This is a cross-post of the guide written by Cmdr Rubberboots on the Patreus sub-reddit. Covers basic how-to of Powerplay. Request to moderators to please lock and sticky this thread, for ease of reference of the intended audience.
Note: this is a work in progress. Veterans: please feel free to post additional tips for the areas I've already covered, and I will add them when I do updates. Enjoy!
Greetings, CMDRs, and welcome to the war! Patreus’ enemies are numerous and our allies are occupied with struggles of their own. We are dependent on pilots like you to help spread the Senator’s influence, and to lead his fleets to victory! If you are completely new to Powerplay, you might consider first going to Frontier’s helpful series of youtube videos showing off the various aspects of Powerplay. Having it on screen where you can see the menus is really helpful. The first one can be found here.
Once you’re up to speed on the basics, read below to find some (I hope) helpful advice on how you can best help out.
++FORTIFICATION++
Fortification is our number one priority every cycle. If our fortification efforts fail, everything else will be for nothing. If you only have time to help a little each week, this is where that help will be most valuable. Fortifying is pretty straightforward: just bring a ship with free cargo space to any dock in Eotienses, and pick up Fortification supplies (“Garrison Supplies”) from the Power Contact--but be careful! Preparation supplies are available in the same menu, and you don’t want to grab them by mistake.
If you’re just starting out with Powerplay, you will only be allocated 10 free tonnes of cargo, but as you progress through the ranks, you’ll be given 15, 20, 25, and finally 50 tonnes if you reach Rank 5. Every 30 minutes, another delivery of free cargo will be available, so you can fill your cargo hold, for free, if you have time to wait around--but there is a faster way! After picking up the first allotment, you can fast-track the next one to skip the 30 minute wait. You can do this as many times as you’d like, so long as you can afford it: fast-tracking will always cost you 10,000 credits per tonne.
Obviously, fast-tracking can get pretty expensive, but then again, time is money! Waiting hours to fill up a cargo hold costs you the credits you could have been earning in the meantime. Instead of than relying on free supplies, you can do 3 or 4 trade runs, and use the profits you earn to fast-track supplies. This method maintains your credit balance, while taking much less time to deliver the same amount of supplies.
A few more tips:
- Please focus on the list of priority targets in the stickied Cycle Objectives thread; other systems might be more convenient, but those listed here are the ones we most need to get fortified each week. She will update them as people report that systems are fully fortified.
- If one of the listed systems reads "Outpost Only," and your ship is capable of landing at outposts, please focus on this system.
- Before setting out, check the Cycle Objectives thread (making sure you have it sorted by "Old" rather than "Best" to help find the most recent updates at the bottom), and check if anyone has reported in to say that your destination system has been completed. The Powerplay menus don’t update instantly, so completed systems might still look unfinished.
- When you arrive at your destination, drop off 1 tonne of cargo first: this will cause the system’s fortification value to update for your own client, allowing you to make sure more fortifying is still required.
- Do not fortify past 100%. This serves no purpose at all, and it just wasted effort.
- If you’re the one to bring a system to 100%, please report it in the thread!
As a final note, do not think you need to be in a Python, Type-9, or Anaconda to “make a difference” fortifying. If every Patreus supporter purchased a Type 6, and did a couple of hours of fortifying per week, we would be in a pretty good place, and we wouldn't need the titanic effort a handful of CMDRs have been required to put in, week after week. Please, if you can spare the time, help share the load--literally!
++UNDERMINING++
Undermining our enemies is where Patreus' mighty combat fleet gets to shine. It’s also one of the few areas of Powerplay where we can wing up with our allies to our mutual benefit. Let’s take a look at how.
First, you have to decide which power to undermine. At the moment, we are at war with Archon Delaine, so his Control Systems make the most obvious target--but you might also considering contributing to the Imperial effort to weaken one of our more powerful foes: Zachary Hudson.
Next, you need to find a control system worth undermining (note: you can also undermine enemy expansions, but I will include more on this in the Expansion section). Go to the Power page of the power you’ve chosen to undermine, and view their Control tab. Scroll through the various control systems looking for these things:
- Does the system generate a lot of CC? While in reality, it’s more complicated than this, a good rule is to undermine high value systems first.
- What are its fortification and undermining targets? If it has reasonably high fortification targets and reasonably low undermining targets, you’ll get more for your efforts.
- Has the system already been undermined some? If a system is undermined to 75%, but doesn’t make it to 100%, the effort getting it to 75% is wasted. If you see such a system, consider finishing it off!
- Has the system already been undermined to 100%? If it has, additional undermining will be useless.
- Has the system already been fortified? If so, undermining it will only cost the power around 25 CC, whereas undermining an unfortified system can potentially cost many times more CC. Prioritize unfortified systems.
Once you’ve found a target system, travel there and begin interdicting and destroying enemy ships. You will receive 30 merits per kill. This will appear in your transactions tab: it will not appear directly on your HUD when you score the kill, like bounties and combat bonds do.
- You will be rewarded 30 merits, regardless of the size and power of the ship. This means harmless sidewinders and Type-6s are ideal for undermining as quickly as possible--though the odd Elite Anaconda can make the effort more fun.
- The targets do not need to be ships specific to the power being undermined--so if you were undermining Archon Delaine, and a Hudson or Winters ship appeared, destroying these ships would also contribute to the undermining of the system.
- But they must be enemy ships. Destroying fellow Imperial ships (supporters of Aisling Duval, Arissa Lavigny-Duval, or Zemina Torval) will earn you demerits rather than merits--and a stern talking to from Starcloak, if she word gets back to her!
- Be careful of the System Authority vessels, especially when docking to rearm or refuel. You will become wanted in systems that you Undermine, for killing "innocent" ships.
Once you’ve gotten your fill of merits and mayhem, return to any Patreus Control System to turn in the vouchers you’ve just earned.
Finally, whenever possible, undermine in as large a wing as you can put together. When you wing up with someone and take down a ship together, you both get the 30 merits, and the system is hit for 60 merits of undermining. A wing of four would generate 120 merits per kill--and would be able to take down larger ships much more quickly. Even if an Aisling, ALD, or Torval supporter happens to be undermining the same system as you (or if you are friends with any), you can work together to undermine Hudson or Delaine more quickly. It’s a great way to work together and build trust with our allies. Think of it as high-octane diplomacy!
That’s all there is to undermining. Have fun, and give ‘em hell!
++PREPARATION++
Preparation is the first step to Expansion, so it requires us to have a CC surplus. As such, Preparation is an activity that isn’t always necessary--but when it is, we need every Patreus supporter (Rank 2 or higher) to help with it. Fortunately, this doesn’t have to take away from your other activities.
When we have a CC surplus, information will be given about the Preparation target in the Cycle Objectives thread. Please do not Prepare any system that is not listed here. The choice of Expansion targets is a delicate one that requires the consideration of a lot of variables. We will list the best systems we know (if you think you know a better one, please reply to the thread with the suggestion in the first 24 hours of the cycle: it will be considered!). We need these, best systems to be at the top of the Preparation list when the cycle ends. Here’s how you can help make sure they get there and stay there.
Nominations
Every Patreus supporter of Rank 2 or above will have some Preparation nominations. These can be found here. Within the first day or two of any cycle that has Preparation systems listed in the Overview thread, use these nominations to up-vote the systems listed. This gets them to the top of the list early, which tends to have an avalanche effect, which ensures they stay there. Using your nomination doesn’t earn you any merits, but neither does it cost you anything. Here’s your chance to do your part for free!
Preparation Supplies
What if the best systems don’t stay on top? Here’s where Preparation starts to look like Fortification Lite™. Find the Preparation target on the map, then find the Control System that is closest to it. Go to that Control system and grab Preparation supplies (“Marked Military Arms”) from the Power Contact, then bring them to the Preparation target--dropping them off the same way you would drop off Fortification supplies.
Because you don’t need to haul Preparation supplies all the way from Eotienses, Preparation usually involves much shorter distances than Fortifying. There also generally aren’t that many systems to be prepared. This means that Preparation isn’t nearly as much work as Fortifying is--a couple of dedicated CMDRs can keep the important systems afloat--but it is important everyone check in on the status of our Preparation list once in a while, to ensure some terrible system hasn’t slipped into the lead. The system doesn't have to be in the lead by much--one merit will do--but it's best to make sure the lead is comfortable, so that nothing happens at the last minute, once it's too late to change.
++EXPANSION++
At the end of each cycle, surplus CC will be spent “purchasing” expansion targets, starting at the top of the list, and working down until we can’t afford any more. In these Expansion systems, “Military Strikes” will be found, where you can earn merits fighting for Patreus.
In many ways, this is the simplest activity one can do to support Patreus. All the hard work has paid off. We’ve fortified our way to a surplus, we’ve prepared a solid system, and now it’s time to show them who’s boss! Military Strikes work like Conflict Zones, except that you are paid in merits instead of credits (as with undermining, these merits show up in your transaction tab, rather than directly on your HUD).
A few things of note:
- You will not need to select a faction, like you do in Conflict Zones, since you are already allied with Patreus. Be careful! This means enemy ships will already detect you as a threat when you enter, so be prepared to defend yourself as soon as you enter.
- You will be paid 10 merits per ship killed, regardless of size, strength, or rank. This may seem inferior to Undermining, but as with Conflict Zones, there will be plenty of targets--you won’t have to spent time hunting them down in supercruise, and interdicting them.
- As with Undermining, merits earned in Military Strikes are not split between wingmates--everyone earns their 10--so winging up and hitting Military Strikes is a great way to earn merits, and to achieve our Expansion goals more quickly.
Unlike Fortification and Undermining, there’s a good reason to push an Expansion target beyond the 100% mark. This is because Expansions can be Undermined. Undermining Expansions can occur by interdicting ships in supercruise, just as one Undermines Control Systems, or by jumping into Military Strikes (or, if you’re undermining the enemy’s Expansions, whatever their equivalent is: Hudson has Military Strikes too, but Delaine has “Resistance Pockets”) and joining the side of the System Resistance.
Another thing that distinguishes Expansion from Fortification and Undermining is that Expansion can still be successful when the system has been Undermined to 100%--so long as our Expansion effort has reached at least 101%. This tug-of-war mechanic is why we like to ensure our expansions have a healthy buffer (even Expanding to 500%), to discourage our enemies from even trying to undermine our expansions. The same is true when Undermining an enemy Expansion: don’t be satisfied with 100%, as this is highly unlikely to be enough to oppose their Expansion.
Because Expansion can be dangerous work--remember, enemy CMDRs can show up, if you play in Open--it can be a good practice to return to Patreus Control Systems once in a while to turn in the merits you’ve earned. As with Undermining, Expansion efforts don’t count until you’ve turned in those vouchers.
++BACKGROUND SIMULATION++
I will leave this intentionally vague because, frankly, BGS work is incredibly complex. Suffice to say, the Fortification targets of our Control Systems are determined by the governments that run those systems, as well as the systems they are exploiting. By coordinated effort hauling cargo to the right stations, running missions for the right factions, and other such activities, we can encourage favourable governments to take over these systems, which causes our Fortification efforts to be easier from that point on. It’s hard work, but and it doesn’t help much in the short term, but in the long term, BGS work is the only way Patreus will be able to afford to continue expanding.
If this sort of work sounds interesting to you, Message Carl D Roman on Reddit to volunteer.
++CONCLUSION++
Here I’ve outlined the various ways you can contribute to Senator Patreus’ campaign. Don’t think you need to pick one and dedicate yourself to that one activity. Many CMDRs, myself included, participate in all aspects of the war effort. Whatever you do (especially if it involves Fortification…), thank you for your efforts, CMDRs. See you in space! o7
