Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander is an award winning strategy RPG from Massive Damage, which is currently available exclusively for iOS devices. This immersive space-themed game successfully combines base building, tactical combat, alien diplomacy, and masterful storytelling. The story is about the Terran Republic’s last hope to stop an alien invasion. It will be up to you to reclaim the derelict starbase called Halcyon 6. You will need to salvage what you can and rebuild the starbase in order to discover technology that could possible save your race. The game intensifies as the story unfolds. There are numerous story events with multiple choice outcomes. These events could lead to combat, positive and negative bonuses, crew attribute changes, and a whole lot more! You will need the help of our Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander tips, cheats and strategies if you want to succeed in your mission!
1. Pick A Good First Officer
There are different types of officers in Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander, and choosing the right one can help you progress quicker in the game. The correct officer, however, depends on how you play the game. If you like speed, you could pick Science officers since they specialize in area-effect attacks and debuffs. If you like going on full-offense mode, then you will need the help of Tactical officers. These officers specialize in immobilizing enemies and giving their allies boosts in offensive power. Lastly, if you like being tanky, you should pick Engineering officers since they have defense buffs, damage over time attacks, and taunts.
2. Manage Officer Skills
Whenever officers get promoted, they earn skill points. Make sure you remember to assign those skill points regularly. You should also check if there are new skills that can be unlocked in the process. The skills of your officers have major impact on how well you will perform in the game so make sure you are always paying attention to them. How you assign these points depend on how you play the game. Make sure you are developing an officer that will complement your team overall. Regardless of how you assign your officer’s skill points, however, it will always be better than leaving the points untouched.
3. Prioritize Ship Powers
In Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander powers are divided into two categories. The first one is Ship power, which can only be used in combat. The second category is the Ground power which means that can only be used in ground combat. During the early stages of the game, you will most likely only have access to ship-to-ship battles. That means you should choose powers that will give you the most benefit early on. You can always invest in ground power once your resources are no longer as limited.
4. Use The Pause And Play Buttons
If you need some time to consider your next move, you are free to pause the game. You can just pause the game at any time in order to think about how you will accomplish your task. The pause and play buttons are at the top of the screen. Just tap on it if you need some time out, or if you need to figure out what to do next.
5. Understand The Toolbar
There are several different menu options on your screen, and you will need to familiarize yourself with each of them, so you can easily pull up what you need in the future. Exploring these menus will allow you to access important information that you can use once you have progressed in the game. We have listed them below, so you can better understand how these menu options can help you.
Starmap – Returns to the map screen.
Starbase – This menu options allows you to check, manage, clear, and construct rooms on the base. You will need to go here in order to unlock expansions and new options in the game.
Ships – This menu option is where you can check your fleet, upgrade your ships, and assign officers.
Build Ships – As the name suggests, this menu option lets you build new ships once you have the required tech and resources.
Research – This allows you to research new technologies.
Officers – This menu option gives you access to officer stats and allows you to manage their skills.
Ship Equipment – This is where you manage your ship’s equipment once they have been researched.
Main Menu – This is where you access general menu options such as saving your game, loading a saved file, adjusting sound options, or exiting to the title screen.
6. Look For The ‘!’ Icon
The game guides you to where you need to go by marking important tasks with an exclamation point. Follow the tasks as they will help ensure that your in-game progress is on track. Tap on the exclamation point if you would like to learn more about the task you need to accomplish. If you need help finding specific locations, try opening the starmap display. It is the eye icon on the top left of the screen. Tapping on it will show you location names, making it easier to navigate.
7. Gather Resources
If you really want to succeed in this game, you will need to gather a huge amount of the four primary resources. These are Crew, Materials, Dark Matter, and Fuel. The first thing on your list is Fuel as your ships need it in order to move around. The other three resources are needed for research and construction.
When you start out, prioritize gathering Materials and Dark Matter. You will tend to run out of these quickly, and you will need a lot of them throughout the game, so it is a good idea to start collecting them early. Getting more Crew will be easier later on, and they are not really required during the early parts of the game, so you don’t need to worry too much about it right away.
Don’t forget to manually collect your resources. You won’t have the ability to collect them automatically until you are able to deploy drones. Collecting resources means sending out ships so that they can go to specific locations to gather items and bring them back to the starbase.
8. Have Officers On Standby
There are several actions in the game that require the presence of an officer. Make sure you always have at least one officer on standby for situations where you need to accomplish a task that requires one. Remember, if a task that needs to be done is in another planet, you will have to send an officer out there to do it. There will be times when the task requires officers that have a specific rank. Check the rank of your officers by going to the Traits tab of their status screen.
If you want to know which officers are busy, just check out their icons at the bottom of the screen. You can tell when an officer is due to return by looking at the thin line that is circling the planet he is working on. When the line circles the planet, that means your officer is done working, and will be available for new tasks.
9. Bring Your Ships Back Home
You can send out your ships to defend colonies or explore new areas. Make sure you remember to recall those ships once in a while because your base will be vulnerable while they are gone. The last thing you want is to have your ships fight to defend a colony only to end up losing your main base. Just tap on the ship icon on the starmap then tap on the Back button to command your ships to return.
10. Prepare For Battle
Just because the enemy is right in front of you doesn’t mean you can’t spend some time to prepare. You can manage your ship’s loadout before battle. The battle won’t start until you select Engage Enemy, so you can take some time to think about your strategy before you enter the battlefield. This is your opportunity to learn your enemy’s weaknesses and change your ship’s equipment accordingly.
Ensure that you have a balance team before entering battle. You will be needing a mix of heals, support buffs, and offense. Try to fill out these needs evenly, so you can be prepared for any scenario you might encounter during battle. Of course, the specifics of team composition will still ultimately depend on your playstyle, but it is always a good thing to have a general idea of what a team should look like.
Do not neglect your Tech Research outside of battle because it is crucial to upgrading ships and weapons. Spending time and resources on research will help you build better ships and equip them with better weapons. It may seem like you can keep progressing without new technology but you will eventually get overpowered by your opponents. It is better if you just go ahead and prepare before you reach that point where you can no longer move forward.
Rebuild the starbase and save the Terran Republic from the alien invasion in Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander! Just make sure you remember everything you learned from our strategy guide and you will surely succeed! If you have anything to add or just want to share your thoughts about the game, don’t hesitate to drop us a line in the comment area!