As has been touched on in a few other threads and a few youtube videos (D2EA being one of the more prominent) - Odyssey has caused a lot of anarchy systems to vanish. This is mainly due to the following reasons:
This guide assumes that you're at least familiar with the basics of BGS influence manipulation. For those that aren't, just doing missions for the faction you want to increase at any given time is generally all you need to know. The most important things you need to know when it comes to planning conflicts are these three wonderful little details:
STEP ONE: SCOUTING THE TERRITORY.
I can't stress enough the importance of doing good recon work before just about anything in this game - it might not pay off directly, but you'll regret it in the long run if you don't. Not every system makes a good farming ground, and third-party sites are often out of date - even if people are running EDMC and reporting to EDDB and Inara, they have to actually dock at the settlement in order for the details to be updated, so it's best to hop into your scout ship of choice and take a looksee yourself - hop on your local mission board and take a look at which systems you tend to get missions for, these are probably the ones you want to prioritise, but really any system within 15-20ly of your base is worth a look.
The kinds of systems you're looking for should have the following:
As for which settlements you really want to grab, generally I prefer them in this order:
STEP TWO: LINING UP THE DOMINOES.
In order to get this done quickly and cleanly, you need to decide what order you want to fight your wars in, and which settlements you want to take. Sometimes you'll see a faction sitting at single-digit influence with only one or two settlements, and you'll have to decide whether you want to actually spend time getting them into a war. There are basically two ways you can go about this:
Essentially, you'll want to nudge the non-controlling factions around to get them into fights with each other. Any that control settlements you don't want or can't be bothered taking, you can either just pump everyone else's influence so they drop below 7%, or you can get them locked into a fight with another faction that doesn't own anything worth taking - this will allow you to boost the anarchists past them without getting snarled into a useless conflict. Be aware that factions of a similar ethos will go into elections rather than wars, and these factions will only transfer a single asset at a time. If your system has a feudal and a dictatorship faction that both have things you want, for instance, it'll be easier to just have the anarchists fight both.
If the controlling faction has the settlements you want - which is likely, but not a given - then you might need to boost one of the higher-up factions into a war with them. If the system government is favourable to the local powerplay faction then they'll probably end up showing up and fighting for the status quo. Either give them a heads up or be prepared for some uncertainty.
STEP THREE: HOSTILE TAKEOVER.
Once you've started your wars, it's time to decide who you want to take all that stuff in each conflict, and who you want to actually end up on top, influence-wise. For instance, if you've gathered all the good settlements into the hands of a single faction, with the anarchists below them, you'll want to have the anarchists gain influence, take all the settlements, and then lose the war so they drop below 7% influence again. (This is actually the ideal no-mess-no-fuss scenario)
Barring any other actions in the system, all you need to do at each settlement you want to take over is complete a single surface conflict zone at the settlement in question. If your chosen faction already controls the settlement, you don't even have to do that unless there's a risk that someone might show up and fight for the other side there. Even in systems with decent amounts of traffic, a single zone at every settlement will take over most of them since passing traffic will tend to be focused on one or two zones.
If you want the faction that you're handing all the settlements to to win, then that's pretty straightforward. Just fight for them on the ground at the surface settlements you want.
If you want them to lose then things get a little trickier. Control of a settlement is decided over the entire conflict and not per day, so you have a few options:
Likewise, there are two approaches for how you want to focus your efforts:
One thing you will have to watch out for is war tourists - passing traffic without any particular stake in the war showing up just because there's a war on and they want to get paid or grind mercenary rank or whatever. Generally speaking, they won't be working to any given strategic end, but they'll pop into whatever zones are most convenient. For that reason, it's probably worth putting in a few extra clears at whatever CZs are most attractive to mercenaries just to be sure. Generally speaking, war tourists will tend to gravitate towards the nearest high-intensity zone to the system's frontline solutions contact, with a chance of hitting other zones near to whatever body it's on.
STEP FOUR - CLEANING UP.
So, you've boosted the anarchists up and put a bunch of settlements into their grubby criminal little paws. Now comes the final step - you need to get them back down into the bottom of the influence table without losing any of the sweet sweet loot you've just spent your time getting under their control. Generally speaking, this will happen thanks to passive traffic, but ideally you'll want to pump the influence of anyone above them while not doing any work for anyone below - if they can drop below 7% without triggering a war, that's great.
If a war does happen to kick off, you'll have to do what you did in the last step to make them lose the war without losing any assets - if you just fight against them in space, then barring any other action from passing traffic, they'll drop without losing control of any assets, but it's probably worth putting a few zones in at the assets you want to keep the most, or those that are most at risk of war tourists. You won't have to fight at every settlement - if nobody fights at any given settlement for the entire war, it'll remain in the hands of whoever originally owned it unless it's the asset at stake in the right-hand panel. Just keep in mind which settlements are likely to attract war tourists (ie. high intensity zones in convenient reach of a frontline solutions contact) and put in a few zones to defend them.
EXAMPLES.
In one system I worked in, a feudal faction at 14% controlled a dozen good assets in the system that weren't held by the system controller. A corporate faction was hovering at around 10%, and held four settlements. The rest of the factions only had one or two assets each, which I decided weren't worth grabbing. I got those two factions into a war, and did a single zone for the corporate faction at every settlement involved in the war. I then fought for the feudal faction in space - since I did all the ground CZs for the corporates on a single day, the war ended overall with one day for the corporate faction (the day I fought for them), versus four days for the feudal faction. The corporates lost, dropping to 8% influence but taking control of most of the contested settlements, and I just repeated the process with the anarchists versus the corporates - taking control of all the surface ports, but losing the overall war and dropping to 4%, at which point the local massacre mission traffic and incoming missions dropped them back down to 1% where they were before.
I didn't bother stripping the system controller's assets - 16 settlements was good enough for a quick grab and it would have required a lot more coordination.
Another system - a local PMF has expanded into another system, where the controller is unfavourable to the local power. Since the PMF only just expanded in, they don't control any assets. The anarchists already controlled an extraction settlement, but it's a decent system - a pair of gas giants orbiting each other 2kls from the star, and over two dozen settlements are clustered in orbit around these two giants - a single mission isn't all that good, but stacking a whole bunch to various settlements all within a dozen ls of each other is great. With this in mind, I'm helping to push the PMF up to take control of the system, with the anarchists trailing behind - as soon as the PMF takes over (they'll go to election, so there's no risk of them taking any of the current controller's settlements) I'm poised to sweep in, snatch the assets, then drop back down into the low digits.
While doing missions at both of these sites, I found I was getting takedown missions to one system where the anarchists held a single settlement 120kls out. Another system had a tiny agri settlement 8kls out that took two trips to complete a raid mission since it only had a dozen people, and a third had a decent large agri settlement but most of the rest of the settlements were 200kls out.
In all three of these cases, there wasn't really anything worth taking, and they were generating unfavourable missions that clogged up the board, so I boosted the anarchists up into a war and made them lose control of their settlements. Now, the mission boards mostly generate missions pointed at the good farming systems, which makes for easier stacking.
- When Odyssey launched, ownership of the new settlements was seeded proportionally to the influence levels of the factions in the system.
- As a result, Anarchy controlled systems got most of the anarchy settlements, and most other systems (where the anarchists are at the bottom) got very few.
- Everyone now has a very strong incentive to start raiding the hell out of those anarchy settlements that do exist.
This guide assumes that you're at least familiar with the basics of BGS influence manipulation. For those that aren't, just doing missions for the faction you want to increase at any given time is generally all you need to know. The most important things you need to know when it comes to planning conflicts are these three wonderful little details:
- It's possible to take control of multiple settlements in a single war. Control of each settlement goes to whoever won the most zones at that settlement.
- It's possible to win control of a settlement, possibly all the settlements, while deliberately losing the overall war.
- Anarchists go to war with everyone.
STEP ONE: SCOUTING THE TERRITORY.
I can't stress enough the importance of doing good recon work before just about anything in this game - it might not pay off directly, but you'll regret it in the long run if you don't. Not every system makes a good farming ground, and third-party sites are often out of date - even if people are running EDMC and reporting to EDDB and Inara, they have to actually dock at the settlement in order for the details to be updated, so it's best to hop into your scout ship of choice and take a looksee yourself - hop on your local mission board and take a look at which systems you tend to get missions for, these are probably the ones you want to prioritise, but really any system within 15-20ly of your base is worth a look.
The kinds of systems you're looking for should have the following:
- An anarchy faction that is native to the system: this is essential. Look for one named after the system. If it doesn't have one, the system is no good.
- A decent number of odyssey surface settlements. Ideally, mostly owned by the same faction. The best settlements are large-pad industrial and extraction settlements, as these tend to have the best loot - good for manufacturing instructions and tend to have the most awkward (or high value) assets like tungsten carbide and weapon components.
- A reasonably short cruise from the main star to the settlements. If they're all clustered together (such as all on the moons of the same gas giant) then bonus.
- A frontline solutions contact somewhere in the system, either a large orbital or a surface port - not essential, but it makes things easier later.
- Landable planets (regardless of the presence of a settlement) around a far binary star. You don't want your "target fleeing" messages sending you 100+kls into the black.
- A large amount of player traffic (viewable on station services) - just because unpredictable elements are a pain when doing fine BGS work.
- The only settlements available are rubbish like small agricultural settlements.
- Systems where there are PMFs around that aren't open to diplomacy, or don't want you starting wars in their turf.
As for which settlements you really want to grab, generally I prefer them in this order:
- Large-pad industrial settlements. Both these layouts are great for tech assets, with a decent chance of manufacturing instructions. One even has a locker that spawns weapon/suit schematics in the ops room. Absolutely grab these if you get the chance.
- Large/medium extraction settlements. The warehouses in these tend to have HAB data ports where you can get your opinion polls. Good loot too.
- Large hi-tech or agricultural settlements.
- Small industrial settlements. Decent for a quick raid.
- Military settlements. These have okay loot, but are a real pain if they go hostile thanks to the patrols.
- Any other small settlement, or tourist settlements.
- That horrible small agri settlement with like ten people at it.
STEP TWO: LINING UP THE DOMINOES.
In order to get this done quickly and cleanly, you need to decide what order you want to fight your wars in, and which settlements you want to take. Sometimes you'll see a faction sitting at single-digit influence with only one or two settlements, and you'll have to decide whether you want to actually spend time getting them into a war. There are basically two ways you can go about this:
- Just have the anarchists take everyone's stuff one by one.
- Consolidate all the settlements you want into the hands of a single low-influence faction, and have the anarchists fight them.
Essentially, you'll want to nudge the non-controlling factions around to get them into fights with each other. Any that control settlements you don't want or can't be bothered taking, you can either just pump everyone else's influence so they drop below 7%, or you can get them locked into a fight with another faction that doesn't own anything worth taking - this will allow you to boost the anarchists past them without getting snarled into a useless conflict. Be aware that factions of a similar ethos will go into elections rather than wars, and these factions will only transfer a single asset at a time. If your system has a feudal and a dictatorship faction that both have things you want, for instance, it'll be easier to just have the anarchists fight both.
If the controlling faction has the settlements you want - which is likely, but not a given - then you might need to boost one of the higher-up factions into a war with them. If the system government is favourable to the local powerplay faction then they'll probably end up showing up and fighting for the status quo. Either give them a heads up or be prepared for some uncertainty.
STEP THREE: HOSTILE TAKEOVER.
Once you've started your wars, it's time to decide who you want to take all that stuff in each conflict, and who you want to actually end up on top, influence-wise. For instance, if you've gathered all the good settlements into the hands of a single faction, with the anarchists below them, you'll want to have the anarchists gain influence, take all the settlements, and then lose the war so they drop below 7% influence again. (This is actually the ideal no-mess-no-fuss scenario)
Barring any other actions in the system, all you need to do at each settlement you want to take over is complete a single surface conflict zone at the settlement in question. If your chosen faction already controls the settlement, you don't even have to do that unless there's a risk that someone might show up and fight for the other side there. Even in systems with decent amounts of traffic, a single zone at every settlement will take over most of them since passing traffic will tend to be focused on one or two zones.
If you want the faction that you're handing all the settlements to to win, then that's pretty straightforward. Just fight for them on the ground at the surface settlements you want.
If you want them to lose then things get a little trickier. Control of a settlement is decided over the entire conflict and not per day, so you have a few options:
- Do all of your surface conflicts for your chosen faction on a single day, winning that day for them, then win the remaining days for the other faction.
- Balance your efforts - spread your minimum-effort to take over the settlements you want over a couple of days, but do more work for the faction you want to win overall on each day.
Likewise, there are two approaches for how you want to focus your efforts:
- Pick a single surface settlement you don't want to take over, then focus all your attention for the side you want to win on that settlement and that settlement only, while spreading your efforts for the other faction across everywhere else.
- Fight for the faction you want to win in space CZs, while fighting for the one you want to take the settlements at surface CZs.
One thing you will have to watch out for is war tourists - passing traffic without any particular stake in the war showing up just because there's a war on and they want to get paid or grind mercenary rank or whatever. Generally speaking, they won't be working to any given strategic end, but they'll pop into whatever zones are most convenient. For that reason, it's probably worth putting in a few extra clears at whatever CZs are most attractive to mercenaries just to be sure. Generally speaking, war tourists will tend to gravitate towards the nearest high-intensity zone to the system's frontline solutions contact, with a chance of hitting other zones near to whatever body it's on.
STEP FOUR - CLEANING UP.
So, you've boosted the anarchists up and put a bunch of settlements into their grubby criminal little paws. Now comes the final step - you need to get them back down into the bottom of the influence table without losing any of the sweet sweet loot you've just spent your time getting under their control. Generally speaking, this will happen thanks to passive traffic, but ideally you'll want to pump the influence of anyone above them while not doing any work for anyone below - if they can drop below 7% without triggering a war, that's great.
If a war does happen to kick off, you'll have to do what you did in the last step to make them lose the war without losing any assets - if you just fight against them in space, then barring any other action from passing traffic, they'll drop without losing control of any assets, but it's probably worth putting a few zones in at the assets you want to keep the most, or those that are most at risk of war tourists. You won't have to fight at every settlement - if nobody fights at any given settlement for the entire war, it'll remain in the hands of whoever originally owned it unless it's the asset at stake in the right-hand panel. Just keep in mind which settlements are likely to attract war tourists (ie. high intensity zones in convenient reach of a frontline solutions contact) and put in a few zones to defend them.
EXAMPLES.
In one system I worked in, a feudal faction at 14% controlled a dozen good assets in the system that weren't held by the system controller. A corporate faction was hovering at around 10%, and held four settlements. The rest of the factions only had one or two assets each, which I decided weren't worth grabbing. I got those two factions into a war, and did a single zone for the corporate faction at every settlement involved in the war. I then fought for the feudal faction in space - since I did all the ground CZs for the corporates on a single day, the war ended overall with one day for the corporate faction (the day I fought for them), versus four days for the feudal faction. The corporates lost, dropping to 8% influence but taking control of most of the contested settlements, and I just repeated the process with the anarchists versus the corporates - taking control of all the surface ports, but losing the overall war and dropping to 4%, at which point the local massacre mission traffic and incoming missions dropped them back down to 1% where they were before.
I didn't bother stripping the system controller's assets - 16 settlements was good enough for a quick grab and it would have required a lot more coordination.
Another system - a local PMF has expanded into another system, where the controller is unfavourable to the local power. Since the PMF only just expanded in, they don't control any assets. The anarchists already controlled an extraction settlement, but it's a decent system - a pair of gas giants orbiting each other 2kls from the star, and over two dozen settlements are clustered in orbit around these two giants - a single mission isn't all that good, but stacking a whole bunch to various settlements all within a dozen ls of each other is great. With this in mind, I'm helping to push the PMF up to take control of the system, with the anarchists trailing behind - as soon as the PMF takes over (they'll go to election, so there's no risk of them taking any of the current controller's settlements) I'm poised to sweep in, snatch the assets, then drop back down into the low digits.
While doing missions at both of these sites, I found I was getting takedown missions to one system where the anarchists held a single settlement 120kls out. Another system had a tiny agri settlement 8kls out that took two trips to complete a raid mission since it only had a dozen people, and a third had a decent large agri settlement but most of the rest of the settlements were 200kls out.
In all three of these cases, there wasn't really anything worth taking, and they were generating unfavourable missions that clogged up the board, so I boosted the anarchists up into a war and made them lose control of their settlements. Now, the mission boards mostly generate missions pointed at the good farming systems, which makes for easier stacking.
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