I really cant believe their isnt a guide for this game, considering how long it has been out.
 
Yes there is actually a GREAT Tutorial in game, which honestly is rare as it does cover some beginner stratigies.
 
My guide will cover basic set up of planets, how to establish positive income for each planet, and some advanced tips to help building, research, and politics.
 
 

Basics

So, Here ye are, your last stop before frustration and rage threaten to annihilate any hope of you retaining your sanity..
 
Hopefully this guide should help a*suage that.
 

 
1. Basic Info –
 
 
Planet Systems–
 
BIG RED – (the large Red one) largest system, has best quality/ mineral range
 
OLE YELLER – (the yellow one) medium system, the mineral/ quality range will be between the BIG RED and LITTLE NOBODY.
 
LITTLE NOBODY – (the little white one) has the smallest range of Minerals and Quality.
 
 
BE AWARE – Each plant has a max quality and mineral count that are randomly generated when you first establish your colony and it is permanent baring some late game research . You can go over these amounts, but it pollutes the planet, and over time you can lose quality due to this, so try to keep the planet in the green spectrum.
 
 
As this is a random roll, it is entirely possible to get a BIG RED with only 6 Quality. While this is fairly rare it does happen, and early game it will be a mostly useless colony. Any colony that rolls a low enough start Quality will be given over to independent traders. You can still direct construction on the planet, with limitations.
 
 
Basic Starting Units
 
 
Colony ship – use ability on vacant planet to start a colony
 
Scout – use to explore (has better fuel-range than Templar) and can explore anomalies for possible bonuses
 
Templar Defender – your primary defense against xeno early game
 
 
Once you use a colony ship to create a colony on a vacant planet you will be able to build stuff by clicking on the colony.
 
 
2. Construction
 
 
Aside from some special buildings and upgrades later in the game (unlocked through research) all buildings take up 1 Quality.
 
Mines take up 1 quality AND 1 mineral resource.
 
 
when you first start your game, and you have established a colony, click on it. you will have these options-
 
Hab unit – allows 1 population
 
Mine – creates money
 
 
After you do some research ( the tab at the bottom of the screen that vaguely looks like a beaker from a Alchemy lab) you can unlock some other base buildings and ships.
 
 
Other base buildings–
 
Factory – creates CP which are construction points, this allows you to build/ construct buildings and ships on that planet faster.
 
 
Spice den – creates spice (which is the drug of choice for the entire population), as well as research and espionage points.
 
 
it is at this point you start to have some control over how fast you can build and research things, and how fast politic policies are processed.
 
This is also the point in which most players start to realize the game is a little more complex than they originally may have thought.
 
 
COMPLEXITIES –
 
Each colony has a maintenance cost, on top of the maintenance cost incurred by having a fleet of star ships. you can reduce maintenance on star ships by parking them in the green area around your planet. To reduce the maintenance cost of a colony, you must either balance its maintenance cost with profit buildings like Mines, or balance your entire Empires profit against its maintenance cost.
 
 
If you are keeping up with research you may now be able to create your own colony ships. build a lot of them and spread out to new planets…. well no, not really.
 
 
You want to expand slowly. and i really do not recommend expanding until you have both the factory and the spice den unlocked.
 
This may vary depending on how many enemies and what difficulty setting and the size of the map, but generally, you want to build 1 colony at a time so that you can get it established before you build another. Build too many too quickly and you will not only bankrupt yourself, you wont be able to create ships to fend off the xenos when they come.
 
 
 

Advanced Colony Stratigies

Enter at Your Own Risk 😛
 
 

 
You will likely notice at some point that your entire population is both suicidal and are all raging drug addicts. Lack of spice on individual planets causes riots and reduces moral (Slowing down or halting production). Your politicians are more then happy to stop tradeing and start killing each other off (reducing profits to the negative). And all this while you are trying to fend off a hoard of xeno.
 
 
The following strategies should help you cope with this, preferably before the commander dies of a brain aneurysm do to the Sheer stupidity of everyone around him 🙂
 
 
FIRST – NEW COLONY, LOW STRESS
 
Each time you start a new colony (a*suming your following my basic tips) build these 4 improvements first, every time – hab unit, mine, factory, Spice Den. Start with 2 -3 hab units (subsidize when possible) and add new hab units as necessary. always build more factories on planets that have a military faction to take advantage of their cheaper Star Ships
 
 
SECOND – Miner 49’er
 
Remember that each Colonies Quality and Mineral content roll is random?
 
well, some times you get a decent Quality and a LARGE amount of minerals (15+)
 
as such build lots of extra mines on planets with an abundance of minerals to increase your profits. be careful to stay within the limits on quality and mineral content.
 
 
THIRD – SPICYSPICY
 
Plenty of planets will have a large quality number but low minerals.
 
on these planets you can build extra Spice Dens which have no individual planet limit, and each one grants bonus RP and EP
 
 

 
 
I hope you enjoy the Guide for Beginners with/and Tips for advanced Players – Star Traders: 4X Empires guide. This is all for now! If you have something to add to this guide or forget to add some information, please let us know via comment! We check each comment manually!