Jeff's Complete Star Control 3 FAQ Version 1.00 (11/7/96) Table of Contents 1. General Game info 2. Plot Task Intructions 3. Item/Artifact Tables 4. Colony Location Table 5. Ship Location Table 6. Battle Information General Game Info (How the game works, general strategies) The Interface Read the manual, and email me if you are still confused, because I am not going to summarize something that has already been given to you (and if you got a copy of the game illegally, you are out of luck. I don't have THAT much free time) Time Time, although not a limiting factor, is what drives the game. The plot is advanced by way of timed events, most of which are triggered by certain actions in the game. When playing for the fisrt time, you will probably spend enough time getting used to the controls or wasting time doing other things that most of these events will happen faster than you can complete tasks. After learning where things were, I found that sometimes I just had to sit there and let the clock run in order to wait for a key event to happen. The only place where time begins to run out is near the end of the game, but it is a piece of cake to beat the clock. The Game Clock Each day consists of 650 clock ticks (hours, minutes, who knows?). For those of you who chose not to thouroughly read the manual, the clock speed can be changed by clicking on the clock (which temporarily pauses the game) and dragging the slider to the desired speed. Since there is no indication of actual speed, you will just have to experiment to find the speed you like. I found the default setting to be adequate, unless I needed to waste some time to get something to happen. Events and Stuff - NEW INFO Most events occur exactly at the start of a new day, and all references to days of timed events in this FAQ will refer to the day that the event starts, not the day that the event completes. There are a few events which happen at odd times, like the Mycon distress call, which happens at approximately 100 into the day (this is only because it takes them about 100 to reach the Mycon colony). Some events seem to be triggered by certain artifacts. It now seems to me that the majority of the scientist findings are related to artifact digs. For example, I recorded when I found my first artifact in 3 different games (It didn't matter which artifact I found). Soon afterwards, the scientists gave me the "paydirt!" information. In two out of three cases, they contacted me again EXACTLY 11, 31, 41, 51, and 61 days after the initial find with more information. (the last one is when you get the plasma regroover). The third case was only slightly different. Also, in those games, I had to find 6 or 7 (it varied) artifacts before the scientists gave me the Dak translation key, but again it didn't seem to matter which artifacts I found. So, I theorize that many events depend on the number of artifacts that are dug up, and not the specifics. There are cases where specific artifacts seem to cause certain events, and others where they definitely do. I still need to do more research NOTE: Some events are timed to occur one or two (or more) days after you arrive somewhere, and you will just have to wait. In most cases, you will eventually be given the proper information even if you leave the area, and it is just the initial visit that counts, not remaining there. Non-Aligned Colonies Whenever you approach an enemy colony, never click on the ships near it, but instead click directly on the planet. You can usually breeze right past any hostile defenses and speak directly to the colony. If you anger an enemy while speaking to the colony and the game tries to trigger an attack, you will simply be dumped out of the conversation and nothing will happen. This is very useful since, unlike Star Control 2, most colonies have the same dialogue as ships. If instead you feel like you want to trash some enemy squadrons, go ahead, but in most cases the ethics council will yell at you if you kill too many enemy ships. (I was told that three complaints from the council ends the game, but I never tried although I think I will). I avoid killing every ship I can, because almost every race wil become a league member, and having the extra ships and crew that you might ordinarily have blown away is nice. This is also a good idea since there are predefined numbers and locations of starting ships in the game, and ships can only be produced at colonies (except for the Daktaklakpak). There are no random attacks or randomly-populated solar systems like Star Control 2. If you are a decent pilot, ships won't be a big factor, but I like at least having the crew to dump into colonies. (More colonists = faster production) which brings me to the next point - building colonies. Colony Management Colonies are not at all necessary to win, but they ARE useful, especially for fuel depots in the far reaches of the quadrant. There are only a few factors to worry about, so management is relatively simple. The following summarizes my knowledge and strategies: * Planetary resources (visible on the planets' summaries) determine how productive the mines will be. The mines NEVER run out. A planet with 0 resources, however, produces ore at a rate of 0. In other words, DO NOT build a colony on one of these planets, because the mines will never produce any ore at all. If you want to colonize a moon, make sure to click on the moon itself and not the planet in the overhead view, or you might end up colonizing a barren planet like I did instead of the moon which appears as the same circle on the solar system map (another shortcoming of the game?). * Colonists are of course necessary to run the buildings. In general, the more colonists present, the more productive a colony will be. It is probably better in general to have 200 colonists at one colony producing fuel than 200 colonists spread amongst 5 colonies, since traveling to each of them will waste some of the fuel you are collecting. On the other hand, 5 colonies would have a higher maximum combined storage, so there are advantages (more on this later). * Each colony has the exact same types of buildings (although there are two different types of colony graphics). Most buildings are actaully complexes of 4 buildings, and the output of the complex seems to be determined by the number of sections you have in the complex. You can set the slider for each building to determine the priority it gets in being built, and also the number of workers it gets. * Types and Products of Buildings o Mines produces Ore. o Refineries use up Ore to produce RUs o Fuel Refineries use up Ore to produce Fuel. o Shipyards use RUs (lots of em) to produce new ships at a slow pace. They can only produce the ship of the race that owns the colony. Ship progress is shown on the right side of the screen. o Pod Factories use RUs to produce landing pods peridically. A while into the game, you will have so many of these and need to few that producing them becomes worthless o Research Labs use RUs to research precursor artifacts (this is done by clicking on the object from orbit display mode and clicking on research). A research lab will only operate and use RUs if you give it something to research. o Factories use RUs to build new buildings. It will generally build things based on the levels you set the sliders at. o The only other buildings that you see are storage areas. These appear (in human-type colonies) as clusters of small buildings, and they store Ore, Fuel, RUs and colonists. Your storage capacities for each colony are based on how many of these buildings you have. The highest possible maximums (to my knowledge) are as follows: 480 colonists, 75000 fuel, 75000 RUs, and 90000 Ore. One colonist building holds 120, and one storage building of each of the others holds 15000. * A discussion of factories: (the following may not be accurate, but it is what I have experienced. Please let me know if you find something different) As I have already discussed, Factories will automatically build based partly on what you have the sliders set at, but also partly on what it thinks is necessary. Well, here's how it works: The factory will usually build whatever has the highest slider level, unless it becomes filled to capacity (or near filled) with colonists, fuel, RUs, or Ore. If this happens, building storage takes precedence over all other buildings. Otherwise, I think the factory will completely build whatever has the highest slider setting, even if the others are almost as high (I may be wrong, but I don't think it is very good at evenly building unless the sliders are set exactly evenly). When all main buildings ("main buildings" doesn't include storage areas) are completed, the factory will shut down, the slider will become red, and I haven't found a way to get it back running. The problem with this is that when it stops, you might not have the maximum capacity of anything. In other words, if your colonies don't fill near capacity continuosly while your factory is still in operation, you won't ever be able store the maxes at those colonies. Get it? This is not a very big deal at all, except when it comes to fuel. If you want to make a colony specifically for fuel, make sure you set the sliders high for the mines and fuel refinery, fairly high for the refinery (so you have RUs to build buildings with) and relatively LOW for the factory. This way, provided you leave the colony alone for a while, you will end up with a colony that has the max possible fuel storage. Just another possible programming oversight. * Making/managing colonies For new colonies, I usually look for a planet with resources of at least 20000. I also try to make sure that the race I am using has at least 4 out of 5 green bars on the compatibility meter (the little indicators that appear below each race's picture when you are in the orbital view). There are only a few reasons to build a colony: Fuel, ships, or to have a race in different parts of the quadrant so you don't have to go as far to talk to them. For the last reason, you don't really need colonists at all. In any other case, I usually like to start a colony out with at least 50 colonists, just so it will grow relatively fast. I always start with Mine and Refinery sliders at max so thast the factory has plenty of RUs to build with. Usually I also set the fuel slider at max. If you think you are going to use the ships from the colony, then the shipyard slider should be set. I never put mine more than halfway up, and usually much lower since ships use lots of resources to make, and if you are a decent pilot, you don't need very many of them anyway. One benefit to building ships is that when they are created, half of the crew will come from the colony, and half will come from, well, thin air, really. So if you want to create lots of colonists REAL fast, have a colony pump out ships and then visit periodically to pump everyone back into the colonies. Of course, this uses up so many resources that the colony isn't very good otherwise, so what I usually so is set the shipyards just high enough that they will produce, but not high enough to limit other production. (this works best for races which produce ships with lots of crew, except for the syreen whose ships only start with half crew. I usually set Lab sliders at max (only once they are built) so that when I need to research something, it will be done fast. If you want a colony to be built fast, set the factory high, but this has the side effect of limiting storage capacities as discussed above. There is a definite ratio in which resources are used up, but it is not necessary to know. Just decide what you want to produce and set the sliders so that you aren't using too many more resources than you are producing * Who to give colonies to The only races whose colonies you lose control of (provided you don't do anything stupid, like kick the Syreen out or something) are the VUX, Mycon, Ur-Quan, Chmmr, and Spathi. I wouldn't give ANY colonies to the Ur-Quan, since you never regain control of these. The Spathi and the Mycon will most likely spend the most time out of your control, but that depends on the order you do things. In my most recent game, I gave most of my colonies to the Syreen, Pkunk, and Humans until I got the Doogs, at which point I just started pumping Doogs into colonies (since there are so many of them: on colonies, in ships, etc). I never made an Orz colony, mostly because I couldn't find a place to put them, and there are so few of them to start anyway. The only reason I built most colonies was for fuel stops, or so that I didn't have to travel so far to talk to someone. It really doesn't matter. Artifacts/Items There are many artifacts in the game, most of which can be found by digging at anomalies on planet surfaces. There is an artifact for each alien race which upgrades their ships (or downgrades, in the case of the VUX. Why, I don't know) There are also numerous other items from various sources. Some items are generated as timed events and trigger other items or conversation. Plot Task Information Preliminary info Anytime I say "your scientists will find...", I am referring to your league scientists, not some kind of colony research-facility thing. All scientist findings are time-triggered events, as are Arilou appearances. For more info on labs and timed events, check out the General Info Segment Most of the following events occur only because of previous events, and may not happen unless you do everything preceding them. I am still in the process of gathering information about EXACTLY what causes each event, but this should suffice for now. Please be patient. Table of Contents How to... 1. Communicate successfully with the Daktaklakpak 2. Stop the raids on the Mycons 3. Find the Supox/Orz 4. Solve the Mycon Deep Children problem 5. Stop the Syreen mental probles 6. Get the Spathi to re-join 7. Get the Doog to join 8. Make the Exquivans stop attacking 9. Find/fix the Ultron 10. Get the Xchaggers to join 11. Get the Harika/Yorn to join 12. Stop the Ur-Quan civil war 13. Help the Pkunk 14. Get help from the Lk 15. Get the Clairconctlar to join 16. Split the Evil Chmmr 17. Join Plexor 18. Recombine the Chmmr 19. Clean/explore Rainbow Worlds 20. Do the VUX/Vyro-Ingo thing 21. Give the True Name to the Daktaklakpak 22. Talk to a Precursor 23. Fix the Mycons 24. Get the K'tang to join 25. Turn the Daktaklakpak back into scrub bots 26. Get to the Ploxis Precursor Vessel 27. Build the Sentience Collector 28. Misc help How to... 1. Communicate (successfully) with the Daktaklakpak Your scientists will find the translation key near the beginning of the game. This happened for me after I had dug up 6 or 7 artifacts (it varied). 2. Stop the raids on the Mycons I hung around the Mycon colony and attacked the VUX raiders, then confronted the VUX about it, but I never kicked them out of the league at that point, and I don't think I was given the option to. The distress calls will stop once the Mycon leave the league, though. (see Solve the Mycon Deep Children problem) 3. Find the Supox/Orz The Arilou will appear and give you the coordinates for Quasispace Portal M, where you can find the Orz. The Orz seem to have killed the Supox colony ship, and you can find the debris by waiting around QSM for a day or two after you meet the Orz there. 4. Solve the Mycon Deep Children problem Your scientists will give you information on the Mycons' origins and evolution, and the imprinting of memories on the Deep Children. Soon after this, the ethics council will complain (stupid ethics council), so go to the Mycon home world and ask them about it. Make sure you tell them you want to talk to a Deep Child personally. Go to Janus 1 and wait, and you will get a weird movie and POP, a yucky green thing comes out. Don't kill it, and talk to the Mycon again, who will leave the League. If you want to get them back, check out Fix the Mycons. You can't upgrade the Green Mycon ships, and I wouldn't fight with the only one you've got, but you get more later. 5. Stop the Syreen mental probes I let them keep doing it. One time I made them stop, and it gave me the option to let them start again, so I figured it must be good. You may need to let them keep doing it to get the information to help the Pkunk, and nothing bad ever happens as a result of their probes, so why not? 6. Get the Spathi to re-join The Spathi come back on their own when they think it is safe (not until MUCH later), but until then, you can get lots of info out of them by threatening them first, and then continuously saying "Got any hot tips?" I forgot to write down exactly when they come back; It is either after you beat the Ploxis or the Heralds, I can't remember. It's not like you really need those Spathi ships anyway. The only thing they are REALLY good for is killing VUX, and how often do you have to do that? 7. Get the Doog to join After getting info out of the Spathi about the Doog debt, and possibly info from the K'tang as well, talk to the Doogs about their situation. Be patient, pay them the 10 RUs they want, and then eventually you will have the option to actually buy the colony, PROVIDED you have enough RUs. It takes 10000 for the first colony, 15000 for the second, 20000 for the third, and so on. Once you have all their colonies, talk to one and go through all the available choices. You will get the antimatter containment grid. The Doogs will show up on the orbit screen once you get all 6 colonies. For locations, see the colony table. 8. Make the Exquivans stop attacking The Arilou will appear with info on the Exquivans, at which time you will be given options you never had when you talk to them. Go through the proper responses (make sure you don't get upset at them) and they will agree to stop testing your metal (but not your mettle :) ) 9. Find/fix the Ultron The Arilou will tell you that the Pkunk can find the Ultron. Talk to the Pkunk, and then go fight the VUX (at Erato) for the Ultron. You will find it in the debris after a day or two of waiting around. The Utwig will not take it back, so you need to fix it. I think the Pkunk will immediately be able to tell you what you need. The Ivory Sheath is at Caduceus 4, the Plate Crystal is at Nebusta 1, and the Spathi have the Marble Flange. You need to talk to them twice to get it (the first time they will hang up on you), and I believe you can get it from them as soon as the Pkunk tell you what you need, but I am not sure. If not, then try getting the other two parts first. You can then immediately fix the Ultron, provided the Pkunk have told you how to fix it. To get the Pkunk to do this, all you need to do is go to the Pkunk after you try to give the Ultron to the Utwig and say the line about how they won't take it back, and the Pkunk will give you instructions. Don't worry about using the items in the right order; just click on one and use it and your scientists will do the rest. To fix it for good, just use the part that the VUX give you later (see Do the VUX/Vyro-Ingo thing). 10. Get the Xchaggers to join The K'tang will tell you where the Xchaggers are, but only after the battle at Eltanin, I think. Go to their ship and talk to it (in the Zosma system, which only becomes available after talking to the K'tang). After you finish talking to the cow, you will talk to an Xchagger and you can easily convince them to join. 11. Get the Harika/Yorn to join You need to cure the Harika of their plague. You can find out about the Plague from the Harika themselves or by talking to the Spathi or K'tang. You need to talk to the Xchaggers (after talking to the Harika?) who will deny everything, but of course they are just annoying little mushrooms and you know better than that. Your scientists will develop an eradication serum which will save the Harika but kill the infecting Xchaggers. Instead of using it, go to the Harika and tell them you can't use the serum. You can convince them to give you Yorn bodies, which you will then study. Return to the Xchaggers and get some ship hives, and your scientists will make an absorber which you can safely use. Go into orbit over each of the two remaining Harika colonies (The one in the Eltanin system was destoyed) and use the absorber. As soon as you cleanse the second one, they are your allies. If you want to try asking them to stop the Yorn-munching, save it first. I never tried, so I don't know what happens. 12. Stop the Ur-Quan civil war You can't. This is one of the parts of the game that REALLY annoyed me. You will get a civil war message for every new Ur-Quan colony you build, and for each one, a colony will be turned from Ur-Quan (Kzer-Za) to Kohr-Ah. The way I got around this was to leave every Ur-Quan on their homeworld, making one really big fast-producing colony instead of a bunch of small ones. If it is too late for that, make sure you visit all the remaining Ur-Quan colonies before they change and get all the colonists to dump back into the original. 13. Help the Pkunk Talk to the Pkunk after the Syreen tell you they are being hurt (if you kicked the Syreen out or had them stop their probes, this may not work). Go to Anshar 3 (the Exquivans' home world) and talk to them. You will have to wait in orbit for a few days for your scientists to tell you that there are emanations from the surface, and then you will have to wait ANOTHER 4 or 5 days for your scientists to tell you about the crashed ship. At this point, you can get the Exquivans to let you on the surface (sort of). You need to talk to the Syreen in order to get a mindless tech team, and then you can return to Exquivo and explore ther surface after talking to the Exquivans again. You will find the Eternal Ones' True Name, and the Pkunk will be better. Talk to the Pkunk and then the Exquivans again. I am not sure if they say anything important, but just do it, ok? 14. Get help from the Lk First of all, you have to wait until your scientists give you the coordinates to Quasispace Portal G. Second, there is no way to avoid killing the Lk battlegroup. You have to go to their homeworld at QSG 2, where they will send you out to find the Spiral Rail. Go to Antaeus, kill 8 Daks, and get it, and then they will be more wiling to help you. You can further gain their trust by giving them the Eternal1's signal deflector when you get it. 15. Get the Clairconctlar to join There are a few races who can tell you about the Clairconctlar and why they are serving the Crux. Get a Conc Rock from Enkidu 4C, and wait for a few days until your scientists find the Clair Queen. Then talk to the Lk (you MUST have the rock in your inventory). They will tell you that you need to break the rock to get the Clairconctlar's attention. Go back and talk to the Clair colony at Enkidu, and then break the rock (I don't think you actually break it). At the start of the next day they will follow you, so hurry to their moon and talk to them when they get there. 16. Split the Evil Chmmr First of all, the Chmmr aren't evil. You can get a bifurcator from the Daktaklakpak, but if you keep saying "duh, I still don't see how..." (or something like that) then they will leave without giving it to you. When you get it, DO NOT use it. 17. Join Plexor Plexor is the Crux leader who should contact you later in the game. You will find a beacon asking you to meet him at Calliope 2 (which happens to be almost the exact center of the quadrant). I never tried joining him, but I will sometime in the future. If you are civil to him as long as possible before you finally tell him off, you will get the most information, but I'm sure actually joining is the wrong way to go 18. Recombine the Chmmr When you go the Chmmr colony after they are bifurcated, you will get Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm bodies. To combine them, you need the Mother Ark Control Unit from Calypso 1 (see Clean/explore Rainbow Worlds for how to get it). Once you have the control unit, get the Xchaggers to perform micro-surgery on it. Get the Syreen to revive the Chenjesu. Then go to the Lk and get the sun device from them. When you've fixed the Mmrnmhrm with the control unit, revived the Chenjesu, and gotten the sun device, go to a Chmmr colony and use the device. This should do it... You may need to wait for scientist study before you can do some of these things (like know to take the control unit to the Xchaggers), but it shouldn't take very long if any time at all for the scientists to talk to you. 19. Clean/explore Rainbow Worlds In order to clean/explore the rainbow worlds, you need three items. First of all, you need the containment grid from the Doog. You can get the other two from the Owa. To find the Owa homeworld at Mnemosyne, talk to the Harika after you have them in the League. The Owa should give you the antimatter scoop right away when you tell them you want to clean the rainbow worlds. In order to get the second item from them, you need to talk to the Spathi after you have gotten the Clair to join, who will tell you that the Daks dumped the Mother Ark parts on a ranbow world. Now go back to the Owa and they will giev you an antimater vessel. Now you can use the scoop to cleanse the rainbow worlds and fill your grid, and you can also get the two artifacts from the rainbow worlds. The 9 rainbow worlds are the first planets in the Alula, Indra, Kentaurus, Penates, Caltpso, Euterpe, Ganesha, Moirai, and Rudra systems. 20. Do the VUX/Vyro-Ingo thing Eventually the Arilou will appear and tell you the time is ripe for an alliance with the Vyro-Ingo, so go talk to them. You will have to tell them that the Crux insulted them, and they will join. Either after this or after you talk to them for the first time, your scientists will find a Vyro-Ingo matrix. You can talk to the Vyro-Ingo about this, but they will get upset and leave if you pry too far. Take the matrix to the Lk. about 20 days later, you will get the VUX matrix. Take this to the Lk as well, and they will tell you how to combine the matrices (actually, the will supposedly tell your scientists, and all you have to do is point and click). Once you have the matrices combined, talk to the V-I about it, then take one of their ships. Send the ship, BY ITSELF, to meet with a VUX ship (or colony?) and watch the funny little movie. The VUX and Vyro-Ingo will now be happy allies, and you can fully repair the Ultron with the part they give you. 21. Give the True Name to the Daktaklakpak You will need the data pack with the Eternal1's True Name (see Help the Pkunk). You will also need to wait for your scientists to tell you about the CUD. This may happen after you pick up the data pack on Alula 1 (see Clean/explore Rainbow Worlds; thanks to John Tan for suggesting that) Once this happens, you will be able to offer the data pack to the Daktaklakpak (you may need to let them approach you instead of initiating the conversation yourself). If you keep offering the name to a bunch of Daks, you can get a lot of info and a few items. 22. Talk to a Precursor You need to give the Daktaklakpak the True Name in exchange for the Variance Key. (see Give the True Name to the Daktaklakpak). Make sure you don't let the Dak get away without giving it to you. I think I had a game where I just let them tell me about the CUD and I never got the key, and I don't remember if I got another chance. Your scientists should tell you what a precursor looks like at some point. Get an Ortog from the Xchaggers, bring it to Begregen 2, use the Key, and voila! You will get lots of info and a few items: the sentience notation device and the signal deflector. 23. Fix the Mycons Talk to a precursor and then use the plasma regroover on the Mycon world. Now all Mycons are friendly green ones. You should have gotten the Plasma Regroover from your scientists right near the beginning of the game. 24. Get the K'tang to join Get a missile from the Daks for the true name, and use it on the K'tang King (The Doogs will tell you where this is; it is the only K'tang colony you can find to this point). The K'tang will then be forced to join and give you valuable info. 25. Turn the Daktaklakpak back into scrub bots I THINK You can find the needed device at Alula 1, a rainbow world (to find out how, see Clean/Explore Rainbow Worlds). You might also need to talk to the Precursors. Just turn the device on, and every Dak will now be a harmless scrub bot. Make sure you get all the info you can first! 26. Get to the Ploxis Precursor Vessel To do this you need to find the Ploxis rebels and ships. To find the ships, get the K'tang to ally with you, and find out that there are Ploxis ships at Pauguk 4, which now becomes available. To find the rebels, talk to the Utwig after the Ultron has been completely repaired for coordinates to the Quasispace portal in the Xipe system. Kill the Dak there, and make sure you get the Sentience Collator which your scientists will find in the debris if you wait there. Examine the Ploxis, and put them in a ship. Now you can use them to get to Highpoint. I think I might have gotten the coordinates to Highpoint from two different sources (Utwig and Chmmr?) Once you get there, you need to go into orbit with the Ploxis vessel amd dump the antimatter you collected. 27. Build the Sentience Collector You need 4 items. You find the Ebon Hinge in the Muhlifain system with the Orz. You get the Sentience notation Device from the Precursor. You get the Sentience Collator from the Dak guarding the Ploxis rebels. Finally, you get the sentience thresher from the Heralds after you have beaten them. Just wait for them to appear at the galactic core in the highpoint system. Once you do all this, wait for your scientists to tell you about the collector, and then combine all 4 parts. Now go around and collect energy from all the races you can. I was unsuccessful at collecting sentience from the following races: Owa, K'tang, and Kohr-Ah, some for obvious reasons. The rest should donate willingly. 28. Misc Help If you are stuck and can't get anything to happen, make sure you talk to every alien race that you can. Explore some star systems, get every artifact you can, and turn the clock up and wait a while. I will, in due time, include with each task exactly what causes each event or response, but this will take time. If you have waited long enough and you feel like something should have happened, email me and maybe I can help. The game DOES have bugs. Complete Tables of Artifacts/Items NOTE: a (*) means that the system is not available at the start of the game Ship Improvements Race Location Effect Race Location Effect much larger Chmmr (*) Nyx faster Pkunk Janus 6 crew 2 turning rate complement faster higher Clairconctlar Benten 5 weapon Spathi Helios 4 maximum recharge rate thrust faster energy Doog Brona 6 higher Syreen Fomalhaut regeneration energy level 9 rate Exquivan Ceres 5 larger crew Ur-Quan Arcadia 5 faster firing complement rate faster higher energy Harika Ettenrub weapon rate Utwig Mahakala storage 2 and turning 5 rate capacity Human Horus 7 higher Vux Tractorus lower turning energy level 3 rate (!?) higher energy Mycon Hypnus 3 lower energy Vyro-Ingo Vesta 1 storage consumption capacity higher Orz Salacia larger crew Xchagger Zaniah 3 maximum 7 complement thrust Owa Morpheus larger crew 4 complement Items Each of these will be linked to the proper section as soon as the entire FAQ is finished. NOTE: (race) means that the item is gained through conversation with that race Item Location Use Antimatter Containment Grid (Doog) Neutralize Ploxis shield Antimatter Exploration Allow operation of Owa Vehicle (Owa) Scoop Bifurcator (Daktaklakpak) Split Chmmr Brass Ratchet (VUX) Fix Ultron second time Chenjesu (Scientists) Recombine Chmmr Comatose Yorn (Harika) Save Harika Combined Matrix (Scientists) Combine VUX and Vyro-Ingo Conc Rock Enkidu 4C Get Clairconctlar to ally Daktaklakpak Language Communicate with Key (Scientists) Daktaklakpak Daktaklakpak Re-initialization Alula 1 Reset the Daktaklakpak thinger Ebon Hinge (*) Muhlifain 2 Part of Sentience Collector Ivory Sheath Caduceus 4 Repair Ultron K'tang Missile (Daktaklakpak) Force K'tang into alliance Marble Flange (Spathi) Repair Ultron Mmrnmhrm (Scientist) Recombine Chmmr Mother Ark Control Unit Calypso 1 Recombine Chmmr Ortog (Xchagger) Undevolve Precursor at CUD Owa Antimatter Scoop (Owa) Collect antimatter from Rainbow Worlds Plate Crystal Nebusta 1 Repair Ultron Ploxis Rebels (*) QSF 2 Access to Highpoint system Plasma Regroover (Scientists) Fix Mycon Red Spiral Rail Antaeus 1 Retrieve to get Lk to trust you Sentience Collator (*) Fight with Dak Part of Sentience at QSF 2 Collector Sentience Energy Collect Sentience Energy Collector (Scientists) (duh) Sentience Notation Part of Sentience Device (Precursor) Collector Sentience Thresher (Scientists) Part of Sentience Collector Signal Deflector (Precursor) Retrieve to get Lk to REALLY trust you Sun Device (Lk) Recombine Chmmr True Name Anshar 3 Trade with Daktaklakpak for information/items Ultron (Utwig) Fix to get Utwig happy Variance Key (Daktaklakpak) Operate CUD VUX Encrustation Matrix (Scientists) Combine with Vyro-Ingo Matrix Vyro-Ingo Encrustation Matrix (Scientists) Combine with VUX matrix Xchagger Absorber (Scientists) Save Xchaggers/Harika Xchagger Eradication Kill Xchaggers, save Serum (Scientists) Harika Xchagger Ship Hives (Xchagger) Contain rescued Xchaggers Colony Location Table Key: (*) - The system is not accessible at the beginning of the game ($) - The system and colony are later destroyed by IDF (+) - The system does not have a real colony Race Colonies Chmmr Hypnus 2 Clairconctlar Cronos 7 Enkidu 7 Daktaklakpak (+) Morgoth Adapa 1 Cerberus 2 Chloris 1 Doog Izanami 2 Melpomene 4 Izanami 2 Exquivan Anshar 3 Harika ($) Eltanin 5 Gienah 1 Typhon 3 Human Helios 3 K'tang Argus 5 (*) Pauguk 4 Lk (*) QSG 2 Mycon Janus 8 Orz (*) Muhlifain 7 Owa (*) Mnemosyne 1 Pkunk Arcadia 6 Spathi Goshen 4 Syreen Astarte 1 Ur-Quan Velpunia 6 Utwig Fomalhaut 5 VUX Salacia 2 Vyro-Ingo Izanagi 5 Xchagger (*)(+) Zosma Ship Starting Locations Special Cases: There is at least one Daktaklakpak ship at every anomaly, sometimes more (some are noted below). A New Daktaklakpak appears in the Morgoth system periodically, in addition to the 5 that are already there There are 2 Owa ships at every Rainbow World which will always attack you if you talk to them, unless you talk to the Reefmaster at Owa Prime first. THe Exquivans will attack you immediately from their colony until you convince them not to later on, but don't have any additional ships Systems are followed by number of ship in parenthesis Race Ships Clairconctlar Cecrops 2 Cybele 2 Rendnil 2 Secinus 3 (3) (4) (5) (6) Antaeus 1 Calypso1 Cassandra 3 Ganesha 1 Lakshmi 2 (8) (1) (3) (2) (3) Daktaklakpak Morgoth 5 Nekkar 1 Penates 1 Scylla 1 Terebelum 4 (5) (1) (3) (1) (2) Themis 1 Victoria (4) 1 (1) Doog Osiris 1 Porrima 3 Xochipilli 3 (4) (5) (3) Harika Aurora 3 Hanuman 5 Kentaurus 1 Merpenet Yggdrasil 2 (5) (2) (2) 1 (2) (3) Besta 3 Circinus Daikoku 1 Euterpe 1 (3) 2 (3) (7) (3) Indra 1 (2) K'tang Izanami 3 Minerva 3 Rudra 1 (5) (8) Moirai 1 (2) (5) Ploxis (*) Pauguk 4 (5) Vyro-Ingo Caduceus 4 (3) Xchagger Zosma 6 (1) Battles (in approximate order) I am not the best pilot, and the following strategies are probably not the best or most fun, but they work. If something "attacks you", that means it finds you in whatever system you're in and fights you there. * 1 Daktaklakpak attacks at the very beginning of the game (day 3), and you have to fight many more. They are too numerous and very easy to beat, so I didn't write evey location down. The easiest and fastest way to beat them is to use a Doog when you get them, but before that just use your Colony ship, holding down the special. They will charge enough that you can kill them fast enough. By the way, ever try leaving Helios REAL fast before the Dak gets there? If you come back afterwards, it will just be sitting there, and it won't even attack unless you talk to it. Worthless, but neat. * You may have to fight the VUX at the Mycon homeworld if you are there at the right time. The VUX appear every ten days starting with day 31, I think. You will get a distress call every one of these days at around 150.00 on the clock, probably because of the time it takes for the VUX ships to reach Janus 8. If you are at the colony before they get there, they will attack, 3 at a time. See the later VUX incident for strategy if you want it * The Clairconctlar will attack with 3 ships sometime before the Eltanin system collapses. I like to use an Ur-Quan (preferably upgraded) and just work away with fighters. Blast them when they get too close and as long as you aim right at them, they should warp away. * A Crux fleet attacks as soon as you finish studying the collapsed Eltanin system. It consists of the following: 2 Daktaklakpak, 2 Doog, 2 Clairconctlar, 5 Harika, 5 K'tang, 2 Ploxis. My favorite ship to use is still the Ur-Quan since it can pretty much slaughter anything. The Chmmr works against most ships too, but the Dak run away too much and are a pain in the butt, and the Clair do quite well against the Chmmr sometimes. * You have to fight 2 VUX to regain the Ultron at Erato 2 (?). VUX ships are slow, so just use something fast enough to get away from them initially and procede to kick butt. * The Exquivans attack you with whatever they have until you convince them to stop. They never built another ship before I did this, so I am not sure if they will actually attack you more than once. I used Utwigs or Ur-Quans against them and did well enough. * You have to kill the Lk (3) at the Quasispace Portal F before you can get to Haven. Most ships do nicely against the Lk. * The Ploxis Precursor vessel is at Highpoint. A Chmmr will kill this ship in about 5 seconds. * The Orz attack you shortly after you defeat the Ploxis Precursor ship. There are about 15 ships, I think, maybe less. I don't really remember how I killed them, but it seems to me that a Doog would be good. * The last forced battle in the game is the Herald Armada (15 ships) that appears at the Galactic Core (Highpoint system). They are fairly powerful, but very slow and their fuel regenerates slowly. You'll never guess what ship I used. ;) Once I got a bead on a Herald ship, I just unleashed about 10 shots. Since the Herald ship is so long and slow, I generally had an easy target while it was trying to turn around to fire at me, even while cloaked. Maintained by Jeffrey M Colletti