Base Carry

In 'Base Carry', Base Building materials represent maximum shields, and components represent attack damage. There are five levels of challenges, each dividing all upgrade costs by 50.

NOTHING matters aside of base levels and weapon/shield setup(which should always be highest V you have since it can't be leveled) during the base challenge.

In the subsequent chapters, you will find strategies listed for all the Base Carry Challenges.

**EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NOTE BEFORE YOU READ THE GUIDE:**

Starting with base carry challenge 3+ you get what is called a 'booster penalty removal\* which allows you to start using boosters actively in the bases.

The important thing is that the levels you have are VERY important so having more levels in booster and less in booster penalty removal than the requirement mentions can lead you to being unable to beat challenge with 'better stats'.

It's important to pay attention to your stats and if you see boost penalty removing a lot of stats in the upper tab - add more boost penalty removals until you see the penalty is either fully gone or nearly fully gone.

## Base Carry 1

The minimum viable setup for 'Base Carry 1' requires roughly building materials level 30, component level 28, and booster level 6. Additionally, you need to have unlocked at least 9 out of 14 fields. At least one Beam Laser is better than a Gatling Laser.

In the boss fight in sector 3, you need to be active and replace 2-3 building materials with components after the shield from those components has been used up.

## Base Carry 2

Close to minimum stats:

Weapons: 3x gatling v2(slot 1/2/3) + beam v2(slot 4)

Shields: continuous

Base 1: full red(89)

Base 2: 36 shields, 33 multi, 31 weapons

Once you have the slots shown with arrows - you should be ready.

Strategy: Swap shields into weapons in base 2 as you lose HP

There is a bit of a leeway with those levels so you can likely be missing a few and still do fine.

## Base Carry 3

Minimum stats for a close kill:

Weapons: 5x gatling v2(slots 1-5), 1x beam v2(slot 6)

Shields: 3x continuous

Base 1: 136, 133, 25

Base 2: 84, 83, 79, 16

Base 3: none matter, only slots

Switch shields in base 1 between the 4 boosts into weapon once you have lost ~60% HP

## Base Carry 4

Base carry 4 should be doable the moment you unlock base 4 unless you somehow rushed right into it while ignoring bases 1-3.

Use the standard optimal booster placement in base 1-3. Feel free to check picture of base carry 5 for those as it's a copy.

On base 1 go pure red in non booster slots.

On base 2 go pure red in non booster slots + 1 battle multiplier in one of the slots surrounded by 3 boosters.

On base 3 use 1 booster penalty removal(purple) in a slot surrounded by 4 boosters and 1 battle multiplier(yellow) in the other slot surrounded by 4 boosters. The rest of the non booster slots are green.

On base 4 use the x2 boosters(blue) in all 6 slots.

Levels don't really matter as by time you reach base 4 you should be ready unless you completely neglected crew(reaching rank 300 totals in all stats should be easy after getting 1st masteries) using the base shard... in which case just equip it for an hour or so and get some levels in.

I had a huge overkill(nearly instant kill and boss barely tickled) with lvls ~115 on base 3, so it should be doable with as low as 105-110 there.

**The absolute must is the boost penalty removal level 5 on the base 3 as this is the core to removing the boost penalty entirely with just 1 booster removal.**

## Base Carry 5

The moment you unlock the slots you see unlocked in base 4 - you should be really close but you need to ensure you get some extra levels, the important levels are:

Base 1 - red 329, boosters 59

Base 2 - red 273, parts 251, boosters 50

Base 3 - red 254, parts 235, booster 46, boost reduction 10

Base 4 - drain reduce 4, booster 5

Those stats are close to min max so make sure you get at least this much, there is a little leeway but it should be under an hour to reach those after getting said slots.

The approximation of when you can reach this is getting mastery for base x10 and using the crew setup of energy technician(for engineer levels) and logistics + industrial for the base non component output.

Also obviously use base shard. With the above you should unlock said slots without any extra reqs.

**Weapon Setup:**

Start with beams/gatlings and maybe a kinetic cannon or 2 to reach boss 30, simply reaching it shouldn't be hard.

Shield: any + x2 deflectors

**IMPORTANT: ON BOSS 30 RETROFIT SHIP INTO 6 KINETIC CANNONS V4 AND SWAP THE BASE 3 GREEN TILES INTO RED, YOUR GOAL IS TO FULL BURST IT WITH KINETIC CANNONS AND IGNORE THE FIRST DAMAGE VIA x2 DEFLECTORS!**

You will have 0 HP this way but you have enough damage to kill it.

You might need to use the trick to despawn enemies when approaching boss if enemies somehow kill you before you kill them(you can also use base loadout swapping by using green base 3 tiles until boss appears then quick swap into red version) - once you reach the 'boss threat' message - save the game and load it, this will delete all enemies and cause the boss to appear. This trick works everywhere by the way and can be a bit of a help in some situations.