Introduction

This guide will provide you with the most detailed explanation of TEC ins and outs. We will go from basic understanding of the TEC to some exclusive strategies within this guide. However, if you are completely new to the game, you should start with this guide first.

Primacy or Enclave?

Before you start any game as TEC you will also have to make a choice: if you want to be Enclave or Primacy. This choice is more than just pledging your loyalty to a cause; it will determine your play style a lot, as each faction gets access to unique features.

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Enclave has a more defensive play style: Their garrisons are extra strong; their gravity wells can have double starbases and their titan gets stronger when defending.

In contrast Primacy is all about offense. They can get credits from bombing a planet, their titan is a killing machine, and they get to strike an alliance with pirates - including the ability to recruit them!

Start of the Game

You start at a Terran class planet with only few upgrades, several structures and 2 scouts. Your scouts will have auto-scout on, so no need to worry about them.

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Your first decision as a freshly assigned commander will be to pick a capital ship. In fact, it will be the capital ship, so picking the right one is extremely important. Your first capital ship will be free, and every capital ship costs same, so it's really about the utility you want to get out of it.

There are 5 capital ships to choose from. Historically, many players like to go with the Kol Battleship because of how this ship appears in trailers and even some logos. It is a fine choice if you are a skilled player, but for your first few runs I recommend going with the Akkan Battlecruiser.

The Akkan Battlecruiser has a colonization ability and a trade port ability, which will help your economy quite a lot in the early game. This early game boost scales quickly into major income in later game stages and helps you to build a proper fleet.

The downside of an Akkan is less firepower when compared to the Kol, so that you will need some cobalt frigates for planets with bigger militia.

Capital Ships (Basics)

With your first capital ship built, it will take time till you gather enough exotics for a second capital ship. However, knowing the basics of other capital ships is mandatory, as AI could field them against you.

Kol Battleship – This is your best combat capital ship; it has the highest DPS with good pierce. From level one you can skill the beam ability, which does high pierce damage to a single target and is best used against capital ships. This ability can also be used against smaller ships with great effect however, it drains antimatter so fast that you'll be able to kill only a few frigates with it. When facing swarms of smaller ships, the Kol’s other abilities may prove to be more effective.

The second Kol ability increases the fire rate of your normal weapons and the rotation speed of the gun turrets. With this, not only will you be able to shoot enemies faster, but as you maneuver your Kol around the battlefield, your guns will rotate faster than those of your enemies!

The third ability reduces the damage the Kol receives, making it even sturdier than other capital ships.

Finally, its ultimate ability provides the Kol with regeneration and make every shot do a tiny amount of AOE damage.

Dunov Battlecruiser – This is your best support capital ship. Nevertheless, you should not expect the Dunov to be your healer; for that you have Hoshiko Cruisers. The Dunov does have a shield heal ability, which also regenerates some antimatter, however this heal is not enough to keep your other capital ships alive in mid-late game battles. The Dunov's true purpose is to prevent enemy capital ships from using their abilities, as the Dunov can both burn enemy antimatter reserves and deny abilities for a short period of time.

Sova Carrier – The Sova carries only few squadrons from the start, but that number grows very quickly as you level up. The Sova is often overseen by beginners, but it can be in fact used as your starting capital ship. It's initial stats do not appear intimidating, but when you realize how many PD autocannons are installed on a Sova the perception changes a lot. With 9 autocannons, the Sova is able to take on any militia during the colonization phase, as you will be able to shoot down almost every single Javelis missile. With most of the militia firepower neutralized, your bombers along with the Missile Battery ability will do the job of destroying enemy ships. Another unique ability allows the Sova to produce corvettes directly on the battlefield, which will help you a lot in early engagements.

Marza Dreadnought – The Marza is your alternative to the Kol, if you want to get more planet bombing potential and an extremely deadly AOE ultimate. The Marza can deal great damage to individual targets, akin to the Kol, however since half of its damage is from missiles, those can be intercepted, which makes the Marza less reliable. The Marza also lacks the beam ability to kill enemy capital ships but is better equipped to deal with swarms of smaller ships. When it reaches level 6 the Marza gets very deadly thanks to its ultimate ability, however this can be denied in several ways.

Basic Economy

After selecting your first capital ship, you will begin your colonization endeavor in order to boost your economy and expand your territory. However, there is another important tool to boost your early game economy, and that's your homeworld.

Your homeworld starts with only a few upgrades and looks like this:

Having a lot of credits in later game stages is an easy task for TEC. However, this is very different in the early game stages. I recommend grabbing commerce upgrades first and only then go for mining upgrades. The income shown already accounts for your bonuses, including the homeworld income bonus. So having just 6.2 credits/second is really a low value, but once you max it out, it will go up to 17 credits per second. That's more than double!

Asteroids will only give you 1.2 credits/second, but they will give more in metal and crystal. In fact, it takes only 3.5 asteroids to produce the same amount of metal and crystal as your maxed out homeworld, so your commerce investment in the early game provides you with a healthy economy, since you will be colonizing mostly asteroids in this stage of the game.

Frigates Explained

Technically corvettes are their own class, but since they are built from the light factory, we will handle them in this section.

As TEC you have 7 light units to choose from. In the early game the choice will be easy, since you will only have the scout, light frigate, and colony frigate unlocked. Both the scout and colony ships lack any weaponry and can perform only 1 job, defined by their name - to scout/colonize. Therefore, your only military choice from the first minute is limited to Cobalt light frigate.

Even though the Cobalt is a basic military vessel, it is a good one. In big numbers Cobalts will be scary even to capital ships, so never underestimate those guys. It has enough pierce to deal with most frigates and even some cruisers. Overall, it is good at everything but excellent at nothing.

In order to build any other frigate, you will have to conduct research. Let's look at the Shriken corvette first. It requires T1 military to be researched, which makes it really accessible from the start of the game. The Shriken has slightly more DPS on paper, but it has less pierce; and its guns are spread across its hull so that actual firepower is often slightly less than that of a Cobalt. The Shriken has less hit points, but it also costs less resources and supply as well.

The main strength of the corvette lies within its speed and maneuverability. This allows 2 things: intercept high value targets and disengage from an unfavorable combat. Their low health pool may lead to their quick demise if you do not pay attention to them, but in skilled hands, those ships are irreplaceable.

The Garda flak frigate requires you to have T1 military, just as the corvette does. The Garda fulfills the role of a defender. At first glance it has rather small DPS and no pierce damage, which may lead you to question why you’d ever build it. The trick lies within the type of weapon it houses. PD autocannons are the only weapon class capable of shooting missiles down for TEC. And since missiles barely have any hit points, the low DPS does not matter. A well-placed Garda will be able to protect your capital ship from multiple missile class cruisers.

However, this is not all of the Garda's perks. In T2 military you can upgrade the Garda to have a light autocannon, which will double its DPS. But keep in mind that this additional turret is not qualified as a PD Autocannon, and therefore cannot shoot missiles. This upgrade is anti-ship only - or rather anti-corvette only, since it has no pierce.

Kalev Gauss Frigate makes a new entrance in Sins 2. This frigate has a small gauss cannon installed. This small gauss cannon can however make quite a hole in enemy capital ships, due to it’s incredible pierce. Kalev is a unique ship and provides great anti-capital ship to TEC in the early game.

Finally, we have the Krosov siege frigate. If you looked carefully during the colonization phase, you must have noticed that it has no weapons. Well, it has zero ship-to-ship weapons. This is because this ship has a unique space-to-planet weapon, otherwise installed only on capital ships and titans.

There isn't much more to be said about this frigate. It has decent HP pool and is good at what it does, but usually you will be building them only when you are already ahead of your opponent.

Cruisers Explained

The TEC have 5 cruisers to choose from. All of them are locked from the beginning of the game and can be unlocked with T2 – T4 technologies. The most noticeable change for Sins: Rebellion players would be that the Javelis frigate is now a cruiser, and it requires T3 military technology access.

Since we have already mentioned the Javelis, let's continue with it. The Javelis is a specialized cruiser which excels at killing capital ships and titans. This is because its missiles have high pierce with good damage. But it has a weakness: Missiles can be shot down, and not just by PD autocannons but some abilities and modules.

Javelis can be compared to Kalev Gauss Frigate, where Javelis is mostly a straight upgrade to Kalev. Javelis has much more DPS, for almost the same cost. Therefore, if you can reliably get through enemy PD you will quickly melt enemy high value targets. At the same time, you risk doing no damage at all should all of the missiles get intercepted. For this reason, Javelis are great at ambushes and surprise attacks, but will become very weak once your enemy adapts his fleet composition.

Next up is the Harcka heavy cruiser. The Harcka is pretty much your late game Cobalt frigate: It is good at everything but does not excel at something specific. It has better pierce, better health, and better damage than a Cobalt, but also costs more. The main benefit of having a Harcka and not another Cobalt frigate is their health pool, since it helps withstanding AOE damage. Unlike the Cobalt, the Harcka's guns are not fixed and can rotate as turrets, which makes the effective DPS while maneuvering higher. Sadly, Harckas also sits at T3 military so you cannot rush them.

The Hoshiko robotics cruiser is your only support cruiser. You can get them relatively early as they sit at T2 military. They lack any weapons so you cannot rely just on them, but you should not anyway as it's a support cruiser. Their utility is significantly higher than it was in Sins: Rebellion, as antimatter is not consumed when phase jumping, so they enter with a full AM pool every combat. Their basic ability is to repair your ships which is actually extremely effective, as they can repair not just the hull, but armor as well. Their repair ability can be upgraded in T3 as well!

Another T3 upgrade unlocks their secondary ability, which slows down enemy ships. This is most effective against enemy corvettes who try to bypass your fleet.

The Percheron carrier cruiser is also unlocked at T2 military. It does not have any weapons, but it is an attack cruiser as it houses 2 squadrons. Squadrons can attack anything within a gravity well, which allows the Percheron to stay out of combat most of the time. Since strike craft do not cost anything, it means that every single damage your strike craft do comes at no real cost to you.

There are 2 types of strike craft: bombers and fighters. Bombers fulfill a similar role as Javelis cruisers. They have high pierce with good damage, but the downside is that bombers are vulnerable to PD cannons just as much as their missiles. Fighters will die even faster to PD fire, however their main weapon is a light autocannon, which cannot be intercepted. For this reason, their DPS is more reliable, and they excel at hunting smaller targets, such as corvettes or bombers, due to their high speed.

Finally we have the Ogrov torpedo cruiser. This ship has ridiculous pierce which is required to deal with starbases. Do not get scared by its medium DPS on the info card: The Ogrov has pretty much “true damage” with each hit because of the extremely high pierce; the effective DPS compared to other ships is worth it. Torpedoes shot by the Ogrov can be intercepted and even body blocked (as seen in the game trailer).

TEC Structures

All factions have their structures divided into civilian and military classes. Although military structures are mostly defense type in nature. In the early game, you will be heavily limited in the types of structures you can build, as in Sins 2 even mining extractors need to be researched.

Civilian Structures

The only civilian structure you can build from minute one are the factories and research stations, that’s it. But do not worry, you will be unlocking structures quickly, as the game progresses. In T1 civilian you will be unlocking Trade Ports with a few more structures in T2. Trade Ports have a unique mechanic we will talk about later, but on an abstract level Trade Ports equal more income.

Tier 2 civilian unlocks Mining Extractors, Broadcast Center, and Exotic Refinery.

Another change in Sins 2 to Mining Extractors is that they require a logistic slot. This makes them somewhat costlier than the planetary mining upgrade, but they also provide better yields. As TEC you can often compensate with Trade Ports if you lack metal or crystal, however you absolutely should use Mining Extractors, if you want to get the maximum income. Just keep your economy balanced.

The Broadcast Center spreads your culture. Culture has been reworked in Sins 2 as well, so that you do not “flip ownership“ of a planet, but rather get various buffs/debuffs in your culture. TEC culture can slow down production of enemy planets and boost the credit income of your own. At the same time, having your culture somewhere prevents enemies from getting their buffs/debuffs. In T3 TEC can get culture from trade ports, which will be enough to have some culture presence. However if you are facing Advent, I would not recommend ignoring Broadcast Centers, as it may cost you dearly, once Advent begin using their Unity abilities.

The Exotic Refinery structure allows you to forge exotics out of conventional resources. Having more Refineries allows you to forge multiple exotics simultaneously, and usually you want to have 2-3 Refineries in your empire. However, placing those can be challenging, as they cost 3 logistic slots (compared to 1 on most other structures).

The final structure in civilian section is the Titan Foundry. It is unlocked in T4 military and allows you to start Titan construction. Keep in mind that a Titan requires Quarnium exotics, which are T4 civilian, so you cannot simply rush the military tree for a Titan.

Military Structures

From the get go you have 2 turrets unlocked and a Retrofit Bay. The Retrofit Bay speeds up the process of installing modules on your capital ships, and with a T2 upgrade it can repair units in its vicinity.

The Autocannon Defense Platform has higher DPS and lower pierce than the Gauss Defense Platform. This pretty much determines their roles. An autocannon turret is better against swarms of ships, while the gauss turret excels at dealing damage to capital ships.

Tier 2 in military unlocks Starbases and Hangar Defense. Hangar Defenses are pretty much stationary Carrier Cruisers, which come at a somewhat lower cost, and can be upgraded with point defenses. A starbase on the other hand is a very unique and powerful structure with up to 8 modules, which we will discuss in a dedicated section. Starbases have the highest durability in the game, making their effective health much higher than the one you see in the tool tip – unless the starbase faces its biggest nightmare – the Ogrov Cruiser.

Tier 4 unlocks the Phase Jump Inhibitor which prevents enemy ships from leaving the gravity well, forcing them to fight, and preventing any raiding parties into your back lines.

Trade Ports

If you are familiar with Sins: Rebellion, forget everything you knew about Trade Ports. Sins 2 takes this mechanic and reworks it completely adding multiple layers of depth. If you have read our Economy Guide, you already know how trade works, but we will recap it here.

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

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

In this specific screenshot you can see that I have 2 “export points”, and different amount of slots in each field. This happened because I have 1 trade port at my homeworld and 1 at my ice planet. Do note, that I have 2 export points, but only 1 slot in metal, meaning that I could not allocate everything to metal, even if I wanted to.

Should I assign my export point to credits it will generate 2 credits/sec:

Should I assign the same export point to crystal, it will generate 1 crystal/sec (and no credits):

This means a conversion rate of 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 3x 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. The first is the simplest – upgrade the ability on your Akkan:

Each level gives 2 export points. So, at level 3 of the ability you would have 6 export points (equal to 12 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.

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. This is an entire minigame in itself, because each planet type provides different trade allocation slots.

We will compare our homeworld:

To an ice planet:

You can instantly see the difference in trade capacity. What this means, is that an ice planet can house up to 3 trade ports, while your homeworld can house up to 5 trade ports. (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 these icons:

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.

• At 4 trade ports you will get 4 export points along with 4 allocation slots in credits, 1 allocation slot in metal and crystal.

• At 5 trade ports you will get 5 export points along with 5 allocation slots in credits, 1 allocation slot in metal and crystal.

This means that if you are low on credits (which you will be in early-midgame), your homeworld (or any other Terran) will be a perfect planet for trade.

If we go back to our Ice planet screenshot, you will also see that asteroid has 0 metal allocation slots. So, getting a trade port at an Ice planet will never provide you with an extra metal slot. For this reason, you should watch carefully which planet you use to build trade ports.

In early-midgame what you want to do is to increase your credit income. This can be done best with Terran or Desert planets. Terrans are your homeworld type, so they are better, but if you see a Desert, make sure to grab it. Not only is it almost as good as a Terran, you will also deprive an Advent player from their best economy planet.

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

Technology (Civilian)

There are 5 tiers of technology, and each tier provides small credits/second income along with access to new technologies. The extra income matters a lot with tiers 1 and 2, but becomes just a pleasant bonus for later stages, not worth of rushing.

TEC civilian technology focuses a lot on trade; you should keep this in mind: As Vasari may have the technological superiority over you, you will have the economic superiority over them. This economic superiority needs to be transformed into ship production and in late game you will get a few techs which buff just that.

Tier 1

First tier is probably the most important. It sets up your economy for the rest of the game, and includes some of the most crucial technologies, which will determine if you get an upper hand over your opponent from the first few minutes.

Trade Port technology belongs to this tier; however, you should be careful about your timing. Going straight for a Trade Port may eat your entire budget, cutting on the rate you can colonize. My personal preference is to get a small basic economy with a few asteroids rolling, before I get to build Trade Ports.

Since we will be getting at least several asteroids, Asteroid Mercantile Mandate is great to grab. This technology can give you another 1.5 credits per second. It does not sound like much, but it comes at little cost, and will be a nice addition to your early game economy.

You also get technologies which allow colonization of volcanic and ice planets, so don't forget to grab the one you are about to colonize, or your Akkan will be stuck for several minutes after you realize you forgot to research the tech!

Pretty much every other tech in first tier is a must have. Mercantile Envoys will jump-start your progress with minor factions for one. Derelict Specialists will boost the experience of your capital ship, which is handy if you go with a Marza or Kol, who want to get to level 6 as fast as possible. Resource mining technologies are dirty cheap and will boost your income.

Tier 2

Second tier is another major milestone as it unlocks Exotic Refinery. With this structure you will be able to mass produce capital ships and build starbases. Orbital Extractors are also unlocked in this tier, but usually you will have enough resource income from your trade ports, so it's more of a niche upgrade.

What you definitely want to look at is the Policy section. This section unlocks culture, which boosts commerce income, but also gives you multiple upgrades for minor faction influence.

Tier 3 & 4

In these two tiers you mostly upgrade your existing economy. If you are capable of capturing an oceanic or a gas planet, there will be several strong planet modules to research and install. Most notably you get to research Trade Escorts, which will provide your trade ships with military escorts for free. It is a must have against AI players but can be good against human players as well.

Tier 5

The pinnacle of your civilian research is achieved in this tier. You get a few empire-wide bonuses, but there are 2 technologies which stand out. Industrial Juggernaut reduces construction time of all ships by 20%, which will matter a lot in a late game situation. The true diamond of TEC economy is Pervasive Economy, which provides you with a significant portion of every other player's income. This includes allies AND enemies!

Technology (Military)

Just as with the Civilian tree, you get 5 tiers. Each tier provides you either with a tiny armor uptick or crippled hull increase for capital ships. There is no need to rush any tier for the listed bonus, but having this buff gives you a definite good feeling.

Tier 1

It is first tier, so technologies are dirty cheap. You can get the armor, health and damage upgrades for almost no investment. Depending on your game plan or challenges you may want to research Gardas or Corvettes.

Tier 2

If you went with a Garda build you will have to rush T2 military for the autocannon upgrade. A corvette build also benefits from T2 because you can research shields specifically for them.

Another important unlock is the Hoshiko Cruiser. It will require a proper economy to support both frigate and cruiser production, but Hoshikos are worth every penny.

Furthermore, this tier unlocks 2 important ship modules: Flak Burst Prototype will be a must have in late game, while Rapid Autoloader can instantly be put to great use on a Kol Battleship.

Do not forget about starbase unlock if you are playing defensive, but keep in mind that starbases require Indurium (exotic) for construction. Unless you have pillaged some Indurium from derelicts you will have to build an Exotic Refinery.

Tier 3

We'll have to treat Tier 3 separately from Tier 4 for military because of how much of an important milestone this tier is.

This tier unlocks the Javelis Cruiser which if timed right, can kill all the enemy capital ships. Furthermore, you get your hands on Harcka Cruisers in this tier, which allows you to replace Cobalt frigates with a significantly more efficient ship. At the same time, if you are not able to perform a technological switch from frigates to cruisers, but have a decent fleet of Cobalts and Gardas, you will be able to research a shield technology for them!

As TEC Primacy you get access to an important unique tech called “Savage Thrills” which provides huge fleet-wide buffs when you bomb an enemy planet. Another unique tech is Pirate Mercenary Base Prototype, which allows you to install planetary modules in order to hire pirate ships!

Tier 4

Finally, you get access to a titan class ship; but a titan is a huge investment, and this tier offers many more amazing technologies. There are multiple stat upgrades, and your cruisers can get a huge chunk of extra life with the shield tech upgrade.

If you are fielding a fleet of Kol Battleships, you should take great interest in Heavy Gauss Slugs Prototype, as this capital ship module doubles the Gauss damage.

This tier also unlocks the final cruiser, which is capable of piercing even through starbase defenses – the Ogrov Cruiser. As a cherry on top, you get the final supply technology, which will increase your limit to full 2,000.

Lastly, if you play as TEC Primacy you will get access to Novalith Cannons, which can bombard planets from a great distance!

Tier 5

This tier has many differences for the two TEC factions. TEC Enclave get their Garrison Augmentation for even stronger garrisons; and they get the Twin Fortress tech, which allows for double starbases at each gravity well.

Meanwhile, TEC Primacy get their Ragnarov Rail Gun module, Novalith Cannons upgrade, and an extra autocannon damage buff.

Independent from your faction, you will get access to several huge stats upgrades. My personal favorite is the Repelon Premium Armor, which provides entire 50 strength to your armor.

There are several starbase upgrades in this tier, including the scary Safety Override Protocol module capable of destroying entire fleets at the expanse of the starbase. But you will also get access to a capital ship module which allows you to deploy an Argonev starbase offensively. Or in terms of TEC Enclave – starbases – do not forget, you can deploy 2 starbases at each gravity well, including enemy ones!

Argonev Starbase

The Argonev starbase is the pinnacle of your defenses. Do not let the “low stats” fool you - even without any upgrades the Argonev is a force to be reckoned with. Its primary health stats may be just above of what you get on a capital ship, but the true power comes from its durability. Even Javelis frigates, which have high pierce, will deal only about 13% of their stated damage to an Argonev starbase.

So, for most ships you can look at the Argonev as if it had 10 times the health pool. This is also why you do need a proper counter against a starbase, such as the Ogrov cruiser or Penetrator. Only those cruisers deal full damage to the starbase.

Being tough is great, but what about firepower? Well, this is where the stock Argonev has nothing crazy to offer. Don't get me wrong, in terms of cost, the Argonev is extremely cost efficient even in the firepower department; but compared to how much effective health it has, the firepower may look bleak. Unless of course you install modules.

The starbase itself is rather cheap; getting modules is where it gets costly. Most of the modules require higher tiers of technology, but even if we were to ignore the cost of research, modules themselves have a significant price tag. This means you should not queue all upgrades on every single starbase. At the same time, you cannot wait till last moment of an engagement to begin with upgrading, as you could in Sins: Rebellion. You have to find that perfect middle-ground of queuing modules long enough before an engagement but avoid getting too many if there is no risk of engagement.

When it comes to starbase placement you should not worry as much since you can simply rotate the orbit of the starbase. As can be seen in the screenshot below, a starbase is treated as any other orbital structure, and can be rotated through the advanced menu. This way your only limitation of movement is the radius at which the starbase rotates.

A starbase can house up to 8 modules, and the cool thing about them is that they change the visuals of the starbase itself. Not just the weapon modules - most modules can be visually seen. My personal favorite is docking booms.

Here is a starbase without the docking booms:

And here it's with them:

Talking about modules, the Argonev can be upgraded with beams and missile launchers, both contributing to a significant increase of the starbase’s firepower. Combined, they more than double the stock DPS, while also offering decent pierce against capital ships.

Of course, upgrading the health of the Argonev with modules is another great tool to increase its fighting capabilities. Every extra second of its life it will be shooting enemy ships down at an astonishing rate. And the health modules will likely provide you not with seconds, but minutes of extra survivability.

Since it's a TEC starbase, it also has access to trade upgrades, which works extra well for TEC Enclave who can place double starbases at each of their planets. This is a big investment, but once set in place you will have nearly impenetrable defenses which could generate up to a third of your empire's economy!

Next is the most underestimated and underused item of all time – the docking booms. Not only does the module add gorgeous visual extensions, but it gives you an AOE heal and AM regeneration. Imagine having a Hoshiko cruiser for every single ship of yours, while also regenerating a small portion of antimatter on your capital ships. That's how good it is. The only downside is that TEC starbases cannot fly with you to nearby gravity wells to support you offensively.

Finally comes the universally feared “red button” - official name “Safety Override Protocol.” This is a very unique ability which self-destructs the starbase and deals an extreme AOE damage. For veterans of Sins: Rebellion the damage may not look extreme, as it has been tuned down. However, it's the strongest AOE cast in the entire game, which will destroy frigates and deal significant damage to everything else, providing you with an easy opportunity to destroy enemy forces.

So when you see the red sparkles, it's probably too late for you.

Titans

Titans are the strongest ships available to you. Depending on your faction, you may get access to the more offensive Ragnarov titan (TEC Primacy) or the defensive Ankylon titan (TEC Enclave).

For a full review of those beasts, we recommend reading the specialized guides on the Ragnarov and Ankylon. Here we will highlight the difference between these two gigantic vessels.

In other words, the Ragnarov offers you a significant power spike once it's built and performs well in later game stages. The Ankylon on the other hand follows the TEC Enclave pattern of building its power slowly up. It will take you longer to reach your full potential when compared to Ragnarov, however, your synergies will kick in during the end game, turning you into a much bigger powerhouse than the TEC Primacy could ever dream to be.

Capital Ships (Advanced)

Now it's time to talk about the more advanced knowledge for your capital ships. Knowing fire-arcs, synergies and strategies will be crucial to bring your enemies to their knees.

Fire-arcs are somewhat easier to understand in Sins 2, than they were in Sins: Rebellion. You have physical turrets which actively rotate on your ship when targeting or are mounted and therefore are very limited in their fire arcs.

Akkan Battlecruiser – The Akkan has its firepower equally split between its left and right sides. Its default behavior is to fire its left broadside at the main target once in range. This also means that in smaller scaled battles, your right broadside will remain inactive. That's half of your DPS lost in the early colonization phase where every second counts! For this reason, you should position your Akkan between enemy forces as it will take the same amount of damage but will double your firepower.

Ability wise, if you go with an Akkan as your first capital ship you should ignore the “Inspiring Broadcast” ability till later game stages, and focus on “Colonize” and “Mobile Trade Port.” Colonize gives you planetary commerce levels on the newly colonized planet; while Mobile Trade Port offer you export points. When choosing which one to prioritize, ask yourself – how much time do I have until I meet my opponent?

If there is not much time on the clock you should skill Colonize over Trade Ports, as colonization offers an immediate return, while the Trade Ports ability would require you to get a few export point slots first via structures or minor factions. Otherwise go with the Trade Ports ability, as it offers better scaling.

Inspiring Broadcast is weak in the early game but insanely strong as a late game, fleet wide buff as it scales with every single ship in the radius. It also stacks with the Kol Fusillade ability, which makes the Kol even deadlier to enemy capital ships.

Armistice is Akkan's ultimate, and it prevents any combat or damage within a big radius. This is also true for already flying projectiles, as they will no longer deal any damage to your ships, nor to the ships of your enemy. This ability is best used to counter enemy ultimate abilities but could also be used to safely retreat when the battle does not go as planned.

Kol Battleship - A Kol's main weapons are 2 Gauss Cannons which are placed directly on top and below your main hull. They rotate 360 degrees so you can dish out the damage, even when retreating! The default behavior for the Kol is to face their enemies straightforward, but you can definitely get extra value by maneuvering your capital ship through the battle, should it be prioritized by your enemy. Ships like Cobalt frigates will have a hard time targeting the Kol, as it flies in circles around them.

The Kol is your go-to unit when countering enemy capital ships, as it has excellent pierce with good damage which is buffed by its abilities and modules. At the same time the Kol can sustain a lot of damage, and its only real weakness is the lack of point defense systems.

The main ability for the Kol is the beam cannon, which has high pierce and damage with a low cooldown. The only downside is that burns through your entire antimatter pool just in a few casts, which is why you should always install AM-modules, and in a best case support it with Dunov Battlecruisers. The Kol's beam also synergizes a lot with the Ragnarov's Piercing Shot, as both abilities have the same role of killing high value targets, but the limited AM-pool may let a heavily damaged capital ship retreat. However, if you were to combine a Ragnarov with a few Kols, you will always be capable of sniping even a high-level capital ship.

Dunov Battlecrusier – Surprisingly the Dunov has a lot of firepower for a support capital ship. It is still lower than that of a Kol or Marza, but almost twice that of the Akkan. The default behavior for the Dunov is to face enemies straight forward, as that's the direction most of the guns are limited to. Only the missile platform installed at the top of the Dunov can be used to fire in a 360 degree arc.

A Dunov is rarely a good first capital ship, but often a great secondary one. Its Energy Transfer ability will help your Kol to continuously spam its beam; and its EMP Charge and Magnetic Singularity will help you to counter enemy abilities. The EMP Charge will prove most effective against Advent as it depletes shields, while Magnetic Singularity will be your best pick to counter TEC and abilities like Missile Barrage. The Dunov's ultimate is nothing crazy and is just a straight buff of your regular abilities.

Sova Carrier – The Sova is not determined by its raw firepower but by its strike craft and Missile Battery ability. In theory, a Sova can become the highest DPS capital ship assuming your enemy does not counter bombers. However, that is usually not the case, which often forces you to switch to fighters in order to get at least some damage in. However, as fighters lack any pierce, they will underperform against high value targets. The Sova can be a great surprise element, or an action to force enemies to invest into flak defenses, but in later game stages the Sova just relies too much on stuff which can be shot down by point defense.

This is completely different in early and mid-game stages, where an enemy lacks any point defense and cannot afford to simply have every type of ship. At the same time, the Sova has 9 point defense turrets of its own, which make colonization extremely easy. Not even a Kol can perform this well at colonizing planets with high militia counts.

If you look at the Sova as an early-mid-game ship, its abilities will actually become meaningful. The main ability to skill is the Missile Battery, which is a stationary missile launcher. Missiles have high pierce, bombers have high pierce, and the enemy often lacks point defense to counter, which allows the Sova to be a capital ship slayer in the early stages of the game. The Sova doubles down on the early aggression with the ability to produce corvettes directly on the battlefield. In the later game stages, the Sova turns into a support capital ship and can boost ship build time. The ultimate is, just as with the Dunov, nothing spectacular. You get to replace your strikecraft at an insane rate, however this would usually mean that you have to lose strikecraft at insane rate, and that's not a good position to begin with.

Marza Dreadnaught – The Marza has great damage with even greater pierce values, however almost all of the weapons are fix mounted, which forces the Marza to sit still in fights. Should the Marza get focused by your opponent, you will not be able to maneuver as you would do with a Kol. Furthermore, the Marza suffers from using missiles, which are countered by point defense, and unlike a Sova which can overwhelm early game PD with the amount of targets a Sova brings, the Marza will definitely get at least some of the missiles shot down.

However, if you happen to face an enemy who completely ignores the need for PD, the Marza will become extra deadly with its Precision Targeting ability that buffs missile damage. This makes the Marza capable of fighting enemy capital ships, but what Marza is really great at, is killing swarms of ships. Its Concussion Charge deals tiny AOE damage but it will definitely soften your enemy up. Once a Marza reaches level 6 it can unleash the very feared Missile Barrage, capable of killing any frigate and most cruisers.

Missile Barrage is definitely one of the strongest abilities in the game, but its weakness comes from how the ability can be interrupted by enemy support capital ships. You could outplay your enemy by bringing your own Dunov to the battle, and shortly before you launch Missile Barrage, disable abilities on the enemy support capital ship, so that the Marza cannot be interrupted.

Capital Ship Recommended Modules

When it comes to recommending modules, you have to keep in mind, that every game is different, and if you think that some module fits perfectly into your situation, you should go with that one, rather then picking the one from this list.

With this being said, some meta level recommendations can be given.

Akkan is a support capital ship, so it makes perfect sense to install support modules. (Especially since offense modules would not buff Akkan as much). Modules to be installed are: Targeting Array, Missile Guidance Computer, Combat Repair System, Volatile Accelerants.

Targeting Array and Missile guidance will provide combat buffs, Combat Repair System will keep your Akkan alive even in the most heated battles, while Volatile Accelerants while make your entire fleet faster. Other good modules here would be Flak Burst, War Reporter.

Dunov is another support capital ship. However due to it’s focus on abilities, an Antimmater Engine should be considered as a priority item, while Flak Burst and Reserve Squadron Host will help with strikecraft superiority.

Sova can be specialized in bombers, so that Missile Guidance along with the Reserve Squadron module will synergize with the default capital ship power. Antimatter Engine can be useful to spam your turret ability, while Combat Repair System is great at healing your capital ship.

Marza is a scary offense capital ship. For this reason we install Rapid Autoloader, along with Heavy Gauss Slugs. We also need a Combat Repair System, as Marza will be focused early on by 9/10 players. Back up Shield Generator will also prolong the life of your capital ship, while making an unpleasant surprise to your enemies, with the shield burst mechanic.

Kol looks very similar to Marza, however we expand on the offense capabilities of Kol by installing a Flak Burst, to eliminate the blind spot of a Kol. This load out will turn your battleship into a terminator.

Capital Ship Cheat Sheet

Here is a brief overview of the strengths and weaknesses of each capital ship:

Strategies

TEC Enclave (TE) vs TEC Primacy (TP)

As TE your strength lies within a better economy and better defenses; but most of those buffs hit in late game. Intuitively that means you should focus on deep defense strategies and avoidance of confrontations. However, this is not always the best strategy. TEC Primacy has the “Savage Thrill” technology which buffs their ships when they bomb a planet. This means that when TP goes on the offensive, they actually get to use that technology and substantially buff their fleet.

There is little you can do to prevent TP from hitting a planet, as your opponent could even dive in with his capital ship into your defenses in order to trigger the buff. However, if you are the one on the offensive, TP does not get to trigger the buff. You do not necessarily need to push your enemy, engage in combat and so on. You want to stall while you build up your economy, while your fleet sits somewhere in an enemy gravity well endangering the planet and forcing TP into a defensive play style.

By not overtaking enemy planets, you could establish garrisons at the front line, which will produce free ships for you to “fake offense,” while TP will have to build actual ships. If you were to take planets, that would mean the need to build garrisons on newly conquered planets, which costs a lot and slows down your economy scaling.

Once you get your titan with a substantial fleet, that will be the time to make a single powerful push to wipe the TP out of the map.

TEC Primacy (TP) vs TEC Enclave (TE)

As TP you are on a “timer” in this match up, however the time you have is pretty much up until the late game phase. There is little sense in trying to outplay TE economically, as you would be wasting all your offensive buffs while also not getting the economic superiority TE get.

TP calls for more aggressive approach from the very start of the game. Therefore, an Akkan would be a bad capital ship to start with and you should rather go either with a Sova to try to all-in your opponent or a Kol/Marza for a more sustainable push. Of course, in some situations you would still go Akkan to outplay your opponent who expects you to go with a military capital ship and overinvests into defenses.

Your key technology is the “Savage Thrill” which provides you with a fleet wide bonus in the local gravity well whenever you bomb a planet. The other unique technology is “Pillaged War Chest” which provides you with credits for every damage point to an enemy planet. Those 2 technologies together will allow you to snowball your opponent.

A secondary strategy is to build “Pirate Mercenary Base” on your asteroids, which would allow you to summon pirate ships. Pirate ships are just a straight upgrade to TEC units and come at a somewhat reduced cost. The only downside being that the technology requires you to be in Tier 3 of military technology and the planetary module has a long cooldown. However, should you reach this technological tier, pirates are a must have.

It is possible that you gain more territory than TE, but still fail to kill your opponent in a long game. Even in this case you will be at risk of falling behind economically. However, you could offset this by researching “Pervasive Economy,” as it will provide you with a percentage cut of what your opponent gets.

TEC vs Vasari

When facing Vasari, many players struggle against Tosurak Raiders, which gain extra damage against structures and provide Vasari players with resources. This is a snowball tool in Vasari hands, as they get economic value from raiding while also destroying your investments.

Getting static defenses will work poorly, as Tosurak Raiders get bonus damage against those as well. Getting Garda Frigates will lead to nowhere because you will be unable to chase your enemy. The best response to Tosurak Raiders is to build your own corvettes. TEC corvettes are stronger, more cost efficient and – most importantly – faster than Tosurak Raiders. If your enemy decides to raid you in later game stages, you could also use starbases, as Tosurak Raiders lack a meaningful pierce against those.

Your next challenge will be capital ship spam from a Vasari player. However, Vasari lack proper point defenses, so a Javelis Cruiser fleet would help a lot in such a situation.

Finally, the Vasari Exodus can “Strip To The Core” (STTC) planets which will give them a huge resource spike. This is a late game technology, which means you should be able to have starbases across your empire, and being on the defensive should give you just enough to halt the Vasari onslaught. Once Vasari Exodus goes the path of STTC their losses become irreplaceable.

Overall, Vasari lack the economic power of the TEC, so time is on your side. Holding till you can push back is your ultimate challenge in this match up.

TEC vs Advent

Advent rely on synergies, both from different ship types, and different technologies. This means that they have a longer warm up period. This means that they truly shine in late game, so for this reason, you should not let them live this long.

It is true, that your own economy kicks in much harder in later game stages, however the amount of synergy Advent will have at that time will be so overwhelming, that even if you field 10 ships for every 1 killed, you may still lose.

At the same time, you have some great early game potential with the Kalev Gauss Frigate, which will make enemy capital ships evaporate. Even if you do not manage to kill Advent player, by killing his capital ships, you delay the time when his synergies would have hit, and that’s all you need.

Another thing to look out, is the advent culture. Advent have a variety of Unity abilties, and the strongest one relies on dominant culture on the planet. With that prerequisite, Advent get to bombard a planet, simply because it’s under their culture. And splitting map in half is not enough. Because even if you control vast parts of the map, Advent can use their other Unity ability, to spread culture in your backyard, eventually leading to the culture overtake and planet bombardment. The latter example can even lead to defeat, if you have homeworld victory enabled. So for this reason, you should have culture everywhere, when playing against Advent.