First encounter with Bhurak Starkiller in WC1 (mission 5)

J

Jochen

Rear Admiral
Hi... something is driving me crazy right now: I'm playing WC1 again, and in Mission 5 I must escort a transport, and I encounter Bhurak Starkiller. But there seems to be no way to shoot him down, whenever I'm close to it, the coward always can escape because his ship is faster than mine.

Am I wasting my time here?
Is it simply not possible to kill him in this "first encounter"?
(so that there comes a second encounter later, and only then it's possible to kill him)

And if it is possible, any hints on how to accomplish that?
 
Well, I'm not familiar with this one but have you already tried to "just blow him out of the sky"? I think that'd be a good tactic.
 
quaker2k8 said:
Well, I'm not familiar with this one but have you already tried to "just blow him out of the sky"? I think that'd be a good tactic.
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Perhaps I did not make myself clear: Kind of automatic when he's damaged, I get no chance for the "final blow" because he always can "magically" fly off a such a high speed that no weapon or missile reachs him anymore :(
So I was wondering if perhaps it's just meant to be that way, just like you can try whatever you want in SM1, there's no way to save Goddard Colony.
 
The best way I have found to deal with him is to burn in head-on and lob a Dart dumbfire and a volley of mass-driver bolts at him, a direct missile hit and a few bolts should blow him to pieces in one pass.
 
All of the aces in WC1 have an, "Oh s---!" moment where they realize that continuing to fight against you would be hazardous to their health. No ejection seat after all and they will tell you on the comm, "You will not put me in that void!" for example. So they...run...as fast as their afterburners will carry them. You either have to be in an advantageous position to spam damage (missiles are great here) as they're setting themselves up to bolt or chase them down with your afterburners, potentially leaving your charge unprotected.

You just have to weigh the consequences of your actions in the moment. You can try sending your wingman after the ace while you attack his litter-mates. If the ace is the last one (or two, if the wingman is doing well on the other) alive you can afford a chase-down, as long as you're accurate and quick you won't lose your escort target. When an ace is near death he'll need at least one or two more good hits to put them away. Just keep cool and don't let the anticipation get your nerves and you'll wax them.

If for some reason you don't happen to finish the ace you're after, don't worry you'll get another chance to put in the final shot. No spoilers so enjoy the game!
 
Whistler said:
If for some reason you don't happen to finish the ace you're after, don't worry you'll get another chance to put in the final shot. No spoilers so enjoy the game!
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I'm not aware of any other Bhurak appearance. Every other Kilrathi ace appears multiple times, including in Venice if not already dead. The conversations imply that you should fear all surviving aces in Venice, so this is probably a bug, and may have been fixed in some versions.

If you're happy to mess up your overall progression, it's easy to defeat Bhurak if you fail the Enyo series and get sent to fly Hornets in Gateway. Gateway 3 plays much like McAuliffe 3, except your Hornet can easily keep up with Bhurak's Salthi. (This is surprising, since without afterburner the Salthi does 480 kps, while the Hornet only manages 420. If Bhurak burnt continuously, he should still get away.) You still need to be fast and accurate or you'll lose the Drayman.

There's also a cheap trick that works in the Scimitar. As soon as you've defeated all enemies at the jump point and had the Drayman say "glad to have you with us" (they wish!), afterburn for the Tiger's Claw. Around 60,000 km from the Claw, you'll meet the Salthi wing. They will ignore you, and cruise straight for the Drayman. (If the Drayman explodes or disappears, you got too far away. Go slower, but this also gives you less time and distance for the next part.)

Bhurak1.png
Bhurak2.png

Two of the Salthi are close together; Bhurak is the other one (the lower dot in the first picture). I was sloppy here, and used two HS missiles when DFs should be sufficient.

Bhurak3.png
Bhurak4.png
Bhurak5.png

Even after Bhurak's "Only an ape could have such luck!", he keeps flying straight towards the Drayman (you can see it in the second picture), and slow enough for the "Centaurian Mud Pig" Scimitar to be caught in the ensuing blast. Well done Bhurak, you inflicted 5 points of shield damage. By this time the surviving two Salthi will be shooting at the Drayman, so don't sit around to enjoy the view.

Once again, this is a cheap trick, exploiting the a flaw in interaction between the mission design and the AI. Then again, you're usuing the exploint because of a cheap trick in Bhurak's AI: running away.
 
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I've generally done it as Oggy describes. Just head straight in and land a bunch of shots on the first pass. If that isn't quite enough, you should be able to nab him as he begins to flee.
 
Good news, I finally got him, and it even worked without the "cheap trick" :)

Thanks again for all the hints... in the end, it was kind of a combination of them all that made it work. :D
 
How did you do him in? head-on pass? rocket up the tailpipe?

I would be interested to know :)
 
Oggy said:
How did you do him in? head-on pass? rocket up the tailpipe?

I would be interested to know :)
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Let me think... as far as I remember, I managed some hits head-on with the guns when he first came straight towards me, but the missile did not work in that moment, and so that wasn't enough.
I then had to chase after him, was able to put a missile in his back, and eventually I then shot him down with some more gun hits before he could get out of reach.
I surely still need to work on my skills, I simply did not play space flight sims for way too long.
 
I'm able to kill him more often than not on that mission, and I'm not exactly very good at the game. I usually let him develop target fixation on the Drayman, and while he's strafing it, I line up behind him and throw a full gun capacitor charge and (at least one) missile. He's not trying to get away from my Scimitar while he's doing this, so catching up to him isn't a problem. This usually shoots him up so badly that when he tries to run, he's usually suffered some kind of engine damage and can't retreat at full speed.

I usually kill the other two Salthis first, though. The Drayman can't take much damage. While I'm killing Bhurak's wingmen, I usually throw a few rounds his way just to keep him from killing the 'sport, but purposefully not for any significant damage.
 
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