*SLIGHT EQUIPMENT RELATED SPOILERS*
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The Defender's the best of the best of Liberty ships. You might be able to get a different one (such as a Rouge or Junker ship) by changing alliances, but that's a lot of trouble. It's also not necessary - the Defender's quite a ship.

Make sure you outfit her right. For example, you said you have two shield-only weapons, which in my experience (not criticizing by the way - just played around with this a bit so giving my two cents) is a waste. One gets shields down plenty fast, and you can actually get regular weapons in Liberty that make them pretty much useless (since they wear down shields very fast regularly). Also, I'm not sure what TYPE of shields your using, but that does make a difference. See what weapons the enemy is using and then get a shield that defends best against those type of weapons. Also make sure you bring along a full hold of shield energy and nanobot packs.

Good luck!

Also make sure you USE your shield pacs and nano's. They don't work automatically. When you employ them the shield do-dads repair your shields to full strength and the nano's do the same for the hull. Let's see ... F for shields and G for hull. And why do I know this??? Because I was beyond where you are before I figured it out.

Try to get some pirate guns. (By blowing up pirates until you get some weps to tractor.) They usually have more powerful guns then you can buy at the bases. Xenos and Outcasts have the best guns in Liberty space.

Now remember[! First you pillage and THEN you burn[!

All good advice. Personally, I liked the lavablades better than a pulse weapon (shield depleter) anyway, because they did loads of damage whether it was to shields or not. A word of warning though, multiple plasma weapons suck energy ridiculously fast, so you have to be careful with your aim. If you do decide to do it the way I did, you can't just hold down the button and fling clouds of bullets, you have to be sure you are hitting the target, and if you can't, don't shoot for crying out loud.

Avoid Lavablade weapons like the plague. They're really only useful against Libery Rouges, because they're the only folks in Liberty space dumb enough to fly slow, ungaingly craft.

The Xenos fly Starfliers, the Oucasts fly Daggers, etc. You need weapons that travel FAST, especially since you're not very experienced at tactics and understanding enemy maneuvers. The Lavablades are %33 slower than lasers, and you can feel it.

Also, avoid the shield-killer weapons. Even the crappiest weapons in the game have little problem whittling down shields, it's the armor that takes forever.

My suggestion: until you get good pirate weapons, like the Drail and the Scorpion, you have to live with multiple crummy weapons. Also, until you get out of Liberty Space, your best shields will be Class 2. Armor is going to be a last resort - I mean, come on folks, when was the last time having a few hundred more armor actually saved your hide? You're either dead meat, or your shields take most of the damage.

Make your target the Patriot Light Fighter. I know everyone hoots about the Defender, but honestly, you don't have the powerful guns available to make it worthwhile ( unless you pick up a few Drails or Scorpions, as mentioned above ).

The Patriot can handle 4 Adv Starbeam guns without straining the batteries ( they're more efficient than the Justice series ), and that's far more firepower than the Starflier you start out with. Save the Defender until you get those Drails and Scorpions.

Edited by - defaultuser on 30-03-2003 20:31:19

Every AI will fly in a straight line sometimes for 10 seconds, the lavablades are perfect for ripping them apart when you don't have any xenos weapons avalible.

Yes, but again, that requires knowledge of tactics. It's hard to SET UP for when the enemy is going to be going in a straight line if you don't even recognize it coming.

If you insist on Lavablades, be sure to use the Lavablade MK II. It has the highest efficiency of the series, and a laughably small upgrade price from the Mk I.

Remember, in Liberty, MANY SMALL GUNS is the tactic you should use until you get enemy weapons. The Class 3 guns are simply not worth the money or the drop in efficiency, because their damage is only incremental.

Actually, there's at least one base in Colorado that sells a lvl 3 HF shield, just make sure you're neutral with it (not hard).

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world:
those who understand binary, and those who don't.

>> Actually, there's at least one base in Colorado that sells a lvl 3 HF shield, just make sure you're neutral with it (not hard). <<

Willerd Research Base also has Level 3 shields available.

Forgot about Willard.

The plot will take you there eventually.

But there ya go, even the Starflier and Patriot can mount L3 shields Again, you need the powerful guns to justify the Defender, as the Defender has a power level bonus over the Patriot.

Defender + Lv 3 shield + Scorpions + drails = death.

It certainly isn't hard to figure out how the enemy AI behaves rather quickly. And I really did like the lavablades at that point in the game because they do massive amounts of damage. Sure they're slow, but as long as you are precise with your aim they can shred a ship pretty darn fast.

well, since u have a free turret point, when i was at your situation a long time ago i stuck a StunPulse Turret on my ship to really tear apart shields, and then i just stuck some good hull damage weapons on my other slots, and i was tearing through it all.

"I Would Rather Die Standing Than Live On My Knees"