Hive Mind, or Melee Monster?

The default ships for the Bees are pretty sucky. The first time you encounter them in Reassembly, you’ll kill some little fly-like things and smash all their buildings. They have like one decent sized ship that’s terrible.

Well forget that. I’m not gonna talk about buildings because there’s a separate thing for that here. We’re just going to focus on the ships and weapons, and why this faction does not suck.

#1 – Thrusters.

Yes, the best thrusters in Reassembly. The Bees move with the quickness. There are two types. The regular thrusters and the maneuvering thrusters. The maneuvering thrusters are better at doing quick/short bursts … for like maneuvering and stuff. It’s probably best to have these on the corners and edges of your ship for quick turns. The regular thrusters are better at sustained thrust. Align these along the center-lines of your ship to push mass.

#2 – Drones.

Yes, these are the best drones in Reassembly. Laser drones will cut enemies to pieces. They also don’t cost any energy, so feel free to use them in masses. A small fleet of drone ships can swarm most enemies to death. About the only thing that stops them are Agents with good point-defense weapons.

#3 – Command Module.

Yes, it produces 4,000 energy per second all by itself. Or, if you prefer, you can use the building Command Module. It only produces 1,000 energy per second, but it generates it’s own R like a slow-going solar panel. Produce a fleet of ships with the building Command Module, and you’ll have a pack of resource producers.

#4 – Quantum Doom Beams.

Yes, the strongest non-modular weapon in Reassembly for only 40P. Basically a fixed position Proton Sword for less than half the cost. Even the small ones do 1500 damage per second for only 23P! Devastating at close range. Two smaller Beams produce 3000 damage per second for only 46P, but the larger ones have a longer range, so I prefer the bigger ones. Also, because your command module produces 4,000 energy, you don’t need to worry about power usage. You can pack 59 large Doom Beams on a ship for only 2,360P and not have to add any generators, or pack on 105 of the smaller Beams for an insane 157,500 damage per second.

#5 – Shards.

Yes, the best mines in Reassembly. They get launched, cost less than the starting faction mines, do more damage per second, and cost no energy. So they’re better in every way. It is difficult to hit a target, but if you place them right, you can pack a lot of them in a small space and have them shooting in all directions. * TIP: remove your Command Module from your ship before placing the shard launchers. You won’t have all the shards in the way while building and you’ll be able to pack more launchers into a smaller space.

That lists-out the best things, and as you can see, the Bees have some of the best parts in the game. Here’s a few other points.

• They also have heavy and light blocks. Use light blocks on your small/maneuverable ships to keep weight down. Use the heavy blocks on the armored assault ships, or forward-facing sections.
• Defense guns are best in bunches. Their short range means you’ll need more of them to actually take things out quickly. If you look at the stats, the smaller ones may look like they have a better dps, but the medium and large DP guns have splash damage.
• You don’t need generators for power, but you will need them for resource storage. There are no storage containers, so this is it.

Fleet Tactics

The Bees biggest weakness is that they have no good general guns. Your only long-range weapon are the drones, which can be thwarted pretty easily by the factions with good defense guns. Your DP guns are not strong offensively, and your other weapons are very short-range. So they have a gaping hole in the middle range with absolutely no available options.

Your best weapons are the drones, but if you focus your fleet too heavily on them, you’ll have a terrible time against Agents that use defensive lasers. You need to do damage at close range, but it’s not a good idea to risk your drone and factory ships. You want those ships to stay at distance from conflicts. What you need is purpose-built armored assault ships, and heavy-weight blockers/decoys. So the best set-up for the Bees, is to have a fleet of purpose-built ships, so each ship focuses on a specific roll. Drone spawner, heavy assault/melee fighter, and factory ship.

Drone spawners should be quick, agile, some point-defense guns and shields. You want them to stay at a distance and spray drones in masses. Forward-facing thrusters help them retreat quickly so they stay out of trouble.

Assault ships need armor and shields, but also need to be fast enough to engage enemies quickly at close range. If you place their thrusters mostly on the rear, they will charge forward instead of doing the silly ‘dodge dance.’ You want them to dash in quick and apply damage with Doom Beams or Shard Launchers before the enemy can react. The assault ships will be the first casualties, so make them sturdy, but also make them cheap so they’re easily replaceable. If they cost more than 4,000P, they’ll be a pain to replace. Also, because they have mostly forward-facing thrusters, they tend to get stuck on asteroids, so don’t make these guys so expensive that you can’t leave them behind.

You’ll also need a ship design for a heavy blocker to use against difficult Agents. This ship is not a damage dealer. His job is to soak-up enemy fire and break-up Agent fleets so they’re not concentrated in one large group. You want a big mobile ship with lots of armor. Give them the big PD guns and nothing else. Keep their cost around 3,000P. He’ll basically act as a wedge, letting your real damage dealers avoid taking damage, and giving them time to eliminate singled-out ships and reduce the Agent’s numbers a bit. However, most of the time you’ll be using the smaller, more mobile assault ships.

Factory ships need extra generators to hold the resources needed to produce your larger ships. Think of them as your aircraft carriers. The generators make these ships more fragile and they use-up P that could be spent on weapons, so you really don’t want these guys in a fight. Keep them defense-minded and equipped with drones. Assault ships will inevitably die since they’re on the front-lines. Use your factory ships to replace them as needed. The quick drone ships won’t need to be replaced very often as they will avoid enemies.

Honey

The Building Command Module produces it’s own R. This can act as a handy solar panel kinda thing, but using just one on your ships is not enough. To make the best use of this block, make a small 100P or less ship. Spawn a small fleet of them to follow you around. Every time you make contact with one of them, they will hand you their generated R, so you get easy resources. If you lose some or you die, it’s easy to produce a fresh fleet. Lick-up all that easy R.

Making Monsters

If you want to have some real fun with Reassembly, forget everything I just told you. You don’t need a fleet. Instead, what you want is a Quantum Doom Beam monster. You want to make a giant mouth, and the Doom Beams are the teeth. Download the ship here. This thing will vaporize fleets of smaller ships, asteroids, mow through patches of bad plants, and gulp-down large Agents, leaving nothing but resources to swallow. You’ll fly through most ships with barely a pause.

The AI can’t use this ship for shit, and it’s no good in a tournament. But it’s a blast to use as a lone-wolf ship. You can be killed if you are careless, so when you approach an Agent, think of it as stalking your prey. A lot of times you can jump on them before they react to you. Avoid groups of large enemies. Try to single-out ships to be taken-out. Be cautious around nukes, obliterators, and modular guns. Pounce on these guys from the rear to avoid their powerful weapons. You’ll also take out their engines so they can’t run if you hit them from the back. It can be very entertaining playing a ship like this that’s so much different than everything else in the game.

This ship does have some factories. This is so you can convert the large globs of resources into allies, which help in clearing-out small/pesky ships and drones. This big monster is not so good at dealing with those. Anyway, feel free to redesign it if you like. I’m sure it could be better. :)

Hope you enjoy these tips. I’ll revise and add new stuff here as I find time.