Garfield's Complete Guide

Yet another player guide by yours truly,captainGarfield.

This guide will be split into two parts: Quick Start and Comprehensive. The Quick Start portion will briefly explain the different parts of the game's control setup and how to get going in the world of Star Sonata. The Comprehensive portion is intended to cover nearly every aspect of the game and provide you with the wisdom and knowledge I've gathered in the years I've played. Both parts can be used together or completely separate, and an Index will be provided for those looking for specific information. 

As a disclaimer, I realize this is not the first guide of its kind. I also realize that most other guides were left incomplete, had a bias, or have simply become outdated. In any case, I cannot guarantee that what you find here will always be 100% accurate and be the best source for you to base decisions off of. I am simply offering my opinions in the hope that they may help you to avoid some of the mistakes I have, and learn some of the tricks I've used. 

Part I: Quick Start

Controls & Interface

Before you can even think about playing the game, you need to know your way around it. Here's a quick and dirty introduction to all the different aspects of the interface. Try to keep up, because I'm not gonna waste any time with this section.

The screen is divided up into 4 parts: The Ship Box, Hotbar, Menubar, and Chat Box. Naturally, the game itself is in the center portion, with your ship in the center.

• The Ship Box shows your Shields, Energy, Visibility, and Weapon.
• The Hotbar allows you to bind your most commonly used items to a key on your keyboard.
• The Menubar lets you access all the different windows the game uses to interact with the player.
• The Chat Box lets you communicate with other players and provides key information in a timely fashion.

The Menubar has 10 buttons. From left to right, these are: Help, Warp, Dock, Galaxy Map, Options, Social, Character, Ship, Radar, and Inventory. Clicking any of the first three will cause an action, the others toggle windows. Help opens a browser window to the Star Sonata help page, Warp takes you through wormholes, and Dock allows you to go inside stations.

The Chat Box has 7 tabs. From left to right in the default configuration, these are: Event, All, Galaxy, Trade, Help, Team, and Squad. The order of these tabs can be changed by clicking any one and dragging it. Their uses are:

• Event: Displays any game-related messages, such as kills, actions, and the Message of the Day.
• All: A global chat where any player can talk.
• Galaxy: A local chat where only players in the same galaxy as you can talk.
• Trade: A place to advertise, buy, and sell.
• Help: A place to ask questions not easily answered by the Wiki or appropriate for All chat.
• Team: Lets you talk to other members of your Team in private.
• Squad: Lets you talk to other members of your Squad in private, and displays Squad-related events.

Most of the game involves flying your ship around and shooting at stuff. Before you can shoot at something, you first have to target it. If this weren't necessary, then it'd be impossible to avoid attacking everything from neutral space stations to teammates while fighting! To target something, simply click on it. A new box will appear providing information on the targeted object. You can also sort through the list of targetable objects in the galaxy using the Ctrl, Z, Q, and Tab keys. Using Shift with any of these keys will cycle through the list in reverse.

Here's a list of the most pertinent keys:

Default Key Bindings

Key	Action	Notes
Space Bar	Shoot	Must have a target!
W, A, D	Move forwards and turn
S	Slows the ship
X	Target options menu	Must have a target!
V	Autopilot	Must have a target!
C	Scoop	Need to have a Scoop equipped, and a scoopable item nearby
Enter	Chat
U	Suicide	Will have to authorize it
I	Inventory
R	Dock	Must be close enough to a station and moving slow enough
F	Warp	Must be a wormhole nearby
O	Game Options
P	Galaxy Map
E	Switch weapons
G	Tractor Beam	Must have one equipped and a target selected; if no target is selected, the nearest piece of Debris is grabbed
H	Hides interface	Useful for screenshots
K	Cloaking Device	Must have one equipped
M	Missions Tab

There are a number of windows in the game which you use to interact. I'll briefly go over them here:

Welcome to Space

At the start of the game, you're going to get a dinky little ship. You'll be in some strange looking place with a lot of green things flying around. This is fine, go ahead and click one. Press the Space Bar to shoot at it, and watch as it explodes. Now you know how to kill things, you bloodthirsty heathen.

Now that you've satisfied your bloodlust, it's time to start getting payed for it. Go to the base (the big thing that doesn't look like a rat, as you probably now know those green things as) and dock in it. You'll get a window with lots of tabs; right now, we only care about the first one. There's a box with some missions in it, double-click one. They're pretty self explanatory, so just do what it says and come back to claim your reward. Keep doing missions, eventually they'll lead you to the Nexus where there's... wait for it... more missions! Do those, and keep reading when you're done.

Tactics

Kiting, etc.

Strategy

Next, go to Deep Space, do the missions there. Basically just do all the missions you can find, until you think you're not getting enough from them anymore. Yes, feel the greed. Aspire to be greater, greater than the rats and the volcoms.

Once you've done that, go to Sol. To get to Sol, go through the gate to Earthforce Celestial Garden. The one to Sol is in there. Go to the Earthforce Frontier Station and see what missions are available. If you have any skillpoints, use them.

Core Skills

• Piloting: You can't pilot a giant ship if all you know is zebucarts. Learn to fly more complicated things.
• Shields: Shields keep you from getting blown up. They're also complicated to install. Not just anyone knows how to jack a billion cables together.
• Energy: Nuclear reactor leaking? Too bad, there's no health insurance here. Energy is what makes your ship go round, keep a lot of it.
• Radar: You can't shoot what you can't see. And there's a lot you're not seeing, like why that haircut looks bad on you.
• Engines: Puff puff. Go fast faster, turn hard harder.
• Equipment: You see that launch tube? Go crawl inside it.
• Weaponry: Shoot stuff with bigger and bigger guns.
• Cloaking: Don't get shot at.

So, there you go. The most important to you are probably piloting, weaponry, shields, and energy. You can't shoot without energy, it doesn't matter if you have energy if your gun sucks as much as you do, your guns don't matter if you die instantly and none of it matters if you can't fit it all in the freaking ship.

In any case, get some skills if you can and get some new gear. You should have plenty of money from the Nexus, so go nuts. You should have a decent level of Piloting now so get rid of that Helga.

Next, go to Blue Outpost and kill the little blue ships. You'll get to level 50 easy. Now kill the bigger blue ships. You can get some slaves at this point too, which are extremely useful because it's like having another player beside you.

Once you've killed just about everything you can find and can't level anymore, get Warp Navigation to 2. You can do this at Sol or Paxius, whichever you prefer. However, you've probably got some blue stuff from killing things in the Outpost, so Sol is probably best.

Next, do the same thing. Get to level 100, and start worrying about specialization. This is important, because this game doesn't let you do a little of everything and be good at it. You need to choose a play style and stick with it. There's a lot to consider, but whatever's been working best for you so far is the path you should take.

Before you even worry about class skills, I'd worry more about your core skills. Most people say get a class skill as soon as possible - this is okay, if you know what you want to do already. But I think it's not wise to urge new players to make an important decision so quickly. You can still head in one direction or another first, and see how you like it.

So, core skills. At this point you probably have most somewhere between 8 and 10. Now think about what you're lacking in. Do you run out of energy too often? Do you blow up a lot? Your weapons don't do enough damage? Figure it out and go get that skill up, then get better gear. Whatever's holding you back, move it out of the way.

Once you've chosen a path, follow it. Don't meddle around, it's a waste of time.

Class Skills

When you're comfortable with it, choose a class. Pour as much time, money, and skill points as you can into it. Use class-specific items and augmenters.

Gear

Talk about the different items, what they do.

Augmenters

Go into detail about augmenters.

The World Keeps Spinning

The game moves on even if you don't.

Teams

A good team is hard to come by. Many teams are simply full of underachievers or lowlifes. Others are filled with people who may seem too cutthroat or edgy for you. It's important not to judge a team simply by objective qualities, but also by how you feel about it. That may sound unusual coming from me, but if you're not happy in a team, you're simply going to want to leave. That'll cause unnecessary drama that nobody really wants to deal with. So find a team that seems to have similar goals to yours, and players who you already know you like.

If you absolutely can't find a decent team or simply want to start your own, you'll need to acquire the Leadership skill first. This skill is fairly easy to get for most players and simply requires a bit of money and some time. When creating a team, think very carefully about how you want to present it to other players. Are you about integrity and doing things the right way, or are you going for something more laid back, a place where people can just come and go as they please? Are you planning to accomplish something important, or simply intend to figure things out as it goes along? Whatever decision you may come to, make sure you reach it before you actually create the team.

It's not entirely rare, but it also doesn't happen a lot, especially in a large team. Believe it or not, if you put in the time and effort, you may actually get promoted in your new team! What you do when this happens is take a step back and reevalute your position. What did you do to even get promoted in the first place? Whatever it was, identify it and keep doing it. If you start slacking off, you're simply going to be resented by other players, especially those a lower rank than you. If you've been placed in a position of trust - say, an Officer, or even a Councilor - do not betray it. You will inevitably regret it. It will tarnish your reputation and people tend to not forget these sorts of things.

If you feel you do not like a team anymore, or do not like what position you are in, it is best to talk about it with someone who can actually help first. Do not simply leave a team unless you've been told to do so - a lot of teams do not take too kindly to it, since it can harm their score. If you feel you're in a position of responsibility but don't actually want that responsibility, ask to be demoted, don't cause trouble.

In general, use common sense, and always consult your teammates before making an important decision.

Dungeons

Understanding how they work.

Perilous Space

The final frontier.

Death

How to deal with losing in the game.

Moving On

A closing message.

Part 2: Comprehensive Guide

Introduction

Describe this portion of the guide.

All is Well

The End of Everything

When a universe begins, there is a bit of a chaotic phase where everyone is rushing to find the best galaxies, the best planets for colonies, and just get their bases and everything set up. Large teams will try to take large tracts of space that they will eventually fill with drones and trading slaves, only to have to pack it all up again later. Very quickly, and almost without warning, the universe will soon look like it did when it ended, just with everything in a slightly different place.

Star Sonata isn't the only game of its kind to use a system like this, where the game world is reset once every few months. However, it is a very important aspect of the game in many ways. For example, Hydroponics missions can only be done once per universe. Places like Hyper are hard to invade for any team wishing to seize control of its resources, and so the universe reset allows another team a chance to take hold, preventing monopolies. The same happens for most other resources, and just about everyone gets a chance to try and take some valuable plot of space.

So, why does this matter to you? Well, there's a number of reasons why, and we'll explore each one briefly before expanding on it in a later section.

The Economy

Describe how the economy in the game works.

Making Money

Talk about various money making strategies.

Leveling Up

Talk about strategies for leveling up.

More About Teams

Get into detail about teams and how they interrelate.

Diplomacy

Talk about making teams work together, or fall apart.

More About AI

Explain how AI work and think, and how to outsmart them.

Bases

Talk about the pros and cons of owning a base, and how to get started.

Colonies

Talk about how to run colonies and what the point is.

Drones

Talk about drones, their pros and cons, and what's best for the situation.

Slaves

Describe how slaves work and the best ways to make good use of them.

Ships

Why should I choose X over Y? Explain.

Weapons

Damage types and more.

More About Augmenters

Get into the math of how it all works.

More About Classes

More math and detailed explanations.

Missions

Why should anyone do missions? Talk about it.

More About Gear

Include a discussion about fighters, missiles, etc.

The Numbers Game

When you get down to it, this game is all about numbers. Everything from DPS to your level in Aug Tweaking effects the way the game plays for you. We're going to talk about one of the most important numbers of all: enemies.

The number of enemies you are facing is generally important. You may not be able to kill 50 Rosemarys, though you can kill 25. You may be able to handle a group of Forgones, but throw in a few Big Greens and it all goes downhill.

When I call it the numbers game, I'm not saying that if all your assets combined can put out X DPS and the enemy can put out Y DPS, and you cross your shields against their fire and theirs against yours, the math is going to tell you who wins. It most likely won't, because there's a lot more influencing the way this works than that. In fact, my proposition is the antithesis of that mentality: it's not about the numbers, but instead how you apply them. It's all about where you direction your attention and when, and how you go about accomplishing that which needs to be done in order to win.

It really is frustrating when you don't understand why you can't do this or why that DG is so difficult. The truth is, you may have just reached the limits of what you can achieve with your current setup. However, there's still some extremely valuable strategies that you should know, both to squeeze a little more life out of that ship you got 200 lvls ago and should probably have replaced by now, and to increase your overall efficiency and give you some skills that might help you out in more extreme circumstances.

Focus Fire

• The crux of it is this: when you are fighting a small group of enemies, you generally don't need to worry about where all that fire from your drones, slaves, missiles, or fighters are going. You already know that you're going to win and you just don't need to worry about it. But as you increase the number of enemies to the point where they can actually begin dealing damage against you, choosing your targets suddenly becomes more important. When fighting a large group of enemies, you are likely to get killed if you don't do something about the DPS coming your way, and do it quickly. You can circumvent this by having something that heals you, or a neurotweak that will boost your shield regen, but those only extend your lifespan, not remove the cause of the problem. In other words, you just need to begin reducing their numbers.
• Kill the strongest first. Yes, that's right, take out the strongest enemies first. The ones who are doing the most damage to you, individually, are the most dangerous and need to be removed immediately.
• If all else is equal, go for the weakest first. On the other hand, you have a situation where all are giving about the same DPS and it doesn't matter which you kill. In that case, kill the weakest first - be it the one with the lowest shields at the moment, or the one that's a lower level than the rest.

Energize

Talk about energy and strategies for using it effectively.

Shielding

Go into detail about shields and how they work.