Basket takes the Engi Cruiser Type A out for a fourth time with one goal in mind. The hangar shows the Federation Cruiser still locked, and its tooltip gives the alternate unlock: "Defeat the Flagship with any layout of the Engi Cruiser." The Torus launches on Normal with Advanced Edition content enabled, carrying an Ion Blast II, a Combat Drone I and the Engi Med-bot Dispersal augmentation. The crew list shows Pomeroy and two Engi, Lisandra and Valeriya. The run lasts four parts and ends in Sector 5, the Uncharted Nebula, where a Pirate Fighter destroys The Torus for a score of 2118.
Part 1: A free crew member and a lost one
Sector 1 is a Civilian Sector. A Slug Interceptor goes down without much trouble, and an event soon after adds a free crew member, Zas. "Ah, we got a free guy." A space station adds a Small Bomb to the weapons, and when a Mantis Interceptor sends boarders, Basket vents the oxygen from the rooms around them until the boarder dies. At the first store Basket buys an Anti-Combat Drone and some fuel and adds reactor power.
Then the same kind of refugee ship that cost a crew member in the last run drifts by with its distress beacon on. Basket boards to investigate, and the boarding party is attacked. Lisandra does not come back. "I'm sick of losing guys," Basket says, and later skips a wrecked station for the same reason.
Sector 2 is the Rock Controlled Sector. A Pirate Investigator waits beside a red sun, and The Torus wins that fight too. A store run by Mantis traders sells an Ion Charger, and Basket buys it and hires Declan. A free Anti-Personnel Drone turns up, and the part ends at a store where Basket sells a drone and buys a Defense Drone Mark II.
Part 2: The Zoltan Controlled Sector
Basket picks the Zoltan Controlled Sector for Sector 3. A distress call from a station with a broken defense system pays out, and an Energy Fighter goes down to the ions. At the store Basket buys a Heavy Laser Mark II, two shots of 2 damage each.
The next fight goes badly. A Pirate Scout with two shields hits the weapons, the hull drops to critical, the engines break, and the pirate jumps away with nothing to show for it. "That was a horribly done fight, lost a lot of health." Basket goes back to the store, sells the Ion Charger and pays for repairs.
A Rebel Rigger sends a boarder, offers to surrender, and Basket says no and fights on. Then an Engi Bomber turns out to be bad news for this build: "I can't shoot them with missiles or lasers and I can't use a combat drone. Great." Basket runs from it. A cloaked Auto-Scout in a nebula pays enough to upgrade the shields before the part ends at the exit. "It's a pretty rough sector," Basket says, "but at least we came back."
Part 3: Mantis space
Sector 4 is the Mantis Controlled Sector. It opens on a de-activated Rebel automated scout that ends up as a fight with an Auto-Hacker, whose hacking ties up the drones and throws off Basket's plan for the fight. Four intruders follow at the next beacon, and Basket fights them room by room with the oxygen turned off.
The sector is full of Mantis Fighters with crew teleporters. Basket keeps pulling the crew back to heal, closing doors and dropping the Small Bomb on the shields. One fight is "a little bit costly, but we won it." At a store Basket buys a little fuel and spends the rest on repairs, then adds reactor power and engine upgrades for a better chance to dodge.
At the last beacons a Rebel Rigger brings its own anti-combat drone, and it jumps away before Basket has to decide whether to run. Basket passes on a wreck-filled nebula and plans the route: the Uncharted Nebula over the Slug Home Nebula. "We're surviving longer than I expected, but we're having a lot of problems."
Part 4: One point of hull
Sector 5 is the Uncharted Nebula. The first fight leaves the hull critical and the power low, and a Mantis Scout's boarders wreck the oxygen room before the ship goes down. "We're down to one health, guys." A store repairs The Torus back to 12 hull, and a Rebel Fighter surrenders soon after. "Sure, why not."
Plasma storms come next. Basket tries to outrun an automated Rebel ship, cannot shake it, and fights an Auto-Assault with low power and the last drone part. The ship comes out of it on fire but intact.
Then a black market weapons trader offers an unknown weapon for 45 scrap. Basket attacks instead. The Pirate Fighter has cloaking, a bomb and a missile, and the missile does the real damage. "Wow, that missile is a problem."
How it ended
The Torus breaks apart in Sector 5 with Pomeroy, Valeriya, Zas and Declan aboard. The game-over box reads "One last explosion marks your fate as your ship is torn apart," with a score of 2118. "We lasted a lot longer than I thought we were with how bad everything turned out," Basket says, and talks about trying the Federation Cruiser's quest instead. The video goes back to the ship list and the hangar before its end cards.
