Noob Traps, or What Not To Do

Noob traps: what are they and how to avoid them?

noob

no͞ob/

noun

informal

a person who is inexperienced in a particular sphere or activity, especially computing or the use of the Internet.

In my very first post on Hades Star by Parallel Space, Inc, I gave a real fast and dirty rundown of tips for the game. Many of those tips were "don't do this or that."

This time we're going to elaborate on those tips.



What is a "noob trap" in Hades? Noob traps are pitfalls that players can fall into, thinking they're doing the right thing and it ends up costing them in the long run. This is most often the case with newer players, but even experienced Hades Star commanders get caught up sometimes.

The first and worst trap to fall into is not expanding your system enough. In Hades Star, hydrogen (or purple gas as it is often called) is necessary for everything. Without fuel, there's no ships moving. This means you aren't progressing, as you're not getting income.

Fuel = Credits

Many new players get discouraged when they spend 30k to reveal sectors that are empty. But that's the wrong line of thinking. All sectors are good, and empty sectors have higher asteroid spawns per sector than those which have planets.



The second major trap is forgetting that Hades Star is intended for exceptionally long term game play.

Hades Star developers have taken the opposite stance of standard mobile game apps. The game isn't a money grab. Spending you real life income on in game currency in order to accelerate your development is really going to be a waste.

Note that I am not saying to forego buying crystals. This is absolutely a game you should support with some currency buys, I suggest the $5 start pack and the $20 crystal pack, specifically. The best use of your crystals is actually to save them, a few hundred on hand is perfect. Eventually you are going to run out of hydrogen whilst far away from home in a red star. An emergency fuel boost via crystals will save that 100,000 credit cost fleet.

Next trap is Influence: don't get caught up with it. Hades Star Influence is a shiny, epeen, ego inflating personal score. But Hades Star Influence is not a currency, it is not an accurate representation of fleet composition, system progress, or tech advancement. If you spend any time in red stars, you will quickly max out your influence.

You will notice that many corporations have a minimum influence requirement to join - this is just to filter out brand new players and alt accounts.

Any commander who is active in red stars will spend the large portion of their Hades Star career at the influence cap. The influence cap for each tier of red stars is actualy quite low. So don't worry about getting the max influence from each run, and don't be afraid to abandon a red star and take an influence hit. Sometimes RNGeesus is just a prick and it's better to reroll.



So, the above are the three traps pretty much all players fall into. Let's focus now on some of the easiest pitfalls for the brand new player.

Strength!

That's right, being a badass is actually a bad thing in Hades Star! Like, wtf?

Battleship and technology advancement might seem like the most important things to develop. In the reality of Hades Star, military tech is generally the last thing you want to develop. Battleships consume the most fuel per au (astronomical unit) distance traveled. Their fuel consumption escalates at an alarming rate.

You want to skate by in red stars with the absolute least power you can, the least tech you can, and consuming the least fuel you can. You don't need to clear out the whole map. Efficiency is key to continued success, so always keep the word "efficiency" in your mind when pondering what to spend all your hard earned credits upon.

Specifics advice in this case:

Don't upgrade your battleships early. You only need level 1 BS until red star tier 4.

Don't upgrade your weapons early. Batt 1 and Alpha Shield 1 will see you through red star tier 1 & 2. Batt 2 is a nice quality of life boost in RS3, where you get Passive Shields.



Don't invest in support modules. You won't need them until you are running rs4. As long as you run private red stars via corp, you won't need EMP. With that being said, let me stress "need" - you don't "need" support modules until rs4. Teleport and EMP are both handy in red star tier 3.

And then there is the Remote Repair Glitch.



Don't over upgrade your transport ships. Level them up to carry 2 tons and level your cargo bay expansion for two more tonnage capacity, total of 4. That will see you well through rs4 with lots of profit made along the way.



The most common Noob Trap at the beginning is Delta Shields. Please, do yourself a favor, ignore them. Forget they exist.

Delta Shields are a waste of credits, a waste of time, and a waste of brain cells. Delta shields cost 4x the fuel to activate with only 2x the shield strength, compared to Alpha shields. It is much better to use positioning and target changing tactics with Alpha shields until you get to Passive, which is found in Red Star 3 orbs.

There are two other modules that should be awesome, but aren't - Lasers and Mass Battery. Don't spend credits to unlock these until you progress past red star tier 4.

Cerb ships, before rs5, die too quickly for laser to be useful. Laser takes time to ramp up, and just doesn't cut it early on. Mass Battery sounds like it would be epic, right?

However, Mass Battery has a very low base dps score and will never fire multiple batteries at the same target. RS 1 to 3 rarely have more than two cerb ships per sector, so Mass Batt doesn't shine until much further into the game.

It's easy to think that Battery will be replaced early on. I mean, you unlock it immediately, it's your first tech so it's gotta be replaced soon right? Again the HS Devs pull a fast one on us. Battery is useful throughout the known red star tiers. Keep leveling it as you need to and it will be with you for as long as you play.



Another trap is the 25,000 credits for the Diplomacy Station. Don't waste your time and money building a Diplo until you know for certain you have a need for it. That 25kC is better spent elsewhere, just like the cost of Delta.

The last trap I'll discuss today is ourselves. We are our own weakness. Impatience is the challenge we all succumb to.

It is my greatest weakness. Red Star has that ugly 15 minute timer always counting down, and it is easy to feel rushed. Don't let it get to you. Breath, relax, and think. Use asteroid & planet waypoints to your advantage. Go after the sentinels first, even if you have to bypass a guardian to do it. But definitely don't risk your transport ships! Dead ships are a costly venture that will only slow your progress.

Remember, efficiency is success. Success in efficiency. Go forth and conquer!