The Emerald Circle

Etiquette… who’d have thought that manners would matter in a game, especially a game who’s primary purpose is to maim, kill, and destroy?  Well, I’m not talking about things like saying “please” and “thank you” (although those are helpful!)… I’m talking about game play manners. These are those unspoken “rules” that if you violate them, your gameplay enjoyment will be reduced.  You might even get shot at… or killed!

First and foremost, DO NOT sit in the middle of the portals. When you jump through, MOVE out of the dang gate already, will ya?! Sitting in the middle of the port is a good way to get yourself shot or even killed.  You see all those big bad Goli’s sitting around the gate, appearing to do nothing?  Well, they are guarding the port. So when an enemy ship jumps through, they can immediately target and begin to attack the bad guys.  If you are sitting in the port, you not only make it difficult for the portal guards to target incoming enemies, you very likely will be targeted by mistake! Yes, it’s a neutral zone, but you can still be targeted there! Read the rest of this entry »

These are some simple ways to kill aliens and reduce your ship damage and risk of death in Dark Orbit.  The most important one, without a doubt, is circling.

Other than Streuners in 3-1, you should get in the habit of circling most of the aliens you kill.  If your ship is strong enough that you can destroy the alien within a few seconds, don’t bother circling – just take the small hits.  But otherwise, most aliens should be circled.

A common mistake – Read the rest of this entry »

This first chapter in the Dark Orbit 101 series is about ship configurations, an important but often underlooked aspect of the game.

On the home page, there is a button called Equipment.  Here you can change your ship’s “configuration” – which is just a fancy way of saying you can set up your ship two different ways.

Most of us Read the rest of this entry »

When you are killing alone, you want to pick targets you can handle on your own, while at the same time, make as much money as possible without spending even more time than you already do playing this game!  That means pick your target wisely.

Basically, go for the kills that you know you can do single-handedly, but are still somewhat challenging.  For most of us under level 12, that means Mordons, Saimons, Lordakais, and Streuners.

Streuners are, of course, Read the rest of this entry »

In Dark Orbit, killing is how we make most of our credits and uri.  You want to kill as much as you can, as often as you can, and, of course, as cheaply as you can.  To whatever extent is possible, you always want to try to combine your kills with quests, so you can make even more money.

Believe it or not, there are three basic components to killing: Strategy, Technique, and Economics. All three of these aspects will be covered in the killing messages to come.

Killing is obviously very simple:  Read the rest of this entry »

Death and dying.  The universe can be a dangerous and cruel place, especially when you find yourself dead, broke, and without any uri much less credits.  What should you do?  Whine and cry? NO. Beg and plead? NO. Get over it and get busy? YES!  But how do to that when you are driving around in a Mini Cooper (Phoenix) with zero credits and uri?  Simple: You sit in sector one, you collect boxes and ore, and kill Streuners.   Lots of Streuners.  If you work hard, you’ll be in a Nostromo within an hour or so!

There is, of course, a better way: Become rich and powerful!  But how to do that in such a dark and risky world?  It’s simple: Kill more, die less, spend smart.  Let’s start with dying less. Read the rest of this entry »