Can't keep up with the Jeeta

[cerseisadvocate]

I am pretty frustrated with the Jeeta atm playing on brutal difficulty.
When the Jeeta appear I can handle whem pretty well but as the game progresses they seem to get stronger and at one point I start to be unable to fight them in Ship or Crew caombat..

Ship Combat:
I use a Havoc carrier specialised on Craft and long range weapon + Point defense guns. I do pretty good against craft, I shoot the out of the void regulary and even when a bomber comes through it misses most of the time and does only marginal damage. However at some point the Jeeta just shred me to oblivion with their guns.

Crew Combat:
Everything is good at first. My A-Team consists of a crew soldier in #4 Doc/Combatmed/Commander in #3 Vytautas with a level11 Shotgun in +2 and a Sworman/Assassin/Zealot with fleet footed and device freal and a mad Ini value at #1
My Swormand keeps the Jeeta buisy and debuffed, the doc heals and keeps the debuffs off and Vytautas and the soldier shred them with their guns. However at some point my sworman suddenly can't hit shit anymore, the Jeeta start stacking buffs and everything goes downhill from there.

Now I understand that it is supposed to be hard but I am frustrated as I just can't see what I am supposed to do. I have a level 30 Swordsman with the DeRiverish Blade Gux Armor and two level 4 gears. This is petty much as good as it gets. I retrained him to take advantage of every possible skill to boost accuracy and he still cant hit the jeeta at some point. What am I missing, where can I get better or is the balancing working that way and I am supposed to fail anyway?

[fallen]

@cerseiadvocate - when they first released, we made some tuning but since then we've generally heard from players that they are (1) hard and (2) require a change of strategy but (3) are defeatable on any difficulty.

You mention a few times that there is a sudden point where you can't seem to handle them anymore. Do you think this is during the Era? There is no major increase of difficulty of the enemy during the Era other than the standard difficulty clock.

Considering your case in crew combat, allowing them to stack buffs is a real problem. Anyone who stacks a lot of buffs -- including your own troops -- become pretty godlike. I'd identify that as a need of your anti-xeno combat team. Also, like Terrox the Jyeeta are melee-based enemies. Fighting them with melee is the hardest thing you can attempt to do. In both cases, I'd consider a change of strategy. Maybe think about your how Swordsman wants to change tactics to focusing on soaking, debuffing, and buffing your own team and just "holding the front" instead of expecting him to be able to kill the Jyeeta in hand-to-hand if it isn't working for you.

[cerseisadvocate]

Well for me it feels like I am doing it right when I first encounter them (they are hard but I can manage) but when after a dozen battles it feels like thy become harder. Especially in Crew combat I developed the idea that their evasion is ticking up with every encounter until I cant hit them enymore (even if they are not buffed).
Is that a thing or is RNG just playing with my nerves?
If that is a thing (Jeeta evasion increasing over time) when I would suggest to rebalance that. Game mechanics that avoid beeing hit are very hard to balance as they tend to go from useless (barely ever fires) to op (not hittable) with a very slim marine of well balance. Imho it would be better to keep them hitable but increase armor and HP to make them more resilent.

But Probably my problem is just that I want to bring a Sword to an Alien fistfight however it feels unsatisfying to dump that awesome swordguy I have from the very beginning for some nameless guy with a gun. It would be cool if there where more options to adopt and make meele a more viable strategy. E.G. introducing a new 'edge' type gear that primarily buffs mele accuracy.
Considering the strategy I am not sure how much options I have with his job combination. I used him for debuffing / soaking /damage dealing. Many Swordman talents are relient on hitting the enemy. If I cant hit them I cant debuff them which is probably my main problem with that build.

Regarding Ship combat I have a havoc Carrier with 100/50 pools in both pilot and nav. Is that adequate or do I have to get more here?

[fallen]

There is definitely no uptick in Evasion every encounter, to be clear.

Hopefully some other players can hop on and provide other suggestions on how to tune your strategy. Discord is also a great place to discuss Jyeeta strats. Exact answers you to your dice pools is highly dependent on your game, difficulty, turn, danger in the quad, etc.

[cerseisadvocate]

Thx, I guess RNG fooled my ,ind. I feel confident with the Crew Combat atm finishing the first stage without much problems but been blown out of the sky by the first ship of the second part.

Can anyone who mastered Jeeta ship combat provide some imput what dice pools one should aim for and how to reach them?

[pendell]

I can't say I've mastered Jyeeta combat, but these are my experiences:
1) They like to stack buffs. Fortunately, there are debuff attacks which don't require a to-hit attack -- Scorn and unrelenting ire. The swordsmen and assassins both have debuff talents, but those require a successful attack to work. Maybe stack accuracy buffs onto the melee character?

2) Jyeeta like to use attacks that mess up your order. That makes things difficult for my slot 3 character, as I rely on xeno hunters with XMGs to spray plasma. If a character gets pushed back from slot 2, that means the slot 3 character cab't use the rifle.

I've always worked around that, but some possible solutions are 1) Change weapons to use something that works at more ranges. 2) Add talents for the weapon that work at range 2 , as well as range 3 and 4.

Strength of Steel is great for swordsmen, as it increases their various defense capabilities AND it self-heals. Maybe consider making your swordsman into a tank whose sole purpose is to soak up hits from the Jyeeta?

Although I play at a lower difficulty, my anti-jyeeta team consists of 1) A melee tank, possibly a bodyguard.  2)  A commander/combat medic to buff the team/debuff the jyeeta/heal  3-4) - two with endgame rifles and plasma talents to sweep the first two ranks every turn. 


Those are my thoughts. Good luck!

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[xenokiller]

As you face new opponents, don't fail to Retrain your mid-level and high-level fighters. Replace all your ship components. You should have like 15M by Jyeeta time (at least on impossible)

During the Jyeetax invasion, swap out attacks & Talents you normally like for Buff-Removal / Debuff Purge attacks.

During Jyeetax era I sayy you change your weapons, maximize your healing, equip init bonuses instead of maximize damage, equip crit bonuses.

If you have trouble with Jyeeta in ship combat your ship is probably just bad. post the specs

[BLM]

I am getting close to my first encounter with the Jyeeta and I would like to prepare a bit. From reading this thread, I'm already scared

Which recommendation would you have regarding ship build ? I normally try to max pilot on a smallish ship to become pretty much impossible to target and wear down my opponent dice pools while he wastes his missiles into the void. Would this work when facing lots of small crafts ? If not, is there any way to reliably avoid them, or a stat that gains major importance at this stage (apart from the obvious craft evasion) ? If not, should I just get a ship big and shielded enough to soak them ? Any other tip ?

Regarding crew combat I am rather confident as I play an explorer with a dedicated xeno-fighting team (3 exo-scouts, two of whom are also xeno-hunters, a lot of mobility and a lot of buff cleansing capacity). Is there anything drastically different in fighting Jyeeta compared to fighting regular Terrox xenos ?

[cerseisadvocate]

regarding shipcombat have a look at this thread

startradersrpg.proboards.com/thread/19849/pimp-voidship-seeking-advice-setup

[pendell]

Jan 6, 2020 6:59:31 GMT -5 BLM said:

I am getting close to my first encounter with the Jyeeta and I would like to prepare a bit. From reading this thread, I'm already scared

Which recommendation would you have regarding ship build ? I normally try to max pilot on a smallish ship to become pretty much impossible to target and wear down my opponent dice pools while he wastes his missiles into the void. Would this work when facing lots of small crafts ? If not, is there any way to reliably avoid them, or a stat that gains major importance at this stage (apart from the obvious craft evasion) ? If not, should I just get a ship big and shielded enough to soak them ? Any other tip ?

Regarding crew combat I am rather confident as I play an explorer with a dedicated xeno-fighting team (3 exo-scouts, two of whom are also xeno-hunters, a lot of mobility and a lot of buff cleansing capacity). Is there anything drastically different in fighting Jyeeta compared to fighting regular Terrox xenos ?

Which difficulty level are you playing at? If at a lower difficulty level, it is quite possible to get your pilot stat high enough using pilot assist modules that you simply evade craft attack.



Jyeeta are melee specialists. The major difference I notice between them and the Terrox are as follows:

1) Jyeeta are physically stronger and harder to put down.

2) Jyeeta use a lot of talents to knock people around in the battle order. So you've got to be ready for your rifleman to get pushed into range 2 because someone at range 2 was knocked back into that slot.

3) Jyeeta like poison.

4) Because Jyeeta capital ships (such as the Desecrator) have a lot more crew, they tend to get into a lot more fights with combat soldiers. On a Terrox ship you can normally start chewing into the regular crew (who have no significant combat talents) after one or two boarding battles; with the Jyeeta it's more like four or five.



My recommendation is to develop a deeper boarding bench so that you don't have the same crew fighting over and over; they will get wounded and start losing people. Don't forget medical talents in space combat to heal crew and restore morale!



Also, go out and get the best boarding weapons and armor you can. Level 6 and level 7. Specialize on improving init as much as possible.



My preferred build is a tank in front to soak damage (possible aided by a body guard with tactical shove and honor guard) and two xeno hunters in the back raining fire with plasma talents on every turn.



Oh yes:The Jyeeta love to focus on the healer, so probably best to put that person in the back rank, and to have more than one.



Hope that helps!



Respectfully,



Brian P.

[fallen]

Also keep in mind that you can take a lot of measures to simply avoid the Jyeeta during this time. Everyone will sweat a bit more traveling the void, but you can steer clear of the Era and the Rumor.

[BLM]

Thanks a lot for the feedback !

So my bad-ass Steel Song Bounty / Xeno-Hunter was definitely not going to avoid the Jyeeta. After a few encouraging crew battles in exploration, I attacked some of their ships. I wrecked the first one without trouble, but the second encounter was the end of my captain's career. Overall I really enjoyed this new era, I had not played the since the Jyeeta were introduced and always found that the endgame was lacking challenge and objectives. This is definitely solved now !

Here is what I have learnt from it and how I'm going to prepare my next playthrough:

1) Ship combat:

• Problem: My first encounter was with flash charge, I started directly from range 4 and could easily dodge ennemy rockets with my 60 pilot / 50 electronic Raptor and some barrel rolls. The second was a mission battle (flash charge impossible), I took a few torps from the beginning, spent my talents on removing debuffs instead of boosting defense / small craft defense. After two bombing runs by ennemy crafts, my ship and crew were not able to defend themselves anymore.
  
• Solution: Get a bigger ship, increase pilot further, get two
  interceptors to defend against rockets. I am wondering whether I will be
  able to increase pilot enough to offset the loss in speed/agility.

• Problem: Jyeeta crafts have a 3 turns flight plan (launch, bomb/board, return), which does not give enough time to destroy them before attack, or to use relevant talents as I need to first buff defense to not get destroyed by the carrier. Knock from the void cannot target a specific craft, so is not super useful.
  
• Solution: Not too sure, it seems difficult to defend against both the carrier and the crafts. Probably a bigger ship would let me include more craft defense components (but then I might get too low on pilot to avoid torps), and soap the torps and missiles that I would take if focusing on craft defense. I will also add a couple of autocannons. I'm not very satisfied by this, any advice is welcome.
  

2) Crew combat:

• Problem: Jyeeta are very good, very durable melee fighters
  
• Solution : Actually I did quite good. A lesson learned is to put everyone in light armor as they have better soak value against melee. A deeper bench is also a good recommendation, I could finish a terrox combat with everyone at 100% Healt / Morale, but i was a bit battered after Jyeeta combats. Here is my line up:

• Rank1: An experimental frontline tank/healer (Medic / Bodyguard / Military officer): He dual wields for protection, buffs with steely resolve, removes buffs and reduces init with damning aim, restores formation with tactical shove, tanks well and heals the rest of the time. That's actually too much for just one guy and I'm hesitating to have two of them as my melee line. However I would lose my exo scout in rank 2, and I really need him for E-Shock grenades and know thy ennemy, so I'm at a loss. Any advice welcome.
• Rank 2: Exo / Soldier / Military Officer: His role is to debuff (E-shock / Know thy ennemy), remove buffs (roaring barrels) and restore formation (tactial edge). Very underperforming, not tanky enough for the position, tactical edge was mostly useless as that guy was often in rank 1 when it was needed, I barely used any Soldier talents. However E-Shock grenade alone is enough to justify having him there. I'm planning to take one rank of doctor to off-heal, and I don't really know about the last job. Any advice very welcome.
  
• Rank 3: Exo / Xeno / Bounty: He debuffs with unfaltering ire (combined with E-Shock the ennemy melee row is now at -50% accuracy and is basically useless), then buffs himself with Exo talents, then sprays plasma at back rows with Xeno talents. Very good, keeping him and making him my captain.
  
• Rank 4: Exo / Xeno / 1 rank Doctor: Same as above, but instead of unfaltering ire launches grenades (the ennemy melee row is now at 50% stun in addition to -50% accuracy, they are really completely harmless) and he has a off-heal capacity. The doctor rank was not a great idea as I need him to shoot as much plasma as possible. My rank 2 has less damage potential and should thus be the off-healer. I don't really know what to replace doctor with though, Exo / Xeno seems enough for a pure damage dealer. Any advice welcome.
  

I hope this helps anyone looking for Jyeeta tips, and I am looking forward to your recommendations on ship build and crew combat line up.

[spacez52]

For ship combat try adding up to 5 C-Tak 4s (Zenrin only) to your ship. I recommend this build by Fortune918 on Discord

tswift.gitlab.io/stfx/#XQAAgABFAAAAAAAAAAAEAEToZDQjI03BiqEVejd4gm+0rkwiP0buU1mP0MdqCY3Kv0UvSdsnh8RcPLBsHkhPWf//zbcAAA==

I could dodge almost all incoming small craft attacks and with the right defensive buffs also handle the fire from the capital ships. Then it’s just a matter of time...

[brentaur]

Does anybody use sniper rifles against the xeno? It seems like a no-brainer at first glance, but the initiative cost is so high that I've found it doesn't work as well as I hoped it would.

[MTKnife]

Mar 26, 2020 11:44:18 GMT -5 brentaur said:

Does anybody use sniper rifles against the xeno? It seems like a no-brainer at first glance, but the initiative cost is so high that I've found it doesn't work as well as I hoped it would.

I only use sniper rifles in position 4. Basically, you need someone there who's got high enough initiative to fire the rifle once and do something else (e.g., Unfaltering Ire), or fire the rifle twice. Whether that's possible on any given turn depends on your init roll, but remember there are buffs that can help, including those from other characters (e.g., Tactical Edge, which I always take on my Doctor/Combat Medic/Military Officer healer). Yeah, sometimes you don't get that second shot, but you never miss (sniper rifles are accurate have incredible Penetration).

Of course, for good init rolls, you need to find a character with high Quickness and Wisdom. However, one of the nicest things about the sniper rifle is that it uses Quickness, not Strength; therefore, you don't need to find a character with high scores in three Abilities, just two. Gear that gives an init bonus (directly or indirectly, by boosting Quickness or Wisdom) will also help.