So, Solo Railjack.

[o0Despair0o]

Before anyone goes full on keyboard warrior: I am fully aware that they're woking on it. Stop acting like you know it all.

 

Now,

I tried to solo the first Railjack mission. Went into free flight first to get a feeling for it. Seems good so far.

Tried out the APOC and, what was it, Pulsar weapons. So far Pulsar seems massively superior just because that thing is basically hitscan while the APOC cannons are near worthless until you unlock the target prediction ability (hell, why do I even need to unlock that. I spent days bulding that ship and yet I can't even get the targeting system to work?)

 

So anyway, I tried the first mission. Few crew ships (that are basically frickin battleships with 20 kilometers of armor width) and bunch of fighters.

The fighters are no problem. I can deal with those. Since the Pulsar is more of a long range weapon I tried sniping them - works good enough until you get spammed with ramsleds.

 

And that is where the problem is. They said that Fires were not supposed to occur THAT often, yet my ship lits up like a frickin christmas tree drenched in napalm every 20 seconds.

I kill the boarders, put out fires and fix the hull. Already before I even get back to the pilot seat I'm already burning again.

So I thought "well, maybe if I focus on the crewships first, ramsleds won't be a problem". Well, no. Doesn't work. This early in the update, you don't have max rank weapons yet. And both the Pulsar and Apoc do jack sh*t to crewships.

"Fine, I'll use the archwing can-" aaaaaaand locked behind upgrades/skills.

I can understand locking buffs behind levels, but locking the weapon itself completely behind them? That's BS.

 

They said that solo was "harder, but not impossible". That's wrong. It is, in fact, impossible unless you get carried for the first 2 weeks so you got the materials to max out your ship. THEN you might be able to solo it.

One of my friends told me you need to play most of the mission with your archwing since the ship is completely worthless.

Amazing design right there. Forcing me to use something OTHER THAN THE SHIP, so that I can complete a mission that is supposed to be played with said ship.

 

So here's my idea: Reduce the frequency of ramsleds by A LOT if there are no other players in the squad, and nerf the frickin crewships armor, I mean jesus christ, that thing takes a hundred shots straight into the cockpit and doesn't even get a scratch, yet I get shredded like wet paper.

 

There. That's my salt pile for y'all. Didn't even play an hour and I'm already getting scared away.

 

(And just before anyone goes "well, duh, it's supposed to be co-op", yes, I know. I'm talking about soloing it here, which is something a lot of people want.)

Guess I won't get to enjoy this until sometime 2020 when NPC crews are here. And those guy's better earn their god damn salary.

 

 

[TARINunit9]

There's a lot of chickens coming home to roost here:

They've basically made a new gamemode centered entirely around raids. Raids are of course balanced for multiplayer

They've released a patch while all their staff is at Los Angeles instead of home in Canada, meaning no one is around to fix the serverside bugs

Warframe has very little truly skill-based combat, because enemies will swarm you and fire all at once and you grind for the abilities to kill them before they shoot you or to heal up/negate the damage rather than skillfully avoid the damage. And Railjack seems to be no exception

[Gabbynaru]

So, I just finished the first extermination mission solo, and here's what I learned from a few failed runs:

- Max out the Omni charges before leaving on a mission. You'll need it for catastrophic failures.
- Do not put out fires, unless it's literally a giant red one on the minimap. Anything else is a waste of omni.
- Kill every single tiny fighter before dealing with the crewship. You'll just be leaving your railjack too exposed otherwise, especially with the new batch of enemies that will spawn when you blow up the crewship's reactor.
- On that note, don't waste time on enemy crewships. Get in, destroy the reactor, get out and right back to the Railjack.
- If you have a catastrophic failure, you can still pilot for a few seconds. Leave the pilot's seat only when the timer is at 30 seconds, and head straight for the catastrophic failure. Loki is great for this, as you can repair it even if there are enemies around.
- Get the first Engineering intensic, it makes the Omni work so much faster.
- Even if you fail, don't abort the mission. You'll still get intrinsic, which you can use to make your life easier.
- The target tracking intinsic is a god-sent, however it is not necessary if you want to focus on the other classes more. As long as the ships are in the diamond in the middle of the windshield (it's very faded, but still visible enough), you'll hit them more often than not.
- Don't charge into ships. Roll backwards and let them come to you.

Edited December 13, 2019 by Gabbynaru

[SordidDreams]

9 minutes ago, o0Despair0o said:

One of my friends told me you need to play most of the mission with your archwing since the ship is completely worthless.

Can confirm, first mission completely trivial with Amesha, which to my astonishment did not get immediately nerfed into the ground (still think it's coming, though). Second mission, ship got blown up while I was distracted. Yeah, they weren't kidding when they said this was co-op focused.

[Renegade343]

Just now, Gabbynaru said:

- Do not put out fires, unless it's literally a giant red one on the minimap. Anything else is a waste of omni.

That is probably the most counter-intuitive tip I've ever seen for a spaceship battle/management game.

[Gabbynaru]

Just now, Renegade343 said:

That is probably the most counter-intuitive tip I've ever seen for a spaceship battle/management game.

Sure, but I've not noticed anything major regarding fires, other than being a hazard to walk around. Catastrophic failures are more important to deal with than fires. Fires don't immediately end the mission if ignored.

[Renegade343]

Just now, Gabbynaru said:

Sure, but I've not noticed anything major regarding fires, other than being a hazard to walk around. Catastrophic failures are more important to deal with than fires. Fires don't immediately end the mission if ignored.

It's the idea of 'Oh yeah, those multiple fires aren't too much of a problem in a relatively small spaceship. Just let it burn until a hole's about to form to deal with it' that sounds absurd.

[Jiminez_Burial]

43 minutes ago, o0Despair0o said:

(And just before anyone goes "well, duh, it's supposed to be co-op", yes, I know. I'm talking about soloing it here, which is something a lot of people want.)

It should also be noted that the servers are crapping themselves so if you do get a group of people on comms in Disc or TS, chances are at least 2 of them don't show as online.  Plus if the host crashes or DCs then everyone else is kicked into instances on their own basically guaranteeing a failed mission.  So the whole system being balanced around group-play is a bit short sighted considering these big updates always have issues.

[bwc153]

30 minutes ago, Gabbynaru said:

Sure, but I've not noticed anything major regarding fires, other than being a hazard to walk around. Catastrophic failures are more important to deal with than fires. Fires don't immediately end the mission if ignored.

Fires cause constant health damage to the ship.  It's not a good idea to let them burn unattended.

[AuroraSonicBoom]

Yeah, best I found to do solo is to carefully lure mobs with amesha, put bubbles around your railjack while you dispose of the crew ships and adds, making repairs as needed. If you're lucky if the mission is a success youll have enough omni to keep the ship from blowing up and can mine some stuff, but that's not a frequent occurance.

Is it fun? No. Did they lie? No. Will I play it at all before command comes out? Probably not.

[XxSTOZZYxX]

This is what I'm not gettin though... Ran a few, to get a feel for it, and instead of the "4 man station centric" sim i was expecting, it's like 1 dude flys and 3 others run around fixing the ship.

Granted, that's only a few (failed) runs, but are we all missin somethin? Or is that basically it for now?

[(XBOX)YoungGunn82]

12 minutes ago, Jiminez_Burial said:

It should also be noted that the servers are crapping themselves so if you do get a group of people on comms in Disc or TS, chances are at least 2 of them don't show as online.  Plus if the host crashes or DCs then everyone else is kicked into instances on their own basically guaranteeing a failed mission.  So the whole system being balanced around group-play is a bit short sighted considering these big updates always have issues.

Yeah. NPC and solo should have been a thing first. Then when that is all good a dandy only then implement co-op. 🤷 

Edited December 13, 2019 by (XB1)SixGunLove

[Dr.Pepper23]

2 minutes ago, XxSTOZZYxX said:

This is what I'm not gettin though... Ran a few, to get a feel for it, and instead of the "4 man station centric" sim i was expecting, it's like 1 dude flys and 3 others run around fixing the ship.

Granted, that's only a few (failed) runs, but are we all missin somethin? Or is that basically it for now?

Yup thats it for now lol

[Loza03]

2 minutes ago, XxSTOZZYxX said:

This is what I'm not gettin though... Ran a few, to get a feel for it, and instead of the "4 man station centric" sim i was expecting, it's like 1 dude flys and 3 others run around fixing the ship.

Granted, that's only a few (failed) runs, but are we all missin somethin? Or is that basically it for now?

Gunning and getting outside are still useful in my experience. Away teams are far and away the fastest way to Deal with Crew Ships, which are also the biggest single threat. And with some good aim (and assumedly the second tier 360 gunning but I've not trialled that yet) more firepower can help alleviate the need for constant repairs.

[Awazx]

I don't like Railjack. I'm sorry, I know all the work that DE has put into this but ... it's not fun. I will continue to play my life's defense and survival missions and let my ship take dust in the dojo.

[PollexMessier]

online games just need to aknowledge that a huge chunk of their playerbase is loners. I don't know why this is such a hard concept for mmo's to grasp when they tend to be SO GRINDY that heavy introverts are going to end up being a disproportionately large % of the playerbase inherently

[--DSP--Jetstream]

29 minutes ago, XxSTOZZYxX said:

Or is that basically it for now?

Yeah wait for 2020 for railjack part 3, dunno why they called this update "empyrean" when its not the full package, since the drydock update (part1) has its own name "rising tide"

This should be called something than "empyrean" kinda give false sense to people who think its the full release.

[OniDax]

Solo players: For the starting mission, leave your railjack behind and deploy in your archwing to eliminate all threats, including crewships. Board the crew ships when they arrive, eliminate it, then return to dealing with fighters. Keep your railjack out of battle as much as possible. Then return to your railjack and farm.

[DrivaMain]

I managed to complete my second mission solo by hiding my Railjack behind an asteroid and shoot incoming fighers with Ayanga + Amesha. My Tip is to NOT leave your railjack behind.

[trst]

I've found that staying out of the Railjack as soon as the first crew transport gets in range is the best approach.

It seems that not being on board your Railjack doesn't have the boarders actually spawn and you won't need to go back to repair anything until the other ships start whittling it down with breaches and fires.

[Sephmeister]

Welp.. ran the first mission solo many times and it all ends in mission fail. Whichever way I tried, after the crewships are down, you get swarmed and your rail jack has non stop timed damage that fails the mission. It kinda sucks.. seeing all the collected resources that  you need to upgrade the railjack go poof.. A little frustrated at this point for trying many times, getting so many resources, failing and seeing the mission fail screen showing that I actually earned nothing.. 

[Otaiken]

It is possible to solo, it's just really difficult (unsurprisingly).

One, you absolutely have to use cover. So find yourself an asteroid and park behind it and keep it between you and the big ships. Sprint is pretty handy here.

Two, sealing a critical breach gives you brief invulnerability period. Shoot down fighters, then seal the breach and use that time to kill the crew ship.

And thirdly Pulsar has no travel time and disables enemy ships on status effects. So while it does less damage than the Apoc it can easily prevent fighters from getting to you.

Also, breaching pods can be shot down.

I would experiment more but I've been repeatedly running into a bug which makes my railjack entirely invulnerable. It makes soloing pretty easy but it also kinda ruins the whole experience xD

Edited December 13, 2019 by LocoWithGun

[Aekhon]

1 hour ago, Gabbynaru said:

So, I just finished the first extermination mission solo, and here's what I learned from a few failed runs:

- Max out the Omni charges before leaving on a mission. You'll need it for catastrophic failures.
- Do not put out fires, unless it's literally a giant red one on the minimap. Anything else is a waste of omni.
- Kill every single tiny fighter before dealing with the crewship. You'll just be leaving your railjack too exposed otherwise, especially with the new batch of enemies that will spawn when you blow up the crewship's reactor.
- On that note, don't waste time on enemy crewships. Get in, destroy the reactor, get out and right back to the Railjack.
- If you have a catastrophic failure, you can still pilot for a few seconds. Leave the pilot's seat only when the timer is at 30 seconds, and head straight for the catastrophic failure. Loki is great for this, as you can repair it even if there are enemies around.
- Get the first Engineering intensic, it makes the Omni work so much faster.
- Even if you fail, don't abort the mission. You'll still get intrinsic, which you can use to make your life easier.
- The target tracking intinsic is a god-sent, however it is not necessary if you want to focus on the other classes more. As long as the ships are in the diamond in the middle of the windshield (it's very faded, but still visible enough), you'll hit them more often than not.
- Don't charge into ships. Roll backwards and let them come to you.

I agree with everything here except for one bit.  I noticed that the bulk of damage being done to my Railjack was from enemy crewships, and, as the OP noted, as long as they're around, they will occasionally send boarders.  More often, they'll just keep blasting you.  So, the way I beat the first mission solo was to forget about the fighters once a crew ship showed up, and immediately archwing over to it and destroy its reactor.  Don't waste time trying to kill its crew or to take it over.  Whatever you do, you do not want two crew ships on you at once.

Also, the reason Gabbynaru says not to charge in is because there are stationary cannons hidden in the wreckage of the map.  So, in addition to the fighters and the crew ships, you'll have to deal with those too.

Thirdly, it seems to me the only way your ship can be destroyed is by ignoring (or failing to repair) a catastrophic failure.  No matter how much damage I took (and at times, my health was basically at 27 and then inexplicably jumped up to 340), my ship never blew unless I didn't get to one of those.  Maybe that's a bug, I dunno.

Fourth, just exiting the Railjack at the start of the mission can help, but is not guaranteed to.  I found enemy ships engaged me while others flew over to and attacked my Railjack anyway, even though it was uninhabited.

Fifth, don't forget to use your dirac (and equip your intrinsic mods).  Every upgrade to a grid slot gives whatever mod you put in that slot a free upgrade point.  Each grid slot can be upgraded three times.  Upgrade your mods, too - it's still Warframe, after all, and so mods make the build.  To get more grid energy (and therefore to equip more/more powerful mods), you'll need to upgrade your reactor.

 

[Viges]

51 minutes ago, XxSTOZZYxX said:

This is what I'm not gettin though... Ran a few, to get a feel for it, and instead of the "4 man station centric" sim i was expecting, it's like 1 dude flys and 3 others run around fixing the ship.

Hey, our game is famous for fast paced combat against hordes of enemies. LET'S SPEND 2-3 YEARS AND MAKE A SPACE SHIP CREW SIMULATOR

Freaking genius

[Gabbynaru]

7 minutes ago, Aekhon said:

because there are stationary cannons hidden in the wreckage of the map

On that note though, don't forget to destroy them once you finish the mission, they drop intrinsic mods.