Lancer Strategy

Lancer Strategy

General Principles for Lancer play

• Lancer's starting Railgun is often used as a primary damage tool.
  • The Railgun in general loves + flat damage effects, as this increases the likelihood the Railgun will be able to break equipment with 2 card plays.
  • Most of the hull damage load will be carried by Drill Shot. Drill Shot offers excellent hull damage when the conditional effect resolves, and due to the effect being a 2nd instance of damage, double dips on damage bonuses. This often makes Drill Shot the best target for Battery Surges produced by Lancer's passive (temporary +2 to next railgun shot)
  • Pinpoint is a somewhat weak card to start, with the only real saving grace being the lower R cost. The card becomes significantly better once +damage has been found, as the relative gap between it and Kinetic Shot shrinks.
  • Kinetic Shot is a fine card to take early, as it offers decent damage at a good rate. However unlike Drill Shot or Pinpoint, it does not have automatically scale up into the late game.
• Ion weapons are probably the best secondary weapon for Lancer.
  • As Ion weapons offer defensive utility, they help make up for the Lancer's lack of shields
  • Railgun weapons also tend to do poorly against shields, Ion covers this weakness very well
  • Ionize synergizes very well with many disabling hacks
    • Pacify disables all enemy weapons for 1 turn. Disabling an already disabled weapon has no effect, so any further disables in the players hand have to be held until next turn.
    • Ion weapons by contrast can be played immediately to drain pips from disabled enemy equipment, which effectively extends the disable effect beyond just one turn, giving the player more room to maneuver, and avoids the problem of utility cards clogging the player's hand

Shieldess Example Build / Gameplay

Shieldless Lancer Railgun Ion Sector 2