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A strategy game is not only about battles; it also involves your attention to economic matters. Sins: Rebellion had some economic differences between factions, but Sins 2 II takes asymmetric economic styles to a new level.

For those familiar with Sins: Rebellion's economy, the TEC will have the least surprises in Sins 2II. Meanwhile, the Vasari's economy has been fully reworked, as they now have little use for credits. Due to this, we will need to treat each race separately.

If you are completely new to the game, please make sure to read our Getting Started Guide. (link)

Economy basics

There are anti-snowball mechanics, however generally you want to play “wide” in Sins 2II. After all it is an extermination strategy game, and by expanding, you also take away the territory from your opponent.

Therefore, your goal is to expand as much as possible and you do that by colonizing planets. Each planet is defended by neutral militia, so you will need to build some ships even before you engage your main opponent. Some planets are so heavily defended , that you may require a mid-game fleet , just to be able to take on them.

There are 3 type types of main resources. : Credits, Metal and Crystal.

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Icons The icons are new, but the concept is same as in the previous gamesgame. Credits are most a universal currency used in larger large masses (unless you are Vasari). Metal is used more heavily in ship construction and crystal is used more heavily in research.

Credits

We already have to differentiate, as As we've already differentiated, Vasari do not use credits with very few exceptions. But for TEC and Advent this is your most common resource, used in large quantities.

Main The main source for of credits are planets. However those Planets no longer have population. Instead it’s just planetary ; instead, they feature Commerce infrastructure upgrades. This means , you do not need to wait for your population to grow in order to get the benefit, and you are also not in danger of population being killed.

This is done with the “commerce” upgrade. Our homeworld can provide 19 creds/second if fully upgraded:

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While an asteroid sits at mere 1.2 creds/second:

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This means increase your credit income.

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As you can see above, different planet types have different amount amounts of max income. This may, and even should, influence your decision making on which planet to colonize next and how to utilize them.

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Both TEC factions also have access to trade, which we will handle in their section later on.

Metal

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& Crystal

While credits are mostly the same, at least for the TEC - , there is a significant change for metal and crystal. You can still get them through extractors, but those are now locked behind technology.For TEC it’s even Tier 2, aka 4 labs! Moreover .

Moreover, extractors require orbital slots as well. So, an undeveloped asteroid will not be able to house those, even if you research the technology. Quiet an investment! Just look at how much the technology would cost:

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As you can see, you are getting 1.9 per second of each, and could upgrade it for much lower cost, to achieve the same effect, as you would with a single extractor. This will require old veterans to make a change of their mindset, as extractors are no longer a spammable structure you always build without any thoughts. Now extractors will require you to make a strategic decision, when and how to build them.

Planetary Upgrades

Now that you know that planet upgrades provide you with a full self-sustaining economy. So , should you just always grab all of them?

No!

Sins 2 II mechanics ensure you do not have to do repetitive mindless tasks. : It’s always about strategic decision. This decision is decisions. These decisions are tied into how planetary upgrades work. Particularly, how the cost scales. It’s no longer individual for each upgrade, but the same cost for any type of upgrade.

Let’s look at an example. : At begging the beginning of the game, our TEC homeworld has level 2 in commerce Commerce and level 1 in miningMining. If we were to upgrade commerce to next level, we would have to pay 450 credits/180 metal/150 crystal:

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But wait, if If we were to upgrade mining Mining to next level, we would have to pay… the same amount number of resources!

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Even upgrading defences Defense from level 0 to level 1 costs the same:

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Now if we were to make ANY any upgrade, ANY any following upgrade would cost more. Look how I am upgrading commerce Commerce to level 3, but mining Mining level 2 increased in cost:

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So how do you do it? Well, the beauty of this system is that now your global strategy decides. You want to go heavy on technologies? Skip commerce Commerce and prioritize miningMining. Need more logistic slots for factories? You cannot also go for income on that planet easily.

There is also a the factor of planet types. As mentioned earlier, a fully upgraded homeworld can provide 19 credits/second for TEC, while an asteroid will max out at 1.2. In the early game you will struggle to colonize other credit heavy planets (such as terrans terran or desertsdesert), because of militia. And , and naturally will expand to asteroids.

This means , that the rule of thumb for the early game is to max commerce maximize Commerce on your homeworld, before you upgrade the miningMining. And should Should you find yourself in need of metal or crystal, you should colonize more asteroids and upgrade the mining Mining there.

Exotics basics (new resource)

Sins 2 II introduces a new resource category – exotics. There are 5 of them, of which “Quarnium” is super rare and expensive. Here are they:

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Exotics are used for high end technology, capital ship modules, planetary modules, starbases, capital ships and titans. So, everything related to more sophisticated parts of the game, and this makes them very precious.

Every single capital ship requires 2 exotics , in different combinationcombinations. This means you have to choose your first capital ship wisely, as you will not be able to change to a different capital ship , until later stages of the game.So if you go with a colonizer capital ship, you will be stuck with this type of capital ship for a whileyou acquire more exotics.

There are 2 4 ways of getting exotics. First : first is to produce them through refineries, ; second is to gather them through derelict loots loot (if you do not know, what derelict loot is, you can read on those in our “Getting started” guide); third is through planetary excavation and fourth is via auctions from minor factions.

Refineries are either tier 1 or tier 2, depending on your race. The basic exotics cost only 400 credits/125 metal/125 crystal for TEC/Advent or 0 credits /225 metal/225 crystal for Vasari. This may make it sound like an easy grab. But , but exotics are only parts of your production and take a long time to ‘build’. In a global scope, setting those up too early may mean too few ships, too slow expansion and losing the game.

Exotics take 120 seconds to produce, so 1 a single refinery will be completely enough , until lategamelate game. You can also see individual items unlocked by a specific exotic by hovering your mouse over it.

Quarnium is a lategame late game exotic, required for titans and some super lategame late game technology.

TEC – Trade Specialists

Now you know about all resources in Sins 2II. However different races have unique economic features.

Not surprisingly, the TEC make use of trade. If you are familiar with Sins: Rebellion, do not be quick on skipping this part, as trade got a major rework.

First of all, let’s look at the trade menu:

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You can directly see that there are 3 fields. This is because trade can now generate metal and crystal, along with the credits. But you have to make a decision , on what you want to produce.

In this specific screenshot you can see that I have 1 “export point”, and 2 slots in credits and crystal, while I have 0 slots in metal. This means I can spend 1 point in either in the credits or crystal section, while my current cap is 2 slots for them.

Should I assign my export point to credits it will generate 1.4 credscredits/sec:

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Should I assign the same export point to crystal, it will generate 0.8 crystal/sec (and no credits):

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This means a conversion rate of slightly better than 2-to-1 between crystal and credit. If you were to produce pure credits, and then buy crystal on the market, you would face a 4x price mark up. This shows that properly managing your trade economy can double your actual yields.

Now let’s dive into the mechanics of export slots.

At start of the game, you will sit at 0, both export slots , and allocation slots for all 3 resources. There are 2 ways to get export slots. First The first is the most simple one simplest – upgrade the ability on your Akkan:

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Each level gives an extra export pointspoint. So, at level 4 you would have 4 export points (equal to 6.4 creds/sec). You will have to give up on the fleet boosting ability until later, but this will turn your Akkan into an absolute economy powerhouse.

Second The second way is through building trade ports. Each trade port will give you an export point.

However, getting export points is just half of the job. You also need to find a way to sell those goods, aka create allocation slots. And it’s This is an entire minigame in itself, because each planet type provides different trade allocation slots.

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You can instantly see the difference in trade capacity. What this means, is that an asteroid can house a single trade port at max, while your homeworld can house up to 4 trade ports. (Do not Don't worry, the game will not allow you to build more than the allowed trade ports, so you cannot make a mistake here.)

But there is more to it. If we look closer into our homeworld’s trade capacity, we will see those these icons:

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Those icons represent amount of allocation slots you will be getting. :

• At 1 trade port you will get 1 export point along with 1 allocation slot in credits, metal and crystal.

• At 2 trade ports you will get 2 export points along with 2 allocation slots in credits, 1 allocation slot in metal and crystal.

• At 3 trade ports you will get 3 export points along with 3 allocation slots in credits, 1 allocation slot in metal and crystal.

• And at 4 trade ports you will get 4 export points, but no more extra allocation slots than you had with the 3 trade ports.

This means , that if you are low on credits (which you will be in early-midgame), you do not need the fourth trade port on your homeworld. You can stop at 3 and add a 4th one later.

If we go back to our asteroid screenshot, you will also see , that asteroid has 0 credit allocation slots. So, getting a trade port at an asteroid will never provide you with an extra credit slot. For this reason, you usually do not want trade ports on asteroids, at least not until lategamelate game.

In early-midgame what you want to do , is to increase your credit income. This can be done EXCLUSIVELY with terran or desert planets. And desert planets are actually even more desired, than terransterran worlds.

In the topic below you can find all planet types and their trade points.

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Trade Points Cheat Sheet

Terran:

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Well, almost no use. They can use them for auctions, market markets or send them to allies, but that’s pretty much it.

NOTE: The Vasari Alliance (Rebels) also has an extra planet module (Intercultural Exchange) to generate credits:

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This means you Vasari players only have 2 main resources – metal and crystal; and your “commerce” “Commerce” planetary upgrade is disabled. You may think it’s easier to manage , if you only have 2 resources, but actually it may be the opposite. Since you have no credit income, transferring resources via the market is not really viable. And Also, you also cannot compensate by simply readjusting trade points . So you since the Vasari don’t trade. You have to plan your economy much more carefully than the TEC.

You do have more starting resources, so there will be no bottlenecks you shouldn’t bottleneck in the early game. But since your homeworld has rather bleak income, some 20 minutes into the game, and you may get into economic troubles , unless you proceed carefully.

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However we Vasari need much more crystal than thattheir capital planet provides, as our their technology relies on it and not even Ravastras are made purely out of metal. Gladly our . Luckily, Vasari resource extractors are only tier 1 technology, which makes them accessible from the get-go.

You may go as far , and colonize as colonizing ice planets, which are rather uninteresting for TEC players, if you find yourself low on crystal.

You should also research respective income technologies, but be careful, as planetary mining, and extractors extractor mining are two different technology paths.

Orbital Extraction Rate buffs your extractors. So go for it, if you manage to build them in significant amountamounts:

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Meanwhile “Surface Mining Rate” is the one which buffs your mining planetary upgrades.

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Another semi-unique feature for the Vasari is that they start with 6 exotics. In theory this allows you to build 3 extra 3 capital ships , without the need to research the refinery. If you are trying some cheese strategies with capital ships, this may give you a huge advantage in timingstiming.

Of course you can use those exotics for standard gameplay. In this scenario exotics will come in handy to win early auctions, as even a single exotic will win against an infinite amount of credits. The 6 you have in supply should be enough to win auctions until you get a refinery, as for Vasari refineries are just tier 1.

This also means, you can support your TEC ally in team games with early exotics, if your ally wants to go for more capital ships. Furthermore, your “Quarnium” is just tier 3, making titan rushing more viable, than it is for other factions.  

This sums up the overall Vasari economy. But , but we still have to talk about the Vasari Exodus.

Vasari Exodus – The Space Nomads

The Vasari Exodus faction inherits the “Strip to the Core” (short STTC) mechanic from Sins: Rebellion. STTC is a late game technology which allows you to consume planets. This provides you with vast amount amounts of resources in a single tick, however but destroys the planet, making it an empty gravity well , as no structures can be constructed there (with the exception of starbases).

It is a tier 4 technology, which requires 13 labs at the minimum. Tier 4 also requires the “Kalanide” exotic, but at that point you will have them in big quantity. Still, you cannot rush the technology from the start of the game, as tier 4 is no joke for your economy. But it It will be a great addition to your midgame mid- or lategamelate game, as STTC does not only provide a short-term economy boost, but also allows you to destroy enemy planets for good.

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Every planet type provides a different set of resources, with bigger planets providing more resources.

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NOTE: “Benefit in time” section gives you an estimate for how much time it would take for a maxed-out planet (including max possible asteroids) with tier 4 technology to provide same amount number of resources, as you get from STTC.

Cost for technology is not included. Cost for planet module is included.

What we can see , is that using STTC on a pirate base is the easiest decision, while using it on an asteroid will be good only in niche situations. Furthermore, the actual benefit in time will likely be higher in a real game, because planets rarely have the max amount number of extractors.

Advent Economy

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