Shawarazan pirates (Counter-Stealth strategy)

[Fenikso]

Welcome to the den of Shawarazan pirates!
Probably the most aggressive pirates in the Quadrant. This thread was created to discuss a very controversial strategy which favors aggressive approach. As this is usually considered blasphemy and craziness by other experienced players I wanted to move it to separate thread so we can keep other threads clean from fiery discussion.

It is not my intention to put the other player's advices down. I would like to show you that the game is extremely versatile and there are another paths to the success which you can explore and have fun.

In a nutshell: I am deliberately omitting Stealth and use saved experience points for offensive skills such as Pilot and Tactics to get offensive edge.

You are welcome to try it, discuss Pro-Stealth and Counter-Stealth approaches, and cry when my strategy does not work for you. But please do not tell me it is nonsense, as I know it is not. I am playing its variants with majority of my characters on Impossible and they are just fine. If it works for you, please drop a note. Thanks.

Note: This is applicable to Impossible difficulty and game version 3.9.15.


Motto: "Stealth is for cowards." -- Alia II. Shawarazan



Edit 2011-10-13: Still works on 3.9.29

Edit 2011-11-01: Still doable on 4.0.5, but much harder. I would not advice it anymore as a good strategy. Play this for fun or as Hardcore mode. Stealth is more important now so playing without it is even harder. Few tips for combat 4.x using this strategy:
• Close range as soon as possible! Without Stealth you are very vulnerable to torpedo fire.
• Improve your Warrior skill as soon as possible. First, without stealth when it comes to Duel, you WILL die. Second, as you may know, Warrior is IMPORTANT .

[Fenikso]

Strategy tips

Warring! This guide is not official in any way. Even when I am able to achieve a great success when following it anytime on Impossible, it seems that following it may be difficult for others and may lead to frustration. Some details are also not included, your discretion is advised!

When reading this guide may be fun, it may include things which are considered "too broad or common sense and not helpful" by the game designer (Cory). So it probably should not be used by any Captain, anywhere in the Quadrant, anytime after the Event. Use at your own risk!

If you want to blame someone for your Captain's death when using this strategy, blame me.



Legacy of Alia Shawarazan

Hello fellow Captains. My name is Alia, daughter of well-known pirate, Alia Shawarazan. As she died young and because of mistake she did purchasing wrong ship, this training is her legacy. It is free as we are, pirates. Pass the knowledge to your peers, together we stand, alone we fall…

Now hear a few words about the beginning. It may seem Impossible at first, but if you have a nice ship, as I got from my mother, Serpent Tooth, you are the lucky one. You should choose two factions at the beginning. You will need friends and sanctuary. I am Rychart in depth of my hearth, and I recommend you the same. Rychart spice traders and halls are the best in the Quadrant. Not only that I like having a good smoke and my Crew likes company of … well … entertainers, but there is much gossip in the halls. Gossip is your weapon as a pirate. Rumors are your daily bread. As a second faction, I recommend De Valtos or Cadar. Anyone else is your enemy!

At the beginning you have nothing. Carefully take easy contract as you need to make some money. If you encounter merchants or smugglers not as good as you are, take their goods. Fly low, engage, fire on engines. Firing on engines is not always safe, as ships occasionally explode, so if you really want that ship intact, board them. But beware! Boarding is not going to be your favorite tactics as it will be very dangerous for you. Take everything, do not be picky, and sell as soon as possible. Enslave Crew if needed. Consider selling their ship for scrap, as you need extra money, but keep low profile for now. Acknowledge or surrender if needed, but beware of your reputation, as it will worsen soon.

After a few first contracts you should be able to buy Trade permit. You need this as soon as possible to be recognized by your fellow pirates and to be able to sell the hot stuff – Weapons, Electronics and Artifacts. Second thing you need is Promotion within the army. You will need their stock for Guns, Armor repairs and Upgrades. When you are done with the first faction, do the same with the second one. If you get into fight and your ship is damaged, get repairs as soon as you can. Even slight damage to the ship can be your death under bad circumstances.

You will get some experience from the contracts and occasional piracy. Improve your Pilot skill first. As soon as you hit your Quickness limit, go for Tactics. When you hit the limit also, you are ready for real piracy! You will also need ship upgrade known as Heavy Bulkheads as it keeps you safer against enemy boarding teams. Your ship is you sanctuary. Your reputation with your enemy will drop fast from this point, so if you ever get boarded by the enemy, you can die. They will be tempted to execute you! Improve engines so you get never caught, always look for Pilot and Military officers.

From now you are looking for:
1) Better ship. Get it by Shalun Law or Piracy, preferably by piracy. Consider if you can get damaged ship safely to the Star dock and if you can afford the repairs. Do not be tempted, you can die as my mother did. Do not be fooled, as a pirate you need fast and agile ship. Any ship which is not Quick is not for you. Ever. If it is Fast, good. But Moderate speed is also fine. Your Pilot skill should be always at least 1.5x bigger than your ship’s hull. My favorite ships are: Mars class, Blade class, Scimitar Class, or Royal class.
2) Cargo. At first take everything; literally. Later take only the expensive stuff, Metal, Weapons, Electronics, Artifacts and Records. Your cargo hold is going to fill fast. Sell the surrendered ships for scrap. Never forget about people who helped you in the beginning – scrap buyers – they need to feed their families also.
3) Fight. Go to big planet like Xeen Prime. Patrol for pray, Blockade for money and bad reputation, Surveillance for records which can be sold for extra money. Shoot everyone who threatens you. Be it pirates, bounty hunters, warships, smugglers, merchants… Carefully consider your chances in the fight, if you feel threatened run or fire torpedoes. They will fear you soon. All of them.
4) Rumors. Valuable cargo, military armies, smugglers. Officers looking for job. Best places to sell your precious cargo, best place for upgrades, you name it.

After 300 weeks, you should be Senior Pilot (level 5, Pilot and Tactics 15), have a new ship with first upgrade and financial reserve of about $70000. From now you can do whatever you want. But never forget one rule: You have to improve your skills all the time. For that you have to pick fights all the time. You have to be always better than your reputation as a pirate suggests.

Just few more suggestions for your future life:
• Improve Pilot first, Tactics second. Warrior and Intimidate occasionally to be safer from boarding parties, but not much. A bit of Negotiation to improve your prices. Never improve Stealth as you want others to notice you. Never fall for Explorer, you will make enough money by piracy and spending precious time on planet then flying can cost you your life.
• From the upgrades take anything what improves Pilot skill, Engines and Armor. “Dreadnought Architecture” improves your Armor to maximum, you do not care about the penalty as you are always looking for fights. Also because you will not use Stealth, good armor is needed to protect you from occasional torpedo hits.
• Always be busy flying a fighting – your skills have to be always better than bounty hunter and warship captains think.
• Later move to higher security, higher economy planets, to make more profit. You do not have to hide anymore!
• Check alliances before firing at anyone; check Trade embargoes before selling big loads of expensive goods.

Now go my apprentices, make the Quadrant beg for mercy!


Recommended ships:
• Jango Class, Kaazar Class, Royal Class, Blade Class, Mars Class, Scimitar Class, and Royal Dark.

Recommended upgrades:
• Dreadnought Architecture (+6 Armor, penalty to avoid encounters )
• Heavy Bulkheads (+2 Armor, Increased resistance vs. Boarding)
• Advanced Bridge System (Pilot and Combat bonuses, stacks with Pilot officer)
• Titan Components (+5 Engines, Combat bonuses at medium and lower range)
• Sail Command Probe (+4 Sails, Pilot bonus, stacks with Pilot officer)

You may also try some of: Ancient Reactors, Extended Gun Decks, Weapon Cabinet, Prow Gun Batteries, Hyperion Superstructure, Advanced Sail System

Recommended officers:
• Pilot
• Military
• Alien Hunter / Mechanic

[Fenikso]

I have tried a few characters focusing on Stealth yesterday. I would not say that one of the strategies is better or worse, just different. Each of them encourages different game-play and has another weaknesses.

I have found that when I compare Pro-Stealth (Stealth, Pilot and Tactics) with Counter-Stealth (Pilot and Tactics) characters there are some realy noticable differences:
• Pro-Stealth is safer in the beginning
• Pro-Stealth is safer from torpedo fire
• Pro-Stealth is safer when flying damaged ship
• Counter-Stealth is leveling up faster
• Counter-Stealth is able to change combat positions easier
• Counter-Stealth is able to catch up on higher level smugglers and merchants as they do not run off easily so you can make more profit as a pirate in the beginning

Using Stealth seems to me to be slower but more safe approach to Impossible difficulty. Neglecting Stealth is more like crazy ride. Exactly as Slayernz said in another thread: It is difference between "running into the middle of a room, guns blazing" and "moving from vantage point to vantage point picking off the targets one by one".

[Tenebrous Pirate]

This is definitely an interesting and workable strategy.

I am curious, what is your typical ship upgrade and officer loadout? Success with each strategy would also depend heavily on these.

[Fenikso]

I agree.

Upgrades:
Usually:
• Dreadnought Architecture (+6 Armor, penalty to avoid encounters )
• Heavy Bulkheads (+2 Armor, Increased resistance vs. Boarding)
• Advanced Bridge System (Pilot and Combat bonuses, stacks with Pilot officer)
• Titan Components (+5 Engines, Combat bonuses at medium and lower range)
• Sail Command Probe (+4 Sails, Pilot bonus, stacks with Pilot officer)

Sometimes:
• Ancient Reactors, Extended Gun Decks, Weapon Cabinet, Prow Gun Batteries, Hyperion Superstructure

Officers:
• Pilot
• Military
• Alien Hunter / Mechanic

[Tenebrous Pirate]

Ahhh. Depending on the character type, I use differing things, but this is my most common combat selection:

Ancient Reactors (+6)
Escape Shuttle/Heavy Bulkheads (+2)
Advanced Bridge System
Advanced Sail System (25%)
Sail Command Probe (+4)

Sails are important since they help you close from long range to medium, affect your torpedo accuracy and ability to dodge torps, so I get a ton of them. The +25% upgrade is just so huge when used on something like a Spear Class or Royal Class.

I pick Engines over armor under the structural upgrade because engines allow you to close distance from medium to short range, and affect all combat actions at medium and close range.

Both Sails and Engines affect your fuel usage, so the more I have of both, the less fuel I have to carry, and then the more booty I can steal from my victims.

I pretty much run with the same officers as you do. For a focused combat character, there is not really a better mix.

[Fenikso]

Hmm, the Advanced Sail System may be worth trying, but I am not sure if it will have any effect without Stealth considering defense and torpedo accuracy?

I use a lot of armor as Cory suggested it for higher difficulty and I find myself more safe against lucky-accidental Torpedoes or Rams.

[Tenebrous Pirate]

Yeah, with my stealth build, once I get to about level 20+, I never get rammed successfully. Pretty much nothing ever hits me honestly. The only thing I have to worry about is getting boarded, or a REALLY lucky torp shot from a very high level BH.

But the sails will help for closing from long range to medium range in all deep space squares. Engines are used in place of sails for this combat purpose when in orbit of a planet. They will help avoid torps and help you hit with torps wether you have stealth skill or not.

[Fenikso]

Similar for me. Very lucky torpedoes or rams from very high level Captains. But I do not want to die from them, you know. Very occasionally I do ram very agile enemies who I am not able to hit with 100+ tactics. Thanks for the tips, I will definitely try some of them.

[Tenebrous Pirate]

Yar, that's why I generally run with an escape shuttle instead of Heavy Bulkheads (+2). It saves your butt in case a really lucky ram happens.

[celu]

Veteran Officer: Cory mentioned that this officer is strictly for alien hunting. Please verify. So I would rather consider the mechanic as a standard and don't pickup the Hunter unless you are hunting.

[Cory Trese]

Not strictly for Aliens. He provides an Intimidation Bonus, Resistance vs. Alien Rumors for Exploration/Harvesting/Deep Space. However, he attracts the Alien and causes recruiting to be harder (on account of him being insane / dangerous.)

[celu]

bwahaha!
"Get him outta here! He's scaring the kids."

[sgtcookie]

I have been testing this out, and I have to say that I love it!

As I was using it, I was thinking that this could also be an effective BH build. Will test at some point.

[Fenikso]

sgtcookie - Thanks for the note. BH is a bit more tricky, as he does not start with Pilot skill. Let my know how it goes. I was really unlucky with Shawarazan BHs .


Nevertheless, did anyone have success with this strategy in anything else than Quick (Agility) ship?