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Galactic Frontline Beginner’s Guide: 10 Campaign Mode Tips, Cheats & Strategies You Should Know

Although it’s only available in a limited number of countries as of the moment, NetEase’s new real-time space strategy game for iOS, Galactic Frontline, is showing a lot of promise. The game tells the story of three outer-space races — the Ensari, the Terrans, and the Zoltarians, who are fighting for survival and battling it out for supremacy. You can take part in real-time space battles, as you and other human players duke it out with your best, and most tactical strategies, or you can sharpen yourself up for the human opposition, win rewards, and improve your ship and individual units by playing single-player campaign mode.

We won’t sugarcoat it — this is not an easy game to learn, and there are so many types of units and so many possible rewards, and so much depth to this game. Those who are playing the game for the first time will need a thorough walkthrough of how things work in this title, how battles are won, and how you can make the most out of the many units you will be controlling. We’ve sought to cover as much ground as possible in this Galactic Frontline strategy guide, which includes ten tips and tricks you should be taking note of if you’re a newbie, or, to use the more formal term the game does, a novice.

Before we begin, here’s one final reminder — keep in mind that these tips all deal with single-player campaign levels, which you should definitely be starting with, if this is your first time to play the game.

1. Know The Basics Of The Game

As we often do, we’re starting out with the basics of how Galactic Frontline is played. How do the battles play out, and what should you do to ensure yourself of victory? We’ll answer the latter question in a bit, but first, here are some things to remember before you start any battle. First off, you’ll need to choose up to four Escort Vessels, which are tactical ships that accompany your ship to battle and perform special actions during the course of a battle. Some Escorts, for instance, may deal out area-of-effect (AOE) attacks, others may freeze time to allow you a free shot at enemy ships, etc. You’ll start out with only two, but ultimately, you’ll have a maximum of four that you can bring with you, once your main ship has been upgraded sufficiently.

After choosing Escort Vessels, you will then choose combat units — you’ll start out with only a handful, but eventually, you’ll be able to choose up to six. These smaller ships will serve as your frontline units against the enemy assault, and more powerful combat units (like the Escort Vessels) will require more energy to create. And that’s also another thing to keep in mind — you’ll only be given so much energy to use, and after you start out with zero energy, it will take a while at first for that energy to load up. That means you need to choose your Escort Vessels and Combat Units wisely before and during a battle, which is where the tactical strategy element of the game comes in, and then some.

2. Collect The Different Rewards

Compared to most other games of its kind, Galactic Frontline offers a ton of different rewards, at least in terms of reward types — these can all be viewed by tapping on the calendar button on the top right of the main menu. Of course, you cannot mention rewards without talking about daily logins. You will earn a reward for each day you log in consecutively, with a big reward coming on the seventh day, before the counter resets for the new week. These include, but are not limited to Supply Vouchers, new combat units, bonus credits (the common currency), free crystals (the premium currency), and a lot more. Even if it’s just for a minute a day, it pays to log in regularly, and if you miss a day, the good thing is that NetEase doesn’t force you to start again from day one…at least as far as we’ve noticed.

If you’re looking for an easy way to earn crystals, you should complete the tasks, which, of course, start out with the Novice Tasks. At first glance, these simply require you to complete a certain range of stages in single-player campaign mode, in exchange for a handful of crystals. But as you toggle across the different tabs in the Novice Tasks tab, you’ll see other ways to earn free resources, such as producing a given number of combat units, using escort vessel skills in battle, and performing a given number of upgrades, for instance. Take note that crystals aren’t the only type of rewards available by completing tasks; you could also earn free credits, or free Supply Vouchers. Training modules are another possible reward — these are like the upgrade materials you need to level up your smaller ships.

Getting social could also help you win some free goodies, as the Federation Tab allows you to click on the Share button to earn weekly First Share Rewards of 200 crystals and 2,000 credits. There are also Rookie Packs and Passes available, though these will cost you real money in order to greatly improve your ship, its Escorts, and your overall performance in the game.

3. You Can Also Earn Rewards Via The Achievements Task

As this is found in a separate menu (the “Achievements” on the bottom part of the main menu), we decided to mention the Achievements section separately, but this is another way in which you can win yourself some valuable resources, all by playing the game naturally, without having to spend a single cent, if you’re patient enough. Likewise, the rewards you can earn via Achievements are split into several categories — Recent, Battle, Training, Activities, Story, Development, and Social. Most of these categories are self-explanatory, though the first five are mainly tied in with your accomplishments in campaign mode, and the latter two deal with your social activities within the scope of the game. Either way, you can win crystals, credits, portal permits for upgrading Escort Vessels or combat units, or completely new units, depending on the achievement you complete. Talking about all these rewards can be dizzying, but it’s good stuff, in any case!

4. Make Sure To Regularly Upgrade Your Ship, Your Escorts, And Combat Units

Now that you know where to earn, and how to earn all that free stuff in Galactic Frontline, you’ve got to put those resources to good use, and upgrade just about everything you’ll be taking to battle. By tapping on the My Fleet tab, you can upgrade your ship, your Escort Vessels, and your combat units, but before you proceed to your first upgrade, you’ll need to take note that upgrades are done in reverse order — units first, then Escorts, then your main ship. That’s because you need Tech Points to upgrade your ship, with these points being earned through your Escort Vessel and combat unit upgrades. So how do you upgrade those latter two types of smaller ships?

Both the Escort Vessels and combat units can be upgraded with training modules and/or portal permits, with the former available by completing tasks, and the latter available by completing achievements. There’s another way in which you can earn training modules and permits, and we’ll be telling you all about it in the very next tip.

Summing things up, you need to upgrade your Escort Vessels and combat units so you can earn Tech Points for your ship upgrades. It might sound confusing at first, but it’s something you’ll get used to soon enough while playing the game.

5. Use Credits And Supply Vouchers To Buy Supply Crates

By clicking on the Shop tab on the bottom of the main menu, you’ll be taken to the in-game Shop, where you can purchase various items with in-game resources or real-life money. Obviously, as this is a beginner’s guide, we shall start out with the stuff you can buy with in-game resources, beginning with the Supply Crates.

Supply Crates, which you can select on the left side of the Shop menu, can be purchased either by using credits or Supply Vouchers. The Rapid Supply Crate costs 3,000 credits (only 1,500, or 50 percent off, for your first purchase), and as this is bought with common currency, it likes contains common unit and Escort Vessel upgrade modules/permits. Don’t expect much from this crate, but don’t hesitate to buy one if you’ve got currency to burn.

As for the Elite Supply Crate, which costs 600 Supply Vouchers each (300 for the first purchase), this contains a “large amount” of unit and Escort Vessel modules, and at least one random permit. The latter is important, because there’s only a chance, but not a certainty of receiving a random permit when you open the Rapid Supply Crate.

6. Save Your Escorts’ Skill For The Latter Part Of A Battle

Without making much reference to more detailed tips and tricks for battles in Galactic Frontline, we can tell you that it’s usually best to only use your Escort Vessels’ special skills once you’re in the latter part of a battle. Use them too soon and you’ll need to deal with a long cool-down time, meaning these skills might not be available when you need them the most. Indeed, it’s best to rely on your combat units first, and only turn to your Escort Vessels in the later goings. There’s no star rating system in this game anyways — the important thing is to defeat the enemy, survive until the end of the specified timer, or do whatever is asked of you in a campaign level.

7. Likewise, The Same Applies To Your Race’s Unique Skill

Each race — Ensari, Terran, and Zoltarian — has their own unique skill that can be activated once in battle. For Ensari, which will be your starting race, that unique skill is Fleet Call, which summons an Ensari fleet to act as your reinforcements in battle. You’ll need to use this skill at relatively short distances, as the units won’t last too long and wouldn’t have as much attack power if you launch the skill far from its target. Using Fleet Call will also result in an Escort Vessel skill launching in the area, before and after the fleet takes off and enters the fray. The skills, of course, are different for the other races, but since we’re talking about beginner’s tips here, we might as well focus on the starting race.

Regardless of the race you’re using in battle, the main thing here is that you should save your race’s unique skill for those times when the going is getting tough. You may have to summon it earlier as you progress in the game and the levels get harder, but as far as the first few levels are concerned, you will likely be fine without it.

8. You Can Train Or Replace Combat Units As Battles Continue

You might not catch on to this capability at first, but Galactic Frontline allows you to do much more than just add combat units while a battle is ongoing. You can choose to upgrade, or train the combat units you currently have at your disposal, in order to make them more powerful. But you can also replace a weaker unit with a stronger one — for example, swapping a Recombinant for a Twilight Gunship, provided you have enough energy. This becomes very helpful in the middle to late stages of a battle, as your energy adds up faster, as the basic units you may have used in the beginning usually won’t have the firepower to keep up with what the enemy is throwing at you.

9. Read Up On Each Escort And Combat Unit

This may sound like a very basic tip that we shouldn’t even be mentioning, but those who aren’t much for reading may want to take heed of this. During those idle moments when you aren’t playing a campaign level or a PvP battle, it’s a good idea to visit the My Fleet tab and read up on the different types of smaller ships you currently have, or those units/Escort Vessels you have yet to unlock. By clicking on an Escort/unit, you’ll be shown a brief description of what each unit can do or cannot do, as well as all their pertinent stats — energy cost, cool down time, attack power, range, the whole nine yards. This should give you a better idea of which units to use at what time, and what each Escort Vessel can provide you with, should you choose to equip it prior to a battle.

10. Pay Attention To The Game’s Overarching Story As Well

Campaign mode may seem boring and mundane to some — after all, why would you want to focus on defeating AI enemies when you can take on actual human opponents in PvP, and challenge yourself with the unpredictability of these “real players” and their strategies? But we wouldn’t be featuring it as the backbone of this beginner’s guide if we didn’t believe there’s some serious value to completing campaign levels in Galactic Frontline. Once again, this is what you need to do to keep yourself sharp for the PvP battles, and to make sure your ships are competitive against the rest of the “real player” field.

What we really did want to discuss in this tip is the importance of paying attention to the dialogue that takes place before and/or after a campaign level. These conversations take you straight to the meat and potatoes of the game’s universe, and could help you understand why a certain unit or character is so significant. Of course, it won’t be as fun as blasting human-controlled enemies in outer space, but learning the lore of the game is a surprisingly good practice that helps you truly understand the nuances of the Galactic Frontline universe.