Essay:Dungeon Galaxy Strategy

Dungeon Galaxies (Also referred to as DGs), are wormholes found in many normal Galaxies that lead to small, uninhabitable systems filled with hostile AI ships. You can easily recognize a DG by its wormhole colour (which is always red) as well as it’s name, which will usually be something along the lines of “DG 1.234”. These rogue Dungeon Galaxies can be found anywhere from Sol onward to the fringes.

Note: You can always tell how “Deep” a DG is by the first number in its name. In the example I gave above, DG 1.234, the DG would be 1 level deep and then have a final level, which holds the Boss. Please note that the Danger Factor (DF) of the Galaxy you find the DG in goes up by 10 with each level of depth of the DG. So if you find DG 3.464 in a Galaxy which is a natural DF of 150, the first level of the DG will be DF 160, the second level of the DG will be 170, and so on until the final level.

Upon entering a DG you will be promptly attacked by random AI. What determines the type of AI is the Danger Factor of the Galaxy, the Galaxies location, and a number of other factors not yet known. You will find that as you kill the AI the warp gate to the next level unlocks. Use the gate to warp down to the next level of the DG. You cannot warp down without having killed a certain number of AIs.

When you hit the last “Boss” level of a Dungeon Galaxy, you will find something different. As usual the mobs of AI will attack you immediately, but there will also be another, usually different type of AI with a higher level, called a “DG Boss”. They are usually far stronger than any of the normal AI in the DG and they are also usually the point of doing the DG in the first place. These bosses, upon being killed, will drop one or two “DG Item’s”, which can range in variety from Specialization Augmenters to extremely valuable items, such as the shields 'Give and Take' or 'MisDirection', or weapons such as 'Death Warmed Over' or 'Liposuction'. What determines your drop is the Danger factor (DF) of the Boss Level, and possibly some other unknown factors.

Now that we have some General Knowledge of what a “DG” is, lets look at some tactics and statistics to help you along your way.

Known DG AI and some tricks in dealing with them:

Blue Pirates (Scouts, Interceptors, Alphas, Betas, Gammas).

• Description: A very common type of DG AI, no matter the DF.
• Damage Types: Energy, Laser.
• Weaknesses: Virtually everything, although Heat appears to be exceptionally effective. On the Blue Gammas, heat is no longer as effective as mining due to the gammas' heat resist. They have no resist to mining if not a weakness to mining.
• Personal Difficulty Rating: Easy for interceptors and down. Medium-hard for the betas and gammas. They do have the potential to do a lot of damage to you, especially if you are in a ship with little to no Energy Resistances.
• Weapon of Choice: DWO (Death Warmed Over), Excommunicator (For SBGs)

Slumberchromes

• Description: Fairly Common AI in the North Warp 2/3 DGs.
• Damage Types: Energy, Laser
• Weaknesses: Surgical, Mining
• Personal Difficulty Rating: Medium. They can be extremely easy to kill if you have the correct weapon types with you but if you don’t, be ready for a long battle. The MF ones also deal lots of damage.
• Weapon of Choice: Open Heart Laser (OHL)

Infernos

• Description: Somewhat Common AI in Warp 1 DGs.
• Damage Types: Laser, Heat
• Weaknesses: Everything except heat
• Personal Difficulty Rating: Medium. These buggers can be tricky if you do not have a good shield bank as they can put out a lot of damage but, thankfully, they are easy to kill.
• Weapon of Choice: Anything that's not a heat weapon

Big Green (BGs)

• Description: Extremely Common in deeper Warp 3 DGs
• Damage Types: Energy, Laser
• Weaknesses: Radiation
• Personal Difficulty Rating: Medium. These guys can pack a punch. Although it can be relatively simple to take them down, their difficulty can vary wildly based on what they have equipped as Augmenters. Watch out for Firing, Shield, and Range Augged BGs.
• Weapon of Choice: excommunicator, Catapults.

Ice Picks

• Description: Somewhat Common in south Warp 3 DGs.
• Damage Types: Energy, Heat, Laser
• Weaknesses: Heat, mining
• Personal Difficulty Rating: Hard. These guys are only weak to Mining damage and can tear you to shreds within seconds with their pulse guns. Characters who can dodge their projectiles will have an easy time but other classes will find them rather difficult.
• Weapon of Choice: Excommunicator, Reach of prometheus

Rosmaries

• Description: Very Common AI in South Warp 2/3 DGs.
• Damage Types: Surgical, Laser
• Weakness: Surgical
• Personal Difficulty Rating: Easy, unless you are in a Porp and do not have a 4D weapon on hand.
• Weapon of Choice: Open Heart Laser, Love Cylinder

Basils

• Description: DGs seem to always have at least one level of Basils in Warp 3 South. Extremely Common.
• Damage Types: Energy, Laser
• Weakness: Mining
• Personal Difficulty Rating: Medium, depends if you can outrange/avoid their Hunelites.
• Weapon of Choice: DWO, Excommunicator

Forgones

• Description: Somewhat common in North Warp 3 DGs in the later DFs.
• Damage Types: Energy, Laser
• Weakness: Mining, Surgical
• Personal Difficulty Rating: Medium. Just try to avoid their Torps and you should be fine.
• Weapon of Choice: DWO, Love Cylinder, Excommunicator

Special Note on Forgones: Watch out for Traction augged Forgones. They are extremely annoying. You can tell if a Forgone is Traction augged when you are suddenly 100k out moving at 3 times your ships normal speed and not knowing whats going on.

Ruby Carriers and Ruby Transports

• Description: Common AI in DGs.
• Damage Types: Laser and Energy
• Weakness: Heat and Radiation
• Personal Difficulty Rating: Annoying. They are not very damaging but since their Laser has Gremlin effect which stops your engines from turning, they can take a long while to kill.

Tricks

1. Slowly separate the Rubies by dragging the Speed augged ones out from the pack then sit on their backs one at a time and pound them with DWOs or Great Immolations.
2. Have a teammate sit on the warp firing Open Heart Lasers, while you pick them off one by one using trick number one.

Reavers

• Description: Rare DG AI
• Damage Types: Laser
• Weakness: Everything, I prefer heat.
• Personal Difficulty Rating: Annoying. Anything with Grem lasers is annoying. Watch out for Range augged ones. Try to outrange them and you will be fine if you do not try to resist their tractor beams.
• Weapon of Choice: DWO or LC.

Omega Platforms

• Description: Somewhat common to very high DF DGs.
• Damage Types: Energy, Laser
• Weakness: Mining
• Personal Difficulty Rating: As I have not done many of these, I will have to go off what the general concensus of my friends. These guys hurt. Rating: Hard.
• Weapon of Choice: Excommunicator.

Moving on: Good DG Farming Spots.

I have personally found that over my time on Star Sonata, there are some DGs that you will want to camp, and other DGs that you will want to avoid. This is a list of DGs I’ve found to be exceptionally good to camp.

• Bonnet – Stede Bonnet has a DG filled with many Basils and can be a little tricky to kill, but is well worth it as he can drop DWOs, Liposuctions, and the enigmatic Mzungu Thunder.

• Early Warp 3 DGs with 1 level – These can be very useful to camp as the AI outside the DGs do not become much of a threat to kill you and force you to lose your items, and they can drop some very valuable things such as MisDirections, DWOs, OHLs, and so on.

• Very Low DF DGs - These can be extremely useful as even the lowest DF DGs can drop Spec. augs, so if you are hunting for an enigmatic Station Master or Merch Spec, try very low DF DGs.

Finally, please keep in mind that politeness is a large factor in getting a good DG team. Always be courteous and respectful, and try not to be too critical of the people you play with if it is not constructive.

Here are some unspoken DG rules:

• Always assume that the loot is going to be shared equally, by selling what has been found and splitting the profit among members equally.

• Never interrupt a teams' DG.

• Do not "ninja" the DG Bosses drops; it is seen as being rude. Leave it to the designated holder or allow everyone to be within range when scooping, but do not touch the drop within 5 seconds of the Boss being killed.

• Let the strongest member of the group lead the way; always give him/her all the Keysyncs. Usually there is a designated leader.

• Do not run unless it is clear to all members that the team stands no chance. As always, women and children first.

• Help manage aggro. If you see a certain member of your team is taking abeating and will not be able to stand up to it much longer, attack the AIs he/she has not hit yet to take the aggro off of that person. Repeat as needed until everybody is okay with the damage they are taking.

• LISTEN. When a much more experienced DGer is telling you or suggesting you to do something, it iss always a good idea to do it or at least keep it in mind, as they know what they are talking about.

A general strategy by Goz: (added after contest) It's usually good to have a plethora of secondary skills to do a DG of DF 150+. Try having AT LEAST 1 shield monkey, 1 sniper and/or speed demon. Make sure people have some free hull to scoop DG drops (the biggest items can be over 200 space and over 1b in value!). If you don't have enough space toss some things of lesser value, but make sure it's worth it!

Feel Free to Edit/Add to this Essay as needed - Original Essay by Sodomy