Campaign Tips for New Players in Spaz2

a quick list of tips for starting players who may be struggling in the early game - by no means perfect - or the only way to do things - It's jsut a list of what i found to make it much easier my early game

Warning- Guides / Walthrough have spoilers. You spacebugs have been warned.

special thanks to:

4RAR_Game_Machine|CGamerC owner|

for spelling & grammer corrections

cdarklock

added a section with his alternate tips after mine. Recieved his permission to do so prior to including it word for word. Thanks alot.

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Diarmuhnd's Campaign Tips for New Players

If your ~only~ interested in leveling up fast - skip to Tip 14 & Tip 5.

1: Do not rush headlong into the campaign like a headless chicken.
Take your time exploring & collecting all the Lore Nodes.

cdarklock

Pointed out that i had forgotten to mention Lore Nodes in the thread - thank you

2: stall / halt your progress when you get your first base. Do NOT go to the signal.

3: now take your time and grind. Kill everything (Bandits) you can. Help Indepent captains & Faction captains battle Bandits.

4: Try to limit fighting other captains as much as possible. (unless you want to be hated and like that sort of thing or unless you want to join a fight in progress for some loot drops - see further in the list for more info on this - Tip 14)

5: At every Starbase, ALLWAYS check the ARENA for matches you can join. There are 5 ranks, each one is harder but gives more xp and scrap. 1-3 should be easy to do low lvl. 4-5 gets very hard. At low lvl, do NOT stress if you can't win the 4-5. Its normal. Just move on to another starbase and do the Arena there. You can do those harder matches later when you've lvl'd more and have more perks. Makes a diference. In these fights, you do NOT use your ship, so it does not matter how much damage you take. You will not need to pay for repairs etc.

Mork pointed out that a starbase's Arena can be reset by giving control of that starbase you have completed all arena's in to a diferent captain from your faction. So you don't have to fly to other stations.

Mork

6: Never buy or sell at a starbase before doing the arena. Each rank match you win raises the Starbase's owner reputation with you. The higher their rep, the less stuff costs and the more you get for selling. Think ahead, if you know you want to buy lots of Power items (or one of the others) then go out of your way to help the owners of the stations that sell that type. Thus lowering costs.

7: Never sell Goons or Rez. You will need them once you progress in the campaign. Do not forget to put it in your Starbase's Stash to limit the penalties from Hotbunking (having to many Goons).

8: Save up a nice amount of Scrap before you do, so you can build and upgrade the starbases you will need. 250k ish was good enough for me, though i sure could have used alot more.

9: Your 1st starbase will generate scrap, rez and goons over time. It helps if you pick a good spot (like a zone with 3 scrap nodes), it also makes more from npc's who go there and use the shop. It also sends out transport haulers to pick up the resources left behind from battles in the zone, but they can get killed doing so; if successfull you get even more Rez and Goons. I would go farm far away, come back to dump a load of rez and goons and pick up my 'cut'; which ranged from 8k to 192k (i had been gone a long time)

It was brought to my attention that in the Campaign, after you build your very 1st Starbase, that you should NOT build more. You will not control them, since you are ONLY a member of a Faction and not the Leader of your own Faction; thus, they will be given to ramdom faction members by the Leader of the Faction you joined.

some random guy yelling at me in a thread >",'< jk. Anonamous for now, until i can find his name and ask if he wants puiblic credit

10: you will lose your first base no matter what in campain mode, do not worry, your personal stash WILL NOT be harmed, you simply have to make a new base to access it, and it will all be there You should max out all your Starbase's to max lvl right away or A.S.A.P.

credit to 4RAR_Game_Machine|CGamerC owner|

I was under the impression that all stored Rez, Scrap and Equipment would be lost. This is NOT the case-
important warning - Clearly mark a save game prior to continuing this Campaign plot mission to Investigate the Unkown Signal; in case the Dev has changed this.

11: Now that you've made your own Faction you can recruit henchmen. Remember all the friends you made, those Independant Captains, hire the ones who have good traits, like : + to help others +stay in faction etc. You will need more bases to be able to hire more captains and you will want to hire as many Captainis as you can.

12: Don't forget, you can give Tributes to anyone (except infected meatbags). Give them poor equipment, or scrap. Never give them Rez or Goons. Max out your Reputation with them before hiring them, so they have higher loyalty. This can be done even too all the Captains of the factions you've been at War with. Though it costs alot more.

13: Have a backup save at certain points beffore progressing in the campaign. Its easier to reload than it is the restart.

14: At low lvl, sometimes join a fight in progress, against a high lvl, high threat captain. Do NOT have a wingman so you do NOT share loot and xp. Then when you win, you get some great stuff. This is a fast method to level up early and to get much better equipment drops, the downside is lowering your reputation which can lead to more bounties placed on you and your stations. This can be mitagated by using the Tribute option and giving them scrap or poor equipment.

15: To have a higher chance of finding 5 star equipment in your shops; you should build a minimum of 4 of 1 specific starbase type at max lvl.

cdarklock

good luck - have fun

Other Spaz2 Steam Players Contributions

all players listed here have given there permission for contents use prior to it being included

cdarklock

I don't agree with absolutely everything here, but it's all good advice. I have a simpler method.

- Go into a new, unexplored sector.
- If there is lore in it, go grab it.
- If there is no spaceport, ransack the resource nodes.
- If there IS a spaceport, land there and do all the arena battles you can handle.
- Leave the spaceport.
- Help people fight bandits, if you see anyone fighting them. Just bandits. Not other captains.
- If you can handle it, fight any nearby bandits you can see yourself.
- Again, if you can handle it, fight any bandit hives in the sector.

When you have explored every sector and done this in all of them, go through them again until you have completed all of the arena battles in every station.

You should now be so overleveled and well-provisioned that you can stomp through the campaign like Gojira.
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This started as a copy paste from an answer i gave in the forums - it was rough and unpolished - I have revised it - and continue to add to it as i play more and get more suggestions and tips from other players enjoying Spaz2.

Everyone is welcome to add to this list, credit will of course be given to those people >'."<

[HellSlayer]

Nothing about guns? Thats what I am looking for. In battles it seems my guns are shooting automatically, are they? I dont know maybe.. nobody talks about them in tutorial or guides.

I think when reticle becomes red i am in range for my weapons but they still seem to work automatically.. how do i know which parts work like that. Do all parts shoot automatically? Why nobody talks about it??

[Diarmuhnd]

@Elganif: Thats part of "3: now take your time and grind. Kill everything (Bandits) you can." I just didn't go into detail on bandit bases but the info will help new players looking for tips. Thx for the feedback. Have fun

[Elganif]

One tip you missed: Once you get to 60 or 70 threat you can knock out lv 3 bandit bases fairly easy. They can build up to 15k scrap, 1k Rz and 1k goons (Max) If you look at the stat page on the map it tells you how much. Finding bandit hives with 10k+scrap can be a great way to earn quick resources easy without making any enemies.
I also disagree with the never sell / give away goons or rez If you have enough. Maybe get to 10 or 20k each stored away and you can unload the rest.

[articsnipershot]

also if you didnt know, after a battle (before going back to the map screen), you can attach any dropped parts onto your ship to get them. you will not lose the parts originally from your ship, even if you strip down your entire ship (they will remain in your inventory). thus you can get all the parts that you can fit onto your ship, go back to the map screen and re-fit your ship. and you still get battle loot and salvage loot on top of that

[articsnipershot]

easiest way I found in both campaign and sandbox playthroughs :

concurrently do these :
1. find a mining op, get as much rez as possible
2. sell the rez to everyone to build scrap
3. find a faction that has constant conflicts with another faction (lots of territories next to each other type)
4. keep helping 1 faction with the battles to get parts and levels. you dont have to do anything, let them take out the enemy and help yourself to the parts that are dropped, both in battle and after the battle. dont worry about having a bad relation with the opposing faction, you will overpower them eventually
5. keep the parts you want, and sell the rest that you dont need for scrap

6. you should end up with a lot of good parts, a decent level, tons of rez and scrap, one very friendly faction and one hostile faction
7. continue doing steps 1-5 to build up scrap for a 6-star core
8. once you buy a 6-star core, you should be almost invincible

[荷兰猴子]

Thanks, this is helpful.

[Diarmuhnd]

@荷兰猴子 : saying build 4+ starbases of the same type, and max level, for a greater chance of higher tier items being available to purchase from that starbase type.
Happy 2020

[荷兰猴子]

in TIP 15, R U saying Type 1 starbase? 4 of them? and the more of them, the bigger chance for me to get 5 star item?

[Diarmuhnd]

@ Kushman : yarp, also glad you found it helpfull. Have fun!

[Ellymental]

useful advice regarding leveling up at starbases etc before doing the missions, tho i found it a little repetitive and wanted to advance the story, but then i was less prepared and the zombies are stronger than i would like. fun game. made 2 alliances and crushed two factions.