Black Hole Fortress? POSSIBLE SPOILERS

[jvsclapius]

There are mild spoilers in this question, but not too many, because I have no idea what I'm doing.


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I somehow managed to find the stronghold of Primordius (due to the prophecy in the Horologue, I think). I'd got the Graviton Shunt, so I paid him a visit, but my thrusters were low-quality and his multitude of fighters blew me up.

If I'd used my Limited Vacuum Collapser, could I have taken him out without entering battle? Or would I have had to actually find the object specifically needed to defeat him ("Damocles")?

I may never know peace until I destroy Primordius. A bit much, I know, but hey -- it's Primordius.

[Richard]

I would get the Damocles if for no other reason than that ship is FUN. Plus it isn't that hard to get even without a pimped out ship.

[James Sterrett]

The LVC would probably take him out - never pbeen in a position to try it!

[Zogu]

You can find where Primordius' fortress is located, either by finding the "Horloge of Primordius", or by using a "Continuum Renderer Array" or an "Hyperwave Filter Array" (which will detect which black hole contains ships). Anyway, this isn't the important part of the story.

You have two ways of destroying Primordius' fortress:
- you use the Damocles ship
- or you use the Chromium Gong (well it works fine with the Fortress itself, though I don't know about the ships)


The famed Damocles ship is protected by a circle of protection drones. They use powerful medium range weapons, so the only realistic way of defeating them is by using a long range weapon, the most efficient being (of course) a good ol' "Particle Vortex Cannon". I haven't tried boarding Damocles while cloaked, maybe it works too.

The Damocles ship has an "Anti-Graviton Shunt" already installed onboard, so you don't need to worry finding this item before going to the black hole. It also has some powerful weapons (Cobalt Torpedoes), which are necessary for destroying Primordius' fortress. But you'd better transfer your best hardware from your current ship to the Damocles, especially if you own a powerful shield, a cloaker, good thrusters, and a "Sardion Optimizer".

A Hyperdrive can also be quite useful, if the black hole is located across the sector.

PS: I only play medium-sized maps, so I may not always give a thorough explanation about everything.

[TaoLibra]

The first time I found the Fortress, although I had the Damocles, I freaked out and instantly used the Chromium Gong on it. It worked, of course, but it was slightly... unsatisfying.

So the second time I found it, I decided to try ramming the Damocles into it (as was obviously intended), because I wanted to see how cool that looked. So I made the Damocles my "Leader," made a nice line formation with all my other ships spread out to either side of the Damocles, and loaded them all with either anti-fighter weapons (to hold off that endless stream of them that comes out after you) or long-range capital ship killer weapons to pound the Fortress — I even smashed the Timeless Bauble just to get a third Cobalt Torpedo — and I put Reactionless Thrusters in the Damocles to make it move as fast as possible.

Then I popped into the Black Hole and immediately began charging the Fortress...

Well, "charging" very slowly, anyway. Seems the Damocles is so damned big that even Reactionless Thrusters don't move it all that fast.

But charge (slowly) we did, sweeping aside wave after wave of fighters on the way (and thank you, Happiness is indeed a PVC)... and as we drew near enough for the long-range weapons to start firing at the Fortress, I discovered with some dismay that 1) the Fortress apparently repairs both its shields and its hull damage VERY quickly, and 2) Holy Crap, IT has Cobalt Torpedos, too! And OUCH, they sting! It was taking some serious chunks off of the Damocles' Temporal Flux Shield, and I was starting to worry that I might not surive to make that ramming attempt...

And then, as we drew near enough for the medium range weapons to start firing too, we began to cause some serious damage to the Fortress (finally causing the damage faster than the Fortress could repair it)... and then, as we began to draw VERY near and the short range weapons began to fire as well, and the Damocles was LESS than one full ship's length away from ramming the Fortress, it suddenly went dark and began sparking, then burning, and then it blew up.

Okay, so three Cobalt Torpedos, a Multi-Missile Launcher, a Particle Vortex Cannon, a Tachyon Ray Gun, a Positron Scrambler Beam, and an Anti-Chronon Pulse Blaster (with all the best battle computers behind them, and a variety of smaller weapons, to boot) are apparently enough to kill the Fortress.

But I got cheated out of the pleasure of RAMMING it.

AGAIN.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rant.gif

[sigh]

I wish there was a way to make the Horloge/Damocles/Primordius Quest occur more frequently...

[MarkY]

I had the Gong experience too, which is very anticlimactic (and probably should be disabled). I still think some of the ultra-powerful items / powers (Gong, Mirror, folding) should be limited in uses, if nothing else.

Regarding getting Damocles, I was able to fly a fighter right through the ring and then board Damocles and use Damocles itself to kill its guards. Easy as cake!

[nihilix]

Put the Cloaker on the Damocles.

Cloak.

Retreat everyone else.

Target Primordius with the Damocles.

Go get a cup of coffee, wash some dishes, read the paper.

Come back, and watch the fireworks.

[Brainiac4]

Zogu said:
The Damocles ship has an "Anti-Graviton Shunt" already installed onboard, so you don't need to worry finding this item before going to the black hole. It also has some powerful weapons (Cobalt Torpedoes), which are necessary for destroying Primordius' fortress. But you'd better transfer your best hardware from your current ship to the Damocles, especially if you own a powerful shield, a cloaker, good thrusters, and a "Sardion Optimizer".


The Damocles comes equipped with a Temporal Flux Shield, which is the best in the game. So no need to upgrade. If you have the Cloak, though, that's totally worth transferring, as Nihilix pointed out.

[Zogu]

The Damocles comes equipped with a Temporal Flux Shield, which is the best in the game. So no need to upgrade.


Yeah that's true http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/redface.gif, I just realized that in my latest game.

By the way, are the Cobalt Torpedoes THAT powerful in "standard" combat situations? I tried to use them against the largest Tchorak rock (Mother Vent) but it didn't seem that good.

PS: I think that against the Tchorak, the best weapon combination is a short range point defense weapon (for instance, the good old Neptunium Railgun) + any good attack weapon. The point defense weapon if very effective against the "guided meteorites" burped by the Tchorak.

[Shadowcat]

The Neptunium Railgun is good, but personally I like a permanent barrier blocking my ships from harm while I hammer them with long-range missiles http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[rocky8311]

It seems like every time I find the Damocles, I have a cloak. I just cloak my ship, send it on in to dock. It inevitably collides with a rotating drone, but has never destroyed me. Then Damocles just slowly and ponderously takes care of the drones, which strangely do not attack.

Or maybe they never attack...I've actually never encountered them without having the Cloak....

[Shadowcat]

They attack, but their weapons are permanently facing outwards.

[Puke]

and their weapons are very short range, so you can just stand off a little ways and pick them off.

[James Sterrett]

Another option - use the Zorg fighter to warp into the Damocles and capture it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Zogu]

Usually, I use the following steps:
cloak, ram, sneak in, board.
Heheheeeee.

Although any decent fleet with enough medium-range firepower fill knock down the drones.

[Tanelorn]

Can someone tell me how to find the Damocles? I have found the Horloge of Primordius and found the starbase, but never have found the damocles.

[Richard]

You just need to keep looking for it. The radar image it projects when you jump in system is pretty unique.

[Puke]

yeah, but if youve never seen it before, you might mistake it for something else. I realized after encountering it once, that I had actually seen it before and fled because I didnt think my ship was strong enough to survive a Mukiton encounter.

d'oh!