Distant Worlds 2: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide: Tips & Tricks

by Falagar / Articles, Misc. Guides / 10 Mar 2022

Managing Your Empire

Here are some helpful tips for expanding your Space Empire. Also, you can check out our other Distant Worlds 2 guides if you’re having trouble with a specific topic.

Keep your worlds Growing and Developed

Find more luxury resources and mine them, sign more trade deals to bring in luxury resources you may not have within your borders, fully fund your colony growth investment, improve your hyperdrive and passenger compartments to increase your migration rate from your most populated worlds to your growing new colonies. Development starts to hit diminishing returns after 120%, and while you can go higher, realize that you’re doing pretty well once your worlds have hit that level.

Reduce your Corruption

Corruption in Distant Worlds 2 really just means anything in your economy that is outside the control of the State (you). Planetary Administration facilities are important to build on your new worlds to make sure you have a good presence there and can maximize your income. Such facilities can be upgraded with further research. Corruption is even more of a problem in large, densely populated worlds, and improved administration facilities there can result in a significant jump in income.

Expand and Fund your Research

Building research stations to increase your research output and research bonuses is very useful to continue the pace of discovering new technologies, which can have cascading benefits to your Empire. Keep in mind, though, that research can take many paths, and investing in improved Research Labs and Research Facilities can give you an advantage over your competitors. Fully funding your research can also give you a significant edge.

Build Facilities

Facilities which can be built on worlds are often further down the technology tree. Some are unique wonders only available to the first to build them in the galaxy; others can be built by anyone, but only once per Empire. Many of them add to the Development of the colony where they are built, in addition to offering other bonuses. Choosing carefully where to build these facilities can allow to pursue a strategy of improving Development across many worlds or super-charging it on just a few. Economic and Trade Facilities or Commerce, Recreation, and Diplomatic Facilities can all enhance the happiness and productivity of your citizens.

Keep your Defenses Strong

You will need Defense fleets to protect your systems, Attack fleets to pro-actively deal with threats and enemy targets, Raid fleets for smaller threats, and Invasion fleets when you need to take a world. The quality and variety of your Troops will also play a large role. Infantry and Planetary Defense Units are best at defending your worlds while Armor and Special Forces are best at attacking others, but a combined arms mix of all can give you valuable bonuses in ground combat. Planetary Defense Facilities also have the advantage of being able to cover all of a planet’s circumference, while Defensive Bases allow you to also extend your defense network to cover all approach angles to the planet from space.

Choose your Friends and Enemies wisely

Diplomatic Strategy is quite important in making sure that you don’t have to fight against the whole galaxy (unless you really want to). Ideally, you’ll find a few Empires that you can Befriend or even Ally with who, over time, will be open to signing some of the more advanced Treaties with you that can give you all kinds of advantages Empires without allies may not have. If you can get another Empire to agree to a Defensive Pact, you’ll be in a much better position against any aggressors. Similarly, Empires that you decide not to get along with make great targets for your Spies, for your Raiding Fleets, and for the occasional all-out war. Try to gain as much information as you can about your enemies so that if it comes to war, your fleets, colonies, and troops are prepared.

Build Spaceports and Resort Bases

As your worlds grow, you’ll want to make sure each one has a Spaceport to act as a hub for your resource economy. This will, in effect, make your Private economy more efficient by decreasing the distance freighters have to travel from your mining stations and also thus draw more resources to those worlds. Resort Bases are a relatively minor but nice additional source of income to go along with the Trade Bonuses you can earn. Your best Resort Bases will typically be at high Scenery locations that are near your most populated systems (most tourists prefer shorter trips). High scenery inhabited worlds will also generate tourism on their own, without a Resort Base.

A Complete Distant Worlds 2 Economy Guide

Distant Worlds 2: 5 Tips for Beginners

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Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.
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