Tutorial: Help and Information / early Strategy

[dari]

here my few hints (worked at least for me) for an almost safe start:

feel free to add your strategies / comments !

reckless Exploration strategy
(unless you favor dying of boredom as trader)

1. start with ship that can support the most crew members, explore any planet you can land on as complete as possible to gather data (to sell it for credits -> 5.)
The explorer out of the 4 starting ships is a good choice.

2. to survive such exploration start your captain as Science and take field medic - and on next promotion get field medic 2 - makes surviving planetary explorations rather easy.

3. before returning from planet: if you have field medic and your shuttle area is safe rest until your party survival % is at 100% (just to be sure)

4. if it happens that your new game A.T. starts with a damage (1) sidearm and a damage (3) knife .. better start over - its a hassle to tough it out - especially on insane!

5. a good price range to sell data in case you need money in the first digit sectors is 2$+ per MB - tentaculons usually pay the most for data, gruff the least, bankers are ok but have a wide range.

6. for this heavy exploration style spent your money on good suits (matching sight range with weapon range - maybe +1 for better movement - but damage resistance should be priority to be able to land on more planets - prio2 should be amount of oxygen)

7. if you find mountainclimber and/or waterwalkers install them and have the other item in your cargo hold - mountainclimbers should be the default item - and if you encounter large rivers / sea you can leave the planet, equip the waterwalkers, and explore further.

8. once you find enough firax datapads to get the startemple quest - finish exploring the level but dont go any deeper if you are in a cave or explore an unknown planet. Finish the startemple quest first! (after the 3rd artifact this could mean you have to upgrade your ship to survive the advanced sectors), then go back to lower sectors to finish any explorable planet.

9. dont worry about having a "negative" artifact - as of v1.20 they have all positive effects.

10. if you have a 2nd artifact with the same effect - sell it to the tentaculons (for most $, or the very good shield as their 2nd quest reward) because the effects dont stack (at least not the "helps identify artifacts" effect)

11. try to get planetary and tactical officers (if you didn't start with science/medic - get them first) - useful early skills for planetary is frontiersman for the speed and for tactical marksman (useful for the early shotgun/smg) and then security chief for better ground combat
(don't forget to set them all to away team)

and finally:
don't use auto-explore on Hard+.
At Insane! take every move step-by-step : you can be killed from 100%HP by a single non-boss monster in just 3 turns.

[dari]

1. how to get crafting ability up:

Since v1.20 it is very hard to get the base crafting level up.
The best source is salvaging not yet known devices and ship systems (ie. like the first ever shield)

If you find a reactor - don't salvage it at once, check the pawn shop price first you can get even in early sector sometimes a few 10K $ for it.

If you don't have a real pressing need for a new (=not yet known) device - salvage it.

And to make sure you get a level from all devices - don't pick up the blueprints from ground (which otherwise would grant you the knowledge to build that item)
Later you have to be lucky with your loot and you can get some ship systems that may yield level ups.

2. how to craft better items:

Tactical officer : take Crafting Consultant
Engineering officer: take Build it Better -
and for cheap mass crafting without being hostile to vordalene : efficient construction

3. how to get crafting materials for cheap

(easy way) look for vordalene shipwrecks - ie. recently shot by their enemies - board them - and if you are still friendly with them you can pilfer their ship - just be careful while moving - even bumping into one by accident makes them hostile and your race relation drops from loving to hostile (..my experience)

(almost easy way) explore underground caves : sometimes a level is a merc base and sometimes this merc bases are quit full of crafting parts

(reckless way)
shoot vordalene ships - especially the ranger cruiser ships - these drops a stack of crafting parts - and if you can board their shipwreck each of their destroyed drones also drop a stack of spare parts if there is free space on it (don't know if the dropped parts also stack on same spot)
With this you also don't have the need for efficient construction!

[jason12]

It helps alot, than kyou for help me out all the issues i stuck here haha! cheers!

[ibol]

Excellent , Dari!
And double on the crafting part