Factorio Forums

So I already have power armor Mk1, but I really don't know how I can possibly get enough alien artifacts required to even research MK2, sense it takes 450 alien science packs... I'm still somewhat new to the game, so maybe I'm missing something, or some technique, but I don't see I can kill all these huge bases with any of the current technology I have.

Here is a picture of my map, so you can see what I'm talking about:
http://imgur.com/fDL6Gr1
And a picture of my current Power Armor set up:
http://imgur.com/6OxukRW

So is there some special technique, or power armor setup that would make it possible to even approach those bases, or am I just screwed? lol
Thanks!

Get your self an fusion reactor, they are way better than the solar panels.

And upgrade the batteries.

Also I suggest getting rid of the night vision and only attack biters at day.

And get yourself Capsules and an high follower robot count.

bulldog98 wrote:Also I suggest getting rid of the night vision and only attack biters at day.

That's a personal laser defense, not night vision.

exactly. build a fusion reactor (hope you have enough artifacts for that) and as many mk2 energy shields as possible. Get a combat shotgun and piercing shotgun rounds. Get your follower robot count up to level 3 or 4 and build a factory for destroyer capsules. they are strong against the big biters. poison capsules are strong against worms.

before you walk into a biter nest, get some destroyer robots. then walk in and shoot at the spawners with your shotgun, while your robots take care of the biters. always move, don't get surrounded by biters.

that way you can clear out pretty big bases and get tons of alien artifacts.

Well, a strategy that works well but is a bit "cheesy" is turret creeping - simply build up a row of electric poles, and when you're close enough start spamming laser turrets, and creep forward adding more turrets until the biters are all gone.

If that feels too "cheaty" for you, what I like to do is get a combat shotgun with armor piercing rounds (I find it to work much better than the rocket launcher), and get a lot (at least 100) distractor capsules. The advantage of distractors to destroyers is that they don't follow you, so - 1. they don't have a limit. you can spam as many as you want; and 2. you can launch them over the spawners and run away, carting the biters around you until the spawners are dead.
This would probably work well with a few destroyers following you, to help dwindle the swarm of biters, while throwing more distractors from time to time.
Try to start throwing distractors before the biters spot you, so they attack them instead of you (thus living up to their name and distracting the biters )

Thanks for all the replies! Although the problem is that I don't think I can even get enough artifacts to research piercing shotgun shells. :/ sense it requires 150 alien packs, and I would still have to go to one of those huge bases to get enough artifacts.
I do like the suggestions of destroyed robots and distract or capsules, so I might try that. And yeah I think I have enough artifacts for 1 fusion reactor, barely...

I could just try the turret creeping method, as you mentioned sillyfly, sense that is pretty much what I did with the smaller bases.

Seems like this will be a huge endeavor haha

1 Alien artifact = 10 Alien science pack
https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... ience_pack

Really? Is that up to date? Because whenever I mouse over the alien science pack, it shows it takes 1 artifact, but didn't show that it yielded anymore than 1 pack. O.o

Actually I'm just stupid and didn't notice that it said 10x... -.- Wow my bad for not realizing that. Although after I use 30 to build my fusion reactor, I will only have like 2 left, which isn't enough for anything, and I'm back to my original problem lol

You can also go for the smaller nests first. Like the one north to your base. This are way easier to kill but more time consuming if you have to run to them.

Lee_newsum wrote:1 Alien artifact = 10 Alien science pack
https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... ience_pack

1 Alien artifact = 16.8 Alien Science packs with 4 - productivity level 3 in assembler and 2 in the science center

DerivePi wrote:

Lee_newsum wrote:1 Alien artifact = 10 Alien science pack
https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... ience_pack

1 Alien artifact = 16.8 Alien Science packs with 4 - productivity level 3 in assembler and 2 in the science center

The moment you have Level 3 Modules you usually dont really care about the amount of artifacts anymore cause you just wade through a couple of big nests with 25+ destroyer robots.

But lvl 1 Productivity Modules in all Techlabs and in the lvl 3 Assembler for Alien Science is great even in "mid-game"

But as soon as you are ready to mass produce lvl 3 modules your basicly done with science anyways.

I push through research on Productivity Module 3s in order to make the most of the Alien Artifacts. The only Alien Science I make without them are the ones required to research the Mod 3. I think my frugality is my weakness in the end game, but I still enjoy it.

Two mods to look into reinforced car mod an dnytech mod. U can ride around in your battle wagon shooting up bitters. And tho the latter adds more bitter types u can make bitter spawner from queem eggs then farm queen eggs witch give u 50 artefacts each. Not intrested in mods? Best advice get pink production modules. With a assembly 3 full of tech 2modules I was getting a free 10 purple beakers every artifacts.