DescentBB

So Obsidian is giving me a hard time with these. They are a really, REALLY high-powered weapon when they home so accurately and blind you 100% for a full two or three seconds, even on Hotshot. If you only have weak primaries and secondaries available, and can't fire from out of firing range, how do you usually take care of enemies who fire these, both alone and when they're part of a pack (which is especially lethal given any other robots that sees you has basically two seconds of free-fire)?

Retreat and use guided missiles. IIRC you get plenty.
If you find a group or they're paired with deadlier bots, mega missile.

I snipe.

See my demo of Obsidian L15 (only one I have for obsidian). That's how I deal with them.
https://www.sendspace.com/file/t6iwxo

Can you get past the first few on Level 7, Hotshot, cold start, no Gauss, hit no more than once or twice?

(You even get a Vulcan and a Super Laser upgrade right away with an energy center in the second room.)

With luck, yes. Even on Insane. See
https://www.sendspace.com/file/bwsigs
But you will not make it to the end of the level (even with infinite lives), i think, because you will run out of vulcan ammo. This level is one of the hardest in Obsidian, why make it yet harder? Use gauss, phoenix, missiles, it is still hard with full ammunition.

So they're not teasing when they say Infestation: Extreme? Usually I wouldn't expect the first level in a cluster to be one of the hardest.

What's your favorite level in this cluster and your favorite in the set as a whole?

Other two (8,9) are hard, too. But this contains a lot of luck-based situations that are hard to do without dying. Difficult to say which of 7-9 is the hardest. But one of them, of course. Also hard to say which I like most, Probably 7-9 too and the last one. All are top-notch design, well balanced, innovative etc. L 1-6 are less interesting because of overwhelming symmetry. But still good.