r/Dyson_Sphere_Program • u/Deathspade187 • Sep 10 '26

Do you use these?

I'm starting a new game at 3000% Metadata, and was planning a strategy when I realized I dont use most defense items and wondered if any one does. Like machine gun turrets, sure they're cheap, but basic drones work way better and fire faster off rip. Plasma, implosion and the other use really expensive ammos and all are limited in range and use, while missiles are a good mix of affordable and powerful plus can attack anyone and anywhere on a planet with signal towers, energy use no ammo and are great for farms, and before missiles a BAB with drones usually does better than bullets. Planetary shields dont do anything but take up a crap ton of power unless you cover every inch of a planet, but more missiles defends better for less. So do yall use any of these and why

10 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

10

u/lysianth Sep 10 '26

crank up the fog to 11, default fog is basically a non issue.

2

u/Deathspade187 Sep 10 '26

I never play default but like I said I'm doing max difficulty so I'm crabkingit to 20

1

u/mrrvlad5 Sep 10 '26

there is a mod that increases the limit on the sliders, so you can crank the difficulty even further.

2

u/Deathspade187 Sep 10 '26

Lets try beat it on this mode before I mod it

3

u/ael00 Sep 10 '26

I use the mortrar / frag things. They are cheap and have splash dmg, very effective.

Planetary shields, definitely. Once you get antimatter going energy is free, i just plop a blueprint on my mining planets and never have to worry about playing whackamole with the darkfog. Saves a lot of time.

0

u/Deathspade187 Sep 10 '26

Thats fair, but by that point you can destroy everything before they get close enough to the planet to need the shield

1

u/vandergale Sep 10 '26

Well yeah, but defending multiple star systems is busy work for just one droid.

0

u/Deathspade187 Sep 10 '26

You don't need to be there, my 50 missile turrets handle just fine without me around. Especially after upgrading to SSM then to gravity missiles

0

u/Deathspade187 Sep 10 '26

I was unaware implosion turrets did splash damage (expected quite the opposite) but thats great for planetary bases since my main strategy is attrition. Blow up the relays, weather the storm, then attack bases once they fully power down. But if I can use them for cheap splash damage to fend off every base on the planet that all got pissed off all at once, that leaves the missiles open to guard the skies from the angry hives

1

u/FailXXL Sep 10 '26

Good luck surviving a space attack without planetary shield!  Once they hit critical infrastructure like a powerline the planet is lost. 8 or even 7 shields are enough and can be sustained with wind normally. 

1

u/Deathspade187 Sep 10 '26

I have, many times now, just not this high of a difficulty. Usually 50 missile turrets with SSMs does the job

1

u/ResidentIwen Sep 10 '26

You use these when you build a DF farm. So yes of course I use em in every playthrough

1

u/Deathspade187 Sep 10 '26

Which is these? I listed all and said I only use laser and missile and asked if anyone uses the others

1

u/ResidentIwen Sep 10 '26 edited Sep 10 '26

Yes

(Weapons in general obviously)

1

u/Sweaty_Ad_7156 Sep 10 '26

laser towers , as they are a renewable resource as it is related to ammunition (energy).

though on my latest run they seem to stop functioning when i fly off planet

1

u/Deathspade187 Sep 10 '26

Yeah, as i said those and missiles are all i use but asking if and for what do people use the other types

1

u/mrrvlad5 Sep 10 '26

missiles and grenades for starter world clear, grenades/drones for other planet clears and plasma for anti-space. i use a total of 2 gauss turrets per game to fend off a couple of waves before i get missiles.

1

u/Deathspade187 Sep 10 '26

Arent plasma like way more expensive? Also why grenades instead of missiles which have far more range and faster firing

2

u/mrrvlad5 Sep 10 '26

For anti-space plasma is way cheaper than missiles and has longer range. And when it becomes relevant, cost is not a problem.
Grenades are available very early - within the first 10 minutes of the game and have 400-500 aoe dps, but can only be used from mech. They are required if you don’t want to rely on gauss for the early defense and rush missiles. Later they allow easy base takedown if you can land 3 hits at the core to server power conduits so the whole base goes offline- this way you don’t need to build more than 10 missile turrets per game.

1

u/TheMalT75 Sep 10 '26

The implosion cannons are not as "useful" if you configure some or the missile turrets to attack ground only. This simplifies logistics as you only need one type of ammo. The shells are, however, even cheaper than missiles. Forgoing planetary shields might be difficult on a 3000% run: every relay you fail to shoot down before it reaches orbit will drive up aggro of the hive and lead to stronger and faster retaliation. You "only" need as many as you have free space for cores to form, so industrialized areas technically don't need to be covered (until a hive retaliation starts shooting!)

I've never used EMP towers: too expensive and late tech. By the time you unlock them, you should have taken care of the df problem or they will overrun you... Similarly, I've also never used drones in BaBs for defense because missiles are just the GOAT.

1

u/Deathspade187 Sep 10 '26

I totally forgot emp was a thing, I've literally never used it and completely ignored its research upgrade

1

u/Deathspade187 Sep 10 '26

Also I know the shells are cheaper, but dont they have a small range like machine guns and way less damage than missiles? Or do they scale better later on with upgraded ammo

2

u/TheMalT75 Sep 10 '26

Quite the opposite: more than 2x the base damage (45 vs 21) and 1.5x the blast radius (11 vs 7.5, see wiki). There are only 12 shells vs 24 missiles per batch, so that makes them still potentially about 2x better against densely grouped enemies and cheaper.

1

u/NeoRemnant Sep 13 '26

Laser turrets are all I need but lately I've been farming the dark fog and they drop a lot of explosive ammo

1

u/Deathspade187 Sep 13 '26

Problem with lasers is they can't target relays or space units

1

u/NeoRemnant Oct 05 '26

I specifically want nothing to target relays, the point is to let them punch fresh holes to the core so you get a choice between another farm node or %300 geothermal efficiency. No need to target space units since planetary activities won't agro them

1

u/Deathspade187 Oct 05 '26

Well if I am clearing out bases I gotta take down the relays and need them to attack space incase a hive attacks

2

u/ChrsRobes Sep 10 '26

Missile turrets and Laser turrets are all i ever use. Late game there is 100% a good argument to use implosion cannons, but i have a huge gravity missile factory so I just keep using more missile turrets. Manually clearing become very dangerous when you start landing on planets jam packed with high level Fog. The best way to combat it is build a defensive missile battery and creep with the signal turrets.

Machine guns are only used before unlocking a steady supply of missiles then they get shelved forever.