You may think that choosing factions in this game is really difficult as all three main races seem a lot different from each other but, as a matter of fact, they’re a lot similar with just some differences that bring balance to gameplay and story flavor.
First of all, before Rebellion expansion was released, you could only choose between the base factions of the original game: TEC (Trader Emergency Coalition), The Vasari Empire, and the Advent. But things have changed a lot since the release of Rebellion, which honors that name.
After years of endless battles and reaching a stalemate in which all factions gained consciousness about the loses and costs of war, negotiations were first tried in search of peace in the universe. But political parties in every faction did not agree with the idea of being in peace with those who caused so much damage and death or wanted to follow their own agenda, so rebellion started to resume the good ol’ pew pew.
Every faction was split essentially into peacekeepers and warmongers. But, let’s get something straight even in our own real world: Si vis pacem para bellum (if you want peace, prepare for war,) and no matter how much diplomacy,, isolation or peace the factions wanted bigger and stronger ships were developed and starbases fortified for the incoming conflict now facing brothers against brothers and everything else in the way.
As I wrote above, factions are pretty similar in terms of gameplay and ships functionality so you can easily go with any of them and get the general feel of every fleet. However, you need to play with every race in order to experience those little things that make them different and make you feel comfortable.
Technologies do vary from loyal and rebels, and you must adapt for each game style, but factions keep maintaining their essence and you can easily be an aggressive TEC loyal attacking with your Ankylon in front of the formation.
This rating is just an opinion on my experience playing the game for quite some years and by interacting with fellow players at the official Discord channel. There is no ultimate faction in the game; everyone has the chance to become the winner on a multiplayer session as this game is not only about clicking and sending ships to mayhem but also managing skills, technologies, and opportunities. I’ve started from the least used in multiplayer games to the most common.
#1. Vasari.
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An Orkulus starbase watching over a human colony, probably moving with its fleet. Image from modsrealoaded.com
Who are these guys?
Rulers of vast extensions of the galaxy, using not only violence but effective social engineering, Vasari were able to create an empire of thousands of races and a great fleet known as the Dark Fleet.
But ambition had its costs and, without any reason, colonies from the center of the empire start remaining silent. No matter how many fleets were sent, they would not return or, in the case of the last one, just one ship returned and things were just wrong.
Those remaining members of the battle-hardened crew of the ship returned driven mad by fear and incapable of reporting effectively about the happenings of the battle. The leaders of the colony where the ship returned took the resolve to abandon their planet and flee that unknown foe devouring the core of their vast empire.
Eventually, Vasari reached out Trade Order space and war started, slaughtering the underdeveloped and unprepared humans at first. Things seemed to stalemate as war continued and humans were able to effectively block Vasari's advance thanks to the creation of the Trader Emergency Coalition and the huge war effort done by these.
Things got complicated when Advents started hitting TEC space, but not only for the humans but also for Vasari as these new foes were almost as advanced in technology as them and fueled by a powerful hatred against any non-Advent. Times for being smarter and stronger were coming.
My two cents
Vasari are fantastic. You can take down most enemies out there with a bunch of ships and playing well their abilities. But these guys need more than just sending ships to battle and playing their abilities. You have to know the exact moment to attack.
They have lots of tricks that can make them a nightmare for you or your enemies. Even the fact that a maxed-out starbase comes with a titan to take you out can panic even a seasoned player.
While resource gathering is pretty decent and culture won’t be a huge problem, you have to plan well your research path, as well as fleet composition in order to effectively take advantage of default Vasari characteristics.
Vasari loyalists can ignore the capital planet rule by making the titan the center of their empire. This can be a double-edged sword as losing the capital planet won’t mess things up like with the other factions, unless you guys are not playing with conquering the capital winning condition
On the other hand, rebels are the perfect supporting ally you might want in a multiplayer game: they get bonus damage for allies in gravity wells while fighting, they can also let allies use phase jump stabilizers and their starbases are the ones that can move.
These guys are kinda in the middle of TEC and Advent in their strengths, so this should be the last faction you could pick to play: it requires a lot of time to master their abilities and synergies. Difficult, but not impossible. This is the reason why some SoaSE players don’t recommend playing Vasari as a new player, although they do encourage people to choose them on large multiplayer games.
One huge feature of these guys is the possibility of using their superweapon, the Kostura cannon, for more than dealing damage: once fired, you can teleport your fleet near the cannon to the area of impact as if you were using a phase jump stabilizer. This is a huge advantage.
Faction Strengths
Strong ships both in defense and offense
Good resource extraction
Good abilities
Rebel Vasari starbases can move (yikes)
Mobility thanks to phase jump stabilizers
Faction Weaknesses
Expensive ships
It takes time to build ships
Credit economy takes a little long to skyrocket
Lots of micromanagement
No anti-building ships
Choose This Faction If You Like...
Hitting and run
Technological superiority at the best
Micromanaging a lot
#2. Advent
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The frightening Eradica titan from Advent rebels. A mighty warship capable of decimating buildings and ships at long distances, as well as not ceasing fire even when destroyed. Art by Djoohal at DevianArt.
Who are these guys?
A thriving civilization once living in a great desert planet (that’s why their technologies favor a lot these worlds) in peace, just making unrestricted biological experiments, implants, usage of chemicals, and being some kind of hippies living in strange forms of collectivism that made the Trade Order frightened, reason enough to get them thrown from their homeworld, without forgetting what was happening.
A thousand years later, when the Vasari started blasting the Trade Order and the Trader Emergency Coalition was formed and won battles, the Advent, descendants of the civilization thrown from their desert planet, appeared to cash that paycheck called vengeance.
With far more refined technology, these guys were sweeping the galaxy with both TEC and Vasari: beams, missiles, and Psytech able to change the mind of vessels’ crews to join their crusade of vengeance and spiritual pursuits.
My two cents
Advents are great. Those ships are hard to take down and are nasty as hell with those abilities, especially when they steal or resurrect their and your ships or when the demonic Coronata steals your whole planet without a shot and culture starts spreading from it (and you can’t regain it so fast). I far hate more Advents than Vasari for this.
However, it takes lots of time to master both loyal and rebels. Their economy and production are slow, credit-earning takes some time, their trade outpost can be used as a refinery too, but you must select just one at a time and their technology boosts far more desert planets, but these are not too common in skirmishes.
Also, if you’re a person that’s not used to micromanagement or has a hard time paying attention to a lot of details, this is not for you. It’s not recommended that you leave the skills on auto-cast and let your ships do the hard work for themselves, despite that these ships have more antimatter than TEC, for example.
Some players agree that Advent loyalists are the top-tier competitive faction due to their toughness and ability pool, which some have mastered and use a lot in the multiplayer games you find on the Discord server. Advent rebels are good too, especially with their ability to resurrect fallen ships at their capital to avoid wasting too much time amassing a new fleet if defeated.
Faction Strengths
Strong ships with high amounts of shields and firepower
Culture is their strength and benefits from it
Titans are nightmares (not to be mistaken by their “angelic” form)
Great defensive capabilities
Abilities are really great
Faction Weaknesses
Slow building times
Don’t have a war superweapon but a cultural one
Expensive ships
Economy is hard to keep
Weak hulls
Choose This Faction If You Like…
Vengeance for surging
Planning how and when to use violence
Micromanaging skills to maximize damage
#3. TEC
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An Argonev starbase guarding a TEC planet and supporting the fleet. Loyal can build up to 2 of these in a single gravity well. Image by Peatix
Who are these guys?
TEC (Trader Emergency Council) started as the Trade Order, an organization that gathered human worlds across the universe and that was deeply focused on economy and expansion, so investing in how to make the other soylent green was off the table (United Federation is that you?). The institution was lasting more than a thousand years under progress and welfare, but mistakes were still made.
Like when the Order found a great and thriving colony living in a desert planet orbiting a red star that was technologically more advanced than the rest. Excited about economic possibilities, emissaries were sent to integrate those guys into the Order. Surprisingly, negotiations failed and got rejected by the inhabitants of the colony, causing a little ego problem on the human institution which sent people to catch information for a new “offensive”.
The team sent to gather information returned briefly with “horrific reports” on biotechnologies, unethical scientific research, and more “moral crimes” that the Order found hideous, ordering the occupation and expulsion of the inhabitants.
Things were going smoothly but then the Vasari suddenly appeared blasting everything on their way and peace was turned into scrap. The Order stood no chance until the creation of the Trader Emergency Coalition, a central and authoritarian organism that enforced cooperation between human worlds and refitted its civilian and industrial ships into warships able to deal a punch and gain some time for better war preparations and economic shifts.
My two cents
TEC is a really nice faction in SoaSE, both loyalists and rebels, but you must remember something: it’s the least technologically developed faction of the game. They can pack a punch to any faction and have interesting technologies that can make you have the edge, especially on credits, though, but you need to hurry up a lot.
This is a faction that needs to be played fast and furious, like a raging goblin, in order to avoid reaching late game (it’s not that you can’t be a menace at that time, but it will be a challenge against the other two factions) and assure you victory thanks to early control.
First of all, it’s pretty straightforward for new players as ships have nice durability to withstand the starting punishments from other players or pirates, as well as economic technologies early that can make things easy like trade stations with just two civilian labs. Also, micromanagement is not a great deal here, buildings are built for what they’re meant to.
You have to learn that TEC ships are cheaper and built faster than the ones of the other factions but at one cost: lack of power and some survivability. They may have decent armor and hull strength, but shields are pretty weak and weapons don’t hit as hard as others. This makes it the best faction for rushing enemies even at distant systems (yeah, distance is a factor in SoaSE).
If you wanna go turtling in the game, then TEC loyalists are your best option: they can build 2 starbases on a gravity well and 5 (instead of 4 for rebels) at stars. Also, hangar stations can be upgraded to attack squadrons too by packing anti spacecraft cannons, and the Ankylon Titan is a great tank with numerous defensive and support abilities that will keep it alive and kill your enemies with boredom (if you’re not supporting it with firepower, things will just stalemate).
Rebels don’t fall behind in playability: their aggressive style makes them able to boost their weapons more than the loyal ones at the cost of a little less armor and hull strength. So, if you’re planning on rushing and controlling the game in early stages, this is the best for you. Also, their civil and diplomatic technologies help you to recruit more ships from pirates, as well as making you friend with them.
Another fact about rebels is that their technologies let you profit from striking enemies which means you get more money and ships when doing so: pillage war chest and liberated resistance are those who can make you a plunder master. Also, you might be happy to know that rebels can be friends with Space Jack Sparrows!
Faction Strengths
Ships are cheaper and get produced faster
TEC rebels can ally with pirates
Early access to trade and economic technologies
Starbases have a kaboom button to take everything near them (self-destruct mechanism)
Has the best early game out there.
Faction Weaknesses
Weak shields
Low antimatter reserves
Ships lack firepower compared to their counterparts
Culture is not their thing
Late game may turn into a challenge against non-TEC factions
Choose This Faction If You Like...
Playing Blitzkrieg style
Having lots of money to buy resources or organize pirate raids
I'm a wanderer of worlds and tales, from hyperreality to real war scenarios in a house. Always reporting from the front and backline. Online gaming should be declared THE way for world peace
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