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Combat guide:
------------
The most important thing to remember is that in general most combat strategies
that work in Wing Commander 2 also work in Privateer.
At an early stage of the game in the Troy system you run into a huge bunch of
Retros. An effective attack play is to fly at about 150kps - this encourages
them to attack you head-on. Retros tend to fly directly at you and because you
are flying slowly the approach takes a while giving you time to blast them to
bits with a pair of mass drivers. Alternatively a couple of well placed dumb
missiles also take them out. A different approach is to use Torpedoes as dumb
fire missiles; they're cheaper and more powerful.
If you use the IR missiles with two missile launchers most enemies in Talons can
be taken out easily. Simply get close to the arget and slow down to enable your
enemy to draw away and then fire two missiles at him in quick succession. The
first missile brings down his shield while the second one should kill him. This
tactic requires two missile launchers to enable you to fire two missiles at once
without waiting for the launcher to reset. Against tougher opponents you may
need to do this more often. Here the advantage of twin missile launchers is that
you can carry 20 missiles so you never start a mission without a full complement
of missiles.
When fighting five or more hostile ships use missiles to reduce their numbers
quickly then take out the remainder with your guns.
Choice of weapons:
-----------------
Tachyon guns provice the best power consumption and recharge rate as well as the
damage capacity of all the guns on sale. Early in the game you should use Mass
Drivers and then build up to the more powerful Meson guns.
Make sure that you never have more than two guns of the same type firing
forwards otherwise you end up with a large drain on your available energy per
shot.
Don't bother with turret guns. In Wing Commander 2 there's a turret gunner who
uses these guns when you aren't using them; in Privateer you have to use them
yourself and since you can't steer your ship from the turret you won't last long
The turret is best used for mounting a tractor beam but since none of the
missions requires the use of the tractor beam and there's little revenue to be
had retrieving the cargo found after most battles it's only useful if you intend
to pirate cargo ships.
Fight dirty:
-----------
If you have a ship with good shields and armour you can do a lot of damage to
weaker ships by flying close to them and 'nudging' them. Done properly this can
badly damage or kill them immediately without doing too much damage to your own
ship. Nasty but this is space and who's going to see?
A repair droid soon pays for itself so it's advisable to get one at the earliest
opportunity. Whenever you sustain any major damage to your craft you can then
stop it for about five minutes and allow damaged systems to be repaired.
Running away is a very effective strategy - it won't win you any medals but it
keeps you alive. It's worth remembering that most hostiles won't chase you very
far from the navigational point where you encountered them.
Unless you're on a mission that requires you to kill the enemies you encounter
it's best to run whenever you can. Use the mission option on the navigation
screen to determine whether you need to destroy the hostiles you encounter.
(Objectives listed in red must be met.) In general - bounty and defend missions
require you to fight while you patrol and recon only requires you to visit nav
points.
For a quick escape it pays to invest in an afterburner - but running away is
difficult if you are flying through asteroids. It's best to kill all hostile
ships within the asteroids rather than trying to outrun them and ending up as
space-patВ.
In some of the story-line missions the hostile ships simply follow you - this
can result in having far too many opponents to handle at once. In these cases
it's best to kill them as you encounter them.
When flying cargo missions or simply travelling from A to B you may arrive at a
jump point crawling with pirates or Retros. You can speed into the jump point
using your afterburners and engale your jump drive without slowing down. This
does however expose you to several hits just before you jump - but hopefully
your shields will absorb most of the damage.
------------
The most important thing to remember is that in general most combat strategies
that work in Wing Commander 2 also work in Privateer.
At an early stage of the game in the Troy system you run into a huge bunch of
Retros. An effective attack play is to fly at about 150kps - this encourages
them to attack you head-on. Retros tend to fly directly at you and because you
are flying slowly the approach takes a while giving you time to blast them to
bits with a pair of mass drivers. Alternatively a couple of well placed dumb
missiles also take them out. A different approach is to use Torpedoes as dumb
fire missiles; they're cheaper and more powerful.
If you use the IR missiles with two missile launchers most enemies in Talons can
be taken out easily. Simply get close to the arget and slow down to enable your
enemy to draw away and then fire two missiles at him in quick succession. The
first missile brings down his shield while the second one should kill him. This
tactic requires two missile launchers to enable you to fire two missiles at once
without waiting for the launcher to reset. Against tougher opponents you may
need to do this more often. Here the advantage of twin missile launchers is that
you can carry 20 missiles so you never start a mission without a full complement
of missiles.
When fighting five or more hostile ships use missiles to reduce their numbers
quickly then take out the remainder with your guns.
Choice of weapons:
-----------------
Tachyon guns provice the best power consumption and recharge rate as well as the
damage capacity of all the guns on sale. Early in the game you should use Mass
Drivers and then build up to the more powerful Meson guns.
Make sure that you never have more than two guns of the same type firing
forwards otherwise you end up with a large drain on your available energy per
shot.
Don't bother with turret guns. In Wing Commander 2 there's a turret gunner who
uses these guns when you aren't using them; in Privateer you have to use them
yourself and since you can't steer your ship from the turret you won't last long
The turret is best used for mounting a tractor beam but since none of the
missions requires the use of the tractor beam and there's little revenue to be
had retrieving the cargo found after most battles it's only useful if you intend
to pirate cargo ships.
Fight dirty:
-----------
If you have a ship with good shields and armour you can do a lot of damage to
weaker ships by flying close to them and 'nudging' them. Done properly this can
badly damage or kill them immediately without doing too much damage to your own
ship. Nasty but this is space and who's going to see?
A repair droid soon pays for itself so it's advisable to get one at the earliest
opportunity. Whenever you sustain any major damage to your craft you can then
stop it for about five minutes and allow damaged systems to be repaired.
Running away is a very effective strategy - it won't win you any medals but it
keeps you alive. It's worth remembering that most hostiles won't chase you very
far from the navigational point where you encountered them.
Unless you're on a mission that requires you to kill the enemies you encounter
it's best to run whenever you can. Use the mission option on the navigation
screen to determine whether you need to destroy the hostiles you encounter.
(Objectives listed in red must be met.) In general - bounty and defend missions
require you to fight while you patrol and recon only requires you to visit nav
points.
For a quick escape it pays to invest in an afterburner - but running away is
difficult if you are flying through asteroids. It's best to kill all hostile
ships within the asteroids rather than trying to outrun them and ending up as
space-patВ.
In some of the story-line missions the hostile ships simply follow you - this
can result in having far too many opponents to handle at once. In these cases
it's best to kill them as you encounter them.
When flying cargo missions or simply travelling from A to B you may arrive at a
jump point crawling with pirates or Retros. You can speed into the jump point
using your afterburners and engale your jump drive without slowing down. This
does however expose you to several hits just before you jump - but hopefully
your shields will absorb most of the damage.