Latest revision as of 14:30, 18 June 2020

Welcome to Star Sonata! You're one of the thousand people who have begun this game and begun to enjoy it. However, like all of us from the new player in their Zebucart or the endgame Lion Berserker cruising around perilous space, you probably need help. I'm undertaking the task of writing the complete guide to Star Sonata, and hope you'll find what you need in here. Of course, since new content is added every day, this will most likely be out of date soon, so if you see any blatant errors please feel free to fix them. Note to editors: If you decide to edit this guide, please be conscientious (aware) of your changes. A lot of work by me and others went into this, and if you’re not sure on something, just don’t change it. Also, please sign your name under the editor’s list using the four tildes or else I’ll remove your changes. This helps me keep track of user contributions and will allow me to get in touch with you.

Since this guide is so large, I suggest either utilizing the links below or the Control+F browser search function that will allow you to search for specific keywords in these pages. I hope you find what you're looking for, or if you don't, please feel free to throw a PM my way if I'm on.

Sincerely, L0L<Same Person>Wikilol 20:35, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Misc.

Editor’s List

Wikilol 01:33, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Thecrazygamemaster 03:28, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

blacker2359 12:34, 27 April 2011 (CST)

1337fed 19:02, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

Comments

The Beginning

Summary of Star Sonata

Star Sonata, at its heart, is a Persistent Sci- fi Top Down Space Fighting/Trading MMO. Despite some people’s self- centered nature, the entire game doesn’t pause when you log off. At the time of this guide’s incarnation, around 1200 accounts were subscribed to Star Sonata. However nerdy and complex as this game would seem, it’s relatively friendly to new players unlike games such as EVE online. People play the game to have fun and relax, and even though there’s been a fair share of ragequits over the game most people come back after a day or two. Star Sonata has a complex community of players that are both friendly and hostile, pirate and merchant, hardcore and weekend gamer, hacker and player. Mostly, people are available to help new players as it’s not a very time consuming job: easy tasks for higher levels include clearing the Rumble galaxies and helping a player get a difficult skill. The Rumble Galaxies is where players level their Piloting skill in order to use better ships. The Rumble Galaxies are made so the player wanting to level will need help from other players.

Star Sonata is set apart from other MMO’s mainly, in L0L’s opinion, via its use of Bot Ships, or "Bots". While there are many defining characteristics that add enjoyable moments to the game, such as the 2d gameplay style and fun playerbase, I’ve seen no other game with anything comparable to bots. Running while you’re offline, trade bots can make you billions. When you’re online, combat bots can dish out incredible damage. Instead of fighting the macro war, Star Sonata embraced it and now a huge part of the game is based around these AI bots. Called bots simply to make it easy, these bots are programmable ships with a gearlist of the player’s choosing that have different settings one may want to use.

The Tutorials

So you're a new player. You just spawned in The Nexus and you find yourself confused with all the Ships flying around. Are you in danger? No, you're perfectly safe unless you attack them, which you will in a few moments. To move your ship around, use the A key to turn left, W key to accelerate, D key to turn right, and S key to slow down. You may also use the arrow keys, but it is not recommended. You can use both to dominate the whole of your keyboard though! If The Nexus hasn't been seriously modified since this guide was written, there should be a base to the upper right of where you started. I suggest docking and beginning the Mission there. Read the mission dialogue and then begin the mission. To undock you can click the "Undock" button in the upper right corner of the window that appeared when you docked. First, I suggest looking around the tabs in the top of the docking window and seeing what they do. The General tab includes Missions, a base introduction/ description, and the current status of the Emperor position. The Trading tab will show a subwindow beneath it with many different types of things for sale, but the station where you are docked only sells a few things. To understand what these things do, please keep reading or skip to the Ships and Fits section. The bulletin board contains player messages and top teams/players, but this will most likely confuse you for now, because it will be out of context. The Ships tab includes your docked ships and their names. Finally, the Skills tab will contain different skills you can train, but for now you don't have any Skill Points as you have not gained any Experience points and therefore no Levels.

Alright, listen to the missions and the small paperclip- like popup in the upper left corner and you should have a good basic understanding of the game. I highly suggest paying attention to this for the first 50 Levels or so.

- WASD- ship movement controls
- R- Docks
- X- Enages selected item popup menu
- Tab- Cycles through everything your radar can see in the system
- Z- Cycles through player ships your radar can see in the system
- Q- Cycles through objects of the same type as the original target your radar can see in the system
- T- Opens chat bar
- G- Engages tractor
- Spacebar- Fires selected weapon
- Numberkeys 1 through 5- Engages hotkeys
- U- Suicides (there's a conformation popup window requiring text entering so you're safe and cannot try to scam in a Support Ticket that you accidentally suicided and lost gear/ credits.
- F- Warps through a wormhole
- Enter/ Return- Enters text
- C- Scoops the selected target/ nearest target if nothing's selected

For now, you don't need to chat. However, if you're REALLY curious, you can go into Event chat by clicking on it and enter /help to see the commands. Anything with a slash in front of it will be interpreted as a command and therefore not entered in the chat when completed. To talk, either click the chat or press "t" and enter text, then press "enter/return" to enter chat into the menu.

The missions at the AI Base should have enough information to complete if you read them, however, to equip or unequip items you must double click on them. To unequip Weapons, Shields, Energy, and Engines you must be docked at a base. After completing these missions, you're off through the wormhole to the next galaxy. Things get a bit tougher here as you are exposed to Mini Volcoms that do more damage. For now, dock at the AI bases and see the missions. You should earn enough money to get a new Ship soon, such as a Phunka.dll or Roswell. Complete the missions here and become at least level 3 and you can leave these two tutorial galaxies and enter a slightly more dangerous one... The Nexus.

The Nexus

Welcome to The Nexus! It's here that you'll train until you're ready to enter the real universe. Yes, there's more after this... in fact ALOT more. There's so much content that it would take months to explore just one universe, and then you'd be completely thrown off by the Universe Reset which happens every 3-6 months. However this is all in your future!. For now we're worrying about the basics. The first few missions will help you get to know the controls as listed above. Follow the instructions in every mission and you should be fine. After a while you will find yourself in The Nexus (The mission hub for the starting area) and docked at a station named Nexus Station. It is time to worry about Zebucarts (your ship) and Space Rat (AIs or enemies). You should probably do the mission "A better ship" and upgrade to a Heavy Zebucart, when that is done you should accept the missions "Ahab's training" and "Rat Attack". Both missions tells you to kill space rats. What are does you might think, you see those innocent little green/brown monsters everywhere? Those are space rats. Whereas many AI may act just downright silly sometimes, Space Rats ride the short bus of Star Sonata. They don't shoot consistently and you can often kill them without them even firing.

See The Nexus Missions for a complete list of missions found here.

You may want to begin leveling to gain Skill points for skills. I then suggest you use the following ship fit (ship and equipment):

Heavy Zebucart (ship name)
Using a Guardian (shield), Sebastapol (weapon), Coalfurnace (engine), Cold Fusion (energy), with this ship fit you should be able to kill every rat, even Rattie Moe. But you won't see him until later. For now do the missions in the Nexus and soon you will warp into the galaxy to your upper left called Tunnels and Droppings and kill the rats there. You will soon be about level 5-7 (if not continue to kill space rats). Then, warp into the next galaxy that's inside Tunnels and Droppings called Pellets and Waste and kill those AI. When you get the mission for it, kill Rattie Moe. To kill these AI, you should get behind them and shoot as they turn very poorly.

All the while, do the missions that ask you to kill the space rats. These should provide you with money and the energy "Old Lady's Furnace" and shield "Old Man's Block". Use these as they're better than AI Base gear. You should now have a decent understanding of the game and start the other nexus missions at the AI base. Next, warp into the next galaxy and begin missions there. I now suggest upgrading weapons on your ship and learning other tactics of fighting, such as dodging (maneuvering to dodge bullets) and kiting (flying out and turning around to shoot at an AI while luring it out. You should keep the AI at a range so you are out of the AIs range and this cannot shoot you, whereas you can shoot it. The Magcannon which have good range will work incredibly well at this tactic, but you are welcome to play as you want). Don't attack the Cadets as they are teamed and will therefore all shoot at you, but feel free to complete any mission. The AI bases has many missions which are all quite lucrative to complete, but the missions with green color at the end are optional and usually not worth doing. If you haven't done so, get a Cadet. This might be pricy but will be a good ship until you can procure a Hotrod. Level until about level 10 and train the skills offered at the Nexus base until you get all the skills there to a maximum, or at least as high as possible. Different bases offer different skills to train. Buy equipment as you see fit, but the Tech level is the skill level required to use the equipment. Ships = Piloting skill, Energy [bank] = Electrical Engineering, Shield = Shielding, Weaponry = Weapon, Engine = Engine, Item = Equipment, Scoop, ..., Radar = Radar and so forth. You can experiment but important right now is shield bank (protection) and shield regeneration, and energy bank (reservoir) and energy regeneration.

When leaving the Nexus (Starting area), you should have at least 5 skill points to get Piloting 5 and therefore be able to use a Hotrod. After completing the missions in the Nexus, you should go into Deep Space. Then, by using the techniques you've gained, kill the AI in Deep Space and level to about level 15. You should now have enough money for a Hotrod (around 10 million credits) and should head to a galaxy named Sol. In the galaxy Deep Space there is a wormhole which will lead you closer to Sol. The reason the guide can't explain exactly where to go is because the Universe Map and a lot of the galaxies (Solar systems) gets randomly generated every universe reset (Every 3-4 months). The Nexus always stays the same though.

After the Nexus

Welcome to the real universe! Or rather a very small fraction of it. You’re in Sol, the social and commercial hub of any Universe. Here you can find many AI Bases, Missions, and other players. Maybe you’ll even see me sometime, although you’ll need a good Radar. For now, just fly over to a base (for example Earth Station) and acquire Piloting 5. With the money you should have saved, approximately ten million, go and fit out your hotrod. For now ignore Augmenters, and just put the best Engine, Energy, Shield and a MagCannon I or a MagCannon II, depending on what you can fit according to your Weapon skill.

From warp 1 and onwards all the galaxies you can travel to is not visible in your map before you explore them. This might be a bit frustrating when doing missions or you need to go to a specific location to train a skill. However if you join a team and land at their HQ, you will receive the collective map as explored by the team members that has docked at the station. There is thus a good idea to ask for a starter team you can join in All chat at this point, but it is not necessary in order to continue playing.

You should probably learn about levelling, fitting your ship, classes, and missions, so keep on reading!

Levelling

One of the most popular pastimes of Star Sonata, levelling is the killing of AI that have a higher level than you in order to gain Experience points and therefore gain levels and with them skill points. As you can probably tell, Skill Points are used to gain skill levels. The amount of Skill Points (abbreviated SP) is equal to the level of the skill you are trying to train, such as level 17 Weaponry will require 17 SP. Some skills do not follow this rule and have a constant usage of SP that never changes, such as Drone Deployment and more.

Levelling is important to advance your character, at the low levels, you can quickly level up by Kiting (remember that technique you learned in The Nexus hopefully?). Kill AI in Blue Outpost, killing them until about level 30-40. After this, more levelling will require you to gain Warp Navigation 1 to access higher level AIs. You can get a higher level in Warp Navigation by:

• Get this by flying to Paxius galaxy and completing the first three missions there. It is the mission chain that ask you to explore the universe and find certain galaxies and/or do some stuff. To speed up the time used to complete of the Paxius mission you might want to buy an additional Hotrod and outfit it for fast travelling. Example on travel build: Hotrod (Travelling).
• Use a Blue Aether at the station Earth Central in Sol and one million credits to gain Warp Navigation 1.
  • To get a Blue Aether kill a Space Blue Alpha (located in Blue Outpost or Wolf 359 among other places) and scoop the Blue Aether it drops.
  • Or use a mining weapon to harvest the content of the blue asteroids in Blue Outpost (Destroy also normal asteroids to trigger more asteroid spawns)

If you need directions to a galaxy ask in “All” chat: “How do I get to X?”. With Warp Navigation 1 you can pass through the second level of Wormholes which takes you into galaxies that will be marked as blue dots on your Universe Map. Here you will find the fiery Infernos and Goblins that provide easy levels for everyone.

Fitting your ship

Before you travel out to kill those AIs you may want to fit your ship and your bots(Highly recommended). At this point I have no idea what your skills are, but I hope you followed my advice and got them to their maximum level at an AI Base.

When choosing equipment it is especially important to focus on a weapons energy cost pr. shot and compare this to the energy regeneration level. For example the energy bank ColdFusion which you started with has 58 energy every 1,2 seconds and the IonCannon uses 45 energy pr. shot and fire one projectile every 0,75 seconds. For the example used here it means that the energy bank will slowly be emptied because the weapon uses 72 energy pr. 1,2 seconds, but the energy regenerates only 58 energy pr. 1,2 seconds. A lot of the weapons uses even more energy and it will make you wait for energy regeneration rather than firing and killing AIs. So the overall DPS will be much less then stated in the weapons description. You are now introduced to the math of StarSonata (SS) which makes the game fun (at least for me).

Piloting is one of the most important skills as it allows you to use better ships. You should get a Hotrod and new equipment (gear) at Sol. Link to an example of what equipment to use on your Hotrod: Hotrod (Budget) or Hotrod+ (No limit). The +version of equipment is about 10% better than the normal ones and is only available for P2P players in Free Market.

All I can really tell you is to put MagCannon II’s and Medium Lasers on your Paximinus Bots (Example: Paximinus Build).

To get the Remote Control skill level 2, needed for Paximinus bots, you need to bring one Blue Whisper pr. level (Blue Whisper drops from Space Blue Alpha Scouts) to Lavanite. Remote control costs 3 skill points per level to train. Max the skill at Lavanite (level 2) and then bring Blue Aethers to Glass Matrix (Max level 4).

I suggest setting a Danger Factor limit of 60-70 because then you won’t be surprised by hostile Goblin AI’s and possibly killed. Danger Factor can be seen in the universe map and the limit is manually enforced by choosing not to jump to any galaxies with a Danger Factor over 60-70.

It’s time to level! Fly out and use the speed of your Hotrod to your advantage by Dancing out of the Inferno’s range and allow your bots to get in close and hit it with their lasers while you pelt it at distance with your Magcannon. You’ll find they drop credits and sometimes their own gear, so scoop this and sell it when possible. This should be a steady source of income and levels until about 50-60, when the Experience you gain takes a huge dive and killing them takes ten or more per level.

Classes

Now you know it’s time to move on to the terrifying Goblins, however before you tackle these monsters, it’s a good idea to learn about the classes:

• Fleet Focus: Very slow, high tank, lower damage:
  • Fleet Commander: This is the easiest class, by far. Not only do the ships take huge amounts of damage and yet remain unscathed, it gives bonuses to bots, which will be your main source of damage at low levels. Definitely choose this class for a first character. They also get giant bonuses to Radiation damage with the Radiation Expert skill.
  • Gunner: Somewhat more difficult, instead of giving the “control” bonuses Fleet Commanders get to bots, fighters, and the huge bonus to Radiation Damage, gunners shoot high- damage missiles at their target while their bots do large amounts of Mining damage. This is a more difficult class and while it still has it’s perks FC can’t be beat at low levels.
• Support Focus: slow, tank, logistics:
  • Shield Monkey: Masters of the shield, ShM’s get large bonuses to healing and shield. At the endgame, some ShM’s have over half a million shields with 1k/s regeneration, and can dish out upwards of 30k Heal Per Second (HPS). ShM’s heal their bots while those bots do damage to the AI. This class is difficult for low levels and I don’t suggest it as a first character, but is one of the best classes for leveling.
  • Engineer: Engineers are the logistic masters of the game, receiving huge bonuses to Tractor Beams and Freighters. Rather than using bots, Engineers at the endgame prefer to just use Drones as their main source of Damage is drones. Engineer class (called DM’s, or Drone Masters as their main DPS are their drones) is a popular alternative to FC at low levels.
• Combat Focus: slow, high damage:
  • Berserker: DO NOT CHOOSE THIS CLASS. You may see many new players fail at Star Sonata as they chose to be a “zerk” and found they had neither the skills, equipment, or the money to fund it. Berserkers suffer from being one of the most difficult classes in the game as it requires huge amounts of money and expensive gear to power multifiring weapons, and even then they require Engineers to transfer electricity to them and ShM’s to tank for them. However, Zerks do HUGE amounts of damage at the endgame, and therefore are primarily used to kill Ubers.
  • Sniper: The sniper class, difficult at low levels, is one of the most powerful classes in the game. See The Sniper Class Dispute about reasons why. Still, this class is useful at later levels but doesn’t receive bonuses to Bots or Drones and there are no decent Physical weapons at low levels, so they suffer from being weak at lower levels.
• Recon Focus: Fast, stealthy
  • Speed Demon: SD’s as they are called are the fastest people in the game. Reaching the speed cap of 700, Speed Demons fire quickly and are stealthy if made to be so. A very fun class and incredibly powerful in Player vs. Player combat, they are a popular alternative to FC or DM.
  • Seer: Nearly impossible to see, seers don’t have massive tank or incredible speed, but rather slip through the ether unseen. Doing incredible damage per shot and being able to one- hit things is the hallmark of seers, but they suffer from being killed almost instantly if their target has Drones, Bots, or if they just don’t one hit it.

I suggest choosing Fleet Commander (FC), the class skills can be trained at Lyceum and you can respec (change class) later in the game for a price.

We left off with you in a Hotrod, but now with Fleet Focus skills now acquired and those Paximinus bots feeling the power of those bonuses, head off to find your first Goblin to challenge. Goblins are incredibly resistant to the damage types: Surgical, Laser, and Mining damage and you may find yourself dead if you do not use another type of damage. Since the good old Magcannon II does energy damage, you should be fine. You should now have 4-5 Paximinus bots fitted with Medium Lasers, Magcannon II’s, and the best gear you can fit (Example: Paximinus Build). Kill goblins until about level 80-90, and then head off to Paxius and get Warp Navigation 2 for the next part of the Universe.

If you chose Fleet Commander, which is highly recommended as a starter class and levelling class, you should use an Earthforce Frigate (EFF) which is an Tech 10 Capital Ship acquired for 30m at Beta Antares. Using the EFF and Paximinus bots, you can level to around 250-350 without problem. To use the EFF you need to get Piloting level 10, and to do that you need to clear Rumble, but you will REQUIRE help with this as Rumble galaxies are very difficult to clear solo for their intended levels. The moment you jump in to the galaxy there will be 20-30 ships automatically attacking you.

Swap out those MagCannon II’s for MagCannon III’s and the Medium Lasers for Mining Laser III’s, go grab yourself an EFF with dual Hestia augmenters and the best shield possible, and kill Parsleys and Basils until level 300. Example on an EFF Build. I know that encompasses a huge amount of time and it’s incredibly repetitive. Feel free to go try a few Dungeon Galaxies (DGs) in your spare time, but be warned that a DG in a DF50 galaxy can be a lot more dangerous then you might think… You might want to go back to one of the lowest DF galaxes for example Sol if there is a DG there and try incrementally harder dungeons from there. The boss (last) level in DGs drop special items and might give you either better equipment or credits when sold. Especially if a Hydroponics or Multifiring Combat Controlbot drops you will get a you financial boost, use [/mc Hydroponics] etc. to find the user base with the highest buying price to sell the loot.

Making Money

Now, you’ll need a lot of money to get this far, around 100-250m credits if you can believe it. There are several ways to make money, but at this stage I suggest making use of those Radiation bonuses and capturing ships in order to sell them.

• Capturing: Buying a Prismatic Conversion (Must be bought from a user base, can be found by typing [/mc Prismatic Conversion] in the chat. MC stands for market check.), and capturing Infernos to sell at Handel’s Cove. They sell for around 11m apiece and a determined capper can easily take in over 50m an hour. Basically, get the ship’s health low and use a Radiation Weapon for the killing blow. Then shoot it with a Prismatic Conversion to capture it, if it didn't work it most likely has gear you can’t use or full shields. If it’s still shooting you then hit it again with the Radiation Weapon, because it’s not dead!
• Bases: which are more useful at higher levels, can allow you to base mining operations, defend strategic galaxies, or bring in Billions of credits per day by selling items. Bases really only become viable when you can use Argonaut gear, as Adonis bases die incredibly quickly. Remember to put rations on it!
• DGing: clearing Dungeons and selling the drops is also a huge source of income. I suggest you get acquainted with several good DG’s that both level you and yet steadily drop you good loot to sell.
• Colonies: One of the most boring aspects of Star Sonata, arguably, is setting up and “pumping” colonies. This consists of buying peasants cheaply from an established, older colony and selling them for more then you bought them for to a new colony.

Warp 3

Congratulations if you’ve made it this far! You probably have died several times but upgraded your gear until those Basils are no threat to you, and don’t level you anymore. Now it’s time to get Warp Navigation 3 by doing enough Paxian exploration missions and exchanging the medals you get at the Paxius AI base for Warp Navigation 3. Getting Warp Navigation 3 is a huge milestone for a character as it unlocked the largest layers of space, Warp 3 and Perilous space. For now, you’ll stick to Warp 3 as that’s probably all you can take.

You should still be Fleet Commander, and may have upgraded to an EFC by now. If not, use some of those hoarded skillpoints in Rumble 2 for piloting 16 and buy an Earthforce Cruiser.

• Editor’s note on the Rumble- type galaxies: At the levels the different Rumble galaxies were intended for, they’re incredibly difficult. However, this is an online game, and if you don’t have a team then there’s many players willing to help someone clear Rumble, Rumble 2, Rumble 3, or maybe even Rumble Mumble. L0L would like to thank Shawn_Mccall for getting him Piloting level 20 in Rumble Mumble.

You should know about Augmenters by now, and if not then you’ve probably not made it this far and are just reading ahead. Unlike some games (COUGH COUGH EVE ONLINE COUGH RIGS COUGH COUGH), Augmenters are not “optional”. Instead of adding a small bonus for a huge amount of credits, “Aug” setups determine the use of a ship. There are many types of augs, some dropped, some built, but every aug has a use. A good example of a versatile ship with hundreds of different Aug setups is the Hotrod family of ships. With 5 augmenter slots, these ships can be augged for anything from stealth, capacity, tractor strength, speed, damage, tank, etcetera, etcetera. However, even ships with only two aug slots (for example, most Capital Ships) can be augged. Earthforce Frigates are usually augged for shield and energy bank with Hestia or Hestia+ augs as a result of their relatively low shields, as compared to the rest of the Earthforce capital ships. However, the tech 20 Earthforce Dreadnought is usually augged for resists as the huge bonuses of this ship coupled with good resists can give some, in terms of resisted incoming damage, over one million shields. For Fleet Commanders most augmenters are for tank, or the amount of damage a ship can take before dying, for gunners is a mix of damage and tank (Gunners are disputed as they have been stated to have nothing in common with Fleet Commanders and Capital Ships, yet are still a Fleet Focus class.), for Berserkers a mixture of electricity regeneration, resist, and damage, for Snipers usually range, stealth, and damage, for Seers usually damage and stealth, for Speed Demons usually damage, speed, and electricity regeneration, for Shield Monkeys usually shield bank, regeneration, and healing power, and finally for Engineers a mixture of drone augmenters and ship augmenters. For example, for the purpose of FC leveling with Paximinus or EFF bots, you should use dual Hestia augmenters as neither ship tanks very much.

Anyways, toss dual Exc. Shield (or possibly an Exc. Shield and Exc. Recovery augmenter, if you’re not using some sort of Charger.). With your fleet outfitted to either 2 or 3 EFFs wielding CALCs (t13 full tracking high DPH decent ranged mining weapons for capital ships only), Neutron Laser 3’s (the radiation weapon you should be using before Neutronias on EFF bots) and a full compliment of Fighters or 7 to 8 Paximinus botswith Neutron Laser 3’s (the radiation weapon you should be using on blob bots like this) and Mining Laser 3’s (the mining weapon that’s essential to have on Paximinus bots), you’re ready to conquer Warp 3. Set a Danger Factor Limit of about 165 or so as you may find the occasional roaming Icepick in DF 175+, which WILL KILL YOU AND YOUR BOTS. Basically, just roam while looking for Rosemary or MF Basil ships flying around and killing them when you do. For more consistent leveling, clear a DG room with either of those two AI and then set your bots to “Follow Me”, “Stay Close”, “Fight Enemies”, and “Attack My Target”. You can then hold down “s” and press “t” to open the chat bar, which will keep your ship braking. AI will spawn and instantly attack you, at which point your bots will then fight it since it has then become an Enemy and kill it, giving you experience points. You can either pay attention to the game and casually chat with friends or take the more dangerous route and use “Alt+Tab” to cycle through open windows on a PC and go browse the SS forums, or maybe even read more of this guide!

Do this until around level 450, where you’ll no longer level from MF Basil and the Experience Points from Rosemarys has dropped off considerably, and it’s time to venture out again. This time, while keeping in mind that Icepicks and Vultures WILL COMPLETELY DESTROY YOU if they attack, try to attack a Big Green. You’ll lose a lot of health, but if you used the weapons I recommended you should kill it. These will get easier over time as you do more damage, and you’ll find that a DG with 3- 4 of these becomes a great way to gain several levels (I suggest moving around if you’re still in an EFC, as even though it may have over 100k shields it will get killed by quad Big Greens or “BG’s”.

• Editor’s Note: Make sure to be “Green” (that was a pun about the numerous nicknames of the Green family of AI, for those who didn’t understand). Know the nicknames of AI you see constantly, such as the Rosemary being “rosy”, the Big Green being a “BG”, the Bigger Green (which you’ve probably not seen yet, but is basically a darker green BG with more DPS and tank) is “BrG”, the Green Battleship (something you won’t see for a very long time but basically is like a dreadnought that deals out large amounts of mining damage) becomes the “GB”, etc.

Once you’re level 500, it’s time to upgrade. If you don’t have about 4-5b credits accumulated through selling things dropped from dead AI or capturing, then it’s time to make that much as a decent fit EFDN runs around 3 billion credits, and the fact that you should by now have at least Remote Control 15 and triple EFF bots using Fighters, CALCs, and Neutronias will cost you around 5b if you do it cheaply.

• Editor’s note: Getting Remote Control past level 14 is a hassle, involving trips deep into Perilous space and later the destruction of Mad Scientist, a difficult Uber AI. I suggest getting help from either a teammate, or if not teamed

• • Note on Editor’s note: If you’re not teamed by now that’s a serious lapse. I suggest joining a team that’s small but not small enough that you’re one of the highest levels on it, but is large enough so that it can hold its own in a war, build you the things you’ll need, and help you get certain skills. L0L would like to thank The Smasher account and the Jeffgordon account for Blazing Angels, probably the most fun low level team out there. Sadly, it died awhile ago and the statement is no longer valid. Where was I?

• Continued Editor’s note: then either find a team or get help from a nice player. L0L would like to thank Time Warp (Timmeh de Wap) for helping get him Remote Control to level 18.

Anyways, it’s time for your first venture into Perilous space! I suggest only two jumps from the nearest exit to Warp 3 space. Why? Well, here’s some statistics to scare you. -Most people can be killed by anyone as the PvP range is hugely opened -Most AI are Aggressive and will attack you, excluding the occasional roaming Zebucart, Phunka.dll, Roswell and the uber Delquadrakimdan. If I spelled that right I’m going to jizz myself. -Some AI that are just normally aggressive can deal over forty thousand DPS. For those of you not aware, that’s over nine thousand.

Venture out if you find an Icepick or Vulture, or maybe just after two minutes. Because believe me, you’ll get destroyed when an AI finds you and you’re too deep in Perilous space to run. Venture back and then head to your home galaxy, as it’s time for a refit.

You probably are tiring of the EFC by now. It’s a great ship and will make a wonderful bot when coupled with dual EFFs when you get RC18 but are too poor for dual EFBC bots with nice augmenters. It’s time to advertise in Trade chat and purchase an EFDN (running price of around 2.5-3b) along with a Sup. Resist aug (running price around 100m) and a Rock Troll aug (running price of around 400m). Equip it and get a Radiated Shell, the shield you should have been using by now, and be wowed as it has around 110-150k shields. This may seem low compared to the 100k shields of the EFC, but really it’s about 1-1.25m shields coupled with the near 90% resists gained by the Rock Troll and Sup. Resist augs. Also put a Halved Antimatter and more things on it, such as a Sponge Charger and solar panels. Really there’s so many types of items there’s no standardized fit for any ship. With a refit on the bots as suggested above, venture out into Perilous space. Although, there’s something you need to ask. There’s this great ship called a Reaver, it does laser damage with low RoF and has VERY low shields. Even though you may lose a lot of shield, the EFDN can easily take a full room of reavers without flinching. As I said before on camping, use the “s” “t” and “alt+tab” along with the correct bots settings and camp Reavers. This is the main technique of leveling until about 700 or so, when you should have made some money off scooping drops, doing DGs, Bases, and Capturing infernos. If you have around 50 billion credits, which is doubtful but maybe possible, then upgrade to dual EFBC bots with MF bots augged Athena+/Ares+. This is THE endgame FC bot setup, although on your main ship you might want a different set of augs, such as Art of Commanding and Calypso+. If you don’t have this much then it’s fine, ask a teammate to help you get out to a MF Reaver DG. Basically, these reavers are a lot higher level, bigger DPS, higher tank, and also drop these great things called Dementium Fragments. The going price for Dem. Frags as they’re called is around 200-300m apiece and is a very easy way to make money. Again, camp MF reavers. I really have nothing past this point as you’ll get to level 1300 quite fast, and at that point you’ll be endgame.

• Editor’s note: L0L would like to thank Time Warp (Timmeh de Wap) for helping him get Warp 4.

• Editor’s note: A single DG room can only have 8 AI, THIS IS THE LIMIT.

If you haven’t got Warp Navigation 4 by now you should do so. It’s usually acquired through buying an expensive commodity in Emphatic Biology and exchanging it at the AI base.

• Editor’s note: The commodity is quite expensive AND all “Emphatic” galaxies do not allow ships with engines in. I suggest flying to Emp. Bio in a fast scoutship, suiciding and flying in with a pod. Then, at the AI base, after checking that there are commodities for sale, buy a Bulk Trader with a tractor beam. Tractor yourself carefully, and if needed suicide yourself in some Zebucarts to provide places to tractor from, and dock at the playerbase, then buy a commodity and go back to the AI base to exchange it for the skill.

You can now enter The Serengeti (called the Uber Zone as it’s a place of powerful AI and incredibly difficult Ubers) and Juxtaposition, Subspace, and ? galaxies which allow fast transport throughout all layers of space except the UZ and Perilous. The UZ is usually tackled with a team as even for endgame players it’s a difficult task to undertake, although some people can even kill some of the hardest ubers there by themselves.

You’ve become endgame, and it’s time to either become MORE endgame or develop some alts. Or maybe you started off as ANOTHER class, despite this. I apologize for my somewhat roughness regarding the other classes, it’s just that being a Fleet Commander is easy for new players. Most new players choose this and the largest percentage of players that quit before they’re endgame are another class.

Final Editor’s Note

My Goodbye

• Editor’s note: This is where I, L0L, drop out. I only have experience with Fleet Commander and then I Neuro- Doc’d (reset my class skills) to become a Sniper. I’d rather not guess as that may screw up some people trying to level for real. I hope the Star Sonata community will carry on my work and fill in what they can, I’ll be supervising the whole thing and adding in what I know.

Rules/ Information

I don’t expect every passage about other classes to be as long as what I wrote for Fleet Commander, and if given enough information I can fill in a good enough guide as to work fine. However, if you’re writing your own here and have not read my post on the forums that has hopefully been stickied by now, let me tell you this.

All incorrect information will be removed and may be removed without me contacting you first Any spam/ purposefully incorrect material will be reported and you may receive a reprimand Deleting of other’s information without my permission will be reported and you may receive a reprimand.

Leveling With Other Classes above level 200

Engineer

-Copper with SBB/ SBA drones -Kelvin, Serenity, Orca/ Porp?, Tortoise, Celestica, UHP or Rhino

Shield Monkey

-Honestly have no idea.

Gunner

Firstly a note, Gunner is a really great class for leveling but is hard at low levels. This guide is mainly for people who have reached level 500, but don't let this put you off. Leveling as a gunner there's only a few things you can get wrong.

• 1. Not using a Heavy Fighter or Capital Ship class. This is where the skill boosts your power the most, use it to your advantage.
• 2. Not using missiles. Missiles are half of what a gunner is, without missiles your going to find yourself dead.

So now you know what not to do lets talk about what you should do. *Just a note here, this guide is mainly for Cap Ships*. So you've got to get yourself a ship. The best low leveled ship for a gunner is Earthforce Frigate. You've probably seen a few people flying around in them by now. Once you get piloting 20 the ship to go for is Earthforce Dreadnaught. This ship will boost your shields and energy by 500%. So now you've got a ship, what's next. This is a basic runthru of gear you want on your dread. At lower levels try and find gear that reflects these stats. Firstly shields, you want something with a high bank and fairly good regen, VSXX is commonly accepted as the shield of gunners. Next is energy, again a strong bank and regen goes a long way. Capital Crystaline Reserve (CCR) is a good example of this. Once you've got your shield and energy sorted, you want to get the rest of your gear. Weapons: Mining damage is amplified so don't go past mining weps, also remember at Gunner Class 20 you can multifire.

Missiles and launchers, I find Large AP work well, remember multiple launchers means faster firing rate. Solar panels, basically you want as many panels as you can get. If you have the space anti-panels are also really good as it allows you to charge in places with dark suns. Augging, this is important but also varies from person to person depending on your setup and what weapons you use. Gunners want as much RoF, damage and range as they can possibly can, this is because the ships themselves are very slow, you want the target to be in range as much as possible and when they are you want to do as much damage as fast as possible. God augs like Zeus, Hera and Ares boost these fields, also dont forget the faithful Gunner class augs. All the other gear is the same on any other ship really. Now there is one more thing that is crutial for your strength, bots! You need to have bots as strong as you, just look at the list above, everything you can have they can have. You want them to fire missiles, give them a launcher, you want them to multifire, its as simple as a mf bot, you'll find your life is easier with them. Well that's about all I have to say, remember don't be scared to try new things out. You never know you might suprise yourself and others with the power you create.*Written by Camsy 6/9/11*

Seer

-Intro- Welcome to SS! If you are wanting to level as a Seer, I will be guiding you. I am blacker2359, better known as yellow, who is my main. Yellow is a level 1.5k end-game seer who currently flys a Death Striker. -About seer- The main idea behind seer is to avoid being seen, and when your enemy least expects it, strike from behind. Seer is sometimes called a hard leveling class, but I have been very successful with it. Now, after reading L0L's guide you should be at least level 100 before starting as a Seer. Basically, my strategy was to level a character to level 100 before changing his class to seer and got him Piloting 14 and a Spearhead ship. Now if you read L0L's guide you should know about Augmenters; when augging a seer ship you want to look for basically 3 things: stealth, Critical Hit Damage, and Damage. Now a Critical Hit is the core thing in a Seer's arsenal, a critical hit is when your weapon hits a special way causing more damage and a negative effect on the ship. For instance, a Surgical weapon will cause the recoil of the ship that you critical hit on to double, energy weapons disable engines, Laser weapons give a penalty to shield regeneration, heat weapons decrease a person's radar by half so they can't see, physical weapons cause a ship to spin, and transference weapons do twice the healing damage. Now if you are starting from bare minium level 0, level the same way to 21. Get a Banshee ship, with Nova or Sabstool type weapon. Aug it for as stated, stealth, damage and critcals. Make sure to try and get cloaking in a W1 galaxy. Sneak up behind your enemys, and hit them till they are dead. If you manage to do this in w1 on goblins etc. Try to buy a spear head wth a Transmyocardinal Revasculerzation Laser Or a TRL. They cost about 1b to buy ( do to being used in certain base items) But if your on a team they most likly have a BP and they take around 60m to make. Try and kite things such as Rosies. -The end for now. Wikilol 00:38, 28 April 2011 (UTC): Added some things and grammar nazied others, what does Fire Crit do though? blacker2359 They -radar by 50%.

Speed Demon

Berserker

Sniper

Class Attributes (Expanded)

Everybody needs a class. Unlike what I professed almost religiously in the first part of this guide, Fleet Commander is not the only class out there.

Bases, Ubers, Teams, and other useful information

Now, if you only went around leveling in Star Sonata that would be boring. There’s many more things to do then level, however leveling is the only real way of character progression. Star Sonata is a deceptively complex game despite it’s simple appearance, and the only way to fully experience is to dabble in a little bit of everything.

Bases and Galaxy defense

Now, eventually you’ll want a base. Well you’re wrong. One base cannot hold up to a determined player assault, no matter how uber. To defend a galaxy you’ll need multiple bases and permanent drones performing different tasks. For example, the Orb Drone is a great permanent drone simply because not only is it cheap and easy to transport, but is fairly decent. It also has an ethereal laser that deals mining damage, which many ships, AI, and bases are weak to. Therefore, orb drones are a large part of galaxy defense. There are basically four main drones, and saying this will cause some controversy, but you should be acquainted with each.

The Orb Drone: Decent DPS and does ethereal mining damage, making it a good defender. T9

The Ambrosia Drone: Low DPS weapon but high HPS, makes a very good healing drone along with taking less slots then an Andaman Drone. T14

The Warpastic Drone: Nothing’s more annoying then grems. If a drone grems while doing both mining or heat damage, then that’s wonderful. The warpastic drone not only grems and has varied damage types, but prevents warping in or out of a galaxy. A must have of at least one. T13 (11?)

The Qafir Drone: If you’re not careful, a stealthy enemy might be able to slip right through your galaxies and either scan bases, ambush players, or even lead an assault. Qafir drones with radar augmenters can see even the stealthiest of seers, and then either kill them or at least grem them to death. T?.

Not only this, but there are multiple types of bases: Adonis, Argonaut, Ambrosia, Achilles, and Annihilator. Some bases have different types of modifications, and therefore are more powerful. For example, lets say I have Station Kit 1 and Station kit 2 (made up names). I then take Station Kit 1 and a certain Blueprint and make it an Adamanturized Station Kit 1. Station kit 1 is now approximately as powerful or more powerful than Station kit 2, but it takes up less space; you can have Reinforced, Laconia, Demented, and Adamanturized, each more powerful but taking more time, resources, and credits to build. To find your number of bases, the name of station kit is the amount of slots it will take up.

• Editor’s note: Base kits are in Roman Numerals. I is 1, V is 5, and X is 10. If a character comes before a larger one, the smaller value is subtracted from the larger value, such as IV is 4, not 6 (6 would be VI). See? Star Sonata promotes learning! Wikilol 00:52, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

The 5 characters of an account get penalized for base slots if maxed: the first will have twice their level of skill in Station Management, the second will have half that, the third will have a third of that, the fourth will have a fourth of that, and a fifth will have a fifth of that. The same goes for permanent drones, and there’s a limit of 30 permanent drones and a limit of bases that changes depending on certain circumstances.

• Editor’s note TO EDITORS: If you can, please provide a link to a page showing that. I’d do it but I write the guide in MS Word when my internet is down, and update it when the internet comes back up. Therefore at the time of writing this I cannot access the Star Sonata Wiki, Forums, Game, or Website.

One account can defend a galaxy very well, however this is impractical as no defense is impervious and also it’s much more profitable to setup bases with a team.

• Editor’s note: Permanent drones can only have a maximum of Adonis augs added to them. See Augmenter Injection to learn more, but basically Augmenter Injection allows you to add augmenters to a permanent drone to make it more effective.

• Editor’s note: Teams are important. If you bothered to read my editor’s note above, you’d know that. Join a team or suffer, the majority of people are teamed and those who are not cannot effectively retaliate against piracy, etc., however they are spared paying a tithe, participating in team activities, and do not have to follow team rules. Join a team, seriously, it adds a lot of fun to the game.

• L0L’s note: I personally use 5 orb drones augged for damage and 2 ambrosia drones augged for healing. This is not only cheap but provides decent DPS along with some effective HPS, however I use my bases to provide the majority of both.

There’s really no way of telling what level your base skills will be at the time of reading this, however I do believe that I have some hints for new players:

• Have at least one Ambrosia drone, as it will provide more healing then an Adonis base

• Make all your Adonis kits Reinforced. If you’re expecting a fight, this will add some nice resists if coupled with Dampeners

• I suggest getting Drone Deployment to level 13 and laying at least one ambrosia drone and multiple orb drones

• Don’t be surprised if in a fight someone manages to kill your bases. Adonis bases are exponentially weaker than Argonaut bases as a result of their terrible Energies and Shields.

• Put down multiple bases, at Station Management 9, the lowest level you can have and still lay Adonis bases, you can lay 4 Adonis bases. Make one kit a healer and only put an Adonis Shield Transference on it and give it something like triple Adonis Recovery augs (built from BP’s bought from The Acropolis using a small amount of promethium, metals, and a basic aug of the same type, such as basic recovery will be made into an Adonis recovery) and an Adonis damage aug. Then make 3 kits the DPS kits, giving them Adonis Lasers, Pulses, and Magcannons and augging them Adonis Firing, Adonis Electricity, Adonis Damage, Adonis Range. Then lay and aug your Ambrosia Drones and Orb drones and you now have a simple galaxy. This could probably all die to a single Ambrosia base, or a determined player, but is good when there’s no war.

• Choose your galaxy wisely. Galaxies with planets that have space oats and good suitability along with an Asteroid belt and maybe some ruins on a few planets would make a great galaxy to own, however, at the Universe reset galaxies like this are claimed quickly in w2 and w3.

• You can’t lay bases in DG’s, Perilous Space, the UZ, and some special W1 and W2 galaxies. Examples include the Rumbles and Prism.

Remember that bases take workers to equip modules, you need an amount of workers equal to the amount of things equipped on your base. However, in bases made to produce things such as base gear, ships, and other items quickly, usually 2-3 thousand more workers then needed to equip the modules are placed as it shortens build time. And most importantly of all, REMEMBER TO PUT RATIONS. WORKERS EAT RATIONS. IF WORKERS DO NOT EAT IN A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF TIME, THEY WILL DESTROY YOUR BASE. Either put a ridiculous amount of rations on a base at creation or use trading bots to ferry rations back in forth. One worker eats .6 rations per hour.

Uber AI

Shawn_Mccall is doing the guide on Uber AI. It will go here when completed.

Choosing and being an asset to a Team

Being part of a team is to be part of something greater. In star sonata, teams are both social hotspots where members chat with fellow teammates and also places of help and service in a game. A good team will be able to build you necessary items, ships, and gear along with helping you get the skills or kill the Ubers to get them. When choosing a team, one must be careful and factor in many different things before deciding.

• Tithe: The tithe is a tax on scooped credits. You should look for a team with a low (1-2%) tithe or none at all.

• Members: Check the memberlist to see if there are any scammers or pirates. Scammers and pirates will cause trouble for a team and possibly wars.

• Strength: You need a good, strong team to protect your assets in drones and bases. A team that cannot lay bases to defend themselves is a team you should overlook.

• Reputation: Like the infamous Kushan, make sure the team you’re thinking of joining isn’t hated.

• Size: If you’re an endgame player, join a big team. Big teams can do more endgame team- oriented content that smaller teams cannot; however if you’re a lower- level player then you’ll want a small team as larger teams get into wars often with other larger teams.

You should also make sure to play your part when joining a team: make sure you’re acquainted with Bases and Permanent drones and therefore can help the team defend and claim galaxies. Be courteous to the players on the team and, if trading, give a discount to teammates.

Other parts of Star Sonata

Things to know

Star Sonata is an indie game and the admins are much more in tune with the playerbase as a result. However, they will not succumb to begging for stupid things.

If you spam all chat with random letters and such, you WILL be muted.

If you spam the forum with random letters and such, you WILL be muted.

If you spam all chat and the forum with words and are not excessive, you’re probably alright. But if you’re not Newman235 (Kanga) then you’re probably not the best spammer.

If you curse out a pirate after he kills you, chances are he’ll either kill you again or kill your pod and take the credits. Don’t ignore them, but don’t be a jerk: it’s just a game.

If you attack a Seraph, expect a blob of Seraph ships to catch up with you eventually.

If you attack Ragnarocks, expect a blob of Ragnarock ships to catch up with you eventually.

If you attack a Dark Guard, expect to find that a Dark Transport will shoot you.

The Forums

Like all chat but slightly more focused, the Forums are the forums of Star Sonata. Basically, don’t be a noob and ask for stupid things; use the game as much as possible to ask questions as the Forums are generally not frequented by new players. Even though it’s not closely correlated to the game, if you’re not a very frequent poster and you insult someone, expect consequences.

A small sampling of people on the forums:

Account Name: Lolwut? ( L0L’s Wiki Page Main Character: L0L Nickname: L0L Meme(s): L0L is lol, L0L’s leash, nonsexual spanking, L0L’s Stories, being the apprentice spammer to DilutedNoob2 and Kanga

Account Name: UnpleasantPantsBulge Main Character: UnpleasantPantsBulge Nickname: UPB Meme(s): The bulge

Account Name: newman235 Main Character: Kangaroo_Blob Nickname: Kanga Meme(s): /me Jiggles, sexually enjoying nonsexual spanking

Account Name: landswimmer Main Character: DemonBlood Nickname: DB Meme(s): Trolling, being the master troll of the SS Forums

Account Name: Cej1120con Main Character: Johnston V2 Nickname: John Meme(s): Being the apprentice troll to DB

Account Name: Blacker2359 Main Character: Yellow Nickname: Yellow, or Yerrow Meme(s): Yellowness, Yellowing, Red, and just generally being Yellow

Account Name: Battlecruiser23 Main Character: Cadet Corbett, because apparently Churchill is too good to set his main as his forum main… Nickname: Churchill, or Churchy Meme(s): Trolling, Stroking his E- peen regarding seers, suggesting incredibly awesome and detailed suggestions

Account Name: AnilV Main Character: enkelin Nickname: Anil Meme(s): Generally being the nicest and most imformative person on the forums

Account Name: Mail Main Character: Time Warp Nickname: Timmeh de Wap Meme(s): Trolling and being outspoken on the forums but actually being a great guy in- game, warping time

Account Name: EwanB Main Character: Vigoratus Nickname: Wex (he also owns -wex-) Meme(s): Being violent and scary, and also a great PvPer

The Wiki

Simon’s huge project, the Wiki is the place to find all sorts of things. Links within this guide will take you to different pages with more useful information, and I suggest browsing it once and awhile.

The Game

You just lost it.