First on the prizes. After some player friendly swaps & reductions before the raid started, Kixeye has raised the price on the Wendigo from 20 million to 25 million. BOO!
I had some more "what to get" thoughts for up and coming players - think about the following prizes at various point levels:
3 Million - Impulse Launcher U: Put these on Mercurys (for raids/missions) & Maulers (for bases).
4.5 Million - Interceptor V2-H: Great deal for this hull here, especially if you already have the Siege Missile Z. If not, a Torrent/Torpedo build would be your best choice.
6 Million - Juggernaut X: Start saving your uranium for retrofits. If you want to build one of these to tank for other ships (preferably launcher armed)... that's good. If you want to build a fleet of these, make sure you have heavy weapons to use the limited weapon slots. F or S launchers are best.
8 Million - MCX & Siege Missile Z: Siege Missile Z will breathe some new life into that old hull, although lack of radioactive resistance limits the MCX. Try to get another 2 million points. Without a strong weapon, I can't recommend the MCX all by itself at 2.5 million points. And that makes me sad... because the MCX was my bread and butter hull for a long time and I still love them.
10 Million - V2-H & Siege Missile Z: Great combo that can be effective against subs, ships, or land targets.
On to the targets:
The World Map targets 25, 41, 43, and 45 are the same as last time. The Kraken is just about the same. The Siege, Strike, and Recon campaigns are (visually) the same as last time. Read last month's article if you want info on those world map targets, or the Siege campaign.
With better fleets, my level 50 base can get through the Strike campaign, so I have more info to share.
On the Strike campaign, the first three targets have a mix of R4 Interdictors and MCX guarding a stronghold. The strongholds have a mix of missiles, coax, and long(er)-range howitzers.
The fourth target is like a 43 Arctic Fleet with one less Kodiak, and the fifth target is like a 45 Arctic Fleet.
I am using three fleets for these targets - an 800 health BB-A Strike Missile fleet (instant repair during raids), a Siege Mortar B Mauler fleet (my baser), and a mostly completed Torrent Mercury fleet (only 4 ships & half armored).
For the first three Strike targets:
My BB-As could only damage about 1/3 of a ship last time, but this time they seem more effective, being able to take out 1 ship per run if I drive them smart. I can also use the Torrent Mercurys to take out a few ships, but then I have to repair for 2 hours. One torrent volley as a zombie fleet wouldn't do much better than my BB-As.
Once I clear the ships, I send in the Maulers. They can take out a turret in 2 - 4 volleys, depending on the coax coverage. I am careful not to close in on the coax, because they can do a lot of damage... the missiles don't hurt too much as I put Reactive Armor 3 & Scrambler 3 on the Maulers.
For the 4th & 5th Strike targets - I use my BB-As to clear all the ships except for the last one. For the Kodiak, I can use waves of the BB-A if I'm patient, or my Torrent Mercurys if not (they take about 2.5 hours to repair when killed). No matter what I will send my BB-As after the Kodiak once to trigger all the mines in the way - I don't want my torrents to be reloading when they get to the Kodiak's range. For the Proto-Nemesis in the 5th target, one key is to keep the ships spread out, since the missiles have splash. I like to immediately move to the right and put my ships in a vertical line, then turn and engage the Proto. I can beat that ship in about 2 runs of the Mercurys... the BB-A don't hurt it much.
For the Siege Campaign, I don't have any new tips, but I would like to share some general thoughts after watching one of my alli mates yesterday. He had 3 SC with launchers & 2 Mastodons with Siege Missile Z. Not an elite fleet, but not bad either. In taking on the first Siege target, he went charging in to the north. By the time he rounded the corner, he had 2 Interceptors, a Kodiak, a Coax, 2 Cryo Launchers, and at least 2 Executioners shooting at him. He lost his fleet after killing about 1/3 of the base. We told me that he was trying to get the center.I told him to stop and watch...
I sent in my Greta/JugX fleet, and showed him how to stop and engage a minimum number of turrets or ships before moving on. Be patient & take your time in order to minimize damage. The next morning he told me that he killed all of target 1 & half of target 2 with that same fleet & better driving.
The guy (Smoggy) in this video is using very similar tactics as me (with maybe a bit more speed & a bit less patience): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO-D-VYoTRs
The new Reaver targets are hard. I don't have any advice for you on them. With the Elite campign target in particular, you will get swarmed right at the start, which I find is the most disheartening feature that Kixeye puts in there. Compare that to Siege Mission 5, where a smart player can avoid triggering the ships with some good driving... getting immediately crushed is neither fun nor engaging. I would be interested to hear about what ships Kixeye found to be successful when testing the Elite targets.
The other tip I have would be to use the Co-op feature. Players with similar fleets can be very successful when teaming up, because they double their firepower and split the damage.
Good luck & keep grinding!
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