Star Atlas 101 — The Best Assets for Gaining LP in Starbased v1
As Star Atlas gears up for Starbased, many players are trying to anticipate the best assets and game loops to have going into it. Of course, a player’s goals and means will heavily influence what they focus on.
In this guide, we’ll take a look at the best ships, assets and strategies, specifically towards the goal of gaining LP, given the information that has been shared publicly to date.
If you’re interested specifically in Manufacturing, we’d also suggest you take a look at our other article thinking through the crafting loops in Starbased. It also has a good overview of some of the key Starbased v1 game loops we’ll mention in this article.
This article is for educational purposes only, and is not financial advice. Please do your research before making any financial decisions.
In this article, we’ll look at a few areas:
Recap of LP-Gaining Activities
Claim Stakes (for Passive Players)
Freighters
Mining Ships (vs. Other Ships)
XX-Small Ships
A Side Note on Making ATLAS without LP
Recap of LP-Gaining Activities
As a recap, in Starbased v1, Loyalty Points (LP) will be granted for two activities:
Upgrading Starbases: Providing resources and crew to contribute towards upgrading Starbases.
Maintaining CSS’ and Starbases: Providing Food and Toolkits to keep the lights on for crafting and Starbase upgrade.
You can read the in-depth explanation in our prior guide. Note that exact LP earnings has not yet been shared by the SA team.
Given that these are the two paths to earn LP, our focus in this article will be on things that bring the player to either of these actions.
Claim Stakes
Value Rating in Starbased v1: Low to Medium (Passive Earnings Benefit)
As Starbased v1 launches, Faction Fleet will be deprecated, which means that a current sink for R4 will be removed. While Faction Fleet participation has been declining over time, especially with the emissions cuts, at the time of writing, there is $112M in VWAP deployed in Faction Fleet, which is not insignificant.
There are many variables that will come into play, such as how many of these players are active and how many of these ships will transition to Starbased. Regardless, one potential near-term impact is that the price of R4 fluctuates wildly while price discovery is done.
With all that said, in the medium term, R4 will still be crucial in Starbased, especially for more passive players. CSS’ and Starbases will consume Food and Toolkits, all ships will need to burn Fuel, and Toolkits will still be consumed by non-specialized ships doing Scanning.
Thus, Claim Stakes can be a decent asset given that they passively generate R4, which can be imported directly into a CSS and/or sold on the Marketplace. With Starbased v1, Armstrong mining ships will no longer be allowed to participate in Faction Claims, leaving Claim Stakes as the only passive R4-producing asset.
Keep in mind that in the long run, Faction Claims will be deprecated as Claim Stakes are brought into the gameplay loop as well. However, no concrete timing has been shared on this, and it’s likely to be Q3 or later.
In summary, for Claim Stakes, if you have them already, it can be a good idea to hold on to them for the passive R4 generation. If the price of Claim Stakes spikes with Starbased v1, and R4 prices don’t change much, you may want to think hard about the ROI.
Freighters
Value Rating in Starbased v1: Very High (Medium High when Localized Markets Launch)
With the CSS’ already at max tiers (max upgrades) and the maintenance of the CSS’ being one of the simplest game loops, the majority of the LP earned will be upgrading and maintaining the Starbases in the sectors. Depending on the local resources available to mine, Starbases may have one or two components that can be manufactured locally. However, the vast majority of components needed for upgrades and maintenance will need to be brought in, either from the CSS or another Starbase.
This means that freighters, the most cost-effective way to move materials, will be absolutely critical. This is especially true if localized markets are not launched with Starbased v1. Any player that is thinking of maximizing LP gains will have to move materials between CSS’ and Starbases, potentially in great quantities.
There are a few game loops that won’t require regular freighting. For example, mining a local resource that you can then craft into something the Starbase requires (Food, Electromagnets, etc.) allows you to avoid a lot of shipping, but those are also likely to be crowded game loops.
Once localized markets are activated, the core need for shipping from every type of player will be reduced. It will however open up entirely new game loops, including price arbitrage. This means a player could mine and/or craft at a Starbase and sell those materials on the localized market to gain ATLAS.
However, keep in mind that if a player isn’t upgrading or maintaining a Starbase, they don’t get LP. While many players might convert all their LP to ATLAS anyway, it might be worth holding on to some LP to spend for other aspects of the game in the future.
This means that even with localized markets, players who mine and craft will still need freighters to ship to various destinations so that they can be the ones to gain LP.
Mining Ships (vs. Other Ships)
Value Rating in Starbased v1: High
With Starbased v1, Armstrong mining ships will no longer be able to be used passively. This means that Armstrong ship owners will need to deploy them into Starbased. The major advantage that Armstrong ships have is of course their specialization in mining. Given that the Starbased v1 initial LP game loops are so focused on providing resources, Armstrong ships will shine.
Keep in mind however that all ships will still be able to perform mining. There have not been any announced changes on whether mining rates or capabilities are changing, so for now we’ll go with the current status quo. As with many other assets, there is likely to be price fluctuations on Armstrong ships in the first days and weeks of Starbased v1.
While it’s obvious that Armstrong ships are the best at mining, let’s take a look at a couple of high level things to keep in mind as we go forward. What makes sense today may well change in a few weeks if Armstrong ships see a big jump in price.
Mining Rate per USD
A rather simple calculation to start with is looking at the amount of mining ‘power’ you get per dollar spent. For example (using numbers from the Marketplace at the time of writing):
An Armstrong TIP can be bought from the MP for $369. The TIP has a base mining rate of 6.207 (resources per second of normal hardness and richness). This gives us a rounded rate of 0.0168 of mining per dollar spent.
Looking at another small ship, an X6 can be bought from the MP for $162 and has a base mining rate of 3.062. This gives us a rounded rate of 0.0189 of mining per dollar spent.
Of course, we do need to look at other considerations, such as the fact that the Armstrong ships do not consume Ammunition while mining, which can be a not so insignificant cost; it also has a bigger cargo hold. These reasons contribute to why the TIP currently has a price premium from a mining rate standpoint.
Our point here though is to keep this efficiency measure in mind. For example, if TIPs were to go to $500 or more in price while an X6 stayed the same, some players might consider it more cost-effective to utilize an X6, even if they are paying for Ammunition consumption. Every player is different, so please do your homework and decide what is best for you.
XX-Small Ships
Value Rating in Starbased v1: High
Similar to the current SAGE Labs environment, XX-Small ships will continue to be valuable in Starbased v1, primarily serving as crafting crews and non-specialized scanning fleets.
Until localized markets come online, any player who wants to earn LP must either buy and ship the necessary resources to each Starbase, or craft them. Any player looking to do more than dabble in Manufacturing will need dedicated crafters, and XX-Small ships are currently still the most cost-effective choice.
Additionally, the Starbase upgrade game loop requires crew to perform the upgrade. Those with relatively few crew will take longer to complete, with less LP earnings. Additionally, as a Starbase nears the end of the current tier upgrade cycle, players with very few crew run a higher risk of not completing their portion before the upgrade finishes, and may not receive any LP in that case.
In the medium term, the Crew Airdrop will significantly alter the playing environment as crew become separated from ships. This means that players will be able to buy crew separately, such as solely for crafting purposes. However, no firm dates have been announced yet for the Crew Airdrop, so for the initial part of Starbased v1, XX-Small ships will continue to be in high demand.
A Side Note on Making ATLAS without LP
As briefly mentioned above, players will have the opportunity to make ATLAS without earning LP at all. This is primarily through the player-to-player loops such as selling resources on the Marketplace.
One thing to keep in mind though is that in the future, LP will very likely be able to be spent on other aspects of the game, which means that players who have reserved some LP may gain an advantage vs. those who have spent all their LP and/or never earned any in the first place.
The path ultimately depends on each player’s main goal.
To conclude, in this article we’ve outlined some thoughts on a few of the types of assets that are likely to be the most valuable in Starbased v1. Every player is different, and things will continue to evolve over time, so the most important thing is to find a game loop you enjoy and have fun!
See you next time!
