Tips and Tricks

A rather unorganized collection of tips and tricks for Pilots and the real world user behind them, ranging from seemingly simple hints to non-obvious features and functions of Astrox Imperium.

## Gameplay

### Earning Credits

#### Trade

* Check the MARKET ECONOMY panel on any station you visit. "DEMAND" items are in high demand, with the station paying premium prices, while "SUPPLY" items will often be sold dead cheap. Take special note of the BASE PRICE of items.
* The starting sector provides for a few trading opporunities, here's some examples:
	+ Biomate University will buy all items listed as supply in the MARKET ECONOMY panel of Lammassu Financial at good prices
	+ Starbase Corporate Center and Proctors Center sell Basic Food Rations, which Lammassu Financial will buy at a premium
* Another easy to reach, very lucrative trade route is hauling goods between Felishar and Beacon Spita.
* Use the search function buried in the Journal (N). You can use that to search for any item or skill at any station that you have already visited; unfortunately you can't use the market search to search for ships to buy.

#### Mining

* Mine the star in Void Starcross for Electron Orbs. They take up less cargo space than ore, and are more valuable than the Adamyte in this sector, despite being (as Adamyte) an unwanted item.
* Selling Gradeon ore mined in Starfort Ramos to Biomate University in Void Starcross is also an option.
* Dragon Sea, next to Ballast Crow, has Lokken ore, which Biomate University in Void Starcross will pay premium for
* Mass Market in Dorando Corridor will buy Zai ore at about 600 Credits per piece. The ore can be mined next door in Beadonus, but you will need a ship with good life support. Route to Dorando Corridor: Void Starcross -> Hunu -> Ponze -> Coralor -> Jelumus -> Kriox -> Dorando Corridor

#### Missions

* Spend a skill point or two on the Max Mission Contracts skill to be able to pick up more than one mission contract at a time.
* The level of missions available to a Pilot depends on the number of missions completed successfully, not the Pilot's character level or their reputation with a specific faction
* Transport missions are arguably the easiest missions, provided your ship has the required cargo bay space
* Escort missions are even easier, as you just need to run to the target station as fast as you can, with the escortee catching up automatically
* Look for missions starting and ending in the same or adjacent sectors

#### Piracy

* Find low security sectors like Veloxi (Void Starcross -> Hunu -> Ponze -> Veloxi) with a station to repair and resupply, and eliminate Raiders entering the sector. This will give faction reputation, XP and loot, where the loot can contain rare, epic and artifact quality items depending on player level
* As the Pilot's level increases, so will the quality of the loot. But beware: the Raiders will also level up.
* Bring a Warp Drive. This will be enable you to escape the dreaded ECM attacks on your propulsion system. A Basic Warp Drive as well as the required fuel is sold at Biomart University at Void Starcross.

### Skill points and XP

* You can redistribute your skill points at station universities. Your currently active ship needs to be a shuttle. If you have a fleet, you might not be able to leave, unless you have enough points in the Fleet Management skill.
* A number of skill points is granted to you automatically every real time hour. The amount depends on your activities, as well as your Life Support Drain setting in the game options. Expect up to five skill points per hour.
* Take a look at the medals (doubling as achievements), and try to fulfill their requirements for receiving skill points
* Hitting anything with your weaponry will grant you XP, this includes mining and salvaging (even when done by your Drones)
* Skill books provide up to 10 skill points per piece. While in a sandbox game, these can spawn on stations, in campaign mode your only source are Raiders.
* Missions will provide skill points, XP and faction reputation, if finished successfully. Sometimes lower level missions will yield more skill points than higher level ones, so check their details

### Faction reputation

* Faction shipyards will beef up the ships they offer with bonuses based on the Pilot's faction reputation
* Aside from running missions for a faction, eliminating Raiders in their sectors will raise reputation
* Faction reputation will also lower the taxes on items traded in their markets

### Ships

* Keep in mind, that ships can be improved using Passive Modules and Pilot skills. The lesser Passive Module slots a ship has, the more you will need to rely on its basic capabilities and your Pilot's skills.
* Faction shipyards will beef up the ships they offer with bonuses based on the Pilot's faction reputation.
* Your starter ship is quick enough to escape most dangers in time, life support will keep up long enough to hurry out of even the harshest regions back to where you came from before it gives in
* Prices can vary wildly between shipyards. Some shipyards even have the exact same ships on offer for different prices.
* Consider raising your faction reputation before buying a ship at a faction shipyard. The shipyard will grant bonuses to the ship's stats based on your reputation.
* If you intend to go into combat often, pick a ship with a high turn rate and / or well-distributed weapon mounts. You can improve the turn rate by for example training the Ship Gyroscopic Control skill and installing Turn Thrust Passive Modules.
* Consider getting a Warp Drive. It will not only speed up travel considerably, but can also bail you quickly out of dangerous situations, even if your propulsion system has been disabled by an ECM attack.
* Drones can help defend your ship quite effectively. Also, using Drones can free up Active Module slots otherwise used for Excavation or Salvage Beams.

### Weapons

* Energy weapons like lasers and beams can draw lots of power from the ship when firing. Projectile weapons like guns and cannons require ammunition, but almost no energy, as do Missile and torpedo launchers.
* Increasing the range of your weapons using the Focal Range skills might end you up with lots of misses at the range limit with fast moving targets, especially when using projectile weapons.
* Projectile weapons have lots of ammo options, each with a specific set of damage dealt. Using proper ammunition, projectile weapons can be very good damage dealers.
* Take note of the turn rates, mobility ranges and range of weaponry. Turn rate decides on how fast a turret can change aim, mobility range decides on area covered and range on the distance of a target the weapon will start firing on.
* You can set the rotation and elevation of your weapons when in a station garage. While you can run with the defaults, increasing coverage by customizing these values can bring substantial benefits. Nothing like shooting down a fast circling Raider with an unexpected blast from a side facing turret.
* Install Energy Generators to improve energy regeneration, if your energy weapons drain your ship too fast.
* The Advanced Systems skills provides a good set of bonuses to the respective weapons.
* Some types of Drones can help in combat, but they generally deal very low amounts of damage. Better get some Defense Drones. And level up the respective Drone skills.

### Combat

* Raider spawns outside of missions can, even at lower levels, consist of a fleet of high powered damage dealers, ECM attackers and small and fast armed support vessels. Sometimes it's just better to run.
* You can dock and repair / resupply your ship during combat. Even your Drones will have their energy recharged.
* Override or disable your autopilot, if you get into trouble. A quick thrust from your afterburners after disabling your autopilot can be quite life saving
* Get as many hostiles as you can into your targeting system. This way, you can check on their distance, and go for the one closest to your weapon's ranges.
* Explode Ship Loot boxes after checking on them. Less clutter, and you'll not check the same box twice.
* Get a Warp Drive. Seriously. Gets you out of ECM propulsion attacks and lets you escape immediately, if things start to go south.

### Using the search function (journal, markets, etc)

* Use the search function buried in the Journal (N). You can use that to search for any item or skill at any station that you have already visited; unfortunately you can't use the market search to search for ships to buy.
* Any search box will accept any parts of the term you are looking for. Looking for a Prototy**pe Car**go Extension ? Just type "pe ca". Looking for a Las**er Da**mage Calibration training ? Just type "ser da". Want to find GE**K M**ining on the galaxy map ? Type "k m".

### Various

* Opening the Map will tone down game ambient sounds, if you need a moment of increased silence
* Refineries and fabricators will continue working, if you undock. Albeit at a slower rate. Also, adding and removing items from currently active fabricators and refineries just requires you to simply deactivate and afterwards restart them.
* If in doubt, dock with a station or some other structure. Docking protects you from hostilities and hazards.
* Basic Cargo expansions are cheap and can substantially ease the first hauls
* Always keep emergency change for docking and Warp Gate fees
* Careful selection of skills can free up valuable equipment slots in your ship
If you get a merc's loyalty up to 100% you won't have to pay them anymore
* Mercs are great, they are super cheap
* Merc carriers will never launch drones even if they have drones in their cargo bay
* Build your own station, retire some mercs into its offices and have them generate income for you

## Savegames

Astrox Imperium keeps its saves within its installation folder, organized by pilot name:

`<InstallationFolder>\Astrox Imperium_Data\MOD\saves\<PilotName>`

Manipulating savegames is easy, all that is required is a text editor. Even the Windows default Notepad will do.