Sword of the Stars Complete Collection – Few Useful Hints

So the full guides here are pretty good, but they miss a few helpful tips that i thought i should share.

Helpful Tips

Сrеdit gоеs to d'Artagnan!

You can beat random encounters earlier than you think.

1. Green Lasers.
2. Hammerhead command.
3. A squadron CNC.
4. Set the battle timer to 10 minutes so you have time to kill a silicoid queen as she runs away.

Silicoid Queens, Alien Derelicts, Colony traps, and the weaker version of alien wreckage can all be destroyed by a fleet of destroyers armed with green lasers and nothing else. Send 15 to 20 destroyers with a couple of squadron CNCs and simply hit pusuit. You’ll lose a few ships, but you’ll win.

With hardier races this can be done without a CNC, as the more you outnumber your opponent the more ships you spawn in. You will always outnumber a silicoid queen.

Ive seen so many posts in the discussions hating on early random encounters, this is the solution. Don’t overthink it, just build and send this basic ass fleet.

If you’re playing squishies like the liir you may have to send more ships.

Taking a Planet without Killing Its Infrastructure.

1. Plasma cannons don’t hurt infrastructure.
2. You will once again want the battle timer at 10 minutes.

This is annoying and slow but its the only method i know to easily capture that home planet with its full 200 infrastructure.

First, you build your combat fleet. Whatever you have that can defeat the opposing fleet.

Second, you build a fleet of ships armed with nothing but point defence & plasma cannons. Plasma cannons go in the heavy slot as well, heavy plasma will hurt infrastructure. This fleet must also contain at least one coloniser, as infrastructure will deplete each turn it remains uncolonised.

Third, you attack the planet with both fleets, making sure your actual combat fleet starts the fight. DO NOT approach the planet. The enemy ships will come for you in waves and you will kill them in waves. This is why we set the timer to 10 minutes, they need time to get to your fleet and die.

Once the enemy fleet has been destroyed you can recall your combat fleet and send in the Plasmas. These ships can then proceed to the planet and start bombarding. They will also have to destroy any satellites in orbit as you can’t risk your combat fleet missing and hitting that sweet sweet infrastructure. You may have to repeat this process for a few turns, as plasma cannon take a while to kill an entire planetary population.

If the enemy happens to have heavy defence platforms you may be *. I suppose a fleet of plasma dreads might be able to clear them. Also you must destroy all satellites before glassing the planet, or you will not be able to colonise it next turn.

Don’t Give Up a Single Planet

So you may find a prohibitive planet in your exploration phase. A planet so **** that even fully teched up you wouldn’t colonise it. As planet so bereft of resources that it’s barely even worth mining.

It doesn’t matter, every alien ship that travels to that planet needs to die.

1. A planet that is inhospitable to your race may be perfect for the race net door.
2. Your enemy can only see what their scout report to them. kill the scout and you deny your opponent information, forcing them to build and then send another fleet if they really want to know.

In the early game this is key, and it isn’t very hard to do. I’m not saying you should park a defence fleet at every planet.

The hiver or taarka can probably just park an ER there, as their ships are going to tank any enemy ERs that come along.

I like to park 2 of armour destroyers at each of these planets. If they die to a Silicoid queen or Von Neumann attack so be it, that was not here purpose and now you know there’s a queen there.

What they will do is shred any enemy scouts, as the AI seems to exclusively use ER destroyers for this purpose.

Bonus points if you add a scanner/jammer to these fleets, as this will allow them to serve their early game purpose right up until the end of the game.

Dumbfire Missiles and the Humans

Also worth a look as the Hiver.

Dumbfire missiles are a weapon that a lot of people sleep on.

They are inaccurate and they will bounce off your opponents ships if they have even halfway decent armour.

However dumbfire missiles automatically scale their damage based off your current warhead tech.

This means that you can build your ship, then upgrade its damage output whilst it is in the field.

Also, with a good enough roll, Antimatter warheads are available in Fission age. Dumbfire missiles are actually the highest DPS weapons available in Fission.

Humans need to rush. This means you will find the fleets you made 30 turns ago deep within enemy space, fighting ships that are 1 turn old. Being able to instantly upgrade their damage output is a huge advantage, as they can now hold their own against more modern enemies. I have used Dumbfire Missiles well into the mid game on several occasions, the money that would have gone to research instead going to just pumping out tons of these ships.

Hiver fleets will always arrive at an enemy 10 to 20 turns after they were built, so they gain a similar advantage to the humans here. I do feel like i get less luck with warhead techs as the Hiver though, i imagine their chances are lower.

The War Section (Human or Tarka)

Researching one level of language with the Zuul gives you access to the war section.

It’s mostly useless. The deadnoughts in particular just end up with heavy guns and beams pointing sideways.

However the Humans and tarka get a cruiser section that has 3 heavy mounts on it, each facing forward.

Now i’ve forgotten the name but theres a tech that allows more accurate shooting (not AI command).

This command section plus 3 heavy fusion cannons makes for a very hard hitting and reasonably long ranged ship.

I’ve had great success with them in the mid game.

Scanner/Jammers!

Okay so this tip IS in all the other guides but you need to hear it.

Research Deep Scanners, research Jammers, and then then design a destroyer with each of these sections.

This ship MUST be on every planet you own/control & in every fleet you have.

Not only should it be in your fleet, it should be in your battle line. This ship will stop the planet shooting missiles at you while you make your approach and more importantly it will see any cloaked ships the enemy has. It will also allow you to fire beyond visual range with weapons that can do so. It will also reveal the composition of an enemy fleet headed your way.

Build them. Use them.