If you’re a returning Sins of a Solar Empire player, or just want to jump right into the action, this Quick Start will guide you through the high-level features of the game.

Playable Races

Trader Emergency Coalition

The Trader Emergency Coalition, often abbreviated TEC, was a sort of military government formed from the Trade Order to combat the threat of the Vasari and, when they returned, the Advent. Currently the TEC has fractured into Loyalist and Rebel factions.

Unique Race Ability - Trade

TEC factions are able to establish trade routes between friendly players. Once established, these routes can grant you additional resource income. Trade requires some research to unlock and you must build Trade Ports at planets to initiate it.

TEC Loyalists

The loyalist faction focuses on defense and isolation; not rapid expansion. This grants them the ability to deploy cheaper starbases and heavily armor their defensive structures.

Loyalist Faction Attributes

Homeworld Bonus

Garrison Command: Your home planet starts with a Garrison Command component that will automatically produce garrison ships when your factories are otherwise idle. A Garrison Command provides its own fleet point supply for garrison units.

Unique Feature - Garrisons

These are units created by the Garrison Command and are controlled by the computer. By default, they will remain in their home gravity well and defend against any enemy threats. Alternatively, you can set your garrison to roam and attack enemies within 1 phase jump of their home planet. Garrison forces do not count against your empire’s fleet supply or consume resources to produce.

• Heavy Garrison: Planets where you have heavy factories will begin to construct heavy garrison ships when idle to help protect your world.

Unique Unit

• Ankylon Titan - A mighty warship that specializes in supporting friendly fleets with many defensive abilities.

Loyalist Research Topics

• Compartmentalization

• Twin Fortresses

• Hardened Defenses

• War Measures Act

• Counter-Deployment

• Heavy Garrison (see above)

• Garrison Augmentation

TEC Rebels

The rebel faction of the TEC is the polar opposite of their former loyalist brethren. Consumed by xenophobia and the TEC’s militant philosophy, the rebels have given themselves wholly to the pursuit of war. Instead of focusing on defense, the rebels have devoted all of their resources towards the annihilation of the Vasari and Advent.

Rebel Faction Attributes

Homeworld Bonus

Supreme Center for Human Doctrine: Rebel homeworlds start the game with this special planet component upgrade. Ships which regularly visit the Center for Human Doctrine will gain a long-lasting combat bonus.

Unique Units

• Ragnarov Titan - An extremely powerful, long-range warship that excels in offense centered around its massive railgun.

• Novalith Cannon - An offensive structure that is capable of bombarding planets from nearby gravity wells.

Rebel Research Topics

• Extreme Xenophobia

• Pirate Mercenaries

• Savage Thrill

• Pillaged War Chest

• Gang of Freebooters

• High Order Explosives

• Insurgency

• Truce Amongst Rogues

• Sordid Intel

• Black Market Suppliers

• Ragnarov Rail Gun Prototype

• Center for Human Doctrine Prototype

• Low Stake Auctions

The Vasari Empire

The Vasari were once part of an ancient empire that was destroyed by an unknown threat that sent them on the run, right into conflict with the TEC and the Advent. Like the TEC, the Vasari are currently broken into two factions.

Vasari Alliance (New)

The Vasari Alliance faction knows that time is running out and feel their best chance for survival is to cooperate with the other races and bring them along in their flight. While this means their preference is to work with others, they are still fully capable of taking on any aggressor.

Alliance Faction Attributes

Unique Planet Items

Intercultural Exchange: Facilities dedicated to the exchange of ideas and goods are established, embracing the Alliance’s strategy for cooperation. Increases commerce credit income rates and culture rate.

Overseer Tower: Summons Overseers and supporting ships from the Dark Fleet to any friendly planet.

Unique Units

• Kultorask Titan: A powerful support ship which can use advanced nano-technology to inflict damage on enemies or heal friendly ships.

Rebel Research Topics

• Xeno Defense

• Intercultural Exchange

• Nanomedicine Outreach

• Improved Diplomacy

• All for One

• Armor Restoration

• Reverse Engineered Shields

• Xeno Production

• Coercive Control

• Gravity Pulse Enhancer Prototype

• Enhanced Nano Emitters Prototype

Gameplay Features

Planet Development Levels

Planets gain levels as you invest in developing their infrastructure (up to a maximum of 10). How much a planet can be developed in any one area varies by planet type and research.

Infrastructure projects include:

• Commerce - to generate credit income.

• Mining - to generate metal/crystal income.

• Defense - to increase max. military slots and max. planet HP.

• Logistics - to increase max. civilian slots, construction ships, and max. surface slots.

Resources

Metal, Crystal and Credit resources are generated directly from planets by investing in their infrastructure. Bonus metal and crystal income can also be generated by nearby asteroid mines, once you’ve researched the required technology. Your home world already has some initial infrastructure in place, but you may want to invest in a little more before colonizing elsewhere.

Derelicts

Some gravity wells may contain wrecks of ships or structures which we refer to as derelicts. These carcasses contain valuable resources, so they are constantly under guard by interested factions. If you can uproot (aka destroy) them, you can then capture the derelict by placing a capital ship within its radius to secure the rich loot!

Minor Faction Markets

Maps may contain special minor faction marketplaces that become available to you once you discover them. Typically, you will find both a metal and crystal minor faction during gameplay but some maps may not have both.

Prices for resources fluctuate based on market supply/demand between players. Be aware that it’s possible to declare war on these minor factions and destroy them - which will impact everyone. Of course, if you do this, there’s no going back - ever.

Pirates (Minor Faction)

Pirates are a minor faction and can be a thorn in the side of any player. Once you discover the Pirate base, from time-to-time they will auction their services to the highest bidder. The lowest two bidders in an auction will automatically face a pirate raid (this is a game option). In case of a tie, all affected players will be targeted.

Won Pirate raids can be saved in your ‘inventory’. You can use them at any time to send a raid against a planet, along with putting a hefty bounty on the target. Auction winners and who deploys a pirate raid is totally anonymous.

Bounty

Players can place a bounty on specific planets by selecting the desired target and clicking the bounty button on the UI. Whomever destroys the target first, gets the money - which can include Pirates. The bounty system is totally anonymous.

Culture

Culture begins to spread once you research and build culture centers. Culture must first ‘saturate’ the gravity well it’s in; and will then spread outward along the phase lanes. Culture gets weaker the further out it spreads, so multiple centers are advised.

If your culture hits another empire’s culture, they will become in contention, with the player who has the higher per second spread rate winning.

Having dominant culture over a gravity well can have various effects ranging from credit bonuses to insurgency forces. Neutral factions will periodically send you gifts if you have cultural control over them also.

Players who are allied via a Synergy Pact will avoid all the negative effects of cultural contention and share the bonus of the highest player’s culture. There are also research upgrades to enhance cultural resistance, which will slow the growth of hostile culture in your territory.

Research

Research in Sins of a Solar Empire II is broken into two categories: Civilian and Military. In order to conduct research, you must either build research stations in orbit of your own planets or build a facility on world as a planet component.

Research subjects are broken into tiers, with each tier incurring higher costs but more powerful upgrades. You need to unlock a research tier before you can start researching the topics it contains.

Ships

Ships are your primary warriors in Sins of a Solar Empire II and each has a specific battlefield role to play. We’ll add more details on ships in the future, but for now it’s important to know the major classes of warship:

• Strikecraft - the smallest combat units in the game, strikecraft fall into 2 classes: interceptors and bombers. Interceptors are tasked with destroying enemy strikecraft and missiles. Bombers are designed to take on frigates and heavier ships with their powerful missiles. Strikecraft cannot phase jump and must have a home base to return to.

• Corvettes - a step up in size from strikecraft but smaller than a frigate. Corvettes fill both scouting and combat roles admirably and are adept at dealing with multiple threats. Corvettes are the smallest ships equipped with phase engines.

• Frigates - these ships fulfill light combat roles for a fleet. They can phase jump and can be highly specialized; but aren’t as durable as cruisers.

• Cruisers - cruiser class ships tend to be high durable in combat and specialized to support and heavy assault tasks.

• Capital Ships - the capital ship is the foundation of most battle fleets and come in a variety of roles. From battleships to carriers and colony ships, the capital ship is versatile and powerful. Capital ships are also capable of gaining levels via XP to become more powerful over time.

• Titans - the largest known ships are the titans. These cutting edge units are simply massive and equally powerful with their vast weapons and special abilities.