Basket tries the Rock Cruiser's second layout for the first time. The hangar shows the Shivan, Layout B, on Normal with Advanced Edition content enabled, armed with a Heavy Pierce I and a Fire Bomb, no drone system, and Rock Plating. The crew list shows four Rocks: Frederic, Magmar, Sem and Martin. Six parts later the Shivan destroys the Rebel Flagship in The Last Stand with every crew member alive, for a score of 4085.
Part 1: Leveling up the crew
Basket points out the layout's quirks before the first jump: "this ship doesn't have any doors on the outside and there's also no door control." Sector 1 is a Civilian Sector, and the first beacon is a debris field with a working Hull Smasher Laser in it. With 44 scrap Basket upgrades the weapons system. "So now we have two lasers we can use, so that's already pretty awesome."
A Pirate Rigger gives up after a fight and Stick joins the crew. Later, facing a ship that can barely hurt the Shivan, Basket lets the fight run on so the pilot, engine and shield crew can train. "Okay, fully leveled up, it was a while ago that I started this process, it's a really long process." An event upgrades the piloting "for very cheap."
Sector 2 is an Engi Controlled Sector. Basket skips a station overrun by giant alien spiders ("we don't have a cloning bay"), finds a drone schematic at an abandoned mining station, and accepts a quest in the next sector.
Part 2: A Pike Beam and a Chain Laser
In a plasma storm full of wrecked ships, Basket uses the piloting option to search the debris. "I've got a Pike Beam, so that's cool." Boarders head for the oxygen and the medbay and get cleaned up.
A Rock Scout stranded at a burnt-out station asks for fuel. "That's a lot of fuel, but these are our buddies." The reward is a Chain Burst Laser. "So it starts out pretty slow, but then speeds up." Sector 3 is a Pirate Controlled Sector. Basket puts scrap into engines for more dodge, picks up a Pegasus Missile, and a Pirate Scout surrenders and hands over Olofsson. An event upgrades the reactor for 20 scrap. "I don't need it right now, but it's a deal." The part ends at the exit, with the Slug Home Nebula picked over the Mantis Homeworlds.
Part 3: Hacking
Sector 4 is the Slug Home Nebula. "Yeah, having these increased shields is so cool. They miss out on so much stuff." At the store Basket sells the Fire Bomb and the Pegasus, buys an Automated Re-loader, and adds Hacking. "Hacking, I think, would be fun."
Sector 5 is the Engi Homeworlds. Basket sells a Repair Burst bomb and buys Drone Control, which comes with a combat drone. An Engi ship insists on destroying the Shivan to stop a virus. Basket picks the Hacking option, and the Engi thank the crew for deleting the virus and hand over a Drone Reactor Booster. A second store adds Long-Ranged Scanners, and a station search turns up a defense drone. The part ends at the sector exit.
Part 4: Short on fuel
Sector 6 is a Rock Controlled Sector. A small research station is on fire, and the Rock Crew option sends a crew member in. The reward is an Adv. FTL Navigation augment, but the augment slots are full, and Basket keeps the three already installed.
Fuel runs low for most of the sector. Basket gives an asteroid mining colony 15 missiles ("we don't use missiles"), and fight after fight ends with "no fuel." When a store finally turns up, Basket buys all the fuel it has and then Mind Control. "If somebody mind controls me, even if I don't use that as an offensive thing I can use it as a counter." The part ends with a Mantis Controlled Sector next.
Part 5: Mantis space
Sector 7 is a Mantis Controlled Sector. The plan for the boarding ships is to hack their shields and mind control one of the boarders, and it mostly works, though one long fight costs two drone parts. A store turns out to be "not too impressive," and a Mantis escape pod gets jettisoned. "I don't quite trust it."
Then the Shivan jumps to Sector 8, The Last Stand, and a "Rock Cruiser Type C" popup appears. "We unlock the Rock Cruiser Type C," Basket says. The part ends at that first Last Stand beacon, with boarders aboard and the crew moving to deal with them.
Part 6: The Rebel Flagship
Basket works through a few Last Stand beacons for scrap and repairs, then takes on the Flagship. In the first fight the hack goes on the shields and the Pike Beam sweeps across the weapon rooms. In the second, Basket powers the hacking module down while the Flagship's defense drone looks for a target, then powers it back up: "that's the trick is that you can depower it and then they don't notice it."
The third fight brings boarders. Basket lets them come aboard, jumps back to the friendly base beacon, and the crew fights them there. "So that worked out basically how I want." Back at the Flagship, the hacking, the lasers and the Pike Beam bring its shields down for good.
How it ended
The Flagship breaks apart, a "Rock Cruiser Victory" popup appears, and the end crawl lists the Shivan's crew: Frederic, Magmar, Sem, Martin, Stick and Olofsson. The VICTORY! box shows a score of 4085. In the hangar Basket looks over the newly unlocked Rock Cruiser Type C, the Tektite, with its Swarm Missiles, before the end cards.
