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 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!

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.

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.

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

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!

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.