SpaceHunt Introduction

This is a very quick introduction to SpaceHunt, a massive-multiplayer text-based online strategy space game.

First of all, we are going to start researching Technology from the Technology Center. Researches take hours so we want to start as soon as possible, and never stop researching.

Next, we will build some mines and solar panels so they give us free resources every minute.

We will also build storage buildings so we can accumulate more resources. The two buildings that we need are the Warehouse, that stores metal and crystal, and the Battery, that stores electricity.

Now we keep researching Technology until we can build a Starport and a Hangar.

Once we have the Starport we can build an Observer unit.

The Observer unit is super fast and it will enable us to discover planets around the universe, which we can then raid to steal their resources, or even conquer so they pay us taxes every day.

For now, let's build three or four Observers and send them in explorations one by one so we discover more planets. There's a chance that our Observers are discovered by the enemy. If this happens, we will have 60 seconds to return. Otherwise, they will be compromised and engage in battle which we will probably lose, so expect to lose a few Observers.

We will keep exploring the Universe and researching Technology until we can build Scouts and Small Cargo Ships. The Scouts have weapons and the Cargo Ships great capacity perfect for stealing resources.

Once we have a nice fleet of Scouts and Small Cargo Ships we can start raiding other planets.

Every planet's strength, including ours, is measured by a Score. This is a sum of all units, buildings and research levels a player has, and it indicates how strong a planet is, so check the score of a target before attacking it.

It is a good idea to explore with a few Observers before attacking. Depending on the Intelligence level difference we will be able to discover how many resources our target has, and how many units he is defending with. This will give us an idea on the result of the raid: if it's worth it for the resources or if we are going to get destroyed. To explore a certain target, create a new exploration and then go to the Destinations menu and select who we want to explore.

You can protect your buildings, units and resources from an incoming raid by creating a mission and adding all units to it, then disengage defensive turrets and shields. This will make them skip combat. The attacker will steal any left resources you have but it won't destroy anything. Note that while you have units assigned to planned missions, all your solar panels stop generating electricity, so after the attack, cancel the mission!

We must remember to keep researching Technology so we can build more units as well as defensive turrets. Researching needs a lot of Electricity so keep an eye on your Electricity consumption. We will soon be able to build a Radar that will alert us whenever enemies are incoming.

Another important building is the Engineering Bay, this building allows us to research stats of our units and buildings (weapons, shield, integrity, thrust, storage, intelligence…). You should think what do you want to specialize on, since you can only research one level at a time.

By now you should already have enough Score to be able to join a Guild. Joining a Guild will enable you to conquer planets and charge taxes. You can also create a Guild for yourself and play solo if that's what you like, although it's always more enjoyable to team up with other players. Read the Board to find Guilds or to recruit new members.

If you are far away from your Guild mates you can either Teleport or do an Orbital Maneuver, each of them has its own pros and cons so read the manual carefully.

During battles, you will generate Ether. This is a special resource that you need to spend wisely. It will instantly create Units and Resources but it is scarce. Usually players keep them to create special Units that are not available through the Starport or to quickly recover from an attack.

The three main ways to earn resources are:

• Through buildings and a high level of production.
• By raiding other planets: stealing resources and destroying their units to steal some of the battle debris.
• Or by sending explorations that steal resource overflow from planets.

Resource Overflow happens when a planet has more resources than it can store, those excess resources float on the planet's orbit and can be easily stolen through explorations, without the need to engage in combat.

Once you get the basics, there's many fun things that you can do in SpaceHunt. One of them is becoming the top scored player which will make you an Emperor. Emperors can change Laws and charge taxes. It may be a little bit hard to become an emperor if you just started in the middle of an era though. The Rebellion will help you dethrone the current Emperor.

You can attack Bosses and Mini Bosses. Bosses are very hard to defeat. You should probably be part of a Guild and organize, so each member has a role and specialize on a specific research skill.

Guilds can join a Federation, the leading federation gets a weekly bonus on their resource production rate. There's 9 Federations strategically placed along the universe. You can send units there and you can attack the others, as you would do with other planets. This means that you can play a defensive or offensive strategy. Send units to your federation so it's stronger against attacks or attack other Federations to weaken them and steal their resources, or both. Join a federation that is close to you so that it's faster to send reinforcements.

That's pretty much it to get you started once you begin raiding planets and building new units you might want to check the website where everything is explained in a lot of detail especially unit stats, custom settings, intelligence levels, battle dynamics, taxes, stealing overflow resources, the treasure chest, messaging, as well as tips on moving your planet effectively.

If you want to play the game hardcore I suggest you move yourself to the center where everything is close to you and it's faster to get anywhere. Being in the center also means that other players are closer to you so they will prefer attacking you rather than someone that is far away, so expect a lot of action.

If you have a busy life and don't want to dedicate too much time to SpaceHunt you should move to a side so other players leave you alone because you are too far away, or if they don't, at least you have a lot of time to prepare for the attack.