Plot Triggers and Permanently missable stuff

Here's a short list of things that will wall you on a blind playthrough -

To translate the Daktalak, you must fight all of them inside of allied Leauge systems
When the Spathi defect from the Leauge, you should ask them for "Hot tips" 4 times in a row immediately.
When you return the Broken Ultron to the Utwig, you need to ask the Spathi for Hot tips a fifth time to get one of its pieces.

Some inventory items are used through conversations with aliens, but others can only be used by going to the 3rd display option (the fleet health / mining view ) and looking through the top row of icons.

After you ally the Claircontalr MUCH LATER in the game, you should ask the Spathi for "Hot tips" a sixth and final time ><

If you go to the Owa as soon as their homeworld is revealed, the game will give you the option to "ask them questions" but NO questions will be availalbe - you can add 3 options by A: Fighting an Owa on a rainbow world (not the homeworld), B: Asking the spathi (which will have the claircontalr prequisite of its own) and C: asking a rainbow world Owa about anti-matter research.

The game is infamous for its "timegates" - most events are in one of 4 categories - immedatite, 1 day, 10 day, and LONG

The 10 day (and especially the LONG) events can trick you into thinking you've locked yourself out of progress

The main ones are
- After The Eltanin System Collapse, there is a 90, 100, 110 and 150 day delay
- After you obtain the Broken Ultron by fighting Rebels, there is a delay
- After you return the Partially fixed Ultron, there is a delay

Contacting League Members

The first *BIG trigger of the game is actually Allying the with the 9 normal League races

*You will get Mycon distress calls before you are done. but the Mycon questline will advance even if you don't answer them.

You simply have to go to the following star systems to find them

Helios (Earthling)
Astarte (Syreen)
Goshen (Spathi)
Salacia (Vux)
Janus (Mycon)
Hypnus (Chmrr)
Vulpunia (Ur-Quan)
Arcadia (Pfunk)
Formalhaut (Utwig)

The game will give you the names of their planets explicitly in the F5 hint menu, BUT the order it reveals them is awful fuelwise -

I heavily recomend - Get Earth/Syreen/Spathi / Vux First - because they are all near each other you create a "powerball" and can get gas quickly while in the area

Janus and Hypnus should be done together because they are next to each other and are in a centralized position.

Vulpunia and Arcadia (Vulpunia first) should be done together, because the two of them are far in the northern hemisphere of the map. -

You should go back to one of your fuel-powerballs after this pair.

Formalhaut should be done by itself because it is the ONLY league race in the southern hemisphere of the map.

After you've visited all of these , the Arilou SHOULD appear in conversation and give you a new location on the map (Quasispace portal M ) (It's actually the Nyx system renamed)

Go there, enter the portal and talk to the Orz. It drops you in Muhulifain. Although the Portal is technically two-way, you can't access the hyperspace menu on the Nyx side.

Make sure you talk to the orz AGAIN on their homeworld even though you've already talked to them before so that the next part of the story triggers.

The artifact on the leftmost planet of Muhulifain is one of only 5 important (diggable) artifacts - all other diggables are just ship upgrades - You won't need it until the later, but you can get it now, because there isn't much reason to come back to this area.

Contacting Hegemonic Crux members

Once you meet all Hegemonic Crux members (minus Ploxis) the game will begin counting down to multiple timed events - the immediate one is the Eltanin stay system collapse, which leads to the biggest fight in the game.

Doog - Appear in 6 different places.

K'tang - Appear at Argus

Harika - Appear at Tyche and Gienan

Daktaklak - Appear at most places, but if you fight All the ones in your allied colonies, then your tech team will translate their language for you (not neccesary until later) - Translating their language sets off the timed event that causes you to lose the Chmrr - If you haven't translated their langauge when you only had 9 races, then the requirements will adjust to include fighting them in newly allied colonies (harika, orz, and xchagger are most likely)

Claircontalr - Appear at Enkidu

Spathi, Doog, Harika and Xchagger

After the Eltanin collapse - the following events will take place.

Several Long timers will start - one will set off the Exquivan sidequest, and one will destroy the Tyche star system, - However since these take 90, 100, and 110 days, you should look at the other happen after Eltanin -

The Ultron sidequest can start after Eltanin if you are playing fast, but it will normally star slightly before Eltanin - check the next part of the guide for details on it, since the middle part of the sidequest is mandatory to beating the game, even though the end of it is optional.

The Spathi will first give you a distress call and then defect to the Hegemonic Crux - visiting them to calm them down will not keep them in the League.

This will open up a lot of immediate quest progression -

If you talk to them after they've joined Crux, you can choose to "regretfully attack them" which will cause them to offer information on the other Crux members.

The game will kick you out of the conversation after each hint you receive, but simply enter and ask again (Got any Hot Tips) - This dialog branch will be grayed out after the first time it is used, but it will lead to new conversations anyway -

The same day they defect, you can learn information needed to - Start the Doog sidequest, and start the Harika sidequest. - The same Hot Tips option is even needed later in the game, but will not work now.

The Doog sidequest is a little silly - The game wants you to talk to the Doog and offer to pay off their debt but doesn't show you the cost. There is no normal reason to actually carry RU's around with you in the entire game - so a quick run-down on how to get them - Simply visit a colony, and turn off The fuel Depot, Starship, Research, and Crew Pod factory - It will have 10s, if not 100s of thousands of RUs when you return -

All of the Doog colonies have different prices - 6 of them are between 10,000 and 15,000, and 1 of them is around 25,000. The Doog will have new Dialog if you purchase all 6, but you can get every story related thing from just a single colony.

Once you have explictly been told by the Spathi about the Plauge affecting the Harika, you gain new dialog with the Harika and Daktaklak (which is just for flavor) but also new dialog the K'tang - talk to a K'tang and ask about it, and they will add the Zosma star system to the map.

In Zosma, you can meet and ally with an Xchagger ship - If you tell it about the Plauge, then it will give your scientist an item.

From here talk to a Harika - do not agree to use the Eradicator- The correct dialog path is -
We have a cure but can't use it > Will you join if we do > We still can't > They are comatose not dead > Let's find a real cure

If you anger them, you can re-enter the dialog from the begining by talking to the planet again - giving them the exterminator serum on the other hand would not go well -

The game will tell you to get containers from the Xchagger, just go back to Zosma to do so -
Your tech team will produce an Extractor - return to the Harika and talk to them.

To use the Extractor go to the 3rd view option menu - the one that let's you see the mining view and your current fleet health - Make sure to use the GREEN item, and not the RED one.

The Harika will tell you that you are wasting their time if you talk to them instead of thanking you - go to the 2nd Harika colony and use the item again, and their dialog will fix -

Once you've cured both Harika colonies, talking to them will let you recruit them. You should then ask about other Aliens in the sector, and they will add the Mneesomye to the map.

You will need two items from Mnesyome to beat the game, but their is no time triggers associated with the 1st one, so you don't need to go there at all for a while.

VUX and Utwig (Part 1)

When the Mycon are attacked you can ask them if they have any leads.

Although the dialog indicates you don't know who did it, it will immediately add a new branch to Vux homeworld dialog - you can also simply wait at the Mycon's planet, or ask the Syreen and Chmrr for information, but it isn't neccesary.

If you actually wait on the Mycon's planet, the Vux will give you the unique dialog "we haven't even started yet" and attack YOU.

Going to the Vux colony and telling them to stop has no effect.

Once the Mycon have been attacked twice (regardless of whether you did ANYTHING) the game will start a timer that ends in the Ultron being stolen from the Utwig.

This will be indicated by you receiving a distress call from the Utwig.

You can't do anything - at first , but a timer is set off after you talk to them.

This timer will culminate in the Arilou telling you to ask the Pfunk where the Ultron is - if you talk to the Pfunk before the Arilou giving you this hint, the dialog branch will not be there.

The Pfunk will tell you to go to Erato - there you can fight 2 Vux to get the Ultron back - Vux have a gimmick of spawning super close to you, and can kill many of your ship types before they can even turn around I recomnd one of the following :

A: Start the fight using Utwig and immediately hold the secondary fire (shield) until you've flown away from them, then just kill them from out of their range.
B: Start the fight with a fast ship (spathi) and immediately thrust forward until you are safe.
C: Offer up a ship as sacrifice, then pick earthling or Mycon as your second ship, since the Vux are helpless against long range attacks.

Completing this fight will start a timer that causes the Zazael system to change into Quasispace Portal G (the LK homeworld) ---- The rest of this quest is optional

Even without knowing that it is broken, you can pick up 2 pieces of the Ultron by visiting Nebusta and

If you return the Ultron, the Utiwig will complain that it is broken. You can then then show it to the Pfunk (no need to wait for Arilou message this time) and they will tell you where one of the 2 pieces is.

You can get the third piece by asking the Spathi for "hot tips" (provided they've joined the Crux) - this option will not appear unless you've met with both utwig and Pfunk about it though.

You can now show the Ultron to Utwig - they will say that it is better, but still broken - This will activate the next time gate (The Arilou giving you permission to ally with the Vyro-Ingo)

The Exquivan and the Pfunk

90 days after the Eltanin Collapse, the Arilou will tell you to seek the Exquivan - this will add the "will you join the league" dialog branch, but this is optional - it isn't even neccesary to visit them before the Arilou's message.

100 days after the Eltanin Collapse - the Tyche system will collapse - entering it will set up a timer that causes your tech team to find out that Ortogs are precursors, so it is strictly mandatory.

110 days after the Eltanin Collapse - the Syreen will send out a distress call

You can immediately answer it OR > Visit the Pfunk first instead

Once you visit the Syreen, they will tell you to visit the Exquivan.

If this is your first trip to Exquivan, they will attack you with 3 ships (VERY ANNOYING SHIPS)

I recomend - Brute forcing them with Ur-Quan, using the main gun only, don't bother with fighters. They have an obscene type advantage against any ship that uses long range homing, and all close range ships will have to deal with their knockback, even the mightty Chmrr.

Once you go to their planet, you must be careful to never pick a dialog option that involves attacking their homeworld - These are used as traps in almost every dialog branch with them.

(Syreen pre-requiste) if you tell them that the Pfunk are being affected, they will say stuff.

After this conversation, simply wait in space over their homeworld - your tech team will first tell you that they've found psychic reading s on the planet, and later a precursor ship

You can talk to them after this and ask them what you have to do be allowed to land on their planet.

If you haven't visited the Pfunk yet, you must do it now. Their are 3 versions of this dialog - one for having neveer met the Exquivan before, one where you have, and one where you had the Ultron Pfunk stuff available, but didn't do it before they got sick.

If you've learned about the Precursor ship AND have visited the Pfunk (it doesn't matter what version you got) then visit the Syreen, and the new dialog branch (mind wipe our tech team) will be avaialbe.

Now you can return to the Exquivan and land on their planet to find an artifact "the true name of the eternal ones"

If you talk to the Exquivan they will ask you to make sure the Pfunk are okay - this will override their later dialog if you've already unlocked it (recruitment branch, sentience branch) so you must get it done at some point -

The Pfunk only need you to visit them, they are cured the instant you pick the artifact up.

When you come back to tell the Equivan, you will open up a couple new dialog branches, but they don't actually do anything (even the one about the Claircontalr shame)

The LK and the Clairconalr

If you fought the VUX at Erato as soon as possible, then the zazael system should change into Quasispace Portal G at about the same time you finish the Exquivan sidequest.

At Quasispace Portal G - enter the Portal - three LK ships will attack you no matter what you say to them.

After you've gotten through the portal, you can talk to their homeworld - they will ask you to steal the red spiral rail from the daktaklak first and add a new location to the map.

Go to Antaeus and click the planet - unlike most daktaklak groups, insteead of only being 1, there are 8 of them, but they are still as weak as always.

After you beat them, go to the dig-site view and get the artifact from the planet.

Return to the LK - you will need to talk to them twice since the first time you click on the planet you are technically talking to the fighter group surronding it.

The LK have several conversation options but only 3 of them matter -

(no prerequisite) if you ask them about themselves and the eternal ones, they will eventually ask you to find the precursor's deflector - If you do not take this conversation BEFORE meeting a precursor, then they will NOT count as one of the 13 races at the end of the game (and if you also miss enough other races, you can make the game unwinnable)

(Chmrr have been split) You can ask them to give you a Sun Device.

(Conc rock in inventory) You can ask them what the Conc rock is for.

When you are done with the LK, you should go to Enkidu

If you don't have a conc rock from your first visit, get one now (from the moon of the cneter planet)

You can give the Conc rock to the Claircontalr WITHOUT talking to the LK, but this has no effect... thankfully it also causes the Conc rock dig-site to respawn, so you don't have to worry about it hurting your game.

If you have talked to the LK, then the dialog branch will change so you can threaten the Clairconalr - after you do, fly to the moon and wait for them - If they catch you before you get there, you can talk them down out of fighting.

Once you've lured them to the moon, they will join the League.

You must talk to their homeworld after becoming allied, and they will talk about the daktaklak (confusingly this gives a new dialog branch with the Spathi)

The Owa and the Rainbow Worlds

There's no point starting this stuff until you have > A: Allied the Harika and B: Allied the Claircontalr C: Allied any 1 Doog

Talk to the Spathi and ask them for Hot Tips - if you've talked to the Claircontalr after allying them, a new branch "what have the daktaklak done with the Mhhrm parts" will appear.

After this, go to any rainbow world - Every rainbow world has a Crux race (red) AND 2 Owa ships (blue) guarding it - The Crux race will always talk to you first - If you are allied with them then they won't / will join your fleet - if not you must fight them.

After the Crux race is dealt with, talking to the planet again will trigger the Owa -

You need to Politely ask them about antimatter research, then promise to visit their homeworld - They will still attack you, but it does open a new dialog branch on their homeworld - if you for some reason kill them, you can try again - if you kill ALL 9 Owa groups them without asking about antimatter research , then the game becomes unwinnable.

From here go to the Owa Homeworld (provided you are allied with Harika)

Like the Exquivan, many conversation options will cause an immediate game over -

You must tell them that the Harika taught you how to get here, and go through hyperspace : then you can go through dialog depending on a couple of pre-requisites

If you've killed one of the rainbow world Owa (you can ask for a password and not need to fight the surviving 8)
If you've asked about antimatter research from a rainbow world Owa (they will give you an antimatter scoop )
If you've asked the Spathi about Mhhrm parts (They will give you an antimatter Explorer)

The Rainbow Worlds from Left to Right are
Alula
Calypso
Euterpre
Ganesha
Rudra
Penates
Morai
Kentauros
Indra

You must visit each of them, then go to the dig-site view and use the Antimatter explorer as an inventory item to fill the Antimatter Containment Grid.

Additionally. Alula and Calypso have artifacts on them.

The one on Alula opens up Daktalak (and eventually K'tang) dialog branches

The one on Calypso opens up Xchagger (and eventually Chmmr) dialog branches, but you MUST examine it in your dig-site view inventory FIRST.

The Daktaklak and the K'tang

Once you have A: obtained the True Name of the Eternal Names from the Exquivan, and B: Obtained knowledge of the Celestial Undevolver from the data pack on Rainbow World Alula)

You must let a Daktaklak talk to you - to do this, you must go to certain system with Daktaklak in them, but NOT all (eg guard AI daktaklak who do not move) - I recomend using.

Penates
Themis
Scylla
Lachlesis
Zosma (Xchagger Homeworld)

If You move into the Daktaklak instead, they will fight you instead of talking.

Telll the Daktaklak you know about the Celestial Devolver - and then telll it you will give it the True Name

Let the Daktaklak talk to you again - give it the True Name, and then it will die on the spot.

Find one of the OTHER "talkative" daktalka and let it come to you

Offer the True name, and a list of "tradable" informatiom will come up - Most of these are just for Flavor and don't do anything for you, but the K'tang one is actually useful -

Go to The k'tang headquarters, and use the item.

The K'tang will offer an alliance (only good for combat, not useful for plot) and it will also offer a plan to defeat both Daktaklak and Ploxis

Go to Paugauk and take at least 1 Ploxis ship into your group

10 days later, the Xipe system will appear on your map.

Go there, fight 2 daktaklak guards, then dig the planet.

Use the Cyro pods from you inventory to put 4 crew into one of your empty Ploxis ships.

Chmmr and Ploxis

150 days after Eltanin, Ploxis will ask you to meet him at Calliope -

If you don't go there, he will go to your location ANYwhere in space 10 days later.

This meeting is my favorite conversation in the game, but it doesn't actuallly affect progression or any sidequests... of course, you can still game over from it because this is Star Control 3 ><

If you have both the sleeping Chenjesu (available as soon as they are split ), the Sun Device (only after LK), and the Fixed MMHRM Control Ark (Only after Xchagger>Owa>Claircontalr>LK>Harika), go to the Chmmr planet, and use the Sun Device from your inventory.

The Chmrr will rejoin you and add Highpoint to your map.

You can ONLY travel to Highpoint if you have A: The Ploxis Cyro-pods from Xipe, B: A Ploxis ship from Paugauk in your current group.

Once you are highpoint, go to planet 1, Plexor will not talk to you, so use the anti-matter containment grid from your invenotry (it must be 100% full)

Plexor will atttack you with the Same Colony Ship that you use -

It is basically immune to "small" bullets, since it can shoot them down with it's super point defense, It's best to fight it with big ships like Ur-Quan or K'tang - It is also Super Dangerous at close range, and can even take off 3/4 of a Chmmrr before going down.

10 days after Ploxis is defeated, you will be attacked by the Orz -

Orz are kinda obnoxious to fight - but their AI will not let them use the marines against certain ships - mainly the Utwig and the Flagship itself.

10 days after the Orz are defeated, the Arilou will talk to you for the last time (although the Vyro-Ingo conversation can potentailly happen alter if you skipped it's pre-requisite)

10 days after the Arilou talk to you, you will be attacked by the Heralds.

The Heralds ships are most vulnerable to Doog, K'tang, and Chmmrr.

When you defeat the Heralds, they will give you one of the 4 items needed to assemble the Sentience Collector, and your AI will start giving you messages about needing to visit homeworlds (even before you assemble the pieces.)

DO NOT Continually accuse the Heralds of lying in their post-defeat conversation, or they will not give you the item, and the game will be unbeatable.

VUX + Utwig (part 2)

The Precursors and beating the game.

You can do the following section BEFORE allying the K'tang, if you wish -

After you visit Tyche, the tech team will eventually tell you that Precursors are Ortogs.

When this happens, you can go to Zosma (Xchagger Homeworld) and ask them to give you one.

You also need the Variance Key from the Daktaklak's hich you cannot ask them about until you learn about the Celestiual Undevolver from the digabble artifiact on the rainbow worlds, and cannot trade them for until you have the True Name from the Exquivans -

Once you have both a Variance Key and an Ortog, go to Begregen, then go to the second planet, which will change it's name to C.U.D.

Now use the Celestial Undevolver from your inventory -

Things you can get from talking to the Precursor -

A : 1 of the 4 pieces of the Sentience Collector (simply survive the conversation)
B : A new dialog branch to make the Mycon good (ask about Mycons)
C : A Deflector to give the LK (ask about Eternal Ones

If you do not ask for B and C, then you will never get them - keep in mind that their are 17 races to meet your number 13.

After you talk to the Precursor, you can convince the Exquivan to become allies with you, (so you can have them avaialble for the Ploxis/Orz/Herald fights if you want)

Once you have all 4 pieces

1: Dig the planet in the Orz Colony
2: From The Herald fight
3: From the Precursor
4: Visit Tyche and your tech-team will find it in space a few days later.

Check any of the 4 in the inventory and you can combine them.

Now the game will prompt you to visit Homeworlds to collect Sentince, most races will offer it up freely.

The following Races will offer it up freely (or their pre-requisites would have already been met getting this far)
Earthling
Syreen
Chmmrr
Doog
Xchagger
Harika
Owa
Claircontalr
Pfunk
Exquivan

The following Races have extra conditions (beyond those needed to get this far)

Utwig - must have the complete Ultron returned to them
VUX - must have the joint sidequest with Vyro-Ingo completed.
LK - must have the Deflector given to them (which in turn must have been asked for early)
Mycon - must have asked the Precursor how to deal with them beforehand.
Spathi - must have re-joined you (just defeat everyone at Highpoint and wait)

The following Races don't offer Sentience

Ploxis Rebels
K'tang
Green Mycon
Vyro-Ingo
Daktaklak
Arilou
Kohr-Ah

Once you have talked to 13 of the 15 possible races, return to Highpoint and use the Sentience Collector from your inventory, and you will win the game.

Index of Branching options

Earthling

Syreen

Spathi

Vux

Ur-Quan

Pfunk

Kohr-ah

Mycon

Chmrr

Orz

Arilou

Doog

Harika

K'tang

Daktaklak

Xchagger

Claircontalr

Owa

Vyro-Ingo

Exquivan

LK

Plexor

Precursor

Herald

Index of locations

Finding things on the map is torture - All of these maps assume that you have the default rotation of Helios on the Left side (the far left red pip of the rotation meter)

My written directions are given in this format 1/5 : 3/5
You should read this as One-Fifth of the way Vertical (from top to bottom) and Three Fifths of the way Horizonal (from left to right) - If this us inconvenient just use the pictures.

Alliance

New Alien

Doog Colonies

Rainbow World

Upgrade World

Plot Area

Quasispace Portal

Quasispace Portal

Index of "weird" event Triggers

Events fall into 4 main types "immediate" "1 day" "10 day" and "weird"

Event : Arilou change the Nyx system into Quasispace Portal M
Cause : Meet the 9 non-Orz League Races

Event : Tech team translates Daktaklak language
Cause : Defeat all Daktaklak in allied League Systems

Event : Mycon Distress Signal - Vux attack
Cause : Starting day 30 then every 10th day and you AREN"T in the Mycon system at the time

Event : Utwig Distress Signal - Ultron stolen.
Cause : if the Vux have already attacked the Mycon 5 times, they go for Utwig.

Event : Daktaklak find you to split Chmmrr
Cause : 100 days pass after leaning Daktaklak langauge

Event : Eltanin System Collapse
Cause : 10 days after meeting Doog, Harika, K'tang, Claircontalr, Daktaklak.

Event : Arilou tell you about Exquivan
Cause: 90 days after Eltanin System Collapse.

Event : Tyche System Collapses
Cause: 100 days after Eltanin System Collapse

Event : Syreen Distress signal - Pfunk sick
Cause : 110 days after Eltanin System Collapse

Event : Plexor asks you to meet him at Calliope
Cause : 150 days after Eltanin System Collapse

Event : Tech team changes Zazael into Quaspace Portal G
Cause : days after you obtain the Broken Ultron on Erato

Event : Arilou tell you to ally Vyro-Ingo
Cause: days after you show the 3 piece partially completed Ultron to the Utwig

Event : tech team reveals Ortogs are Precursors
Cause : days after you visit Collapsed Tyche (talking to Orz not needed)

[Helmholtz]

This is very illuminating... love this game for the dialogue flavor but these story timers/gates are infuriating.

[Strife]

Truly awesome guide for this game. I played this when I was young and it was new so I have a good opinion of it even with the nonsense and change from previous titles. It's fun in its own way. Thanks again for the guide, very helpful!