The Solo Ship Early Game
The Solo Ship Early Game is not only viable, but profitable due to spy sat missions (Spy Sat Guide here:
https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=22809.0 ), low-marine raids, manageable bounties, and dead-drops. Your supply, crew, and fuel will all be extremely limited, but with the right ship, you'll be able to make your millions with relative ease while improving your faction with whomever you wish.
Your Ship:
Your single ship will likely be outclassed by an entire fleet of enemy ships unless you're flying something like a Doom, which your are unlikely to acquire at the beginning of the game. I recommend you stick to phase frigates.
Recommended Phase Ships:
- Afflictors
-Afflictors can increase the damage they do for a short period of time. This makes them fantastic assassins against larger ships. - Shades
-Shades have the EMP Emitter ship system, which means that they don't need to run any form of point-defense or anti-fighter system. The EMP Emitter can also easily knock out engines, leaving enemies unable to effectively fight back. It can also be spammed when your heavy hitting weapons are on cooldown.
Not Recommended Phase Ships:
- Gremlins
-Gremlins have two ballistic slots and 2 missile slots in addition to low ordinance points and lower flux statistics than the other two phase ships. Its biggest detriment is that it can't use Anti-Matter Blasters, which is the bread and butter of frigate phase ships. This ship should be your last choice when it comes to phase ships.
Neither Not Recommended, nor Recommended:
- Doom
- Harbinger
- [REDACTED]
-I haven't experimented with larger phase ships as a solo-fleet since this is for a fresh start. The primary issue may turn out to be the amount of supplies they can carry since phase ships require a large amount of supplies to repair after a fight. The Doom, Harbinger, and [REDACTED] can all kill an enemy fleet solo, but it may become an issue of winning the battle, but running out of supplies (See: Losing the War).
You are one [1] ship, and you're likely a good combat ship instead of some generalist ship (See: Garbage). This means you're sacrificing cargo, crew, and fuel capacities to be good at fighting. Luckily, the game has hull mods that help you deal with this.
Mandatory Hull Mods:
- Additional Berthing (Built in)
-Having very little supplies sucks since repairing after a fight will likely take most if not all of the supplies a phase ship can normally carry. This lets you repair from several fights or disengages. - Auxiliary Fuel Tanks (Built in)
-Short range sucks. This lets you go to pretty much anywhere in the sector and back. - Expanded Cargo Holds (Built in if possible).
-Would you like some marines for raids? Would you like to be able to do some extraction missions? Would you like some extra crew for when you take damage? Take this.
Recommended Hull Mods:
- Hardened Subsystems
-It is unliklely that you'll run dry on your Anti-Matter Blasters before you starts losing CR from extended deployment, so get the most out of your AMB's by ensuring that you can last long enough to use them. - Expanded Magazines
-When you have the skills that increase your operating time before extended deployment, you may start running out of AMB rounds. This can help you with that. - Expanded Missile Racks
-If you use missiles or torpedoes, you'll want to have this on your ship. - Efficiency Overhaul:
-This allows you to spend fewer supplies per day and fuel per lightyear in addition to requiring fewer crew for the ship. Good in the long run when you want your operating costs to be 20% lower while having some extra marines.
Recommended Weapons:
- Anti-Matter Blaster
-Your primary weapon as a phase ship. High damage with long cooldowns. Easily top-tier for phase ships. - Double Atropos Torpedoes
-Torpedoes that deal good damage to frigates and home in on them. Great for after an enemy flames out.
How to make money:
- Spy Satalite Missions
-Your dedicated "milk run" job if you're flying a phase ship. This shouldn't offer much resistance. If you're having problems or want some tips for your first job, check out my guide here: https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=22809.0 - Dead-Drop Missions
-Your other milk run job. These jobs sometimes have an adversarial nature to them where one or two ships attempt to intercept you. You should have no problem losing them. - Manageable Merchant Bounties
-These are where a merchant spurned a pirate. You're tasked with sending the merchant a message by attacking his fleet. You don't need to destroy the entire fleet, but I recommend killing the combat ships with officers. If you take a lot of damage, call it mission accomplished and run for your life. The thing to remember is that you don't need to "win" the fight. You're there to scare the merchant into submission. - Manageable Military Bounties
-These are when you're sent after a military or pirate fleet. These are both easierr and harder. There is usually a specific officer that you're after. Kill that officer and run away from the fight. You can do the other types of military bounties, but they become quite a bit more dangerous. Remember that if you are destroyed, it is game over. - Extractions, Structure Disables, and Warehouses
-You can sometimes do these. Your max marines is going to be around 60 or so, so you're limited in what you can do.
My recommended setup:
Ship:
- Shade (Best)
- (P) Shade (Good)
Weapons:
- 2x Anti-Matter Blasters (Best)
- 2x Double Attropos with Expanded Missile Racks (Good)
Hull Mods:
- Additional Berthing (Mandatory)
- Auxiliary Fuel Tanks (Mandatory)
- Expanded Cargo Holds (Mandatory)
- Efficiency Overhaul (Optional)
