I hid the operator that was still with me from -8, and triggered the proximity alarm from the bottom, to have as much time alone with Z-Imprinter as possible before the two lights arrived.
The fight went by without much trouble except for the part where i lost all my propulsion (threads), so i went hover for a while, destabilized Z-power, got Scannerbot 24's scanner and chip, then hauled everything i had to the other side of the cave(avoiding the other Z-lights), where i planned the Golem fight for a while (it went really well) then triggered the wall, and used two explosive launchers to deal with the assembled, with only one tile of golem chamber getting breached. I got three Golem units (equipped none) and left.
The proximity caves weren't very kind, giving me a Behemoth right at the end. I equipped one golem unit in order to be sure that i would defeat it.
-6/Factory : Propulsion x1, Utility x1.
My operator friend didn't make it out of that level, which i exited without trouble worth remembering. In the caves i encountered the tinkerer that gave me the Heart of Steel, which i couldn't currently equip without removing either my Exp. Core Analyzer or losing my currently equipped Golem Unit, thanks to only having five utility slots. I then met Data Miner, and in the proxy caves the Enhanced Grunt was destroyed very quickly (but not before i learned that neutron cannons could trigger chain reactions). I also met the annoying tinkerer and got the behemoth hack.
-5/factory : Utility x1, Weapon x1.
After getting to the upper caves rather quickly, i rid said first cave of 0b10 bots, including one outpost, to get matter for HoS, then exited to the next upper caves, forgetting to rewire the two brawlers that were in the outpost.
Apart from the behemoth, i also rid the next cave of 0b10 bots, although the outpost attack didn't go as well as it could have. I had traps to place, but the only ones that i correctly placed were those for the reinforcement ARC. I did remember to rewire the bot from this outpost, though.
I then got to Warlord's, took an Exp. Focal Shield and an Exp. Phase Shifter from the stash (didn't take the Vortex Chain Reactor, for an illogical reason.), a Vortex Cannon from the lab, and a Throwing Claymore V3 from a stockpile of them. (why wouldn't you want powerful explosions that can't blow up in your face, that deal extra damage to the target and have great aiming, you foolish derelict?)
I also found the new fabricator trojan. Wow that could've been useful earlier on.
I then exited with the retreat, having finally seen the beginning from where i wanted.
Proxy Caves were uneventful.
-4/Factory (IT BEGINS) : Propulsion x2.
First i go too close to a Heavy, and left my hunter ally to be destroyed by the specialists that didn't see me, then when going around the Heavy there was a rotation, which i tried using to get closer to one of the caves exit, which was probably blocked by the Heavy's previous location, but not much before i got through, i sensed an incoming ARC, with another Heavy not far behind. Did i mention that there was a factory exit very close by, from the way i came from? I think you can imagine the consequences of that arc spotting me while the Heavy was in its line of sight.
Fortunately the ARC turned around right before spotting me, and i managed to escape that situation unnoticed. However, i was on the wrong side of the Heavy, so i went for the other caves exit.
Final upper caves : not much to say here, took down a behemoth without much trouble. I met Zhirov and AA07 was an Integrated Reactor. I kept AA04 (labelled it) and moved on.
Like the previous caves, the final proxy caves weren't very eventful either, but still slightly more. At the start i used two claymores to take out two swarmer squads, and at the end i found another Alien Artifact. Couldn't have been a better depth.
Spoilers for the research levels and for an event!
-3/Research : Propulsion x2. Yep. Two times in a row. I now have eight propulsion slots on my first threaded run.
Nothing significant enough for me to remember, although the Farcom warning about research branches always scares me a bit.(this was my second Beta 11 run, but still.)
-2/Research : Propulsion x1, Utility x1. At least i also got a utility slot, which i had wanted for a while now.
I guess i understand why, but i still find somewhat weird that the "Warlord forces began assault on 0b10" part of the history log occurs before the evolution part.
I began near the northwestern part of the level, and Warlord at the... south?-eastern part, so it took me a while to reach him. By then, three escorts had been dispatched, which is more than i think i've ever seen Warlord get. Also Warlord was at the central-eastern part of the level now.
I stayed with him for a while, and the first exit i found was to Quarantine (no thank you). At some point, Warlord began fighting an assault squad while i was getting some parts from a room. The situation looked dire for Warlord, and i wasn't sure i wanted to come close and take some explosions when his fate looked sealed. So i left, going to one of the exits marked from the assault dispatches (specifically, i went to the closest-looking one with enough dispatches to not be Quarantine). I was sad to leave Warlord to die, as (heavy spoilers)
i wanted to be invited to help at Command so that i could rely on Warlord if i found the Access exit to Command but not Surface.
One of the borebot tunnels led very close to my goal, so that was great. I did have to fight an assault squad consisting of a Demolisher, a Striker, and a squad of Swarmers. It didn't go as badly as i was expecting, and my third claymore went to the swarmers.
I get close to the exit, and OH NO it's a garrison. I realized too late that dispatches from garrisons could be adjacent to its entrance in two ways. I didn't want to stay in this level longer than i needed to and risk having to fight more assault squads, so i entered it, hoping that it wouldn't lead to Quarantine.
I got RIF instantly, which was nice, and the derelicts that went with me destroyed a few bots before getting destroyed themselves. I exited the garrison with four bots i "borrowed", and exited to... Research. Whew, not Access as i was hoping, but still nice.
I spotted a garrison quickly, and went to seal it, but then noticed it was in a Heavy's area of influence. If you read my mistake log recently, you know what happened. I still went for it, but the Specialists were dispatched almost instantly. So i went around, without noticing there was a corridor leading directly to the Heavy, who saw me. The situation quickly deteriorated, with a nearby grunt squad being told by the Heavy where we were, and another squad coming from the garrison. I panicked, and entered the garrison after checking that the specialists couldn't destroy it.
The garrison didn't go badly, and the exit lead to... Access! Yay! However, i didn't find the RIF installer after checking three out of the four main branches, which would've been nice to get. Like the previous garrison, i was able to drop most of my stuff to then be able to drop my storage unit and integrate an Alloy Armor before leaving. I left with four allies and two Relay Couplers [NC] that i planned to use on operators to lower the alert. (I didn't explore the fourth branch and upgrade RIF to avoid raising my alert level too high.)
-1/Access. Final Evolution (Come on, give me some utility! Please, no propulsion!) : Power x1, Weapon x1. (OH COME ON)
Spoilers for Access and things related to -1!
I got rid of my Alloy Armor to equip Scannerbot 24's chip for its benefits and quickly found the Command exit (the classic Access curse of almost never getting the exit you want first), which Data Miner opened the doors of, and i then used my DNI. The plan was this : try to find the exit to the surface, but if things got too rough teleport to Command and try my luck there. Since i wouldn't get a Warlord dispatch there, things weren't as ideal as they could've been, but Command is smaller than Access, so it wouldn't be that bad with Farcom to help me.
At about the same time i reached the Command exit, "Severe disruption in zone whatever, dispatching multiple assault squads". Oh, that's nice, now you get to know if there's just one! But also : Oh no. Data Miner redirected one, and my allies were destroyed while destroying the remaining one.
After that, i found a simple hacking suite (that i kept to try and hack the Access exit). To make space for it, i rid myself of my first Golem Unit and equipped one of my two pristine others. I also tried going through four tiles of unstable ceiling, and lost both my Scannerbot utilities. I then found a Garrison, which i got closer to, but there were swarmers around it, so i tried going around, and spotted a terminal.
Before i could get to it, an extermination squad was dispatched, which i easily dealt with, but then another Programmer squad arrived (might've been the actual extermination squad) and my positioning was less than ideal : A Watcher spotted me through the open doors to the terminal, and alerted a nearby Grunt squad. When i was fighting them somewhat exposed to their fire, (forgot i had some nice explosives) i sensed a Heavy going through the corridor nearby, and i really didn't want them to spot me. Then an assault squad was dispatched, and i panicked and teleported.
I used the end of my system restorator and waited near the entrance to Command for a while, to integrate undamaged parts and lower my alert level as much as possible before going to Command. When i finally entered Command, i had an initial influence of 320.
-1/Command : This is it, i can't run anymore. (Spoilers for Command!)
I avoided patrols quite easily at first (by avoided i mean i didn't see many in the first place), and and then hacked a Watcher to avoid raising alert by destroying it. I didn't know what the hacks actually do apart from those common to most bots (and didn't realise i could probably right-click them(i think robot hacks should be right-clickable even when greyed out, so one doesn't have to get RIF and a matching coupler to know what each does, and could also preview it without using the wiki or such)), but i tried the "map_route" one.
Wow that's useful. An entire part of Command i don't have to worry about exploring! I wish i knew that sooner. I then used formatsys_low (to avoid raising alert), and went to the cave seal the Watcher had seen. I hacked another nearby Watcher, and went to hack the seal using my hacking suite to let out a few derelicts to cause trouble that wouldn't be associated with me, and succeeded!
...
...
...WARLORD?! You're alive? And also didn't invite me to Command but still got here?!
From this point on, things were looking incredibly bright; this changed everything! I didn't have to try to get to the exit from the back anymore, i could just fight my way through the front! I then found and destroyed the Phase Generator, found the other cave seal (success again) and the exit, and began the battle. It was really easy, especially considering i hacked both Behemoths. Victory!
So yeah. I never used my Molecular Deconstructor after getting into Deep Caves, never used Heart of Steel, certainly never required three Golem Units (two would've been fine! what was i thinking?! I knew that one usually lasted me up to about -2, why did i take three? And why did i wait so long to get rid of one? Two inventory spaces completely wasted!), never actually used my Exp. Phase Shifter, and didn't get much use of my Superbattery because i never used that many focal cannons at once and that i used an Integrated Reactor.
I'm pretty happy that i won, Warlord was certainly a welcome surprise as well as good knowledge for future runs : Warlord's invitation is completely useless probably (unless you want points).
Final slot distribution : 3-9-7-7
I don't know why UnstableEvolution liked propulsion so much, but the feeling of trying to get a threaded Golem build into those slots makes me think of an image of someone trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and managing by compressing the cube. I never had that much propulsion, and only ever had that many weapons slots once. I also never had that few utility slots. Hope you enjoyed the story.