Dark Orbit Skylab User’s Guide

Dark Orbit Skylab User’s Guide by Mrs. Heavy Hand
 
1. How can I update my ship’s components (lasers/rockets/engines/shields)?Be in the new client. Yes, BP wants you to use the new client. Change is good. Embrace it. If it weren’t for change, we’d all be living in caves, clubbing our dinners to death and wearing their skins for clothes. If you want to cling to the past, however, you can still upgrade your ship components in the new client and then log the old client and play.

In the new client game page (flash player) there is an icon button below the jump button and next to the quick repair button. It looks like a tilted rocket with a plus sign, click it. This displays your entire cargo manifest of your ship. Drag and drop your desired rocks onto the component you wish to update. A drop down menu will appear and you can select the number of rocks you wish to add to that component, just like in the old system. This allows you to update “on the fly” while in the game.

2. Skylab – what do I first?

From the “back page” click the Skylab icon.
Build your collectors! Right now you have enough of the basic materials to build two of your three collectors, so get them started right now! In order to build the third collector, you will need to send some materials from your ship to the Skylab.

BUILDING YOUR FIRST COLLECTOR
Hover over the name of the first collector, a pop up box will appear. Click the “upgrade” tab. You now have the option to click “build” or “instant build.” NOTE NOTE NOTE – Using Uri to “instant” build the part ONLY takes away the time requirement. You STILL need the credits and ore resources in order to build. This is a great slow down feature that will make sure the folks with tons of uri don’t build way faster than the rest of us. Click “build.” Then mouse over the the collector again, and the countdown time will be displayed. Clicking the circular arrow in the top left corner of the Skylab page will “refresh” the Skylab page so you can see the time remaining. Build the second collector as well. Now you are out of materials at Skylab and need to get more in order to get that third collector online.

DISABLE AUTO REFINE
**Premium users – you will need to disable auto refine function in order to collect basic materials from cargo boxes. In the game (flash player, not the back page) click the “settings” icon, un-check the last option “Enable Auto Refine” save, log out and back in again. If you’re doing this for the first time, the box will initially be UN-checked. You need to check it, save, log out, log back in, un-check it, save, log out and back in again. Check your log to make sure you are not automatically refining when you pick up cargo boxes.**

So, now go shoot a few things (not in X-1 because they don’t drop all the resources, go to X-2 or X-3). Pick up the resources until you have at least 50 each of the three basic materials (red/brown rock, blue rock, yellow rock). Now get to a safe place and go back to the Skylab page.

3. How do I move ore/resources from my ship to the Skylab or from Skylab to my ship?

The Skylab is a separate place in space. It’s not your ship, and your ship is not Skylab. What you have in your ship can’t be used by Skylab and vice versa, unless you transport it there.
In Skylab, hover over the “transport module” and a pop up box will appear.
Note the two pictures in the upper right hand portion of the box. One looks like a ship (a Goli) and the other looks like Skylab (or a signpost). Click the arrow in between those two pictures to highlight them. You want THE LAB to be highlighted, because you want to ship FROM your ship TO Skylab. If the ship is highlighted, then you are shipping FROM Skylab TO your ship. The transport module will ALWAYS DEFAULT TO THE SHIP, so you need to make sure the lab is clicked if you want to send materials to Skylab.
Once the lab picture is highlighted, click inside the first three boxes and type 50 in each of the boxes. Click “send.” You are now transporting material from your ship’s cargo hold to Skylab. Mouse over the transport module again and you will see how much time remains. Click the Skylab refresh button to make the timer change.

NOTE- DO NOT SEND MORE MATERIALS THAN YOU NEED TO BUILD THE THIRD COLLECTOR. The more ore you send, the LONGER it takes to get there. 50 of each of the basic ores will only take 15 minutes or so to send, so just gut it out and wait. Go shoot a Mordon.
Once it gets there, use that ore to build your third collector. If you instant build them they will immediately start generating FREE FREE FREE resources and will continue to do so EVEN WHEN YOU ARE LOGGED OFF THE GAME, until they reach the storage maximum capacity. If not just wait the 30 or 40 minutes to get them all built.

UPDATE – Time involved for transport equals 6 mins per 100 rocks for premium users and 12 mins per 100 rocks for non prem. (Thank you Mescalator)

4. The collectors are built – now what?

Now your three collectors and churning away, running around in space, picking up free rocks for you, hooray! This will continue to work even when you are logged off. Now, you have a choice. You can sit and wait for the collectors to get enough material to build the other pieces of your Skylab, or you can help them along by collecting some more ore yourself and shipping it to Skylab via the transport module.
Once you have enough resources, build the basic module, the solar module, the storage module, the xeno module and all your refineries.

5. Skylab interface – what do all those numbers mean?

The number along the top of the Skylab indicate how much of each material you have in storage, and the maximum you can store on Skylab. Again, please remember, Skylab is an independent entity from your ship. The cargo on Skylab is different from what you have in your ship. So for example:
Prometium:

59.035/355.195This means this user currently has 59,035 unit of Prometium (brown/red rock) and can store a total of 355,195 units aboard Skylab.

Now look at your collectors – you will see a blue number and a yellow number. The blue number is the level of that component. The icon next to the blue number will either be three small bars or an up arrow, if it’s an up arrow, that means that component is either building or upgrading. REFINERIES DO NOT REFINE WHILE THEY ARE UPGRADING.
The second number is yellow and indicates the amount of power (solar electricity) the unit needs to run smooth and happy. At the top of the Skylab screen you can see your “Solar Module” and two yellow numbers. That is the power you are using currently and the power your solar module can make. You will need to upgrade your solar module as needed when you want to upgrade your other components.

6. Refineries

You have four refineries on Skylab, the newest one for the purple rock is ONLY available on Skylab. Skylab is the only place you make that sexy purple rock that gives you 60% more damage to your lasers/rockets and 40% more shields to your generators.
When you mouse over your newly built refinery, you will note the gears are a churnin’ away. This means the refinery is operational. If they are not, you are missing a needed component to make it refine.
TURNING REFINERIES ON AND OFF
When you mouse over a refinery, you will see at the bottom left hand corner of the pop up a box an icon that looks just like most computers “on/off” buttons. It will be green if the refinery is built and turned on. You can click it, it will turn red, and your refinery will turn off.
Why would I want to turn off my refineries? Think about it. You need the three basic materials that your collectors are generating for free in order to upgrade the components of Skylab.
Turning off your refiners will also reduce their power consumption to zero.

7. Upgrading my Skylab Components

Mouse over the component you wish to upgrade and when the pop up box appears click the “upgrade” tab. It will tell you how much of the basic ore you need to upgrade it. If you have that much AT SKYLAB, NOT ON YOUR SHIP, you can click either build or instant build and upgrade the component.
Each time you wish to upgrade your collectors, you will need to upgrade your basic module, your solar module, and your storage module.
There are twenty levels of each and every component on Skylab, except for the transport module. The transport module is a fixed system, you cannot upgrade beyond level one.

8. The Xeno Module – What’s That?

The Xeno module does two things. It will store Xenomit that you send from your ship to Skylab. It will also generate a synthetic version of Xenomit so that your gold rock refinery will make gold rocks without your Xenomit. Isn’t that fabulous? Warning – it does so at a HIGH energy (power) cost.

You may decide you want to kick start that gold rock production and send some of that rare gray rock over to the Skylab. DON’T EVER SEND MORE MATERIAL TO SKYLAB THAN IT CAN HOLD. Refer back to the numbers at the top and make sure you have the cargo space at Skylab. Go ahead and send 500 Xenomit over, it’s going to take a while to transport, but you have that quest you were working on away.

9. HOW DO I GET THAT PURPLE ROCK??

Impatient, aren’t you? Make sure your Seprom refinery is built and turned on in Skylab. It will make purple rock at a ratio of ten gold rocks to one purple rock. IT TAKES A LONG TIME. Be patient. No one else can make it go faster either. You’re not falling behind, take a deep breath.
You can ship gold rock directly from your ship to Skylab in order to kick start that purple rock making dream. Did you get that? YOU ONLY NEED ONE REFINERY TO MAKE PURPLE ROCK. You can collect all the gold rocks you want on your ship, transport them to Skylab via the Transport Module and make sure that refinery is built and turned on and ta-da, you’re making PURPLE ROCKS.
Or, if you want to see the entire beautiful process in motion, sit back and wait. Your collectors will run around picking up the three basic rocks for you. Your first two refineries will make the pink and green rocks. Your third refinery will make gold rocks from them and either: the HIGH power cost Xeno synthetic OR the Xenomit you shipped to Skylab. Once you have 10 gold rocks, your purple rock factory will kick into gear and start SLOWLY churning out purple rocks.
BUT WAIT! You’re not done yet. Now that your Skylab has a nice little bunch of purple rocks, you still need to TRANSFER them to your ship, via the transport module, before you can update your shields and lasers/rockets with them via the new upgrade interface (see number 1). Once the purple rocks are on your ship, drag and drop them onto your ship components and you’re ready to rock and roll.


10. What about my ship? Does it still refine?

If you are premium, turn your auto refine feature back on and you can continue to pick up cargo and refine gold rocks on your ship to your heart’s content. Remember, your ship is separate from Skylab. Your ship has it’s own “built-in” refinery on it that will make gold rocks. Only Skylab can make purple rocks.

AT THE MOMENT, the only way for non-premium members to refine is by shipping materials to Skylab and waiting (or spending Uri and instantly shipping them). BUT THIS IS CHANGING, they have announced that the old lab is coming back on Monday and you will be able to refine again, like before, plus you will have Skylab.

11. Advantages of Skylab

1. You no longer need to Xenomit to make gold rocks!
2. Once you build up your storage module, you can store your gold rocks at Skylab, and then when you get popped you won’t lose them!
3. Free resources that build CONSTANTLY even when you’re logged off the game!
4. Purple Rocks, only available at Skylab, and are COMPLETELY FREE to you. Just sit and wait for the thunder to roll in.

If you have questions or would like to make an addition to this User’s Guide, or just want to thank me and/or bump this up in the thread, then please post here. If you want to complain/whine/grumble/grouse or otherwise act like a ninny, there are other threads to do that in.

Happy Hunting!

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