How To Play

## A Beginner's guide!

### Factions and Ship Designs

When you create an account you will be asked to choose a faction: Pirate, Federation or Qtarian. Practically speaking, what you are really choosing is a starship design, since missions and gameplay are identical regardless of your faction.

You cannot change factions once you have chosen. However, there will be ways of selecting alternate starship designs later in the game. You can also create a second account later to try a new ship design, but be sure to register your existing game first to avoid losing your account.

### Currency

The three types of game currency are minerals, gas and starbux. All three will be important for building a successful ship and crew.

### Minerals and Gas

Minerals and gas can be collected by purchasing mines and gas collectors in the resource section of the shop and placing them on your ship. Minerals can also be collected from mining lasers, which can be purchased in the weapons section. In addition, you can earn minerals and gas by winning single player and PVP missions. For many advanced players PVP missions are the primary means of earning these resources.

You will need minerals or gas to purchase and upgrade rooms and crew for your ship. They can also be used as currency in Gbay. Most players find that gas is a more precious resource than minerals, due in part to the high gas cost for leveling crew.

### Starbux

Starbux are the game's premium currency. In addition to obtaining them through in-app purchases you can earn three starbux at a time by clicking on the ad blimp, which periodically scrolls across the screen underneath your ship, in order to watch a video. You should also click on any stray bux that float across the screen.

Starbux can be used to purchase various crew and items from special daily sales in the shop or on the dropship, and can be used as currency in Gbay. You can also use starbux to rush upgrades and to purchase minerals or gas if you don't have enough for a needed upgrade.

### Trophies

Trophies are used to determine your overall player ranking within the game, and are gained or lost by competing in PVP match-ups. Don't be alarmed if you are losing more trophies from a single loss than you are gaining from a single win. Because you are only matched with competitors who are currently offline and cannot actively defend their ships, you should expect to win more matches than you lose until you reach the peak trophy count for your ship. Once that happens you will need to rely on upgrades to make your ship powerful enough to continue climbing in the rankings.

Your player ranking is also used to determine the size of the mineral and gas bonus you receive for winning a PVP match.

## Missions

### Single Player

In the early stages of the game, single player missions act as a tutorial and a convenient way to practice your game skills. Later they will be most valuable as a source of building materials which can be combined to make wearable items to enhance your crew. Destroying the dropship in a single player mission also gives you some starbux. You can only complete a limited number of single player missions per day; once you have finished all of the day's missions you will need to wait 24 hours for them to reset.

### Multiplayer (PVP)

For most players the ultimate goal of the game is to increase their trophy count through participating in PVP missions. In PVP your starship is matched with other ships with a roughly similar trophy count. You have three minutes to destroy their ship before they destroy yours. As an attacker in PVP you have a distinct advantage because you will be attacking a player who is not logged into the game and cannot actively defend their ship. If you are not winning more PVP missions than you are losing you will probably want to find strategies for improving your starship in order to become more competitive.

## Controlling Your Ship

### Manual Targeting

Combat in the early stages of your career as a starship commander will consist of manually dragging the crosshair icon attached to your weapons to a room on the enemy ship; the weapon will then fire at the chosen room every time your weapon reloads until a new target is selected.

Once you’ve upgraded your ship to level five, you will get access to the teleporter. Now things get tricky. To use the teleporter manually, you will need to select a crew you wish to send to the enemy ship, and without lifting your finger, drag it to the arrow that shifts your view to the enemy ship. Once you see the enemy ship, continue to drag your finger to a room you wish your boarder to attack. From here you can select your crew and drag him to different rooms as desired.

Manual targeting is the only way to attack enemy ships in the beginning, but it is highly recommended that you learn the basics of ai as soon as possible to increase your effectiveness as a starship captain.

### AI Targeting

Once you have a command room you can begin controlling rooms and crew using AI commands. To program AI, equip the command room on your ship, click on the room or crew that you would like to control and select the AI option. Click "new command" to add AI; each line of AI will include a trigger and an action. Remember to place the highest priority commands first, since the AI will always execute the first command that has a valid trigger at any given time.

AI is complicated and takes some time to understand, but as your ship grows it will become impossible to control everything on your own. Your fellow fleet members may be able to give you advice or point you to online guides for creating successful AI commands if you're having trouble.

## Fleets

You can join a fleet (formerly known as an alliance) once you've built a fleet room, available with a level four starship. Because the fleet room takes up space and the mineral cost for building it is high relative to other low level rooms, some players feel that the costs of building the fleet room early outweigh the benefits. If you find that this is the case, you may prefer to spend some time exploring the game on your own first and adding a fleet room after your ship is a higher level. You may also decide that the many benefits of membership in a fleet are worth the cost of building a fleet room as soon as possible.

The biggest advantage of a fleet is probably the opportunity to learn from more experienced players, especially if you join a fleet that has a focus on training new members. As a member of a fleet you can also lend and borrow crew; the number you can lend/borrow increases at higher alliance room levels. Borrowed crew have the potential to substantially improve your ship by increasing the total number of crew that your ship can hold. If your fleet includes higher level players you will also probably be able to sometimes borrow crew that are much stronger than the ones on your ship and try out characters that you haven't found yet. If your fleet has built a starbase you will also benefit from additional defense from starbase missiles when you are attacked by other players. Another advantage for those who join a top ranked fleet is monthly tournament rewards.

Each fleet has its own personality. Whether you're looking for a rowdy group of jokesters, a serious group focused on climbing trophies, a quiet place to hunker down, or a combination thereof, there's probably a fleet out there to meet your needs. Regardless of the type of fleet that appeals to you, for most players finding a good one is essential if your goal is to climb the PVP rankings. Established players have already learned successful strategies for playing the game and are often very willing to share their knowledge with new players. Fleets usually have minimum trophy requirements for joining, but may be open to admitting dedicated players who fall below the minimum if they are willing to meet other criteria such as joining an out of game chat app and taking advice from seasoned players in order to bring up their pvp ranking once they have joined. In addition, many fleets have feeder alliances which are intended to train lower ranked players and prepare them for joining the main alliance. In some cases these groups will be obvious (e.g., highly ranked Awesome Alliance may have a feeder group named Awesome Alliance 2) but in other cases you may need to ask around to find out which alliances are affiliated with one another. When you see players in public chat who seem like your kind of people, don't hesitate to ask them questions about their fleet. Always remember that if you join a fleet and discover that it's not really what you're looking for you can always leave and apply somewhere else.

## Tournaments and Events

### Monthly Tournaments

At the end of each calendar month, the top ranked players and alliances in the game are rewarded with starbux and special crew. Player ranking is determined by individual trophy count, and alliance ranking is determined by the total number of trophies held by all alliance members. Many established players dedicate the beginning of the month to improving their starships, then focus on earning as many trophies as possible towards the end of the month.

On the last day of the month players are locked into their current alliance. You will not be allowed to leave your alliance during this time, and if you are an alliance founder or leader you will not be able to kick out players or reject pending applicants. Players who are not affiliated with an alliance will still be allowed to join during this time.

If you join a winning alliance during the last week of the tournament you will not receive full rewards.

### Live AI Events

PSS also regularly offers live AI events which match players against enemy ships in real time (unlike pvp, which matches players against enemies who are currently offline). The button to join the event is next to the pvp button in the missions section.

These events consist of live battles against other captains that are controlled by AI only. No manual control is permitted. Participating in live AI doesn’t break immunity, but it does consume ammunition. The two captains can chat with each other on screen during the battle.

Each event run lasts until you score a total of 9 wins or 3 losses. Once a run is complete you are rewarded with 1-5 crates, depending on your win ratio, which can be opened to reveal prizes. The first entry into each event is free; consecutive entries have a fee of 50 starbux. Each entry grants one full run through the event.

## Shop

You can purchase new rooms and crew members for your starship in the shop. New rooms become available for purchase each time you upgrade your ship to a new level. Each type of room performs a different function, and each character that can be purchased to join your crew has a unique set of skills and abilities. You will probably find that you have quickly purchased more crew and rooms than you can fit on your ship at any one time, but extras can be safely stored in the inventory that can be accessed at the bottom left corner of the screen for later use. Some rooms only need to be placed on the ship while they are in use, while others are always needed. This section of the guide includes brief descriptions of all rooms that can be purchased for starships that are **level six and below**. Because you don't have space to include every room at once, to some extent you will need to decide what to include on your starship based on your personal playing style and strategy. You should also keep in mind that each room with hit points has a different power requirement. If you find that your ship is under-powered you may need to add or upgrade reactors or remove a weapon until you have increased your power supply enough to support it.

### Weapons

#### Mining Laser (MLZ)

The mining laser serves a dual purpose. It will passively mine minerals while it is equipped on your ship, which can be collected and stored in your mineral storage room(s). In addition, the mining laser can be used as a lightweight weapon during single player and PVP missions. In the early stages of the game you will need to drag the target located just above the MLZ symbol onto the room you wish to target. Later you will have the ability to program AI which will automatically direct the MLZ to target particular rooms. You will use these same strategies for deploying most of the other weapons on your ship.

#### Small Missile Launcher (MSL)

The small missile launcher can be used to launch various types of missiles, which you must build beforehand by clicking on the MSL room, at an opposing starship. Initially you will only have access to standard rockets, but you can research new missile types and upgrade existing missile types using the laboratory (LAB). You must spend gas to build missiles; each missile type has a different gas cost, and the costs increase when you upgrade your missiles.

#### Teleport (TLP)

The teleport room is used to transport crew from your ship to the opposing ship. Once there they will dismantle the target room and attack any crew that are in the room with them. The most efficient way to teleport crew is by programming AI that directs them to target specific enemy rooms, but you can also drag them to a room on an enemy ship and they will travel to your teleport room so that they can target that enemy room.

In order to board an opponent's starship, your crew must first travel to your teleport room and wait until the teleporter is fully powered. At that point they will be teleported directly to the enemy room that you are targeting, regardless of whether the enemy's ship is equipped with a teleport room. If you have directed your crew to return to your ship, they must do so through your teleport room.

#### Turrets (TT)

Turrets are lightweight weapons that can be directed at enemy ships in the same way as mining lasers or missiles. They have the advantage of taking up less space on the ship than most weapons but the disadvantage of being easy to destroy.

#### Hangar (HAN)

Similar to missile rooms, a hangar can be used to construct and deploy small aircraft which will attack your opponent's starship; as with the missile room you will need to build craft to deploy before going into battle. You can upgrade existing craft and research new craft types using the LAB. Any aircraft that survive the battle will be returned to your hangar for another use.

### Defence

#### Engine (ENG)

Equipping your ship with engine(s) causes it to move erratically during battle, increasing the chances that your opponent's weapons will hit something other than the room that they are targeting. While an engine may sound like an essential component, your ship will operate just fine without having an engine room equipped if you choose to use the space for a different room that is more important for your play strategy.

#### Shield (SHL)

A shield room is your first line of defense against enemy attacks, providing protection against energy weapons. Each time an enemy weapon hits the shield surrounding your ship it weakens the shield, and each time your shield room reaches full power the shield becomes stronger. You can typically cause much greater damage to a ship that is not protected by an active shield.

#### Command Room (CMD)

The command room is used to program your crew and some of the rooms on your starship with artificial intelligence (AI), which instructs them to perform important tasks with no direction from you. AI is a useful tool in defending your ship against attackers when you are offline, and it becomes increasingly important even when you are online as your ship grows larger and is able to hold more rooms and crew members that need to be directed.

You only need to have the CMD room equipped on your ship when you are actively editing AI commands. To program AI, equip the CMD room then click on a room or crew member. You can then click on the AI tab to bring up the AI interface. Once you are done, you can remove the CMD room and your AI will still operate.

#### Armor

Armor is used to fortify your ship by providing added protection for any room that it touches. Armor is usually used to protect rooms that have hit points (weapons and some defence rooms). Like other rooms, Armor can be upgraded to provide increased protection. Please note that Armor does not prevent Fire Damage.

#### Water Sprinkler

Water Sprinklers may be added to a room to extinguish any fires that start there. Though they may be destroyed in a battle, Water Sprinklers are permanent items and will remain in your inventory at the end of combat. The Repair stat, as well as any Fire Resistance ability, of your crew members will also help to quell the flames and minimise damage to your ship.

#### Fleet Council (ALL)

You must build a fleet council room before you can create or join a fleet, and the room cannot be removed from your ship as long as you are a member of a fleet. You can loan crew to other members of your fleet by dragging them to the fleet room. You can also borrow crew by clicking on the fleet room and selecting the request tab. Select the fleet tab to see basic information about your fleet and its members or to leave the fleet.

#### Anti Craft Lazer (AA)

The Anti Craft Lazer is a laser room which automatically targets any aircraft deployed by enemy hangars when it is powered. It does not cause damage to the enemy starship itself.

### Support

#### Bridge (BRD)

At times you may find yourself in a battle that you know you are unlikely to win. If your ship is equipped with a bridge, you can tap on 'escape' at the top of the screen for a chance to escape from the battle without losing trophies or resources. Your likelihood of escaping is determined by the level of your bridge and the current health of your ship's reactors. Manning the bridge with crew can also increase your chance of escaping.

#### Bedroom (BED)

The number of crew that your ship can support is determined by the number of bedrooms that you have equipped as well as their levels. Each time you level up a bedroom you create room for one additional crew member.

#### Lift

The turbofan lifts act as elevators connecting different levels of the ship; lift pieces can be stacked on top of one another to create short lifts which connect only a few levels or long lifts that stretch across all ship levels. Because only one crew member or enemy boarder can use the lift at a time, repair crew are likely to reach rooms on their level of the ship more quickly than rooms that require the use of lifts to access. Lift upgrades will be made available in a future update.

#### Small Reactor (REA)

Small reactors will be the only power source available to you until you have upgraded to a level eight starship. All weapons and some support rooms require power to operate, and some rooms require more power than others. As your ship grows you will need to add new reactor rooms and upgrade existing reactor rooms in order to provide sufficient power to all parts of the ship. If you find that some rooms suddenly stop working as expected during battle even though they are not damaged, it is probably because your ship is experiencing a power shortage.

#### Laboratory (LAB)

The laboratory is used to research a wide variety of new technologies that are useful for your ship. LAB research will be essential for gaining access to Gbay, new and upgraded missiles and aircraft, beer draws (crew draws which are purchased using bux and guarantee three star crew or better), and many other important features. The laboratory must be equipped on the ship while research is taking place.

#### Gym (GYM)

The gym is used to improve the stats of your crew. Each training regimen focuses on improving different stats. Longer regimens have higher payouts but cost more and, of course, take longer to complete. Your crew will be tired after a workout so it's a good idea to let them rest before training them again. Rotating training regimens is also recommended.

### Resource

#### Storage (STR)

Your ship comes equipped with enough room to store 50 game items (building materials such carbon and scrap, items that can be equipped such as weapons and armor, and immunities). Wearable items continue to take up storage space even when they are equipped. Eventually the storage space that comes with your ship will probably not meet your storage needs and you will want to build a storage warehouse to accommodate additional storage.

#### Mine (MI)

Mines are used to collect minerals. When they are equipped they will passively collect minerals, regardless of whether you are online, until they are full. You will then need to click on the mineral icon in the bottom left corner of the mine room to move the collected minerals to your mineral storage room(s) so that the mine can begin extracting more resources from passing androids.

#### Gas Collector (GAS)

As the name implies, gas collectors are used to collect gas. When they are equipped they will passively collect gas, regardless of whether you are online, until they are full. You will then need to click on the gas icon in the bottom left corner of the gas collector room to move the collected gas to your gas storage room(s) so that the collector can begin extracting more resources from the environment.

#### Mineral Storage (MST)

Your starship comes with the capacity to store a small supply of minerals, but your mineral needs will very quickly exceed the ship's storage capacity. Mineral storage rooms provide additional storage space for much-needed minerals.

#### Gas Storage (GST)

As with minerals, your starship comes with the capacity to store a small supply of gas, but your gas needs will very quickly exceed the ship's storage capacity. Gas storage rooms provide additional storage space for much-needed gas.

### Character

In the character section of the shop you can purchase new characters to add to your crew. Early on, you will only be able to purchase characters here through mineral draws. Once you've researched beer in the LAB you will also be able to purchase new characters using starbux. With beer draws you are guaranteed to draw crew members with at least three stars, which means they will all have a special ability. The disadvantage of purchasing crew here rather than from the dropship or special sales is that you don't know what you'll get until you make the purchase. The advantage is that you have a chance to get four and five star crew members who are rarely available for purchase through other methods.

#### Special Abilities

Characters with three or more stars have a special ability which can be used by the character once during each battle, as long as they are level 10 or higher. There are a variety of special abilities, and you will probably want to use crew members with a good mix of abilities to maximize your results. Ideally you will want to use AI to program your crew to use their special abilities under specific battle conditions, but you can also manually trigger a special ability by double tapping on the crew member.

Below are short descriptions of the Special Abilities available in game:

### Ship

In this section of the shop you can upgrade your ship's level. Remember that ship upgrades can be a mixed blessing. Upgraded ships are larger and come with more room options, but if you upgrade your ship too quickly without also upgrading rooms and leveling up your crew you may find that it becomes harder to increase trophies rather than easier.

### Special Items

Each day a special item is offered for sale on the left side of the shop page. Special sale items can include crew members, items that can be equipped, building materials, or really anything that can be used on your ship. Sometimes the sale item will be something that is commonly found in the game and at other times you will have the chance to purchase rare or even limited release items. Only a limited number of the item is sold, so it is possible that popular items will sell out before the day ends.

## Contacting Support

You can contact support via the following:

Email: mail@savysoda.com

Twitter: @savysoda

Facebook page: https://en-gb.facebook.com/savysoda/

## Contributors

Edited by Y3tta

Contributors: Y3tta, —Cthulhu—, Demigod