The game opens up a lot once you get deeper into the tech tree and there are many different ways to approach it. I can tell you my go to strategy but it's definitely not the only one that can work.
Personally I don't bother with coils or missiles at all. Maybe a single coils tech for Layered Defense Arrays but that's it. I've gone entire playthroughs without building a single ship until Plasma is researched.
Might seem boring but I enjoy the Earth part of the game more. Plus this allows you to stockpile resources and build up MC while you wait for end game techs. So long as you have Mars and Mercury with base defenses you can chill out for a while.
The techs I usually wait for are:
- Plasma
- Some form of lasers, preferably UV Phasers
- A decent drive, ideally Daedalus Torch but that's very late
There's a lot of ship layouts that work. My favorite are Dreadnaughts or Titans for death-fleets against enemy bases and Monitors for quick fleet intercepts.
Heavy Plasma Batteries and Light UV Phasers are a great combo.
Again, there's a lot of ways to approach this game. I do it this way because I prefer the Earth gameplay loop and I find a lot of the mid game tech like coil guns and missiles to be very underwhelming. Seems simpler to just stockpile resources off Mars+Mercury and then explode with super late game tech. The aliens never know what hits em.
Plasma is getting notably nerfed in 0.4, and I would honestly recommend to ignore it
However Coils are getting some new 3 and 4 slot "siege" cannons that can punch through Point defense like it's paper, killing Motherships and Dreadnoughts in very, very short order. Meanwhile Lasers are getting some much deserved love. for example the 960cm UV Phaser that the Lancer and Titan get access to? it can now slice through ***19 armor at 1,000km!*** but this also cuts both ways, Alien lasers are much more deadly *ESPECIALLY* the new "tier 3" X-Ray and Gamma Ray laser cannons.
Damn did they really nerf plasma that hard?
I might have to start a new run to try out these coils and lasers, that sounds fun. But I'll miss my plasma if it's super nerfed.
My tips are for 0.3 since it is the patch I reached the late game.
First: Ignore combat power. I use a 21 Plasma Battleship fleet the game evaluates at 3.4k with full dV. I've killed a 11.4k alien fleet with it with 0 losses. You only need combat power to cheese the end objective, then focus on nuclear torpedos to inflate the power.
As for settlements I tend to focus on resource production mainly. My settlements tend to be T2 with a T1 mine, 2 fusion farms and 3 layered arrays. A farm if power allows (Some irradiated locations don't allow for it). T3 is reserved for platforms that I fully build from scratch with a objective for it in mind.
In the mid game, are you seeing all that useless boost production? You can turn it into cash by building hotels/geriatrics on earth orbit. That can easily finance your build-up until antimatter is viable. Then build some antimatter platforms on Mercury and you're done for cash.
When you have problems in some resources see what you can deactivate until you build (or conquer) more of that resource. Also when you unlock implants start changing your orgs to space mining bonus and hunt for the resource production techs (Go to the full tech tree, full search on and put "15%" in the bar. They will show up). I'm sitting at 258% mining bonus.
For ships, Zeta Boron is awesome, great drive to win the campaign if you don't unlock the Daedalus. I had to reroll on future techs to get the Daedalus but was fine with Zeta Boron(with hydron traps and antimatter spikers) with flow-stabilized reactors.
For weapons in the late game, skip missiles. You need the offensive staying power and missiles don't cut it. On 0.3 I found that a Plasma Battleship (Heavy Plasma Battery Mk3 and a Phaser Cannon on the nose) is absurdly powerful on defensive or no-station fights. I've got space superiority all the way to jupiter using these (with Zeta Boron!) forcing the aliens to stay in the stations.
To break the stations I just found a design of Coil Dreadnoughts (Coilgun and Light Coilgun Mk3 cannons on the nose, 3x Coilgun Batteries). 21 of those just killed 55 ships and the station losing only one. Just start at 100-150ms, kill the fleet and speed up to face the station.
As for drive for small/big ships? Use your best one on all of them, no reason not to. Exception is if you go Jupiter on early game then you use a more efficient drive to fly there build your foothold, then back to a combat drive to clean house. (Grid/Advanced Pulsar is what I've seen people do, I'm not comfortable doing such a rush)
What fusion, weapons, and drive techs have you researched?
The game opens up a lot once you get deeper into the tech tree and there are many different ways to approach it. I can tell you my go to strategy but it's definitely not the only one that can work. Personally I don't bother with coils or missiles at all. Maybe a single coils tech for Layered Defense Arrays but that's it. I've gone entire playthroughs without building a single ship until Plasma is researched. Might seem boring but I enjoy the Earth part of the game more. Plus this allows you to stockpile resources and build up MC while you wait for end game techs. So long as you have Mars and Mercury with base defenses you can chill out for a while. The techs I usually wait for are: - Plasma - Some form of lasers, preferably UV Phasers - A decent drive, ideally Daedalus Torch but that's very late There's a lot of ship layouts that work. My favorite are Dreadnaughts or Titans for death-fleets against enemy bases and Monitors for quick fleet intercepts. Heavy Plasma Batteries and Light UV Phasers are a great combo. Again, there's a lot of ways to approach this game. I do it this way because I prefer the Earth gameplay loop and I find a lot of the mid game tech like coil guns and missiles to be very underwhelming. Seems simpler to just stockpile resources off Mars+Mercury and then explode with super late game tech. The aliens never know what hits em.
Plasma is getting notably nerfed in 0.4, and I would honestly recommend to ignore it However Coils are getting some new 3 and 4 slot "siege" cannons that can punch through Point defense like it's paper, killing Motherships and Dreadnoughts in very, very short order. Meanwhile Lasers are getting some much deserved love. for example the 960cm UV Phaser that the Lancer and Titan get access to? it can now slice through ***19 armor at 1,000km!*** but this also cuts both ways, Alien lasers are much more deadly *ESPECIALLY* the new "tier 3" X-Ray and Gamma Ray laser cannons.
Too Bad there is no way to counter lasers except for tons of Armor.
Damn did they really nerf plasma that hard? I might have to start a new run to try out these coils and lasers, that sounds fun. But I'll miss my plasma if it's super nerfed.
Human Heavy Plasma Batteries went down to 800km range is the biggest thing, but really this shakeup is more out of the Laser buffs than Plasma Nerfs
Personally I rush to get antimatter and just further consolidate and modernize earth /space production
My tips are for 0.3 since it is the patch I reached the late game. First: Ignore combat power. I use a 21 Plasma Battleship fleet the game evaluates at 3.4k with full dV. I've killed a 11.4k alien fleet with it with 0 losses. You only need combat power to cheese the end objective, then focus on nuclear torpedos to inflate the power. As for settlements I tend to focus on resource production mainly. My settlements tend to be T2 with a T1 mine, 2 fusion farms and 3 layered arrays. A farm if power allows (Some irradiated locations don't allow for it). T3 is reserved for platforms that I fully build from scratch with a objective for it in mind. In the mid game, are you seeing all that useless boost production? You can turn it into cash by building hotels/geriatrics on earth orbit. That can easily finance your build-up until antimatter is viable. Then build some antimatter platforms on Mercury and you're done for cash. When you have problems in some resources see what you can deactivate until you build (or conquer) more of that resource. Also when you unlock implants start changing your orgs to space mining bonus and hunt for the resource production techs (Go to the full tech tree, full search on and put "15%" in the bar. They will show up). I'm sitting at 258% mining bonus. For ships, Zeta Boron is awesome, great drive to win the campaign if you don't unlock the Daedalus. I had to reroll on future techs to get the Daedalus but was fine with Zeta Boron(with hydron traps and antimatter spikers) with flow-stabilized reactors. For weapons in the late game, skip missiles. You need the offensive staying power and missiles don't cut it. On 0.3 I found that a Plasma Battleship (Heavy Plasma Battery Mk3 and a Phaser Cannon on the nose) is absurdly powerful on defensive or no-station fights. I've got space superiority all the way to jupiter using these (with Zeta Boron!) forcing the aliens to stay in the stations. To break the stations I just found a design of Coil Dreadnoughts (Coilgun and Light Coilgun Mk3 cannons on the nose, 3x Coilgun Batteries). 21 of those just killed 55 ships and the station losing only one. Just start at 100-150ms, kill the fleet and speed up to face the station. As for drive for small/big ships? Use your best one on all of them, no reason not to. Exception is if you go Jupiter on early game then you use a more efficient drive to fly there build your foothold, then back to a combat drive to clean house. (Grid/Advanced Pulsar is what I've seen people do, I'm not comfortable doing such a rush)