Part 13

Encounter the Bentusi Cargo Barge, which briefly appears in the ending and at Tenhauser Gate. It also functions as a resource collector for the Kadeshi in the Kadeshi mod (a community-made modification that changes the game), taking a long time to fill but delivering 2000-3000 Ru at a time.

Face the Junk yard DAWG (from mission 13), a beefy corvette with 135000 armour and no firepower. Bait it with a fast unit, then use a gravity well (a type of tractor beam that immobilizes ships) to trap it, allowing your entire fleet to attack. You can recover stolen ships if they survive the auto guns, but it is a pain. The Junk yard DAWG travels via hyperspace gates and is alerted by proximity sensors. It only targets capital ships, and you lose control of your ship the instant Karan says it is stolen, preventing you from scuttling it. Auto guns will continue to fire at stolen capital ships.

Engage the Auto guns (Large and Small), which guard the Karos graveyard. They are linked to proximity detectors, and cloaking does not work to avoid them. Small guns have square gimbals and are easier to kill, while large guns have spherical gimbals and are harder to kill. A destroyer with twin ion cannons and 3-4 gun blasts kills small guns, and a heavy corvette can withstand about 12 seconds of punishment from them, indicating roughly 135000 armour. Their firepower is comparable to a plasma bomb on a frigate.

Confront the Big collision asteroid, which has immense armour. After extensive testing, it was found that the asteroid could withstand over 30 seconds of sustained fire from a large fleet, including 10 resource collectors (100000 damage), 69 attack bombers (3105 damage), 34 heavies (986 damage), 20 destroyers (9000 damage), 72 ion cannons (9936 damage), 19 multibeam frigates (10488 damage), 32 assault frigates (3200 damage), 9 ion array frigates (1350 damage), and 4 cruisers (4000 damage), totaling at least 2221450 damage. Even after taking 100000 damage from a collector, it showed no damage signs, suggesting its hit points could easily be 300000 armour.

Consider the advantages and disadvantages of strike craft versus capital ships for your fleet composition. Strike craft are powerful in large numbers, cheap, fast, hard to kill with most capital ships, can suffer attrition easily, are small targets, can be used kamikaze, and have large build limits, but are very weak alone, need fuel, require support craft, are vulnerable under repair, are hyperspace incapable alone, and are vulnerable to gravity wells. Capital ships are powerful alone and in groups, easy to use in lossless combat, have hyperspace ability, do not need fuel, and have limited self-repair ability, but are expensive, vulnerable against fighters when unsupported, take a long time to build, have limited build numbers, and are slow.

Analyze the cost-effectiveness of different ship types. An Assault frigate (575 RU) can buy 14 scouts (168 firepower), 10 interceptors (260 firepower), 6 attack bombers (270 firepower), or 8 defenders (40 firepower). An Ion cannon frigate (650 RU) can buy 18 scouts (216 firepower), 11 interceptors (286 firepower), 7 attack bombers (315 firepower), or 10 defenders (50 firepower). A Destroyer (1350 RU) can buy 38 scouts (456 firepower), 24 interceptors (624 firepower), 15 attack bombers (675 firepower), or 20 defenders (100 firepower). A Missile destroyer (1500 RU) with a missile volley attack (32 missiles, 12000 damage) can buy 42 scouts (504 firepower), 27 interceptors (702 firepower), 17 attack bombers (765 firepower), or 23 defenders (115 firepower). Note that missile destroyer firepower differs between normal attack (4 missiles constantly produced) and missile volley attack.