Brother Dervin's Guide to Destroying Aliens and Narvidians
Nov 30, 2013 10:42:45 GMT -5
grävling, rabidbite, and 6 more like this
Post by contributor on Nov 30, 2013 10:42:45 GMT -5
Brother Dervin is, by far, my most successful alien hunting captain. He's currently encountered and destroyed more than 50 Alien and Narvidian ships including some above 350% his level. He's playing on Impossible difficulty and he's not using any kind of exploit other than taking advantage of the fact that adding to Strength does not cause you to level up at all. He seems to have been born with disproportionate knowledge of Aliens and how to destroy them. It's something he attributes to being the reincarnation of several alien hunters from Rychart and Steel Song. I've asked him if he wouldn't mind sharing a little of his knowledge with the forum. You'll have to excuse his manner, he's spent A LOT of time orbiting dead planets doing nothing but staring into the darkness looking for his next target.
While I myself do not fear death or what comes after, some have convinced me that it would be profitable to share my knowledge of hunting Aliens and Narvidians before that day arrives. After my death, it will doubtless take many years before I find a new body and can continue my quest. Others might as well take up the hunt in my stead and it is well that they are prepared for what they will find. Herein lies the first lesson, the captain that fears death and believes he can escape will never make a valiant Xeno hunter. To seek and destroy the Alien is to embrace your own death. Embrace it knowing that you will rise again stronger and wiser.
XP Allocation
Your first attention as an Alien Hunter must be given to yourself. While you will command a fearsome ship with a crew armed to the teeth, a body is only as good as the head, and you are that head.
Do not think that you can be a great Xeno hunter without being prepared to fight the Alien face-to-faces through boarding actions. A captain who wants to "keep his boots clean" will never stand against an Alien or Narvidian 3 times or more his level. So your first goal in XP allocation is to at all times keep your Strength at 3 times your level. Since this will not cause you to level up you'll have enough xp left over for other things.
After strength, focus on keeping pilot and warrior at 1.5 times your level. Boarding is messy and will often damage your ship, so being able to disable a lower level ship with guns and avoid being rammed is key to surviability.
After this, allocate XP to intimidate (needed for keeping fuel costs down) and tactics (needed to command large crews and target with guns) equally, until they are both at level 20. Then add one point to intimidate for every 5 you put into tactics. You will want to raise stealth early, but do not let it get above 10. It is unnecessary once you can survive in battle and your ship should be a flying billboard telling the enemy "Here I am, come and get me!" Putting 1 or 2 extra points into negotiate is also permissible.
Ships
The most important piece of equipment in fighting Xenos is your ship. The two most important aspects of your ship are the number of crew it can hold and the size of it's hold. To win by boarding, you must have a large crew and large enough hold to allow you to stay out in the dark hunting your prey. The only caveat to the above is that you should avoid ships that either have low agility and slow speed. These will make you too vulnerable to certain attacks and make it harder to ensure that you are able to do the boarding. Never, in any circumstances, take a low agility ship. A Medium/Medium or Medium/Quick ship is ideally suited to our task.
The secondary thing to think about is getting a ship that can take a lot of damage. A large crew ship with low hull, or engines is dangerous because a focused attack on any of those things can quickly destroy or disable your ship even if your crew is delivering more damage to the enemy, but it's not well placed. Guns and torps will also soak damage (idiot beasties) though too many guns will also pull men from your boarding party.
If you must have specific suggestions I have a few, but they are not the only good ships. There is no greater ship for hunting Aliens than the Carnifiex Cruiser. It may, however, take a captain a long time before he is able to find and handle such a large ship. A better ship to start hunting with is the Resilient Cruiser, if you can find it. The Battle Frigate (not the Battlefrigate) is also worth considering. In theory the Cadar Flagship would make a decent alien hunter, but personally I can't stand the stench of the things. All of the above ships are Medium/Medium. The Slayernz Cruiser is a good Medium/Quick option, however, since the engines are so high, you must put the Battleship Architecture upgrade on it to have enough crew to fight with.
Upgrades
Upgrades make all the difference but not a lot of time needs to be spent here. Structural upgrades: only real choice here is more armor or more storage based on what you need. Most of the time, I choose Dreadnaught Architecture. Combat: this is a hard one, but I've seen too many good hunters die when a random alien decides to torp or use guns. It's not that I fear death but that I wish to fight Aliens for a good long time. Get the escape shuttle. Interior: the choice is between how you will get more crew. If you don't have enough Intimidate to handle the Battleship Architecture, get the Mercenaries. Propulsion: this is a no-brainer. If you want to find aliens, you need a Null Field Generator. Armament: you won't win anything by torping, get the Hyperion Superstructure.
Officers
The last bit of preparation is to assemble a team of officers to help you in battle and to train your crew into a disciplined fighting force. While the Xeno Vet officer may seem like an obvious choice I would advise against having one on board. If you wish to board a Narvidian and engage their captain in hand-to-hand combat all of your officers must help in this one goal. Hire a Templar, a Military Officer and a Body Guard.
Finding and Fighting Aliens and Narvidians
Now we get to the point you've probably been waiting for. But you must understand this, a captain, who has not done the work above, has no business going out to hunt aliens. Like all captains he will die, but he will die before he has the joy of seeing the shattered carcass of a Terrox lying at his feet. There is little to no point in hunting aliens before level 15 but it is better to get to at least level 20 and have command of a fully equipped Xeno hunting dreadnaught before beginning your search in earnest.
When you are ready to hunt you should know that the only thing you need to carry in your hold are Water-fuel and Weapons. Anything else is dead weight. Starting out, you will need more room for Water-Fuel and may only be able to carry 20 Weapons, but as soon as you can, bring that up to 40 or better 60.
The best way, in my less-than-humble experience, to find an alien is to "troll" over an alien rumor, so you need to be checking the rumors at every planet you stop in. Trolling involves traveling over the affected sector rather than staying in it and patrolling. Move your ship from an adjacent sector to the sector with the rumor repeatedly and you will find an Alien eventually if you have the Null Field Generator installed. Also learn which planets are likely to have the most rumors. It is worth travelling out of your way to stop at these mines of information. The ideal rumors will be in red squares, though not far from planets where you can easily restock. Rumors on dead planets or the Hyperion Demonic Nebula are often more fruitful than others. Many have made a big deal about finding rumors or planets that are far from sector [0,0]. In my experience if you have the choice between a rumor that is deep into red space far from [0,0] or a rumor that is close to [0,0] but has a good resupply point go to the latter. In my most recent hunt I turned up 7 or 8 aliens when attacks were rumored at Rift-Leporis 4 [6,0].
Once you have engaged an enemy, if he is a high-level foe, there is only one thing to do; Advance and Board! If an Alien or Narvidian is at your level or below, provided his ship is not Quick (Engines being 2x hull or more) you are likely to be successful with guns. However, if you think there is any chance that an enemy could board you, don't bother to wait and see. The advantage to boarding rather than being boarded is huge! You never want to lose that roll, especially against a high-level Alien with a large crew.
Once you have boarded, keep pressing board/duel until your foe is defeated, at this point it is do-or-die for you and your crew. If it happens that your crew has been decimated and you are locked in a duel with an alien captain and beginning to lose HP you are unlikely to survive. At this point, you must know how much damage you've been doing to the other captain. If you have been consistently wounding him since you started fighting, you might want to press on with the battle, but remember some alien captains have up to 20HP. If you are not wounding the other captain or you think you don't have enough HP to beat him, your only hope is to try ramming his ship to breach your own hull and escape in the escape shuttle. If you manage that, Alfaan is truly shining on you my friend.
Getting Started
My tale is running in reverse and we are now nearly to the beginning. There are just a few more things that may help you become a great scourge of the Alien and Narvidian. You must, at all times, remember your purpose in this life. You are, or will be a Xeno hunter. To best accomplish this, eschew the conflicts of the factions for the peace and quiet of the void. Your goal should be to have positive rep with all factions along with at least one rank and permits, but do not waste time and money pursuing high rank. However, also avoid negative rep. The last thing you need is some opportunistic bounty hunter finding your ship limping back into port after destroying a monster ten times more terrifying than himself.
It may surprise you to know that I began my captain's career as a pacifist merchant flying the Fidei Defensor. If you know the trade routes, it is the most certain way ensure a good start. Avoid trade embargos and illicit goods until you have permits. Let them search you and plunder your goods, if they will. Be patient, one day you will have killed so many pirates that it will be impossible to say that you ran out of cowardice. You are an Alien killer.
Once you have a decent ship and your skills are beginning to come up, use Spy Wars and Solar Wars to rapidly gain xp and reputation all around. At this point, consider purchasing other ships upgraded for things like spying and blockading and begin to keep your eyes out for a Battle Frigate or Resilient Cruiser, which can be equipped for Alien hunting.
I began to write this unwillingly, but now that it is on paper I have great joy in the thought of the many Aliens and Narvidians that will burn at the hands of many eager hunters. What a glorious joy, now I am truly ready to face the end. May Alfaan bless and keep you.
While I myself do not fear death or what comes after, some have convinced me that it would be profitable to share my knowledge of hunting Aliens and Narvidians before that day arrives. After my death, it will doubtless take many years before I find a new body and can continue my quest. Others might as well take up the hunt in my stead and it is well that they are prepared for what they will find. Herein lies the first lesson, the captain that fears death and believes he can escape will never make a valiant Xeno hunter. To seek and destroy the Alien is to embrace your own death. Embrace it knowing that you will rise again stronger and wiser.
XP Allocation
Your first attention as an Alien Hunter must be given to yourself. While you will command a fearsome ship with a crew armed to the teeth, a body is only as good as the head, and you are that head.
Do not think that you can be a great Xeno hunter without being prepared to fight the Alien face-to-faces through boarding actions. A captain who wants to "keep his boots clean" will never stand against an Alien or Narvidian 3 times or more his level. So your first goal in XP allocation is to at all times keep your Strength at 3 times your level. Since this will not cause you to level up you'll have enough xp left over for other things.
After strength, focus on keeping pilot and warrior at 1.5 times your level. Boarding is messy and will often damage your ship, so being able to disable a lower level ship with guns and avoid being rammed is key to surviability.
After this, allocate XP to intimidate (needed for keeping fuel costs down) and tactics (needed to command large crews and target with guns) equally, until they are both at level 20. Then add one point to intimidate for every 5 you put into tactics. You will want to raise stealth early, but do not let it get above 10. It is unnecessary once you can survive in battle and your ship should be a flying billboard telling the enemy "Here I am, come and get me!" Putting 1 or 2 extra points into negotiate is also permissible.
Ships
The most important piece of equipment in fighting Xenos is your ship. The two most important aspects of your ship are the number of crew it can hold and the size of it's hold. To win by boarding, you must have a large crew and large enough hold to allow you to stay out in the dark hunting your prey. The only caveat to the above is that you should avoid ships that either have low agility and slow speed. These will make you too vulnerable to certain attacks and make it harder to ensure that you are able to do the boarding. Never, in any circumstances, take a low agility ship. A Medium/Medium or Medium/Quick ship is ideally suited to our task.
The secondary thing to think about is getting a ship that can take a lot of damage. A large crew ship with low hull, or engines is dangerous because a focused attack on any of those things can quickly destroy or disable your ship even if your crew is delivering more damage to the enemy, but it's not well placed. Guns and torps will also soak damage (idiot beasties) though too many guns will also pull men from your boarding party.
If you must have specific suggestions I have a few, but they are not the only good ships. There is no greater ship for hunting Aliens than the Carnifiex Cruiser. It may, however, take a captain a long time before he is able to find and handle such a large ship. A better ship to start hunting with is the Resilient Cruiser, if you can find it. The Battle Frigate (not the Battlefrigate) is also worth considering. In theory the Cadar Flagship would make a decent alien hunter, but personally I can't stand the stench of the things. All of the above ships are Medium/Medium. The Slayernz Cruiser is a good Medium/Quick option, however, since the engines are so high, you must put the Battleship Architecture upgrade on it to have enough crew to fight with.
Upgrades
Upgrades make all the difference but not a lot of time needs to be spent here. Structural upgrades: only real choice here is more armor or more storage based on what you need. Most of the time, I choose Dreadnaught Architecture. Combat: this is a hard one, but I've seen too many good hunters die when a random alien decides to torp or use guns. It's not that I fear death but that I wish to fight Aliens for a good long time. Get the escape shuttle. Interior: the choice is between how you will get more crew. If you don't have enough Intimidate to handle the Battleship Architecture, get the Mercenaries. Propulsion: this is a no-brainer. If you want to find aliens, you need a Null Field Generator. Armament: you won't win anything by torping, get the Hyperion Superstructure.
Officers
The last bit of preparation is to assemble a team of officers to help you in battle and to train your crew into a disciplined fighting force. While the Xeno Vet officer may seem like an obvious choice I would advise against having one on board. If you wish to board a Narvidian and engage their captain in hand-to-hand combat all of your officers must help in this one goal. Hire a Templar, a Military Officer and a Body Guard.
Finding and Fighting Aliens and Narvidians
Now we get to the point you've probably been waiting for. But you must understand this, a captain, who has not done the work above, has no business going out to hunt aliens. Like all captains he will die, but he will die before he has the joy of seeing the shattered carcass of a Terrox lying at his feet. There is little to no point in hunting aliens before level 15 but it is better to get to at least level 20 and have command of a fully equipped Xeno hunting dreadnaught before beginning your search in earnest.
When you are ready to hunt you should know that the only thing you need to carry in your hold are Water-fuel and Weapons. Anything else is dead weight. Starting out, you will need more room for Water-Fuel and may only be able to carry 20 Weapons, but as soon as you can, bring that up to 40 or better 60.
The best way, in my less-than-humble experience, to find an alien is to "troll" over an alien rumor, so you need to be checking the rumors at every planet you stop in. Trolling involves traveling over the affected sector rather than staying in it and patrolling. Move your ship from an adjacent sector to the sector with the rumor repeatedly and you will find an Alien eventually if you have the Null Field Generator installed. Also learn which planets are likely to have the most rumors. It is worth travelling out of your way to stop at these mines of information. The ideal rumors will be in red squares, though not far from planets where you can easily restock. Rumors on dead planets or the Hyperion Demonic Nebula are often more fruitful than others. Many have made a big deal about finding rumors or planets that are far from sector [0,0]. In my experience if you have the choice between a rumor that is deep into red space far from [0,0] or a rumor that is close to [0,0] but has a good resupply point go to the latter. In my most recent hunt I turned up 7 or 8 aliens when attacks were rumored at Rift-Leporis 4 [6,0].
Once you have engaged an enemy, if he is a high-level foe, there is only one thing to do; Advance and Board! If an Alien or Narvidian is at your level or below, provided his ship is not Quick (Engines being 2x hull or more) you are likely to be successful with guns. However, if you think there is any chance that an enemy could board you, don't bother to wait and see. The advantage to boarding rather than being boarded is huge! You never want to lose that roll, especially against a high-level Alien with a large crew.
Once you have boarded, keep pressing board/duel until your foe is defeated, at this point it is do-or-die for you and your crew. If it happens that your crew has been decimated and you are locked in a duel with an alien captain and beginning to lose HP you are unlikely to survive. At this point, you must know how much damage you've been doing to the other captain. If you have been consistently wounding him since you started fighting, you might want to press on with the battle, but remember some alien captains have up to 20HP. If you are not wounding the other captain or you think you don't have enough HP to beat him, your only hope is to try ramming his ship to breach your own hull and escape in the escape shuttle. If you manage that, Alfaan is truly shining on you my friend.
Getting Started
My tale is running in reverse and we are now nearly to the beginning. There are just a few more things that may help you become a great scourge of the Alien and Narvidian. You must, at all times, remember your purpose in this life. You are, or will be a Xeno hunter. To best accomplish this, eschew the conflicts of the factions for the peace and quiet of the void. Your goal should be to have positive rep with all factions along with at least one rank and permits, but do not waste time and money pursuing high rank. However, also avoid negative rep. The last thing you need is some opportunistic bounty hunter finding your ship limping back into port after destroying a monster ten times more terrifying than himself.
It may surprise you to know that I began my captain's career as a pacifist merchant flying the Fidei Defensor. If you know the trade routes, it is the most certain way ensure a good start. Avoid trade embargos and illicit goods until you have permits. Let them search you and plunder your goods, if they will. Be patient, one day you will have killed so many pirates that it will be impossible to say that you ran out of cowardice. You are an Alien killer.
Once you have a decent ship and your skills are beginning to come up, use Spy Wars and Solar Wars to rapidly gain xp and reputation all around. At this point, consider purchasing other ships upgraded for things like spying and blockading and begin to keep your eyes out for a Battle Frigate or Resilient Cruiser, which can be equipped for Alien hunting.
I began to write this unwillingly, but now that it is on paper I have great joy in the thought of the many Aliens and Narvidians that will burn at the hands of many eager hunters. What a glorious joy, now I am truly ready to face the end. May Alfaan bless and keep you.
Exalt for an excellent guide and an awesome captain. May your ship be covered in alien/xeno/Narvidian slime!
(wanted to try if I could torp rthem to death, so I even bought 30 (later 40) artifacts, but all I found were space hives)
