Just started

[Vervastar]

Hello guys,
I just started. What are the two AI upgrades that are mainly recommended? Do I need to click on the stuff that drops after enemies to get it? Thanks!

[Hunu]

Hello!

You don't need to click things after the ships explode. There are floating balls of scraps that you need to click until you find a way to do that automatically eventually.

I'm sure there's a tier list or something out there somewhere, lots of knowledgeable players here and presumably on the discord. My suggestion at least for your first one is "auto merge", combining shards quickly becomes very tedious. After that I guess it's a personal preference thing to some degree. Some tasks are easy to forget about once more mechanics are introduced. Core auto upgrade is one that became useful to me pretty quickly.

[Dragon]

Must haves - Auto Merge, 1 smart craft, research auto select, Base auto upgrades (when unlocked)
- Save time (less micromanagement) -Compute Salvage auto, Compute Optimize, Compute Auto Optimize (these are really annoying to micromanage and not a lot of fail safes built in without them)
Reactor Auto Buy, Reactor power manager, Reactor VM manager (similar to compute annoying to manage and you can turn your reactor off if your not careful causing confusion)
Late game must haves (Sector 50+)- Auto Warp, Crew Stat Auto Switcher

Honestly everything else you can get by without. or they are more quality of life. everyone has there specifics for their own gameplay style. for now just work on saving for those first 4 or if your having trouble with micromanagement the reactor/compute upgrades. they are annoying when your not used to them at start up as they can turn off or eat all your salvage/void resources without you noticing.

Just don't blow all your AI points on consumables! save them for features as they continue to unlock. you will earn enough AI points to get everything (even some consumables) without paying if you play to the end.

[Vervastar]

Thanks guys!