This guide is totally not overdue since v1.102 was released on [November 2021].


Familiar with this >10K kind of score? Yes, it used to be a thing before v1.102 when you converted all your upgrades and some fuels (if you could via autotraders) into scraps and buff your drone HP until max.
Case you need table for the old scoring system:

Loot

Point(s)

Scrap

1

P-fuel

5

J-fuel

20

Drone HP

10

Drones

35

Drone Upgrades

3

Ship Upgrades

30

Stargate (if completed)

1000

Ah yes, back when [Weekly scoring system actually heavily relies on buffing your max drone HP] (props once again to Dano416 for the amazing guide - that door peek was still the best method to reserve yourself from using your explore upgrade, if you know what it takes).

Let's take a look at the Weekly Challenge scorecard for Week #12 of 2022.

Case you need table for the NEW scoring system:

Loot

Point(s)

Scrap

2

P-fuel

5

J-fuel

20

Drone HP

1

Drones

35

Drone Upgrades

6

Ship Upgrades

30

Stargate (if completed)

1000

Compared to the pre-v.1.102, we have some changes:

• Scrap gets multiplied by 2 instead of 1
  
• Drone upgrade gets multiplied by 6 instead of 3 (!!)
  
• Most importantly, drone HP gets multiplied by 1 instead of 10 (???)

Sounds crazy, isn't it?

Basically from what I understand, instead of relying of drone HP buffing to get higher score in Weekly Challenge, you can now do the combination to gather as much scraps along with getting as much drone and ship upgrades as possible. This pretty much prevents other players to only focus on the Drone HP buffing in order to get better score, something that one should do for previous Weekly Challenges. Of course, filling those fancy 7 drone slots before jumping out of the galaxy to wrap up the challenge is still mandatory, among with other basic tips; SURVIVE. ADAPT. OVERCOME.

Just.. don't be like me and keep scrapping drones with stupidly low HP when you got unlucky with your dormant drone findings at super late-game, leaving you with only 5-6 drones instead of full 7-

I'll be going through questions I have in mind to unfold this new Weekly scoring system. Any comments are welcomed~.

DISCLAIMER: This guide won't cover what Dano has mentioned in his Weekly guides I linked above. The way you complete your challenges will still be the same (despite the likely-different Weekly seeds between players, sadly...), I'll mostly only cover the scoring system and what hasn't been explained in aforementioned guides here.

引用自 Question #1：

But, what if I don't have enough capacity to keep my scraps?

You still have to maintain your scrap capacity so it doesn't get overcapacity (else your scraps would be lost to space). That is something you want to keep an eye on as an observant scavenger.

Do you know what ship type that's best known for their huge scrap capacity?

Salvage A/Barge A.


An example of a Barge A, along with its huge scrap capacity.

Taking it from experience, they're definitely the best when it comes to scrap capacity. Having fair amount of ship upgrade slots (2-3, but I'm pretty confident Salvage As have at best 2 empty slots, with 1 occupied with Collector at times), though basic p-fuel charge, I'd say it's an ideal ship if you want to aim for higher score in longer run.

At times though, it depends...


where you got to ask yourself if it's worth it to commandeer SOME certain Salvage/Barge like this. You know, where Scan/Probe is better. [Sorry, T3cube, your Collector video was insightful but I am still unconvinced to do this in the future :P]

引用自 Question #2：

Are you only limited with the current inventory slots you have?

Nope! That's the interesting thing (until probably they plan to patch it up in the future).

Visibly you have 24 drone inventory slots and 9 ship inventory slots, and boy it IS possible to overuse it.


Lookie here! I even broke this record [per Week #33 of 2022.][i.imgur.com]

How can this be achieved? Well, Autotraders on your service.


An example of Autotrade interface, and the icon presented in System view.

You're gonna have to get used to your inventory management skill in this one a bit. Ideally, you want your important upgrades to be visible in your inventory slots e.g. The BIG Three (i.e. Gather, Generator, Tow) Scan upgrades (i.e. Scan/Probe), offense upgrades (i.e. Trap/Mine/Turret), and defense upgrades (i.e. Shield/Sonic if preferred). You could put the rest of them down to the slot, OR, if you don't feel like it, leave the less important upgrades at an Autotrader that you know won't be too far from the Stargate system. It'd be better if you even utilize the Autotrader(s) at the same Stargate system as your saving, until it's time to jump off the galaxy to wrap your challenge session.

引用自 Question #3：

Is killing the Sentry/Patrol Bot worth it to take their scraps via radiation at?

As long as you know the exact tick you have to enter the room and you SOMEHOW manage to make the sentry die nearby your doorway, I'd say it's quite worth it?
For example, you only took one tick of low radiation damage, and you got 3 scraps from that Bot. That's worth 4 points additional. Assuming you have shipscan to determine whether you want to take the scraps based on the distance from your Gather drone and the scrap drop, you can decide this way. Otherwise, it's a gamble if you don't have either Shield drone module, or Decontaminate ship module.

Bonus point if you know how to implement their pathing when the time's right. If not, the [casual ways can also work.]

As someone who has played the Weekly on and off for 5 years now, I don't have too many questions about this not-so new scoring system. If your question has proven to be critical for me to add here, I'll quote ya, and answer it here.

Probably, into the ultimate question now...

引用自 Ultimate Question：

Do you score better if you convert ALL the scraps into drone HPs like the good ol' days, or is there any better method to score better now?

I believe this first placer dude will agree.

But in reality, no. It apparently won't make that much of difference. You can scroll how I calculate them below at Experiment 00.

引用自 ULTIMATE QUESTION：

SO WHAT'S THE BETTER METHOD, THEN??

Probably you'll get better score now if you get as many ship upgrades as possible and commandeer EVERY derelict with firmly-installed ship upgrades. But then you have to take scrap capacity into account, specifically with C-class derelicts. If you have too many scraps stocked at your Barge A/Salvage A at almost-maximum capacity, you have to forcefully convert all of them into your drone HP in case you REALLY want to commandeer those derelicts. Maybe it can be good?

Probably you'll also get better score now if, instead of converting EVERYTHING into scrap and buff your drone HP, you only convert drone upgrades and the p-fuel instea-

...wait a minute. Since I have the [Excel scoring data][docs.google.com] now... (also huge disclaimer, it's a G-Docs Excel that you have to copy-paste the link at, at the warning page once you click it. If you don't want to, that's fine).


Okay, you don't have to check the Excel link. I'll lead the example by doing the accountings from my latest Week #33 of 2022 Weekly Challenge result.


The amount of those upgrades, man. Personal record so far.

First off, I'm going to move the numbers into following table:


Here's the image of the tables I have at that Excel, for your spicy preview.

Next up, I am going to try manipulating the amount of loots while balancing the amount that I reduced into drone HP (formula would be loot amount*multiplier/max drone HP limit scrap amount*10 of said drone HP maximization).

Gonna start with...

引用自 Experiment 01：

Reducing P-fuel by 5, therefore buffing drone HP by 50 (5*5/5*10)

3696 > 3671 (default score), therefore P-fuel debuff CAN be used to increase your Weekly score!

引用自 Experiment 02：

Reducing J-fuel by 6, therefore buffing drone HP by 180 (6*15/5*10)

3731 > 3671 (default score), therefore J-fuel debuff CAN be used to increase your Weekly score!

引用自 Experiment 03：

Reducing Drone Upgrades by 15, therefore buffing drone HP by 90 (15*3/5*10)

3671 =3671 (default score)... a tie, huh? Let's try one more time by reducing more Drone Upgrades with non-5 numbers.

引用自 Experiment 03b：

Reducing Drone Upgrades by 33, therefore buffing drone HP by 190 (33*3/5*10) and scrap by 4

Holy cow, the same exact 3671?? I guess it can be concluded that converting your drone upgrades into scraps won't matter much with score difference.

Let's do another non-5 math.

引用自 Experiment 04：

Reducing Ship Upgrades by 12, therefore buffing drone HP by 140 (12*6/5*10) and scrap by 2

3455 < 3671 (default score), oof, that's just an absolute obliteration. Very likely due to the high multiplier for the new scoring system. It can be concluded in this one that Ship upgrade conversion to scrap can NOT be used to increase your Weekly score!

Now, there's only one thing left to do that I ALMOST forgot while typing this guide...

Let's do another non-5 math.

引用自 Experiment 00：

Reducing Scraps by 27, therefore buffing drone HP by 50 (27/5*10) and scrap by 2

3671 = 3671 (default score)... again huh? Let's retry with a 5 number.

引用自 Experiment 00：

Reducing Scraps by 15, therefore buffing drone HP by 30 (15/5*10)

Aand still the same after all... at least the scrap is a buff now for scoring purpose. No, I'm not saying you should convert all your scraps into your drone HP. It will not make any difference.

That's all for the guide! Quick conclusion would be to apparently buff your P-fuel and J-fuel to get better score rather than just git gud at the game, assuming you can scrap them all, of course lol. Mind your scraps, and as well to mind your drones not to get vacuumed or destroyed by the sea of swarms...

No matter your priority and process on completing the challenge, what matters is that you stay alive. If you fail, there's always next time for you to bounce off from your failure, and learn from there to be better.

Take your pace, slowly, but surely...

...and breakdance while you're at it~

Feel free to share what you think of this guide! Cheers for reading until this point. Happy scavenging~