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So you're super busy with doing Real Life™ things but still want to finish
the core Constellation quest line. Here are some tips:
Difficulty
- Normal really is a good balance. At higher difficulties, much more
time is needed to prepare for combat, manage inventory, earn credits, and
so on
Plot This misses so many good things, but if time is limited…
- Prioritize the Constellation questline most of the time, up to the point
you're directed to Masada III - you may want an upgraded ship for that
part
- Supporting that, pursue every Artifact and Temple as soon as they're
available
- Skip tons of time in early ship upgrades by finishing the entire Akila
questline (starts at the bank heist). This give you the Star Eagle with
twice the Reactor of the Frontier
- In New Atlantis, sign up for military service at M.A.S.T. and do the
"comms" quest to unlock the Obliterator starship weapons
- Put those on your Star Eagle and do any other upgrades to shields,
maneuvering - you should be set for Masada III now
- Past Masada III is the end of the Constellation questline, and
"winning"/"finishing", etc
Ships
The "Plot" above means that you'd be using the Frontier mainly to unlock
the Star Eagle. If you run into too much trouble in space combat, and don't
like running away, or the one space battle in the Akila questline is a
blocker…
You have tactics:
- Make sure you have unlocked Targeting, and use it in combat every
chance you get
- Also make sure you're using very short engine boosts to break missile
locks, meaning hit boost, then lower your ship speed right after
- Make sure you have crew that boosts your ship
- If you picked up the Isolation Skill, ensure you don't have a follower
while in space, in ship-to-ship combat - but do have one Follow you if
you capture a ship (note, Constellation members will become upset if you
drag them into a would-be-friendly ship and start killing everyone. The
Fan, though, trusts you. Completely)
You have ship options:
- Use a captured ship instead of Frontier
- Upgrade the Frontier: warning: this is an entire subgame
- Unlock the Obliterators
- Upgrade the Frontier's Reactor to the highest output you can. If you
maxed out Starship Design, there's a Tokamak X-120S Reactor, class A,
that generates 28 power, available at level 12. Otherwise something
around 23 power should be available by level 20. If you've turned
the Frontier into a cargo monster, you'll probably want a class B or
C reactor to power big engines that can spin cargo tubs around easily
- Upgrade Engines to have acceptable maneuvering (70+, up to 100),
keeping in mind that they less power they need, the more you can put
into shield and weapons
- Upgrade Missiles, ideally to four of the SC-01 or SC-02 (at lower
levels) which have large magazines, and underpower them at one pip in
actual combat (when they run out, though...)
- Throw away the Frontier's other default weapons
- Stuff as many Obliterators on the Frontier as it can fully power,
going for 5 or 6 of them
- Optionally, install another quad of (different) missiles to give
yourself more 1-pip-of-power punch
- In combat, your power allocation would look like: 12 oblits, 1
missiles #1, 1, missiles #2, max shields, 50% engines, 0 grav drive)
- Upgrade one of your captured ships
- Buy a ship - this is usually maximally cost inefficient, and should only
be done if the ship has modules you haven't unlocked, but want *now
anyway
Weapons and Combat
- Much combat can be avoided or left to your follower, saving urgency on
weapon upgrades after getting past those first, terrible, 3 points of
damage weapons
- Have a follower, give the follower a great gun (and equip it!),
upgrade it, later on give them armor too. Make sure you can see them
pull out the weapon when you pull yours
- With Stealth, you can steal Mag* family weapons for your follower in
Akila's one weapon store and in Neon in Kore Kinetics - although Kore
requires some standing on gun racks (two spots) or patience (one
spot). With but one round of ammo your follower can shoot forever.
Unlike the player. Note that going into shops at different times can
change how populated they are
- A good Wakizashi can be stolen from the Seokguh Syndicate on Neon very
early, starting from the rooftop over Frankie's, on the far side from the
landing pad. Blades are a great way to conserve ammo
- A lot of players like stealing starting guns from the Well's gun shop,
but they're pretty weak except for the heavy machine gun, which is great
follower gear
- Vladimir will, with dialogue, tell you about his house. With a bit of
lockpicking you can acquire a weapon he's fond of in the lowest room
- During starship captures, the captains are often elite, with far more
health. The best place to attack them is when they're on a ladder, but
on Normal you don't usually have to be this cautious
- Key things to mod onto weapons are Suppression and some type of Armor
Piercing. Binary Trigger can be great on some weapons (like the
Razorback) especially if you've found one with an Extended Magazine.
Scopes are also hugely helpful at range - but some weapons don't support
them
- You can always run away! [UPDATE] You can run away on ships during
captures, too, just jump back through the docker to your own ship and
regroup
Traits
- Few save time, but Hero Worshipped does provide a great, entirely
non-judgemental pack mule with a ton of funny lines
Skills
- Starfield literally requires no specific Skills to win. Trust me. I've
experimented. I've reached the "end" by level 18 (w/o glitching,
commands, or helpful mods), and even played all the way through while
locked at level 1. You have all the latitude for roleplay you want
:-)
- That being said, Skills that add abilities are not to be scoffed at...
- Stealth - that visibility meter enables thievery and eases sneak attacks
- Dueling - if you like the idea - which benefits from Stealth, Martial
Arts, Concealment
- Weapon Engineering - saves time over finding perfect weapons in the wild
- Spacesuit Design - saves time over finding perfect armor in the wild
- Piloting - if you want to capture ships, get this up to tier 3 (for a
long game, max it out)
- Targeting - makes it vastly easier to destroy or capture ships
- Shields - make ship combat more survivable
- Payloads - can save you huge amounts of time fiddling with inventory and
chests, but is wasted if you're just going to have some cargo ship (3000+
cargo) as your main ship
- Astrodynamics - or just have Sarah as crew - lets you wander the galaxy
more easily early on
- Boost Pack Training - saves time, more fun than being footbound
- If you unlock the top rank of Physical, Rejuvenation and Concealment are
both awesome (Neurostrikes is great for Unarmed)
Powers
- While the game can be "finished" without ever using them - or even
getting all but one, but get them! Use them! Even the very first power
you get is hugely useful in combat
Mods (these are entirely optional). I play with far more, but these fit your objective well.
- StarUI Inventory (saves time, especially selling hundreds of trash items)
- Sit to Add Ship to Fleet (saves time and frustration when capturing ships in space)
- HUD Show Power Name (makes your equipped power obvious)
- Alternative Cockpit Access from Ladders (saves time, especially if overburdened)
- Place Doors Yourself (saves time, but only if you like shipbuilding)
- Gravity is Real (it's just cool, doesn't save any time)
- Creation
- Pairs well with Gravity Affects Weight
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