Playing without planetary battles - suggested skills upgrade path?

[Skummeh]

Hi all. I understand that the planetary battles are the most money-making in the game, but I simply don't enjoy playing them. To make the game work for me, anyone have any suggestions on a skill upgrade path? I rank up so slowly compared to other rangers that going for Leadership seems to be useless, for example. I tend to do a lot of government missions to level up and get a decent ship/loadout before I start antagonizing anyone. I know most of the tricks in the game, especially from playing Reboot a lot, so I don;t need any general hints.

[narf03]

depends on how u play the game, i start fighting dominator once i get my pirate free ship, 2nd missile launcher, and matter psi-accelerator(should work with nozzelenator too), in a 200% game. Wont work if most of enemies speed are faster or close to you. bring extra engine just incase you need boost alot.
flying into a system with 2 dominator races fighting each other normally benefits you alot, just launch a few missiles into different enemies and run away, as long as you did some damage to it, and it later dies fighting, you get some experience from the kill, not to mention lesser enemies behind your back while you go pick up treasures.
so ill just level up accuracy and tech, assuming i dont get hit that often. when i start collecting multiresonators, ill start level up my mobility, need a good armored ship, iron zoopie, and some micro modules to increase armor further.
i almost never attempt to level up leadership, as no AI can survive my strategy, they are pretty useless.

[Blinkicide]

Point costs increase substantially so its natural to spread them out.

Accuracy - most important, because early game strategy tends to rely on outranging enemies (missles, extended range flux cannons, etc), and those weapons can fail at punching through dominator defenses, especially with low accuracy. That said, you can largely rely on galarian alacrity and moloq stimulators, of course not having the stimulator up or having it wear off in battle can mean abandoning the fight.

Tech - Using the much cheaper low tier engines with afterburn tends to be a lot faster than using higher tech engines at normal speed. I keep 2-3 engines on me; 1-2 low tech ones that I afterburn and repair every stop, one is high tech level for pretty much just for combat, so I don't need to afterburn in combat to create space.

Mobility - You don't need this early game cause you're not going to be beating packs of dominators that can outrun missles. Whch means you don't need to tank stuff, just shoot your missles and if they have missles run theirs into the sun. The one exception early game is when your defending a base, but then again, the base is right there and you can repair as much as your pocket book allows.

Leadership - Hard to keep partners alive early game. Especially black holes, since you'll get dropped in dominator space often and your partner will go off looking for you only to get the msg they've been blown to bits a few turns after your warp out. Same applies to missle runs in dangerous dominator space.

[Skummeh]

Getting that pirate ship made the biggest difference for me, which is new to the game. I like upgrading charisma a bit first because of the government missions as they pay out more. Otherwise, I agree with all of that.

[narf03]

if you need charisma, get some equipments that will give you a temporary charisma boost when you getting or completing the quest, need not to be good specs, just need to be light and easily carry around.

[Skummeh]

Yeah I know those tricks, I just don't like to use them. So, I have to lower the difficulty (I set pirates to easiest) to make it a fun challenge, since I'm also not doing planetary battles. I totally understand the "pro" player mentality of eeking every advantage you can out of the game, but it's just not fun for me to play like that. That said, I'm at year 7, experimenting with different stat-affecting loadouts, and having a fun game.

[Ballsm]

I'm play similar to you without planetary battles. I haven't messed with them yet but I still have a blast without them. 40+ hours and still learning new things about the game.

I have a hard time building up experience for skill ups as well because I tend to run a hauler for trading and I honestly haven't experience much of combat yet. Eventually I'll start new game and dive more into the combat and planetary battles

[Skummeh]

Balsm, I've found that if you join the pirate guild and focus on government missions, you get a lot of experience for skill upgrades. I think the key to the game is to make as much income/experience as you can on each run to a different planet: Government mission, trading goods to the next planet you are hopping to...USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION as it is key to playing the game, taking multiple missions along the way, selectively destroying transports or extorting from them to gain pirate rank points and loot, etc. You have to make the most out of each trip since we don't get the huge planetary battle payouts. You can switch back and forth between being a pirate or coalition ranger, and get points in each. Keep maintaining a strategic balance so one faction doesn;t get too powerful. Eventually, you will be able to tangle with anyone and start liberating systems on your own.

My initial items/skills are: +1 Attack skill, +1 Mobility skill, enhanced engine, missile launcher, Feyan Pirate. Grab your stuff from the hold, sell your Drugs to the highest bidder, go to a pirate base, join their guild and change your identity. You have a bunch of money, a fast ship, and everyone is cool with you.

[Blinkicide]

Because of the increasing costs, after I get a few points in most my skills, I start looking at the bases, dumping all the cheap +skills gear I can on them, and spending some of my exp to add a few points to their attack and mobility.

[Skummeh]

On easier difficulties you really never have to do that, but it's essential to develop bases on the hardest difficulties, I agree. If you lose that last business center, you are screwed.