My Strategy Thread - Black Ice

Hey guys, I thought you might be interested in what strategy the developer (me!) uses. This is my strategy, as of version 0.1.55b (Feedback Friday #55 preview)

• I focus on finding a choke point to draw enemies into. Barring that, I keep moving, sometimes leaping over spiders.
• Early on, I'll put a point or two into Max RAM and RAM Regen so I can fire continuously
• I like a good high-attack rate Rifle or a Lasgun
• I use high-stat items with abilities I can't afford to use as stat sticks in my 1-5 slots
• I find a good low-cost Heal item to keep on at all times
• Sometimes I use a Teleport ability instead of a Jump ability, although it can be tough to not teleport out of hack range!
• Piercing can be a great asset once enemies start getting bigger

Let me know what your favorite strategy is!

As far as the demo goes, my strategy is to stack a balance of raw weapon damage and weapon damage percent modifier boosts with a laser machine gun that pierces. I've bested my previous DPS and gotten it up to 820.82 DPS at level 4 with this method, 2 TP in RAM Regen and 2 TP in Weapon Damage. If I start getting heavily mobbed I run, drop a mine, and jump as to not be launched out of the hack range. Otherwise I just pick 'em off. Highest leveled server I've been able to successfully hack so far was a multicolored 124. Right now I've got +87 weapon damage, +76% weapon damage. I did find a freezing machine gun with better damage than my piercing laser, but I've noticed the freezebolt projectiles seem to move slower, which puts a damper on things. And the lack of hitscan damage can make aiming at a distance quite a bit trickier.

On a different character, I'm using a weak x7 logic bomb that only uses 7 ram a shot with a mix of ram regen and damage boosts. The knockback and AoE seem to work pretty well together. One thing I've noticed though, is if things are knocked too far out of the hack range they despawn and then respawn, which can be pretty annoying. So I've been trying to work on knocking them towards buildings to reduce the knockback.

There seem to be tons of viable strategies with all the combinations of weapons. : D

Edited by: Jigstraw

I enjoy playing conservatively, so the first thing I do is clear all the loot from the top of the Jump Servers, which can often net me a better Icebreaker before my first hack. After I'm hacking and levelling up, I proceed to plow Talent points into Loot Find, keeping at this until the loot drops begin semi-regularly presenting Unique or powerful Set items. After that, I push points into RAM Returned to keep up with the better items I'm pulling down, and then I'll finally start moving points into Hack Speed. I'm generally looking to get a good charge jump (Moon Shoes!) and Spider Mines with the pumped Loot Find, at which point I'll jump to the top of a server placed in the middle of several others and hack everything I can reach, raining Spider Mines down on the enemies and picking off anyone coming at me directly with Valentyn's Love Beam (I think i've tried everything else, and this one remains my favorite weapon).

I also focus on finding the best Military-Grade Icebreakers and Mods (DAM-8350s, Downloadable RAMs and Akihabara Gold Standards) and try to pick up Stims for my toggle heal. Granted, this is all on the full version, so I currently break down to a RAM Return of 45, a Loot Find of 40 and a Hack Speed of 30; I may be pushing things to overkill by avoiding Talent increases in weapon damage and weapon mods, but I prefer playing a 'sneaky' game, and Black Ice allows for it. I also make a point of hacking every server (Stores included) before hitting Finality, and usually manage this last either from the very top of the building or while S.H.A.R.K. surfing, assuming I've been able to resist destroying the S.H.A.R.K. for that long.

You guys are amazing. I just saw these messages right now, and I'm excited to see what you come up with on the new version, coming this week or so.