Deathray needs nerf bad.

I understand the appeal of ultimate weapons, but the Death Ray is wayyy too powerful.

The megaplasma is mighty but somewhat reasonable. It can be stopped by several ways, takes a while to land, can miss, etc.

Death ray is just ridiculous. It never misses. It cannot be blocked. You cannot even out-range it reasonably since it has at least 1100 range by default.

No matter WHAT your strategy is and how good your weapons are, you immediately drop it in exchange for death rays. Always. This is not good balance.

I got to Map 3 on hard and EVERY enemy had a death ray. I survived for a while, but even with extreme range rocket strategy, I just can't beat 3 enemies with death rays, without getting worn down. I also lost on Map 1 when my very first enemy big ship had a deathray. I had a particle cannon...

They really need to have a weakness of some kind, without just turning them into a laser. Suggestions:

1) Much weaker damage vs shields. This means you have to soften the enemy up somewhat, not just drop their shields with a single shot. I like this the best.
2) Increased cooldown to like 12 seconds or so.
3) nerfed range...like 1000, without ability to upgrade range.
4) Much less hull damage. Making it a great shield-breaker, but not able to 1 shot enemy ships.

I feel yah bro, even though I didnt bbought the game and just got it form a friend who I suppose didnt bought it neither... I'm with ya,but on the bright side, if you got a death ray of your own.. you are kinda like unstoppable

I always get 4-5 unknown stations huddled in the final sector on hard mode... all equipped with death rays. A fleet of maxed cruisers and destroyers wiped out before they can even arm their weapons and fire. On occasion Rays and mega plasma cannons seem almost more common than vulcans and flak.

To me, it seems the stronger your feet, the stronger your enemies. I've done a couple runs with just projectile cannons and hardly any death rays. But this is a rougelike game...sometimes it'll be impossible and sometimes easy. In the cases where there are a great number of death rays, you hit and fade or use beacons to draw the ships out of the sector you're trying to go into. wait for your openings, strike fast, and bail.

Except with enemy death rays, your ships are destroyed before the warp timer is up...

And on the other extreme, deathrays on YOUR side trivialize the game. Neither situation is really desirable.

I think most people who have played through the game from start to finish agree that the Death Ray is by far the best weapon in the game. Perhaps it does deserve to be nerfed, but what makes this game fun is the unpredictable nature of it. Death Rays are just part of that.

After playing the game from start to finish multiple times, I have learned that within each galaxy, races tend to follow a strategy. Eg celestials that favor Ion Cannon Mk2s, Wanderers that favor flak cannons etc. I find that generally speaking, the weapons most commonly equipped on the Unknown capital ships are what the Unknown "boss" stations tend to be equipped with. If that happens to be Death Rays, well then you have a fair number of opportunities to pick them up through loot. I've yet to play a game from start to finish where I didn't find at least one Death Ray, so it might just be a case of needing to check every station on Galaxies 3 and 4. They're expensive, but available many times.

All this being said, I'm right there with you on getting wiped out on the last level in a few seconds. It's happened to me more times than I'm happy to admit.

I personally like the fact that the death ray is a DEATH RAY and I am not totally sure that it needs to be nerfed. I feel like the death ray already has a lot of limitations. The largest of which is that most death days are pathetic. Trolgar, wander, and schial death Rays are so weak that it's disappointing. Celestial and unknown death Rays pack a punch but are often difficult to get a hold of. If the death ray were to be nerfed I hope it is by severely lowering shield damage and raising the hull damage. This would force you to strategize and cover the weakness of the weapon while still making it a viable option.

Or, now hear me out, you could make the death ray a true super weapon! Crazy high damage to both shield and hull, and a longer range, but the reload time would be VERY long, 45 maybe more. At this point it is really only useful for stations or ambushes so it would completely change the game when you get one.

Even the most pathetic death ray is still quite a bit stronger than anything else.

Take a sucky death ray with only 300 shield damage, 180 hull at 1000 range. Suucks rite? 3 upgrades later its 1300 range which is in missile/rocket range. The shield damage can be upgraded, so that it still takes full shields down in 1 hit from long range, immediately and with no missing. This is already quite a bit better than laser cannon, energy cannon, dual plasma, etc.

The super long cooldown version would not work because it would 1 shot players... which already happens but this would make it much worse.

I think it is perfectly viable by reducing some of the variability, and doing 1 of the 3 things. more cooldown, less shield more hull dmg, OR more shield less hull dmg.

I'll be honest by the time I am getting deathrays, usually map 3 or 4, I am done with my build. I won't even acknowledge anything with less than 200 base damage. And by this point almost nothing can stand against me. I am genocide.
The only thing that can stop me is multiple ships with death rays. The fact that the death ray is so OP is the only reason that I can't be 100% sure of victory after the 3rd map. It's threat is the only reason I can't blast straight to the final boss. At the end of it all it does not matter if the game is fair, it matters if the game is fun. A guaranteed victory is not fun it's boring.