Fresh off that
SG loss, time for an equally fun but slightly less crazy challenge mode!
Pure Core is the mode where you cannot carry anything in inventory--no spare parts! This mode is a bit friendlier to flight, which doesn't need much in the way of spares, but I... can't stop myself from combatting :). I did find some prototype flight units early on and against my better judgment tried that for a bit, but I'm just not cut out for flight and ended up going back to combat before long on the same floor :P
Across about three hours of streaming we made it through some caves, got imprinted as planned, and have arrived at -3/Research where things will likely get tougher. The stream has been
.
I was thinking of going mostly legs for this, since spare legs are the easiest propulsion to come by when you're combat, but I ended up on a 1-wheel + treads setup and started really liking it for the speed when outside combat combined with treads for combat use and protective value. It's really nice! I started with just a basic wheel, but then upgraded to an Arm. Huge Wheel and was more recently joined by little Centrium wheels as well :D (Not even overweight anymore!)
Strategy-wise the main goal was to avoid branches, and especially caves (attrition danger!), so I made sure to know where exits lead before taking them. That said, I decided that in the long-term, considering the lack of inventory I
would like to find Zion in order to significantly increase the chances of winning this run. (It's funny I say this, though, because technically I've
never won a single run after imprinting, even regular runs, as I end up using the resulting capabilities to get myself into more trouble--this time will be different! Right? :P. Seriously though, I'm being a lot more careful with it this time, and things are going well.)
Some highlights and more commentary:
Me trying to flight. Yeah no.
Sentry misses! Sentry hits reactor! Reactor explodes! Cover is destroyed! Oh look there's also another squad that was behind the wall to the east! (that Min. Assault Cannon carried for quite a while, though--I gathered all these fools around the other reactor then blew it up ;))
Made it mostly through the caves on -7 before discovering via Derelict Log that Zion was at a different depth, so bailed early. Visiting as few Proxy caves as possible is a good idea without any inventory for backup :P
This was more or less my build for much of the mid-game (notice that cannon is still there, it really did stick around for ages and was only later gone because I gave it up for a slightly different loadout).
Also pictured are the two drone-discovered exits I wasn't 100% sure about (was looking for the caves to Zion here), so I ended up spending a while traveling around before taking a Watcher's Signal Interpreter to figure out what they were--Extension and Factory!--and then hacked all branch exits at a Terminal (it was worth getting traced!) which revealed the caves exit I wanted... near the starting area xD
Found a Behemoth in the caves, but just ran from it and made it to Zion. Zion had some great stuff, but nothing I could use without an inventory! In any case, imprinting was the goal. Here we are exiting for the trip back.
Having a bunch of derelict logs made -5 pretty trivial since all the Terminals and non-interactive machines were revealed, plus a Factory exit :D
Here's my Z army making its way through -4 with me.
And this is where we left off! My weapons are a bit outdated for Research. Gonna have to deal with that. Also my utilities could use an overhaul xD
Funny enough I haven't come across a single launcher at all this run, perhaps for the better since I can't keep it in my inventory and it'll probably cause more trouble than it's worth in the short term. Swarmer management hasn't been too much trouble even without AOE.
I'll try to stream the conclusion tomorrow. Pure Core Win?
