Dark Orbit Getting Started and Building a Ship Guide

Dark Orbit Getting Started and Building a Ship Guide by Razor

We very often hear that it is near impossible to build a ship and get going in the game. This is absolutely not the case. This guide is intended for new players to get their ship built efficiently. If you follow this guide you can not go wrong. This guide will be ongoing, and updated as new technologies become available or as updates come out. Keep in mind, this is to get you started, I have personally built a ship in a very short time using the methods outlined here. All stuff about the backpage, spacemap etc, can be found in the Dark Orbit Bible.

Getting Started!

If your server starts with a series of quests called Achievements start with them. They are designed to get you started, give you some nice bonuses and teach you all the basics. Upon completing them work on the first level quests. Always pick up every bonus box you see. The rewards are outstanding. By the time you reach the uppers for the first time you can have a full bay of ammo and lots of GG spins to get you bonus ammo to help against the tougher aliens there. Also start your Skylab. This is a long process and the sooner you start it the better. You will need to transfer 50 of one ore to the lab to get started. I recommend you build the terbium and endurium refineries and then send the 50 prometium from your ship to the lab to get the last collector going, since the terbium is in maps other than the x1. (insert LINK) There is a guide in the forum explaining how to build skylab. Keep your collectors about 2 levels ahead of the refineries and you will do well.

Quests Level 1.
• First assignment
• The navigator
• Show us what you’re made of
• Ore wanted now!
• Collecting mission

These quests seem tedious but they don’t take long and they will level you up quite quickly. You should be level 2 pushing for level 3 when your done them all.

Quests Level 2
• Far reaches of the universe
• Laser malfunction…
• Lordakians sighted!
• Show us what you’…
• Terbium wanted now!
• Ore wanted now! (2)
• Collecting missio…
• Test of courage
• Gatherer
• Endurium shortage
• Explore your home…
• Streuner or Devol…
• A mixed bag of rocks

These quests are again fairly easy and can be done quickly. You should be getting the hang of having 3 quests running at all times now. As you can see many of them will overlap and can be done in conjunction with another. Streuner or Devolorium, there is no decision here, your still a baby ship, do Streuner and get the easy reward. Test of courage is extremely easy, just fly into the rad zone enough to get the warning and then fly along the edge. You don’t keep flying deep into the rad zone. By the time you complete these missions you should be around level 4, depending how many aliens you kill. Keep in mind each level is double the EP of the last one.

It is now time to start thinking about a clan. You should have earned enough credits to get into a clan. Ask questions to make sure the clan is the right one for you. It should offer credits to help a member grow and therefor to help itself grow. Clan credits come from taxes, the harder you work and the harder the members work the more credits the clan can offer to its members. It should also be active, meaning that they are seen in the maps a lot. There are thousands of clans, most of which you will never see. Talking in chat is very helpful, it gives players a chance to get to know you, and it will also help you figure out what clans are active. The active ones are often in the chat too.

Level 3 Quests
• The Lordakians are sighted
• Laser malfunction.
• Crossing guard
• Wretched Saimonites!
• Battle of the Mordons
• Lordakians sighted 2
• Show us what you’re made of
• Terbium wanted now
• Ore wanted now! (3)
• Collecting mission
• Hunter or gatherer
• Dead easy

Your venturing out into the maps more now. Its time for a bigger ship. The Leonov is a great starter as it has the Leonov advantage, damage, hp, and shield bonuses. You can’t go wrong in this little monster. It can often be won very cheap in the bidding and not have to be bought with uri. But remember now you have to maintain this ship. You can’t just keep buying a new one. Keep a minimum of 2500 uri on your ship at all times for repairs. If you find you are having bad luck and getting shot down work in x1 map, or even x2 map if there is no threat meter in there. Collect boxes and you will have uri again in no time.

By the time you complete these quests you should be around level 6.

If the clan you found is large they may give you a one time large payout at this point. Bid for your ship, get all the drones(flax) you can, several of the A03 shields, and fill your ship with mp1 lasers. Your goal now is to build the ship not just do quests. All the elite gear is bought with uri or bid on in the trade. To win the best lasers and shields is very expensive. So buying them with uri is your fastest way to get built up. First thing you need is engines. The best engine will bid at a low price, so yes you can bid them as well, but they are only 2k uri. Buy the amount you need for the ship you are going after. So if you want a Vengeance you need 10 and a Goliath needs 15. Every time you have the uri buy an engine. If 2500 is the minimum you should keep, then when you have 4500 you buy an engine. Do this until you have them all. Then do the same for lasers (buy about 5 then start alternating) and shields. Just box collecting you can make 5-10k uri a day depending on how long you play. You will be tempted to place wild bids on stuff for a lucky win. DON’T. Most of the time you will lose, most bids are won or lost in the last 10 seconds of bidding. Also don’t be in a hurry to buy your extra’s. There are some that you clan will guide you into buying early but don’t go overboard. Slot 6 chip, auto rocket, rapid rocket, cargo double, ammo doubler and ammo buyer are all key extra’s you should have, and can all be won very cheaply. Talk to your clan mates.

Level 4 & 5 quests
• Martyr
• Wretched Saimonit…
• Devolarian invasion!
• Battle of the Mor…
• Lordakians sighte…
• Terbium wanted no…
• The specialist
• Gather ore
• Resource shortage
• Wretched Saimonit…
• Sibelons strike b…
• Devolarian invasi…
• Battle of the Mor…
• The competition
• Company expansion
These quests are designed to introduce you to larger aliens. Do all the quests you can on your own first, then ask a clan mate to help with the bigger quests. By this point you should have all the engines you need for you ship. You can keep acquiring engines because you will need 10 for a Vengeance or 15 for a Goliath. You really want to have all the engines when you make the jump to one of these to give you the best chance of survival. You should also be buying Lf3 and B02 alternately as you go. By this level with lots of box hunting you should easily have a few LF3 laser and a couple B02.

Level 6 & 7 quests
• Thievery
• Company Wars I: T…
• Company Wars I: T…
• Company Wars I: T…
• Company Wars I: T…
• Company Wars I: T…
• Company Wars I: T…
• Sibelons strike b…
• Devolarian invasi…
• Sibelons strike b…
Level: 7 • First strike

Notice here there are quests that are getting you hunting enemy players. YOU ARE NOT READY FOR THIS! Ignore these quests until you are FE or at least closer to it. . You will find you die a lot less this way. Do the Devo’s and Sibs with some clan mates and you should actually be closer to Level 9 when your are done these.

Quests Level 8 and 9
• David vs. Goliath
• Get a move on (3)
• Get a move on (2)
• Get a move on (1)
• Company Wars II: …
• Company Wars II: …
• Company Wars II: …
• Company Wars II: …
• Company Wars II: …
• Company Wars II: …
• 200!
• Wanderlust
• Death race

Again ignore all company kill quests and focus on stuff you can do. Wanderlust and Death Race should also wait until you make your first trip to the uppers. Get a move on are easy quests and with an outfit will go extremely fast, and 200 is a long quest but the rewards are fantastic. You could very well be level 11 or even 12 by the time you finish these quests.

I’ve always been an advocate of not moving to uppers until you are level 12, because you don’t respawn in the uppers until you hit level 12. However, at level 10 you can move to the uppers if your in a good active clan that will help you kill stuff, since your not actually able to kill most stuff up there yourself. Also you should be in a Vengeance or Goliath by this time. (usually clan’s help with this)

Level 10 quests
• Can’t catch me!
• Pure debauchery o…
• Dance with death
• Evil nemesis: The…
• Boss of bosses
• Next level
• “Uber” quest
• Pull out all the …
• Protegite research
• Scrounger’s delight
• It pays to move s…
• The Kristallant k…
• Kristallonian safari
• Blind man’s bluff
• Wormhole research
• Child’s play

• Company Wars III:…
• Company Wars III:…
• Company Wars III:…
• Company Wars III:…
• Company Wars III:…
• Company Wars III:…
• Tour de Force•
• All-out war•
• Crystal dust•

The quests are many but you can’t get to the maps to do some of them yet. You can get to 4.5 map which will allow you to do all of these but it is often dangerous with enemy ships. Not wise yet. Before you go for uppers, set your boss of bosses and tour de force quests and do all the lowers stuff you can. Boss of bosses is tricky because the aliens are not in the right order so you have to kill little sibs in x5 then move to lowers to get the large sibs. If your lucky a clanmate might be able to drag some large sibs from 4.5 to the portal so you can jump in and take the kill. You won’t be able to finish these quests until you make level 12. But that isn’t far away. Do Wanderlust and Death race from the last batch of quests. Childs play is fairly easy, just buy a cloak and go steal cargo from enemy ship. It Pays to Move Slowly is another key quest, easy kills and great pay.

By the time you are done all this, you should be level 12-13. From here on its just a matter of building your ship and working with clan mates.

Level 10 gets you to x5, Level 11 gets you to x6, x7, and level 12 gets you to 2.8, your uppers base.

Level 11 and 12 quests
• Crush the Cubikons
• Evil nemesis: The…
• Streuner invasion…
• Streuner invasion…
• Streuner invasion…
• Plague of Sibelon…
• Plague of Sibelon…
• Plague of Sibelon…
• Decrystallization…
• Mothership (3)
• Mothership (2)
• Mothership (1)

Mothership and Decrystallization are great paying quests. Plague quests are timed as are the Streuner invasion quests. All of these should be done in outfits. Most clan mates live in uppers most of the time because you can make the best money up there. So finding help should not be an issue. As long as you work and stay active their kills will count towards your quests and you will make the most of the outfit and their help. You will be amazed at how fast a couple FE clan mates will take you through these quests. You should be level 13 now, maybe even 14. You should also be about half way to being FE. You should have your first 3 iris for sure all bought with uri, and several lf3 and b02’s. You should have all your basic extra’s that were mentioned earlier. Do not worry about smart bombs and stuff yet, you still are not ready for hunting so you don’t need them.

Level 13 quests.
• Streuner invasion…
• Streuner invasion…
• Steal VRU resourc…
• Steal EIC resourc…
• Steal VRU resourc…
• Steal EIC resourc…
• Steal VRU resourc…
• Steal EIC resourc…
• Preventative meas…
• Provoking the VRU…
• Provoking the EIC…
• Provoking the VRU…
• Provoking the EIC…
• Provoking the VRU…
• Provoking the EIC…
• Decrystallization…

Again there are yet more company kill quests pushed upon you. Don’t worry, they are not going anywhere. A trip to the lowers however is evident. The steal resource quests are easy and worth doing. They take a couple hours but thats all and you can return to the uppers after, or you can wait until level 14 and do the two that come with it as well. You have 2 more Streuner quests and another Decrystallization as welll. You should knock these off pretty fast.

Level 14 Quests.
• Permanent provoca…
• Steal EIC resourc…
• Steal VRU resourc…
• Plague of Sibelon…
• Preventative meas…
• Preventative meas…
• Provoking the VRU…
• Provoking the EIC…
• Decrystallization…
• Decrystallization…

This list isn’t very large and it will not take you long to do the ones you can do. Permanent provocation can be done if you can get on the game when few people are around, all you have to do is go to enemy x5 map and hide uncloaked for a while. It can be challenging but your not ready to hunt yet so hiding is good. There are some more resource theft as well. These two Decrystallization quests are great. Get into an outfit and knock them off. You will still only be level 14 when you complete these. Its a bit of a reach to level 15 so you will have to keep killing stuff to make the next level.

Level 15 Quests
• Foreign occupation 4
• Foreign occupation 3
• Foreign occupation 2
• Foreign occupation 1
• Preventative meas…
• Preventative meas…
• Preventative meas…
• Provoking the EIC…
• Provoking the VRU…
• Decrystallization…
• Downfall of the K…

Level 15 is where the real fun begins. You should be able to hold your own against all the regular aliens now, with the exception of the cubicon. You should always work in an outfit when you can, but are now able to work on your own. You should also be getting close to FE if not all the way there by the time you finish these quests. Time to start on your company kill quests, you know the ones you have been ignoring all this time. Go to lowers and start on them. Do all the easy ones first, x3 maps are great places to catch noobs off guard. You also need to make sure you have a good shield/Run config so you can get away from the FE enemies that might be guarding the lowers.

Level 16 Quests
• Violence breeds v…
• Idle your time away
• Foreign territory
• Top secret
• Steal EIC resourc…
• Steal VRU resourc…
• Plague of Sibelon…
• Mothership (4)
• Decrystallization…
• On the other side

The goal at this stage of the game is to help new players build their ships, and build your pilot bio. You will have a few points at this time from GG spins, but now is the time to dedicate some of your hard earned uri to the bio. Take half of your daily take and put it into your bio and you will build it fairly fast. Keep working company kill quests. These are key to building honor, and building your rank.

Level 17 Quests
Hunt the Hunter 1 & 2.
By now your Bio should be in decent shape, around 10-15 points, maybe more depending how much uri you can get. Keep hunting, keep helping. The key to a strong is active helpful members. Anything less and the clan will falter.