Psychic slug thing

Lerxst · May 11, 2015, 02:21:46 AM

Really? Is there some trick to killing this thing without destroying your entire colony in the process? At the point it shows up, I never have strong enough weapons or enough silver to buy better ones.

I built 2 turrets out to it, ran a conduit and managed to kill it after my one scout "knocked" on the door. Focused back on my base and realized every freakin creature on the map had ransacked my base and incapacitated everyone - my turrets just couldn't keep up.

So what's the trick here?

It shows up too early in the game for me to ignore since everyone is ready to rip each other's throats out after about a month. And I don't have the firepower to take it, or the wildlife out when I attack it.

billycop32 · May 11, 2015, 02:34:20 AM

are you talking about the crashed ship part?

Frankenbeasley · May 11, 2015, 08:39:33 AM

Cross your fingers and hope some locals pass by before you all go nuts. If they do, wait till they are close and then free the beasties and see if the visitors can soften them up for you.

Listy · May 11, 2015, 09:02:48 AM

Quote from: Lerxst on May 11, 2015, 02:21:46 AM
Really? Is there some trick to killing this thing without destroying your entire colony in the process? At the point it shows up, I never have strong enough weapons or enough silver to buy better ones.

I built 2 turrets out to it, ran a conduit and managed to kill it after my one scout "knocked" on the door. Focused back on my base and realized every freakin creature on the map had ransacked my base and incapacitated everyone - my turrets just couldn't keep up.

So what's the trick here?

It shows up too early in the game for me to ignore since everyone is ready to rip each other's throats out after about a month. And I don't have the firepower to take it, or the wildlife out when I attack it.

It can be done, but its a pain in the butt. Sometimes you get it when you're at a very early stage and then you're just stuffed.

As soon as you get the warning React! Do not wait, do not pass go.

Do you have a lot of steel and lots of good builders? Place unpowered gun turrets around it. Fire one round at the ship and then wait for the explosion.

Not much steel and good builders? About 20 squares away build 1 cell stone walls, three cells apart in a square around it. Then use these for your colonists to hide behind and have a gun fight.

Grenades are a god send for dealing with the ship and its minions as well. Again pre-pare the ground giving them good cover.

Someone on here built a very cunning crashed ship destroyer not so long ago.

Or failing all that, if it is truly to hard, engage dev mode, and smite it from orbit its the only way to be sure ("Destroy" option).

Rahjital · May 11, 2015, 11:44:08 AM

You can also cheese it: build a wooden room around the evil ship and then deconstruct all the walls, the roof will collapse and vapourise the ship. However, you'll also loose about $2300 worth of loot.

Ketzal · May 11, 2015, 11:46:50 AM

If you make a no roof zone directly above the ship and then roof in the rest of the surrounding areas you will be able to kill the mechs without destroying ship.

Lerxst · May 11, 2015, 11:47:53 AM

I just restarted the colony. It crashed down about 1 month into the game when I only had 5 colonists using crappy weapons.

So far so good on the new game...

Kegereneku · May 11, 2015, 03:45:41 PM

I'm one year in. The game consider I must be fully equipped to fight 3 Centipede or 7 Scyther.

... I can only do so abusing my only Sniper ability to outrange them.

keylocke · May 11, 2015, 10:39:21 PM

beating mechs with low tier gear is doable. it just needs more micromanagement.

you're not supposed to just park your troops and let them become target practice, you're supposed to use one as a bait (ie : get him close enough to get mech attention, shoot before the enemy aims, then hide him behind a wall before mech shoots, rinse and repeat), so the other colonists can keep on shooting unimpeded.

this becomes easier when you get plenty of sniper rifles and colonists with good shooting skills, since you can easily outrange the scythers.

amul · May 12, 2015, 02:15:15 AM

Use cover, frequent use of the pause feature, and hit and run tactics.

Move to a spot of cover that lets your colonist attack, let them fire off a few shots and then duck deeper into a recess right as the guns whirl up so there's no chance of them getting hit. Spread your guys out so there's no question who is being targeted, so your other guys can keep firing.

I've beaten two centipedes this way with my starting 3 colonists. One guy just ran around keeping their attention while the other two fired from extreme range.

Lerxst · May 12, 2015, 12:41:05 PM

The colonists in question for the colony only had 1 pistol, 1 rifle and 1 knife. The centipede had a mini-gun. On one attempt, just the stray bullets from the mini gun killed one guy and blinded the other, leaving me with the guy who "brought a knife to a gun fight".

On another reload/attempt, my two other colonists shot and killed the dude with the knife.

/facepalm

hyperpeople · May 12, 2015, 04:09:25 PM

At this point i want to share a little pic with you. The text in the upper left says "The trader has been successfully defended"
You just have to shoot at this lil shit at the right time

I didnt do anything myself to kill the machanoids.

amul · May 13, 2015, 01:23:09 AM

Quote from: Lerxst on May 12, 2015, 12:41:05 PM... On one attempt, just the stray bullets from the mini gun killed one guy and blinded the other...

On another reload/attempt, my two other colonists shot and killed the dude with the knife.

I think perhaps we are using different meanings for the word "cover." Im talking about rock formations to hide behind, not trees or chunks. Things that actually block shots.

And keeping your guys from killing each other is why I suggested you keep them spread out, and have the knife guy circle around.

LittleGreenStone · May 13, 2015, 01:39:26 AM

As others too said, you can build cover to help your colonists (best looks like: one sandbag, two walls, one sandback, two walls, sandbag, and so on -have colonists stand behind the walls)
it'll help a lot, as it is the best vanilla cover there is.
If you have sniper, that helps too. Killboxes with a few turrets and grenadiers work miracles as well.
Abuse weapons with good range or rate of fire,
I've killed centipedes using a single colonist with a pistol (though it sure took some time); send colonist behind a wall, centipede can't attack, send colonist to the edge of the wall so he can shoot, let him(/her) shoot, then before mechanoid starts firing at your colonist, send him back behind the wall. Centi now will not fire, as your colonist is behind an obstacle and cannot be targeted. Repeat until centi is dead.
You can combine this tactic, send the other colonists with weapons (again, behind walls where they can NOT be targeted), draw fire with once colonist, watch if the mechanoids actually start attacking the colonist, then come out with the rest of your colonists while you send the one drawing fire behind a cover. If you are doing it right, you won't even have a wounded colonist, however it requires a lot of micro-management.