Suggested use case for Zartar Fang? Does it need love?

[theConscriptor]

I'm doing a Steel Song playthrough, and I was excited to try out the Fang, as I'd read it's a nice early game ship. Looking at the build, though, it's Mass Reducers all the way down. It costs as much as a Wolf Vector, but has low dice pools, and it seems like A Vindex is a better combat ship out of the box (plasma lance) - especially if you use the leftover funds for a weapons pocket upgrade- with a much higher safety engine for the early game.

That said, I'd love to hear from captains who have enjoyed the ship or made it work (ideally on Hard or above). I do like the combo of a chaser engine with an A4 locker out of the box thematically for Steel Song, at least.

[mario]

I have used it in my last few runs, which have been hard through impossible and using a combat captain of some kind. I wouldn't say it's a superb ship but I wouldn't say it's terrible. The best features are speed and fuel efficiency, which makes it strong for zipping around doing those non-ship combat missions you do in the first era, and the a4 locker. I'll use it throughout the first era with the goal to have a workable 7/42 or the like outfitted by the end of the era.

If a mission requires ship combat, though--like the arbiter/Mok Prince quest--I will probably have to temporarily use my incomplete next ship for that, and fill it up with temporary crew just for that and I will have had to have planned ahead for this. This is of course not ideal, but it worked.  I time this with changing faction upgrades, as towing the ZF to the next port is substantially cheaper than towing the next ship.

I used to spend a lot on the ZF and upgrade it, but I don't do that anymore. Unless you spend a lot on it, I feel like it's not good enough for ship combat at higher difficulties, even in the first era. The real advantage for me is that it's a good in-between ship--it's "good enough" to get you through the era and make a lot of money on missions and up your rep and intel and so on. If you spend a lot on it, it will delay your ability to get out of it, perhaps too long. In some runs, this got me behind the difficulty curve and I ended up abandoning early.

The ZF is best at chaining assassin/arrest missions that don't require ship combat--you'll learn to spot those by name. It's also good at those missions that require shipping diplomats or boxes or visiting various places. I usually stack in mission modules and get rid of all weapons. I'll even dump the A4 after I get level 7 gear from contacts.


I think it requires a lot of foreknowledge about the game to make it work well enough, so I would characterize it as unforgiving in this way.  But that is the way of the Steel Song.  Welcome to the Faug Daen, Captain.  Peace is an illusion. Your death in this life is one with your birth in your next.

[theConscriptor]

Wow, great rundown! Thanks for sharing-this is exactly the level of detail I was hoping for. I may give it a try on another run.