Perhaps the two most important tools in this game, which I hope most would naturally understand, are the ship tabs on the left hand side of the screen, and the right mouse button.

A lot of the time, I see many players confused when looking for modules and weapons, as they are stumbling through the warehouse, unsure of what goes where... The ship context menu, which you access by clicking the equipped ship/s on the left hand side tabs automatically collects any possible ship addons that your ship can use, without you having to sort through the mess. The warehouse is pretty useless in comparison, it mostly works as a show-room for what you can get in the future.

The right click button, surprise suprise, shows you a list of options of what you can do to whichever element you right click. If it is a module - unequip/equip, upgrade or sell, if it is a ship, you can unequip it, remove all equipment from it, sell it etc.. Many players dont seem to know of this at all. I dont know how they managed to log in, to be honest.

The Empire:
Ships created by the Empire have large amounts of Hull, but lesser shield, compared to Jericho and Federation ships.

Its factions are the 'Legion' and the 'Wardens'.

The Empire also has a Long Range frigate class, unique among all the races, in which its special module enables the pilot to use a "Disintegrator" - basically sniping mode.

The Federation:
Their ships focus on a balance of hull and shield (which may be a disadvantage, depending on the circumstances), this tradeoff enables Federation ships to have superior speed.

Their factions are the 'Armada' and the 'Vanguard'.

Jericho:
Their ships focus on high shield strength (at the cost of less hull power).

Their factions are 'Raid' and the 'Techs'.

The Empire also has a Long Range frigate class, unique among all the races, in which its special module enables the pilot to use a "Guided Torpedo" - a torpedo/missile, which the user pilots themselves around obstacles, and after enemies, detonatable at any time, afterwards it leaves a radiation sphere, which damages ships that fly into it.

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SHIP TYPES

Forward: There are 3 ship classes, and each has 3 separate roles.
Fighter:

• Gunship
  
• Command
  
• Tackler

Frigate:

• Long Range
  
• Engineering
  
• Guard

Interceptor:

• Electronic Counter Measures (ECM)
  
• Covert Ops (Cov Ops)
  
• Recon

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Fighter:
The first class of ship you will pilot. They are almost a class of balance between interceptors and frigates, however it isnt a 50/50 blend - they cannot tank nearly as well as a frigate can, but they are be nearly as fast and agile as an interceptor - but not quite. Potentially the "backbone" of a team.

Gunship fighters use an "Overdrive" module as its special ability. This ability temporarily boosts attack speed, energy regen, move speed, and rotation by 50% for 12 seconds. It has a variety of additional modules used to assist with its front line fighting.

• Aiming Overcharge increases critical hit rate
  
• Engine Overdrive increases the ships' speed, allowing fighters to catch up to interceptors / get to beacons with them
  
• Combat Reboot strips negative effects from the ship (eg: from enemy Tacklers or ECM ships) and leaves you invulnerable for the duration of the skill.
  
• Particle Purge destroys your shield to do AOE EMP damage to enemies in the area.

Tacklers use a "Chameleon" module, which enables them to become invisible and break locks for an extended period of time. Tacklers are the "ECM" of the fighters, passing status effects onto enemy ships, making them easier prey.

• Target Painter - lowers the targeted enemys resistance to all damage types. Lets you kill them faster.
  
• Engine Suppressor - slows targetted enemy ship down, letting you kill them more easily.
  
• Sentry Drone - deploys a guard drone to help you rack up assists.
  
• Inhibitor beam - prevents enemy from using afterburners - can really ruin your day if you're being targetted by it.

Command ships use a "Diffusion shield", a shield that protects your ship at the cost of energy (1 energy point per 8 damage). These ships are used to increase the effectiveness of allied ships in the area, by providing buffs.

• Aegis System - boosts shield resistance from all damage types to all ships in the area
  
• Coating Polarizer - boosts hull resistance from all damage types to all ships in the area
  
• Valkyrie System - The fun one, all allied ships in the area gain increased damage (damage dealing, not recieving)
  
• Graviscanner - Boosts speed of ships in the area

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Frigate:
Frigates are likely the reason you are losing so often.
Whilst they are powerhouses and tanks, in all of their roles, they are incredibly slow and unmanouverable. This makes players wary to take them very far beyond the spawn point, however, not wary enough to not use them. This creates many problems where a large portion of your team is composed of frigates who do not contribute to the match for the most part, whether it be beacon capture or demolition.

To cut to the chase:

Long Range Frigates are given either the Disintegrator (Empire specific module) or Guided Torpedo module (Jericho specific) - nothing for Federation LRFs. Disintegrator is a sniper, Guided Torpedo is a manually guided, jet fueled, metal box of doom - (it's also very annoying, and very noob friendly).
Long Range frigates get modules that buff their special module, and make their ship difficult to lock on to.

Engineering Ships - the "team friendly frigates". These frigates dont pack as much of a punch, but are given modules that repair allied ships' hulls, shields and energy reserves. They can also deploy warp gates and defensive barriers, enabling non-recon ships to enter battles much quicker after spawning than otherwise not, and protecting key locations/ships from being bombarded by the enemy. Engineering ships gain "combat drones" that orbit you over time. These drones will shoot at enemies that come near, and if required, upon pressing F, will restore a large portion of your shield.

Guard Ships - incredibly slow, low firepower, but can also be very "team friendly", given their assortment of modules, such as the Missile Shield, which destroys any missile or guided torpedo that comes in its radius, propulsion inhibitors - preventing enemy movement, and the ever popular "pulsar" - an AOE sphere of death, easy assists and "my bacon". Guard ships also get a toggleable shield module, that lets them select which damage type the shield will be heavily resistant to. Upon recieving damage from that weapon type, the ship gains a damage buff.

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Interceptors:
First-in-first-out and ever present annoyances if you are a Frigate. Interceptors boast high speed, agility, critical and capture rates, at the cost of a lower base damage and hull/shield levels.

Recons - Given the Micro Warp Drive as a special module, these ships can warp 10,000 meters in the direction the ship is facing in seconds. After leaving the warp at this distance, your ship will continue to sail forward another 2000 meters at high velocity. Make sure nothing is in your way, or you will become a metal pancake. It can be disabled by tapping left or right during warp preparation, or inside the warp. Recon modules typically are used to locate enemies that may not be visible to team mates, and uncover stealthed enemies. Another module emulates the Tacklers' special module, but only for a bit less than 1/3rd of the time that the Tackler has. Recons are primarily used to approach objectives as soon as possible upon starting the match, before teams become settled down, so as to enable the allied team to gain a foothold, and to distract the enemy.

ECM - These ships have the "Metastable Energy Field Generator" - whilst it may sound like a destructive bomb, it is a cocoon that protects the user for a short period of time, stopping the user from moving for the duration. Upon finishing, it does indeed detonate, but only to temporarily neutralize enemy ships in the area from attacking or chasing you whilst you make your escape/wreck havoc. Modules typically mess with the targetted enemy ships' weapons, movement and energy.

Covert Ops - Almost the gunship of the interceptor family, these ships are given the "Plasma web" module, a module which afflicts the targetted enemy ship with a small damage over time, almost equal to a missile. This damage over time will uncloak enemy tacklers or recons using stealth. Cov Ops modules typically deal damage, or buff damage, but additionally, covert ops ships have the option to use a stealth module, that, whilst it does not make you invisible, breaks lock-ons and hides you from radar (unless a recon module is near-by). The "White Noise" module is also useful in dogfighting situations, when you are attempting to disorientate your opponent.
Covert Ops ships can often be seen hunting down and destroying Long Range Frigates, or flying into a large cluster of enemies with "Plasma Arc" enabled - the latter not being a sensible thing to do, for the most part.

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Battle (PvP)

The main attraction. You will see a "sector map" upon clicking the "launch" button - this is largely irrelevant. In later patches it will become necessary to capture locations for your race/corporation - whichever. However, currently the location you select does not impact you much at all. Before you press "Engage", you may wish to consider which region you wish to play in, represented in the black box to the right of the engage button - your options are the Russian servers, the European servers, the USA servers or the SEA servers. As an Australian, playing on Russian/European servers gives me well over 500 ping on average, making interceptor flight nigh upon impossible.

After selecting engage, you will be match made primarily based on the your rank of ship (you can check this by looking at the ship tree, and lining your ship up with the numbers at the top of the window). You will be deployed in a game mode of random choosing.

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Domination: Both teams start with 100points, at opposite ends of the map. 3 "Beacons" are distributed on the field at predetermined locations, depending on the sector (map). Capturing a beacon will deduct points from the enemy every few seconds, capturing all 3 will deduct points at a fast pace, whilst none are deducted from you. Uncaptured beacons do nothing.

To capture a beacon, you must hover near it (within 700 meters). Often, bumping into it will stop the capturing process for a few seconds for some reason. If an enemy is on or approaches the beacon whilst you are trying to capture it, it will freeze, until either one of you leaves/is destroyed or a teammate assists you (and vica versa if they want to capture/defend it). Essentially, to capture or defend a beacon, you must have n+1(or more) orbiting the beacon, where n = the number of active enemies on the beacon. Interceptor ships have a natural improved capture rate, over other ships, for example, one recon ship competing for a capture with a fighter will "overpower" the fighters' capture rate, inching the capture up very slowly (by about 0.35* a normal capture rate). You must kill the defending drones first, however.

To play this game mode effectively, your team should be fairly diverse, naturally, if everyone is a frigate, you are most likely going to lose. - There are some rare cases where frigates sitting on beacons are able to defend them very competantly, whilst other members in this frigate heavy team capture beacons, enabling the win.

Two tips for better chances at victory:

• Buddy up! Two on a point is far far more effective than one. Not only does the point cap faster, but should an enemy interupt and block one of you from capturing by his mere presence, you or your accomplice will capture the beacon whilst he is occupied.
  
• If you are pilotting a Jericho Bomber, bomb captured beacons clear of drones before friendlies come in for the capture. Sniper frigates can do similar, however if there is more than one sniper frigate targetting that point, spread your angles out, so you can cover both sides of the beacon, in case an enemy is using it for cover.

On a lesser note, if you are flying an Empire frigate, pay a lot of attention to your surroundings, too often I see snipers shooting beacon drones whilst a teammate is being shotdown by an enemy ship, mere meters away. Keep an eye on your own surroundings as well, as there may be an enemy right.
behind.
you.

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Combat Recon:
In this game mode, one player is selected as "Captain". This captain enables his teammates to respawn. In order to win, you must kill the enemy captain and all his teammates before yours die. In the case of both captains still being alive once time is up, the team with the most kills wins.

If you are chosen captain, most people would highly recommend you fly a frigate due to its sheer tankieness. Personally, I believe an interceptor or fighter can survive just as well, if not better than a frigate, it just has to be done right.

The Captain has some bonuses as well. The captain, despite being public enemy #1 is able to see ALL enemies at ALL times, regardless of stealth. This includes on the map. If you are planning on sneaking up on the captain, do not rush headfirst, and dont expect your stealth to save you - use it to break lockons, as well as bypass the non-captain enemies. If you are the captain, use this to your advantage, and tell your team enemy locations, and how many there are - your life, and their victory, depends on it.

The three biggest reasons for loss in this game mode are:

• Captain runs into combat because I dont know.
  
• Defending snipers/torpedo-ers pay no attention to anything within a 3000m radius, resulting in their, and the captains death
  
• Only 1 or 2 people try to attack the enemy captain, and never as a co-ordinated striketeam

Form up, sneak around the outsides, never straight on, get in there - strike hard and fast.

Be mindful that many users have now become acquainted with the "all eyes on target" feature in game. This feature lets you "ping" an enemy or object with a red circle to all allies by mashing your middle mouse button, or assigning it to a key via the key-binds menu. I have mine on C.

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Demolition:
In this game mode the objective is to take the EMP bomb from the centre of the map, and deploy it at an enemy base - picking it up and deploying it only require you to be in close proximity to it. It is a similar kind of game mode to Capture the Flag, only this time you take the flag to an enemy base...
... and then detonate it.

Warning: using invincibility or invisibility related special/active modules or passive modules (such as emergency shield) will cause the EMP bomb to be dropped. Tachyon Coccoon, Micro Warp Drive, Chameleon, Phase Modulator etc.. ,

Again, this gamemode, much like domination, cannot be played with just one set of ships. Optimally, you want a max of 3 or so defending frigates. These defenders should not be trying to just score points - this will inevitably lead to a loss. They need to be aware of the surroundings and map. These defenders should primarily be targetting bomb carriers - everyone should be practically, the select few who arent, in all hope, should be carrying the bomb to an enemy base.

When the enemy does not have the bomb, efforts should be directed to acting as an entourage for the carrier, clearing a path, as well as following their jetstream, so that if they do blow up, the bomb will fall back into friendly hands, and the march(?) continues, instead of resulting in a zigzag powerstruggle all over the map.

If the enemy does have the bomb, there should be a large group of people hunting them down, the second that signal goes out.

If no one knows where the bombs are, the enemy has them and is likely behind an asteroid, flying swiftly towards a point. head to the home base most likely about to be seiged and defend it.

Keep in mind that not only is there TWO bombs in play, but if you can only see one on the map (tab), then an enemy has it, and has been very sneakily out of Line of Sight for a long time - brace yourself.

Side notes:
You may often see some enemy frigates stealing one EMP bomb and defending it near their spawn with long range attacks to keep only 1 ball in play. Often a smart move, if they have good map control.

Occasionally I have seen a frigate steal the bomb, travel 9000 meters, deploy the bomb, and get away scot-free. This just should not happen.

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Damage Types

• Kinetic: "physical" damage - Strong vs Hull, Weak vs Shields
  
• Thermal: "heat" damage - Balanced vs Hull and Shields
  
• EM: "energy/emp" damage - Very weak vs Hull, Very strong vs Shields

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Buying ships and dealing with components
When you start the game, you might be confused as to where or how you get new ships. you may want to start a new character because "your race is weak" and its "ships are bad", however, luckily enough, the various factions within the races dont care who you were born as, just that youll fight for them on the occasions you do. Thus if you find yourself admiring or getting blown up constantly by someone elses ship, you can visit the "contracts" tab in the top left, and you can sign on to another.

To find the ship you want, merely click the ship tab, on the left of the window that pops up, there will be 3 icons, representing the 3 races, clicking on these will bring up the ships related to that race, and you will be able to purchase the ones you have unlocked. Progressing along this ship tree raises your rank with the corresponding race, unlocking additional contracts for you to undertake.

Equipment is much easier, on the left hand side of the screen you have your ship line up. If you quickly want to remove all its components, right click and "remove all modules" - simple. If you just want to change one thing, click your ship, click the equipment you want to change or upgrade, then click buy to buy and install it, upgrade to upgrade the item to a higher power level, or just click another already owned module to replace the module already it in the slot.

Modules have 4 stages of upgrades:

• Mark 1 - White: you have just purchased the module. To upgrade, you need to use credits (in game money) that you have acquired through playing.
  
• Mark 2 - Green: To get the next upgrade, you need tokens acquired from contracts, or to use "galactic standards" - real money.Tokens, for the most part, are fairly simple to get if you actively try to keep 3 queued up, and keep trying to accomplish them each game.
  
• Mark 3 - Blue: To upgrade to Mark 4 (purple) you need either Artifacts (green thing, top right) or a purple module kit, specific to that module, which you can acquire in PvP or PvE from the dots that you examine after winning.
  
• Mark 4 - Purple: It is at full power now. Try for a full set, because why not.

Reminder, you CANNOT SELL SHIPS. You can sell ships, but it is recommended that you dont, as you may wish to revisit them to max their synergy, or just to play with them.

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Contracts & Factions

There are 6 contract paths available to you, 2 for each of the races. by changing these contracts, you are able to recieve a number of aditional benefits (Only one faction is allowed to be "active" at any one time - changing the faction does not cause any progress to be lost in any of the factions).

Faction tokens are used to upgrade ship modules from Mark 2 (green) to Mark 3 (blue).

In order to know ahead of time what you need, as a rule of thumb;

• Empire - Hull stuff and laser upgrades
  
• Federation - Speed stuff and plasma upgrades
  
• Jericho - Shield stuff and railgun upgrades

Keep in mind you can only accept 3 contracts at a time, and that you will unlock more complicated and higher tier contracts as you progress along the specific races' ship tree.

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Implants

The Implant tree, offered in the top left of your game window offers you 15 ranks over the 3 races worth of passive upgrades. As you progress in rank, you will unlock further columns in which you can acquire additional implants.
You can only select 1 skill in each of the vertical columns, which means if I wanted both the Federations' +20% shield strength and Jerichos +20 all resistances on shield, I'd have a tough choice to make between them.
However, only ships of the same rank or higher as the implant will gain these bonuses. eg, your rank 1 starter fighter will not get bonuses from a rank 10 implant OR a rank 3 implant, despite being within the same tier for the latter, however a rank 10 ship will recieve both bonuses. Keep this in mind before submitting tickets.