Tips on winning at 200% Difficulty

[Loopy]

I pretty much never use a scanner unless its really small and/or gives bonus to something else. Same for shields early on until its at least 20% damage reduction. I just figure out ballpark estimates of how many salvos it will take.

Dominators destroying their stuff is definitely the biggest problem. I try to fly in loops around the system, this way destroyers behind the one I'm shooting at won't fly directly over the loot that dropped, instead flying directly towards me further along the circle. The faster your engine and sharper you can make the circle, the harder you can turn and the further it gets them away from the loot. No matter what you do though, they are going to blow up lots of their own stuff.

For the RTS games I highly recommend either all 3 rockets + 1 repair + 1 mortar bots, or 3 rockets + 1 stunner + 1 mortar for offense and 2x 4 repair no mortar per group to stay behind them and repair. All of them get the antigravity and locator. Just don't let enemies get close, don't fight big groups without defensive turrets to support, and try to have your robots retreat/dodge constantly. Probably most importantly, don't use big groups, they block each other from firing and can't dodge because dodging just means the rockets hit another robot next to them anyways. Split into groups of 3-5 offensive robots per group if you have lots of robots.

If you aren't familiar with basic RTS control schemes, Ctrl-# will save a group of robots so that you can reselect them just by pressing the #, and you can instantly move the screen to the group by double tapping the #.

[ywenli]

Thanks for the tips!

On building the RTS bots, is the stunner really worth it? I tried it before having been stunned, but noticed that when my weapon is already hot (after firing), it doesn't seem to activate. I typically just go with the 4 rockets and dynamo. I'll have to give locator a try if that works more effectively.

Also, I noticed it in the videos as well, they didn't use the mortar for the healing bot either. Any reason for this? Just not worth it since they might run and attack?

[Loopy]

I use stunner because 3 rocket launchers is more than enough. Pretty much any bot will die in 6-8 rockets, which come out fast from 2 or 3 bots in a group. The problems come with enemy bots that strafe, because they can take 15-20 rockets to destroy when they move around and most of your rockets are missing. Stunner helps prevent that some. Think of it as being an automatic win against the first 2 enemy bots in any fight. Its also good for charging into rocket turrets that normally cause a lot of trouble and force you to stand off while slowly picking away at them.

Locator is good because if you shoot an enemy before it shoots you then you win. Ideally you should be running backwards so that you are in range firing rockets while the enemy is out of range and taking the rockets straight in the face.

You are correct on the healing bot. Giving them a weapon means they might not always be healing and they are too damned expensive to risk the chance of them running into enemy fire.

[ywenli]

Update on my 4th and 5th 200% difficulty attempts:

4th:
I abandoned my 4th game since I foolishly and impatiently decided to join in the fight against the doms early on (about Aug 3300) again trying to take back a Blazer system no less with about 6 coalition warships. They lasted all of 3 rounds probably after engaging the enemy. It cost me well over 20k to get a set of upgraded equipment so I didn't want to waste it so early on without funds to do more trading. Decided to scrap it and start over.

5th:
This game started out slowly, but a few systems survived for a while (there were about 6 still after 1 year I think) before they started to fall all quickly. There are now only 2 systems left. My starting and 1 with a military base. Playing as a Faeyan with the missiles again.

I was planning to keep the business center alive, but with the blazer attack, the sector didn't last long at all and I didn't have a combat drug. Also lost the main Peleng system and a Faeyan one with a pirate base a bit earlier. At least I didn't have to repay my loan!

It's now mid 3301 and my hull is 323 or so, 3 weapons max Faeyan Kalai, 2 lvl 2 frag cannons, 2 missiles, pretty much all < 25 size upgraded level 1 equipment. No shields yet, but got a microscopic scanner since it was small (17). I don't have any pigamar equipment yet though. About 25k in cash.

I just defended my 1st Keller attack in the system with the military base and picked up 7 probes as well finally after getting the technical skill drug.

A blazer attack now will be deadly probably, but with 2 systems, there are a lot of civilian ships around to draw away fire. Also taking out any pirates I see which doesn't seem to be helping goods prices so maybe I will lay off till I see some protect missions to try to generate more funds trading since prices are pretty low overall.

Money is a bit tight and I haven't even upgraded my ship armor yet since I don't know if I want to keep this ship long term. A good amount of spare space still though (about 80-100) so should be able to pick up a few things during dom defence. No plans to attack a system until I get more rockets or a much larger ship.

[TheSAguy]

I’ve decided to take on this challenge and must say it’s very tough….
My first game I did my normal setup of being a human merchant and must day I did not last very long.

For my second and third game I did Faeyan Mercenary. Tough at the start with very little money.

My second game filed pretty early on with the Dominators taking the one system near me and living me with just my starting system. It was just not enough and I decided to start over.

My third game I had two systems for about two years and about 50k cash with a nice size ship. I lost the research base though and after losing the second system I was stuck.

I think I went wrong with not buying into the research station and boosting it’s defenses.

I’m still being killed by the Dominators very fast and it’s pretty annoying. I need a faster ship but just can’t get anything above 450 speed.

Back to the drawing board…

[TheSAguy]

My 5th game is going very better.

I’m about two and a half years in and still alive

I started with 4 systems in flying distance. One was taken before my tutorial was us and I only visited the 3rd once before it was lost.
The second last system lasted a bit longer, since they did fight off one attack. Before I lost that system I was able to get some good trading going. I was able to buy a 360 hull ship and had about 12K cash left before that system fell. Something that really helped was the fact that I did not have to repay my loan since the business base was located there.

So with only my one system left I’m able to help fight the Dominators with my two missile launchers.

I made sure to protect the science base, since I’m selling all the Dominator equipment there for some desperately needed cash. I’m not really making anything from selling, it just covers fixing my ship after each battle. Since I have a large hull, between battles I’m taking full loads of food and other high volume items and making only a couple bucks per item.

I’ve fought off about 4 incoming attacks now and am hoping to get a 3rd missile launcher soon. Currently there are none available.

I’ve got two probes, but am saving all their findings until later when I’ll need the cash to buy a better ship. It’s slow going, jumping from one to the other planet in my single system, hoping to get a RTS mission.

Let the war continue…

I’ve played an additional half a year last night.

After accumulating about 30k gold, by buying in bulk, I was feeling very confident. Then thinks started to get difficult once again. The dominators came in force and I had to invest about 20k of that hard earned cash into my science lab to keep it alive. First 10k to get the rights to help them then another 10k in equipment purchases.

Well I guess it paid off, since I got to keep it alive.

New equipment finally started to show up, but now I can’t afford it again. I’ve also been playing 3 RTS maps in quick succession. I really need another system open….


It took me 10 years, but I finally have rescued another system.....

[ywenli]

Great to see someone else giving this a go! I haven't played SR much, but plan to give it another shot.

In my next play through, I plan to just try to be more patient and wait till more missile launchers become available...probably around year 4 or so. I tend to get bored with it though since there are few missions to play with so few systems...

Hope to keep a science and military base alive.

Best of luck in your game.

[TheSAguy]

I did it!!
Took me forever, but finally got more systems freed and now it's just a matter of mopping up!

How I won was by keeping the scinece base alave and selling dominator parts there to make a living.

[DRNewcomb]

This is an interesting thread. I just picked up SR2 again after several years not playing. I don't think I could really manage the harder levels because I figure ground battles would be necessary and I really stink at the RTS part of the game. I generally only play the training RTS mission and that just to get some money to get early upgrades and capital for trading.

I have figured out how to get a really good first few months and get all the non-cheat advantages I can but the RTS just kills me.

I'm not sure which version of SR2 you're playing. I have the old one. Can you still get the cool engine from the drone (IPX482?) in the training mission in the newer version? I generally replay killing the drone as many times as necessary to get that engine.

[ywenli]

Originally Posted by TheSAguy

I did it!!
Took me forever, but finally got more systems freed and now it's just a matter of mopping up!

How I won was by keeping the scinece base alave and selling dominator parts there to make a living.

Congrats! What year are you in?