Do you know what you're talking about?
When does this stop working?
- Around level 10 with +3000 trophies it starts becoming less effective. It's not so much that it stops working, you should still win way more than you lose. However at that level/trophy range lots of people have decent defender crew protecting their shield rooms (I see lots of Mistycball or Dolores) which makes the core of the strategy less effective. I haven't yet perfected something better that's worth writing down, but past 3k trophies the game gets more serious and you might need to change things up.
Why don't you try to defend [X]?
- Because killing the enemy ship faster than they kill you is usually better. Other strategies like Tele/Hangar rush are very crew dependant - if their crew is good, they've rushed before you can counter, and if their crew is bad it's not a threat. Either way you can't control it so ignore it and kill their ship before it matters. The only exception is boarders - you cannot ignore them so Defender crew are necessary. But for everything else? Just out DPS them and win!
But I want to EMP their (hanger/TP/Missiles/etc)?!?!
- Go for it! I don't, it never worked out better than doing pure damage for me so I stopped. If it works for you, sweet, each crew and ship setup is unique so whatever works for you is awesome.
What do I do when upgrading my Teleporter (or any other room)?
- I just keep on doing PvP like normal without worrying. Sure my boarders don't go across if tele is out but the rest of the crew are still setup for a gun ship which is always effective so it's not a huge deal. You win-rate will drop a bit, but the game doesn't become unplayable. The same for any other room. Unless you're waiting to specifically level crew, you should always have one or two weapons upgrading at all times and it's not a big deal - remember all your opponents will usually have 1 or 2 offline rooms as well so it's even.
Why no shield crew?
- The shield gets focused quite regularly, any crew standing there often get destroyed for little value. In my (limited) experience it seemed better to just go for all gunners and have repair crew run in/out of the shield room to repair it rather than having anyone dedicated to stand there. If you get some really nice +Science stat crew though others have had great success with it, but I found more damage (i.e. gunners) better every time over extra shields.
How do I craft equipment?
- Goto your inventory (little buttons in the bottom left of your screen - they only appear if you have inventory though). Click on an item like Scrap Iron and it'll give you some options like sell, discard or upgrade. Click upgrade and then it'll show you something to craft - click the left/right buttons till you find the thing you want to make then make it.
I tried it and it didn't work...
- Watch your replays and try to figure out why. Under levelled boarders? Ineffective repair AI? Bad ship layout? Fighting higher level opponents? The strategy in general does work, so if it's failing for you there will be specific reason(s) why that you'll need to find.
What about Prestiging?
- That's where the new Prestige Calculator comes into play. It's not a full part of the guide, but once you get to level 10, you can use it to plan your prestige path. However exactly what you should go for and when? That might turn up in the guide one day, but not yet.
