Star Control 2 speedrun walkthrough
Version 1.00, November 2nd, 2003
by lmfurb;
[email protected]
This is not a regular walkthrough of Star Control 2. It is a "speedrun"
walkthrough, meaning a guide to winning Star Control 2 as fast as
possible. It is intended for experienced players looking for a new
challenge. However, it can also be used by first-time players as a
concise description of only the actions required to win the game, and no
more.
As far as I know, the following course is the fastest possible way to
win Star Control 2, in terms of virtual game time. It was successfully
tested on The Ur-Quan Masters v0.2. Excepting the Spathi on Pluto, it
involves no meetings with any unnecessary races, not even the Melnorme.
Minerals are harvested only on 3 planets in the Sol system at the very
beginning of the game. After that, RU is earned only by selling gift
ships and destroying enemy craft. The course requires going into
quasispace a total of 11 times and visiting the starbase 4 times
(including the required first and last visits). The total number of
visits to the starbase can even be reduced to 3 if you are particularly
skilled at melee (or willing to save and reload your game dozens of
times to win a hard fight).
Note that in Star Control 2, time passes in regular space, hyperspace
and quasispace, but not during menu manipulation, planet landings,
conversations or fights. Therefore, we can afford to make several
landings to grab all the minerals on Pluto, the Moon and Mercury at the
beginning of the game --- however, we do not harvest any more minerals
after this point. Three points of general advice:
1. To save time, always plan ahead on the direction your ship is turned.
Have it pointing in the right direction when you enter hyperspace, and
also (less importantly) within planetary systems to reach planets and
moons as fast as possible. This is especially important early in the
game, when there is a very small window of time in which you can enter
the quasispace portal without needing to wait.
2. Unless you have to avoid enemy ships in hyperspace, always use
autopilot: it goes in a straighter (and therefore faster) line than you
can manually.
3. Try to avoid getting into any unnecessary encounters, fights or
otherwise. They stop your ship in its tracks and can waste fuel and/or
crew.
For the best time, follow precisely the instructions below, without
dallying around or going to any unnecessary systems or planets. Follow
the given order of actions *exactly*: there are almost no deviations you
can make from it without wasting time. In the following walkthrough,
whenever I use the word "go", I mean travel normally through hyperspace
or regular space without using the portal spawner. Whenever I say
"warp", I mean use the portal spawner to go into quasispace, choose the
portal closest to your destination, and then go there. I assume you
already know which quasispace portals lead where: if in doubt, find a
map of them somewhere on the web.
Speed walkthrough:
1. Go to Pluto, get 5 tzo crystals and convince Spathi ship to join you.
2. Go to Mercury and get all metals. Don't go to any other planets ---
if you waste any time at all you will miss the quasispace portal. It's
better to go to Mercury than to Io for radioactives because Mercury is
closer to Earth.
3. Go to the Moon, get all metals, get abandoned base.
4. Go to the starbase, give radioactives, admit base was abandoned, kill
Ilwrath with Spathi.
5. Equip max engine speed, 2 turning jets (same as before), 1 half-full
crew pod, 1 lander, 4 fuel units with at least 180 fuel. To buy all
this, you'll need to sell everything else including your weapons,
storage bay and both ships. If later you hit a Slylandro probe while
defenseless, run away.
5. Go all the way to Alpha Pavonis VII (55.0 x 800.0), get Ur-quan warp
pod.
6. Go to the quasispace portal (appears April 17th-19th just above the
top star in Circini constellation, 43.8 x 637.2). If you hurried as
much as possible and didn't hit any Slylandro, you should be able to
*just barely* make it into the portal before it closes.
7. Go to Arilou homeworld, get portal spawner, trigger talking pet
event.
8. Warp to moon of Burvixie homeworld (Arcturus I-A, 965.0 x 577.0), get
Burvixie caster.
9. Warp into Ilwrath space. Go to Pkunk homeworld (Gamma Krueger I,
51.0 x 55.0), get 4 Pkunk, get Pkunk ultron part (Clear Spindle).
10. Go to Ilwrath home star system (Alpha Taurii, 022.9 x 366.6), use
Burvixie caster, order them to attack Thraddash.
11. (At this point you should be almost out of fuel.) Warp to Sol, talk
to commander, sell 2 out of 3 Arilou, sell 3 out of 4 Pkunk; buy all but
2 turning jets and as much fuel as possible. (Optional: sell your last
Pkunk and buy 2 Earthlings instead, to avoid any other stop at the
starbase. This course of action will shave a few days off your final
time but means you'll have some very hard fights ahead with only 1
Arilou and 2 Earthlings vs. 5 Mycon, 10 Umgah and 5 Druuge, and later
have to kill the Sa-Matra without a Pkunk.)
12. Warp beside Mycon space, get Mycon eggshell (Beta Copernicus I,
600.8 x 263.1).
13. Go to Mycon homeworld (Epsilon Scorpii I) and ask about shattered
worlds.
14. Go to Syreen homeworld (Betelgeuse I, 415.0 x 375.0), talk about
deep children, show eggshell.
15. Warp to Syreen ship vault (Epsilon Cameleopardalis I-A, 593.7 x 393.7),
get Syreen ships.
16. Go back to Syreen homeworld, have steamy love scene with commander.
17. Go to Orz space (Vulpeculae constellation), ally with Orz.
18. Get Taolo shield (Delta Vulpeculae, 372.1 x 261.9, 3rd moon of gas
giant).
19. Warp to Mycon space, go to homeworld (Epsilon Scorpii I) and mention
Organon.
20. Go get sun device (Beta Brahe I, 639.5 x 231.2) and kill 5 Mycon with your
Arilou.
(Optionally: kill more Mycon with your Arilou for RU.)
21. Warp to Druuge space, go to Druuge homeworld (Zeta Persei I, 946.9 x
280.6), trade eggshell for Druuge ultron part (Rosy Sphere). Just
offer to sell the eggshell and he will automatically offer the ultron
part instead of the usual ship. (Optionally: sell Burvixie caster for
fuel.)
22. Warp to Sol. Buy Earthlings, Orz, turning jets and fuel. (This
step is optional. You should actually have enough fuel to make it
through the rest of the game: skip this step if you think you are able
to kill 10 Umgah and 5 Druuge with what you have.)
23. Warp near Umgah space. Note: it's slightly faster to use the portal
on the bottom-right of Umgah space than the one in Arilou space. Go to
talking pet (Gamma Orionis I, 192.3 x 587.8), kill 10 Umgah.
24. Go get Thraddash ultron part (Aqua Helix, Zeta Draconis I, 277.6 x
867.3). You won't meet any Thraddash, as the Ilwrath should have gone
to war with them by now.
25. Warp to Utwig space, get ultron from a Supox ship (e.g. at Beta
Librae) and fix ultron by using the 3 ultron parts.
26. Go to an Utwig star (e.g. Epsilon Hyades) and give ultron to a ship.
27. Go get Utwig bomb (Zeta Hyades VI, 850.0 x 937.2), kill 5 Druuge.
28. Warp to (former) Ilwrath space, go to Chmmr homeworld (Procyon,
074.0 x 226.8), use sun device.
29. You will be automatically transported to Sol. Buy a large fleet of
Chmmr, Orz, and Utwig with your infinite RU but keep your Pkunk.
30. Warp to Sa-Matra (Delta Crateris, 620.0 x 593.5). Use talking pet. Kill
the
remaining Ur-quan and Kohr-ah with Chmmr/Orz/Utwig. Destroy the
Sa-Matra's shields by spinning around repeatedly with your Pkunk, use a
Chmmr to clean up all the Sa-Matra's bullets and then have it warp
escape, and finally enter the front of the Sa-Matra with your flagship.
Approx. date at end of game: Nov 15th, 2155 (i.e. 9 game months after
the beginning). This will vary somewhat depending on how much you
hurried and how many small slips you made in the course of the game.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bonus: SC2 Lazy Walkthrough
If like me you're sick of shuttling to and from Betelgeuse to complete
the boring quests, there's a fun, easy and extremely cheesy way to win
without needing to do too much legwork.
Remember that 2 out of 3 of the key items (the Utwig Bomb and the Sun
Device) can be obtained through a planet landing, and it's only the
pesky infinite number of enemy ships that prevent you from just going
down and grabbing the thing.
Solution: let the Kohr-Ah fleet of death do your dirty work for you!
All you need to do is get the Talking pet:
- Alpha Pavonis VII (55.0 x 800.0), get Ur-quan warp pod
- Arilou homeworld (appears April 17th-19th just above the top star in
Circini constellation, 43.8 x 637.2), get Portal spawner
- Delta Vulpeculae (372.1 x 261.9), 3rd moon of gas giant, ally with an
Orz and get Taolo shield
- Gamma Orionis I (192.3 x 587.8), get Talking pet
and stop the Slylandro probes (Beta Corvi gas giant).
Then go to some empty region of hyperspace, take out a book, and float
idly there. (You can go around doing things if you feel like it, but
whatever you do, don't send the Thraddash or the Utwig to fight the
Kohr-Ah --- remember, the Kohr-Ah are your friends.)
Around February 2159, the Kohr-Ah sphere of influence will start moving
ominously through space, killing everything in its path. When they
annihilate the Mycon, head to Beta Brahe I (639.5 x 231.2) and yoink the
Sun device. When they get to the Utwig, head to Zeta Hyades VI (850.0 x
937.2) and grab the Utwig Bomb. Then just head to the Chmmr homeworld
(Procyon, 074.0 x 226.8) --- they won't annihilate the Chmmr; however,
they do conveniently annihilate the Ilwrath --- and you're already ready
to fight the Sa-Matra. Thanks, Kohr-Ah!
This technique does have the slight downside that it involves the total
destruction of nearly all the sentient species in the quadrant. But
hey, you never really liked them that much anyway.
