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.