A day in the life of a New Player August 16, 2016

Schism Wrapping It Up

By Jon Irwin

Specialist AKA Specs

With raid wrapping up and I am sure many are wondering what to take for their prizes. The answer is not so simple and will depend on the person in question. However, the following advice can be generic to all individuals that play the game, and I am going to break it up into point plateaus. This article will help players that are new still, do not have a sub fleet already, and need to prepare or September Raid.

1 million points or less

• Spectre – I like it better than Barracuda, as it has good combat speed (16 combat speed), good explosive and concussive resistance (needed for the September raid) and three special slots. You can get stealth attack system 2 in the weekly easy enough, so I would not worry about that.

5 million points

• Spectre –
• Stealth Attack System 4 – This is a great special to use on the Spectre sub. It combines a bonus to concussive damage with 40% submerge time. You can retro it, and it is close to having Battery 3 on the sub with around Six-second difference in dive time.  At 3.5 million points easily one of the best prizes to take if you had limited points.

10 million points –

• Spectre 
• Stealth Attack System 4 –
• Charon -  The second best torpedo in the game, and while this will not always deal with those pesky drones in the Reaver targets. It will give your sub fleet an excellent punch and much better than any other torpedo you can get at this moment.

16 million Points –

• Spectre –
• Stealth Attack System 4 –
• Charon -
• Magnus 2 -  As you only have three slots on your Spectre this engine will allow you to use the Ablative Armor 3 special to boost that explosive damage resistance. If you do not get here, you will need to use Cat 3 and your best speed system to make the fleet work. 

I know what you are saying at this point, But what about Tiger Shark! I agree the Tiger shark is a great hull, but if you happen to be limited to point total it is in my opinion, better to go with trying to flesh out the best sub you are capable of getting everything. The Tiger is not that great of a sub if you cannot get the Charon minimum, Stealth attack 4 and the Magnus 2. So, the next plateau we are jumping a bit.

25 million points –

At this point, if you got this many points then you will want to consider the following to make your September event a success.

• Tiger Shark – Same dive time as the Spectre, four specials, great combat speed, turn speed, better resistance. Just an overall better sub. Built right I think it will help you achieve some great success.
• Stealth Attack system 4
• Charon 
• Magnus 2

Couple those with the Ablative Armor 3 and you have a great sub that has a chance to succeed in the new raid.

49 million –

I know this is a big jump and if you got in between here and 25 million you could think of the Apoc Mortar for your base defense. Or even get all the tokens you can so you can speed up a few blanks for vxp weekend. But, if you reach this point total you will want to consider the new toys.

• HellWraith
• Fire Twister Torpedo
• Sealed Fire Charge

Once you get beyond this point total you will want to go for tokens first, get all you can. This will set you up for the next raid even much easier and have you with a couple blanks to rank next weekend. A blank for the subs would be the hull and havoc 1. This is the lowest build time weapon you can put on a sub (Thud 1 for Tigers or Cuda).

I hope this helps you make up your mind, and please begin to prepare for the next Event. We only have about a month to go, and it will come fast.

A day on the Life of a Battle Pirates Player, August 5, 2016

As promised, I am going to share my mauler build that is getting me to Tier 2 in the Forsaken mission at the moment. It has no armor yet, and barely any rank. Once I have completed those two things, I will try this build in a 60 as I work on getting things together for a strike cruiser build.

The account is level 37, and it took me five weeks of playing a couple of hours a day to get to this point. This time spent means that if you applied yourself a bit more than I did, you could get to this point in about a week of gameplay.

To rehash the targets

The Forsaken Missions require explosive, and missile resistance and they are weak against explosive damage and splash are very helpful. While I have recommended and even built Punisher in other posts, I am advising all new players I coach to go the mortar route to speed up the process of getting through the mission. It takes far less tech to get a decent mortar fleet together, than a decent ballistic or even launcher. Being low level hinders us from those other means at this time, so we will go with what we have.

My Mauler Builds no armor

My Mauler builds with armor

My Mauler builds with refit time if you go no armor

As you can see it is not too bad of a build, and once you are done with ranking and shipyard time, only an extra two days to get it refitted with armor. With any luck this fleet will do the 60s I can make a push to Tier 3.

Video of the build in action with my entry points

Please note that I enter from around 1 o'clock and then exit to reenter from around 9 o'clock. This decision I made, is to make use of the shortest distance to the targets I want, and cut down on the time the missiles are hitting me.

I do hope you find this useful and please share it with any low level player.

Ask specs anything August 3, 2016

Two Questions this week; collective thoughts shared by many due to the recent announcements

This week we have two questions, and that means this will be longer than normal. I normally do not do this but, as there seems to be a lot of changes coming people are anxious, and I am getting more questions than normal about the same two subjects.

First one is from Greybeard

FM is changing, will the punishers still work?

Hey Greybeard,

No one can say for certain what the changes will mean. We only have brief insight and that is that the 102 will be easier, and the 109 will be harder. What this means for the Punisher build and more importantly my single Punisher build that could take the 107 I am not sure yet. I will work on solving the 109 for the cheapest and quickest possible build once I see the targets. 

What we can be sure of, and if you have shipyard time right now, is that mortars will still work. This change in the FM means that garrison type hulls will be good no matter what, and fitting mortars will be the best damage dealer. Keep with the same concept as the CM/Tank I gave out that could do the whole 107 and I think with some Citadels, Berserkers, Nova and even DNX behind it will help you until we can see what we have. I will attempt to use just Citadels when the change happens in the 109; I will have a minor refit that can be taken care of with tokens from this week and the raid. So, I will be ready to go when the change happens. At that time, I will share my build and video of my success or failure.

For now, if you have something mortar particular around. I choose the Citadel (being the best option for 109 I think), but you will want to refit your best mortar (Judgment or Firestorm coaxial being the best). Use the best engine, 4 to 5 of the Judgment or Seige mortars rest hail B/Gale 2. Then use either siege bat and CM loader 3, or Frontline CM and Siege Targeting, with something that increases splash. That build should help you mitigate most of the change and put you in line for a minor tweak (once we see the targets) on your best mortar hull you have.

The Next question comes from Wardog

I want to do the September raid, what should I look for this hull raid?

Hey Wardog,

We have a hull store coming up, so good idea to think ahead on what to grab to help you in the future. A new sub is available in August raid along with new torpedo and special. So, if you can, I would aim for those three prizes. You could try Proto Hunters if they have them in the prize store, they have great concussive resistance and plenty of weapon slots and hybrid slots to help you build a fleet to take on the Reavers. From what we have seen from the preview videos and the targets we have hit on the live server. You are going to want explosive resistance, concussive resistance and combat speed. You will also want to deal concussive damage. With that in mind, that should help you at least plan for what you need to have based on your technology level in the game. 

For subs, you will want dive time, speed, and explosive resistance. So that is battery 3 (or similar to increase dive time), Magnus 2 (fastest engine we have with enough cloak to keep you undetected) and Ablative 3. From my experience, those three are a must. 

Surface fleets I have not tested a lot of, but you will want concussive based weapons, combat speed, high evade, explosive resistance, and concussive resistance. You need a bit more with them due to not being able to hide and not take damage at times.

When I get a better idea of the targets and see what we have, I will provide a more substantial build and advice to dealing with them.

Thank you all for the questions and feel free to hit the inbox with more if you need to

Have a great week!

Ask Specs Anything July 27, 2016

This week’s question comes from Letti and it is about the Apollo

Hey Specs,

I finished my Tank Counter Measure build and I am ready to start another Apollo to go with it can you tell me what you are using from the last raid?

Hello Lettie,

Congrats! Getting that one done will make a big difference with the coming raid and Hull store. Now, you can use it with your rhinos if you have to get through A sets. We have roughly two weeks before the raid, it will start August 11th, 2016 I think. Should be that day or August 18th at the latest I am sure we will get that confirmation soon. We will go with August 11th though as that is the closer date.

Your Apollos will want the same specials as your CM tank. The reason for this is that you will have a couple of phalanx on the DPS hulls to help back up the main tank. You will want the same range and same accuracy as your primary countermeasure hull. Next, you will want the same armor value, mostly to keep repair times down and easy to manage. Lastly, you will have eight blades for your damage dealing.

Here is your link to the build

Just so you can see the real build time once you get into game

You will want to get it hopefully out a few days earlier with tokens if you get them in the weekly and rank it as much as you can before the raid. The two of them should help you do the A set, and you might be able to do the elite targets if you can get rank high enough on the two ships.

Good luck and if you have any questions feel free to send them to me!

Sub Changes and New TLC; plus,

 what should you start doing to be ready for September raid change

This week we had the changes to subs, most notable is the fact that they have to be 100% repaired to launch, and the repair modifier changed to 100%. There is also the change for launcher based sub preps with a 25% reduction in range. This change means that a Launcher subrange will be 70 now, making it detectable by every thermal in the game, except for Rhinos. Also explosive damage will have a handicap of -99%. This is good news for those that do not have the Capital ships Proto Nemesis and Hellstar with their 100 range thermal and gives more options to combat against sub launcher preps. As well as those that cannot keep the mortar subs from getting to the OP and taking it out with a rim to get to 50%.

With the changes comes the foundry and our favorite subs are getting boost. These are without going through the foundry.

Barracuda:

• Accuracy +20%
• Explosive Defense increased to 40%
• Concussive Defense increased to 50%
• Cloak Time increased to 40sec
• Repair Modifier Removed - All subs now have a standard repair modifier of 100%
• Base Armor increased to 3,930

Spectre:

• Added a third special slot
• Explosive Defense increased to 40%
• Concussive Defense increased to 55%
• Combat speed increased to 16
• Repair Modifier Removed - All subs now have a standard repair modifier of 100%
• Base Armor increased to 7,908

Nighthawk:

• Accuracy increased to 20%
• Concussive Damage increased to 19%
• Explosive Defense increased to 30%
• Concussive Defense increased to 60%
• Cloak Time increased to 65 Sec
• Repair Modifier Removed - All subs now have a standard repair modifier of 100%
• Base Armor increased to 10,001

Tiger Shark:

• Accuracy increased to 20%
• Explosive Defense increased to 40%
• Concussive Defense increased to 65%
• Cloak Time increased to 70 Sec
• Repair Modifier Removed - All subs now have a standard repair modifier of 100%
• Base Armor increased to 10,750
• Max Weight increased to 7,650

As we can see here, the subs are getting many benefits that will aid them in the new raid format coming in September and help them with the new skirmish targets we are going to be seeing on the map. The foundry upgrades center on adding more DPS, explosive resistance, and Concussive resistance. As well, as minor tweaks to turn speeds and accuracy. Now you still might not be happy that they are taking away the zombie launches, and I cannot blame you. Many have learned to play that way, the goal going forward is to get to build different fleets to do the same thing. Also, with these changes hopefully we can get more play out of our subs. I am hopeful.

 The update brought a New TLC and new Conquer Hull.

Retribution

Thermonuclear Launcher

Atomic Targeting

This TLC will allow the player to hit other player bases to gain these prizes. I am sure it will be much like previous TLC with Three prize packs, 12 hours, 6 hours and 1 hour. Not sure how many targets per, but figure at least three to five and upwards of seven if they follow typical TLC pattern. It starts today at Noon game time.

September Raid changes

With the raid still a good 6 weeks away we can start to think ahead and get things ready. Especially with the changes to subs now, the foundry to give us access to better subs. So, lets discuss a few builds.

Cuda Build research technology only

Cuda build with some tier 3 FM technology

Cuda Build with high end FM technology and old raid torps.

For the Specrte builds you will use the same specials as I did for the Cuda, pretty much those are the three you want at all stages of your tech level.

Spectre build research technology only

Sprectre build with some FM technology

Spectre build with high end FM technology and old raid/FMtorps

Nighthawk build with research tech only

Nighthawk build with some FM technology

Nighthawk build with high end FM technology and Old Raid/FMtorps

Tiger Shark with research tech and salvages only

Tiger shark with some FM Technology

Tiger Shark with High End and FM technology and old raid/FMtorps

Hopefully, these builds will help guide you on a path to get ready for the September raid with technology you. I will state that I do not see specters and Cuda doing the high-end targets; however, Nighthawks and Tigers should do the A set and even elites. As always I will modify the advice as I see the targets and get to play with them. Hopefully, these initial builds will do the job, and no refitting will be needed. 

Remember to always use your best torpedo, your best engine, your best ablative armor 3 and then add in dive time and cloaking if you can.

Rumor on many Facebook pages is that we are getting a new sub in September Raid. No, I have not heard one way or another and have no knowledge of future prizes. If the new sub class is coming, you will want to try to get something ready for September raid so that you can claim it and new technology that will make the new raid series easy.

A Different perspective from Bort on how to start the game

One more way to approach the game from a new player starting point

I thought this might be helpful for those that might want a different perspective than I have on starting out. Bort on the forums has given me permission to add his thoughts on this process to the blog, and I will summarize it every Friday. I hope that it provides some insight into a different way to go and help the new player make a choice on how to play the game.

The first thing you need to know is that Bort is making a straight move to the Sea Wolves and not going the campaign route.

From his forum posting, you can find his full write up here

Things that are easier

• Buildings are even quicker
• Many hulls / weapons / specials are even faster
• Researched weapons are stronger
• equipping turrets are independent of the building
• the potential for getting decent hulls early through the foundry
• regular vxp weekends (although my first will be the next one)

Things that are harder

• The FM is much tougher, even to get a foot in the door
• Raids are likely to be tougher to start

Mistakes made and shared experience

Which matches with my experience so far, He also made some critical mistakes that I mentioned earlier with not paying attention to what was needed to meet requirements for certain things. So, he got the shockwave morts but did not upgrade the intelligence lab to level four. Not upgrading the Launchpad so he could not use his rockets he researched right way. And the last early mistake was ignoring the fundamental researches so he could not use the mortars even after getting the intelligence lab upgraded.

We both share in not rolling for our free crews daily

Remember you want to do the basic research stuff in the lab this is.

Naval Lab minimum researches

• Iron 1 thru 4
• Steel 1 thru 4
• Titanium 3 and 4
• Depleted Uranium Armor 4

Weapon Labs minimum researches

• Thud I thru IV
• Rapier 1 thru IV
• Cutlass 4 (3 if you want to use it while looking for other missiles in salvages)
• Ripper IV
• Diplomat IV
• Peacemaker IV
• Hydra rockets IV
• Malestorm Rockets IV

Advance lab best researches for early to mid-game

• Guidance Scrambler
• Solid Fuel Booster
• Ablative armor
• Reactive armor
• Harden barrels
• Autoloader

If you follow, that guide for researching. Keep upgrading your buildings to the max level for the outpost.  Your intelligence lab to around 6. It will help you meet the necessary requirements for most things that you will find you need to succeed in the game.

Any questions feel free to comment below, have a great weekend!

Specs view on the September raid preview

Were you one of the lucky 300?

I was not one of the lucky ones that got into the raid preview, but I have watched quite a few videos that others have done and provided for our viewing pleasure. It has left me with a few thoughts.

None of the ones I watched did anything low level, so I am not sure how cuda and spectres will do. However, Nighthawks and Tigers did quite well from what I have seen with good driving. Of course, the lucky ones with a Ghost Crawler will have some fun in the raid series. One guy that I watched a twitch stream of was using Revenge, granted his way was the most expensive I had the pleasure to watch. So, what did the targets seem to have for strengths and weakness?

Weakness

Concussive damage, the corrosive and explosive damage is the way to go. The reavers have the typical weakness to concussive damage at they had the first time we faced them. The one guy I watched used vendettas with vanquishers out front. Did not do bad with the setup and in the Elite target, he took about 5 hours of damage. I would not recommend using mortars due to the speed of the targets. But, the Gatling gun did alright, and of course torps. The best torpedo you could use for the September raid the Charon. Granted it was in the last raid locked behind the 30 million points. If you do not have that torpedo, then B torpedos will be perfect for the range and damage. Also, siege torps should do just fine if that is all you have. You will have less room for mistakes with the shorter range weapons, though. I mentioned corrosive, and the Cobra scattergun was very useful in what I saw. It would dispose of the little drones quickly, and you could get close enough to the bigger ships to hit them with that weapon as well. Of course, the shorter range did not help much to navigate away from the pulsating sub cavitation fields that popped up.  That covers their weakness; you will want to refit your fleets with those three damage types and in that order. Surface fleets will take more damage, but they are doable if you have the right technology.

Strengths

The strengths in the target are concussive and explosive damage. From what I could tell the explosive was the death weapon that has a good range hitting you even while submerged. So, if you are using subs I would see if you could fit the Ablative armor three on them, not sure what slot to give up yet for that special. I would also consider using the new armors we are getting in the weekly. Yes, you might not like them because they did not fit what you wanted. But, the explosive resistance they impart to the subs will be useful in dealing with that death explosion that seemed to hit about 110 range from the target. For surface ships, again I would only use them if you did not have a sub fleet, you will want a mix of good explosive defense and use the concussive armors we got from the FM last month.

Some videos of various players doing the testing.

I hope this helps you with your planning stages, and we hopefully will get the skirmish foundry setup soon. This foundry update will allow us to get an idea of what the game developers feel is needed for the targets to be successful

Have a great day and leave a comment if you have questions!

Ask Specs Anything July 20,2016

How do I build my Vanquisher?

This week’s question I am sure you can imagine goes to the Vanquisher and what should you put on it. My answer to my friend Sirens Sweet Song.

Her question was:

OK got this hull now what?

My answer was as follows;

Hey SSS,

Congrats! I will tell you that you want to avoid anything that adds armor weight to the hull as it starts with a high base. As well it has a 100% defense handicap which does not allow for any armor that might add resistance. So, this leaves us with three choices for armor, evade, bulkhead, and cadmium. You know I am not a fan of the bulkhead so that means I would consider cadmium and evade. Now, Cadmium has some nice armor, but the speed bonus will not help this hull as it does not move. We also know that people will try to use suicide Tigers for the next month or two to take it out. So, this leaves the choice to Evade armor.

Weapons

For the weapon slot, we should look at the hull and see what it gets for bonuses. It has a big bonus to countermeasures. With increase accuracy and range, as well it has a generic boost to accuracy on the hull. It also has a nice boost to launchers, 100% reload and 10% range boost. I hope you took the new launcher as well for this build will require it. You will want some counter measures in the defense fleet so that you can reduce the effectiveness of Vendetta. If you did not get the new launcher, D98 is next best choice.

Specials

Specials, this hull, sports five special slots. We cannot move so we do not need an engine. You will want an evade special; I would go with Agility system so that you can get some pinch resistance. If you were lucky and got the emission generator, you will want to use that. If you were one of the unlucky ones that got hit with the prize redemption bug and got the special for the Apollo, you could use the barrel system 3. You will want to use countermeasure loader for the boost to reload, and of course, increase to our anti-mortar weapons. If you have cryo battery, you can use that to help lower the attacker’s resistance, and you can stack more evade bonus to help increase evade.

Summary

With all that said I would give you two possible builds (5 variants of those two) and depend on how you wish to go in your base, either can help you out. Before I give the builds, I hope you read the article on how to rank your fleets and you will have at least one or two to rank this weekend.

Five different options depending on your technology level

You might be tempted to do five of these for base defense, I would caution against that and maybe go with two so that you can diversify your defense fleet against other possible attackers. Below is the one I think I will go with at this time, and I will go with a second that is mostly gale 3.

I hope this helps and you love the hull.

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.

Day in the Life of a New Battle Pirates Player July 13, 2016

Raid Week!

The raid is this week, I had someone offer to help me get 3 million points this raid, and I turned it down. If you have been following the blog and are working as hard as I am, you might get an offer as well. You might be able to if they prep for you decently and you should take it. Why? Well, you could get some good stuff to give you a leg up on your competition.

What should you take as a low-level player if this is the case? That is quite easy as far as I am concerned.

First I would take the Rhino, with this hull you can put any missile on it and have a good tank to lead it through the weekly and help your game a bunch. Or, you can just use it and go to town. Second I would take the Trident missile. Why? Well, chances are you do not have any real siege missiles yet, and this missile is quick to build. Works as a part time anti-missile and has high damage. Then I would take the D4-M because it will help against the Missiles in the weekly. You will have enough anti-morts to clear the mortars, and you can use the Ablative armor special to increase the resistance to explosive and protect against the frostbite turrets.

Some might want you to take the Enforcer, D104, and the Fusion charger. All those are good choices too, and I am tempted if I was in my mid-50s and needed some help in base defense and already had the rhino. The rhino will change your game and put you on solid foot going forward. You can use it in many situations, including base defense.

If you are not doing the raid

You might decide the raid is not for you and this is OK! You can do the campaigns and get some decent gear to help you advance your game. You can also upgrade warehouses, labs, and get ready to upgrade stands to level 4 or 5 after you do the needed research.

For me going forward the next week

Right now I am upgrading warehouses to make room so I can do the Dread build, I will be upgrading turrets to level 4 at least and hopefully level 5. These goals mean that I am working on the labs to level 10 and getting needed research done. Remember to pick and choose and only take what you need to open stuff up or that can help you right now.

As always leave a comment if you have a question and I will answer as soon as I can. Have a great raid all and I will see you next week!

Ask Specs Anything July 13, 2016

What should I take in the raid Vanquisher or Apollo?

Today the questions are centered on the raid, been getting asked the last few days repeatedly about the raid and those issues heated up yesterday and this morning when the prize list was released.

This choice is a tough one and one that should not take lightly. If you have not had the chance to get the Apollo yet, I can see how you might want it for at least the August raid as that will be the last in this series. But, you might want the newest defense hull as your base is suffering. The Vanquisher has some fascinating potential and should replace the Enforcer in the majority of base settings.

I feel the Apollo is more of a needed hull in the game. I think that if your focus on the game is doing the PvE stuff, then you have to take this hull. Sure, it might only be useful for the assault map targets after August, but those map targets will allow you to get easily and upgrade the Rhino. I do feel that the Apollo is a must have in the game today, it is crucial for getting pieces for the Gantry and Mega Hulls that will be released later on. So, with that, I am led to believe that they might have the hull in August hull raid. There is a precedence for this by the way, and they have done that with other much-needed hulls in the past. Of course, they have refused to put in these hulls in the first hull store too. We cannot be 100% sure what they will do this far out.

With all that said, I would take the Vanquisher this raid and take my chances with the Apollo offered in the August raid. It might come back to bite me, but I think that it the safest choice this time around as I like to develop my base defense the best I can. With five specials, same range as Enforcer with Launchers, very nice accuracy base boost, anti- weapon accuracy boosts, and 500K base armor at 2-hour repair (1 hour in the defense slot) and all at under four days for a bare hull. You could have one ready by VXP weekend and run it with a gunboat to pull things towards it so that it can die or kill.

Do not get me wrong; I love my Apollo fleet. I think that everyone should have them. But, I feel that it is more relevant to the direction the game is going and that we have a greater chance of having that in the August raid than we do the Vanquisher. As always, keep an eye on official statements from CM Doomrooster and other kixeye employees posting in the forum. Often you can get some inside information on what might come from their postings. They have not stated one way or another on this issue so I am going on what I think is more important in the game and they have a habit of offering things we need in the raids.

Day in the Life of a Battle Pirate Player July 10, 2016

Weekly Cracked for New Players

I finally succeeded in getting to 150,000 points in the weekly, took me a couple of weeks to get the fleet worked out, and it does require more than previous Forsaken Mission content. This change is not a horrible thing; I am still not happy that new players do not have a means to do the weekly right out the gate like they could in the past. It would be that the advice I give was getting the battle barge A from the campaign, toss some thuds on it, best engine and get the reactive armor one minimum.
That simple build would help them get Tier 1 within the first week, and they would be well on their way to getting conventional technology. Now that is not the case it is going to take a new player about 40 hours of total game time to get to a point to do the weekly to tier 1. None of the older players I know think this is a good development for the game, and we hope that Kixeye will rethink the Forsaken mission strategy they released and maybe brought back the old 27’s for the new players to hit for their Tier 1 prizes. Maybe level lock them so that higher than 40 cannot hit them? I think that would be a good compromise and keep the current integrity of the Missions at the point they are now.

Yes, eventually a player will be able to do the FM and start on that path. It will take some work, and they might be level 30 before they even get to starting it. Here is how I did it.

The Plan

I used two fleets, and it is not pretty, and it still resulted in about two hours of repair for 30K points. I will describe the research and technology needed first and where I got it.

Advanced lab research

• Ablative armor 2 – Advance lab level 8 (requires Outpost level 5)
• Engine 2 – Advance lab level 8 (could maybe do engine 1, but the player will take a bit more damage as the player drives to the platforms.

Those two pieces are the most important, the reasoning is that the targets have frostbite turret, and it has explosive and splash. So, it is important to protect ships from that turret as the player on the platform waiting for the stands to die. The player sees the stands are level 7, and that means they have some health.

While the player is upgrading the outpost, warehouses, labs to get to that point. The player is going to want to make way through the campaigns. You will want Levi-A at minimum, second prize pack of the shell the shore for the D2-E armor; you can get by with the Shockwave N mortar if you wish, or you can go for the Shockwave L mortar in the first prize pack of death grip. The refit from Diplomat mortars to one of those mortars is about 2 hours a piece.

That fleet will be your primary fleet for the weekly. I had to use two because, well I have not refitted the armor yet. That will be done soon though and then I will do a video. This lack of armor is why I had to use the second fleet. The second fleet I used was a Battle Barge A with Thud IV, D2-e and Reactive armor 2.

Huggy link to the Levi build

Huggy link to battle barge A build

Huggy link to first Mauler build

Wrap up

While it is possible that a new player can get started on the weekly, they are looking at roughly 40 hours of play time to get the required technology from the campaigns and research labs/upgrading everything. It will not be a fast advancement on the player’s part, but it will become a reality if prioritized in the beginning. Once I get the fleet finalized with armor and after the raid, I will have a video placed. The huggy mauler build includes a refit that I plan because I will get the weekly twice this week.

Also, because of this development, I have all the necessary requirements to build the Dreadnought. I need to upgrade warehouses though as it is expensive to build, but it is pretty quick, and that is a beautiful thing. I will share that build soon in a separate write up once I get to start doing the weekly with it.

The last thing I want to cover this week is the Raid coming up. I know many will tell new people the raid is not for them. I agree with this; you will bang your head against the wall at this level and get frustrated. That does not mean not to try the targets, though, go and hit a few of the lowest level target. Maybe your instant repair fleets and sit time can get you a prize. Worse case you do not have time for it, best case someone sees you trying and offers to prep you a target or two that you can kill for a couple of prizes. Do not beg for help; this will turn other players off to you personally. Do not expect someone to spend their raid carrying you to the top prizes. I am here to help you become self-sufficient, and it is a long road, but it is rewarding, and the knowledge you will gain will put you far ahead of those that beg for everything in your sector.

As always questions? ask below and I answer as soon as I can. Have a good Sunday everyone!

Some Battle Pirate Wisdom from a long time player

BP Priorities 

George Argyropoulos July 9, 2016

And so, with another raid upon us, we should take a moment to reflect and review in-game priorities.

I have a rather strict view of priorities in this game. Some aspects of the game overlap and wash into other areas of Battle Pirates and so I think it is important to make sure that you have a good solid foundation from which to grow and advance your game.

While aspects of the game change, these priorities seem to have held over time.

1. Forsaken Mission

2. Raids/'Chores'

3/4. Baser/Base Defense

1. The basic premise of this list goes like this: The FM prizes and possible tokens that are available in the FM have consistently driven the tech in the grand scheme of designs in the game. If you can't do this aspect of the game, you are compromising yourself, your viability and fun in Battle Pirates. The FM is always the priority when choosing prizes in the raid.

2. Raids are, by their very nature, the events that push the tech envelope forward. The FM prizes sometimes revolve around Raid offerings etc. The raids are second however because of the sheer volume of content in the FM as opposed to the Raids. What we have seen lately is a bleed over from raids to FMs and chores (like the TLC), so this is a very close priority to the FMs.

3./4. Depending on your preference you might go base hitting or base defense. Traditionally, the trend was always base defense first. If you are in the enviable position wherein this is a choice you have, be thankful you are caught up. When you are here, the game is much easier and far more fun.

Your raid choices and precious time in your shipyard should revolve around these priorities fully. Especially when you are in an alliance and you are receiving (or paying) for help, you need to think ahead and ask yourself two things: 1. What will give me a larger boost the most in my day to day gameplay and 2? What is going to help me and the alliance long term? What will reduce our costs and improve our overall game-play the most? If you can answer these two questions and apply those solutions, you will find the game enjoyable.

George Argyropoulos is a freelance writer for specsworld.co 

Preview of July Raid weapon and Special

New Launcher coming!

They have leaked the new weapon for the coming raid and it is indeed a New launcher! I am excited about this new launcher, why? Well, I am a fan of the launchers they have been some of the biggest force of change in player’s builds since their inceptions. This one is a bit different, and I am not sure if it will alter the game for us as the previous launchers. The reasons for that I will explain.

The Launcher

As you can see it has the typical range of the D98, this means that placed on your enforcers you will be 103.4 range. Too bad that our Fusion Cruisers do not have more oomph! As they would be awesome with this weapon and I will have to take a look at if I can make them useful with it. It also is different in that it is not a salvo weapon, but a multi-shot weapon. Meaning that it will function more like a scatter gun in that all shots fired at once. This multishot is a bit disconcerting for me in that the accuracy is low.  The Antipode has an accuracy of 80 for example.  As a multi-shot that 10,800 damage will be divided by 4, so with no bonuses, the damage done will be 2700 each one. The Vendetta has a 9000 Radioactive deflection stat, meaning that we will get the minimum damage for each one that hits. It should do well against the Revenge though if you can keep them from sniping you.

The reload time is high, so this alone might make it unusable on anything other than launcher dedicated boats. The benefit from older launchers was the fact they had around a 2.5 second reload meaning that you could get by on your vindicator or Mercury fleets and get some benefit from it. While this is the early release, and the numbers could change. I do not see this one changing much, and that will limit the usefulness of this weapon on anything other than Enforcers, Fusion Cruisers, Nuclear cruisers and the new boat. I think Frostburn and V2-C give some bonus to reload on launchers too, so those would be good choices as well.

Now there is some hope for this weapon and that is the fact it is a multi-shot weapon, meaning that we get to use multi-shot boosting specials for it. They are releasing a new special that is designed for this specifically.

The Special

This special is going to help boost that weapons damage potential nicely with the +2 multi-shot. The supercharge effect is not as big of a deal though as the shockwave from this is 1000. However, I might look into putting 5 of the new weapon and 5 Antipode on my ship to get a nice mix of upfront damage and a big shockwave. Of course, we need to see what the new defensive hull will have for stats to make the most efficient build possible. But, I see potential with mixing launchers to get a nice boost to damage up front and then a big shockwave. IT has to be noted this weapon will not work with other multi-shot increasing specials, and it will work with interception system, but not fusion charger. That piece comes directly from CM Doomrooster on the forums, and I will quote him in full.

(It will take the place of Barrel Systems or Fusion Chargers.  You can't stack Fusion Chargers, Interception System, and Emission System.  It will stack with Interception System, similar to Fusion Chargers, however. CM DoomRooster)

So, this will help boost the damage of the new weapon by a total of 5400 (2700 x 2), as we will get two more shots in each one fired. Granted it will still only be minimum damage against the Vendetta, but if you have watched your Enforcers against the Vendetta this last month, you will know that the minimum damage can add up quick with everything else hitting it.

Future for the lower levels

This particular early release means that my predictions of the Antipode coming back this raid are pretty solid. We have gotten a weapon, older hull and special from the same class as the top prizes. So, I suspect that we will see the Fusion Charger, Antipode, and Enforcer this raid for the first three tiers. With the new special, weapon and hull being T4 thru T6. This means that this raid holds a high possibility for alliances to help their lower levels get the Enforcer and Antipode for about 3 million points if things stay from the previous two raids!

More information will come as we get it, and hopefully, I will have a mock build up early next week if I can. Any questions feel free to ask below thank you for reading.

Ask Specs Anything July 6, 2016

This week’s question comes from Warhead, and he asks;

Hey Bro,

After a month now have you updated your Vendetta build? I am about to start, and I want to make sure nothing has changed.

My response is below;

Hey Bud,

I have changed a few things from the initial idea behind the build, not much mostly to help combat some weakness I have seen in those bases I have watched being hit by others. So, if I were you, I would look to try to boost evade and use the Agility System 4. The slow resistance will be handy in dealing with some of the issues I have seen. Evade is useful in reducing the damage from the launchers. They might not boom, but those shots can still hurt from a legend ranked Enforcer.
Here is my new updated build and what I am refitting too as soon as I finish the last Apollo.

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!30NI01R1R1R6Q34396M5PC2C2C2C2C2C2C20ZZ0ZZ0ZZ0ZZdC

With full retro you will have 39% evade and while that is not great, it is far better than the negative you start with and will help in keeping the vendetta alive against many different ships you might face when hitting bases.

Hope all is well with you and the family and let me know how this goes for you

Feel free to send me a question if you have one, or post below have a great day everyone!

Specs! Help us stop these Revenge and Vendettas!

There is a new tool in our arsenal that you might have to combat base hitters.

OK, Lots of people are contacting me in the game and wondering how I am stopping the revenge and vendettas hitting my base. After many attempts on my base and many hits by myself on others I can say that I have found a few ways to combat this growing menace to our waters.

I will point you back to my original article on this subject last month, and all that still works. I have found a new trick to stop the growing number of legend ranked baser that combines all of that in that one post and at least one of the follow hulls.

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!306E0292929295Y2M0000ALALALALALALALAL05U0292929295Y2M00ALALALALALALALAL05O0292929295Y2M00ALALALALALALALAL060029295Y2M0000ALALALAL00000006O02929295Y2M0000ALALALALALALALALdC

Any one of those will boost your base defense and help against the Vendetta and even the Revenge. They will either have to pause and take them out from a distance, just make sure that you are hitting that area with Executioners, Apoc or other mortars, and explosive/corrosive damage turrets.

I also intentionally left two slots empty on the special slots so that you could customize the build to fit your personal tastes. You could go with the Cryo battery that will help lower your attackers defense and slow them down a little. You could go with a resonance battery and put in the Vendetta or something else to power it. You could do whatever you desire with those two slots.

I hope this helps some with another tool you might have laying around in your arsenal to aid you in the fight against the rampaging base hitters. Just make sure you take care to protect against subs.They can still sub you out and then all that is for nothing.

Received a question on why this works so well

The reason that this UAV works best over the others is due to the duration it swarms. At max Retro it is close to 15 seconds of damage that happens no matter what happens to the Ship. So, that is a lot of damage being delivered even after the fact. Also we have the minimum damage values and there is a rumor that the minimum damage on the UAV is a bit higher than that of other weapons. This seems to hold true from my tests of hitting bases with this UAV in it.

Day in the life of a new Battle Pirate player July 5, 2016

Outpost five done, advanced lab to level 8 and still need more!

My Outpost level 5 finished over the weekend, and I finished the advanced lab to level 8 upgrade. I had enough resources to start the Ablative armor 2, which should help more in the level 40 strongholds. I tried the 40 with the Reactive armor and the damage from the Frostbite did more damage to me than the missiles. I can research the long short missile in the weapons lab, so I will do that and upgrade the launch pad if needed that might be the only way I can do the 40’s at this time.
I am ten short of the frags from having enough for the Dreadnought, but I want to try to get the 40s at least under control without that hull. Remember, I had done the Weekly for two weeks before the change and since then I have not been able to do the 40s with any success. I might be able to do it if I worked at it for more than 2 hours a day. I will tell you, that it would frustrate me if I had to hit on a target for 2 hours and not even kill a single platform.

The only thing I can do is to take a few days and refit the Shockwave N mortars I have and the D2-E and see if that helps.  I will need the engines at least to help get me by the Guardians in the Death Grip campaign regardless, as the mortars catch me. I also noticed I need to upgrade the intelligence lab to at least level 5 so I can use the strike cruiser and the Dreadnought, those are next on the list.

So that is the plan going forward this week, a refit of the Marauders with the Shockwave N, engine 2, D2-E and then try for the Mauler again, along with attempting a 40 once the fleet finishes. If I still have issues with the explosive damage from the frostbite, I will hold off until I get the maulers built.

For the base I am getting close to needing to put in stands and weapons, so going to research Sentinel Missle 3 at least and hope to get Sent 5 soon and work towards Javelines and Halo.

Day in the life of a new Battle Pirate player

Getting something good; Mauler the workhorse

It is the fourth of July weekend, and I plan to have fun with family, friends and enjoy my holiday. I hope you do too.

So, I am going to set the base on more auto type things. My Outpost is going to level 5 that is over two days to build.

I have finished the mauler campaign prize pack one, I will be building a fleet of those next, I will leave room for the Hail B that I can get from prize pack two and a slot to hold the phalanx when I get that on a few levels.

Death Grip Campaign – 

To do this campaign, I made use of Bunker Buster Small rockets and my 3x Diplomat IV mortar Leviathan fleet with Reactive Armor 2. By using bunker buster to remove the bombard turrets, it allowed my mortars all to make it to target. No armor allows them to be repaired for 5 min before instant repair, meaning at most I am down 25 minutes between deaths. The reactive armor is the best choice as the ships that cause the most damage have assault missiles, so reducing that damage is best.

The higher you go in the campaign, the more advance type turrets you will see. So, you will want to use some bunker busters to take out the halo and javelins to help the slow-moving mortar fleet that I used. It takes 20 minutes per rocket so that you can do one per repair time. You could also use Pinch missiles if you wanted, but honestly why not remove them from the target?

Yes, it is going to take a bit longer than the two-hour window to do the campaign, but I have no choice. If I do not put in the seat time, I will not be able to advance. Two hours a day might be good for most, but I am finding it restrictive on what can get done in a day.

Mauler future build 

My Mauler build will be pretty basic to start, but until I get a better hull, it will be a work horse and will get refitted when I get better stuff. Right now it has technology from the research labs and the campaigns.

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!304O00U0U0U0U5J0G0B3O3O3O3O004M04O00U0U0U0U5J0G0B3O3O3O3O004M04O00U0U0U0U5J0G0B3O3O3O3O004M04O00U0U0U0U5J0G0B3O3O3O3O004M04O00U0U0U0U5J0G0B3O3O3O3O004Md8

Have a great Weekend everyone! 

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