HOMEWORLD HINTS AND STRATEGY GUIDE

FOREWORD

This FAQ cannot be reproduced in any way without my
permission.  If I do find it being used without my
permission, I will prosecute the criminal to the
fullest extent of the law.  If you need my permission,
please e-mail me.  

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VERSIONS

V.1 – FAQ finished and created.
V.2 – Updated ship section, some grammar and spelling
mistakes corrected, stuff that makes the FAQ sound
better, and reader contributions added.
V.3 – Got rid of wrong ship info for Minelayer
Corvette, updated Minelayer Corvette info, made subtle
changes to FAQ layout, more contributions added, and
made the FAQ sound better in a few areas.  I’m going
to add a small multiplayer tips section in the next
update.
V.4 – Multiplayer Tips section added, a Mothership
info section (how could I forget????), and another
contribution added (I need more people!)
V.5 – Another Multiplayer Tips section contribution
added.  That’s it for now.
V.6 – A reader contribution added to mission 2,3 and
4, some ship info updated.
V.7 – Finally!  Of course, by now, everybody probably
has beaten Homeworld.  But anyway, updates include
some more multiplayer hints, and some Karos Graveyard
strategies.

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SHIPS

Fighter Class:
Defender-This ship is probably the best fighter in the
game, not for it’s offensive ability, but for it’s
defending ability.  Not only does it have powerful
guns and an accurate tracking system, it has a ton of
armor that can take lots of hits from fighter and
corvette guns and can also take about 7 or 8 missiles
before being destroyed.  It’s very slow (only 385m/s)
and can’t keep up with other fighters, but it isn’t
called a Defender for nothing.  It also has a very
long range of fire.  These ships are quick to build
and are easily replaceable as they only cost 65 Ru’s. 
It can also be used as a long-range support ship.
Scout-Not as bad as you would think this ships is.  It
has a small gun sure, but it speed and maneuverability
makes it a pretty good fighter.  It can avoid missiles
(longer then most ships anyway) and can avoid the fire
of other of other fighters as well.  They are also
quick to build (not surprising) and cost very little,
only 35 Ru’s.  It has a special move, the Afterburner
Boost.  Hit the “z” button to activate it.  You can’t
really see the difference between normal moving and
this, but there is a difference.
Interceptor-The Interceptor is the upgrade of the
Scout.  This ship has less speed but has much greater
firepower and armor.  It can’t avoid fire as well as
the Scout, but can stand up to more hits and can hit
harder.  Twenty or so of these fighters in a Sphere
formation can seriously damage any ship (except a for
a Missile Destroyer or if there are escorts around). 
Obviously, these build a bit slower then the Scout and
cost more, 55 Ru’s.  
Attack Bomber-These are only good for taking down
Capital ships and corvettes.  These fighters have a
lot of firepower, but are very vulnerable to all
weapons of the game.  Don’t expect them to last a long
time in a fighter battle or if there’s a Missile
Destroyer around.  Launches orbs of superheated
plasma.  These ships, once destroyed, are hard to
replace.  They have a high cost of 85 Ru’s (this is
high for a fighter) and are extremely slow to build.
Cloaked Fighter (Kushan Only)-Not only does this ship
have a powerful gun, it can cloak (hit “z” to turn on
cloak)!  Even with a Proximity Sensor around, missiles
won’t track them while they are cloaked.  These
fighters can be the backbone of any fighter squadron. 
These ships are a pain to rebuild though; they have a
cost of 85 Ru’s and build even slower then Attack
Bomber.
Defense Fighter (Taidann Only)-No weapons.  But can
destroy incoming fire (except Ion Beams, missiles, and
mines).  They useful only if you are under attack by a
small group of fighters, or if you have a lot of them
around.  These ships have a high cost of 85 Ru’s, but
they are quick to build.  However, I wouldn’t consider
building them at all.  They are pretty much useless.
Corvette Class:
Light Corvette-The Scout of the corvettes.  These have
lots of speed and maneuverability (for a corvette) but
low armor and firepower.  These are quick to build and
easy to replace because of their low cost (remember,
I’m talking about corvettes now and comparing them to
other corvettes, not fighters).
Heavy Corvette-This is the better, upgraded version of
the Light Corvette.  Tons of armor and firepower, but
low maneuverability.  They can take down Capital ships
in large squadrons.  These ships are a bit of a pain
to rebuild because of their high cost and slow build
time, but they are good ship so this is a small price
to pay.  This ship also has a moderately useful
special move.  It is called the Burst Shot.  To
execute it, hit the “z” button then select the
target(s).  It is a super-powerful shot from both of
the Corvettes guns.   Thanks to beaves13 for this
info.
Multi-Gun Corvette-This is a better corvette for
attacking other fighters and corvettes.  Six
independent guns that can track quickly and track up
to six targets at once.  Don’t count on it to last
long if there are Capital ships in the area, though. 
This are a bit of a pain to rebuild, they build slowly
but they have a sensible cost.
Minelayer Corvette-A craft good only if you have the
time to lay a wall of mines.  If you are under attack,
don’t expect these ships to do much damage.  Only good
against Capital ships and fighters slowed down by
escorting Capital ships.  They have a sensible cost,
but build to slowly for practical use.  Never build
them in the single player mode.  You can lay a wall of
mines in an area by hitting the “z” button.  The
corvette will stop and begin laying mines.  A good
tactic for these ships (one of very few) is to send
them just outside of a battle and within the mine’s
range.  Tell them to lay a wall.  The mines will be
deployed but will automatically track enemy ships.
Salvage Corvette-A good decoy and can capture enemy
ships!  Enough Salvage Corvettes, and you can capture
any ship you want.  Here is a listing of how many
corvettes you need for each ship:
Any Fighter or Corvette-1 Corvette
Any Capital ship-2 Corvettes
Destroyer or Missile Destroyer-3 Corvettes
Heavy Cruiser or Carrier-5 Corvettes
These ships are definitely worth the price to pay.  6
Salvage Corvettes can capture over 5000 Ru’s worth of
ships (as long as you protect them!), so you get
something back from them.  There are some ships you
can’t capture though.  These are the Turanic Carrier,
the Kadesh Mothership, and the Taidann Mothership
(obviously).  And you can really only capture fighters
and corvettes when they are in a Gravity Well.
Repair Corvette-Really useless.  These ships can
re-fuel fighters, but only one at a time.  Can heal
ships, but not as fast as a Support Frigate.  They may
have a low cost and quick build time, but they
shouldn’t be built, period.  The only good thing they
can be used for is to repair groups of corvettes.
Capital Ship Class:
Support Frigate-Only good at healing Capital ships and
above.  They also are good at refueling and repairing
fighters and corvettes via its docking pads and
repairing arms.  It has a gun and a bit of armor, but
it is so weak, it can’t even destroy fighters.  This
frigate is quick to build and has a low cost (like the
corvettes, I am now comparing frigates to other
frigates).  Timely support from one or two of these
can mean the difference between losing and winning. 
These can also be used to repair corvettes.
Assault Frigate-Good at taking down corvette swarms
(but only if you have a lot of them), and can
sometimes hit fighters.  These ships are no match for
Ion Cannons though.  The only reason you should have
these in you fleet is if you have very few fighters or
no Missile Destroyers.  It has two Plasma Bomb
Launchers and four medium sized projectile weapons. 
These Capital ships are in the middle of the Capital
ship department.  They aren’t slow to build, but they
aren’t fast.  They don’t have a low cost, but they
don’t have a high cost.
Drone Frigate (Kushan Only)-This ship can launch
24-armed drones.  An individual drone can barely risk
a Scout, but 24 of them can rip through fighter
swarms.  The frigate itself is also quite fast and
maneuverable (despite what it says on the construction
screen), and can go in fighter formations and break
them apart while avoiding ramming fighters and hurting
itself and the drones (which can be destroyed).  If
you ask me, this frigate costs a bit much.  At 800
Ru’s, it is barely worth the money spent on building
it.
Defense Field Frigate (Taidann Only)-I really tried to
like this ship, as it sounded like a good ship to have
around.  But the area of defense it covers is really
small (if you hit Caps Lock, you can see for
yourself).  Only useful if you have a lot of them
close together, but you shouldn’t even build one of
them.  This ship is the same for cost as the Drone
Frigate, with one exception, don’t even thinking of
building it!  It is totally not worth it.
Ion Cannon Frigate-The first real firepower you get in
the game.  Only one cannon, but that cannon can damage
a Capital ship better then any other ship of a lower
class in one shot.  But don’t expect it to hit
anything lower than a corvette.  These ships are
completely worth the time, effort, and resources put
in.  Build as many as you can.
Resource Class:
Resource Collector-This ship’s name says what it does.
 Enough said.  What can I say about this ship but
build some.  In one load you will get back the
resources spent on it.
Resource Controller-This ship acts as a drop off point
of resources from collectors.  It can also re-fuel
(but not repair) 6 fighters and 2 corvettes.  This
ship literally pays for it self.  
Super-Capital Class:
Destroyer-Here is a ship that you wish you could have
at the beginning of the game.  Two Ion Cannons and 2
large projectile weapons.  This should and will be the
backbone of any Capital ship fleet because of its
speed and firepower.  This ship, like all the others
in the Super-Capital class, is well worth the time,
effort, and resources put into it.
Missile Destroyer-Goes through fighters like a hot
knife through butter.  Its missiles are accurate and
fast.  The only things that can avoid the missiles are
Scouts and they can’t run forever.  The only down side
that, after a few seconds of firing, it missiles come
out at a crawl.  It can damage a Capital ship, but
only use the missile volley attack (hold Z then select
the target), which leaves it open for a few seconds
after using it while it replenishes its missile stock.
 If the enemy is harassing you with fighters, this is
the best ship to build to kill them.  Don’t build
these if your enemy is only building Capital ships
with few fighters.  However, they can be used to take
down Capital ships that are attacking it (but only one
at a time).  Order the Missile Destroyer to attack a
ship pursuing it.  The Missile Destroyer will fire
missiles while retreating out of the ships range.  The
ship will just to continue pursuing it, but will never
get in range.
Heavy Cruiser-Ah, the Heavy Cruiser, and need I say
more?  Slow, but powerful as hell.  It has 4 Ion
Cannons that have a 180-degree swivel and 6 massive
projectile weapons.  It could take down 2 Destroyers
and still have enough armor left for a couple of
Assault Frigates. A little slow, so only use in a Wall
formation or it will never get wherever you want it to
go before the action is over.  Like the speed it moves
at, the Heavy Cruiser seems like it is barely being
built at all.  The cost is a bit high, I think, but is
it worth it.
Carrier-The Carrier is portable Mothership.  Can build
ships up to Capital Ship Class and can dock and repair
ships too.  It can dock 50 fighters and 25 corvettes. 
It also has a ton of armor, so it is a good decoy. 
Resource Collectors can drop off resources at the
carrier too.  Like the Heavy Cruiser, this ship barely
seems like it is being built.  However, unlike the
Heavy Cruiser, it is not that useful in battle.  Use
the Carriers to carry fighters to the outskirts of a
battle then unload them.  These are also like a souped
up version of a Resource Controller.  Send these to a
dense resource area with some escorts (some Capital
ships, maybe a Destroyer, and some fighters too) and
it will dry up the region real quick thanks to its two
resource drop-off points.
Non-Combat Class:
Probe-Only good for getting a quick look at enemy
fleets.  Then it is usually destroyed in a blaze of
Ion Cannons or fighter fire.  The probe is a one-time
use surveillance device.  It is very quick to build
and has the lowest cost of any ship. 
Proximity Sensors-These can find cloaked ships and can
also be used as a scout as it doesn’t need fuel. 
Though they have little armor, they are second to
speed only by the probe and tying to the Scout.  The
sensor is actually a better surveillance device then
the probe.  They are just as quick to build, can be
reused, they don’t run out of fuel, and they have a
low cost.  Since only Scouts can catch them, they are
in no real danger when retreating from an enemy base.
Sensors Array-Can track enemy ships on the Sensors
Manager.  It can only verify where Motherships and
Carriers are, but can tell you how many ships are
moving around.  This is not a good addition to any
ship line up you have.  This is only good in
multiplayer games when the other player has sent
Carriers all over the place as backup Motherships and
you need to find them.  They have too high of a cost,
but are quick too build if you ever find a use for
them.
Research Ship-Can only research stuff.  It has a bit
of armor and you can build another ship to speed up
research and add some armor to the total amount.  In
single player mode, you only need one.  In multiplayer
mode, consider building at least 4.  They aren’t very
expensive, considering their value, but aren’t that
quick to build.
Gravwell Generator-These can stop fighters and combat
corvettes (Light, Heavy, Multi-Gun, and Minelayer
only) dead in their tracks.  While caught, fighters
can’t move or fire.  But your fighters can get caught
in it to.  Plus it can only be used until it’s power
source runs out, then it is just a derelict so retire
it for some resources.  Not useful in Single Player
mode as when you can research it, there is only one
level that you really need it, that being Galactic
Core.  In multiplayer, this can be useful if your
opponent is harassing you with fighters.  But they are
too expensive for practical use in single player. 
Save your resources for something else.
Cloak Generator-It can cloak all ships (except the
Mothership and Carriers) within a substantial radius. 
It can be reused, but it has to slowly recharge.  Not
extremely useful in single player, I never found a use
for it anyway.  Like the Gravwell, it is only kind of
useful in multiplayer.  Save your resources and don’t
build it.
Mothership Class:
Mothership-The single largest ship I have ever seen. 
It can build every ship in the arsenal, it has
extensive docking space (can load well over 150
fighters and corvettes), and converts captured enemy
ships to your side.  All this didn’t leave much room
for weaponry though.  It has four tiny guns.  Although
quite accurate, this does not make up for their
pitiful firepower.  They can hit any fighter in the
game and do significant damage to it, but don’t expect
them to do a lot of damage to anything in the Capital
ship class and higher because of their heavier armor. 

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RESEARCH

Fighter Tech:
Fighter Drive-Researching this allows you to build
nothing, but then you can research Fighter Chassis and
Defender Sub-Systems.
Fighter Chassis-Once researched, you can build the
Interceptor, your first good Strike Craft, and allows
you to research Plasma Bomb Launcher, Cloaked Fighter,
and/or, Defense Fighter.
Defender Sub-Systems-You can now build the Defender. 
Use it for only defending.
Plasma Bomb Launcher-Now you can build Attack Bombers
Cloaked Fighter (Kushan Only)-Researching this allows
you to build the small and stealthy Cloaked Fighter.
Defense Fighter (Taidann Only)-Once researched, you
can build the Defense Fighter.
Corvette Tech:
Corvette Drive-Now you can build the first corvette,
the Light Corvette (multiplayer) or the Repair
Corvette (Single Player).  This also allows you to
research Corvette Chassis.
Corvette Chassis-Different for multiplayer and single
player.  In Single Player, you can build the Light
Corvette.  In Multiplayer, you can build the Salvage
Corvette.
Heavy Corvette Upgrade-You can build the upgrade of
the Light Corvette, the Heavy Corvette, once this is
researched.
Fast Tracking Turrets-You can build those fighter
killers now, the Multi-Gun Corvette.
Minelayer Tech-You can build Minelayer Corvettes.
Capital Ship Tech:
Capital Ship Drive-Allows you to build the Support
Frigate and the Resource Controller.
Capital Ship Chassis-Allows you to build you first
warship, the Assault Frigate.
Ion Cannons-Now we are hitting the big time.  This is
your first major warship, the Ion Cannon Frigate.
Super-Capital Ship Drive-Now you can build the heavy
hitting, fast moving, all around good ship, the
Destroyer.
Guided Missiles-Now you can build the bigger, better
fighter killer, the Missile Destroyer.
Super-Capital Ship Chassis-Now the portable
Mothership, the Carrier, is free to build.
Heavy Guns-Now the mighty warship, the Heavy Cruiser,
can be built and deployed to wipe out any Capital Ship
your opponent can throw at it, except another Heavy
Cruiser with more health left of course.
Non-Combat Tech:
Proximity Sensor-Having trouble finding cloaked ships?
 Not any more with the Proximity Sensor around.
Sensors Array-Now you can verify where your enemy’s
Mothership, Carriers, and other ships are located.
Gravity Well-After researching, you can stop fighters
dead in their tracks, for a while anyway.
Cloak Generator-Now, after researching, you can cloak
all your ships, except the Mothership and Carriers.

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GENERAL HINTS

The most important hint in the game is probably
collect all resources after a mission.  The only
exception to this is if there is a chance your
collectors will be destroyed.
The CPU will always follow a target once it spots it. 
Use this to your advantage to capture or destroy it.
The Mothership can heal itself pretty fast, so don’t
be afraid to use her a decoy if there aren’t that many
enemy heavy hitters around.
There is no salvage limit in the game, so keep on
salvaging whenever an opportunity arises.
Use Evasive tactics when moving Capital ships and
Aggressive when attacking.
If you spot a ship you can’t build yet, capture it. 
Not only does this give you an advantage, sometimes
you can build your own version of the ship you just
captured.
If you aren’t near the Mothership, the CPU will
probably go for the biggest ship it sees.  Though it
usually goes for the first ship it sees.  In any case,
make sure a Carrier or another big expendable ship is
there first or is the biggest ship you have and the
CPU will go for it.  The Carrier can survive a long
time under enemy fire and will allow you to get some
cheap hits on the enemy.
This is a bit cheap, but if you lose too many ships in
a mission, go into the pause menu and go to load
mission.  Select the mission you are on and restart
it.  Hopefully, your last save on the mission was not
just before you needed to restart it.
Use the quick docking option to get your ships out of
the mission quickly.  They will automatically return
to the Mothership without a simulation of what happens
between then and there.

Kevin W. Shepardson adds:
1.  If you're planning on doing any salvaging, kill
off all of the 
Assault Frigates in the area.  They will abandon
combat with other units to attack Salvage Corvettes.
2.  If you have Salvage Corvettes latched onto an
enemy Capship or
Super-Capship, but they are under fire and will not be
able to get back 
To the Mothership in time, Scuttle or Kamikaze them. 
Their close proximity to the enemy ship, combined with
the fact that some are latched on to lower-armor
areas, will cause major damage to the enemy ship.


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SHIP HINTS

Fighters are good all around craft.  A big enough
group of any fighter type can take out anything
(except Missile Destroyers).
Light corvettes are only good against a solitary
Capital ship or small swarms of fighters.
Heavy Corvettes are good against a small group (2-3)
of Capital ships and larger swarms of fighters.
Multi-Gun Corvettes are only good against fighter
swarms and horrible against Capital ships because of
their low firepower and armor.
Minelayers are only good if you have enough time to
lay a wall of mines.  In a battle, they are pretty
useless as they have low maneuverability and speed. 
Any weapon in the game can hit them.
Assault Frigates are only good against an attack of
other Assault Frigates and corvettes swarms.
Ion Frigates are the best ship for taking out other
small Capital ships.
Drone Frigates can rip through fighter and corvettes
swarms.  They can also destroy mines.
Missile Destroyers are only good against fighters as
their missiles do little damage to Capital ship armor.
 Although the missile volley attack can do some damage
to Capital ships, but is only good if you have a full
load of 32 missiles.
In multiplayer games, the Carrier will serve as a
housing for Fleet Command if the Mothership is
destroyed.
Destroyers are the best Capital ship because of their
speed and firepower.

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FORMATIONS

Delta-This is a formation that is good only for moving
small batches of ships.  Never use this formation in a
battle.  Your fighters can’t maneuver well and there
fire will be spread out.
Broad-This is another formation never to be used in
battle.  It is good to move small batches of fighters,
but the disadvantages are the same as the Delta
formation.
X-This is a good formation.  It allows the fire from
the fighters to be concentrated so it does more
damage.  It doesn’t allow for much mobility, but this
doesn’t posse a major problem.
Claw-This is the best formation in the game.  It
allows for some mobility and its firepower
concentration is second only to the Sphere formation.
Wall-This formation is only useful for Capital ships
because it allows all the ships to move at the same
speed and it concentrates their fire.  Don’t use it
for fighters.
Sphere-This is the best formation to choose when
escorting a ship or when you want to do some damage
real fast.  The fighters circle the target and fire on
it from all directions.
Custom-This is self-explanatory.  You put the fighters
in a formation and then hit this.  They will stay like
this until you assign them another formation.
Military Parade-This is the formation that your ships
appear in when going into or out of hyperspace.  To
put them into this formation, select the ships and the
Mothership and hit Tab.

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TACTICS

Evasive-Your ships will sacrifice firepower for speed.
 This results in a higher speed and slightly more fuel
usage, along with slightly decreased firepower.
Normal-Your ships systems are balanced between engines
and weapons.
Aggressive-Your ships transfer power to their weapons
away from their engines.  They will do more damage,
but will have less speed.
Kamikaze-I put this under tactics because it is a good

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CHARACTERS

Fleet Command-This is the person that oversees all the
operations of the Mothership.  She I is also known as
Karen Sjet.  She had herself integrated into the core
of the Mothership to serve as its brain.
Fleet Intelligence-This is the system that handles
anything that requires a tactical solution by
analyzing probe and sensor data.

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THE STRATEGY GUIDE (SPOILER WARNING!)

Note: You will notice I never tell you when to refuel
or repair your ships.  You will have to make this
decision.  Also, the formations you choose are by you
alone.

Mission 1:Kharak System

This is only a test.  Follow the instructions and you
will do fine.  However, complete all research before
making the hyperspace jump to the outskirts of the
Kharak system.

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Mission 2:Outskirts of the Kharak System

You will arrive in the outskirts.  But the Khar-Selim
isn’t there.  Start researching Corvette Chassis and
after that, Heavy Corvette Upgrade, but do not send a
probe to the Khar-Selim.  You will trigger something
you are not prepared for.  Start harvesting.  Don’t
bother building another collector just yet.  Harvest
everything but the three dust clouds near the
Khar-Selim’s beacon.  Then build Interceptors so you
have at least 12 (16 is preferred) and build at least
2 Heavy Corvettes (4 is preferred).  Assign them a
single group number.  Then, let your collector head
out to harvest the three clouds near the Khar-Selim. 
Once the collector reaches the Khar-Selim, things will
happen real fast.  A swarm of fighters, corvettes, and
a missile corvette attack the Mothership.  Concentrate
your fire on the fighters, then the corvettes.  This
squadron is easily handled and should only inflict
minor, if any, damage.  Now, re-fuel and/or repair
your fighters and corvettes and tell them to guard the
Salvage Corvette in the Sphere formation.  Now tell
the Salvage Corvette to head toward the now destroyed
Khar-Selim.  When it gets there, let it go up to the
main compartment and start downloading.  About halfway
through this operation, more fighters and corvettes
will attack.  You Strike Craft will be stationed just
off the Khar-Selim.  They will fire upon the
descending fighters and destroy them.  When the
corvette is finished, it will head back toward the
Mothership.  Your Strike Craft will follow it all the
way back, firing on any ships that get to close.  When
the Salvage Corvette is safely docked, it replays the
last mission recording from the Khar-Selim.  When that
is done, more craft will attack the Mothership.  This
part will take a while to finish and you may lose some
ships.  But, as Fleet Intelligence will soon point
out, your forces are superior.  Soon, Intelligence
also points out that there is a large power signature
nearby.  You may have already discovered it, but there
is a powerful enemy Carrier reinforcing their Strike
Craft.  DO NOT attack the Carrier.  It is much more
powerful then normal Carrier.  Not only does it have
two Ion Cannons, it has a rapid-fire deck gun that can
kill your fighters in short order.  Just continue
killing the enemy fighters and corvettes until the
Carrier begins to retreat them.  Now, once the Carrier
is gone, start building a bit.  Make sure you have at
least 12 Interceptors and 2 Heavy Corvettes and then
build Salvage Corvettes for a total of 6, then
Hyperspace back to Kharak.

endrick adds:
An elegant solution to the mission is really quite
simple.  In the previous mission you are left with
enough resources to build a total of 13 fighters. 
With these alone you can wipe out the entire force on
mission 2.  Before jumping place all the fighters into
1 group and a single Interceptor into another.  Upon
entering the level place the 12 fighters in a sphere
formation around the 13th and set tactics to
Aggressive.  Then using the single fighter as a
driver, you now have a perfect battle-ball (tm
Calaban).  Send your battle-ball slightly to the left
of the Mothership and leave it there.  Instead of
sending a probe, send your Salvage Corvette to the
sensor ping to trigger the attack.  As soon as the
cinema is over, take control and focus on your single
"driver" interceptor and move it near the attacking
ships.  The objective here is to keep the driver
moving at all times away from the attacking forces,
the 12 ships surrounding it however will turn (while
still moving away from the attackers) to concentrate
fire on incoming enemies.  You don't even have to give
attack orders to the ships; all is accomplished by
moving the driving fighter in proximity to the enemy
fighters.  When the first wave is destroyed, your
Salvage Corvette is sitting right where it needs to
be, in the process of downloading the data, tell your
driver to defend the Salvage Corvette.  It will get
there just in time to kill everything sent at it. 
When the salvage Corvette gets closer to the
Mothership, have your driver ship break off and engage
the enemy in the same manner as you had before.  Using
this trick I can almost always clear the level without
losing a single ship, or needing to build new ones. 
This frees up all the resources on the level to be
used to build 7 more Salvage Corvettes. For...

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Mission 3:Return to Kharak

Once you hyperspace in, you will notice that the
Scaffold is destroyed along with Kharak.  Then
suddenly a group of 4 Assault Frigates open fire on
your defenseless Cryogenic Trays.  To get to the tray
before the frigates open fire, continually select your
fighter group with the group number you assigned them
in the previous mission until all of them are
selected.  Then, send them in Evasive tactics straight
for the trays.  You should be able to get there before
the Assault Frigates fire a shot.  Then get your
Salvage Corvettes over there, also in Evasive tactics.
 Once they get there, have two corvettes go to capture
one frigate each.  Go for the three that still are
together, as one usually breaks off from the group and
goes above the trays.  Once you capture a frigate
though, the other frigates will attempt to get them
off there friends back.  But if you go for the ones
that are still together, this shouldn’t be a big
problem.  Also, as you capture a frigate, make sure
the fighters no longer fire on that one.  Once the
first frigate is captured, send the two corvettes back
to get the last one.  When the first frigate enters
the Mothership, you will get to the tragic (but cool)
destruction of Kharak.  Then, once the corvettes let
go of a frigate, send them to collect the trays. 
Don’t worry if one got destroyed, it won’t matter in
the game.  When all those tasks are done, start
harvesting and researching Capital Ship Chassis.  You
“reverse-engineered” Capital Ship Drive when you
captured the first frigate.  This means you got it
automatically.  There aren’t that many resources here,
but it will be enough to get started for the next
mission.  Build a Resource Controller and then, when
everything is harvested, researched, or salvaged, jump
to the next area.

endrick adds:

As soon as you jump into this mission, alt-focus on
one of the Cryo Trays to get a good point to attack
from.  Select all your fighters and tell them to
attack all of the Assault Frigates in Evasive.  Then
send in all of your Salvage Corvettes to bring them
home.

-------------------------------------------------------

Mission 4:The Great Wastelands #1

After you jump in, Fleet Intelligence will tell you to
move your Resource Controller as close to the asteroid
field as possible.  Instead, tell you controller to
“guard” your collector.  This will make the controller
follow the collector around.  But, before you start
collecting, you have to build some ships.  Build
Interceptors so you have at least sixteen and build
Heavy Corvettes until you have at least ten.  Then
build Salvage Corvettes until you have nine, you are
going to do some major stealing in this mission.  Tell
these to guard your controller.  Order your collector
to start harvesting.  Once it drops off the first load
of resources, a unknown ship will make an approach to
your Mothership.  They will announce that they are the
Bentusi, a trading civilization.  Once your ambassador
returns from his trip, you are brought to the Bentusi
Exchange screen.  They are going to sell you Ion
Cannon technology.  Make this trade, but not yet.  You
can wait for your collector to bring in more resources
before the trade as long as you stay in the exchange
screen.  You will need to do this, as you will need to
build some Ion Cannon Frigates right after the trade. 
Wait until you have about 1900 resources.  Make the
trade then.  The Bentusi will then warn you about the
approaching Turanic Raiders, who are the Taidann’s
servants.  They say they will return with more trades,
but in a weird way.  A bit after they leave, the same
fighter and corvettes from the Khar-Selim will descend
on your collector and controller.  Leave the Assault
Frigates you captured at home, you will need them
guarding the Mothership.  If you have the required
amount of Interceptors and Heavy Corvettes, you should
be able to fend them off with minimal losses (minimal,
not none).  Once the Carrier has run out of fighter
and corvettes to launch, six deadly Ion Array Frigates
hyperspace near your Mothership and open fire on it. 
Don’t send your fighters back to defend the Mothership
you won’t need to.  But this is where the Salvage
Corvettes come in.  Send a group of three toward the
two on the sides and one on the group on the back.  It
only takes two to capture a frigate, but one corvette
will usually be destroyed.  But if one doesn’t get
destroyed, send the corvette that is standing around
to another frigate.  Have your frigates go after the
group in the back of the Mothership in Evasive tactics
so they won’t hurt them as much.  This fire is to just
push the frigates back.  If you notice one of the
enemy frigates smoking, do not attack it, you want to
capture every one of these frigates, you will need
them.  Continue capturing until all of the frigates
are on your side.  After this, another Carrier will go
for your Mothership.  It has an escort of two Ion
Array Frigates, so capture them and concentrate all
fire on the Carrier.  You also don’t want to have your
Strike Craft defend the Mothership from the Carrier
either.  Remember, the Turanic Carriers have excellent
defense against Strike Craft. When it starts to smoke,
it begins to retreat, don’t let it!  If it escapes,
you lose the mission.  Once the Carrier is gone,
finish harvesting the area if it hasn’t been harvested
out yet, then hyperspace.  A small note on Ion Array
Frigates, unlike your Capital ships, they cannot
repair themselves over time.  You will have to repair
them with Support Frigates or Repair Corvettes.

endrick adds:

Mission 4: Send all your salvage teams above the
Mothership when you get to the level, when Ion
Frigates start arriving, they will be in a perfect
position to capture.  If there are too many to capture
easily, send 1 Salvage Corvettes to each of them to
somewhat disable their ability to fight back.

-------------------------------------------------------

Mission 5:The Great Wastelands #2

You start the mission in an “empty” region of space
where the fleet that destroyed Kharak is hiding. 
There are plentiful resources in this mission and you
will be competing for them in the end of the mission,
so build another collector if you can.  First, do not
follow Fleet Intelligences instructions to send a
probe to investigate the thicker portions of the
resource deposits.  But during my travels, I
discovered that if any ship crosses a line 49
kilometers from the Mothership, you would trigger the
Taidann assault.  So build two probes and send them
along each dust cloud vein exactly 49 kilometers. 
This will act a mark to warn your ships if they get to
close.  Now, order the controller to guard your one or
two collectors and tell them to start harvesting. 
Make sure they only harvest one dust cloud line (you
can order them yourself which cloud to harvest).  When
they reach the probe marking the 49 kilometer spot,
stop them and have them harvest the next line of dust
clouds until they reach the other probe.  Now send
them back to the Mothership.  For this mission, you
will need at least 10 Ion Frigates or Ion Array
Frigates, with plenty of Interceptors and Heavy
Corvettes as escorts.  The Taidann fleet here has a
lot of Strike Craft, including a new type of one.  I
like building 40 Interceptors and 20 Heavy Corvettes
(this may sound like a lot of resources to spend, but
you will need all of those fighters).  When you have
your fleet ready, assign the fighters a group number
and the Capital ships another number.  Now put the
Capital ships in a Wall formation and send them
straight down the center of the two dust cloud lines
escorted by ALL your fighters and corvettes (except
Salvage Corvettes).  Make sure you are parallel to the
upper line though.  When you cross that 49-kilometer
line, Fleet Intelligence will tell you that, “Ship
profiles and marking match those from the recording at
Kharak.  There is no doubt that this is the fleet. 
Destroy them.”  Your small fleet is now approached
three slightly damaged Assault Frigates and Strike
Craft.  Break off your fighters to get the enemy
fighters, and leave your frigates moving forward.  But
keep an eye on your fighters to see if they should
retreat or not.  Now concentrate fire of your frigates
on each of the enemy Assault Frigates.  After that
start, three more slightly damaged Assault Frigates
approach you.  After destroying these, two Taidann
Destroyers come after you.  These ships are very
powerful, so if you aren’t careful, you could die
right here.  If your fighters are done with the
enemy’s, have them attack one of the Destroyers and
have your frigates destroy one of them.  There will be
more fighters approaching. If you engage them, Fleet
Intelligence will tell you that they are a new type of
fighter, the Defender.  You can research the tech
later, just leave it for now, but destroy the
fighters.  Now, you will see the Taidann Carrier.  But
there will also be three Ion Cannon Frigates moving up
from below you.  Destroy the Ion Frigates then the
Carrier.  Remember to concentrate your fire.  When the
Carrier is destroyed, all other remaining Capital
ships on the Taidann side head for your Mothership. 
This should be only a Destroyer and a Support Frigate.
 Use your Salvage Corvettes and send an extra corvette
to each (see above for corvette capture listing).  You
should be able to capture both and add some
significant firepower and some healing ability to your
fleet.  If you have any other Salvage Corvettes, send
them out to capture the Taidann collectors.  If you
don’t capture or destroy them, they will kamikaze into
the Mothership!  Now, send out your collectors and
controller to harvest this area dry.  Also research
everything you haven’t yet.  Now build a single group
of 15-25 Attack Bombers for the next mission and
assign a single group to every ship you have except
fighters, collectors, and the Support Frigate you just
captured.  When the area is harvested, make the
hyperspace jump.

Grinzz TeamRocket says:

In mission 5, it is possible for you to capture the
Carrier. (You can't capture the first two you see
because that is the Turanic Raider one, and considered
their Mothership.) During all the mayhem, send out
your collectors to start collecting again, and build
some extra Salvage Corvettes, at least up to 10. Then,
when you get to the Destroyers and Carrier, blow up
everything except the Carrier, Support Frigate, and a
Destroyer, and then send your troops back home. (Even
if the Support Frigate is firing on you.... it doesn’t
do that much damage) Then, send your salvage teams way
around the left of the attacking forces and behind
them, and try to grab at least the Carrier and
Destroyer while they get harrased by your strike craft
on evasive tactics. If you have extra corvettes, nab
the frigate. A free Carrier!

-------------------------------------------------------

Mission 6:Diamond Shoals
This is the simplest mission in the game.  But simple
doesn’t always mean easy.  In this mission you have to
destroy asteroids before they impact with the
Mothership.  You do this by “Force Attacking” them
(holding down Ctrl+Shift and selecting a target).  To
get your easily hit ships out of the field, use the
group number you assigned them in the last mission and
send 50 kilometers out to the right of the Mothership
and down as far as you can get them.  Now, use you
Attack Bombers and Interceptors to destroy the
asteroids and send out your collectors to harvest. 
There seems like a lot of resources in this mission,
but there isn’t.  Most of the asteroids are not
harvestable.  Oh yeah, you can put the Support Frigate
you captured behind the Mothership to heal it if it
gets hurt.  There are a total of three waves of
asteroids.  You must quickly force attack asteroid
after asteroid or your fighters will sit around and
get hit by asteroids.  During all this, you can now
research Super-Capital Ship Drive.  This allows you to
build Destroyers.  Remember to only destroy asteroids
heading for the Mothership, as most will miss it. 
When you clear the field, the Bentusi will show with a
new trade, Drone Technology for 500 resource units. 
Buy it right away.  When Fleet Command asks about
advice for getting through the nebula, the Bentusi
say, “We hear nothing there.  Even the Taidann fear
the Great Nebula.  No one returns.”  Now its time to
build some ships.  Build at least 40 Defenders and at
least 20 Heavy Corvettes, although you can do this in
the beginning of next mission.

-------------------------------------------------------

Mission 7:The Gardens of Kadesh

When you enter this area, intelligence will point out
that energy and resource levels are so high, that
sensors are being scrambled.  They say they will
adjust the sensors, but the sensors never improve. 
Start harvesting, but keep all your collectors and
controllers selected along with the Mothership.  This
is so you can quickly put your resource team back in
the Military Parade formation.  Also assign a single
group number to every ship with a powerful gun.  This
means assign a number to every ship except resource
ships, Support Frigates, and Repair Corvettes.  Also
retire any Attack Bombers for Ru’s.  They will be
useless in this mission.  After a few minutes of
harvesting, intelligence will say that an object is
approaching the Mothership.  When you see the two
black areas appear at the top and bottom of the
screen, hit Tab to put your resourcers in the Military
Parade formation.  You send your ambassador and he
talks with another ship.  This ship’s pilot says that
if you want to join the garden’s forces, you will
live.  But also says that if you have come to
“consume” the garden, you will be destroyed.  The
ambassador then says if you will be given time to
charge your engines, you will leave peacefully. 
However, this guy says no one leaves the garden.  He
then heads back to his Mothership, which launches tons
of fighters at you.  Good thing you assigned a group
number, quickly select those ships and have them
attack every ship at once.  But, soon after they begin
to attack, the ships begin to fall back.  No, they
aren’t retreating they are re-fueling.  Use this time
to get in some cheap hits, as they are vulnerable when
re-fueling, and destroy their Fuel Pods.  You have to
continue to ward off attack after attack of these
fighters.  And do not attack the enemy Mothership.  It
will simply disappear into hyperspace, and then
reappear.  Just wait until command announces that the
hyper drive is ready and then fire it up and use quick
docking.  What?!  The jump failed due to some kind of
inhibitor field.  Guess what, it is the Kadesh
Mothership.  It then sends even more fighters at you. 
Now, you go over and attack.  Bring every ship in the
group to attack it.  After a short time, it jumps out
of there for good.  You now have all the time in the
world to research Fast Tracking Turrets and harvest
this resource rich area dry.  When everything is done,
restock your fighter squadron.  Build Defenders so you
have at least 40 and retire all your Heavy Corvettes
to make room for at least 24 Multi-Gun Corvettes and
get resources.

-------------------------------------------------------

Mission 8:The Cathedral of Kadesh

When you exit hyperspace, you will notice you are
still inside the nebula.  Not only that, you are
surrounded by three Kadesh Motherships, all of them
hyperspace inhibitors.  In the beginning of the
mission, the same ship approaches you and offers you
one more chance to join the garden’s forces.  But, of
course, you decline.  You are then attacked from all
sides by the same forces as last mission.  Just follow
the same tactics as last mission.  Hit everything at
once with everything you got.  But the Kadesh throw in
another ship to the fray.  The Multi-Beam Frigate. 
These babies pack 4 Ion Cannons in to one spinning
ball of death.  The good news, you can capture them
with only two Salvage Corvettes. Although you won’t be
able to capture them all at once, you can minimize any
damage by using the Support Frigate you captured way
back in mission 5.  Remember to not attack the
Multi-Beam Frigates.  They are an irreplaceable part
of the game and are death to Capital and Super-Capital
ships alike (although their accuracy is not something
to be admired).  Continue to hit their fighters and
capture Multi-Beam Frigates.  After what seems like an
eternity, fighters stop attacking and frigates stop
spinning.  When this happens, take every thing you got
and head toward one of the Kadesh Motherships behind
your Mothership.  When you attack them, they slowly
start to turn toward your Mothership to attack it. 
These Motherships don’t have as much armor as yours
does, but it can still take a lot of damage.  Once the
first one is turned to space dust, head for the other
one.  Once both of them are destroyed, the rest of any
Kadesh forces begin to retreat to a point on the map. 
Do not, I repeat, do not head their now.  By now, your
fighters are probably yelling at you for refueling and
repairing.  You have all the time in the world now, so
repair and refuel every single one of your ships using
the Mothership and Support Frigate.  Make sure no
fighters and corvettes dock with the controller, as it
can’t repair ships.  Now, before heading out, build
Salvage Corvettes until you have at least fourteen. 
You will need these for the seven Multi-Beam Frigates
waiting for your capture on the trek to the last
Kadesh Mothership.  When you are organized, put all
your Capital ships into a Wall formation and then
guarded by all remaining fighters and corvettes. 
Start moving toward the final Mothership with all your
Capital ships with fighters and Salvage Corvettes in
escort.  Your first obstacle is the smallest bunch of
fighters that are quickly removed from your way.  Then
comes the seven Multi-Beam Frigates.  Just send in
your Salvage Corvettes, as these frigates won’t fire
on you until you fire on them.  Capture all of them
and continue on.  You don’t have to wait for them to
be captured, but it would be a good idea, as you will
need to destroy this Mothership quickly.  When you
reach the point where the Kadesh Mothership is,
intelligence will point out that the wreckage around
it matches perfectly with the ship found on Kharak. 
It seems that you share a common root with these
people; too bad you have to kill them.  When you
attack the final Mothership, send in your corvettes
and Defenders first.  This will draw attention away
from your Capital ships, which it tries to ram.  The
round head of the Kadesh Mothreship can obliterate any
ship, even a Destroyer, in one shot, so sending in the
Strike Craft first will make it try to ram them.  When
the Mothership is distracted, send in your Capital
ships on Evasive tactics.  When they open fire on the
Mothership, it will turn to ram your big ships.  But
if you have plenty of stolen and built Ion firepower,
it shouldn’t get one.  When you destroy it, you have
all the time in the world to harvest this region’s
rich resource deposits.  It takes a while, but is well
worth the wait.  When I finished this mission, I had
over 10000 resource units.  That may not sound like a
lot, but in the single player mode, it is.  You may
have noticed some Fuel Pods on the way to the
Mothership, capture these while harvesting.  You can’t
refuel at these, but they can be retired for 1000 Ru’s
each.

-------------------------------------------------------

Mission 9:The Sea of Lost Souls

This is the most boring mission I played.  When you
first jump in, Fleet Command says there is an anomaly
in the area.  Send a probe to investigate.  You may
have to send two, as the first might not pick up what
waits in the anomaly.  When the probe does pick up,
intelligence will state that the ships “escorting” the
alien ship are active.  They recommend you destroy the
alien ship.  But, you can’t do it with Capital ships;
they will be taken over by the control field
surrounding the alien ship.  The only ships that
aren’t affected are Strike Craft.  So, start building
Attack Bombers, at least 30 or so.  Also build about
15 Scouts to distract the ultimate fighter killer
taken over by the alien ship, a Missile Destroyer. The
Scouts are able to dodge its missiles long enough for
your Attack Bombers to do some significant damage. 
But, even though this rarely happens, the Scouts
actually survive long enough to some significant
damage to the Missile Destroyer. If this ever happen,
pull the Scouts out of there.  Send them toward the
alien ship until you can see it.  Now put the Scouts
on Evasive tactics and send them toward the ghost ship
along with any other fighters you have (Interceptors,
Defenders, Attack Bombers).  The Missile Destroyer and
the alien’s ship’s escorts will turn to attack the
Scouts, but most fire will miss them.  Now, send in
your Attack Bombers, Defenders, and Interceptors to
attack the ghost ship.  They should be on Normal
tactics.  The Scouts will distract the Missile
Destroyer but the other ships will start targeting the
other fighters.  You can put the Interceptors and
Attack Bombers in a formation, but this will hamper
their mobility, so it isn’t advised.  Have them attack
the alien ship and only the alien ship.  You get the
ships protecting the alien ship once the control field
is down, including the Missile Destroyer.  After a
bit, intelligence will point out that your weapons are
having a minimal effect on the ship but each strike
causes a tiny flux in the control field.  This is
practically a halfway point.  Hopefully, at least some
Scouts are still distracting the Missile Destroyer. 
When the control field is finally down, you get all
the ships in the control field.  You can also build
your own Missile Destroyers once you capture the enemy
one.  Now you have to send a Salvage Corvette to
examine the alien craft.  Send it now.  When it
returns, the Bentusi show up again.  They offer you
Super-Capital Chassis in exchange for the information
of the alien ship.  That’s easy taking!  You will not
have to spend resources buying this tech and the alien
ship also allows you to research Gravity Well tech. 
The Bentusi also promise to bring your case before the
Galactic Council.  Their final words, “Reach your
homeworld.  Establish your claim.  We will summon the
council.”  They also say even the Taidann answer to
the council.  Now, start harvesting.  There may not
seen like a lot of resources here, but there are.  It
takes a long time, but it is definitely worth it.  If
you can (you should be able to) build an even number
of Destroyers and Missile Destroyers (3 in each ship
group) to add to what should already be a powerful
fleet made up of mostly captured ships.  If you want
to have some fun, you can go attack the alien ship. 
Don’t worry about being caught in the control field as
it is disabled.  You can’t destroy the ship either,
but it is so cool watching the Ion Cannons blaze and
the missiles explode and the cannons fire.  A
spectacular display of firepower.  Jump to the next
mission when harvesting and research is complete.

-------------------------------------------------------

Mission 10:Super Nova Research Station

When you jump in, you will notice the supernova in the
background flaring very brightly.  First send your
collectors and controller(s) to the group of asteroids
on the right of the Mothership.  When they leave the
dust surrounding the Mothership, they begin to get
hurt because of the radiation.  Don’t worry; they
won’t get destroyed on the way to the asteroids.  But
your expensive Capital ships can also be hurt and the
beating they are going to take in this level will just
add to it.  Don’t bother telling them to harvest you
can do that later.  First, array a combination of Ion
Cannon Frigates, Destroyers, Missile Destroyers, and
Multi-Beam Frigates in a single wall formation. 
Second, research Proximity Sensor tech.  Also wait for
intelligence to tell you can research Minelayer Tech. 
I’ve seen in other strategy guides that you should
take the mostly unguarded routes to the station, but
it was way to hard to stay in the dust.  It is easier
to stay in the dust in the heavily guarded route
because the red dots on the Sensor Manager act as
beacons to tell you where to go next.  When you
arranged your ships, send them to the first red dot in
the dust paths.  You will encounter some Interceptors
and Heavy Corvettes.  These are easily handled by your
Missile Destroyers.  The next red dot turns out to a
wall of mines with a Minelayer Corvette.  “Force
Attack” the mines to get them out of the way then
attack the minelayer.  Proceed to find several more
minefields and another minelayer.  After this, you
will face a challenge.  Not a big one, but the ships
that face you will pose a significant threat.  The
next opposition along the dust field is two Destroyers
and a Heavy Cruiser.  Before attacking, bring in the
Support Frigate you captured way back in Mission 5 to
heal any ships that are damaged.  Now move you wall
forward slowly, until the Destroyers start to come
after you.  If you timed it right, only the Destroyers
will approach you and not the heavy Cruiser.  This
makes things much easier.  Remember to concentrate
fire on one ship and only fire when they are in range.
 When the two Destroyers are gone, heal your ships
again and head toward the Heavy Cruiser.  If the Heavy
Cruiser approaches along with the Destroyers, try to
hit a Destroyer as hard as you can, destroying it if
possible.  Then fire on the Heavy Cruiser until it is
destroyed, then hit the remaining Destroyer.  Now it’s
a steady “downhill” trek to the research station
through the radiation.  Remember to heal any ships
damaged before going down.  Now head straight toward
the station.  As you near the station, you will see
two Assault Frigates.  Ignore them for now and go
straight past them.  Once you see a Carrier, fire on
it with all you got.  Intelligence will warn you that
if it escapes it will alert the Taidann fleet to you
and then you lose the mission!  When it is gone,
destroy the entire fleet surrounding the station. 
They are all Ion Frigates and Assault Frigates.  Also
watch out for two groups of five Assault Frigates
returning to protect the station.  Save the fighters
for last.  When every single enemy ship is gone, fire
on the research station.  When it is destroyed, move
your ships so they are no longer being hurt by
radiation and just leave them there for now.  Now
start harvesting the two large clumps of asteroids to
the left and right of the Mothership.  While
harvesting, build three small groups of Scouts (5 in
each) and name them Group 1, 2 and 3.  They will be
needed once the next mission starts.  Also build
Salvage Corvettes until you have 14 -18.  The next
mission holds a good prize, but takes a lot of Salvage
Corvettes.  Make the jump when everything is
completed.

Grinnz TeamRocket says:
In mission 10, Super Nova Research Station, the
radiation prevents you from harvesting all the
resources without your collector(s) blowing up. Well,
here is a strategy to get around it, if you captured a
Carrier or have enough spare RUs for one. After
blowing up EVERYTHING, meaning there is not one single
red dot left on the map, then build a single Repair
corvette. Trust me, a Support Frigate won't work.
Then, go to the Launch Manager and click "Remain
Docked", and tell the corvette to dock with the
Carrier. Then, tell the Carrier to guard a single
harvester (if you have two and they go separate ways,
you end up with a slight problem). Then start
harvesting. Here's how it works: The Carrier can take
care of itself, but just in case, when you get to a
safe place, stop the harvester and launch the Repair
Corvette to make repairs. Then dock it again, and tell
the harvester to dock as well, since the Carrier will
repair it. Then harvest some more. There will come
some times when your harvester will cross long
distances; if it does this, monitor it's health
closely. If it turns yellow, immediately dock it for
repairs, and then continue toward the resources. This
may take a while, but it saves you the RUs of having
to build more collectors, especially if you already
captured that Carrier.

DIEGOPICHARDO Says:

I agree with following the heavily guarded route, I
sent a couple of Repair Corvettes along plus some
Salvage Corvettes.  Instead of destroying the Heavy
Cruiser, I captured it and waited for the Salvage
Corvettes to return to the halfway point along the
trail. I left them here knowing that the carrier would
come by unescorted when I began my attack on the
station.  You guessed it.  I also captured it.


-------------------------------------------------------

Mission 11: Tenhauser Gate
This is a simple shoot em’ up.  Taidann forces are
attacking the Bentusi with three Destroyers, a Heavy
Cruiser, four Ion Cannon Frigates, and an Assault
Frigate.  Take your small Scout groups and have each
group of five Scouts to attack the Heavy Cruiser, one
of the Destroyers, and one of the Ion Cannon Frigates.
 If you attack one of them, the whole group will fire
on you.  Don’t worry about the Assault Frigate; it
will protect the rest of its ships.  Now array your
Capital ships.  Have them destroy any of the ships
that are still close to the Bentusi ships except for
the Heavy Cruiser.  If any were drawn away, leave them
alone for now.  Now send your Salvage Corvettes after
the Heavy Cruiser.  The Cruiser will instantly turn to
fire on the approaching corvettes.  Hopefully, it will
fire on the ones that are waiting in a line so the
ones actually going to capture the Cruiser won’t have
those Ion Cannons to worry about.  When you capture
the Heavy Cruiser, check to see if any Destroyers or
Ion Cannon Frigates have been drawn away from the
Bentusi ship and capture them too.  When all ships are
destroyed or captured the Bentusi will reveal how you
were exiled from your homeworld.  When that is over,
enter the Launch Manager and click the Remain Docked
button.  You’ll see why in the next mission.  Then
build up your Salvage Corvettes again so you have
14-18 again.  Jump to the next mission after that.

-------------------------------------------------------

Mission 12: Galactic Core

This mission starts out fast.  When you get out of
hyperspace you will probably notice that three Gravity
Well Generators with three Support Frigates each
surround you.  If you didn’t click Remain Docked
button in the Launch Manager, the Missile Destroyer
and Assault Frigates approaching your Mothership will
destroy some or most of your Strike Craft.  But your
Capital ships should make short work of these first
ships.  Strangely though, Salvage Corvettes don’t
count as Strike Craft.  In other words, FREE SUPPORT
FRIGATES!  Manually launch you Salvage Corvettes and
put your fleet on Evasive tactics so they don’t
destroy the Support Frigates or Grav Well Generators
(if you destroy the Grav Wells, the Support Frigates
retreat).  You should have about 14 Salvage Corvettes
so you should be able to capture all but two Support
Frigates at once.  Once you capture all the Support
Frigates you can, destroy the Grav Wells.  Now build a
few Proximity Sensors and send them a couple thousand
meters in front of the Capital ships on the left side
of the Mothership.  These are to detect the soon
approaching cloaked Ion Cannon Frigates.  When you
destroy the Ion Frigates get ready for some major
battling.  Look at the Sensor Manager, see those red
dots on the sensors, those are two massive Carrier
groups.  Move your entire group into the field
(excluding Support Frigates).  Leave the fighters at
home to protect the Mothership.  Move quickly into the
field toward the closest red dot.  This could be a
Carrier group or just a Resource Collector, destroy it
if is a collector.  The Carrier groups tend to stick
to the center of the field, so it is probably a
collector.  When you see a Carrier group, destroy the
defense fleet first.  This is usually 4-6 Ion Frigates
and a hell of a lot of fighters.  Destroy the Carrier
after all defenses is wiped out.  Then go for the next
one.  Destroy it in the same way.  Then hurry back
home.  If you look at the sensors, you will notice
another red dot moving all over the map.  This is the
Taidann’s main attack group, which includes a Heavy
Cruiser, five Ion Cannon Frigates, and lots of
Defenders.  This doesn’t sound like much but it can
easily destroy the Mothership if it is undefended.  If
you hurried in the field you will usually have lots of
time before the Heavy Cruiser even gets close to the
Mothership.  Sometimes even, the Heavy Cruiser never
approaches the Mothership.  This doesn’t happen often,
but it does give you an advantage, as the Defenders
will run out of fuel and be unable to follow.  The
only problem of this is after you destroy the Heavy
Cruiser.  This triggers an event that you need to be
close to the Mothership for.  Anyways, when you
destroy the cruiser a heavily damaged Elite Guard
Destroyer comes out of Hyperspace near you Mothership,
being piloted by a Captain Elson who wishes to defect
to the Kushan.  In other words, he wants to join you. 
Eight Interceptors, two Assault Frigates, and two Ion
Frigates are pursuing them.  The Destroyer can survive
for a bit longer.  But unless you help the crippled
Destroyer, it will be destroyed.  When you have
destroyed everything, and I mean everything, have your
collectors start to harvest.  Also capture any Support
Frigates that escaped your Salvage Corvettes and any
enemy collectors that are just sitting around.  The
captain will tell you of an abandoned communications
array in a ship graveyard that he can use to signal
the rest of his rebel fleet.  Then make the jump to
the next region.  You don’t really have time to
research the two techs in this level during the
fighting, as one thing usually leads to the next.  So
research the Cloaked Fighter and Cloak Generator techs
before jumping to the next mission.

-------------------------------------------------------

Mission 13: The Karos Graveyard

You come out of hyperspace on the edge of the
graveyard.  Fleet Intelligence will give you the
location of the communication array.  It is at the
opposite end of yard.  Send a probe through the
graveyard straight at the array.  When it is in the
yard, auto-guns will start firing at it.  These guns
are stationary, but quite deadly to slow moving
Capital ships.  But the biggest threat to your Capital
ships is the Junkyard Dog (that’s what the game calls
it, I’m not making it up).  This small but souped up
version of a Salvage Corvette can capture any ship. 
This, plus the fact that it is practically invincible,
makes it very deadly.  When this guard does capture a
ship, it will drag it off to a nearby hyperspace gate
and send it through, never to be seen again.  Then it
will come back for another ship.  Don’t worry about
ships being captured when near the Mothership, the
dog’s range is completely limited to the junkyard
(although it will follow ships out of the yard to
capture them).  There are a high number of Proximity
Sensors in the yard, so cloaking is not an option. 
The only way to bypass this major threat is to take
the roundabout way around the junkyard.  Take some
Missile Destroyers (3-4) and build about 15 Scouts or
Light Corvettes.  Both have advantages.  The Scout has
greater speed so it can avoid the fire of the
auto-guns better, but the Light Corvette has better
armor so it can sustain more hits.  Which ever you
build, tell them to guard the Missile Destroyers and
send the Missile Destroyers to the very top or bottom
of the map.  While doing this, start researching Heavy
Guns tech.  When they get there, send them across the
map to the point right below the communications array.
 When they get there, send them up to about 10 km from
the bottom (or top) of the junkyard.  When the
Junkyard Dog, the moving red blip on the sensors,
nears the front of the yard (near the Mothership),
send the Missile Destroyers up (or down) to the
communications array.  When you near it, auto-guns
will open fire.  Take these out with your Missile
Destroyers.  But this will alert the dog to your
trespassing.  It will take one of those hyperspace
gates to get to you quickly, and then go for one of
the Missile Destroyers.  When you get to a suitable
distance from the communications array, select your
Scouts and then click the array.  The Scouts will now
dock with the array.  Continue taking out auto-guns. 
By this time, one of your Missile Destroyers will have
been captured and has been or is in the process of
being dragged off.  One of the Scouts should be able
to dock with the array.  When this happens, Captain
Elson will communicate with his rebel group then
hyperspace out of there.  Now, quickly select the
hyperspace jump button and select Quick Docking.  This
will get any ships left in the junkyard out before
being destroyed or captured.

Grinnz TeamRocket Says:

As soon as you are able to finish Cloak Generator
research, build 3 Cloak Generators and get them to
guard one of your Destroyers in Broad formation. Then,
make one of the generators cloak and make the
destroyer move directly through the yard.  Watch your
Destroyer, and if you notice any Proximity Sensors
(the only "Non-Combat Ships", if you're using the
Tactical Overlay with Caps Lock), get your Destroyer
to target them. It has to decloak to attack it, and
some auto-guns may open fire, but the sensor will be
gone with two Ion Beams, and you are free from fire
again. Continue toward the station this way. Also
monitor your Cloak Generators. If one of their
energies starts to get really low, activate the second
one. That way, when the first runs out, the ships will
still be cloaked. Eventually, you will reach the
station. There are several Proximity Sensors, make
sure you destroy all of them. Then, move the Destroyer
and generators to the very top of the map, out of the
graveyard.  Then, build a single Cloaked Fighter and
cloak it, then tell it to go straight to the station.
Monitor it too; if you see any Proximity Sensors that
the Destroyer missed, quickly move it away from them. 
Finally when you reach the station, dock, then when
Elson stops talking, hyperspace and use Quick Docking.
 This strategy would be most useful if you have
plentiful extra resources to build the extra Cloak
Generators and Cloaked Fighter.

DIEGOPICHARDO Says:

I found that dealing with the Junkyard Dog when you
first arrive is a good idea.  What I did was move my
(stolen) Heavy Cruiser along with a few Ion Cannon
Frigates to the yard entrance (aprox. 30 km or
stopping as soon as you can see the enemy tactical
signatures in caps lock mode) and used my Resource
Controller as bait; when the dog came in range, I
engaged the Gravwell and caught him. The field lasted
long enough for the capital ships to make short work
of him. I was then free to use the Heavy Cruiser in
clearing a path to the objective.

_D_roller_ Adds:

As soon as the mission starts build a Grav-Well and
get your battle 
group in a wall.  Tell the Grav-Well and your battle
group to move towards the graveyard.  Alert the
Junkyard dog.  When he approaches, activate the
Grav-Well.  Attack the Junkyard dog with all you got. 
Since he relies on speed so much, he will be lunch for
your battle group.

Oyster Says:

Once you're able to build a Heavy Cruiser, this will
be able to "take out” that little, annoying enemy
Salvage Corvette by itself. You'll have to let it
steal a few of your cheaper ships first, but I've
noticed that you sometimes can get one or two back
that it spits back out of the Hyperspace Gate. Once it
has stolen a couple of ships, I've noticed that you
will eventually find it turning in the first gate to
the left center of the yard. Once it is sitting there
turning (all PROUD of itself for making all those
captures, I'm sure!).  You can send in a Cruiser and a
few support ships (Missile Destroyers seem to work
best) and nail the thing sitting there spinning in its
Hyperspace Gate.  It will take a lot of volleys even
from your Cruiser to nail it, but you'll eventually
get it.  This will allow plenty of time for the rest
of your ships to do what they need to do.   Collectors
CAN get to the first batch of resources to the right
of the yard by being supported by a Cloak Generator. 
When cloaked, the little enemy Salvager doesn't come
out to get it either, which it will immediately do
when you're trying to harvest resources.

-------------------------------------------------------

Mission 14: Bridge of Sighs

Before I get started, let me point out that this will
be a very long mission, even if you do it completely
properly.  You start on the outskirts of a Taidann
defense perimeter guarding a hyperspace inhibitor
preventing you from entering the Hiigara system using
a hyperspace jump.  The task in this area is to
destroy the hyperspace inhibitor then get out of there
A.S.A.P.  This is easier said then done.  One look at
the sensor manager reveals a huge sphere of Taidann
ships.  These are Ion Frigates to be exact, and they
seem a bit more powerful then normal.  On the inside
of the sphere are some rather potent defenses by
themselves.  This includes three cloaked Destroyers,
tons of fighters, a Heavy Cruiser, and a Carrier.  You
should already have a huge fleet by now, and you will
need almost every single ship.  But don’t just charge
in right now.  This is a chance to bulk up your fleet
even more.  Before you do anything though, build some
Heavy Cruisers to go with any you might have right
now.  Then assign groups to your Salvage Corvettes in
twos.  You should have some Proximity Sensors by now
(you used them in mission 12), so select one and send
it toward the part of the sphere right in front of
your Mothership.  When it is close enough, the Ion
Frigates will start to home in on the sensor.  When
they get within a couple thousand meters of the
sensor, turn it around and head back for the
Mothership.  But don’t go too far in front of the
frigates.  If you do they will stop following the
sensor.  Just continue stopping and starting.  Do this
until you are close enough to the Mothership that you
can see it.  Now select your Salvage Corvettes (using
the group numbers) and tell each group to capture a
frigate.  If you brought to many frigates along with
the sensor, select some of the Scouts or Light
Corvettes from the last mission as well to run decoy
for your salvagers.  When you capture this batch of
frigates, there should be a small hole in the
defensive sphere.  After completely salvaging the
frigates (they have come out of the Mothership and are
under your control), send the sensor back for some
more ships.  Repeat this until there is a large enough
hole for your battle fleet to slip through without
alerting the rest of the sphere, until you attack the
inhibitor that is.  Take your entire battle fleet;
except for fighters, corvettes, and Support Frigates,
forward through the hole you have created.  And make
sure you take at least 2 Proximity Sensors; there are
some cloaked ships in there.  If you alert any other
Ion Frigates, kill them before continuing.  When you
reach the inhibitor, attack each one of the spinning
sections.  If you get attacked by any of the ships
inside the sphere, kill them then fire on the
inhibitor again.  When it is completely destroyed (all
the sections are gone), jump to hyperspace and use
Quick Docking.

DIEGOPICHARDO Says:

I found this level to be easiest with a good amount of
Cloaked Fighters.  I used them to destroy the three
gates without having to destroy the ships guarding
them.  When done, I used the Salvage Corvettes to
capture the two Destroyers, two Support Frigates and
one Missile Destroyer per gate (this task took the
longest with the two farthest gates).  I also used the
Cloaked Fighters to destroy the array.  Many people
would just hyperspace when this is done but I actually
took two days to capture over 100 Ion Cannon Frigates.
 I sent teams of salvage corvettes to capture two
frigates at a time.  To avoid being caught, I used
cloak generators on the approach and this allowed me
to position up to three salvage teams before the five
minute cloak limit is up.

-------------------------------------------------------

Mission 15: Chapel Perilous

This is the second hardest mission in the entire game.
 When you jump in, select every ship of your battle
fleet and go into the sensor manager.  Move them
toward the red dot in the manager (the one between all
the others).  Fleet Intelligence will soon point out
that this is an object that will collide with the
Mothership and must be destroyed.  When going to it,
don’t let the smaller ships get ahead of your bigger
ships (Heavy Cruisers, Missile Destroyers, or
Destroyers).  When you reach the object, you will see
that it has a rather good escort of Destroyers and
tons of Assault Frigates.  Forget about the though. 
Fire on the object using Evasive Tactics.  I can’t
stress using Evasive tactics enough.  If this thing
can wipe out a Mothership in a single blow, guess what
it can do to your fleet.  Now, this is where the last
hint in the General Hints section comes into play. 
This is the only mission I have had to restart on
because the damn rock kept ramming my ships.  You must
end this level with as many ships as possible.  You
are on the verge of penetrating the Hiigara solar
system, and the Taidann will throw everything they
have at you.  Before leaving, assign a group number to
your Support Frigates (and Repair Corvettes if you
have any) and another to your battle fleet.  When the
object is destroyed, jump to hyperspace using quick
docking.

-------------------------------------------------------

Mission 16:Hiigara

This is the last mission.  But trust me, it isn’t
easy.  Between missions in the cinematic, you lose
Fleet Command.  She will no longer be able to run the
Mothership.  When you jump in, you are almost
instantly under threat.  Before you do anything,
assign your Support Frigates to heal the Mothership. 
When the Taidann start firing, its health will drain
rapidly.  Send your collectors out along with the
controllers to harvest.  Then the first attack wave
hits with a bang.  A Heavy Cruiser, 2 Missile
Destroyers, 2 Destroyers, 5 Ion Frigates, and 5
Assault Frigates.  Take out the Heavy Cruiser first,
and then destroy the rest, remembering to concentrate
your fire on a single ship at a time.  During this, 5
Ion Cannon Frigates approach from below your
Mothership and Attack Bombers approach from above. 
When you have taken out the main Taidann Fleet, kill
the Ion Frigates.  The Attack Bomber do only one pass
at the Mothership then they break off.  Do not engage
them.  After winning this battle, finish healing the
Mothership then heal your fleet.  Soon, another fleet
emerges from hyperspace behind and above your
Mothership.  This force includes everything from the
first attack except for one more Destroyer and no
Missile Destroyers.  They will take a while to get to
the Mothership though.  However, another fleet appears
just in front of your Mothership.  This is the same
kind of fleet from the first attack.  Destroy them in
the same way.  If you are quick, you should be able to
kill all of them before the fleet behind your
Mothership gets there.  When you win, you will have a
bit of time to heal and rebuild, but not much.  If you
paid attention to Fleet Intelligence, you would notice
another fleet approaching from behind and below your
Mothership.  The fleet includes a Heavy Cruiser, 9 Ion
Frigates, and 9 Assault Frigates.  Just as they reach
you though, intelligence reports another fleet jumping
in just on top of you and says, “We are being
overwhelmed.”  Wait a tick, that’s a Taidann fleet,
but its Captain Elson!  And he brings some help.  He
jumps in with his Elite Guard Destroyer, some Ion
Frigates, Assault Frigates, and Missile Destroyers. 
He gives you command of his Assault Frigates and
Missile Destroyers, but assign them to go with the
captain.  He will need help.  Finish the other Taidann
Fleet with your own fleet then hurry after Elson with
everything you have got.  If it has a gun, use it. 
Elson will approach a Carrier, but this Carrier is
loaded with fighters.  The will kamikaze into his
Destroyer.  If you have the ships he gave you command
of with him, they won’t do too much damage.  When you
destroy the Carrier, he heads for the prize, the
Taidann Mothership.  Go for it with everything you’ve
got.  Before you get there, however, you have to go
through 3 Heavy Cruisers, each with Support Frigates
healing them.  Concentrate on one at a time then carry
on when they are destroyed.  Ignore the Support
Frigates.  But Mothership is loaded with fighters
ready to die for their cause, along with two Missile
Destroyers.  Some of your ships should have caught up
to Elson by now (they should have by the cruisers), so
level every gun on the Mothership.  If you have any
fighters, kamikaze them if you want.  If you are like
me however, I think the pilots of those fighters have
gone through enough to be able to see their homeworld.
 When the Mothership is destroyed, you win and the
Bentusi come along again, with the Galactic Council,
and say “This war is over.”

-------------------------------------------------------

MULTIPLAYER TIPS

Note: This first section is done by readers.  I will
do the second section.

Build Carriers ASAP because:
a)	Your Carriers take over if your Mothership dies
and:
b)	Its great fun to go to a huge resource pocket,
drain it dry, get a huge amount of Ion Frigates and
strike craft and: 
c)	Finally, hyper jump to the enemy.
For some reason, other people forget to guard their
resourcers, no matter how many times they’re
destroyed.  Guard yours with about 1 Assault Frigate
and several fighters.
Drone Frigates are good for escort cause they tear up
all fighters, or at least confuse them.
When you get ready to attack, make sure you have a
good amount of bombers.  Send them out first and use
them to target any Capital ships that are a bit away
from the enemy Mothership. Attack Bombers in groups of
20 are death on single Capital ship, but other
fighters eat them for breakfast.
The Mothership can hyperjump, but it’s expensive. 
After being 10 minutes into the game, try to always
have 3000 spare Rus so you can if attacked.

Build a lot of Resource Collectors because they make
up the resources spent on them in 1 load.
Start with Resource Controllers to allow collectors to
drop-off resources, and then switch to Carriers as
soon as you can.
Bring everything you have to assault your opponent’s
Mothership.
If your opponent has laid down walls of mines around
their Mothership, hyperspace in to avoid coming at
them from the front.
Send probes to your opponent’s Mothership periodically
to check on his/her forces.
Attack your opponent’s collectors with Attack Bombers
or Interceptors if he/she has left them unguarded.
Most opponents forget that you can attack from the
bottom and top as well as the front, back, and sides. 
Attacking from the top can allow a few hits before
your opponent can mobilize his/her forces.
Don’t get drawn into several drawn out battles that
are spread out.  This forces you to spread out your
own forces.
If you can afford it, occasionally send small groups
of Attack Bombers, Heavy Corvettes, Ion Frigates, or
maybe even a few Destroyers to attack the forces
around your opponent’s Mothership.  Attack the biggest
ship there that you can destroy before you get
destroyed.  If you don’t want to lose your Capital
ships, send them in normally on their own power then,
when their health gets low, jump them out of there. 
This forces your opponent to keep on their toes.


-------------------------------------------------------

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my two brothers for allowing me
the time I need to do this strategy guide and Sierra
and Relic (whose home office is based where I live)
for making the game that changed the RTS world from
which no one will ever match.

-------------------------------------------------------

READER CONTRIBUTIONS

Grinnz TeamRocket for his The Great Wastelands
strategy, his Super Nova Research Station strategy,
and his Karos Graveyard strategy.
beaves13 for his Burst Shot info.
Jturner849 for the first section in Multiplayer
Tactics.
endrick for his Mission 2, 3, and 4 strategy.
Kevin W. Shepardson for his addition to General Hints.
_D_roller_ for the Karos Graveyard strategy.
Oyster for the Karos Graveyard strategy.

-------------------------------------------------------

FOOTNOTE

If you have any suggestions for this strategy guide,
things I should add, different routes around different
problems, spelling and grammar mistakes, if it is
something that bugs you, feel free to e-mail me at
[email protected].   Anything that helps other
players in this game is welcome.