Systems

## Rebel Galaxy

The game takes place in one sector of the galaxy. The Sector Map can be displayed as an option from the standard Map function.

The sector contains 14 star systems, 13 of which are interconnected through the use of Jump Gates. There is one system that isn't connected to the jump gate network: Charon, which is the story's final destination system. There are multiple routes one may take to different systems, but it's relatively straight forward to take the route that contains the fewest jumps to arrive.

To utilize the Jump Gates the ship must have a Jump Drive installed. The Jump Drive costs 75,000 Credits and has only one variant.

The early stages of the story are restricted to a single star system. The ship doesn't come with a jump drive, but one becomes available to buy once enough progress has been made in the story.

### System structure

Each system has a single star (no binary stars) with four to eleven planets orbiting it. Every planet has a space station in orbit around it. Each system has one Merchant's Guild station, and each system except the starting system has one Mercenaries Guild station and one Militia outpost. Enough additional "outpost" space stations orbit the star to bring the total station count up to around eighteen or nineteen. Some planets also have moons, but those are just obstacles and aren't useful.

You can steer your ship anywhere within the system that it's in. Be careful to steer around planets, moons, and the star. If you enter the atmosphere of a planet, your ship will start to burn up, so you should stop immediately and get out of the atmosphere as soon as possible.

#### Object fields

The system space between stations isn't completely empty. Of course there are many ships out there, but there are also a great many fields of various kinds of objects. Only a few of those fields are marked on your map to begin with (they appear as small white diamonds). The rest of them are for you to discover. You might feel that those object fields are just annoying obstacles to warp travel, but they can contain materials that you can mine or objects that you can scavenge with your tractor beam.

Object fields that you might find include:

* Asteroids that can be mined
* Ice that can be mined
* Junk that can be searched for stray products and containers to scavenge
* Mine fields that can be searched for stray products and containers to scavenge

Nebulas are regions of colorful gases. Sometimes that's all they are, and sometimes they shroud a field of objects. Nebulas can interfere with the ship's scanner and missile targeting unless the ship is equipped with a Nebula Mitigation component. A few nebulas contain lightning that can deliver serious hits to your ship; it's prudent to avoid those "dark" nebulas whenever possible.

### Difficulty

Systems in the sector have a progressive difficulty which skyrockets depending on what equipment your ship is kitted out with. The progression is quite straight forward. Mk. 0 is your starting equipment on the Rasputin, and the starting system has Mk. 1 and Mk. 2 gear available to buy whenever you can afford it. Other systems offer better equipment, up to a maximum of Mk. 6.

The Mk. 2 starting system has a single jump gate that leads to a Mk. 3 system which acts as a sort of gateway to the rest of the sector jump network. That "gateway" system will offer at least one connection to a Mk. 4 system. Connections may also be available to other systems of various difficulty levels. There always is a path from the starting system that lets you step up one level at a time until you reach Mk. 6, but from any given system there might be side paths that are multiple levels above (or below) that system.

Better equipment comes at a steep price. For example, Mk. 6 shields cost about 400 times as much as Mk. 1 shields do. In addition, you'll need to buy even more equipment to kit out a larger ship. Those prices are affordable only because the systems with higher difficulty offer higher bounties and higher mission rewards. Alas, there is no equivalent increase in trading profits in the more challenging systems.

The best gear available in any system should allow you to do the majority of the missions in that system. However, this does not mean that all missions in the system will be easily completed; there will still be varied difficulty.

Having equipment that is one level below the best that the current system offers isn't ideal, but in practice it's the normal situation (until late in the game when all equipment is at Mk. 6). Once a ship is fully outfitted with all of the system's best, it's time to jump to a more difficult system. For a while after arriving in a more challenging system, avoiding or escaping dangerous situations is an important tactic. A less dangerous strategy is to jump to the rougher system just long enough to warp to a nearby station to buy some good equipment and quickly return to the safer system, but the lower rewards in the safer system will slow down the progression. Some players blend the two strategies, using quick trips to buy better defensive equipment and/or engines, then settling into the new system to start making more money.

Mission difficulty reflects the system where you start it, though they may take place in another system (requires a jump to reach objective). However, there may be surrounding threats, not strictly part of the mission, whose danger reflects the system it takes place in. This is generally only a problem if the mission requires jumps to a system with considerably higher difficulty than the system your equipment is ready for; the random interactions and hostile groups that lurk about may be a serious threat.

The level of difficulty reported for a system or for a mission is directly affected by your equipment on your ship and type of ship you have. The difficulties will be listed as one of the following:

* [LOW]
* [MILD]
* [NORMAL]
* [HIGH]
* [EXTREME]

It is **not** recommended to attempt missions in systems that still have a difficulty of high and above or engage in combat there, as the equipment output difference is a considerable gap and you may find difficulty in doing anything.

### Sector Map

The sector map is accessed via the map and using the **[SHIFT]** key, X button (XBox), or square button (PS4), to expand your search area to show the sector map. Only two systems are guaranteed to exist: your starting system, where the campaign begins, and Charon, where it ends. Charon is not connected to the rest of the sector with any jump gates.

(Example only! Each new game randomly generates a new map.)