In Sins of a Solar Empire II, you become the ruler of an advanced space faring civilization that has been in a state of war for the past 35 years. There are three races, and two sub-factions for each, that you can choose to control. Each of the races/factions below have their own unique play styles.
In order of increasing gameplay complexity, we have:
TEC - A human civilization with strong economic capabilities. Before the war, they were peaceful traders.
Loyalists - Specializes in defensive play, preferrable to be isolationists.
Rebels - Specializes in offensive play and desires to eradicate aliens and impure humans (Advent).
Vasari - A highly advanced alien civilization that’s been fleeing across the galaxy for the past 10,000 years.
Alliance - A faction that prefers to work in conjunction with other players.
Exodus - A faction that seeks to destroy anyone who gets in their way.
Advent - An advanced human civilization that has embraced the use of cybernetics and psionics.
Loyalists - They seek to forcefully convert the galaxy to their fanatical cause.
Rebels - They see corruption within their Loyalist brethren and seek to purge it.
Goal
As ruler, your goal is to explore the surrounding galaxy, expand to new worlds, exploit the resources you find on those new worlds, and to exterminate your opponents.
Depending on which faction you play as, your starting conditions will vary. For this guide we’ll assume one of the TEC factions and step you through a typical first few minutes of gameplay.
Initial Start - TEC
When you begin the game, you’ll find yourself in orbit of your capital planet with a light factory, heavy factory, refit bay and two scout corvettes. Your scouts will automatically begin to explore the galaxy, so you can leave them alone for now. The first thing you should do is to pick your starting capital ship from the heavy factory or planet ship build menu.
Your first capital ship is built for free and instantly!
Expansion and Extermination
Expansion and Extermination tend to walk hand-in-hand in Sins of a Solar Empire, and a great first choice for a capital ship is the Akkan battlecruiser. The Akkan can gain the ability to colonize planets, empower your other ships, and act as a Trade Port. The trade-off is that the Akkan doesn’t boast much in terms of overall firepower, but for now it’s more important to expand the empire.
The Akkan’s Colonize ability gives new colonies free infrastructure upgrades at higher levels!
Use your Akkan to create a Fleet and queue up some light frigates to escort it. Once you have several light frigates built, order your fleet to attack an adjacent asteroid by selecting your fleet and right-clicking on the destination while zoomed out to a planet view.
Your fleet will move to their destination and automatically engage all enemy forces present. Once any potential threat to your new colony’s survival is eliminated, the Akkan will move to deploy its colony pods to claim the new outpost.
Repeat this process as you colonize the nearby gravity wells and take control over your local area. Don’t forget to replenish any of your light frigates that get destroyed.
When you order new units via the fleet’s build menu, those new ships will automatically travel to your fleet’s current location.
Exploitation
While your forces take care of business at the asteroid, it’s a good time to build a civilian research structure at your capital planet. This will let you begin Tier 1 research which you will need soon in order to colonize any nearby volcanic or ice worlds; plus allow you to gain Trade Ports.
You should also take this opportunity to begin enhancing your capital planet’s various planet tracks:
Logistics - increases the number of orbital slots the planet can support, letting you build more civilian structures.
Defense - increases the number of orbital slots you can support for military structures and increases planet health.
Commerce - increases the rate of your credit income.
Mining - increases the rate of your metal and crystal surface mines.
Civilian Research - provides a boost to your research speed in the civilian research tree.
Military Research - provides a boost to your research speed in the military research tree.
Resources during war time are always in short supply, so invest in Commerce and Mining initially (1 level each to start).
Initially, metal and crystal are only gained by investing in the Mining track!
Exploration
In the early game, your scouts will not last for long as enemy forces defending each gravity well assault them as they fly past. If you hover your mouse over your Fleet Supply at the top of the screen, you’ll see a tooltip that displays where all your points are allocated. If the scouts are gone, you won’t see them in the list! Go ahead and queue up additional scouts now and then to keep your exploration running.
In Sins of a Solar Empire II, your scouts may have some interesting encounters on their travels. The first are derelicts, which can appear in any gravity well. These are either shipwrecks or strange structures that are defended by bandits trying to steal their secrets. Don’t worry, they won’t come out to attack you unless you approach them first. From the strategic view, a planet with a derelict will have an orange pip along its edge. Only capital ships can capture derelicts, so send your fleet over to any you encounter that are lightly defended. Derelicts will give your capital ship lots of XP and can contain precious exotic resources!