6. Shield Points are Your Friends
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• Boosting the shield values of your ships, through the tech tree or items in the early game, can greatly increase their survivability. There are many different defensive and offensive options for each ship type. But nothing helps a ship that gets mobbed by multiple enemies survive the encounter more than additional shield points, especially in the early game. The Boost Shield ability is available for most ships, and lets you fully recharge your shields with a single action. If you are struggling to stay alive, focus on shields.
7. Pay Attention to Terrain
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• Don’t take shots at enemy units in cover, and end your ships’ moves in spaces where they get cover. The accuracy boosts and penalties of cover make a very big difference. Shooting at enemy ships sitting behind cover will give you very low chances to hit and you will miss most of your shots. Move your ships so they can attack from an angle where the enemy isn’t protected by cover for much higher chances to hit. Cover works both ways. Try to end your own ship’s moves into spaces where they have cover from as many angles as possible.
8. Get Used to Utility Abilities
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• Utility Abilities like Thrusters, Dodge, and Targeting Computers can be very strong, so learn to use them early. All the non-damaging abilities award significant boosts to your ship for current (and sometimes future) turns. Recharging shields to full, boosting your move to escape enemies, increasing your dodge when there is not good cover available, or boosting your accuracy for several turns with Targeting Computers are all very powerful options that will let your fleet perform at maximum efficiency. Using all of your actions on attacks is not always the best tactic.
9. Taking Out Shields = An Extra Chance
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• If you drop an enemy’s shields, it will probably run away on its next turn and heal. Knocking out enemy shields can sometimes keep your ships alive. Enemy captains want to keep their crews alive as well. An AI ship that has its shields removed is likely to move into cover and recharge its shields. This will, at the very least, give it one less action to attack. If you have a ship surrounded by several enemies, sometimes the best way to live is to drop the shields on each enemy ship so they all run away and heal.
10. Pay Attention to Your Energy Stores
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• Running out of energy can get you in a no-win scenario. If you use too much energy deploying ships on easy missions, you can get into situations where you don’t have the resources to deploy a large enough fleet to beat a more difficult mission. Keep an eye on your energy levels and don’t deploy more ships than you need.