Founders Pack Analysis Part1

TLDR: Hunter Pack is good, but the Mercenary Pack is AMAZING! Buying both, bad idea as all you gain is 500gp, 7 days of Elite Status, and 2 Fleet Recruitment Packs. Winning codes from people streaming Dreadnought and Dreadnought developers THE BEST!

Analysis of Founders Packs

I’m going to look at the Dreadnought game Founders Packs and what is contained in each of them. Lets dive right in and compare the two packages against each other in the simple comparison chart that follows.

Item in Pack	Fleet Recruitment Packs	Hunter Pack	Mercenary Pack
Grey Box Points(GP)	250	500	3,000
Ship, Morningstar	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ship, Outis	No	No	Yes
Ship, Silesia	No	No	Yes
Ship, Huscarl	No	No	Yes
Ship, Kali	No	No	Yes
Elite Status	0 Days	7 Days	30 Days
Exclusive Decal, Emblem, & Coating	Unique for FRP Decal & Emblem	Unique for Hunter Pack	Unique for Mercenary Pack
Fleet Recruitment Packs	0	2	4
Cost	NFS	$9.99 USD	$39.99 USD
Approximate Value*	$17.50	$45 USD	$170 USD

*I came to this value by converting the USD($) to GP via the in game tool, guessing $15/hero ship, & 15 per fleet recruitment pack, and estimating $5 for 7 days of Elite Status and $20 for 30 days of Elite.

Immediate access to Dreadnought is obviously something each of these packages gives. It’s not something worth going in depth on, you gain access.

Greybox Points (GP)

Greybox Points (GP) the Hunter Pack gives you 500GP, a direct value of $4.99* in the Dreadnought game. The Mercenary Pack gives 3,000GP and in game 2,500 is $19.99 so we can safely assume $24.99 for 3,000GP. The Fleet Recruitment packages have 250GP to help your friends get started. Obviously the Mercenary Pack gives a better value for the money, so 1 point for the Mercenary Pack.

*All values in US Dollars ($)

Vanity itmes

Exclusive ship vanity items, each package contains their own specific Decal, Emblem and Coating specific to that package. The Fleet Recruitment Packs also has a Decal, Emblem and Coating that is unique to it, so if you don’t absolutely need to invite 2/4 friends send one to yourself so you get the extra goodies. One point to the Hunter Pack (better looking Decal, Emblem, and Coating), one point to the Mercenary Pack (More invites).

Got Friends?

Fleet Recruitment(FR) Packs as noted in the previous sections the people you send these to will get 250GP, a unique Decal, a unique Emblem, and a unique Coating(different from both the Hunter and Mercenary coating/decal). These things are just add value to the packages. They also get a Morningstar hero ship to toy around with. If you want the FR Pack Emblem, Decal, and Coating you will need to send yourself one of the invite requests.

The Ships

Here is a quick look at the ships, both packs contain the Morningstar (Zmey class dreadnought) it’s also in the FR Packs. The rest of the ships are only contained in the Mercenary Pack. The Outis (Fulgora class corvette), Huscarl (Gora class destroyer), Silesia (Nox class Artillery Cruiser) and Kali (Koschei class Tactical Cruiser). The only two that are generally considered good beyond level 15 are the Huscarl and Kali, and of those the Kali falls off the list once you can build your own Koschei at level 25. But lets keep in mind what these ships are really for, giving you more options while on the battlefield, and at that they do at least a decent job. One point to the Mercenary Pack, can’t argue with all those ships.

Elite Status

Each pack gives you Elite status from 7 days with the Hunter pack to a whopping 30 days with the Mercenary pack. What does that mean for you? You have 7-30 days of increased FP(aka Fleet Points or in game currency) and increased reputation for each match. Having an active Elite Status increases reputation and Fleet Points earned from battles by 50%. So you can get 50% more captain ranks and afford 50% more ships, weapons & modules, and officer briefings during your time in Dreadnought than you could without it. Though it must be said at least once, the less often you play the less this is worth it, if you’re a weekend warrior you may want to consider buying in small intervals so less time is wasted as days are RL days and not time spent in game.

Worth IT!

Is the Hunter Pack worth $10? Absolutely, without a doubt yes! You and up to two friends gain access to Dreadnought, amazing ship skins, you get $4.99 in GP, an unknown dollar value in Elite status (probably about $5) and some other vanity items. What does this mean for the Mercenary pack? It means it is absolutely, hands down, an insane value for the money you pay. First you will have to make level 49 before unlocking all of the abilities, officer briefings, and ships. Second the ships and elite status help you progress as fast as possible when starting the game.

If you enjoyed the post swing by my stream I am generally live Monday-Friday starting about Noon Pacific to around 6pm.

Tactical Cruiser 101 Part5

TLDR: $40 is a great deal for the Mercenary Founders pack. If you have the Kali use it until you can build custom Koschei’s at level 25. Know the map terrain. When playing the Aion Healing > Damage most of the time. Double Aion < Aion + Koschei < Double Koschei < SINGLE strong koschei player (because of damage output). Get to know every ship class (not type, CLASS).

A word on the Kali (Hero Koschei)

Tools: LMG, Stasis Beam, Repair Pod, Overclock Pulse, Emergency Evac with Retaliator, Weapons 101, Engine Rigger, and Adrenaline Shot. Lets face it, your Heavy Repair Beam and Overclock Pulse are what your on the battlefield for Adrenaline Shot will help keep your energy up. Repair Pod, Emergency Evac, and Retaliator give you some added survivability, just remember when you use Evac you are 100% inviz but healing points out your position to enemies. Engine Rigger gives you the ability to get into and out of cover quickly, just remember to keep healing as you go and you can go very far VERY fast. Finally Stasis Beam, no your primary doesn’t do damage but you can still stop a corvette in its tracks by hitting 1 and aiming your HRB at the vette, believe me this will scare the CRAP out of newer players and frustrate vets just as much. Trust me, if you have the money it is totally worth it to buy the Mercenary founder’s pack, you can re-skin ships you own with the hero skins and the Kali, Huscarl, skins, 3000 GP, and 30 days of Elite status are more than worth $40 if you were to buy all the stuff at the current in game GP to US$ conversion ratio.

Positioning

Knowing the terrain is important for every class, but as many things are for Tac Cruisers, it goes double for you. You must know firing lines and paths of escape. Where players are going to break line of sight(LOS) and where you can break LOS with the enemy. Rings of Saturn is one of my personal favorite maps because it has so many places for healers to snuggle up in and be quite safe for a time. Kappa base is probably the second best and Dry Dock is not far behind. All maps have great spots where you can turtle up and heal your team for the entire duration of the match timer. They also have plenty of place to dart from cover to cover with either power to engines or warp jump. Learn the maps, learn them well, use this knowledge to help position your team in an advantageous position to DESTROY the enemy healer that knows the terrain too.

Final thoughts

It can not be stressed enough, keep your head on a swivel! If you have the Kali don’t even bother getting the Aion, you can play Kali until you hit lvl 25 and the other hero ships as you see fit for a break, banking all that cash to outfit a Koschei completely as soon as you hit level 25. If you don’t want the $40 pack or can’t afford it, worry not the Aion will get you to 25 almost as fast. Just make sure you don’t blow your money on useless abilities / OB like the  Artillery Pod. Healing can be very rewarding or completely underwhelming. The more healers you have on your team the worse each of your score will be. If you only have an Aion and some one on your team brings a Koschei change ships, your not going to score well the best you can hope for is healing the Koschei up from time to time and getting a few repairs in here and there when the Koschei isn’t paying attention. My next pet peev is Double Koschei when your team has no DPS on the field, switch to the Trader Zmey or if you have it the Huscarl to up your teams DPS. Remember if your team can’t kill the enemy ships there is no point in healing, back to all of you playing Aions when there is a Koschei on the field you will get a better score playing a Trader Zmey than you will in that fully kitted out Aion. (unless you’re full on level 34 combat Aion) And finally, don’t lock yourself into playing only healer! Play every class at least until you understand their basic mechanics. If you have the Hunter Pack play the Huscarl and the Silesia if you don’t just play the Trader ships, honestly they are decent for what they are, the Mercenary ships just give a little better idea of high tier game play.

If you enjoyed the video swing by my stream I am generally live Monday-Friday from Noon Pacific to about 6pm.

Tactical Cruiser 101 Part5

BONSAI Time! June 29nd

Bonsai has been a hobby of mine for a little over 10 years now. I’ve killed a lot of trees and learned many valuable lessons in the process. The few tutors I have had have been fantastic, but most of my learning has been trial and error, from books, and online research. Once a month I will try and do a twitch stream devoted to bonsai where I work on a few trees or do something bonsai related. Once or twice a year I head back to the city I used to live in and teach a bonsai class at that high school for the horticulture class. If you would like to learn about bonsai or just watch me hack apart trees join me for my next bonsai stream June the 29nd on Twitch.

Tactical Cruiser 101 Part4

TLDR: Cattaro bane or boon? Don’t spend your money on this ship until you have all the other ships you want or it is significantly buffed from patch V1.0.3.

A short post on the Cattaro, I'm not going to spend too much time on this ship until there is a complete revamp of it or it gets a huge buff.

So this Cattaro ship seems like a neat idea, a Tactical Cruiser that deals lots of damage and supports the team. Great concept, doesn’t ever work out as planned. Its a bit too slow, does less damage than it should, and is the most fragile of the Tactical Cruisers. Two words describe my current personal opinion of this ship “Don’t Bother”.

Granted giving it Tesla Turrets, Tesla Pods, Nuclear Mine, Blast Pulse, and Target Warp seems like it would get the job done, but it doesn’t do as well as a similarly equipped Koschei. It really makes me sad that this ship has yet to live up to its potential in beta, its getting close, just not there yet. I plan on revisiting it later but not until I see patch notes saying its gotten a significant buff.

While the Cattaro is an entertaining ship and can be used some what effectively with Purge Beam, Nuclear Mine, Blast Pulse, Energy Generator, Retaliatory, Module Amper, Engine Rigger, and Engineering 101 it requires level 46. Even with this set up most players will be more effective playing almost any other ship.

If your not too busy and want to learn more about Dreadnought swing by my stream I am generally live Monday-Friday from Noon Pacific to about 6pm.

Tactical Cruiser 101 Part3
Tactical Cruiser 101 Part5

Q&A With Tux and Thor

Quick post with a video interview I did with Empty Tuxedo and Thor, the community managers for Dreadnought, a little while ago.


If you enjoyed the video swing by my stream I am generally live Monday-Friday from Noon Pacific to about 6pm.

Tactical Cruiser 101 Part3

TLDR: Trader Aion < Custom Aion < Kali < Custom Koschei. Blast Pulse + Nuclear Mine OP. Beam Amplifier + Energy Generator = amazing heals. You can be aggressive in both the Kali and Aion.

Pulling it all together in a ship:

Aion #1 This is an early game Aion build, you should be able to have all the pieces in a few hours of playing. Generally with this build you should use all of your energy then hit the beam Amplifier when you need to heal as much as possible with your primary weapon. Repair pods should be dropped every 30 seconds (or as they are ready) to keep a field of healing available for you and your team. Try and stay around 1200m away from friendlies so you can use Repair autobeams if things get rough. Energy generator means you can Beam Amp and then Energy generator, then power to weapons so you get the Beam Amps extra power to healing plus the energy to weapons healing power, it's AMAZING. The 101 officer briefings are used so you can have the money to spend on the needed ship abilities and the ship itself.

LMG

Beam Amplifier

Repair Pod

Repair Autobeams

Energy Generator

Communications 101

Weapons 101

Navigation 101

Engineering 101 or Adrenaline Shot ASAP

Aion #2 (Combat[ish]) So this is one of the screw around builds I use once in awhile it is a mid to late game build, I find it generates a little bit better score than the Cattaro mostly because you can heal and fight.  I use Tesla Turrets because you can burn close up enemies down quickly. Tesla coil pods are what you should use if you find you can survive long enough to get away from enemies, if you find your having a hard time switch to Repair Drones Nuclear Min is an amazing offensive weapon when launched into a group of enemies immediately followed by Blast Pulse, then get out of dodge! Target warp should be used to jump away from your enemy or to a corvette near the enemy. If you decide to use Engine Rigger down the road you could switch to Overclock Module to have insanely high burst damage. Desperate Measures is nice and can give you an extra blast pulse and mine, but should be upgraded to Retaliator ASAP so you don't have to almost die to get that extra damage. Module Amper is 30% more damage to your TCP, Repair Drones, Nuclear Mine, & Blast Pulse. Engine Rigger can be used if you feel comfortable with your survivability conversely if you want more use Slow & Steady. For survivability use Engineering 101 once your comfortable with loosing some durability switch to Adrenaline Shot.

LMG or Tesla Turret ASAP

Tesla Coil Pod[TCP] (DMG) or Repair Drones (survival)

Nuclear Mine

Blast Pulse

Target Warp

Desperate Measures or Retaliator

Module Amper

Engine Rigger or Slow and Steady (Target Warp makes up for lack of speed)

Engineering 101 or Adrenaline Shot

Koschei #1 This is my healing only focused Koschei build, it is amazing if you have good team support or almost no harassment. LMG because the range is much better than the Tesla Turrets for killing off the fleeing corvettes. Repair Drones mean I can survive any single corvette run 95% of the time, multi corvette runs require team support with or without this module. Nuclear Mine is better than anything else in this slot IMO for the reasons stated in the ‘sII’ section. Repair Autobeams mean you can look around and not drop healing friendlies. Energy Generator makes keeping people alive easy street. Retaliator means you should try and take damage once in awhile with your shields up so you can lower your cooldown timers, Desperate Measures or 101 can be used until you get Retaliator. Module Amper is my prefered choice because of the boost it gives to Repair Drones & Autobeams and the Nuclear Mine. Engine rigger makes keeping up with the team easier, until you get it run 101. Adrenaline Shot is a must!

LMG

Repair Drones

Nuclear Mine

Repair Autobeams

Energy Generator

Retaliator

Module Amper/Glass Cannon

Engine Rigger

Adrenaline Shot

Koschei #2 This is a much more survivable Koschei build than the previous one, I use it if playing solo or when there is a lot of harassment going on because it regularly kills corvettes. I use the Tesla Turrets because they rip new corvette players a new one, veteran players know to sit back a bit so they can’t be hit by them. Repair drones increase your survivability significantly. Nuclear Mine makes an excellent offensive and defensive weapon, and its fun getting kills after you have died. Blast pulse gives you an amazing corvette deterrent especially when combined with the Nuclear Mine. Target warp is how you keep up with your team, or get out of trouble. Desperate Measures will get you to Retaliator, then switch. Module Amper is needed because of the 30% increase in module damage. Slow & Steady makes you 10% more survivable, which is a good thing! Adrenaline shot is always needed for this ship.

Tesla Turrets or LMG

Repair Drones

Nuclear Mine

Blast Pulse

Target Warp

Desperate Measures until you get Retaliator

Module Amper

Slow and Steady

Adrenaline Shot

There are so many builds honestly you can do just about anything, but those builds are what I would run to maximize reputation gain and or suitability. Until next time when I discuss the Cattaro(its a short post), stay safe captains!(or suicide into the enemy for lolz its up to you) If you enjoyed the video swing by my stream I am generally live Monday-Friday from Noon Pacific to about 6pm.

Tactical Cruiser 101 Part2
Tactical Cruiser 101 Part4