it seems pretty clear that this is a tough game!

noticed a few people in the other thread saying it was "too easy". bizarre. i like to think i'm good at games in general but i struggled to get through season 3. if i momentarily got too lazy, i made a mistake and was severely punished for it, erasing 40 mins+ of progress. for anybody finding this easy, i'd be interested to know which games they consider to be difficult.

with that out of the way, here are some techniques that worked very well for me:

the golden rule

• don't be lazy. be careful.

with most enemies, there's an easy rinse-repeat you can pull off with the mech:

1. grab the enemy
2. get in three hits
3. throw them at a wall, stunning them for 2 seconds
4. repeat

another rinse-repeat for the larger enemies (e.g. the bulky sword mechs), this time with the ship:

1. back away in a straight line, ideally down a narrow corridor, firing back at them.
2. when their coming fire is about to hit, use either duke or, more reliably, boost + strafe to avoid, while still aiming at the enemy.
3. this means you can keep shooting at them, so way better than turning 90 degrees and boosting away.
4. repeat

some other tips for combat

• LAVA is your best friend. throwing any enemy into a lava pool will generally take them out in one go, as the AI is too slow to climb out.
• the big bulky sword mechs are perhaps the nastiest enemies you'll face up to/ including season 3. best method is to back away from them down narrow corridors, shooting at them. with upgrades, this will kill them before they can catch up with you.
• don't use crash coins to have a second chance at a level. without upgrades, it can be a nightmare to find your supplies again. those crash coins are better spent getting a head start in an all-new attempt
• you're better off learning how to control your mobility (strafe is important) than you are trying to master the duke/shield abilities. the best players are able to combine both techniques but i'm not quite there yet with the duking.
• the clip fire upgrade is OP.
• the third shield bar is also one of the best upgrades (the permanent one).

Galak-Z brutal rouge-like elements have been put in place to stop players blasting through the game in a couple of hours, I never saw the third sheild bar upgrade until my second run of season four.

My greatest difficulty with this game is my ps4 and other equipment tripping the electrical breaker for my room. Kinda dumb the game doesn't save after every episode. Lost a lot of progress the few times it happened.

This is bad advice. If you're in episode 5 and die to the boss you can very much try a continue. Playing stealth until you're at your upgrade stash and going straight for it is not that hard.

Also turbo speed boosts and sword upgrades are some of the most useful. Using your charged sword you can actually knock almost any enemy into a wall stunning them and doing extra damage. You can also bypass pirate frontal shield with enough speed and the mech. Finally, the heat sink upgrade is great.

i guess i should give it another shot. the one time i decided to do this, i got into the worst situation with about 10 enemies on my case and about 10 frames per second.

It does, but it deletes that save once you enter the next mission to prevent people from trying to circumvent the system and keep their progress by hard-quitting when they're about to die.