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Content based upon Darth's
Ascendancy page which
in turn was based upon
"The Way" by Jason Goldman
and others.
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Winning:
Strategy

B-sting's personal favourite strategy

Ascendancy is not a hard game to beat. Even with the Antagoniser module, most will still find it too easy, but at least entertaining. Still for those who want to improve their game, here's my personal tips.

Species: There's a lot of species with useless special abilities if you're planning on conquering and/or expanding fast. Like the Shevar (drains all power in alien ships in their systems ... once every 90 days) or the Dubtaks (if you're the most advanced species, there will be no research to steal). Instead I prefer species like the Minions (more invasion for less invader modules), the Chronamyst (gets to new/hostile colonies much faster) or the Chamachies (more quickly get all the research you need to make an invincible fleet).

Star system expansion: Do everything you can to develop all the research you need to build medium ships, stock them with colonisers and capture as many systems as you can before you run into other alien colonies. Don't bother with small planets, unless there's an archaeological dig site on them. Go for the hugest, richest planets possible in each system (unless they only have black squares). Build your coloniser on a black square, preferably next to a red and green square. In the future, these huge planets will be your refitting and ship construction planets. You really want those archaeological dig-sites too. Build your coloniser close to them and at most build one factory and then go straight to the Xeno-dig. You might end up with a Nanomanipulator weapon straight from the beginning of the game.

Planet expansion: Keep the peace for as long as you can and improve your colonies as fast as you can. Find a healthy balance between lots of production and lots of research. As soon as you have them build nothing but Industrial Megafacilities, Metroplexes and Research Campusses on your planets. Build one Hyperpower Plant, Internet and Fertilization Plant on each planet. Use Outposts only when needed, upgrade to habitats asap and switch to Metroplexes in the end. You might even demolish a few Outposts and Habitats when you have enough Metroplexes and need the space for other useful stuff. Make sure your outer colonies have at least some orbital shields and weapons in case of an attack. Most species are stupid enough to declare war at their least tactical moment (when they are still far away from you or have their weakest ships next to a fully armed planet of yours). Make sure your strongest planets have shipyards and orbital docks.

Ships: In the beginning of the game I build a few medium ships for colonising, later in the game I usually make them into small patrol ships. I never understood what one would need small ships for. I might build a few large ships, but ideally my whole fleet is only enormous vessels. My usual config of an enormous ships is:

  • 3 weapons
  • 2-3 shields (if they're strong enough, 2 suffice)
  • 1 recaller (if available, usually home planets are furthest developed to refit ships)
  • 4-6 Starlane Hyperdrives (or regular if not yet available)
  • 1 engine (really who cares how fast you can travel within a system?)
  • 5 energy generators
  • 1-2 Lane Magnetrons or Lane Destabilizers (if available)
  • 3-9 Invaders and/or Colonizers


  • I bring along one lane magnetron for every red lane I plan to encounter (one way only, since I have a recaller). Alternately, if you're flying in a pack of ships, fit two ships with each one lane destabilizer. Send in all your ships in a red lane but one, make the remaining one destablize it, then jump into the red lane as well. On the next turn, you can use the pack to destablize the lane again so the last ship is through as well.

    I never understood scanners by the way. If I'm gonna destoy an enemy vessel, I'ld rather bring an extra weapon instead of stuff to know what its armament is.


    VilganRanos's planetary defence strategy
    A reader of the website suggested his favourite defensive strategy:

    Single enormous ship. 1 engine, no stardrive, 2 nanotwirlers for power, heavy wave scatter shields (no energy cost) Load up with smart bombs (4 at least, 6 if Snomedovas are in the game) Smart bombs can go anywhere, damage every ship in the fleet. 3 are generally sufficient to annihilate ANY fleet regardless of size and class. Return to shipyard, reload. Wait for next stupid fleet to engage you.

    Send invaders while they're rebuilding.


    Przemek's strategy
    A reader of the website suggested his favourite strategy:

    First of all as a species choose Orfa. It will be a huge advantage over other species in the game as you can build on every place on the planet which gives you a huge possibilities of expanding the Industry and research capabilities.

    The ultimate ship is: For planetary development:
    What other people have sugested in the past

    Favorite battle techniques