Economic strategies to grow an empire fast

Key takeaways

• Build extra scouts first to quickly uncover the local map.
• Quickly find choke points for secure systems in your empire.
• Upgrade mining and commerce for all assets to boost the economy.

Sins of the Solar Empire 2 It's a strategy game that builds on the success of the original game, but adds a layer of polish, making it more accessible to newcomers to the franchise. The UI has been significantly improved, and the overall balance of the game is much better than the original.

The key to winning the game Sins of the Solar Empire 2Having a stable, profitable economy, and getting the economy up and running as fast as possible. Like most grand strategy games, resources must be gathered to build military units. So it makes sense to use the early stages of the playthrough to establish a healthy economy.

To quickly expose the local map

• Scouts explore the map automatically.
• More scouts means faster exploration.

When starting a new game Sins of the Solar Empire 2All maps are unexplored except for the initial area. Scout ships automatically follow phase lanes in real time and uncover new areas. However, the player only gets 2 free scout ships at the start of this 4X strategy game.

It's a good idea to build a few more scout ships right off the bat. About 5 more scout ships is a good number, as it will ensure all local areas are unlocked as quickly as possible.

6 Find choke points quickly

Look for defensible systems

• Find choke points to defend against.
• Build security or station fleets in these areas.

Once the scout ships have uncovered all the local areas, it's time to define the borders of the new empire. This means finding natural choke points on the map that can be easily defended. For example, a star system with only one entry point on the other side of the player.

These choke points will define the player's starting empire. These are the areas that will be considered the center of the empire and will be the most heavily guarded. They will also be the main backbone of the economy.

5 Settle systems within choke points

Colonize everything

• Colonize all asteroids and planets as fast as possible.
• But only those behind defended choke points.

Once the player has defined the boundaries of their core empire and closed the choke points, it's time to start colonizing. Every planet and asteroid adds value to the economy, and they should all be colonized without exception.

Being able to colonize certain types of planets, such as ice planets and volcanic planets, may require completing specific Citizen 1 research projects. However, these low-level research projects are finished very quickly, in less than a minute. To speed up this process, an additional colony ship can be built, but this is optional.

4 Upgrade mining

For all planets and asteroids

• All planets and asteroids passively produce metal.
• The higher the mining level, the more metal is produced.

Once all the planets and asteroids within the defined choke points have been colonized, it's time to start leveraging them to add value to the economy. Resource management is important in the early game. An initially problematic resource is always metal production.

Keeping this in mind, the player needs to visit every single colonized planet and asteroid and upgrade the mining level of the assets to the maximum possible. This will ensure that the Empire's idle metal production is as high as possible, without the need to build additional refineries and other structures.

3 Upgrade Commerce

For all planets and asteroids

• All planets and asteroids passively generate credits.
• The higher the mining level, the more credits are produced.

Once the player has upgraded mining for all assets, ensuring the maximum level of idle metal production, it is time to do the same for commerce. Each planet and asteroid automatically generates credits for the player. The higher the commercial grade of the property, the more credits are generated.

Planets make the most credits, so it makes sense to upgrade commerce for planets, although it's not very important. In most cases, a player will upgrade the commerce they can afford.

2 Survey in full

For early game Exotics and modules

• Gives access to foreign resources without a refinery.
• Can give modules as bonus.

Once a player has fully upgraded the mining and commerce levels for each planet and asteroid they have colonized within the region of space defined by identifiable choke points, their new economy should be producing a fair amount of idle metals and credits.

The next step is to conduct a thorough survey of each colony property. It has two purposes. First, it is a quick source of early-game exotic resources before the player researches to build them. Second, sometimes special ship modules are unlocked, which can be very powerful.

1 Research Citizen 2

For orbital refineries

• Build some civilian research stations.
• Start unlocking resource-specific research projects.

At this stage, the player has a fully functioning economy based around core empire territories defined by defensible choke points previously uncovered. Now it's time to increase credit and metal production within the Empire.

Building enough Citizen Research Outposts to unlock Citizen 2 Research is the next logical step. This will unlock the ability to research major production projects. Orbital crystal fabricators, for example. Once this is done and the applicable research is completed, the player will have a much healthier economy, ready to tackle the rest of the game.