OFFICIAL STRATEGY GUIDE




Content Links:

1 - Introduction
    1.1 - Getting Started
        a - Locate and Acquire a Mining/Tractor Beam
        b - Mining
        c - Racing
        d - Cleaning Solar Arrays
        e - Locating and Returning Items
        f - Cargo Delivery
    1.2 - Location and Early Combat

2 - General Information
    2.1 - Ship Frames, Items, and Weapons
        a - Crew
    2.2 - Quadrant Map and System Descriptions
        a - Reputations
    2.3 - Ship Systems
    2.4 - Flight and Navigation
    2.5 - Other Information
        a - Constructor Station Item List
        b - Military and Civilian Ranks

3 - Advanced Combat Tactics
    3.1 - Offensive Tactics
        a - Wait for the Tactical Advantage
        b - Avoid Enemy Spiraling
        c - Surprise Your Attacker
        d - Use Your Allies
        e - Attacking Capital Ships
    3.2 - Defensive Tactics
        a - Use Stations for Defense
        c - Effective Missile Evasion
        b - Countering the Excalibur
        d - Countermeasures Require Skill
        e - Understanding the Physics Involved
        f - Speed is Life, Use the Fuel
        g - When Not In Combat, Save the Fuel
        h - Effects of Mass
        i - Plan Your Escape
        j - Avoid Atmosphere Combat When Possible
        k - Using Momentum
        l - Reverse Thrusters Can Use the Afterburner
        m - Rapid Atmosphere Descents for Cover
        n - Get to the Waypoint Quickly
        o - Limited Directional Tracking
        p - Multiplayer Ships Can be Distracted
        q - Friendly Ships Can Join in the Fight

4 - Business Strategies and Tips
    4.1 - Expenses and Profit
        a - Buy A License To Improve Profit
        b - Avoid Expensive Mistakes
        c - Safe Docking In Hostile Systems
        d - Don't Give Up On Multiple Item Trades
        e - Mining For Maximum Profit
        f - Faster Asteroid Clearing
        g - Diverse Contract Options
        h - Conduct Business in Hidden Systems
        i - Reload Your Fleet's Secondary Weapons
    4.2 - Contract Values
    4.3 - Economy Types and Values
    4.4 - Trade Market Level Map

5 - Secrets and Hidden Benefits
    5.1 - Gameplay and Cargo
        a - Cargo Container Tracking
        b - Scanning Without a Scanner
        c - Search the Caves
        d - Andromeda
    5.2 - Hidden Planet Locations
    5.3 - Beacon Quests Walkthrough
        a - Beacon Locations


SPOILER ALERT: Many of the tips and secrets in this strategy guide will detract from the challenge of the game and give away a lot of hidden benefits. If you don't want to spoil the challenge of the game, you may not want to read some or most of this guide.



1. Introduction
Welcome to the official Evochron Legends strategy guide. This guide will give you detailed information about the game along with tactics and tips to become a master pilot. Game secrets and hidden locations are also available in this guide. Many rookie pilots travel to Evochron in search of wealth, quickly venturing beyond the safety of the central Sapphire system, only to find they lack the skills and equipment necessary to survive in what can be an extremely hostile place. This strategy guide will provide many of the tactics and tips master pilots use to survive and advance in Evochron. While the information contained in this guide may give you an advantage, the single best way to improve your chances and abilities is to practice. This guide is also intended to be an expansion of the instructions that come with the game which cover many of the basics needed to get started. If you haven't read the instructions yet, it is recommended that you do so first before using this guide.

Evochron's freedom and independence means you are responsible for your own success or failure. You must protect yourself and your own interests. In hostile space, you can be attacked at almost any time for any reason by almost any ship (even those that may have a temporary or long term alliance with a faction you're on good terms with). At the same time, you can build alliances to reduce your risk and/or buy ship components that allow you to pass through hostile space relatively safely. Building your ship is just as important as building your reputations. Make sure to design your spacecraft for the role you want to play, install components needed to keep you safe and to complete the objectives you want. Evochron is about survival and direct control. You won't be required to remote 'point-n-click' control anything or bark orders to computers to play the game for you, you are in direct control of your ship and its systems. You aren't a sideline spectator watching events unfold, you are part of the Evochron universe. Your survival depends on your skills as a navigator, trader, combat pilot, explorer, and systems operator.


1.1. Getting Started
When you start the game, you will be placed next to the first beacon of the story quest involving Scott Gerret and his search for his brother who was a pilot onboard a battle carrier during the Arvoch Conflict. The first beacon will display its message immediately, but each additional beacon in the quest will require you have a certain ship configuration or item in your cargo bay before the message will be displayed. The beacon quest is not required, you can follow the beacons or venture off to do other things at any time. You may want to mark the location of the first beacon on your nav map to save it for later reference in case you want to complete the quest later.


Locate and Acquire a Mining/Tractor Beam
The first objective you may want to complete is finding a mining/tractor beam. This is one of the most important equipment items in the game as it lets you recover cargo and mine for valuable materials (found in asteroids and planets). One of the most profitable activities early in the game is mining asteroids and this device is needed to harvest the ore. Asteroids generally carry valuable material that is easy to get to since they are in open space, but to find the mining/tractor beam, you may want to land at a city on the surface of Sapphire where they are often available in the local inventories. Once you find one, click on it in the 'Items for Sale' list to install it on your ship. Once installed, travel back into space and head for the local asteroid field.


Mining
To get started mining, simply fly close to an asteroid and activate the mining beam. You can lock the beam on by pressing the default Alt-B key combination. If you are close enough to the asteroid to mine it, you will see hot red particles of the asteroid fly off from its surface as the beam cuts into the rock. If you do not see this effect, you're not close enough to the asteroid. In Sapphire, metal ore is generally not very valuable, so you can discard any metal you recover in favor of platinum or diamonds, which are far more valuable. To discard an item, simply click on its listing in your cargo bay. Once a cargo bay slot is empty, it can accept any material. But once one unit of a material is placed in a cargo bay slot, you can only continue to load units of that material type into that cargo bay slot. The reason for this is so you can manually manage what material you mine and it accommodates the different shapes and sizes of each material type. Each unit of a material is assigned a unique shape for every container that holds it. These shapes are only compatible with each other and must 'fit' together inside each of your cargo bay slots. Your mining and loading system will automatically take care of this sorting procedure for you, all you need to do is select which materials you want to keep or discard. You can pre-prime your cargo bays by buying or leaving only 1 unit of an item in each cargo bay, then travel to an asteroid field to mine. This lets you recover only the material you want while mining. To buy or sell individual units of items at a time, use right click instead of left click.

Once you have filled your cargo bay with the material(s) you want, travel to the nearby planet Rivoch to sell what you have for better profit. You can also mine the surface of planets for other valuable materials. Mining this way is a safe way to make decent credits early in the game.

You can also earn a few credits while you descend into a planet atmosphere. Keep your tractor beam on as you descend into a planet atmosphere to recover oxygen. This can be sold for as much as 30-50K once you arrive at a city by the time you land, easily covering the costs of fuel for the descent and also leaving you with plenty of credits left over.


Racing
While you are still in Sapphire early in the game, consider also completing some contracts. Racing can be a great way to earn some quick credits while also practicing with the controls of your ship. You'll learn how to balance speed and agility with zero gravity drifing and the maneuvering thruster system your ship uses. You may not win too many races at first, but the races only cost you fuel and you'll likely soon start to develop tactics on when to speed up or slow down and when/how to perform turns while staying inside the race course boxes. Your ship's shield system will default to a 'passive' mode while you are racing, allowing you to bump against the other ship(s) during the race without bouncing off and losing momentum. You may also want to race other players online for more challenging practice as you become better at winning races.


Cleaning Solar Arrays
Another way to safely earn credits early in the game is to clean solar arrays. Local companies often have solar arrays in a temporary location that need to be cleaned and they will pay well for a pilot to take care of the cleaning for them. These arrays get covered in a film of debris during open space manufacturing and during transport. The mining/tractor beam can be used to safely remove the debris from each panel, but it must be done carefully so you don't miss completely cleaning one or more arrays. Missing an array can add long delays to the process by forcing you to go back over the panels to scan for the one you missed. So take your time and carefully clean each array fully before moving on to the next one.


Locating and Returning Items
Early in the game, few options can earn you credits as quickly as locating and returning items. For location contracts, all you have to do is locate a lost item and fly close enough to scan it. The waypoint will give you the general location, often close enough to pick up the item on your 3D radar (purple blip). Once you've located the item and fly close enough to it, you'll be paid immediately. To return an item, you'll need to have room in your cargo bay and need to fly close enough to the item so your mining/tractor beam can pick it up. Once it's placed in your cargo bay, return to the local trade station to deliver the item and get paid.


Cargo Delivery
Another good paying option early in the game are cargo delivery contracts. Simply deliver an item they give you to a waiting transport. The waiting transport is generally right at the waypoint location, which your jump point marker will be highlighting once you arrive unless you change it. The waiting transport will be a very large ship and you'll need to fly close to it before delivering the cargo. Fly to within about 750 meters of the ships, usually under it or next to it is best, then press the default J key to jettison the cargo so the transport can tractor it aboard. Be careful not to discard the cargo, otherwise you'll destroy it rather than deliverying it to the transport. Also, make sure you do not have other items in your cargo bay, otherwise you will be giving the transport free items that they will be happy to take from you without reimbursing you for them. Sell or trade other items in your cargo bay before accepting delivery contracts to avoid giving away items that can provide you with credits.


1.2. Location and Early Combat
Sapphire is a safe place to remain early in the game. But once you've upgrade your ship a few times, you may be ready to venture out in to other nearby systems. The first system you may want to travel to outside of Sapphire is Olympus. Olympus is a mostly friendly system with the limited number of hostiles being equipped with low level weapons and ships. So while there are some hostiles in the system, they are limited in their number and capabilities. A good docking point is the trade station near the planet Olympus Prime. This is a good location to start on some basic combat contracts that will help you build your skills. If hostiles are nearby while you are trying to travel to a station or other location, you can turn off the IDS and use the afterburner to accelerate to speeds above around 3000 MPS. At that speed, enemy gunfire and missiles won't usually hit you unless they are approaching you from ahead of the direction you are flying in. Flying this way will generally keep you safe until you arrive at your destination and need to slow down.

When flying in combat, try to minimize using missiles as they are expensive and can deplete the profit you make from the contract. Use guns as much as possible. Practice evading incoming gunfire and missiles while you also learn how to achieve good attack positions on a target. As you learn combat and completing combat contracts in Olympus becomes easier, you'll likely be ready to move into more challenging systems throughout the game's universe. Generally speaking, the farther away you get from Sapphire, the more challenging you will find opponents to be. If you travel to an area that is too difficult for you, you can return to the previous system or search for another 'Fair' rated system nearby that isn't as challenging. 'Fair' rated systems are ideal for rookie players as they generally provide a wide variety of contract options in a low risk system with fewer hostiles. Remember to save often (default Alt-Q for quick save) when you are at safe locations to keep your progress. It's also a good idea to save in different profile slots in case you accidently save at a location you don't want.


2. General Information
Evochron is an amazing place. It is the largest system in charted space with a diverse collection of systems and people. It is the site of the last Alliance-Federation War and has been home to everyone from adventurous colonists to retired and active duty fighter pilots. Once controlled and protected by the Alliance, Evochron is now a largely independent region of space with ambitious treasure hunters travelling between its systems in search of opportunities to obtain their fortunes. The abundance of its resources provides an almost endless supply of materials for trade and commerce.

The section below provides general information about the game including ship frames, commodities, weapons, equipment, locations, ship systems, navigation, and quest details. This can be a useful quick reference, but may spoil some of the challenge/enjoyment of the game if you are interested in discovering such details on your own while playing.



SHIP FRAMES (CIVILIAN)
SHIP FRAMES (MILITARY)
COMMODITIES
EQUIPMENT/UPGRADES
PARTICLE CANNONS
BEAM CANNONS
MISSILES/SECONDARY DEVICES


Ship Frames (Civilian)
The Talon is a scout class frame that provides a basic platform for new mercenaries. It is inexpensive to build and operate. While the weapon options and defensive capabilities are limited, the Talon frame is the fastest platform and most maneuverable. While its design possibilities are limited, it can be optimized effectively for particular advantages.
The Pulsar frame expands on the original and provides more assembly resources with a minimal reduction in performance and maneuverability. It also includes substantially more armor and is a more flexible platform from a design options standpoint.
The Saber is a fighter class frame, although it is also used as a scout by many mercenaries. Its reinforced armor and efficient power system provide a high level of protection for such a small frame. Like the Raven, the Saber frame is considered to be the best choice for light and medium combat duties by most mercenaries and is very affordable.
The Raven frame expands on the Saber design. With a larger size, it offers more assembly resources and armor at a similar level of performance. Named after the Alliance combat spacecraft that fought in the first Alliance-Federation war, the new Raven provides a solid platform for mercenaries looking for a capable combat frame with amazing performance and maneuverability.
The Striker frame is a unique compact design that uses blended metallic composites for very effective armor protection and advanced technology to keep its overall size small compared to other frames. Its rounded shape and powerful energy system allow it to have a high level of assembly resources and support for energy hungry shield systems. An excellent multi-role frame.
The Phoenix class frame is a revised version of the Striker, offering a much larger structure with more assembly resources and armor. These improvements are available with a minimal reduction in agility. Most mercenaries who prefer the advantages of the Striker frame choose the Phoenix as the best version.
Designed to survive intense large scale battles and protect valuable cargo from even the most powerful adversaries, the Hunter class frame boasts triple layer metallic composite armor and plenty of assembly resources for high end components. It's main drawback is limited agility and speed, but it is ideal for mercenaries who require high end offensive and defensive capabilities.
The Renegade class frame was built as a combat oriented upgrade to the Hunter frame. It sacrifices some agility for a larger size with 25 more assembly resource points and another layer of armor. It also features a compression capacitor in its engine management module, which helps to minimize the loss of speed, resulting in a reduction of only 50 MPS base speed compared to the Hunter frame.
Considered the battleship among mercenaries, the Centurion frame commands attention and respect. Only wealthy mercenaries can afford to buy and operate this ship, but the reward is a commanding lead over other frames in most combat situations. It can be designed to also be an effective transport, offering a level of cargo safety far above what other ships are capable of.
Several private mercenary groups pooled their resources together to develop the Leviathan class frame as an answer to the Centurion which had dominated much of Evochron for a long time. The Leviathan offers an unequalled level of assembly resources and armor. It usually takes a skilled group of pilots to defeat one of these ships.


Ship Frames (Military)
The Ferret is a lightweight scout spacecraft designed for high speed reconnaissance. It carries a basic internal missile rail of 4 hardpoints. The Ferret has minimal armor, but its high agility and speed makes it very effective at evading missiles and gunfire.
The Aries is categorized as a scout but provides sufficent armor and speed for it to be effective in light fighter roles as well. This spacecraft is often used for training combat fighter pilots. It is also often used for patrols and scout duties that require more range than the Ferret can provide.
Considered to be the front line fighter in the Alliance Navy, the Wraith is a multi-purpose medium range strike fighter with extreme speed and agility. With 8 hardpoints and moderate armor, it's a well rounded fighter package capable of filling a variety of combat roles.
The Evoch-C is the next generation of Alliance military fighter technology. It includes a maneuvering system based on reverse engineered Vonari spacecraft and unique ion-pulse engines that together provide the most agile and fast spacecraft known to exist. Its reflective armor offers slightly better protection against particle cannons compared to the Wraith.
The Avenger is designed to be a heavy interceptor and strike spacecraft. It's thick armor coupled with high speed and agility for its size give it a distinct advantage in many heavy combat roles and strike missions against powerful capital ships. The Avenger is the primary strike and intercept spacecraft of the Alliance Navy.
The Predator is generally regarded as the Alliance Navy's most powerful heavy attack spacecraft. It has the heaviest armor of any military spacecraft and provides agility that exceeds even the lighter civilian Centurion and Leviathan frames. It is used sparingly due to its high construction and repair costs, but is the spacecraft of choice when the objective involves high numbers of powerful enemy forces.


Commodities
Food can be scarce in Evochron. While it is usually very low in value, some systems do pay substantially more.
Medical supplies are an essential part of survival in Evochron. High radiation exposure and virtually non-existent preventative health care result in a higher than normal demand for medical supplies, which can include medicine, equipment, and information.
Hydrogen fuel cells are a common medium level energy source that some systems use for general purpose electrical power needs. Their moderate value makes them a popular shipping choice.
Electronics are in demand, but are also high in supply. They generally aren't a valuable commodity, but shipping supplies of electronics can be an easy way to make money for new mercenaries.
Solar cells are a low end energy source. Don't expect much for these primitive devices, but in the right system, that can be worth the cargo space.
Metal alloys are a low value commodity the provides the raw material needed for manufacturing. Delivering this item doesn't usually provide much profit unless there is a temporary demand for it.
Diamonds are a high value commodity used in a variety of applications ranging from cutting tools to optical equipment. They are almost always in demand and are a primary incentive for mining.
Anti-matter cells are a high end energy source that are extremely expensive to produce and provide a very long lifespan. As a result, a premium is paid for these devices to anyone who can deliver them.
Fusion cells are also a high end energy source, but are much easier to produce. They feature a very long lifespan and usually provide a high price for shipping.
Machinery parts generally consist of cast or forged components in fairly high demand (brackets, sprockets, springs, etc). They usually provide a fairly high profit, much higher than raw metal alloys alone.
Textiles are generally the cheapest items to transport and are generally best left out of a cargo bay unless you've got the extra space.
Platinum is generally the most valuable commodity in Evochron. It is used for electronics, primarily in the computer and weapon systems of spacecraft, due to its longevity and conductive properties. Many mercenaries will jettison their existing cargo to recover platinum.
Biological Units consist of cells of organic material compressed into individual storage containers. These cells are valuable in the production of genetic sequences, particularly for terra-forming and food plant species. While not generally valuable in most industries, some locations pay a premium for this material.
Oxygen is considered the life-blood of space exploration. While most spacecraft can recycle and even generate most of their oxygen needs in-flight, pure oxygen is still valuable in certain industries and for replenishing spacecraft oxygen production/recycle systems.
Gold remains a very valuable commodity. It is useful in the production of electronics and their radiation shielding. It is also used as money in some economies and is valuable to jewelry industries.
Silver is generally less valuable than gold, although it has many uses that keep it valuable in most economies. Certain digital and solar technologies also keep it in high demand.
Water is generally not too valuable, but is still worth some credits when it can be delivered without recycling or production procedures.
Armor is a somewhat valuable commodity constructed from metal ore. It can be built at constructor stations from mined metal for higher trade values.


Equipment/Upgrades
A fuel converter is a remarkable piece of equipment that can transform high energy photon particles into fuel. It connects to the tractor beam system and fuel tank to directly deposit the converted fuel into the tank.
A class 1 Fulcrum jump drive is the entry level model. It is capable of jumps up to about one sector box away.
The class 2 Fulcrum jump drive is capable of jumps up to about two sector boxes away.
The class 3 Fulcrum jump drive is capable of jumps up to about three sector boxes away.
The class 4 Fulcrum jump drive is capable of jumps up to about four sector boxes away.
The class 5 Fulcrum jump drive is capable of jumps up to about five sector boxes away.
Rumors suggest there is an experimental model of jump drive that uses a completely different technology for distances of well over five sector boxes.
A class 1 cargo scanner is capable of detecting the identity of cargo (either in open space or in a ship's cargo bay) at a range of about 500.
A class 2 cargo scanner is capable of detecting the identity of cargo (either in open space or in a ship's cargo bay) at a range of about 1000.
A class 3 cargo scanner is capable of detecting the identity of cargo (either in open space or in a ship's cargo bay) at a range of about 1500.
A class 4 cargo scanner is capable of detecting the identity of cargo (either in open space or in a ship's cargo bay) at a range of about 2000.
A class 5 cargo scanner is capable of detecting the identity of cargo (either in open space or in a ship's cargo bay) at a range of about 2500.
The cannon relay system doubles the energy capacity of your primary weapon system and adds two additional gun barrels to an installed particle cannon. It works by storing extra power in a network of capacitors, supplying sufficient energy for two firing cycles of the primary weapons.
The mining and tractor beam is one of the most important devices in the game. It lets you mine for valuable material, recover cargo from destroyed ships, retrieve photon particles from stars and nebulae, and recover items from cargo containers.
Shield boosters are the power storage part of the shield system. They are a series of capacitors that store energy for each shield array. A single cell provides basic storage capacity for the shield system.
Two shield booster cells provide roughly double the storage capacity. However, impact damage won't be half as much due to the varying energy delivery rates of different shield cores (the component that has the greatest effect on shield performance).
Three shield booster cells provide roughly triple the storage capacity.
Four shield booster cells provide roughly four times the storage capacity.
Five shield booster cells provide roughly five times the storage capacity.
Repair devices automatically repair subsystem and hull damage in-flight. Installing one of these means you don't have to dock and pay for repairs. Subsystem damage can be repaired fairly quickly, but hull damage takes a long time to repair. A class 1 device provides basic repair capabilities.
A class 2 device can repair damage roughly twice as fast.
A class 3 device can repair damage roughly three times as fast.
A stealth generator is a reuseable piece of equipment that uses a ship's shield arrays to generate a stealth field. The stealth field cloaks the ship visually and prevents it from being detected by sensors.


Particle Cannons
Cannon Name Yield Cycle Rate
FlareBeam 10 120
IceSpear 25 120
FireFury 35 120
StarGuard 45 120
Stalker 70 100
Eclipse 80 100
StarForge 100 100
Maxim-R 120 100
SunRail 130 90
Razor 140 90
Predator 150 90
Trebuchet 180 90
Atlas 200 90
Phantom 220 90
Banshee 250 90


Beam Cannons
Beam Name Yield (Shield Damage)
Refractor Laser 10
Metal Vapor Laser 25
Coil Laser 40
Neodymium Laser 55
Fusion Laser 75


Missiles
Missile Name Yield Speed Estimated Range
Echelon 1000 1400 3800
Viper 1200 1200 3500
Rockeye 1400 1000 3400
Starfire 1800 900 3000
Exodus 2500 700 2400
Leech EMP 200 1000 3500
Lynx 120 (engine) 950 3250
Rage 140 (weapon system) 950 3250
Cyclone ~1750-2200 (kinetic) 850 2800
Excalibur 800 (X8) 1800 4000
Fulcrum Torpedo 110,000 (at center) 250 2000 (auto detonate)


Secondary Devices
Stealth/Cloaking Device Time per device: 60 seconds
Proximity Mine Cloaked detonation weapon, ~2000 range, ~100,000 yield
Probe High power sensor device, 25,000 range


Crew
Crew members can significantly improve the performance of your ship's system and provide you with useful information. Each crew member must be paid and their loyalty is directly linked to how well you pay them. They will build skill the longer they work for you and they will expect to be paid more as their ability improves and you wealth increases. The more skilled they are, the more benefit they will offer your ship. Here is an overview of each crew member trade and the benefit(s) they offer:

Engineer Improves subsystem and hull repair times (requires repair system).
Navigator Provides safe jump points and increases sensor performance.
Weapons Ops Improves primary weapon capabilities.
Science Ops Indicates points of interest, even when not charted. Improves mining.


The 'fair' wage value they expect to be paid is based on several criteria including their skill, loyalty, and your wealth. Each crew member's trade also impacts how much they expect to the paid. Here is the calculation used to establish the base fair wage for each trade:

Engineer (((skill+loyalty)*10)+(cash/1000000))*1.75
Navigator (((skill+loyalty)*10)+(cash/1000000))*1.25
Weapons Ops (((skill+loyalty)*10)+(cash/1000000))*1.5
Science Ops (((skill+loyalty)*10)+(cash/1000000))*1.0


Pay your crew well and their loyalty will increase, pay them poorly and their loyalty will decrease. Once a crew member reaches 100% loyalty, you'll just need to maintain their pay at the fair wage and perform well with contracts to keep their loyalty. Crew members with low loyalty have a higher chance of leaving your ship next time you dock. Below is a chart showing how much a crew member's loyalty can increase or decrease based on how much you pay them relative to the fair wage they expect and also whether you complete or fail contracts.

<~90% of fair wage - 5-9% per pay cycle
~90%-199% of fair wage + 1-2% per pay cycle
>~200% of fair wage + 10-20% per pay cycle
Contract Failure - 1-3%
Contract Success + 1-3%






System Descriptions
Sapphire
This is the main trading center in Evochron and is firmly in Alliance control. It has jump gates to all 4 sections of the Evochron system. Sapphire is considered the launching point for new mercenaries due to its strong Alliance presence resulting in a well protected system with a positive reputation level. Very few major conflicts ever occur in this system, mostly minor fighting between individual mercenary ships. Because of a saturated market, commodity values and contract pay is generally very low, but the safety of the system makes it a good starting point for new mercenaries. This is the last solar system to remain under Alliance control since the war.

Lambda
Lambda is a lightly populated system, but was once the home of the Federation Military Command Center. Most of the system's population departed in the late 24th century due to increasing living costs, high Federation taxes and the resulting decrease of opportunities for freelance mercenaries. By the turn of the century, most Federation companies departed the system and Lambda now primarily consists of just a few scattered independent colonies. While not a particularly hostile system, the quest for survival does lead to several small scale conflicts. A good buy can sometimes be found here, but Lambda is not considered a good place to make a profit.

Emerald
Emerald is arguably one of the most beautiful systems in Evochron. A bright green planet orbits a warm yellow star with a soft blue-green nebula backdrop. It's a peaceful setting for a system with a moderate level of conflict. Emerald has a relatively strong economy with good opportunities for independent ship owners, but reports continue to come in about attacks from rogue groups ambushing traders in the area. Emerald is also subject to high Federation taxes for local residents, which frequently drives away trade to nearby systems and has created a somewhat low end market for such a distant system. Emerald was one of the staging areas for the Alliance during the last war and played a critical role in providing the Alliance with the resources it needed to hold back advancing Federation forces from reaching systems closer to Sol. As a result, some older military weaponry and technology sometimes makes its way into the market here. Rumors continue to spread about this system being one of the last reported locations of Renegade activity.

Rigel
The Rigel system is the primary trading center between Sirius and Emerald. While not technically in the Evochron system (being just outside the lower Federation border), it remains free of Federation regulation, so many mercenaries from Emerald enjoy travelling to Rigel for tax free trade with local companies and other mercenaries from Sirius. Rigel is fiercely independent and does not identify itself as an Alliance territory or a Federation territory, so stations and planets here often charges docking fees and other fines to any outside mercenary regardless of where they came from. Most mercenaries agree that the minor cost in fees is easily offset by the higher market values found here.

Sirius
Sirius is a distant system with a good economy similar to Rigel's. A few key difference between Sirius and Rigel are the low cost of operations (typically no docking fees) and high paying contracts with relatively easy objectives. The gate system between Sirius and Sol was destroyed in the last war and has not yet been rebuilt, cutting off the main supply line to this system. So supplies are somewhat scarce resulting in fairly high prices paid for needed commodities and equipment. The planet Sirius B is generally considered a very good trade location for selling.

Orion
Orion was one of the earliest Federation controlled systems, dating back as far as the early 23rd century. It has several well established colonies and companies that support is local economy. Orion is largely self-sufficient with most local mercenaries working for one of the companies, so there isn't much demand for outside assistance in trade. On the positive side, this means low prices for available items and ship construction is similarly affordable. This makes Orion a good location for buying and it's a fairly safe system for new mercenaries who may not be ready for more hostile systems with more advanced technology.

Thuban
Thuban is the home of the Federation and although the war has ended, tensions remain high between the Alliance controlled system of Sapphire and Thuban. Local mercenaries here are known to attack ships from the Alliance without provocation. As a result, Alliance command continues to warn against travelling to the system. The system is usually in conflict with various companies and military factions battling for control of the system's abundant resources. For well equipped mercenaries interested in combat roles, this system offers some of the most attack, patrol, and spy contracts.

Pices
Pices is a neutral system that is often used as a trade center between Thuban and Pearl. Mercenaries looking for a central meeting point without the risks of attack common to both Thuban and Pearl often use Pices as the location to meet in. The economy is low here, but there are no docking fees for most mercenaries and expenses are equally low, including some of the lowest prices for for fuel in the lower region of Evochron.

Pearl
Pearl is a large system consisting of several planets and is the site of the Arvoch Conflict that took place a few years ago. Abundant resources and numerous opportunities make Pearl a system with some of the wealthiest and best equipped mercenaries in all of Evochron. Even though resources are readily available, shipping them in this system is extremely risky, so premium prices are paid for even the most basic supplies and equipment. Survival here depends on skill, wealth, and a powerful ship. Rumors suggest there is a remote research facility in this system on a distant world providing advanced and experimental technology.

Rucker
Rucker is named for the admiral of the Alliance fleet in the first Alliance-Federation war. It is a large system filled with asteroids, making jump drive navigation dangerous. While not a common stop for mercenaries due to the difficult navigation conditions, it does offer a moderate economy with no docking fees and low prices. It is considered a potential gold mine for mercenaries interested in mining due to its vast asteroid fields and its close proximity to the high paying system of Pearl.

Virgo
Virgo is a lightly populated system of mostly colonists. While the system is technically in Federation controlled space, it was given independence in 2374 and has been almost entirely self-sufficient since that time. Its inhabitants pride themselves in their abilities to live off their own resources and typically discourage outside trade. As a result, they offer very little for most items and commodities. How this system has remained to survive for so long without outside assistance and do so well has been a long term mystery. Rumors suggest they control a hidden world somewhere nearby that supplies resources they would otherwise not have access to.

Aquila
Aquila consists of one planet in orbit around a blue-white star. While it may seem like an empty system, it does provide a high paying trade location with several stations. It is the central trade location between Alpha Centauri, Deneb, and Rucker.

Alpha Centauri
Alpha Centauri has the distinction of being the first system to be colonized outside of Sol. The open trade between this system and Aquila results in it having a virtually identical economy, although the planet AC528 is known for paying slightly more for most items. There are also no docking fees for most mercenaries in this system, giving it a cost advantage over both Aquila and Deneb.

Deneb
Deneb is a remote system with only one gate exchange with Alpha Centauri. Resources are scarce, so premium prices are paid for commodities, but the system has very advanced technology. Deneb has admitted to having an advanced weapon research facility, but refuses to reveal the location. They've likely constructed it well outside the range of most navigation sensors and long range scanners.

Sol
Sol is the home system of the Alliance. It does not have any current jump gates to or from its location, so it generally sees very few visitors from Evochron.

Fauston
Fauston borders on being a hostile system, but most ships generally leave each other alone. It's low economy makes it an unpopular trade stop for selling, but a common one for buying and refueling. Many new mercenaries visit this system first once they leave Sapphire and try some of their first combat contracts here. The level of technology is very similar to Sapphire, so most ships have limited capabilities and don't pose much of a threat to rookie mercenaries with entry level ships.

Cygnus
Cygnus is the primary refueling location for traders travelling between Fauston and Aries. It's low prices for fuel and equipment make it one of the most popular stops for travelling mercenaries in the entire upper region of Evochron. Docking fees generally apply here, except for Federation citizens and their allies.

Aries
Aries is a hostile system where battles often rage for the few scarce resources available. Not much trading takes place here due to the system only having one planet with two stations, instead many mercenaries have resorted to fighting each other for the cargo they are carrying. Aries is considered to be one of the most dangerous systems in Evochron and generally best avoided. Why the system is home to so many mercenaries remains a mystery, it's quite possible there are resources available here that aren't in the charted part of the system.

Sierra
Sierra is another hostile system, although it is outside the Evochron system and Federation controlled territory. Very little organized trading takes place here, although some traders travel from Talison for the higher selling values. It is one of the most recent systems to be colonized and as a result, doesn't have an established government or economy. The two planets in this system are also down for their bad weather and Sierra A in particular has extremely windy conditions making atmosphere descents much more challenging.

Talison
Talison has a moderate economy and technology level without docking fees for most mercenaries. This is an active trading location with ships coming from Fauston and Cerulean on a regular basis. Although the government of Talison considers itself independent, they were part of the Federation until just recently. Now without Federation supply deliveries, Talison offers good prices for most items and equipment. This is a popular location for mercenaries heading to Cerulean and Onyx for high value sales.

Cerulean
Cerulean is known for its beautiful blue starscapes and planets. Trade between the two planets in this system is popular for quick credits with a short trip. Cerulean is currently under Alliance control and does not generally charge docking fees for mercenaries. Strong markets with high demand for commodities along with a relatively high technology level provide several unique qualities in this region of Evochron. Scattered encoded communications have suggested there may be a hidden planet somewhere in this system with advanced technology far beyond what is offered in the charted part of the system.

Onyx
As its name implies, Onyx is a dark system with a blank backdrop and cold rocky planets. A few wealthy mercenaries flying Centurions and Leviathans are said to visit this system from time to time, further supporting the rumors of a hidden planet with advanced technology in Cerulean.

Olympus Prime
Olympus Prime is often considered an extension of Sapphire. It is a large system that is used for repairing, reloading, and refueling by many mercenaries who are travel to the upper Evochron systems. While not a particularly wealthy or advanced system, it is a good second system for new mercenaries looking for a mostly safe system with low level threats and plenty of job opportunities.

Vonari
The Vonari system is home to the aggressive race that is responsible for several wars and continues to attack randomly. Mercenaries are advised to avoid this system entirely as the technology level of the Vonari is very advanced. The hidden Alliance outpost is still being operated, although a cloaking field protects it from detection. It has been a stop for a few brave mercenaries who have traveled to this system in their efforts to explore the area and test Vonari capabilities.

RiftSpace
RiftSpace is the home of the Renegades and includes several manmade wormholes to various systems in Evochron.



Reputations
The map above shows the default overall reputation levels in the game when you start out. The overall reputation levels are good, fair, moderate, and hostile. Green on the map above is friendly, yellow is fair or moderate, and red is hostile. A good reputation level generally means you won't encounter hostile ships, unless you attack friendly ships. A fair reputation level generally means you will likely encounter hostile ships on some occasions. A moderate reputation level generally means you'll encounter many hostile ships and have to pay docking fees to be given permission to conduct business at stations and planets. A hostile reputation generally means you'll encounter mostly hostile ships and have to pay docking fees. Fair and moderate systems typically offer the widest variety of contracts.

In addition to the overall reputation level, you also have individual reputation levels with specific factions in each system that are divided into 5 categories, energy companies, militaries, rebels, guilds, and miners. Each of those reputations effects the contracts offered to you, your overall system reputation level, individual ship reputations, and economic/market conditions. You can change your reputation by selecting and completing contracts for particular groups and/or attacking ships that are hostile to them. Contracts are faction specific, meaning objectives will be offered based on your reputation and will involve objectives related to the interests of the faction offering it. Essentially, this will mean completing contracts for energy companies and militaries can lower your reputation with rebels (aka pirates) and guilds (aka clans) while completing contracts for rebels and guilds can lower your reputation with energy companies and militaries. Your overall system reputation will likely increase by staying on the legal side and completing contracts with company/military factions who are generally part of the system's economy and government. Completing contracts with rebels and guilds who often work against the other groups will likely decrease your reputation. There are advantages and disadvantages to aligning with one group or the other. Your reputation with each faction in a system will be displayed in the news console along with the other stats. A series of bar graphs is presented, including color coding, to help make the various levels easier to read. Individual ship affiliations are displayed on the target detail MFD next to the ID indicator. The game will report to you when there is a change in your overall reputation in a system, which is a good time to save your progress as it can take a lot of effort to make major changes to your overall reputation.

Long term loyalty to a faction can provide overall reputation benefits, while short term contract completing can result in losing progress you've made in building your reputation. If you leave before you achieve an overall reputation shift, then you've pretty much abandoned the reputation you were working toward and your reputation can fall a bit. Not always, but it can return to more average values because the faction's interest in you will quickly diminish if you stop working for them and they'll be on to hiring the next, possibly more loyal, long-term mercenary to work for them. If you want to use contracts as a way to shift your reputation, be consistent, work for them long enough to make it worth their time and investment to know they can count on you, otherwise, you'll just appear like a system hopper who only works a few jobs, then moves on, which won't help your reputation much. Loyalty and consistency is rewarded with the game's reputation system.

Below is a chart showing the global levels with the transition overlap and how the faction values are reset as you transition from one level to the next in either direction. Follow the arrows for the reputation changes and the resulting default values.


Below is a chart showing various actions and the potential result you can expect for your local faction reputations in a given system. Changes to your faction specific reputations can vary, you may earn more reputation credit for a certain action at a certain time and generally speaking, bribing can result in more reputation credit than other actions. But you can review the effects of those actions and the directions your reputations can change using the chart below (+ for increase, - for decrease, = for no change).

Action Energy Navy Rebels Guild Miners
Bribe Energy + = - - =
Bribe Navy = + - - =
Bribe Rebels - - + = =
Bribe Guild - - = + =
Bribe Miners + = = = +
Destroy Energy Allied Ship - = + + =
Destroy Navy Allied Ship = - + + =
Destroy Rebel Allied Ship + + - = =
Destroy Guild Allied Ship + + = - =
Destroy Miner Allied Ship - = = = -
Spy, Solar Cleaning, Item Transport (for Energy) + = - - =
Patrol, Destroy Capital Ship, Item Locate and Recovery = + - - =
Item Transport (for Rebel) - - + = =
Attack Capital Ship (for Guild) - - = + =
Destroy Intercept Ships, Clearing Asteroids + = = = +




Ship Systems
Below are images for each cockpit display and their readouts.



Below is a chart showing how each wing/thruster system effects the performance of each ship frame. The blue bar indicates the agility factor for each wing/thruster system (how fast a ship can turn/rotate relative to others). The green bar indicates how much of an improvement each wing/thruster system provides to that frame (starting at 1.0).





Shield Systems - Arrays, Cores and Boosters
The shield system on all ships in the game depends on two components, a shield core and boosters. The core is the central control and energy emitter management system. Its performance is determined by the core class you select when designing your ship. Larger frames with more assembly resources can generally handle more powerful cores with fewer compromises in overall design. Larger frames also generally provide better armor for hull impacts. Boosters are the capacitors of the shield system, they store the energy for each array and deliver it to the shield core. More boosters means more energy storage capacity, resulting in more resistance against weapon impacts and more power to manage between all 4 arrays.

The shield system consists of 4 directional arrays, and each one protects a 90 degree range of the ship. Each array's status is indicated on the status display (lower left cockpit display) with a green bar (circled in yellow in the image above). As your ship takes damage, the array that is hit will have its corresponding bar decrease in size and its color will change from yellow to red. Any array that is at a red level is critical and doesn't have enough energy to protect your ship from direct impacts against the hull. Weapon impacts directly on your ship's hull can cause subsystem damage and require hull repairs to restore any damaged armor. Use the shield energy augment keys to take power away from arrays that have more power to give to an array that is low (default numpad direction keys). You can also equalize power between all shield arrays by pressing the default numpad 5 key (you may need to press this key multiple times to fully equalize shield power between all arrays). You can further accelerate the recharge time of all arrays by boosting power to the shield core using the energy bias keys (default '[' and ']').


Flight and Navigation
The instructions included with the game provide basic information on controlling your ship and managing the navigation systems. This section will expand on the concepts presented in the instructions and provide information on how your ship's control systems work.

In space, there is no atmosphere to provide lift, friction, and drag. An object can simply drift indefinitely once speed is imparted to it. If a ship is travelling forward and turns right 90 degrees, it will still drift in the original direction it was headed due to inertia. If its original forward velocity was 1000 MPS, it will be drifting to the left at about 1000 MPS when it turns right 90 degrees and its forward velocity will drop to 0. Here is an image to illustrate this concept:



The effects of managing a ship in space can be quite challenging, so the ships in Evochron have computer flight assistance to accommodate this zero atmosphere environment and provide a manageable control system for the pilot. Your ship is controlled by 2 main engine outlets and 8 maneuvering thrusters mounted on the hull. All of them are managed by your onboard computer when the IDS (Inertial Dampening System) is active. The computer will automatically activate each thruster as needed and modulate the control to keep the ship moving in the direction it is facing. Sharper turns at higher speeds will require longer adjustments before the ship's course is adjusted for the new heading. The engine outlets provide main thrust for moving forward and in reverse while the maneuvering thrusters provide rotational and strafe control. The engines offer two modes of power, cruise (also referred to as 'military burn') and afterburner. At cruise, the engines will provide a similar level of thrust as the maneuvering thrusters and offer the most fuel efficient maneuvering mode. At afterburner, the engines will burn a lot of fuel in exchange for rapid acceleration and deceleration. The performance of the maneuvering thrusters is determined by the wing and thruster set you select (see the bar graph above for specific performance information). Here are some images to illustrate a few of the ways the thruster system maneuvers the ship:

The first image shows forward movement, both engine outlets simply provide forward thrust. The second image shows a right turn, the forward left thruster and the rear right thruster both engage. This effectively rotates the ship on its central axis to perform a turn to the right. If the ship is moving forward while this happens, the engines will also engage to help recover lost speed as well as additional left thrust to offset the built up inertia which causes the ship to want to drift left during a right turn. The higher the speed and the sharper the turn, the more time and thrust power will be needed to adjust the ship's course. The third image shows strafing to the right. Both left thrusters engage to push the ship to the right. The fourth image shows a right roll. Four of the thrusters engage and rotate to roll the ship to the right. When turning or rotating, your ship will build up inertia and the thrusters won't have to continually fire in order to maintain the movement. However, when you center a control to stop the movement, counter-thrusting is required to stop the ship from rotating/turning. This is why you will see the movement gradually stop rather than suddenly jerking to a stop, the movement needs to be counter-acted because of the built up inertia. The IDS will take care of this for you, if it is turned on. By default, the IDS will attempt to perform maneuvers in a fuel efficient manner. But if you lose too much speed because of a sharp/wide turn, you can engage the afterburner to quickly recover lost speed.

When the IDS is off, you can manually control each thruster. This can be helpful in combat when you want to drift/slide while firing at a target. High speed drifting can make you a hard target to hit. Evochron Legends lets you control all maneuvering thrusters variably, if the control device you are using supports enough axis channels to take advantage of that option. When performing maneuvers, you will need to plan your course objective in advance, to avoid sliding into objects in space or reducing your speed to low levels that could potentially make you more vulnerable.



Navigation in Space
To travel to various locations in space, you'll need to understand how to navigate using all three dimensions instead of just two. An object in space can be ahead, behind, left, right, above, or below you. Evochron Legends includes several systems to help make navigating in 3 dimensions a fairly easy process. First, lets review how space is divided up for the navigation system.

The largest division of space used in the game is a quadrant. A quadrant is a massive cube of space that uses a coordinate system which divides it into smaller cubes. The smaller cubes inside the quadrant cube are called sectors and use the coordinate system to identify their location within the main quadrant cube. The center of the quadrant is sector 0,0,0, in the game this is displayed as SX, SY, and SZ values. So the center of the Evochron quadrant is 0 SX, 0 SY, 0 SZ where the Sapphire system is located. The image above shows the navigation console, which displays sector data from an overhead view. Click on Zoom Out (or scroll the mouse wheel down) to see more sectors on the map. From that overhead perspective, the SX value represents sectors to the left or right. -1 SX would be one sector to the left of the 0 SX sector. 1 SX would be one sector to the right of the 0 SX sector. The SZ value represents sectors up or down, which are sectors ahead or behind. As you move the mouse pointer over the various sectors displayed, you'll see the sector's coordinates on the left side of the navigation console. Click on Rear View to flip the map from an overhead view to a view from behind. This lets you see the vertical SY sectors. SX still represents left and right sectors in the Rear View mode, but up and down are now SY sectors. While most objects and solar systems are fairly level with the galactic ecliptic, many are above or below it. So for some objects and solar systems, you may need to set the SY value slightly off from 0 to travel high or low enough to reach a target destination. Negative SY values are sectors below the galactic ecliptic, positive SY values are above it. Click on Top View to return to the overhead view. For sectors that are level with your SY position, you can right mouse click in a sector to zoom in on it. This lets you plot more precise waypoints, greatly increasing your accuracy for jumping from sector to sector. Zooming in on nearby sectors to plot accurate jump points is a good habit to get into for safer travel.

Sectors themselves are divided further into specific coordinates. In-sector coordinates are displayed on the navigation console as X, Y, and Z values (without the S before them). Each sector consists of 200,000 coordinates and like the quadrant cube, 0,0,0 represents the center of a sector. So negative X coordinate values indicate left on the map, positive X values indicate right on the map. Negative Z values indicate down on the map (or behind the center position) while positive Z values indicate up on the map (or ahead of the center position). Again, you can click on Rear View to see the map from behind for the Y values (or vertical elevation). There are 100,000 coordinates in any given direction, with -100,000 representing the minimum position and 100,000 representing the maximum position. So an X value of -90,000 would be near the far left edge of a sector cube on the map. An X value of 90,000 would be near the far right of a sector on the map. Once you exceed the edge of one sector, you pass into the edge of another. For example, if you fly to the far right edge of sector 0,0,0 and exceed 100,000 on the X (in-sector) coordinate value, you will then be in sector 1,0,0 at -100,000 on the X value, or the far left of the new sector that was to the right of the one you came from. As you travel through sector 1,0,0 in the same direction, the X value will increase until you reach the center of the sector at 0,0,0, then the X value will continue to increase until it reaches 100,000 at which point you will again pass into the next sector over. Continue heading directly right on the X axis and you will eventually reach sector 2,0,0, then 3,0,0, and so on. This way, you can use both the sector coordinates and in-sector coordinates to travel to various points in space.

To aid in navigation, the Heads-Up-Display includes a compass and pitch ladder. The compass indicates your heading and the pitch ladder indicates the direction of the nose of your ship. If the compass reads 0, you are facing directly forward on the Z/SZ axis, or up on the nav map, and if you move in that direction, the Z value will increase (the SZ value will eventually also increase as you pass through sectors). If the compass reads 90, you are facing directly right on the X/SX axis. When it reads 180, you are facing toward the rear on the Z/SZ axis, or down on the nav map. When it reads 270, you are facing left on the X/SX axis. When the pitch ladder reads 0, you are level with the galactic ecliptic and the Y/SY axis. When the ladder reads 90, you are facing directly up on the Y/SY axis. When the ladder reads -90, you are facing down on the Y/SY axis.



Other Information

This section provides other information not provided in the sections above.


Constructor Station Item List


Constructor stations can build components from raw materials. For items that are built in different classes, you generally need 5-9 units for a class 1 model, 10-14 units for a class 2 model, 15-19 units for a class 3 model, 20-24 units for a class 4 model, or 25 units for a class 5 model. Here is a list of raw materials and the available components that a constructor station can make with them:

Hydrogen Shield Booster/Capacitor
Electronics Cargo Scanner
Metal Ore Armor Plating (1 unit of armor per 2 units of Metal)
Anti-Matter Cells Fuel Converter (requires 25 units)
Fusion Cells Fulcrum Jump Drive
Machinery Components Repair System
Platinum Probe (requires 25 units)





Military and Civilian Ranks

Your performance as a mercenary is tracked with two ranking systems. The first is your civilian skill and proficiency rank. This rank is a combination of your contract completion record/achievements, kills, wealth, and equipment acquired. When you earn a higher rank, you command a higher fee for your services, so you'll see your pay start to climb as your reputation for completing contracts improves. Failing or canceling contracts can prevent your rank from increasing. You generally receive about one point of rank credit for every 10 hostile ships you destroy, one for every contract you successfully complete, one for every 500K of credits you acquire, then further adjustments are made based on other wealth factors and the ship you are currently flying. Your rank level is then established from how many points you've earned and here is a chart showing each level:

Rookie 0-24
Novice 25-99
Competant 100-499
Skilled 500-999
Advanced 1000-1999
Expert 2000-2999
Master 3000-4999
Superior 5000-7499
Veteran 7500-9998
Legend >9998


The next is your military rank. This rank tracks your military combat record for missions completed in war zones. The more missions you complete for the Alliance, the higher your military rank will be. A higher military rank gives you access to more advanced military spacecraft. Below is a chart showing the number of missions needed for each rank:

Trainee 0-4
Ensign 5-24
Lieutenant Jr. Grade 25-49
Lieutenant 50-99
Lieutenant Commander 100-149
Commander 150-249
Captain 250-499
Commodore 500-749
Admiral 750-998
Fleet Admiral >998






3. Advanced Combat Tactics
Evochron Legends includes numerous combat controls and features that provide many options to attack or evade. So many in fact, that it might be a little overwhelming at first. So this separate section is offered to provide further details on more advanced combat tactics that can be useful once you have the basics down.

Your combat skills are critical to your survival in Evochron Legends. Practice is the single best way to improve your chances and there are many tactics you can use for survival. For good practice, spend some time in Sapphire and pick fights with several friendly ships. Learn how hostile ships dogfight and develop some strategies to use against them. You will likely come up with your own style and unique combinations of offensive and defensive strategies. When you've finished practicing, exit the game and do NOT save (so you can keep your positive reputation in Sapphire). Below are some additional tactics and tips you can use.

One of the main elements of the game's universe related to combat is the ship detection and AI system. Stations have powerful scanners that can pick up every ship in a 1 sector radius and they report their results to the various companies, militaries, and factions in the area. Contracts are then generated based on the interests of those groups and the status of ships in the area. It's the reason for how you can be offered contracts for known locations of hostile ships. They can track you down and issue contracts against you and your fleet in the same way you get contracts for ships in the area that are hostile to you. If one hostile ship is in range, they can report your location to other hostile ships in the area, resulting in others joining in to attack you. So plan your travel routes carefully and remain far away from nearby stations if you want to reduce encountering hostile ships. Travel quickly and use your jump drive frequently to avoid giving hostile ships more time to call in reinforcements and plan tactics/contracts against you. When you're ready to engage in combat, the tactics below can be very useful.




Offensive Tactics
Offensive tactics can often include elements of defensive strategies combined with attack strategies to achieve success. One of the most important skills you can develop is dynamically adapting to a combat scenario using a wide range of both offensives and defensive tactics in order to achieve the best attack situation. This section will cover some effective techniques you can use when engaging an enemy spacecraft.


Wait for the Tactical Advantage
The biggest mistake most new pilots make is flying directly into a fight, guns blazing. This often results in a quick demise. Flying directly at an enemy ship makes you an extremely easy target and when you get hit by weapon fire, the impacts reduce your chance of successfully firing back. Instead, turn away from an inbound enemy so you place them near the corner of the screen, then turn off the IDS, turn to face the target, then fire when in range. A good time to fire missiles is when your opponent is passing by you at close range, leaving them less time to react with countermeasures. The zero gravity drifting will make it more difficult for your opponent's weapon tracking system to follow your movement, making you a much harder target to hit. Another option is to hold the maneuvering thruster keys/buttons to maintain the diagonal drifting without turning off the IDS. This will give you more of an immediate response when you release the thruster keys/buttons to prepare for another pass.


Avoid Enemy Spiraling
Enemy ships will often attempt to get above or below you and enter into a spiral evasion pattern. This is one of their most effective defenses, it can result in you wasting a lot of gunfire energy and fuel. And if you try to attack with missiles, you will likely miss. Both the MDTS and missile guidance systems have a difficult time tracking the spiral movement and the farther away the target is, the less effective those tracking systems will be since it leaves more time for the targeted ship to evade. Try to focus your attack when the target is moving in a more predictable path and avoid letting the target get directly above or below you, which can indicate they are planning to enter a spiral maneuver. Instead, try to remain level with the target using the drifting techniques described above.


Surprise Your Attacker
Turn the hunter into the hunted. If you are being followed by a hostile ship and have no obstacles ahead of you, you might want to attack flying backwards. There are a couple of ways to accomplish this. First, fly directly away from your attacker, keep your speed above 900 and allow the hostile ship to slowly get closer until they reach about 1000-1500 meters. Then turn off your IDS and turn around 180 degrees so you are flying backwards and pointed directly at the hostile ship. Secure a missile lock and fire before the hostile ship gets within gunfire range. If you don't have any missiles or don't want to waste any, use the same tactic, but when the hostile ship is at about 1000-1500 meters, point the nose of your fighter down by 90 degrees and hit your after burner for about 3-5 seconds. Then bring the nose of your fighter back up to target the hostile ship. With the IDS off, the afterburner move will give you plenty of downward momentum to make it much more difficult for the hostile ship to hit you with gunfire (you can perform the same downward slide with maneuvering thrusters, it will just take a lot longer to build up speed). And you will be in a great position for an attack once they get within 500 meters. You may need to activate certain thrusters to fine tune the maneuver so you can achieve the right momentum.


Use Your Allies
While friendly ships can sometimes join in to assist you when a hostile is nearby, this option becomes much more important and effective in war zones. It's usually best to jump to one side of a mission waypoint or apply a high level of drift before making the jump. This way, you will arrive far enough away from any enemy squadron or capital ship to avoid incoming fire. Each friendly military spacecraft will generally target one of the hostile ships at the waypoint. Give your allied ships time to engage with a few missiles, perhaps baiting the hostile ships into following you for a while to make them easier targets for the allied ships. Engage at long range with missile, but try to remain at high speed and far enough away to evade any missiles they may fire back at you. Watch for an opening to move toward a hostile ship using the diagonal drift method detailed above. Then repeatedly engage until the ships are destroyed. If an enemy capital ship is nearby, watch for blue beam cannon fire to hit it, which can often reduce its shield power temporarily, giving you an opportunity to cause more damage with a missile attack (or even guns if one or more shield arrays are in the red).


Attacking Capital Ships
Enemy capital ships, especially Vonari, can be the most challenging target to eliminate. They carry numerous missiles and are also armed with particle cannons and beam cannons. Their shields are extremely powerful and can usually deflect any incoming gunfire. The best way to attack these ships is with missiles to bring down shield arrays and then additional missiles or gunfire to inflict hull damage. Capital ships generally have strong defenses to their sides. They can use beam cannons to fire at ships or to shoot down incoming missiles and their particle cannons can also be fired at targets on either side. When attacking a capital ship, try to engage from directly behind, above, or below where the defenses are weaker. The ship can fire missiles at a target attacking from behind, but you can usually shoot them down before impact. Avoid attacking the ship from in front unless you have to since its forward velocity can result in giving you less time to attack. Use a powerful missiles for both shield and hull damage, Exodus are ideal for this and a full round of Excalibur missiles can also be effective. Once a shield array is red, engage with both guns and missile to inflict as much damage as possible before you have to change position or the array regains strength.


Defensive Tactics
Defense includes evading enemy fire and also working to prevent an enemy spacecraft from achieving an optimal attack situation. This section will cover a number of strategies to achieve these objectives.


Use Stations for Defense
The images above show one way you can use stations as a shelter against weapon attacks from either AI controlled ships or human controlled ships. The central circular structure inside the docking area can protect you from both weapon fire and missiles. Simply keep the attacking ship on the opposite side of the structure and they won't be able to hit you.

Also, most hostile AI ships will simply wait outside of the docking area until you exit and return to open space. They know entering the docking area could be dangerous for them as it leaves little room to maneuver. So they will often fly around just outside the docking area waiting for you. Use this to your advantage by plotting a jump point before you exit the docking area. Buying a station license gives you additional protection by ordering hostile AI ships to depart the area while you are docked.


Effective Missile Evasion
The image above shows one evasion technique for avoiding a missile fired head on. One of the most important principles of evading missiles is to turn away in order to give your countermeasures more time to detonate the missile. If a missile is fired at you from directly ahead and you are fairly far away, turn immediately to the left or the right, engage the afterburner to build up speed, then launch at least 4 or 5 countermeasures during the arch of your turn. As the missile begins to approach from behind, its closure speed will be far less than it was when you were flying directly at it, giving your countermeasures more time to act and giving you more time to launch more if the missile does not detonate. If you are a good shot, you can also attempt to shoot down the missile once it get within gun range, but this leaves you very little time to avoid the missile if you miss. Also consider the heat signature factor explained below.

Most missiles rely on heat detection for their guidance systems. So a ship's heat signature plays a big role in missile tracking. If you're engines are active, a missile will have an easier time retaining its lock. To improve the effectiveness of your countermeasures and reduce the chance a missile will hit you, turn off the IDS, cut your engines, then launch countermeasures. The combination of no engine exhaust with countermeasures can mean very little chance of getting hit by an inbound missile. When your heat signature is eliminated, you can often evade a missile with just one or two countermeasures. Planets are a more challenging environment for this strategy. Your ship often creates a constant heat signature when you are flying in planet atmospheres because your ship has to use its engine's constantly to maintain flight. In emergency situations, you can turn off the IDS and cut your engines to reduce your heat signature, but you will freefall due to gravity, so make sure you have enough altitude and you may want to practice this kind of maneuver.


Countering the Excalibur
One of the more challenging elements of gameplay in multiplayer is defending against the Excalibur missile pack. At first, it seems to be a very difficult weapon to counter, but the defensive strategies against it are deceptively simple. Here are several tactics that can keep you safe when encountering someone using this weapon.

The first scenario is if a player fires an Excalibur at you head-on. When flying toward the missiles, use your primary cannon to shoot down as many as you can while simultaneously launching countermeasures. It's best to also cut your engines and turn off the IDS to reduce your heat signature, which will make it more difficult for these heat sensing weapons to keep their lock. Don't be too concerned about not destroying all of the missiles, a hit from a few of them won't generally do much damage. This tactic also lets you keep your focus on the incoming ship so you can counter-attack quickly at closer range.

Next, if an Excalibur is fired at you from the side, maintain your course, turn off the IDS, then turn to face the incoming missiles. If your speed and distance from the missiles are high enough, increase your sideways velocity using the maneuvering thrusters only (which helps to keep your heat signature low by not activating your main engines). Launch countermeasures continually once the proximity alarm sounds and keep launching them until the missiles have been destroyed. The added sideways velocity will help keep you away from the missiles longer, giving the countermeasures more time to destroy the missiles. Pick off any missiles as needed with primary cannons if the countermeasures don't have enough time to be effective or if you run out of them.

If an Excalibur is fired at you from behind at close range, engage the afterburner. Turn off the IDS once your velocity exceeds cruise speed to maximize your acceleration. The missiles will already have a solid lock on you and your escape velocity is more important than the heat signature in this scenario. The goal is to increase the time before impact so you can launch more countermeasures. Excalibur missiles are very fast, so it's not generally recommended that you turn around and try to shoot them down since that wastes time you can use to increase your escape velocity. By the time you turn around, the missiles can move in much closer, leaving you very little time to shoot them down.

If you know your target will be using Excalibur missiles against you, try to never let your speed drop below 3000 MPS until they have exhausted one cycle of the weapon. Then move in as quickly as possible for a close range attack. Try to keep track of the next pending cycle of the weapon and if possible, keep your engagement at extremely close range to reduce the time they will have to obtain a missile lock. Keep them constantly turning and try to never let your movement slow enough for them to keep you in their gunsight long enough for the lock. It's even generally better to risk a collision to throw them off rather than allow your speed to drop long enough for them to get a lock. A collision can bounce you out of their gunsight and give you a chance to fire with your primary cannon, which also helps in preventing a missile lock.

If you're at point blank range, evading an Excalibur becomes much more difficult. So avoid letting a player using the Excalibur to get in close, try to keep them at a distance of at least 500 meters or more until they've exhausted the weapon, then move in for a closer counter-attack.

With some practice, you'll soon find that the Excalibur is not as intimidating of a weapon as it seems at first. Each missile does very little damage, it consumes all 8 hardpoints (so you know your opponent won't be able to fire anything else at you), it leaves the firing ship without any secondary weapons for 30 second intervals, and it risks causing damage to other allied ships they may not want to hit. Many players try to use it in multiplayer matches, but its effectiveness is limited against a skilled pilot. In fact, you can often find that an opponent is easier to engage when they are forced to fight with the limitations of this weapon.


Countermeasures Require Skill
How you use countermeasures is critical to their effectiveness. CM's are basically an ECM type device that drops behind and below your ship slightly. Missiles will usually travel fast enough to get very close to you before the CM's can trick them into exploding. It usually takes 3-5 CM's to bombard a missile with enough radiation/energy to get it to explode before it hits you. CM's can point their focused energy signals at any missile in a 360 degree range, but they need time for their beam of energy to cut through a missile. If a missile is heading straight for you and you're moving forward at it, then you're leaving less time for the CM's to work. Best advice in that situation is to launch the CM's early (before the proximity alarm rings) to give 3-5 units enough time to hit the missile with focused energy and cause it to explode before it hits you.


Understanding the Physics Involved
Realistic physics bring many challenges to the realm of space combat. But it can also give you new techniques to use for success. Probably the single most important rule in space combat is avoid flying straight in at your target. Doing so makes you an easy incoming target for any hostile ship. Instead, you need to approach your target at an angle. To do this, point the nose of your ship away from your target, but keep the target in your visible range on-screen (or just slightly off-screen). Hit your afterburner to build up speed to about 800-1200, if needed. Then disable the IDS (Inertial Dampening System, default space-bar) at a range of about 700-900 meters. Turn and face the target and make sure the combined speed of your sideways slide and forward momentum still exceeds 700 (otherwise, you might not move out of the way of incoming gunfire fast enough). You may want to manually activate thrusters to increase your speed further, if needed. Once you are in range, open fire. Hostile ships will have a much more difficult time hitting you with gunfire when you are flying at an angle like this.


Speed is Life, Use the Fuel
As indicated in the previous tactic, speed is life. Try to never let your overall speed drop below at least 700 (to verify, quickly add speeds indicated on your '/\ \/' and '< >' slide indicators along with your main 'VEL:' speed gauge). In just about all other areas of the game, it's good to conserve fuel. But combat is where you need to use it and that's really what you are conserving it for. Don't be afraid to use your afterburner and maneuvering thrusters frequently to help keep your speed high and obtain good attack positions. Staying alive is much more important then worrying about your next fuel stop. Just avoid entering any fight if you have less then about 100 units of fuel on board. If you're under 100 or so, it's probably better to use a few units of it to jump to a place you can refuel unless you're confident you can destroy the hostile ship(s) very quickly.


When Not In Combat, Save the Fuel
When you don't need high speed and rapid maneuvering, accelerate and decelerate slowly while also turning slowly (the less you hear your thrusters fire, the less fuel you're burning). Turn off the IDS before you engage the jump drive, then leave it off until you need to slow down. Saving fuel can greatly improve the profit you make on trade runs and contracts.


Effects of Mass
Some players consider heavier frames less effective in combat due to their lower agility and slower top speed. However, they do have several important advantages. Their heavier mass allows them to react less to weapon impacts, allowing you to better maintain centering your target in the gunsight when under attack. You can also greatly offset the lower agility by installing higher class wing/thruster systems.

If you are struggling with the agility of your ship and want a minor boost in agility, you can jettison your cargo bay to reduce the overall mass of your ship slightly and improve maneuverability.


Plan Your Escape
Keep an escape route logged into your navigation computer. Be prepared for an emergency departure by selecting a remote area on the nav map before engaging in battle. In many dogfights, you may find yourself facing a steady stream of reinforcements and having an escape plan can help keep you alive if things don't go your way. If you've sustained critical damage or your shield is dangerously low, hit F2 to jump to your escape point. Try to select a nebula cloud or asteroid field for added protection, if possible. Also, a cannon relay upgrade can help with such escapes as it provides much needed energy to help keep the jump drive ready.


Avoid Atmosphere Combat When Possible
Avoid atmosphere dogfights. Your ship is a flying brick and you'll be much more vulnerable at the slow speeds and limited maneuverability caused by atmosphere flight. Clear a safe path before entering an atmosphere, then stay near space until you know the area is safe for descent and docking. The descent guide boxes do more then just point you to a city. They provide a safe path that helps keep you at higher altitudes so you can quickly fly back into space if a hostile ship gets in range.


Using Momentum
If you get stuck in a face-to-face attack situation with a hostile ship, you can quickly alter the attack into using momentum for evasion. Immediately after the first fly-by, pull up at a medium rate and hit the afterburner. As you reach the 90 degree mark, you'll be adding a lot of momentum in sliding perpendicular to your original direction. At some point between about 120 and 180 degrees (just before facing your target), you'll want to stop the afterburner and turn off the IDS. This will allow you to continue your slide at a high enough speed to evade incoming gunfire and counter-attack.


Reverse Thrusters Can Use the Afterburner
A useful tactic to know is your reverse thrusters on afterburner provide nearly the same level of power as your main forward afterburner. Hold the reverse thrust key/button down and hit your afterburner to greatly increase the power of your reverse thrusters. If you ever need to back up in a hurry or increase reverse speed, this option can come in very handy.


Rapid Atmosphere Descents for Cover
Need to make a quick descent? Because your ship is basically a flying brick, you can use its high drag to your benefit when making a planetary descent. When flying into an atmosphere nose first, it takes a long time to slow down to safe speeds when approaching at anything over about 1500 MPS. But if you change your descent angle, the drag can make the process much faster. Just as early space shuttles would lift the nose to expose a larger surface area on descent, you can also use a nose up approach to slow your ship down much faster. To do this safely, point the nose of your ship about 30-45 degrees down from the horizon of the planet (in many cases, you can even fly directly at the planet) and roll so you are level with the horizon. You can approach at just about any speed you want (even speeds over 2000), your shield will protect you from serious damage when doing this approach. When the alert for the gravity field occurs, lift the nose of your ship until your forward velocity gauge reads about 750-800. Your downward slide gauge should now be reading close to what your forward velocity gauge displayed before you pulled the nose up. As soon as you hit the upper atmosphere, you will slow down dramatically. The faster your initial speed, the lower your altitude will be when you reach safe speeds (so if you want to reach the city docking port faster, approach the planet at higher speeds). Once the burning cycle completes, your forward velocity will remain in the safe zone and you can then fly in any desired direction. This does take some practice, but it works well if you're trying to race another ship to a city or if you need atmosphere cover quickly.


Get to the Waypoint Quickly
When you accept a contract, avoid wasting time heading to the waypoint. The longer you take getting to the waypoint, the more time you give hostile forces to call in reinforcements. If you take long enough, you may encounter enemy reinforcements before you even reach the waypoint. Also, capital ships won't wait around indefinitely for you to deliver cargo to them. Try to make it to the waypoint as fast as you can. You may also want to use the jump drive to minimize the time you give hostile forces to anticipate your arrival and attempt intercepting you.


Limited Directional Tracking
You can run away from hostile ships much faster by travelling at high speed and turning off your IDS. While flying directly away at over 3000 with the IDS off can allow you to slowly escape, you can use other techniques to escape faster. Other ships can only monitor your forward velocity, so flying in a sideways direction can often cause them to slow down when they observe your forward velocity decrease. To maximize your escape rate, turn away from the ship(s) you want to escape from and increase your speed to 2000 or more. Turn off the IDS, then turn or pitch 90 degrees so your indicated forward velocity is near 0. The hostile ship(s) will usually slow down when they observe your forward velocity decrease.


Multiplayer Ships Can be Distracted
Multiplayer AI controlled ships are more intelligent then their single player counterparts. They have the ability to change targets as needed and can track your movement better. Overall, multiplayer AI ships think and act more like human players. Hiding in a nebula cloud can only really be effective against them if you can escape before they spot you on radar. If they see you go into the nebula cloud, then they will often attempt to follow you in and look for you. It's best to try and distract them away from where you want to go, then use the jump drive to travel to your destination.


Friendly Ships Can Join in the Fight
When in combat, remember to use your allies. If your reputation provides some friendly ships in the area, you may want to fly near them for assistance. Green level ships may decide to help you out if they see you are fighting a hostile ship and are nearby. You can then bait the hostile ship into a vulnerable position for a friendly ship to attack it. Combining forces and using your reputation can improve your success in combat.





4. Business Strategies and Tips


Forming business strategies can be just as important as your skill in combat. To master the game, you'll need to explore for the best trade routes, learn effective negotiating techniques, build skills in mining and recovery of resources, save fuel, and reduce other expenses such as ship damage and fees. This section will give you some tactics to use to achieve these goals.

Expenses and Profit
Saving credits and earning more is often achieved by a combining a series of strategies that involve everything from how to complete a task more effectively to ways of avoiding costly combat. Each strategy can provide a way to save or earn money and when combined, you can often achieve even better results. Here are some important business strategies to keep in mind.

Buy A License To Improve Profit
Once you become wealthy, you might want to consider purchasing a station license. Once you buy a license, you can grab any commodities, equipment, or weapons you want from a station at a discount of 25%. You'll still have to pay full price for fuel and building ships while items you give to the station will be sold at the reduced price. But getting weapons, commodities, and equipment at a discount can provide a major financial benefit in the long run. Owning a station license also removes any docking fees you would normally have to pay in that system and the station will protect you from hostile ships while you are docked. Choose the system carefully when investing in a license, make sure it carries the items you will be most interested in and is not at a location you will want to use for profitable selling.

While buying a station license does not eliminate or reduce the costs for renting a hangar, it can greatly lower your costs to access that hangar if you purchase one in a system that is 'Moderate' or 'Hostile' where docking fees will apply.

Avoid Expensive Mistakes
Evochron Legends lets you make numerous gameplay decisions, letting you pursue your fortune in a variety of ways with contracts or by pursuing your own objectives. There are many rewards for players who 'think outside the box' and come up with unique ways to succeed and advance in the game. But some options can actually hinder your potential to advance. One method to avoid is contract failure. Some players may think they can earn some quick credits by accepting transport contracts, then stealing the cargo they are given to deliver. In the short term, this can earn some quick credits, but in the long run it can cost you a lot by making it much more difficult to earn larger amounts of money later in the game. The drawback is that it marks your contract service record with a failure and you are not given profile credit for completing the contract. The long term effect of doing this repeatedly is that your per contract pay won't go up because your reputation for completing contracts is bad. You are rewarded for a positive reputation by commanding a higher fee for your services. So in the short term, you'll take what they give you for some quick credits, but in the long run, it can cost you a lot of contract money.

Another expensive mistake is wasting resources. If you spend a lot in fuel to travel from one location to another for a trade, you can sometime lose much of the profit you think you are making. Some players make the mistake of travelling to a high paying system for a particular commodity, but they spend tens of units of fuel to get there, then buy fuel from that far more expensive market, costing them much of their profit. So plan your trade routes carefully and make sure to include travel costs in your profit calculations.

Safe Docking In Hostile Systems
Eliminate nearby hostiles before you dock. Make the area safe to begin with, then dock quickly and complete any desired trades. Jump as close as you can to the station just before docking (X, Y + 1500, Z station coordinates). If you right mouse click on a station displayed on the nav map, your computer will automatically plot the waypoint directly to the station's docking hangar. It takes time for hostiles to call in reinforcements to join the fight, so the sooner you dock, the more time you often get before too many hostiles show up. Use the station itself for protection. While docked, fly around the central hangar pylon and use it for cover (see the Defensive Tactics section above). Keep the hostiles on the opposing side and their weapons won't be able to hit you. Buy the station, ownership means protection. Reducing encounters with hostile ships can help keep your costs down by reducing fuel use and avoiding expensive ship repairs.

Don't Give Up On Multiple Item Trades
Sometimes an AI ship may change their mind about a trade, especially if you add several fairly high value items at once in the trade console. They'll see how much more money they are offering, then when you submit your request, they may decide to reject it. You can often convince them to trade if you submit one high value item at a time, then the money they offer for the trade won't seem quite so high and they'll agree.

Mining For Maximum Profit
Avoid recovering less valuable material. Generally, platinum is the best material to mine, unless market conditions temporarily place diamonds as the most valuable (check the news console for commodity market values). So when mining, continually discard metal (and other low value materials) as desired until all bays are filled/filling with platinum or diamonds. Once they start to fill with a particular commodity, the mining system will restrict each bay to only recover that type of commodity, making it easy to continually recover a desired material. You can then continually mine until all bays are full. Panning the mining beam will generally doubling the rate of recovering particles from asteroids. Mining faster can be very useful in hostile systems that may pay better for mined materials, but are risky to sit in one place very long.

You can pre-prime your cargo bays by buying or leaving only 1 unit of an item in each cargo bay, then travel to an asteroid field to mine. This lets you recover only the material you want while mining. To buy or sell individual units of items at a time, use right click instead of left click.

Faster Asteroid Clearing
Here's a tip for easier/faster shipping path clearing contracts that require you to destroy asteroids. Head to Rucker and look for a contract to clear a shipping path. Once you accept the contract, you don't even have to fly to a waypoint. Since most of the sector has asteroids in it and the station is placed in the middle of the cluster of asteroids, you will automatically be credited with reaching the waypoint. So all you need to do at this point is locate some asteroids nearby and destroy them. It's usually easiest to turn to a heading of 45, 135, 225, or 315 and a pitch of +/- 45, then fly in that direction until you reach the next nearest cluster of asteroids. This way, you don't have to use the fuel needed to make a jump and you can easily find enough asteroids to meet the conditions of the contract. Since the system also has a moderate economy level, you'll make a decent amount of credits and avoid encountering the high number of enemies usually encountered in hostile systems.

Diverse Contract Options
Systems that you have a Good or Hostile reputation in will offer the least variety of contract types. Systems that you have a Fair or Moderate reputation in will offer the widest variety of contract types. If you prefer a mix of peaceful and combat objectives, focus on Fair and Moderate systems. Be careful to select contracts offered by factions you want to be on good terms with. See the reputations section above for more details.

Conduct Business in Hidden Systems
Hidden systems and planets are often where the wealthiest trade locations and economies are. Such locations often offer advanced weapons and technology not commonly found in more populated systems. Because of their remote locations, these locations often pay premium prices for commodities/equipment and enjoy a high level of privacy. However, they are often very protective of their wealth and privacy, so dealing with hostile ships is usually expected when travelling to hidden locations. While there are hundreds of hidden solar systems in the game, many with advanced technology and high wealth, a few hidden planets are close enough to charted systems to be fairly easy to reach. In the Aries system, a hidden planet is at -3588 SX, 2028 SZ. In the Cerulean System, a hidden planet is at 2488 SX, 2128 SZ. In the Pearl System, a hidden planet is at 3588 SZ, -1808 SZ. In the Deneb system, a hidden planet is at 3588 SX, -3488 SZ. A wormhole to Al's Quay is available in the Sapphire system at 18 SX, -18 SZ.

Reload Your Fleet's Secondary Weapons
The game intentionally uses exiting the game as a way for fleet ships to reload. This provides a somewhat realistic requirement that while on duty for you, your fleet ships aren't able to pursue their own interests and fly off to reload. But when you exit the game, they return to their pursuits and can reload their weapons, change/upgrade their ships, and continue completing contracts or other activities. Then when they report to duty the next time you start the game, they are fully armed again and ready for combat. There are several ways around this, depending on how much of a spoiler you want to use. First, you can travel close to a station, then dismiss one or more fleet ships. There is a moderate chance they will choose to dock with the station and reload. Once they complete the docking cycle and turn away from the docking area, have them rejoin the fleet. There is some risk involved with this method as they may decide to jump away. If they decide not to dock, you can just have them rejoin the fleet immediately. The other method is to save, then self-destruct, then respawn which will auto-reload their weapons.



Contract Values
Contract values are calculated using several factors. The system's economy, player reputation, player rating, and number of hostile ships are used to establish the base value for a given contract. The base calculation for contract values is listed below:

ContractPrice = (((SystemEconomyLevel*1000)*PlayerReputation)+(PlayerRating*100))+(NumberOfHostiles*(5000.0*(1.0+(SystemEconomyLevel*0.1))))

From there, adjustments are made based on the contract type, value of cargo involved (if applicable), and other factors. Reductions are applied for simple contract types, including delivery, returning an item to a station, and locating a lost item. Reduction values for each of these contract types are 0.55, 0.7, and 0.5 respectively.

Combat contracts are often the most valuable, especially in moderate and hostile systems where the number of enemies are usually higher for contracts. Additional pay is given for contracts that involve a capital ship, nearly double the base value credit for the number of hostile ships. However, the increased value for combat contracts simply help offset the higher cost of operations for using more fuel and weapons. So consider these expenses when determining which contracts to accept as non-combat contracts can actually be more profitable in a variety of situations.



Economy Types and Values
The economies in Evochron are based on several types of industries, which are linked to the nearest planet in the system. Planets are treated as the population, market, and economic centers in the game and the economy factors they have determine the type of inventory and pricing available throughout a system, including nearby stations. Planets themselves generally provide about 50% more value for commodities delivered to them than nearby stations, so you can often make a few credits within a system by completing trade runs from stations to planets. This can offer a profitable way to safely earn credits early in the game. Also, some planets in the same solar system might pay more overall.

Economies are divided into 5 sub categories and a general category. A general economy planet has a market structure that typically includes many different types of commodities and pricing is largely based on the overall economic conditions of the system. An agricultural economy creates an abundance of food, so the prices are generally very low for that commodity. An industrial economy will often pay a premium for raw metal ore and provide low prices for machined components. A technology economy will usually pay very little for electronic equipment, since they create most of what they need themselves, but will pay high prices for materials needed to produce them, including diamonds and platinum. A bio-research economy can be a good place to buy meds at low prices, then sell in other economies for profit. An energy economy can be a good place to buy hydrogen cells, solar cells, anti-matter cells, and fusion cells at low prices. The type of economy for each planet will be displayed after its name on the nav map, G is for a general economy, A for agricultural, I for industrial, T for technology, B for bio-research, and E for energy.

The type of economy also effects what kind of items will often be available. Items that are produced by a particular economy will generally be added to the inventory pool more often (about 1/3 of the time for stations and about 1/2 of the time for planets) and are often inexpensive. Buying low priced items from locations they are produced in, then transporting them to systems where they are in demand can be one of the most profitable ways to trade in the game. Pricing adjustments for various economy types are listed below. Also be sure to read the global economy level factor in the next paragraph as an additional consideration for overall price levels in a system.

Economy Type: Agricultural
- Food values are generally 50-75% lower.

Economy Type: Industrial
- Metal values are generally 500-950% higher.
- Machinery components are generally 50-75% lower.

Economy Type: Technology
- Electronics values are generally 50-75% lower.
- Diamond values are generally 150-250% higher.
- Platinum values are generally 350-550% higher.

Economy Type: Bio Research
- Medical Supplies values are generally 50-75% lower.

Economy Type: Energy
- Hydrogen Cell values are generally 50-75% lower.
- Solar Cell values are generally 50-75% lower.
- Antimatter Cell values are generally 50-75% lower.
- Fusion Cell values are generally 50-75% lower.


In addition to specific item pricing, the global economy market level is also a factor in determining the overall values of items in a system. Both factors (economy type and level) should be taken into consideration when planning trade routes. Changing inventories and price fluctuations can also impact the profitability of trade routes, although usually to a more minor degree. Below is a map showing the overall market levels for the charted systems in Evochron.



Trade Market Level Map






5. Secrets and Hidden Benefits


The game includes many hidden benefits. Some are gameplay related, such as discovering how to sell fuel for profit, while others involve exploration and discovery for particular objects, such as locating beacons and containers. This section will cover some of the hidden benefits and the options you can use to discover them. Much of what is provided in this section can spoil the challenge of the game significantly, so if you want to learn the secrets of the game on your own, then you may want to avoid this section.

Gameplay and Cargo
This first section reveals some methods on locating hidden cargo containers and detecting/recovering valuable items that are normally not easily detectable.

Cargo Container Tracking
One of the most effective ways to advance early in the game is to locate hidden containers, which carry items stored by local factions for later retrieval and are continuously replenished. The most effective method to hunt for hidden containers in the game is to hire a science ops specialist. Once hired, a science ops crew member can report the heading and pitch of nearby containers. The more skilled they are, the more often they will be able to provide direction information. Once you know the heading and pitch, you can often fly directly to them. If you're far away, then precision may be more difficult and you may need to jump out of the sector, then back in at different location to plot multiple pathways and pinpoint where the containers are located. You can make the process easier by marking your arrival points on the nav map using the map log. You can then visually triangulate the location once you get three points, narrowing down the area you need to search.

Scanning Without a Scanner
You can determine if a yellow threat level ship is carrying something in its cargo bay without a scanner by sending a trade request. If the ship rejects your trade request, it is likely carrying something it doesn't want to consider selling to you. If you enjoy hunting AI ships for valuable cargo, this is a way to detect cargo in a ship without having to give up an equipment slot for a cargo scanner.

Search the Caves
Asteroid caves make great hiding places and you can find several hidden benefits in them. Whether it's a fuel generator, containers, or even an entire station hidden inside, caves are a great place to find free items. There is some risk involved, so you'll want to practice flying through the tight channels of asteroid caves. It takes some practice to recognize which channels are large enough to pass through and which ones risk crushing your ship.

Andromeda
As the beacon quest hints at, there is more to this system than may appear at first. This is one game secret that isn't given away in this guide and may be something that is revealed at a later date. But for some basic benefits it also offers, you can find a few containers with valuable goods and a unique location with a continually 'replenishable' supply of some of the most powerful and unique items available in the game. To return home, the artifact left there can be operated to transport you to any of the four sections of the Evochron quadrant.



Hidden Planet Locations

Aries
Sector X = -3588
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = 2028
Cerulean
Sector X = 2488
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = 2128
Virgo
Sector X = 720
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = -1245
Pearl
Sector X = 3588
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = -1808
Deneb
Sector X = 3588
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = -3488





Beacon Quest Walkthrough (Arvoch Conflict Artifact)

Beacon 1 - 'Introduction'
Located next to where you start the game. It provides a summary of events regarding the Gerrett brothers and the discovery of a device/artifact found during the Arvoch Conflict. It instructs the player to bring at least 15 units of electronics to the next beacon located near the Y coordinate level of -14100 on the planet Erato II.

Beacon 2 - 'Symbols'
Symbols are discovered on the device, apparently star charts. The player is instructed to travel to the rings of Fauston, away from the nearby star, and to be in a Saber class frame for the next beacon to activate.

Beacon 3 - 'Surprise Attack'
A surprise attack results in the Alliance carrier engaging the device without planning, just to escape. They arrived somewhere in Pearl and the next beacon, placed near Research Alpha, requires the player to have at least 15 units of platinum in their cargo bay.

Beacon 4 - 'Reducing Power'
This beacon describes an attempt to reduce the power to the device to see if it could be better controlled. A successful test resulted in a jump to nearby Rucker where the next beacon is placed near the star in that system. It is set to activate if the player is flying a Striker class frame.

Beacon 5 - 'Range Control'
The research team had successfully learned to control the device's range and they travelled to Sierra as part of their next test. The next beacon is placed on the surface of the planet near the X coordinate -50000 on the permanent night side. The player is instructed to make sure they boost power to their shield system to avoid the crushing pressure of the planet's atmosphere. The beacon will activate when it detects at least 15 biological units in the player's cargo bay.

Beacon 6 - 'Star Links'
Here the team discovered a common link with the symbols on the device and the systems they were travelling through. The symbols were apparently star class types. This discovery let the team select a destination by lining up a system's star class with a symbol. Their next test took them to Orion where the next beacon is placed inside an asteroid there. The beacon is set to activate if it detects a fuel converter installed on the player's ship.

Beacon 7 - 'First Controlled Test'
A specific destination was entered in the device and the carrier successfully arrived in Deneb. The next beacon is placed on the surface near the Y coordinate 1450. The beacon will activate if it detects an Excalibur missile pack installed on the player's ship.

Beacon 8 - 'Vonari Secret'
Other symbols were present on the device and represented more distant locations. A test with one of them took the carrier to the Vonari home system, bypassing the previous long distance route through RiftSpace. The Alliance established a hidden base in this system and instructed the crew of the carrier to continue with their tests. The next beacon is placed one sector to the right of the hidden base and will activate when it detects an active stealth device.

Beacon 9 - 'Lost in Deep Space'
The research team activates the next alternate symbol and at this point, all communication with the ship is lost. A massive distortion in space is created and the carrier is pulled into it. The distortion eventually forms a black hole, which the player must figure out a way to use in order to proceed to the next location. The black hole is located 20 sectors up on the SZ coordinate.

Beacon 10 - 'Andromeda'
This beacon displays a summary of events surrounding the rescue of the carrier's crew and how they returned home. A hint is given that there may be more to this system than first appears and informs the player that the carrier has valuable parts on it.





Beacon Quest Walkthrough (Hunt for RiftSpace)

Beacon 1 - 'Rings of ice hide from the light.'
Located on the planet Sapphire. The clue points to the icy rings of the planet Glacia. Hiding from the light indicates the next beacon is on the dark side of the planet, away from the system's star. Some free commodities are available in containers nearby (watch for the purple blip on the 3D radar).

Beacon 2 - 'Between Cygnus and Olympus Prime, lost in a sea of blue.'
The clue indicates the next beacon is in the Fauston system, between Cygnus and Olympus Prime. This can be seen by viewing the quadrant map. 'Lost in a sea of blue' indicates the beacon is located in the large blue nebula cloud in Fauston.

Beacon 3 - 'Paired with Onyx -> _n _he f__e o_ _i_e_.'
This partial clue needs to be combined with the beacon clue in Onyx. This part of the message contains about half of the characters for the clue 'In the fire of Pices.'

Beacon 4 - 'Paired with Fauston -> I_ t__ _ir_ _f p_c_s.'
This partial clue needs to be combined with the beacon clue in Fauston. This part of the message contains about half of the characters for the clue 'In the fire of Pices.'

Beacon 5 - 'senots piks tnod, rekcur, \/ 2, 10200, 9250, 10050'
This clue has two parts, the first is a sentence written backwards, 'rucker, don't skip stones.' Once in the Rucker system, the second part of the clue applies and are coordinates for the next beacon. The '\/ 2' part indicates you need to travel 2 sectors down from the central Rucker sector, then travel to the coordinates 10200, 9250, 10050.

Beacon 6 - 'slot ni eth dovi, FAAAA JFAA FAAAA'
This clue includes a scrambled sentence and coded coordinates. The sentence is 'lost in the void' and the coordinates are 50000, 9500, 50000, represented by each letter starting with A for 0. This is the one clue that doesn't point directly to another beacon, but instead a wormhole to the area described as 'the void.' Once in the void area, you must look around in all directions to locate the next beacon.

Beacon 7 - 'Given to Sirius, hidden in the 'base'.'
This clue includes multiple definitions of the word 'base.' Not only is the beacon at the base in Sirius, but it is at the 'base' of the base.

Beacon 8 - 'Gateway is near, verdant negative guides the way.'
This clue indicates the quest is almost finished. Verdant is the color green and indicates the next system to travel to is Emerald. Verdant negative indicates that the last beacon is located at the negative coordinates of 'verdant', or the planet Emerald.

Beacon 9 - 'E L T O S R (+)'
This is the last and most challenging clue. ELTOSR indicates all of the charted systems in the lower left section of the Evochron Quadrant, Emerald, Lambda, Thuban, Orion, Sirius, and Rigel. The (+) symbol indicates that the gateway is located in the middle of the circle formed by the listed systems. However, careful calculations need to be done to obtain the correct location. Just averaging the values will not provide the right sector coordinates, the vertical offset of -400 for Lambda needs to be taken into consideration. Also, focus should be given to the absolute edge of the circular shape formed by the systems, not just an average of all of the coordinates.

Beacon Locations (Arvoch Conflict Artifact)

Beacon 1
Sector X = 0
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = 0
Position X = -1450
Position Y = 1500
Position Z = -24900
Beacon 2
Sector X = -9
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = 7
Position X = 84500
Position Y = -14090
Position Z = 58100
Beacon 3
Sector X = -500
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = 802
Position X = 17000
Position Y = -9900
Position Z = -80000

Beacon 4
Sector X = 3501
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = -1800
Position X = 0
Position Y = 0
Position Z = 0
Beacon 5
Sector X = 1801
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = -1999
Position X = -8700
Position Y = -150
Position Z = 9100
Beacon 6
Sector X = -2200
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = 3500
Position X = -52000
Position Y = 0
Position Z = 720

Beacon 7
Sector X = -1000
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = -2400
Position X = 48210
Position Y = 1970
Position Z = -69400
Beacon 8
Sector X = 3500
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = -3500
Position X = -82180
Position Y = 1450
Position Z = 55550
Beacon 9
Sector X = 1001
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = 4999
Position X = -50000
Position Y = 1000
Position Z = 25000

Beacon 10
Sector X = 2000
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = 28000
Position X = -50000
Position Y = 50000
Position Z = -40000




Beacon Locations (Hunt for RiftSpace)

Beacon 1
Sector X = 0
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = 0
Position X = -25500
Position Y = 5000
Position Z = 12750
Beacon 2
Sector X = 2
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = 3
Position X = 57000
Position Y = -5000
Position Z = 85000
Beacon 3
Sector X = -500
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = 802
Position X = -51000
Position Y = -2500
Position Z = 24000

Beacon 4
Sector X = 3500
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = 1000
Position X = -51000
Position Y = -2500
Position Z = 24000
Beacon 5
Sector X = 1800
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = -299
Position X = 78000
Position Y = 0
Position Z = 78000
Beacon 6
Sector X = 1800
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = -2002
Position X = 10200
Position Y = 9250
Position Z = 10050

Beacon 7
Sector X = 1820
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = -1980
Position X = 55000
Position Y = 9000
Position Z = 55000
Beacon 8
Sector X = -2300
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = -3700
Position X = 0
Position Y = -3000
Position Z = 0
Beacon 9
Sector X = -3200
Sector Y = 0
Sector Z = -550
Position X = -50000
Position Y = 5000
Position Z = -70000


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