Extended Piratez general FAQ/Strategy Guide

[Blazen]

I think there is a lift in the ship and lift tiles don't count as exit tiles. If you shift the girls a tile towards the openings it should be fine.

[JustTheDude/CABSHEP]

Fill the Scorpion with crew, fly to a mission, remember the position they spawn. Where they stand in the beginning is exactly where exit tiles are.

[xcomfan]

Suppose scoprion map is not easy on that side, ok thanks. I'm in the very end of nov 2601 and still cannot find sci books that are crucial for advancing. These are obtainable from academy or church? Which characters are related to that items,if any?

[legionof1]

sci books are from progressing the DR.X arc(slow route) or allying with mutant alliance(triggers regular pogroms to replace the baby starter ones).

[xcomfan]

sci books are from progressing the DR.X arc(slow route) or allying with mutant alliance(triggers regular pogroms to replace the baby starter ones).

So in consequence of the aforenentioned events, they eill be more easilt found ok, but in which ships/missions, if there are some specifically related,?

[Greep]

(also repeatedly researching a gnome will get it too, but this is the "extremely slow" way)

You straight up get the research from mutant alliance, it isn't found.  To join the mutant alliance you need:

-alliance favors (mutant martial arts bounty -> alliance favors)
-academy medic researched
-mutant origins researched
-mutant pogrom researched

The fastest way to get mutant alliance tokens is to upgrade your bounty hunting badge to C ASAP:  humanist arsenals give tons of tokens (as well as being one of few locations for critical "light machine gun" and "humanist soldier" researches)

Btw, question for the experienced dudes: it still confuses me what's actually safe to shoot down retaliation-wise.  I got lucky and got an early shadowmasters, so I can't deal with a retaliation at this stage.  From what I gather it's:

-Anything on the ground
-necroplanes
-wasps
-megapol patrol

???s:
-raiders?
-gunboats? (Assuming not)
-military supply (Also assuming not)
-Those weird metallic things?
-Freighters?

I don't think I can even shoot down anything else, though.

I also got armored cars so maybe I can handle retaliations anyways?  Or do they have plasma even in the first year?

[legionof1]

If you have gotten to crazy hannah and bought some mines/rpg heat/panzerfausts your able to handle retaliations. and with cars level tech im sure your fine.

You do have the right of what is and isn't safe(no idea what you mean by metallic thing), but even then you need to shoot down alot of craft to see a retaliation. Each target of a faction you shoot down adds like 2-3% to the chance of a retaliation spawn. It can be legitimately difficult to trigger one when your intentionally trying too.

[Greep]

Cool.  Unfortunately, can't find a picture of the weird ship, but it's basically a metal cone with the top chopped off so it's flat.  Not a hunter killer, at least sometimes it isn't.

Sounds good, think I'm just going to train a bunch of troops, shoot shit down and see what happens.  I guess I won't have to worry about raider fighters shooting me down if I send two scarabs and go all in.  Played too many "safe" games before of just doing easier missions.  Mostly just worried I'll shoot down academy and get mind controlled during base defense, but I assume I can just drop panzerfausts on the ground as long as I wield something.

[Yglorba]

sci books are from progressing the DR.X arc(slow route) or allying with mutant alliance(triggers regular pogroms to replace the baby starter ones).

Technically you can also get them by repeatedly researching a gnome, but it takes a while or a lot of luck.  (Gnomes aren't consumed when researched, which is good because they're not exactly common early on.)

I recommend joining the Mutant Alliance, though.  The pogroms are not that bad and, more importantly, it's a prerequisite for a bunch of other stuff you will probably want eventually.  In particular, AFAIK you can't get the tech that shuts down Zero Tolerance missions without joining the Mutant Alliance first.  You'll also never be able to recruit Bugeyes.

[Ashghan]

-Anything on the ground SAFE
-necroplanes SAFE
-wasps SAFE (Cobra and Viper as well)
-megapol patrol SAFE - everything from Megapol is safe

???s:
-raiders? NOT SAFE
-gunboats? NOT SAFE
-military supply NOT SAFE - but I'd risk it anyway, since it carries decent loot (good armor for early-mid game)
-Those weird metallic things? NOT SAFE - that's a Small Scout type shipping
-Freighters? NOT SAFE

Some additions:
- any civilian shipping (obviously) is safe
- ambulances are safe, even though they are Academy faction (there is a scripted retal mission though)
- any 'Star God tech' shipping (steel colored vessels) is not safe
- all 'roving bands' is safe (though they might trigger a retaliation if they happen to pass close to your base)
- zombies - all ships flown by the zombie faction (including the normally not safe ones) are free game - Zombies don't do retaliations, or at least I've never seen one
- simply anything from Bandit, Zombie, Megapol, Civilian, Reticulan, Necropirate, Dark Ones factions is safe
- anything from major factions (+Humanists and Raiders) is not safe
- I have no idea about Spartans - never had a retal from them, but not sure if it was just luck - it would be safe to assume they can retal EDIT: Yes, they can crackdown.
- might not be obvious but Govt shipping is not safe - not only it carries a hefty penalty to score when shot down (Ordinator and Govt Fighter only), it can also trigger a retaliation. Landed ships are safe though, so if you have researched govt personnel and take care to stun a lot, landed Ordinators might be decent loot, if difficult to assault.
- mutant freighters, if you get that far, are obviously safe from retal, but again - carry a large penalty for shooting down. They carry plastasteel though, if you critically need it. Onb the other the infamy penalty for shooting down, assault and not completing the trade mission might be high enough to make you consider buying the p-steel instead.
- a vessel colour cheat sheet: white, green, blue and light brown is always safe. Steel and dark brown - not safe (most of the time).

[Greep]

Interesting, reticulans are safe.  Good to know.  Actually kinda wonder if it's worth shooting down unsafe guys.  Strike bases are easy enough to defend, but it feels like it's not worth it to train and maintain ~30 gals just to keep a weed base safe lol.  Seems like avg hand maintenance after the queen is ~20k so 30 hands is 600k maintenance.  So either I have to let those bases just get vaporized by early faction retaliation or simply not bother with early unsafe shootdowns.  Hangarless bases are a bit easier to defend, though, so maybe I can just shove a barrel bomb into the access lift xD

Other issue is ammo costs.  Doing the math, with ramjets I'm mostly just breaking even against megapol/wasps/etc although it's worth it for the occasional apples.  So I should probably downgrade to quadcannons, but looks like those got shoved way forward in the tech tree, and carronade ammo is even more expensive than ramjets lol.  Guess there isn't any good early heavy unless you got the flame cannon.  I guess I'm better off going for 30mm cannons from jack and selling a scarab for a worm.

Edit: dang nvm, worms are crazy slow o.o maybe I'll just try scarabs with 30mm cannons, and keep the ramjets turned off except for emergencies or military transports if I feel like shooting it down.

- a vessel colour cheat sheet: white, green, blue and light brown is always safe. Steel and dark brown - not safe (most of the time).

 

[xcomfan]

In my runs by the end of 2602 i usually got base crackdowns from academy, ratmen and most of all dark ones (most of the times base is attacked), seems to be more frequent of all, even if i am low on the research tree and encounterd them a few time. I had abloslutley not crack down from spartans or raider, so i assume only the major factions that are hevily tied to the game plot may attack?

[Ashghan]

It's all a risk-reward calculation, when it comes to shooting down retal ships. Some things are worth the risk (military transports for equipment and freighters for a chance at some aircraft weapons/ammo with an easy fight). Military shipping is usually not worth it mid game (and suicidal most of the time). Large Scouts are good for a printer. Fighters (if you can manage to win the fight) for Hellerium.

As for weapons for Scarab, the first decent one is naval cannon with an acceptable blend of power and upkeep cost. Quadcannons are too weak and inaccurate to matter against anything that can actually fight back. Flame Cannon is a bit useless too, due to massive damage which vaporizes most small targets and insane ammo costs. Ramjet is decent combat wise, but ammo cost is prohibitive as well. Carronade is completely meh - I couldn't find a niche for its use, it's even worse than Quad. I never used 250mm missiles and spike rockets, based on the fact that missile ammo is hard to get in large quantities. Gat Lascannon, Beam Laser, Basilisk and Obliterator are all nice, but by the time you get them, Scarab will be outclassed anyway (still useful for a tertiary base or as a damage dealer in multi-craft engagements).

Fun fact - I once savescummed enough freighters to get a gattling lascannon for my Scarab. Anything below Heavy gunship was basically instant slag.

[Greep]

Alright, military transports it is for now.  I think once I get a backup weed base, it makes more sense to just shoot anything down that I feel like, since rebuilding a weed base isn't too expensive.  So maybe a few hands, a bunch of dogs, and an hmg car for ninjas/doomies is good enough for them, and I'll just abandon ship on a faction retaliation.  Or maybe just give everybody literally everybody barrel bombs and see what happens lmao.

Thinking about it more, seems with aircraft more = better.  With my 2 scarabs + 2 hks/worms I bet I could use entirely light guns for a lot of ships.  Too bad the worm lost a light gun slot

Edit: Yup, shot down a necroplane with 2 scarabs with 2x25mm cannons even, so this should be good enough for patrol cars and wasps when I get 30mms which seem to be a massive step up in cannon firepower.  I guess the armor on scarabs really helps vs extremely weak enemies.

[Ashghan]

Approach armored cars with a degree of caution - their weapon is pretty powerful, long ranged and accurate (but slow to fire), so expect to get hit a couple of times. While it most likely won't take down a Scarab, taking 100 damage means 4 days out of commision.