Tips on winning at 200% Difficulty

[ywenli]

I'm looking for tips on winning the game at 200% difficulty.

I've been trying to win the game at 200% difficulty and everywhere I've searched, most folks say it's not possible since the Dominators on Hard-Boiled are too hard early on (and they're probably right, but I can't help trying).

I've beaten the game before at various levels of course and would consider myself pretty decent at it.

My last 200% difficulty game lasted 4 game years before I threw in the towel after losing 2 systems to simultaneous Blazer attacks (one system had the military base) so I only had my starting system left. Amazingly, a Maloq system clear across the map was surviving as well and there were only 2 rangers left (me, a Faeyan) and the Maloq.
My ship was a 328 size Faeyan Kalai with 4 weapons and all slots, booster and no artifact slots. I was equipped with mostly small (<25) top upgraded lvl 1 items in all slots except for a lvl 2 droid and a lvl 2 engine (i also carry a spare lvl 1 to boost). Free space after that was about 44-66 depending on whether I had 4 fragment cannons on me or not. Normal armament was 2 rocket launchers with micromodules for +10 extra damage and 2 x Level 2 frag cannons. I usually carried another frag cannon as well for close combat since missiles take too long to hit and doesn't do as much damage as the frag cannon. Also had 2 probes (didn't want to spend the high cost for more) and found the Transfactor Beacon and the health check item.

Anyhow, I've noticed that Blazers are incredibly strong compared to attacks from Keller. I can generally defend my 3 systems against Keller multiple times (and ended up with about 20 dom kills when I gave up), but Blazer just seems to hit a ton harder and even fully drugged up, you still get nailed for 30-40 per hit and I have yet to successfully defend against a Blazer attack.

At 200% difficulty, you are pretty much the only line of defense so systems start falling to the dominators immediately and it's a mad dash early on when I play so no time is wasted.

My early game strategy so far has been:
- Only start games which have a military base and a business center still alive. I would like to keep the business center alive to buy upgrades, but there aren't many options to buy unless we liberate a system which is very hard early on. I would now just take a large loan and let the doms take it over to not have to pay it back. :)
- My last game has been a Faeyan (for the level 2 missile launcher), but I've tried it with a Gaalian and Peleng as well. Gaalian is good for the better equipment, but money is harder to come by due to luxuries not selling for much. I think Peleng will be easiest since the difference in price of goods is greater. I think it would help to play more as a pirate to have cheaper repair costs since pirate repair is not on your kills like the military bases, but on your pirate rating. Lastly, with all the systems taken over by Doms, there's really no one to hate you if you are Peleng.
- I use boost everywhere so finding a lvl 1 small, gaalian or faeyan engine is pretty critical. Cent is a great micromodule as well to use on a level 2 engine to keep repair cost down.
- I start by using the training missing to quickly amass 20k+ from trading equipment to upgrade my ship. You need to start defending your systems asap so speed is critical to get at least a decent ship with guns/droid quickly. By May, I usually can start defending.
- I constantly search for new hulls, weapons, trading opportunities (practically every turn) to buy very small equipment. Since there are so few Coalition systems, your equipment options are very limited since they don't change much.
- I generally don't do any deliver missions or "defend this ship" missions since they waste too much time and the pay is low (you're at 200% diff). Delivery might be ok actually since some money and more importantly, EXP is given to boost skills. I think I will do this more next game as well as the planetary RTS battles to use no time and get money/EXP as well as micromodules which are critical.
- I play in Iron Will mode and only give myself 1 life (no reloads). With afterburners, this is not too hard. Just know that you won't survive an encounter if you're surrounded so use someone else as bait while you attack with your missiles early on and clean up when they are damaged.
- Use drugs constantly. The technical skill and that Gaalan speed/combat one is my favorite.

In my last game I abandoned, I've noticed when I was in my 4th year, I had the option to buy an upgraded lvl 3 droid and a lvl 3 shield generator. Since I only had 20k at that time, I didn't bother since I needed the money to repair my ship, but in hindsight, I probably should keep droid and shield at the highest possible. The Maintenance housing with +20 to droid would probably be very helpful, but the ships are normally to small!

Anyways, I restarted a new game as a Peleng Pirate for the rocket launcher and starting drugs. The starting cash is a lot more than the Faeyan rocket char. There's no pirate outpost in my current game, but we'll see how this one ends up going.

Would love to share strategies with others to see if anyone can win a 200% difficulty game.


2nd documented attempt:
Anyways, I restarted a new game as a Peleng Pirate for the rocket launcher and starting drugs. The starting cash is a lot more than the Faeyan rocket char. There's no pirate outpost in my current game, but we'll see how this one ends up going. This one had a few more systems so that should help a bit before Doms overtake more of my systems.

Result:
Darn, I died in the first year. I lucked out early on and was able to buy luxuries cheap in a neighboring system and had close to 50k already by April 3300. Downsides with this game is ship options and equipment were really bad and I ended up using a Maintenance Housing for the +20 droid. Size was only 238 or so though with 4 guns and all slots. I had equipment in each slot and only had enough space to carry my 2 rockets and 1 frag cannon. Free space was 14. I died trying to save the military outpost. While I was docking, about 4 Kellers blew it up while I was in there so there goes this attempt. I killed about 10 doms so far (mostly from defending another system). With the Maintenance housing, I could go toe to toe with at least the fast shrip doms who hit for 30-50 per round and have been my biggest pain since they are too fast. My repair was around +32 per round. With Dronze, this could be awesome on a +20 lvl 2 droid + 20 maintenance + 20 dronze = 60 repair per turn.

Ways to improve:
I'm going to have to get a larger ship no matter what I think. Probably give up on 4 guns since I couldn't pick up any dom parts. Will keep an eye out for Maintenance housings more as well.


3rd attempt:
Peleng Pirate again. Got lucky initially and got technical skills so I can boost all over for lower repair cost for 3 months. Ship options and equipment are weak so far. Largest decent hull so far is 280 or so. Sold starting drugs, gripper and lezka for cash and will start doing equipment trading as usual. Replaced starting hull immediately with one in the Ranger Center which had 250 size (my starting was 238 ) and boost at least.

[ywenli]

Wish I had more time to post/share tips and hope more people will give it a shot, but it's now 17 June 3302 and Keller isn't a problem to defend against, but I still haven't been attacked by Blazer yet. That will be the main test.

I was going to post an earlier update from 3301, but things got busy.

Anyhow, I just picked up the Arrival Tolosum ship with 337 size. I had the "Forcer" micromodule so that gave me the afterburner slot for a full slot ship. Currently, only Pkhedock (with all bases) and Arce (pirate base) are still under coalition control.

However, after 2 attempts with the military, we finally liberated a system Altair which was held by Keller. All the military ships perished, but I finished the last 3-4 ships with missiles and my frag gun. Unfortunately, after I left the system myself, Keller took it back immediately (must be no ships in the sector). Maybe systems with 1 planets are easier to liberate.

With no Military base, I'm still a complete rookie. I thought freeing Altair would auto-create a business center since 1 used to be there, but no such luck. Planning to free a system that used to have a military base.

I've notched 33 dom kills so far. Weapon wise, I only have my starting 2 rockets and 1 frag gun. Just picked up a small lvl 1 laser. Both rockets have +10 dam micromodules (Klein and Rocketon). I am also running a ship with pigamar equipment in the scanner, radar, fuel, droid and gripper for +10 additional damage. Rockets are now doing 10 to 20+10 (micromodule) +10 (pigamar) for avg dam of 25.

Finance wise, I have 7 probes and over 40k in cash doing the occasional luxury run.

In 3301, I was running with a 276 Maintenance housing with similar equipment.

The droid healing 53/turn is the biggest help.

Will see if we survive the next year!

[Loopy]

Did it once on hardboiled with other settings at normal, on my first 200% game now and I've avoided all problems up to year 11 where I have ~700k worth in currency and goods, 6 systems free, and nanitoids (most important thing in the game lol).

- Do Faeyan Merc. Tier B missile launcher is priceless, you have a slightly bigger hull, and since your home system is Faeyan you will have much better equipment than a Peleng syatem. Make up the cash difference between you and the Peleng Pirate by hitting the business center immediately and then doing the training runs. This should get you nearly 20k worth of cash on hand and in goods.

- Forget everything other than 2 systems. Just forget them. In my 2nd game I tried to defend 3, and it wasn't worth the effort when 2 systems is more than enough to power your trade (constant dominator attacks makes prices shift like crazy). After about 4 years the coalition can pretty much defend on their own but you should still be there if you want the bases to survive. Or fortify them yourself, I had some 50k worth of money lying around at 3 years and had nothing to spend it on, might as well make the science base invincible.

- Pray you get lucky with a good hull showing up. I did. Almost 300 space Rapid Housing II hull with +150 speed showed up during July at the science base for me. Score! After that constantly check all bases for any equipment that is small, decent, and adds +missile capacity (which is actually + damage per missile). I got a speed of almost 700, a +20 repair droid, and totalled +12 damage per missile fairly early on while leaving about 130 space for hauling stuff. All thanks to luck, but if you are surviving you are bound to get lucky sooner or later...

- Screw anything that isn't a missile launcher. The first weapon I used that wasn't one of my 2 starting missile launchers was the 3rd missile launcher I bought a few years into the game. At best you can go toe to toe with a single enemy using close range weapons but anything more and you are toast instantly. Missiles also tend to be space efficient which leaves a lot more room for trading, 20 space or less is easy to find and all 4 launchers I'm using at the moment take up only 58 space combined.

- Trade like mad. Money is your lifeblood. Every single time you land check the prices for trading, they can shift dramatically as dominators move in and out. Keep plenty of cash on hand to exploit them, eventually you want to be able to buy out a full 400+ luxuries instantly whenever they go on sale.

- Do all missions, including RTS ones. At the worst, you get a crappy micromodule you can trade for dominator nodes to push you closer to getting your first +30 missile launcher damage micromodule at the ranger base. As soon as you get that your offensive power triples, so get to it. If you practice a bit at it RTS most missions won't take more than about 10-15 mins.

- Use probes. Hope to god they find you nanitoids ASAP. I got them in a nearby dominator system.

- Bases will never respawn until you control the entire sector. Protect all of them you can, at a minimum you want to peruse their excellent equipment. I don't think non-keller black holes spawn until you control the entire sector either, which sucks because you can't find those juicy artifacts early on.

- One semi-exploit you can use is to fire at dominators at max range, immediately land on a planet on the rim of the system, then take off and fire again. Repeat. Dominators will fly at you one turn and away the next, getting stuck in a loop where you rain constant missiles on them. Saved a system for me once. Keep in mind that if you wait a turn on the planet and there is no other friendly ship in the system, the dominators take over and you lose.

- One much bigger exploit you can use is to simply kill Keller in hyperspace as soon as you see him. This is somewhat hard depending on how good you are at hyperspace, but as soon as I did it all dominator attacks ceased. I could literally hit end turn for 10 years and never have my home systems come under attack. Not sure if it was some kind of bug, but I reloaded on my second game and didn't kill Keller early because it felt a bit cheap.

[ywenli]

200% diff 2nd update for Peleng Pirate:

<sigh> I should have listened to my old pap and stuck to being a pirate. I mean, who has heard of a Peleng Fighter gain wealth and richest from fighting the Dominators? If you have received this transmission, then that would mean I have perished at the hands of said Dominators.

I got too cocky trying to liberate Diater by myself after joining in a coalition attack on the initial attack. My fellow Peleng military ships and 1 human lasted less than 10 combat rounds I'd wager, but I actually was able to expend all my missiles and rearm before returning for another go around.

However, these "Keller" Dominators were smarter than I thought. I have finished off all the small shrip ships with their higher (30) damage energy weapons and was going toe to toe with the rest of the mid class ships (4-5 damage). I could taste victory with just a few more cycles. Little did I know that they were merely baiting me while tagging my fuel tank. Before I knew it, I sprung a leak and was trapped in the system!

Ah! Just yonder, there is Dominator fuel container just 2 secs away. I picked it up, but little did I know they were merely baiting me all along. No wonder they weren't doing much hull damage to me at all, but were focusing on merely damaging all my equipment. Soon, my missile launchers were expended and the rest of my equipment started failing. First, my sensors, then my shields, then my triple frag cannons! I was trapped in the sector with no more guns to finish them off. My dual engines still had some juice and I boosted for Pkhedock, but those "Keller" wise asses got me again! Their fuel tank now sprung a leak and I was experiencing total system failure. I limped to the jump point hoping for rescue, but I obviously had no where left to run. My life is ended here in cursed Diater...all for trying to "play" a hero. Should've stuck to being a pirate...
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Here ends my 3rd attempt. I was probably rushing to clear the system and before I knew it, I was out of missiles and started to head back, but as in my story, my fuel tank was destroyed so with a dead fuel tank, dead engines, I was stuck too far away to boost or even fly away.

In the end, I destroyed about 61 dominators, freed 1 system, had about 70k in the bank already (money wasn't much of a problem now), and ended with the Maloq Arrival Tolosum ship with the Forcer module for boost and mostly pigamar equipment for all slots.

Major annoying points was that the military base was destroyed really early on so I was stuck being a rookie. Being a pirate would've also been tough and very time consuming being in a Peleng system if I attacked mostly peleng civilians.

I never bothered doing any of the RTS or quests since I didn't want to use the time, but will try to do them to get micromodules and artifacts as well as exp.

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Going to try again with a Faeyan and try to keep the military base alive.

New game maybe tough map wise since Blazer is right next to me, but we'll see if they attack immediately.

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Thanks for the tips Loopy!

Yeah, I am going to try the Faeyan again. It's annoying early on since he has no money, but I guess I could do some minor stuff before triggering the equipment tutorial quests as well as get the loan like you say.

Agreed on the 2 systems. I freed 1 with my previous game and lost it immediately after I left so it's a pain to keep it alive. I should have deployed more of my probes since I had 7 just sitting around, but didn't bother due to laziness. :)

Agreed though, trading has always been the fastest to make money for me.

The thing I don't like about missiles is they keep destroying the equipment. :) I suppose packing 3 more guns though like I was doing was eating a ton of space (probably 70-75) and you're right, most of the time, you aren't using the frag cannons anyways. I did notice with my last ship, I could sit toe to toe with the mid level doms though. Died before testing it out further.

On the bases, for some reason, when I freed Altair, the business center didn't come back even though it was the last system in the sector. Is there a time delay of when they auto respawn?

The hyperspace battles are real tough for me at 200% diff. Even that 1st fight gave me some trouble early on. I think little droid or nanitoids heal you in hyper so that would make it immensely easier.

[Loopy]

If your missiles are killing things when you fire them while trying to pick up stuff, path your ship so that you move to the side and pick it up horizontally so that the missiles coming out of the front of your ship don't hit it. You can also use boost, the missiles are usually shot at the end of the day so if you move faster and run over the equipment at 25% through the day its safe from destruction.

If your excess missiles are constantly destroying all the equipment after the target is killed, you are probably firing a bit too many. Of course, fire too little and it might live, but don't fire 3 salvos of missiles on a target you know for sure is going to die in 2 salvos. That increases the chance of a stray missile hitting equipment by 5x.

I just don't like how quickly you can die at close range to some of those hordes with the frag/energy weapons. The fact that they use Rethrones to make your getaway dash slow makes it even worse. Taking back systems can wait until you have 4+ missile launchers with 35-40 missiles each and a stronger coalition. It sucks playing several years without a base you really want, but patience is key.

I believe the total amount of bases is still limited by the amount of systems you have even after you control a sector, and other bases have a higher priority to spawn. In both of my games I've had only a Research/Medical/Ranger base, and when I took the last system in a sector both a Pirate and a Military base spawned literally the next turn. The Business base only came back after I took another 1 or 2 systems.

Nanitoids don't heal you in hyperspace, but the little droids do.

[ywenli]

I believe the total amount of bases is still limited by the amount of systems you have even after you control a sector, and other bases have a higher priority to spawn. In both of my games I've had only a Research/Medical/Ranger base, and when I took the last system in a sector both a Pirate and a Military base spawned literally the next turn. The Business base only came back after I took another 1 or 2 systems.

Nanitoids don't heal you in hyperspace, but the little droids do.


Yeah, I usually try to pick things up on the side or behind with boost if it's a real nice item (like Lvl 1 Micromodules). I was wondering, do you use a nice high level scanner? I normally don't so maybe that's why I overkill things since I don't know what it will take to kill them. That and the low level shields, I tend to skip since it doesn't do that much early on (10-15% defense) and I need the space. The last 2 games, I kept them on though since I wanted to max out on my droid and shields since like you said and I agree, if you get surrounded, you'll get pounded for gobs of damage.

Another downside I don't like just using missiles is that the dominators destroy their parts pretty much the next turn if you aren't there to let them shoot you. Do you have a tactic for that? Most frustrating thing is seeing a nice lvl 1 micromodule and the blow it up.

You're probably right on the number of bases. I should do better in my current game since I'm being more careful, but it's still really early. Most likely, it's probably been a lack of patience after that 1st year or so when I plan all my moves more carefully. Once I start fighting dominators, it takes a lot of time/turns so I tend to just let it play out.

Was watching some youtube videos on the RTS games. Looking forward to playing that again.

[Loopy]

I pretty much never use a scanner unless its really small and/or gives bonus to something else. Same for shields early on until its at least 20% damage reduction. I just figure out ballpark estimates of how many salvos it will take.

Dominators destroying their stuff is definitely the biggest problem. I try to fly in loops around the system, this way destroyers behind the one I'm shooting at won't fly directly over the loot that dropped, instead flying directly towards me further along the circle. The faster your engine and sharper you can make the circle, the harder you can turn and the further it gets them away from the loot. No matter what you do though, they are going to blow up lots of their own stuff.

For the RTS games I highly recommend either all 3 rockets + 1 repair + 1 mortar bots, or 3 rockets + 1 stunner + 1 mortar for offense and 2x 4 repair no mortar per group to stay behind them and repair. All of them get the antigravity and locator. Just don't let enemies get close, don't fight big groups without defensive turrets to support, and try to have your robots retreat/dodge constantly. Probably most importantly, don't use big groups, they block each other from firing and can't dodge because dodging just means the rockets hit another robot next to them anyways. Split into groups of 3-5 offensive robots per group if you have lots of robots.

If you aren't familiar with basic RTS control schemes, Ctrl-# will save a group of robots so that you can reselect them just by pressing the #, and you can instantly move the screen to the group by double tapping the #.

[ywenli]

Thanks for the tips!

On building the RTS bots, is the stunner really worth it? I tried it before having been stunned, but noticed that when my weapon is already hot (after firing), it doesn't seem to activate. I typically just go with the 4 rockets and dynamo. I'll have to give locator a try if that works more effectively.

Also, I noticed it in the videos as well, they didn't use the mortar for the healing bot either. Any reason for this? Just not worth it since they might run and attack?

[Loopy]

I use stunner because 3 rocket launchers is more than enough. Pretty much any bot will die in 6-8 rockets, which come out fast from 2 or 3 bots in a group. The problems come with enemy bots that strafe, because they can take 15-20 rockets to destroy when they move around and most of your rockets are missing. Stunner helps prevent that some. Think of it as being an automatic win against the first 2 enemy bots in any fight. Its also good for charging into rocket turrets that normally cause a lot of trouble and force you to stand off while slowly picking away at them.

Locator is good because if you shoot an enemy before it shoots you then you win. Ideally you should be running backwards so that you are in range firing rockets while the enemy is out of range and taking the rockets straight in the face.

You are correct on the healing bot. Giving them a weapon means they might not always be healing and they are too damned expensive to risk the chance of them running into enemy fire.

[ywenli]

Update on my 4th and 5th 200% difficulty attempts:

4th:
I abandoned my 4th game since I foolishly and impatiently decided to join in the fight against the doms early on (about Aug 3300) again trying to take back a Blazer system no less with about 6 coalition warships. They lasted all of 3 rounds probably after engaging the enemy. It cost me well over 20k to get a set of upgraded equipment so I didn't want to waste it so early on without funds to do more trading. Decided to scrap it and start over.

5th:
This game started out slowly, but a few systems survived for a while (there were about 6 still after 1 year I think) before they started to fall all quickly. There are now only 2 systems left. My starting and 1 with a military base. Playing as a Faeyan with the missiles again.

I was planning to keep the business center alive, but with the blazer attack, the sector didn't last long at all and I didn't have a combat drug. Also lost the main Peleng system and a Faeyan one with a pirate base a bit earlier. At least I didn't have to repay my loan!

It's now mid 3301 and my hull is 323 or so, 3 weapons max Faeyan Kalai, 2 lvl 2 frag cannons, 2 missiles, pretty much all < 25 size upgraded level 1 equipment. No shields yet, but got a microscopic scanner since it was small (17). I don't have any pigamar equipment yet though. About 25k in cash.

I just defended my 1st Keller attack in the system with the military base and picked up 7 probes as well finally after getting the technical skill drug.

A blazer attack now will be deadly probably, but with 2 systems, there are a lot of civilian ships around to draw away fire. Also taking out any pirates I see which doesn't seem to be helping goods prices so maybe I will lay off till I see some protect missions to try to generate more funds trading since prices are pretty low overall.

Money is a bit tight and I haven't even upgraded my ship armor yet since I don't know if I want to keep this ship long term. A good amount of spare space still though (about 80-100) so should be able to pick up a few things during dom defence. No plans to attack a system until I get more rockets or a much larger ship.

[TheSAguy]

I’ve decided to take on this challenge and must say it’s very tough….
My first game I did my normal setup of being a human merchant and must day I did not last very long.

For my second and third game I did Faeyan Mercenary. Tough at the start with very little money.

My second game filed pretty early on with the Dominators taking the one system near me and living me with just my starting system. It was just not enough and I decided to start over.

My third game I had two systems for about two years and about 50k cash with a nice size ship. I lost the research base though and after losing the second system I was stuck.

I think I went wrong with not buying into the research station and boosting it’s defenses.

I’m still being killed by the Dominators very fast and it’s pretty annoying. I need a faster ship but just can’t get anything above 450 speed.

Back to the drawing board…

[TheSAguy]

My 5th game is going very better.

I’m about two and a half years in and still alive :grin:

I started with 4 systems in flying distance. One was taken before my tutorial was us and I only visited the 3rd once before it was lost.
The second last system lasted a bit longer, since they did fight off one attack. Before I lost that system I was able to get some good trading going. I was able to buy a 360 hull ship and had about 12K cash left before that system fell. Something that really helped was the fact that I did not have to repay my loan since the business base was located there.

So with only my one system left I’m able to help fight the Dominators with my two missile launchers.

I made sure to protect the science base, since I’m selling all the Dominator equipment there for some desperately needed cash. I’m not really making anything from selling, it just covers fixing my ship after each battle. Since I have a large hull, between battles I’m taking full loads of food and other high volume items and making only a couple bucks per item.

I’ve fought off about 4 incoming attacks now and am hoping to get a 3rd missile launcher soon. Currently there are none available.

I’ve got two probes, but am saving all their findings until later when I’ll need the cash to buy a better ship. It’s slow going, jumping from one to the other planet in my single system, hoping to get a RTS mission.

Let the war continue…

I’ve played an additional half a year last night.

After accumulating about 30k gold, by buying in bulk, I was feeling very confident. Then thinks started to get difficult once again. The dominators came in force and I had to invest about 20k of that hard earned cash into my science lab to keep it alive. First 10k to get the rights to help them then another 10k in equipment purchases.

Well I guess it paid off, since I got to keep it alive.

New equipment finally started to show up, but now I can’t afford it again. I’ve also been playing 3 RTS maps in quick succession. I really need another system open….


It took me 10 years, but I finally have rescued another system..... :)

[ywenli]

Great to see someone else giving this a go! I haven't played SR much, but plan to give it another shot.

In my next play through, I plan to just try to be more patient and wait till more missile launchers become available...probably around year 4 or so. I tend to get bored with it though since there are few missions to play with so few systems...

Hope to keep a science and military base alive.

Best of luck in your game.

[TheSAguy]

I did it!!
Took me forever, but finally got more systems freed and now it's just a matter of mopping up!

How I won was by keeping the scinece base alave and selling dominator parts there to make a living.

[DRNewcomb]

This is an interesting thread. I just picked up SR2 again after several years not playing. I don't think I could really manage the harder levels because I figure ground battles would be necessary and I really stink at the RTS part of the game. I generally only play the training RTS mission and that just to get some money to get early upgrades and capital for trading.

I have figured out how to get a really good first few months and get all the non-cheat advantages I can but the RTS just kills me.

I'm not sure which version of SR2 you're playing. I have the old one. Can you still get the cool engine from the drone (IPX482?) in the training mission in the newer version? I generally replay killing the drone as many times as necessary to get that engine.

[ywenli]

This is an interesting thread. I just picked up SR2 again after several years not playing. I don't think I could really manage the harder levels because I figure ground battles would be necessary and I really stink at the RTS part of the game. I generally only play the training RTS mission and that just to get some money to get early upgrades and capital for trading.

I have figured out how to get a really good first few months and get all the non-cheat advantages I can but the RTS just kills me.

I'm not sure which version of SR2 you're playing. I have the old one. Can you still get the cool engine from the drone (IPX482?) in the training mission in the newer version? I generally replay killing the drone as many times as necessary to get that engine.

I think most people play Space Rangers 2: Reboot now.

You can pretty much avoid all the RTS games except for possibly the one against Terron near the end so it shouldn't be too bad.

The key at 200% seems to be to generally stay alive till better weapons/ships/parts come along, probably around year 4. So far for me, for some reason, Blazer and Terron attacks incredibly strongly that it's impossible to defend your home system if they were to attack. Keller is FAR FAR easier to defend against so luck plays a big part as well since there really is no way anyone can stand up to an attack of about 14 ships I've noticed. All the space stations fall very very quickly from their smallest ships and their disintegraters(sp?).

I just restarted again and am around year 1 after my last game ended when Terron wiped out my home system so so fast...

[ywenli]

I did it!!
Took me forever, but finally got more systems freed and now it's just a matter of mopping up!

How I won was by keeping the scinece base alave and selling dominator parts there to make a living.

Congrats! What year are you in?

[omegaweapon]

hi all i just read this post when i was doing the same (well i didnt do the ironwill i wanted the maximum score too :D)

some note: dont finish the tutorial quest so keller wont attack those two system/ restart untill u have atleast 3 industrial planets and u dont have too many systems (if u have less than 5 or 6 system blazer and terron wont attack u at all)/ do gallian merchant (with gallian u have the best technological advancement, gallian can defend themself better than anyone else, u have lots of money to power trade to the year 3, u have a big hull that can support your medicine and equipment trade at the beginning )/ dont buy anything except radar and engine (radar is critical for your lonely missile )/ dont explore planets untill u have good equipment/ i didnt do it in my first 200% game (pirate base and business center destroyed) but u can drop multi resonators from dominator around year 4-5 after getting them u are nearly unstoppable

tip: just pointing your weapon (missle have the most range so they are the best) to a dying dominator give u full experience even if u dont shoot at all (provided that no ranger npc attack that dominator, for rangers u get maybe half the exp i am not sure)

i am already in year 19/ 5 missile (two mm +30 and one rank H 30-50 damage), my hull is killer/stancer engine with only 20 weight (drooped from one of the transport :P) i must admit i was very lucky in the beginning lots of lucky trade
i only died 3 time but it was pretty obvious that i am gonna die and i recklessly continue my stupid action :P lol

edit: i get all this information from some nice russian people in this site: http://srclan.org/forum/index.php also it has a very tiny english section but there are some people that willing to help :)

[omegaweapon]

i finished my first 200% difficulty and this is my record i learned a lot of thing from this post

total score 17360
game time 13000 (25 december 3335 i used every day in last year :P)
kill count
dominator: 2239/pirate:7/innocant people (for killer uniqe ship :P)=114/hyper:10
rts mission:30 / mission :9/award:20

many thanks to all of u for your great help

next : trying to get the highest score possible :D but for now i need to rest a little :)