Talk About a Brief Look at My Starfield Experience
Talk About a Brief Look at My Starfield Experience
-----SOME MODERATE SPOILERS HERE-----
Here's another video, this time from the tail end of my first NG+ playthrough. This time on Normal mode in space, and Hard mode on the planet. I also use a much faster, more effective method of handling the part just before reaching the buried temple, using Void Form (cloak).
The main difference however is this time I chose the Attack vs Persuade option. I chose attack for two reasons, I wanted to see what the resulting battle was like, and I wanted to get the legendary rated weapons the Hunter and Emissary use. The latter of which I mistakenly sold.
The battle is quite long and difficult, and takes a LOT of ammo to get through, as mentioned above. In the chaos I ended up forgetting to save the instant replay at one spot where I stopped and quicksaved (and normally wait for the capture to write), but it was just a short, easy segment with no Starborn.
Currently I'm level 58, so I will soon at level 60 be able to buy the best reactor and engines if I want. However I've already upgraded my Star Eagle I got from the Freestar Collective questline to be quite effective. Next NG+ I will fund the upgrades via the Crimson Fleet quest reward though, which should be quicker.
My Star Eagle's W0/W1 weapon groups do well over 550 DPS each, and about 250 DPS on W2 auto turrets. You can't fire the auto turret weapons from 3000m like you can the others, in fact, you can't manually fire them at all. They do come in very handy for fending off ships that try to do flybys at angles you can't manually aim at though, and add a finisher to an attack.
I also have the best shield available, which is rated 1600, but ends up being 2560 with the skills I have. I have a reactor with 38 power too, (40 is max), so I can power up shields to max 100, engine at near max, groups W0 and W1 to 50, and group W2 to 25.
I also have the Engine skill maxed, which adds 20% to speed, makes boost last longer and charge quicker, and enemies are unable to acquire you while boosting. Max shields also occasionally resist ALL damage.
In my little testing so far, this ship with these stats was able to very quickly get to the Legacy treasure ship, with no damage at all from the heavy EM fields, and make quick work of the Crimson Fleet ships in the first phase of the End of Legacy quest.
In fact I'm now thinking this ship will easily level the difficulty between space and planet battles, and maybe pull ahead on Very Hard mode. I plan to post a short video of the space battle part of that mission on both Hard and Very Hard.
I DO have a bit of an ace in the hole for planet battles I've yet to use though. I've not yet even tried using the many health aids I've collected that buff your damage resistance, etc. In retrospect, I think I'll side with Hunter on all but the last NG+, as I've read the Va'Ruun rifle Emissary uses is a bit better, and Hunter is also harder to kill. On the final one I'll side with Emissary to get the good guy ending, IF I can manage it that way on Very Hard.
----SOME MODERATE SPOILERS HERE-----
Here's that Legacy's End space battle clip I promised. As mentioned I'm at level 58. The enemy ship levels are the same on both Hard and Very Hard, and the highest rated one I saw was level 54. I was surprised at how easy it was to just stay in pursuit, without boosting away to evade or recover. I never had to repair while in combat, didn't repair at all on Hard, and only used 2 Ship Parts to repair on Very Hard after one of the battles was over. I counted 28 Ship Parts still on the ship after the Very Hard battle.
These battles were done with the Particle Weapon skill only at level 3. You can see onscreen at the 2:23 mark by the blue bar graph that pops up on the left that I had leveled it enough to unlock level 4, which adds an increased chance of critical damage. It's deceiving whether you're close enough to do Particle damage, as the red square missile target lock indicator, shows at 4000m even if you don't have any. This caused me to waste a lot of Particle shots until I got into their 3000m range.
Had I bought level 4 Par Weap, and boosted to within 3000m before firing, I may not have needed to repair at all on Very Hard. Next I will try the takeover of The Key space station on Very Hard, just to see how prepared I am for on foot battles. I'm also going to attempt it with no stat boosting aids. However I'm open to using Powers, as they regen. I've yet to even try the Moon Form or Reactive Shield powers that buff armor and create a shield than can reflect projectiles.
Here are some moderate spoilers for you:
I worked on the clip about taking over the Key on Very Hard. It was easy to boost stats without using pharmaceuticals. Mostly I relied on Void Form and Sunless Space to hide or freeze opponents. This time I chose Barret as a companion after realizing the missing power in Part II came from a side quest with him. That ability is called Parallel Self, letting you call upon another version of yourself from a parallel universe to battle alongside you. Barret also gains this power, so you’ll have two fighting companions during fights! Depending on what you both do, you could end up with four instead of three.
I also revisited the lodge in New Atlantis before diving into weapon upgrade research. I tweaked the Va'Ruun Inflictor rifle with a Long Barrel, Focal Lens, and Recon Scope to improve range and accuracy. It’s a particle beam rifle that also inflicts ballistic damage.
I swapped my Magshear for a Revenant in the second half of battles. It offers about 50% more damage and a larger magazine. Right now I’m handling some UC mission board tasks. The first involved a dogfight against a pirate escorted by two gunships while on Very Hard—initially it felt tough, but focusing on balancing your ship’s systems helped. Now I keep shields at max power, engines set to about 100 top speed, and slightly boost W0 and W1. The downside is the ship resets these settings sometimes, so you need to adjust on the fly while under fire.
The current UC Mission board mission requires surveying Eridani II. It’s packed with contraband, including an Abandoned Fuel Depot where I landed. After scouting, I found a Crimson Ghost ship nearby—only two guards outside, making it easy to steal. I stashed the contraband in a container near the depot landing pad, but when I checked, it had respawned! Suddenly I had around 400,000 worth of contraband, which sold for nearly 70,000 at the Trade Authority. But I quickly realized I’d likely been cheated before, since TA vendors only keep 11,000 credits in stock at a time. There’s a subtle warning in the text—different from the usual—so I avoided selling too much until it disappeared. It took several days of waiting in-game, but it was worth it.
Next, I might revisit the Ryujin Industries questline since I’m at level 60. If I choose diplomatically, it should unlock the best ship engines available.
Some minor hints are here.
I am currently at player level 66, well into my second NG+ on Very Hard, and this time I revisited the main quest. My primary goal was to replay the All That Money Can Buy mission, since it unlocks the top engine in the game. Honestly, though, I’m uncertain that such an engine will even be needed, as the only missing aspect was a bit of movement in my previous Star Eagle build—not speed. This time I plan to add thrusters to the design to see if it improves things.
I currently have three videos here: one focused on stealth without combat, and the other two cover dog fights and ground combat. The dog fights use a slightly upgraded Razorleaf, which you can obtain early in the game by following clues on a slate you find. I initially completed the Grunt Work quest for UC Vanguard—the first Terramorph mission—which grants the Vanguard Obliterator Autoprojector. I swapped out the two laser guns for five VOAs and replaced the Stroud cowling with a Nova, which offers three weapon mounts. I retained the single missile launcher at the front and two rear particle guns. With these upgrades, I might attempt the Crimson Fleet quest using this vessel.
From a power standpoint, I used the optimal Class A reactor from the New Atlantis Technician, rated at 29 power, paired with his second-best Class A shield, rated at 760. He also had a Class A 810 shield, though it was large and obstructive, blocking some of my weapons. The overall upgrade cost just over 80,000 credits. I managed to maintain maximum mobility and speed at 100/150. The hull now stands at 842 after upgrades, down from 469—still not indestructible, but well-protected with my shield and engine skills maximized, plus the support of Andreja and Barrett on board. It’s fast enough and delivers strong damage for everything I’ve encountered so far.
In terms of hand-to-hand combat, I invested more time in upgrading my Weapon Engineering skill, which is now at its peak. This allowed me to finish the Research on Level 3 Internal Weapon Mods. Consequently, my Magshear now registers at 48 damage—about a 45% increase over its original value. The only minor drawback is that it becomes slightly more cumbersome when using ADS, making it harder to track fast-moving enemies laterally.
Here’s an updated version of your text with the same structure and length preserved:
I wanted to share my current progress. I’m now in the beginning of my seventh playthrough, still at power level VI.
The vessel I’ve chosen for my new strategy is the only option that allows me to keep advancing all my abilities. It’s not just a strong ship—it’s also affordable to construct. You only need to complete the initial segment of the UC Vanguard storyline, specifically Grunt Work, which unlocks the power-efficient Vanguard Obliterator Autoprojector. As long as you consistently scavenge while gathering artifacts and finish the Mantis mission to obtain the Razorleaf, you won’t have to tackle high-reward quests like the lengthy Crimson Fleet campaign.
This ship is built with just two weapon groups—six Class A VOA units and four Class B PBO-175 Auto Helion Beam units. Another key adjustment is switching from Andreja and Barrett for their level 3 particle weapon abilities to Omari Hassan and Vasco, who have level 3 and 2 Shield skills respectively. Pairing this with the 1125-rated Class B Warden SG-400 Shield Generator, which consumes less power than the 1450-rated shield, lets me run my weapons at full capacity while still maintaining sufficient shield power and engine output.
I’m using the Class B 104DS Mag Inertial Reactor, rated at 39 power, but with my Piloting skill maximized, it delivers 40. You can easily exceed 50 power if you boost your Aneutronic Fusion skill, though I don’t feel the need to do so. Even in non-alliance Starborn encounters, a 40-power output is manageable, especially on Very Hard difficulty.
Building this ship costs 216,666 credits, which is why I gave it the nickname Razorbeast.
With Particle Weapon Systems skill at its peak, these weapons generate a combined DPS of 1222! Swapping Stroud cowling for Nova eliminates the need for additional weapon plates.
LOL, because the game lacks enough content to prevent you from repeating the same boring tasks over and over, such as going through the same temple power mini game 240 times just to reach level 10. It makes it pretty irrelevant how you handle those repetitive situations.
OR, you can opt to put in extra effort and do it the hard way, like kerberos, without a shielded cargo hold, to see how long you can resist after several attempts. 😀