Pilot Operations Manual - Vigilance

Pilot Operations Manual Volume 4. Vigilance

Quick Glance

Signature Card: Redirect Energy

Mobility: Low                               

Scrapping Power: Low          

Purchase Power: High            

Upgrade Speed: Fast                   

Flagship Survivability: High      

"Humans - giving us balanced characters to play as since 1974" 

Vigilance is overall the most well rounded ship of the Strike Force. When it comes to gaining energy, few ships can match the rate that Vigilance can rack up her weapons. There are just so many options for energy gaining outside of installing techs that it gives Vigilance a lot of leeway in how you choose to build and what you buy. She has strong consistent buying power in whatever sector she ends up in, and Accelerated Delivery and Redirect Energys allows you to get to those bought cards very quickly while still gaining energy. 

Redirect Energy will be used a lot and often. It provides faster deck cycling and weaponry at the cost of 1 energy. APS Superstructure and Human Resiliance mitigate all the self damage nicely. Concealed Rocket Bay, because of its crazy high value, makes a nice choice for Superstructure fodder, netting you that free shield and keeping that 40 credits in your deck (but it also keeps that card in your deck and inflating deck size).

Primary Mission Objectives:

 Your primary mission objective will revolve around gaining as much energy as quickly as you can to tank Opp boots and possibly the Flagship when it comes out. You will have a ton of ways to gain weaponry inside her deck, so early focus on shields will be very helpful later.

Secondary objectives include station manipulation in your sector since your bankroll is quite impressive.

Station Cards and Manipulation Options:

Unlike other Strike Force ships, Vigilance is very unpicky about what she likes to buy. Because of all of her innate energy gaining, she does not have to rely as heavily on installed techs to scrap her engagments consistently. This frees her up to buy a healthy dose of both beneficial techs and powerful Boosts and feel good about those purchases. 

Energy Techs: Any Energy granting tech is going to be beneficial for Vigilance for obvious reasons. But she does not have to rely as heavily on them, and this goes especially for Weaponry techs. Your W will be growing very quickly while your shields will be much slower, so make sure you keep a healthy amount of shields to protect yourself and for Redirect Energy cushion.

Non-Energy Techs: Vigilance can make good use of non-Energy Techs to help since she isn't under dire pressure for Energy Techs that are so important for other ships. Market Calculator is a favorite pickup for me, since Vigilance can cycle through her deck rather quickly, being able to fill more cards in your deck each round, or to snipe expensive upgrades like Boarding Party and Keller Upgrade unit and helps manipulation. OSC Waypoint (competes with Superstructure) and Cloak Drive (can't scrap your engagment) should usually be avoided, but OSC will need to be bought by someone if you find it on the top card of the first or second station deck because of the Opp side. Rush Thrusters and Pydro EMP are fantastic if you can get your hands on them.

Boosts: Vigilance loves to buy boosts as they allow her to fill in weaknesses in her game without slowing her down. Internodal Escape can provide welcomed mobility, Strike Force Tactics is always a great choice to increase your scrap rate and Desperate Measures will be great as you will have energy to spare.

Manipulation: Without extra movment options from bought Techs and Boosts, you will normally be limited to buying in the sector you travel to during the travel phase. But you have a very large bankroll especially early on, so use it to your advantage and buy those nastier Opp sides up before they can flip. 

Opposition Intel:

The Syndicate: Command Vessels suck. Not only do they make it very hard to purchase as many cards as possible, but high weaponry makes it hard for others to engage it unscathed. You should have very little trouble being the Primary for the Cryoshade. Once you have enough weaponry to start eating away at 10+ shields (which shouldn't take long at all), force it out and start bashing its face in.

Nyotan:  Nyotan himself has some very high weaponry values. You will want a good mix of shields and weaponry if you are planning on being the primary engager for it. Watch your Redirect Energy use and keep your shields healthy

Singularity: You will need to build as fast as humanly possible, because like you, Singularity can build at a soul crushing speed once deployed. Your Rocket Bay will certainly be of more use here than against any other Opposition since it will significantly increase your built speed. Take out as many Primes as possible before the flagship shows up and keep your deck small to cycle your Redirect Energys faster.

Technovores: Because you have a lot of ways to put energy right on your panel, the Technovores and their tech scrapping ways will not hurt Vigilance near as much as it would for a Basileios or a Grey Hammer. Hive Master is pretty weak flagship, so as long as your not giving him a ton of techs to eat, Vigilance should have no problems tanking him and taking it down.

UFGD: Vigilance can't scrap ships outside of engagments without help, and with the rate that the UFGD deploys ships, she will be at a slight disadvantage early game. You will have to stave off total overrun long enough until you are able to make a pass at the Flagship and hope your teamates can help keep them contained. It would be a shame to have to waste a hard earned Strike Force Tactics on a Scout ship during the Travel phase, but you will have to do whatever you have to in order to prevent additional deployments.

Strike Force Team-ups:

Flagship Support: Vigilance makes for a fantastic Flagship tank because of how fast she gains energy and how high her weaponry can get. Bringing other kinds of support will be really great as you start chiping away. BjarlSpire and Conclave make excellent teamates to back up Vigilance when making passes at the Flagship. Basileios can also provide some shield support, and ships like Grey Hammer can pummel flagship shields before battle damage is calculated.

Station Manipulation Support: Vigilance provides decent manipulation skills because of her buying power and general indifference about what she actually buys. What she could use help in is getting to hard to reach sectors. Your best station manipulators are Wrath and Marots Folly, who both possess the movement and purchasing power to be incredibly effective at dictating exactly whats going to flip in the Aftermath. Conclave lacks extra movement but boasts significant bankrolls to effect the sector they are in. Claw has the movement to manipulate hard to reach sectors but will rarely have the bankroll to buy just anything on a whim.

Scrap Support: Vigilance lacks the ability to scrap ships outside of engagment, so anyone who can bring that utility is awesome. The Claw, Tharendim, and Grey Hammer are you're best teamates to up the scrap rate. Claw can reposition Opposition ships and outright scrap others regardless of its total energy. Tharendim just needs shields to be low enough and can scrap normal Opp ships regardless of total energy as well. Hammer just bashes on anything it sees fit with its bombs. Warbeast is not very far behind  and can even exceed Hammer in total energy damage done, but Warbeast likes to spread that damage out to multiple ships in crowded sectors where as Grey Hammer prefers to hammer down single ships at a time.