The Most OP Fleet in Infinite Space History?
Recently, I did another playthrough of Infinite Space III: Sea of Stars, and ended up with what may well be the most overpowered flotilla the game can give you. As usual, it consisted of four capital ships and two fighters, but what made it so special was the equipment and types of ships I had amassed over the course of the playthrough. So here is a brief description of each capital ship in that fleet. I should mention that I did not deploy either of my two fighters in this particular playthrough, and the AI fleet strength and nebular area were both at their lowest settings, but this fleet composition is still viable even at higher difficulty settings.
In this playthrough, I ended up with a set of capital ship loadouts that are among the most potent you can possibly obtain in the entire Infinite Space trilogy. This upgraded Terran corvette - my starting capital ship - turned out to be the most useful of the four capital ships in direct combat, if only because it could theoretically destroy any other fleet, no matter how formidable, without any support from other ships.
Over the course of the game, my starting capital ship (a Terran corvette) proved to be the workhorse of the fleet, as far as combat was concerned. I used it in every battle during the playthrough, including the encounters with the Yellow Kawangi (yes, I fought against them more than once this time around, thanks to my exploitation of the Multi Kawangi bug explained elsewhere in this blog). However, by the end of the game, I had fitted some of the most advanced technology the game had to offer, including a Nova Cannon (which I created from a Timeless Bauble I found at a random star system), a Sardion Optimizer (which I purchased at the Urluquai home system), a Plasma Coil Cloaker (again, purchased from the Urluquai), a Temporal Flux Shield (for maximum durability and guaranteed resistance to supernova explosions) and a Reactionless Thruster (the most expensive thruster in the game, but provides unrivaled thrust, speed and agility in combat when installed). The resulting ship was utterly overpowered in combat - so much so that I refused to use anything else in battle. In particular, its Nova Cannon could (and did) deliver enough damage to cripple or destroy most other ships with a single direct hit, although I needed several hits to take down the Kawangi, given its unrivaled defenses.
The Zorg capital ship, Kuti, proved to be the most useful ally outside of combat.
In addition to my heavily upgraded Terran corvette, my fleet composition during this playthrough included three other capital ships which I later fitted with as much advanced technology as I could find (or buy). Unlike the Terran corvette above, none of them could destroy a Kawangi dreadnought on its own, but each one could still defeat most other fleets single-handedly with the loadouts I chose for the late game, especially after I fitted a Quantum Corkscrew Thruster (the second most effective thruster after the Reactionless Thruster) to each one.
The first of these three was a Zorg capital ship, the Kuti. Initially, this was a Zorg scout, but I traded it in for a Zorg corvette, which has room for one each of an extra weapon and equipment slot. I installed a Particle Vortex Cannon (the most versatile weapon that requires a large hardpoint) and an Anti-Graviton Shunt (to not only protect the whole fleet from the gravitational pull of a black hole, but also facilitate travel through them), thereby making it almost as formidable as the Terran corvette, but with the unique property of granting the ability to fold space in between star systems that were up to two parsecs (6.52 light-years) apart - I found this to be very useful outside of combat. Moreover, its Meson Lattice Shield, though not as durable as a Temporal Flux Shield, had a key advantage over that item in being able to recharge after a short time if damaged or even fully depleted, so I equipped the next two capital ships shown here with it as soon as I was able to do so.
The Bloodfang ended up as the largest capital ship in my fleet, and was surprisingly fast for its size after I upgraded it.
The third capital ship in the fleet, the Bloodfang, was of Garthan origin. It was initially a Garthan scout, but I traded it in for a much larger Garthan frigate later on. Like most other similarly sized ships, it came with three hardpoints (two of which had Multi-Missile Launchers fitted to them) and six equipment slots. After I fitted a Quantum Corkscrew thruster to it, the frigate could zip across a battlefield at higher speeds than would be expected of other ships in its size class. The Multi-Missile launchers had longer range than any of the other weapons my capital ships carried, making this frigate ideal for fire support. Also, when not in combat, its Nebular Extent Calculator proved useful in determining the amount of time required when traveling through a nebula.
The Calatian destroyer, the Thunderbucket, may have been the smallest of the four capital ships, but it too packs a mean punch.
The last of the four capital ships was the Thunderbucket, a Calatian destroyer. I did not trade it in for a larger Calatian capital ship, since I wanted to preserve its low profile, along with its high speed and agility; however, I eventually upgraded it with four Proton Blasters (the best weapon that can fit into a small hardpoint - the other three capital ships in my fleet only had one each of these weapons) for unrivaled point-defense abilities. Due to its small size, it didn't have as much armor (or as many equipment slots) as the other capital ships in this fleet, but its battery of Proton Blasters made it much more effective at short- and medium-range engagements, even without a Sardion Optimizer, as fitted to the other capital ships in this fleet (instead having a less effective, but more readily available, Eidetic Matrix Bubble). Also, as the only ship in this fleet to be fitted with a Nebular Ramjet Drive (the best interstellar drive for traveling through nebulae), it could cut through nebulae more easily than my other capital ships, all of which had Ion Flux Warp Drives, which are great for traveling through open space (they are second only to the Graviton Implosion Drive in this regard) but, like most other drives, cannot function at all in a nebula.
As for the two fighters in the fleet, one of them - Ripcord O'Reilly's Terran fighter - turned out to be much more useful than the other (a Garthan Fighter which I did not even consider deploying in combat, such was the effectiveness of my capital ships). It was fitted with a Hyperdrive - handy for when you need to visit a star system that would normally take more than a year to visit with your fleet's normal travel speed, and especially effective when installed on a Terran fighter (the smallest ship with a drive slot in normal gameplay), since installing it on any other ship will significantly increase travel time. I did not use the Terran fighter for any other purpose, though.
Putting a Hyperdrive in Ripcord O'Reilly's Terran fighter - the smallest ship with provision for an interstellar drive in normal gameplay - is a better idea than fitting it to any other ship.
Could this fleet have been even more overpowered? Yes, but only under certain conditions. If the quest for this particular playthrough had been the Urluquai Crusade instead of a Yellow Kawangi invasion, I would have been able to obtain a Sardion Maximizer (the ultimate targeting computer, which provides even greater accuracy and fire rate enhancements compared to the Sardion Optimizer) and subsequently fitted it to any of my capital ships, although I would not have been able to repeat the quest after completing it. In addition, replacing any (or even all) of the Proton Blasters on my capital ships (except for Thunderbucket) with Tachyon Ray Guns (the best beam weapon other than the Graviton Disintegrator) would have removed their point-defense capabilities, but in light of the Tachyon Ray Gun's hitscan nature, I would have considered this change to be an acceptable sacrifice.
On top of that, given that any ship would receive a huge boost to speed and maneuverability (during combat, not outside of it) when fitted with a Reactionless Thruster, I would have installed it on more than one my capital ships had I been able to acquire multiple examples of them - I would have done the same for the Temporal Flux Shield. Also, if I had been able to acquire a Signature Projector, I would have used that instead of a Hyperwave Tele-Scrambler, and as we have seen previously, any ship fitted with the Projector would be even better protected against incoming missiles. Finally, although I could not equip any of my capital ships with a Graviton Implosion Drive (the fastest interstellar drive for traveling through normal space) on this playthrough (due to the item not spawning at all at the start of this particular game), I would have fitted one to each and every one of my capital ships had I been able to do so - and for good measure, bought at least one additional Nebular Ramjet Drive (the fastest drive in a nebula) whenever I had to travel through a nebula. The reason I am mentioning this is that it is theoretically possible to acquire multiple examples of any of the high-end items described here - something that did not happen in this playthrough, although my fleet still performed very well regardless, thanks to skillful micro-management during combat.
In the Combat Simulator, however, players can make a fleet like this one even more overpowered, since more than one player-controlled capital ship (including the ones shown here) can be equipped with a Sardion Maximizer in a custom battle. The only drawback is that you can only deploy 5 ships in total in this mode, but given that Ripcord O'Reilly's experimental Terran fighter cannot be selected here, I would have been content to omit it, while still leaving the Garthan fighter in place. Moreover, I could have swapped both of the Garthan frigate's Multi-Missile Launchers with Cobalt Torpedo Tubes (an item normally only available as part of the quest to find and destroy Primordius) for even more long-range firepower and accuracy.
Overall, the fleet composition I ended up with at the end of this particular playthrough was one of the most, if not the most, formidable flotillas you can possibly have in regular gameplay, to the point of being overpowered at times. In fact, it's not far off from being overpowered all the time, and with a few equipment upgrades, it may well be. As it is, though, it still makes the game incredibly easy to complete, even on the highest difficulty setting. However, I have accomplished this feat many times while also finishing the game with fleet compositions that are less effective than this one, and while it's more challenging, it's also more satisfying. Even so, this fleet composition is probably the best all-around choice for any situation, whether in or out of combat.
