The Infinite Black Ship Optimization and PvE Tactics Guide

The Infinite Black Ship Optimization and PvE Tactics Guide by Tssunami2011

Since the servers are down (it seems) I thought that I would take a moment to help give a few helpful tips on how to optimize one’s ship loadout for certain situations. Not all encounters are the same, and soloing tactics vary greatly from group tactics.

I am by no means an expert. I am level 12 and rising, and i’ve been playing for about two weeks. However, I have played MMO’s since Everquest 1(1999), I have been in top teir raiding guilds for most of my gaming career, so I’m definitely seasoned when it comes to these types of games. That being said, this guide is for newer players farming PVE mobs. I haven’t had much experience fighting garrisons or other players in PVP so I’ll leave that particular guide to the TIB veterans.

I run an Invader Wyrd (11 slots)

I find that soloing or in groups of 2-4 a faster weapon (Screamer or AutoCannon) is more effective than the slower weapons (pulvs and Hellcannons)
My reasoning for this: If you’re soloing anything challenging a miss on a 15 to 17 second weapon can be a real game changer. Also, it’s a completely ball breaking experience to knock an enemy down to say, 30 hp, then wait another 15 seconds to finish it off, THEN wait another 15 seconds to tag another mob.

My soloing setup: UC Wyrd Screamer 6, UC TI hull 4, UC storage 4.
This gives me enough firepower, health, and metal. With a metal supply of 35 soloing corsairs is possible. (not super viable or efficient for grinding but possible)

What types of mobs are good xp when solo or duoing?
1-7:Stay in the grey. Kill everything.
7+: To stay efficient (By Efficient I mean steadily killing, while keeping a steady stream of metals for both profit and healing)
Don’t try to kill anything with much more than 2000 HP. Wyrd Wayfarers are about as ambitious as I get if I’m trying to keep a healthy pace while grinding, and that’s pushing it. While I personally have soloed Pirate Corsairs with the aformentioned setup, I find it easier and faster to skip anything tougher than a Heteroclite Predator (1800 hp)
Resource management is key when soloing. Keep your metals high, sell everything else, pray that reapers or hostile enemy players don’t jump you.

Any group larger than 4 I like to run minimal hull, and more weapon.

My reasons for this: Damage is generally spread out. As far as I can tell, there is no threat table for the mobs in this game (Please, correct me if I’m wrong) Therefore, I keep a decent balance of storage and weapon. I try to leave enough metal in my inventory at all times to both maintain my own ship’s HP as well as a teammate who may be running low/not paying attention to thier own health. (The wonderful thing about TIB is the “Holy trinity” of other MMO’s has been eradicated. Anyone can “tank” anyone can “DPS” anyone can “heal” it makes grouping simple and a lot of fun)

Now which weapon to use? Slow? Fast?

It depends.

I check my groupmates setups. If nobody is running a low delay weapon. I run a common screamer 8 for the same reasons that I run a screamer when solo. The sustained dps keeps the health dropping while everyone else is on cooldown. This also potentially saves your groupmates from wasting 15 seconds on a mob with 20 hp left.

If someone is running a low delay weapon I prefer to use a common hellcannon 8. It’s not quite as hard hitting as a pulv, but for PVE purposes it takes nice big chunks of HP off of a mob without a super long delay. Crits hit for 400+ generally and I typically am in the top 2 players in my hunting party for XP gain. (IF I’m not mistaken, xp is divided amongst the group based on how much damage was done to the mob per player attacking it.) Your mileage will vary depending on what level your groupmates are and the EP of the weapons that they use.

Well what about Mass Drivers? Leviathans? Wyrd Rippers?

I haven’t played with them much to be quite honest. They seem well balanced but I think that in a group, the burst from the slower weapons and the quick steady damage of the faster weapons will leave these middle of the road weapons gasping for XP. I could be wrong here, but from my experience I think these weapons’ attack speed truly reflects their standing in the heirarchy of TIB weaponry: Middle of the road. Good for every occasion, but not necessarily optimal.

Computers……..
I haven’t found one that I liked yet. I’m still leveling, trying to catch up to all the lvl 20+ players (which seems to be the average at this point of the beta) I don’t want to have to sacrifice XP to gain +hit, crit, evasion…anything. I want all the xp I can get. I don’t want a healing penalty because wasted metal is wasted health or wasted profit, and with the relatively unstable market, rarity of item drops I think aquiring a high amount of credits in this game is paramount to one’s success.

Harvesters……
Again, I haven’t used them much. If someone would like to chime in here, please do, but for farming in small groups and soloing, I prefer to have more weapon, or more hull, or more storage. I personally don’t see the benefit of using up EP points for an extra unit when I harvest. (Granted the XP bonus on some of these harvesters looks appealing, I think the negatives of giving up 2 EP outweigh the positives.) The exception here is if you are roid farming. If that’s your primary focus then absolutely run a good harvester. However I cannot recommend one due to my lack of experience.

Hulls.
Carbon, Composite, or Titanium,

Pick your flavor. At lower levels I think the type you pick doesn’t have a huge impact on your performance. As stated earlier, I often run no hull when grouped. (my curret hull is a TI hull. They are cheap to buy, offer decent hp, increased healing speed, and lowered jump cooldown)

Storage.
In a nutshell, run as much as you can while maintaining a healthy amount of DPS in groups. If you’re consistently finishing well below your groupmates on XP per mob, you’re not doing enough damage. Drop some hull or storage and grab a higher EP weapon. On my Invader Wyrd I run a 35 capacity UC storage 4 exclusively. I can essentially sell more than half of my metals when the group stops at a SP, and I have plenty of room for other resources. When soloing a 35 stack of metal keeps me relatively safe providing I don’t get jumped by hostile Players.

What to do when things go wrong:
You need to know when to stick it out or cut and run. When fighting an NPC you are basically “racing” it. Who will get to zero HP first? You or the NPC? If you know you don’t have enough metal, or HP left and your HP is dropping faster than the NPC, it’s basically time to run. Now remember, we cannot see what is in the next sector prior to jumping, ALSO remember that a Wyrd Reaper/Pirate Enforcer can crit upwards of 5-600 dmg. Keep that in mind when you let your HP get low. (This also applies to when grouping or soloing them) The last thing you want to do is decide to give up your current fight and run, Jump to the next sector, and be one shot by another NPC or a Player who wants an easy kill.

Black Dollars.

You didn’t think I’d forget about Black Dollars did you??? Of course not

Black dollars are an alternate currency to in game credits. You can purchase them from other players in game via trading, OR you can purchase them Via Paypal or the Google Play store (formerly the Android Market)

I never like to run below 10 BDS.

Why?

1. Hyperdrive is wonderful. It cuts your jump speed in half. This is great when you need to catch up to teammates, or engage an enemy player in pvp. The first thing I do when a ship from a hostile corp or alliance jumps my sector is turn on HD. If they want a fight, their chances of outrunning me are slimmer, and if I need to evade them, I have a much better chance of outrunning them. Honestly, everyone I’ve encountered in PVP runs Hyperdrive. If you don’t use it, and don’t have a Corp or Earth Jump available, you’re screwed.

2. Earth and Corp Jump. Are you soloing? Did 8 Murder Inc ships just jump into your sector? Well.

Providing you didn’t get dropped in one round of their attacks, you better have a CJ or EJ ready. Or you’re gonna die. Simple as that.

(No hate @ Murder btw. Just using your corp as an example, with a name like Murder inc, I’m sure you don’t mind)

EJ and CJ are also nice timesavers. I personally like to log at my corp’s home planet. If I’m clear across the map I’m not wasting 30 minutes of my life and a full load of metal just to make it home alive. OR maybe someone is selling an item you’ve been searching for 1 sector W of earth, if you take forever getting to them, you may lose out on that deal. Again, EJ saves the day.

3. BD heals. Sometimes things just go wrong. You ran out of metal, you’re far from home. You don’t want to die and you are down to 200 HP. BD heals are your friend here. Use up a few BDS, heal yourself and aquire a healthy load of metals. Now that you’re on your feet you can go back to grinding XP or credits. OR make it to a SP and buy some metals. Again, resource management is key here.

5. Mindsurge. OH Mindsurge <3<3I personally buy Mindsurge once every level. Once I hit “lvl X.80” I turn on MS and make that last 20% fly bye.

That’s all I have for now. Again, this guide is aimed at lower level players who want to be a bit more effective while still having a blast playing this awesome game. Most of this advice does not apply to Garrison engagements or PVP (it may but since i’ve had little experience with either, Im not going to claim to be knowledgeable on the topic)

Thanks for having a read and I hope that you found it to be helpful. If I have made any errors or provided false information please don’t hesitate to discuss it with me, I’m still learning too!

See yas in the black!

~Tssunami2011

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *