Halcyon 6 : Tips and Tricks (27 Apr 16)

Overview

Random tips and tricks after finishing my first playthrough

Starting out

Personally I started the game off with Isolde, going for a Knight for ship choice, my second being a science officer with the Acolyte for aoe Sensor Offline (Most useful ability in the game imo).
Note: The Knight, Rogue, Acolyte combo needs some officer healing abilites to be viable imo

So to keep it really basic think
Engineering – Tank (Highest Threat)
Science – Healer (Medium Threat)
Tactical – Rogue (Lowest Threat)

Rule of thumb, apart from the Pirate Shuttles you should aim to only take on enemies with the same number of ships, if they have 3 you take 3, For the first Chruul fleet you should have time to build up to three before losing the resource they are attacking if you take out some pirates for resources.

Each Officer comes with a set of abilties they can learn ingame, this is on top of the ship abilties that come with each ship.

When you pick any officer’s I suggest you
see what abilities you can combo with
(see Starting Ship Options)

Act 1 – Early Game

The biggest mistake I made on my first playthrough and I’m sure alot of people make is rushing things.

You really want to get 3 officers asap (Officer’s Lounge reasearched and built) so you can have 3 ships.

At this point you should be focusing on exploring / gathering resources, doing the odd quest and keeping the Chruul in check (Maximum of one portal open at a time).

There should be no reason to give up any discovered resources.
(Dark Matter seeming to be the most used)

The game really kicks into gear after you visit Terra or hit around day 200 (I think), up until then you can go at your own pace, after that the game will dictate the pace.

I recommend before you go to Terra you have at least 1-2 Tier two ships if not all three.

And two big tips :

Use Spacebar to Play/Pause on the starmap
Save your game alot, different slots!

Note: This is concept art and hopefully we can look forward to away missions later!

Officer Ability Examples

Some Useful Officer Abilities to look out for

Engineering

Salvage Harpoon
Repair Drone Overdrive

Tactical

Backstab Maneuver
Into the Fray

Science

Bend Space Time
Nano Restoration Field

Note:
I recommend focusing on 1-2 abilities in the early game

Starting Ship Options

You want to start off your game with some combos in mind that will not only cause significant damage but will end fights more quickly saving you alot of incoming damage

Engineering

Knight

Exploits – Engines Down (Med-Strong Combo), Crew Panic (Weak Combo)
Inflicts – Ship Disable, Hull Breach

Warder

Exploits – None
Inflicts – Hull Breach, Vulnerable

Tactical

Rogue

Exploits – Sensors Offline (Strong Combo), Vulnerable (Weak Combo)
Inflicts – Engines Down, Sabotage

Marksman

Exploits – Vulnerable (Strong Combo), Sensors Offline (Weak AOE Combo)
Inflicts – Weapon Disruption

Science

Acolyte

Exploits – Hull Breach (Med Combo)
Inflicts – Sensors offline

Disciple

Exploits – Weapon Disruption (Med Combo)
Inflicts – Crew Panic, Adaptive Armor(Ally)

Note:
Due to the lower base damage of science class vessels I do not recommend you build a strategy around science vessel exploiting.

Buffs / Debuffs (WIP)

With all Buffs and Debuffs they have a duration, sometimes it can be more beneficial to let a debuff tick for a turn or two before exploiting it, e.g with Sensors Offline.

Debuffs

Crew Panicked – Negative 100% Evasion
Engines Down – Negative 10 speed
Hull Breached – DOT depending on ability level
Sensors Offllne – Negative 30% Aim
Ship Disable – Target is disabled for one turn
Vulnerable – Negative 20% Damage Resistance
Weapon Disruption – Negative 25% Damage

Buffs

Fire at will – 50 to 150% bonus damage
Inspired – Plus 25% Damage and Aim
Nano Field Restoration – AOE HOT depending on ability level
Protective Field – +25% Damage Resistance
Quickened – Plus 100% Speed
Repair Drone Overdrive – Single target HOT depending on ability level
Targeting Support – Plus 25% Damage

Feel free to message at the bottom of the page any that I haven’t got around to noting down yet

Combat Walkthrough

Straight off youtube done by one of the lead designers for the game…… hope he doesn’t mind me linking it!

SPOILERS

From here on there be Spoilers!

Act 1 – Mid to Lategame

Mid game (Tier 2 Ships Recommended)

kicks off with the arrival of your first spire

These spire’s spawn three Chruul fleets at regular intervals
Note : You will need to do some research to be able to take these out, starting off with a Chruul lab.

For gathering resources you can build a shuttle with a throw away officer, there will be the odd time the shuttle is attacked and destroyed leading to you picking a new officer.
Note: If you are ambushed the enemies should be T1, so if you have a T1 ship you have a good chance of beating them.

I recommend you just keep the Chruul fleets in check for the time being and strengthen your fleet as much as possible.

As soon as you have the second spire spawn you probably want to take out at least one which leads us to lategame and the end of Act 1 (If you have 2 fleets you can manage more than 2).

Note: Concept Art

Lategame (Tier 3 Ships Recommended)

A boss fleet and multiple guard fleets spawn at this time with very little warning.

Once you wipe out the guarding fleets you can take on the boss fleet, this boss fleet will wipe out your space station after bombarding long enough to kill your whole crew.

The key to the boss battle I found is don’t let the boss get a combo off and heal alot, for the boss battle if possible you want a full fleet of T3 ships, it is doable with less, just harder
(Note: if needbe you can take out 1 ship and then retreat, I recommend stunning before retreating)