Star Wolves 3: Civil War
GoblinRavisher
v0.1
MiniFAQ for Beating the Star Wolves 3: Civil War for Casual Players: a New Empire Mission Faction Path Walkthrough
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The Point of This MiniFAQ
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If you really want to beat that last mediocre Star Wolves title (SW 3: Civil War) and be done with it if not delete it completely for good, here is a simple guide how to make that journey a little more bearable. The game has a plethora of issues: the usual Windows 10 instability issues, blatant show-stopping hang and crash bugs and localization errors. For example, tons of missing audio such as the news reading soundbites and Kalem’s audio being in RUSSIAN while everyone else is silent or cut. That was the GOG version experience. It is challenging to enjoy a mutilated release of already outdated and average game and a clear downgrade from the previous titles. Hopefully you can at least get some understanding about why and how you are getting screwed over in the given moment or even beat the game. Even if the game ends up raping your patience, just remember that it is an abortion. It does not know any better.
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Logged gameplay hours to compile and complete the guide so far:
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107 h
(When you have to analyze and summarize all the wooden and outright idiotic gameplay parts and aspects, it becomes hyperconcentrated torture very fast. Making a multipath guide would probably kill the author of the guide. Just getting the last mission with endings was such a glitch fest that no less than three days, a lot of failing effort and tons of sanity was sacrificed to the RNG gods to finish the job at least halfway poorly.)
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Preparing game settings for maximum sanity
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1. Disable “Launch fighters at mission start” – it is better to launch only when needed. The volatile fighter AI and RNG can mess a fighter in less than a second without a warning. Minimize headaches by keeping your fighters secure until you need them. The launch only takes a few seconds, so it is a no-brainer.
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How to activate cheats
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1. Edit main.ini file and edit it to have a line
DEBUGMODE = 1
under [GAME] section.
2. Press SHIFT + ~ to open console.
3. Type
g_cheats 1
into it.
4. Press I AKA i button to activate Godmode. (Yes, it is the same as the Log menu button. Both of the two commands will happen when you press it once. Godmode lasts until you quit the the game from Main Menu.)
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Most used keyboard shortcuts
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TAB – show sector map (used extensively for navigation)
Backspace – show full star map
Space Bar – pauses the game, gives you infinite time to issue orders to the ships
Left mouse button (LMB) – selects objects
Right mouse button (RMB) – attack/escort/approach/dock at the target
[ and ] – speed up and speed down the time flow, used extensively during intra-system travel
Double LMB – focus on the object
< and > – show and hide contacts
+ and – — zoom in and out
E+LMB – escort target
CTRL + RMB – move aggressively or attack
R – missile attack
S – STOP selected ships (useful when positioning for looting)
(held)CTRL +RMB or A+LMB – attack target
W – toggle frames-per-second & performance info on/off
Arrow keys, holding RMB and mouse roll – navigate the camera
F – toggle Free/Follow camera modes
G – cycle camera modes
M – make a short-to-medium range 3D move command: first the direction and the distance with a LMB and then the altitude with another left click
B – open Mothership hangar
L – toggle message log
H – toggle target helpers
I – show log and mail
V – toggle scanner ranges
ENTER – prompt Confirm key
ESC – menu & prompt Reject key
` [next to ESC, 1 and TAB] – select Mothership
1 to 6 – select individual fighters (hold SHIFT to stack or negate selections)
CTRL+A – select ALL vessels
SHIFT + RMB-drag – change the vertical position (mostly for getting in the best position for your deck turrets to fire at the enemies a couple times)
CAPS LOCK – toggle depth difference lines
CTRL + SHIFT + LMB – scan ship weapons and systems
F1 – Help
F5 – Quicksave
F8 – Quickload
F9 – Free camera mode
F10 – Follow ”
F11 – View ”
F12 – Chase ”
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Star Wolf 3 specialities to the Elite / Wing Commander formula
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You:
-do not trade goods. You can loot containers for selling, though you can never buy that stuff yourself. This is a mercenary-only game. The titular Star Wolf pilots were mercenaries and this entry does not fall far from that tree.
-are practically a mercenary that mostly kills pirates in the gameplay-time-wise.
-have INFINITE CARGO SPACE.
-you can have constant armor repair systems, never having to worry about fixing your ship.
-your parts never break down unless plot-disabled.
-fight better in the close range as your guns get a significant accuracy boost, even the long-range guns — they still miss in the max range and with “High” accuracy.
-mothership turrets are your biggest firepower against fighters, the Major Caliber front guns are the same against massive ships, asteroid groups and stations.
-get most of your money by doing main quest missions, there are not many optional missions (of which suck at rewarding you) and looting early-to-mid-game enemies is very slow money. Corporations generally pay the best for everything.
-find the best guns at hidden caches (usually a small asteroid with a red light on it) and ships (available in Charon, Gunslinger T [lvl 5] has four heavy gun slots). It is adviced to buy at least four (4) of them when you have the chance. That sector gets blocked by MSF in late game.
-spend most of your time managing your ships during battle and moving from sector to sector in a painstaking fashion.
-should not expect a deep or original plot, though the characters are somewhat interesting, switch WC Kilrathi with Aliens/Precursors and Berserks and you have it. “Destroy-bad-people-abrupt-game-end” is the name of the game here.
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General tips
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-Save often AND have multiple minisaves. 1. The game features rare-but-regular random crashes. For example, there is about 1% chance of the game hanging during any time you move to another system. Save regularly. Have multiple saves if you have not completed the particular quest before. Have two-three saves at least. 2. Your ships can abruptly get destroyed. Additional temporary saves help with that. You can save every second if you want. Frequent saving reduces the amount of lost progress when forced to load after something goes wrong, adding to the fun factor of the game. The saving is fast, so there is no excuse for not doing it often.
-Any fight against bigger crowds of enemies can get your fighters destroyed from 100 to 0 in a flash. The game is very RNG aka randomized when it comes to outcomes and the outcome variation is anything between your mothership getting one sidedly destroyed to you not taking a single hit. SAVE OFTEN AND BEFORE ANY ENGAGEMENTS. The fighters do not last long and you simply cannot afford to rebuy those ships. It is much more practical to load a save and keep a huge amount of cash for a time you need to buy something.
-Ignore special offers. Traders like to trick you by selling you useless stuff at inflated prices. Do not take any special offers or give them money for intel. They will screw you and anything they can give you, you can get from other places for cheaper.
-Lasers rule. They can hit things even at long range at least semi-consistently. Do not invest much in “Low” accuracy stuff as you will not hit much with them and will probably end up destroyed often because of bad hitting RNG.
-Prioritize biggest and most damaging targets, such as high pilot level ships, missile launchers and automated platforms. Usually your death is a result of ignoring big targets with big damage.
-Get passive fighter flare systems and mothership anti-missile systems. Missiles are your biggest threat. Put in a decent, 30+ system and your vessels will be missile proof. Squal for ships is common loot, no excuse for not having it installed.
-Fill your vacant system slots with shield generators. That should be your default choice after one flare/anti-missile system.
-Look around in the space view every now and then. Otherwise you might miss big piles of valuable space junk to sell or to equip. Especially around portals in pirate infested systems — a lot of destroyed Tug cargo can be found near portals semi-frequently.
-Once your main character is a 1st Grade Pilot, buy the perks FTU Warehouse Access and Intuition under Sixth Sense 1 branch. Warehouse tabs sell vastly better items than usual stores and Intuition is required for the optimal dialogue options, including the one that decides the outcome of the NESF story path.
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Optimal Ship Items
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Fighters:
Gen 4 or 5 Heavy Fighters with at least two Heavy Gun slots with Helios laser guns equipped
*ideal: Wyvern Mk 2, about 300k+ each at FTU warehouse tab sales extremely rarely, basic Wyvern is equally good if you play it safe with them, Gen 5 Dragon has more guns, is probably a Triada mission path exclusive and has much less durability with more cannons
**passable in late game: Gen 4 Heavy Fighters i.e. Gunslingers (budget wyverns), Pumas and Panthers
1 Cyclone (rating 40) flare systems (anti-missile)
1 Shield Prototype (500 SP + regen, even a Gen 5 fighter without a shield system goes 100 to 0 almost instantly with bad-enough RNG and piloting AI)
(with 3rd slot) Prototype ? (cannon cooling system, the higher the percentage the better)
missiles do not matter, beware of potential friendly fire with them
Mothership / Capital Ship / “Base”:
1-2 Falconet (Major Caliber cannnon, 1200 dmg, 125 range)
1 Tungten (repair system)
3-4 Helios or Rage cannons (normal cannons, both ~180 damage per 20 speed units w/o cooling effect)
1 Prototype X (cannon cooling system, +60% faster cannons)
1 either Kali shield generator or Diamond (?) advanced anti-laser system w/ -80% laser damage
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The simplified walkthrough
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Early setup
1. Pick Easy difficulty. The last mission will gut your casual butt with extra damage if you don’t.
2. Name your character (‘Ubercasual’) and pick the specialization “Gunner.” Otherwise you will be giving the enemies extra time to destroy you.
3. Spend 10 points to activate perk “Swift Learner” (to boost experience accumulation)
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Scenario 1 (Corrino the starting system):
0. You start with a Tug ship. It is outright garbage. Keep doing missions and running away unless safe until you get your Mastiff. The early ships simply do not not have enough armor on them to be useful. Do not worry, you will get your Mastiff in no time. Tug’s 300 hp is gone and your game is over in a about ten seconds of firefighting. (BTW, the “Scenario” chaptering is added to improve readability and to keep track of your progress. It is nowhere in the game, just in this guide.)
The point of this first system is to introduce the civil war elements i.e. corps and security forces cutthroating and fighting one other in one gigantic free-for-all. But only during scripted events. Most systems are populated by only one faction and different factions do not generally fight one other. Whole game is vastly more about fighting pirate fighters than any of the civil war factions.
1. Wait until a MSF ship dialogues you and tap 1 until the threatfest is over.
2. Wait for a Triada group to convince you into hauling stuff for them. Wait a bit more to see them get crushed by MSF forces. Lie to MSF about not knowing about Triada’s business.
3. Starting hauling the Triada goons towards “MSF Headquarters, Aquarius Sector.” by pressing TAB and right-mouse-buttoning the MSF HQ. You will be interrupted by local pirates acting on Triada’s behalf. Turncoat again to them and follow them to the “neutral station” (Taihon Station) to receive your 10k. You can hasten the time flow by using the bracket keys.
4. Offer Triada to fetch the lost corporate papers and set course for the Triada wreck. Your new pirate pals Hank and Paul will cover you during this task.
5. Collect the two document items, set coordinates back to Taihon Station and tell the interrupting MSF officer that you transport office supplies. He will let you pass.
6. Return to the station to collect your 2k reward.
7. Get to the Aurora portal (to follow some dude named Alex). A MSF fighter will stop you and try to fleece 0.5k out of you. If you do not pay, NOTHING will happen. NESF fighters will attack that fighters and destroy it slowly. I suggest moving on as the Tie-Fly will not drop anything valuable. [A Blackjack worth maybe 0.1k creds.] Save before entering to counter a possible system-change crash.
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Scenario 2 (Aurora, Gredos):
1. Get to the Placid Rocks station. Dock the station and undock it.
2. Go to Gredos portal.
3. Get to Prometheus Station and finish mashing 1.
4. Get to Typhoon Station and finish conversing.
5. Get to Falcon Station and do the 1. Ray will give you your second ship Heavy Transport, finally with some guns i.e. two low-accuracy turrets, and almost tripled hp at 1100. (To ruin your party, you still cannot challenge even weak pirates without rigorous save-loading, so remain careful.)
6. Start going towards Copernicus Station. You will be interrupted by a side quest asking you to deliver some document for a guy. (It is a pirate setup. Save departing.)
7. Go to ‘Illumino yacht.’ Kill the pirates you encounter. (You might die here even on Easy. Welcome to Star Wolves 3’s enemy AI RNG).¨On the way, a pilot offers to escort you for 1k. (The game seems to intend for you to take it since it is pretty cheap at 1k, though you are free to decline. Expect to get heavily damaged by the two pirate ships ambushing you.)
8. Go to the Intrasystem portal.¨Converse with the pirates trying to bilk 1k out of you but never actually do it.
9. Go to Copernicus Station and mash 1. You will receive 30k for your shipping troubles.
10. Return to Falcon Station. (You can use the Intrasystem portal without pirates attacking.) A MSF squadron will interrupt your docking attempt with a a space battle with NESF. (MSF is hostile and will kill you with ease if you do not get out of there fast.)
11. Go to the Aurora portal. (Falcon Station gets deleted from the map on your way there.)
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Scenario 3 (Aurora, Achilles):
1. Go to Placid Docks Station. Deny a worthless offer from a Trader on your way there.
2. Go to Argon portal
3. Dock to Golden Credit Trade Center and buy a Chrome repair module for about 65k. Install it into one of your “System” slots by drag-and-dropping in the Mothership tab. It will now repair any armor damage you will accrue. It is worth dumping most of your current earnings (76k) into. (This way you do not have to rely on non-free, limited availability Maintenance stations.
4. Go to Achilles portal.
5. Start going to Achilles Station. You will be plot-ambushed by pirates. Your future pilot Ternie will kill them for you with his/her Excalibur fighter. Go to Ternie rendezvous [French for ‘gathering’] point. A heretic will tell you to not deliver the parts. Agree to it (as turncoating is super profitable in this game).
6. Go to the Heretic’s transport. Pirates will ambush you and try to kill your heretical friend. Kill the pirates by (CTRL+LMB them even before they turn hostile).
7. Choose the money reward i.e. 25k as the two Berserk lasers are only worth bellow 10k in total. Go to Wild Cats base.
8. Go to Ternie rendezvous point.
9. Return to Wild Cats base. Follow the points to the ambush zone.
10. Go to Wild Dogs base. Fight the couple left-over Wild Cats traitors and collect the loot. You now have a Mastiff, the first ship that can destroy entire pirate squadrons with ease.
11. Go to Achilles Station to equip your Mastiff with Chrome repair system, Hawk sensory system and Buffalo strap-on engine. Also, the Excalibur fighters into the fighter bays and add the pilots to them by drag-and-dropping the character icons. Equip the Excaliburs with at least flare systems and Vulcans heavy guns. Missiles if you care about using them, though prepare to be super stingy with them.
12. Go to Argon portal.
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Scenario 4 (Argon):
1. Go to Aurora portal.
2. Go towards the middle of the map until “Inaccessibility point” appears, then go there. (If you try to fight the enemies, a Stone Arrow capitol ship will appear and turn your ships into scrap with a couple of laser shots. Skip fighting to avoid that.) The simplest approach is to break through the net.
3. Be prepared to get your fighters out, save, and go to the breakthrough point. As soon as you enter, pause and prepare to destroy “scavengers” i.e. pirate brigands. Kill them very fast or you will lose the side mission. (They probably escape, though it matters not with the lack of a mission reward. To catch them all, launch the fighters early and fly a little north from the breakthrough point. They will appear yellow, so fly as close to the position bellow them to enable your Scorcher lasers to quickly kill them before they can free. Chase the last one with fighters and missiles if one tries to get away. Call back your fighters when done.)
4. Start going to the marked waypoint. You are told to blow up an autocannon installation. (Otherwise it will shoot you in the back and destroy you if you don’t.) Keep going until you see one about in the center of your course line. Get close enough so that your guns do any damage and 8x time it until it is completely gone. Once done, your Mothership will probably start shooting another close installation a little to the south. That will destroy you if not taken care of. Destroy it. Continue to the map waypoint. (Ignore most other installations to save time if you can.)
5. Go to Elio portal. You will be confronted by Scavengers. Help the trader and kill the cutthroats. (As a general rule, helping traders and getting stuff transported usually ups your rewards significantly.) Take the quest from the trader. (Quests = easy money) Collect the pirate junk and enter the portal.
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Scenario 5 (Elio):
1. Launch your fighters and set all ships to escort (E) the first Walrus ship. (It is slow so use 8x time)
2. Kill Curtis’ crew. Keep your fighters (w/ flare systems equiped) escorting the Walrus so that it does not get wrecked too hard.
3. Soon after the ambush, a lone NESF Tie-Fly will attack you. Be careful as it has superior weapons. Kill it fast.
4. Escort the ship to Hope Mine. Then proceed to Grid Station (to advance to the next plot point). Around this point, you get paid 25k.
5. Dock to the station. Re-equip your Mothership stuff as it was just remodeled by Carl Hander.
6. In the dialogue with Ternie, choose to go the Hephaestus-Argon route. The other route has enforcers blackmailing you toll fees.
7. Go to the waypointed Hephaestus portal and enter it.
8. Progress along the left edge of the system map (as there are tons of installations in the middle) to the bottom left corner and then B-line to Argon portal & enter.
9. Go to Aurora portal & enter.
10. Approach Placid Docks Station. You will get 5k. Agree to pursue Ternie’s stash.
11. Go to Argon portal and enter it.
12. Go to Achilles -||-
13. Go to Pegasus -||-
14. Go to the waypointed station.
15. Go to stash point.
16. Defeat the ambush.
17. Go back to the station and defeat more fighters. (The blowing up station will not harm you.)
18. Go towards the upper left corner until you find Bursar’s fleet. Destroy the transports and kill the fighters escorting Bursar and then B’s Trident. That’s it.
19. Go to Hippodrome-3 Transshipment Warehouse and let it dock. Get the second learning perk (Express Learner) for your main guy and spend rest of the points on the leftmost
piloting tier perks. (You need the perks to be able to fly those fighters with the given character.)
20. Go to Achilles portal and enter it.
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Scenario 6 (Achilles et al):
1. Go to Argon portal & enter. (The dialogue with Ternie will give you your next objectives, e.g. the Beta Lethera one.)
2. Save two FTU ships from a sizeable pirate attack. Accept their profitable escorting deal (Promised 100k, it will grow to a 1M payout if you follow this guide. USS rewards its benefactors well. Do not worry about escorting the FTU Walruses as they will follow you pretty well to wherever you go.) Go to Aurora portal & enter.
3. Clear the pirates coming your way and loot any space junk.
4. Do your thing with Corrino portal.
5. MSF will tell you that you are late. No pirate presence here. Insert yourself into Tira portal.
6. -> New Jerusalem 1 portal.
7. You will be confronted by a “USS agent.” You are now in the most devious part of the whole game. That agent has the right security codes, though his actual goal is to make your convoy go BOOM. (*cough a pirate cough*) To get 1M instead of 0.5M, you need to bait this dude into attacking you. Agree to recon first AND choose to require that your convoy ships stay with you at all times and to advance together. (The recon option is a bit of a time-waster and leaving the ships at his care will plot-explode them and fail the escort mission). This will make him attack – a couple minutes of work for that 0.5M. (ËASIEST MONEY IN THE GAME.) You are left with the task of reporting him to the convoy staff and USS. (Did I mention USS pays handsomely for escorting its assets and reporting its traitors? There are plenty of USS ships there. Follow the money.) You should be waypointed towards the convoy gathering point at New Jerusalem 2. -> New Jerusalem 2 portal.
8. -> Telle Avi Station (Gotta love Russian typos.) -> New Jerusalem 3 portal.
9. -> Prien portal.
10. Opt to defend the convoy. Get your fighters out with CTRL+Z and put them to escort. Maintain a position a little in front of the rest of the convoy. Expect a big pirate attack, so do not wander off too far. Your goal here is to take the fire and to tank damage for the much worse equipped convoy ships. (By staying somewhat close to the convoy ships you can count on them to take advantage of your tanking and to destroy some pirate scum for you. If you position yourself right, you will have teams of three (3) lvl 2 fighters such as Hammerheads spawn very clos around you and you will draw their fire. Some Stormcrows spawn close to the transports, so I suggest going to dispose those things before you do anything else. USS and MSF enforcers will help you, so it is not a hard fight.) Collect the space junk and go to Cadi portal. (That will plot-jump you straight to Al-Ariash).
11. Save and go to Al-Ariash Main Trade Station and see what USS thinks about you protecting its assets. Dock to the station to once again up your pilots’ Pilot Grades. It is recommended to not waste on any upgrades as the money is most useful at buying end-game Gunslinger T’s in Charon.
(There will be two two-pirate teams confronting you on your way to the station. Give them the usual viking burial. Very soon after leaving the station, a massive plot-jump comes available that you definitely do not want to miss. Otherwise you will be adding upwards hours of repetitious portal jumping and pirate fighting to your game time.)
12. Agree to the plot-jump to get to Jerusalem 3.
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Scenario 7 (New Jerusalem 3):
1. -> Herzlia Station. Agree to pay the Watchmaker to get it for free. (Otherwise you will not get it and will have harder time dealing with MSF.)
2. -> Beta Lethera 1 (the quest waypoint). Ignore the MSF message about entering a restricted area.
3. Convo with MSF. Unless you have Watchmaker’s favor, there might be a fight here.
4. (Save if you want to try different approaches.) Go to the waypoint (Triada Base Debris). You will get your third, permanent crew member named Greyhair along with his ship and you also get to decide what to do next. (If you opt to go without consulting MSF, their ships will turn hostile to you. You might want to take advantage of this as they are the best story mission loot sources so far.) Remember to equip Greyhair and his fighter (Raptor, gen 2), along with the fighter equipment. (You can use common-loot Mace light guns (4), two (2) shield generators (Citadel or better) and a flare system.)
5. Go to the ship position waypoint and save. (Once you go to the nearby correct waypoint, you will have a cutscene, followed by a moderate assault by 2+3 Scavenger pirates, with missiles, no less. You your Mastiff can probably take it without even losing shields, so worry not.) Defeat and loot the “Scabs.”
6. Ternie tells you that MSF is going to come end you and that you need to hurry to New Jerusalem 3 portal before that happens.
(You can try to go for it or to move south, wait for the hostile MSFs to gather at the convoy wreck point and disperse soon afterwards and THEN go for the Jerusalem 3 portal. You can also hunt the MSF fleets one by one for loot and experience points. If you do, use this strategy:
Put each of the fighters to target different fighters, specifically the Tiger [that will wreck your mothership] and the Cleaners [that will wreck your fighters in a second if let unattended]. The forth ship, Tie-Fly, is just a harmless recon you can waste in your sleep. Keeping the enemy fighters attacked will keep them from attacking as they will be stuck doing evasive maneuvres instead. Focus mothership guns on Cleaners as they have very little armor and shields despite the high firepower.
An extra tip: do not assault the Beta Lethera waypoint hostiles. The map is scripted so that if you try to go near the portals with any of your ships, your mothership explodes. So do not even bother. You had better get used to the game strong-arming you with lethal force into a specific path.)
7. -> New Jerusalem 3 portal.
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Scenario 8 (New Jerusalem 3, XB-17):
1. You are attacked by four (4) MSF fighters upon entry to the system. Kill them. You can either be sane and go for the nearest station (Herzlia) or be a madman and try to kill and loot the assaulting forces.
(You will need a ton of RNG luck and a lot of running away antics to kill them. There are tons of Tigers and some Cleaners, though about a half of the forces are somewhat harmless Tie-Flies and Stormcrows. As usual, kill the Cleaners and whittle down the Tigers. Keep Stormcrows away from the Mothership as their missiles will hurt it a lot.)
2. Once you have destroyed alone or with the help of Patrol ships, SAVE the game, dock Greyhair’s fighter to let him do his ID change thing. Greyhair suggests you to take a quest involving the acquiring of Astarte capital ship. TAKE IT. You are offered a plot system jump. TAKE IT. You will be jumped into XB-17.
(Astarte, especially with decent repair and shield systems, is an unbelievable tank that the pirates have no chance against. Your current Mastiff is a two-second-kill in comparison.)
3. Upon entry, launch your fighters pronto. (It is not advisable to agree to pay for the ship when you can both save your money AND harvest some loot and XP.) The two three-fighter squadrons will tear your Mastiff fast unless you can distract them with fighters. Biggest threats are Cleaners and Machetes i.e. low-HP ones. Kill them. (Do not worry about rushing tone, there is no urgency in this map. Feel free to let your capital ship repair and investigate the system.)
4. Go along the bottom edge of of the map to the left corner, destroying mercenary squadrons along the way, and then going towards the upper left corner where Astarte is.
5. Go near the marked waypoint, stop and SAVE. You will be attacked by at least one squadron of mercs. (Another is near, you had better not move and instead try to take the first one out separately.) Deal with any extra squadrons you come across carefully before moving on.
6. (Save frequently before you reach the upper left corner) it as bad RNG can easily demolish your flimsy ships. There is a major ambush there with multiple squadrons of mercs, so destroying the mercs along the way is practically mandatory, otherwise you will not survive.
(The best strategy is to go beyond the left edge of the map and to slowly approach the ambush until the fighters start coming for you. Occupy Cleaners and Stormcrows to keep your capital ship and fighters from ‘sploding. Make a ton of frequent extra saves to capitalize on the favorable RNG and to avoid losing too much effort when your ships die. Attacking/shooting the firing ships is a good way to get them off the tail and to keep your fighters and cap alive.)
7. Destroy the ambush and you will switch to piloting Astarte. (Do not worry about the Mastiff exploding, the splash does zero damage to nearby ships.)
8. Go to the nearby Trade Station to re-equip your new, naked mothership. Upgrade Greyhair’s Instructor perks, then everyone’s pilot perks.
(Try to save XP as you will relatively soon get a chance to procure Gen 5 ships. You need quite a lot of money, too, for that. 1.8 million for to be exact.)
9. Save and -> XB-15 portal.
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Scenario 9 (XB-15, XT-54):
1. You will be offered quests. Pick the one about Alex. (It is very, very profitable and relatively easy.) DO NOT Agree to the XT-54 plot jump. Instead, go to a nearby system XB-19 to mine some end-game weapon caches. Your game will get much easier if you RNG at least two Falconets for yourself. (Save before blowing up the asteroid with blinking lights and reload if you do not get what you need. You need those Major Caliber weapons for taking down corvettes, capital ships and space stations.)
(Whenever you locate a cache asteroid with blinking red lights. SAVE. If you do not get Wyvern Mk 2, reload or exit and re-enter the portal. Re-entering is a required measure if you are getting lower level fighters than desired, e.g. worthless Tridents. Re-entering changes the loot quality random seed value. NOTE: DO NOT ENTER Danstag system. It has automatic defenses that will kill you in seconds. Take the long detour through X-something systems around it.
Solncevka (5,-4) [the 5. square from right, the 4. down, at low depth]
Charon (3,3)
XB-19 (3,3) [DANGER HEAVY SCRIPTED PIRATE AMBUSH, fixed fighter loot {1 Gunslinger and 1 Wyvern}, leave the system if Pirates enter before USS Enforcers or it will be a one-sided slaughter of your fleet, get decent ships and cannons before you try this one]
Fronn (8,6)
X220 (5,7)
Vaudille (-9,-2) [Ship Hull] & (9,-3) [red-blinking tiny Asteroid], USS automatic defense installations at the portal entry to kill you in case you are hostile to them )
[Cleaned up, improved and checked the position hints from Trucidation’s GameFAQs guide. Never would have found the stuff on my own.]
(You may not utilize Tarrot cache until the InoCo Automated Turrets and the fighter ambush are removed.)
2. Launch the fighters and go to “Alex’s convoy” wp in XT-54. (Expects some pushover pirate squadrons.)
3. Go near Atoll Trade Station to trigger the next part of the quest. Refuse the offer to buy some scanner equipment. (It is expensive, overpriced and will not even help you. You might already have the equipment the guy is selling (Parallax?).
4. Approach the XT-52 portal and defeat the ambush. Focus on Butcher (“corvette”) and pray for a victory from RNG gods. (This is super-difficult if you do not have any major caliber guns to quickly take down the Butcher. Other weapons do tiny damage against it. The key is to get to the tail of the B with your fighters and keep it there for the long time needed to take it down without Major Caliber mothership guns. Use the mothership to kill the fighters, prioritizing the Cleaner and the Raptors.)
5. After the ambush, wait for Alex’s convoy to reach the portal and enter it.
6. You are given a decent sub-quest to save a trader. Without a waypoint, go to system map position (8,6). (8 squares right, six squares up, from the bottom left corner of the map. You have a hurry as the AI starts blasting the Tug right after you get this message, so the quest is time-limited.) Kill the pirates, convo with the trader and return to the convoy. (They will get destroyed if you do not.) Three Hammerheads will cross convoy’s path, so they need to be cleaned. A couple additional squadrons later the coast is cleared.
7. -> XT-45 portal. (Jump into any other portal and you will be greeted with a mission failed convo. Accept the profitable plot railroad by not doing that.)
8. Launch fighters and proceed towards the waypointed portal. As soon as you see enemies, stop. (The curveball here is that pirates, starting with a fleet of Hammerheads, attack your convoy from behind and various other directions.) Stay close to the convoy and defeat the incoming pirate squadrons. (Putting your ship in front of a Heavy Transport makes it less likely to draw fire. Send one of your fighters to at least stall the Stormcrow coming circling to your rear to attack your transports.) When your convoy reaches (6,8), an enemy squadron will be spawned at (6,7) — deal with it.
9. -> XT-93 portal.
10. Launch the fighters. Choose the recon option. (Prepare for a massive fleet fight.) Move towards “Pirate ambush” waypoint and let your dudes engage with the two teams of pirates on your way there. A big in-fighting will take place, enabling you to score some easy loot and kills in the process, especially if you stay out of the Butcher range.
11. Tell the traders to join your convoy and escort it to the XT-41 portal. (Sometimes MSF Viper appears at the portal and forces you into plot jumping out of there. You will still get rewarded the same.) Jump in it.
12. SAVE now and kill some pirates until Alex reaches the station and gives you 1.5 million credits. (You should have about 2.5 mil now — enough to start equipping end-game fighters and equipment.
13. You will be offered another quest and a courtesy plot jump. You are left with the main quest line options. (This guide takes the NESF path. Other ) Take the one involving the strange ship you found at Beta Lethera 1 and mercenaries. (It is Greybeard’s quest.)
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Scenario 10 (Cassily):
1. Help some mercs and destroy pirates on your way to Mercenary base Sherwood.
2. Go to Avalon portal and jump in. (You will be interrupted by Phantom, a space scientist. He is involved with an end-game quest explaining the end-and-origins of Precursors and aliens.)
3. -> Gideon portal.
4. After a convo, a NESF fleet will arrive for another convo. Follow the waypointed point. (Let us just say taking a shortcut will be be unhealthy.) At the last one. You will have another conversation. AGREE to become NESF’s office boys. Follow the new waypoint path. At the second last one, a Brotherhood AKA Grey Gunslinger will attack you. (Definitely take the loot.)
5. -> Solpugae portal.
6. -> Endoria 1 portal.
(Now it is a good time to salvage caches at Solncevka, XB-17, etc. Skip if you already have the stuff.)
7. Get to Torr system’s Oxygen station, take the mission and return to Endor 1. There you can choose to help some traders for some extra experience points. (If you have end game guns and fighters, you can take out even the massive reinforcement fleet of Gen 2&3 fighters. The cache the smuggler activates is one mid-tier item, nothing to be worry about.) Get to the Endoria 2 portal when you are done murdering MSF.
8. Follow the Endoria 2 – Elio – Gredos – Aurora.
9. You are faced with a ton of MSF in Aurora. Kill them and go to the market waypoint. Tell Greyhair to go do business with Ternie. Two squadrons of MSF will attack. Once they are deleted, the two will return to report a successful mission.
10. -> Gredos – Elio . Get through the convo and get to Grid Station.
11. -> Agree to the mission and escort the embarking trade ships to Endoria 2 portal and enter it.
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Scenario 11 (Endoria 2):
1. Escort the ships to Dionysus system and get to Destroyed station. (Save before you arrive to the station.)
2. You are informed about pirate ambushes. Make a choice about how to take out the pirate fleets. Pilot Che will join you at least if you choose to destroy the pirates.
(You should have decent Major Caliber guns for taking out Butcher corvettes and Gen 5 fighters and the other good stuff. Equip Che’s Jaguar with a shield generator and better Heavy Guns. The enemies prioritize lower Generation ships, so try to keep him close to Mothership so that you can laser anyone trying to tail him.)
3. Go to the Endoria 2 portal. There will be a pirate ambush halfway there. Another one will be at the portal. (Expect multiple Butchers.) After done looting, get back to the station and get through the convo. You are given assumedly the “fire ship” fighters i.e. a Tie-Fly, a Hrimthurs and a Stiletto.
4. Go to the radium convoy rendezvous point and escort the Walruses to Endoria 2 portal and follow them in it.
5. You will be met by a lone MSF squadron. It will try to extort 50k out of you. Considering you can blast his team to pieces in 30 seconds or so, decline and loot his junk.
6. Escort the convoy to Elio portal, defending them from pirate attacks. Enter the portal.
7. Your NESF boss Alexandra greets you and hands you 3.75 million credits for a completed mission. (Her intel is summarized by “Greys are a stealth army.”)
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Scenario 12 (Elio, X203):
1. You have no mission for a while, so go to Grid station to sell all your garbage items and buy some guns.
(Grid Station has RNG potential for getting end-game items. Just keep re-entering the station to refresh the items. Things to do at the station: buying Helios combat lasers, Cyclone flare systems, Tung[s]ten repair system [20 HP/s repair rate is insane], attributing Che’s experience to enable him to fly Gen 4 fighters such as Gunslinger or Panther heavy fighter. Going heavy on Helios lasers is never a bad idea. With just two, you can already one-shot a lot fighters and take out Gen 4’s with ease. Buy some extra heavy guns for the two [2] extra pilots you will be having quite soon.)
2. Once you have made two (2) portal jumps, you are given a new mission convo. Accept the plot jump to X297. (Make a temporary save immediately after entering the system and launching your fighters. You will be in a massive missile attack and fighting a major capital ship Chimaera very soon.)
3. Launch the fighters and set them to escort, then go towards X203 portal, prepared for a fight.
4. Destroy the Berserkers, deal with the convo and then focus on defeating the fleet led by a massive Chimaera ship. (Once again, for best results, first focus on taking down the big ship. Having your fighters providing missile baits is crucial to your Mothership’s survival.)
5. Once Chimaera is brown bread, a whole fleet of in-system militia forces appear to mop up the last foes. Get through the chat. You are nodded towards Joseph’s side quest, which you definitely should do for its brevity and Joseph’s antics.
(You will get to converse with the “Experienced Pilot” Zurab Adjani, a dude who will help you again once Greys aka Brotherhood attacks you and kidnaps Ternie in this same sector on your way out. You will be reminded to equip Ternie with some crappy gear when the time comes to avoid losing a good fighter and stuff.)
6. Get to X203. There, go recruit Joseph at his hermit station. Then go meet the heretic who agrees to go to X220 to play with a portal. Go to X220.
(Notice that you need to keep Heretic alive as a mission condition. If you let Heretic die early in the game, the professor will be here instead and Joseph might not be available for recruiting. Do not bother equipping Joseph’s garbage-tier Dark Stormcrow, he will not be a permanent addition. Note that Heretic has a very rare fighter model Stiletto Mk 2.)
7. In X220, launch your fighters and proceed to the given waypoint. Delete Chimaera et company there. Enter the Precursor portal. (Totally not from Star Control.)
8. In Precursor System, prepare for a series of very difficult, outright over-powered encounters. Go to the first waypoint to loot some Precursor artifacts and then go to a ship hull to get assaulted by multiple squadrons of really tough alien fighters.
(Pray hard to your RNG gods. Just be happy that they did not force you to fight an Alien Dreadnaught. You should have end-game guns such as Helios lasers here. Otherwise you need to have your things super ready and be prepared to make a ton of temporary saves during the combat when necessary. The game does not really you how towards the end it already is. Only a couple long missions left before you hit the credits roll. Just a couple of hours of stuff if you already have the end-game equipment and do not need to spend time hunting for them.)
9. Go to the portal waypoint. Kill the assaulting Aliens and go follow the waypoint trail. Kill the aliens and get into Mobile Alien Portal. (Expect some minor alien capital ships aka Alien Frigates at the end. They are a way tougher than Chimaeras. Save beforehand. With end-game gear, it might not be that difficult. It is best to not give the RNG gods a sliver of a chance.)
10. In Dyson Sphere, get through the convo and back into Alien Portal. (There is nothing to do in that place. You can save and try how out-classed these aliens have you. E.g. a single Dreadnought has about a dozen heavy laser cannons and will fry your capitol ship in a second.)
11. SAVE. -> Precursor portal. (There will be a major Berserk ambush with two Chimaeras next to the portal.)
12. As soon as the X220 system loads, pause the game. Get your fighters out. Make them attack the flimsy berserk squadrons to prevent them from frying your MoShi while it is busy executing Chimaeras. Save when done killing and looting. -> X203.
13. Now, dump Ternie’s ship into the MoShi inventory and replace it with some super-weak ship, such as an old Excalibur fighter. (Keep her by the MoShi. She should be plot destroyed after Zurab offers her support.) -> X297. (That is where she will get napped.)
14. In X297, launch your fighters. About two squares-widths in, your team gets attacked by Greys. Soon after Zurab joins to help, Ternie’s ship suddenly explodes and she is nowhere to be found. In its wake, both Joseph and Heretic depart from your company, leaving you with just three (3) pilots. (Now you are on the quest to get the best mothership in the game.)
15. -> Al-Ariash portal.
Scenario 13 (Al-Ariash):
1. Travel Hanoi-Cadi and go to Trade station (located near the portal exit) to meet Alexandra. Accept to get plot-jumped into Al Trabon.
2. Immediately, there will be portal ambush by MSF. Launch everyone except Alexandra. (Launching her will get you a “Mission Failed.”) Deal with the thick-skulls. Get into Al Zed portal.
3. In Al Zed, get through the convo and go to Amman Trade Station -> Jordan Warehouses. After Liners have appeared, -> Al Trabon portal. (They will follow you quite well.)
4. Without stopping to loot, clear the way and escort Liners Al Trabon -> XT-81 -> XT-41 -> XT-93. (If you wait too long, the ships will plot-die and you will get game-overed.)
(At the end of XT-81 before jumping into XT-81 portal, there is a non-timed spot for regenerating your ships’ armor and shields. Use it if you need it. One functional strategy is to assign each one of your fighters for a role: 1 to escort MoShi, 1 to escort the Liners and 1 to scout ahead and demolish the ambushes waiting for you near the path to the next portal. There will be a massive ambush at the end of XT-41. You should send your fighters deal with it, prioritizing Cleaners, Tigers and Stormcrows.)
5. At XT-93, you will have some chat, lose Alexandra and get 1.25 mil. (You should already have god-tier stuff, so money and stuff mean nothing to you at this point.)
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Scenario 14 (XT-93):
(Che is probably accumulated enough experience to an Ace pilot. Get him “promoted” and equiped with a Wyvern pronto.)
1. Travel XT- 26 – 23 – 24. (There will be pirate attacks.) Launch the fighters and defend until told to move on.
2. Approach Old MSF base. Beat the Greys and you will get a convo and a waypoint to the pirate base.
3. Go blast the pirates at the pirate base. You will get three (3) new crew members (Ternie, Alexandra and Kalem) and a new Mothership (MSS-19, based on the original Star Wolf). Go equip your new crew and ships at Foggy Station. (You are about to begin the last long mission.)
4. Go to XT-23 portal. You will be attacked by a lot of fighters. Go through the chat involving Ternie and -> XT-23.
5. Defeat the Crayer the Grey high-up soon after entering XT-23. (He reveals in his villain monologue to the protagonist that the Beta Lethera 1 massacre happened to cover up evidence about the presence of Greys. Yup, you still know nothing about Greys despite already fighting their higher-ups.)
6. -> XT-26 and immediately return to XT-23 portal (to utilize the hyperspace jump catapult plot device). You will reappear in XT-86.
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Scenario 15 (XT-86):
1. SAVE. Go to the Docks waypoint and circle through the waypoint path in a counter-clockwise fashion. (Take slight detours to the sides to avoid the patrols. No cloaking systems are required — the enemy patrols are half blind, probably because of the dust etc. in the system.)
2. Go to the rendezvous point. Agree to help Trump. Fire a few Major Caliber shots at the big enemy ship to crush the whole fleet. Loot, wait for Trump’s Lion Mk 2 to appear and enter XT-81 portal. (Your goal is now to go to Eridan with Trump’s fleet in tow. Do not count on Trump helping you when pirates attack. Trump is no one’s wingman.)
3. Travel Al Trabon – Jerusalem 1 (Ignore the chat.) – Tira – Shula – Eridan.
4. Go NESF Headquarters, Centaur Sector. (The ones present there in this NESF faction path include Corsair, Trump, Aja of Triada Corp and SAM AI of InoCo.) Get through the convo. (Summary: Greys = FTU AKA Free Traders Union. It would be cool if it was not lame. If that made sense, Greys would have wasted the protagonist long before the game storyline took place for taking part in shipping evidence harming their cause. It is established that they have plenty of political influence to pull it off.)
5. SAVE. Go to Treasure Island Station. Finish Corsair’s convo. (You can buy everything on sale for 0 credits.) Buy everything that seems useful to you, especially missiles. Level up your dudes’ perks and equip your ships for the last time for the last mission. As soon as you undock, you will be catapulted into New Kyoto system to spearhead an assault on Greys.
6. In New Kyoto, get through the convo. (BTW, ‘coign of vantage’ means ‘advantageous position.’) Launch the fighters and approach the FTU base.
(You will be intercepted by Alex. There will be a huge amount of plot exposition, e.g. how Greys are simply substitues for underfitted Patrol security forces. The reason Greys became a galactic threat was that Cayer, the dude you probably wrecked in two seconds, was a the faction leader of the bad Greys. No bad leader, no more Grey attacks. At the very end after SAM appears, you are given three [3] options: 1 : screw over yourself and have everyone turn against you, 2 : screw over Alex or 3 : screw over SAM the Berserk [recommended and you can beat the game fastest that way]. )
7. With Intuition, you should pick option 3, that turns the whole fleet against SAM. Launch fighters and make them go all-in on SAM. (If you do not, SAM will keep spawning Super Chimaeras and getting away. Give the traitor some lasers and stuff. If you chose anything else, you are on your own. Good luck with that. NOT RECOMMENDED. Again, for the love of SAM clones, please pick Choice 3.)
(Okay. Here is the list of successful NESF endings depending on your various choices:
Choice 1 : Opt to kill Alex, then destroy his station. You are required to make a second choice:
* 1: You turn against SAM. Kill SAM to end the game. (Super-glitchy. If SAM dies before his ship turns red and his dialogues play out, your game bugged and you need to reload and try again. Godmode greatly recommended here, mostly to keep SAM alive long enough to die late enough.) The ending is NESF and FTU win, but end up defeated by Imu and pirates. Practically the same as Ending 2. Technically a bad ending.
* 2: You opt to side with SAM (“enough bloodshed”) and go to Llanowar 1 portal. The ending: some drivel about SAM creating Symbiont to take over the sectors and stuff with no unique information. A bad ending.
Choice 2: Go to FTU base to get your Lion Mk 2 MoShi. Go equip it at the trade station. SAM that you need to try to kill is where you started the level i.e. the bottom left corner of the system. Damage him about 90% and he will warp away. Ending: FTU sucked at maintaining order and pirates, Min Imu and Azar ruled the sectors. A bad ending and also pretty similar to Ending 1.1.
Choice 3: kill SAM. You get a happy ending leading to a scene of Symbiont ships vaporizing a trade ship convoy. (The overall best ending and the easiest to attain with minimum effort.)
In all cases, Symbionts i.e. technologically advanced Berkerkers are set up as the Star Wolves 4 threat. Maybe if SW3 turned out a tiny bit better, that game would have been made. (They claim SW3 was made with strong community support. It is unbelievable that any game community would ask for a title with almost nothing to do in and no explorative value much unlike most games in the Wing Commander Privateer / Elite-like game type. Most likely the devs ran out of time to add that content.)
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PP: goblinravisher at gmail dot com
[I tried submitting a guide to gamefaqs, though I think they deleted the submission for no reason or will sit on the disappeared submission for a month or more as usual. F* those guys, here is my Star Wolves 3 NESF Mercenary path (?) walkthrough. Never gonna submit anything there again. The corrupt CBS and Gamespot as owners can SUCC it. Hopefully this manages to help at least one person. That game explains nothing.]