Rank like a pro without coins

The Vanquisher leaves players frustrated with ranking!

Every day people are complaining about ranking fleets on the forums, these complaints center around the time it takes to rank fleets. This ranking issue is going to be painful with the new Vanquisher hull. Due to the health of the ship, there is barely any targets during regular play that give enough VXP to matter one bit. Salvages might give you 2 VXP for the level 75 elites and 100 elites. That has not been tested, but a 71 cargo provides a whopping 1 VXP to the vanquisher. So, many have asked through private messages in game and on Facebook on how I am going to rank and what they can do to ease this frustration.

It might not be the answer people want to hear but as a non-coiner, there are not many options open to us unless we want to spend mind-numbing hours hitting salvages. This option is called build a blank and wait for the VXP weekend and then go with an alarm to get as many hits in as possible. You can use the zombie method (healing the fleet 250 to 500 health total) and smack the target for a couple hundred to 2K at a time. My way, however, is not as time intensive, and I hate spending useless hours at the computer zombifying fleets.

Build Blanks!

First, you need the blank, and most people will say go with Thud 1 and the streamlined hull 3 (grants 25 map speed). These specials are a wise choice to go with, adds about 6 hours to the base hull time, and cost you about 90 min to remove them when you refit. This hull streamline is great with hulls that have very low map speed; If your hull has decent map speed, you can go with just a thud 1, and it is 2 min to add, and three seconds to remove. For me following this advice I will have a Harlock Citadel, 2x Vanquisher, 2x Vendetta ready go for refit. This list also includes the Apollos that I finished throughout the last month that still have a few ranks to go.

Come Friday evening when I get on I launch my fleet to die in the VXP target with a salty dog (use x3 if you have it). You will want a total of 3 to 4 salty dogs for the day of ranking.  These target spawn for 36 hours and you will need to sleep and such so four times max to hit with a salty dog. I will say that if I am using an x3 salty dog, I will load up 50 coins for that 50 min to get the most out of it. If I do not toss in $5 for coins, I can usually get to 70% rank by the end. While legend rank is pretty and final, that last 5% is not so important. I will finish the rank on these ships the following month as I hate hitting cargos.

Zombie!

I mentioned zombie, as I stated it is right around 250 total armor for the fleet. The more health you have, the more VXP, you seem to earn. At least, if this is the same as the previous month, that means that this can be an effective way to rank if you have time to sit and wish to rank while awake for hours. Doing this method last month earned about the same vxp as hitting 25 cargos. So, if this is still viable this weekend, it could be useful if you have the time to spend and do not mind going back and forth to put 30 seconds or so on each ship.

So recap – 

Build a blank with thud one minimum, add streamline hull 3 to add 25 map speed if you hit enough level 40+ cargo (Think that is where it was).

Get 3 to 4 salty dogs to use throughout the 36 hours

Zombie your fleets while you can, it can help you if you have lots of time and absolutely no money. This method is being discussed at being taken away. Use it while you can!

If you want to drop $5 to speed up the process, it is not so bad with no armor, and I would not do it for more than one salty dog run.

The key is to try to rank without costing you a house payment; there is no reason to coin full fleets and then coin the rank for the VXP weekend. If you do not have the money do not worry, instead of four to five ships done you will have two to three.

Civil War: Allegiance 36 hours’ in

August raid prep should start today!

This raid has been pretty fun I think for most. I do understand that many are unable to do it because of a lack of technology. Or, at least that is the thought process, and the first excuse is not having the technology. Unfortunately, we are in this place within the game that you have to build specific ships and configurations to have success. Those that follow this path are having a very comfortable and enjoyable raid. Those that choose to ignore this route have problems and frustration.

As a player, you do not want to hear this, but the game has moved on from being able to be done with a single fleet and into the era of having to have a fleet for different targets. Kixeye told us this was coming almost two years ago; it just took them that long to get it there.

Now this is not to be a rub your face into the fact the raid is not difficult, and you should have built x. I have seen many struggling with the raid, and I am helping those that are closest to me that did not get the fleet build right, or maybe the player is too new to the game and only got one Apollo finished due to whatever. I just want to point out that we cannot ignore the direction they have taken the game. We are not going to change that direction as it looks like a majority has decided to go with the flow and build the way that Kixeye wanted. This direction the game has gone means that the only choice available to us that wish to keep playing is to build fleets that can do the game for a decent to no cost.

August Raid is a Hull Raid 

We have a hull raid in about 30 days and with that comes the chance to get hulls we missed the previous four months. What a player needs today either Rhino or Apollo. If you have rhinos, and you are not sure on the Vanquisher, get to 15 million and take the Apollo. Even a single Apollo to tank for the rhinos can do the A sets and get you some nice points next month. Instead of giving you an exact build that is working let me tell you what you should be looking at in your fleet.

First the targets deal out Corrosive and Missile damage. The rhinos in the targets seem to miss no matter the evade percentage. So, you want to raise the damage resistance to those two types as much as you can. For the Heavy Cruisers, you want combat speed, as they are short range (about 80) you can kite them with speedy fleets. For the rhinos, you want countermeasures as the missiles can be shot down. For the stands, you will boost your Corrosive resistance with siege battery and frontline countermeasure. Couple either of those with an assault ship that has some natural corrosive resistance and you can get up to 75% resistance.

With that in mind, you will want (in order of best to worst) Apollo, Rhino, Kodiak, V2-H and Missile Cruiser X. These hulls give the most resistance to corrosive and are all missile based which do the best in the targets.

That thought brings up your damage types; missiles work best. They are quick to the target and with retargeting true you can kill or damage other stands and ships close to each other. You could lead a fleet of mortar ships with remote targeting as well, but that is hard to control well due to the difference in combat speed. You will have to remove fleet in the targets and then go back in with the mortars to keep your damage taken on the cheap side.

Summarize your thoughts specs!

So, let us wrap it up Hulls you want are found in the assault tab of the foundry. If you do not have it yet, grab the Rhino at a minimum and if you can get 15 million make sure to take the Apollo. You can get 1 to 2 built and up to 4 Rhino done by next raid if you start today. Keep the builds to no more than 14 days max to make sure you are ready to go.

You want some resistance to corrosive and missile. Corrosive can only be achieved with natural Resistance and siege battery or frontline countermeasure. You will want phalanx to shoot down the missiles as evade pretty useless in these targets. You will want good combat speed and high maneuverability (Turn speed), retarget true is a life savior, and then after that, if you have extra special slots use anything to boost your damage type.

You will want to use missiles mostly, although if you can prep the fleets, it can open you to running a tank and then Mortars to clear the stands and mega ships (if you hit that high up). The targets seem to have a high resistance to ballistics and launchers.

If you follow this advice, you will have some success in the raid in August, and you can get enough points with chair time to not spend money.

If I get time today to capture some videos I will of others doing the raid with various technology. I am using 3 apollo of varying degrees of rank and having great success.