=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-= HOMEWORLD =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= a gameplay guide by The_Assimilator version 1.0.

5 FINAL 12 February 2004 ________________________________________________________________________________ ======================================== -> LEGAL NOTICE / COPYRIGHT INFORMATION ======================================== This guide is the sole property of its author, Ian "The_Assimilator" Kemp. It may be used ONLY for your personal enjoyment, it is ILLEGAL to sell this document without the author's permission. It is also ILLEGAL to claim all or part of this guide as your own. You may not sell and/or distribute this guide without the author's prior consent. This guide may (currently) only be featured on MY website (if it ever gets put up...), and the below website(s): Cheatbook CheatChannel Cheats.de DLH.net GameFAQs IGN FAQs http://www.cheatbook.de/ http://www.cheatchannel.com/ http://www.cheats.de/ http://dlh.net/ http://www.gamefaqs.com/ http://faqs.ign.com/

If you would like to host this guide on your website, or use portions of it for your own guide, please ask me first (see the "Contacting the author" section). If you do not abide by the above conditions, expect to have legal action taken against you! Ian Kemp is not affiliated with Relic Entertainment, Sierra Studios, nor Vivendi Universal in any way. All trademarks used here are the properties of their respective owners. Use this document at your own risk. The author cannot be held responsible for ANY damages you might sustain from using this guide! ________________________________________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS ================== -> LEGAL NOTICE / COPYRIGHT INFORMATION A. B. C. D. E. F. G. Introduction About the author Contacting the author Version history ***For Windows XP users Updating Homeworld (Patches) Cheats and Command-line switches <--- read this NOW!

H. Abbreviations/Shorthands I. Ships and Civilisations 1. Kushan 2. Taiidan 3. Turanic Raiders 4. Bentusi 5. Kadeshi 6. Miscellaneous J. Tactics K. Formations L. Damage Ratios M. Single-player walkthrough 1. Kharak System 2. Outskirts of Kharak System 3. Return to Kharak 4. Great Wastelands (Part 1) 5. Great Wastelands (Part 2) 6. Diamond Shoals 7. The Gardens of Kadesh 8. The Cathedral of Kadesh 9. Deep Space - Sea of Lost Souls 10. Super Nova Research Station 11. Tenhauser Gate 12. Galactic Core 13. The Karos Graveyard - The Shining Hinterlands 14. Bridge of Sighs 15. Chapel Perilous 16. Hiigara N. Multi-player guide 1. General Strategy 2. Resources 3. Useful Tactics O. Credits and Links P. The End ________________________________________________________________________________ ================= A. Introduction ================= Homeworld was released in 1999 and completely revolutionised the RTS (Real-Time Strategy) game genre. Homeworld (or HW, as it is known amongst its fans) was the first RTS to combine stunning 3D graphics with great gameplay. (Don't know what a RTS is? Think Command & Conquer. Don't know what *that* is? Then you're a little young to be reading this guide.) Homeworld subsequently went on to win at least 5 Game of the Year awards from various gaming websites (GameSpot, IGN, ...). This prompted a later release of the special "Game of the Year" (GOTY) edition of the game, which featured different box art and manual design from the original. But it was not just Homeworld's aesthetics that gained it game's storyline was (and still is) one of the best ever. here - because if you're a real Homeworld fanatic, you'll besides, it's in the manual that came with the game. (You reputable source, hmmm?) such praise. The I'm not gunna tell it already know it - and *did* buy it from a

Where do I come into this? Well, I was given Homeworld for Christmas 2000 (OK, so I'm slow), and I was immediately addicted. For a month I played nothing else but the game. Later I got my hands on the "sequel" to Homeworld, Homeworld:

Cataclysm, which is also an excellent game (but not *quite* as good as the original). I had been meaning to write this guide ever since the day I got Homeworld, but for various reasons I never got around to it. But now Homeworld2 is here! So, I decided to finally get my Homeworld walkthrough done. Here is the result; I hope you enjoy it. ________________________________________________________________________________ ===================== B. About the author ===================== I'm an 18-year-old living in South Africa. In RealLife(tm) I'm a student getting ready for my first year of university, studying Computer Science. If anyone reading this needs a Java or PHP/MySQL programmer with 2+ years experience, or a web designer (HTML/JavaScript/DHTML/CSS) with 4+ years experience, please see the "Contacting the author" section below for my email address. I need a job! ----------------My hobbies/likes ----------------writing game guides (that never get released) writing programs (that never get finished) designing web sites (that never get published) reading reading Dragonball Z (o how amusing mindless violence can be) cats sleep (which I don't get enough of) caffeine (which I get too much of) playing games!

--------My games --------I play Gameboy, Nintendo64, PlayStation and PC games, so my interests are varied. Genres I like: platformers (Crash Bandicoot and Spyro games, Ape Escape, Klonoa, Mario64) arcade racing games (Mario Kart 64, Crash Team Racing, wipEout series) RPGs (Azure Dreams, Pokemon, Final Fantasy series, Zelda series, NeverWinter) RTSs (Homeworld/Age of Empires series) FPSs (Quake series, Unreal series) any genre that's a TLA

Genres I hate: - super-realistic-handling-is-so-sensitive racing games (too irritating to play, go and drive a real car!) - "super realistic" fighting games (why does *everyone* buy them?) - games that are just CRAP (too many to list)

________________________________________________________________________________ ========================== C. Contacting the author ========================== If you want to send me e-mail, my address is currently assimilator64@webmail.co.za Use the subject header "Homeworld Walkthrough", or your message may be ignored! Please note, that any spam, flames or hate mail will be deleted without being read. The same applies for any mails containing stupid questions, or questions that are answered in this guide. In addition, I can (probably) be found on the Relic Forums (http://forums.relicnews.com) from Monday to Friday every week. Send me a Private Message, if you wish, and I will respond just as I would respond to emails. ________________________________________________________________________________ ==================== D. Version history ==================== 1.0.5 FINAL 12 February 2004 + As the version would imply, this is the last time I will be updating this guide. I consider it 100% finished. + Completed overhaul of single-player walkthrough. + More typos fixed. + Added entries for Cloaked Fighter, Defence Fighter and Defence Field Frigate. + Added permissions for Cheatbook and CheatChannel host this guide. 1.0.4 23 January 2004 + Added more information for Assault Frigates. + Changed some info for Heavy Cruisers and Carriers. + Replayed Homeworld single-player again and corrected the walkthrough in many places. + Fixed a few typos (hopefully the last...). + Fixed Homeworld Shipyards link. + Noted that Missile Destroyers can only use the Missile Volley special action if they have 1 or more missiles in stock (again, thanks to Koki for pointing that out). + Minor formatting/layout changes. + Allowed Cheats.de (http://www.cheats.de/) and DLH.net (http://dlh.net/) to host this guide. + Some minor changes to "Abbreviations/Shorthands" section. + Added permission to allow IGN FAQs (http://faqs.ign.com/) to host this guide.

to

1.0.3 01 December 2003

1.0.2 27 October 2003

1.0.1 20 October 2003

+ Made many changes after receiving some feedback (*BIG* thanks to Koki from the Relic Forums!). + Added "Abbreviations/Shorthands" section. + Minor adjustments and corrections. 1.0.0 12 October 2003 + *** First release to the public! + Rewrote some of the single-player guides to clear up some points. + Changed the format of the multi-player section. + Reorganised layout of the file, as well as the Table of Contents. + Finished "Ships and Civilisations" section. + Added "***For Windows XP Users" section. + Added "Cheats/Command-Line Switches" section. + Added "Updating Homeworld (Patches)" section. + Miscellaneous corrections. + Added more multi-player strategies. + Single-player walkthrough completed. + Ships list for Kushan/Taiidan completed. + Added mission 10 and 11. + The very first release. Missions 1 - 9 of the single-player game covered, as well as intros and credits of this guide. + Began ships list.

0.9.9 09 October 2003 0.9.8 01 September 2003 0.9.7 24 August 2003 0.9.6 16 August 2003

________________________________________________________________________________ ============================ E. ***For Windows XP users ============================ By default, Homeworld *WILL NOT RUN* in OpenGL hardware acceleration on Microsoft Windows XP. If you have been wondering how to get around this problem, here is the solution: 1. Right-click the shortcut you use to play Homeworld and choose "Properties". 2. Click the "Compatibility" tab. 3. Check the "Run this program in compatibility mode for" box, then from the list below, select "Windows NT 4.0 (Service Pack 5)". 4. Click OK. Homeworld will now allow you to use OpenGL to run the game. This hint may apply to other games as well, so feel free to try it. ________________________________________________________________________________ ================================= F. Updating Homeworld (Patches) ================================= No game is ever released perfect, and Homeworld is not an exception. Relic have released 3 updates to the game, or "patches", that alter some aspects of the game (mostly to fix bugs).

The default Homeworld 3 patches will update Each later patch also for example, the 1.05

version (and the only one that you can buy) is 1.00. The your game to version 1.03, 1.04 or 1.05, respectively. includes all the enhancements of the previous one(s), so patch also includes the 1.03 and 1.04 updates.

(Side note: No-one knows what happened to the 1.01 and 1.02 patches, and as usual, Relic won't say...) You can tell what version of Homeworld you have by starting the game, and looking at the top-left corner of the screen. In small writing you should see text saying "Version HomeworldV1.n0x", where x is the patch you have installed (0 if no patching has been done), and n is the letter B if a patch is present. ***VERY IMPORTANT! If you are intending to play Homeworld over the Internet, i.e. via WON.net, you MUST have the latest patch (1.05 at this time) installed. Otherwise, you will be asked to download and install it when you try and connect to a game. You CANNOT play Homeworld with other people, if your version of the game is different to theirs! To get the patches, go to RelicNews (http://www.relicnews.com) and click the "Downloads" link under the Homeworld section of the left menu. Download the patch of your choice (it will come as an executable) and run it to update your Homeworld installation. The next time you run the game, you should see that the version has been changed to reflect the patch you installed. ________________________________________________________________________________ ===================================== G. Cheats and Command-line switches ===================================== First of all - THERE ARE NO CHEATS IN THIS GAME. Homeworld was designed for people who are actually able to *play* a RTS game, not pathetic newbies who get a game, die on the first mission then get onto the Internet and download every cheat they can find. If you're that kind of person, please stop reading this guide RIGHT NOW. I don't have time for lamers like you, and neither does Relic nor the Homeworld community. There *are* trainers (aka hacks) for the game that give you extra RUs, more ships etc., but the same comments apply to them. Homeworld does, however, feature a comprehensive list of command-line switches or parameters, that can be used to tweak your game to perform at its best. It's a pretty long list, but I like to be thorough. To use these switches ---------------------1. Right-click the shortcut you use to play Homeworld and choose "Properties". 2. Click the "Shortcut" tab, and click to place the cursor inside the "Target:" box (which will point to homeworld.exe). 3. To add one of these switches, put a space at the end of the text, then type in the slash character ( / ), and then the switch. For example (using the dsound switch), if your Target field reads "C:\games\homeworld\homeworld.exe", you would do this: "C:\games\homeworld\homeworld.exe" /dsound To add more switches, you just add another space, a slash, and the next switch. E.g.: "C:\games\homeworld\homeworld.exe" /dsound /enableSSE /pilotview You can have an infinite amount of switches present. Note however, that

some switches are mutually exclusive. If you type in an invalid switch, Homeworld will warn you of this on startup and refuse to start until you replace or change the invalid switch(es). *** CURRENT COMMAND-LINE SWITCHES *** System options --------------heap [n] prepath [path] CDpath [drive] Processor options -----------------enableSSE forceSSE enable3dNow Video options -------------safeGL - do not use optimized, but possibly buggy, special features of the selected OpenGL renderer (your video card). If you are experiencing strange graphical glitches in OpenGL, using this option can help, but it may also decrease performance somewhat - if the game's menus are flickering madly, this will triple-buffer them to prevent this. Does not affect in-game performance - use when background images are not shown when starting and/or loading games - do not use DirectDraw for the software renderer. Makes software mode a lot slower, and is only recommended if your video card has a really bad DirectDraw implementation - do not use DirectDraw to setup the OpenGL renderer. Can be slower or faster, depending on your video card, so try this and see - use the software renderer ONLY for drawing the game's graphics; with this switch present, you can't change the rendering system from within the game (it is locked into software mode). This is not recommended unless you have a really crappy video card (e.g. SiS or S3 chip), which is unable to handle Direct3D and OpenGL hardware acceleration well. In this case, software mode will probably be faster (depending on your PC as a whole) than either Direct3D or OpenGL - disables fast front-end menu rendering. Use this if menus are slow to appear, or are rendered incorrectly (e.g. strange colours). This has also been known to - enable the use of Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) for improved game performance (Pentium III and up, AMD Athlon and up) - force the game to use SSE, even if found to be unavailable. Not recommended, as severe slowdown may occur on non-SSE capable processors - enable the use of AMD's 3DNow! instruction set to improve performance - sets the amount of memory available to Homeworld to [n] megabytes - sets the location for the game to look for its files (where [path] is this location) - where [drive] is the drive letter of the CD-ROM containing the Homeworld game CD

triple nodrawpixels noswddraw

noglddraw sw

noFastFE

fullscreen window noBorder 640 800 1024 1280 1600 device [dev]

nohint nopal

fix problems where the game starts up, then instantly crashes runs the game in software mode, in a full-screen window, and at 640x480 resolution (default mode) displays the game in a window if /window is present, this disables the border on the window runs in 640x480 resolution (default) 800x600 resolution 1024x768 resolution 1280x1024 resolution 1600x1200 resolution selects the rendering mode to use, where [dev] is that mode. Valid values for [dev] are sw (software), d3d (Direct3D), gl (OpenGL), fx (3dfx mode - Voodoo cards ONLY). If using this option, you will be unable to change the renderer from within the game disable usage of OpenGL perspective correction hints. No-one except Relic seems to know what this option actually does, and Relic ain't telling... disable palettised texture support. Usually makes the game slower, since the aim of palettising is to speed up texture generation. If you have an older card that has a dodgy palettised texture engine, using this switch might help to fix graphical glitches

Sound options -------------dsound dsoundCoop waveout reverseStereo Detail options --------------rasterSkip - enable interlacing with software renderer. This allows for much-improved performance in software mode, but creates a "motion blur" effect that may be too visually distracting to use (faster) - disable display of galaxy backgrounds (so you will see only black backgrounds with stars) (faster) - disables bilinear texture filtering (decreases graphic quality but increases performance). All modern video cards can filter with no performance penalty, so you should never need to use this option - do not use polygon smoothing. Same as noFilter, you should not need to use this option - enables stipple alpha belending to emulate transparency effects. Very ugly and can only be used in software mode; makes game run faster - do not show ship damage effects (drive plasma leaking, fires). Can drastically improve performance, BUT you won't be able to easily see if your ships are damaged, so it's not recommended to use this - forces game to use the Microsoft DirectSound mixer, even if the sound driver is not certified - if DirectSound mixer supports co-operative mode, this will allow other applications to use DirectSound even while Homeworld is using it - forces game to use Waveout mixer (slower, lower quality) even if DirectSound is available - swap left/right audio channels

noBG noFilter

noSmooth stipple noShowDamage

Other options -------------diableavi pilotview - skips opening Sierra and Relic movies - allows you to see the game from the "pilot's eye view" of your ships. This option is only available from the v1.04 patch and up. If enabled, select a ship and hit the Q key to switch to pilot view; press Q gain to return to external view. (NOTE: some ships have very strange pilot views...)

________________________________________________________________________________ ============================= H. Abbreviations/Shorthands ============================= Many of the ship and tactics names are very long to type, so on Homeworld message boards (e.g. Relic Forums - http://forums.relicnews.com), you will often find an abbreviated form being used to describe things. If you aren't a veteran boardie, then it's quite possible that you won't know WTF is being talked about - so here's a useful list of (some) of the shorthands used by the Homeworld community. Adv Swarmer AS Assassin Auto Banana Banana Mothership Banana MS BB BBall Bentusi Station Trade Station Traders Boardie Brigand Cap CapShip Cap Ship Caterpillar Grub Worm Corv CorvWall Advanced Swarmer (Kadeshi) Ion Array Frigate (Turanic Raiders) Autogun (from Karos Graveyard) Kushan Mothership

Battle Ball (attacking technique using Sphere formation) Bentusi Exchange (Bentusi)

Internet bulletin board/discussion forum user Missile Corvette (Turanic Raiders) Capital Ship

Fuel Pod (Kadeshi)

Corvette Corvette Wall (Corvettes in Wall formation to deal maximum damage)

CS

Crazy Scouts (strategy where Scouts quickly switch between Wall and Sphere formation to dodge gunfire) *** NOT considered a legitimate strategy! Junkyard Dawg Defense Field Frigate

Dawg JD DFG DFG Frig DFG Frigate DS

Dancing Scouts (strategy where Scouts jump around and dodge gunfire) Only available in v1.00 of Homeworld. *** NOT considered a legitimate strategy! Evil Scouts (usage of key-bashing to allow your Scouts to avoid almost all gunfire) *** NOT considered a legitimate strategy! Frigate Massive battle between many ships (usually Strike Craft) Heavy Corvettes Heavy Cruiser Homeworld Ion Array Frigate (Turanic Raiders) Ion Cannon Frigate Interceptor Kamikaze (ram your ship into another ship and self-destruct your ship - causes massive damage to the enemy) Battle Carrier (Turanic Raiders) Light Corvette Multi-Beam Frigate (Kadeshi) Missile Destroyer Multi-Gun Corvette

ES

Frig Furball Hairball Heavies HVC HW IAF ICF Int Intie Kami Lord Lt Corv MBF MD MGC Multi Corv Multigun Multigunner MM

Micro-management ("managing" a group of ships with "microscopic" precision - giving new orders, formations etc. very often during a battle)

MP MS Needle Needleship Prox Detector Prox Sensor Proxy Detector Proxy Sensor Researcher Resourcer RUs SalCap SalCapCorv Salvager Salvette SC SVC Sct SP SS

Multi-player mode Mothership Needle Mothership (Kadeshi) Proximity Sensor

Research Ship Resource Collector Resource Units Salvage Corvette

Scout Single-player mode Super Scouts (strategy where Scouts are able to deal tons of damage by changing formations as they complete their attack run) To do it: set your Scouts to Aggressive and tell them to attack enemy ships. As soon as your Scouts have made their attack pass at the enemies, set them to Evasive and they will turn around again, much faster than normal. Set them back to Aggressive and they will attack the enemies again; repeat to deal the most damage in the least time. Super-Capital Ship Massive melee attack of Strike Craft (where Kadeshi Swarmers got their names from - hundreds of them attack en mass) Standard Corvette (Turanic Raiders) Taiidan Mothership

SuperCap Super Cap Swarm Thief Ugly Ugly Mothership Ugly MS Wing

Group of ships (usually Strike Craft)

________________________________________________________________________________ ============================ I. Ships and Civilisations ============================ *** PLEASE NOTE: unless otherwise stated, all stats here are taken from ***

***

version 1.05 of Homeworld.

***

This section will tell you all about the ships in the game, as well as the civilisations that they belong to. A great resource is the Homeworld Shipyards (http://well-of-souls.com/homeworld/hws/). This site is maintained by Arioch, and contains a list of all the ships in all the Homeworld games (including Homeworld2), with statistics, pictures, and notes. Visit it, it's a great resource! ----------1. Kushan ----------The Kushan are the "big tech/low tech" civilisation. Their ships are clunky and not exactly pleasing to look at, but they get the job done. Choose a red colour scheme and you can pretend that their ships were carved from bricks ;). According to Relic (developers of Homeworld), the Kushan were originally designed to be the "true exiles". It was only later in the game's development that the option was added to allow you to play as either the Kushan or the Taiidan in single-player. Ion beam color: red-white -----------2. Taiidan -----------The Taiidani are supposed to be a 4000-year-old empire, so naturally their ships would look more refined than the Kushan ones. For example, the Taiidani Heavy Cruiser looks graceful and deadly at the same time, unlike the boxy Kushan one. Taiidani ships also tend to have better turret placement than Kushan ships (Heavy Corvette, Assault Frigate), so they are probably the better race to play as, in multi-player. Ion beam color: blue-white *** STRIKE CRAFT *** i. Fighters ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Scout -----Cost: 35 RUs Mass: 10 tons Armour: 110 Firepower: 12 Coverage: 8% Weapons: 2x mass driver (nose-mounted) Special Action: Afterburners (increases speed drastically for 3 seconds) Velocity: 1 000 m/s (standard); 1 500 m/s (with Afterburners) Maneuverability: very high Build Time: 12 seconds Availability: Mission 1

The fastest and cheapest combat-capable vessels in the game. They do very little damage alone, but get them in packs of 40 and that's a dangerous punch, not to mention that their speed allows them to avoid almost all weapons fire. You won't be building these too much in single-player, but in multi-player mode you will soon learn that Scouts are your best friends. If you are playing anyone half decent, they will build Scouts like there is no tomorrow; you must do the same or your Mothership/Carrier will die the "death of a thousand pinpricks" - not nice at all. Interceptor -----------Cost: 55 RUs Mass: 60 tons Armour: 160 Firepower: 16 Coverage: 8% Weapons: 2x mass driver (Kushan : nose-mounted Taiidan: 1 nose-mounted, 1 externally mounted) Special Action: Velocity: 875 m/s Maneuverability: very high Build Time: 18 seconds Availability: Mission 2 The successor to the Scout - not. Interceptors die against almost any Strike Craft they go up against - including Scouts, which on Evasive are too fast for the Interceptors to hit, and also too fast to run away from. Don't even bother building these. Defender --------Cost: 65 RUs Mass: 60 tons Armour: 325 Firepower: 5 Coverage: 11% Weapons: 3x rapid-fire mass driver (externally mounted) Special Action: Velocity: 385 m/s Maneuverability: medium Build Time: 9 seconds Availability: Mission 4 The quickest ship in the game to build; as their name suggests, they are best used for escort duty. In version 1.00 of the game Defenders had firepower/ armour ratings of 30/160 respectively, thus they were a lot weaker but they packed a *HELL* of a punch. A wall of 30 v1.00 Defenders could annihilate a Carrier in a minute, now they will only tap at its hull and get killed. They are still good escorts for resource operations, no matter what version of the game you're playing. Their main problem is their looow speed, which means that even Support Frigates can outrun them (and that *hurts*). Best used in the early stages of a multi-player game to protect your valuable Resourcers, then as the Defenders get killed, you can replace them with Corvettes. Koki noted: "[Defenders] are pretty good at dodging, if they are not moving.

They move up/down/left/right pretty fast." In other words, their maneuverability is quite a bit better than their speed - Defenders can actually dodge Corvette bullets, if they're lucky. BTW: while Kushan Defenders need about 1 - 2 seconds to meet a threat (because they retract/extend their guns), Taiidani Defenders are always ready to rock. Attack Bomber -------------Cost: 85 RUs Mass: 90 tons Armour: 110 Firepower: 42 Coverage: 5% Weapons: 2x plasma bomb launcher (Kushan : nose-mounted Taiidan: mounted either side of body) Special Action: Velocity: 750 m/s Maneuverability: high Build Time: 20 seconds Availability: Mission 5 Slow, heavy, but the ultimate anti-Capital Ship fighter. It *kills* anything frigate-size and up within seconds, a wing of 20 can destroy a frigate in 2 volleys. These suck against other Strike Craft, but hey, that's not what they're designed for. If you need a fast, mobile, Capital Ship-killing force, these are for you. But make sure you guard them with something anti-Strike Craft, for goodness' sakes. Note that Attack Bombers *can* kill Strike Craft, although not without difficulty. It's just that their bombs are sooo slooowww... Cloaked Fighter ---------------***Kushan ONLY! Cost: 85 RUs Mass: 40 tons Armour: 150 Firepower: 39 Coverage: 10% Weapons: 2x mass driver, forward-facing, mounted in body Special Action: activate cloaking field Velocity: 775 m/s Maneuverability: high Build Time: 45 seconds Availability: Mission 12 Better than a Scout for scouting due to the cloaking ability, but pretty useless otherwise. The main problem is that the cloak field uses up fuel; the Cloaked Fighter has a small-ish gas tank anyhow, so cloak them during combat and you will probably end up with out-of-fuel sitting ducks. They are also very slow to construct and seem to die very easily Killing Missile Destroyers is a good job for this Fighter, since lose lock-on when the target cloaks, but they would probably run before the MD dies... All in all not the best ship in the game, either but very close - spend the RUs on something better. to enemy ships. the missiles out of fuel not the worst

Defence Fighter ---------------*Taiidan ONLY! Cost: 85 RUs Mass: 75 tons Armour: 300 Firepower: Coverage: 80% Weapons: Special Action: defence lasers (automatically deflect incoming mass driver fire) - always on Velocity: 875 m/s Maneuverability: high Build Time: 20 seconds Availability: Mission 12 A smaller version of the DFG Frigate, best used as escorts for fighters or corvettes. Their defence lasers shoot down 80% of incoming mass driver fire, but can't do anything about mines, missiles, ion beams or plasma bombs. Best used together with DFGs, or in Sphere formation to guard Corvette attack waves. But they die to Heavy Corvettes using Burst Fire, so all in all, as useless as the Cloaked Fighter. ii. Corvettes ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Light Corvette --------------Cost: 135 RUs Mass: 400 tons Armour: 900 Firepower: 100 Coverage: 40% Weapons: (Kushan) 1x turret (mounted below cockpit) (Taiidan) 2x turret (mounted in front of cockpit) Special Action: Velocity: 575 m/s Maneuverability: medium Build Time: 22 seconds Availability: Mission 2 Like Interceptors; pretty useless unless you're up against Fighters, then they do okay. Best used early in multi-player to thwart Scout rushes on your Resourcers, that single turreted gun really makes up for the Light Corvette's slow speed. As they die off, replace with better Heavy or Multi-Gun Corvettes. Heavy Corvette --------------Cost: 250 RUs Mass: 750 tons Armour: 1 700 Firepower: 200 Coverage: 50% Weapons: (Kushan) 2x turret (mounted below cockpit) (Taiidan) 4x turret (mounted in front of cockpit) Special Action: Burst Fire (5km range / 2.5km area of effect) Velocity: 500 m/s

Maneuverability: medium Build Time: 30 seconds Availability: Mission 2 Two words: KICK ASS. It seems like everyone loves these ships, and why the hell not? They're the best Strike Craft in the game, simply because they can take pain like nothing else can. These ships can even take a direct ion beam and live (seriously!). Their twin turreted guns will make mincemeat of *anything* that comes too close. Put 16 or 25 Heavy Corvettes in a Wall, set 2 Support Frigates to repair them, and you've got a virtually impenetrable screen of Corvette gunfire. No Fighters will be able to take them on and live (except maybe Evasive Scouts), and Frigates will also die pretty damn fast. Heck, Heavies can even knock out a Destroyer, given enough time. Their weakness is their slow speed, which allows even ion beam-equipped ships to hit them. Even the inaccurate Attack Bomber can be a menace to Heavies, but that's where Burst Fire mode comes in. Select an area of space, click Z and your Heavy Corvettes begin offloading high-explosive, highly deadly shells into that area. Fighter wings simply pop when they get hit with Burst - try it. There are a few tricks to using Burst Fire effectively; first, you have to remember that any of your own ships that wander into the Burst radius will take damage too. Secondly, it takes a few seconds for Heavies to load and fire their explosive shells, so it pays to get as close to your target as possible. Multi-Gun Corvette ------------------Cost: 220 RUs Mass: 750 tons Armour: 1 400 Firepower: 180 Coverage: 78% Weapons: 6x turret (Kushan : 4 mounted below, 2 mounted above Taiidan: 2 mounted in front of cockpit, 4 mounted on sides) Special Action: Velocity: 695 m/s Maneuverability: medium (seems to be high) Build Time: 22 seconds Availability: Mission 7 A lower-spec version of the Heavy Corvette, faster and the only ship able to hit all types of Strike Craft, but that's about all in their favour. Put these up against Fighters and they do great, but against anything else, not so well. The problem is that the multi-targeting guns don't provide a direct rain of bullets, tell them to attack something and normally only one or two of the guns will respond. Good against Fighter-happy opposition, but for anything else, use Heavy Corvettes. You know it makes sense. In many respects this ship is more like a Fighter than a Corvette; it is faster and has better manueverability than any other Corvette, but of course it has the turretted guns and larger fuel tanks that Fighters don't. Minelayer Corvette ------------------Cost: 275 RUs Mass: 750 tons

Armour: 1 800 Firepower: ~700 per mine Coverage: Weapons: 2x mine launcher (rear-mounted) Special Action: Force Drop (dump 6 mines at once) Velocity: 425 m/s Maneuverability: medium Build Time: 40 seconds Availability: Mission 10 Very useful or very useless, depending on your viewpoint. The mines dumped by these Corvettes are slow-ish (meaning they can't hit Fighters), but then again, they don't need to be too fast to hit lumbering Capital Ships. The problem with minefields is that the mines disappear after a time and have to be relaid, and of course, Minelayers aren't the fastest corvettes around. Your own fleet also tends to *cough* run into the mines they dispense. BUT: if you can put, say, 20 Minelayers in a Carrier, then jump over by the enemy's Mothership and start dumping mines, then you will be smiling. And of course, laying mines in a resource patch will ruin anyone's day. It's your choice to use them or not. Repair Corvette ---------------Cost: 150 RUs Mass: 750 tons Armour: 800 Firepower: 60 Coverage: 10% Weapons: 1x mass driver turret (below cockpit) Special Action: repair/refuel Strike Craft Velocity: 350 m/s Maneuverability: medium Build Time: 20 seconds Availability: Mission 1 Good early on in single-player, useless everywhere else. You can get Support Frigates from only 1 technology, and they are faster (yes!), a lot tougher and just a whole lot better than these Corvettes. I used them once, after that, never again. Possibly the game's least-used ship type. Salvage Corvette ----------------Cost: 150 RUs Mass: 120 tons Armour: 1 400 Firepower: Coverage: Weapons: Special Action: salvage (duh) Velocity: 425 m/s Maneuverability: medium ("bad") Build Time: 30 seconds Availability: Mission 1 The Homeworld manual states that Salvage Corvettes "can capture heavily damaged ships". Well folks, if you've already played single-player you'll know that's not true. What happened was that the Homeworld manual was completed before the

actual game itself, and then due to time constraints, Relic decided to let you salvage any ship, of any health. But they forgot to update the manual :|. Salvagers are some of the most valuable in the game, they can grab almost anything. Obviously in multi-player their usefulness drops because humans will be on the lookout for them, but in single-player, Salvagers allow you to amass a huge fleet, without spending many RUs. Here is a table showing exactly *which* ships can be captured, and the number of Salvage Corvettes needed to grab 'em: +---------------------+-------------------+ | Ship type | Salvage Corvettes | | | to capture | |---------------------+-------------------| | Strike Craft | 1 | | | | | Frigate | 2 | | | | | Destroyer | 3 | | | | | Heavy Cruiser | 5 | | | | | Carrier | 5 | |---------------------+-------------------| | Resource Collector | 2 | | | | | Resource Controller | 3 | | | | | Cloak Generator | 2 | | | | | GravWell Generator | 2 | +---------------------+-------------------+ Note that Strike Craft (Fighters and Corvettes) can only be captured if they are out of fuel and/or trapped in a GravWell. Salvaging is fun. *** CAPITAL SHIPS *** Assault Frigate ---------------Cost: 575 RUs Mass: 45 000 tons Armour: 16 000 Firepower: 82 Coverage: 75% Weapons: 4x mass driver turret (around nose), 2x plasma bomb launcher (around nose) Special Action: Velocity: 325 m/s Maneuverability: low Build Time: 60 seconds Availability: Mission 3 Good against Corvettes and other Capital Ships, bad against anything else. If only its turrets/bullets were faster... grrr. Seriously though, if used correctly, these ships can be a menace to other Capital Ships, notably Ion

Cannon Frigates, because they are more maneuverable than them. In other words, if you tell an Assault Frigate to attack another Capital Ship, and then start moving your Frigate around, it will most likely come out as the winner of the battle. Having all the turrets clustered around the nose area means that this Frigate gets in more hits than others. Unfortunately, this is also its greatest weakness, since the Assault Frigate is totally unable to cover its vulnerable engine area. Get a squadron of Heavy Corvettes behind an Assault Frigate, and it will die very fast. This Frigate's bullets seem to be heavier than other ships'; get a wing of 6 Assault Frigates and start shooting an enemy ship, it will get blown backwards and will never be able to get in range to fire on your Frigates. Cheap, but it can help. Addendum: After doing a few tests with Assault Frigates, I have come to the conclusion that their effectiveness increases *dramatically* when used in larger groups. A set of 8 Assault Frigates are an excellent deterrent to Strike Craft groups (even Fighters), because they're firing so many bullets that it's virtually impossible for one slug *not* to hit a target. Ion Cannon Frigate ------------------Cost: 650 RUs Mass: 57 000 tons Armour: 15 000 Firepower: 138 Coverage: 3% Weapons: 1x ion cannon beam (fixed, forward-mounted) Special Action: Velocity: 300 m/s Maneuverability: low Build Time: 60 seconds Availability: Mission 4 The mainstay of every respectable fleet, the Ion Cannon Frigate packs a single ion beam with the biggest punch in the game. Getting in front of one of these is very bad news, no matter what type of ship you are. Group ICFs with Assault Frigate and some Heavy Corvettes, and you have a highly dangerous escort or attack fleet. But don't even think about sending them out unguarded, since they die very quickly to any ship class. When engaging an enemy fleet, *always* take out the ICFs first. Drone Frigate -------------***Kushan ONLY! Cost: 800 RUs Mass: 60 000 tons Armour: 16 000 Firepower: 192 Coverage: 100% Weapons: 24x drones (mobile mass driver turrets) Special Action: launch/retract drones Velocity: 300 m/s Maneuverability: low Build Time: 75 seconds

Availability: Mission 6 This is the only ship capable of hitting *any* other ship, no matter how fast the enemy may be. Each drone has a single mass driver that is equal in power/ firing speed to the guns of a Scout, thus 24 x 8 = 192 damage per volley. These Frigates are great for guarding against Strike Craft attack, but don't do nearly so well against bigger ships. The drones do get rebuilt if destroyed, although this takes a while - 50 seconds (faster if all drones are retracted, only 20-25 seconds). And the drones aren't repaired if damaged, only replaced if they are destroyed. Defence Field Frigate ---------------------***Taiidan ONLY! Cost: 800 RUs Mass: 40 000 tons Armour: 17 600 Firepower: Coverage: 85-90% Weapons: Special Action: defence field (always active) Velocity: 325 m/s Maneuverability: low Build Time: 75 seconds Availability: Mission 6 The "DFG" Frigate (no-one seems to know where the abbreviation comes from) is a ship without offensive weapons; rather, it has the ability to deflect enemy attacks. However, the deflector field can only stop bullets; ion beams, mines, missiles and plasma bombs still pass through. Note that the field will stop shots fired by both enemy ships AND your own! In addition, the defence field only has a puny 2km radius, and it's not 100% effective; 5-10% of enemy bullets will manage to penetrate the field anyway. You can escort the DFG with 2 Defence Fighters, which will cover the "hole" in the deflector field and increase its stopping power to 100%. This frigate becomes more useful in multi-player, especially against people who enjoy creating enormous wings of Strike Craft. The DFG doesn't block the effect of GravWells, so it's possible to create the Ultimate Strike Craft Trap which will render enemy fighters and corvettes completely helpless. Personally, I wouldn't use this ship - it's slow and weak and really not that great. Although, it can come in useful on salvage raids for obvious reasons: imagine your opponent's face when he sends off some Strike Craft to kill your Salvagers that are grabbing his Cruiser, only to find that he can't actually do anything. Support Frigate ---------------Cost: 425 RUs Mass: 45 000 tons Armour: 12 000 Firepower: 28 Coverage: 21% Weapons: (Kushan) 1x mass driver turret (below nose) (Taiidan) 2x mass driver turret (either side of body)

Special Action: refuel Strike Craft, repair all ships Velocity: 450 m/s Maneuverability: low Build Time: 65 seconds Availability: Mission 3 The successor to the Repair Corvette, and a much better ship all around. The Support Frigate can repair and refuel 10 Fighters and 4 Corvettes at once, and its green beam can heal any other ships that are damaged. Set a Support Frigate or 2 to assist a CorvWall, and you have a deadly team. These versatile Frigates are best used on groups of 2 and upwards; you should always have at least 1 supporting your Mothership. A useful trick is the Strike Craft Hyperspace Jump: tell some Strike Craft to dock with a Support Frigate, then Hyperspace that Frigate - the Strike Craft will go along for the ride, and it doesn't cost you any extra RUs. Great for launching surprise attacks on resource operations. Kushan Support Frigates have only 1 gun, but can repair themselves (hold Z and click on the Frigate a few times). Taiidan Support Frigates have 2 guns, but lack the self-repair capability. Support Frigate guns are more like Corvette weapons than Capital Ship armaments; they fire very fast and accurately, and do less damage (so the Frigate can protect itself from Strike Craft assault, if needed). But its armour points are so low, that it dies to almost anything anyway... *** SUPER-CAPITAL SHIPS*** Destroyer ---------Cost: 1 350 RUs Mass: 185 0000 tons Armour: 44 000 Firepower: 341 Coverage: 88% (more like 40%) Weapons: (Kushan) 2x side-mounted ion cannon turrets, 2x top-mounted mass driver turrets (Taiidan) 2x forward-mounted fixed ion cannons, 2x (dual) top-mounted mass driver turrets (4 gun barrels) Special Action: Velocity: 315 m/s Maneuverability: very low (seems to be low) Build Time: 150 seconds Availability: Mission 6 Slightly more expensive than 2 Ion Cannon Frigates but a better deal, these ships have deadly twin ion beams, backed up by 2 big-ass mass driver turrets. They are highly maneuverable for their size and (relatively) speedy, too. The only problem is their coverage; a Destroyer's guns are meant to hit things in front of it, consequently they have trouble shooting at attackers below or behind them. The large, undefended "blind spot" below a Destroyer also makes them easy to approach with Salvagers; so if you're fielding a few of these heavyweights, give them a decent Strike Craft escort. Missile Destroyer -----------------Cost: 1 500 RUs

Mass: 200 0000 tons Armour: 42 000 Firepower: 450 Coverage: 100% Weapons: 2x guided missile launchers Special Action: Missile Volley (32x missiles) Velocity: 295 m/s Maneuverability: very low Build Time: 175 seconds Availability: Mission 9 Death to Strike Craft, the only thing that can outrun the missiles are Evasive Scouts on Afterburners (cloaking also spoils missile lock-on). The only problem is the 32-missile initial capacity, once an MD is empty, its firing rate drops off substantially (as it takes 0.5 seconds to manufacture new missiles). This is a Destroyer, but it's *not* meant for taking on other Capital and SuperCapital ships - leave that job to your ion beam-equipped ships. Different tactics also alter missile accuracy versus Strike Craft: Evasive 50% Neutral 70% Aggressive 90% So on Evasive for example, half of the missiles fired at enemies are going to miss. On Aggressive, only 10% will miss their target. Regarding Missile Volley: If used, your MD will fire off however many missiles it currently has in stock (thanks to Koki for noting this). The penalty to pay is that your MD can't fire/manufacture new missiles for 10 seconds after the Volley attack has been used, so obviously, it pays to use Missile Volley only when your ships have a full (or almost full) stock of 32 missiles. BTW, this attack seems to make the missiles "dumb" - their homing capability is downgraded quite substantially. Carrier -------Cost: 2 000 RUs Mass: 600 0000 tons Armour: 70 000 Firepower: 109 Coverage: 100% (not really) Weapons: 4x fixed mass drivers, at each corner of the Carrier Special Action: build/dock/refuel/repair Strike Craft, build Frigates Velocity: 315 m/s Maneuverability: very low Build Time: 280 seconds Availability: Mission 9 Vital to your fleet, these ships are able to move a *LOT* faster than a Mothership. They are best used as mobile construction yards around resource operations, since you can keep churning out Strike Craft and Frigates to thwart enemy attacks. Their guns are pretty bad though, and sending a Carrier out unescorted is just asking for it to be salvaged or blown up. In multi-player, your Carriers take over the role of Fleet Command if you lose your Mothership, thus it's a good idea to build at least 1. Any ship(s) being built by a Carrier will also die if the Carrier is destroyed, the same applies to all Strike Craft docked inside the destroyed Carrier.

A Carrier can dock 50 Fighters and 25 Corvettes at a time (a little small to fit all those ships inside, I would have thought?). Heavy Cruiser -------------Cost: 3 700 RUs Mass: 800 0000 tons Armour: 90 000 Firepower: 921 Coverage: 100% Weapons: (Kushan) 2x dual-ion "wide" turrets, mounted above/below nose; 6x mass driver turrets, on top/bottom/sides (Taiidan) 2x dual-ion "narrow" turrets, mounted above/below nose; 6x mass-driver turrets, mounted over-under-along on sides Special Action: Velocity: 250 m/s Maneuverability: very low Build Time: 420 seconds Availability: Mission 13 Even the best Homeworld players know that an enemy Heavy Cruiser is bad news. As the manual states, "When a Heavy Cruiser shows up on the scene, things get real quiet real fast". And it's true - nothing can match a Heavy Cruiser in terms of sheer, raw firepower. Their huge amount of armour allows them to shrug off any Strike Craft attack (except maybe Attack Bombers), and Frigates don't do too well against them either (unless you're able to bring about 10 ICFs to bear on the enemy Cruiser). The only thing that can go head-to-head with a Heavy Cruiser is another Cruiser or failing that, at least 3 Destroyers. If you're a skilled player, you can exploit this ship's poor (OK, *bad*) maneuverability: while attacking an enemy Cruiser with Destroyers or Frigates, move your ships around and if you're lucky, you'll be able to avoid the Cruiser's ion beams. (You probably won't be able to dodge the turret fire, but bullets are *nothing* compared to ion cannons...) For all its power, though, the Heavy Cruiser is one slow ship. The only ships that can't outrun it are Motherships (ouch), so if you need to move a Cruiser across the map, Hyperspace is probably the best option. *** MOTHERSHIP CLASS *** Mothership ----------Cost: Mass: 5 000 000 tons Armour: 160 000 Firepower: 7 500 Coverage: 60% Weapons: 6x fixed mass driver mounts (various locations on hull) Special Action: build all ship classes, repair Strike Craft and Resourcers Velocity: 50 m/s Maneuverability: very, very low (not moveable in single-player) Build Time: Availability: Mission 1 (duh) The heart of your fleet, able to build and capture every ship. In single-player you lose if your Mothership is destroyed, in multi-player you lose only if you don't have a Carrier (Fleet Command transfers to the Carrier in that situation).

A Mothership can dock 150 Fighters and 50 Corvettes, which is stupid when you consider that in single-player, you can only build 80 Fighters maximum. Like many Kushan and Taiidan ships, the differences are not only cosmetic. The Kushan Mothership has the "door" on the side, which has to be opened and closed every time a Super-Capital Ship goes in or out - and that takes precious time. The Taiidan Mothership just has the large bay in its belly, so large ships are moved in and out much quicker. But then, of course, the Kushan Mothership is able to produce and salvage Frigates a lot quicker, because almost as soon as the ship leaves the bay, it is ready to roll. The Taiidan Mothership produces Frigates from various bays, and there is a short delay before they are under your control. So, it's all subjective when you're choosing your race. The Mothership's guns are small and weak, but they fire very fast and are very accurate. Like the Assault Frigate, the bullets seem to mass more than other ships' bullets, so anything that gets hit by them will "bounce" back ever so slightly (not so slightly for Scouts, hehe). As with the Carrier, any ships being built when the Mohership dies, die with it. You don't get the RUs back, either :(. A dying Mothership also causes a massive amount of scuttle damage, wings of Strike Craft can be wiped out instantly, and even Frigates on occasion - so it's wise to keep as far away as possible when assaulting an enemy's Mothership. The Kushan Mothership has some bugs, too: it can happen that when a SuperCapital Ship is being captured or is leaving the construction bay, the "door" of the Mothership gets "stuck", and then the ship that's there will be trapped in that position - unusable *FOREVER*. Also, sometimes the Kushan Mothership seems to lose track of salvage groups, which can result in Salvagers sitting there, holding a ship, ad infinitum. The solution is to tell the waiting Salvagers to stop salvaging that ship (press the tilde key ~), then quickly re-issue the salvage command. The ship should now be salvaged properly. *** NON-COMBAT SHIPS *** Resource Collector ------------------Cost: 650 RUs Mass: 40 000 tons Armour: 10 800 Firepower: Coverage: Weapons: Special Action: refuel Strike Craft Velocity: 300 m/s Maneuverability: medium Build Time: 60 seconds Availability: Mission 1 You can't do anything without RUs, which They use a Phased Disassembly Array (aka from asteroids, dust clouds and nebulae; Units (RUs) used to build and Hyperspace can carry 650 RUs worth of material (not is why you need Resource Collectors. "harvester beam") to extract materials these materials become the Resource your ships. When full, a Resourcer 600, as Koki pointed out).

As such, these ships are vital to any fleet, in single-player and multi-player. Since they are unarmed and slow, they *NEED* to be protected every single second

of the game, or your RU supply will dry up as they die, and soon you're dead too. The Special Action is slightly useless: Strike refueled. In addition, the Resourcer has only to tell an entire strike wing to dock with it. the need to use this ability; Support Frigates keep your Resourcers harvesting. Resource Controller -------------------Cost: 680 RUs Mass: 79 000 tons Armour: 13 600 Firepower: Coverage: Weapons: Special Action: refuel Strike Craft Velocity: 300 m/s Maneuverability: low Build Time: 65 seconds Availability: Mission 4 A mobile docking pad for Resource Collectors, allows the Resourcers to deposit their harvested RUs a lot quicker than returning to a Mothership or Carrier whenever they have a full load. The best way to use these is to tell them to guard them to guard a Collector. Like the Collector it can refuel (NOT repair) Strike Craft, but a Controller can assist 4 Fighters and 2 Corvettes at a time. There is a major difference between the Kushan and Taiidan Controllers: the Kushan one requires the Resourcers to roll over by 180 to dock, while the Taiidan one does not need this. And in addition, when Resourcers dock with a Controller, they don't get repaired (they do when they dock with a Mothership or Carrier). Probe -----Cost: 30 RUs Mass: 40 tons Armour: 800 Firepower: Coverage: Weapons: Special Action: Velocity: 4 000 m/s (one-time use) Maneuverability: medium Build Time: 6 seconds Availability: Mission 1 A Probe is, as its name suggest, used to check up on enemy positions. They can only be used once: you give the Probe its move order, it will go to that location, and then it can never be used again. If you see Probes being moved more than once, the player controlling that Probe is cheating! Computer players love these but generally, they're not very useful. Scouts may not be as fast, but they can at least dodge gunfire, and shoot back at attackers. The best use for these is "Probe golf", as discussed in the multiplayer section: build 100 Probes, set them all to move through an enemy ship, Craft are NOT repaired, only 1 docking pad, so it's VERY slow Personally, I never have found are designed for this role, just

and they will ram it, causing lots of damage. Scuttling a Probe will kill Scouts and damage other Strike Craft nearby. Gravity Well Generator ----------------------Cost: 800 RUs Mass: 65 000 tons Armour: 8 000 Firepower: Coverage: Weapons: Special Action: activate gravity (area of effect: can use for : recharge time : Velocity: 325 m/s Maneuverability: low Build Time: 60 seconds Availability: Mission 9

field 5.5km radius 210 seconds none, single-use)

The "GravWell" Generator can trap all Strike Craft in its field (except for Salvage Corvettes); in multi-player mode, ships that Hyperspace into a GravWell's area of effect will be stuck in this mode, unable to move or attack - perfect for salvaging. The gravity field cycles in a sine wave, i.e. it is not constant but weakens and strengthens in a 6-second cycle; this means that some trapped Strike Craft may occasionally be able to move or start shooting again. The nature of the gravity field also means that it is not infinitely usable; the bar under the GravWell's health bar signifies how much longer it can create the field. When the bar gets to empty, the GravWell will self-destruct under the strain, so it's wise to retire these before it's too late. Kushan GravWells are easy to detect when they are "on", as they have those massive white "sails" that extend. Taiidan GravWells are stealthier, as they give no clear visual indication of their on/off state. Cloak Generator ---------------Cost: 500 RUs Mass: 22 000 tons Armour: 6 000 Firepower: Coverage: Weapons: Special Action: activate cloak field (area of effect: 2.5km radius can use for : 300 seconds recharge time : 600 seconds) Velocity: 325 m/s Maneuverability: low Build Time: 60 seconds Availability: Mission 9 As you might expect, the Cloak Generator produces a cloaking field which hides any ships inside that field from visual detection and passive sensors. However, Proximity Sensors can see through cloak fields, so if you are planning a cloaked

attack, make sure there are no Sensors around. Ships inside the field will decloak temporarily when firing, as soon as they have fired a shot they will be re-cloaked. Thus, it's best to cloak only ionbeam equipped ships, as they will be hidden for longer periods of time than Strike Craft. Carriers and Motherships cannot be cloaked, this is to prevent people from hiding away forever in multi-player. These are best used in groups of 3: start one of the Cloaks, then when it is almost empty start another and let the first one recharge. When the second one is used up, start the third one. By the time the first one is used again, it will be fully charged. Note that you can run a cloak field down to zero, BUT you can only restart the field if it is recharged to over 50% (i.e. >= 301 seconds). Proximity Sensor ----------------Cost: 50 RUs Mass: 40 tons Armour: 800 Firepower: Coverage: Weapons: Special Action: Velocity: 1 000 m/s Maneuverability: very high Build Time: 6 seconds Availability: Mission 10 Better than Scouts for scouting, since they are cheaper, just as fast, can spot cloaked ships, and don't need fuel. The ability to see through cloak fields, though, is the main reason to build 'em - in multi-player, your enemies will try anything to kill you, and cloaked ships are very popular. Not having at least a handful of these is a big no-no. Sensors Array -------------Cost: 800 RUs Mass: 2 900 tons Armour: 6 000 Firepower: Coverage: Weapons: Special Action: Velocity: 280 m/s Maneuverability: low Build Time: 80 seconds Availability: Mission 14 This unit allows you to see every single ship on the map, except for cloaked ships. Of course, unless you have your own ships nearby, you can't actually see what those enemy ships are - all you see are red dots. So, enemies could fake up a fleet (using Strike Craft as opposed to Frigates, say) and move it towards you; this psyches you out, maybe you will move ships to the "threat" in panic, allowing the enemy to take advantage of his diversion and launch a true attack somewhere else.

Research Ship -------------Cost: 700 RUs Mass: 11 000 tons Armour: 4 500 (27 000 with 6 Research Ships) Firepower: Coverage: Weapons: Special Action: Velocity: 280 m/s Maneuverability: low Build Time: 60 seconds Availability: Mission 1 Without new technologies, you can't build new ships. Without new ships, you can't survive. Which is why it's useful to have as many Research Ships around, as fleet resources allow. You can build up to a maximum of 6 of these ships; on most multi-player start off with 1. Separate research ships will link together to form a composite ship, with better armour. So, 6 linked Research Ships become with 6 times the armour of a single ship. 4 linked Researchers have 4x armour. You get the idea... maps you larger, 1 ship the

More than 1 Research Ship can research a specific technology at once. In the Research Manager, use the CTRL or SHIFT keys to select multiple Researchers, then double-click the technology to research. Note that the more ships you have researching a single technology together, the faster that technology is researched. Here's a table of the technologies available, plus the time they take to research. *NOTE*, this table is the time it take for 1 Research Ship to complete the listed technology: +--------------------------+------------------+ | Technology | Time to research | | | (seconds) | +--------------------------+------------------+ | | | | Fighter Drive | 75 | | Fighter Chassis | 125 | | Defender Subsystems | 300 | | Plasma Bomb Launcher | 300 | | Cloaked Fighter | 400 | | Defence Fighter | 400 | | | | | Corvette Drive | 75 | | Corvette Chassis | 200 | | Heavy Corvette Upgrade | 250 | | Fast-Tracking Turrets | 300 | | Minelaying Tech | 300 | | | | | Capital Ship Drive | 100 | | Capital Ship Chassis | 320 | | Ion Cannons | 450 | | Drone Technology | 400 | | Defence Field Technology | 400 | | Guided Missiles | 300 | | Super-Capital Ship Drive | 450 |

| Super-Heavy Chassis | 250 | | Heavy Guns | 650 | | | | | Proximity Sensor | 100 | | Sensors Array | 400 | | Gravity Well Generator | 520 | | Cloak Generator | 520 | | | | +--------------------------+------------------+ The research time percentages are something like this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Research Research Research Research Research Research Ship Ships Ships Ships Ships Ships 100% of research time 64 % 44 % 37 % 30 % 28 %

So let's take Proximity Sensor, which takes 100 seconds to research with 1 ship. Using the tables above, it would take (100 * 64%) = 64 seconds to research with 2 Researchers. With 3, it becomes (100 * 44%) = 44 seconds. You get the idea. -------------------3. Turanic Raiders -------------------The Raiders were originally a primitive race living on a small, harsh planet, until they were discovered by the Taiidani, roughly 2 000 years ago. Seeing the "potential" of the cruel, barbaric Raiders, the Taiidan gave them technology which catapulted them a thousand years into the future, and into the stars to harass other galactic races. In return, the Raiders were expected to serve the Taiidan Empire - a promise which they have faithfully, and fanatically, kept. When they are not serving the Empire, the Raider practice one of the oldest, and least respectable, professions: piracy. No ship is safe from this scourge. When there is an unpleasant job to be done, or a mission that it is politically impossible to carry out, the Taiidan Emperor will call in the Raiders. Only the highest-ranking army officials - and the Emperor himself - know of the connection between the Raiders and the Empire, so it is easy to use the pirates in this way. Ion beam color: blue-white NOTE: many of the stats here are guestimated. Fighter -------Mass: 70 tons Armour: 225 Firepower: 20 Coverage: 5% Weapons: 1x mass driver (nose-mounted) Special Action: Velocity: 780 m/s Maneuverability: high First Encountered: Mission 2 A cross between a Scout and an Interceptor, this is the Raiders' mainstay ship,

which they tend to use in massed groups against targets. Good armour and firepower, but against Corvettes they suffer the same fate as all Fighter-class ships - a quick death. Standard Corvette -----------------Mass: 150 tons Armour: 1 100 Firepower: 14 Coverage: 1% Weapons: 2x mass driver ("turreted") Special Action: salvage Velocity: 500 m/s Maneuverability: medium First Encountered: Mission 2 Take a Kushan Salvage Corvette, remodel it, add 2 mass driver turrets, and you've got a Standard Corvette. However, the concept does not translate into practice very well, and in reality the Standard Corvette is the least threatening ship that the Raiders will throw at you. The "turrets" are incredibly slow to turn and very inaccurate, so all in all, this is quite a weakling of a ship, which pops easily when confronted by Heavy Corvettes. Note that it can salvage your ships (it's codenamed the "Thief" for this reason), but the Raiders never attempt to do so in the single-player game. Missile Corvette ----------------Mass: 775 tons Armour: 1 400 Firepower: 12 (per missile) Coverage: 100% Weapons: 2x missile launchers (miniature missiles) Special Action: Missile Burst (60x missiles - 50% damage to a Destroyer!) Velocity: 500 m/s Maneuverability: medium First Encountered: Mission 2 Now this is a *lot* better, the Missile Corvette has dual missile-launching bays mounted on either side of the cockpit. The missiles are fired in pairs, do a pound of damage, are very quick to launch and rebuild, AND a missile burst has DOUBLE the missiles of a Missile Destroyer! The missiles are also more maneuverable than those of a MD, and they travel a LONG way after enemy ships. The only problem is that it's a Corvette, so its survivability is bad because enemies will always gun for it. Missile Corvettes also have slow speed and bad maneuverability, so they aren't very good at running away. Ion Array Frigate -----------------Mass: 55 000 tons Armour: 12 400 Firepower: 150 (estimated) Coverage: 3% Weapons: 1x ion cannon (fixed, forward-firing) Special Action: Velocity: 245 m/s

Maneuverability: low First Encountered: Mission 3 A low-grade Ion Cannon Frigate, they are very slow (even a Heavy Cruiser is faster!!!), can't turn fast enough to lock on to a Salvager, and their armour is, quite frankly, pathetic. No self-repair ability either, however those large "wings" (magnetic accelerators) on either side of the Frigate make its beam stronger than that of a standard Ion Cannon Frigate's; the ion beam fires more often as well, so it causes more damage. Apart from that, nothing special. Battle Carrier --------------Mass: 1 000 000 tons Armour: 96 000 Firepower: 476 Coverage: 3% Weapons: 2x ion cannon (fixed, forward-firing) 10x mass drivers (fixed, body-mounted in various defensive positions) Special Action: build/repair/refuel Strike Craft, build Frigates Velocity: 235 m/s Maneuverability: low (seems to be very low) First Encountered: Mission 2 The crossbreed of a Destroyer and a Carrier, this is a dangerous ship that should not be taken lightly. It takes a lot of pounding to die, and it can put some serious hurt on anything attacking it. However, it's not very useful as a Carrier, since slow (it is able to build Ion Array Frigates, but mass drivers fire faster and more accurately than Craft on these is not a good idea - break out the -----------4. Bentusi -----------The Bentusi are a mystic race of peaceful traders, who play a large part in helping the exiled Kharakians regain their Homeworld. They are also known as "the Unbound", why, you ask? Well you see, every Bentusi ship is actually crewed by only 1 Bentusi person, BUT that person is... integrated... with that ship. So, like Karan S'jet, the Bentusi's ships are their bodies: if their ship gets attacked, they physically feel pain. They are "unbound" because they are not confined by their ships like the Kharakians, but rather, their ships are an extension of their beings. Ion beam color: gold-white NOTE: many of the stats here are guestimated. Bentusi Exchange ----------------Mass: 4 000 000 tons Armour: 400 000 Firepower: 900 per second Coverage: 50% Weapons: 3x ion cannon (fixed, rapid-firing) Special Action: its docking rates are very it never actually does). Its a Carrier's, so using Strike ion cannons instead.

Velocity: 200 m/s Maneuverability: low First Encountered: Mission 4 The main Bentusi ship that you will encounter, each Exchange is a Mothership alone, but what a ship! Triple repeating ion cannons allow an Exchange to track and destroy ANY ship type, and since they do so much damage, it's rare for even Turanic Raiders to attack the Bentusi. Thank goodness the Traders are on your side... Cargo Barge -----------Mass: 40 000 tons Armour: 20 000 Firepower: Coverage: Weapons: Special Action: Velocity: 350 m/s Maneuverability: low First Encountered: Mission 11 This looks like it's supposed to be an escape pod; in Mission 11, it's fleeing the Bentusi Exchange which is under attack from the Taiidan. But that doesn't make much sense, considering the Unbound nature of the Bentusi... Anyhow, it's a weak and unarmed ship, and you only ever see it once in the game. Shame. -----------5. Kadeshi -----------The Kadeshi (also spelt Khadeshi) are descendants of the Exiles from Hiigara; but unlike the main fleet of prison ships which continued on to Kharak, the Kadeshi group broke away and decided to take their chances with living in the Great Nebula. As the various Kiith family groupings show, the Kharakians are a highly religious people, and so it is with the Kadeshi. As they grew and prospered in the Great Nebula, they came to identify with it, until "it became the center of their existence, and ultimately, their religion" (in the words of Fleet Intelligence) - it becomes something akin to the Garden of Eden for them (this is why the Kadesh are known as the "Protectors of the Gardens"). Thus, when the returning Exiles harvest the Nebula, the Kadeshi attack because they see this as defiling the sacred nature of their home. And because the Protectors will not listen to reason, the Kharakians are forced to destroy their long-lost brothers, in order to make it out of the Nebula alive and continue the journey to their Homeworld. Ion beam color: blue-white NOTE: many of the stats here are guestimated. Swarmer -------Mass: 8 tons Armour: 400 Firepower: 43

Coverage: 4% Weapons: 2x rapid-fire mass drivers (fixed, belly-mounted) Special Action: Velocity: 1 500 m/s Maneuverability: very high (seems to be very very VERY high!) First Encountered: Mission 7 The most dangerous Strike Craft ever built, these things are incredibly fast and maneuverable, and they pack a serious punch too. The only sure-fire defence against them are Multi-Gun Corvettes, Drone Frigates, and/or Defenders - even Heavy Corvettes struggle to blast them, and of course, with 400 armour points they take far too long to die... you may even find they run out of fuel before you can kill them all. Advanced Swarmer ----------------Mass: 10 tons Armour: 550 Firepower: 24 Coverage: 8% Weapons: 4x rapid-fire mass drivers (fixed, belly-mounted) Special Action: Velocity: 1 000 m/s Maneuverability: high First Encountered: Mission 8 Lower stats than the Swarmer, BUT the guns fire faster so that Firepower rating is misleading. They are still difficult to kill off, but not so difficult as Swarmers, and since there are fewer of them in the game, you may not even notice the difference. They have slightly bigger gas tanks than Swarmers, but not enough to count, and so are also dead in space without Fuel Pods. Fuel Pod --------Mass: 10 tons Armour: 550 Firepower: 65 Coverage: 10% Weapons: 1x rapid-fire mass driver (fixed, nose-mounted) Special Action: repair/refuel Strike Craft Velocity: 250 m/s Maneuverability: low First Encountered: Mission 7 The Kadeshi version of the Support Frigate; ugly ships, but they do their job of topping up the Swarmers' puny fuel tanks. Their single gun is better than the weapon of a standard Support Frigate, as it is much more accurate. Kill these off (or salvage 'em) to leave the Swarmers stranded high and dry. Multi-Beam Frigate ------------------Mass: 50 000 tons Armour: 15 200 Firepower: 600 Coverage: 20% Weapons: 4x heavy ion cannons (fixed, body-mounted) Special Action: -

Velocity: 280 m/s Maneuverability: low First Encountered: Mission 8 Scary as hell when they appear and begin raking the Mothership with their quadion beams, these are like 4 Ion Cannon Frigates combined into 1 seriously deadly ship. Salvage as many as you can, and you won't be lacking in firepower for the rest of the game. The "raking" ability is useful, because it allows this Frigate to kill Strike Craft; since the beams stay "on" for quite a while, the MBF can just sweep them around and slice into anything. The power of these beams is NOT to be underestimated; 14 MBFs can kill a Heavy Cruiser in under 8 seconds. They may have a little trouble tracking Frigates, but when these beams hit... it really hurts. Needle Mothership -----------------Mass: 2 000 000 tons Armour: 112 000 Firepower: 600 Coverage: 20% Weapons: 1x heavy ion cannon (fixed, forward-mounted) 13x mass drivers (fixed, body-mounted in defensive positions) Special Action: repair/refuel/build Strike Craft and Frigates, prevent Hyperspacing, ram Velocity: 150 m/s Maneuverability: very low First Encountered: Mission 7 This is a very cool-looking craft, the needle design looks fragile but belies this ship's true power. Strike Craft get eaten alive by the mass drivers, and Capital Ships take heavy damage from the single, but massively powerful, ion cannon mounted in the "head" of the ship. Of course, if your ships get too close, the Needle Mothership will also ram them, which *instantly* kills a Destroyer upon impact. And additionally, the built-in Hyperspace Inhibitor prevents you from leaving the Great Nebula. All in all, an awe-inspiring foe and a nasty piece of work to go toe-to-toe with. If only your Mothership had its capabilities... -----------------6. Miscellaneous -----------------This section is for the ships that don't belong anywhere else (e.g. Karos Graveyard). Armour, Special Action, Weapons and Velocity are all known (true) values; everything else is guestimated, since there is no real way to find out those stats. Ghost Ship ----------Mass: 40 000 tons Armour: 800 000 Firepower: Coverage: Weapons: Special Action: control field

Velocity: Maneuverability: First Encountered: Mission 9 This is the strange alien vessel you encounter on Mission 9 (Sea of Lost Souls) in the single-player game. With 800 000 armour points (5x the armour of a Mothership), it's no wonder the thing is well-nigh impossible to kill. You have to use your Strike Craft to damage it enough and disable the control field it emits, which can capture Capital Ships and place them under this strange craft's control. Research Station ----------------Mass: 1 000 000 tons Armour: 200 000 Firepower: Coverage: Weapons: Special Action: Velocity: Maneuverability: First Encountered: Mission 10 Found in Mission 10, this is the Research Station that you must destroy. It is completely defenceless without its escort, so once you've killed them, this Station dies pretty fast. Junkyard Dawg -------------Mass: 50 000 tons Armour: 110 600 Firepower: Coverage: Weapons: Special Action: salvage almost ANYTHING Velocity: 750 m/s Maneuverability: medium First Encountered: Mission 13 The ultimate Salvage Corvette, capable of grabbing any ship up to Super-Capital class. Found in the Karos Graveyard, it's bloody fast too, and that huge armour rating means it's very difficult to kill... but not if you have a GravWell Generator with you. Autogun (small) ---------------Mass: 100 tons Armour: 600 Firepower: 50 Coverage: 100% Weapons: 1x rapid-fire mass driver (fixed, forward-mounted) Special Action: Velocity: Maneuverability: First Encountered: Mission 13 Autogun (large)

---------------Mass: 80 tons Armour: 900 Firepower: 55 Coverage: 100% Weapons: 1x medium-fire mass driver (fixed, forward-mounted) Special Action: Velocity: Maneuverability: First Encountered: Mission 13 Nasty little turrets found in the Karos Graveyard, they fire extremely fast and pack quite a punch too, which is why you can't just run Strike Craft past them. Kill these with your Super-Capital Ships - ion cannons work best, since the Autoguns can rotate to track targets, but are incapable of any sort of movement. Hyperspace Inhibitor --------------------Mass: 100 000 tons (each segment) Armour: 70 000 Firepower: Coverage: Weapons: Special Action: prevent Hyperspacing Velocity: Maneuverability: First Encountered: Mission 14 This is the Inhibitor that you have to destroy in Mission 14 (Bridge of Sighs), to enable the Exiles to return to their Homeworld. Note that the stats above are for each *segment* of the Inhibitor, there are 8 segments in total which you have to destroy. However, these segments have relatively low health, and destroying 1 can set off a chain reaction which destroys others. The Inhibitor is dangerous only because of the fact that it rotates; any ships that get smacked by one of the segments will be instantly destroyed or at least, very badly damaged. So it's wise to keep your distance when attacking. Headshot Asteroid -----------------Mass: 2 000 000 tons Armour: 450 000 Firepower: Coverage: Weapons: Special Action: RAM! Velocity: 1 000 m/s Maneuverability: extremely low First Encountered: Mission 15 This is a massive asteroid with an even bigger engine strapped onto it, the armour points are the main reason it takes so long to die. Found at Chapel Perilous, this represents a last-ditch attempt by the Taiidani to end the Exiles' return - the asteroid is meant to ram into, and destroy, the Mothership and all the Kharakian colonists aboard. It needs to be blasted very hard and very long to die, but you should just about make it. ________________________________________________________________________________

============ J. Tactics ============ There are 3 different ships tactics levels in Homeworld, they are covered in the manual but I will give my own information about them as well. Evasive (F2) : This makes ships unwilling to enter combat, i.e. even if enemies enter their line of sight or attack, Evasive ships will do nothing to defend themselves. Engine/weapons split is roughly 120/80 for Strike Craft, so they do less damage but move faster and thus survive longer; more fuel is burnt off; and Evasive Strike Craft also split up into pairs when attacking. Regarding Capital Ships, this tactic has no effect on speed or weapons power BUT makes them attack only on your command (useful in big melees). It also forces Support Frigates to ignore enemy fire and only repair selected ships. Evasive Resourcers will dock with the nearest capable ship (Mothership, Carrier, Resource Controller) when shot at. Evasive Scouts are useful to annoy the enemy, or stall for time if necessary. : The default setting for all newly-built ships. Ships on this setting will attack enemy ships that come within range, but will not move from their positions/orders to do so. Engine/weapons percentages are 100/100 for Strike Craft. Good to use for ships guarding other ships. : Ships on this setting attack until they or the enemy are/is dead. No fancy flight maneuvers are performed and ships are slower, so you will lose more ships when they are on Aggressive. Engine/weapons translate to 80/120 for Strike Craft. Aggressive ships will attack and pursue any enemies that enter their sights; Aggressive Resourcers will ignore attackers and continue harvesting. On some occasions, idle Resourcers on Aggressive will actually attack and destroy enemy ships (Frigate-class and larger); they do this by using their PDA beam to suck the armour off the enemy ship's hull, so you actually get RUs from this :).

Neutral (F3)

Aggressive (F4)

Generally, Evasive is best when moving ships around, or trying to run from enemies (Capital Ships *do not* receive a speed boost from Evasive). Switch to Aggressive when closing with enemy fleets, or when you need that vital kill and losing ships is not an issue. Neutral is best used for ships that are guarding other ships, as the guards will attack anything fighting them or the ship they're guarding, but will not pursue the attackers (and thus leave the guarded ship vulnerable to other attacks). ________________________________________________________________________________ =============== K. Formations =============== These formations apply to all ships in Homeworld, BUT for reasons explained below (***see NOTE 1), Capital Ships should *never* be placed in formations. Delta (F5) : Pretty useless as a formation, ships in this formation are easy to spot and easier to kill; killing the foremost ship in

the formation breaks it up. Best used for Attack Bombers and not much else. Broad (F6) : *The* most useless formation, only good ships (example: Salvage Corvettes) that in small groups. Only the insane would attack, as enemies will be able to pick when you have many you need to select use this formation to ships off easily.

X (F7)

: Best used for Strike Craft; this formation allows them to dodge much incoming gunfire while at the same time, blasting away at the enemy. The slow-ish turnaround time of this formation is its only negative aspect. A good formation for guarding other ships, and for attacking multiple targets. : Only to be used when attacking a single target; this formation concentrates a nearly-continuous stream of gunfire at the target. However, this formation packs ships very close together, making it easy to hit them. And this complex formation also takes a looong time to turn around. Best used with groups of Strike Craft less than 30 strong. : As mentioned elsewhere, 16 Light and/or Heavy Corvettes in a Wall, with decent support, can do a lot of damage. But generally, the Wall is best used for slow-moving Capital Ships because of its slow turn time. Also, ships in this formation are packed very closely together and thus, are vulnerable to mine and missile attacks, as well as the Heavy Corvette's Burst Fire mode (which can pop Fighter walls very well). : As its name implies, attacking ships will form a sphere around the enemy, and begin pouring gunfire into the foe's hull. Because the ships in this formation do not move, their weapons are much more accurate than in any other formation BUT conversely, they die much easier as they make no attempt to avoid incoming gunfire. Best used for Strike Craft - killing unprotected Resourcers, or quickly finishing off a dangerous ship. : Almost never used, ships set to this formation will stay in the positions they're currently in. Pretty useless, really.

Claw (F8)

Wall (F9)

Sphere (F10)

Custom (F11)

In summary: Delta, Broad and Custom are virtually useless. X is the best general-purpose formation, and excellent for Strike Craft. Claw is best for Fighters that are attacking single Capital Ships. Wall is excellent for Corvettes, bad for any other Strike Craft (except maybe Defenders and Bombers), and good for Capital Ships (but then, you shouldn't have your Capital Ships in a formation anyway). Sphere is a useful guarding formation, and perfect for hitting enemy ships as hard as possible in a short time. ***NOTE 1: *Never, ever* put your Capital Ships in formation. Try this: get 2 groups of Capital Ships. Put 1 group in a formation and leave the other disorganised. Now tell both groups to turn around. What you will notice, is that the formation'd ships will perform all sorts of time-wasting stunts to respond to your order, while the other group's ships will simply rotate 180 on their axes and begin moving directly to the location you chose. It's simple: in formation, ships must move as 1 group; without a formation, ships can move individually, which is probably about 10 times faster to turn and attack. For slow Capital Ships, the faster they bring guns to bear on the enemy, the better. So, don't use

formations for your heaviest hitters. ***NOTE 2: The one problem with having no formations, is that ships are much more likely to shoot each other in a melee. (Very likely for Strike Craft, not so much for Capital Ships - except Missile Destroyers). If you see your ships "clumping" too closely together, just give them move orders and they should get sorted out. ________________________________________________________________________________ ================== L. Damage Ratios ================== In Homeworld, ships have different levels of armour on different parts of their bodies. If you have played the single-player campaign, you may recall that in Mission 4, Fleet Command notes that "... Capital Ships have lighter armour on the top, bottom and rear sides". This is true, but that's not the entire truth; here's a table of the damage ratios for ship armour areas. Front Rear (engines) Sides Top Bottom 90 % of weapons damage 170% 100% 130% 130%

So, say you have a weapon that does 10 damage. If it hits the front of an enemy ship, that ship will take (10 * 90%) = 9 damage. If, however, you shoot that enemy ship in the engines, it will take (10 * 170%) = 17 damage. Obviously it's best to get behind enemies and attack, but in reality you will rarely have the opportunity to kill a ship by firing ion beams into its engines. It's more likely that you'll be able to get 130% damage, and in most cases you will be attacking enemies from the front (since that's where all the weapons are to fire at you...), so usually only 90% damage results. NOTE: these ratios don't apply to Motherships, which take 100% of weapons damage regardless of where they're shot. ________________________________________________________________________________ ============================== M. Single-player walkthrough ============================== Homeworld can be a difficult game in places, to say the least ;). Well, this walkthrough is (hopefully) going to help you through the rough spots. Some parts may spoil the game for you, but don't blame me! I played the game as Kushan, so if you're playing it as Taiidan, some bits may not make sense. Solution: play as Kushan. NOTE: The beauty of Homeworld is that there is no "right" or "wrong" way to complete the game! This walkthrough is how *I* did it. If you know a better way of completing a mission, please let me know, and (if I use your tip) I'll credit you. *Remember* - if you're not having fun, then you're not playing the game right! ------------------

1. Kharak System -----------------If you were stupid and did not complete the training mission as advised (RTFM, k?), then this level will make sure that you at least know what the hell is going on. I'm quite sure (OK, I *hope*) that you won't need an in-depth guide here, just follow the instructions and you'll be fine. Set your Scouts to Group 1 (CTRL + 1), your Resource Collector to Group 2, and your Salvage Corvette to Group 3. Note that when you're salvaging the Target Drone, you mustn't give your Salvage Corvette any other orders (including movement), or it'll let go of the Drone. Once you have fulfilled all orders, Hyperspace out... and get ready for the real game to begin. ------------------------------2. Outskirts of Kharak System ------------------------------As the movie explains, you are supposed to meet the Khar-Selim, your support ship, in this location. But she ain't responding to the Mothership's radio call... and if you're any kind of gamesplayer, you know that means something's up! *DO NOT* send *anything* to the Khar-Selim - at least, not yet. You'll need something a lot better than whiny Scouts to protect the Mothership, so get researching Corvettes. Set your 7 Scouts to guard your Resource Collector (hold G and click the Collector) on Aggressive tactics/Sphere formation, then send it off to harvest. With your additional resources, build 4 Heavy Corvettes and set them to Aggressive/X formation; set them to Group 4, tell them to guard the Mothership, and move your Research Ship as far behind the Mothership as it can go. Build another 4 Heavy Corvettes (group 5), and tell them to guard your Salvage Corvette (Aggressive/sphere). After you've harvested enough, you'll meet the Turanic Raiders. They're a race of bad guys who enjoy blowing shit up for kicks. Enjoy the neat-o movie, then get ready to atomise them. Tell your Resource Collector to dock (press D), while it's doing so your Scouts will protect it from Raider attack. The Raiders wil attack in 3 distinct waves. The first one consists mainly of Interceptors, with 2 Standard and 1 Missile Corvette thrown in. Sit back and watch while your Heavy Corvettes happily blow the enemies to hell. Once it's quiet again, dock any damaged Scouts and/or Corvettes, then send your Salvage Corvette off to visit the remains of the Khar-Selim. Don't forget to guard it with all your Heavies (Aggressive/Wall); your Scouts should guard the Mothership in X formation. When you reach the Khar-Selim, the Raiders will make an attempt to consign your Salvage Corvette to the scrapyard. Sadly, their Interceptors will die horribly. Laugh and get your Salvage Corvette back to the Mothership; dock it and make sure that it stays there (check the "Remain Docked" button in the Launch Manager). Now you witness (more like hear) the demise of the Khar-Selim. Once the cutscene is over, the Raiders return yet again (getting annoying, isn't

it?). This time, they're using more Standard and Missile Corvettes along with their Interceptors; use your Heavies on them. The missile-equipped ships should be your first targets, but don't ignore the other enemies. Eventually, your Heavy Corvettes should sight the enemy Carrier; when that happens, the Raiders will finally bugger off. Build 3 more Salvage Corvettes (set to Group 3 with the first one), then 2 Repair Corvettes (no group). If you lost any Strike Craft, rebuild them. On to Mission 3. --------------------3. Return to Kharak --------------------"Everything's gone... There's nothing left!... Kharak is burning!..." Those are some of the saddest words I have ever heard in a videogame. There is nothing left of the planet that was home to the Kushan people for a thousand years. The heat of the explosion has turned the entire Great Desert to glass. But the evil that committed this genocide has not yet finished its destruction. The Cryotrays - the racks containing hundreds of thousands of Kushan in cryogenic sleep - are being attacked. If the Cryotrays are destroyed, it will be impossible for the Kushan people to re-establish themselves as a race. You must save the Cryotrays at all cost! Fun time, NOT. Set your Scouts to Evasive/Claw and tell them to get after the ships (Assault Frigates) attacking the Cryotrays. Depending on the size of your fleet, there may be between 2 and 5 Frigates to contend with. While the Frigates are (trying) to play shoot-the-Scout, split your Salvage Corvettes up into 2 groups of 2, then tell 1 Repair Corvette to support each Salvager group (select a Repair Corvette, Z-bandbox 2 Salvagers). Now send your Salvagers off (on Aggressive!) to grab Frigates. It takes 2 Salvagers to grab a Frigate; Z-click the frigate to capture it. (Try and get the healthiest ones.) Hint: *never* approach enemy ships directly from the front, it's not very clever. The Assault Frigates will now go after your Salvagers, however your Repair Corvettes should keep them alive long enough to do their job. Make sure that your Scouts are set to attack *only* the Frigates that are *not* being captured. Once your Salvagers have hold of 2 Frigates, bring in your Heavy Corvettes and kill any that are still going for the Cryotrays. Grab as many Frigates as you can. Once they are all grabbed/destroyed, your Salvagers can begin bringing in the surviving Cryotrays (select a Salvager, Z-bandbox a Tray). If all Cryotrays get destroyed, it's Game Over. Harvest the meagre resources here, then ensure that you have 16 Heavy Corvettes in your fleet. Set your captured Assault Frigate(s) to Group 6. Retire your Repair Corvettes (select them and press I). Research whatever's available and leave - "there's nothing left for us here". -----------------------------4. Great Wastelands (Part 1) -----------------------------A nice, quiet area of space. Now, what do games teach us about nice, quite areas? Think Quake II here, people. (What? Never played it? SHAME!) Hokay. Build a Resource Controller and set it to guard your Collector. Send the Collector off to gather resources, also guarded by your Heavy Corvettes.

When your Collector has dropped off its first load of resources, you get a scare. One big-ass Hyperspace signature pops up on your sensors, but it's OK. That's a Bentusi Trade Ship, and luckily for you, they want to be friends. However, don't accept their offer of Ion Cannon technology just yet. Build a Support Frigate when you get the resources, and add 4 more Salvage Corvettes to your other 4; also ensure you have at least 6 Scouts. Move your Salvagers to the front of the Mothership. Keep harvesting, but when the Bentusi begin talking about the Raiders, tell your Collector to dock. Then quickly buy Ion Cannons and wave your new friends goodbye. You'll be seeing more of them in later missions. Use your Heavy Corvettes to take out the incoming Raider forces; with the end of the assault, put your Scouts on Evasive. 6 Raider Ion Array Frigates will Hyperspace in and begin hammering on the Mothership. Immediately salvage the 2 Ion Arrays to the left and right of the Mothership, then use your Scouts to attack and confuse the 4 Ion Arrays behind your fleet (as with the Assault Frigates in the previous mission), then send in your Salvagers to grab 'em. When a pair of Salvagers becomes available, tell it to grab another Ion Array. You should easily be able to grab all 6. Now the Raider Carrier will appear. Use your Salvagers to grab the 2 stupid Ion Arrays escorting it, and use all of your newly-captured ships to blast that Carrier (if it gets away, it's Game Over!). With the Carrier gone, the mission is complete. Finish harvesting. Next! -----------------------------5. Great Wastelands (Part 2) -----------------------------Build 3 more Support Frigates (4 total), 6 more Salvage Corvettes (14 total), and ensure you have at least 20 Heavy Corvettes; also build a Probe. If you need resources, build another Probe and send it 49km from the Mothership, into the open end of the "resource V". The area *between* that Probe and the Mothership is where it's safe to harvest resources. Once you've completed harvesting, scuttle the "marker" Probe (select it and press S, wait 1 second, then press S again). Put your Heavy Corvettes in Aggressive/Wall, then select them and 4 Salvage Corvettes. Go into Sensors Manager. Taking the Mothership as *facing* 12 o' clock, move your selected group to the dust clouds at roughly 2 o' clock (about 45km from the Mothership). Ensure that your Heavy Corvettes are about 8km behind your Salvagers. Once you're ready, send your second Probe to the ping in your Sensors Manager. It's gonna die, but not in vain as you'll see later... So, this is the scum that destroyed Kharak! Time to get revenge - and how sweet it will be. The Taiidani will pay for what they've done. After the cutscene has played out, your Probe will be destroyed (if you'd used a Scout that returned to the Mothership, the enemies would follow it home - bad idea). Watch your Sensors Manager and notice the red dots (Taiidani ships) fanning out on patrols. A fast-moving dot should appear near your Heavy Corvettes, revealing itself as a squadron of Interceptors; use your Heavies to make short work of them. Wait a while longer and you'll notice another speedy red dot, patrolling from side to side in front of the Mothership. Move your

Heavies out and kill this wing of Interceptors too, then tell them to guard the Mothership. Now you are ordered to kill some enemy Resourcers. In Homeworld, however, the key is to think like a pirate. The 4 Salvagers you positioned earlier are in prime position to grab those Resourcers; but wait for them to come to you, or you risk alerting a group of Assault Frigates to your Salvagers' presence - and you don't want that, now do you? With the enemy Resourcers being refitted, it's time to do some more capturing. Get 8 Salvage Corvettes (your "salvage group"), aided by 4 Support Frigates, and add another Salvager (the "decoy") separate from this group; put the decoy Corvette on Evasive, and tell it to guard one of your Support Frigates. Tell your Heavy Corvettes to guard the same Support Frigate, then move your salvage group out towards the patrolling red dot/enemy ships on the front/right-hand side of the Mothership. When you're about 50km from the enemy ships, stop your ships and wait a while. Another wave of Interceptors should appear; use your Heavy Corvettes to kill them, then get them back to base. Now send your decoy towards the red dot of enemies, which reveals itself to be 4 Assault Frigates. As soon as the enemy Frigates start moving towards the decoy Salvager, turn it around and send it back towards your salvage group; plot its course so that it will pass over your salvage group, and stop about 50km behind it. As the decoy flees, set it to Neutral tactics so that it always remains in sight of the pursuing Assault Frigates. If it seems to be getting too far away, stop it to let the enemy ships catch up - it's *vitally* important that they keep the decoy in their sights. When the decoy comes within sight of your salvage group, tell your Salvagers in that group to grab the enemy ships. The Assault Frigates will start shooting at the salvage group, but your Support Frigates will easily heal any damage caused. Voila, 4 extra Assault Frigates. Once the new Assault Frigates are added to your fleet, create the same formation as described above (salvage group/Support Frigates/decoy/Heavy Corvettes). This time, move towards the enemy dot on the front/left-hand side of the Mothership. When you're about 50km away, stop your ships; tell a Support Frigate to repair your Heavy Corvettes, then send them on ahead to meet the enemies. When you get there you'll find another 4 Assault Frigates, guarded by a new ship type - the Defender - which you can now research. Use your Heavy Corvettes to kill off the puny Defenders, then retreat your Heavies back to the Mothership. Repeat the decoy-flee-capture trick on the now-undefended Assault Frigates, and grab them all. With the new arrivals added to your fleet, take 6 Salvagers (aided by all your Support Frigates) and your Scouts (on Evasive) towards the red dot at the bottom of the map; again, stop the group 50km away. Move the Scouts in and attack the Ion Cannon Frigates there; when they begin (trying) to retaliate, bring in your Salvagers. With the capture of all enemy Frigates on the map, the final event of the mission will be triggered. The enemy Carrier, with 2 Destroyers escorting, will come for the Mothership (as indicated by the ping in Sensors Manager). Split your Salvage Corvettes into 2 groups of 3 and a group of 8, and get a Support Frigate to repair each group. Your remaining Support Frigate must assist your Heavy Corvettes; move them and your Scouts towards the approaching enemy forces. Kill the remaining fighter cover with your Heavies, then retreat them to the Mothership and bring in your Scouts. Attack the enemy ships to confuse them, then sneak in your Salvage Corvettes.

Use a group of 3 Salvagers for each Destroyer, and the remainder to grab the Carrier (***see NOTE 1). If you have any spare Salvagers sitting around, nab the Support Frigate, otherwise kill it. It's not like you need it anyway... Let's recap: from 4 Assault and 8 Ion Array Frigates, your fleet has probably swelled to something like 12 Assault, 6 Ion Array and 3 Ion Cannon Frigates, as well as 2 Destroyers and a Carrier. (And there's the 2 extra Resourcers as well!) And (apart from a few dead Strike Craft?) it hasn't cost you a cent. All courtesy of the Taiidan Empire! Harvest everything that's left, then prepare your forces. Research and build 20 Attack Bombers and the same amount of Defenders, and boost your Heavy Corvette wing to 20 ships. Assign each group of 20 a unique Group Number, then retire all (yes, *all*) your Assault Frigates, you will be building something better in the next mission. Open up the Launch Manager and ensure that "Remain Docked" is checked for both the Mothership and your new Carrier. Now, manually dock your Scouts and Salvage Corvettes with your Carrier; dock your Defenders, Attack Bombers and Heavy Corvettes with the Mothership. Put your Carrier, Reasearch Ship and all Frigates (excluding Support Frigates) into one group. Then it's Hyperspace time. ***NOTE 1: Salvagers seem to lose all intelligence when ordered to capture an enemy ship - they perform no evasive maneuvers of any sort. I had to replay this mission about 4 times to get it right, mainly because my Salvage Corvettes kept slamming themselves into the Carrier's hull and exploding!!! That's why I advise you to keep extra Salvagers around - just in case they get stupid, and you need some backup. ------------------6. Diamond Shoals ------------------A lovely big asteroid field. Unfortunately, these are Unharvestable Asteroids(tm), and if they ram into any of your ships, well, you'll see soon enough. This level can be tough, the main thing is to keep cool under the pressure. Move *all* of your Capital Ships (*except* Destroyers, Support Frigates and Resource Collectors) to a spot 50km to the right of the Mothership, where they will be safe from the asteroid bombardment. Tell all your Support Frigates (except 1) to repair the Mothership. Move your 2 Destroyers in front of the Mothership, and tell your remaining Support Frigate to assist them. Grab your 3 groups of Attack Bombers, Defenders and Heavy Corvettes. Set them to Evasive and move them out. Swivel the viewpoint so that you're looking down on the Mothership, from above. Tell your Strike Craft to attack any asteroids that are on collision course with the Mothership, and tell your Resourcers to harvest the debris that remains. Your Destroyers can deal with any rocks that your Strike Craft don't get; their large amount of health will allow them to take some asteroid hits without dying. This level may take a few tries to get it right - the most important thing is to keep searching ahead for more rocks to clear. Your ships should only be sitting idle once the asteroids have passed you by. Once you're clear of the asteroid belt, the Bentusi show up again and sell you Drone Technology. This will be very useful in the next 2 missions, so buy it. Rebuild any lost fighters and churn out as many Drone Frigates as your remaining RUs will allow. Time to leave this boring part of space, things are about to get "interesting".

-------------------------7. The Gardens of Kadesh -------------------------The Great Nebula. It looks peaceful, but it's gunna become something close to Sajuuk's Hell in the next few minutes. The question is, can you survive? Make sure that your Salvage Corvettes and Scouts remain docked in your Carrier. Move your Capital Ships close to the Mothership, Aggressive and no formation. Grab your Resource Collectors and get them all to guard your Research Ship (no specific formation); add your Drone Frigates to this group (remember to deploy their drones!). Take one Collector out of the formation, and get your Strike Craft to guard the rest, in Aggressive/Wall. Get half of your Support Frigates to aid this group, and the other half to repair the Mothership and your Capital Ships. Now that you're ready, tell your lone Resourcer to go harvesting. Keep an eye on it, once it has a full load *immediately* tell it to guard your Research Ship. The cutscene will activate. Now you meet the Kadeshi. To them the Nebula is a holy place, and by harvesting it you have defiled its holiness. Right... anyhow, the long and short of it is that they decide to kill you. How nice. They will initially concentrate on the Resourcer that sucked up the Nebula, but since it's behind a wall of angry Strike Craft, their Swarmers may have some trouble getting through. Of course, the Swarmers' insane speed will also cause your ships some tracking problems, but those Drone Frigates will come in really handy now. <insert sound of 96 drones firing simultaneously> The Kadeshi have a blatant weakness, which you shouldn't have too much trouble figuring out. See, since their Swarmers are so small, they don't exactly have the largest fuel tanks around. (*That's* an understatement.) Thus, if you can deprive them of fuel, the Swarmers will sit in space doing bugger-all. That's where the Fuel Pods come in. Fuel Pods are the Kadesh equivalent of Support Frigates, and they look like big white grubs floating in space. If you are really brave you can launch your Salvagers and grab 'em, since they're worth 400 RUs apiece. If you just want to get this mission over (and you do, boyo, you DO), use your Capital Ships to ionise the Pods. After much gunfire, you will be told that the Mothership's Hyperdrive is fully charged. *DON'T* activate it yet! Instead, wait until the massive Needleship floating around the area, has gone (you should see it open a Hyperspace gate). Now you can (try) and jump out; the dialog won't make any sense, but hey, who cares? If you'd "activated" the Hyperdrive when told to, all your ships would have spent 15 minutes docking (getting killed all the time), only to have to be re-deployed when the Hyperdrive waveform fails. Cleanup time! If there are any Swarmers and/or Fuel Pods left around, now is the time to capture them. (Yes, you CAN capture Strike Craft - it takes 1 Salvager per ship.) Since a Fuel Pod is (technically) a Frigate, it will require 2 Salvagers to be grabbed. With the Kadeshi threat captured or destroyed, you can harvest and rebuild your fleet. Add some more Drone Frigates to the mix, and ensure that you have* at least* 30 Defenders. Then Hyperspace... and get ready for some REALLY insane action. As in "even-more-difficult-than-this-level" insane. (After completing Homeworld in single-player for the 7th time - using the method

above - I realised that this mission isn't actually that difficult. I didn't lose *any* ships and I managed to grab all Fuel Pods, as well as about 20 Swarmers and Advanced Swarmers. The Kadeshi AI isn't very good, they only ever try to kill your Resourcers :(.) ---------------------------8. The Cathedral of Kadesh ---------------------------This mission is probably the most difficult one in Homeworld, so if you can complete it, then you are a pretty good gamesplayer. HOWEVER, you must complete it well. By "well", I mean that you must at least have *some* sort of a fleet left over afterwards. Winning with unacceptable losses is not a victory, because you will never be able to rebuild your fleet. So it's all or nothing! This is just like the previous mission, except there are 3 Needleship Hyperspace Inhibitors around the Mothership. In order to escape from the Nebula of Hell(r), you will need to waste all 3 of them. And since they're gunna be launching Swarmers and Fuel Pods at you all the time, this is *not* going be easy. As soon as you can control your ships, grab your Strike Craft and put them into formation (any sort), otherwise the first wave of Swarmers will wipe them all out. As before, get your Strike Craft to guard your vulnerable ships, except this time get your Defenders to guard all your ion cannon-equipped craft (your "Battle Group"). Your Drone Frigates should be guarding your vulnerables, as well. Don't forget to use your Support Frigates to help the Mothership/ vulnerables, and your Battle Group. If you have any Attack Bombers left, put them in Aggressive/Claw and send them out to kill Fuel Pods. Locate the Hyperspace Inhibitor at the front of the Mothership and send your Battle Group off to kill it. Now you will encounter the Multi-Beam Frigates; they look similar to Fuel Pods but don't be deceived, these ships are far more deadly. They are also *the* most powerful ships in the game, so salvage them all! After the first wave is yours, more will approach from the left and right sides of the Mothership and begin firing quad-ion beams at it. With your Salvage Corvettes (aided by a Support Frigate), capture as many as you can; it shouldn't be too difficult since the Frigates tend to only concentrate on the Mothership (keep an eye on her health!). Once you have disposed of the first 2 waves another group will show up, grab them too (there are 10 total). Mercifully, the Kadeshi Swarmers ignore Salvagers unless being targetted by them. With the MBFs in your possession, destroy the Needleship behind/to the left of the Mothership; once it's space dust, recall your Battle Group (add your newlyacquired MBFs to it). Fleet Comand will tell you that the third Inhibitor is retreating, ignore this information (for now) and concentrate on killing/ capturing any remaining Kadeshi forces around the Mothership. You can repair and rebuild in peace now. Ensure you have at least 14 Salvage Corvettes, 16 is recommended. Once your fleet is back in top condition, grab all of your Support Frigates. Get 2 to repair your Salvagers and the remainder to repair your Carrier. Use your remaining Defenders and Drone Frigates to guard the Carrier. Then move the Carrier and your Salvagers towards the final, fleeing Inhibitor. When you encounter the final 7 MBFs, use your Carrier as bait, and start capturing the Frigates. (Make sure your escorting ships don't kill 'em!) Some Swarmers will show up, but will be wiped out by your Carrier's escorts. Now you can harvest the Nebula in peace.

Grab your MBFs (you should have 17 if you salvaged every one) and set them on Aggressive. Set all your Support Frigates to repair them and, with your Drone Frigates along, head off to the location of that final blasted Hyperspace Inhibitor. Now you learn that the Kadeshi are actually your long-lost brothers. The problem is, they *still* don't want to let you leave. So, lay into the final Inhibitor with all your MBFs, it shouldn't take too long to die. Some Swarmers and Fuel Pods may arrive to aid the Inhibitor (weird how they can Hyperspace Strike Craft when you can't), but concentrate only on that Inhibitor. Once it's gone, the mission is complete and you can (*finally*) jump out. ----------------------------------9. Deep Space - Sea of Lost Souls ----------------------------------Oooh, creepy. A big unknown ship, sitting in the middle of nowhere, with a whole heap of highly useful ships around it. Derelicts? Not quite... try moving a Scout near the group, and see what happens. Note that all the ships guarding the alien vessel are Capital-class or higher. That should tell you something about the nature of the alien ship's control field. To be brief, it's great at controlling big ships, but can't capture Strike Craft. So you are going to have to use your Fighters and Corvettes to "destroy" it. There is a new ship - a Missile Destroyer - guarding the alien ship. It is the ultimate anti-fighter platform, and your Strike Craft will get annihilated if that Destroyer is not kept occupied. Move a Support Frigate to a position about 60km from the alien ship, but place your Frigate so it is as close to the Missile Destroyer as possible (without being shot at, naturally). You will need 30 Scouts and 20 Attack Bombers, minimum. Put your Scouts into 1 group (Evasive, X) and your Bombers (and any remaining Defenders) into an Aggressive/Wall group. Move these groups out, send the Scouts to the position of the Support Frigate and the other group to a position opposite to the Scouts/Frigate (on the other side of the alien ship's control field). Tell the Scouts to attack the enemy ships and, while the enemies are busy trying to ice them, get your remaining Strike Craft to attack the alien ship itself (set them to Sphere formation when you get within range). Your Scouts will retreat to your Support Frigate when they get very damaged or low on fuel, but you probably will lose a few. However, the cost of some dead Scouts is nothing, compared to the RU values of the ships controlled by the derelict. Eventually, the combined firepower of your Strike Craft will overwhelm the alien ship's control field, and the ships it was controlling will become yours. You also gain the ability to build Missile Destroyers. Dock all your Strike Craft for repairs, send a Salvage Corvette to the alien ship, and begin harvesting this region's sparse resources. Harvesting takes a long time - as in two-hourslong - so leave your game running and do something else. The Bentusi will arrive and sell you Super-Heavy Chassis, which will allow you to build Carriers. There is still 1 component you need to build Heavy Cruisers, the biggest and nastiest offensive ships on the game, but you will get that technology soon enough. Finish harvesting and Hyperspace out. -------------------------------10. Super Nova Research Station

-------------------------------The Exiles have jumped into an area of space that is near to a supernova. The unstable condition of the dying star means that it is outputting deadly amounts of radiation into space around it, and anything straying into that radiation is gunna get toasted. As soon as you gain control, check that none of your ships are outside the dust patch surrounding the Mothership, or you'll lose them. Research Proximity Sensor when it becomes available. Open up the Sensors Manager and check the map. Note the dust "paths" that lead to the Research Station - the dust absorbs the radiation, so ships staying "inside" the dust will be safe from the supernova. Before you make your way to that station, though, you *might* want to harvest the area. There are 2 resource patches to the left and right of the Mothership. Send a Carrier to one of them, it will get hurt along the way, but it has so much armour that it won't die. (It'll be safe amongst the asteroids, there's dust there.) Your Resourcers are another story, though. Here's how to keep 'em alive: - You must only use 2 Resource Collectors to harvest with. - Move 2 Support Frigates near your 2 Resourcers. - Set one of these Support Frigates to repair your 2 Resourcers, and the other Frigate. - Set the first Support Frigate to repair your Resourcers, plus the second Frigate. Once you've got the above setup going, send your Resourcers off to harvest; the Support Frigates will repair your Resourcers, and each other. Cool, huh, but you still have to watch them to ensure that damage doesn't get too bad. As you finish harvesting one patch, move your Carrier over to the other one, and move your Resourcers and Support Frigates once the Carrier is at its destination. When the area is sucked dry, return your harvesting fleet to the Mothership. You will need at least 2 Missile Destroyers (3 is even better; 4 is great), so build them if you don't got 'em. With your Missile Destroyers selected, move forwards to the first red dot "uphill" from the Mothership (keep inside the dust path!). Kill the Interceptors and Heavy Corvettes you find there, then keep heading along the path until you find a new ship: the Minelayer Corvette (cue Minelaying Tech research available). With your Missile Destroyers, use CTRL + SHIFT to attack and destroy the mines the Corvette launches, then finish it. Once it's dead, move towards the third dot, and kill the second Minelayer waiting there; repeat the process for the next dot/third Minelayer. Leave your Missile Destroyers where you killed the last Minelayer. Put 8 Scouts and 20 Salvage Corvettes into your Carrier; tell all of your Support Frigates to assist it, then move the Carrier to the location of your Missile Destroyers. When your Carrier is in position, launch your Scouts and Salvage Corvettes. Split the Salvagers up into a group of 7; 2 groups of 5; and a group of 3 (for backup purposes). Tell 1 Support Frigate to assist all of the Salvagers (except the 3 for backup); the other Support Frigates should be ordered to aid the first one. Grab your Scouts and set them on Evasive. Send them to the 5th red dot along the path. Focus on your Scouts, when you see large Capital Ships in the distance, tell the Scouts to attack them. 2 Destroyers and another new ship - a Heavy Cruiser - will come along. Tell your Salvagers to grab 'em, the groups of 5 should go for the Destroyers and the 7 Salvagers, for the Cruiser. But *look out* - as soon as they see your first Support Frigate, the enemy ships

will start attacking it. When this happens, tell the damaged Frigate to guard the now-empty Carrier. The Cruiser and Destroyers will only go after that Frigate, so your Salvagers can grab them with ease. *Dock your Scouts* with your Carrier, or they'll keep attacking the enemy ships and may (accidentally) slam into - and destroy - your Salvagers. It may sound amusing, but it's not when it happens to you. When your Salvagers are idle once more, get them to dock with your Carrier. Move your standard Destroyers, new Heavy Cruiser and 4 Multi-Beam Frigates to the point where your Missile Destroyers are waiting; give all of these ion- and missile-equipped ships a single Group Number. This is your Battle Group, the force that's gonna kill the Research Station; not large, but with more than enough firepower to do the job. With your Carrier being repaired by every Support Frigate you have (which should be repairing each other as well), move downwards from the path you're in, to the red dot in the other, lower-down path. You will come upon a group of 5 Assault Frigates which will begin attacking your Carrier; launch your Salvage Corvettes and grab all the Frigates. (The enemy ships may attack your Support Frigates instead - in this case, just order the Support Frigates to repair each other.) Retire them all - once you have done so, move along to the second red dot and you'll find another 6 Assault Frigates, repeat the process of capturing and retiring them. Dock your Salvagers and move the Carriers back up to where your Destroyers/Cruiser are waiting. Now it's time to assault the Research Station. Leave your Carrier and Support Frigates at the point where you captured the Cruiser and Destroyers - something will come along later, that you'll also want to grab. Move your Battle Group along the dust path parallel to the Station; when they're about 20km away from it (the dust looks very sparse in Sensors Manager), turn around and begin moving in. Approaching from the Station's undefended rear will protect your Battle Group from the Defender wall in front of it, AND they won't take as much radiation damage. When the Station's guarding fleet of Frigates arrive, blow them to heck - you don't need them. If you have not captured or killed the Assault Frigates hiding in the lower dust paths, they will also show up and begin causing trouble. (Although, they will be heavily damaged by radiation, so it's probably easier just to laugh off their "attack".) While your Battle Group is killing stuff, you will be informed that the Taiidani Carrier is running away. It will launch Strike Craft at your Battle Group; watch out for those Attack Bombers, use your Missile Destroyers on them and the immobile Defenders. As the battle winds down, the enemy Carrier will "flee" towards your Carrier; launch your Salvage Corvettes and grab it, it won't put up any resistance (yet another AI bug...). By this time your Battle Group should have destroyed everything that moves, so lay into the Research Station itself. With its destruction and the capture of the Taiidani Carrier, the mission is complete. Hyperspace without waiting around. ------------------11. Tenhauser Gate ------------------The Taiidani have figured out that the Bentusi are helping you, and they ain't too pleased about it. The lone Bentusi Station in this area is under attack from a large and very angry Taiidani force. Since the Bentusi are the only guys who have been willing to help you, it's time to repay their generosity by saving their hide. (Not to mention that if that Bentusi ship dies, it's Game Over.)

You have a choice here: kill (easy) or capture (difficult) the enemy fleet. If you choose the first option (maybe you just feel like killing stuff), use your Scouts to decoy the enemy ships, then engage with your own ion cannon fleet. With those MBFs you captured in the Great Nebula, even a Heavy Cruiser melts away in seconds. The second option is more tricky. The problem is that, unlike the Taiidani ships you've met before, these ones *hate* Salvage Corvettes, with a passion. However, the strategy below - while complicated - is the one I used to complete this mission with no losses. Thanks to Koki, for informing me that the enemy ships only hate Salvage Corvettes ***if you issue the salvage order on the enemies*** - that information forms the basis of this successful "Gotta Catch 'em All(tm)" battleplan. Grab 1 Salvage Corvette and Z-click on the enemy Cruiser. As soon as all the Taiidani ships start turning towards it, move the Salvager waaay to the right of the Mothership - to the edge of the map. Tell your Support Frigates to repair all of your other salvage ships, then move your remaining Salvagers *next to* the enemy ships (3 Destroyers and the Cruiser). *WAIT* until your ships and their intended targets are out of visual range of the Bentusi Station, otherwise the enemy Ion Cannon Frigates will come and kill your Salvagers. Once you're far away enough, move your Salvagers as close to their targets as possible; now it's simultaneous capture time. By "simultaneous" I mean: pause, select 1 set of Salvagers, unpause, tell them to salvage a ship, pause, select another set of Salvagers, unpause, tell them to salvage a ship, etc... you get the idea. This prevents the other ships from shooting at your Salvagers (because the enemy ships are all configured to support each other). Now your salvage crews will haul those Destroyers and that lovely Cruiser back home. Onto the remaining ships. Send out your Heavy Corvettes and annihilate the single Assault Frigate (it's guarding the other ships and kills any Salvagers on sight), then dock them with the Mothership. Bring in 8 Salvage Corvettes (you may have to wait for some to finish hauling in the other Taidani ships) and as before, move right next to the Ion Cannon Frigates. When all 8 are in place, simultaneously latch on to the enemy ships. Once all the enemy ships are captured and/or killed, you discover much about the Hiigarans' exile from their home planet. Notice the prison ships that veer off, into the nebula; any guesses as to whom they eventually became? Clue: their name starts with a "K". And if you can't guess THAT, please throw yourself in front of a bus. With the end of the mission, ensure that you have *at least* 20 Salvagers (26 is better). Open up the Launch Manager and ensure that "Remain Docked" is checked for the Mothership and *all* Carriers, there is gonna be a nasty surprise next mission and you don't want your Strike Craft getting killed by it. -----------------12. Galactic Core -----------------The Mothership has been pulled out of Hyperspace by a Taiidani trap, consisting of a Missile Destroyer, various Frigates, and some GravWell Generators. Launch your Salvagers (which aren't affected by GravWells, strangely) and grab the Support Frigates, GravWells and the lone Missile Destroyer (which will ignore your Salvagers); use your Battle Group and blow the Assault Frigates away. With the GravWells gone, launch your Heavy Corvettes. Put them in X/Aggressive and aid them with 4 Support Frigates. Move them slightly ahead of the Mothership, they will take care of the wings of Strike Craft that come your way.

Bring your Missile Destroyers slightly behind your Heavies, and build 3 Proximity Sensors, which should be placed around the Mothership. Soon you will start being attacked by various mixed Ion Frigate/Strike Craft waves. Kill the Strike Craft with your Heavy Corvettes and Missile Destroyers; the Ion Cannon Frigates go for your Proxy Sensors, so you can salvage them (and attached GravWell/Cloak Generator) easily. After a few waves of attackers, go into Sensors Manager and note the position of the red dot below and in front of the Mothership. Grab your Destroyers, Missile Destroyers and Cruisers and send them all off to that dot. Bring along about 10 Salvage Corvettes, aided by at least 2 Support Frigates. Oh, and you'll need 8 Scouts. The dot reveals itself to be a Heavy Cruiser, surrounded by a ball of Defenders, and guarded by 6 Ion Cannon Frigates and 10 Heavy Corvettes. Wipe out everything *except* the Cruiser, then retreat your Battle Group to the Mothership. Tell your Scouts (on Evasive) to attack the Cruiser, and while it's preoccupied, salvage it. A short while after you capture the enemy Cruiser, Captain Elson will appear. He's the leader of the Taiidani rebellion, and if you want to get your Homeworld back, it would be wise to help him. Send in your Heavy Corvettes and kill the Interceptors that are chasing Elson's Destroyer; salvage the remaining Frigates. With Elson safe you can leave this area; there are 2 Carriers and various Frigates remaining, and if you want them, feel free to grab 'em. But by this stage you should have more than enough ships in your fleet. -------------------------------------------------13. The Karos Graveyard - The Shining Hinterlands -------------------------------------------------The Karos Graveyard, the place where the warships of the Kushan were taken, after their loss to the Taiidan Empire a thousand years before. The Graveyard is big and spooky, and there are no Taiidani ships around - but that doesn't mean it's safe to let down your guard... If you don't have a GravWell Generator yet, now would be a good time to build one. Move all your Multi-Beam Frigates in front of the Mothership, with your GravWell guarding one of them. Progress steadily forward until you get the message about "Hyperspace signatures but no new ships detected". Then get ready to meet the Junkyard Dawg. The Dawg is the ultimate Salvage Corvette, and seemingly indestructible. It can steal any ship up to Cruiser-class in size, and it's fast too. But its one weakness - gravity fields - will prove its downfall. As soon as you see the Dawg, activate your GravWell, and get your MBFs hammering on its hide. It's got 20 000 more health than a Heavy Cruiser, but your MBFs will kill it pretty quickly (can you say "dead in less than 20 seconds?") Now you can move through the Graveyard fearing only the Autoguns (which are annoying, but nowhere near as dangerous as the Dawg). Take your Missile Destroyers, set them on Aggressive/Wall, and get your remaining Scouts to guard them. Move your Missile Destroyers 30km above the Graveyard, then straight along to the point marked on the Sensors Manager. Once you get there leave the Scouts, and begin moving your Missile Destroyers straight downwards; kill every Goddamn Autogun that shoots at your MDs. When

the route to the Junkyard Office is clear, send in a Scout to dock and establish the communications link. Elson will send his message to the Taiidani rebellion, and Hyperspace out. Since there's nothing holding you here, leave as well - don't even bother harvesting. -------------------14. Bridge of Sighs -------------------Remember - salvaging is fun. Elson said this was the *least-defended* Hyperspace Inhibitor. Sheesh, I'd hate to see a well-defended one. There are over 160 Taiidani ships guarding that Inhibitor, and to get in there to destroy it, you're gonna have to salvage (preferable) or destroy (wasteful) at least some of that defence fleet. It doesn't really matter *what* you do, since by now you should have more than enough ships to finish the game. But hey, a few more can't hurt! Begin researching Sensors Array, and once that research is done, build one, which will allow you to see every enemy ship on the map. Send the Array right behind the Mothership, to the edge of the map, as enemy Strike Craft seem to enjoy taking potshots at it. Get a Carrier, your Heavy and Salvage Corvettes, 2 Support Frigates (guarding your Heavies) and 4 Proximity Sensors. Move them all to a position in front of the Mothership, minimum 45km from the edge of the defence sphere. Get prepared - you will need *at least* 20 Salvage Corvettes to complete this mission, I had 30 and still had some near-misses, so I'd recommend retiring any other Corvettes (e.g. Multi-Gun) that you aren't using, and building more Salvagers instead. Using 2 Carriers also helps, because captured enemy ships can be processed twice as fast (so Salvagers don't sit around as long). Grab one of your handy Proximity Sensors and tell it to move to the Inhibitor. Go into Sensors Manager and watch the Proxy Sensor. When you see the red dots of the defence sphere begin to move, get the Sensor to retreat behind the closest Carrier. Some Ion Cannon Frigates will now come for your Proximity Sensor. Sadly, they ignore everything else but the Sensor, so you can grab them easily. A Fighter wing *may* show up, so keep your Heavy Corvettes handy. If you get overwhelmed by Frigates, just keep moving the Sensor around until your Salvage Corvettes are free to capture another ICF. (Sometimes this trick goes a little wrong, in that a few of the Ion Cannon Frgates decide to gun for your Salvage Corvettes instead of the decoy Proximity Sensor. You can check if this is happening by looking at the enemy Frigates if they're facing towards the Proximity Sensor it's OK, if not, then scramble your Heavy Corvettes and wipe them out. Supporting your Salvagers doesn't work because ion cannons do more damage than can be healed by a Support Frigate(s).) Move your Proximity Sensor out again and repeat the decoy-lure-capture trick. Do it again and again, so many times that you get sick of it, until you have about 40 to 60 new ICFs in your fleet. During this time you will be attacked by various wings of Defenders, Scouts, Interceptors and Heavy Corvettes - but that's what your Heavies are there for. The defence sphere will be greatly reduced in size and threat, but it's not time to attack the Inhibitor yet.

Build a Cloaked Fighter and send it to the Inhibitor; don't forget to cloak it though! When the screen begins to letterbox, tell the Fighter to dock with the Mothership - you now get to watch a long (and pretty pointless) cutscene, although it does tell you something about the locations and strengths of the enemy ships. Locate the standing Hyperspace Gates on the Sensors Manager. Set your Destroyers to Evasive, support them with *every* Support Frigate you have (except the ones aiding your Heavy Corvettes), then move them and your Heavy Corvettes to the closest Gate and open fire on it. As the cutscene activates, tell your Heavies to use Burst Fire on the gate; this will kill off the Fighters that appear, then switch back to normal firing mode and destroy all but 2 of the enemy Corvettes. Retreat your Heavies to the Mothership, then use your Destroyers to "remove" the remaining Corvettes. 2 Destroyers and a Missile Destroyer will jump in; send your Destroyers back to the Mothership. The enemy ships will follow blindly, so salvage them as well as the idle Support Frigates still waiting by the Gate. Once they're under your control, bring back your Destroyers and turn the Gate into space dust. Move your Battle Group to the left-most Gate; keep your Salvagers with you. Begin laying waste to this Gate, and a bunch of Strike Craft will appear - blow them to heck, then salvage the Support Frigates. The final Gate is identical to the first one in terms of ships. Leave your Salvage Corvettes where they are, and send your Battle Group back to the Mothership. Bring 2 Proximity Sensors and 6 Support Frigates here; 1 Sensor should guard a Support Frigate, the other should be left idle. The Support Frigates must be ordered to aid your Salvagers. Select an idle Proximity Sensor. Open up Sensors Manager and locate the enemy Cruiser. Move the Proxy Sensor to the Cruiser; when you see it begin to move, tell the Sensor to return to a position just behind your Salvage Corvettes. Now the Cruiser and its 4 Destroyer escorts arrive, supported by Cloak Generators. Your other Proximity Sensors will allow you to see through the enemy cloaking fields, so salvage everything you can (especially those Cloak Generators). Make sure to keep the decoy Proxy Sensor alive; if the enemies manage to kill it they will immediately find new targets - your Salvage Corvettes. Ouch. With Cruiser and friends in your possession, the mission is nearly won. Add the newly-captured ships to your Battle Group and head off to the Inhibitor. Set your Battle Group on Evasive and attack the Inhibitor from outside. Keep a close watch on your ships, if you see them getting too close to the Inhibitor "blades", move them back (or they will get, err, *mashed*). With the end of the Inhibitor this mission is technically complete, however there are still many ships out there. Bring in your Salvage Corvettes (aided by some Support Frigates) and grab the Resource Collectors/Controllers, as well as the Carrier. Keep your Heavy Corvettes close, as the Carrier may launch Strike Craft at you. Time to trim down your fleet. At this stage I had: 18 17 19 1 25 Scouts Defenders Attack Bombers Cloaked Fighter Heavy Corvettes

26 Salvage Corvettes 100 Ion Cannon Frigates 2 Drone Frigates 8 Ion Array Frigates 19 Multi-Beam Frigates 17 Support Frigates 17 Destroyers 8 Missile Destroyers 4 Heavy Cruisers 4 Carriers 6 Resource Collectors 2 GravWell Generators 8 Cloak Generators 4 Proximity Sensors 1 Sensors Array 1 Research Ship 1 Mothership ======================= 308 ships in my fleet =======================

(all captured)

(4 built, others (all captured) (3 built, others (all captured) (1 built, others (1 built, others (all captured) (all captured) (all built) (built) (y' don't say)

captured) captured) captured) captured)

If you'd followed my guide to the letter, you would have about the same amount. This is *FAR*, far too many, because many of them you will never have any more use for. So start retiring. (*DO NOT* retire your Resource Collectors!) I got rid of: 1 Cloaked Fighter 40 Ion Cannon Frigates 2 Drone Frigates 8 Ion Array Frigates 1 Support Frigate 3 Resource Controllers 2 GravWell Generators 8 Cloak Generators 1 Research Ship =================== 66 ships retired =================== That left me with a much more manageable (and useful) fleet of 242 ships. Still a lot, but a lot less than before. Resource gain was around 20 000 RUs, but a bit pointless since I didn't need to build anything ever again. Give your Resource Collectors, ion cannon-equipped ships, Missile Destroyers, Heavy Corvettes and Support Frigates each a *unique* Group Number. Hyperspace, you're almost home. -------------------15. Chapel Perilous -------------------Ho hum, another Taiidani trap, getting a little tedious aren't they? Well, at least this one is interesting - shades of Diamond Shoals, except that is one big mofo of an asteroid heading towards the Mothership. Kill it and kill it *fast*, or it'll make space dust of everyone aboard. Grab your ion-equipped ships - *every single one* - and set them on Evasive. Move them to the location of the asteroid and commence firing, Evasive will ensure that they get out of the asteroid's way (on any other setting, they would

get rammed by the rock). Once the asteroid has passed your big guns, set them on Aggressive and chase the asteroid down. Take your Resource Collectors and kamikaze them into the asteroid, this will deliver that extra damage that you need to get rid of it fast. While this fun time is going on, your fleet will be under assault from varied Taiidani escort ships, ranging from Attack Bombers to Destroyers. Use your Missile Destroyers, Heavy Corvettes and whatever other Strike Craft you have at hand to combat this threat. *As soon as* the asteroid pops, jump the hell outta here. It's too dangerous to attempt to salvage anything, you will end up losing more ships than you gain. Onwards, to the final mission of the game! Koki suggested that you can fly a Proximity Sensor near the enemy fleet, which would cause the Taiidani escorting the asteroid to go after that Sensor (thus allowing you to easily kill the asteroid). This works, but only the enemy Strike Craft go for the decoy - the Assault Frigates and Destroyers keep marching towards the Mothership. -----------16. Hiigara -----------Finally, after a long, winding and torturous route, the Exiles have arrived at their Homeworld, their birthright, which they are going to reclaim. But the Taiidan Empire isn't giving up yet, and they're putting everything they've got into this final battle for the Homeworld. First of all, the evil Taiidan Emperor uses (presumably) his psychic powers (?) to hurt Karan S'jet, which means no Fleet Command for the duration of this mission. In other words, no messages about what you're building, where you're building it from, which group is under attack, etc. etc. It may not sound too important, but you really do notice Karan's absence. Note that your objective is to destroy the enemy fleet, but all you have to do to win is blow up the Emperor's flagship (Mothership), which is right across the map. This is easier said than done, because as soon as the mission begins, enemies start closing on your Mothership. Before you get a chance to whoop on the Emperor, you will need to defeat the ships he's sending at you. Put your Heavy Corvettes in Wall/Aggressive and repair them with 2 Support Frigates; your remaining Support Frigates must assist the Mothership. Any other Strike Craft you may have in reserve should be set to X/Aggressive; tell them to guard the Mothership, except for your Scouts which should be guarding your Sensors Array. Move your Sensors Array directly behind the Mothership, right to the edge of the map. All your Ion Array and Ion Cannon Frigates should go into a group, Aggressive and no formation, which will guard the Mothership. Begin moving your Missile Destroyers above the Mothership, to meet the enemy Carrier there. Your Battle Group (Multi-Beam Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers) should be moved slightly in front of the Mothership, this is where the first true attack wave will come from. A Heavy Cruiser escorted by 2 Destroyers, 2 Missile Destroyers, 12 Assault and 12 Ion Cannon Frigates will Hyperspace in. Get your MBFs to attack the Cruiser (14 MBFs kill a Cruiser in under 8 seconds), your Heavy Cruisers to attack one Destroyer/Missile Destroyer pair, and your Destroyers to kill off the other Destroyer and Missile Destroyer. Once they're down, you can clean up the measly Frigates.

(Koki notes that since all attacking ships will be going for the Mothership, it should be easy to capture them. Of course, at this stage you shouldn't *need* to grab more ships... but there's nothing wrong with a few more Heavy Cruisers as trophies :D.) While this is going on, the enemy Carrier will start launching Strike Craft first a Heavy Corvette wave, then some Attack Bombers. Your Missile Destroyers should target the Heavies (they like to use Burst Mode on the Mothership); the ttack Bombers will go for your Sensors Array, so use your Scouts to kill them off (Aggressive/Sphere works very well). With the Bombers down, get your Scouts to return to the Mothership; your Missile Destroyers will have trashed the enemy Heavy Corvettes by now, so get them to guard the Mothership. (Ignore that Carrier - it no longer poses any threat to your forces.) Take 6 of the Support Frigates helping the Mothership and get them to repair your Battle Group. By the time the first attack wave has died, your Ion Frigates and Missile Destroyers/Strike Craft will have defended the fleet from the other attack waves. Move your Battle Group behind and slightly above the Mothership (towards the red dot), and repair them while you wait. Another enemy fleet will appear, similar to the first attack wave; give them an ion-warm welcome, using similar tactics as before. Move your Destroyers back to the Mothership (your Battle Group now consists of your Cruisers and MBFs). Now move your Battle Group straight downwards, and begin homing in on the third wave of enemies that appear. Again, use the same tactics to dispose of them, then get your Battle Group back to the Mothership. A new set of Hyperspace signatures appears above the Mothership, causing Fleet Intelligence to get all panicked and scream "We're being overwhelmed!" Not really, considering how you've creamed the Taiidani so far. Anyhow, the new arrivals turn out to be Captain Elson and assorted ships; he gives you some of his fleet (2 Missile Destroyers/6 Assault Frigates), how nice. Get these new ships to guard Elson's Destroyer, on Aggressive/no formation. Elson now wants to kill the Emperor, and considering how much the Rebellion has helped the Exiles, you should really get out there and cover his ass. However, before you can do so, yet another wave of enemies emerge from Hyperspace, in front of the Mothership. Send your Destroyers and Missile Destroyers along with Elson, and use your Heavy Cruisers, Multi-Beam Frigates, and Ion Cannon Frigates to kill off this final enemy assault. Don't bother sending these ships after Elson, they're too slow to catch up - let your Destroyers do the final work. With your Destroyers (and Missile Destroyers), aided by Support Frigates, head through the dust belt after Elson. You will eventually catch up with him and his Ion Cannon Frigates when they stop to destroy a Carrier; use your Missile Destroyers and Assault Frigates to get rid of the Attack Bombers and Heavy Corvettes launched at Elson's forces. Once the Carrier blows, a much more deadly threat lies ahead: 3 Heavy Cruisers, each one aided by 2 Support Frigates. Ignore the Frigates - you can inflict more damage than they can repair - and hammer on the Cruisers. When they die, you can press on to the Emperor's flagship. There are some Missile Destroyers (with the obligatory Support Frigates) nearby, but strangely they seem reluctant to attack your ships; ignore them. The Emperor will keep launching Strike Craft at you; they will kamikaze into your ships. How scary. Obliterate the Emperor's flagship and cheer, you've just won the game and reclaimed your Homeworld!

Roll the credits, enjoy that Yes song... and get ready for Homeworld2. ________________________________________________________________________________ ======================= N. Multi-player guide ======================= The walkthrough above may have helped you beat Homeworld in single-player, but do you have what it takes to beat other players in a head-to-head contest of skills? This part of the document will show you how to become a decent commander of a multi-player fleet. Homeworld single-player and Homeworld multi-player are two very different things! While the single-player game is objective- and storyline-based (linear), multi-player has only one objective: stay alive, and kill everyone else. Not very subtle, then. There are many differences between the 2 modes; for example in multi-player, you can usually Hyperspace at any time, as long as you have the RUs. But the main change is in the style of play: you gotta be faster, harvest more, build more than your opponent, or he'll crush you into dust. And remember - a multi-player game against a CPU player is vastly different to one against even an inexperienced human. Human beings react differently to the CPU; they don't react the same way twice; they're unpredictable. If you want to beat a good human player, you have to be unpredictable as well, and learn to cover all your bases. --------------------1. General Strategy --------------------Research in multi-player is very important. You start off with all technologies available, and you then have to decide which tech tree to follow up. The key is to choose one ship class to research, and then research it to the max. Most players choose to research either Fighters or Corvettes first, then only go for Capital Ships once they have established themselves. Why these types? Well, Strike Craft are quick to research, cheap to build, and deal a lot of damage. Capital Ships are slooow to research and build, and the really powerful ones take forever to appear. Only a very few, very experienced players are able to successfully pursue the Capital Ship tree from the start, and win. With that in mind, you now have to choose: Fighters or Corvettes? Fighters : : : : : : Corvettes: : : : : : fast cheap weak little damage small fuel tanks need huge numbers to have an effect slower more expensive tougher decent punch larger fuel tanks 1 of these = 3 Fighters

If you're going with Fighters, you build Scouts first; later you get Defenders, then Attack Bombers to fend off Capital Ships and slower Corvettes. With Corvettes, you'd get the Light Corvette first, then the Heavy Corvette and perhaps the Minelayer Corvette. If your opponent is using thousands of Scouts then Multi-Gun Corvettes are a must. The thing is, you need to support your Strike Craft. So you will need to research at least Capital Ship Drive, which will give you Support Frigates prefect for supporting your Corvettes walls. Of course, the bluntest weapon is the humble Scout - it needs no research, can be churned out in massive batches, and is cheap and fast to boot. As mentioned in my Ships Guide (section G), Scouts do little damage, but put a few dozen together and they are lethal. In the very earliest stages of a game, you are building Scouts all the time, just to stay alive until better ships are available. Once you have your Strike Craft research/production going smoothly, you can progress to Capital Ships. Capital Ship Chassis gives you Assault Frigates, and Ion Cannons gives you Ion Cannon Frigates, everyone's favourite ship (or not, depending who's on the receiving end). Group Assault Frigates and ICFs, add some Defenders or Heavy Corvettes, and you can begin killing stuff pretty well. If you're still alive after the Ion Cannon Frigates start appearing, then there's no reason not to move onto bigger and better things. Research all the Super-Capital ship techs to get Carriers, of which you should build at least 1. If your Mothership is still around after your foes get Destroyers, then you might even manage to build some Heavy Cruisers. -------------2. Resources -------------Vital, vital, vital. Without any research you still have Scouts to shoot/ kamikaze into things, but without those precious RUs, you can't even build Scouts - and then you're f**ked, to put it mildly. 6 Resource Collectors is the minimum you should consider having, on resourcerich maps 9 or 12 is good. Resource Controllers become a *necessity* when harvesting far away from your Mothership - there is no use having 20 Resourcers, if they each spend 10 minutes riding home to drop off what they've collected. In that scenario you would literally "starve to death", as your RUs dried up and your opponent(s) decimated your Scout wings. The 3 tips for successful resourcing are: PROTECT! You must *always* guard your Resourcers; keeping them near your Mothership is *not* enough, they need a dedicated Strike Craft escort to prevent them from getting killed off by other Strike Craft. As the game progresses you can add Capital Ships to their escort, but *some* sort of guarding is vital to the continued existence of your Resourcers. MANAGE! Resource Collectors are notoriously stupid, they tend to wander off far across the map in search of RUs, ignoring the cluster that's just re-spawned next to your Mothership. And if you need RUs fast, then it's pointless to sit and wait for your Resourcers to get full loads; you must tell them to dock manually. ATTACK! By killing enemy Resourcers, you deprive your foe of those precious, precious RUs. Remember that, despite the fog of war, enemy Resourcers *do* show

up on the map. In the early stages of the game it's trivial to open up Sensors Manager, and look for little red dots near resource patches; then you send a wing of Scouts over there. Starve your enemy and he can't build ships. He can't build ships, he's dead. Remember that, and you're onto multi-player greatness already. ------------------3. Useful Tactics ------------------Here are some hints 'n' tips, general tactics, and some tactics that are just plain nasty. Many of them will wok only once against a human player, but of course the CPU never learns from its mistakes... but you really shouldn't be playing the CPU anyway, since you won't learn anything from it. - You can't survive without Scouts against decent human players. Don't even try. - 9-16 Light/Heavy Corvettes, in an Aggressive Wall and aided by a Support Frigate(s), is the *ultimate* anti-Fighter defence. 10 of these Corvette Walls ("CorvWalls"), positioned strategically around a RU op (or guarding individual Resourcers), are almost impossible to penetrate with Fighters alone. Even Corvettes may have trouble; the only sure-fire penetration is a Missile Destroyer or Drone Frigate, and those come only late in the game. - Think a CorvWall is mean? Try cloaking them. Enemies without Proximity Sensors nearby will *not* be happy. - Building more Research Ships is a good idea, but don't go ape. They are bloody expensive at 700 RUs each; that's 3500 RUs if you build 5, which is the cost of a lotta Scouts/Corvettes, and almost the cost of a Heavy Cruiser. Only build extra Researchers if you have extra RUs (yeah, RIGHT), and/or your fleet is doing OK in terms of size and strength. - If the Scout is the basic Strike Craft, then Ion Cannon Frigates are the basic Capital Ships. They are weak and slow, yes, but they can really put the hurt on enemy ships. (Their ion cannons do the most damage of any ship's.) Not building a few of these is a big no-no, unless you're looking to die. - Conversely: Heavy Cruisers really kick ass, but they take forever to build, are slow to move, and cost a shedload of RUs. A Destroyer is built in almost a third of the time, is almost a third of a Cruiser's RU cost, and can move quite a bit faster. And of course, it needs far fewer technologies to construct. - Defenders' shots are very fast; even Evasive Scouts can't dodge them. So consider a wing of Defenders if your opponent is going Scout crazy. - The lowly Attack Bomber is slow and awkward, but it kills Capital Ships, and unwary Corvette formations (Walls and Spheres) too. If you're going the Strike Craft route, 40 of these will come in very handy against Capital Shiphappy foes. - It's always good to have 2 GravWell Generators around your Mothership. Keep a few Salvage Corvettes around to grab any Strike Craft that get stuck in gravity's mudhole. - Keep a Carrier parked somewhere isolated, preferably near a bountiful patch of resources. If your Mothership goes boom, at least you'll still be alive, and

now your opponent will have to guess where you're hiding. - Fill a Carrier with Salvagers and begin building a GravWell Generator. Pause construction of the Generator just before it's complete, then Hyperspace to your opponent's RU op. Resume building the Gravwell, launch and activate it, then launch your Salvagers and take your pick of the Strike Craft you trap. Then, use your newly-gained Strike Craft to kill your hapless enemy's Resourcers - or salvage them too. - An extension to the above trick: Fill a Carrier with Heavy Corvettes and Attack Bombers, then begin building every Frigate type you have at that Carrier. Pause production before the ships are complete, then Hyperspace over to your opponent's RU op, resume construction and launch your Strike Craft. When 5 Frigates pop out of your Carrier at once, the enemy may think you're cheating, but in reality it's a perfectly legal ploy... of course, it's not seen as such by human players who are on the receiving end of this trick. - More Carrier madness: Start moving a Carrier towards the enemy's Mothership or resource operation; on the way, build as many Ion Cannon Frigates as you can. The motion of the Carrier will prevent the Frigates from launching, as soon as you stop the Carrier's movement, they all pop out and begin killing things. Again this is a perfectly legal tactic, but it is based more on exploiting a bug in the game - how would YOU feel if it was done to you? - Any ship that Hyperspaces in or out around an active GravWell, will get stuck in Hyperspace - unable to move, shoot, or even scuttle. If you suspect that a big attack wave is incoming, build 6 GravWells and stick 'em around your Mothership. When enemy Hyperspace signatures appear, activate your Wells and tie up your enemy's fleet, big time. (Note that this applies to *ALL* ships, regardless of whether the active GravWell is allied with the Hyperspacing ships or not.) - Built a huge fleet of Probes, then set their trajectory to run *through* one of your opponent's big, valuable ships (e.g. Carrier). The Probes will smash into the enemy ship, causing a respectable amount of damage - the "Probe Golf" technique. Cheap and nasty, and of course, Probes are so fast when moving that it's nearly impossible to shoot 'em... - Support Frigates that are reparing other ships should *always* be set to Evasive. This prevents them from halting repairs to shoot at any ships attacking them. - The "Battle Ball" (aka BB): Build 21 Attack Bombers. Grab 20 and set them to guard the remaining 1 on Aggressive/Sphere. Now find a target and tell the Bomber that's being guarded, to attack it. Or, just move that center Bomber around, and the others will shoot at whatever enemy ships comes in range. Also works well with Defenders and Corvettes. - If a large fleet of Capital Ships is coming your way, try this: Build 9-16 Minelayer Corvettes and 2 wings of 17 Scouts. Move the Scouts close to the incoming fleet, but keep your Minelayers out of visual range. Set both groups of Scouts to Evasive, then move 1 group out and begin attacking. Then bring in your second Scout wing and at the same time, get your Minelayers to begin attacking the most dangerous enemy ship. If all goes well, the enemy fleet (including escort) will be shooting at (and missing!) most of your Scouts, and will ignore the Minelayers... until it's too late. Kaboom. - When confronted by enemy mine walls, grab 5 Attack Bombers and zoom through the minefield. The mines will follow the Bombers (matching their speed); when

you see a Capital Ship of the enemy (preferably a big 'un), tell the Bombers to attack. They will make their pass at the ship, and pull away to avoid collision - but the mines won't. - When an ion beam hits a dust cloud, the cloud becomes electrically charged and will damage any ship that touches it. This charge is powerful enough to destroy Fighters and damage Resourcers, so a cheap tactic is to Hyperspace an ICF into an enemy's resource patch, ionise the dust, then jump out. If his attention is elsewhere, he'll never notice until his Resourcers start popping one by one. You might even scare your opponent into sending his entire fleet over there, to look for cloaked ships! - If your opponent has a Sensors Array, psych him out by creating Walls of 9 Defenders and moving them around. While Sensors Array can locate enemy ships, it does not allow you to ALT-select them, so if he sees 9 dots moving slowly towards his resource operation (since Defenders are almost as slow as Frigates), he may well assume them to be Frigates and scramble his fleet to assist. By the time he realises he's been tricked, you can Hyperspace a real fleet in and start hitting his Mothership. This trick normally works only once (after that, decent players will use Scouts to check up on incoming ships), but when it does... it's good. - Even better: Use the above trick, but add a group of really nasty ships, cloaked and set to guard the Defenders. While enemy ships kill the Defenders, your fleet is moving to their resource operation or even better, their lightly-defended Mothership. Decloak and say "I love ya". - Frigate-sized and smaller ships can be hidden in dense resource patches; as long as the enemy has no Sensors Array, they'll never notice your CorvWall until it's too late. - Heavy Cruisers and Carriers can put their huge masses to advantage by ramming enemy ships. If one of your heavyweights is being attacked by Fighters or Corvettes, give a move order that takes your ship straight through the enemy swarm; if the other player doesn't realise what you're doing, he/she will be plenty mad when your Cruiser or Carrier ploughs into his Strike Craft. Even Frigates can be killed using this method, but beware as ramming does as much damage to your ship as the rammed ship(s) take. ________________________________________________________________________________ ====================== O. Credits and Links ====================== The people and organisations responsible (in any way) for this guide. Note that they are displayed in no particular order. Me You Relic Entertainment (http://www.relic.com) Relic Forums (http://forums.relicnews.com) RelicNews (http://www.relicnews.com) I wrote it! For bothering to read it. For creating one of the finest games ever. Period. For being a great place to talk about everything related to Homeworld. For keeping the Homeworld community up-to-date

Homeworld Universe (http://www.hwuniverse.com)

and informed about this game and its sequels.

Many of the multi-player strategies were contributed (inadvertently) by the greatest Homeworld strategy gurus, to mention a few: 1_Alpha (aka Alpha_1), Calaban, MajorFreak, Dyntheos, Apollo and Molle. And of course, the great Homeworld clans: Guidestone, Homeworld Universe, Nova Divine, Space Lords Syndicate, and all the others. Thanks to Koki, for many miscellaneous-but-inportant corrections... and for actually taking some time to *read* this guide. Of course there are many more great Homeworld players, too many to mention here, so if you have a question you should really get onto the Relic Forums (the link is above - you need to register, then browse to the Homeworld Strategy forum). As long as you show *some* capability of intelligent thought, you'll be answered nicely; otherwise, you'll get flamed. Simple, huh? ;) If you feel you deserve credit, and didn't get it, please inform me (my email address can be found in the "Contacting the author" section). ________________________________________________________________________________ ============ P. The End ============ I hope that this guide has been useful and informative to you, even if only in a small way. If you have any contributions to make or corrections to add, please send me mail! I am currently looking specifically for more multi-player strategies, but of course, anything *constructive* is welcome. See the "Contacting the author" section on how to contact me. This is only the beginning... expect to see Homeworld: Cataclysm and Homeworld 2 guides soon! Until next time, this is The_Assimilator, signing off.