Pulsar Lost Colony Obscure Game Mechanics (Outdated)

Introduction

This guide is not for brand new players; it expects that you already know the basics of each station.

This game has many mechanics that are not fully explained, and I hope to address them here. I will start by pointing out class-specific tips and tricks, followed by general tips at the end. I have about 30 hours in the game, which isn't a lot, but this should help mid-level players.

A lot of this is speculative, and opinion based. If you find any information that is completely wrong, please let me know so I can change it - I haven't done extensive testing, this is just what I've determined so far. Do not take all instructions literally, not my fault if you get yourself killed doing it, etc etc.

Engineer

When you intend to charge your warp drive, the Warp Drive Charge will fill based on your engineering power, while the Warp Drive Calculation will fill based on science power and your jump processors. Jump processors do not seem to affect Warp Drive Charge.

When jumping, it's approximately 5 seconds after both bars fill until you can jump, which can help you give an estimated time to the captain.

The core is perfectly safe all the way until it reaches critical temperature; keep all systems at full power until it starts getting close. Only then should you throttle down the appropriate section, and only until the temp has dropped just enough. There is no need to over-cool the reactor during combat, 90% heat is fine. If you have trouble getting the heat to stop rising with one system, the total usage slider can be used, but should otherwise be avoided if possible.

When choosing which section to throttle down, it is good to know what viruses are in effect. For example, if a fresh Phalanx has just hit, you can cut power to weapons for a short while to cool the core, since there will be time to hurt the enemy (unless it's a very powerful ship). If it's near the end of the Phalanx, however, you want as much power to weapons as possible so they can try to finish it off or damage it before the shields return. In this case, you would be able to drop engineering, because there's less need to keep distance when you're trying to get the kill.

It is almost never a good idea to drop Shield power, even if it's the heaviest draw on the system, unless the fight is over.

Science can be dropped to 0 once a fight starts; this will not affect their programs, but gaining too much distance on the enemy may cause you to lose it on sensors. Generally, though, once combat has started, the ship remains visible despite your science level. Remember to restore it to full before charging your warp drive.

If absolutely necessary, you can turn off the core safety and it can survive critical temperature for up to ~10 seconds. This may help in a pinch but is usually very dangerous and I would recommend using coolant if it comes to this.

Maximize the coolant talent first, even if you rarely or never use coolant. It will help in those rare situations where you absolutely need it.

If you can convince your captain to get a good enough reactor, your job becomes almost obsolete, and you should instead focus on manning a turret and boarding (checking on the temperature periodically). Let your crew know if you intend to do this and be prepared to run back from the weapons to pop a fuel capsule for science.

Scientist

When choosing shield modulation, I find that you'll want modulated shields for 90% of enemies. Most enemies will only hurt you with their main cannon, which appears to be an energy weapon. However, if your engines are not good enough to keep distance, and they have a scattergun, you will want static.

Programs charge based on their order on the screen; from left to right. There seems to be some randomness in this, and I've been unable to confirm if a row has priority (versus the columns, which do).

You can drag and move these programs yourself from the program screen.

SapphireSage had this to say about the search function on your computer:

Originally posted by SapphireSage:So typically when fighting an enemy you can select them on the sensors screen and the top will display some informtion such as:

-This ship is hostile

-This ship has detected you

-This ship is a match for GX 08 entry.

On the main screen you can run a search for GX 08, for example, to determine the ships' class.

There are more entries for the GX series of searches, but its usually just general info and lore. You can just start at GX 00 or 01 and count up to 40 something I think is when it stops.

ThusExceed adds

Originally posted by ThusExceed:The Scientist could theoretically check the reload duration of their maingun and prepare the shield type to modulate beforehand and switching back after that if necessary. Even the Pilot/WeaponSpecialist could assist in that (by telling that the enemy-maingun is charging up (animation)) to prevent bigger damage.I agree, though you can't rely on reload times because the AI ship may not be pointing at you when it's capable of firing. Just have your pilot or weapons say "Main cannon" or anything along those lines when they see it firing, and you as a scientist must be prepared to swap if you choose to do this.

Pilot

When navigating to the next sector, it's best to call out the sector number as you turn for it. Your engineer will be able to tell when you are aligned and jump immediately instead of waiting for the command, and it reduces the risk of having a trigger happy Engineer jump to the wrong sector.

I suggest using Manual mode, Hybrid camera for the best results. I would also recommend rebinding right click to full reverse, and using middle click for maneuver mode. With these settings, you will not have trouble determining your orientation, and can dodge more easily. Binary thrust controls are also very effective for dodging.

When at low thrust/character levels, dodging becomes difficult unless you can keep moving, but usually your reactor limits this.

Once you have your pilot skills maxed out, you no longer have to keep moving unless the ship has close range weapons. You can dodge all railguns by sitting in place and moving forward or backward as it fires, alternatingly. The main turret is harder, but if you can get far enough out of its initial aim-line, it will either not fire or miss entirely.

Strafe-thrusting (with maneuver mode) is sometimes effective at dodging main cannons, since you can choose the direction very effectively with no regard to which way you're facing, but is often too slow to reliably dodge and should be avoided unless you've upgraded those thrusters significantly.

If the enemy has scatterguns, no matter how good your shields are, keep a distance of at least 3-4KM. They're terrible weapons once you're at range, but their sole purpose is to force you to waste reactor power keeping your distance, which is the only real solution to them.

Your turn speed is affected negatively by your forward thrust. If you want to turn quickly, cut your thrust.

Weapons

There is little to say about the weapons specialist, except what I will mention in general strategy. Please refer to that.

Otherwise, for the main turret, the shot is most powerful when both circles are aligned. Hold the mouse button until then and release, then aim your shot (just make sure you have vision before you start)

Hold right click to lock on and fire a missile. The captain usually will dictate a target, but if not, weapons is often a good choice. Try to avoid wasting missiles on small drones and easy targets.

Captain/General

Since the Captain basically makes decisions for the ship, this is where I will be including general strategy tips.

Starting Off:

Credit Siphon. Get it ASAP and use it on everyone. Small drones have only a few hundred credits, normal drones a few thousand, and player-level ships have many thousands. If your ship is not taking damage from a player ship, keep it alive as long as possible and repeatedly credit siphon with fuel capsules. Each siphon is worth much more than each capsule and you will come out of it very rich with very low chaos.

You will need Backdoor after chaos goes up a bit, because most ships will resist the Credit Siphon. At higher levels you may need multiple backdoors.

Stealth is also a good idea with this, especially if you have the stealth ship (obviously). Even on the others, if you set up your systems properly, you can avoid being detected and steal their credits with no consequence (and blow them up when they run out).

For the early systems, remember that each jump increases Chaos by 0.1. This means you shouldn't jump to store, to store, to store; each store increases Chaos without actually earning you money. Planets are often not as profitable as real ships, especially if you have credit siphon.

Also avoid increasing Chaos by raiding stations. Chaos maxes out at 6, and never goes down; the goal of the game is to get as well equipped as possible before Chaos 6, which is when basically every fight is a boss.

Boarding General:

Boarding is super important for difficult ships. This is for the Captain, the Weapons Specialist, and the Engineer if there is a good reactor. Most ships have their weapons room very near the teleporter; jump on deck and shoot it down immediately. This can be done relatively easily with one player, and then you can abuse the bad AI to kill them while they shoot at walls.

After you have taken out weapons, it is best to capture the ship completely. Ignore the other modules and get to the bridge to capture. Most bridges will cause the AI to get stuck on the way up, making it very easy to hold, and the AI cannot shoot through their own screens properly, so use this to your advantage. Once you have the required number of screens, capture the ship, if it's still alive.

Once you have captured the ship, you can consider moving over cargo, but unless that was your original plan, you usually will recapture your old ship. Before you do so, kill all the crew and shut down the shields, then blast it out of the sky for the scrap.

When in an on-foot gunfight, strafing immediately after the enemy fires will make them miss at medium+ range. In larger ships, it's possible to dodge constantly by timing left/right strafes, and kill the entire crew without problems.

Upgrading to a new Ship:

Once you reach Chaos 6, the enemy ships are as hard as they're going to get and are generally better than yours in every way. As soon as you get to Chaos 6, get to a repair station, and remove any modules you'd like to keep (if you happen to have something very, very good). Most modules are disposable however, because the enemy ships will have modules better than what can be found in stores. I do not suggest replacing your shields or reactor since you need your ship to survive until boarding is finished.

For this, Gentleman's Welcome is an amazing virus, with or without backdoor (GW seems to get through very often regardless of high cyberdefense). If you have it, you can remove all of your turrets and store them in cargo to transfer to the new ship; you do not need to damage the other ship, and if they're not as good as the new ship's turrets, you can still sell them. It's also good to remove any programs you won't use in this non-combat situation (like sitting duck, phalanx, etc), in case the new ship doesn't have them, or to sell afterward. Purchasing extra GW viruses is also a good idea, in case they don't have it and the shop changes its inventory.

Once you've removed all the components you want and have GW, jump to sectors that are near shops only. Some ships may have a warp drive that is too short to get back to a shop, and then you're stuck until you capture another. Run from drones.

The first player ship you capture should hopefully be an upgrade in everything that you have not yet removed from your ship, and will often be an upgrade even to those. After the first ship, you will keep all good components in storage, so you will want to capture every ship you come across so you can at least sell off its programs/processors/turrets.

When you find one, immediately start the Gentleman's Welcome virus. Have the entire team wait at the teleporter pad; since weapons are not firing, your reactor should be able to handle the shields if they are good enough to survive a few seconds.

Once the virus pops, charge on board. Shoot down their weapons system and immediately get to the bridge. Per previous instructions, capture as soon as possible to prevent them from hurting your ship. Then, go back to your old ship, transfer over all cargo, turn off shields, and blow it up for scrap.

Repeat all of this for each ship you capture. Each ship, you will at the very least be able to sell all turrets and 90% of the viruses (from the previous ship) for massive credit gains. Keep the best turrets with you if possible, so that you'll have the highest level turrets you can find when you decide on a ship to keep. You want all components at a level that the shop cannot provide before re-equipping your good gear.

Once you feel you have a great ship, try to take on the "!" points on the map. If you're very rich, you may even be able to keep your good equipment in cargo and transfer it all to the boss ship, which will generally always be better.

Cheaty Tricks:

These aren't necessarily reliable, and are just a few things I've noticed but never tried exploiting. Use at your own risk.

Shops will often change their inventory at what seems to be random intervals. Saving and reloading the game is very likely to make this happen and can be done repeatedly to find the best gear shops offer.

When you have captured a ship, if you leave your old ship alive and save/reload, there will generally be another enemy ship in the same sector. This allows you to grind ships without increasing the Chaos level.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=543877110

Obscure Game Mechanics (Outdated)