Extended Piratez general FAQ/Strategy Guide

[KZad Bhat]

Everybody needs grenades when you go against zombies. Damn, those bitches are a pain to take with guns, especially early in the game.

[Ethereal_Medic]

Early pee-shooters don't do too much and Z-Troopers are really tough to deal with. E-Pulse ammo (for RCF rifle and shiny niner) does quite good numbers against zombies.
Still those Z-Troopers shrug it off so further tools are needed to kill both forms.

[wolfreal]

I tend to hide from zombies until I have at least gravity harness, good trained melee gals, chainmail, and explosives.

[Martin]

Plate armo+ shield makes you practically immune to zombie meele attacks. Troopers rarely carry top of the line weapons and are rather poor shots, you can juts walk up to the zombies and hack them to bits untill they die. Or at least you could dozen versions ago,

[Ethereal_Medic]

I don't trust anti-melee armor to work properly against melee-threats.
Shotguns and sustained rifle-support mixed with fire and explosives is my solution early on.

[niculinux]

Any kind of shoygun against zombies works pretty well, like on any other unarmored enemy 

[wolfreal]

Plate armo+ shield makes you practically immune to zombie meele attacks. Troopers rarely carry top of the line weapons and are rather poor shots, you can juts walk up to the zombies and hack them to bits untill they die. Or at least you could dozen versions ago,

Mmmm... yes, they are very bad shooter, but they tend to hit rather frequently in Jack Sparrow... And strinx.... well... a hard thread in the beginning.

[Martin]

Trooper with autolaser is scary, but they usually come armed with lesser guns, a couple of days out of action is the worst possible outcome.

Honsetly I don’t have that much problems with them in X-Files, where they have I think the same stats but your men are inferior in stats and barely equivalent  in armamant.

[RSSwizard]

Those all-day tools are fine to have and I like the placement.

Spikeballs cost 6K apiece and pretty much include you in the blast radius. Stick grenades are cheap AF. Boom fruits would be ideal but those are limited. Also I NEED that extra range like tossing it over a hill, that the spikeball does not provide (as well, the arcing trajectory)

I should also say Knockout Grenades are pure awesome for pogroms, especially humanist or bandit pogroms where you have alot of targets without air filtration. Hitting civilians with stun protects them from being shot at by the enemy, and gets them out of the way. I had to deal with some humanist instructors armed with nasty stuff in tight spaces recently, just KOgrenaded them and both they and the mutants went down, clearing the hex pretty much.

That many grenades means reliable kill and demolitions capability, so that one person doesn't end up "out" of them. Also I don't think grenades work well against zombies, its not enough damage to justify it, and it'll barely do a rifleshot worth of health to a zombie trooper. Machineguns are okay including custom shootas.


Medical? One hand carries Grog on her back, a flying gal carries a field surgery kit. No other meds really, if its some obnoxiously energy demanding mission (like escape tower)/somebody might be issued moonshine. I go pretty light on meds since I tend to reload if hands get seriously injured (much less killed)... Two gals have healing stuff, an injured gal can usually meet up with them fast enough.
(Mansion invasions I usually bring Rum for at least half the hands though)

Advanced stuff like mushroom beer, magic cakes, that's all reserved for base defense or a high profile mission like Siberia. Since those things are so limited/trickle in.

Anyone know which ships carry Industrial Scanners?

[Rince Wind]

Don't you get them from Excavators?

[Ethereal_Medic]

You can produce cakes once you invest into a cloning factory and keep reviving the magic girls out of the soulgem.

Scanners are not found in the excavator. There you got 48x ore and most of the time an engi.
Scanners are found in 'Cutters' run by traders or academy.

[RSSwizard]

You can produce cakes once you invest into a cloning factory and keep reviving the magic girls out of the soulgem.

Well... that sounds pretty nifty. And I think it would be worth all the expense, havent reached the cloning factory tech yet.

Is the scanner a random loot for the Cutter or is it reliable loot? One of those things you have to capture them without shooting them down right? Is it on each variation of the Cutter (since there are different kinds of Cutter craft)?

Somehow I only ended up with 3 of these things and they're required for a printer facility. Which works I guess. But still over the course of a whole 2 years from start I only managed to snag 3 of these. So it made me wonder where they came from.

[Martin]

Willie Pete works wonders against cyberdiscs. You even keep the wreck!

Obviously the fucker has to be near ground for this to work, but the disc is too dumb to capitalize on its ability to fly.

[Ethereal_Medic]

Willie Pete works wonders against cyberdiscs. You even keep the wreck!

Obviously the fucker has to be near ground for this to work, but the disc is too dumb to capitalize on its ability to fly.

Fire in general is a solution to deal with disks if you can't hit a grenade or rocket on it.
Flamers might be the more suicidal approach but it can one-shot the disk on high rolls for each burst of fire thanks to 2x2 size and quad-damage from aoe-damage effects.

[bouchacha]

The main advice I'd give is on base structure. Your main starting base will be more than sufficient to carry through all the necessary research (I don't understand the recommendation to make a dedicated lab hideout with dozens of brainers). Because of how many healing facilities stack and how much those contribute to research and manufacturing, it makes sense to have your first hideout also serve as the primary barracks, along with a limited workshop area. You generally can get through the game with one primary troop transport. I used the Metallo (red codex) for my playthrough and it was spacious (12 gals + 4 auxiliary) and fast enough to reach multiple missions within a limited time window. I kept a CRAB vessel as a secondary for space missions as well as to serve as a very reliable tank against heavy shipping. I found infiltration missions to be a pain and not very worthwhile so I generally ignored them. This is an example of a main hideout, it has space for 28 brainers, 40 runts, and up to 64 hands which way more than you'll ever need.


The second base should be focused primarily on manufacturing; both for income and to create equipment. I recommend ignoring the Mint because it's generally not worth it. Your manufacturing base will be missing out on some capabilities but this example can hold up to 320 runts and can create almost everything you'll ever need. A surgery room is highly recommend for upper level armor manufacturing.


If you really want to go HAM on making money, this base layout is 100% dedicated to churning out cash. It holds up to 590 runts and churns out about $38 million in profit every month. By the time you can build this you don't need it.


The rest of the world can be covered with tiny outposts like this one for radar and limited interceptor coverage. With M-Wings you don't need living space:


Your interception strategy should focus on using a bait vessel to tank (i.e. Crab) while 3 other interceptors pounce it with abandon safely. It doesn't make sense for every one of your vessels to be capable of downing high-threat shipping on their own so don't even try.