Difficulty?

So like my previous game using just energy and projectile cannons, was actually pretty easy to accomplish using just the human weaponry. for some reason, I only encountered one death ray on map 4 and that was in the sector before the final battle. Here was my final load out if anyone's curious:

Capital Ship (1): Projectile (4), Energy (1)
Armada Ship (2): Projectile (3), Energy (1), Repair Drone (1)
- Human Projectile Cannons
- Shield Dmg: MAX
- Range: None
- Hull Dmg: MAX
- Burst: 1
- Accuracy: None
- Energy Cannons
- Shield Dmg: MAX
- Range: MAX
- Burst: 1
- Accuracy: None
- Repare Drone
- MAX Ships and Repair
- Bolter guns for point defense

The projectile cannons just tear stuff up. The key is to keep the range at 1000 and your reload time at 3 seconds. The energy cannons help to collapse the remaining shields after the initial volley of projectiles. Keep your distance and be patient. When you get enough projectile cannons, you can drop in on a ship at close range and destroy it before a shot is fired. The repair drones are most important.

I thought it would be difficult to do, but the run ended up being quite simple towards the end. I only died twice previously. I finished the game with a score 13771, 95k in scrap, and around 2600 upgrade cores. I highly recommend that everyone try this...it was a lot of fun! Good luck!

Wow, nice report! Gonna try that out.

Also, thanks guys for posting your variations, they are definitely an interesting space to explore! Always keeping note on them. I hope the game will develop to grasp better what is there and to create new varieties and ways!

@VaylinArcher - thanks for the recommendation. Was (finally) able to beat the game on hard using only human/purchased weapons with a strategy similar to yours.

I made a few minor tweaks:
*1 repair drone, 1 shield drone instead of 2 repairs. This worked reallly well when my ships were loaded out with shield boosters.
*Swapped one projectile cannon for a teleport. Used it to both dance away from missile volley and also to act as a meat shield for badly damaged ships. In this way I never actually lost a support ship.
*PDW was exclusively maxed-out lasers. You run into the whole "all your lasers target the same missile" thing from time to time, but in general I found them to be absolutely devastating against enemy capital ships.

What's the next challenge?

@Forty In Red - glad things worked out for you. I have to say that next to Mega Plasma and Death Rays, the Projectile Cannon is probably one of the best weapons to use. They can operate effectively at a distance, shred thru fighters, and, as a side effect of their inaccuracy, can slaughter grouped capital ships. They definitely my go to weapon.

Currently, I'm working on an all laser run...even for my drones. Was pretty tough starting out, but I just got my second Armada and still on map 2...so things seem to be in order. I am cheating slightly...I did get a death ray from a drop with a range under 900, so I deemed this as acceptable. Otherwise, all other lasers are human. I'll see if I can get through with just the human weapons the rest of the way.

I'm trying something similar now. I call it the "650 challenge" using only missiles and lasers (both of which cost 650) as my primary weapons. Starting out is a real challenge given the premium on scrap. I've died several times with one laser and ~500 in scrap, saving up for my second laser.

If I can make it to 2-3 lasers, I'm generally good to go from there.

Yeah, once you can build up your laser count it gets easy. I did finish but my score was a bit lacking. Enemy fighters and missiles were the biggest issue starting out. I had to do a lot of hit and fades to get heavily populated maps completed. Going all missiles for this next challenge. Had to start out this current run with projectiles and an energy weapon. But I have to have my weapons replaced with missiles before I can get another ship or leave the map.

So i just finally completed the missile challenge. this was by far the most challenging and probably the most expensive. once you get your fleet established, its easy to roll through the rest of the game. just getting to that point tho....thats the tough part.

And now, with new content comes new challenges!

Yeah I've tried the "all missile" challenge a few times. It's all fun and games till your all-missile fleet comes up against an all-projectile or all-flak cannon fleet and you watch your beautiful 30-missile salvo just disappear...That usually makes me want to table-flip and try a different strategy.

Unless the flak cannon ships drop on top of you, they should be no issue. A couple times i ran into a group with projectiles and it took some time to dismantle the fleet, but the AI never has max shield upgrade, so they should also be a non-issue. against the heavy projectile, you wanna drop right on top of them. that'll help protect your missiles. the missile bombers also help with this, so make sure they're upgraded.

unfortunately, I think i'm out of challenges eagerly awaiting the last of the update. Here's what I've done:
- No fighters
- All human
- All laser
- All missile
- All projectile (and all human projectile)

I guess I can go with smaller ships. Maybe will try that.