Ok, even with this, I cannot seem to finish the encounter 9 boss! It is impossibly hard.
I had a scatter, retaliate flagship that I could beef up to damage 30 in an instant during battle - yet it is still not enough to beat the final boss. And this was not the first time I was armed to the teeth like that...
Kinda starting to lose interest in the game, as it currently simply feels unfair and a waste of time having to do the run again and again, without getting any better chance of beating the ultimate encounter.
At least make the combo tech ships available without having to beat encounter 9....