Hey all,

It sounds like we should be learning soon about the new Galactic War season, and so I've taken a first pass at updating my spreadsheet so you can look for where to farm influence, alloy, credits, and where the relics are.

I've updated all the masteries as well.

There may be a few occupation bonuses that have changed without me noticing, in which case I welcome all feedback.

Here it is, for you to enjoy as we start the new season!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i7VAaPROzgcWakYzyzKQllCg4kgcLUVtMxD1HnD2Kj4/edit?gid=45535462#gid=45535462

The Home Stretch: Season Zero Ends Sunday August 2nd

Hey Everyone, so we're entering the final days of season zero of Galactic War, and I wanted to put together a guide so that anyone joining now can make the most efficient use of their time. I won't go into the in-game strategy options here, as this guide will be long enough already (though honestly play Galavax + Anyone and you'll do great, even double Galavax), but I'll discuss the most efficient way to hit commander level 12, with your best chance of getting items and some extra credits to spend on them, followed by a few points of discussion about strategy in Galactic Conquest. So, let's begin.

TLDR

Grind Galactic Zenith until Level 12 and 3 Items, Upgrade Your Best Item(s) then Take Homewolds if you can, core worlds if you cannot.

There. That's for those who don't like to read more than a paragraph. Galactic Zenith (GZ) is the only system that gives you all of the following: increased item drop chance, increased credits (for upgrading item), increased influence, and "increased energy" (not that energy does anything that we know of at the moment). Plus, right now it has a mutator too if you're looking for extra experience. The only thing it doesn't have going for it is it's mastery bonus isn't particularly impactful. Hero health and shields or hero damage are likely more impactful masteries. But everything else it has makes up for it in my opinion.

The Galactic War Spreadsheet

For the rest of you, I'll get into the nitty gritty here, and to assist with that, I've created a spreadsheet for Galactic War that you can check out here.

A few things to note:

1. The amount of any occupation bonus varies from one system to another (mastery bonuses are always the same amount for that bonus).
2. What the map calls "core worlds" the war scoring guide calls "middle systems".
3. For "Home/Closest Faction", that isn't updated, it's just roughly which faction's homeworlds are closest to that system so you know where to look for it.

System Characteristics

As you can see by clicking on systems in the Galactic Map, or by checking out the spreadsheet linked above, each system ("planet", right now the two terms are used mostly interchangeably) has several different characteristics. These are:

1. System Name
2. Occupation Bonus
3. Mastery Bonus
4. System Type (Side, Core/Middle, and Homeworld)

And up to two additional characteristics:

1. Sometimes they have extra bonuses such as increased item drop chance, increased credits, increased influence, or increased energy, or in the case of the GZ, all of these at once.
2. Sometimes they have mutators, which add an extra challenge to the map, and increase XP gains by 25%.

Improving Your Power

There are Five ways to make your commander stronger currently:

1. Levelling him up to level 12.
2. Collecting and Equipping Items
3. Upgrading Items with Credits
4. Occupation Bonuses through your Faction taking Systems.
5. Mastery bonuses through grinding systems.

I list these roughly in order of importance. The biggest power spikes come from levelling the commanders, so that should be a first priority. Mastery bonuses are the most gradual, and will take the longest to acquire, so don't worry too much about them this weekend, but starting next season it might be worth grinding some specific masteries to make yourself more powerful. Items can definitely be a game changer though, but you can get them from any planet, it's just some planets have increased item drop chance, so if you don't have items currently, it might be best to prioritize those. Then upgrading the items can push that even further, but you need to get the items first. So, since GZ helps the first three of these, that's what I recommend grinding until it's time to push out. Next season you may wish to focus on masteries though, especially once you have the items you want and have upgraded them 5/5.

Team Galactic Strategy

The current write-up for how point scoring works is a bit confusing, as they call "core systems" "middle systems" and they refer to "your core systems" and "enemy core systems" when they mean "your homeworld systems" and "enemy core systems". So, if I were to re-write it based on what's displayed on the Galactic Map, here's how point scoring works:

War Score Rules:
Enemy Faction Homeworld systems you control at war end: +20 points each.
(Non-Homeworld) Core Systems you control at war end: 15 points each.
Your Faction Homeworld systems you control at war end: +10 points each.
Side Systems you control at war end: +5 Points Each
Pirates left in your alliance's systems at war end: -5 points each.
Influence Pool: +1 points per 100 000 unspent influence among your faction at war end.

In other words, if you're looking for most points per time right now, I'd mostly ignore side systems until next season. They're just not worth fighting over compared to the other systems.

Also, it costs you more fuel to travel through enemy faction territory than your own. Because of that, it's usually going to be better to make your way one planet at a time, rather than a sneak attack, as more of your faction will be able to join you. For similar reasons, taking chokepoints is a good idea.

Map-Specific Tips

Map	Description	Notes
Hillside	Defend against waves of enemies for four Day/Night Cycles	Pretty straightforward and fun defense map.
Advance	Escort the Sol Invictus as it moves through four locations to fight the Emperor at the end and self distruct.	Don't leave it alone and you should be good.
Blockade	Destroy Titan Dreadnaughts as they move towards the temples.	The bonus objectives can be deep in enemy territory on this one, so if you're looking to get full points you'll want a mobile force that can get back in position in time, or a lot of turrets guarding the temples.
Iron Shield	Defend against attack waves, and push out to destroy the portals.	It's mostly about killing the portals, I haven't seen the attack waves pose a significant threat to the city.
Fabricators	Destroy the fabricators which spawn waves of bots.	This mission is usually pretty easy but in the late game it can be challenging. Also note, if you get the revenge mutator this becomes an extremely difficult mission.
Seige	Destroy the shield generators so the mechs are vulnerable, then kill the mechs. You can collapse destructible rocks to divert the mechs and slow them down.	This mission is VERY counterintuitive. You MUST destroy the shield generators (where the mech spawns from) first before you can kill the mech. Leaving some defenses at home to help against the mech and handle attack waves is a good idea.
Retreat	Secure the skywing nests (2 per wave) before the fire drill reaches the lair, you still have to protect the lair while it evacuates.	This is the most counterintuitive map of all. But basically think of the fire drill as a timer, you gotta secure the nests before it reaches the lair. Alternatively, you CAN actually defeat the firedrill but it's very difficult. First, you have to take out it's shield generators in the far northeast. Then defeat two gigantic death waves that spawn once you take out the shield generators. Then you can kill the fire drill. Not recommended unless you really know what you're doing.
Scavenge	Take out the trains carrying flux and take out buildings for extra hexite. Once you've killed enough trains and buildings the saboteurs will spawn allowing you to take out the enemy base. AVOID THE TESLA TOWERS until the saboteurs have done their thing.	Really fun mission. Positioning towers between the two tracks will help a fair bit, and you can lure enemy attack waves to there if necessary as well.

Conclusion

Like I said, grind the GZ and then take homeworlds and core worlds. Basically I wanted to share with you my spreadsheet. If you see "Maddog" of the Eden Accord out there feel free to say hi. If people like this I can make a guide on different 2 player team compositions and builds, as I'm finding there's actually a lot more depth to that too than I had initially thought.

Overall I'm really enjoying this game mode. There's actually a ton more depth to it than meets the eye, and they're still actively adding systems such as the planetary buildings system and galactic war energy.

Happy Homeworld Hunting!