Generally, when you hear a term like “Scout” ship/class/build, you think of a fast, lightly armed and armored ship that’s more likely to run from a fight than duke it out in an all-out engagement. And, to a degree, you’re right. The scout ship on Everspace isn’t designed to take a ton of punishment. It’s very much a hit hard and fast, then get out of dodge type of ship.
But I don’t like to follow the rules all the time. Sometimes, I like to push it to the limit, riding along the razor’s edge if you will. So, this is my guide to how I took my scout ship and turned it into a corvette crushing, drone carrier demolishing mini-hulk and successfully cleared all sectors of the game 2x in a row. So, if you’re looking for fast, deadly, and effective, then you came to the right place.
- Note: I’m going to assume that you’ve done at least the tutorial run of the game. If not, go do that and then come back to this article.
Pick the Right Perks
How and where you spend your cash matters. Your perks break down into two categories — Pilot perks and Ship perks.
Your Pilot perks cover things like nanobot effectiveness, map awareness, critical hit chance, and the most important skills — how much money and loot you find per run. I’d say that a good way to start would be to get your money stat to max as soon as possible. This is going to give you maximum cash per run and make it easier for you to upgrade other perks because all those extra monies burning a hole in your space wallet.
After that, focus on trying to get your nanobot repair rate up so that you’re using fewer bots to heal when you take hull damage. The scout can only carry 15 nanobots, so make them count!
That takes us into our Ship perks. You’re going to want to max hull and sensors while getting your energy core to at least 6. You’ll also want to grab the secondary weapon extension in order to use the build I’m going to show you, which makes getting to the last sector a breeze.
Equipping Glorious Gear
This is the general loadout that I go for, which has all the tools I need to make it to the final sector. The Shock Rifle is a must-have primary weapon. This one, in particular, has a boost to shield damage, as well as a range boost letting me reach out and touch enemies 4.4km away. Keeping elite enemies at a great distance is the name of the game. Even my enhanced beam laser has a 1.9km reach and two mods to rip through hulls — perfect for those that close the gap from the shock rifle.
A solid choice for your alt-primary weapon is the Coil Gun. It’s fast, has great damage, and isn’t a massive energy hog. I just haven’t been fortunate enough to find the blueprint for it, yet.
Stasis Missles are another must for this build. These have been the deciding factor in a number of close calls for me. Being able to stop that Mk 3 Outlaw Fighter dead in its tracks while my cloak ability comes off cooldown is just so satisfying. Once you find the blueprint to craft these bad boys, you’re set. But until then, save them for emergency use only.
Heavy missiles can be swapped out for either an arc-9000 or for corrosive missiles. I prefer corrosive because it will continue to damage those annoying drone carriers — making them a much shorter fight.
Cloak is obviously a must have for your Scout loadout. I generally try to use the cooldown duration mods and the energy consumption mod so I can use the cloaking ability much more often. I love to strike my enemies from the comfort of invisibility for maximum effect, surprising them with a blast to the aft and fore.
The only other hard loadout items are Shield over the Shield XC and Energy Injectors. Shield XC is a rather terrible piece of equipment — you take a few hits and now your hull is taking the pounding. I shoot for the normal shield with a shutdown delay mod, energy consumption mod, and a recharge rate mod. This gives you 125 shield over the 60 the XC offers for only 5 more energy drain. It’s a no brainer, really.
Energy Injectors are good for long firefights or dealing with bigger ships for a prolonged period of time. These give you that extra boost to help your cloak reset and gather yourself in the middle of a fight.
Tactics
You’re basically going to want to play the role of the sniper with this build. Keep enemies at a distance and if they do start to close in on you, make use of your cloak and speed to escape the situation. Below are some general tactics that I use against particular enemies. These may not work 100% of the time, but they’re useful and they’ve been proven to work.
- Corvettes — Try to stay at the max range of your Shock Rifle as often as you can. Make sure to focus on shield charge drones if there are any and soften up the hull with corrosive or heavy missiles for a quick fight.
- Frigates — Take your time; frigates do a lot of damage. Make use of your speed and cloak to get into range to hit the energy nodes on the top and back of the frigate. If you happen to have an arc-9000 and you’re kinda crazy, you can launch a charge at the top of the ship. Just make sure you get out of dodge!
- Drone Carriers — If you have corrosive missiles, 3-4 should do the trick. An upgraded beam laser or coil gun will make short work of the drones, allowing you to destroy the carrier. Remember to move while shooting and you’ll be fine.
- Swarms — Swarms are short work for a good beam/coil gun. They generally drop fuel as well, so it’s good to engage when you’re running low. Cloak approach and give ’em hell, kid.
Putting It All Together
The Scout Ship is a low-key death machine just waiting for the right person to take the helm. It’s powerful, upgrades well, and should not be overlooked, even by the most die hard fan of the game. In fact, it’s the only ship I’ve cleared the game with consistently. When it comes down to it, it’s really about how you play the game, but I’m hoping that with my tips and my loadout, you’ll come to appreciate just how much fun can be had with the scout ship.
If you haven’t yet already checked out my review of the full release of Everspace, you should totally click on the link and learn more about how the game stacked up to my initial expectations. And, if you have any questions on my build for the Scout in ES, please feel free to ask me in the comments below.
Stay tuned to GameSkinny for more Everspace tips and tricks.
