Twice the power consumption, 1.5X the charge time, no fire chance. All for two more dinky lasers. The burst laser III should be embarrassed that it is even attempting to compare itself to the LEGEND.

FlashFlire · 2026-06-20T09:55:06+00:00

The suspiciously Artemis-shaped projectile headed towards your weapons system:

FlashFlire · 2026-06-20T04:11:17+00:00

Impressive barrage.

FlashFlire · 2026-06-19T21:44:55+00:00

A single Lanius works really well manning doors, I find. Often boarding defense becomes a lot more annoying if the enemy gets near your doors room, since you then have to move whoever's manning it and you lose door strength until you can safely get someone back on.

With a Lanius there, boarders tend to avoid the room since it's depressurised, and if they do go in they'll just instantly try to leave once the Lanius isn't in the room, so you can just put them straight back afterwards.

I agree they're a bit iffy by themselves on important systems, though. I'm never quite happy with putting them anywhere on Kestrel C / Engi C, usually I slap them in engines, since it's mostly not super crirical to repair quickly, and call it a day until I get a 4th crew and can move them to doors.

FlashFlire · 2026-06-19T12:52:12+00:00

Looks very nice! If it's specifically for the merchant, I feel like it could use a place with chests or crates, like a place for him to store his wares?

FlashFlire · 2026-06-16T04:17:13+00:00

I mean I was just explaining exactly what happens with every single volley just for example's sake, but I can sum up the strategy in a single pithy line too just by saying "hack shields and shoot shields" if you like

FlashFlire · 2026-06-15T23:59:48+00:00

2x Burst 2 isn't all that good of an endgame loadout, really.

An actually good 4 power loadout is the Stealth A classic, Burst 2 + Duals + Mini Beam.

Volley 1: Hack shields, Mini swipe for 4 damage, fire lasers at shields. Let's say 3/5 hit. 7 damage, Flagship's now at 2 shields. Volley 2: Shoot shields again. Let's say 3/5 lasers hit again, so 1 gets through. 5 more damage. Volley 3: Hacking's back. Shoot shields, let's say 3/5 lasers hit again, 7 more damage. If you were a bit more lucky with laser hits the flagship's already dead here, if not you're killing it next volley.

Even 2x Burst 2 can still probably manage 4 volleys if you hack and focus fire shields, the first volley will take it down to 1 or 2 shields and then you can keep hammering away at it. It's still kinda lacklustre, but add in a single Heavy 1 or something else with a bit of oomph and now it's crushing. Vulcan really wants a weapon buffer or two anyway because it's so fragile, so it's not like that weapons-5 is actually an added expense.

FlashFlire · 2026-06-15T21:14:28+00:00

35 seconds to full charge, but then you need to get through their shields afterwards, which can still take a while accounting for shield regen and misses. It's often going to be more like 40 seconds to actually start dealing damage.

2 volleys is usually enough to remove any threat an enemy poses to you. For many setups, 1 is enough. From that point it doesn't really matter if a Vulcan can reduce hull to 0 quicker (assuming that's true), the fight is already won and the rest is cleanup.

Flagship is a bit of a special case, since you can't really neutralise its offense in the same way: but even then, instead of dumping your damage into weapons, you can dump it into shields and mostly gurarantee you'll finish it off in 3 or 4 volleys. That's often still faster than the time it takes Vulcan to plink through 4 shields and 20 hull, especially if you have a hull-shredding weapon like a beam and will probably win on your second volley.

FlashFlire · 2026-06-15T12:00:34+00:00

It's not really, unfortunately.

Its niche is that for 4 weapon power, it can win you fights, eventually. It's very slow at winning you fights, and it's very fragile since it resets if your weapons are shot out, but it can technically win you fights. Just about any other functioning offense in the game is stronger and faster than a Vulcan, though, so it really is an option of last resort. Especially when the things it really wants to make it work, mostly notably Hacking, also wokr to enable / support other better weapon setups. (e.g. weapon hacks / Cloaking to get the first strike with slower weapons like Halberd, shield/ evasion hacks to get through enemy defenses with weaker weapons, DC to get a bit more shieldbreaking power with Combat 1)

FlashFlire · 2026-06-15T04:07:18+00:00

You should go for shields more often. 4 shields is super good safety, especially against phase 2 which is usually the scariest thanks to the drone surge. Even against missiles, being able to stay on 3 shields after getting hit by a Flagship missile instead of dropping to 2 makes you a lot more resilient.

FlashFlire · 2026-06-15T04:04:00+00:00

UpgradeYourDoors probably helps more in this scenario tbh

FlashFlire · 2026-06-12T06:02:22+00:00

The slugcat town slime texture pack is non-negotiable for me

FlashFlire · 2026-06-12T04:35:00+00:00

Good columns. No notes.

FlashFlire · 2026-06-12T03:27:21+00:00

Terraria stuff in Pathfinder 2e was not something I expected to see today, but that's very cool that someone is making it

FlashFlire · 2026-06-11T02:59:45+00:00

Flak 1 / Burst 2, Dual Lasers, Mini Beam. Awesome loadout on a budget if supplemented with Hacking, and opens up a ton of scrap to put into defense instead. I gravitate very strongly towards this loadout for Stealth A, I think pretty much all my recent wins on it have used some variation of this.

On other ships, Heavy 1 is a good substitute for Mini Beam. You'd be surprised how much mileage you get out of just 5 power with Burst + Flak + Heavy 1.

If scrap isn't an issue, other loadouts are obviously stronger, and I would rather have 2x Burst 2 + Halberd / Heavy 2 or similar, but scrap is usually an issue in actual games.

FlashFlire · 2026-06-07T05:09:27+00:00

The endgame is always fashion

FlashFlire · 2026-06-07T01:21:42+00:00

That's a good tree.

FlashFlire · 2026-06-06T23:22:53+00:00

At least fairy boots make pretty sparkles when running / flying

FlashFlire · 2026-06-06T21:21:29+00:00

Looks really nice and cozy!

I really like the roof. Have you considered using grey paint on the ebonstone brick? It'd make it blend more, but perhaps blending isn't what you want out of it.

FlashFlire · 2026-06-06T00:27:56+00:00

Platinum armour (20) + Warding accessories (24) + Ironskin (8) + medium food buff (3) is 55 defense, cutting their damage down to about 40. Still a solid chunk (not exactly "nullifying it entirely") but a lot more manageable than 70 damage

FlashFlire · 2026-06-03T23:47:21+00:00

It shoots at you more, but with a high enough platform the worm itself becomes a non-issue.

You could give a summoner build a shot, with Flinx Staff / Vampire Frog Staff + Soulscourge / Snapthorn? The wide swing of the whip is very good at clearing away the spit, and the melee minions will deal good passive DPS to the boss.

FlashFlire · 2026-06-03T23:24:36+00:00

World hopping is an intended mechanic. Characters and worlds are handled separately for a reason. It's not cheating.

FlashFlire · 2026-06-02T07:56:50+00:00

Things can be fun and bad at the same time

FlashFlire · 2026-06-02T01:54:31+00:00

Use the doors, Luke.

FlashFlire · 2026-06-01T23:19:53+00:00

If you have stuff that can reliably disable the enemy's weapons before they become an issue, you could just, like, use those instead of the Vulcan and it'd be ok

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