Alien hunting has been more interesting compared to pre-6 versions.
Since the strength now contributes to the level, that means you have to make huge decisions.
It is still true that a gun bunny has it impossible to be a good alien hunter, because the aliens on higher levels still have lots of strength and warrior, which means that they are guaranteed to board you without you being able to fight back, because boarding comes before shooting. Unless you want to take them on mid range, that is.
However, version 6 allows more versatility throughout the boarding builds. I still prefer to stick with my strategy of huge strength and warrior, because with weapons giving 3x warrior/weapon boarding bonus, it means that I've got their warrior covered. Although truth is, one would eventually reach the point where the weapons would lose their efficiency and the alien hunter would need to retire. But that would have taken a veeeery long time. Before that you can enjoy the fact of being an alien hunter. Btw. The strategy I used pre-6, warrior 2x my level, is still viable.
This build exploits the mechanic of ST RPG (since I learned this through observation, not through cracking the game code, I will share). That is, not too many aliens shoot torps, and once they get on close range, it's over. Because first comes ramming, then comes boarding (always you before the opponent) and then goes gunning... And then comes retreat. So with so much strength and warrior difference compared to their pilot, you always board them first and cause huge amount of damage to them.
The advantages of this are insane. With Leviathan (although I heard that crew Xeno suits are better, but cannot confirm it) you have so much warrior that you don't even need the officers. It's always better to have them though. While it is true that Military, Templar and Bodyguard are a nice choice for any boarding characters, you won't be getting that much damage to your hp (in fact mostly none, you need to run out of crew first and that never happened to me), so I would advise you to swap the bodyguard for a vet, because you will need the money. Why?
Because this board is indeed impressive for boarding. Due to the insane warrior differences, you will hit for 2 damage every turn to captain's hp (one goes from the captain duel, second one from crew damage) while still being able to survive unscathed. But the disadvantage is, it takes a huge toll on other stats. And while intimidate and tactics are no big deal, the pilot will hurt you pretty badly. Since ramming goes before boarding, you have one huge problem. Nobody else than ramming pirates, give them a round of applause!
With a huge ship you should be able to survive one hit from them. But don't be afraid of surrendering to them, because this build cannot fight them! With pre-6 versions it was possible, because in the worst case you could avoid their second ram. And when they missed you, they got boarded and died.
You can always try to optimize this build. During pre-6 it was perfect, now there sure is a room for optimization. But I will not share all secrets of it and take all the fun from you. Just take note that from used stats warrior and tactics do contribute to damage, intimidate and pilot don't.
As for tips around this build...
A medium/medium ship is absolutely enough. I keep 36 sails and 40 engines, but you can have less. Guns and torps are dead weight, they won't even help you soak boarding damage, since only your hull, sails and crew will suffer (because the aliens aren't capable of producing enough board damage to damage the rest of the ship). You will be damaging hull, armor, engines and crew (due to dealing critical damage all the time).
Go for as much crew as you can. A steel song ship with dreadnought architecture, which is 240 crew. It's not necessary to have so much crew though, so if you want, you can have a bit less and have more cargo space for weapons or water-fuel.
You don't need more than 60 or 80 weapons.
As for
contributor's tips, I can't say that they aren't bad, but the build allows for unnecessarily much damage to your ship. Not to mention, it's very difficult to find balance there, weapons play way greater importance (which means that you're going to be feeling it considerably sooner than hi strength builds when the weapons begin fading), because you don't have as much raw warrior, and if you miss the roll, you're going to get boarded by higher level enemies, because there's no way you can overpower a warrior 3x your level with pilot 2x your level. You will also need to make concessions on pilot and tactics, because sacrificing your already low warrior is not viable here... Because the less warrior you have, the less chance of actually boarding them you have. And if you board, then you need to produce huge amounts of damage or else you'll die. When you lose the roll, you need tactics to retreat, because the advantage of boarding vs being boarded is indeed huge.
But with the build I gave, you are always the one who will board unless the game has seriously passed and you're a very huge level.
To summarize it: With passing time this build is going to be less and less effective, just like any boarding build that relies on weapons bonus. But it will take so much time before the weapons completely lose efficiency. The best method is to troll over alien rumors, because patrolling is fuel inefficient.
But there is now one more possibility to hunt aliens. With torpedo builds! Because stealth now counts as one too. As a torper you only need several things.
Pilot and vet. Absolute must.
Huge stealth. Preferably 250% your level.
You don't need too much pilot, because the fuel consumption isn't going to be heavy. I usually go for 20 pilot and nothing more.
And of course, some tactics for torps. You don't need to worry about them too much, so about 75% level tactics.
As for the ship, nothing to sweat really.
I build a ship with 18 hull and at least 36 sails and 30 engines to have free crew for torps. You can always try to maximize that, but I try to build as efficient ship as I can.
Of course, this build has one disadvantage. You may not always be able to survive battles with aliens, because the lack of pilot gives some real issues in trying to retreat from long range. But the fact that you have so much stealth and a fast ship should give you at least some edge, even against high level aliens (I have been able to defeat aliens 300% my level with a torping build. But never with guns)
But the most important thing is, if you run out of torpedoes before you shoot out the enemy's engines, never try to get into close range! In fact the safest is just to retreat and refill torps, because in medium range you are at risk of being closed on... And your huge stealth isn't going to be of that much help to survive.
And the best method is to pack some artifacts with you (vet bonuses and alien encounters) and just patrol for them, because patrolling efficiency is influenced by stealth.
Also, there's not much room to optimize this build, because sacrificing stealth just brings you closer to doom.
Maybe if you're feeling lucky, you could try a ramming build against the aliens. It would surely be funny, since all you need is pilot and a fast ship. But I don't want to push my luck against a 50/50 narvidian hive
although if you pick a pilot officer, vet, solar sails and engines upgrades that give you pilot and a prow with ramming bonuses, it could be interesting.
although if you pick a pilot officer, vet, solar sails and engines upgrades that give you pilot and a prow with ramming bonuses, it could be interesting.
Always steel songs, nobody else! Although since I updated to Android 6.0, even other factions began causing troubles.