A2 final mission on hard

posted on October 17th, 2011, 4:51 am

I've been trying to beat A2 "Rifts" and keep getting totally overrun.  I'm pretty sure I have it on hard mode.  Can anyone tell me how to beat it?  It seems that by the time I can make tac cubes, even if I have a bunch, I get overrun by battleships charming all my fleet away anyway.

posted on October 17th, 2011, 5:06 am

Hm, is this the last Borg mission (the one where you have to kill the 8472 Mother)? If so, as I recall, it's best to concentrate on one techtree. I remember going for Diamonds with Utribeams (AoE murder) and eventually FusionCubes for the last base assault 

posted on October 17th, 2011, 9:51 am

yes, its safe to pretty much ignore the fed tech tree. galaxies are plain and sovvies only reflect torps which 8472 dont use much. only use fed cons to build a starbase if you need crew (and of course the trading station for the miner).

the only thing i can ever see myself wanting from feds would be the nebula special gemini effect, the only thing better than a fusion cube is 2 fusion cubes. does gemini even work on the fusion cubes? its a lot of money on the fed tech tree just for that special.

a big problem will be the battleship special making your ships shoot one of your ships. with several cubes on your side this could get messy fast. if you see a fleet of battleships coming, fight near your starbase for extra dps on the enemy. you could even try putting ships on green alert to avoid shooting at the ships hit by the battleship special.

each rift will have one fleet head for it, you get a notice for this, and i think the map flashes their location. once you defeat the fleet heading for a rift (Best to just wait near the rift in question lol) then you can ignore that rift. the fleet heading for your starting rift will come from the bottom right of the map, so make sure you have starbases there.

if you cant afford tac cubes then normal cubes should be good enough. especially if you fuse them. and that leaves you with similar buildings as for diamond strat, ultritium will pwn the enemy if you use them defensively.

dont bother rushing the big momma, there's no timer i believe. just wait and wait until you have a massive fleet.

posted on October 17th, 2011, 3:37 pm

Corbomite reflects beams too 

posted on October 17th, 2011, 4:13 pm

Yep, beams are reflected although it's harder to tell when it happens - quite often they are reflected along the same path while the beam is still active.

posted on October 17th, 2011, 5:01 pm

yeah forgot about the beams. still corbomite doesnt tend to be worth going for in that mission. the borg tech tree tends to work better. especially with a powerful aoe special.

[godsvoice]

posted on October 17th, 2011, 9:21 pm

Last edited by godsvoice on October 17th, 2011, 9:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Been a while since I played, but my general strategy didn't change very often throughout the game.

Starbases for defence (also crew officers). Fleets of smaller ships. One final wave of big ships.

Starbases are an easy cushion to retreat to for safety.

There was one mission where I won even though I lost my main base. It might have been that one. Was the mission completed if you destroyed the mother ship, even if you didn't beat all ships in the sector?

This might just be pure forgetfulness and I might be mistaken. But I think I balanced it between star bases and ships. Starbases guard you for the beginning portion of the game (like the resources you begin with, also use them to build yards). And then yeah, build a few fleets of smaller ships. Hide them behind the star bases, when the ships come, star bases destroy the ships, and you can send your ships out to get the long range ships that are out of range or not targeted as quickly. Then build up a hefty fleet of large ships, although I don't remember what I used.

But I think I remembered winning with just a massive fleet. I'd lost my constructors and star bases by the end.

Massive destroyer cruiser fleet which smashed a straight line through everything until I found the ship, then I brought in my big large ship wave to finish it off. I might be remembering things wrong, or this could be the wrong mission though.

If I remember correctly, the point is not to go hunting. Find out where the mother ship is by sending out lone ships to get a feel for it. But don't send small raiding parties trying to figure things out. The place is swarming with 8472. Go for it all at the end when you have built the massive fleet.

It was a while ago, but I still think I remember the beginning of it - if this is what I think it is. I was doing the normal strategy of building up forces waiting for a large attack ... followed by my counter attack where I chase them back to their home. But the big attack never came! It was a steady medium attack I would say. But I was building ships like crazy... Then finally, they came and butchered me. If there was a ship like the sovereign you had to keep safe, I guess I did, because after I started to lose star bases, I just gave up attacking those ships and went on an all out attack with my whole fleet at the centre - ish of the map. And I think I won, and then you get a nice video telling you the universe is safe, ... or is it! bah dah duhn. stay tuned.

Edit: actually it was quite nerve racking. Cause there never seemed to be a bigger wave coming. just lot's of... behemoth's? anyways, so when it finally did come, I guess you might sense it coming, but for me it happened all of a sudden. I watched dismayed as my star bases were blown to bits. then sort of a last ditched attempt, I went Captain Ahab on them. or if anyone has read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card... The enemy's gate is down!

posted on October 19th, 2011, 2:42 am

I was able to build the wimpy fusion cube, and only one.  I could never get the resources together for a second one.  The trade ship barely brings in anything, maybe just enough for a tech upgrade.  Note I'm playing on Hard.  Is that doable?  Anyone got a video?

posted on October 19th, 2011, 4:10 am

I was able to build the wimpy fusion cube, and only one.

Wimpy? Did I hear that right? I'm pretty sure it's the strongest vessel in the game, and pretty cost-effective considering the power it brings to the field
As for the video, I found one, don't know if its hard difficulty though

Hope that helps

posted on October 19th, 2011, 4:31 am

Not sure if I played on hard or not either.

But I know for a fact I did not use fusion cube.

I definitely went the way of quantity over quality on this one. Fusion cube might be the strongest ship in game, but yeah, I didn't go for that.

One thing you could do, is build structures like maybe a central hub of four star bases, just to survive the beginning attacks.

Once you build yourself say 25-40 vessels, or whatever is achievable, scrap them, and build more. And just go all out assault. Try to mix between weaker ships and stronger ships, cause auto target weak ships right? So need the cannon fodder.

Also, you survive longer with star bases, so you should get more income... longer your alive, the more trips the freighter will take. I think. I might have to go back and play this again when I get a chance, and on hard.

posted on October 19th, 2011, 4:57 am

I meant to say, not the mighty Tactical-Fusion cube, but the smaller one (wimpy maybe a poor description). I could never afford Tac cubes. 

posted on October 19th, 2011, 4:58 am

i build  a fusion cube and a tactical fusion cube in the last mission to try to beat the rift maker
At the time I had no idea the green nebula even existed above the rift maker...

i tried to replicate it several times afterwards but the trading ship keeps getting stuck 30 min into the game so no more income

posted on October 19th, 2011, 4:59 am

A single Fusion cube of either sort is quite enough - just make sure you have 2-4 Diamonds backing it up to Remodule its shields every once in awhile .

posted on March 16th, 2025, 8:23 pm

Still playing this crazy game in 2025!

That final mission Rifts is vastly more difficult than any of the other long missions in Star Trek Armada 2, at least any where you're intended to setup a base and hold it for some time.

My recommendations are:

1) Assign the cubes you start with to hotkey 1, the Galaxies to hotkey 2, and all other non-hero ships to 3. I assign the Sovvie to 0, the queen's diamond to 9 and the holographic ship to 7, and I try to have it clone the appearance of an 8472 ship early on so it can explore, finding the other two rifts as well as 8472's forward shipyard and the location of the riftmaker. Just be wary of mines.

2) Get everything out of the way of your construction ships. Setup 1 borg base right above the wormhole and build the fed base down at the bottom of the map in alignment with the right edge of the wormhole. Once the borg base is complete, pump out at least 6 more construction ships. Have the first Borg construction ship begin building a research station next to the first base. Have the first new construction ship build a base over on the left edge of the map, in alignment with the first Borg base. Then have the next construction ship build a base on the right edge of the wormhole just slightly below where the first base is. Ideally you want their firing ranges to overlap mostly, because this is the direction most attacks will come from.

3) Fill in the gap between that base and the Fed base at the bottom with a final Borg base. You want the Borg bases because you're going to be conducting Borg tech upgrades and the Borg repair damage the fastest. You're going to end up with 3 Borg bases at the top of your enclosed area and two borg bases plus the Fed base on the right of it.

4) When the Fed base is complete, build the trading station on the lower left corner of the wormhole. I've found if you place it adjacent to the wormhole - on the bottom or left side - the cargo ship often gets stuck. But if you place it at the corner that's usually not a problem.

5) Get your ships inside your enclosed area. I keep the cubes near the top edge for now, I keep the Queen's diamond near the wormhole, a little to the left, and Picard over on the right. Make sure the Sovvie is set to automatic on the special weapons, so they'll turn on their corbomite reflector when attacked. Keep special weapons set to manual on the Diamond. You're going to use her to remodulate the shields of bases under attack.

6) Build a standard Borg shipyard on the right edge of your enclosed area. You're only going to be developing the borg tech tree.

7) Once you've had your holographic ship mimic an 8479 ship, send it up just out of sensor range of your top right base to monitor for incoming 8472 ships.

Build out the rest of the Borg structures, starting with a recycler. Once that's complete, recycle all of the smaller ships on hotkey 3. Build the advanced shipyard over on the far left of your enclosed area.

9) Now you need to decide how you're going to challenge the riftmaker. You can either try using tactical fusion cubes OR diamonds. The former is more likely to be successful on the first try, but the latter can be accomplished much more quickly.

9a) If you're choosing Diamonds, build the advanced research station pretty far down and back farther from the frontline. Research the shield remodulator, then the ultrium burst, and finally the ship control special. Build as many diamonds as you can and place them half/half in numbered groups (so say 6 in group 1 and 6 in group two) as they're completed.

9b) If choosing fusion cubes, build the research center for those and don't bother researching the diamond tech. Note that the tech takes a LOT of metal - 1500 units - in addition to the metal the tech assimilation center takes. And you have very little metal. That's why this strategy takes longer. Build at least 7 tactical cubes to augment the one you already have.

10) Build at least two advanced upgrade centers, preferably 3. Research the shield upgrades 1 and 2 on one of them, and the engine upgrades and 2 on the other. If you build a third (easier to do if you're going the diamond path), research sensor upgrades 1 and 2. Finally, upgrade life support to 1 and 2 and finally weapons. You kinda don't want weapons that are too strong because of the Battleship's special, which causes your ships to attack each other. And if you go with the Tactical Fusion Cube, they lose crew REALLY fast when under attack.

11) Decommission the galaxies. Decommission any construction ships you aren't using. Decommission the standard cubes. If you're following the Diamond strategy, decommission the tactical cube as well. You need the resources.

12) Save the game. You'll be running out of time by now - 8472 is about to make a move toward the 2nd rift. Use the holographic ship as a scout if you're playing with the diamonds.. Run up the left side of the map trying to avoid enemy ships coming down. Use the ultrium burst to attack them if you encounter a large group. When you reach the level of the riftmaker move right toward it, saving your special energy as much as possible.

13) When you get close, hit one of your Diamonds with remodulation, and use it to hit the riftmaker with the control weapon, then back away. Once you take control, decommission the riftmaker. That's it! You've won.

14) If you're playing with the tactical cubes, send your hologram ship over the the right of your base to see if the coast is clear. Set the ships to green alert and send them to a clear area over there and fuse them. Note you'll need 1500 metal to fuse successfully. I typically don't send a tactical cube into battle until I've researched level 3 life support successfully, because they lose so much crew so quickly.

15) Send it up to rift two to counter the incoming fleet, which will almost surely be in place by now. If you have time, you can try attacking the riftmaker directly now (save first). Or you can try attacking 8472's forward base, and then the two gates they've built near the riftmater (come at them from an angle so you'll be out of range of the riftmaker). You'll need to send it back to your base to recrew.

16) eventually you can build a second tactical fusion cube if supplies keep coming. try to keep the area around the wormhole clear of ships so the cargo ship doesn't get stuck. Use it to attack 8472's technology stations over on the upper right quadrant of the map. Once those are taken out and the gates are destroyed, they aren't much of a threat anymore and you can take your time gathering supplies and building and recrewing tactical fusion cubes.

17) If you want you can remove all 8472 presence from the map, including another base over to the left and above the riftmaker, and their row of station and mines trailing off to the lower-right edge of the map, plus their stations around the other rifts and any fleets headed for the rifts.

18) If all the battleships have been destroyed, send a tactical fusion cube and the queen's cube up to finish off the riftmaker. Have her shoot the fusion cube with shield remodulation and annihilate the riftmaker with the fusion cube.