The basicsSpoiler
Getting the ship and weapons you want can be done in 4 ways. Buying on the market, salvaging one, making one in your colonies, or events.
Buying
The open market usually has low grade weapons to offer, but large enough systems can rarely sell capital class ships(d-mods included) in the open market.
The black market is more juicy. Better weapons and ships can be found here. Suspicion can be triggered if transponder is on. Read the "Easy black market / raid location" article for more information.
The military market has the best ships the faction has to offer, but this requires a commission + good relations with said faction. Getting a commission temporarily and ditching it is a good way to access this market if your reputation is high enough.
Salvaging
You can find derelict ships during exploration. One ship of note is the Legion XIVs, which are guaranteed to spawn in any save. Knowing how to fit one can be a big boost to your early lucky run.
Besides derelicts, combat is another way to get one. Getting the "Hull Restoration" skill early on is highly recommended to save story points.
2 other fighting fleets can sometimes drop ships as well. If 2 fleets are fighting each other, it might be a good idea to stick around and nab any ships that fall away. Beware that once the fighting ends, one or both fleets might want a piece of you.
Building
Building your own ship requires 3 things. Your own colony with a heavy industry, blueprints, and money.
Colonisation is out of the scope of this article, but even a starting size 3 colony with nothing but a heavy industry can be a good way to get the weapons and ships you need.
Blueprints can be obtained by exploration or raiding. Raiding requires the target colony to have a heavy industry.
Events
Certain quests, bar events, and contacts can be a source of getting ships and weapons. Most notable ones are:
Quest - Starting quest (Hammerhead, Wolf, Kite), Return the ISS Hamatsu (Venture, [REDACTED]), The Userpers (Executor, Kinetic Blaster, Gigacannon), The Scythe of Orion ([REDACTED])
Bar events/Contacts - Drinking Spacer (cheap cargo ship), Raid (very cheap, requires marines), Sell (cheap), Production slot (expensive, requires blueprint to be known), Black market (Very expensive, random assortment of ships/weapons to every single ships/weapons on a 1 million credit deal)
Spoiler
These systems do not require your transponder to be on. Markets with heavy industry are marked with bold and markets where the open market is not accessible when the transponder is off is marked with an underline:
Magec : Kanta's Den(Pirates), Nova Maxios(Independent), Tibicena(Tri-Tachyon)
Kumari Kandam : Chalcedon(Luddic Path), Kanni(Pirates), Olinadu (Persean League)
Mayasura : Mairaath(Persean League), Lost Astropolis(Pirates), Port Tse Franchise Station (Tri-Tachyon)
Al Gebbar : Epiphany(Luddic Path)
You can search for ships and weapons in the open/black market even when hostile by default or due to war crimes/commission. Ship class up to cruisers can be sold in these locations (even an Aurora).
These places are also ideal for raiding. You can get a good bulk of weapons/hullmods/LPCs by raiding. Also good for selling exploration junk - causes a surplus - raid it back - next planet - repeat loop.
Caution is advised that you don't raid too often as the market can decivilize.
Spoiler
Even if you skip the questline, the mothballed ships are still there in the Galatia star system.
The player can pick up a Hammerhead, Wolf, Kite and a dram without using a story point.
The rest (Condor, Hound, Buffalo mk.II) requires a story point. Not recommended.
The Galatia Academy is a good source of early income as well. Money = Ships.
Spoiler
This is a no combat route to getting a free executor + cash.
1. Have at least 2 story points.
2. Go to the Askonia system.
3. Search the bar in any diktat planet until you start the Usurpers questline.
4. When Marico shoots, just spam 1 on the dialogue tree for some cash + Kinetic Blasters (useful for Apogee start + SO).
5. First quest - Talk to the marked fleet, use a story point to skip combat.
6. Second quest - Go to the pirate planet (watch out for pirates), Call up the pirate lord, use story point.
6.1. Alternatively, buy 300+ marines on Askonia to save a story point.
7. Get a Hegemony commission(Can be done before step 2) (You can start the game and get one. Heg will not be hostile to the Diktat early on).
8. Approach the debris field in the far jump point. An independent fleet will stop you.
9. Talk to them and flash your Heg badge. Wait for them to leave the system and salvage.
10. Return to Marico - My silence is very much for sale - you mentioned an "experimental hull"
11. Lots of cash + Executor
All the weapons needed to fit one (HIL, HVD, IR Auto, Locusts, LR PD lasers, etc) are sold in Diktat black market. Efficiency overhaul recommended if you got it super early.
Spoiler
- Weapons you get after the Tesseract encounter are considered as "post combat salvage" and not "rare loot". Thus, salvage bonuses from things like salvage gantry applies.
- With the apogee start and a good refit (early kinetic blasters from diktat + SO on the apogee), you can dive into the Alpha Site (requires transvese jump), restore the ISS Hamatsu, refit it, and climb up north-east to find a hidden cache. After the battle you can obtain some early omega weapons (medium and small, pray to alex for a cryoblaster or some antimatter SRMs). Return the Hamatsu for a cash reward as well.
Author
Topic: Ship Build Compendium MK.II (Vanilla) [0.97a-RC11] (09.21.24) (Read 20826 times)