Star Sonata/Skills

Introduction
As with many RPGs out there, Star Sonata has an experience point system that gives a set number of skill points per level. Each 1000xp a character gains nets them another level which in turn gives them 5 skill points to play with. Every 20 levels means 100 more skill points. With that large amount, it's a bit overwhelming of where to put these points to good use, not to mention trying to figure out where each skill can be found. This guide hopefully will help in this regard.

Primary Skills
These skills make up the foundation of any Star Sonata Character, for without them they could not equip any items (excepting Tech 0 ones, of course, in many cases). For this is what the definition of a primary skill is; it allows the character to equip or use higher tech items.


 * Piloting                       - Ability to pilot a ship of a given level
 * Weaponry                       - Use weapons of a given level
 * Shielding                      - Use shields of a given level
 * Engine                         - Use engines of a given level
 * Radar                          - Use radar of a given level
 * Cloaking                       - Use cloaking devices of a given level
 * Electrical Engineering (Energy) - Use energy generators of a given level
 * Equipment (Items)              - Use general equipment of a given level
 * Tractoring                     - Use tractor beams of a given level

These skills above all require the same number of skill points as the skill level you are putting them towards. That means to get say Piloting 1, you would need only 1 skill point, but for Piloting 9, you would need 9 skill points.


 * Drone Deployment               - Use drones of a given level
 * Station Management             - Use base kits and base items of a given level

These two skills also work on the same skill point principle as the ones above, but these have 'slots' that using drones and base kits use up, respectively. You can use drones/kits of any tech level up to and including your skill level in DD/SM. For how many slots that each use, only things known so far is that you can use double your skill level in Tech 0 drones/kits and only 6 of the tech level equal to yours (Such as using only 6 Tech 9 bases at SM 9). Remote Control works on nearly the same principles.

Secondary Skills
These skills represent a choice in the style of play. Some like to major in building bases, others want to PvP and still others want to just kill AI ships. This set allows characters to be different than the others, for taking a skill here limits the choices in the other secondary skills available. At the start, there are five choices. For the most part, each modifies (a) statistic(s) of the character, much like augmenters do.


 * 1st Tier
 * Fighter Ace    - +2%, +2% thrust, -1% Visibility per level
 * Berserker      - +1% Firing Rate, +3% Shield Max, +3% Shield Recharge, -2% Speed per level
 * Slave Mastery  - +5% to all slave statistics per level
 * Station Mastery - +5% to all base statistics per level
 * Merchant       - +5% capacity, -1% firing rate per level

You can take up to two 1st Tier secondary skills. However, once you choose one you can leave it at that and have access to the 2nd Tier secondary skill linked to it or you can choose another 1st Tier that is either above or below your first choice (Merchant having Fighter Ace as the below) have access to a specific 3rd Tier secondary skill.


 * 2nd Tier
 * Speed Demon    - +3% speed, +3% firing, +10% docking speed per level
 * Multifiring    - Allows user to fire one more same weapon at same time per skill level
 * Radiation Expert- +15% to Radiation Weapons per level
 * Colonial Admin. - +4% Suitability for colonies per level
 * Fleet Master   - +15% capacity on slaves per level

The skills listed here are in order of what 1st Tier has access to. So for example Multifiring requires a player to have ONLY Berserker as a secondary skill.


 * 3rd Tier
 * Sniper         - +6% Damage, +5% Recoil, +1% Range, +2% Tracking per level
 * - Fighter Ace and Berserker required


 * Seer           - +50% radar for ship and base per level
 * - Berserker and Slave Mastery required


 * Drone Mastery  - +5% to all drone statistics per level
 * - Slave Mastery and Station Mastery required


 * Extract. Expert - +7.3% rate of extraction of resources per level
 * - Station Mastery and Merchant required


 * Shield Monkey  - +7% Shield Max, +7% Shield Recharge, -2.5% Damage per level*
 * - Merchant and Fighter Ace required

*Shield Monkey also has a better damage to healing ratio per level. Exact numbers unknown.

Tertiary Skills
These are the skills that modify a certain item or another skill's stats. They aren't required for any item or skill, but are helpful when invested in.


 * Leadership         - Allows character to create a team
 * War Mongering      - Allows director of team to declare war on another team
 * Crazy Glue         - 2% per level chanse of not consumeing your GG when you die.
 * Astral Injection   - Ability to add augs to drones.
 * Historical Records - Increases life of blackboxes
 * Astral Travel      - Allows autopilot through skill level number of galaxies
 * Mining Efficiency  - Increases the amount of materials dropped when an astroid is destroyed.
 * Mining Power       - Increases the mining damge to astroids.
 * Glory              - Increases team score for Glory category
 * Piracy             - Increases chance of items dropping from killed ships
 * Tractor Power      - Increases strength of tractor beams by 5%
 * Tractor Range      - Increases reach of tractor beams by 5%
 * Tractor Efficiency - Decreases electrical usage of tractor beams by 5%
 * Programming        - Increases number of commands for slaves by 2 per level
 * Warp Navigation	   - Allows warp through Warp 1 - 4, depending on level
 * Remote Control	   - Allows use of controlbot to create slave ships

Warp 3 Galaxies
- random AI stations have primary skill level max of 14


 * The End of the Universe
 * 20 Electrical Engineering    | requires 3 Conclusion Icicles
 * Rumble Mumble
 * 20 Piloting                  | requires 25
 * 4 War Mongering              | requires 10
 * Rumble 3
 * 19 Piloting                  | requires 20 Chrome Knobs
 * 3 War Mongering              | requires 10 Chrome Knobs/ lvl2 Leadership
 * Biologique
 * 20 Station Management        | requires 1 Microbes Amoureuse

Note: Conclusion Icicles are dropped by Forgones

Warp 2 Galaxies
- random AI stations have primary skill level max of 12

Rumble 2               - 16 Piloting                   | requires 25 Grammies - 2 War Mongering              | requires 10 Grammies | requires lvl2 Leadership

Bipolar                - 8 Tractoring                  | - 14 Piracy                    | requires 1 Rosemary Sprig ---                       - 14 Tractoring                 | requires 1 Blue Dust - 17 Equipment                 | requires 5 Ablution Crystals

Warp 1 Galaxies
- random AI stations have primary skill level max of 10

Warp 0 Galaxies
- random AI stations have primary skill level max of 8

Special Galaxies
(ones that are in the pinkish-purple wormholes)

Hyper                  - 18 Weaponry                   | requires 1 Blue Dust - 19 Shielding                 | requires 1 Pearly Gate - 12 Equipment                 | - 2 Leadership                 | requires 1 Enchromas

Nihilite               - 19 Weaponry                   | requires 3000 Promethium - 15 Shielding                 | - 18 Engine                    | requires 1 Space Boomerang - 18 Electrical Engineering    | requires 1 Sputter Nutter - 3 Astral Injection           | requires 1 Enchromas

Underworld             - 18 Shielding                  | requires 1 Space Boomerangs - 15 Cloaking                  | requires 1 Gabriel's Neurolich

Warp ?? Galaxies
(I do not know yet where to put them since they tend to switch warp numbers each uni)

Rumble                 - 12 Piloting                   | requires 25 Fly Wings - 1 War Mongering              | requires lvl2 Leadership

Steppes                - 16 Drone Deployment           | requires 1 Quu Drone - 8 Drone Mastery              | requires lvl1 in Slave Mastery

Ruby Steppes           - 17 Engine                     | - 20 Drone Deployment          | requires 1 Qafir Drone - 3 Warp Navigation            | requires 1 Light Nuzzle - 16 Station Management        | requires 1 Aqua Nuzzle - 2 Astral Injection           |

Absolution             - 16 Weaponry                   | requires 1 Blue Vapor - 12 Station Management        | requires 8 Promethium - 7 Piracy                     | requires 1 Basil Bouquet

Prism                  - 15 Remote Control             | requires 1 Blue Vapor - 12 Drone Deployment          | requires 1 Solar Cleansings - 9 Station Management         | requires 5 Promethium

Labyrinth              - 8 Piloting                    | requires 1 Goblet - 1 Astral Injection           | requires 1 Goblet - 10 Historical Records	       |

Glass Matrix           - 1 Leadership                  |

Sol                    - 3 Drone Deployment            | - 1 Warp Navigation            | requires 1 Blue Aether - 3 Station Management         | - 1 Leadership                 | - 100 Astral Travel            | - 1 Quilting                   | requires 1 Aqua Nuzzle | requires lvl1 in Leadership - 50 Glory                     |

Ring                   - 3 Cloaking                    | - 1 Piracy                     | - 1 Historical Records         | - 100 Astral Travel            | - 2 Mining Efficiency          | - 2 Mining Power               |

Shadow                 - 11 Radar                      | requires 1 Kromatico

Lavanite               - 8 Equipment                   | - 8 Remote Control             | - 2 Warp Navigation            | requires 1 Goblet

Free Market            - 3 Drone Deployment            | - 1 Warp Navigation            | requires 1 Blue Aether - 3 Station Management         | - 1 Leadership                 | - 100 Astral Travel            | - 50 Glory                     | - 20 Slave Mastery             | Special requirements* - 20 Drone Mastery             | Special requirements* - 20 Station Mastery           | Special requirements* - 20 Radiation Expert          | Special requirements* - 20 Extraction Expert         | Special requirements* - 20 Colonial Administrator    | Special requirements* - 20 Seer                      | Special requirements*

Handel's Cove          - 16 Radar                      | requires 1 Kromatico - 16 Electrical Engineering    | requires 1 Kromelite - 2 warp Navigation            | requires 1 Vortex Pellet - 16 Station Management        | requires 2 Ariadnites - 2 Piracy                     |

Empathy Field          - 10 Tractoring                 | - 14 Tractor Power             | requires 1 Carbon Heart | requires lvl5 in Tractoring - 14 Tractor Range             | requires 1 Carbon Heart | requires lvl5 in Tractoring - 14 Tractor Efficiency        | requires 1 Carbon Heart | requires lvl5 in Tractoring

XYZ                    - 10 Equipment                  |

Lunacy                 - 1 Leadership                  |


 * Look in the section for Secondary Skills

Level Titles
0 - ??     Mostly Harmless 400 - ??   Maestro

Credit
This is a GrimSweeper's production, copyright of 2005/2006. Email him at tempmail_night@yahoo.ca