How do I get more dps?

[russweis]

So I'm about 2/3 to the middle. Finding my 1st bit of yellow ore. The enemy's are supper tanky my shields hold for about 3m. Forgot to look at what there firepower was but the nearby faction is at 27.6k. My firepower is 3.6k. I have a feeling my firepower is low.

What I'd like to know, what is the best strategy(s) to getting my firepower up.

Edited June 30, 2021 by russweis

[FuryoftheStars]

It's been a super long time since I played (only recently picked it back up), but there are a few things to consider, first:

1) Many NPCs are artificially buffed, especially system patrol craft and any enemy that has something like "Savage", "Hardcore", or anything like that in its name, specifically for the purposes of making it harder on you.

2) It's also kind of expected that as you progress, in addition to getting the new materials (and making decisions on what to use them for), that you'll also be either increasing your ship size (not only increases your raw toughness, but allows you to equip more upgrade modules that can in turn increase your toughness more and/or also allow you to field more weapons), ship numbers (quantity), or both.  You don't have to do both, but you should be doing at least one.

 

But, obviously, you want good/better quality weapons, too.  Best ways for this, aside from depending on the luck of drops, is to do one or all of the following (in no particular order):

A) Check out Equipment Docks and see what they're offering (their inventory cycles every so often (10, 20 minutes?) and on game reload)(the traveling Turret/Equipment merchants could be good for this, too, if you happen to see them)

B) Check out Turret Factories and see what you're capable of making with them (note that these are rand seed (but each station has its own seed that it uses each time so it remains consistent between visits/game reload), so some will offer crap while others will offer God like and it's all a crap shoot)

C) Use Research stations to gamble lower quality stuff for higher quality (and you can actually feed in 3 legendary turrets to gamble for a better legendary).  (Note that on research stations, chance for success in upgrading items is dependent on how many you feed in (3 = 60%, 4 = 80%, 5 = 100%), but, if you were to do out the math, sticking with just feeding in items 3 at a time is, in the long run to average things out, better.)

 

Oh, and it should be noted, in vanilla default, the base dps of a weapon, whether it be from a drop, bought, manufactured, or gambled, will increase the closer to sector 0,0 you get.  Obviously, because of RNG, you can still find things further out that'll be better than what you're finding closer in, but max potential is always going to be the closer you are to 0,0, the better.  If you have the money, you can try founding your own stations closer in, though note that Turret factories will still abide by the same seed system as npc turret factories, so you may have to found multiple to get anything good out of them.

 

That's the most I can think of/remember at this time.  I don't know if someone else will come along that can think of better.

Edited June 30, 2021 by FuryoftheStars
Formatting for better clarity; added more info

[russweis]

My ship has 10 upgrades, 1 10 slot and 2 7 slot so 24 armed slots. I can only effectively fight in the green to blue ore zone. Most the drops suck 50-80 dps average. I did some research and have 4 guns that do 150-200 dps. Need to squeeze more dps out. 

[FuryoftheStars]

Yup.  I don't know if that's enough guns for just outside the barrier anymore (been so long and I'm only back to titanium right now), but you can make up for low dps with quantity. 😛  I think, too, bigger (more slots) weapons have higher dps and range, so this can help.  Also, trash weapons that you find further out?  You can feed them through a research station closer in and the resultant weapon will increase in tech level to be equal to where ever that research station is at.

[russweis]

Oh, so do research closer to 0,0 to get better rolls. I might use the turrets factory to see what I can get never used it. Also I'll have to use a 4th upgrade for more turrets.

[FuryoftheStars]

Yeah, research only uses quality rarity (sorry, should start saying rarity instead of quality), material type, weapon type, and whether or not they have independent targeting from whatever you feed in. Everything else is newly generated out of their RNG system, so you could feed all tech 5 weapons into a station in an area that sees tech 40 and your result will be tech 40.

Edited June 30, 2021 by FuryoftheStars

[russweis]

Gotcha, another question. Is there a way to identify what size and class of ship I'm fighting. Knowing what your fighting helps to strategies how to win. 

[FuryoftheStars]

I think so?  But I've never been able to fully figure it out.  System patrol ships often have a classification of Corvette or Battleship in their name.  I'm fairly sure they've got it so Battleship > Corvette, and I think, generally, you're not going to see them mixed.

Pirates, look for any additional text like "Savage" etc in their name.  I never took the time to learn what their tiered system is.

 

But also, ships follow the same rule as turrets: the closer to the core you are when they spawn, the tougher they'll be.

[Rabiator]

Perhaps you can you kill Swoks a few more times, for multiple 10 slot upgrades. Supposedly he respawns. I've killed him only once myself, so I cannot speak from experience..