also so close to having instead gotten a very different and more beneficial outcome towards the end of your journey.... (you'll see one day

But yeah, heed the Exiles' warning that you should stay out of Research-type branches (green) with FC.

[Baxter]

Thank you, both, for the comments. I’d admittedly forgotten about the FC warning, and I didn’t realize the consequences were so dire. Even so, I’d put myself in a position where I had to go to the branch or be destroyed—which happened shortly after. Lesson learned!

Thanks, lyrabold, for the tip about the drone bays. Sounds like fun!

For the most part, I’ve been aligning with FarCom for the beginner-friendly sensors. But having played for a bit now, I’ll try experimenting a little more.

Really appreciate the tips and feedback!

[Kyzrati]

FC is definitely a good way to start. Just avoid those Research branches if you take it, you'll be making it to the surface in no time