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Rhino Campaign

If you are stuck in a mission and do not know how to continue, this is the place to ask for help. Missing that elusive Level 10 Shield? Don''t know where to find the lost Ohtori ship? This is the only place where spoilers are allowed!

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T-hawk

Post Thu Jul 31, 2003 7:07 pm

Rhino Campaign

OK, after having done the campaign in a Starflier, I had to try it in the other weakest ship: the Rhino. The Starflier is very maneuverable, but very weak in the power department; the Rhino is the opposite. Able to fire forward with 6-8 hardpoints (depending on the exact angle of the target), the Rhino packs as much firepower as a Drake - at least until the power plant depletes.

There are two good ways to outfit a Rhino. One is all-Lavablade, all-the-time, as Lavablade Mk II turrets are by far the most energy-efficient turrets equippable on a class-3 ship. The Lavablade turrets should be paired with Lavablade III guns of course to match the projectile speed. And with that crazy number of hardpoints available, the Rhino can spare one for a Slingshot missile for a bit of extra punch. This is the loadout for taking down large stationary targets: missions 8, 9, 10 (except the fight before Bruchsal), 12, and 13.

The second Rhino loadout is probably the most complicated I've ever put on a ship:
Slingshot missile
2x Adv. Scorpion
Rowlett's Revenge
2x Stunpulse turret
2x Justice Mk II turret

This is the loadout for shooting down fighters. Two Stunpulses take down the shields of anything quickly; the Adv. Scorpion guns and Rowlett's Revenge deliver high-power high-efficiency hull damage with the Slingshot delivering a blow as well. The Justice Mk IIs are throw-ins because they match the projectile speed of everything else. They are in the last two turret slots because these slots can't fire at all forward angles while the other three turret slots can.

Using this loadout efficiently requires dancing around the keyboard like a piano player to enable and disable the Stunpulses as needed, but that's a lot of fun and quite effective. This loadout is for missions 3-7, the middle fight of 10 before Bruchsal (equip it on New Berlin), and mission 11.

==========

Now on to the missions...

Mission 1: sold batts/bots and bought Pharmaceuticals to sell on Pittsburgh. Went after the bonus rogue bounty, got it, and had enough to afford the Rhino on Pittsburgh. Afterwards, I did a few freelance cargo runs, taking Pharmaceuticals from Ft Bush to Pittsburgh and Boron on the return trip, until I could afford the seven Lavablade weapons.

Mission 2: Since Adv.Scorpions and Rowlett's weren't yet available, I used the Lavablade loadout. Cake. Afterwards, went and killed Xenos in Colorado for two Adv. Scorpion guns.

Mission 3: Got Rowlett's Revenge on the first try. Moonstalkers scare a Rhino pretty badly so I flew around for a while FAR away until they ran out. Went to Willard before Cal Minor to get the class-3 graviton shield. Both battles around Willard pushed the Rhino a bit but it did very well. During the second one I had to occasionally do the thruster/kill getaway to recharge.

Mission 4: Didn't have much cash so bought H-Fuel to take to Mactan instead of Optronics for Leeds. The Rhino killed plenty of fighters in both Navy battles; I didn't go after the cruisers. Bounty Hunters and Rheinlanders were easy. Easy level up on Leeds: buy Optronics after landing before talking to Tobias in the equipment room, THEN the game sets the networth threshold, counting the standard value of the Optronics but they are worth far more than that on Leeds so selling them immediately levels up.

Mission 5: First real challenge for the Rhino. It still has plenty of firepower to take down ships easily, but I'm starting to have to be careful in how much damage I take. Shot a couple of the dock-camping fighters but didn't try to kill everything there.

Mission 6: First death, in the battle after launching from Glorious. Last enemy fighter and I thought I could kill it quickly but it nailed me with a missile while my shield was down.

Mission 7: Started having to run around and let the allies do the work. Delivered a fair bit of damage to the cruiser but Tobias came in to kill it. Did kill one of the gunboats in the Tau tradelane. In the big fleet battle, I worked the edges, picking off fighters when I could take them one-on-one, and spent a fair amount of time fleeing to recharge. The gold cargo from Dublin to New Tokyo gave me plenty of cash to buy whatever I needed from here on - mostly Driller mines.

Edited by - T-hawk on 31-07-2003 20:07:09

T-hawk

Post Thu Jul 31, 2003 7:08 pm

Mission 8: Now the hard parts begin. Swapped to the Lavablade loadout. Against the weapons platforms, I flew in from afar, emptying the power plant into the platform and firing Slingshots. The Rhino's damage capability drops off a cliff once the power plant runs out, so I never sat in front of a platform shooting but instead was always flying dive runs. Thruster-kill getaways were critical, of course, and I had to be very conservative in when I started the getaway because the Rhino takes so long to turn around and took a lot of damage from anything still shooting me.

I died three times on this mission - but every time was AFTER I took out the weapons platforms. First time, I got too aggressive in going after some fighters that were too closely grouped. Second time, I was reaching for the nanobots but hit H for turret view instead - oops. Third time was AFTER I entered FORMATION with the transport, and leaned back to relax, but there were still fighters shooting me and I got killed.

Mission 9: Tekagi's Arch: the real test, as always. I died twice on this mission, both times against the first Tekagi patrol since I wasn't really equipped to fight them, having the Lavablade loadout active instead. I got through the Arch battle without dying, using the same tactics as for the weapons platforms on the Transport, punctuated with Driller mines as well. I flew away to fully recharge before docking with the Arch, but even so I got smashed on the way in - losing one of my Lavablade turrets!

The Rheinland battle on the way out was easy again, just let the allies do the work.

Mission 10: Lavablade loadout - except I put on one Stunpulse to replace the lost Lavablade - for the Sigma-13 fleet battle; took out two cruisers before Hakkera told me to leave. Having plenty of allies made me take little damage, though I still had to fly away and recharge the power plant many times.

Scorpion/Stunpulse/Rowlett loadout for the battle outside Bruchsal; easy stuff although I had to be ready with the missile countermeasures.

For the experimental shipyard, it was Lavablades again, this time with Rowlett's in the missing Lavablade slot instead of a Stunpulse. Driller mines actually did most of the work in taking out one of the experimental battleships, though the Lavablades still dished out good damage while the power plant wasn't empty. Got through this in one try as well.

Mission 11: the most intense fighter action in the campaign. Scorpion/Stunpulse/Rowlett loadout all the way, of course. Died once in the first battle at the Navy satellite when I tried to take on the approaching wing of ships instead of letting my allies absorb the first salvo. Did the usual tactics here, skirting the edges of the fight, going at enemy fighters when one got separated from the pack a bit. I often fired Slingshot missiles starting at a distance of about 1500 from the enemy, allowing three of them to be en route before the ships met. By the time they reached the target I'd already nailed its shields with the Stunpulses, and two or three Slingshot hits blew it up.

Same tactics applied to the battle before the jump gate. This battle took almost all of my batteries and nanobots, so the rest of the mission was flying around in cruise waiting for the triggers to be allowed to proceed. I got killed once, JUST before getting back into the Osiris even though I started the docking approach with full shields and hull. Gotta work on the speed docking with battleships...


Mission 12: I'm going to do this one tonight. Lavablade loadout, of course.

Sherlog

Post Thu Jul 31, 2003 7:32 pm

Wow! This is amazing. This guy climbs into a ship that combines the power of a Starflier with the 'agility' of a Titan and then he sails through the bleeping campaign in that tub!

Send pix!!!1!!

Frenzy

Post Thu Jul 31, 2003 7:45 pm

You can't do mission 13 in that thing. Its impossible. Nobody could do that. If you do, however, send screenies!!!

topher

Post Thu Jul 31, 2003 7:55 pm

is there anything special about finishing with a Piranha? I know you can't pick it up until you get to leeds but it's not all that great and I was trying to beat the SP in a light fighter... I like the Bounty Hunter Ships.

"On this ship you are to refer to me as Idiot, not you Captain. I mean... you know what I mean."

Sherlog

Post Thu Jul 31, 2003 9:07 pm

Frenzy, T-Hawk has already flown all the really hard missions ... The Nomads don't use missiles and you can always replenish batts by shooting a couple Interceptors, so for all practical purposes he has done it .

topher, may I recommend the Dagger instead? It has the same stats as the Piranha but in addition to this it also has a forward-firing turret. This gives you more and better loadout options. It is not as easy to get as the Piranha but it is cooler and more fun to fly.

P.S.: you can get the Dagger much earlier than the Piranha. If you had the foresight to smash one of the DSE depots near Baltimore shipyard after mission 1 then you could drive straight to Buffalo Base when mission 2 ends conveniently close to it on Battleship Missouri ... Apparently, the Rogues don't hold anything against you that you do in the line of duty (i.e. campaign missions). And if you look at the locations of the wrecks, the best place for selling Cardamine in all of Sirius, the next step of the campaign, the position of the police depots in the New York system and the location of the Colorado jumphole (Ouray - Adv. Scorpions) then it is easy to form an evil plan ... It looks like everything was made just so to fit neatly together.

Edited by - Sherlog on 31-07-2003 22:36:29

topher

Post Thu Jul 31, 2003 9:30 pm

since I am in Leeds, this would be the best time to go get the Dagger out of New York isn't it. All the Police and Military are against me so the boys at Buffalo should be friendly, right?

"On this ship you are to refer to me as Idiot, not you Captain. I mean... you know what I mean."

T-hawk

Post Thu Jul 31, 2003 9:32 pm

Sherlog - The Rhino most definitely has more power than a Starflier. The power plants are about the same, but the Rhino can empty it out MUCH faster. Seven or eight Lavablade guns dish out more damage than a Drake can. Of course, this state only lasts for about three seconds. The Rhino takes just as much time in the long run to deliver damage as the Starflier does, but it can spend much of that time safely away from its target, recharging, then unload the energy in one quick strike. That's the key to using the ship, and flying a dive-bomber is quite a lot of fun.

It is actually less maneuverable than a Titan (yes, that's possible.) In fact, I think training on a Rhino might be one of the best ways to improve one's piloting skills with other slow ships like the Titan.

I'm not exactly sailing through the campaign, either. I chronicled the deaths (7 total so far), and every success I've gotten since mission 7 has been hard work. But it's a lot of fun, I'm enjoying it even more than the Starflier run.


Edited by - T-hawk on 31-07-2003 22:35:44

spacedrive

Post Thu Jul 31, 2003 11:12 pm

So are you using turret view the most or flying it like a fighter? It would have some nice advantages over a Starflyer since it's so easy to make money with the right cargo. Are you trying to speed through the missions as fast as possible? Because instead of selling optronics at Leeds or H-fuel at Mactan, selling boron at LD-14 will make a lot of money after you make the escape from Liberty. It's just too tempting to go out of the way a little bit and take advantage of it's cargo abilities if I tried the Rhino campaign.

Sherlog

Post Thu Jul 31, 2003 11:35 pm

Selling optronics in Leeds after mission 4 is usually done for speed, not to gain maximum profit. Hauling H-fuel to Mactan and buying the optronics in Leeds purely for levelling up is the fastest, and in smaller ships it is also the most profitable of the quick plans if you 'trade' Cardamine from Balboa wreck to Manhattan after mission 3. IIRC you could buy boron on Manhattan but you have to sell it at Stokes or LD14 which takes a couple of minutes more.

Pity that the Rhino cannot use the Pyros Turret Type 1 from the Balboa wreck since this turret is even better than Rowlett's Revenge (topher: the Dagger can ).

T-hawk

Post Fri Aug 01, 2003 2:36 am

spacedrive - I experimented quite a bit, but I've determined that turret view is not useful because you can't maneuver to dodge enemy fire.

Holding the V key for rear view is useful in brief increments. If I'm doing a thruster engine kill, but getting shot too much too soon, I use rear view to fire some shots at the pursuer faster to get him off my tail.

I'm actually flying it neither like a fighter nor a freighter. I'm flying it like a torpedo dive-bomber. The best way to kill a ship is line it up FAR away (2000m-plus) and head straight for it. Start firing Slingshots around 1500m so you can have three in flight before you reach the enemy ship. Stunpulses take out its shields before the Slingshots get there, and then the latter blow it up. By now the Rhino's powerplant is empty, so you kill the engines, let your velocity carry you away from the rest of the danger and turn around. All the while your powerplant and shields are recharging. Once you're 2000m away from the enemies again and recharged, begin another bombing run.

As for the optronics - I was just going for speed, not cash. Remember that once I finished buying the gun loadouts, which was after mission 2, I didn't have to buy anything else besides Slingshot ammo for a long time; in Bretonia I didn't care about income. My only meaningful expense was before mission 9 in a Driller launcher and ammo, and the gold run to New Tokyo provided plenty of money to do that.

Off to play those last two missions now....

--

T-hawk

Post Fri Aug 01, 2003 4:37 am

OK, here you go, screenshot fiends.



Here's mission 9 just before and after docking with Tekagi's Arch. Note the missing turret in the latter one.




Here's mission 11 on the way back to the Osiris. Note yet another missing turret...



Now on to mission 12. The shield generators were easy enough, using the tactic of flying around them in circles dropping Driller mines.




However, the battle on the other side of the jump hole was NOT easy. I died about five times, until I decided to just let the invincible Juni and Von Claussen do their thing and fly around the outskirts myself. The problem was the gunboats, which were too strong to take out in a single bombing run, and the gunboat guns have VERY long range so would kill me before I could complete an engine kill getaway.



And I lost yet another turret, leaving me with only three Lavablade turrets for mission 13. I put Rowlett's on there as well, better than leaving the hardpoint empty, and the projectile speed mismatch doesn't matter when shooting stationary targets. I did not put on a Justice turret because I didn't want to waste energy on a less efficient gun.

Now on to mission 13, which turned out to be HARD HARD HARD. Much harder than in the Starflier, and in fact harder than any of the other missions in a Rhino. The Starflier's small size and maneuverability let it dart all over the shield generator areas generally ignoring the Nomad ships. Not so for a big freighter tub. But, even thruster bombing runs wouldn't work, as the Nomad ships would swarm and slaughter me before I could complete the engine kill getaway. I died at least 10 times here.

I had to resort to some way-out tactics.



I had to get FAR away - 7k or more - from the shield generators. The only way to do this was cruise speed, of course. The Nomad fighters would string out behind me, and eventually I'd have enough time to turn around and go back in at cruise speed. What I had to do now was point my ship just away from the shield generator, kill the engines, and dive in shooting at cruise drift speed . Since I was moving at 300 and the Nomad fighters don't use cruise engines, this meant the Nomads were still 2-3k behind me when I got to the generator. I had about four seconds - enough to empty the Rhino's power plant - of safety away from enemy fire to shoot the generator before I had to charge up the cruise engine and get away again. Usually I just let the Rhino smack against the floor next to the generator, since that's by far the fastest way to get the ship turned around.

But work that did, eventually! On to the last section, which did indeed turn out to be cake and I did it without dying. Flying around the little crack in the shield generators worked as it did with the Starflier. I dropped all my mines, and combined with both my allies and the Nomads shooting the shield generator for me, it went down easily.

spacedrive

Post Fri Aug 01, 2003 5:47 am

Good job! That has to be the toughest ship to win the SP campaign in. I guess you could try a Mule or a Patriot next, but it would be easier using those ships.

Aceaz

Post Fri Aug 01, 2003 1:47 pm

Kick ASS!! I tried the Rhino when I first got the game but I dumped it for a Patriot later cos it manuvers like a Titan!

Cardamine rules!!

topher

Post Fri Aug 01, 2003 2:28 pm

Sherlog , I have the Dagger, and I love it, and I just got to Shinkaku Station... which means that I beat Hovis (but that isn't hard). What I was wondering is has anyone ever heard,

"Mr. Trent is ahead after the first quarter"


I beat him through the first ring and every one after that.

So, the Pyros Type 1 turret... I will have to get that.

"On this ship you are to refer to me as Idiot, not you Captain. I mean... you know what I mean."

Edited by - topher on 01-08-2003 15:31:38

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