Infinite Space Insights: Time for Fireworks!

Infinite Space Insights: Time for Fireworks!

As part of my last Sea of Stars-related post of 2025, here's a photo album showing off some highlights of my most recent session:

Above, from top: In my last Sea of Stars session of 2025, I set the NPC fleet strength and nebular area to their maximum values in order to maximize my score. I started out by forging an alliance with the tiny Calatians and tearing the Ravian fleet to shreds.

I'd chosen the High setting for both Enemy Strength and Nebular Mass, to make it as challenging for myself as possible, and indeed it was very difficult early on, but less so in the later stages.

Above, from top: Taking on the might of the Urluquai, Tan Ru and Tchorak fleets was the most difficult part of this attempt - I almost lost my Terran capital ship (which was the only such vessel in my fleet) to a pair of Tan Ru Decimators carrying the same Particle Vortex cannon as my own ship - but it survived, and I went on to thrash the Urluquai fleet, ensuring that I could buy a Sardion Optimizer and a Plasma Coil Cloaker for unmatched effectiveness.

Following these initial struggles, things got somewhat easier from there, although I still had to be alert to avoid defeat in future engagements.

Above, from top: Late in the playthrough, I rescued the Calatian castaways, recruited a Zorg helmsman, visited the Zorg home system, and destroyed Primordius - the last of which after I'd converted a Timeless Bauble into a Nova Cannon, which made combat much easier.

There was little left for me to do but mop up any and all remaining hostile fleets, in addition to upgrading every single ship in my fleet as much as possible - without having to trade them in for larger ones. I even captured the sword-shaped capital ship Damocles (whose Anti-Graviton Shunt would've otherwise been necessary to reach the wormhole around which Primordius orbited - I'd found another example of that item to fit to one of my other capital ships before then) and, by the end of the game, had fully upgraded that vessel as well.

Above, from top: The end of this game was, quite frankly, anticlimactic - I'd upgraded all four of my capital ships (including the Damocles) so thoroughly that I didn't need to deploy any fighters. Although not shown on this post, I'd maxed out my earnings still further by selling off every lifeform that I'd found at Gamma Station for three times their normal price.

By the end of the game, my fleet composition was extremely formidable - and it wasn't just my Terran corvette (armed with a Nova Cannon) that played a part; the Zorg corvette Kuti (which inherited the Particle Vortex Cannon I'd acquired earlier on after I created said Nova Cannon from a Timeless bauble) participated in the capture of Damocles, a much larger vessel that, like the Calatian destroyer Thunderbucket, could've been deployed in combat, but in the end, weren't actually needed, considering that my other capital ships could destroy an entire fleet on their own.

Above, from top: With a fleet like this, you have four different capital ships capable of taking on an entire hostile fleet on their own - and usually winning (or always, in the case of the Terran corvette and Prince Arcturus' Damocles), even against overwhelming odds. Although the Damocles cannot be used in a custom scenario, its loadout can be replicated using any capital ship with at least two large turrets.

In short, this playthrough attempt ended up being an undisputed success, even though it appeared doomed to failure at first. I was literally seconds away from having the entirety of my fleet annihilated, but after that, I'd learned a key lesson and adapted my tactics and strategy to make later battles less difficult. Making savvy trades later on also helped, especially when delivering lifeforms to Gamma Station for maximum profit. Here's to a Happy New Year 2026 for all you Infinite Space commanders!