By: Imperial Good (IG)

Introduction

Hard mode has been chosen because it is the highest difficulty needed to complete the campaign and get access to most achievements. Very Hard is only needed for a pilot bail achievement which can be attempted with any start. New players should not be put off by the "Hard" difficulty, since ultimately it has very little impact on gameplay and can even be viewed as an improving feature when looking for combat.

In hard mode the <player>'s Albion Skunk takes 50% more damage and deals 25% less damage. Combined with larger pirate wing size and possibly more pirate raids this makes the combat part considerably tougher for the player. The <player>'s other ships are not affected by this penalty, meaning that they have more value in combat relative to the Albion Skunk. Overall more ships being destroyed means more loot so getting good weapon mods and rare drops is easier than at lower difficulties. There is also a nominal reduction in mission reward credits however missions still give more than enough to be worth doing as a source of income.

This walkthrough is intended to be a complete walkthrough of a Hard mode campaign play targeting someone reasonably new to the game. As such it describes both basic aspects of the game as well as more advanced strategies. For detailed statistics or strategies for certain areas of the game it is recommended to look at the appropriate wiki article.

The Albion Skunk (Very Easy)

1. Repair: Albion Skunk
2. Dock at: Nearby Station
3. Find: Engine Components
   Talk to: Hanson Derby
4. Return To Ship
   Fly to: Asteroids
   

The game starts with the <player>, Rene Otanni, being introduced to the basics of flying the Albion Skunk. It opens  "on rails" with a distress signal from your future co-pilot, Yisha Terran, in a pod after her small craft was attacked and destroyed inside a trade lane. After a number of forced choices and dialogue, user control is regained in the crew quarters. The controls are typical first person with WASD keys for movement, mouse for looking around and LMB to interact with object. Later this area will be used to transport and hold hired crew when aboard the Albion Skunk. The walls are covered with a couple of Easter egg posters such as X3: Albion Prelude images and adverts for older Egosoft products. Once done looking around it is time to return to the flight room. This can either be done from one of the options in the HUD (Enter ? ?) or by manually pressing the door controls found to the left of the flight room door which is located next to the door to the living area. Every time the flight room is entered or exited the player is presented an immersive but unable to be skipped sequence.

Once in the flight room the Albion Skunk can finally be controlled and it is time to learn the basics of flying. There are various methods to pilot the Albion Skunk including keyboard only, keyboard + mouse, gamepad and even joystick. Although ultimately which is used is up to user preference, the one used to make the guide was keyboard + mouse. In this configuration the mouse is used to aim, steer, select targets, press buttons and fire the Albion Skunk weapon systems while the keyboard is used for all other flight input. The spacebar is used to toggle between cursor aiming and cursor aiming + steering. More advanced input methods such as joysticks can allow the player to both steer and aim separately at the same time which can potentially improve their ability to hit targets during dogfights however this likely requires considerable experience to take advantage of effectively and certainly is not required to play the game well.

WASD keys can be used to control strafe direction. QE keys can be used to alter roll, a feature which requires turning off automatic roll correction to really take advantage of and often is best left to experts due to its tendency to result in disorientation. ZX keys control the throttle. Backspace can be used to instantly set the throttle to 0 and force the Albion Skunk out of trade lanes. Rotation can either be done by the mouse when in aiming + steering mode or by using the keyboard directional arrows. The LMB can be used to select targets in space and interact with menus with the RMB firing the currently selected weapon system. F1 returns to the flight room view, F2 gives an external view of the ship the <player> is currently on and F3 provides an external view of high attention targets. All external views can be manipulated using the numpad keys to position the camera and -+ keys to alter zoom.

As you move around Yisha will slowly restore various systems. First off it is the boosters as she uses them to escape some PMC ships following her. Controlled by pressing tab they can be used to provide bursts of massive speed for both navigational or tactical purposes at the cost of depleting shield energy. Since boosting depletes shield energy it can only be used to escape combat before shields are critical. She then restores the ship steering allowing it to turn much more quickly. Apparently the ship was like this due to it going into some form of "safe mode" after an accident which occurred before the <player> found it.

Currently the only weapon the Albion Skunk possess is the Mining Laser Mk1. This weapon fires a precise laser beam towards the targeting cursor which deals insignificant combat damage but has a huge damage bonus against Asteroids making it considerably more effective at breaking them up than many other weapons. It also has perfect cooling allowing it to be continuously fired. Since it is a beam weapon which hits instantly it ignores aim assist requiring the player aim it accurately at targets. Outside of breaking up asteroids its low damage is useful at opening lockboxes.

Eventually Yisha instructs the player to fly to "Dormant Bear" for repairs. This requires the player fly to a nearby marked trade lane. Generally for mobility it is recommended to boost as much as possible unless shields are required for protection from hostiles or other hazards. Collisions cause no damage even with empty shields so do not need to be considered a hazard. When entered, trade lanes will carry the player at high speed along a fixed path making them the quickest way to travel long distances within sector. Every trade lane will carry traffic in a single direction and has both a start and end gate.

Note: If you return to the starting zone at a later point in the plot Yisha will comment that she wished the meeting was under better circumstances.

After the brief journey along the trade lane to its end it is time to dock at "PMC Badlands Colony" at the marked and only platform on the station. To dock firstly fly towards the marked platform until it is targetable then fly within 500m of it and issue the dock command. Dock commands can be issued by either double clicking the platform and selecting dock from the target menu or more conveniently by using Shift+D once the platform is targeted. This applies to all platforms on all stations, which can be easily located due to there only being 4 common platform models and 5 common platform icons. After docking a short cinematic about the colony is played.

Once control is regained on the platform some Engine Components are requested by Hanson Derby in order to fix the Albion Skunk. The controls are the same as for the crew quarters of the Albion Skunk. The locker containing them is marked and can be opened using interaction. While here there are a variety of other objects scattered around the place which can be looted without any repercussions. Navigation of platforms can be made quicker by double pressing the W key to run. Small areas or low down objects can be reached by crouching using ctrl. Higher objects and platforms can be reached by jumping using the spacebar. Very high up areas such as the central structure can be reached by moving forward and first jumping and then crouching at the peak of the jump so a foothold can be taken. Many of the items found in objects on platforms can be sold to various NPC vendors if short on funds.

While here it is a good idea to smalltalk and "ask for trade offer updates". Smalltalk can be done by first waiting around a NPC until he starts talking and displays a smalltalk icon (image here?), interacting with them and then selecting the smalltalk option. Smalltalk involves repeatedly selecting a dialog option and completing a challenge until either the smalltalk succeeds giving reputation for the NPC's faction and rewards or fails losing reputation for the NPC's faction. Some dialog options with some NPC personalities appear to result in instant failure of the smalltalk independently of how well the challenge was completed. Perfect completion can be obtained by scoring no less than 4 bars in 2 challenges and allows the NPC to be given a gift. Gifts can be crafted from the player inventory (Enter ? ? ?) using various items found around platforms, in lockboxes and dropped by destroyed ships. After giving an NPC a gift the smalltalk (hard) option becomes available which requires scoring no less than 4 bars in 3 challenges to pass. To "ask for trade offer updates" requires a basic smalltalk pass on a vendor NPC (not crew). To "ask for employee training" requires passing all 3 smalltalk stages and gives virtual seminars which can be used to improve employee skill. The other smalltalk rewards increase with power at every consecutive stage of smalltalk. When trying to pass all 3 smalltalk stages it is recommended to save scum in case one of the challenges score less than 4 bars so as to not waste a gift item.

The challenges used by smalltalk and other game features involve a bar sliding from left to right over various blocks of different brightness with some randomly changing waves. The aim seems to be to press LMB when the bar is over the brightest colored, or smallest block which results in a maximum score of 5 bars. Challenge difficulty seems to vary depending on what caused the challenge as well as various random factors with some challenges being very easy to maximum score while others seem virtually impossible to get high scores. The hardest version of these challenges are found when hacking objects.

The "ask for trade offer updates" option places a trade agent on the current station so that the <player> will constantly receive up-to-date trade offer information from it. Stations which have had this done on them appear with a white eye icon (image here?) on the object list of the zone map. Doing this on many stations is very important for later on as it will allow access to more or better deals for traders to carry out.

Smalltalk can be used to check the skills of crew for hire without having to hire them. After passing all 3 smalltalk stages it will find the best unidentified crew of the requested type out of all platforms on the current station. The maximum strength check can be used to save time and virtual seminars to get highly skilled crew if performed of a station with a lot of platforms or with a lot of the desired type of worker since it then has a good chance of finding someone near perfect. The result of the maximum strength crew check does not alter crew availability or skills. Save scumming can be used to gain the advantage of the maximum strength check without using gifts since the exact same person who was marked as the result of the smalltalk exists in a save from directly before the smalltalk was performed.

Try and obtain the following things needed later on if funds permit...

• 1 * Capital ship crew...
  • 1 * Decent Captain (~30k-70k Cr) (required)
  • 1 * Decent Defence Officer (~80k-140k Cr) (recommended)
  • 1 * Engineer with 5 stars in Engineering (~20k-30k Cr) (recommended)
• 1 * Assassin ROV (~24k Cr) (required)

Capital ship crew consists of a decent Captain, Defence Officer and 5 star Engineer. Captain skill helps capital ships rotate faster which improves mobility. Defence Officer skill determines turret range and damage improving capital ship combat capabilities. Engineer skill determines both the rate of capital ship repair as well as the maximum automatic repair percentage with a 5 star engineer being able to fully repair any capital ship given enough time. The exact weighting of a primary skill on staff with multiple primary skills as well as their purpose can be found here.

An Assassin ROV can be obtained from a Drone Dealer. Drone dealers sell all manner of drone units for the Albion Skunk. Which unit types are available and at what price varies between dealers. More detail about available drones can be found here.

Finish by talking to the marked engineer in the centre of the platform who will fit your ship with a Pulsed Maser Mk1. It is now time to return to space. The physical approach is to press the same button as when inside the crew quarters. A more convenient method is to use the HUD (Enter ? ?) or by pressing Shift+D to instantly return to the flight room from anywhere on a platform.

The Pulsed Maser Mk1 is a basic combat weapon. It offers a stream of low damage projectiles with high projectile speed making it suitable for hitting fast moving targets. It also has very good heat management allowing for extended use during combat. If one weapon overheats during combat you can change to another weapon and begin firing using the M hotkey. This also works while paused allowing for a more leisurely selection of weapons.

Once in space Yisha suggests testing out your weapons by shooting up some asteroids. Fly to them and use the Mining Laser Mk1 to make short work of them. The chapter ends with a brief talk with your co-pilot who ends up asking you to taxi her to what seems to be her commanding officer.

Before continuing navigate down the huge hole at the top of Dormant Bear to find a unique lockbox containing the Observation Gem of the Ancients Relic Collection which is needed for Mk5 shields. Unique lockboxes are invulnerable and can be opened by shooting the 4 locks found at one end of the box. The item dropped by a unique lockbox is the only copy of the item the player will ever be able to get. From the time a unique lockbox is opened until the item is safely in inventory it will be subject to normal item rules, including self-destructing after a few minutes and being destroyed after receiving enough damage. Since this allows the item to be destroyed it can be classed as miss-able so care must be taken during collection.

The Heart of Albion/An Unexpected Lodger (Easy)

1. Fly to: HOA Arawn
2. Fly to: Rahanas (Container & Energy)

It is now time to fly to a distant ship. This will require using multiple trade lanes to reach however thanks to guidance it is trivial. For a clearer picture of where to go the zone map can be opened with ',' which shows and lists all objects near the Albion Skunk. The zone map is actually 3D meaning you can manipulate the view angle to get some idea of the Z position of objects. For zones with resources the available quantity is listed, which will regenerate over time and is usually large enough that it can be considered as good as infinite. The sector map can be brought up with '.' which shows a larger overview of the sector you are currently in, including all discovered zones, zones with property activity, the sector trade lanes and even what minerals and be found in each zone. Map detail levels can be navigated as required using the appropriate buttons, by selecting objects from the object list or by using the mouse scroll wheel.

Take the marked trade lane and fly to an intersection. When in trade lanes there will be other generic generated traffic to interact with. Red trails usually mean the Albion Skunk is on an imminent collision course with the ship and appear to apply a speed penalty. A speed bonus may apply by steering away from traffic. Collisions with civilian ships will usually apply a large speed penalty to the Albion Skunk and cause the impacted ship to bounce around the inside of the trade lane erratically before falling being. Trade lanes can be exited prematurely by banging flying against the side 3 times, being knocked against the side at high speed or by pressing backspace to come to a stop. Although trade lanes force movement, the throttle can still be used to alter the maximum speed which can be useful when interacting with other ships in a trade lane. Some larger M ships such as civilian transports have a large enough mass that collisions will result in the Albion Skunk being ejected from the trade lane so should be avoided for quick travel.

Yisha will comment about how terrifying it is to be shot at while taking a trade lane and that a bandit managed to get away with doing it for a very long time before being stopped. Ship combat mechanics still apply while inside trade lanes. Since small craft usually lack rear turrets it is completely safe to shoot targets in front of the Albion Skunk while taking a trade lane. Targets will usually abruptly leave the trade lane upon combat however so more conventional combat would be required to finish them off. Weapon projectiles do not inherit the Albion Skunk speed when fired meaning that some weapon systems may struggle to accurately hit targets when inside trade lanes. Any loot that is left inside trade lanes cannot be collected by the Albion Skunk as the ship will always take the trade lane before it can be collected.

The first zone passed through contains a large hostile warehouse, a HoL DLC building, owned by SS with massive defences so should be avoided for now. The next zone is an intersection which Yisha instructs a lane change at. Here there are 4 stations to place trade agents on. For each of the stations dock at a platform on the station, smalltalk a vendor or the station manager and then "ask for trade offer updates". The commercial/trading platform usually has the most vendors. While on platforms it is a good idea to loot any objects found as they can provide materials needed for crafting gifts as well as assets which can be used for additional funds. Remember to keep an eye out for things you will need later that were mentioned earlier.

Do not worry too much about the possession of illegal goods as the police will only scan if the Albion Skunk is nearby or bumps into them. Even then the worst that can happen is that the station temporarily goes hostile towards the <player> for a few minutes. As long as no combat is performed against the station no reputation will even be lost. Sometimes it is possible to escape a scan by either boosting away or immediately docking resulting in no problems at all.

When done with the stations take the marked trade lane to get to the objective. It is worth looking for passenger transport missions going in the same direction along the way as they are very easy to complete and give much needed credits and reputation which are lacking currently. Break from the trade lane and fly towards the marked Arawn. At a distance of 3km there will be a dialogue saying that the captain does not want Yisha at the moment due to a PMC inspection and 100,000 credits will be received to keep her. At the same time control will be gained of a Rahanas (Container & Energy) in Albion/Inner World/Frozen Circuit. In the current zone there are another 5 stations to visit in the same way as before.

Note: At this point the mission name changes from "The Heart of Albion" to "An Unexpected Lodger".

Follow the markers while visiting all stations along the route. You should be taken through Dwarfish Tinderbox, Distant Fume, Watergate, Cuspid Splint and finally Frozen Circuit. When in Frozen Circuit fly to the marked Rahanas (Container & Energy) nearby. At a distance of 5km Yisha will wonder about what some drones are doing near it and 2 hostile Interceptor URV Mk1 drones will spawn which need to be killed. It is recommended to use the Pulsed Maser Mk1 for this fight.

Drone units are reasonably weak opponents. Having no shields, low hull and armed with few weapons they pose little threat to the Albion Skunk. However drones are vaguely fast, agile and small. The combination of hard to hit and the numbers they are often deployed in make them annoying. Drones are usually deployed by capital ships or stations in waves. Each capital ship can house hundreds of drone units and waves they launch usually consist of around 6 drone units. Capital ships and stations belonging to the <player> can also use drone units for defence however they will only ever be deployed against small craft and in low attention their combat is purely virtual.

Combat is fairly simple. Start by selecting a target. Targeting can be done manually by LMB on an object under the targeting cursor. Enemies can be auto targeted with Shift+E selecting closest enemy and Page Up/Page Down cycling through enemies within radar range. Once selected try to face the target and move within 1-2 km range. While facing the target aim the targeting cursor towards the while aim marker near the target and fire at them. As long as some attempt is made to dispatch them the Albion Skunk should be at no risk, even if stationary.

After both drones are destroyed, Yisha will state that the Rahanas is not safe where it is an needs to be moved. To do this the Rahanas will need crew.

Finding A Crew (Medium)

1. Deliver: Captain for Rahanas (Container & Energy)
2. Return to ship
   Add: to squad

A captain is now required. Although not required, it is strongly recommended to find a full capital ship crew at once as it will save time later. Crew can be hired and vendors traded with remotely from the Traders HUD (Enter ? ?) at the cost of a small transit. Although very convenient to hire crew this way, the lack of skill information to help with choosing candidates leaves the quality of people hired this way entirely to chance. Both remote hire and trade will spawn pods for delivery which move at high speed and may be subject to combat rules.

Bug: When remote hiring crew while nearby <player> owned stations the transfer pods can occasionally transfer the crew to work at one of the stations if it flies close by them. Such crew usually has no purpose on a station and although they can be recalled from the station they will permanently disappear in the process.

Once the necessary crew has been hired, proceed to dock at the marked Rahanas. The docking platform is located inside the front of the ship. Most capital ships have a docking platform and they function identically to station docking platforms. All capital ship docking platforms use the same layout, which is identical to the very first platform visited back at PMC Badlands Colony.

Assign the captain to the ship using the remote call HUD (Enter ? ?) to continue. If a full capital ship crew was acquired then also assign the Defence Officer and Engineer now. It is also possible to assign crew while the Albion Skunk is not docked by going to the crew quarters, interacting with a crew member and then ordering them to work someplace else which sends them in a pod towards the target. Crew can only be assigned like this to ships nearby the Albion Skunk. The pod created is very slow (a lot slower than delivery pods) and subject to combat. Once done leave the ship platform.

Yisha will demand that the Rahanas be added to the Albion Skunk's squad so that it will follow. The Rahanas can be added to the Albion Skunk's squad from the property menu HUD (Enter ?) or by pressing ???, selecting it from the menu, using comm and then selecting "join my squad". Alternatively the comm step can be performed with the "hail" option of the target menu. The comm menu allows other orders to be issued for both movement or combat purposes. It is also possible to assign a ship to the squad of another owned object so that it helps it in some way.

The Rahanas (Container & Energy) is a member of the Rahanas/Sol series of L class ships. The trade ships are lightly armed offering both reasonable mobility and cargo capacity. A number of mixed variants exist such as Container & Energy and Bulk & Liquid which feature fragmented storage spaces allowing more ware types to be traded at the cost of some mobility. The fight ships are slightly more armed but intended mostly for use as drone carriers, a role which does not work well due to flawed AI and game mechanics. The trade ships make good station manager subordinates as they are faster and more mobile than XL traders. The fight ships are generally quite poor due to low toughness, weak weapons and high drone dependence however the Heavy Sol does have merit as an easy to obtain zone patrol ship to deal with pirate small craft and deter some lesser pirate capital ships. None of the ships will survive long against XL fight ships so they are not suitable for dangerous trade runs or stopping heavy pirate raids.

With the Rahanas now crewed it is a good idea to begin trading with it. This can be done using the "Trade Deals" option of the Trading HUD (Enter ?). The offer panel can be used to look at available trade deals for buying and selling of products from stations which have a trade agent installed. The deals panel can be used to automatically link profitable sell and buy offers allowing a trade run the be created in a few interactions. Each trade ship has a limited number of deal slots to queue deals with. The number of deal slots available starts at 3 and can be globally raised to 7 by purchasing very expensive software, which will be done later. Deal slots are also used to transfer goods between <player> property, one of the orders a ship can be given.

Bug: The trade panels are prone to causing the UI to become unresponsive when selecting a trade ship that is trying to execute a transfer with another trade ship on the list. If encountered when cycling through trade ships the window can be closed with Esc however if one of the ships happens to be the ship chosen for the panel's initial state then the UI will become completely unresponsive and a save must be loaded.

Although running trading deals will earn some money, it is far more profitable to do trade for missions. Look for supply missions on the bulletin board and use a ship to fulfil the required deal. Running supply missions can be very lucrative as even delivering just 1000 units of food could net close to a million credits and extra reputation. It is even worth while having free trade deal capability in case such missions are stumbled upon. Make sure what a supply mission asks for is reasonable as some ask for large quantities of rare wares such as >1,000 Assault URV Mk1 or 10,000 Reinforced Metal which could take a long time to complete. A good rule is to only accept supply missions if the required amount of ware is available for sale on the market immediately and can be delivered in a single shipment.

Supply missions require delivering a certain amount of a requested ware to the deal for that ware on the station requesting station. Guidance will highlight which station and also all deal points when nearby as well as remind you of the quantity required. The mission deal appears like any other buy deal in the trade offers panel. The mission deal might be linked to a general station deal meaning that the deal's amount requested increases over time but the amount that must be delivered will stay constant. The mission deal might also be generated specifically for the mission and appear along side existing deals for the request ware. Once the requested amount of ware is delivered the reward is earned. To easily find the correct deal fly close to the station so guidance highlights all deal points and then select the appropriate one for the requested ware. If two deals for a ware exist which request more than the mission requested amount then there is no way to discern which is linked to the mission so both will have to be fulfilled. Often the mission trade deal will require being fulfilled with a loss, however the amount lost is usually a tiny fraction of the mission reward amount. There appears to be no time limit or penalty on these missions, the required trade deals can be safely queued up after other trading deals for better trader efficiency.

Battle Scars (Medium): Part 1

1. Destroy: Pirates
2. Repair: Albion Skunk 

2 Sovereign Syndicate Maelchon fighters then spawn and attack. After a short dialogue you gain access to the missile launcher and get ? free Sunstalker missiles. If you have assigned a Defence Officer to the Rahanas you can order it to help fight the ships making the battle very easy. Upon defeating the ships each will drop an ammunition crate containing either Sunstalkers or V Crushers which will be marked for you to pick up. Following this your ship will spontaneously (irrelevant of how well you actually fought) take 12% hull damage that will need to be repaired. You will need to find an unowned Engineer at one of the nearby stations. This is best done by using open comm link in the HUD to plot a course to an available Engineer. Repairs will cost ~3k (eg 3,015) credits. After a short dialogue you will be told to acquire some drones.

Battle Scars (Medium): Part 2

1. Buy: Assassin ROV from Drone Dealer
   Enter: Assassin ROV

You will now be introduced to the Albion Skunk's drone capabilities. You will need to buy an Assassin ROV now if you have not done so already. Similar to finding the NPC engineer above, you can use the HUD comm link feature to locate a Drone Dealer. Unlike repairing, purchases from vendors can be done remotely with the goods arriving in pods at the cost of a small fixed fee and forgoing the ability to secure personal discounts via small-talk. After purchasing the drone and launching to space you need to enter the Assassin ROV from the ability menu. There honestly is little point in ever doing this during combat as while controlling your ROV your Albion Skunk cannot be controlled so is an easy target. It is worth noting that firing your ROV weapons also fires your Albion Skunk weapons directly forward at the same time which can get you into trouble if you are facing something you do not want to shoot. After returning from the ROV (Esc) you will discuss getting better weapons by trading energy and continue the story.

The Trade Run (Medium): Part 1

1. Buy: 100 units of Energy from AES Energy Array IV
2. Deliver: 100 units of Energy Cells to HOA Lonely Giant

You will be instructed to buy 100 energy cells specifically from AES Energy Array IV at Albion/Far Out/Concealed Hideout. While you make your way to place a trade offer update agent on that station you should be getting trade offer updates and completing delivery/passenger missions from the stations you pass. There is no rush to get to the objective destination, you are free to take a more windy path as the extra update offers and credits will be needed later. If you encounter large NPC raiding parties it is unwise to engage with your current equipment but nothing stops you from collecting any wares that are dropped when they are killed by NPC defences. Finding ware crates can be difficult since they are both small and only are highlighted nearby, however, they will still show up for quite some distance on both the 3D minimap and zone map in the form of pale specs which you can use to home in on them until you get a more exact visual location. If your minimap is being blocked by messages you can change mini-map mode (Shift+R) to force it to be displayed again. Once you arrive at the energy array station your co-pilot will give you an opportunity to find a commission discount for the Energy Cells sold there, however seeing as 100 units will at most cost you 800 credits and the commission is temporary this is not really worth while. After ordering your Rahanas to load up with 100 Energy Cells from that station and while waiting for the transfer to complete you will be introduced to bulletin missions, usually in the form of a passenger transport mission, which you can skip if you are busy exploring other zones.

After the energy cells are loaded you will be instructed to deliver them to Lonely Giant Albion/Far Out/Exhaustless Mines. Once at Lonely Giant find the energy offer and order your Rahanas to unload at least 100 Energy Cells. While you wait for the transfer to complete you can pickup the Kha'ak Ship Component of the Kha'ak Relic Collection located in an unique locked box inside Lonely Giant. This lock box should be free-standing and not moving in an arch at the bottom of Lonely Giant. There may be others embedded into the side of Lonely Giant which are not unique and instead contain generic lock box loot. After the transfer completes and a short dialog it is time to get your Plasma Cannon.

The Trade Run (Medium): Part 2

1. Talk to: Debora Gimbat

You are instructed to dock at one of the platforms at Lonely Giant, which upon docking you receive a cinematic about the station. After talking to the marked engineer and receiving a brief dialog you will now have a Plasma Cannon Mk1. This weapon is the longest range of the standard arsenal and is very useful at blowing up L, XL and station components from a more safe distance. Due to slow projectile speed it will have problems hitting fast moving targets limiting its use in dogfights and for disabling cruising capital ships. After you return to ship the objective completes with you receiving a dialog about how you could test out the Plasma Cannon Mk1 on asteroids if you so desired. Shortly after this conversation you get hailed by Borman and told to deliver Yisha to him.

Before continuing with the main story it is now a good time to develop capabilities and assets in preparation for what will come. Although not strictly necessary it will make the rest of the campaign considerably easier and potentially quicker in the long run. It is also a good opportunity to get to grips with the sandbox side of X Rebirth for when the campaign is done.

Exploration (Interlude)

It is now time to finish placing trade agents around Albion. Go around zone-by-zone, sector-by-sector placing an agent on every friendly (not the SS Warehouse) station. The zone map shows the outlines of not yet visited stations and lists them as unidentified objects.

Upgrading the Albion Skunk (Interlude)

In order to upgrade the Albion Skunks capabilities ~11 million credits are required. If missions are found and completed efficiently it should take less than 2 hours to amass the necessary funds. Fly around trade lanes in sectors stopping off near passing stations and looking for missions to perform. In each zone check the zone map/radar map for any loot left around as even low attention combat will still drop containers.

After the necessary funding is obtained find a mechanic and buy the following...

• Sidewinder Engine Mk4 (2,900,000 Cr)
• 2 * Dashing Shield Mk4 (2 * 3,700,000 Cr)
• Police Scanner (480,000 Cr)
• Total value 10,780,000 (8,516,200 with 15% discount from smalltalk (hard) and 6% from rep) Cr

The engine gives the best currently available strafe and rotation speeds which is very useful for combat. Its slower forward speed and acceleration can be made up by extensive boost usage thanks to the fast recharge of the Dashing Shields. The Dashing Shields also give good recovery for combat as they will begin to recharge only a few seconds after taking damage. This setup is purely a recommendation from personal experience and play style preference. Other combinations of Mk4 gear will likely work better for different play styles however those are not covered by this guide.

The police scanner is the best scanner in the game and will be very useful for finding lockboxes and its extended radar range. Lockboxes can be found randomly within zones and often contain rare or useful items such as those required to craft various smalltalk gifts. To find them fly to a zone, possibly empty space, and activate Long-Range Scanner mode from the scanners HUD (hotkeys: Enter 1 5). By pressing E the scanner will charge up allowing it to release a huge wave that will ping back any distant objects, especially lockboxes, with a clear sound. Charging the scanner for too long will result in it failing to produce a scan wave with no other negative side effects. The scan wave is biggest when charged until the last instant before it registers as being overcharged. Blue pings represent a mass of items of low quality while yellow pings represent one or more rare items. If the items are inside a lockbox the ping will appear to originate from the lockbox.

Unlike the unique lockboxes earlier, generic ones are not invulnerable and will explode after taking too much damage destroying the contents. The lockboxes may also be rotating, making it harder to hit the locks without damaging the lockbox. The amount of damage a lockbox can sustain is approximated by its appearance with ones looking more broken having lower hull amounts. If explosives appear attached to the lockbox it will damage any nearby objects upon destruction with shield bypass damage. Lockbox keys come in 3 configurations, as either 1 big key on the side, 2 smaller keys on diagonal corners of an end or 4 smaller keys on all corners of an end. Generally the highest quality and quantity of loot will be dropped by fast spinning, 4 key, badly damage explosive attached lockboxes. Special lockboxes are spawned by certain lightbulb point missions requiring the payment of up to several million credits. Such mission lockboxes can drop rare or valuable loot that is not part of the generic lockbox drop table. Save scumming can be used to assure that a lockbox is always opened successfully.

Preparing the Albion Skunk for War (Interlude)

It is now time to prepare the Albion Skunk to partake in combat. Not only are combat missions generally the most lucrative, but they are also among the most common mission type available. Additionally capital ships with normally huge costs can be forcefully acquired for as good as free.

The ship will be combat ready after obtaining the following...

• 4/5/5+ star Marine Officer (~25k with some seminar usage)
• 50 * Recruit Marine (50 * ~21,732 Cr)
• Inertial Hammer Mk1 (150,000 Cr)
• Targeting System Extension Mk2 (214,680 Cr)
• Particle Repeater Mk3 (free)
• Total value <2,000,000 Cr

With the use of save scumming only 1 Marine Officer is ever needed. For this reason it is recommended to find one based on appearance or attitude rather than actual skills since the skills can always be trained in the long run. For example a Taladi or Split Marine Officer could be used for something more exotic than the abundant generic humans. It is still recommended to choose one with at least 4 starts in Boarding Experience as this is by far the hardest attribute to level, requiring 20 odd successful boarding operations per level. Recruit marines can be picked up from every Recruiting Officer and smalltalk can be used for discounts to save money. Boarding strength can be checked from the Albion Skunk ship info panel and a good strength at this stage is at least 20. It is generally a good idea to keep boarding strength 10 above target boarding resistance to assure no marine losses however at these low amounts it appears to be more tolerant with even an advantage as low as 7 yielding no losses.

Inertial Hammer Mk1 and Targeting System Extension Mk2 can be brought from mechanics and again smalltalk can be used for a discount. The Inertial Hammer Mk1 is very effective at hitting big targets at close range such as M size fight craft in a dogfight or capital ship hulls. The weapon fires several short-ranged weak bolts in a shotgun style. Each of the bolts is capable of ricocheting and hitting other targets to deal even more damage. A capital ship can be hit by both the main blast and ricochets for very good damage. The ricochets can cause friendly fire so care must be taken when firing at enemies near friendly stations to avoid making the station Defence Officer and patrol craft angry with you.

Targeting System Extension Mk2 is required to effectively lock on to ship and station surface elements. The ability to target surface elements makes boarding a lot easier as it is recommended to remove all the surface components before starting a boarding operation. After selecting a target the surface elements can be cycled through using the Home and End buttons. Specific surface elements can also be selected manually by left clicking them in cockpit view. This functionality can be buggy at times with certain components being absent from the cycle list or unable to be targeted with cockpit view. The radar dish surface element found on ships will never be directly targetable but can still be blown up by manually firing at it. Both methods of surface element target selection will continue to function while the game is paused, a feature which can be very useful when looking for specific surface element targets while under heavy fire.

Particle Repeater Mk3 is a mission reward requiring the player to hand in Spacefly Egg Collection crafted from 5 Spacefly Egg (Authentic) to a Split spacefly collector who in return can either give the Particle Repeater Mk3 or a large sum of cash. The mission is only found by scanning mission points on stations, specifically ones with the lightbulb icon (insert image?) after which it will appear in the bulletin board. The mission can be re-found and completed infinitely making it a potential source of luck based income.

The Particle Repeater Mk3 weapon is well worth the effort as it is considerably more powerful than Particle Repeater Mk1. It works well in dogfights or for hitting fast targets as its insane attack speed delivers a high DPS stream of high velocity projectiles. The major downside to the weapon is its poor heat management, overheating after just a second or two of use, meaning that it must be used in short precise bursts to maximize damage output. This is especially the case with some weapon mods as they can boost the rate of fire by over 300% which also increases the rate the weapon overheats.

Spacefly Egg (Authentic) can be found by destroying Nividium containing asteroids. The chances of getting at least 1 per Nividium asteroid is quite good however the difficulty comes from finding such asteroids in the first place. Despite the apparent abundance of Nividium throughout Albion, the ratio it is available at with respect to other minerals is so low that most zones will not spawn Nividium containing asteroids. This is not a problem for mining Nividium as mining ships will magically collect it when in low attention despite there not being any asteroids containing it in the zone. A good zone to find Nividium asteroids is in Albion/Lookout Alpha between the trade lanes from both Azure Barrier and Smokestack to Dormant Bear about half way up as seen in the image below. These Nividium asteroids are often over 5,000 yield so fully breaking up as few as 2 can provide more than enough Spacefly Egg (Authentic) to complete the mission.

In-game map of Albion/Lookout Alpha showing where Nividium asteroids are known to be found.

In theory it may be possible to get an Mk5 engine already from the appropriate mission. This is heavily dependant on luck as it requires a large variety of rare parts to drop from destroyed enemy ships. As such it should be done as an ongoing background task rather than a progression milestone. Due to the increased fighter wing size of Hard mode it may be easier to obtain than at lower difficulties.

Reviewing weapon mods is a good idea at this point. If loot has been collected from the abundant NPC fights there is a fair chance that a few useful weapon modifications are possessed. Slapping any with only green modifications is always better than nothing but might not be optimal. In the case of Rare Weapons Mods it can some times be worth it to take a few red losses for some stats due to the huge gains elsewhere. Although weapon mods can be changed later, doing so costs additional funds and forces the equipped weapon mode to be salvaged. Salvaged weapon mod pieces can be used to craft new random weapon mods from the <player> inventory.

At this point the Albion Skunk is now ready for combat and capable of engaging entire fleets of small craft. Only very large enemy wings will threaten the shields but quickly boosting away before they are critical gives more than enough opportunity for escape followed by speedy recovery of shields for another assault. Ships can be distracted by firing one of the abundantly dropped guided missiles at them as they will prioritize dodging the missile over firing at enemies and since the missiles home in they will fly past multiple times before either impacting for heavy damage or self-destructing due to timeout. Staying behind a small craft is completely safe as they lack rear turrets, a strategy that is very easy to pull off thanks to the Sidewinder Engine's unparalleled turning capabilities. If worst comes to worst there are almost always friendly NPCs nearby to turn to for help. Later in the campaign multiple such fights will occur however they are always stacked in favour of the player and will almost always complete with minimal intervention.

Much like X3, pilots can bail when at low health leaving the ship neutral for the player to claim as an asset. Unlike X3 the pilot after bailing is still considered an enemy and can be treated as such without any negative repercussions despite being completely defenseless and vulnerable to a single shot of any weapon. It is even required to destroy the escape capsule for assassination missions to complete after the original target bails. Taking control over neutral small craft, such as from bailing, can be done by issuing a claim order while a Pilot is aboard the Albion Skunk. The pilot must physically travel from the Albion Skunk to the ship in a pod before ownership is transferred. Non trade small craft can mostly be considered as worthless assets to the player due to a combination of bad AI, no self-repair (un-modded) and low toughness so it is usually best to immediately sell them for extra credits. 

The Albion Skunk is also ready to start boarding operations, a process that yields expensive capital ship assets for free that would otherwise cost multiple million credits or cannot be purchased. Start by finding a capital ship crew from various friendly stations. After finding a desired boarding target, the Jump Drive should first be destroyed to prevent escape by jumping. All surface elements should be destroyed such as drone bay, radar dish, non-drive bank forcefield generators and turrets. The M/AM Drive and protective forcefield generators should only be destroyed once the boarding target is in a suitably quite place, such as >80km away from stations with no nearby NPCs, and is best done from either inside the ship gravity field or with guided missiles towards the biggest engine component. If the target refuses to withdraw from heavy NPC fire it may be considered un-boardable and should be destroyed for loot and reputation instead. By hitching a ride in a fleeing target's gravity field it is not only easy to keep up with it while boosting but also to force it to continue boosting by constantly firing at it. Using the Albion Skunk to destroy the capital shield generators and damage the hull sufficiently for safe boarding of tougher ship types can require a considerable amount of time without assistance. Once Boarding Resistance is ~10 below your boarding strength then it is safe to start the boarding operation. The only intervention required will be to suppress hull repairs from the victim's Engineer and destroy the occasional surface element that is rebuilt. If a Trojan Drone is carried there is a good chance for at least 1 hacking challenge to appear, which will be solved by successfully passing a single hacking node. After the boarding operation succeeds land on the new asset, remote call in the capital ship crew hired earlier and recall the Marine Officer. The Engineer will soon have the asset fully repaired and ready for use. Later in the campaign there will be a compulsory boarding operation under controlled conditions which will be made slightly easier by boarding experience gained now.

The easiest assistance for the pure Shield and Hull damage stage of boarding come in the form of Overrun URV Mk2 which can be carried aboard the Albion Skunk. These units cost ~300,000 Cr each from Drone Dealer merchants but can well over double effective DPS against the target. Simply issue the "Smart Defense" drone ability when the target is the only ship nearby and the swarm will immediately begin spamming Newtonian V-Crusher missiles at it. Once the victim is at satisfactory boarding resistance levels they can be recalled, ready for use with another boarding operation. Although they could in theory help strip surface elements off capital ships, chances are they will end up destroyed by turrets due to their slow speed and low toughness which would be a significant financial loss.

Strafing is critical to success in combat with the engine and shield configuration recommended by this guide. By rapidly changing strafe directions the auto aim of NPC turrets and small craft will struggle to hit you from a distance. This technique is so effective that even ships with excessive number of turrets such as the Lyramekron may only land a few hits per minute which is few enough that the shield damage is effortlessly recovered. This is less effective against tailing small craft as they are usually closer and more erratic however it is still enough to significantly reduce incoming damage. When taking on capital ships adjust speed to remain a fixed distance away and only depend on strafing to dodge incoming fire. Simply cycling the wasd keys in a circular pattern should be enough to dodge most turrets (not Plasma/JET Turret). In dogfights a combination of strafing, turning and speed adjustment is needed to help minimize incoming damage.

Building for the Future (Interlude)

With both ship and mind prepared for combat it is time to start building up your company assets. With out going overboard you will want to obtain the following...

• 3 boarded trade ships
• 80,000,000 Cr (note: amount may be reduced later)
• The following wares stored across one or more of the trade ships...
• 5,596 Energy Cells (minimum 1,463)
• 1,156 Reinforced Metal Plating (minimum 0)
• 521 Fusion Reactors (minimum 140)
• 674 Bio-Optic Wiring (minimum 270)
• 58 Forcefield Projectors (minimum 0)
• 135 HIT/MA Turrets (minimum 0)
• 54 Plasma/MA Turrets (minimum 0)
• 8 recommended V-Launcher Turrets (minimum 0)
• Total value 48,090,006 Cr (minimum ???)
• 2 bulk mining capable ships with at least 16 Surface Miner Mk1 units
• Highly skilled Metallurgist Specialist aboard Albion Skunk

Boarding SS owned Rahanas and Titurel ships is the easiest and quickest way to expand your fleet.

The Long Goodbye (Medium)

1. Fly to: Resolute 

Upon entry to Albion/Inner World, Yisha will comment on how PMC ships are acting strange and could be trying to follow you. This appears to be entirely dialog as there are not any PMC ships that follow you around.

When the <player> approaches the marker in Auspicious Excavation a cinematic sequence plays where commander Borman will explain that there is yet another change of plans due to the nearby Jump Gate becoming active and PMC swarming the area. The PMC then frighten Yisha who forces the Albion Skunk to boost through the Jump Gate into DeVries. When in DeVries Renn argues with Yisha over the action taken and a PMC commander says the gate is in lockdown for the time being. If the Jump Gate back to Albion is used at this point Yisha exclaims that it is "going to get rough" and orders you to run, even though nothing out of the ordinary is thrown at the <player>. A PMC Heavy Sul is placed near the Jump Gate and is stationary posing little threat to any ships passing through.

Bug: If entering Auspicious Excavation using the trade lane from Even Temper the cinematic camera may bug and be offset a considerable distance to one side resulting in scenes of empty space being shown.

At this point major changes to the universe occur. After jumping through the gate PMC is set to -20 reputation and will engage all the <player>'s non-trade assets (not subject to normal reputation rules). The DeVries Jump Gate is now operational opening up the entire system for exploration. PMC will also "impound" up to 5 of the <player>'s capital ships randomly, which will be recovered at a later time. DLC system Jump Gates should also become operational at this point. Due to the nature of DLC systems they also allow early access to Omicron Lyrae (TTO) and Malestrom (HoL).

Into the Unknown (N/A)

1. Explore: Superhighway
   Flee: Plutarch Forces
2. Fly to: Highway 
   Explore

The <player> comes out of the Jump Gate in Twilight Sentinel. Ignore the marker and take the trade lane to heading west getting off at Persistent Darkening. Although there is a hostile REI Waystation in the zone, it is of no concern.   Use the Long Range Scanner to locate a unique Lockbox behind the station to obtain the Kha'ak Ship Debris from the Kha'ak Relic Collection.   Follow the marked trade lanes to Crimson Rocks.   When approaching the superhighway further into the system Yisha will wonder if "people are living closer to the sun". In the next sector Yisha will detect some unknown ships and after trying to hail them a dogfight occurs. At this point a sub-mission Anonymous Enemies starts.

Bug: The mission objective points may seem to make no sense at some point. Eventually more reasonable/correct ones will be shown.

Anonymous Enemies

1. 1. Survive

The <player> has the option to flee from this encounter but should have no problem dispatching of the 2 hostile small craft. Yisha cheers seeing the destruction.

Following the trade lanes further along Barren Heart, Yisha comments about some abandoned mines with models similar to those from X3. At Torid Veil Yisha will pick up a distress call however, the location of the sender cannot be traced. Follow the marker to Fervid Corona where a cinematic sequence plays with Yisha commenting on the design of the nearby station. Nakano then hails the <player> requesting the Albion Skunk to identify itself before Ren Otani negotiates landing permission.

Old Ties (Medium)

1. Talk to: Pedro Nakano
2. Talk to: Karen Stringer

Follow the markers for a conversation with Nakano about the status of Albion and potential trade opportunities between the two sectors before the <player> is instructed to talk to Karen Stringer on a different station. Once back onboard the Albion Skunk, Yisha voices concerns that Karen Stringer might use force to interrogate them. Follow the markers to Gushing Spring where the Albion Skunk sounds a hostile ship warning.

Bug: The warning lights will appear in the same location regardless of cockpit configuration resulting in them appearing to float freely in some.

Yisha will then state the obvious about Terran ships before some Reivers will spawn starting the Protect Station sub-mission

Protect Station (Medium)

1. 1. Protect: ?? Crystal Castle

There are 4 hostile small craft consisting of 2 Cennelath and 2 Dolmech ships. The station is surrounded by 10 Daito small craft but both the surrounding ships and station defences seem to ignore the threat forcing <player> intervention.

Old Ties

After dispatching the hostiles dock at the marked landing pad on the Crystal Castle. Talk to Karen Stringer who says that the above attack was "the worst Reivers raid they have had in weeks" and that the system is in need of Food and Refined Metals. Ironically one of the few products made in the DeVries is Food and no stations buy Refined Metals. The <player> is then free to ask a number of optional questions. Asking about "Who are the Reivers?" gets an answer closer to superstition than anything while the "Who are you people?" is a bit more informative about the origins of the people in the sector.   The "Is there anything we can trade" option just emphasises how poor the economy and military in the system is. A sequence plays explaining DeVries.

Ren Otani then implies that the <player> ship still "requires a lot of work to be done on her" irrespective of the actual quality of equipment and Karen Stringer then offers a "Terran shield generator". Despite the "Terran shield generators" being nothing more than obsolete Mk2 shields, the vendor is the first of 3 plot opportunities that offer a massive 40% discount. Although intended just for the shields, this also includes software so consider getting the usually ludicrously priced Trading Computer Mk3 and Economy Analytics Software Mk1.

• Trading Computer Mk3 82,842,000 Cr. (46,235,000 Cr. with discount)
• Economy Analytics Software Mk1 1,656,840 Cr. (807,151 Cr. with discount)

At this point try and obtain the following things for later on...

• 1 * Capital ship crew (recommended)
• 1 * Trojan ROV (~455,600 Cr) (required)

A capital ship crew will be needed to man a powerful fight ship practically given away later on so it is recommended they are as skilled as possible. A Trojan ROV will be needed for some hacking, these are commonly sold by Drone Dealer merchants and can be purchased remotely. If Overrun URV Mk2 are being used to speed up boarding operations 1 of them may have to be sold in the process to free up a drone unit slot.

When back onboard the Albion Skunk, Yisha questions not wanting to "upgrade" shields despite what was offered being inferior to the Mk4 shields acquired earlier. Nakano then issues a Reiver raiding party alert.

Reiver Raids (N/A)

1. Destroy: REI Dolmech
2. Fly to: Canterran Rearguard
3. Fly to: Superhighway
4. Fly to: REI Hermod (Bulk & Liquid)
5. Protect: RoC Hermod (Bulk & Liquid)
6. Fly to: Jump Gate

Yisha suggests lending a hand in this "warzone" so it is time to destroy some more small craft. When at Fervid Corona 3 REI Dolmech ships will be marked for termination who have rather poor pilots that may not even shoot back. After swatting the three small craft, Nakano sends a transmission which Yisha hopes will be a reward of some "guns". Unfortunately it is a hostage crisis, fortunately this can be helped by blowing up a few ships in Glaring Truth that come out of the superhighway. The <player> is then instructed to "help" with the boarding operation which is guarded by 3 REI small craft. The Reivers will try to attack the Hermod (Bulk & Liquid) when it changes ownership as the player approaches. After the ship is safe Nakano will give the <player> a Mercancias (Bulk) small trader as a reward while Yisha say it is time to head back to Albion "to get our stuff back".

At the gate, Yisha states that the PMC are being distracted by the REI so now is a good time to pass through unnoticed. There is actually now more small craft activity here than if using the Jump Gate previously.

Albion Rendezvous (Medium)

1. Enter: Trojan ROV
   Hack: Location

On the other side Yisha hopes Commander Borman has started with his distractions. Markers will lead the <player> to Albion/Inner World/Cuspid Splint before pointing to a remote location nearby. There will be nothing at the waypoint and Yisha will say to wait for HoA to contact them.

Borman will express his concerns about the disappearance of the Albion Skunk and Yisha will update him about DeVries. Borman explains "Things became chaotic" and that HoA have gathered dirt on the illegal operations of PMC and now want to broadcast it to everybody in Albion. After the cinematic sequence head to the Metalworks Yard I in Albion/Inner World/Distress Reek. Here the <player> will be given a tutorial on how to hack with a Trojan ROV. Navigate the drone to within 100m of the flagged up hacking points and perform a hack challenge, after hacking enough points the hack will succeed. The challenges are the same sliding bar as the smalltalk challenges but faster.

After recalling the drone back to the Albion Skunk a cinematic sequence will play and Commander Borman will contact the Albion Skunk about what to do next with the information gathered and about the Terrans in DeVries. Yisha will then momentarily disable ship control to tell the <player> about how it is "time to get out of here"

Find Yoolis

1. Enter: Trojan ROV
   Hack: Location

Head to Albion/Lookout Alpha/Auspicious Excavation and perform a hack challenge on Albion Energy Array I, II and III using the Trojan ROV. Yisha will then say that she thinks she has an idea where they are now. As hacking will not be required again until much later in the plot it might be a good idea to sell the Trojan ROV to simplify boarding operations. Yoolis is aboard a Construction Vessel AL in Dwarfish Tinderbox. It may be possible to find without performing the hack. After getting clearance to land on the Construction Vessel AL talk to Uliroos Tugloras Yoolis IV who reassures the <player> that the missing assets still exist and that PMC has been rounding up HoA sympathisers and placed them on a prison ship Taranis, "a converted freighter". After the conversation return to space where Ren Otani suggests stealing the prison ship rather than just busting the prisoners out, Yisha agrees strongly. This means a boarding operation which should be second nature to the <player> by now, if not a Marine Officer and some marines will need to be purchased.

Prison Break (Medium)

1. Board: Taranis
2. Protect: HoA Construction Vessel AL 

Fly to a different Construction Vessel AL at Albion/Inner World/Distressed Reek and dock at it. Speak to the onboard Engineer Jo Jovi and confirm to begin the operation. As soon as the Construction Vessel AL jumps head back into space to find a neutral and stationary Taranis just waiting to be boarded. The large HoA fleet will keep most hostile ships from engaging the Albion Skunk. As the Taranis has no defence officer it will not retaliate making boarding just a matter of stripping the surface elements. Once the ship is captured the HoA fleet will start to jump out including the newly acquired Taranis which will get the Jumpdrive automatically repaired. Now is a good time to land on the Taranis and transfer the capital ship crew obtained earlier onto it while waiting for the fleet to jump. When back in space Commander Borman will then say he has attacked the ship impound area and that he will be in contact. Yisha says to head back towards the Jump Gate to DeVries.

Impound Raid (Medium)

1. Fly to: Jump Gate

At the Jump Gate Commander Borman will say the impounded <player> ships are safe and PMC has reved up drone production and suggests expanding HoA operations into DeVries.   The missing ships will suddenly appear by the Jump Gate and Yisha will suggest getting gifts for the Canterrans. The <player> will also receive a unique and fully crewed Construction Vessel able to set up an Integrative URV Forge which comes preloaded with 1,299 Reinforced Metal Plate. Now is a good opportunity to move all player assets to DeVries (Glaring Truth is a good temporary location). The capital ship crew on the Construction Vessel may be poor however as it ends up stationary, the <player> only needs to consider replacing the Engineer and Defence Officer. 

Bug: all recovered ships will have the Engineer command set to None as opposed to the usual Repair. This leaves the Engineer inoperable (cannot self repair) until reassigned back to the ship.

Rebuilding DeVries (Medium)

1. Deliver: 300 units of Food Rations to RoC Solar Energetics
   Build: Integrative URV Warf in Glaring Truth

Now is a good time to explore DeVries installing trade agents along the way. Use this time to transfer the construction materials gathered earlier onto the Construction Vessel. When at Darned Hot Air consider looking for a good Manager. The RoC BTO Ship Line I in Darned Hot Air is a good place for hiring employees of all non-specialist professions as candidates are usually found in high numbers on the several large platforms making the "Ask for best job applicant." option of smalltalk stage 3 highly likely to find someone who has near perfect skills.

Order a container compatible trade ship to purchase 300 Food Rations, probably from a station in the same sector as RoC Solar Energetics, and deliver them to RoC Solar Energetics. Next find a build site and order the Construction vessel to "Select station for construction" to start building the only station option it has, the Integrative URV Forge. Confirm Build and set the upgrade levels, if the recommended materials have been brought then all upgrades can be installed. The list of required materials will be shown but all should already be on the Construction Vessel. Which build site is chosen is entirely up to the <player> although the build site near the Jump Beacon has the advantage of a short travel distance for mining ships returning with Crystals. If all the recommended recources were purchased the next stage of station construction can be initiated as soon as the first is completed. After completing the first construction stage the Construction Vessel will receive ? extra units of Reinforced Metal Plating.

While the station is being built Commander Borman will give an update on the situation in Albion and tell about a potential refugee crisis wanting to potentially evacuate them to DeVries. To help build relationships with the people of DeVries a joint mining venture is suggested and Nakano agrees. Ren and Yisha express concern that Borman may be trying to hurry an alliance.

Joint Operation (Medium)

1. ???
   Fly to: Lava Flow
   Patrol: Lava Flow
   Fly to: Canteran Freighters
   Escort: RoC Mercancias (Bulk)
   Destroy: Plasma/MA Turret
   Defend: Canteran Freighters
2. Talk to: Pedro Nakano
3. Fly to: Jump Gate

There will be some heavy fighting ahead so it is recommended to get the Taranis that was boarded earlier (make sure it is fuelled up) to join the squad of the Albion Skunk. When the Albion Skunk reaches Furnace Chamber, the mining ship jumps in. After some dialog and a mention of the war, the <player> joins the scout party to look ahead. When in Fiendish Moloch a cinematic will play and there will be 7 REI light craft ahead to kill which should be trivial with the number of NPC allies. The convoy will next progress to Lava Flow where 12 REI light craft will be waiting. After killing the ships there will be more dialog and ? more REI light craft will spawn. if the <player> owned Taranis has arrived it will be a slaughter. After a while Nakano will contact the Albion Skunk about unknown ships heading towards the mining convoy. At this point the HoA mining ship will jump out and 3 PMC light craft will spawn and try to attack the Mercancias (Bulk) ships the <player> has to escort. A PMC Light Sul jumps in and Yisha says that the <player> has to distract it. This ship is unable to be boarded and will try to jump away if it takes some damage (so kill the Jump Tunnel Device first). Managing to kill the Light Sul (easy even without the Taranis) will get "Woah! Can't believe we pulled that off!" from Yisha and a cinematic of the ship blowing up.

Before leaving Lava Flow use the Long Range Scanner facing upwards to find a unique lockbox with the Ancient Drone for the Ancient Relic Collection.

Bug: if the mission is done well and all the miners and their escorts survive they can be found idling in Vapour Stream at the end of the highway waiting for REI raiding parties to kill them

Place a trade agent on the station and then head back to Glaring Truth where the first module of the Intergrative URV Forge should be finished and waiting for a Manager. Assign the two bulk mining capable ships as subordinates of the Intergrative URV Forge Manager.

Head back to RoC Solar Energetics and talk to Nakano. He will inquire about the survivors before offering HoA asylum in exchange for helping defend DeVries. A cinematic sequence will play explaining that CoT is now at war with PMC. Return to the ship for some nostalgic dialog.

Joint Operation (Medium)

1. Fly to: HOA Arawn 

Head back towards the Albion Jump Gate. the <player> will now find there are several PMC Taranis ships patrolling the zone by the gate so be careful. On route to Borman consider picking up a spare capital ship crew.

WIP