Rebel Galaxy - Tips, Tricks, & FAQs (Spoiler Free)

After spending a couple of hours with Rebel Galaxy today, it hit me that this game has quite a bit more depth and breadth to it than I anticipated. I thought it was going to be more or less an arcade shooter with some progression elements, but as it turns out I'm finding it to be more like Elite: Dangerous - Arcade Mode. Which is great, because I love Elite and Rebel Galaxy feels similar in a number of ways.

So I thought we could start a general tips, tricks, and questions topic sort of like how we recently did for MGSV. It worked out quite well, so let's see how it goes for Rebel Galaxy! And please, no story spoilers in this topic. I don't know how involved the story gets in this game, but let's keep discussion here limited to the gameplay.

I'll start:

• Your ship will turn faster if you slow it down. I did some quick testing, and found that my Mastadon turns about 50% faster at 25% engine power compared to when it is at 100% power. Managing your engine speed in combat can give you a big advantage and help you get your ship into position faster. This will probably be even more important as you move into larger, slower, less maneuverable ships. (Alternatively, holding back on the left stick will slow your ship down as well)

Does anyone know how many ships (i.e. types) are in the game in total?

I don't know exactly, but there are Guild-specific ships in addition to the normal stuff available at stations. I'm wondering if there might also be faction-specific ships. The guild ships are locked behind rank.

Selling ship/upgrades parts back to shops gives you full value so don't "save up" for anything. Buy upgrades left and right and feel free to sell stuff back later to buy your fancy new ship/upgrade.

Back on the left stick breaks and turns fast. So you don't have to toggle your acceleration up and down and can help match speed with other frigates.

Using the Gamepad. Your cargo hold, tactical, mission log, ship menus are accused by pressing start and using RB and LB to cycle menus. (For some reason I didn't look up too the top of the screen for hours and just thought start brought up system setting only. Noob)

In the commodities market menu at a station you can see the last known prices of the commodity selected in the bottom right. It cycles through stations in the system and list price and how long ago it was at that selling price. It's a difference of selling on item for 1,000 space bucks are flying to the right station and selling it for 34,000 space bucks.

wow, really? that's pretty crazy

21 I believe, which is quite a lot more than I expected.

I suggest prioritising shields, broadsides and deflectors for upgrades. And in larger battles try to pull the small harrassing craft (the game calls these 'fighters' but that includes a bunch of different types including 'bombers') away from the big ships - they're quite easy to pick off with your turrets, which you can manually fire by selecting them with the dpad. You can also assign your turrets to focus on fighters while you deal with the main ships.

Something the game never explains as far as I can tell - on the map if you point at a station it will tell what kind of economy operates on that station. This relates to the kinds of missions you will get there (and presumably the items available in the market? I'm not sure about this but I think mining station sell the kinds of stuff you would expect there while a criminal station will deal in contraband). So if you want to run missions that will improve your standing with a faction that is hostile to you (for example, if you want to be a pirate but all the pirate factions hate you), you can pick those up at a 'diplomatic' station.

Finally - join the merchant's guild! They have exclusive stuff. And yes, the factions have exclusive ships and equipment too I believe.

Join up with the merchants guild asap, on the first tier of membership you can already buy a cargo hold that's bigger then the largest one you gan buy at the start normally and it is much cheaper. It's a super easy way to expand your cargo hold space by a lot. Getting more rep with them will unlock even bigger storage units and the biggest trade ships.

There are numerous ways to significantly cut down on the bothersome small fighter craft, flack, flack cannons, leech turrets, etc.. It's a big help.

• This may seem kind of obvious, but pay attention to your turret placement and what types of weapons you are putting in each slot. This will vary from ship to ship based on the number and layout of turrets they have. Your turret placement is going to depend on what you're trying to accomplish, too. Think about what kind of overall coverage you have versus what types of turrets you're running. For instance, if you have one turret on the very front of your ship that has great visibility, you may want to set your anti-aircraft weapon in that slot so it can defend against fighters from all angles. Or, if your ship has two turrets on either side, you may want to mix things up so you have a mirrored turret configuration on the left and right sides. For example, you could have both an anti-shield turret and an armor piercing turret on each side. You don't want to end up with two anti-shield units on the left and two anti-armor units on the right. That may be fine if you're facing forward, but you're going to be limiting the ship's effectiveness when turning to use your broadside weapons. Whatever you decide to do, try to keep your turret placement in mind in combat and position your ship so that the turrets can go to work.

• If you're interested in going the piracy route, try to avoid taking missions that negatively impact cartel faction rep. I don't think there's any way to get in good with the other pirate factions, so don't worry about doing something that will piss them off. Outsider stations are typically where you can find missions that will raise your cartel faction rep. Once you're at least neutral with the cartel, you'll be able to gain access to their outposts which will give you access to more cartel missions and some exclusive equipment.
• Set the tactics for AI targeting in the pause menu. For instance, if a particular turret is best suited to taking out fighters, you may want to set it to fighters only. If you want to make sure a particular turret is going to contribute to taking down capital ships, set it to go after your target or what you're locked on to (you can lock onto enemies by pressing LB by the way).
• Also, don't ignore the easy bonus damage output from hiring a mercenary. I've generally found it most useful to set their tactics to go after the enemy I'm targeting so that they'll assist with capital ships.

How is this game with mouse and keyboard?

I played AC3 and Black Flag with a mouse and keyboard, and the ship combat was great. If this controls similarly I should be fine.

It's fine, not perfect but I have been having an ok time with it. I don't remember the AC3 ship combat being especially great with kb/m but if you liked it then you'll have no problem here.

@theht: The game has also had a couple of small patches since release, and both of them addressed mouse control in some way, among other things. I tried it for a little bit under the most recent version (1.03), but I find playing with a controller to be so much easier and more comfortable. Everything is mapped out quite smartly, and it's clear the game was designed primarily with a controller in mind.

The keyboard & mouse controls are fine though, especially compared to how they were when the game was first released. There is also a new experimental "fast mouse mode", but I haven't tried it yet. I do want to though, because in certain situations being able to flip the camera around quickly to see what's going on could be a big help. That's one thing the controller setup isn't too great for, but otherwise, there isn't much in this game that requires a whole lot of precision. At least the developers are listening to feedback about the controls and are actively patching the game, though.

@mike: @mikemcn: I'll give it a shot and see how I fare. Thanks!

Haven't read through it yet, but this is a great topic, probably easier to get answers here than to sift through the shit over at the Steam forums.

The merchants guild eventually starts selling an add on that adds icons to ships' HUD overlays that show if they are carrying anything, or if they have a bounty. This saves a ton of time when deciding whether you want to engage with something that just pulled you out of warp. It also works at long range from a pulse so if you uncover a bounty, you know which group of ships it is. You still need to scan to see the exact goods or bounty amount.

If you hail traders in ships, they will offer to buy stuff you are carrying for average price or better. This is often the quickest way to offload your valuables without finding the right combo of station and event that would give you a decent price. You can game this as well if you drop everything but what you want to sell, so you can get a great rate on the stack of valuables you found, or even offload contraband that no station wants to buy.

(deleted this from another thread, seemed more suited here)

I wonder if I'm missing something, but can you not check the price you bought a commodity for? I usually forget what I paid after docking in a different station. Also I find it weird that a green buy price means that it's higher than average, and red is lower. I can't shake the feeling that needs to be swapped, as it's good (green) to buy low. Right?

@khessed: Totally.

@zedprime:Huh that's actually really useful to know and I didn't.

How is this game compared to elite dangerous? I'm really considering getting this, but I ended up getting burned on Elite before i even got started(maybe just the amount of time it took me to learn the controls by never playing a game like it before really). Is there a lot of interesting things to do in it?

@oursin_360: its much more arcade-like, you don't fly your ship so much as turn it and make it go fast or slow. (Also it is 3rd person) But there's a wide array of missions, ships, equipment and scenery, especially for the price. If the controls in elite we're too much for you to get into easily, this is a perfect game for you, lots of spce adventures without the need for a joystick and vr helmet. But no online features.

Also, HOT PRO TIP: There is no reverse on your ship... do not fly into what you thinking is an opening in a piece of space junk, you will get stuck for 15 minutes after finishing a big mission and have to clip your way back out. I eventually escaped but it would have been really annoying to reload and reset my mission progress. You can brake to a stop, but then you cannot backup, hopefully they'll patch in a reverse gear.

@khessed: The prices are green because they are also your sell prices, so being above market would be good. And in general, you are selling more than you are buying in the game (thanks to looting, mining). Also I don't think you can check the prices you bought stuff for. Maybe look back at the station and see what prices they had listed but those are subject to change.

Cool, thanks! I guess that does make sense when you put it that way. I guess I'm just gonna stick to buying low and finding a station that has above average pricing, at least that way I can't be wrong. Oh, and mine more like you said :)

Fighting

• Broadsides are probably the gnarliest most lethal weapon against capital ships and the more you have the better. thats why I bought the Tennhausen ship which has six broadside ports. the best way to use broadsides is to fly right alongside the capital ship and just spam your broadsides
• Weapon designation is really important for entering battles. I dont know if thats the right name for it but it's basically assigning one of your turrets to a type of ship (capital, fighter or even other turrets). assign your weaker turrets to fighters and your stronger turrets to capital ships. i strongly recommend a shieldbuster missile be assigned to capital ships. this way you can focus on capital ships