Void Destroyer Guide

A guide focused on covering some of the areas left out by the other guides. Namely the Instant Action missions and the Story missions beyond 11.

Foreword

The aim of this guide is to cover areas the other guides did not get around to, and to assist players in completing the game, as well as any achievement-hunters in getting closer to 100%.


This is a hard game to get to grips with, and the learning curve is quite steep, with the Story campaign throwing some severe difficulty spikes at you along the way; according to Steam's stats alone the game's Storymode has only been completed by less than 1% of all players. You will need to get used to both direct combat whilst controlling a Newtonian Flight Physics modelled spaceship and managing the remainder of your fleet simultaneously. You may often find yourself focusing too much on a singular role, and the Storymode AI will punish you harshly for this, wiping out irreplaceable ships or killing you outright.

If needs be, there is no shame in reducing the difficulty of the game by however much you feel you need to. It will not prevent you from getting achievements, but it will stymie your learning of the game if you don't first try to adapt.


This guide may be considered a work in progress and upon request I will add further information that I can, however completeing these missions once (occassionally twice) was enough for me, unfortunately I did not decide to write this guide until some way into Instant Action, so this guide will be written off of memory for the most part.


WARNING: This guide will contain SPOILERS. As an endgame guide this is unavoidable without sacrificing necessary clarity.

Please play through the first 11 'missions' of the storymode before continuing. These 'missions' equate to the 22 titled Autosaves the game will provide after certain points of progression in the campaign.

Endgame hints and tips

Against outsiders' powerful and accurate beam weapons, you may find that drone raids are no longer effective. At this stage of the game, direct control of the Wardrum is almost a necessity, as a fully upgraded Hammer can carry the back of the fleet itself through sheer firepower.

Hammer shots will oneshot corvettes. This is not always the best use of time but when the opportunity presents itself, make mincemeant out of those annoying Fleas.

Hammer shots cause knockback. This is both in terms of Wardrum recoil, and target momentum. Hammer volleys will keep distance between you and incoming claws, whilst also chunking them for large amounts of their health. This is also useful when fighting the Gazers, as you can force the Gazers into spins that near negate their damage output by rendering them unable to keep on target due to their low manoeuvrability.

Keep those unique ships alive! They are irreplaceable and powerful enough that you do not want to be left without them. You can select ships you want to keep alive and click the tabs on the left hand side of the screen to put their icon and HP bar on a tracker, letting you know exactly when they become a target of the enemy.

Mission 12

Also known as The Palm - Again

Hopefully you will have kept the irreplaceable parts of your fleet intact from the last battle, namely the Mark 13 cruiser, and hopefully you will have a fair few other surviving ships to save yourself resources building them here.

If you have lost the Mark 13, I would consider retrying Mission 11 again with the knowledge you have now, and try to save at the very least the Mark 13, as it is a powerful one-of-a-kind ship that does not contribute to your fleet cap.

Also, I will be assuming you did not kill the Kionnoh (Outsider Carrier) in Mission 11 as that is quite the feat, one that I have not done myself and so I am unaware of any gameplay/storyline effects that may bring, I will be erring on the side that it does not have any overarching effect on the story however.


Now onto the mission itself.

You will find yourself back at Karakum, where a 'strong' defensive line of torpedo turrets and the likes have been setup facing the gate. These defences do not contribute to the cap at Karakum, so I recommend reinforcing the defences with your own placed structures ASAP.

Move your fleet (what's left of it) behind the defensive line, begin rebuilding it and reinforcing, and prepare for Round 2 of Outsider Onslaught.

You should also get a new building around the beginning of the level, a Colony Platform, that will increase a TSF base's crew and food prod, allowing you to rebalance the resource sliders to increase ore and energy incomes. Build it quickly to maximise the advantages it brings.

If any civilian ships survived, move them to the Palm immediately, especially miners, as they can begin mining at nearby asteroids to Palm straight away. If a Tug survived, great, get it to bring an asteroid with it to Palm. Otherwise build one and get it to drag one over too; the asteroids at Palm won't necessarily last the entire mission, but there's plenty in the space between bases.


The first wave will likely wipe out the 'strong' defensive line unless your fleet is substantial enough to beat them back; but either way, once this wave has been cleared I would recommend abandoning Karakum regardless of whether the defences are in pristine condition or not due to how the AI scripting on the level seems to work.

Pulling your fleet back to the Palm early will save resources and ensure little risk is posed to your most important ships. The Kionnoh will not arrive until the 3rd or 4th wave, but the Outsiders will not advance beyond Karakum in any sort of cohesive fleet that might pose a danger until Karakum has been silenced.

In the meantime, build up the Palm's defences, upgrade your command ship; and send expendable anti-cap frigates such as the Hagar to whittle down the enemies camping at Karakum to move along the mission. Each wave cleared should trigger a new research. I believe the 1st will unlock the Destroyer shipyard, and the 2nd will unlock the 'Lancer' TSF destroyer, a long range torpedo Destroyer in the same spirit as the Corbea T.

After the 3rd? wave, you will get a message noting there is an incoming capital-sized ship at slow speed, and a notification that the Kionnoh is on route I believe. You should also get a new upgrade around this part, or afterwards, that unlocks a new ability, the Energy Shield. This is a crucial ability to master, as it creates a long-lasting shield that completely negates the Outsider beams, but only on one side of the ship, so it requires direct control of the Wardrum to use effectively. Use it well and it is an ability that will help carry you through the rest of game.


Autosave 24 - Fourth Wave and Autosave 25 - Cormorant

When the 4th wave hits, Karakum will be lost to Kionnoh, and the Palm will be next in line. Fortunately your first reinforcement will arrive here: the Cormorant, a TSF Carrier with powerful railguns and 15 fighter drone bays. Defeating the 4th wave will unlock railguns for your own use as Wardrum upgrades, and a new Destroyer, the Roals, a long range railgun Destroyer effective against the Outsiders' capital shields; it also marks the turning point in the war against the Outsiders.

Once these upgrades are complete and your fleet rebuilt, it is time to retake Karakum. Advance slowly, do not use the gravity jumps, and let your new railgun/torpedo ships outrange the enemy and weaken them before committing to the assault with force. If you're lucky, you'll be able to eliminate most of the Pincers before the real fight begins. This will reward you in additional ways, as your Digger allies will arrive once the Wardrum nears Karakum, and less enemies means more surviving Diggers to carry forward.

As ever, use direct control of the Wardum to bring it's horrifically powerful Hammer to bear on the enemy, whilst ensuring the survival of your unique cruisers and carrier.

Send a marine frigate to retake Karakum, and the battle is won. Mop up the stragglers and rebuild your fleet.

When ready, advance back through to the Hub. It's payback time, again.

Mission 13

Autosave 27 - Eyes

Upon arrival in the Hub, you will be faced by mutliple capital class Outsiders, including a new Cruiser class enemy, the Gazer. Gazers fire immensely powerful focused beams that melt ships and cause gradual knockback. Use the Wardrum to get their attention and then block their attacks with the Energy Shield. Using Charge and the afterburner should allow you to pick up enough speed to outpace the beam whilst orbiting the Gazers, allowing you to bring you Hammer to bear on them and wear them down.

From all I can tell Gazers lack any other weapon system beyond their beam, so as long as their focus is on you, you won't have to worry about losing fleet ships to them. You fleet itself should be powerful enough to handle the rest of the Outsiders more or less on their own.

Be sure to send your Phalanxes (Marine frigates) to each of the bases as soon as you have the chance; don't wait for the battle to be over, the Outsiders should be busy fighting your combat ships and won't have enough additional firepower to kill all of them. The priority should be the Hub, send the majority of them there to ensure they get it back, you'll need it to bring the gate back online and regain access to reinforcements as far as I'm aware. Send the 2nd most to Nottingham and any leftovers to Petra. The Petra ships are the most likely to be killed, but it shouldn't matter so long as you can bring the Hub online.

Autosave 28 - Reunion

Once the Hub is online and contact re-established, you can start reinforcing your fleet and push onto Nottingham and Petra. At some point you will receive comms from the MU about a truce and proposed reinforcements. They should arrive around the time you take Petra, or afterwards, my memory is faulty here. No special flagships like the Diggers gave if I recall correctly, but a few free Beasts and Bears never did any harm.

Once all bases are secure, you will get a notification of another Outsider wave to arrive within a few minutes, aiming straight at the heart of the system. Amass and rebuild your fleet nearby and build defences in striking range of the area.

Autosave 29 - ETA 60

T-minus 60 seconds till the Outsider's assault, they'll come at you with a lot of ships, especially Talons, and even send larger, more dangerous version of the Gazer called the Gorgon, which carries the same potent Gazer Lazer along with 3 turrets of standard dual Outsider beams. This is just a straight up slugfest, no special tactics are strictly necessary, just kill em all.


Autosave 30 - Buffer

The battle for the Hub is won, but you want to launch a counteroffensive before another wave can hit. Rebuild your fleet, be sure to pack plenty of anti-capital ship weaponry, and prepare for the final missions.

Mission 14

Autosave 31 - Choices/Preparations

You arrive at the gate, only to see a single Gazer on the other side, lying in guard by the MU gate.

This is the crossroad for the final level.

A comms message comes through, and slyly hints at 3 choices.

Do nothing but wait? - Continue onto Mission 14a

Rush the gate with the Wardrum? - Continue onto Mission 14b

Kill the Gazer first? - Continue onto Mission 14c

Mission 14a

You choose to wait.

Put your ships on non-combat settings (Do not engage, weapons on hold) and move back around to patrol your gate.

Wait a while.


Stare at each other.



Eventually, a comms will come in that confirms that nothing is indeed coming, the Outsiders are not sending anymore waves to die. You continue to wait for days, only to confirm that a truce has occurred by default, and the war is over.

Congratulations, you earned the Tranquil acheivement, and brought uneasy, but assumedly lasting peace to the sector.

Mission 14b

You rush the gate.

Do not kill the Gazer on the way, and do not allow it to become too damaged. Keep your fleet back and charge through the gate alone.


On the other side, the Outsider fleet awaits. You engage them, hoping to defeat them once and for all, but they keep on coming. Eventually, the Wardrum is defeated, but the battle rages on, and the War continues.



Congratulations, you got the Hunter achievement, and proved that it is a bad idea to jump through a gate without knowing how many of the numberless buggers you've killed so far await on the other side.

Mission 14c

You opt to kill the Gazer, but before you can finish it off, a cutscene rudely interrupts you where the Gazer destroys the MU Gate.

No counterattack for you.

But that's not the worst of it; you get comms telling you the Outsiders are en route to disable the Sun Gate (that massive gate with a star in the middle that you can see in the background of each mission). This, of course, is bad news; the Sun Gate acts as the connection to the rest of the galaxy and without it, the sector will starve, not that the Outsiders seem to mind the dark.

So off you pop to the Sun Gate, going back through the Hub, through the Rock Gate (the old Stub gate), finding out the consequence of sending the Stubs help (I sent them help, and in return nothing awaited me past the gate - I assume if you do not help, then either angry Stubs or victorious Outsiders may await you, but I can't say for sure, it may have no effect at all), and finally onto the Sun Gate.


Autosave 32 - Conflict Resolutions

Once at the Sun Gate, you will be immediately beset (once your fleet has finished forming up anyway) by a pair of Kionnoh carriers and a squadron of Hammerhead cruisers. Kill them with as few casualties as you can manage.


Here, you have two choices, try to save the Sun Gate immediately, or wait for the Gate to be disabled. I will split the paths below.

Option A - Go for it

Going immediately is a death sentence, but still a viable option towards winning the game, the Sun's radiation will kill any support ships you send, so this is a solo op for your Wardrum, with potential backup from your other surviving capital ships, but they won't last long and will only serve as a distraction.

If this is the choice you made, and I should make clear it is probably the hardest way to complete the game, read on.

Your objective, as will become clear from the comms, is to pilot the Wardrum to the far edge of the Sun Gate to re-ignite the Sun. To do so you will need to remain on the green marker for 10seconds, whilst the Outsider flagships try to burn you to a crisp. You will need to master your flight controls here, to allow you to fly directly onto the marker as quickly as possible, and to brake in time that you do not overshoot it; you will also need to make good use of the Energy Shield and Autorepair functions, and to assist your point defence turrets by targeting the beam fighters with your railguns. All this together should enable you a swift victory, but it may take a few attempts. If needs be you could try waiting a while so you lose less health to the radiation, but be warned that the Outsider fleet moves to reinforce the Sun Gate, you will need to bring your own fleet as backup, and fight your way to the marker if this is the case; this method may end up being easier if you don't mind martyring your fleet for what could be a personal sacrifice, but the above method is quicker at the cost of added difficulty.


Once the Sun gate is reignited, you've won. Congratulations, you got the Sacrifice achievement, and gave your life to destroy the Outsider flagship fleet and bring an uneasy and tense truce to the sector, for now.


Option B - Wait

Once the attackers are dead, reform your fleet and move to the edge of the radiation field on the right hand side, towards the enemy backup fleet. The radiation field is invisible (or was for me), but it should be a fair few km before your fleet starts to take damage, highlight the furthest left shp in the fleet on your damage tracker and you'll know once you've hit it.

Once the Sun Gate is disabled, it's time to strike. Use the Wardrum to zoom along to the enemy Gazers at the rear of the column, they move so slowly that the rest of the fleet will leave them behind, giving two easy targets that are completely susceptible to fighters and a well-piloted Wardrum. Use your Energy Shield as necessary and spin them around and around with the Hammer if you can, it shouldn't take long to kill them,and the fastest ships of your fleet should catch up once you have.

Reform the fleet opposite the enemy fleet, the Cormorant is a slow bugger so it may take a short while. Once the Cormorant arrives, it'll probably start to engage on the Kionnohs, assuming the torp/railgun frigates haven't already; if not, advance forward until they do. This will pull the Kionnohs forward, and allow you to begin weakening them without risking your frigates to the enemy Cruisers. Once the fighters engage each other, the rest of their fleet will likely engage, if not yours as well, and this is the time to begin the fight in earnest.

Use the Wardrum to eliminate the enemy Claws with the Hammer, it should make short work of all of them before they can get close, then target the other Cruisers. We'll be saving the Gorgon and Medusa till last; aggro their focus and tank their Gazer Lazers with your energy shield if you can, but don't focus on that, just kill the enemy fleet from the bottom up, you'll want as much of your fleet to survive to make killing the Gorgon and Medusa easier. I recommend using the Big Red on a Kionnoh or cruiser class, anything with a Gazer Lazer will hurt it as much as it hurts them.


Once the fighting is over, gravity jump out of the area to the gate ASAP. 60 seconds after the fighting ends, the ending cutscene will trigger.

Congratulations, you've gotten the Warrior achievement, and fought you way to victory over the enemy. A tense truce will follow, but mostly to rebuild each other's losses to try again later. You'll be ready this time at least.

End of the Story

Congrats on completing the game and entering the 1% club. Now it's time for the Instant Action gamemode.



This section will also be where I put hints towards the difficult, optional, Campaign achievements such as killing the first Talon. However, currently, I am only aware of one of the endgame challenge achivements' critea as they are, and that is to kill the first Kionnoh; which must be a very hard task indeed considering what you need to fight through to get to it.

Instant Action

This section of the guide deals with the Instant Action missions; most will only unlock after completeing certain stages of the game, so assume this section contains SPOILERS and steer clear of it until you've finished the game. The only exception to this would be the initial two TSF Dogfight scenarios - Live Fire Exercise and Super Drone Test, assuming they are unlocked at the start.

TSF Dogfights

This chapter will cover the first two Dogfight scenarios - Live Fire Exercise and Super Drone Test.

These missions are easy enough not to require a guide really; just shoot down the enemy drones as quickly as possible. It's a pure test of your fighter skills, but if needs be, make use of your afterburners to escape the enemy if you need time to heal.

MU Dogfights

This chapter covers the next two dogfight missions - Protect the Wardrum and Ambush the Wardrum.

These are basically the initial encounter with the Wardrum played out by both sides. In the first dogfight you'll get your trusty Perez A1 which will allow you to stomp the enemy; only the Wardrum's survival matters, every other escort is expendable.

In the second dogfight I recommend using a Raider to eliminate the Correa Gs and Intrepids, then kill the Wardrum and remaining enemies. Killing the heaviest escorts first should give you enough surviving heavy ships of your own to make the fight easy.

Ambush One

This chapter covers the first ambush scenario - Palm.


You control the Karakum forces, and your objective is to destroy the Palm defences. It also gives you a slight taste of MU economy as you can use the nearby K-Miner to begin harvesting asteroids, which causes the K-Hanger to spawn harvester drones that will deliver the resources toy your base.

Buildup your fleet with fighters and Raiders, and attack. A second wave of Marauders will spawn by the time you're ready to attack, giving you a strong initial wave.


The base will often auto-order Olas, to service the mining outpost in the middle, but they aren't necessary so just override the orders with your own production when necessary.


Focus down the Heavy Gun platform from underneath first, then deal with the enemy anti-frigate ships. Killing them quickly should enable you to win the scenario with the first wave of attacks, if not, simply keep reinforcing the fleet with Arsonists and Raiders.

Digger Dogfights

Here's where the Instant Action scenarios begin to pickup the challenges, this chapter coves the dogfights - The Diggers 1 and The Diggers 2.


The first dogfight is again a storyline mission, but this time with less friendly ships, and more enemies.

I recommend switching to a Correa G frigate, and bursting down the enemy Crushers as a priority, before switching to the corvettes.

The enemy will come in waves, and the final wave will include the most dangerous foes, three Tytus frigates. Kill these as quickly as possible with your Correas, after eliminating any additional Crushers, and your surviving Intrepids and Correas ought to be able to deal with any surviving enemies. This mission may take multiple attempts, especially if you do not use the Correas.


The second dogfight is from the Diggers perspective. I recommend using a Buzzard or Condor and just supporting your Crushers against the enemy. Try to kill the Perez A1 early also, as it is a very strong fighter that outclasses your own. You may end up losing a fair few ships, but so long as you kill the enemy frigates, your own Tytus frigates that arrive later should have an easy enough time of it.

Ambush Two

This covers the tricky second ambush - Mark 13, which tells of how the Mark 13 came to be disabled, and comes in two stages.


The first stage is the tricky part, you have two Crushers and a handful of Corvettes and fighters to engage the enemy with, plus three rather useless Crane transports.

Send the Cranes to jump the gate, they will serve as an initial distraction for the enemy, have your Crushers target both Intrepids individually, then queue the attack orders onto the Correa so that they don't waste time killing the Ola transports.

Have your Condors help whittle down the Correa whilst the Buzzards and fighters deal with the Bonnies. So long as your Crushers get the job done, you should be able to complete this stage easy enough, but be sure to kill the Intrepids first with the Crushers, then the Correa, as otherwise you may lose the Crushers to the Interpids before they kill the Correa.

The second stage is the ambush of the Mark 13. You get to control the Big Red.

Reverse out for your hidey-hole, and focus on the Mark 13, you don't need to kill it, just damage it until the target auto-switches from it and the Mark 13 stops firing, it'll become a blue icon on the radar indicating when it's disabled. Kill the remaining ships, the Big Red has plenty of autoturrets so don't worry about ramming well.

Scarabs Dogfights

This covers the difficult dogfight mission - The Bounty Hunters 1 and The Bounty Hunters 2.

The first dogfight is again a storyline mission, no Wardrum still but you do have the Mark 13. This fight isn't too hard from the TSF perspective, I used the Perez A1 but any ship should be viable so long as it kills fighters well.


The second dogfight is the difficult part, as from the Scarab's perspective, you need to destroy the TSF force which outguns you so. This mission will likely take multiple attempts, and you will likely lsoe multiple ships that you control. The Lotus fighters are my preferred ship to begin with, they have a railgun primary that will let you kill the Perez fighters easier at range than the other fighters, and it also does the most noticable damage against heavier ships.

It's hard to decide on a priority target for this level, killing the fighters is just as important as killing the frigates, I can only recommend leaving the Mark 13 till last, as it is too tanky a ship for anything you can control to kill yourself, focus on saving as many allies as possible instead to help deal with it.

Ambush Three

This covers the rather unique ambush mission - Coach Base, which plays out the destruction of Coach.


You control a small force of MU ships, a Tug, the Fist of Darwin (the second Tug referenced in the comms, as you can notice from the ship model, this 'destroyer' is really just a tug pulling a souped up Heavy Turret Roid with autoturrets), and a compliment of escort Arsonists, Raiders and Marauders.

You face two groups of Correas with Intrepid escorts, a squadron of new Lancet fighters, and the Coach base defence platforms.


They key to completing this mission is using the Fist of Darwin correctly; set your other ships to Do Not Engage and take control of the Darwin.

Advance slowly to the first group, and begin sniping as soon as possible. The Darwin's main gun is powerful, and inflicts significant knockback. The Correas may move to engage you, but by juggling your shots between them you will be able to destroy both without either coming into range. Then kill the Intrepids and advance to Coach base. Bring your Tug up behind your forces.

Same task again here, but first up is sniping the closest base defence platform, followed by sniping the Lancet fighters (it is very important your ships do not aggro them before this, as otherwise they will begin patrolling instead of remaining static), and then the frigate/corvette group. Once all non-Voytek enemies are dead, move in with your ships to clear out the drones and camp the drone bay.

Bring your Tug up to a marked asteroid and capture it (right clicking in tactical command or right clicking when close enough in ship mode), then accelerate to as a high a speed as possible on your journey to Coach base, before letting go of the asteroid mid-flight, this will set the asteroid on a collision course if your aim is correct, you may need to switch to tactical mode to do this, click on the Drop button in the ship command ui (you do not need that high a speed, I was going at 16?m/s but less is probably fine).

When the asteroid collides with the base, Coach will be destroyed and you will win.

Special Scenario One

This covers the first non-dogfight, non-ambush scenario - The Hammer.

This is non a combat scenario, but rather a test of your manoeuvring skills.

You have a single Thrall, with which you need to enter a minefield, grab the Hammer and get out,


I managed to do this by the rule of speed alone, tanking quite a bit of damage in the process. There may be a slow and steady method to completing this, but I figured a quick completion of this level is good enough, regardless of damage taken.


Angle yourself up or below the Hammer, and begin boosting towards it. Make sure you are going as quickly as possible, and that you are not heading directly into the heatseeker mines; aim directly for the Hammer.

On this first approach, there is a chance you will not successfully pickup the Hammer, but will pickup lots of Wardrum-style missile mines that will damage you severely. Don't worry, there are not enough missile mines to kill you (or at least they didn't kill me, and that is on the highest difficulty). You might have picked up the tracking of a few Heatseeker mines too, but again, don't worry, more likely than not they will not be going fast enough to catch you.

If you did not get the Hammer, turn back around, and boost to it again, this second time you should be successful if you weren't the first, and if you aren't again, you should have enough distance between you and the heatseekers to pick it up slowly.

Once you have the Hammer, simply boost to the green marker as quick as you can before any mines catch up.


This will net you the Sneak In achievement, for those wondering why they did not get an achievement for recovering the Hammer in the Campaign.

Special Scenario Two

This covers the follow-on mission to the Hammer - the Aurora, which tells of how the Aurora met its end.


This is not a fight you are meant to win, it is simply an exposition on how the Aurora was destroyed really. You have a bitter fight ahead of you that is likely entirely unwinnable, just kill as many as you can before you are defeated.

As an unwinnable scenario, there is no corresponding achievement as far as I'm aware.

Stubs Dogfights

This covers the two difficult Stubs scenarios - Stubs 1 and Stubs 2.


Stubs 1 is the storyline fight in defence of the Hub, minus the vast majority of the MU forces, and solely focused on the Stubs trying to kill the Wardrum. Protect it as well as you can, using the Perez A1 is my recommendation, as it will allow you to kill both the Droppers and Teardrops they launch in equal measure. This will likely take multiple attempts and may be a close call even on the successful try.


Stubs 2 is the same mission again, from the Stubs perspective. Starting with a larger force and less reinforcements, you must kill the Wardrum and its fleet. I recommend using the Frogs and Bullfrogs, as they are the most effective ships to deal with the heavier targets, and have powerful, unguided, incendiary bomb secondaries that whilst hard to aim, deal a fair amount of DoT, especially to nearby fighters. This may take a few tries, but will likely be an easier fight than the first mission once you get to grips with the Stubs' ships.

Under Construction

There is a scenario after the Stubs that is still locked for myself, no idea what the prerequisites are for it, and I do not feel like spending hours replaying the game over and over to discover the trigger.

There is no correlating achievement for it; if someone can say what the trigger for it is I may come back and cover it, but unless someone does so I will be skipping this level for the foreseeable future.

Special Scenario Three

This covers the third special scenario - the Newsum.

This is another difficult fight, controlling the Newsum and its fleet in the initial fight at the MU Gate.

You will face both the Wardrum and Mark 13, split into two fleet groups; then followed by TSF reinforcement waves through the Hub Gate.

The Mark 13's fleet will attack first whilst the Wardrum hangs back; once the fighting gets fierce, the Wardrum's fleet will advance through the minefield (which will be smaller than the one you had to face iirc) to engage you also. Reinforcements will also start arriving, notably Lancet fighters and additional Intrepids and Correa/Hagar frigates.

I recommend taking control of one of the Bear Destroyers to begin with; whilst the Newsum is powerful and tanky, it is too slow, and has less anti-capital firepower than the Bears. Use the Bears to eliminate the heavier enemy ships as the come, you should be able to wipe out the entire Mark 13 fleet before you lose your first Bear, and damage the Wardrum's fleet, hopefully even killing the Wardrum itself.

Once the Bears are lost, it's time to switch to the Newsum. Kill the remaining frigates first, then the Corvettes. Jump between gates to resposition yourself away from the enemy fighters, most will remain behind to fight your drones, and you will chances to kill ships that chase you through the jump as they travel in a straight line.

Whilst flying the Newsum, let the turrets do the aiming, whilst you focus on target prioritisation and manoeuvring the ship so that the Newsum Plate takes the brunt of the damage. The turrets are powerful enough to oneshot enemy fighters, and are accurate enough to hit any that come at you head-on, but their tracking is slow, so only do so when there is a good opportunity so you don't lose time killing frigates.

You will likely be the last ship left alive when piloting the Newsum, but don't worry, so long as you did enough damage with a Bear, the remaining forces should be weak enough that you can tank them long enough to wipe them out without dipping into the red.

Note: When I did this level, one of the Intrepids got knocked off course so far that it started heading towards the mapedge at the bottom; once I killed everything else I noticed I had not won yet, and had to search the map for this mystery survivor. You can give chase if you want, I did, but I think that if it passes the mapedge it will be removed from play anyway.

Special Scenario Four

This covers the scenario assumedly unlocked by sending the Stubs assistance in the first Outsider Hub defence mission, called - A Helping Hand.


Your objective in this is to eliminate the Outsider forces, and recapture the base with the Phalanx you brought, Do not allow the Phalanx to die, no reinforcements will come for you.


You can use the Perez G you begin with to complete the mission, as it is probably the most effective fighter to use against the Outsiders. The Stubs' force is strong enough to take out the Talons themselves thanks to their Dropper light carriers.


You will want to have the Phalanx moving towards the base ASAP, as once the initial Outsider force is cleared, another smaller force will jump in right on top of your torpedo frigates and the Phalanx, consisting of a few Scorpion fighters and, more dangerously, a Talon. If you forget to move it beforehand, the Phalanx should manage to survive the Talon's attacks long enough to get out of range and get to Shangri La, the Stubs' base, so long as your frigates survived to pull aggro off of it.


Once the Phalanx retakes the base, you've won. This will unlock the Shangri-La base in the arena/skirmish modes.

Outsider Dogfights

Time for probably the hardest Instant Action scenarios of them all - Outsiders 1 and Outsiders 2.

This frustrating level is no dogfight. It seems to have been designed as an explainer of why the Cormorant was alone and so damaged, having lost its escort, but the odds are so against you it is far more likely to result in your death. I for one had to reduce the difficulty level to complete this, the only Instant Action level I had to do so on. This is not a level you can complete from the cockpit of a single ship, this level requires micromanagement of your fleet for any chance of victory.

The reasoning of the difficulty will be followed by the advice of how to beat the level, so skip ahead if you aren't interested in an opinion on the level's balance. It is unlikely the dev intended it to be unwinnable, as there is a corresponding achievement for it.

What at first looks to to be a balanced fight, with a TSF numbers advantage; one Cormorant, six Intrepids, four Correa Gs and a compliment of Bonnies and Perez Gs vs one Kionnoh, one Pincer, four FleaDTs, four FleaPs and a small handful of Scorpions; is in fact a critically inbalanced fight in the advantage of the Outsiders.


This is because of a few factors. The Flea corvettes, whilst still having the hp of a corvette, pack firepower closer to that of a frigate. In a 1v1 fight between a Correa and a FleaDT, the Correa will win with critical hp loss; but the DTs will generally focus your corvettes into dust first. A 1v1 fight between a Flea and an Intrepid btw, is a guaranteed Flea victory. This is due to the fact that Flea weaponry is a constant, reliable damage that rarely, if ever, misses its primary target, and deals that damage quicker than any TSF weaponry, which is generally a steady dps. I have not played from an Outsider perspective at this time of writing, so I do not know how the Outsider ships are balanced in respect to the game as a whole. Possibly they are more expensive and take longer to build. In this scenario however, their superiority is evident.

The second reason for the Outsider's advantage is the Kionnoh itself. Whilst it lacks weaponry of it's own, it is a veritable mobile factory of extremely dangerous fighters that far outclass the Cormorant's own fighters, and comes with a defensive energy shield that near completely negates the weaponry of everything but railguns, and has only one weakpoint uncovered, the rear. In a 1v1 fight, I expect the Kionnoh to win 100% of the time, with no variation. This is because the Cormorant's balance as a carrier seems to rely on it's use of 2nd tier drones combined with multiple point-defence turrets and a pair of offensive turrets, namely a dual-railgun and a dual-cannon turret. However this offensive capability is likely worse than that of a Correa G, due to the slow railgun rate of fire and small angles of point defence, due to many of the point defence guns being stuck in divetted broadside positions. I do not know what the bay capacity of the Kionnoh is of yet, but I would hazard a guess it is at least equal to the Cormorant at 15, but gets far superior fighter level craft, fighters that can both annihilate your Voyteks, and annihilate your Corvettes and Frigates. A ScorpionP (the missile fighter spawned by the Kionnoh), does tremedous damage with its homing missiles. Each missile will do a % of Correa hp, and they fire in volleys of 5 or more rather quickly. Any Correa that becomes the target of a ScorpionP is marked for death; the Scorpions themselves are tanky enough to survive enough Correa cannon volleys that trying to save yourself is a complete waste of time, just pray you dish out enough damage until death, you could micro fighters to defend you, but every fighter doing that is a fighter not protecting the Cormorant; and you have very limited fighters indeed.


How to beat it

First off, I recommend lowering the difficulty. It is simply too hard a task to be reasonable otherwise. 15% damage reduc will be enough, and should leave a fair amount of challenge.

Then, go into tactics mode and have you frigates target the ships on their side. Likewise have your corvettes engage the ships on theirs. Leave the Cormorant to its own devices, any attack order you give it will often pass onto the Voyteks, and you need them to protect, not attack in co-ordination. The Cormorants default target is the Kionnoh, which is what it should focus on anyway. Regardless of what you to tell it to do however, the Voyteks often will switch targets to the Kionnoh; you will need to micromanage them to shepard them into attacking the enemy fighters.

Take control of your Perez G and kill as many fighters as you can whilst you live. Don't neglect to micromanage your fleet however; nearly every ship prioritises the Kionnoh above all other ships, sometimes overriding queued orders. You need to constantly be ontop of your own ships' target prioritisation, and make sure they engage the right targets. Take control of a Correa if needed; if so, try to use the one targetted by the Pincer, and position the enemy FleaPs between you and it. The Pincer's beams will FF onto the FleaPs, giving you support in killing them.

One the enemy escorts are downed and only the Kionnoh and its fighters remain, order the surviving escorts (likely just the Correa Gs) to positions behind the Kionnoh. This is the only unshielded area, and will enable them to do more damage whilst they remain alive. Constantly order each of your Voyteks to engage individual fighters, so that your Correas can survive for longer.

Once the Correas are in position, switch to your fighters again and engage the enemy fighters. Keep micromanaging your other fighters. Eventually the Correas will due and it will become a grudge match between the Cormorant and Kionnoh, with the Kionnoh at a probably hp advantage to your Cormorant, which will likely be in the red. However, your Voyteks should outnumber the enemy fighters, and with good ship control on your part, you will be able to keep their numbers down without losing too many of your own to endanger the Cormorant. Any singular fighters than engage the Cormorant will likely eat a broadside of point defence turrets and die. It'll be a bit of a grind, but you should win in the end.




For Outsiders 2; no such difficulty exists. You will not need to micromanage, just enjoy your reward of being able to pilot the buggers who gave you so much trouble earlier. No special tactics required, just kill em all.

Final Scenario

The last scenario is less of a mission, and more of a free-for-all endless arena fight.

It's purely for fun, but without unlocking higher level ships for the enemies, you might find yourself with an overwhelming TSF force against constant Big Red and The Diggers, with occassional token waves of MU, Stubs and Scarabs.


No Outsiders allowed, sorry.

Epilogue and Additional Achievements

Thanks for reading the guide, any comments or questions will be appreciated. I will try to update as I can, and may attempt 100%ing the game myself to uncover the remaining achievements, so I may expand this into a full guide of the achievements at a later date.

About 10 minutes after finishing this guide I read through parts of the forum and figured out the two remaining achievements, so I'll include a small achievement guide here.

Path to Ruin 1 - At the beginning of the game, the Diggers will attack through the Fields 002 gate. You are warned not to go through it. Ignore this advice, and advance through upon the path to ruin. On the other side, you will meet the Digger crew's rearguard, a wing of Vultures and Buzzards. Take them out, if you can. (Note: You are not actually intended to be able to defeat them, but it is rather easily doable as the enemy aggro AI seems to be bugged, you can wipe out the Vultures in the first pass, retreat, and take out the Buzzards once you've healed up, however, you are trapped in the Fields with no way to return)

Path to Ruin 2 - At the initial defence of the Hub against the Outsiders, in the mission where the Stubs request reinforcements, they will request you do not send the Wardrum. Well, what do they know? Send the Wardrum through. On the other side you will defend the Shangri-La base from increasing waves of Outsiders, they are quite survivable for a while, but survive for too long and the AI will bug out and start jumping all over the place. You are intended to die here, so don't bother fighting it. There are comms messages for surviving the first two waves, but nothing special to note.

Other Achievements:

Cruisers Don't Run 1 & 2: Instead of rushing for the gates without your tail between your legs, fight like a warrior and destroy the enemy forces. This is in the initial Wardrum mission where you are told to flee from the enemy, and again in the retreat from the Outsiders past the MU Gate, where you encounter the Scarabs again.

The Improbable: Destroy the Kionnoh in the defence of the Hub mission. This is incredibly hard to achieve, you will likely have to reduce the difficulty to a minimum to stand a chance at it. Build only anti-capital ships and an excess of heatseeker mines in the Kionnohs path. Use the Wardrum to kill enemy escort ships with the Hammer. Good luck, you'll need it.

All other achievements will be earned through the progression of the game and its various endings. I do not know the requisites to unlocking the first two bases in the skirmish list, nor do I know how to unlock many of the outsider ships for arena. Even with 100% achievement completion, I still have them locked with no idea of how to unlock them.

Thanks to the developer for creating this game, and for including a lower difficulty button; I would not have gotten so far without it :?

Good luck.

[Sayonara]

How to get "The Improbable" achievement: Starting from the beginning of the game, use your command ability to capture ridiculous amounts of Raiders and Marauders, and all the enemy Bears and the Fist of Darwin. Then, keep them alive: they don't count towards your ship limit, so send your built ships (Intrepids and Correas etc) into the most dangerous combats.

This way, you can have a roughly 150-ship fleet at the first Kionnoh mission, and vaporize it easily.

[jaxjace]

@chaos savy i saw the original small stub fleet but didnt get any reinforcments DURING the battle.

[Flip]

Great guide! :)

[Cougarbrit]

Ahh right, do the faction-types of the ships sent matter? I often sent MU fighters and corvettes with the TSF frigates; Arsonists, Dualists with Raiders and Bees mostly.

Thanks for taking the time to read the guide though :D

[chaosavy]

Pt 1.

Great guide! Enjoyed reading it :)

Reminded me of some of the cooler missions - if I do say so myself :)

A few notes:

Some missions weren't indeed intended to be winnable and some of the instant action scenarios were just intended to be fun fights you could replay over and over - you can guess at which are which (I've probably forgotten myself) if they had an achievement linked or not - if not then their intention was just a big battle.


"I sent them help, and in return nothing awaited me past the gate - I assume if you do not help, then either angry Stubs or victorious "

[chaosavy]

Pt 2.

This is a flaw with how mission dialogs are handled - the only mission where there's a counter like this - so I didn't bother updating the mission "HUD" text to say that you sent in the right number of ships to complete this mission. So its easy to miscount/misjudge how many ships to send. Behind the scenes - you don't have to send in that exact number of ships - but sending close enough (I forget the exact numbers) will complete this secondary objective.

So what you describe is actually not completing that mission.


Spoiler below ---------------



If you send in the proper help, you'll find the Shangri-La base and an Stubbs fleet to help out in the final battle. Also when you jump into the "Sun Gate Sector" for a few brief moments you can get Stubb reinforcements - of about two gate "waves" from the Shangri-La base