Speed run techniques for selected levels

[redartrats]

Hmph, the latest BF update nerfed Stratos Defense Relay, so now you have to get past two turrets rather than just one. I claim responsibility for that.

In any case, I found that destroying two turrets isn't significantly worse than destroying just one; it may cost a turn or two more, but since the "trick" I posted originally involves destroying one turret, your squad pretty much already has to be powerful enough to take out a turret in a single turn. Besides, sneaking templars past the second turret in the original version of this level took a long time anyway; might as well take out both turrets and have a casual stroll to the exit.

The nerf consists of adding obstacles around the final bridge, though, so the turn count increased because of the additional distance you need to travel to get around the obstacles. Just did it in 17 turns -- but this is playing conservatively; I could have done it faster if I didn't bother to stop to take out the xeno on the way. That's another trick in the arsenal of speedrunning, in fact: eat your pride and just keep marching in spite of the overwhelming temptation to stop and slay that annoying xeno that suddenly just popped out of nowhere and targeted your defenseless engineer. They will all die when the core explodes and disintegrates Stratos anyway, so why waste the energy (and ammo!) to kill them now?

To compensate for a slower run, though, I brought out my hydra and left a river of flame behind my squad; the final kill count is 67 kills (3.9/turn), which is none too shabby, considering that my usual speedrunning exploits usually end with laughably low kill counts.

[fallen]

redartrats - yep, a few small changes to many levels across the game! Lots of balancing to be doing all the time So many emails, forum posts, and our own play hours to keep up with!

[redartrats]

P.S. Now I'm tempted to try respec'ing my squad for a speed run through Stratos Defense Relay. My latest wacky idea consists of spec'ing my Engineer with high-level Heat Sink, which would allow me to essentially run non-stop to the exit without needing to stop to cool down.

The thing about Heat Sink is that its effectiveness is scaled by level * your engineering skill (plus a base amount); I always have my engineers maxed out at Engineering 16 anyway, so that means every talent point assigned to Heat Sink adds 16 to the amount of heat that will be dissipated per use of Heat Sink. At Heat Sink level 6, you're talking about removing 96 heat points (plus base amount) per use, which is almost the entire heat bar. That's a lot of heat to remove with just 2AP. So in total, a single Engineer can remove 192 points of heat + 2*base amount from your squad in a single turn. So if you distribute this across your squad over several turns, it could potentially mean being able to run at top speed all the way to the end, perhaps only stopping to destroy the two turrets.

And by "top speed" I mean spec'ing my soldiers with high-level Rallying Charge so that we're moving well past 6 squares per turn. Since moving faster means less uses of Heat Sink (which increases your Engineer's heat), this could be well worth the tradeoff of having less talent points to spend on offensive capabilities.

Also, another thing I want to try is to have two engineers on the team, so that one engineer can cool down after applying two uses of Heat Sink by having the other engineer apply Heat Sink on him.   The way the math works out, there will be a net negative on the total heat of the squad, so this could allow a "perpetual motion machine" where the squad is constantly moving at top speed but never overheats.   Of course, the catch is that engineers suck at combat (particularly when precious talent points are spent on Heat Sink), so there may be other limits to this scheme. 

[fallen]

redartrats - great to see how much depth of planning goes into the speed runs. Glad you're sharing it with others on the forum!

[redartrats]

Haha, just managed to do Stratos Defense Relay in 12 turns. I kitted my engineer with Heat Sink 6, and he could remove 112 heat from a templar at a time. In retrospect that wasn't really necessary, since it wasn't until the end that anyone even got that hot. Could've gotten away with less points spent on Heat Sink.

Main strategy wasn't so much Heat Sink, as merely positioning everyone for Rallying Charges and then running as fast as we can. Captain almost got killed by two stupid spitters that popped out at an inconvenient place. Managed to get a minor health kit out of my TP before the xeno recaptured it, but cappy was pretty dangerously low on HP. Pretty much ignored all xeno except those we could kill after exhausting our MP. Actually didn't wait for TP to generate enough SP to hire 2 more templars, since that would imply waiting an extra turn. Only 1 hire possible, 5 templars total. So opted for my high damage hydra to ensure I've enough damage to destroy a turret in 1 turn.

First turret was destroyed with 2ap left for Overwatch to keep away annoying xenos who were skittering into the turret area; 2nd turret had some prior fire damage thanks to my hydra blasting promethium in its direction while sneaking past its fire zone earlier. Two hunters inconveniently showed up just before I rushed the 2nd turret, but thanks to hydra dealing enough damage the turret went down leaving still enough AP to kill one hunter and Overwatch the other so that he wouldn't claw cappy to death. Once the 2nd turret was down it's pretty much a stroll in the park to the exit. The nerf obstacles couldn't stop me.

Result: victory in 12 turns for 15% bonus, 24 kills for 2% bonus (pretty high kill count for a speed run, thanks to hydra landscaping the map with promethium lakes). 128 XP and 192 RP. Hooray!

[redartrats]

Update: just did Extermination by Fire in 3 turns. Strategy is the same, the difference is that I respec'd my captain with Pressing Need 4 and Dalan with Rallying Charge 4, and buffed all 3 of them at the end of the first turn. Then in turn 2, I had the hydra go slightly east -- there's a square diagonally across the edge of the chasm that triggers the cutscene, so he has an extra step towards the last spore. After burning the 2nd spore, head NE past the xeno horde. The latest updates has increased xeno density here, but thankfully with high-level Hellfire and the captain and Dalan following behind him to take out some of the xeno, he killed a fair number of them -- enough to survive getting swarmed the next turn.

Boosted captain with Pressing Need and Warrior's Wrath, so by turn 3 he has 11 MP: enough to go NW to hit the secondary objective before the hydra reaches the last spore.

This time, there were enough xeno in the way that I got a pretty high kill count too: 5 veterans, 3 turns (goal 18 for 20% bonus), 19 kills (6.3/turn for 10% bonus), 1 secondary objective (+5 XP). 154 + 50 bonus = 204 XP; 198 + 58 = 256 RP. Yeah!!! 

[redartrats]

Oct 12, 2016 7:50:45 GMT -5 redartrats said:

Latest achievement: Drayan Core in 5 turns.

Usual scout blitz: respec scouts to Overdrive 10, max out stealth & null field, then on turn 1 buff them with Pressing Need and Rallying Charge. Send 1st scout south to western gun building & 2nd scout southeast towards eastern gun building. Activate null field. Turn 2, 1st scout infiltrates west gun building & disables gun, then hide in corner undetected (thanks to null field you can even take out a soldier or two and the rest still won't detect you). 2nd scout gets nearer to east building (it's quite a distance).

Engineer is also kitted with +1 MP and Capture 10, so on turn 2 with further buff from Rallying Charge captures 1st enemy TP. Soldiers head south to cover the spawn points with Overwatch.

Turn 3, 2nd scout reaches east gun building & takes the secondary objective and hides in corner with null field, while engineer starts heading towards 2nd enemy TP.

Turn 4: 2nd scout sneaks past TP and starts heading towards palace entrance. Engineer gets nearer to the TP. Meanwhile soldiers racking up kill count thanks to Overwatch.

Turn 5: engineer captures 2nd TP, 2nd scout applies 2nd overdrive and makes it into palace.

Result: victory in 5 turns (goal 14, 20% bonus), 38 kills (7.6/turn, 15% bonus), 2 secondary objectives, 110 + 48 = 158 XP, 110 + 38 = 148 RP. 6 veterans.

Reduced to 4 turns this morning. The basic idea is still the same, but this time I maxed out to Overdrive 10 at the cost of lower Null Field, which meant I needed to be careful in having my Scout end his move in a square a safe distance away from enemy troops' paths, otherwise they have a chance of detecting him and taking him down. (In fact, it took me several tries before I got this right.) Also, the initial setup is much tighter in order to squeeze the maximum ground coverage from my templars. As usual, Engineer is spec'd with Capture 10 so that he can capture an enemy TP within 1 turn.

Turn 1: swap 1st scout with hydra equipped with +1 MP boost, and swap 2nd scout with 1st scout (this dance is just to get the 1st scout 2 squares ahead, which is very important later on). Cluster hydra, scout, soldier, cappy, and engineer together, and apply Rallying Charge 4 to all of them. Cappy applies Pressing Need 4 to hydra, scout, engineer, and soldier. Scout moves east over the first spawn point, then applies Overdrive and starts making his way diagonally down SE towards the 2nd orbital gun. Apply Null Field at the end of his turn. Hydra moves south into the valley, away from the rest of the squad, towards the 1st orbital gun. Engineer heads towards the 1st enemy TP. Soldier follows scout to provide OW coverage.

Turn 2: Hydra makes it to the building that houses the 1st secondary objective. Scout reaches building that houses the 2nd secondary objective. Soldier follows after scout, but can't catch up so ends up just above the 2nd enemy TP. Engineer makes it to SE corner of 1st enemy TP, then purges and captures it. (It's important to position him at the SE corner so that he has enough MP to make it to the 2nd TP in 2 moves.) Cappy and Nyra head south towards 2nd TP.

Turn 3: Hydra infiltrates the building and obtains secondary objective, and then heads back out towards 2nd TP to provide firepower to clear out enemy units from the area around 2nd TP. Scout infiltrates secondary objective from second building, then escapes towards 2nd TP. At this point, he doesn't have enough MP to get to a safe distance from the enemy troops in the building who will follow him (and probably kill him). Plus, his Null Field is starting to wear out. So purchase Reactor Jolt from the captured TP and boost him with another +3 MP, so that he can start heading south from the 2nd TP. This positions him near the SE corner of the TP, which is a safer distance away from the troops who will start moving westwards towards the rest of the squad, who will otherwise detect the scout due to Null Field not being maxed out to 10. Engineer starts heading to 2nd TP. Soldier provides OW on north side of 2nd TP so that spawning enemy units don't start shooting at scout. Cappy and Nyra take out enemy units emerging from building next to 1st TP. Hire 2nd scout and start heading towards 2nd TP. Use long-range weapons to take out enemies hiding behind the 1st orbital gun who might shoot at the engineer.

Turn 4: Engineer reaches 2nd TP and takes it over. Palace door opens. Scout has enough MP to complete the mission, so rest of the squad take out as many enemy units as they can reach to max out the kill count, then scout makes the final run for it.

Result: 6 veterans, 4 turns (goal 14, 20% bonus), 28 kills (7.0/turn, 10% bonus), 2 secondary objectives (+10 XP). Total 110+43=153 XP; 110+33=143 RP.

[fallen]

redartrats - fascinating that you went "too fast" in that last run, and gained les XP / RP!

Great write up turn-by-turn!

[redartrats]

The XP difference is really caused by not killing as many enemy units as the previous run. This can be somewhat random since it depends on the placement of enemy units and where they spawn and whether the speedrunning templars can kill them before completing the mission.

Well, that, and I don't get an additional turn count bonus for shaving 5 turns to 4, and 4 turns doesn't give a lot of time for mowing down enemies. If the bonus wasn't capped I'd arguably have gotten a slightly higher XP/RP reward here. (But then I'm not sure if it's BF's goal to encourage speedrunning. )

[AA]

I just beat Ferrari Lance: Power Relay Grid in 7 turns on normal

I did the same thing redartrats did except I used +MP buffs

[redartrats]

New record: Deck 14: Power Relay Grid in 4 turns (on Replay+ at Brutal difficulty)

This is mostly based on luck, since in the worst case I'd need at least another turn or 2 to get to the NW corner node. But basically I started off by having Dalan buff the initial team with Rallying Charge, and my scout (maxed out to Overdrive 10 and with +1 MP equipment) hit the SE corner node on the first turn (unfortunately it blew). Engineer heads north to take the TP and build a turret to defend against the spawn point just west of the TP, and captain heads west towards the SW node, while Dalan heads NE to join up with the scout (to provide cover).

Turn 2: engineer hits the node directly north of the TP (it blew), captain hits SW node (held), scout heads north towards the 2nd NE node. Dalan takes the node E of the TP and heads NE to cover the scout; deployed hydra to suppress the spawn point.

Turn 3: scout hits 2nd NE node and starts heading towards NE corner node around the dangerous passage with a spawn point and a spawn tower (turned out to be the spitting kind); Dalan struggles to keep up with her. Engineer heads NW towards the next node N of the TP (hits secondary objective on the way); hydra heads NW, and captain heads N.

Turn 4: scout reaches NE corner node; Dalan starts attacking spawn tower; engineer reaches N node; hydra gets nearer NW node. Cappy reached middle W node, and turns out by then I had enough nodes holding that the mission was completed right then. Otherwise it would have required the hydra another turn or two to hit the last node on the NW.

This turn count is probably impossible on first playthrough because Overdrive 10 wouldn't be available. Though something quite close might be possible if you're lucky and all the early nodes held.

Final result: 5 veterans, 4 turns (goal 16; 20% bonus), 6 kills (haha), 1 secondary objective; 96 + 25 = 121 XP; 90 + 19 = 109 RP.