Getting Started Guide

Welcome to Sins of a Solar Empire II

Sins of a Solar Empire II continues the story of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, as it takes you on a journey of a space strategy in the hybrid format of 4X-RTS. This guide firstly aims at complete newcomers, explaining basic gameplay and features.  However, there will be some valuable tips for those who come over from Sins: Rebellion, as the game has received a comprehensive list of new mechanics.

Your first game

Upon launching the game, the game will open on the Single Player tab.

Open

Under [1] you will find a list of amazing in-game tutorials, which will help you understand how to play the game. Those vary from the most basic camera controls to some of the more sophisticated empire mechanics.

But assuming you want to dive into playing, let’s stay in the “New Game” tab. At [2] you can see 4 boxes, which represent map sizes. Sins 2 has a lot of maps, and those filters help you a lot in setting up the best lobby you desire.

At [3] you can see the currently selected map “Agamemnon’s Bounty”. This line also holds info on amount of maximum players and the shortest time (best win) you ever had on the map.

At [4] there is detailed information on the selected map. Specific stats are self explanatory, but before you become an experienced player, I recommend checking the “resources” tab, as it provides you with crucial information on how the map will play.

Finally at [5] we can begin setting up our lobby.

Next menu will pop where you will be able to set up your lobby.

Open

If you want to start as quickly as possible, you can simply hit “Start Game” [8]. But for your first game, I recommend you go with TEC Enclave as they bring the most intuitive design. Which is to be expected, as they are humans, and not aliens. If you choose this faster option, you can go directly to the topic “Game Start”.

Below you can find more detailed description of the menu:

Once you feel confident with the setup, you can check out options [7] for more fine-tuning.

Other speed settings will affect only their specific field.

Player Customization

Customizing your empire can be a minigame in itself. Here you can pick your icon (flag), colors, and portrait used in diplomacy. And the best part is – you can directly see how your fleet will look based on your customization!

For now, let’s stay TEC Enclave and hit that “Accept” button. From there you will be able to start the game, and finally dive into the world of space battles.

Game Start

At first glance your game screen will have a lot of elements. But don’t worry, we will go through them.

The following screenshot focus on the most important stuff you will need for your first steps out there in space:

With this information you can start playing around. And the first thing we want to do, is to build a “capital ship”.

First Capital Ship

Capital ships play a crucial role in Sins of a Solar Empire II. They are not just “bigger” ships. They are more like “hero ships”. Very expensive, but every single one of them has a set of unique abilities. As usual, you can hover your mouse over every capital ship, and read through its description and stats.

A cool thing about those capital ships is that the first one is free and instantly built. So, you do not have to worry about breaking your economy, and do not need to “optimize” the time you build your first one, as you can always build one immediately.

As this is your first playthrough, you should go with the “Akkan Battlecruiser”, as this capital ship provides various economic abilities, but most importantly allows you to colonize planets without the need of bringing in a specialized frigate.

Below is the screenshot of the Akkan’s stats and abilities: 

And here it is, in its beauty:

There are 2 important fields to know about:

1. Here you see all possible abilities for your capital ship; each capital ship has 4 of them. Maybe you have noticed that the 4^th ability does not have a golden arrow above it. That’s because the 4^th ability is also always the ultimate, which can be chosen only once you reach level 6.
   
   Oh yes, your capital ships do have levels! They gather experience from kills. Please note, that you only need to be in the gravity well, where the kill happens. The capital ship does not need to destroy targets personally.
   
   Your first ability should be “Colonize” as it will allow you to colonize neutral planets, while also providing a small economy boost.
   
   

2. This will be new even for those of you who are familiar with Sins: Rebellion. Capital ships get not only fancy abilities, but also fancy “modules”. We will explain modules in depth in one of our future guides, however, for now it will be enough to know that modules are faction specific. Meaning there will be some differences between factions and a lot of differences between races.

Fleets

Now, we do want to keep a constant eye on our Akkan, so we should add him to our “empire tree” (top left).

For that, we select our Akkan, move our mouse to top left of the screen, just below our homeworld icon, and right click with the mouse:

Now we will be able to access our Akkan at any time, by pressing on that “fleet” at top left:

Now, what’s even cooler – we can reinforce our fleet, with new ships joining our main forces from the new menu.

If we were to click on the “Beta Fleet”, a fleet construction menu will pop up:

Here we can order ships, and the best part is – it will produce them at the nearest factories. This reduces the micromanagement a lot, and allows you to focus on those beautiful fights!

Galactic Map

You can now zoom out (with the mouse wheel). Since you always start with 2 free scouts, they will have scouted a few planets for you by now. Below is a standard picture that you will see at the beginning of most of your games.

Do note that my homeworld is blue - which is my customized color, while neutral planets are grey. Furthermore, my planet also has my icon/logo above it.

If I were to zoom out more, I would not see many more planets:

That’s because they have not been scouted yet. As my scouts reach further places of the galaxy, I will slowly map this sector, and discover all of the planets.

Colonization

At last, we do want to expand our empire. In order to do so, we will send our Akkan to a nearby asteroid. Once you are zoomed out, there are several ways to select your Akkan:

Select the ship with a left click and send it to the asteroid with the right click.

BE AWARE: Although we called nearby asteroids “neutral”, they are actually defended by “neutral” forces. Those forces, however, are not in a state of peace. On the contrary they are at a state of war with you and anyone else. We call them neutral, only because they do not side with any major power.

Your Akkan should have no trouble in dealing with those forces, as asteroids have weak defenses. This will change for richer planets. But for now, you can simply enjoy your first battle.

Planet/Economy Management

It’s time to talk about economy.

Your planets are your main source of income.

At the start of the game your options are limited, since you do not have the technologies required for more sophisticated sources of income. The only options available to you is to upgrade the planet itself.

To boost your credit income, you will want to upgrade your “commerce” [1], and to boost your metal & crystal income you will want to upgrade “mining” [2]. You can do this at any planet, including your homeworld.

BE AWARE: Each upgrade increases the cost of every next upgrade across all fields of planetary upgrades. So it is better to have a somewhat underdeveloped planets, rather than getting every single possible upgrade.

Later into the game, you will be able to build several structures to boost your economy. Structures consume slots, so you will also need to upgrade “logistics” [3] for that.

Economy structures include: mining extractors [4], trade ports [5], exotic refineries [6] and broadcast centers [7].

Mining extractors are straight forward – they mine crystal or metal.

Trade ports on the other hand are rather sophisticated and will be discussed in our economy guide. But those can produce all the main resources: credits, crystal and metal.

Exotic refineries allow you to create “exotic resources”, which will be used for capital ship production and other high-tech stuff.

Broadcast centers provide a small economy boost.

Derelict Loot

Derelicts are a completely new feature in Sins II.

Those are pyramid shaped treasures. They will contain a random set of resources, including exotic ones. They will also provide your capital ship with a lot of experience, giving you the edge over your opponent.

However, derelicts are always protected. Sometimes so heavily that you will be unable to claim them until the late game hits in. You can still colonize planets where derelicts are, as derelict “neutrals” will always stay close to the derelict itself, allowing you to safely fly by.

In this specific screenshot, my first asteroid had a derelict with 702 metal, 437 crystal, 500 experience for my capital ship, and 1 exotic resource – “Andvar”. That’s quite a lot to boost my economy at the start!

To capture derelicts, your capital ship has to stay close to it for 60-120 seconds. If your capital ship is idle, it will also fly into the capture zone of the derelict by itself.

Research

This guide cannot cover the entire research tree, but it’s important to explain how the tree works.

It is divided into 2 categories “civilian” and “military”. The names are self-explanatory.

A new mechanic in Sins II is that there are “researchable tiers” of technology.

In the screenshot above you can see the first tier of civilian tree is “Civilian 1”.

It costs 400/75/125 and will provide me +1 credit per second. But more importantly, it will unlock a set of 12 technologies, which belong to this tier.

The difference to Sins: Rebellion is that there are only 5 tiers (instead of 8), but at the same time you will need 25 labs for the final tier, yet only 1 for the first tier.

Further Gameplay

With the first research tier unlocked, you will be able to colonize less hospitable planets, such as volcanic or ice. And from there you will continue unlocking new technology, new buildings, new modules, and so on.

You will build bigger fleets, defeat bigger “neutrals”, face your first pirate invasion, build your first titan (an even bigger & stronger capital ship) and much more. You do want to grab as many planets as you can. There are anti-snowball mechanics in place, and some mechanics do help “tall” empires against “wide” empires, but in the end, you do need more planets to simply get into the vicinity to strike your enemy and win.

There is still a lot to learn about game mechanics, fleet compositions, capital ship abilities, other factions and races. You will have some fun figuring those out by trial and error, and we will be waiting on you with even more guides.

Speaking of titans, here is what TEC Enclave can field:

Where To Go Next

There are still 5 factions and 2 races to discover. Their gameplay will differ from your TEC Enclave experience, but you will be capable of recognizing the basics.

Beyond single-player, you can also enjoy Sins in multiplayer and LAN. You can also rewatch your replays and play with mods.

For those of you, who come from Sins: Rebellion – a new game feature is “hot join”. Now you can join any ongoing multiplayer game (if the host allows it) and replace the AI. This also allows a player to leave the game and return at some later point of time.

TEC Playstyle

TEC focuses on economy build up. Often you will lose more ships then your enemies, however you will still be able to overwhelm your opponents with the sheer mass. This power comes mostly from the unique Trade port mechanic, as TEC can scale and balance their economy, as no other race can.

When deciding on which faction to play, TEC Enclave have a more defensive playstyle, oriented to extreme late game, while TEC Primacy are all about aggression, and should be used this way.

Vasari Playstyle

Vasari probably differ the most, depending on the faction pick. Vasari Alliance focus on diplomacy, including the minor faction diplomacy, while they still can fleet the superior Vasari ships. Even more so, as their ships will be even better than those of Vasari Exodus, since you get some unique technologies, tied to your lore.

Vasari Exodus may have somewhat less upgrades for their ships, however they have access to the most unique playstyle - they can be space nomads! Vasari Exodus get access to unique technology which allows them to strip planets from all the resources, while also destroying those and making them uncolonizeable. This offers a wide spectrum of strategies, as this can also be used offensively, by depriving your opponent of planets. And you do not have to worry about destroying your own planets, as Vasari Exodus can get everything, from labs to ships, even when they have 0 planets.

Finally Vasari supremacy is boosted by their unique understanding of the phase space, as they can harness phase resonance, which can be then allocated to various fields, bolstering your ships' capabilities.

Advent Playstyle

Advent thrive through synergy. Their ships rely heavily on interactions between each other, while their technology unlocks more and more psionic potential of the Advent. If you like using chain abilities, Advent be very much to your liking.

Advent Economy is not as strong as the one of TEC, but they are still very capable in that matter. Furthermore they have access to unique mechanic of “Unity”. Unity gives you access to set of abilities, unavailable to other factions. Those range from scouting far away planets, to submitting enemy planets within your culture to your will and joining them to your empire.

Wrath faction focuses on submitting enemy ships to your will, while also bolstering your offense capabilities within your culture, while the Reborn faction focuses on keeping own ships alive, and once they die, even resurrecting them.