(https://i.imgur.com/nNZpftQ.png)])
This is already by far my longest run ever, combining all the stream talking with this slower meandering play style that is a bit more thoughtful with all this hacking. (Yet more hacking achievements earned today!) Another four hours in and we're up at -5, still not even into the really hard stuff, but at least still well on our way to Armory.
Today there were quite a few hairy incidents, and we've gotten gradually lower on couplers to the point that we're playing a sort of heavily armored wheeled infowar build now, one which sometimes hacks stuff when possible. RIF has still been pretty useful overall, though, especially when we dove into our fourth Garrison to "get out of trouble" :P
Solved the heavily damaged Lrg. Storage Unit problem by repairing two of them here:
(https://i.imgur.com/nNZpftQ.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/3ec8NI1.png)
Then despite having explored a fair bit of -5/Factory, trouble reared its head and I decided to run from it to escape through a Garrison. Good timing, really!
(https://i.imgur.com/4SVKhDF.png)
For a little while there we were on treads (low armor, wheels got taken out), which made things a bit harder given how slow we were.
But hey, at least we could dive into a Garrison to grab a few more couplers and head back out into a somewhat safer floor, yeah? :). Well first there's the question of the Behemoth in the middle...
(https://i.imgur.com/duz2SqD.png)
As you can see we have a ton of infowar abilities (attached and/or in inventory), so playing smart was a must. Terrain scanning has been a boon throughout the run, including here where the best option was clearly to follow tunnels through the walls to the south and cut into the southeast quadrant. Too bad we had no way to reasonably deal with a Behemoth so it ended up being a SE exit after grabbing some more gear over there.
In the new -5/Factory section a helpful Hauler dropped a bunch of Mni. Smartbomb Launchers :D
(https://i.imgur.com/lIoBaCl.png)
Today one of the hacking themes was telling Workers to dismantled explosive machines, which worked quite well. This Hauler's escort was eliminated using just that strategy (notice all the debris...).
(https://i.imgur.com/h4ddx0e.png)
The star of the mid-game! A full stash of Imp. Power Armor, pretty much all of which was taken along for the ride...
(https://i.imgur.com/lg47dlX.png)
"Set dismantle target: Nuclear Reactor." That worker to the east is about to kill most of these bots ;)
(https://i.imgur.com/ljz4GoM.png)
(Before it reached its target I also reprogrammed the Angel to protect me instead of its friends :P)
After lots and lots and lots of exploration, a desirable caves exit was finally located, and just in time as alert was getting high and more Programmers were coming.
(https://i.imgur.com/6ITtn3V.png)
We entered from the southeast, found a regular exit in the southwest, then in the search for a caves exit headed northeast across the entire map to find one in the corner.
(https://i.imgur.com/nNZpftQ.png) (https://i.imgur.com/nNZpftQ.png)
The stream ended here:
(https://i.imgur.com/bvB31aK.png)
But not before exploring a bit of the caves and sheesh was it a rocky start.
Corruption was high so I hung by the secluded entry area and spent numerous turns purging it with the System Backup Module, not paying attention to the fact that matter fusing kept kicking in and suddenly we went from a ton of matter to almost none!
Caught it with about 40 left, which is still salvageable, at least, but then rounded the corner to seek out more and immediately got spotted by a Sentry which woke up its outpost! (Really wish the Transmission Jammer had been on...)
Anyway, dealt with that mess and that's where we are now, ready for some spelunking!