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Author Topic: Best place to buy HVD and Mauler  (Read 1435 times)

Crimsteel

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Best place to buy HVD and Mauler
« on: January 28, 2023, 10:19:04 PM »

Hello, fellow Starsector players. I'm rather new to the game, despite having done some previous playthroughs the entire time I have been playing the game.

I've been using this build by pponmypupu since I stumbled across it, and while it's a phenomenally good Eradicator build I've had just one problem: finding HVDs and Maulers in Core System markets. As of my current gameplay, I've been building my fleet from the ground up using this build, and while Erads are easy to find in Luddic Church worlds I've been hard-pressed to find HVDs and Maulers. I've been lucky enough to find HVDs (IDK where I bought them, must be either Sindria or Jangala), but I've had zero luck when it comes to finding Maulers.

Where's the best place to buy Heavy Maulers in your experience?
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Void Ganymede

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Re: Best place to buy HVD and Mauler
« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2023, 10:54:08 PM »

If I know I want a mass of specific ships or weapons, there's three options: commissions, bar contact production orders, and colony manufacture.

Commission with a faction that uses the weapon then check their military markets regularly is the easy way. Getting bar contacts from the faction and waiting until they give you a production order for what you need seems a bit less consistent but can get you truly massive amounts of specific items. Manufacture is blueprint-gated so you've got to get lucky with exploration especially in mod-heavy games where the odds of getting exactly what you want are lower. I'm not too familiar with raiding for blueprints - perhaps you could do it early if specialized and sneaky enough!
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Crimsteel

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Re: Best place to buy HVD and Mauler
« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2023, 11:33:27 PM »

If I know I want a mass of specific ships or weapons, there's three options: commissions, bar contact production orders, and colony manufacture.

Commission with a faction that uses the weapon then check their military markets regularly is the easy way. Getting bar contacts from the faction and waiting until they give you a production order for what you need seems a bit less consistent but can get you truly massive amounts of specific items. Manufacture is blueprint-gated so you've got to get lucky with exploration especially in mod-heavy games where the odds of getting exactly what you want are lower. I'm not too familiar with raiding for blueprints - perhaps you could do it early if specialized and sneaky enough!
I see. What factions sell the HVD/Heavy Mauler, in that case?
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BCS

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Re: Best place to buy HVD and Mauler
« Reply #3 on: January 28, 2023, 11:38:25 PM »

Weapons are randomly sold and HVD/Mauler aren't rare. Just keep checking markets.
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Void Ganymede

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Re: Best place to buy HVD and Mauler
« Reply #4 on: January 29, 2023, 03:32:00 AM »

I see. What factions sell the HVD/Heavy Mauler, in that case?
Off the top of my head, Hegemony and Perseans. Probably Diktat too. Basically any elite Low Tech/Midtech forces.
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Megas

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Re: Best place to buy HVD and Mauler
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2023, 09:21:36 AM »

Manufacture is blueprint-gated so you've got to get lucky with exploration especially in mod-heavy games where the odds of getting exactly what you want are lower. I'm not too familiar with raiding for blueprints - perhaps you could do it early if specialized and sneaky enough!
Player needs marines; and bringing several Phantoms (or other raider ships) with ground-pounder built-in mods help.  Player does not need much if the market does not have a battlestation and/or market is small.  Those that have battlestations should have their battlestations disabled before the raid to lower defenses low enough.  Big planet with battlestations are meatgrinders.

Also, blueprint drops from raids are random but favor unknown blueprints.  Also, every blueprint drop is a singleton, include those normally found in packs.  It is a good idea to search for tech and faction packs in salvage found before raiding markets for rare singletons.  Also, it is a good idea to raid soft, weak markets first until all of their blueprints are learned, then move on to tougher markets for their exclusive blueprints.

For standard stuff, my blueprint hunt goes in an order something like this:
* Salvage ruins, research stations, and the like for packs (low/mid/high tech, missile pack, pirate/ludd/auxH packs) to get the common stuff.
* Raid New Maxios in Magec.  No patrols, small market with no defenses.
* Raid Asher.  Small market, patrols hover around Gilead, they rarely get close Asher unless Asher itself is close to Gilead.
* Raid Kapteyn Starworks.  Small market, occasional patrols from League neighbors.  Get large pirate hulls here.
* Raid Reasvelg.  Small market, but frequently guarded by a patrol.  Last of the soft targets.  Get XIV ships and few weapons here.
* Raid Culann.  Medium market with a battlestation, and usually has guards.  Easiest of the hard targets, but still harder than above.  Raid for high-tech.
* Raid Sindria.  Big homeworld with battlestation, and heavily guarded.  Alternative for some high-tech otherwise exclusive to Tri-Tachyon.
* Raid Kazeron.  About as big and hard as Sindria.  Champion is League exclusive; get it here.

If I am lucky, I may find everything by the time I get through with Culann.  SIndria and Kazeron are more like last resort if salvage has been unkind (i.e., no Champion).

Chichomoztoc is the hardest target, but there is no need to raid it for blueprints since Reasvelg in Valhalla is a much softer and easier target.  Only reason to raid the Hegemony homeworld is for the pristine nanoforge.

And of course, historian for Legion XIV (only way to get that one), and flashy pirate for Phantom and Revenant blueprints if those two were not found in salvage.
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SCC

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Re: Best place to buy HVD and Mauler
« Reply #6 on: January 29, 2023, 01:26:32 PM »

All major factions, except for Luddic Church, sell both of these guns, plus Independents.

Void Ganymede

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Re: Best place to buy HVD and Mauler
« Reply #7 on: January 30, 2023, 01:17:18 AM »

For standard stuff, my blueprint hunt goes in an order something like this:
* Salvage ruins, research stations, and the like for packs (low/mid/high tech, missile pack, pirate/ludd/auxH packs) to get the common stuff.
* Raid New Maxios in Magec.  No patrols, small market with no defenses.
* Raid Asher.  Small market, patrols hover around Gilead, they rarely get close Asher unless Asher itself is close to Gilead.
* Raid Kapteyn Starworks.  Small market, occasional patrols from League neighbors.  Get large pirate hulls here.
* Raid Reasvelg.  Small market, but frequently guarded by a patrol.  Last of the soft targets.  Get XIV ships and few weapons here.
* Raid Culann.  Medium market with a battlestation, and usually has guards.  Easiest of the hard targets, but still harder than above.  Raid for high-tech.
* Raid Sindria.  Big homeworld with battlestation, and heavily guarded.  Alternative for some high-tech otherwise exclusive to Tri-Tachyon.
* Raid Kazeron.  About as big and hard as Sindria.  Champion is League exclusive; get it here.
That's a really useful list! I feel bad hitting independents but some of those targets can be hit real early.
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Megas

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Re: Best place to buy HVD and Mauler
« Reply #8 on: January 30, 2023, 05:50:26 AM »

Not me.  That is revenge for indies joining forces with an enemy when they stick their nose into a war they have no business in (after I sat bomb a major world as retribution for waging an undeclared war on my worlds).  Also, indies have no problem sat bombing a new player colony in their system.  Indies and pirates feel more like monolithic major powers little different than other major factions than a minor faction.

Because of the -2 or -3 stability per raid, I rotate soft targets (raid New Maxios, then Asher and others while New Maxios regains stability).  Hard targets, I tend to go from planet to planet cleaning out marines from several shops between raids.

Basically, I generally stick with the first four soft targets (though favoring New Maxios and Asher) until I get everything from them, then I focus on Culann.  I might hit Sindria/Kazeron if Culann's stability is too low (from repeated raids), but those two size 7 worlds are real meatgrinders.
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Amoebka

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Re: Best place to buy HVD and Mauler
« Reply #9 on: January 30, 2023, 07:16:31 AM »

It's always a good idea to get a military contact on Sindria. Diktat knows blueprints for all weapons in the game and a contact allows you to request anything you want without relying on market RNG. So visit Sindria every month and do all bar missions until you get a military contact. You will, of course, also check the market every time you visit and get weapons that way in the meantime.
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