Starsector Tutorial : Mid to Late game tutorial

I really should have split this guide up. We cover, exploration, ship design, combat, colony management, late game ships and combat. Also Remnant farming for AI cores. This game has a lot of moving parts.
00:00 intro
00:26 Early story point usage on Support ships
03:46 Mid game combat ships Eradicators
04:54 SPOILERS Some early goals
06:06 Exploration living off the land
08:22 Mid game skill choices
09:06 Speeding up the Campaign overview
11:55 Combat Speed Mod
14:00 Choosing colonizable planets
17:25 Starting your colony
19:10 Why you want to have one of every resource
22:52 Why you put all your colonies in one system
23:36 Captains, why you want them.
28:49 Mid game fleet taking on a bounty
33:22 Mid Game Conquest design
36:22 Using AI cores
37:56 Remnant, they are scary.
40:52 The Brawler for killing Remnant
48:46 Vital skills for spam fleet strategy
50:06 Odyssey Cattle Bruiser design
53:32 Summary of what you want to do
56:00 Credits and Rapid fire facts
Location of settings file
C:\Program Files (x86)\Fractal Softworks\Starsector\starsector-core\data\config
Look for campaignSpeedupMult this should be set to 2 you can change it to your preferred speed.
Look for "enableShipExplosionWhiteout" this is set to "true" change it to "false" if you want no whiteout explosions.
If you have the combat speed mod installed and want to change the combat speed up multiplier
Got to the speed mod folder, find the SPEED_UP file, open it up with a text editor, do a search for "speedUpMult":2.0
Change the 2 to what ever you want the speed up to be, I set it to 3, I tried 5 and it was a bit much.
Map Seed : MN-3035831339571269876
/ discord
/ francisjohn
My late game save game file
drive.google.com/drive/folder...
Location on your computer to put the folder, assuming you installed the game to default folder on Windows 10
C:\Program Files (x86)\Fractal Softworks\Starsector\saves

[@ntma]

I've been playing two years already, and just found this but this is a REALLLLLLLLLLY good guide. Also, thanks for the campaign speed multiplier trick. no idea how I haven't heard of that

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Thanks, the games community is great but all the good info on the game is spread out across several reddit threads and starsector lets plays. Does not hurt to have a decent chunk of info in one place for people trying to get up to speed.

[@ntma]

@@FrancisJohnYT absolutely. you're doing a good job, Sir.

[@GrumpyThumperGaming]

To anyone that's interested, I suggest using the small sector setting. You don't really notice the difference and it saves you the pain of loooong travel times. It reduces the range of your longest missions from 40 LYs down to 25 LYs. You'll get less domain artifacts that you would in a large sector, but for that you can get in contact with a historian and they'll find some for you for the cost of a few story points.

[@Jakkaribik1]

Yeah but I like the Space being BIG so you actually need to plan more for missions or expansion and the NPC worlds are more Far Away A there is a mod where space is twice as big

[@redknight3439]

Nah bugger that... Turn dev mode on and Turn your fleet into a Lets follow Discovery Warship with instant travel

[@Jakkaribik1]

@@redknight3439 STRG and Mouse Click for Good Users Drop the Fuel needed for travel but with this you can easily evade pirates..

[@redknight3439]

@@Jakkaribik1 how you figure? and why avoid them? if u got a decent fleet they the ones running from you, as they do from me. First they come and do the chaseys then I go chase them a little... have a bit enough fleet and u will see what I mean. Owning a Radiant helps with this as does have a para along with a carrier that is the older one with two LRM racks. Properly kitted that thing can solo most fights with a few Monitors for heat relief.

[@Jakkaribik1]

​@@redknight3439 I dont avoid but telling the point a User made about teleporting you could drop the fuel to balance it and you only win with this so nothing can atack you and you lose a couple of seconds and not minutes like if one of you colony needs food you dont have to make a 2 minute trip to buy an 2 minute trip back so you safe 4 minutes of real time .. Get Secure with instant teleportation and the colony gets resources in an instant while you could take only ships with much cargo and be a millionaire in a couple of minutes without any dangers

[@ElTuristaTravel]

"quick tutorial" checks video length niiiiiiiiiice

[@FrancisJohnYT]

This one got a way from me a bit, this game has way to much depth.

[@ElTuristaTravel]

get a load o' this guy. "way too much depth" haaaaa

[@Riecheck]

Oh goodness, literal heart flutter when I saw you had made a followup. I salute you for your effort, thank you! 😄

[@triplee8635]

Thank you for the colonization tip it makes so much sense but never thought of it

[@ilijaradeljic9742]

Came back to game, fantastic video with advanced tips!

[@Beregorn88]

This is how mod were done... for games with mod support! Otherwise you had to decompile and recompile libraries and executables!

[@siluda9255]

this remind me when i downloaded total war third age lol

[@mattparker9726]

Yup! 👍 it’s good to brush back up on manual modding! Reminds me when I was a kid!

[@Berathan-dnd]

I built in militarized subsystems on my Atlas and gave them the enhanced sensors and servay equipment as the bonus is higher when placed on capital class hulls. I also edited the settings to up max fleet size to 40 and max administrators to 8. . . And max level to 25.

[@hawkalypse7329]

These videos are what kept me going in Starsector!

[@cuddlebuff]

I really love your Starsector series! Thank you 😻

[@tierfuehrer2]

I like that you come to the point. No unecessary 5 minute intro talking here. :)

[@Horkruxx]

Very helpful, played the game over 100h, now with even more fun

[@robbtc6419]

Excellent stuff! Everyone support this game 😀

[@carifarah9992]

Maybe try replacing the medium missiles with drone interceptors on the capitals - gives even better PD capability and doesn't risk crew

[@jmatya]

Narrator : it was not short Crowd : cheers from joy

[@gilbertgong7769]

Really enjoy your videos. Started with your ONI ones (specifically the space video w/ scanners/etc) and saw your keyzer soze series. That was so enjoyable I decided to try this game. And now temporarily addicted.. Haha.. I'm newb obviously but in my experience you can use the "C" key on individual ships (Eliminate command) also seems to tell them to take greater risk. I suspect the "Full Assault" command is equivalent to ordering eliminate on all ships. So you could probably use a more targeted approach by using Eliminate command on enemy ships at opportune times.

[@SaneTrinity]

without mentor you can also pick skills, but the pool is smaller, so less of a chance to get what you want. Also AI is terrible at venting, so elite field modulation is a must on almost all the captains, only carriers/ phase ships can do without it, it rly makes enormous difference.

[@KFishproductionII]

a bunch of people on the subreddit were discussing a "kite only" challenge, you should try it lmao

[@FrancisJohnYT]

That sounds horrible :)

[@acheron16]

For the Atlas, I'd swap Militarized Subsystems for Insulated Engine Assembly. Same sensor profile reduction, with faster burn speed (9 vs 10)

[@FrancisJohnYT]

True, it also requires you carry less crew. I just prefer Militarized as it increases your sensor strength as well which is really useful when you are out exploring.

[@acheron16]

@@FrancisJohnYT Honestly, I've never had issues with sensor strength. The things I've needed to find always were well signalled and when I'm exploring, I go to everything anyway.

[@Jakkaribik1]

@@acheron16 Insulated Engine Assembly is your get out of jail card the enemy could not see you but the penalty of 100% more profile and 50% less sensor strength I pick both Sneaky and more able to see what's around

[@patbracken]

I use militarized Atlas' because that allows me to also add expanded cargo holds without any increase in maintenance.

[@hansdampf640]

as long as you set up 3 or 4 colonies in the same system rather quickly,the distance to the core world don´t really matters. you´ll get the accessibility for your worlds pretty high as your own worlds profits from each others existence. means,if you find a good system far away,with a gate in the system or in neighbouring systems...go for it,you´ll be fine (if you find a system within range of the cryosleeper things will even more easy) example of what system you should colonize no matter how far: MN-7567582169896142122 (take a look into Alpha Breya system,thank me later :)

[@FrancisJohnYT]

That is a beautiful map seed, that location is not that far from the core at all. I think it might be closer to the core than the system I ended up settling. Only down side is the lack of a gate, I think next time I play I'm just going to take over one of the core world system. Would be a bit more effort but would require far less exploration.

[@BenLague]

This guide an absolute G

[@andybenson4877]

Can't believe I hadn't modified the campaign speed multiplier. Wow that's a huge difference! What was once my most annoying part of the game, and I actually like space-travel, is now a really fun game on it's own. Dodging warp-storms at 5x speed is actually really fun. (but it's also pretty dangerous, as you can run over and be caught by a fleet before you know it if you're not really careful) Anyhow, thanks for the tip.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Saved the game for me, found it so frustrating just slogging between planets to scan them. Now it can be done at speed. Though maybe stick to the speed limit in high danger zones.

[@headhunter1945]

There's a mod called "SpeedUp" which lets you toggle between x2 and x4, as well as shift up into x12 and x24

[@fullmetalpoitato5190]

Dude, Odyssey Battlecruisers getting some love! Nice! I've never considered that setup style but it looks effective, I'd probably drop the 3 medium missile slots for some type of drone fighter that can just swarm stuff though. I also really like that LP Brawler swarm, I've never had more than 1 or 2 in my fleet at a time......but that's A LOTTA DAMAGE!

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Good point on the missile slots, considering how low the damage output is fighters would make more sense. Once you go brawler you never go back, they are just so much flux and dps in such a cheap package.

[@virusvirus9451]

About 6 hours ago, I tried to kill a radiant with 3 conquests, a XIV onslaught, a XIV Legion, 4 eradicators and an Odyssey. The eradicators got eradicated, the onslaught exploded, the conquests retreated, the Legion couldn't catch up with the radiant, and it was in that moment that the 4 legendary LP brawlers that were supposed to grab me DP surrounded it and tore it apart.

[@virus341]

The Eradicator got eradicated, the Onslaught was slaughtered, the Conquest was conquered, and XIV Legion went onto Odyssey to another world :D

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Watching LP Brawlers just shred capital ships is a joy to behold. The whole enemy ship just starts to glow from all the Dakka being thrown at it.

[@epicstyle1000]

Love your help vids

[@MarthMarthy]

Personally I vastly prefer the Odyssey as a run-down capital over the Conquest. They have the speed to get in and out of situations, can mount heavy enough energy and missile weapons to go toe to toe with most larger ships or spam Squalls at them, and giving them Bombers (I use the Cobra) lets them coup-de-grace a target they aren't even directly engaged with. While you would think that the classic downfall of being a generalist would make the Odyssey mediocre in every part of an engagement, in practice it means the Odyssey is always capable of being useful in a fight. It is not only possible but rather common to see an Odyssey unleashing a broadside on one ship, bombing a second fluxed out one into scrap, Squalling a distant third one, and blowing up fighters and missiles all at the same time, then move to the next vital position with haste thanks to Plasma Burn. No matter what phase the engagement is in they can make themselves very useful. Compare this to the Conquest, which looks great on paper, but in practice is slow to enter a fight, slow to leave a bad position, and even slow to turn to aim the guns that gobbled up all it's OP. It's inability to dictate it's engagement envelope effectively makes it perform much worse in the hands of the AI. Every time it wants to refocus onto a new task it takes it's sweet time filing the request form for permission to turn 90 degrees to the ship that just fluxed out, only to get there when the ship is back in the fight and able to flee. For a ship the wiki specifically says sacrificed defense for speed I find it frustratingly anemic.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Yeah that has been my experience in a nut shell. Once I went Odyssey it completely stopped all my capital ship losses. The Conquest has more punch to it but it struggles to get that punch where it needs to go. The Odyssey was there five minutes ago and then left when things got to hairy, now it's back and it brought friends.

[@zhanbolatmurzashov4001]

I prefer Odyssey with two tachyon lances and sniping ships from afar.

[@gioelevisani9396]

The speed increase reccomendation was incredibly useful!

[@FrancisJohnYT]

They seriously need to put it in as a menu option, it saved the game for me.

[@gioelevisani9396]

@@FrancisJohnYT I can't believe it's not in the game already!

[@siluda9255]

@@FrancisJohnYT yes ! the default should be 2x but you could have option to 5x-10x

[@jerome8124]

Thanks for the tutorial, I really appreciate your analysis. Cheers

[@siluda9255]

thanks for the time expansion thing, i liked exploring for a while, but now that i already see how most exploration runs go it just gets a bit repetitive, but now this will save real time and in a way make you get the fun part of the game faster (big fleet battles)

[@siluda9255]

also you forgot something that could help for this, the toggle speed setting. it is more comfortable than holding, and let you check your phone if you feel like you won't be attacked

[@LTcreed]

I know this is like 2 years old by now, but If you don't want to mess with the game files themselves there's a mod called "Hyperdrive" that lets you warp adjustable distances. It can also be configured to either have no cost to do so or be Very expensive. Like take a large chunk of your fuel and Combat Readiness expensive. Edit: It can also be locked behind a mid to late game mission instead of having it right from the start if you want to actually work for it.

[@Traff92]

If you go into your colony view, there is a fleet option. Changing the behavior here affects your non captained ships, so if you want them you could make your entire fleet reckless/aggressive. It's a game changer to be honest, because the default is timid so thats why your ships can get scared, which if you're not paying close attention can end in you getting surrounded and killed because they are backing off.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I did change the behaviour in there to reckless, but it seemed to make very little difference, full assault was the only way to make them really aggressive and push the numbers advantage.

[@Traff92]

@@FrancisJohnYT oh damn, I’m just now watching your play through! I wish there was a better way to control your ai more like a rts game for when you want to play like the commander rather than the pilot

[@DarkRipper117]

Wow, I never noticed that option, and I've been playing the game for a long long time now...thanks would've gone longer without knowing this helpful feature.

[@0x0404]

Regarding the augmented drive field on the Conquest. I prefer putting militarized subsystems[story point] and insulated engine assembly on 2 Ox. That drops their sensor profile to 115 which is below capitals. I would go 4 tugs if I wanted to use some of the slower capitals but right now I'm fine with the 8 speed capitals.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I might go that way next time, I think I was a bit to focused on minimizing costs. But by late game you really don't need to be worried about that.

[@0x0404]

Oh yeah their monthly cost is pretty high but I still value story point slots over that.

[@janpodgornik353]

thanks for this

[@headhunter1945]

There's a mod called "SpeedUp" which lets you toggle between x2 and x4, as well as shift up into x12 and x24

[@Konradius001]

That's... actually the one featured in the video. Btw, since this video (juli 2022) it now includes a speedup for the campaign (since may 2023), so that is making the file editing featured in this video redundant.

[@headhunter1945]

@@Konradius001 Yeah, I probably posted the comment and clicked the video off the moment he told people to edit the files heh.

[@kaplanbahadir2301]

47:30 that looked like a swarm of honeybees fighting hornets. They surround the hornet knowing some of them will die, but it gives them a shot at taking down hornet scouts, before they can call up the hornet swarm.

[@sebastianlenz5214]

very nice and extremely correct rundown on the game, =). albeit i wouldnt call it "lategame" by a far extent =P. also, if you´re into trying to maw down stuff thats bigger than your fleet, try out "gladiator society" mod. it just spawns you enemy fleets with the ships/gear present at your game, so no mod stuff (despite 3 reward ships at the end) and lets you fight fleets up to 150+ to 300 ships in one fight at max capacity =). furthermore, for all your love for the radiance redacted ships. try out HMI mining corp mod. then search for the big brothers of the redacted and witness your sanity melt away. little tip, bring point defense... how much? well... all of it! =)

[@hotdog9262]

your fleet could have shepherds added to it. a lot of cheap surveying equipment and salvage gantries to boost your %. also `decent` in combat if they can be protected behind your line ships

[@KhongDatTenDuoc]

I've just found out that best combo medium missiles slot for Odysseys is just slap 2 annihilater in the front & breach in the back, link all 3. Now you have a extra big pod of locust with grasshopper side dish which actually do something. The sabot - harpoon combo get intercepted too easy & run out of steam too fast. For the empty hangars, you can alway have some use of 8 laser shooting block of metal for 0 OP (mining pod drone), and no crew loss also.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Tried sticking on annihilator rockets but they never used them, will have to give a go to using two next time I'm playing. I switched to doing two reaper torpedo's on the front, if they come under pressure they panic launch them. Tends to discourage anything trying to pressure them when they eat 8000 damage.

[@redknight3439]

@9:10 SUPER Fast Speedup button (data/config/settings - CampaignSpeedupMult - change to 5) Love how u showed that BUT you neglected to mention that you can also make the speedup shift button a toggle... Then I thought maybe you were going to play around with the dev mode but I see you already got that turned on? Setting that to true for those that dont know? And next when it comes to planets, DIY Planets Mod is beyond brilliant @38:00 ok now we talking redacted... My fav to fight... a few things to note: Monitor frigs are your best friend when it comes to such fleets as they can tank the Radiant on its lonesome Heres the setup: no extra wpns if u have the sp: Hardenned subs reinforced Bulks Unstable injector Built in Solar Shielding Shield conversion front safety overrides. Get 4 of those and bring in two at a time and have that keep the radiant busy while u deal with the easier ships and save the boss for last then a combo of shades come in handy as well My fleet take those down consists of a Paragon and monitors, if I have found the Big carrier with two Large missiles I bring that as well... And if you put your points into being able to field Redacted fleets, you will find capturing one of those ships will make the late game an absolute Breeze. @45:00 Feet of Brawlers taking down a whole redacted fleet ... Fascinating... Well Played :D

[@macelharen]

@Francis John went and tested. mentoring doubles your choices...which is pretty cool, but needed clarification because you stated an unmentored officer will automatically pick their own (i'm sure most will figure this out, but it might spur some into spending points needlessly in fear they won't get any choice)

[@FrancisJohnYT]

My bad I made an assumption, I never had an unmentored offices on the payroll.

[@macelharen]

@@FrancisJohnYT you know, i've been thinking about that (kudos for bringing it up because i never paid attention until you brought it up, since i've just starting replaying it this month)...and i've been wondering if the best way to go about mentoring is wait until you get a certain number of skills you want in officers and THEN mentor them only when it's perfect so far and the short list doesn't have what you want. picking that sweet spot to avoid wasting storypoints....now there's the rub

[@GuyJustCool]

God, I just heard "this cattlebruiser" and I can't call it any other way now. 52:03

[@ham8426]

I've found relative success with vanguards, it'll run about the same as a restored LP brawler to buy, pirate fleets also frequently have at least one or two in tow, basically they're mini eradicators minus the shields, this really helps them avoid the need for flux management and because of their mods and the way I set them up they basically never get destroyed, and even work better if they do pick up a few d-mods because they become cheaper to recover and maintain for each d-mod with the other final logistics skill which focuses on making ships with d-mods cheaper to run and suffer less from their negatives, because of their unique size and focus a lot of d-mods they can pick up are easy to also ignore, the ones i mainly try to avoid are increased maintenance and unstable injectors, otherwise i've found most other d-mods don't matter much, even compromised hull & armor which lower their main defensive focus. would love to see a break down of the more nitty gritty of brawlers vs vanguards.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Did a bit of playing with Vanguards but if you ever face an enemy that uses even a medium amount of EMP weapons you are in for a world of pain. Without shield they quickly become spinning engineless, weponless target practice.

[@ham8426]

@@FrancisJohnYT this is why I've built them with resistant flux coils so they recieve less emp damage, and automated repair systems so they come back online in a jiffy when disabled or EMP'd and even if they end up stuck they can still deploy the damper field to soak up the unavoidable dps.

[@hemrique3]

Remmants tips: ships fitted for pressure won't work and you gonna need some faster ships to hunt them when the teleport back i find them high tech ships works best, but they are more expensive to run and you might not gonna be driving them all the time when exploring because of all the supplies cost envolved

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I never went past LP Brawlers even with the nerf of an extra DP point they are still totally overpowered. Though I am interested to see how the new capital class missile boat works.

[@Sigrid_Von_Sincluster]

when it comes to the odysey here is a build you are defenetly going to want to try @Francis John, it's a bit long but i went into explaining why things go where they go and why they are good, again keep in mind there is NO SUCH THING as THE CORRECT BUILD for a ship, witch is why i love this game, there are many, MANY ways to build a ship that can work for the 2 left side big energy you put in 2 plasma canons, for the right 1 you keep the squall or put in a huricane (personaly i keep the squall, because i value flux dmg, since if you high flux you can't defend nor fire back properly, and it makes the ai shit the bed) next for the 3 medium missles, go with either 3 sabos or harpoons, again i would say that sabos are probably better but whaterver you pick make shure that they are linked and that they are the same type, tring to put to many different types you will just end trying to do to many jobs and ending up doing none, up next thous 2 fighter slots they are critical, you put 2 pair of xyphos in them, they come with 1 ion beam and 1 burst pd, EACH !! and you are going to end up with 4 of them, (they are so good that they had to be nerfed recently and imo they are still to low at only 18 OP considering that 1 ion beam is 12 op and 1 burst pd is 7 so that's multiplyed by 2 since you get 2 / squad you end up paying 18 op for something that brings in 38op AAAND you get infinite flux on thous weapons, since you don't need to fire them yourself, DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THOUS ION BEAMS, they will do work, as soon as the eneamy gets at only half flux they will start doing dmg, however there dmg will not neveserly be in numbers but in simply turning off the ship, i allways LOL when i see radiants hitting 75% hard flux and than just start spining around like a muppet kuz it has 4 ion beams on it turning EVERYTHING OFF, but i don't know if the combat log will show thous things, but it makes fighting eneamy ships a lot easyer when they just spin around or when they can't fire back, or both, since again there are 4 ion beams concentrating on 1 target, something that you don't ussualy get since ion beams are farly flux hungry at 200 flux / sec) up next the ship mods ITU (integrated targeting unit) built in, after that harden shields, and you will also want to get shield conversion front (unlike the conquest this ship LOVES shield conversion front, because you not only get the shield flux reduction but also get the FULL 360 deg, witch is great for this ship playstile aaaand, it will also help keep your xyphos close to immortal since they will sit on top of you and due to your big ass shield the eneamy can't actually hit them since there shots will colide with your shields first, the rest of your op you will want to put into vents and capacitors, 50 vents and 41 capacitors should be the remaining points that you have, (remember thous are HIGH TECH ships, you want as many points into vents and capacitors as posible, this is how they were designed by the dev to function, unlike the low tech ships where you don't need to go as ham on them, the high tech ships have very efficient shields so vents and caps are a must) and you are done, but what about all the remaining small energy slots? well, what about them? what would you want to put on them? pds? you have 4 xyphos they have BURST pds on them they will whipe the flood with fighters/misiles that come your way, again there is a reason why BURST pds cost 7 bloody op, well what about other small energy weapons? again what about them? all they will do is stop my PLASMA CANONS from firing and wiping the floor with the eneamys you will note that i left 1 built in mod free, that's because you can either build in augmented drive field, or you can add in anything at your choice, you can build in hardened shelds(since that is the highest op) and add for example solarshelding, now imo the storm protection is kind of a meme since i tent to slow down a little or go around them(if i don't have 8 secounds time to do that, than i probably have other things to do than play video games) but the reason you want to pick it is for the fantastic 20% energy dmg reduction, witch will come in big help vs radiants since all there big dmg comes from energy as for captain skills thous are rather obvious: shield modulation, energy weapons mastery, gunnery implnts, target analysis, and the last 1 can be whatever you want, for elite status you will want ehther the shield 1 or the energy weapons 1, if you have the character skill for where you can pick more elite skills, up to 3,than you will want both, but remember that it will cost you a story point FOR EACH 1, and that is rather pricey

[@FrancisJohnYT]

That sounds way more focused that what I went with, I never got into the fighter side of things which I always knew was a weakness.

[@christophstuwe4330]

I was running a pretty much similiar build except no fighters and no small rockets(for what?) and just few PD. Could solo every pirate fleet no matter what size in an unmodded game. Thanks to a ton of new pirate treaths that is not going to happen anymore.

[@Sigrid_Von_Sincluster]

@@christophstuwe4330 yeah, that's the beauty of this game, there is no such thing as "this is the only viable build for a ship", in this game is "this is the one of the 9 good builds for this ship and there are 27 more quirky builds that are a bit odd but can put out good results in the hands of a good pilot" :)

[@christophstuwe4330]

@@Sigrid_Von_Sincluster yes indeed, i have over 450 different weapons in my heavy modded game the possibilities are endless and i actually spend most time in the simulator ....till i am happy but that barely happens.

[@TK-nn8jd]

If you can get your hands on 'em, 2 Rift Torpedos and 2 Resonators on an Odyssey with ECCM and Expanded Missile Racks (especially if the captain has Elite Missile Specialty) is a pretty brutal package. Throw in a Reality Disruptor on the right side large weapon slot and you don't need Xyphos for EMP either (I use 2 squads of Wasps 'cause they're both cheap, and quite murderous against most other fighters and many frigate builds). My captain has Elite PD too, so I just use regular PD lasers on all the small energy mounts (they have the same damage as the Tactical Laser, but with only 2/3 of the flux cost).

[@jamesimartin]

Combat rating actually gives a damage boost too when high - you can mouse over it on the top left of "Refit Screen" to see the stats. For my Eradicator setup I don't use any armor talents or hull mods and run helmsmanship and missile spec and 5x double Atropos torps. I also run 3 hypervelocity and no maulers. If you can take down the shields on a big ship, the torpedoes will do the work. I read (somewhere) that ships consider their flux level and missile status of the enemy when deciding to close range... these missiles seem to be a good deterrent! For my Atlas (x5) fleet they all have Aug drive (S), Militarized subs and high res sensors. This means I can see everything but everything can see me. I’m fine with that. This also makes bulk transport less of a thing and the repair talent is good value long term. Loved the series, shame it’s ending!

[@hugedude1]

Has something changed with the eradicators? I am struggling to win medium battles with them. They jsut dont have the firepower to do what you described which is fill enemy flux before they close. I have a lvl 2-3 officer in each of them with the perks you say.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I had a quick look but I can't see any patch notes. Are you using them against capital ships? They crush everything up to cruiser. If you are using them against capital ships you need to outnumber them or bring along some missile ships (Large Missile hard point with Squall MRLS) to help pile on the pressure. Are you using the eradicators with the accelerated ammo feeder built in or the pirate version with the burn drive?

[@hugedude1]

@@FrancisJohnYT wow. Thank you for the reply. I was having difficulty up until I got 6 fully kitted eradicators each with an officer of at least level 4 and at least one conquest with level 4 officer as well. After this set up i could take 150k bounties pretty easily then worked up from there. The first conquest and then the second really helped.i will work on getting some missile ships for support as well. Thanks again for your guides and playtyroughs and for your reply!

[@TheyCalledMeT]

may put militarized on your salvage rigs, it not only decreases it's profile analogue to insulated engines, it also doubles it's sensor strength and if 60 sensor profile still is too big, you can put on insulated aswell edit: gah .. you go into exactly that seconds later with the atlas .. xD

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Militarized sub systems would double our crew requirements without giving the fleet I run any advantage over insulated engine assembly. I run with a fleet of ships that is always 5 cruisers or larger so their sensor strength of the Destroyer salvage rigs don't get used. (only the 5 largest ship sensors and profiles are counted) The insulated engine assembly reduces our sensor profile below that of cruisers which is the same effect militarized would give us. I should have specified that if you are running a smaller fleet of ships that does not use five ships larger than destroyer then Militarized would be the way to go for the extra sensor strength.

[@kevinwbrake]

how do you find heavy maulers? I have one and have visited most core worlds done some exploring etc.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I just ran around to all the planets on a dedicated buying spree, be sure to hit up all the military colonies. They have military stuck to the end of them, even the independents have one.

[@TheyCalledMeT]

24:50 imho, only if you're not happy with the personality it's worth to mentor. but something i noticed, you did not make a single officer skill elite, that's a huge buff you're leaving out. (i.e. have 3-4 combat implants at elite and your range debuff for the enemy is max unless they're strong in it, and ofc all the other skills which have massive elite buffs) 25:15 oh it happened automatically pre 0.95.1a? edit: ahahaha .. love how you point that out a lot later in preparation against [redacted]

[@FrancisJohnYT]

The missile bonus when using large missiles like the squall is just insane. No other skill gives such a large damage boost.

[@sim.frischh9781]

Upvote-worthy for the "No blinding explosions" tip alone already, rest was lovely as well, especially that Brawler fleet build. Why fear the biggest, strongest fleets if they just get overwhelmed by cheap small ships rushing them down?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I found the Brawler fleet so much fun, it's just a swarm of fast little ships with big teeth. Two or three can take down ships several times their size and worth.

[@sim.frischh9781]

@@FrancisJohnYT Like a pack of Wolves bringing down a bear, yes. Generally pack and swarm tactics are terrifyingly effective, though they require a high upfront cost.

[@xwingcommanderwhbiv]

Why no fighters on the laser cruisers if you have the slots? Flux better spent elsewhere?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Pretty much, even two cheap fighters is 10 extra vents I could have. Don't get me wrong they would do some damage but they do not really fit the strategy we are running. Anti fighter could not compete with the pointer lazers and anti ship can't compete with the brawlers. More survivable Odyssey is more important.

[@ericmyrs]

You don't have to redesign your entire fleet to kill a Radiant. You can just bring arseloads of bombers. Or an Astral full of Xyphos wings. I've also had great success suppressing Remnant fighter cover by bringing Gryphons with locusts equipped.

[@ericmyrs]

I also got my own Radiant, and stuffed it full of Autopulse lasers. It's absolutely filthy.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I never tried bringing mass bombers to the party, do they not have a chance to get killed by the mass of enemy fighters?

[@ericmyrs]

@@FrancisJohnYT That's why you bring the Gryphons with locust. They swat fighters like mad. And the Radiant is so aggressive it'll happily outrun its own fighter cover. I only did this the one time though, after that I had my own Radiant, so your mileage may vary.

[@mowinckel10]

12:25 wait... that is not how we do mods anymore?

[@r3dp9]

Even with steam, if you want to mod the mods, you wind up copy/pasting files.

[@lichlabs]

I wonder how he fits out his Apogee

[@ezra8s]

Francis never dissapoints

[@amocv]

How to get "LP" version of Brawler? I have can only found "normal" version :(

[@FrancisJohnYT]

It's only sold on the Luddic path planets, you have to check back with them multiple times. Also check every bar until you find a production guy they can sometimes build them. Finally work up a criminal and/or military contact and they can give you custom build orders sometimes as well.

[@brianhauptman]

Good tips at the end, but it's missing a shanty.

[@macelharen]

25:00 pretty sure i haven't mentored alot of my officers, so i swear i can level them manually and pick a skill as they do so regardless. i'll double check, ofc, but i'm sure mentoring isn't required for picking level up skill...

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I messed up there, you can manually pick but you are limited to three choices I think, mentored get 6 choices and double exp gain.

[@Foreststrike]

But what if you put disabling weaponry on your flying titanium plates?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

They don't have any beam slots on them, though the Hypervelocity driver does some EMP damage.

[@the-fantabulous-g]

What version did Francis play this on? I’d like to use the seed but it’s outdated

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Pretty sure this is two versions ago Starsector 0.95.1a Release

[@the-fantabulous-g]

@@FrancisJohnYT Thanks!! Love your vids my dude

[@TheAnfionnman]

If you make a T-Shirt, just saying, FULL ASSAULT, I will buy it.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I'm going to hold you to that :)

[@beerkiller]

I’m curious I haven’t found soil nanites either but I’m curious if it works on a water planet.

[@christophstuwe4330]

Water has no farmland so no it does not. I probably found more soil nanites than water worlds xD

[@H2Oproof_toaster]

@@christophstuwe4330 juat started playing the game and ive found too many of them

[@christophstuwe4330]

@@H2Oproof_toaster water worlds?

[@KOAB]

Where can I find Solar Shielding blueprint?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Ohh you have to find the red planet, two ways to do that. Explore everywhere is the hard version. Second version is talk to a spacer at a bar, it starts a quest chain that leads to the red planet.

[@kaplanbahadir2301]

12:50 arguably it's still how it works. Steam has alot of mods for alot of games, but I still have to copy and paste modfiles.

[@matthewslivkoff5937]

Try fitting your Odyssey with three mine launchers, as long as it is only doing P.D.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Would need to do some testing, the fleet design tends to move forward a lot due to the attack style so I'm not sure mine layers would fit in. I suppose I could try the anti fighter missiles but the laser pointers and pretty much slaughtering them all.

[@matthewslivkoff5937]

@@FrancisJohnYT not "Layer." It's a mine LAUNCHER, it launches a dumb fire bomb that explodes in close proximity to fighters, often wiping out the whole wing. They can double as a handy knife edge HE weapon as well, they absolutely waste ship hulls.

[@cyber-reality542]

thanks for this great guide. are the two fleet builds you discuss still viable? is there a homepage to check out good fleet setups and ship builds?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Last I checked they still work, Brawlers have been nerfed a bit and cost one more DP point, but they are still worth it.

[@OpticfIare]

50:50 add 2 mining fighters for meat shields and PD

[@schoenperkins8210]

Very interesting how you just blow through Ionstorms, Ive wasted so much time navigating the shifting channels

[@pop9095]

I feel like it makes sense to ask....do you know that it costs supplies to send your cruisers to battle? You certainly could have counted on one piloted cruiser to take care of those measly 4 dooders. At the beginning of the video you make it seem like you are in favor of saving what money you can, then you chuck a mess of credits out the airlock.

[@pop9095]

Seeing as how it is often not easy to sense intention or nuance in text communication please allow me to clarify. This is not meant as an attack but as real concern for improving your experience. Cheers.

[@fada1922421]

Quick tutorial, check video 58 mins :)

[@anthonyreyes2554]

i'm 12 years into my first play through, I have 1 cruiser, and I don't know if Im in mid game or not. No colonies, 1.2m, losing money

[@galsherp6173]

lol exactly what ive needed (what to do with the ships) and there is not much content for this game on yt... thanks... again... edit: i also edited the max DP from i think 200 to 500, its no cheating or something, it just makes fights bigger (and faster), it doesnt change that you can only deploy 120 when the enemy only has 120...

[@macelharen]

11:00 could you add the settings change to remove the white out as well? for myself, i think i went in and changed, oh god what was it...uhhh, "maxCombatZoom":5.0

[@KainYusanagi]

"EnableShipExplosionWhiteout" switch from True to False!

[@siluda9255]

its a bit ironic how the luddic path the lowest tech faction has the best advantage agaist the remnant fleet

[@mageofvoid4282]

does anyone know if the gates help colonys? if they do then building in the rim wouldn't be as bad.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

As far as I'm aware they don't, only your character can use the gates.

[@mageofvoid4282]

@@FrancisJohnYT Boooooo That's dumb

[@christophstuwe4330]

@@mageofvoid4282 Fleets are just calculated anyway when you dont see them.

[@mageofvoid4282]

@@christophstuwe4330 its been forever since I played starsector so whats that mean again?

[@christophstuwe4330]

@@mageofvoid4282 It means it does not matter what the Trade Convoys use, they get calculated with a specific chance if they reach their goal or not. Same for invasions if you are not in the system.

[@gcl2783]

When Francis uses his brain, it saves me from having to use my brain.

[@skullowner3999]

quake question does anyone know where to turn off combat readiness ???

[@ysdom]

When in the refit screen you can simulate different combat readiness states prior to running a simulation. I hope that's what you mean.

[@skullowner3999]

@@ysdom no I mine I wan to removed it I don't want combat readiness at all I want to have a battlefield Massive battlefield with out any combat readiness I now haw to increase ships and cap points but can't find any information on combat readiness under settings file

[@ysdom]

@@skullowner3999 I don't know of any mods or settings to do that. You could modify the different ships to have long peak performance times. You can try C:\Program Files (x86)\Fractal Softworks\Starsector\starsector-core\data\hulls and edit the ship_data.csv file to raise the peak CR seconds to very high numbers. Just set to like 10000 and paste it into the rest of the rows in the column. Requires spreadsheet editor like excel or OpenOffice Calc. Be sure to back up the file for safety and so you can restore it back easily if you ever want to go back to vanilla.

[@houmamkitet9555]

Hey just wanted to say i am hoping you get back into rimworld at some point , i really enjoyed watching you play

[@KainYusanagi]

Man, I wish you people would stop being such assholes about it; tired of seeing comments of "When's he getting back to Rimworld already" whenever he's not doing it. He'll get back to Rimworld when he gets back to it.

[@davidstocker2278]

Me too!

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Got a week or two of some side games like Kenshi I got to do and then I'm back to Rimworld.

[@abetts123]

What’s the best whiskey to watch Francis with?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I'm a bit partial to Connemara myself but I'm a bit biased because it's made in Ireland.

[@abetts123]

@@FrancisJohnYT I think Kenshi might need some of that. Going to the store now

[@DARKthenoble]

You can stick 0 piont drones in the empty fighter bays

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Never even knew they existed, going to add them next time.

[@DARKthenoble]

@@FrancisJohnYT their good for stopping missles

[@0x0404]

Pilum LRM are actually not too terrible for a mid sized missile. They recharge and add in fairly constant pressure as well as do some emp damage. Constant pressure is what makes lasers work otherwise they just tickle the shields which I guess is what helps make the Squall work so well with them rather than the burst potential of the Hurricane.

[@Bronimin]

In my experience pilums sre too fragile to do anything

[@0x0404]

I've also been putting on ECCM which makes them a bit more reliable but they also sometimes provide cover for everything else since missiles get prioritized.

[@christophstuwe4330]

Pillums got a heavy nerf in the actual version, now you can just take anti engine missiles. Unlimited ammo, faster, more HP. With ECCM added they also even hit enemies from time to time. Even more so if you run them in all small slots in your fleet.

[@0x0404]

I've been doing that. They fill the small slot very well.

[@DARKthenoble]

Aren't you only able to have one salvage gantry per ship?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Yep, we added high resolution sensors and survey equipment so they also help with sensor view radius and decrease the cost of survey planets.

[@DARKthenoble]

@@FrancisJohnYT I understand that but the video said you had 3

[@ysdom]

@@DARKthenoble 2-3 separate ships, each with a salvage gantry. I use 3. I wouldn't bother putting high resolution sensors on them, very small bonus due to the frigate-sized hull. Efficiency overhaul to make them even greater bang for buck imo.

[@obadiah_vandal]

40:25 mmmmm...this is where saftey overides and reckless officers shine. Praise be to Ludd; and lay down the hammers. Edit: literally 30 seconds later; Luddic Path has entered the chat lol

[@FrancisJohnYT]

You can not beat the brawler for flux efficiency. Change the way I play forever.

[@obadiah_vandal]

@@FrancisJohnYT this is definitely true. I love the Pathers. Their memes are how I found the game actually. Naturally I play with tons of mods that flush them out a good bit.

[@alenvire]

'Quick tutorial' Then I notice its a hour long video. heh Atlas benefits from survey equipment. Because its based on size of the ship and and its considered a capital class, and its realistically not going on a combat capital, it works really well on a atlas. You will need less total ships with that mod if you put it on the Atlas. Unstable injector is... not great. If a atlas ends up in combat the extra 15 speed won't save it. Just assume it will die and recover it. You can even replace it with the survey equipment.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

The unstable injector was because I had some spare space, (4 logistic mods, engine, cargo, militarized, solar shield ) I figured putting guns on was a waste so went with speed instead though yeah if it gets in a fight it's dead. All the ships have solar shields, even the support ships, lets me plough straight through storms without having to slow down ever.

[@alenvire]

@@FrancisJohnYT Ah. Makes more sense. I tend not to worry about putting solar on the atlas so I did not even realize it was a logistics buy. Good to know.

[@battragon]

It's the same the other way around; When you have a small number of big ships against many smaller enemies, your turrets will all be firing at different targets, not getting shields down.

[@fonesrphunny7242]

You're using Solar Shielding for the wrong reasons. Storms are easily avoided by moving slowly (hold S). "Storm surfing" can increase your travel speed, but with a tiny bit of planning ahead you should never be in a rush to begin with. Storms also randomly hit only ONE ship of the fleet, so it's generally not worth putting on ships with low CR recovery cost. Coronas are avoided by simply not flying into stars (and being careful around neutron stars). Derelicts inside coronas are pretty rare and most of the time it's just Domain Probes, which are so common it's not worth diving into a star for them. If you do find something REALLY valuable, make a note of it and return with an excess of supplies another time. With that in mind, "75% CR resistance inside coronas/storms" is going to be useless like 97% of the time. No point in wasting any OPs for that. On the other hand, the "20% energy damage reduction" applies to hull, armor and shields alike! This can make a huge difference when facing Tri-Tac, [redacted] or mod factions with a focus on energy weapons; not so much against low-tech factions using mostly ballistics. And yes, it stacks with other mods like "Heavy Armor" or "Hardened Shields". Also: WTF no frigates? Even late into the game, just a hand full of quick frigates can benefit you a lot. They can flank and slow down retreating fleets, leading to more salvage (think about smugglers, hostile scavengers or the remains of an invasion fleet). They can also quickly capture objectives for small combat buffs and some extra Deployment Points. Optionally, add "Coordinated Maneuvers" and 3 deployed frigates will give ALL other ships an 18% speed boost ("nav rating", +20% speed is max).

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I'm guessing you had not got as far as the Brawler part of the video when you made this comment 😁 Yeah solar shielding is amazing very Remenant which is why everyone gets it late game. But I find the hyperspace parts of the game drag, so I speed up time by 5. Having solar shielding means I don't have to micro anything and it just makes the game more pleasant to play.

[@hotdog9262]

42:50 better to deploy emp weaponry on some other ship

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I tried to find another support ship to mount the weapon on but I could not find one that would work. The little ion cannon seemed to do enough stunning to be worthwhile. It made the fleet even more effective against low shield fleets and against bosses.

[@hotdog9262]

@@FrancisJohnYT agreed. some emp is good

[@burcerdil]

You have finished the series without Ziggurat fight and recovering it, that was kind of un-expected.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

We killed/captured the Ziggurat a while back when we activated the gates. kzbin.info/www/bejne/sH3cnIWNbJymhrc

[@burcerdil]

@@FrancisJohnYT ooops , will check thanks

[@KainYusanagi]

Yeah, I just don't feel that the salvage gantries are worthwhile to keep along. I'd much rather have some Shepherds, which still gives the hull mod at a smaller form factor, but it's there, and it can actually carry crew and fuel and cargo, too; heck, it can even help in combat a little, as a point defense-type escort with its autonomous mining drone wing providing a surprising amount of PD, though by late game you definitely want to reserve them for non-combat use. The reason why? Because you're always going to get way too many common resources and have to ditch hundreds if not thousands of supplies, fuel, and various trade goods because of it. It doesn't affect the real good stuff one bit. As a bonus, the Shepherd also comes with built-in Surveying Equipment, so when you're out on the fringe and consuming heavy machinery and supplies to go explore planets, it'll drop down the amount necessary by an even larger margin. Plus, its 23 OP means that it can equip a lot more hull mods, including ones that you'll build in to free up those points, compared to the paltry 16 of a Salvage Rig. EDIT: I'd not bother with Unstable Injectors on the Atlas at all. If they get into combat, they're going to die, no matter what, because they're just too slow to escape anything (base speed 25, with it, speed 50; Onslaught has same speed, but also has Burn Drive, so will be able to catch up whether boosted or not, and all fleets will have much faster ships than the Onslaught). Put them into another logistics mod, since the two logistics mod limitation is rescinded if you have logistics mods built in, which you do with the Cargo Hold. As such, Auxilary Fuel Tanks would allow you an additional 200 Fuel storage per Atlas (so 400 total for your current fleet, I believe), or similarly, 200 extra crew per Atlas with Additional Berthing.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I like the salvage ships as they give a bigger bonus than the shepherds and the extra supplies and fuel it brings in means I can being a larger explorations fleet with me. The Atlas Unstable injectors were simply because their were no other logistic mods I could fit in, Engines, Cargo, Militarized and solar shields maxes us out. Every single ship has solar shielding so that we can surf storms without taking to much damage.

[@KainYusanagi]

@@FrancisJohnYT I routinely go out to the far fringes with just a couple shepherds, maybe one rig if I've built up a larger fleet nearing cap and I haven't done the portring quest yet, but usually just the shepherds are enough for my needs since you get such ludicrously large amounts of supplies and fuel; I often end up with an inventory stuffed full and a large batch of jettisoned cargo pods that I spend the effort to stabilize in space just so I can come back to it because there's so much more supplies and fuel available. As for the logistics mods, I'd actually forgotten that Solar Shielding counts as a logistics mod; my bad. You'd need to get the skill that lets you build in a third mod to get crew or fuel in addition to what you have there. Personally, though, I'd instead use Efficiency Overhaul over Militarized Subsystems for big ships that aren't going to be seeing combat like the Atlas (and take a couple more capital-class ships for the sensor profile/range concerns), for the 20% reduced costs for supply maintenance, fuel use, and minimum crew. The way the secondary effect is worded is weird for many, it being interpreted as the cost to repair is increased by 50% or something of the sort, but what it really is, is the speed of repair goes up by 50% and the consumed/day rate increases so the *same number of supplies (after the 20% reduction) are consumed as if without the mod*, so it really is just happening faster before dropping back down to the lower cost of base maintenance, not consuming more overall. Since hyperspace storms hit individual ships and it doesn't drop the damage taken by 75% like it purports, I've only ever found major use for Solar Shielding with combat-ready ships since it also gives you a 20% reduction in energy damage taken to both shields and hull. To each their own in the end, though!

[@beerkiller]

Omg thanks that speeds up the most boring part of the game 🍻

[@acidman806]

Is it just me or are you calling battle cruiser as cattle bruiser

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Yeah, it's a star craft 2 thing I don't know why.

[@deadwaste1]

I turned it to 7.

[@asureaskie8955]

When building in mods to your support ships (cargo/tankers/etc.), build in the mods worth the fewest OP that you can. That will give you the most bonus experience to replace the story points the fastest.

[@floreamihaicristi2713]

'"quick tutorial" !??!?! = ))

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I have a problem keeping things concise... I'm working on it but it never seems to work as I can't stop myself from info dumping every chance I get.

[@asdfgasdfgadsfgadsfg]

you haven't done starsector in a while. I just bought the game. Please Mr. John

[@custume]

Hmm, look at the code and looks "interesting", they are lucky that the game is not to slow, a Java base game normally needs a lot of horsepower to run. also on that point they need to get some encryption. Overall , not bad, not bad at all

[@DrDrlol]

1

[@DARKthenoble]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJfLp5mibZx9i8k 5:24 oh no I kinda wiped those people out already...

[@FrancisJohnYT]

The Galatea people? I don't think you can you should double check I don't think you can attack them. Also all the planets involved in the quest chain cannot be destroyed/decivilized.

[@DARKthenoble]

@@FrancisJohnYT ...

[@bradleyjohnson3784]

this BARF fleet is no longer viable

[@ScarletFlames1]

12:38 clearly you've never modded Oblivion, GTA (any of them) or most games that were released up to 2010. GTA was the worst of the lot to install mods for... Absolute cancer. Before the TES Nexus had mod managers available you had to do it all manually.. Which included figuring out load orders.