The one ship to destroy them all!

Specs single ship build, for the 107 Draconian Stronghold

I will start with that this build has some bells and whistles that you might not have. I will also state that I am positive that not everyone will have what is needed. However, I am a firm believer in growing as a person and player and that this might help you decide what to take come Raid time, or maybe realize that you have these parts sitting around your intelligence lab doing nothing.

It is not the most efficient at killing the target, of course, taking 1 hour 30 minute to 1 hour 51 minutes of damage so far in tests I have done. But, in one month you can have it built and ranked and be able to do your five level 107 strongholds as you build others to go with it. I refer you back to this post that I made on tips for the FM to refresh your memory on what I believe works the best.

The build is as follows;

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B0NH01T1T1T5K6D3468372525252A2A574M4M4M000ZZ0ZZ0ZZ0ZZdC

That single ship will do the 107 with no pinches and no coin if you are willing to wait about 2 hours per target. Yes, I do understand that not everyone can hit a target and walk away for two hours to come back later to do another. But, this option is there for those that can make that time and have the technology in their blueprints to pull this off. Also, this should give you an idea of the minimum you need for your CM tank to lead your other ships. There is plenty of videos around now of people using Dreads and DNX to do the 107 with pinches, and that is a very strategic way to approach the targets.

As well a single refit is needed to swap out the Reflective coating 3 with the Siege Battery 3, or even the CM loader 3 for the frontline CM platform. Either would be an improvement and get the repair time down drastically.

Video

Me? I hate having to rely on the Launch pad :D

Ask Specs Anything June 29, 2016

Can Centurions be built to do a 107 FM stronghold?

Today’s question comes from Merlin as new student of mine that is only about six months into the game. He needs to do the weekly, but does not have the punisher yet and his question was

“Hey Specs, can my Centurions do the 107?”

My reply:

Hey Merlin,

Yes, I think that the centurion can be built to handle the new 107 strongholds. You have to understand that it will not be optimum and that you will more than likely not do all five in one go. But, I do think that you can do probably three with the right tweaks to your current Centurion fleet. Remember the keys to the 107 are; Combat speed, Missile resistance, explosive resistance and plenty of Countermeasure to keep the mortars off you. With that in mind here is the Centurion refit I would do if I was in your shoes.

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!B07400I0I0I0I0I5K6A342U2B2323232C1A1A4M4M000007400I0I0I0I0I5K6A342U2B2323232C1A1A4M4M000007400I0I0I0I0I5K6A342U2B2323232C1A1A4M4M000007400I0I0I0I0I5K6A342U2B2323232C1A1A4M4M000007400I0I0I0I0I5K6A342U2B2323232C1A1A4M4M0000dC

This should be enough firepower to take out the stands, be fast enough to get you to the platforms following the approved path I have shared with you and not need a pinch. Of course, a pinch would lower the damage you take significantly. Also, remember to park next to the Citadels to keep within their minimum range at firing their mortars that will save you some damage as well as only facing the mortars from each island.

Let me know how it goes and I would like to video the attempt so others might learn.

Hopefully, that will help some of you that do not have the Punisher, but have the Centurion and the technology shown. Or, at the very least give ideas of what to look out for during raids and what might be useful in the FM if they put the prizes in. If you do not have the old style Arbalest, then you will want at least 6 of the new D110-R and you could use Crossbow as well if needed.

Day in the life of new battle pirates player June 29, 2016

The struggle lives on!

Still plugging away here, refitting ships with the Reactive Armor 2, to help with missile damage. I finished my last warehouse to level 10 (only three built right now) so I can fill up to start Outpost 5. That is the goal today, to get enough resources to start that upgrade, finish refitting the Leviathans with Reactive armor 2 and prepare to do the Death Grip Campaign for the Mauler and Shockwave L mortar. I will have 15 bunker buster small to use in the campaign to ease my frustration and lower repair time. I figure I should be ready to go in the next day or two.

Once Outpost five is finished I will take the Advance lab up another level so I can research level 2 engine and hopefully have the hellstorm anti-mortar from the research lab finished to be refitted with the engines and make a push into do the new FM. That change has really set me back a lot in the game.

This will be the final build

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!303I0111111020H15150C0C0C03I0111111020H15150C0C0C03I0111111020H15150C0C0C03I0111111020H15150C0C0C03I0111111020H15150C0C0Cd8

I figure it should give me a fighting chance in the level 40, time will tell J wish me luck!

My Rant

This is not meant to be anything other than comfort for myself

The weekly has been a source of frustration for us players for as long as I can remember. It started out as a little thing and then grew each year. I still remember the day it went to 4.5 million and the outcries on the forums about how that was impossible and that none of the average players would be able to obtain it. Of course, at that time I could not get to 4.5 million either. But, being me, I went about analyzing the targets and watching others that had some success and then collected and built what I needed. It took me a good six months to get to 4.5 million, but boy what is worth the trip!

The second major change

Then, Kixeye (in typical fashion) pulled another stunt and raised it 50 million.  This new FM was going to be the death stroke to the game if you believed the forums. Granted, I was in a much better place by this time having resolved myself to the direction they were taking the game and I was ready for this change. It did not solve the issue for others that came behind me, though. They were sorely behind the technological curve and did not have the knowledge that I had. It was at this time I started to pull in those that wanted to learn and struggling to teach them what I knew and how to anticipate changes that might be coming. It was a fun time, now that I look back at that year long endeavor. I made some new friends and helped quite a few find a new love for this game. It was short lived though as not a year later more changes come.

The Last change

Now we arrive at the big day a full year later and low and behold Kixeye does it again. Save this time they did it in stages. First, they introduced the 150 million mark for Tier 5 and tucked some shards and technology that was in a past raid. Then, they decided that people were getting 100’s of millions above that hitting the level 85 that they should go to 350 million! They put more shards in (which who really wants that stuff right?) and they moved our beloved bonus tokens from Tier 4 to Tier 5! Of course, they would throw us a bone and give us a target that was worth 73 million each, making, so we needed to hit five of them to reach that tier.

I was technically ready for this change too. I had the means to hit the higher paying targets. I had ways to keep going and do the 150 million each week while we had a month to prepare for the big change. I chose to take a couple weeks off instead. Why? Well, I was not sure I had it in me to keep teaching new players, and some old, how to handle these changes. This recent change seemed to be a bit too much, and I was not very happy about it. I might not coin as much as the next person, but I do spend a mighty sum on this game, and I believe, they felt they could get even more out of the stone that was running dry. I never spend on the weekly, and I find it counterproductive to pay for a chore that I do not like to do. Especially, as I see it as a reward for decisions, I do not agree were being made. Now, you might be of a different opinion and that is great, but if you are not happy with the changes, and your behavior is tossing money at it to be successful in any amount is the problem.

Wrap up

You are free to spend your money any way you choose. I am a firm believer in free markets and the individual choice to do what makes that person happy. I just wish you would think about how your decision to give a company money affects the decisions they make at changing the game. And I know there are plenty out there that will toss $10 or $20 on the weekly just to get it done. The problem comes when the player base is spending $500 a year on some content and then complaining when the content changes.  Instead of finding a way to do it without spending our hard earned money and forcing  the company to look for other ways to monetize the game, we (as players) are feeding the narrative that this is what we want to spend our money on as consumers.

What business is not going to give the paying customer what they want? And Kixeye paying customers wanted a 350 million point weekly every single week. At least as far as Kixeye is concerned, your purchasing habits told them as much.

Thank you for reading, this felt good.

Day in the life of a new battle pirate player June 25, 2016

Rankin! Ranking! Ranking!

With the weekly not in my reach at this point, I have spent the last two days ranking fleets with the VXP weekend that started Friday - Monday I can finish ranking my Predators, Battle Barge-A, and Leviathan-A. What I did was just suicide into a level 80 assault target that you can find around the Draconian Uranium bases. I was getting 2,000 EXP per ship, so it went fast. Far more quickly than hitting salvages.

Now we still need the blueprints from salvages, but the rank will help in that task so that you are not spending so much of that time you have in a day on them. I am going to finish prize pack one on the level 24 campaign Shell the Shore; I have prize pack one on the run the trench, and I am level 27 at this time.

The Leviathans will get a refit to the shockwave N mortar I will win here shortly, it does better damage than my current mortars and about the same range. So, it will be a step up allowing me to do Prize Pack 2 in that campaign easier to get the D2-E armor. Also, I will hit level 28 soon, and I want to be able to do Death Grip prize pack 1 for the mauler. All of this so that I might be able to make one of these fleets work in the weekly.

When I finish the refitting the Leviathans I will try the 40 again with engine 1, ablative 1 and the new mortars, see if I have any luck.

Here is the video of me hitting salavages with preds, hope it helps. build is shared at end of video

So, lets discuss first blush of September raid targets

Reaver houldout level 123 the good, bad, and ugly

I Tried the Reaver holdout level 123 with my tiger sharks. I will share the build at the end of this as it needs some work, but not sure yet where I will go with it. I have killed four of these targets for the time frame they ran, so my experience with them is not extensive but enough to formulate an opinion, and maybe a means to fix my fleet for the September raid.

This raid is the first one that we got the targets two months before they are due to come live. I love that, and it helps me plan accordingly to make sure I am successful for that raid. As well it can help me talk to others and assist them in developing fleets to do the raid from the start.

My experience –

First, love the idea behind this format. It will reward good driving and skillful play, or it will soak the whales to just power through it. One mistake cost me 11 hours 34 minutes of damage which brings me to the first complaint. Sub repair modifier has to go if they hope to get any average player coining this raid. I understand the rumor is that they want to do away with the zombie part of the game for a reduction in the sub repair modifier. The only way that would be worthwhile and acceptable is if subs went to 50% modifier, even at 100% it would be cheaper to keep zombie subs and just learn to drive better.

Second; the targets are not too bad, and the pattern is quite easy to pick up. The objectives had a decent amount of health but do not seem to have any resistance to concussive and corrosive. Meaning, that my scourge torpedoes are quite lovely with this format.

That brings me to the third point. I do not see any sonar on these things nor thermal. That means that if you can navigate properly and get the timing down to do hit and runs you can use any torpedo and Cobra scatterguns.

The good? Targets are fun, challenging and will reward good play. The bad? The mortars subcavitor stays on the water for the entire battle. Meaning that if you are slow to kill them, the map can fill up fast forcing you to die or retreat. The ugly? One mistake can cause you lots of time to repair or coins.

My build is below

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!30NG015151515412R406C29292929C0C0C0C0C0000NA0151515154100406CC0C0C0C0C0C0C1C1C0000NA0151515154100406CC0C0C0C0C0C0C1C1C0000NA0151515154100406CC0C0C0C0C0C0C1C1C0000NA0151515154100406CC0C0C0C0C0C0C1C1C000dC

Helpful tips for the FM changes

Forsaken Mission changes and people lose their collective minds!

Lots of angst with the new FM change on June 22, 2016.  I hope that the following will help you all with some technology get through this troubling time of adjustment. You need a few things to make the FM a success for you a minor refit will more than likely help you get to 50 million in less time than you did with the old FM and even 350 million in about an hour.

First to the weapons that are best for the Strongholds.

• Arbalest 
• D98
• Judgment mortars
• Pando Mortars
• Rockets (somewhat not fully tested yet)

Second you need Good missile and explosive resistance and Countermeasure against mortars. 

So, the best would be MX-3 and retrofit it to R15, but you could go with RA3 and add in enough hailstorm B/C or Gale 2 to keep mortars at bay. You will want a Countermeasure ship with at least 4 Hailstorm C/Gale with Countermeasure equipment or loader 3. Otherwise, you will want about 6 to 7 hail B.

Third and last you want combat speed. In the 107 you need a minimum of 30, and you will still take one shot from the Halo on each end without a pinch. 35 combat speed will get you to the platform damage free from the Halo. Those do hurt a lot, so it is best to either pinch them or make your fleet as fast as possible.

Hulls you should consider in order of best to worst

• Punisher – king of PvE in my opinion
• Centurion – Yes it can be made to do the FM with a minor refit and still do the level 60 mines at minimum
• Citadels – Great when paired with Judgement mortar
• Novastorm – mini Citadel and can be very useful in the FM now
• DNX – Great hull to use to hit these targets especially lower levels
• Dreadnought – Mini Punisher and can be a great ballistic fleet for lower to midlevel’s.

I understand that none of this will be helpful to people that are just starting out. You see you need to get Tier one finished twice to get the pieces to finish the level one foundry ships. You can hit all the level 40 and 51 salvages you want, but you need that Siege Battery one at a minimum to build the dreadnought.

I can only speculate that Kixeye does not think those new to the game need to worry about the Forsaken Missions until around level 30+ and want them to concentrate on the campaigns, salvages, and research? It is their way of slowing down the power creep I guess. I am at a loss, to be honest here and will try to work out a fleet to help the lower levels at least make it to 150K as soon as possible.

For those that have some of the hulls mentioned, for all fleets, it is best to make a countermeasure ship. Put at least four anti-mortar, two phalanx and a couple of weapons to help rank it. Then, add most of your armor to this ship to keep it alive and allow it to tank for your remote targeting mortars. You will want judgment mortars to make the most efficient way to kill level 87 and 107 targets. The other mortars can work well in targets below the 87 due to the iron curtain being removed in those targets. On your tank for this fleet, you will want to go with something that is not mortar or missile, so it is not shot down. D98, D92, D104, or arbalest is the key. Put 2 to 3 on it and use it to target the iron curtain if you are in the 87+

The best weapon to use in the new FM is the same as the old FM, and that is the Arbalest, be it D110 or the older version. The same concept works here, dedicated CM ship and at least three DPS ships behind it.

The faster you make these fleets the better you will do as well. Here is a video that a player did to show his path in a 107 and he uses combat speed 30.

As always, any questions feel free to post in the comments and have a great weekend.

Ask Specs Anything June 22, 2016

This weeks question comes from someone that does not want me to mention them, so I will not. They just got 3 million points in the raid, and they wanted to know what to take and how to have an easier time in the monthly events.

My advice was as follows:

Hey there,

First, you want to take the Rhino, Trident, and D4-M as you have none of the more up to date missiles. You also need to finish the campaign to get Phalanx 2. The campaign you want is Hunt the nemesis, and you can complete it with maulers and missiles that you have received in previous campaigns. Or you can get two of the rhinos I am going to give you here and do it with them.

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!906V00K0K0K0K0K3302170K0P1A1A1A1A1A1A1A1A1A1A1A1A0L1A1A06V00K0K0K0K0K3302170K0P28282828282828282828282828282806V00K0K0K0K0K3302170K0P28282828282828282828282828282806V00K0K0K0K0K3302170K0P2828282828282828282828282828280ZZdC

Reasoning

The fleet has the technology you have now, and it will help you in the raid going forward. You will want to aim for Siege Battery to help with defensive capabilities for the DPS ships, and you will want to swap in a Frontline Countermeasure from the FM when you get there for your CM/Tank.

This fleet should do B set targets next raid for you for some damage. Upgrades to this fleet are harriers, blades, D53-D, and even the Switchblade is useful if you take the special on the Apollo side of the tree if you have nothing else.

Also, this fleet will help you do the Assault Map targets to get fragments for upgrading other Assault hulls through the foundry.

Future thoughts

When the hull store comes around you will want to try for a better tank of course. Prime choices are Punisher and the Apollo if you can get the points.

I hope this is helpful and thank you for the question.

A day in the life of new Battle Pirate Player June 22, 2016

Today the Weekly starts, this is the new weekly, and there were some changes made by the looks of it. According to the update notes we will have the following targets:

Level                       Payout
40                          53,000
47                        130,000
60                        420,000
67                     1,300,000
80                     3,600,000
87                     9,700,000
107                 73,000,000

Spawning 

Base level            Target spawned
1-35                     Stronghold 40
36-47                   Stronghold 47
48-63                   Stronghold 60
64-77                   Stronghold 67
78-83                   Stronghold 80
84-94                   Stronghold 87
90-999               Stronghold 107 and 109

The interesting thing here is the 40, is this going to be the old style 40? Or with the rhinos, citadels, and massive mortars? This change does present me with a problem, as I was gearing my fleet up to handle explosives mostly and some missiles. If it is the old style, then I need to switch to mostly missile and a few anti-mortars to take on the mortars in the target. If it is the old style, this is good news for new players as those are easy to build and plan for. Guess I will have to wait a few hours, and plan to do another write up later today once I see these targets.

For now, today is pretty much getting doing warehouses to level 10, well starting them as they are about 13 hours a piece. When I get all three done, I should be able to start Outpost upgrade 5. My weapons and naval labs are still at eight, though, as they are not that important at this stage of the game. You could take them to their max level before going to Outpost 5, but the advance lab is more important right now to get the second tier of engines and the better resistance.

Today building goals

• 2x Warehouse level 10
• The building last Levi diplomat mortar shell – will be ready in time for XP weekend.

I will spend 1 hour this morning hitting salavages, and an hour tonight hitting salvages once I test the 40 strongholds.

Update on the FM changes:

To date, I do not have a fleet that can do the lowest level stronghold. Each of the level 40 strongholds have 3x Dead Executioners, 1x Draconian Mortar, 1x Citadel with looks to be two mortars and one rhino with 2x blade.

I cannot get close enough to the target my ballistic fleet without it dying to the Dead Eye, I lose three of the five before getting to the platform, and another one as I am about to hit the platform and the last as I fire my poor shots. I tried the mortars I have, and the diplomat mortars did a bit better damage wise, I got 426 points with the ballistic fleet and 524 with my mortar fleet.  I did not take out even one turret, though, I have an idea to do the 40, but I am not ready for it.

It is apparent that they do not want mid-level 20's doing week one of the weekly at this point. Which is sad, because there is no way to do the foundry ships unless you have those FM pieces needed from the first and second prize. I will post here as I develop the strategy and build the fleet, might try to armor the fleets I do have up a bit and see how that goes.

Better build ideas for new players for the next raid in July/August

Builds that are ready in time for the Hull raid in August to help lower and mid level players.

As was pointed out by Ex-Machina in a comment the builds I had listed were not helpful to him, and I am sure many others. So, here are some more ideas that are lower down the list of available tech, You still need phalanx II though from the Hunt the Nemesis campaign.

Capable of doing C sets

This fleet is Mercury and a CM Vindicator, the CM is the most important part and should be built first. You could add a couple of missiles on it to help with ranking before adding armor. Total fleet time to build should be around 15 days, and that would give you around ten days to help rank ships before next raid if you started it today.

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!9P4C00I0I0I0H02163E3E3E3E3E3EP4C00I0I0I0H02163E3E3E3E3E3EP4C00I0I0I0H02163E3E3E3E3E3EP4C00I0I0I0H02163E3E3E3E3E3E05C00I0I0I0B02163E1A1A1A1A1A1AdC

Capable of doing B sets

This fleet is the great V2-H fleet, it will handle B sets and can do it for a decent repair or coin option once ranked. You could go with a dedicated CM ship like the Vindicator if you need to. The build time for each V2 is around 16 days (without officer), meaning that you could feasibly get two of these hulls built by the next raid, and the other two before the August raid. The ranking will be a bit harder if you add the armor first, without armor you could have all of them built 56 days total without an officer.

You will want to concentrate on any tokens that you can get your hands on to help speed this build up for August raid.

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!9PM600J0J0J0J0I03172T3K3K1A1A3K3K3K3KPM600J0J0J0J0I03172T3K3K1A1A3K3K3K3KPM600J0J0J0J0I03172T3K3K1A1A3K3K3K3KPM600J0J0J0J0I03172T3K3K1A1A3K3K3K3K0ZZdC

Reasoning

I looked at the earlier builds and realized that Ex-Machina was correct for those that might not have the Harriers or Blades at lower levels. So, I wanted to make sure I provided something at basic as possible that could still handle the C sets. You could even get by with phalanx one on the C sets if you do not get to prize pack two in the campaign.

Hopefully, this is more helpful and helps Ex-Machina more than the original builds I posted.

After Raid Report

Specs quick thought on the raid

This raid was well balanced in my opinion. The lag was not too bad most of the weekend and allowed for some smooth sailing on this end. I was able to end up with 69 million points for $10 spent. That included three Grease monkey crews over two days, and that got me to 55 million. The other 14 million was spent just hitting sets a couple of times a day over the last two days. This success means that if I needed too, I could have hit 30 million for zero coins this raid, far better than the last raid where we all had issues getting going and through the challenging targets the first couple days.

For those points I took

• The whole Vendetta Tree – I grabbed the Apollo last raid but did not claim the special or weapon for that hull. 
• All tokens – that were used to finish refits to make my Punisher fleet better for the FM
• All Ghost Shards – I want that hull bad, still need 103 though.
• Fragments for the foundry

The fleet I used was a simple one, it consisted of an Harlock Aegis with one harrier missile (you could use Aegis), Three Rhino with Blades, and the Apollo finished up and was a CM/Tank.
Overall it was a great raid for me and many others. The CM/Tank is critical to this raid format and can be created with any assault class hull that has some corrosive resistance.

Rumors for next raid

The rumor mill is going crazy with the next raid and the September raid. Next raid we get a new defensive hull to help combat the two new Conquer hulls released. This should be interesting to see how they balance the two groups in the new meta game.

September Raid is looking to be a sub raid, meaning that in August you might want to think about grabbing a sub if you have not yet. If you have some, I would aim to put your best torps on them and hopefully they release D2-S again just in case we need the extra stealth.

More information on both these rumors should come out in the next few weeks and months. Many are very excited for the sub raid though.

Any questions feel free to comment below.

Day in the life of a new battle pirate’s player June 21, 2016

Day 9

So, after taking the raid off I am back in the saddle again on the new account. I have three Levi with Diplo IV waiting for me, and my warehouses are going to be going to nine Today.  I am going to try to get to Tier 1 in the FM with what I have and hope it works, we shall see. No engines, no resistances, just the hull and weapon. The reason for this is because I still have to get OP to level five so that I can get my Advance Lab to the level to research the engine 2 and the Ablative armor to make this go. By next raid I should have a good mortar fleet ready to go that can be used to do the campaigns that allow for them, and use the raid to help me move forward with those campaigns.

Today I plan to do the following –

1. Finish Warehouses to level nine
2. Start fourth levi Diplo mort hull

Research is on hold right now as I need to get more resources available so I can research the stuff needed and not just keep it going. If I can keep from research all in the lab my level will not grow as fast as I am not bringing in all that resources, or having things complete that contribute to my experience.

The stuff that I deem important right now in my game is as follows.

Advance Lab

• Solid Fuel booster
• Auto Loader
• Harden barrels
• Reactive armor
• Ablative armor
• Layered Armor
• Engine
• Guidance scrambler
• Caterpillar Drive
• Nautilus Battery

Weapons lab

• Rapier missiles I thru IV
• Thud cannons I thru IV
• Havoc I thru IV
• Diplomat I/IV only
• PeaceMaker 1/IV only
• Hydra Rockets IV
• Ripper IV
• Hailstorm Anti-Mortar IV – Unless I happen to get Hellstorm B from the campaigns first, or raid or whatever.
• Cutlass IV

Naval Lab

• Ships up to Arbiter – With any luck you will get all the better ships from the Campaigns/FM (if offered) and raids.
• Iron I thru IV
• Steel I thru IV
• Titanium III and IV
• Depleted Uranium IV

With these research in place you have everything you need to unlock all Blueprints in the game and build decent enough researched fleets to get better hulls through campaigns, FM, and raids.

You will want to concentrate on four fleets.

• First fleet is an FM/Mining fleet – This is going to be a ballistic/Mortar/Launcher type fleet
• Second fleet will be an Assault style fleet – This will be missiles mostly
• Third will be sub fleet – look for subs in the hull store, you can research predator for the cargo hitting early game until hull store comes around
• Fourth will be baser – This can be any weapon that you like the most on a conquer style hull.

Level 24+ help with resources quick

With your Leviathan Hulls and diplomat mortars you will be able to do the shell the shore campaign targets 1 and 2 for resource and no repair. You should still be hitting level 40 cargos with your subs to get the fragments needed to do the Dreadnought once you get the needed pieces from the Weekly. This week I will provide details of the progress made with the Levi Diplomat mortars, I have Levi A but Levi will work too if you did not get that hull yet.

As always, any questions feel free to comment below.

Battle Pirates - Escalation raid review

I am enjoying this raid, thanks to those that suggested I zoom out on the mega ships, does help deal with the issues I had last raid. A headache is there today, but not getting sick is a huge help. I will take a bit more time off and try to hit a few targets each day to keep the issues from sidelining me for too much.

I have not tried anything other than A set and the S target, and I managed to get one Apollo finished before this raid. It has a 10% rank on it at the moment and is my CM tank. It is doing pretty good lowering the damage I have taken in these targets considerably compared to last month. I have decided to get at least two more done this next month and worry about the vendetta after.
Watching others hitting the B set targets I see mostly V2-H, Rhinos, and Punishers being used. I have seen others in the 50 level range using Crusaders, Mercury, and Interdictors with varying degrees of success in the C target. The Rhino and V2 are the better choices for the b set, while the Mercury seems to do better in the C sets. I am trying to catch them so I can video tape them, but we appear to have issues with the C target spawning and B sets are a bit overwhelmed with the amount of 86 around the sector.

With all that said;

This raid phalanx is a big reason for success. If you do not have one, you need a dedicated CM ship. Do not put another phalanx on your other ships as this seems to have an adverse effect. My damage was halved when I removed the two rhinos that had some phalanx four on them and just went with 3x phalanx 4 and a CM special. For B sets the Phalanx 2 or 3 will work just fine, you will want about 6 of the three and 8 of the two. Even with no rank you should see a huge decrease in your damage taken.

The best missile to use is, of course, the Blade, but Harriers are working just as good. And arbalest is a bit slow, but they can work if that is all you have in the lower targets.

Combat speed is a big bonus; I am outrunning most of the damage from the Curb/Scattergun stands on my tank as well as the Heavy cruisers. I have 4x Phalanx 4 and 1x Phalanx 3 with my CM loader three special and that is cutting down most of the missiles from the Zoe in the target, especially if I can get them one on 1. I had 3x Phalanx 4 at the start and used some tokens to put the extra 4 and three on and lowered my repair time by 30 minutes on the on all targets.

Of course, if you have rhino or mastodon then making your tank a CM tank is preferred and make it as fast as you can.

So, to recap for this raid series, this is working best for me.

1 Countermeasure ship with almost all Countermeasures, the better the countermeasure weapon, the less you need to put on the ship. Phalanx 2 you will want almost all slots filled, phalanx three you will be looking at six at least, and phalanx four you will want four of them. High missile resistance and combat speed of over 30. You can get by with less in B set and C set targets.

At least 3x DPS ships, preferably missiles and 98 range. Remote targeting is excellent with Rhino or Mastodon as you can use and drive the CM tank to keep them away from the Scattergun turrets and Heavy Cruiser. Again, high missile resistance is good just in case you mess up with driving, armor not o important.

Low level Fleet idea for the C sets

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!9P4C00H0H0H0I0317525252525252P4C00H0H0H0I0317525252525252P4C00H0H0H0I0317525252525252P4C00H0H0H0I0317525252525252P5CF0H0H0H2B03170I544M4M4M4M4M4MdC

Med Level Fleet idea for B sets

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!9PM600H0H0H0H0I03172T5252525252525252PM600H0H0H0H0I03172T5252525252525252PM600H0H0H0H0I03172T5252525252525252PM600H0H0H0H0I03172T5252525252525252P5CF0H0H0H2B03170I544M4M4M4M4M4MdC

The idea is to have a Dedicated CM ship to shoot down the missiles, and then have something long range to take out the buildings. Lead with one ship only when facing the scattergun turrets so that it is the only thing getting fired at as you approach it.

Good luck with the rest of the raid and let me know if you are able to have success with a different type of fleet than I recommend.

Hey Specs what are you going to put on your Vendetta if you get it?

There is a lot of talks now about this new conquer hull, those that know me know I love to hit bases and try to run at least 3 to 5 a day, or 1 good base each day. So, it would be natural for me to consider this hull.

First - It is going to be 30 million points for me to get this hull. As I did not take the special or weapon, last raid and I were told that we had to make at least the weapon this raid to get the hull. So, I am looking at 45 million total points for this raid to get my wish list. It might be possible, I did get 30 million last raid, and I had to stop due to the shake of the mega causing medical issues with headaches and nausea.

So, if I do happen to get 45 million this raid (they removed half the mega from the A set, so might be good to go for an extra 15 million) then I plan to get the tokens, hull, weapon, and special, and I will be going with the next build.

Now I am sure you are saying why? Well, it is quite simple, build time for one. It is eight days 11 hours without the officer. In my shipyard, I can build this in 7 days 2 hours. This build time is unheard of in today's hyper-extended build times for any fleet. Even my Rhino builds were 12 days long, and love for that hull is still pretty high today. 

Second, while the new mortar does not have the damage of the Judgment, or the armor of the Pando, the time to put it on is close to 6 hours less compared to judgment per mortar. It is 2 hours less than Pando. Pando has less range, though, by 4, Pando also is less damage by 2K (the mortar in my shipyard is around 4500), and the Judgment is more than 1600 damage.

Beyond the time to place the new mortars, the range is identical with Judgment, and it has a secondary damage concussive. Narrowing, the gap between damage by 588. 

For specials it should not be any secret, I love splash :) It has atrocious stats for evading and resistance is set to -100% no matter what I use. So, that frees up two slots that typically are used for those specials. This means more splash! You could use the incendiary shells for the extra fire fields, splash a little less, though.

Many will look at that 15,000 penetrative deflection and maybe choose not to take this hull. I think that kind of piss poor analyst. Why? Well, I use citadels right now with my revenge, this is a natural companion to the revenge hull. Where the revenge is weak, this is strong and vice versa. If you drive well, you should be able to keep this thing away from Executioners/Dead eye exec and epic.

The one glaring weakness is ballistic, though, man this thing will probably get tore up with any ballista/Jav/harpoon, and arbs on your defense fleet.

This is first blush looking at the new prizes and working through some ideas for builds. Hope you find it helpful and as always you can comment in the comment section if you have questions, concerns, or input I missed.

June Battle Pirates Raid - Escalation

June Battle Pirates Raid - Escalation 

Specs Thoughts on Prizes

After looking over the official prize list, I am going to offer the following advice taking into consideration the points that we can receive from each set.

•    Those below 60 can hit the C sets for around 80K points for a set
•    Those below 80 can run the B sets for 607K
•    Those above 80 can run the A set for 2.69 million
•    Anyone can hit the S level target for 3.75 million points

Of course, if you are above 60 and hitting C set you will have received reduced points for the targets, and same with those above 80 hitting B sets. They still have not removed that restriction on those targets vs. player level.

You can see the new prizes in action in bases with no guard:

With that, all in mind here is my thoughts.

To those that have not received the Rhino yet, get it. It is 1.75 million points and should be grindable over the four days for no coin.  With any luck, most fleets will work with C sets (like the last raid), and you can do them throughout the weekend.  With a good rhino build, you can do B sets next raid, and they are quick to make. Most builds are less than ten days that can do the B set targets. I will try to watch what the lower levels around me are doing and see if I can capture some of the videos and get their builds. I will post my unfinished rhino build once I see how it does in the revamped B set. I did post a V2-H build here, and that did the B set last raid nicely.

If you find, that you have time and can grind out the sets to earn 6 million points. You get to have a few more choices. You cannot go wrong with the Basilisk turret (5.75 million). If you do not have it, it can help you with the Revenge fleets running the waters now if built correctly. The Executioner (5 million) is a great option and can be buffed up to decent damage potential with the right specials and attack transformers. Both turrets are available this raid and provide some much needed updated towers to battle the newest PvP hull. Where the choice comes in here is where do you want to go? If your goal is to have an easier time with the raid, then getting the Executioner and the D4-M armor is a pretty solid choice. If it is just to get a better turret than your pyro or napalm, then the Basilisk is the way to go.

Now, what if you can get 15 million points, you have to remember this raid we still have that prize lock feature where you have to take prizes in the previous tiers to unlock those above. And this is probably not going to be popular in certain crowds, but this is my opinion for those that do not coin. Your best friend is the tokens, and in this raid, you can get over five days off your build for the 15.05 million points (or pretty close to that). So, if you can get that 15 million and you do not coin, I would look to speed up one of your builds from last month by five days. If you are like my other non-coiner friends you are trying to do the FM or get something for the raid and that extra five days will be a significant leap for you. Plus if you go this route you do not have to spend points on other things in the tiers to get to the weapon or the hull of your choice.

That is not to say that I do not like the Apollo or the specials on that side. They are exceptional at doing this raid format and the assault fleets at the towers for minimal damage. The Apollo will be offered next month as well, so if you still want it and cannot get it this raid, it is possible next month. If you go with PvP aspect, the new ship will complement the Revenge in many ways, and if you are like me and use citadels, then this hull can act as an upgrade to your citadel support. Letting you use the citadels in a role they are better suited for and that is the mines/FM.

Ask Specs anything week 3

Today’s question comes from Rikki, and it is

What specials do you have on your Dead Eye Executioners?

Great question and one I am sure many are wondering what to do. These specials will also work for the Executioner turrets if you can get them in the raid this week.

First, You will want at least level 6 stand and level 7 to get the most out of your turrets. In the mean time if you only have level 5 you can put Thermobaric Casing 2 on your Deadeye, due to the base power it requires. These two come to 3909 energy usage, and a level 5 stand is 4000. Now when you get to level 6, you get a bit more wiggle room and can go a few different routes.

The first route is the poor person’s path. I call it this because you might not have been able to get the blueprints from the weekly yet, or draconian bases/draconian U base. So, in the advance lab, we can research Scramjet 3 and Thermobaric casing 3. This setup will put you at 5188 power of the 6400 you have on level 6 stand. Other useful specials are Priority targeting, Frontline platform Mc, smart warheads, frontline platform Z. There are a few more I am sure I am missing here, but most of those were in the weekly, and draconian bases (both kinds)

Now, why those? Well if you look at them you will see that they do one of three things. They extend range, boost damage, or focus all fire power on a single ship that is most damaged. Smart warheads and the frontline platform z are my personal favorite. As they boost damage, range, priority targeting and reload.

Level 7 stand you the added option to go with a Defense Transformer, or Offensive transformer both researchable. We will get the third one in the weekly on June 22 that will extend range. These transformers give up something to boost something. The defense you gain defense, losing damage. Offensive you increase damage, but lose defense. The range one will be extending the range of your turret and giving up damage (if rumor holds and this is how it is released).

In this instance, I would go with Attack transformer as that will give me a nice boost to damage over the extra defenses that is wasted (IMHO) on a back turret.

So, to answer the question of what is on mine? I have Smart Warheads, Frontline Platform Z, and I am still working on level 7 stands, but will be going with the attack transformer when I get the base parts or time.

Feel free to ask questions in the comment section and I will answer as soon as I can.

Thank you Rikki for this weeks question.

A day in the Life of a New Battle Pirates Player June 14, 2016

Today the goal is to get to bunker buster, or close to it. The reason is that it will help with doing some of these campaigns when we get those long range weapons like Javelin and Halo firing at us. The bunker buster, even the small, will take them out easy. The method being used to be called daisy cutter spam in the day, but with the revamp of the rockets we have to do a bit more research to get a real rocket in those campaigns. This also means that I will have to upgrade my launch pad to at least level 3. I will start my Levi-A builds, and the plan is to put two hellstorm on them with 3x Diplo IV mortars. This should hopefully get me into the range of the stands in the 37 to allow T1 FM going forward and building up to T2.

The reason for the mortars over thuds, is that they have range, and right now I cannot get my thuds to match that range of 85 without doing upgrade advanced lab to 10 and researching Harden barrel 3, at that point I will have a ballistic range better than the mortar. The other is the splash, and it should damage the whole platform pretty good allowing me to kill faster and getting out of the target with the fleet intact.

I also encountered a snag with my initial plan to getting Advance lab to 8; I need to get the outpost to level 5 first, which means I have to get my Warehouses up even more. So, I will try to do the Levi-A build without the tech from the lab to see how I do. With this development, if possible I would keep one of the campaigns from the earlier levels around for quick resources, level 24 campaign resources are small, and that leaves me having to spend most of my time hitting cargos for resources to fill up.

Building Upgrades

•    Launchpad 2

Ship builds

•    Levi A – Diplomat IV x 3 (will refit engine and resistance after I get them done)

Research

•    Daisy cutter, medium, large
•    Widow Maker – Small
•    Bunker Buster - small

I did get through the first stage of the level 24 campaign this morning, and that got me the rockets. This rocket is an impressive weapon at this level and could help you with this campaign if you wanted to take the time to put them on a fleet. We have the BB-A that is built now and could be refitted with the rocket quicker than building new. I will not go that route as I am not that impressed with rockets.

With the level 24 campaign there are a few ways to tackle it. You do not need to use ballistics and chew through the walls if you do not want to go that route. You could do it with missiles, mortars, and even rockets if that is where you went to begin with. You might have some issue after target 3 with the bombards and flak guns in the targets. But, if you went with the researched rockets and got you some bunker busters, even those will not be an issue as you can just take them out and then come in with your desired fleet.

This play through I am trying it as they recommend, and it is possible, I am running two fleets that are instant repair and not even trying to drive as they die pretty quickly.

I end day eight at level 26

A day in the Life of a New Battle Pirates Player June 13, 2016

I took Sunday off, mostly because I just like to have time to do others things J So, today I will get the last warehouses to level 8 (this will give me three). I have to get my resources filled so that will be the focus. Ranking on the predators is pacing well, when I get engine 2 researched I will be refitting them to be a bit faster and help me in the higher level salvages. I thought I had all five Battle barges done, and I am missing one. Today promises to be a light day on building and researching as everything is taking quite a bit longer to do than the time I will spend in the game.

Building Upgrades

•         Warehouse level 8 x 2

Ship builds

•          Battle Barge A ballistic fleet.

The purpose of the battle barge ballistic fleet is to get through the level 24 campaign, I really only need the D2-E that is in prize pack two. You could go for the Rampart if you wished, but honestly with any lucky we will have a means to get better ships and save us Resources and needless level gaining with a hull that is not going be very useful. There is a rumor that we will be getting access to a new defensive hull in July raid. So, the goal is to get to a point that we can grind C level targets for the points needed for that hull. It alone will help determine the success in defending your base. Worse case, they will offer it in August hull store raid and we can get it then after another month of prepping.

This raid I will not be participating much and concentrating on getting to my goal of getting a fleet for the Forsaken Missions that are changing on the 22^nd of June.

At the end of a week I am level 25 almost 26.

As always, if you have questions or want to see something ask I will do my best to accommodate.

A day in the Life of a New Battle Pirates Player June 11, 2016

Today I am finishing my weekly, it is the last week of the easier FM so taking advantage of that. I will of course be building something I want to try with the tech you can get from the first few campaigns and research. I am not sure how this will do, but we have to find a way to get 150K each week two times. The idea is going to be using Levi-A with diplomat mortars. So, to accomplish this I am going to finish the longshot campaign and receive that blueprint so I can start building them later today when I get back home. I only have an hour this morning, so the goal is auto the 22 that is near the base with my thud IV marauder/bb-A and then do the campaign.

There are a few problems with my Levi-A build and that is I am not sure it is fast enough with engine 1. I also do not think it will have enough resistance/armor with just the first level of researched resistance special and the D1-C I managed to get. So, I am going to try to get my advance lab up to get Engine II, and Ablative Armor II.  Thinking that my chance for success will be greater this way, as those mortars coming at you are pretty nasty.

You will notice that I have not added my fourth warehouse yet, that is because to go from seven to eight is shorter and gives more resources than going a fourth warehouse from one to seven. It will take me just over 14 hours to do the three to eight and I will gain just under 3 million in total resources. Meanwhile, to go from level on to level seven I would gain just over 1.066 million in resources for a bit longer in time building. This is something you will want to keep in mind as you are upgrading, while having all your warehouses is nice for Uranium and Base parts, in the beginning it might be best to have just the three and get them maxed out.

Upgraded Buildings

·         Out post to level 4 (finished while I slept)

·         Advance lab to 7 (will be done tomorrow, starting 7 when I log for day)

·         Warehouse level 8

Ship builds

·         BB-A ballistic

·         Refit other BB-A to match the better ship

This is the build I have planned for the Levi-A I am not 100% sure this will work, BB-A are a bit faster so that might be what I need, not sure. Regardless I want this Levi-A fleet so that I can hit bases when I am in the mood. :D  

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!103I01111110H050C0C0C0C0C03I01111110H050C0C0C0C0C03I01111110H050C0C0C0C0C03I01111110H050C0C0C0C0C03I01111110H050C0C0C0C0Cd6

The time in huggy’s is off by almost 5 hours, it is just a hair over 1 day 21 hours in my shipyard. This means that while this fleet is building I will be doing mostly salvages to gain blueprints and rank on my subs.  I will finish my BB-A ballistic fleet and I will do the level 24 campaign with my Marauder thud IV fleet.

Day 5, new home, same information and helpful build against Revenge fleets

Day 5

Today is going to be a very light day as far as researching and upgrading go. I am at max level for my labs for OP 3, so I will have to go to OP 4 tonight before I log off. It is a 10-hour upgrade, so might as well do it while I am sleeping or at work. In the meantime, I will make room in the dock for my new dreadnaught fleet when I get all the pieces, and the war academy so I can field it without losing one of my other fleet slots.

I was talking about the basic research that had to get done and that I would not be studying things now that I did not need. The blueprints I will be getting require access to particular research technology. So, I did Diplomat IV mortars as they unlock Peacemaker IV. I will do Ripper IV for other Blueprints I will be getting soon. I will open Cutlass IV for other missiles blueprints. The ones before these are not needed at all and can be ignored to keep your resource requirements to a minimum.

What you want to do is take a look at the technology you have won in hitting cargos as that will tell you what you need. Then, you go to the lab and look at that piece and see what it needs. You will find that you do not need all the lower level stuff in the same group and only need the basics that we already did the first few days, and upgrades to the particular lab.

I do understand that I have knowledge of this beforehand, playing the game already for four years. So, this knowledge I have is being shared to help you with moving forward in Battle Pirates.

Upgraded Buildings

·         Dock to 4

·         War Academy to 4

Ship builds

·         2x BB-A to give me 4 in the fleet.

As there is not much information for today, I figured I would share a build for those that might have the Artemis hull. This one Ship can help you with Revenge fleets that hit your base, and you do not need much to make it useful. You need to make sure that It cannot be stunned for eight seconds so that you will want Agility System or the Shielded Electronics. Granted Pinch rockets do not last long on ships nowadays, but if you can take that from 8 seconds to 4 seconds, well it is helpful. You will also want some high explosive resistance so that if they want to rocket you, it will take them a few rockets. So, with using researchable technology and just use Shielded electronics or agility system if you have them (if not, then go without and take a chance).

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!906S00Z0Z0Z0Z2I06361S01000000000000000ZZ0ZZ0ZZ0ZZdC

That ship will plant mines in the channel that will float to the attacking ships; it will wreak havoc on the Revenge fleets at this time and give you a damage source that they will have issues. To the point, they will need to run a thermal ship with their fleet to pick them off.

A day in the Life of a New Battle Pirates Player June 9, 2016

Today was spent mostly testing out the preds and learning to drive them again. After having use of tiger sharks, it is quite a different feel to when to turn and run and when to attack. Did manage to get a few fragments for the Dreads, so this will be the focus over the next week to get the hull and hopefully some superior technology from the cargo to put on it. The hull is 6 hours (roughly) alone, so probably looking at 12 hours per hull when I do get everything. I am rethinking the thud IV and thinking that if I can get some good mortars using them instead. I could have Diplo IV to put on them today if I wanted to start that research. The decision will come as I work on some possible builds.

The key is to get the Predator fleet done, which will happen later on today. They are about 4 hours for a refit on the two I do not have Havoc IV. Other than that it was a very light day as far as getting stuff done. Mostly because things are taking 4+ hours to complete. I will finish the FM this weekend I did the first run, and I am bored of it at this time.

I did manage to hit some 17 and 23 cargo for the last hour of play; I will check in later tonight to build the next upgrade and any research that I need.

Upgrades today

•    Weapons lab 7
•    Naval Lab to 7

Research

•    Auto loader 1
•    Ablative Panels 1 (base turret stand especially)
•    Diplomat IV mortars

Ship builds

•    Finished Predator fleet
•    Started to refit the first two with Havoc IV

A day in the Life of a New Battle Pirates Player June 8, 2016

Specs Day 3 battle pirates June 2016 Test

OK, so talking to some people on the forums (Xwolf1, and Seraph_Fate) they claimed that level 40 cargos can give the Dreadnaught pieces and that hull is a very nice one for the starter FM. You can get that and use it with Thud IV if nothing else until you get the Crossbow and even Arbalest from the weekly. I will try to get some videos to the daily posting when I get a chance to be on with one of those two, and they use their older fleets. In the meantime, I am going to push to Predators and the ability to farm level 40 cargos. This path forward will fit in with my advice on hitting your cargo as soon as you can and help us move forward in the game.  Also, when I get the Predator fleet done, I will get a video of it hitting a 40 cargo.

Remember to keep the Longshot campaign on the mastery level so you can fill to about three million (2.88 million total resources)  of resource quick if you need them.

Today’s progress

Finished the FM once through to tier 1, going this route we can see how long it takes to get a fleet capable of doing the level 37. I might try a BB-A with Diplomat mortars see how they do. Not sure how long it will take to build, my first ballistic was over 9 hours. We will see how long it takes to get the pieces to create the Dreadnaught.

Upgrades

•    weapons lab level 6
•    Naval lab level 5
•    warehouse x 3 Level 7
•    War Academy level 3

Research – Advance Lab, Naval Lab, Weapons Lab

•    Solid fuel booster
•    Predator Sub
•    steel 3
•    Havoc 3
•    Rapier 4
•    Started Havoc 4

Ships built

•    Finished one BB-A (started night before)
•    Finished Predator x 2
•    Started a second BB-A ballistic

Summary after three days

I had to play a bit longer due to trying to get the weekly done twice through tier 1 in less than two days. After three days I am on the path to doing level 51 cargos, and I will start doing level 40 with what I have right now. I have just under 3500 Uranium at this time, and I am taking a gamble with my free rolls hoping for something useful.

I have received the first three prizes in the weekly, and will get the Negotiator mortars either tonight or tomorrow. That should allow me to have a decent weapon to put on levi-A as soon as i hit 24. Right now I need the levi-a campaign to help me fill up when I need resources asap.

My level is 22, and it will be slowing down some as most basic research done.

Any questions feel free to comment below.

Ask Specs Anything June, 8 2016

Ask Specs Anything June, 8 2016

This week’s question comes from Agil:

If I have crusaders with arbs, should I use Autoloader 3?

Dear Agil,

Thanks for the question and it is a good one. I am sure many have a different opinion on this, and they are all valid.  The Arbalest does much better with autoloader three than without during the ranking process. Yes, you can build without it, but then you are stuck at a reload speed of 2.8 until you get some foundry work done. With Autoloader 3 you will be at 1.94 giving you more shots over the course of a battle that lasts a bit longer. At Legend rank, it is .70 without and .49 with autoloader 3. Meaning that in 2 seconds of fight you will get two without the autoloader and 4 with the special.

The DPS is just that much greater with Autoloader 3. Can you go without it? Of course, but you will get better performance from your crusader with it than without out. And this is a type of fleet that should do level 67 draconian strongholds for you if built right.

Here is an example of a build that could do multiple 67 stronghold holds. While you are building the fleet, you would do lower level ones until you get it ranked and all the technology I have listed. If you do not have the nuclear accelerator, then you can use harden barrel 3 and then make room by removing some armor. You can use any D5 armor in place of the D5-M I just used that as a place holder, and it is my favorite armor. Plus, the new draconian strongholds have some missile damage that you are not shooting down, so better penetrative protection the better.

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!9P6G51T1T1T002B6A5K3423231B1B4N4N4N4NP6G51T1T00000U6A5K34232323231A000000P6G51T1T00000U6A5K34232323231A000000P6G51T1T00000U6A5K34232323231A000000P6G51T1T00000U6A5K34232323231A000000dC

A day in the life of a New Battle Pirates Player June 7, 2016

OK, so came to a realization that with the weekly changing on June 22, 2016, and the fact that I do not see anything less than level 37 draconian strongholds. That I wanted to test them with what I had now. This test was done so I could see if it was possible for a new player to use marauders to get to T1 in the FM from the start. Yeah, it was not pretty, and I did not even get a chance to fire on the targets with my Rapier missiles. So, the new plan going to get T1 this week (twice) as it can be done and then start on foundry. This also means I had to play a bit longer hitting the 18 strongholds to get the 150K today, then tonight before bed I will do another 150K letting me have the required technology to start on T1 foundry hulls.

Today I finished the tutorial and earned 27 coins, which I then used to coin 4 Marauders with Thud IV to do the weekly.  I also upgraded the advance lab to 5, while the Marauders is a waste of that coin, the advance lab is not. If you are to use these coins, do not do what I did for expediency sake, and use them to upgrade buildings and turret stands that you will have for the entire time you are playing.

These were coins I earned through Kixeye, so do not consider it a violation of the rules I set forth as you will also collect these coins.

I also upgrade Warehouses to level 6, I upgraded the dock to level 3, Advance lab to level 4, Naval and Weapon are still at four at this time. I also started BB-A with D30-N they have six less range but double the damage so I think I can make that work on the next Campaign at level 24. They are re-fittable, so if I am not happy with them, I can swap back to the Thud IV in a day or two. They take 9 hours and some change to build so that I can do two a day.

To do the level 37 strongholds I have to be able to hit the level 51 cargo, so that is next on the list to advance towards, I will be researching my torps and getting to Predators, along with getting my Engine research done. Would like to have engine 2 and Havoc IV for the level 51 cargos.

Remember the goal is to keep yourself below 50 as long as you can. So, I am only going to research what I need, and not what I want. Some things are required that you should not neglect.

Today’s progress

Upgrades

•    3x Warehouse level 6

•    Advance lab level 5

•    3x of each resource generator to 3 (This was to satisfy a tutorial requirement)

Research – Advance Lab, Naval Lab, Weapons Lab

•    Laser 1

•    Reactive Armor

•    Ablative armor

•    Guidance Scrambler

•    Engine 1

•    Started Harden Barrels 1 for ballistic fleet

•    Iron IV

•    Havoc 1

•    Havoc 2

Ships build

•    4x Thud IV Marauder with engine 1 and Iron 3

•    2x Rapier 1 with thruster 1 and Iron 3 (for tutorial)

•    Started BB-A Thud IV

Tomorrow try to push to Predators, the goal is to get them build as soon as I can after I finish the BB-A Ballistic fleet. I am also making a choice to not get Levi-A yet as the campaign is worth 500% so far with my Rapier missile Marauder on target 1 and 2, meaning that if I need resources fast I can do that to fill up quick and keep going. I plan to start on Cargos when I get my Preds built later this week/next week

My Level at this end of the day is 18

Any questions feel free to comment below.

A day in the life of a new Battle Pirates Player June 6, 2016

With the changes to the game and the fact that the old strongholds are making way for new garrison type ones. I wanted to see how it was starting new again; I just did a base at the beginning of the year, and I have yet to start on Kongregate, so this was a good chance to do this and record my progress. I will follow these four rules

1)    No officers – which is good because I do not think I can have them through Kongregate.
2)    No coins – We need to see how hard it is to progress through the weekly without the aid of coins.
3)    No help during raids – A new person will not have the contacts I do to help them in the raid. More than likely, This also means that it might be a couple of raids before I can do anything. We shall see if the complainers about how hard the game are right.
4)    My alliance and friends will not know who I am, and I will not ask for their help
I will, of course, use the Kongregate chat to talk to others while playing the game and relay anything they tell me.

I am starting this on June 6, 2016, and will play only 2 hours a day. This dedication of time will simulate the time that a new person might dedicate to the game and not allow me to expand beyond a point that a typical person might not reach.

I will follow the tutorial all the way through for the start. At the end of the two hours I will detail what I upgraded, started building ship wise, research, and if warranted will provide videos at the right time with my ship builds.

End of the first day I was able to get Naval Lab and Weapon Lab to four. I got the Advance lab to three, and Outpost is going to three.
What each Lab did research-wise –

Naval –
•    Iron 1 – 3
•    Up to Marauder for hulls

Weapon –
•    Thud 1 thru 4
•    Rapier 1 thru 3

Advanced Lab –
•    Thruster 1

I claimed all the prizes from the Down the Barrel Campaign, and I claimed the first prize from Long shot campaign. I did start building Marauder for the tutorial, which I will log back in to create the second one in an hour and 11 minutes. So, that I can finish long shot tomorrow. I do not plan to do any weekly this week, as it is Sunday and I am not sure I can have something ready by Tuesday night. I will probably hit 14 once the ship finishes and my Outpost finishes the upgrade. I have earned 13 coins from doing the tutorial. I played for 2 hours 21 minutes today.

Any questions feel free to comment below.

Specs Rifleman Build part 2, levels 21 thru 50

Specs Rifleman Build part 2, levels 21 thru 50

These ten levels will see our character gain a bit of flexibility in maintaining settlements. The idea is to create one settlement with lots of industrial water purifiers, an eight population so that six can man the stores and have the two supply lines connected to one of your farms and another connected to your main settlement. You will want at least seven industrial purifiers, and you should be able to make roughly 2000 caps every 30 minutes you play.  Scrapper 1 and two will just help you with gaining scrap from your guns and armor. Having this perk will mean that you will not need to pick up as much stuff and help get your through more than one building or two before you head back to dump. Also in your other settlements, you will want four scavenger stations, three people farming and one of the individuals with a supply line to your main settlement.

Level	Perk purchase
21	Cap collector 1
22	Local leader 2
23	Scrapper
24	Scrapper 2
25	Night vision 2
26	Concentrated fire 2
27	Sniper3
28	Penetrator 2
29	Gun nut 3
30	Scrounger 3

Level	Perk purchase
31	Rifleman 4
32	medic
33	Medic 2
34	Demo expert
35	Demo expert 2
36	Agility +1
37	Agility +1
38	Agility +1
39	Gun nut 4
40	Mister sandman

These ten levels round out your character a bit more for end game play. With two levels of Demo Expert, your grenades will gain an arc that will help you place them better, and they get a better damage boost.  Rifleman 4 is just to increase damage, and Medic one and two will help you with making your stim packs and rad away cure more damage. Eventually, we will have 10 Agility to help with Action Points, and Gun nut 4 is there to get a silencer on your Last Minute, as well as the best receivers, grips, magazines in the game. We will finish off the ten levels by getting into our sneak damage boosters.

Level	Perk purchase
41	Mister sandman 2
42	Ninja 1
43	Ninja 2
44	Ninja 3
45	Mister sandman 3
46	Rifleman 5
47	Agility +1
48	Agility +1
49	Agility +1
50	Concentrated fire 3

The start of this group of 10 and to prepare you for the end game sees us maxing out our Sneak damage over the five levels. If you wish you could take all the armorers during this time (instead of Agility) to get access to ballistic weave V from the Railroad quests. It could help boost your armor to 220 points of each and allow you to get around wearing no armor if you wanted. I typically still wear armor and have the ballistic weave clothing and hat. So, that while out of the power armor I am over 300 damage protection making me pretty hardy.

The thing to remember is that there is no level limit in the game. You can theoretically do enough quests and building to get your character to have all the perks and a 10 in every attribute if you so wish. I have a character that is almost level 72 now, and it is still just as fun to play as it was at 50. I am through the game of course, but I still have lots of things to explore and side quests I missed.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to ask in the comment section.