Late-Game

Powerplay and Pledging allegiance

The Balance of Power

See ‘About the Game’ above for an introduction to power play, but the steps most want to know is how to efficiently unlock modules and what they do. Follow the steps in this roll-out:

⁞⁞⁞ Earning Merits … Unlock Power Play modules ⁞⁞⁞

Earning Power Play Merits:
If you’re earning merits to ONLY unlock a Power Play module running cargo is the easiest and most efficient way to do so. Using this method you’ll gather 750 tons of a specific cargo, that you’ll determine once you’ve chosen the system you’ll be heading to.
If you are are targeting unlocking Prismatic Shields, Aisling Duval will ask you to take PP commodities as Propaganda from Controlled systems and deposit them in the systems in which it is expanding, in order to sell them for Merit. Here’s the TL;DR to earn enough merits for module unlock:

  1. ⁠Pledge to a power
  2. ⁠Wait three weeks
  3. ⁠Earn 750 merits During the fourth week, ie. Do the delivery right before reset at your 4th week ⁎
  4. Promotion in rank will be granted after Powerplay cycles (Thursday 07:00 HRS U.T.C weekly), powerplay module will unlock
  5. ⁠Go on Shop spree ⁑
  6. Leave power
  7. Wait half a day
  8. Return to step 1. for next power on your list ⁎ Meaning if you pledged on Thursday, Load up a hauler with pamphlets and deliver on Wednesday, Day 27. With a Type-9 Heavy carry 750 tons of power play to reach the requirements to unlock their respected weapons in a single trip. Example, pledging after the system reset, or tick on Thursday, 22 April, means turning in pamphlets on Wednesday, 19 May 2021. ⁑ As you’ll only be able to purchase the module during this window, you’ll want to purchase all you think you’ll ever need. Buy at any station with outfitting.

Powerplay weapon module overview (Video explainer here):

Prismatic Shields (Aisling Duval) Superior shielding at the expense of Higher mass and power draw. Useful for a hauler—where these downsides don’t compromise your outfitting—for the ability to tank more damage, but for exploring there are lighter shields and for combat the recharge speed of bi-weaves keep you in action longer without having to bug out.

Cytoscramblers (Archon Delaine) have a limited range of 1000m, they are brutal if you like to get in close with a fast pitching ship and have a plethora of C1 hardpoints. Paired with a weapon that applies the Corrosive effect they become a significant source of damage. Can also be modded to cause your opponent to suffer random malfunctions for extra giggles.

Enforcer Cannons (Pranav Antal) essentially provide a Class 1.5 multi-cannon equivalent on a Class 1 mount, but are only available as small, fixed weapons with a longer spin-up time so are harder to master than gimballed. Use against large ships, not fast nimble small ships where Rail guns are generally preferred. Engineer overcharged and/or corrosive for hull damage buff (this does not stack).

Packhound Missile Rack (Li Yong-Rui). Each Pack-Hound salvo consists of four lower-strength homing missiles that follow erratic flight paths before closing the distance and converging on the target and so are better at evading Point Defence Turret fire than conventional missiles. Packhounds allow for the relatively easy annihilation of surface modules, bleeding of Module Reinforcement. As engineered with the Drag Munitions effect they limit the targets speed to the equivalent of 0 pips in engines they can provide a hauler with an opportunity to high-wake out of danger.

Pacifier Frag cannons (Zachary Hudson) are accurate shotguns, and even with the penalty to max damage, the much tighter cone of fire leads to far higher practical damage done in more instances.

Advanced Plasma Accelerators (Denton Patreus) do less damage per shot than their normal counterparts in exchange for a higher RoF coupled with lower drain and heat generated per shot leading to an altogether more forgiving weapon.

Imperial Hammers (Arissa Duval) are burst fire railguns but need a steady hand to really get the most out of, and can be considered the corollory of Advanced Plasma Accelerators.

Containment Missiles (Yuri Grom) The Containment Missile’s FSD disruption effect lasts longer than the dumbfire Missile Racks with the FSD Interrupt Experimental Effect and can be engineered with another effect on top.

Player-Factions

Build a presence in the galaxy

Joining or starting a player faction means dedicating time to shift the power balance between factions and having in-game representation to push the group’s agenda and expand across the stars. A note of caution: It is an endeavour that runs in parallel to other game progress, is largely impenetrable, and many decide to steer clear. The basic concept is sketched out below:

As tracked on the mission board, each system has a number of factions all of whom vie to be the controlling faction in the system. Influence changes in—both NPC and player—factions are brought about by player activity. Influence is not related to your faction reputation. Missions, trade, selling data, bounty hunting, smuggling, murder and fighting in Conflict Zones, cause positive and negative changes in influence of minor factions, with higher changes in low population systems. In addition to influence changes, player actions also result in state changes. Boom state—triggered by the movement of the security and economy sliders for example—increases the benefits of trade missions completed for the minor faction, whilst War—triggered when a non-controlling faction reaches 60%—creates Conflict Zones and only combat missions or actions provide any benefit to the minor faction.

Every 24 hours, each tick the BGS calculates the net points for each faction State and influence changes and converts them into a new influence value.

Bear in mind, the community can only offer best-estimates of the precise workings of the BGS ‘black box,’ which FDev can and do change unannounced.

Join our expansion effort to project the Fatherhood Ethos across the galaxy

While the BGS can seem daunting, our team at The Fatherhood are always available to share their understanding. Missions can be varied – from securing victory in a Civil War, running missions to drive faction influence, to more illicit activities such as smuggling or piracy. Find out more how to contribute to The Fatherhood Faction, here. and for general BGS live help, join the E D B G S Discord.

Anti-Xeno (AX) Combat

Evade or take on the Thargoids

AX Starting out

Thargoid ships—synthesized from advanced organic-based technology—include the Scout and Interceptor. The Interceptor comes in several variants; the Cyclops, Basilisk, Medusa, and Hydra.

You can fight Thargoid Scouts in the early-mid game with decently maneuverable ship, some decontamination limpets and 4x AX multicannons—no unlock required. If you want to fight the larger, higher-threat Thargoids, unlocking the engineering for an AX ship will take much longer than unlocking the weapons. See this section on unlocking Guardian weapons, they are actually pretty straightforward to unlock and it takes maybe a handful of hours to unlock everything useful.

Thargoid Hyperdiction

Thargoids will Hyperdict you at a flat 20% rate if you’re marked (interacted with Thargoid Commodities) or they have made an Incursion in the system you’re jumping to or from.

⁞⁞⁞ Thargoid Hyperdiction … ‘When and how to evade’ ⁞⁞⁞

If you have interacted with Thargoid Commodities, such as a Thargoid Probe, Sensor or Heart, you are marked for Hyperdiction. If you have not interacted with them and the System you are in is not in a [Thargoid] Incursion state, you will not get Hyperdicted.

A Hyperdiction is quite different from a normal Pirate Interdiction. 1. You cannot evade a Hyperdiction. If you’re marked any jump made into or through Thargoid Hotspots [indicated by presence of Non-Human Signal Sources] can, 20% of the time, trigger a Hyperdiction. A Hyperdiction just … happens.

During a Hyperdiction, 1 to 4 Thargoid Interceptors will appear and one of them will deploy its Shutdown Field. This will immobilize your ship completely for 30 seconds. During this time one of the Thargoids will scan your ship. If you are then found carrying Thargoid or Guardian commodities, the Thargoids will react. If you are not, they will wake out of the instance.

You can use the Shutdown Field Neutralizer to negate the Shutdown field, which will cause the “Lead” Thargoid to deploy its Swarm in preparation for combat- but it will not attack, and instead continue with the scanning behavior.

If you have Thargoid Commodities, the Thargoids will flash Yellow, and similar to Pirate behaviour, demand that you drop the Commodities so they can scoop them and leave. Ignoring this for 15 seconds will cause the Thargoids in the instance to deploy their swarms and attack.

If you have Guardian Commodities, the Scanning Thargoid will flash red and about 5 seconds later will fire a volley of cannon fire at you, after which, all Thargoids in the instance will enter normal combat state and deploy their swarms. If you drop the Guardian Commodities during this window, the Interceptor will instead destroy the commodity.

The danger is the Shutdown Field. With Thargoid Commodities, there is a grace period, as the 15 second timer starts coinciding with your ship rebooting. When holding Guardian commodities , it’s as soon as the scan completes—being that it’s much shorter and starts sooner, it can and will often leave you with very little time to react.

To juke a Hyperdiction while carrying Guardian Commodities, you want to Shutdown Field Neutralize when you see ‘Energy Surge Detected,’ begin an out-of-system jump—a high-wake—FA-Off to turn away, and boost away. Use Silent running and apply some downward thrust. An Interceptor travels at up to 530m/s (Basilisk variant)– with 450 m/s being their common speed (Cyclops, Medusa, and Hydra Variants). They don’t have a ‘Did I say you can leave’ behaviour, and won’t attack you, but SR does disable their tracking– they’re Gimbal scrubs, though Chaff doesn’t work against them.

Xenological-Power
‘Thargoids’ (Cmdr Beale)

TL;DR if you want to engage the Thargoids in combat: Engineer your ship for very good thermals, and stack heatsink launchers as Thargoids lock onto your ship’s heat signature. Remember as a squadron member you can access AX ship-builds and many more at the Fatherhood Shipyard. If you can keep your heat below 20% and keep 800m away from the Interceptor and orbit the ship avoiding central fire, you can evade triggering the Caustic Missiles and EMP attack mechanics and avoid significant amounts of damage. Watch this ‘Cold Mechanics’ | Thargoid Combat Tutorial–For how to dodge bullets and skip mechanics in Thargoid combat! Or this Thargoid Combat Tutorial series.

If you want to learn more, join the Anti-Xeno Initiative Discord.