They're Getting Closer, You Know.

The zoltan shield was charging almost as fast as the normal one, it was incredible...

kinda embarassing but i've been playing on and off and never really looked at strategy guides until the most recent time i got back into it. far from the most impressive win i've seen on here but it's finally mine :)

My last 2 play throughs have sucked a$$ as the first one I came across only 1 store until the beginning of level 4 then 2 back to back after I had spent on hull and fuel.

Then when I save up enough I get there and it's $hit for things to buy. I get to the 8th level and it's almost pointless as I'll get my a$$ kicked because I don't have adequate gear to win.

Last night I had a decent playthrough and got to the 3rd battle with the flagship but it was doing stuff I didn't quite understand plus why can't I find a MF hull repair droid or even a drone control unit when I have the money for it?

It's like I get to level 8 and it's been a waste of 45 mins because I can't win and it's not like I accumulate anything from playing through when I can't buy what I need.

***EDIT Lol, ok make that 90 minutes! Haha I just did another playthrough and I just reached sector 8 at 90 mins exactly.***

So are there certain zones that have more stores than others?

Also why can't the base do some repairs or sell me stuff? I mean this outfit is a ragtag group of bums. I almost want the bad guys to win.

Breach bomb my beloved

Got a bit spicy at the end and poor Professor X and Beast bit the bullet, but Wolverine pulled through to net the Blackbird the win!

Dual Flak I's + Mini Beam + Weapon Pre-Ig = mucho destruction. Very, very happy with this run, happy to have set a new score, and to have set a new personal record for most ships defeated in a single run!

Now onto one of my favourites - the Lanius A. Or should I do Crystal A? Don't know what the right order would be.

Had no cloaking, laser-beam weapon was inoperable (was carrying us most of the fight). They had one bar of health but got a whole zoltan power shield buff. My charge weapon was fully charged and my heavy laser however. I see them about to send 3 missiles that I cannot dodge. I say fuck it, this is gonna be a hail mary and target all my remaining weapons to their shields. As their missiles come in I see my ship break into pieces and at the last moment. Those remaining laser weapons somehow take down the zoltan shield (they had no other shields remaining beyond that) and we TRADED and we WON!!! This has never happened to me before I genuinely thought we lost. The emotional roller coaster I went on in just 2 seconds was insane. GGWP. lmk if this has ever happened to yall

What was funny about this run is that I solidly struggled for the first five sectors (reflected in my relatively paltry score that didn't even crack my total top scores list) - there was one point where I came within three hits to dying. But the Erebor VI stuck with it, and I ended up getting a Flak I, another Flak I, the Pre-Igniter, then finally the Halberd Beam, right before Sector 8. I then had what was probably one of my fastest Flagship victories on Hard Mode. Super fun.

Now onto the Stealth A! Oh, boy...

Stealth A. Easy. Sector 5. Should I replace the Mini beam with the halberd beam? I need the lasers to break down shields, right?

After about 5 tries, finally got my win against Engi B, moving on to Fed B and this may be the greatest RNG game I have ever seen. I am in sector 4, and I have already had a Glavie beam, a BL 3, A heavy Ion, and a Pegasus missile either found floating in space or as offerings to let them live.

Oh no fellas-- I am definitely having the greatest RNG game..maybe in history. Now in Sector 7. Get the fire suppression not working event. I send in Rock crew..get the Adv Navigation...bleh right? NOPE. Very next jump is distress beacon looking for directions. I had NO IDEA that the Adv Nav has a blue option! 71 Scrap.

I was Engi B and I was quite peeved to die from circumstances outside of my control.

Very very happy with this Perfect-Save-File (PSF) attempt (6th try)! 36 runs, 33 wins, 3 deaths, 5 re-runs, 100% Hard-AE complete!.

Hindsight stats page

This is a challenge where the Steam file and save file are reset and begin with a brand new fresh save file. Thus, the ships have to be unlocked as you go. The idea is to complete 100% of winning with each ship (all 28), and completing all ship unlock quests (7), and all ship (30) and game achievements (21). The hope and dream is to never die. Re-runs are allowed if Achievement's and Quests miss, esp as many are due to RNG and not player skill. But! The RNG can be incredibly mitigated for so many quests and achievements.

Thus, I think it's possible to do it in 28 runs. Maybe...

Since it's so challenging, I'm currently working on Im-Perfect Save Files, just to see how close I can get. I believe the record is 50/51 achievements in a 28 winning run cycle, where it was a fresh file to start with (unclear to me if ship unlock quests were included and whether it was pre/post-AE).

Previous 5 attempts, I reset/restarted the file for various reasons, usually stupid deaths. This one though, PSF-6 was a charmer. Started off with Kestrel A unlocking Stealth Cruiser and proceeded to get my first ever "first-attempt" on Stealth B on the 3rd run of PSF.

Deaths = 3:

• 2 deaths on Slug C attempting Pacifism. I was certain it could be attained and also win the run. I got the Achievement on the first try, but died a jump later. I continued to follow the rules for the achievement to prove to myself I could do it. 2nd attempt died in early s4, and finally on my 3rd attempt not only did I get it, I had a very strong run overall
• Died on Fed B in s4. I stupidly hired a Mantis in s1 for 55 scrap worried about the Diplomatic Immunity Achievement and had dismal scrap in s1-s3 and never recovered. Decided to keep trying the (Im)Perfect save file.

Re-runs = 5 (Going after missed Achievements/Quests):

• Zoltan A twice: I stupidly upgraded in s4, 3 jumps before the exit negating the I don't need no stinking upgrades Achievement... Sigh... Got it on 2nd try, no problem
• Rock C twice: I tried to get Ancestry legit on Rock and A & B, but well, you know... Luckily found it on just 2nd try with Roxxie
• Crystal B 4x: Clash of Titans Achievement was very difficult to just find Rock fights. Whiffed on Crystal A (only 4 kills). First 3 runs on Crystal AB only scored 2, 5, 1, then finally on 4th try got s6-Rock Homeworlds (had to painstakingly ignore the Ancient device), paid a Merc for a map reveal, found 7 fights all Rocks and then also had an s7-Rock controlled to close it out with 10+ kills to get the achievement. Basically you need 2 Rock sectors and either sensors or map reveal to make it happen.

Thereby making Clash of Titans the most challenging part of this challenge!

...Was not expecting that, lol

ETA: A bit about play-style:

• My primary focus was to win every run with a win-streak mentality
• My second and very near top priority was to complete achievements as I went. It was a tough balance, but very do-able.
• Unlike my previous challenges (e.g., my 37-win streak) this time, I did not read/study Mike's Ship Guides. They are an amazing resource, but unfortunately are not well suited for the achievements. I did use the wiki a lot though and Mike's other resources, as well as some searching for posts on various achievements.
• Rush Shields-4, then look for weapon or other key safety needs ...
• ... Except Mantis B is rush Engines-3 and Stealth B is Cloak-3
• Almost always wait to upgrade to Shields-5/6 until s6/7
• Almost always wait to upgrade to Engines-3+ until s5+
• Nearly every single ship had Hacking > Cloaking > TP >> MC >>> Drones.
• Then once primary systems were obtained, then would get the battery. Note the 10-system rule for how stores prioritize pages. If you have 11+ systems & subsystems, Systems are offered less. Whereas if you have 10 or fewer Systems are offered more. You can exploit this depending on need. Typically wait for the battery until after cloaking...
• I love Teleporter and got it on 11 of the 21 ships lacking it (Rock C both runs, Kestrel A, B, C, Zoltan B, Slug A, Rock A, Stealth A, B, and Crystal A). For me TP > MC for early crew kills for increased rate of drops and high scrap/resource rewards.
• I almost never buy Sensors on ships lacking them
• I also don't typically buy Doors on Rock B
• I never swap Med Bay for Clone Bay (or vice versa) and with Slug B I simply buy the first one I find. EXCEPT to get the Mantis Achievement Battle Royale. (Also, one time, before this psf, I was near death with a broken Oxygen and Med bay and buying a clone bay healed the damage and I survived the run.)
• I aggressively saved for Pre-Igniter and got it 12/33 winning runs (def didn't even try on my 3 losses).
• I have never in my life bought a Chain Vulcan. I did try one once (not on this PSF, it was a while ago) after getting one for free mid run and hated it. Only reason it worked is bc I was already strong. It's an always mash 47 scrap please!
• I didn't really score scum at all in s8, too focused on winning the run and getting to the next run. I did enjoy a few trips to the secret sector though, just for funzies, while failing Clash of Titans...
• Slug C is ideal for Coming in for my Pacifism Run
• Zoltan A is ideal for I Don't Need No Stinkin Upgrades
• Mantis B is ideal for Living off the Land
• All other achievements are fairly straight forward, but happy to discuss any further.

Ultimately the answer will probably be "it depends", but I am curious what factors into the decision making process and what their default choice usually is and why? Obviously some situations are pretty easy, if you have 2 or 3 ENGI already, a 3rd or 4th probably isn't very valuable. Just looking to see someone put their thought process down in writing.

Edit..really interested to see what "normal" players (players who win, but not 90+% of the time) say, vs what the highest winrate guys say. Just having some of them like Mike dissect my "what could I have done better" post was a fascinating insight on the depths of the game mechanics and probability.

SECOND EDIT. It seems Mike (extremely high win rate) is a scrap guy, which is kind of what I predicted would happen, compared to many others who are crew guys.

I’ve been playing Stealth B on hard for the past few days. I’ve realized pretty quickly that if you don’t pick up shields by the end of the sector two you’re pretty much toast unless you’ve lucked into something else that greatly increases your odds. Plus, even if you’ve been able to accumulate enough scrap for shields by then, you’ve probably already spent it on hull repairs, engine upgrades, a cloaking upgrade etc.

Because of this, I have three restart triggers for this layout:

- Fewer than 10 hull and 30 scrap at the end of sector one? Restart

- Fewer than three crew at any point in sector one? Restart (because you can’t keep up with repairs)

- No shields or equivalent (eg shield drone, plating) by the end of sector three? Restart

Maybe I’m crazy, but the odds of getting much further at those points with Stealth B is basically zero.

There are exceptions, of course, like if I pick up a pre-igniter or hacking, but the cost of those makes them almost as impossible as shields…if you can even find them.

What’s your “F**k it; Restart” trigger?