Game Guide - Exule

For abbreviations used, see Glossary.

STARTING OUT AS NEW PLAYER
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As a terran....
Get your commercial research to about 20, and then finish all ship research. After doing that, you'll probably need to get commercial research to 30 or 40 before fighting. Make sure to avoid battling until you at least have the ship research and 20 commercial level finished. If you need to make some quick cash, you can try strip-mining ore and selling it on the market. Just look for high ore planets like Icy or Rocky, then mine them till all the ore is gone. Plunder the useless planet, and then repeat the step. Sell the ore on the market, while keeping a little extra for yourself so you can build structures on planets. Keep in mind that terrans should stick to commercial research; the mining is just a way to get some quick side cash early on.

LOW POWER RATING HUNTING
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Keep in mind that terrans and aspha miners are the only races who cannot die. It is impossible for them to lose their home world. All other races will die if they lose all planets.

When fighting under 100k pr, it is a good idea to know how to spot base pr players. When a person is at their base pr, that means they have no fleet, their pr is composed of only their planets and population. Finding these players can mean easy wins and planets.

Example: If you see a terran at 6k pr with 5 planets, he probably won't have a fleet. So if you have 2 planets, it would be a good idea to attack. You have the advantage because of lower base pr.

Be careful of slaves though, if their master is high pr he will send reinforcements to help his slaves. So check a player's empire information first and look for "Slave Empire of:" before attacking. If it says "N/A" you should attack.

Don't hang outside damage protection without a fleet, and don't fight near your base pr unless the other guy doesn't have a fleet. A nice way to get counters on people is as a terran. You can sit at 6k pr with a fleet and only 1 planet. Since terran and aspha miner cannot lose their home world, they are the only ones who can do this safely.

RACE STRATEGY
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Terran

1. Commercial- It's the easiest way to make money for a new player. Research commercial and allot land towards commercial on your planets for maximum income. It requires nothing to gain the income except use turns. No losses from commercial, making it a good source of income.

2. Agriculture- Another excellent way to make money, billions of it. You don't get any instant income for upkeep but the amount of money from the food sales in the market more than make up for it. Research agriculture and build agriculture infrastructure on your planets.

3. Tax Terran: Terrans can also go tax income. Tax will yield a much higher base pr than commercial or agriculture Terran, but you will make good money off of it. If you opt the tax route, make sure to research housing and find U. Large planets and cluster with high land barren planets. Food buying will be a must with this route.

Aspha Miner

1. Tax: Tax can make insane amounts of money, more than any other race and income type. It will make more than CG's Producer and Mineral Miner, But only if there is a constant supply of food and possibly Goods on the market, though goods aren't necessary to make a lot of money. The downside is a very high base power and you're dependant on the market. Just build pure housing and research pure housing.

2. Consumer Goods Producer: This is a good way to make money, though it requires Raw Material. You have to buy Raw Material from the market. Research Industry and build industry on your planets.

3. Mineral Miner: This is the easiest way to make money as A. Miner. All it requires is Damage Protection. You should have Cluster Lv 1 and Cluster Lv 2 researched, along with mining. Once you're in DP (Damage Protection), explore for planets (any will do) and make a C2 or two and research away on mining. After awhile u should have quite a lot of minerals to sell on the market. You do not need to build anything on the planets.

Collective- The best way, and possibly the only way, to make money as Collective is farming; plundering doesn't yield as much money as it does for marauders. So, research Agriculture and put buildings as Farming. They also get advantage to double normal pop to 1 unit of housing, an interesting fact to keep in mind.

Guard

1. Tax Guardian: Tax Guardians make a lot of money with the help of Consumer goods (and even without CG`s). The only disadvantage is the high base pr. Research Housing all the way and put buildings to housing. The Guardian race does not consume food, so you won't have to worry about feeding your population.

2. Ore Mining Guardian: The plus to ore guard is that you have a low base pr unlike tax guard. Ore mining is good, but you have to determine whether or not you're going to research mining all the way or research housing. Once you've done one of these infrastructure researches, it's useless to do the other. If you're going pure mining, create a C.2 and put mining infra on it (Only about 300 - 500). You'll have to do a lot of exploring early on, but it's quite easy to make a lot of money quickly. Only Disadvantage is, since you don't have immediate income, if you use other ships like C. Class or F. Class, the upkeep jumps higher.

3. Agriculture Guardian: Guardians don't consume food. Naturally, this makes tempting to take the route of a food producer. As a food producer, Guardians can still keep a low base pr, but they are limited in their ability to climb pr. Given enough time, an agriculture Guardian can probably make it to higher pr, but usually tax is the best way to retain a consistently high pr battle range. If you opt to use agriculture, make sure to research agriculture levels and grow food on U. Fertile planets.

Marauder

1. Plundering Marauder: Plunder is good. High housing is needed. You can rack up billions in just a few C.2`s. You simply attack for planets/cluster and build them to full housing, then plunder them, which generates a lot of cash.

2. Agriculture Marauder: There is also agriculture Marauder. They make good money actually; a bit more than plundering Marauder I have to say. All you have to do is research Agriculture, and try to get a U. Fertile. You will find one eventually. But for the time being, just cluster a few planets and use it until you go out of DP, and then plunder it all. Base pr is high with Agriculture Marauder as well. Keeping a few good sized clusters can also be helpful.

Viral

1. Commercial Viral: An easy way to make cash with Viral is commercial income. While commercial Virals will have a harder time fighting at consistently high power ratings, they get the benefit of a much lower base pr than tax Virals.

2. Tax Viral: Same as any other tax race, plus there is a major bonus to tax gathered. Only problem is food consumption is insanely high. However, the tax route will allow for fighting at much higher pr ranges. The drawback is the high base pr.

EXPLORING
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To explore you should build scouts and explore with them. There's not much to it really. The thing to keep in mind if you are below newbie protection, going above 5k pr will make you vulnerable to attack. It is best to explore while under damage protection so you do not get attacked and lose planets.

The more scouts you have, the better your scanning power will be. Finding planets becomes increasingly difficult as your planet count grows, and by the time you have 50 or so planets, exploring becomes too difficult. Near 80 planets exploring is nearly impossible. One has to fight for planets when they have high planet count.

CLUSTERING/USING U. CLASS
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As you progress through the game, you will begin to need higher income to support bigger pr fleets. As useful as infrastructure research is, it will not sustain you by itself if you do not have enough planets. Planets are good for money and good for federation ranking.

To cluster, you'll need to finish your cluster project research first. Once completed, you can use your cluster ability by going to "Projects" near the left side of the screen and then selecting "Colony Upgrade" from the menu. If you have 5 planets, then you can select to make a cluster level 1, or c.1 for short. To make a cluster level 2 (c.2) you need to have 5 c.1`s. Then you go to projects to use colony upgrade like you did with the c.1`s. Cluster level 2`s will have 25 planets and level 3 has 125 planets.

To cluster as viral and collective is different. They have to infect colonies to use them. A single infected viral planet is called a Tainted C.1. For Collective it is a Similare C.1.

To make a cluster, virals and collectives both need 4 planets instead of 5. A Tainted or Similare C.2 is 4 planets, a c.3 is 16 planets, and a c.4 is 64 planets.
Exule
99+ day(s) ago Virals and collectives may also infect clusters that they take from other races. These are called Infected Clusters/Assimilated Clusters. These consist of 5 planets, 25, or even 125 planets depending on how big the cluster is when taken. Infected and Assimilated clusters can be clustered with more of their respective types when the player has 5 of such clusters and wishes to make a bigger one. Be advised that it is best to unassign agriculture and industry before infecting clusters as you will be unable to unassign existing agriculture and industry buildings following infection.

U. class are very useful planets. Terran can use u. large to build lots of commercial on and guardians can use u. large for housing. U. Fertile is really good for agriculture production. The problem with u. class is that virals and collectives can't use them. They can only use u. spazial to dig on because digging doesn't require infection/assimilation. With u. class you can't cluster, but it's usually worth it to keep them if they are the right size.

U. Larges- The good ones range anywhere from 5k-10k+ land. If you are paid account you have better chance of finding big planets. Terrans and guardians benefit most from this. Marauder can make a lot of money plundering them as well though.

U. Fertile- Yields very high food rates. Build agriculture on it and sell food on market or just feed your population with it. Marauders can grow food on a U. Fertile and sell the food to the market if they are agriculture marauder and not a plunder marauder. Other races can keep one to feed population, but it isn't as important to have one as it is for agriculture marauders.

U. Spazial- Best planet for digging. Look for one with 2 land. The less land, the better your dig results will be.

U. Eden- Bonus to population growth. Used by guards or other players that make money from tax. Marauders can plunder these for tons of cash.

U. Rich- Loaded with ore, downside is really low land count. Not worth the time unless you are an aspha miner.

STACKING BASICS
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In order to understand battling, you'll need to know how what stacks are and how they work.
Stacks are groups of ships that occupy a spot in your fleet. They are the different types of ships you use to fight.

For example, you cannot have two groups of the same type of ship in one fleet. You will never see a stack of 100 C. Taurus Destroyers on top of another stack of 100 C. Taurus Destroyers. It will simply be grouped as 200 C. Taurus Destroyers.

Many new players often ask what the best stack is or what stack is good. The answer is that it depends on the situation. Since that is not the answer that many like to hear, I will provide an example of a stack that can be used. Keep in mind that this is just to start you in the right direction and you must find what works best for you in specific situations.

Large fodders
Nirvanas
Hercules
T. Ryu Jins
F. Swords
Empereur
Thors
Queens
Garudas
Odin

Try it out and see how it works. Attacking with this fleet on normal can be pretty effective against many enemies, but in the end it all comes down to what race you fight and what ships they use. Make sure to keep the stacks evenly balanced. That means having your first stack close in pr to your tenth stack.

FLEET BASICS
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Stacks are arranged in a fleet according to the total pr of each individual stack. The highest pr stacks will always go on top, so the list of stacks will be arranged highest total pr stacks to lowest total pr stack, from top to bottom.

The maximum amount of stacks that go into battle is 10. You can have more than 10 stacks of ships in a fleet, but only the top 10 highest pr stacks go into battle.

BATTLE BASICS
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The first thing to know about battles is that each stack is paired up with the corresponding stack from the enemy's fleet.

For example: Your first stack fight your opponent's first stack, your second stack fights your opponent's second stack, and so on.

If you only have 1 stack and the enemy has 10 stacks, his first stack will engage your first stack and then the rest of his stacks will all attack your first stack at the same time. This usually results in the person with more stacks winning. In case you didn't figure that out.

During the second round of battle, the remaining stacks of ships will be rearranged according to their order of the remaining stacks surviving from the initial round, opposed to order based on pr like in the first round.

Range is an important factor in battles as well. The stack with the most range will attack first. If the stacks that are paired up have the same range, the defending stack will fire first.

Hull is another important aspect. Hull is the total damage capacity an individual unit is able to sustain before being destroyed.

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Round 1

Stack 1 of the defender fights with the stack 1 of the attacker and so all the way down to the last.
The range determines what stacks shoots first, if the range is equal the defender shoots first.
If say the defender has 6 stacks of ships and the attacker 10, the last 4 stacks will shoot at a random remaining stack of the defender's.

Round 2

Now the remaining stacks will oppose each other again and now the order of the stacks is NOT determined by the total pr, but by the lowest stack number remaining: (1=low 10=high)

Example:
From the defender stack 2, 5 and 6 are left; they will become stack 1(2-->1), 2(5-->2) and 3(6-->3)

From the defender stack 1,2,5,7,8,10 are left, they will become stack 1(1 stays 1), 2(2 stays 2), 3(5-->3), 4(7-->4), 5(8-->5) and 6(10-->6)

Here again when a stack will face no direct opposing stack they will shoot at one of the random remaining stacks

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It is also important to note, however, that some ships have unique abilities. Such abilities are the Capture Ship ability, Attack Without Receiving Damage ability, and Cannot Defend Against Attacks ability.

Capture Ship Ability- Associated with the collective and viral race, some of their ships have the ability to capture ships from the enemy and use them against them in battle. Both races can keep the ships after battle sometimes, but only if they are not neutral or guardian ships. It is also important to note that capturing ships during battle is how virals reverse engineer.

Attack Without Taking Damage- Many ships such as certain marauder vessels have this trait. When attacking they receive no damage from the enemy under certain circumstances.

Cannot Defend Against Attacks- Under certain circumstances, a ship with this might be screwed. But I honestly don't believe this or the previous trait effect battle much, so don't worry.

BATTLE OUTCOME
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The outcome of a battle is decided by the amount of pr lost during battle. The one who loses the most pr will lose the battle and the one who loses the least wins. The only exception is if one of the players loses all the ships in their fleet. If a player has no surviving ships of the 10 (or less) stacks that went into battle, then the other player wins regardless of pr lost. You can also lose on an attack if you do not kill enough ships. For example, if you only kill 1% of the defending fleet and lose nothing in the attack, you still lose. The attacker must be able to kill at least 10% of the defending fleet to win one planet.

NEWBIE PROTECTION/DAMAGE PROTECTION
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Newbie protection applies as long as an empire has below 5,000 pr. If total pr goes above 5000, newbie protection is lifted and the player is open to attack.

Damage protection (aka dp) is given to empires that sustain 40% or higher fleet casualties. 1 or more planets may be take before dp is given, but it cannot exceed 4 colonies at any time, although 3 is usually the maximum amount of colonies one can lose before receiving dp. Note that one can receive dp after winning a battle, as long as 40% of their fleet is destroyed while defending and only while defending.

Damage protection is lifted if the empire's dp time limit runs out or if he builds offensive ships while in dp. Scouts and star bases will not take you out of dp. Attacking from dp will also take you out of dp.

FLEET ATTITUDES
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When attacking there are various different manners in which one can set their fleet to attack with. For most races there are only 3 methods of attack. For terran and aspha miner there are 4.

The attack I will cover first is enslaving. To enslave an empire, your attack must destroy 60% or more of their fleet. Beware that if the empire is already a slave, the master may send reinforcements. Note that you can only enslave terrans and aspha miners.

Normal Attack- Normal attack is just a normal attack... Go figure...

* + - Use of Attack Stances \*\*\*

By using the 3 different attack stances in the most effective way, you can largely increase your chance of winning a battle; and it is the best advantage of hitting another empire

Careful
-50% Attacker efficiency
-50% Defender efficiency

Normal
-5% Attacker efficiency
Normal Defender efficiency

Aggressive
+75% Attacker efficiency
+99% Defender efficiency

These are the percentage differences between each of the 3 attack types. As you will see, the more offensive your attack is, the greater the advantage the defender will have. So attacking aggressively is a greater risk, but can also give you a greater reward when used correctly.

* + - Aggressive Attack stance \*\*\*

The aggressive attack stance should only be used with high range ships such as thor, queens, etc.

The reason for this is that you need to use the +75% bonus to the best effect and kill as many opposing ships on the first wave of attack, before your opponent's ships can attack.

The biggest risk about doing this, is that although high range ships are extremely effective against some ships they, are also terrible against others.

E.g. queen on aggressive is great against most capital ships such as herc, tyr, nirv, angel, pyth, and k. hun xe, but if it comes up against pike, borrelly, Chiron, etc, it will die without doing any damage at all. This makes the placement of each individual ship important and means that the use of aggressive should be confined to stacking only, unless you know the opponents stack or spam already.

* + - Stacks 1 - 2

In the top 2 stacks I would recommend that your ships have a range of no less than 8. Anymore than that is great and will generally ensure you get first hit. You are also more likely to kill more pr in your enemy's top two stacks than you will lose in your top two stacks.

* + - Stacks 3-4

Again 8 range is preferable; especially this high up. Also, the no retal trait is essential. You should try to get quite a few different types of ships to cover weaknesses in the top four stacks, as by not doing so could cost badly, maybe even lose the battle for you.

* + - Stacks 5-7

A range of 7 can be acceptable, although it is still very risky this far down.
Exule
99+ day(s) ago \*\*\* Careful Stance \*\*\*

Careful Stance gives you an even percentage to start with although both you and your opponent are 50% weaker.

Careful stance is best used with high hull ships; these generally have a low range of 6 or possibly below but can be extremely hard to kill on careful. Careful is the stance most likely to be used by someone that is spamming, as spammers are most likely to use the big capital ships that build fast.

It is still possible to use careful with a stack, although you will want to use as many high hull ships as possible and possibly include some neutral ships. Make sure to never use high range and attack ships. Anything that has more attack than hull cannot be effectively used on careful and is likely to cost you the battle.

As all of the ships you should be using are high hull, there is no real need to give you information on different stacks. You should still attempt to use as many no retal ships as possible in this stack.

Often times you will not win more than 1 colony and almost never win more than 2 unless you are counter attacking.

Ships to never use on careful:

p. class
strafez, except fodder
emerald

COUNTER ATTACKS
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If someone attacks you, you can attack him or her back from any pr difference. This is sort of like a revenge system, if you will. An eye for an eye, so to speak. If your enemy attacks you and the is later sitting at 5001 pr. You can attack from 50,000,000 pr if you wanted, because counter attack (aka retaliation) has no restrictions. You can also choose to counter on careful, normal, or aggressive. You may not use counters to enslave though.

Be mindful of the fact that counters do expire about a week after you receive them. So make sure to use them within a week of being attacked.