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 vulnerable 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.

Bug: If the target is too far off the neutral Z-axis, then the Overrun URV Mk2 drones will ignore it and fly to the neutral Z-axis and start attacking hostile ships close to the Z-Axis.

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 the Albion Skunk upgraded and prepared for combat it is time to start building up wealth for use later on. Combat orientated missions can now be performed which can net millions of credits, far more than simple transport missions. Pirate and mission spawned capital ships can be boarded for just the cost of a capital ship crew and sometimes a few missiles. Wealth accumulation can potentially be in the order of tens of millions of credits per hour.

Acquiring the following assets and wealth now can make the rest of the campaign considerably easier...

• 3 * perfectly boarded ships (recommended)
• 50,000,000 Cr (recommended)
• The following wares stored across one or more trade ships...
• Energy Cells: 5,596 (recommended) 1,463 (required)
• Fusion Reactors: 521 (recommended) 140 (required)
• Bio-Optic Wiring: 674 (recommended) 270 (required)
• Forcefield Projectors: 58 (recommended)
• HIT/MA Turrets: 135 (recommended)
• Plasma/MA Turrets: 54 (recommended)
• V-Launcher Turrets: 8 (recommended)
• Approximate Cr value: ???  (recommended) ??? (required)
• 2 * bulk mining capable ships with at least 32 Surface Miner Mk1 units (recommended)
• 1 * highly skilled Metallurgist Specialist aboard Albion Skunk (recommended)

Later during the campaign an XL fight ship must be boarded. Due to the nature of such ships they have very high boarding resistance, even when at low hull percentages. As such it is recommended that at least 3 ships be boarded perfectly, without losing marines, to gain enough Veteran or Elite Marines to have significant boarding strength for the operation.

By saving up 50,000,000 Cr it is possible to take advantage of a massive 40% discount offered 3 times later during the campaign to acquire the remaining high value software for the Albion Skunk. Although the last discount opportunity is offered towards the end of the campaign, amassing the funds now can give access to the software earlier.

The campaign requires the construction of an unique station to progress. This requires a certain amount of wares to complete which can be more easily acquired now than when they are needed. As this station is quite useful it is recommended to fully build it which will require considerably more wares. No Reinforced Metal Plating is required since 2,799 units will be provided which is more than enough for full construction. Fusion Reactors are extremely under supplied and often not available for sale so regular checks are required to acquire some.

In order for the previously mentioned station to operate efficiently it will need 2 bulk mining ships with approximately 32 Surface Miner Mk1 drone units to supply its raw material needs. The Sequana L mine ship is a good choice as it offers a good combination of capacity, speed and toughness. Although such ships could be boarded from factions like PMC they are such low value it is more convenient to buy them off one of the 2 L shipyards. It may be possible to use only 1 Sequana with a lot of Surface Miner Mk1/2 drone units however the cost of the drones likely exceeds the cost of another Sequana.

A Metallurgist Specialist can boost the production efficiency of the station. It is recommended to get one now since most work on PMC stations so will not be available for the rest of the campaign. Since specialists permanently crew NPC stations, their skills are already determined and saved. A tool like X Rebirth Builder 2.0 can be used to easily locate specialists of the highest skill in the entire universe after loading a recent save file. Specialist crew are infinite in availability but after hiring an individual it takes a very long time for a replacement to spawn.

It is a good idea to start by acquiring some more trade assets. SS Rahanas L trade ships are the easiest to board due to their low toughness and few weapon systems and are often found as part of random pirate raids against stations. Possessing only a few HIT/MA Turrets the Albion Skunk can stay still for extended periods before shields become critical. After acquiring a capital ship crew and finding a suitable target start by dispatching the escorting fighters, seen as part of the targets squad on the zone map. Once the target is alone then begin stripping all surface elements off it, beginning with the Jump Tunnel Device. If the target is near a station it is recommended to encourage it to flee for >30km away for uninterrupted boarding before destroying the Matter/Antimatter Drive elements. Some targets may be prone to suicide stations, in which case they will not be boardable and another target is required. Once stripped of all surface elements then reduce its hull until the boarding resistance is ~10 below your boarding strength before starting the boarding operation. After boarding completes assign the capital ship crew to it and recall the Marine Officer. With each boarding made the average quality of the marines will improve increasing boarding strength, allowing for more powerful ships or ships at higher hull percentage to be boarded safely.

The HIT/MA Turret is the most common weapon system found on capital ships and stations. With short range, low damage and reasonable projectile speed they are mostly intended for combat against small craft. Usually placed in banks consisting of several such turrets in close proximity with several such banks evenly distributed throughout ships and stations. L trade ships usually posses only a few such banks while XL fight ships will be plastered with them. Despite the intended purpose of anti-small craft, the turret type posses no threat to the player as the majority of fire can be effortlessly strafed and any hits that do land will be quickly regenerated.

After a few perfect boarding operations to build up strength it is time to move on to boarding larger targets. The Titurel XL Trade makes a good early trade ship as it offers a large quantity of Universal storage for hauling wares and is considerably tougher and more powerful than the previously boarded Rahanas. These ships are often found as part of heavier SS raids and can also be mission marks. The Titurel can be boarded in a way similar to before except more time and care is required as the ship posses a lot more surface elements to destroy. The higher boarding resistance also requires a lower hull percentage before the target is safe to board, possibly as little as under 10% if boarding crew is very inexperienced. Among the surface components are 2 Plasma/MA Turrets which give the ship some long range assault capabilities. Strafing is critical for survival against the Titurel as the full weapon system capabilities of the ship are enough to quickly destroy the Albion Skunk if enough hits are landed. The full repair time after capture is quite long due to the 6 Matter/Anti-Matter Drive elements.

Bug: In 4.0 the Titurel posses inconsistent Matter/Anti-Matter Drive elements. All engines are meant be 70 m/s capable with the ability to XL boost. Due to an oversight only 1 engine is 70 m/s capable with all others being much slower and only a L boost ability is possessed. This results in the Titurel being possibly the slowest and least agile XL ship. Although still useful early game due to the Universal cargo capabilities, it gets obsoleted completely by the Lyranea and Lyramekron.

The Plasma/MA Turret is the most common heavy weapon system found of capital ships and stations. With long range, high damage and slow projectile speed they are mostly intended for combat against other capital ships. Often found individually mixed in with HIT/MA banks with some powerful XL ships possessing them in individual banks of 2. Only found in large quantities on powerful XL ships and stations. Slower projectile speed makes it even easier for the Albion Skunk to avoid than the HIT/MA Turret however if a hit does land it will deal considerable shield damage that will take a while to recover.

In addition to using the trade fleet to complete supply missions for credits, high value combat orientated missions can also be performed. Missions such as station defense can net in several million credits as bonus as long as all spawned ships enter station range and are killed by the <player>. Kill missions against small craft are trivial to complete and can earn a million credits. Kill missions against capital ships can earn several million each, on top of any assets gained by boarding. Patrol missions can also earn several million through bonus however the bonus per kill is much lower than with station defense missions. Although the majority of combat missions will be against generic "enemy" ships with only positive reputation implications, some may be against other factions which will have negative reputation implications with the target faction.

Mission spawned capital ships will usually spawn in the targeted named zone either high up or low down on the Z axis and are accompanied by at least 1 other capital ship, several small craft and all involved capital ships carry a lot of drone units. They are usually given aggressive orders such as "Patrol" so they will slowly move towards any hostile target in the zone. Since every zone in Albion has at least 1 station there is a good chance the capital ships will attempt to suicide the station. Due to the massive fire power of stations the mark and escorts will not last long once in range of the station. Not only will this make boarding impossible, but unless the <player> deals significant damage to the mark the mission will fail and no payment will be received. As such it is recommended to disable the Matter/Anti-Matter Drive and Jump Drive of the mark and escort as quickly as possible before they enter station range allowing the player to kill/board them without interference. Escort capital ships will usually spawn a considerable distance away from the mark allowing for them to be left separated by quickly destroying Matter/Anti-Matter Drives. In zones patrolled by faction capital ships it is unlikely that the mark and escort will be left alone making boarding as good as impossible so instead all attention should be focused on destroying the mark. In addition to the common Titurel, fight ships like the Light and Heavy Sul and Balor can spawn.

The Balor is a ship that looks fantastic on paper but is completely useless due to bad AI. Intended as a glass cannon it has pathetic toughness and very few turrets but comes with 4 integrated Nova Drone launchers, each capable of dealing high splash damage at a massive 50 km range. Nova Drone missiles have sufficient homing capabilities to practically guarantee hitting any non-boosting capital ship even if fired in the wrong direction. It is also the fastest capital ship in the game, allowing it to run away from anything that tries to get close. Combined with its extremely low shipyard price tag it has all the potential to be the ultimate "troll" ship, barraging a target with several waves of Nova Drones and then running away if it tries to get close just to continue barraging from somewhere else. However the AI captain pilots the ship like all other fight capital ships and attempts to close range broad side its target, an action that almost always results in the Balor being destroyed. Although mods do exist which attempt to improve Balor AI, in an unmodified game the best use for captured Balor ships is to sell them for an extra credits.

As confidence grows with fighting and boarding capital ships it may be tempting to take more valuable kill missions against more exotic ships to add them as assets. At this stage it is inevitable that at least 1 Taranis will be encountered, a powerful XL fight ship the campaign will introduce later on. Although it is possible to board Taranis ships, doing so is considerably harder as a completely different approach is required to avoid near instant destruction of the Albion Skunk. Details of the procedure are mentioned further on in the section for Prison Break (Medium).

Example of the assets which can be amassed at this stage. Shown are 1 * Rahanas (Bulk & Liquid), 2 * Rahanas (Container & Energy), 2 * Sequana, 4 * Taranis and 8 * Titurel.

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 Ren 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 instead of the normal action packed Albion Skunk getaway.

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 <player> owned capital ships, which will be recovered as part of the plot at a later time.

DLC system Jump Gates should become operational at this point. Due to the nature of DLC systems they also allow early access to Omicron Lyrae (TTO) and Malestrom (HoL). Powerful DLC weapons can also be obtained.

The Teladi Outpost (Interlude)

This small DLC adds the Fields of Opportunity system comprising of 2 unusual sectors that are connected between Albion/Far Out/Exhaustless Mines and Omicron Lyrae/Eclipse Clouds/Drippy Ascent. All mechanic vendors in this system offer the Heavy Laser Mk1 (Slot 1) and Pulsed Maser Mk3 (Slot 2) weapons for the Albion Skunk. Some new ship types are also added, including the very useful Phoenix Marauder. There is also a unique chain mission called The Rising Tide which can be completed for a steam achievement. Trading through the system is very perilous due to pirate factions which will always try to loot traders using fast XL capital ships.

The sector Fields of Opportunity/Serpentine Haze connects with Albion. It possesses no highways, is filled with hazards and has some unique object. The lack of highways means speedy navigation requires extensive use of boost. Hazard zones include electrical storms which periodically deal damage, dense mine fields which will wreck devastation on big or slow ships and radioactive nebulas which will deal very heavy damage continuously when entered. The sector is laid out such that there are a number of gaps around huge radioactive nebula clouds. Radioactive nebula can be spotted by a combination of electrical storms and the presence of bright glowing chunks. NPC ships are extremely poor at navigating the hazards, and will often commit suicide by trying to fly through them. The Jump Gate is located inside a huge hollowed out rock near the shipyard at Verdant Profit.

The sector Fields of Opportunity/Fatal Path connects with Omicron Lyrae. It possesses 2 disconnected highways and is filled with a variety of bases and minerals. Boost has to be used to get between the highway networks efficiently. The main highway loop connecting the Jump Gate with the superhighway contains 2 stations. On the other highway are bases for CAR, UA and XEN. The CAR/UA bases seem especially prone to being trashed up by marauding XEN K Class Destroyer ships. The Jump Gate is near the station at Sea-green Oasis.

Heavy Laser Mk1 is an improved Mining Laser Mk1/2 which deals high damage to all objects, not just asteroids. In addition to good DPS, it also has moderate shield penetration allowing it to damage ships and components slightly while still underneath shields. It suffers from poor heat management in the form of initial activation heat cost, continuous heat generation while in use and very slow heat cooldown. Although its 1.5 km range is low, weapon mods can greatly extend this. Much like the Mining Laser, it still requires manual aiming and impacts practically instantly. This weapon is very useful at damaging capital ship engines as it can start damaging them, and slowing down the ship, before the protecting forcefield generators are depleted. It also has use in dogfights since as long as the <player> can aim the targeting cursor accurately then it will always hit and the high damage melts lesser small craft very quickly. The laser is also very effective against Drone unit waves as despite the small size of drones it is surprisingly easy to hit them and a single sweep of the laser can quickly destroy an entire wave.

Note: With the Heart of Light DLC the Heavy Laser Mk1 is mostly obsoleted by the Railgun Mk1 which shares the same weapon slot.

Pulsed Maser Mk3 is a redesign of the weapon series. It periodically fires glowing sticky spheres which deal very little immediate damage but instead deal continuous stacking damage over a long time. Although the DPS output starts out very low, it quickly ramps up to levels similar to other weapons as more spheres are stuck to the target. It has extremely good heat management allowing for continuous use over extended periods, potentially infinitely if a strong enough cooling rate mod is used. Although it has a massive 3.0 km range, it has slow projectile speed making it hard to hit moving targets. The continuous damage from sticky spheres supresses target shield regeneration. The shield suppression and good damage make it effective at removing capital ship components. Its high DPS and good heat management make it effective at lowering and managing capital ship hulls in preparation for boarding. Usefulness in dogfights is badly affected by the slow projectile speed and the delayed damage. Due to the delayed damage mechanic, practice is needed in order to avoid wasting time by sticking additional spheres to an already as good as dead target.

Teladi capital ships are of a dome shaped design series. This is considerably different from X3 where their ships were more a merger of tech from other races. All these ships offer great mobility, often with the highest speeds and turn rates of ships in their class. Offensively they tend towards few but strategically placed turrets under powerful forcefield generators. The capital shipwrights are located aboard Serpentine Haze/Verdant Profit/TU Overwatch.

Teladi Trade ships only come in specific cargo varieties. The XL variants have top end mobility with competitive toughness and decent anti-capital defenses in the form of numerous Plasma/MA Turrets. The Energy variants suffer from very low capacity XL offerings making them considerably worse than ships like the Lyranea. Although the Container variants are beaten for speed by the Sanahar, the XL offerings have unparalleled capacity. Likewise the bulk offerings also have unprecedented capacity. Although the liquid variants cargo space is only mediocre, they do still have mobility and toughness advantages for their price. With exception of Container, the Vulture L series is very competitive in the L transport class. The Albatross and Crane XL series are not that useful as they are mostly obsoleted by the Albatross XL series which offers the same mobility but with better capacity, toughness and weapon systems for similar value efficiency. The Albatross XL series large cargo capacities generally cannot be fully utilized during trading however the Container variant makes a good mobile warehouse for hoarding various high value products such as construction materials and the bulk version can be a decent mining ship.

Teladi Fight capital ships are only available in XL variants and are the most physically compact XL fight ships. They consist of just the Teladi style dome with most of the firepower mounted on the front surface and very little protection for the back. Each feature 6 anti-capital weapons on the front of a mix between Plasma/MA and Jet turrets with the back protected by trivial HIT/MA turrets. Toughness wise they are by far the weakest XL fight ships with hull and shield values in the L range. During in zone combat all 6 anti-capital weapons can fire which can result in decent long range damage comparable with other XL fight ships. Despite the fire power they are effortlessly destroyed by all other XL fight ships and even many XL trade ships due to the paper like toughness. The compact shape and weapon placement should mean that they work well for in zone combat if massed and ordered to attack a target together so that multiple engage at once. Unfortunately the Taranis level price tag of the ships makes them completely useless as a Taranis has similar mobility and offers a lot more firepower and toughness.

Although the purchasable fight ships are useless, the boarding only Phoenix Marauder is far from it. Not only does it use a massive 6 Plasma/JET turrets on the front but it is also the second fastest capital ship. However what makes the ship so special is that it has 50k universal storage, a feature unique to it out of all player obtainable ships (Xenon I is not player obtainable). As it is classed as a fight ship it is subject to being treated as one meaning that non-hostile Teladi pirates will completely ignore the ship even when carrying wares. This makes owning one very profitable as some of the trade deals offered between TU Overwatch and UA Haunt with places like Albion and Omicron Lyrae can make several million per trip. Although most commonly seen belonging to UA and CAR, they can also spawn as generic enemy mission marks allowing them to be obtained with no loss in reputation. Despite the high speed of the Phoenix Marauder it has a comparatively slow boost speed making it slower than some dedicated trade ships for general purpose trading.

The Phoenix Marauder spawns as a generic Teladi capital ship for generic kill missions. It can be identified as a mark from the mission screen by looking for its distinct red tinting as opposed to the usual green of non Marauder variants. The ships can also spawn as the backup ships for mission marks. Due to how weak Teladi fight ships are any non Phoenix Marauder ships that spawn as part of the mission can be effortlessly dispatched by 2 Taranis or 1 Olmekron. Since the Phoenix Marauder has Plasma/JET turrets it cannot be approached from the front until they are removed. Removal is as simple as flying 9 km away straight in-front of the ship, facing it, switching into reverse and then spamming Sunstalker Missiles at the turrets. The Plasma/JET Laser turrets are divided into 2 banks of 3 with each bank protected by a Mk3 Forcefield Projector. Due to the compact size of Teladi ships the missiles will more than likely cripple some of the 12 engines and expose the Forcefield Generators of other banks. After the Plasma/JET Laser turrets are destroyed stripping the ship is trivial as it only has 6 HIT/MA turrets remaining for defense. Of note is the ships absolutely absurd boarding resistance which fully repaired exceeds powerful ships like the Arawn despite the low hull maximum. Not only does this limit boarding to very low hull amounts but care must be taken to watch for repairs as single percent of hull can correspond to a boarding resistance increase of several units. The ship has a very long full repair time after boarding due to the need to repair 12 engines.

Heart of Light (Interlude)

Author's Note: As I do not possess or plan to get this DLC currently, all comments are made based on expectations or comments from other people.

WIP

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 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

Information is now required as to a suitable PMC target to strike. Yoolis, a famous Teladi whose business is information, must be found. Yisha suggests hacking some stations to find Yoolis's location.

Finding Yoolis may not require hacking the stations if the Construction Vessel AL she is on is visited directly (confirmation needed). The stations to hack are sequentially Albion Energy Array I, II and III at Albion/Lookout Alpha/Auspicious Excavation with hacking beginning automatically upon entering the Trojan ROV. After completing the hacks Yisha will have some idea where Yoolis is and a Construction Vessel AL will be marked. 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.

Map showing the Construction Vessel AL where Yoolis is located.

Yoolis is aboard a Construction Vessel AL in Dwarfish Tinderbox. After getting clearance to land on the Construction Vessel AL talk to Uliroos Tugloras Yoolis IV. After a brief introduction Yoolis reassures Otanni that all his assets still exist. She also mentions that PMC has been rounding up HoA sympathisers and has placed them on a prison ship. Although described by her as "a converted freighter" the ship is actually an XL fight ship, a Taranis, which has unique design and no trade counterpart.

After the conversation return to space. Otani suggests boarding the prison ship rather than just freeing the prisoners and Yisha strongly agrees.

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 1,500 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 helping) 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 and Mercancias (Bulk) 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 RoC 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 in Distant Fume consider picking up a spare capital ship crew.

Bug: Although the Arawn the <player> must dock at is invulnerable the escort Balors are not so given enough time may be destroyed by marauding SS Titurels.

Commander Falk Borman mentions the "massacre" in DeVries and commits half the HoA force to help DeVries.   To get the ships through the gate requires a "distraction" so will need an attack on the Beryll Astrolabs which is working on a secret project that is causing scientists to flee their cause.   At Sinister Poem head to the marker in empty space.   Yisha will wait for a contact. Li Kathwin will contact the Albion Skunk and explain the details of the project. Unmanned AGI warships ships using Xenontech. Yisha will forward the information to Borman. Borman wants to attack a facility and get the refugees out. A cinematic sequence about the Xenon will play. Head to the PMC Tech Laboratory in Buried Treasure. After jokingly saying this was a bad idea the remainder of the HoA fleet is sent in to help. Kill any ships that ignore the Arawn. After some time passes and a lot of dialog, Borman will tell you "it is time to split".

Albion Exodus (Medium)

1. Fly to: Auspicious Excavation
2. Fly to: Jump Gate
   Defend: Jump Gate
   Fly to: Jump Beacon
   Defend: Jump Beacon
3. -???
4. Fly to: Fervid Corrona
   
   

Follow the markers to Auspicious Excavation and then through the Jump Gate. Consider sending in the <player> owned Taranis to the location of the Jump Gate the other side. Kill all attacking PMC ships while the HoA ships come through. As there is a lonely PMC Taranis nearby consider boarding it. This one fights back so use Sunstalker missiles to first disable the engines and then the Plasma/JET Turrets. Fly around the Taranis and at 8-9km launch 2 missiles to kill the engine shields then >5 missiles per engine. To kill the Plasma/JET Turrets, at a range of 10km use >3 missiles to kill the shield then 3 to kill one Plasma/JET Turret of the pair and an extra >1 missile to finish the other turret of the bank off, repeat on the other side. Next kill the Jump Tunnel Device, Drone Launch Bay and Astrobee Launchers. The rest of the boarding is standard procedure. As the Taranis is among a dense asteroid field more missiles than the 26 Sunstalkers minimum will be required. If the <player> is unable to board this ship then continue along the marked highways to Burning Truth to engage 13 REI light craft. Again use of the <player> owned Taranis will make light work of the task. The <player> will then be tasked to fly to Fervid Corrona. Nakano will welcome the HoA fleet. Yisha will wonder why everyone is saying "Glad to see you made it.". A cinematic sequence plays about the RoC and HoA alliance. Yisha will say "people like you are going to win us this war".

Alliance (Medium)

1. Extend: integrative URV Forge with URV Warf

This task should already be completed and another cinematic will play. Nakano makes a fleet wide broadcast about a planned assault on a PMC station (boss time!). Now is a good opportunity to stock up on Sunstalker, Hellbuster and Tristar missiles.

The Battle for The Gate (Hard)

1. Fly to: Superhighway
2. Fly to: Twilight Sentinel
   Destroy: Drone Launch Bay
   Destroy: PMC Vasio
3. Fly to: HOA Arawn
4. Fly to: Fervid Corona
5. Fly to: Jump Beacon

Follow the markers to Crimson Rocks, a cinematic sequence will play followed by a cinematic. Ahead will be Plutarch Overwatch, a station of formidable firepower, and another Taranis protecting it. Despite 3 HoA Arawns, this will be a tough battle. Use missiles to kill the Drone Launch bay of the Taranis assuming the Arawns do not kill it first. Taranis ships will continue to jump in when destroyed unlike the HoA Arawns. PMC Overwatch cannot be targeted so sit back and watch it mince the HoA Arawns. Even though during the battle Reiver ships are shot at by PMC Overwatch, suddenly they are allies (for this single battle). After a humiliating thrashing, Borman give the order to retreat.

Bug: upon entering Vapour Stream, Yisha starts several dialogs simultaneously. The result is an incoherent mass of words.

When taking the superhighway back to Unmet promise, a cinematic sequence will play and Yisha will gripe about loses of more Arawns. Back in Fervid Corona Nakano will ask you to look for more survivors at another jump beacon. Follow the markers to Vapour Stream. When at 4km from the jump gate a stern warning will be received from a nearby Fulmekron. Fly through the gate to Omicron Lyrae. Vice Admiral Bayes will hail the Argon Skunk and tell the <player> not to go back through the gate and to head to a Jonferco Station. A cinematic sequence about Omicron Lyrae will play (interestingly showing an image of the Xenon HUB from X3).

Omicron Lyrae

1. Dock at: Entertainment District
   Talk to: Jimee Tomson
   Talk to: Neyl Colburn

Heading back to DeVries at this time will cause a rep loss to -15 with the Argon Government which is enough to prevent docking, trade and missions but not enough that they will shoot on sight. This does not apply to visiting Albion via the TTO or other DLC sectors. The restriction also does not apply to any <player> owned assets like traders. Entry to Maelstrom will also cause no penalty.

Start exploring Omicron Lyrae placing trade agents on the various stations. If the TTO DLC is owned and not already explored now would be a good time to do so by taking the Jump Gate south of Drippy Ascent. The R&D Chem Lab in The Great Basin and Licenced Distillery in Ratfish Waters are good places to hire personnel due to having several large platforms which may be useful if the <player> wants to start boarding Lyramekron, Lyranea and Sanahar trade ships from the Heretic Vanguards. In Murky Skies be wary of the heavily armed Heretic Vanguards Licenced Distillery which usually has an Olmekron patrolling nearby (there are several forum threads about destroyed assets if stations are built in this zone).

If the DLC sectors have not been visited then this will be the first time the <player> will encounter Xenon ships (both for missions and free flying), these usually have upgraded versions of conventional ship weapons and a higher chance to drop Weapon Mods on death. If engaging Xenon kill Xenon Ps first since they deal shield penetrating damage. Due to the high hull strength and shield penetration, the Xenon P may be the only light fight craft worth keeping as an asset.

When in Relocating Stones go west of the 2 stations and use the Long Range Scanner to find a Unique Lockbox containing the Incomprehensible Script of the Ancient Relic Collection.

In Pearly Shore at the JSS TechnoCore Hi-E I dock and follow the markers to talk to Jimee Tomson. He mentions that the Jonferco CEO Colburn wants to find some old friends in Albion and offers some "upgrades" to "sweeten the deal". This is the second of 3 opportunities to get a 40% discount on software including Mk3 engines which should already be inferior to what is owned. After speaking to the mechanic return to the Albion Skunk. Once again Yisha will comment about upgrades. After flying around for a while Yisha mentions that CEO Colburn is in another sector. Follow the markers to Commerce Core, upon entering the sector a distress call will be heard starting the Commerce Core Disturbance sub-mission.

Commerce Core Disturbance

1. 1. Fly to: Last Stand

Follow the markers to Last Stand where Yisha will comment on Xenon where 2 Ks and an assortment of 6+ small Xenon Fight craft will be encountered. An Arawn jumps in to help on top of the local patrolling Fulmekron and Vice Admiral Bayes talks about Xenon hacking the systems of the Albion Skunk and gives a patch. The HIVI/MA Turrets on the XEN K appear to be disabled from targeting the Albion Skunk.

Bug: The Xenon Ks spawned here are boardable (version 4.0).

Omicron Lyrae

Head to a crater in the upper (z axis) south east side of Core Dig in Last Stand for a Unique Lockbox containing the Kha'ak Crystalline Scale of the Kha'ak Relic Collection. By the time Commerce Core has been explored there will be enough trade deals available to reactivate any <player> owned trade ships that were idle in DeVries. It might also be a good idea to start hoarding Fusion Reactors and Reinforced Metal Plating since those are the main bottleneck during the construction of additional stations. When exploring Omicron Lyrae/ Devoid Clime/Cosy Shade use the Long Range Scanner to find the Unique Lockbox to the west of the stations containing the Gate Seed of the Ancient Relic Collection

Bug: Parts of Core Dig may sometimes not load.

When arriving at Omicron Lyrae/Radiant Haven/Aspiring Champion there will be a unique station called AG Escape Velocity that has several large thrusters unlike every other station in the sector (despite many being even closer the planet surface). If the emissions of the thrusters are flown through, the Albion Skunk and other ships will take damage. At High Scholar dock at the JSS Metal Frames Fab and follow the marker to Neyl Colburn. He wants to trade with DeVries and is willing to obtain permission for the Albion Skunk to return to DeVries. Two optional questions are able to be asked, "How did the Xenon get here?" mentions the gate to Maelstrom opening up and how half of the Argon forces, lead by Admiral Lido using invasion tactics from the Terran Conflict which never worked then, were sent to Maelstrom to explore only to get stranded and destroyed by Xenon leaving Bayes in charge and out of her depth. "What do Jonferco specialise in" reveals that they do the construction and maintenance of ships and stations with a recent shift towards more efficient designs due to a reduction in resources from being stranded. "Let's get started! What can we do to help?" discusses the requirements and processes needed to start trading with DeVries, including Colbern talking to the other OL companies and Otani having to raise awareness of the HoA faction in OL. Return to ship after the conversation is done.

Gaining Support (Medium)

1. Fly to: CHOW BoFu Star Complex I
   Fly to: CHOW Nyanae (Bulk)

Continue along the marked highway adding trade agents to stations along the way. At the BoFu Star Complex I the Albion Skunk will be hailed about freelance work and will be tasked with escorting a freighter (carrying crystals ironically) against Heretic Vanguards that spawns in the same zone. Follow the ship into the highway until the end, at Paramount Benefactor there will be an uneventful change of highway. Follow the ship through the superhighway to Commerce Core and eventually to Core Dig where the only hostiles will be capital ships that are using the Jump Beacon. As there are no event spawned hostiles for this mission the follow command of the autopilot can handle this mission with ease. Colburn will congratulate the Albion Skunk and warn of an incoming Xenon invasion and Plutarch is not being cooperative. It is also revealed that Commander Borman is one of Colburn's lost friends. Access to return to DeVries is now granted.

Now is a good opportunity to start building more stations in DeVries with the first modules of the TechnoCore Hi-E and Hardware Supplier being recommended to reduce the Fusion Reactors and Reinforced Metal Plating bottleneck as well as giving an equivalent discount on those common building materials. It is also recommended to hoard all production for further construction projects. As both stations also make products used by Shipyards, constructing the stations near RoC BTO Ship Line I in Glaring truth is also advisable to allow easy trade once all desired stations are finished.

Plutarch Overwatch is now mostly destroyed and neutral and there are no longer Taranis ships patrolling the zone if wishing to return Albion.

Unconventional Tactics

1. Fly to: AG Awran
2. Defend: Silent Void
3. Talk to: Pico Nedley
   Fly to: Maelstrom

Order all heavy fight ships to the position of the Jump Gate to Maelstrom in Devoid Clime/Silent Void with the Defence officers set to attack. At <4km Vice Admiral Bayes suggests to lure the Xenon to Albion to spread them thin enough to be fought. There is disagreement from the Albion Skunk. Ren threatens revenge if the people in Albion are harmed and Yisha thinks Bayes is insane. Yisha sends a data burst to warn Albion and Xenon ships (approximately 4 waves of 6, 50% are Ps) start coming through the gate. Despite annihilating all Xenon coming through the gates allegedly some get though. Neyl Colburn says the Xenon have somehow gotten half way through the sector and that the only hope is to follow the plan of Bayes to destroy the Xenon production Faculties in Maelstrom but before then head to AC Cell Recharge Fab I for some "upgrades". The Awran will start to proceed through the Jump Gate. This is the last of the 3 opportunities to get a 40% discount on software and the first opportunity to get the Inertial Hammer Mk2 (Finally a useful upgrade!) and the Pulsed Maser Mk2 (if the <player> has the TTO DLC, this is already obsolete). Fly through the gate to Maelstrom where Bayes sends orders to defend the jump beacon.

Maelstrom

1. Find: AG Awran
2. Find: Split Base

Place a trade agent on the station and follow the markers to Aged Duct Work and then Timid Star for an optional dogfight with 1 P, 2Ms and an N. Continue following the markers.  Upon entering Blurred Reflection there will be a lot of shouting about finding some ships. Follow the markers to Indignity where a Split Gangrene Chaser (formerly Raptor) jumps in using old access codes. The split says it was the Argon wo reactivated the dormant Xenon and their plan to destroy the Xenon is better before jumping away. If the Split base in The Sixth Scripture has already been found then Yisha says a unique dialog about "just heading over there" otherwise the <player> will be asked to look for it. The Sixth Scripture is Northeast of Twisted Faith (the middle of the north highway). When first approaching Lost Colony Ren gives some dialog about "Whatever it is, it doesn't look friendly.". Ren tells the Split the crew of the Albion Skunk are traders and is asked to dock. Use the long range scanner on the station to find a Unique Lockbox on the west side of the station containing the Kha'ak Kyon Crystal from the Kha'ak relic Collection. This station is frequently attacked my Xenon M and N light fight ships which are easy to kill making it a good spot to farm Weapon Mods and safely collect the Xenon Components which will soon be required for the plot. 

The Split

1. Talk to: Kol t'Yo
2. Dock at: Argon Station
3. Return to ship
   Wait
4. Collect: 25 units of Medical Equipment
5. Collect: 40 units of Teladianium Panelling
6. Talk to: Kol t'Yo
   Dock at: RYK Lost Colony
7. Talk to: Kol t'Yo
   Return to ship

Follow the markers to Captain Kol t'Yo (caught you) who threatens that the Split are strong and asks what Ren wants with the Xenon. Once convinced that Ren is not with the Argon navy he commissions the Albion Skunk to visit some Split that live with the Argon to get reliable information about the intentions of the Argon navy. Return to the Albion Skunk and start following the highways back to the Omicron Lyrae Jump Gate. On leaving the zone Yisha comments about having a lonely Split heading to Argon space and that she is worried. Sky Meadows in Maelstrom/Sigma Sector/Alpha Quadrant is the closest suitable base to drop off the Split passenger. Kol t'Yo says he will look for a worthy Split to talk to and Ren offers to get some supplies for the Split base however, Kol t'Yo says there is no need but he would like Ren to "tribute" some gifts. If the <player> has been looting boxes/lockers on station platforms and been picking up containers dropped by dead ships without selling anything from the inventory then it is highly likely that the 25 units of Medical Equipment and 40 units of Teladianium Panelling have already been acquired. Return to space and wait until Kol t'Yo contacts the Albion Skunk wishing to return home. While on this station employee details can be asked for Kol t'Yo which may make one question his competence as a leader. Kol t'Yo shows surprise that the Argon on the station are not cowering in his presence and returns to the Albion Skunk where he then contacts Ren about collecting Xenon Components for Split researchers of the lower caste. Back at Lost Colony talk to Kol t'Yo again who thanks Ren for his help and Yisha then comms saying the Argon navy is back. Return to the Albion Skunk to witness an argument between the Split and Bayes. It is revealed that the Split plan to destroy the Xenon is to weaken them by planting bombs on their stations. The Split choose to use the Albion Skunk to deliver the bombs using a camouflage device.

The Camoflage Device

1. Collect: 5 units of Xenon Components
2. Fly to: the Sixth Scripture

To build the camouflage device requires Xenon Components. If the required Xenon Components are not already in the <player> inventory then kill some Xenon ships attacking Lost Colony for them. Dock at Lost Colony and talk to the engineer Ra t'Nst to install the camouflage device. If the <player> does not own a Trojan ROV one will be given. When back in space the Split say not to be alarmed if their ships start shooting the Albion Skunk and Bayes marks the location of a Xenon scout party to fly to. The device activates making the Xenon appear neutral and all other factions appear hostile. The Albion Skunk computer then begins looking for a suitable planet to terraform which creeps Yisha out.

The Xenon

1. Fly to: Shattered Singularity
2. Enter: Trojan ROV
3. -???

Bayes says scouts have reported highways leading to Xenon installations. The plan is to land on the Xenon stations plant the bombs and then the rest of the fleet will join the Albion Skunk to finish off the Xenon. Follow the markers to Sable Vortex where Bayes will wish the Albion Skunk luck. A Xenon Branch 9 I Destroyer will be patrolling this sector so is best avoided. Follow the markers to Venturous Profit where a unique lockbox containing the Kha'ak Talon of the Kha'ak Relic Collection can be found in a broken sphere to the west of the station. keep following the markers to Cryptic Heart where Yisha says to "play it cool" and finds the docking bays of the stations are locked down and will need to be hacked.

Bug: During this section no trade deals can be initiated

Use the long range scanner on the northern most station to find a unique lockbox on the underside containing the Computronium of the Ancient Relics Collection. As this item has the potential to be lost when the stations are destroyed collect it while the Xenon are still friendly.

As before with hacking park the Albion Skunk a short distance from the target station on the Z axis and hack the marked locations. It takes 1-2 perfect hack challenges to complete the hack on each station but can take up to 8. Dock at the now un locked docking pad and Yisha will comment "How is it?" to which Ren responds "Creepy...". Yisha then marks a specific box on the platform to plant the bomb and warns the Xenon are getting curious. The interior of the platform is a unique tubular design with a few random skeletons on the floor and several other boxes to loot but no threats. Place the bomb, return to the Albion Skunk and repeat with the second station where Yisha says "we've been made". Return to the Albion Skunk to find the Xenon are once again hostile.

Assault

1. Fly to: AG Awran
   Patrol: Cryptic Heart
2. Destroy: XEN Xenon Station
3. Destroy: XEN Xenon Station
   Patrol: Cryptic Heart

Despite only planting 2 bombs Bayes says that will have to do and to return to the AG Awran. There is then dialog about how fighters will clear path and the Albion navy will then follow while the Split volunteer to lead the final assault. Bayes says she cannot force the <player> to follow orders but recommends they are obeyed. Follow the fighter wing back to Cryptic Heart. On arrival the bombs do not respond so Yisha suggests taking out a module or two. This means just shooting at the stations for a while. After a while the bombs detonate and commander Borman and Nakano show up to join the party. It seems Plutarch has lost control of their Xenon tech due to the Xenon interfacing with them. After killing a few Xenon ships the second bomb detonates and the Albion Skunk is warned to avoid the blast area. Several random Xenon ships will be marked for termination (usually including a marauding Xenon I which will singlehandedly thrash the fleet except for the invulnerable ships). There are several options now for how to pass the time including going to town on the Xenon I or trying to loot Weapon Mods from the numerous dying small craft. After a while Bayes says that should be it, Borman says the Xenon are becoming problematic in Albion, the Split demand to lead the task force to eliminate all Xenon in Maelstrom and Plutarch is falling. A cinematic sequence plays about the epilogue followed by the credits and a second cinematic sequence about Xenon being sighted in DeVries.

Post-game

PMC reputation is now set to -17 and now subject to normal reputation rules so can easily be repaired by killing a few SS raiding parties near PMC stations. The Plasma Cannon Mk2 is now available from mechanics at all stations. Xenon fight missions are now available from all stations in all systems. As both relic collections have been completed the Mk5 shields can be obtained and even swapped for another type suiting a different play style. The X-perimental Jump Drive mission also becomes available.

The <player> is now free to build stations, board exotic ships and enjoy themselves.

WIP 

Bug: Some Open bounty Collection missions will show the mark as a Titurel but will spawn a Lyranea