Coretechs

VIP Package

In Tau Station, like in most societies, wealth can confer substantial benefits to your everyday life. How can you gain the advantage in space? The answer lies in getting VIP status!

Benefits of VIP status

• Experience gain receives 50% bonus
• Focus upper limit is raised to 150%
• Regeneration is faster
• Toxin levels reduce 50% faster
• Up to 30 days rations can be saved for you in the Government Center
• You can always buy/renew a VISA in any Government Center, without needing to travel to a station with an Embassy
• VIPs can always buy a shuttle ticket, even if the shuttle is full
• Bank withdrawal fees are lower

How to become a VIP?

Being a VIP allows you to get things done quicker! Isn’t preferential treatment great? The VIP status is awarded by using a VIP package. The effect duration is always indicated on the item and consuming further packages while being a VIP will always extend your special status proportionately.

There are multiple ways to get VIP packs: at the end of the Prologue (tutorial mission) you’ll get one as a reward, NPC Vendors offer a 3-day pack every 7 days and you can acquire more packs in the shop. Furthermore, some Citizens tend to trade VIP packs at the public market and they sometimes drop as rewards in the Ruins.

Clones

What do you do when facing a decision that might mean the end? Do you take the risk or does this mortal coil prevent you from stepping over the precipice? What if you had a whole new you somewhere in reserve, ready to come alive if the worst should happen? Would you make a different choice?

Sick Bay or “Die”

Regeneration is survival on Tau Station! On stations with a Sick Bay, you’re always “safe”, because in case of severe injury, doctors will always patch up your wounds. But even on stations without medical help, dying is not (necessarily) the end! With the technology of Anima Foundation, your incubating clone is just one misstep away from waking. Buying and gestating a clone can ensure that even your most dangerous choices don’t have to be final.

On Tau Station, you always have one free default clone, and further acquisition of clones is possible on stations with a cloning facility. The facilities offer various types of clones: 3D Printed, Vat Grown, and Premium. Visit the Cloning Facility to check out the benefits of different clones, including interesting add-on options like changing your genotype!

Keep your Clones updated!

Because clones are connected to the current you, via your Amygchip data-transfer implant, your mental attributes will always be up to date (e.g. experience, knowledge and soft skills like your Social Stat and Intelligence). But your clone’s physical stats will reflect those you had at the moment the clone was initially created. It’s therefore important to update your clones manually to ensure these benefits are kept too, or to use your level-ups in a strategic way, because authorities automatically update your default clone for free when you level-up!

Stats & Stim Packs

Having high stats is essential for dealing with the challenges of a post-apocalyptic world. Therefore, it is important to know what your stats are for, and how to improve them!

The 5 primary stats and your focus stat

There are five primary stats: Strength, Agility, Stamina, Intelligence, and Social. They divide into 2 groups which are indicated by different group colors: physical stats (red) and mental stats (cyan). Distinguishing these 2 groups is important in case of death (see clone topic). Your stats get used up when attempting a challenge (in a mission, for example) but they do replenish over time. Need to jump over a hole? Most likely you’ll need good agility to succeed. Trying to sweet talk someone into giving you information? Better make sure your Social stat is high enough! Whether you pass or fail with your attempt, you will always expend a portion of your stats. Along with these five primary stats, you also have Focus. Focus cannot be increased by training; which is why it is displayed with a percentage instead of absolute numbers like the primary stats. Every time you take a special action, focus is used as well and, your physical and mental stats, it will replenish over time.

Improving your stats

Besides your gear and skills, your five stats do, of course, matter in combat. Worried your stats aren’t high enough? No problem! You can train the physical stats (Strength, Agility, and Stamina) at Gyms; Intelligence in the guest rooms of Inns or while traveling between stations and jump gates; and Social in an Inn’s Lounge. If you want a boost to your training results, hire a personal trainer, activate your CORETECHS Learning Enhancer, or buy a round. Open your character page (click on your name) to see how good your stats are, compared to the other Citizens right now.

Refreshing stats with Stim Packs

In Tip #1 you learned how rations refresh all your stats. But there is another way of doing this too: consuming Stim Packs! These useful boosters give you some stat refresh while you’re out and about doing missions or even engaged in combat. Similar to rations, stims do not increase your maximum stats (this needs to be done by training), but they refill the spent portion of your stats instantly; no need to wait for recovery. Several vendors sell stims; some can be found while scavenging; and a very rare class of military stims get awarded only for completing syndicate campaigns.

Stims in Fights

Unlock combat belt skills in the University and equip the belt, because it is possible to use stim packs even during combat (which you cannot do with rations). When it’s your turn, consume a stim instead of striking a blow against your enemy. But be careful, utilizing a Stim Pack increases your toxin level and your body will collapse if this reaches 100%.

Huge Variety of Stims

Stims have tiers; always check if the item is adequate for your character’s tier. There are many variations and quality ranges, some stims boost only 1 stat while other stims fill-up multiple stats, but they’ll never change your focus. On top of that, some Universities offer courses which unlock a bonus when using stims.

Credits & Bonds

Nothing in the galaxy is free, and money in the future is just as important as it is today. Let’s have a look at how to make money in the post-Catastrophe society.

The 2 Currencies

There are two types of currency in the Tau Station Universe: credits and bonds. Most services and goods require credits, such as buying a regular shuttle ticket or getting a drink at the Bar. Bonds, however, are earned more rarely, but once acquired, they’re very useful. Bonds help smooth over challenging situations, such as bribing doctors or paying lawyers, and can help to speed up various activities (e.g. helping you buy a ticket for faster travel).

Wallet, Bank & Logs

Every Citizen has a (safe) bank account, and a credit wallet. Carrying credits with you means they can be lost, e.g. if a Citizen attacks and defeats you. Your bonds are always safe. The way one gets paid with credits depends on the remunerable activity in question. People doing illegal stuff prefer cash; sounds reasonable, right? Open the credit logs for your wallet and bank account to check recent income or spending. A similar log is available for your bonds, too. This way, you’re always able to keep track of your financial situation!

How to earn money (part I)

There are many paths to wealth in Tau Station. The Employment Center is a great place to start. Careers have many advantages: if you’ve been active recently, you receive an automatic daily income of credits (and even bonds, once you’ve reached career level 3). By performing various career tasks, you not only get XP to increase your career level, there’s also a credit bonus paid if you succeed! The Employment Center is also where you can find Side Jobs to do around the station: small tasks that can be done quickly, earning you some extra credits.

How to earn money (part II)

Around the stations, you will also find NPCs who offer missions. In most cases, missions are far more complex than side jobs for example, with multiple choices available. Aside from providing you with experience toward increasing your character’s level, missions are also a good source of income, as the people you work for or help are usually generously appreciative of your time. And, if you don’t mind doing some risky and sometimes shady jobs for credits, try your hand at Discreet Work.

Trading & Looting

Working is not quite your thing? At the Marketplace you can buy, sell, and trade items that you no longer need. A person could spend their entire life (or lives, with the help of your clones) being a vendor; working for themselves or for a syndicate. The Ruins are a dangerous place, but with some luck, you can find salvageable goods you can either use or sell. Or you can take the hard option in the Ruins and look for trouble to get some loot from defeated opponents, maybe even some bond packages… But don’t forgot to get some gear and combat skills, first, before you attack others!

Progress Rewards

Over time, you’ll discover more possibilities for earning credits and bonds, but let’s put a spotlight one special source of income here; every time you level-up, you’ll be rewarded with some credits (as well as all your stats, including focus, being replenished, and the stats of your default clone getting updated to match your current stat values for free). When your level-up takes you into a new tier (e.g. at level 6), you’ll even receive a bond package on top!

The road to wealth has many paths in the Tau Station Universe. Which one do you choose?

The Brig

Civilization has always relied on a set of rules by which citizens should live, and those who don’t respect said rules are usually punished for their crimes. Yes, you guessed it: we’re going to talk about the Brig.

Big Brother is watching you

In Tau Station, the Brig is where you are sent after you commit a crime, such as making false security reports or starting a bar fight. Why anyone would want to do that, you say? Well sometimes, in order to get things done and climb the career ladder, one might have to do something the station’s authorities see as a crime. In a post-apocalyptic world, nearly everyone with the will to survive can find themselves in conflict with the authorities once in a while. Depending on multiple factors, you will have to stay a certain amount of time in the Brig to serve your sentence. Those factors are the gravity of your crime, the Law level, and the Orwellian level of the station. So, do your best to not get caught!

Law & Orwellian levels

The local Law and Orwellian levels can be checked in the Government Center of each station, and they indicate the severity of punishments for crimes and the level of surveillance respectively. A high Law level leads to longer sentences in the Brig and a high Orwellian level leads to higher chances of being caught when performing an illegal task. A high Orwellian level doesn’t mean that you will always be caught by the guards (except in Tau Station, where they are VERY zealous), however. Did you ever wonder about all the cameras you see around a station? Security is using them to monitor everything you do, but you could always try to disable them in a zone before doing anything underhanded there (for example, attacking the gun vendor?). It’ll be harder for the guards to spot you that way, but be careful; someone could repair the cameras while you’re attempting your nefarious task.

Combat & Guards

Assaulting someone is strictly forbidden by the governments in the Tau Station Universe, and if combat breaks out somewhere, the good citizens of the station will certainly inform the guards of what is going on. From this moment, it will only be a matter of time before the assaulter is sent to the Brig, unless the combat is completed quickly, before the guards arrive.

Bribing

Once you’ve committed your crime (you immoral villain, you!), got caught, and been sent to the Brig, you will still be able to escape the law. Bribing the guards or hiring a lawyer will reduce the time of your sentence. Conversely, some people might want you to stay longer in jail and take actions on their own, like bribing guards to lengthen your stay. Luckily for you, guards can’t keep you in there forever, so don’t worry too much.

Reputation

Your reputation with affiliations (e.g. the Consortium or Gaule Protectorate) is listed on your profile page. Your actions and behavior have an impact on how much people trust or mistrust you. The higher your reputation with the local authorities, the shorter your sentences at the brig!

Now that you’re aware of all this, are you still eager to try to commit a crime? Or do you prefer to punish people that do so? If it’s the former, there’s a chance we’ll see you in the Brig!

Actions in Missions

“Hey, you, adventurer! I have something for you to do. I lost my energy hammer in the ruins, right above the Pit of Eternal Suffering. Can you retrieve it for me? If you succeed in this task, I’ll reward you with a brand-new energy hammer!” Sounds familiar? In this tip, we’re going to talk about missions!

What to expect from missions? Choices!

Missions are the core of Tau Station. Missions are primarily lore-related and are the doors through which you can walk to become fully immersed in the story. These missions are given by specific NPCs and are not repeatable once finished, so make your choices wisely, as what you do will impact the universe and the storyline.

Missions serve several purposes, and there are many ways of completing them, depending on your skills and your preferred way of doing things. Decisions are consequently a key factor in the success or failure of a given mission. Every now and then you will have to make a choice from different options, and those choices will not always be easy: Some people are stealing water in the ruins and the chief of security asks you to stop them. Once you investigate, you realize that the thieves are just poor people stealing just enough water to grow plants to feed themselves and their children. Do you turn them in or do you keep what you saw for yourself? That is the kind of choice you will be confronted with in the lore-related missions of Tau Station.

The role of stats

Obviously, you will at times have to take challenging actions in the missions and this is where stats join the party. As we explained in Tip #4, stats are used to pass challenges in the game, and particularly, during missions you will have to use stats in order to complete your tasks. Each action will use a portion of the corresponding stat. To remember a conversation and report it correctly you will have to use your Intelligence, for example. The amount of points used in each attempt is based on the difficulty of the task, and on the level of said stat of your character. Happen to run out of stats? Use a stim or eat a ration. Your stats will replenish, and you will be good to continue your mission.

Continuing a mission later

It might happen that you don’t have the time or the resources to finish a mission in one sitting. If this happens, don’t worry, you’ll have all the time you want to finish it later. You just need to go back to the NPC or the area where you left off, and you can continue. Can’t remember what the mission was about? Just go to the log of the mission by clicking on its name via the Current Mission menu and everything you need to know will be available there. Plus, you can also check which missions you have already done and whether it was a success or not!

Success/Failure

Unfortunately, as in real life, you can’t always predict whether or not you will succeed at a given task, and sometimes even if you are the best in your field, failure will happen. There is always a small chance to fail or succeed at any task, no matter your skill or the task’s difficulty. This is what we commonly call, “luck.”

Extra rewards

Speaking of luck, one of the cool things about missions is that sometimes you will be given extra rewards for completing one. Basic rewards for a mission are a certain amount of experience towards your level, plus a bit of money. From time to time, however, you might also receive items or stat increases from completing a mission! How cool is that?

The many types of missions in Tau Station will help you mold both your character and your experience. What paths will you choose? What tasks will you take up to improve your lot in life? The choice is yours! Happy adventuring, and… Good luck!

Traveling

What’s the point of being in space if you can’t hop in a spaceship and go explore the universe? In this Tip, we will discuss the subject of traveling!

Ways of traveling

At the beginning of your journey, there are two basic ways to travel. Later on, you can also become a ship captain on your own, but this requires various skills and some more credits to buy a ship and fuel. So, ways of travelling include: 1. Local Shuttles & Interstellar Shuttles 2. Teleportation (Quantum Telephrenesis) 3. Your own spaceship

Local shuttles allow you to travel to different stations located in the same star system. All you need to do is head over to the Port and purchase a ticket. At jump gates, you can also journey through wormholes to new star systems by buying a seat on an Interstellar Shuttle. Later, if you manage to earn enough credits, you can purchase your own spaceship and be the captain yourself. You decide where to fly to, and there will be no need to wait around for public shuttles!

Getting a ticket

The duration of a trip differs depending on the star system, the distance between each station, and the station’s rotation. You want to choose a shuttle whose distance traveled will be low, but you should also be aware that you are not the only passenger, and shuttles only have a limited number of seats available. The moment all tickets have been sold, you will have to take another shuttle. Those with VIP status have the advantage of getting a last minute ticket, even if a shuttle won’t otherwise take any further passengers. Alternatively, you can buy a quantum telepheresis ticket which uses a special technology to teleport you to another station, in exchange for a few bonds. So if you’re in a hurry and need to head for a station far away in another system, using the instant teleportation might be a good choice. If you’re not in a hurry, you can simply check the schedule in the Local Shuttles zone of the Port.

Be on time & be smart

Once you have bought your ticket, a countdown begins to the time when your shuttle departs. Don’t forget to be at the Local Shuttles before the shuttle doors get closed, otherwise you will miss takeoff and your ticket will expire.

While on board, smart people make use of the travel time to train their Intelligence. What better time for some mental exercises than traveling at light speed in a shuttle?

Don’t forget your visa

You have finally arrived at your destination!

“What do you mean you don’t have a visa? You must know that you need a Gaule visa to board a Gaule Station… No? Well sorry, ser, if you don’t have a visa you will have to go back from whence you came, off you go! I advise you to go to the nearest Gaule Embassy before you try to return!”

Once you have purchased your visa for a few credits, it is valid for 10 days and can be renewed for 10 more days every 8 days. You can either check your visa status by checking to your character page (click on your Citizen name), but there is also an icon next to your avatar if you have a valid visa.

University Courses

“Knowledge is power, and I know a lot.”

(Education Technician Amaidoo)

Do you want to know as much as Amaidoo? Then pay attention to this tip about the University!

Higher education via nanite injections

Yes, you read it right: Nanites. Injections. Learning new things in the universe of Tau Station is no longer a question of how hard you work and study, but how much you want to pay for it. At the University, the usual process to gain competence in a new field of study is to inject microscopic nanites into the brain and wait for them to connect neurons to one another, thus “creating” new knowledge in place of the nothingness that was there before. This allows students to continue to do whatever they want once the injection has been made. No one is stuck at the University for long periods of time these days – except for the Education Technicians of course! But be careful, you can only have one injection at a time! You don’t want your piloting skills mixed up with first aid, do you?

Fields of study

There are currently 8 fields in which you can take courses, and new ones will extend your opportunities in the future:

• Business – how to handle the market and sell things
• Combat – how to fight and defend yourself
• Engineering – how to repair and build things
• Leadership – how to create a syndicate and engage yourself in politics
• Manufacturing – how to build constructions (for syndicates)
• Medicine – how to heal wounds and prepare remedies
• Psychology – how to navigate international relations and persuade people
• Spaceship Operations – how to pilot and maintain your spaceship

“Want to know how to fight? Nanite injection. Want to learn the complicated rules of the public market? Nanite injection. Want to become a skilled surgeon? Oh, no, sorry, we don’t provide this kind of injection in Tau Station University, you will have to go to Nouveau Limoges for that one!”

Different classes at different places

Unfortunately, there isn’t a University in every station, and the classes offered depend on the expertise of the local University. Thus, you will have to travel from station to station if you want to learn everything.

Knowledge requires planning

Everything comes with a price, and knowledge is no exception. Introductory courses are cheap and quick to complete, allowing everyone to learn the basics of every subject. But, as you become more and more specialized, courses will become more expensive and will take a longer period of time to complete.

Once a course is completed, you will permanently have access to all the benefits it gives you, and it will allow you to access more advanced classes you couldn’t take before. Advanced classes have prerequisites; hence, you have to plan what you want to learn accordingly. If you want to become a superb fighter for example, you will have to take the basic courses first, make enough money to complete all of them, be the correct level, travel to the right University, take the intermediate courses, then enroll in the advanced ones, and so on.

One last thing – the University would not be a place of knowledge if you weren’t able to train your Intelligence, so feel free to come by if you need to boost to your Intelligence stat! And for a few bonds, you can activate a CORETECHS Learning Enhancer and boost the efficacy of your Intelligence training.

Buying & Selling

It’s said that some things can’t be bought by money alone. But there’s a whole load of stuff that can! Let’s talk about cold, hard cash and how to use the Market!

The Market

The Market is the place to be for anyone looking to sell or buy items. In a post-Catastrophe universe, everything has a price, and even a spool of copper wire can earn you a good amount of credits if you know the right vendor.

Types of products

Each vendor is specialized in particular products, and you may not find the same product in two different shops. It can be a good idea to check them all if you are searching for something in particular! Weapons, armor, and consumables are the 3 most common type of objects sold by vendors, but you might happen to come by some objects with no apparent use. These items are called “trade goods,” and they aren’t priced the same from vendor to vendor. It may be a good idea to try to do some comparison shopping between stations to get the best price.

Scavenging the Ruins

Rummaging goods from the Ruins and selling them in the market can be very profitable in the long run. You might even recover ancient weapons and armor from the Before. These pieces of equipment are often rare and are sought after by the vendors of the Market who will surely buy them from you, though only for a small portion of their actual value.

Selling: Only in the Market

Selling items can actually only happen in the Market. Once there, go to your inventory and chose what to sell and how many. Not ready to sell but have too much stuff on you? In the Market you can access Storage as well.

Public Market

If you want to make more money out of what you find in the Ruins, the right path in the future will be to sell your findings on the Public Market. There, you’ll be able to set asking prices yourself, as well as buy goods from other adventurers.

More to come

In the future, when you band together with others to form Syndicates, you’ll then be able to sell items on the Syndicate Market. But that’s for another time 😊.

Storage & Inventory

We can’t carry everything we own with us and, especially in combat, carrying too much can be dangerous if we’re defeated. Therefore, storing your goods safely is important. Here, you can learn more about storage and inventory.

The inventory

A well-filled inventory is the mark of a successful adventurer and has many uses. Of course, the primary purpose of an inventory is to store the loot you discover while out in the field before putting it safely away in storage. However, your inventory also displays what type of armor you are wearing, your currently-equipped weapon(s), and also the condition of your items (sometimes you’ll need to repair stuff). You have two hands; thus, you can wield two weapons. As combat consists of long-range and close quarters fighting, it makes sense to use the two weapon slots wisely. Of course, you can go adventuring through the star systems without proper equipment, but it’s not really recommended.

Combat Belt

Another important part of your inventory is your belt, where you can store diverse consumables for use during combat. Each character starts with 3 belt slots which can be upgraded to 7 by taking the appropriate courses in the University.

Item Options

The inventory is also where you want to look if you want to check the details of the items you’ve been collecting. From your inventory you can also decide which items you want to drop, sell, or store. You can drop an item wherever you want, but in order to store or sell something you will have to be in the Market (we already talked about selling in the market tip). Have an item that needs repairing? Simply visit the shipping bay and bring your battered gear back to life!

Encumbrance

Why would you want to store items in the first place, you might ask? Well, we are in a realistic universe and one cannot run around carrying hundreds of kilograms. The problem with being encumbered is that you risk collapsing to the floor from the load, and being sent to Sick Bay for recovery. Additionally, your physical stats will begin to decrease each time you move from location to location. You might even collapse again when you want to leave the Sick Bay, so be careful, or you’ll have to drop some items on the way. Always keep an eye on how much you’re carrying, and if you want to avoid becoming encumbered, head to the Market to access your storage or sell some items, before you’re forced to drop something.

Storage

Every citizen of the Consortium is automatically given a storage capacity of 50 slots on the first station. Luckily, since you start as a member of the Consortium, you also benefit from this. The slots are located at the Storage zone of the Market. For just a few credits, you can upgrade the capacity. If you travel to new stations, keep in mind that you might also want to have some storage space there as well. This also means that an item stored on København will not be simply accessible from Tau Station. Need to move goods to another station? Use the Shipping Bay to send items from one station to another!

Storage is a safe place, because only you can access it, and your items will be secure no matter what happens to you (including death, for example!). Your clone will be grateful to have that backup set of armor and weapons available to them.

Combat

What is best in life? To crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Let’s talk about combat!

Combat system

When people are fighting for survival, they tend to seek advantages even if it sometimes means attacking and stealing from others. Fights against NPCs (also in syndicate campaigns) or against other Citizens are turn-based. Every round, you decide your actions. Actions available are attacking, using an item from your belt (in case you unlocked and equipped it), and trying to flee.

You’ll have to find out more on your own, that’s part of the survival challenge, but let’s share at least some basic insights: combat takes a lot into consideration, such as your stats, focus, level, weapons, gear, damage and protection types, encumbrance, and combat skills. These aspects get compared with your opponent to determine your chance to hit, the damage you’re dealing and special aspects like critical damage. Combat is over when either you or your opponent has any physical stat reach zero percent; if you got caught by security; or if someone manages to flee.

Combat Skills

Engaging in fights while untrained might result in disaster, no matter how physically strong you are. As well as good stats, powerful weapons and armor, a bunch of University courses also leverage the damage you deal and the damage you can take. Learn skills to unlock the combat belt, increase your chances for and the damage dealt with critical hits.

Combat belt

During combat, the only items aside from weapons and armor that are usable are those being stored on your belt. Don’t forget to place useful items, like stim packs, there before initiating combat. While you can see the equipment your opponent is wielding, the objects in their own belt are concealed. Go to the University to unlock up to 7 belt slots.

Combat ranges

Approaching an opponent means starting with long range combat. Make sure to use a weapon that can deal damage from a distance. Utilizing a long-range weapon in close combat however, will be less effective. So you’ll probably want to equip one long and one short range weapon.

Damage types & accuracy

In the Tau Station universe, combat is not encouraged, but you will surely stumble upon it at one time or another. And you’ll want to be ready for when it finally comes. Good items are essential in fights – the better your items the easier it’ll be to overcome your enemies.

Weapons can do up to 3 different types of damage: piercing, energy, or impact. During combat, the type of damage your weapon can inflict will be compared to the corresponding type of defense of your enemy’s armor. For example, a weapon that does piercing damage will be less effective against armor that provides defense against this type of attack. Each weapon also has an accuracy score, which will determine how likely a weapon is to hit an enemy. The higher the accuracy score, the better.

Be always prepared

Being attacked and being the attacker doesn’t have the same meaning in Tau Station. When you undergo an attack from someone, you cannot actively join the fight; your character will auto-defend instead. This means, always be prepared to encounter combat, and be well-equipped in order to survive! Another tip we can give you is that you should be renting a room at the Inn. Indeed, once you leave Tau Station, a Guest Room is the only place on other stations where you cannot be attacked by other players, as they can’t see you there. Safety is only a few credits away!

Be careful with fights

As we mentioned earlier, combat is not well tolerated by the authorities and station residents. If you’re not caught right away when you attack someone, people witnessing your crime, or the local security cameras, will surely warn the nearest guards right away, and it will only be a matter of time before they come to arrest you and send you to the Brig. So, don’t take your time while gutting your opponent. Always remember the impact of Law and Orwellian levels; you start at Tau Station, one of the safest places! If you want to test your skills, use the Ruins and search for trouble, but if you intend to attack other Citizens, you’d better travel to another station.

Once you manage to kill your opponent, you’ll have the opportunity to loot their body and steal some credits. If you get defeated, you either end up in the Sick Bay or in your clone (see clone topic). Once you’re back in business, visit the Government Center at the station you’ve been defeated on to pick up your old gear.

There’s more to the combat system than this, but we should leave at least a little bit for you to discover. So, as a final advice: chose your targets carefully!

Action Flag

Lost your way in Tau Station? Languishing with a lack of direction? Keep your eyes open for the Action Flag!

Where to spot it

The Action Flag is the small orange icon showing up on some of the tabs in your current area. This little symbol serves as your compass to the people and places that have possible actions awaiting you.

Flags on tabs

An Action Flag on a location means that there’s a regular or “discreet” mission available or, it could mean that there’s something to do for a side job or a mission you’re already on. On the People tab, the flag implies there’s someone to speak with to start or continue a mission. Lastly, having the flag on the area tab means there’s a more general mission action to take, such as searching for a spaceship in the ruins, or repairing an airlock.

Which actions are included?

The Action Flag is your indicator with complex missions and side jobs to help you follow the storyline of Tau Station because you often need to explore the stations to find mission NPCs. This is an important difference to know, compared to other features like career tasks, where a list of locations and actions is always available under ‘tasks’. Search the station for Action Flags or use the very helpful option to find a mission in the current ventures tab, where the local station areas where missions can be found for players of your level are listed.

Whether your next step involves following up on a mission investigation, or a little Discreet Work, the Action Flag icon is there to guide you through the deep darkness of space. If you see this icon, there is an activity of interest awaiting you along your journey, whether a person, place, or task, career, or side job step of importance.

Syndicates

Traveling the universe on one’s lonesome can be challenging at the best of times. Thankfully, citizens who’d like a few allies for the journey can always consider joining a Syndicate. Today’s tip of the day tells you all you need to know to get started.

Syndicate origins

Government officials on many stations felt overwhelmed following the Catastrophe. The destruction was extensive, and many struggled to tackle all the recovery work required. Some groups of enterprising individuals saw this as an opportunity, offering to help reclaim areas of the Ruins in return for a share of the spoils. And thus, within a few cycles, the system of Syndicates was established!

Today’s Syndicates continue this legacy. They’re citizen associations who have permission from station authorities to undertake various kinds of activities. These include running Syndicate campaigns to subdue the anarchy of the Wilds, and the construction of buildings for the use of Syndicate members.

Joining and founding Syndicates

Syndicates are optional and for those who love cooperation and enjoying time with friends. Membership is exclusive; you can only be part of one group, and decide to quit and change at any time. Syndicate members get a tag added to their name so allegiances are always easily identifiable. Each Syndicate gets a dedicated chat channel and forum space, making communication with your buddies easier.

Citizens of all levels can become Syndicate members, but various criteria will often apply depending on the Syndicate’s own preferences. For example, Syndicates can choose whether they are accepting new members or not at any given time. They can also set a minimum level for members, as well as other restrictions such as Genotype. It’s possible to view a list of all active Syndicates in your CORETECHS, see which ones are recruiting now, and what their requirements are.

As well as joining existing Syndicates, citizens can found their own. However, applications must fulfil the official criteria which can be found at any Government Center. For example, aspiring Syndicate founders must be at least level 14, possess a Syndicate Foundation skill, and meet minimum reputation requirements for the Syndicate’s proposed home station.

Syndicate banking

Every Syndicate has an internal bank for credits and bonds. Contributions to these funds come from the tax a Syndicate can apply to its members or from donations. Every member’s contributions are listed in detail in the Syndicate management menus.

Everyone can donate both currencies of their own free will, but there is also a tax system for credits. Every time, you put credits to the bank, the Syndicate gets a share. If the Syndicate tax rate is 5% for example, then putting 100 credits to your bank account leads to 95 credits private savings, while 5 credits go automatically to the syndicate’s piggy bank. Syndicates can also choose a tax rate of 0% if they wish.

Syndicate campaigns

The primary privilege enjoyed by Syndicates is that they can embark upon Syndicate campaigns in The Wilds sub-area of the Ruins. These are lawless badlands ruled by brigands and thieves; and Syndicates have a crucial role to play in subduing the gangs which fester here. Syndicates can complete campaigns here by defeating waves of enemies. In return, they will keep the loot they claim from the battles and can even discover valuable blueprints with which to construct Syndicate buildings.

Syndicate Buildings (coming soon)

Syndicates will soon be able to construct buildings in the Syndicate Buildings sub-area of the Ruins, using blueprints earned from Syndicate campaigns. These buildings might include secure storage for your items or a range of other facilities for personal use of syndicate members. These buildings might also be used to support future Syndicate activities (planned for later updates) such as Syndicate trading, crafting, and wars.