Hyperion 101 - Introduction to Having a Big... Ship

Come to the Mega Side...

By: George Argyropoulos

a/k/a Dragon_Bane   

Mega hulls have slowly started to permeate beyond just end game players with the changes Kixeye has implemented in the last few months. I'm going to review some of the very basics of getting into mega hulls and what to do when you get one. There will be an informal show to cover the basics herein, the TLC for the Megas and an open Q&A on Megas this Sunday, February 5, 2017 at 2:00pm PST. The show can be found right here. Depending on the response, it may be a one time reference show or we may do one of these once or twice a month as more and more players start building their Hyperion and if that is the case we may migrate the show if there is enough interest in continuing them.

The Gantry

The first thing you need to do is is meet the requirements to build your gantry. They are:

Next we need to consider the R&D requirements. These offer not only the path to your Hyperion, but are their own innate buffs to your game in varying degrees throughout the process. I highly recommend applying some effort to achieve these. (I do want to give a shout out to Laredo for helping me gather obscure-to-me info for the newer R&D requirements.)

There are basics required for R&D - Player level 50 and an Outpost level of 6 or higher. That said, the following are the requirements for each of the first R&D levels and the associated benefits of those levels:

1 - Return 100 mil resources to base; Have Weapon lab 10: All Lab Upgrades have to be completed before R&D can be done for the level you want to research.
-Cost: 100,000 Uranium Time: 2d 0h 00s
(Benefit: Critical hit chance increase +2%)

2 - Destroy 1 x Level 87 Drac Stronghold - FM level 87 Drac Stronghold
-Cost 140,000 Uranium Time: 3d 14h 00s
(Benefit: 50x Aegis Shards & Wolfpack Crew)

3 - Have Advanced Lab 10, repair 50k ship armor- Repair your fleet till this is completed.
-Cost 151,900 Uranium Time: 6d 11h 12s
(Benefit: VXP modifier increase +4%)

4 - Destroy SSB (Drac Base) - A SSB a Sub Sector Base, we all know them as Drac Bases.  These have to be 100% killed to count. (SSBs  can be Co-op'd for credit.  The first player in will get the credit as long as they don't die, don't leave the battle and it's 100% destroyed. )
-Cost  164,812 Uranium Time: 6d 15h 24m 29s
(Benefit: 50x Aegis Shards and Fearless Blitzers Crew)

5 - Return 100 mil res to base, have Naval lab 10- Refer to #1.
-Cost 178,820 Uranium Time: 6d 19h 23m 36s
(Benefit: Map Speed Modifier +25%)

To get the Gantry fragments you need to hit 91 Mega Hull targets in the map that spawn when a sector reaches Orange Sector Threat. In Anatomy of Design : Apollo I review an Apollo fleet build that can auto the Mega Hull targets alleviating part of the pain of the requirements associated with the entirety of the Mega Hull experience. Once you have all the requirements for the Gantry, you can then start your building it! Once your Gantry is started, you do NOT have to wait for it to complete to start collecting the Hyperion fragments.

The Hyperion

This brings us to the next step - your Hyperion. Just like the Gantry, the Hyperion has requirements you must achieve before you can begin construction. They are:

The targets for the fragments are the same as for the Gantry - the 91 Mega Hull targets. As before, once you have achieved all the requirements, you can begin building your Hyperion!

What Next

Once you have the Hyperion, you need to become familiar with the four items that upgrades revolve around:

Titanium: 

To get this you have to hit those bloody 91 Mega Hulls again. Get used to it, you'll be doing it a lot. Each successful completion of a target awards you 12,000 Titanium and is banked automatically up to 250,000 Titanium.

Uranium: 

Acquired from the Reaver Armadas - Make sure YOUR sector is in Yellow or Orange Sector Threat!! Payouts are based off of what Sector Threat level your own sector is in when you complete the target. The payouts are as follows:

35    - 5,000 Uranium

57    - 15,500 Uranium

75    - 33,500 Uranium

120  - 47,000 Uranium

Advanced Components:

Made with the use 5,000 Titanium and 24 hours Research time. There is a limit of 40 that you can bank. These are used to build and upgrade modules and weapons.

Metal Alloy:

Made with the use of 25,000 Uranium and 25,000 Titanium and 30 minutes Research time. There is a limit of 40 that you can bank. These are used to build and upgrade modules and weapons.

Once you are comfortable with these components, you move on to actually equipping your Hyperion.

Modules and Weapons

So we now come to the actual components on the Mega hull. You start out with one Culverin Cannon Module and several blank spots. Your first goal is to get enough Titanium so that you can build the Advanced Component that you need to build the Module you choose. At the start, you will be limited to the Titan (called Calais on level 2) Mortar Module and the Culverin Cannon Module. When you want to build a Module, click on a blank spot and select 'build' and it will look like this:

Something to note here before we go on. Modules and Mega Weapons are tied together, in other words, if you upgrade a Titan (called Calais on level 2) Mortar Module to level 3 with the Mortar at level 1 and then decide you want to switch to a Culverin Cannon Module, you do NOT keep the Module and only switch the weapon. They are inexorably tied together. Replacing the module replaces the weapon or replacing the weapon replaces the Module, so you will be at a level 1 for both when you switch. Additionally, if you have all 10 slots of your Hyperion filled you do not lose the Weapon Module, it merely goes into storage so that you can use it to swap out in the future at your choice.

Refitting

Once you have your Modules built you have two options open to you to strengthen them and your Hyperion. The first is to refit your Module. You can equip specials and weapons onto the module (which stays with the module, they do NOT transfer) to either help strengthen your defense or offense when ships or drones close. When refitting it will look something like this:

You'll note that refitting items onto your module will cost you precious Titanium. See why that Apollo fleet is so important when delving into the world of the Hyperion?

Specials equipped to the Module will NOT affect the main Module Weapon, the specials only affect the standard weapons fit onto the Module. Kixeye plans on introducing "Mega Specials" in the future that do affect the Module Weapon, but those will be uniquely defined and represented via naming and/or new UI elements.

Standard weapons mounted on the module have the same range they always do unless the module stats specifically call out otherwise (such as Ballistic Range: +X%). The range of those weapons originate from the center of the equipped module, not the entire Mega Ship itself. So moving or placing the module in a particular slot on the hull does have some impact on where a standard weapon is able to reach. It doesn't matter which slot you equip the standard weapon to, they will all fire from the center of that module. The main thing that affects range relationship is the location of the module on the mega hull itself (in the same way that that a ship separated from the fleet off in the distance can still fire at things in its range).

Upgrading

The next option to strengthen your Hyperion and Modules is upgrading them This will increase several factors that such as Armor, damage, max weight, etc. that will make your Hyperion more powerful. To upgrade these you will need the constructed components.

You can not upgrade the Weapon without first upgrading the Module. Cost can be seen when selecting the upgrade. You can Build or Refit at the same time as you Upgrade a Weapon or Module.

Rotate & Lock Range

Rotate: Most mega weapons have a defined firing arc. Rotate allows you to "point" or "aim" the weapon in a particular direction. This is important for Mega Weapons that have a fixed firing angle, as it determines what part of the battlefield you are covering or protecting.
The Culverin Cannon (at this level) is the exception as it sports a 360 degree targeting zone, but takes time to track to its target. So setting the initial rotation of the Culverin Cannon Module on the hull specifically determines how much more or less time it will take to track to a target depending on which angle the target enters combat.

Lock Range: This allows you "turn on" the range display in the Mega Build Mode without needing to keep the module selected or hovered over. This is really just meant to help you plan where your targeting / firing zones are going to overlap. Unlocking it will simply turn off the range display for that particular module. Locking or Unlocking Range has no direct impact in combat itself.

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With the lessened requirements allowing more players to delve into the Hyperion, I hope this, along with the show, can help players interested in the Hyperion to begin the process and succeed in getting up to speed quickly. I will try to write a walk-through of the TLC if there is enough interest, though we will be covering that heavily in that show.