Vaulters

[czech]

Any tips on playing Vaulters? I was under the impression that only Vaulters can engage in Pirate Diplomacy but now everyone can? What are the benefits of disguising my fleets into pirate ships? Will the AI even fall for that?

[strike478]

-After you get controll over first system wait till your mothership recovers and dont afraid to use it as scout ship.
-First heroine can generate resources essential for further colonisation. Be quick to level up this perk.
-Pirate diplomacy comes with vaulters expansion.
-Colonise systems fast.

[Trooper2142]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1294035262

This is a very well written guide that will tell you everything you’ll need to know about the Vaulters.

[patrick]

Vaulters can force a cease fire with pirates. As long as you don‘t attack them and have bo pirate marks (new ones can‘t be placed) you won‘t be bothered by them. At the same time you‘ll be able to use their portals. You need (and should) refresh that effect regularily, pirates are much more useful as allies.

As far as i am aware, not even the AI „falls for it“. They openly call you out on your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ if you attack them via privateers. Something very useful as privateers is that you don‘t take over systems you attack and that you can attack systems in cold war. Usually you don‘t want to invade bad systems because you have to take care of them at 0% affection. But like this you can destroy enemey systems without taking this penalty. If you assimilate a civ or train foreign corps they make very good invasion carriers, especially with tanks you‘ll be able to beat most newer systems or pirate outposts if you want.

Use dirty hands act alot, possibly build influence buildings to support it. The golden age buff is a powerful game mechanic, make sure you get good use out of it by finishing strong food or industry buildings before or shortly after it runs out. Usually i start with a 160 colonization or drone networks (128 industry with dirty hands act) followed by a xeno industrial complex.

Your scouts are good, so as the guide says: explore alot and pay your stuff with sold luxuries. I don‘t focus much on dust since getting industry, food, and some science are much more important.

[ElPrezCBF]

You can disguise your ships as pirates to attack allies trying to colonize strategic systems or any factions "at peace" to hamper their expansion without starting a war. However, I'm not sure if the disguise lasts forever. The Sophons declared war after I blocked their capital with disguised pirates over many turns. Not sure if playing on Endless difficulty was a factor.

[Mulzaro]

The privateering is also quite useful in situtations where you end up in a truce because you don't have enough influence to continue the war.

The second thing being the fact that you can destroy bad systems with privateers instead of taking them as mentioned earlier.

[RackRazor]

I've played them a couple of times and while I've seen many complain that they can't spam colony ships, ask yourself why do you spam them? Is it to quickly gain population so that you can generate FIDSI?

There are two distinct advantages the Vaulters have that you must take advantage of in the first 60 turns of the game and what you thought was a limitation with the Argosy is actually a big advantage.

First their exploration vessels have an extra movement point which allows you to explore the galaxy faster. This also applies to probes they fly for 5 turns. They also carry 4 probes so you can explore curiosities really fast and gain loads of resources. This comes in handy with several early quests and assimilation tasks. You can discover minor factions much faster. Assimilating 3 to 5 minor factions can make a big difference down the road where there is quest and the end reward is an empire improvement that boosts your FIDSI based on the number of minor factions you have assimilated. It doesn't seem to count if they got owned by another faction first so its important to be first to the table. This also gives you a pretty decent stock of attackers as each one gives you 2-3 Shuttles that you can turn privateer and harass other factions development. I particularly like to blockade systems they try to colonize to get access to strategics. As soon as I get field generators I will go strip mine the system of Hyperium and Antimatter.

Second is that when you found your first colony you get a golden age that gives you major boosts to FIDSI for 30 turns. If the capital system you first assimilated has some good science producing planets you can feasibly finish the entire first ring of the tech tree in the first 30 turns. That isn't want you want to do, but it gives you a huge boost. Get Baryonic Sheilding and start spamming explorers all over the place. Find a nice system with hot planets and the aforementioned golden age will allow you to research techs fast to colonize Arids, Deserts and other hot planets that can become factory systems.

Generally you want to settle with the Argosy the moment the Golden Age timer reaches 30 turns. Meaning the golden age that start when you colonize will last 30 turns. The system is immediately colonized, no outpost waiting period. Which if play your cards right you sustain that FIDSI boost for 90 turns by colonizing 2 other planets at exactly the right time and get a huge advantage in tech.

Other Advatanges. Vaulter Heros have a skill that can generate Titanium and Hyperium without even having a source planet for it. I've hit nearly 1000 Titanium in the first 100 turns twice. You can use those in your system development in place of Luxuries. The techs I generally go for first is baryonic shielding for the reason above, get ship hulls, improved weapons and defenses, then markets so you can start trading resources. For weapons and defense go for Titanium using ones at first since it is easy to get.

There is a female Guardian Vaulter Hero Rita Kata that is an awesome Admiral that is usually in your first round of choice provided the military has seats in the senate. Probably the best one I've used across any faction.

Portals. This is a huge military advantage. Logistics and Civilian ships still travel regular space. You want to build them anyway due to their science boost but this basically allows you to build one really strong defensive fleet that can move anywhere in your empire in a single turn. It is inevitable that Doria, Hissho, UE or Horation or all of the above will declare war. However the first wave is often fleets with high numbers of weak tech ships. I have often seen them move in 4 or more fleets consisting of 10 or more attackers. Having the upgraded Titanium or Hyperium Weapons and defenses can shred them to pieces. I once had Both Doria and UE do this at the same time. I fought 4 batlles against UE, used a portal and fought 4 more against Doria in another one of my systems. The Admiral mentioned above over the course 2 turns leveled her to from 3 to 12 and made veterans out al the ships. Making that defensive fleet nearly the invincible armada (20% Bonus Fleet Health, +2 movement, +8 XP, +8 Vision, +80% damage bonus on the Hero Ship, +65% bonus damage for the fleet, +240 Hull Plating damage absorption and on the fleet and then a 40% bonus to the overall HP damage absorption on the fleet, +33% Shield Capacity on the fleet and then a Battle Tactic that gives bonus damage when targeting bigger ships. The more CP the higher damage bonus. Hellraiser Torps will F up Carriers and Bohemoths). Just keep up your tech advantage and upgrade the veteran ships and your home systems are pretty much off limits to other factions until they can fire devastators. That being said...having that fleet with the bonus movement and Q-fleet accelerator on the Hero ship you can chase that sucker down and end that pretty quick.