Hello my fellow Galaxy Legion friends and foes. I have been in many a heated debate regarding low rankers and what best suits them to build their ships.

On the one hand, someone believes strongly that arti is all important, research and mining not so much, and research is more important than mining as it can be sold later for credit.

On the other, someone believes research and mining are most important for a ships build, and arti is a caveat for a low rank. Arti is necessary at higher levels for the ship, though artifacts are needed for some missions but that doesn't happen until later ranks. If you are going for a SSB, then you probably do want arti and that will work out well, but a regular ship isn't going to benefit early on.

What say you? What is best for a low ranking ship-arti or research? I want to hear from the old dogs who have experience in the game and have witnessed with their own eyes ships that have been built from scratch using arti or research/mining, or even a combo of them.

Can you please include your rank as well? Thank you! Milk and cookies for all participants on the aloha deck. Enjoy!

I say research and mining are better. Firstly, they're easier to find, we're all aware of that. Second, the price of one maxed arti can buy you 6-10 maxed plasmas and 18-30 maxed toxics (!!!). Thirdly, mining + research = money = CTP = planets = arti. So in the long run, research + mining = arti.

For a low-rank ship, research is better, whether that comes from a base or planet production. Once you get the research tree done, it's all about arti.

Too late, I tried to edit it but you already saw the comment. Very sorry for that!

Rocker what rank are you? Thanks. Just want to know for the discussion/argument purposes, then when I prove everyone I am right and show them this, they can see I have the wisdom of a seasoned player.

I'm around rank 400, but I have been playing for quite a bit of time.

rank 497

it really does depend on your ship build, and most importantly rank, as this is a paradigm effect that gradually changes from 1 end of the spectrum to the other.

for low ranks, research is by far the easiest resource to work with, you get bigger / better mods, faster. point blank

now as you gradually increase in rank you realize ( quickly or slowly, again depends on your playstyle and ship build ) that artifacts will deffinatly be a much more endeavored resource for you.

for example:
lets say you get 10 prisoners / 10 brackets / 10 xcharge cells / 10 helmsman / 10 scientists per day ( somewhat realistic with 30k + aph )

assuming you spent the 10 prisoners on tactical officers this means that in the course of 1 day you will have gained :
60 attack
100 hull
50 shields
20 defense
120 research

over the course of a week you would get :
420 attack
700 hull
350 shields
140 defense
840 research

to put that into research terms ( what you get from research'd modules ) you would be adding :
~1 Light Phase Cannon
~1 Reinforced Durtanium Plating
~1 Light Inverse Graviton Shield
~1 Motion Compensator
and 1 overly defended massive / very massive rich gas planet per day

or

~1 Heavy Quasi-Chaotic Blaster
~1 Deep Core Neutronium Armor
~1 Meta-Chron Shield
~1 Inertial Canceler - Mark II
or 1 very defended 17x colossal plasma planet per week

hope this puts artifacts in a more tangible perspective.

I personally value artifact above all else it will grow your research for you.
mining is good but extremely limited, if it had other uses then I could see it taking a much higher forefront in this debate.

I have been playing for 1 year and a week or two. The only researched items i use are planetary structures, energy relays and scanners. Sometimes i use energy reactors but thats optional. I am rank 1135 i have crew that far surpasses a lot of people who have been playing longer and that is only because i focused on nothing but artifacts. Mining and research came later and without any real work from me.

Tldr: artifact >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> research/mining. There really is no contest.

I'm rank 382.

The only researched ship mods I use are:
* 4 × relays (the last set)
* 1 × def mod (+500 def)
* 1 × hull (+885 hull)
Once I get more NPC/mission ship mods, the hull and def mods will go.

I stopped using researched weapons a long time ago - the upkeep is way too high.
And one day I'll equip 5 × scan mods (the last set) to do a massive planet scan blitz.

Otherwise, I see artifact as far more important than research.
Heck, I see minerals as more important than research right now.

I've never reset my ship... but if I did, I'd still not bother with researched mods.
There are some decent ship mods gotten from missions and NPC drops.

Even at low ranks, good arti production is important.
One good reason NOT to freeze or slow rank is that the planet slots are crucial to getting good arti production.
Legion arti production is 'high' when you're absolutely super-low rank.

Fixed that for you but thats essentaly the reason I put artifact first on my list of planet prioritys

Going to have to go with research as being most important for beginners (sub-75 ish), then arti, then mining.

The reason is that good planets are the most important for getting a strong ship in this game, and the research tree provides the scanners to find planets, structures to maximize production, and barriers to protect planets.

Unless the beginner is fed x15+ artifacts from the start and is prepared to really slow rank, it's better to focus on research.

(rank 371, 548 days played. I focused on research until rank 85, when i had pretty much completed shields, structures, and most of the scanners, and then shifted my focus almost exclusively to artifact production).

agreed. Research is important early on to focus on production structures. My point is that having a 300-500 AP/hour earlier is not gonna helping you much, as you can only get at (average) max 1 prisoner a day. After you get decent prod structure (+10), you can shift your future planet slots on arti planets (which brings you an average of 100-150 AP per decent planet).
EXCEPT when you have a benefactor who supply you with arti planets (and those arti buildings), I dont see why you pick arti planets for your first 10 planets

If in a research legion to start out focusing on Artifact Planets. if in an artifact legion focus on research for a while. If in a mining legion change legions until condition 1 or 2 is true.

For me, research is just so easy to get and so finite, so I believe Research Legions are always a waste, you are losing AP every hour of every day you stay in one.
Mining too should take care of itself, and is relatively pointless until Rank 160+ when your pulls start improving.

My advice for everyone is arti legion, grab a heap of common VM Rich Gas planets until your planet defenses and structures are maxed, don't waste your time with volcanics and always look to improve your arti... research alone will give you less than 10k attack, so is largely irrelevant in a very short amount of time.

Just over one year playing, Rank 712, had all important research completed and research contract well before a year of play.

Most importantly, have fun and enjoy yourself

For and S(ish)SB, it's Arti all he way. Why? Because you don't really use standard mods (No major upkeep) Therefore, mining can be low. For the same reason, the research can be lower as well. Im afraid that my own arti is still much too low, but I'm working on it. with the addition of +24's to my mission planets, I should gain quite a lo of extra production.

Seconding what Chiaroscuro said.

Research early on.. gets you a much better ship for your rank.. sub 100 you are relying on researched mods. get them up early and go to work on all those players who have turbo ranked via missions, good hull scares/wears off a lot of attackers.

Past that, once you have decent energy/hull/planet mods, i'm thinking Arti wins all the way.

I'm r190 but i don't value my mining planets/income at all.. caps out too quickly, barely covers upkeep and takes too long to retrieve. Half a dozen ACFs from a few arti shipments cover so much more. (although recently the EM is a nice bonus.. mostly for the ctp conversion though).


For low rank (again sub 100) upkeep and general cost of things is relatively small, so that with a couple of donations from legion mates they shouldn't even need mining income, let alone wasting a fairly precious planet slot for what are all too often mediocre mining.

Arti all the way. Except for the very beginning (sub 100) your level of research is largely irrelevant. Also remember, if you increase your researched mods too quickly (by sitting in a research legion) your upkeep will quickly outpace your income. Bellow rank 100 you are lucky to get any Ku in your pulls, so the value of mining is very low. Additionally, even with a sub 1k aph the extra/"throw away" artifacts most high ranks don't worry much about can be sold through the GTC for a nice price for a low rank. You might not consider 100mil for a dark pyramid to be such a big deal, but for a new player that's more credits than they'll make from their mining planets in a week.

I would suggest new players spend a week in a research legion just to get their planet structures a jump start, then focus mostly on artifact with some toxics they can improve later and a few VM gasses if they have a planet slot open early on (also to be improved later).

the best way to get research at low ranks is to zero the hacks of the top 10 players on the kills leaderboard Even if they hit you back you won't lose much production due to the rank difference (while hacking thousands of research each time), and they might even like it (I wouldn't mind having a low rank zeroing my hacks daily as long as he promises to purge any good planets he might crit-hack... ).


So yer, arti production all the way... if I had to start over I would not bother with research planets (I turned all my 17x colossal plasmas into storage worlds long time ago).

But without cloak and without enough planets to support any significant production, how do you expect a beginner to have the modules to hack those top 10 players?

Friends donating flares and dark pyramids Just debuff one of the top 10 and hack away... just pick the one with the highest action count so you don't waste too many actions throwing them. Plus there is no limit as to how much research you can get from hacking (e.g. even if your research storage is low, you can go well over it with hacking).

Personally i would say research in the beginning, but do find a strong artifact base to assist ur built. I didn't start focus on artifact planets until rank 125. But rank not matter, you just neded to finish all your key research module before full on going for artifacts. After all, you do need certain research completion so you can protect your planet and stay competative.

P.S. back then when i pick up research planets like Icy or Desert, those are convertable switching research into artifacts. Also if you go with all artifacts, you probably expect to spend time selling them for credits all the time if your credit cash flow is weak