01. Should I be human or alien?
02. What ship should I use?
03. What weapon should I use?
04. Can I pause the game?
05. Can I mute the game?
06. Why won't my weapons lock on?
07. Will the game save my progress? When?
08. What is the box that the ship I killed left behind?
09. I have X kills. How many until my next upgrade?
10. Ow! I just got killed by a little white bar shooting white tendrils of death! What was that?
11. I just got hit with something that caused "system power failure." What is that?
12. What is the circular shield that some enemy ships have?
13. What are the differences between the various mining lasers?
14. What is the effect of killing a friendly?
15. Do I keep my weapons/utilities/engine when I buy a new ship?
16. How much is engine X for ship Y going to cost me?
17. What happens if I lose my last life?
18. What are Top Secret missions?
19. What is the Threat Rating at the bottom left corner of the screen?
20. I just got killed by a huge black and white swirl! What happened?
21. There's a planet with a name in the middle of the sector. What is it? What does it do?
22. Multi-player isn't working any more! How do I fix it?
23. What is the difference between a Multiplayer sector and a Co-op sector?
24. Why are Multiplayer and Co-op sectors so laggy?
25. What is a gang? What are they good for?
26. Can I kill an enemy station or sub-station?

Should I be human or alien?

If you've never played Starfighter before, be a human.

That said, things aren't quite that simple. Really, aliens and humans are about the same. There's only two major differences between humans and aliens:
1. Alien weapons are better.
2. Human ships are smaller.

I recommend beginners start as human because the human ships are smaller, and much harder for AI opponents to hit. That means you'll take less damage, and you can concentrate more on offense and learning the game, and less on just keeping yourself alive. Once you've played for a while, try the alien ships. They're huge, so you're gonna get hit a lot. But the alien weapons are pretty sweet.

In particular, if you intend to play Starfighter for a long time, make a human account and run it to 100 to 200 kills to get the hang of the game, then create an alien account and use that as your main one. Particularly later in the game, alien weapons and tactics become very difficult for human players to counter, particularly in Multiplayer sectors.

What ship should I use?

I have written separate tutorials for this, both for Human Ships and for Alien Ships. My tutorials are written with the newer Starfighter player in mind, and concentrate on the tactical advantages and disadvantage of each ship class, rather than statistics.

You can learn all about the various ship statistics at Pheermee's Ship Guide. Click the two links at the top of that page to get stats for every ship in the game.

What weapon should I use?

I have written separate tutorials for this, both for Human Weapons and for Alien Weapons. My tutorials are written with the newer Starfighter player in mind, and concentrate on the tactical advantages and disadvantage of each weapon, rather than statistics, though I certainly include statistics when I can figure them out!

I've also written the following additional guides:
01. Guide to Human Utilities
02. Guide to Alien Utilities
03. Guide to Human Mines
04. Guide to Alien Mines
05. Guide to Human Proximity Weapons
06. Guide to Alien Proximity Weapons

Can I pause the game?

Unfortunately, no. Starfighter is a multi-player game, and as such it will not let you pause, even when you're in a single player sector. The only ways to pause the game are to dock at a space station, or get killed. If you get killed, you will be asked to press the space bar to respawn. However, this is not a true pause -- the sector will still be active until you hit the space bar! Ships may leave or enter, or destroy each other.

Can I mute the game?

Partly. If you go to Main Menu, then Options, you can mute the music for the game. But you cannot mute the game's sound effects. While you're in Options, you can also set the game's quality effects. If you're having trouble with lag, you can sometimes make it better by choosing a lower quality setting.

Why won't my weapons lock on?

First, make sure that you're in range. Each weapon has a range, which you will see in the lower right corner of the game screen when you've selected a weapon. Wait for the target of your choice to enter that range. Usually, that's all it takes. If the weapon doesn't lock, try wiggling your wings back and forth a bit. If it still doesn't lock, then the target probably has some form of stealth utility. That will prevent weapon locks and only an unguided weapon will hit that target.

For some reason, the mining lasers sometimes have a major problem locking onto asteroids right in front of you. Again, just wiggle your wings back and forth to get it to lock up.

Finally, if you don't like the target you have locked up, you can hit the "B" key to break the current lock. The weapon will then try again to lock onto a target, which may be the same target you had locked before...

Will the game save my progress? When?

The game officially saves your progress every time you:
1. Leave the shop.
2. Leave a space station.
3. Hit the "Main Menu" button in the upper left hand corner.

The safest way to make sure everything gets saved is option 3. There are sometimes some quirks with options 1 and 2.

One thing gets saved instantly and continuously: your kills. If you close your browser without returning to base, any Mining or Bounty money you have will be lost, as will how many times you've died but your current kills will be saved. However, weirdly, your lives will not. If you lose your last life, you can sometimes save your account by immediately closing your browser and logging back in.

If you close your browser while out in space somewhere, when you come back to the game, you will restart with the amount of money and the number of lives you had the last time you saved, at the space station where you most recently saved.

What is the box that the ship I killed left behind?

These are kill bonuses. There are six types:
1. A red cross is a bonus that will heal your shields up to full power.
2. A blue lightning bolt is a bonus that will return your energy to 100%.
3. A box that has both a red cross and a blue lightning bolt is a bonus that will return your shields and your energy to full power.
4. A box that has a green letter "A" will reload one of your weapons or utilities, chosen at random.
5. A box that has a brown double letter "A" will reload all of your weapons and utilities.
6. A box that has a black euro symbol will give you a Bounty bonus -- additional money for that kill.

Bonuses will remain on screen for a short time -- about fifteen seconds. Then they will disappear. The first ship to fly over the bonus that needs it will pick it up. If you can't pick up the bonus, that means you don't need it. For instance, if you're already at maximum energy, you won't pick up a blue lightning bolt bonus.

I have X kills. How many until my next upgrade?

You get a new rank and a ship upgrade at 26, 51, 101, 201, 401, 801, 1601, 3201, and 12801 kills. At 6401 kills, you get a new rank and an upgraded map that shows the location of planets, wormholes, white holes, and black holes. At many of the ranks, new possibilities open up as well. For instance, at 201 kills, you gain access to Top Secret Missions.

I have written separate tutorials for the ships you receive at each rank, both for Human Ships and for Alien Ships. My tutorials are written with the newer Starfighter player in mind, and concentrate on the tactical advantages and disadvantage of each ship class, rather than statistics. That said, the statistics for each ship are included. Just click on the small image of the ship in the article for each ship.

You can also learn all about the various ship statistics at Pheermee's Ship Guide. Click the two links at the top of that page to get stats for every ship in the game.

Ow! I just got killed by a little white bar shooting white tendrils of death! What was that?

That was most likely a Thunder Bolt Torpedo. They attack a single target and do about 125 points of damage. They are one of the strongest weapons in the game, and at later levels, half the drones have them. You'll need something to supplement your shield power. If you hold down the "C" key, you'll transfer energy to shields. You can also buy a Rapid Shield Recharger utility. Both of those will repair shields at the same rate the Thunder Bolt Torpedo takes it away.

There are several other Thunder Bolt weapons, including Thunder Bolt Mines, a Thunder Bolt proximity weapon, and a Large Weapon called the Thunder Bomb. All of these weapons do comparable damage, but it's possible to run from them. You usually can't run from a Thunder Bolt Torpedo until it's done. When it's done, it will fly away. Nobody knows where they go...

I've written some tips and tricks on how to avoid the worst of Thunder Bolt weapon damage.

I just got hit with something that caused "system power failure." What is that?

That was an EMP weapon. Most of them will disable your ship for between 5 and 10 seconds, though the large EMP bomb can disable you for up to 19 seconds! Once you've been EMP'ed, you can take only one more action, but that action can be whatever you like: you can fire a weapon or use a utility (such as the Rapid Shield Recharger). While the EMP is going on, you will drift in the direction of your last movement until it's over... then you come to a complete dead stop! This dead stop is the most dangerous part of an EMP; get moving again right away.

There are several EMP weapons, notably the EMP torpedo. At the mid-levels, about half the drones will be carrying EMP torpedoes. There is also an EMP proximity weapon and a large EMP bomb.

I've written some tips and tricks on how to avoid the worst of EMP effects.

What is the circular shield that some enemy ships have?

There are several utilities that cause this. The most common is the Shield Bubble, which is available to both humans and aliens. This bubble stops almost all guided missiles, but doesn't stop guided beam weapons or unguided weapons. There is also a shield called the Damage Bubble. If you enter this bubble, whether you're an enemy or a friendly of the ship that has it, you'll rapidly lose shield power and die. Stay clear to be safe. Many alien Freighters and human Tritons have both of these bubbles, and often, the Damage Bubble is combined with the Tractor Beam. This combination will rapidly kill you by pulling you into the Damage Bubble and preventing your escape.

The Shield Bubble is characterized by two orbiting green discs around the shielded ship. The Damage Bubble is characterized by two orbiting gold discs around the shielded ship. Damage Bubbles stack; if a ship has four gold discs orbiting it, it is under the effect of a pair of Damage Bubbles and ship damage will happen twice as fast.

A third type of circular "shield" is the Rapid Shield Recharger. This is a glowing white circle that surrounds a ship. This is a utility (and a very useful one for players), but has an important side effect: anything inside the white glowing circle of the RSR will benefit from the shield increase, even enemy ships! This is useful to know for two reasons. First, if you're in close combat with an enemy and you use an RSR, if the enemy you're attacking is inside the circle, their shields will increase too! Second, if you notice an enemy ship use the RSR, if you can get within their circle, you will benefit from their RSR.

What are the differences between the various mining lasers?

There are multiple types of mining lasers. Click "Sell" next to yours, then click "Buy" and you'll see that there are six types, three types of basic mining lasers, and three types of "LR" mining lasers. Basic mining lasers will lock onto an asteroid at a distance of 500. LR, or long range mining lasers, will lock on at a distance of 1500.

The basic type 1 mining laser is very inefficient: it uses a lot of energy, and doesn't return very much Mining money in return. The type 2 and 3 mining lasers are much more efficient, using less and less energy, and returning more and more Mining money faster. The type 3 is much more efficient than the type 2, in both respects.

Once you're out of the beginner stage, mining is pretty much a waste of time and energy, unless you're really bored. Money quickly becomes a non-factor in the game. In addition, adding an expensive mining laser adds greatly to the cost of buying new lives. As a result, many players avoid upgrading their mining lasers. Still, if you're reliant on mining for income, an upgraded mining laser will return its high investment cost pretty quickly.

What is the effect of killing a friendly?

You will lose a set amount of Bounty money from your current Bounty (possibly reducing it to 0), usually about four times the amount of killing an enemy of the same type. Your kill count is also reduced by one for every friendly you kill.

Do I keep my weapons/utilities/engine when I buy a new ship?

No! You lose everything except a purchased hyperdrive credit, if you've bought one. You lose your upgraded engine, your weapons, your utilities, your mines, and your proximity weapons. However, on the positive end, your lives count gets reset to 10. Sometimes, buying a new ship is the cheapest way to get your lives back up to 10. You also get credit for the weapons and utilities on your ship, so you don't have to sell them before you sell your ship.

How much is engine X for ship Y going to cost me?

Darth Sirov, a long time Starfighter player, worked out the formula for this. It is based on ship cost. There are six types of engine you can buy for each ship:

01. Ship Cost * 1.0 for Enhanced Booster Engine (1.5x booster).
02. Ship Cost * 4.0 for Overclocked Engine (2.0x booster).
03. Ship Cost * 4.5 for Enhanced Propulsion Engine (2.0x acceleration, 1.2x booster).
04. Ship Cost * 9.0 for Pulse Core Engine (1.6x top speed, 1.2x booster).
05. Ship Cost * 20 for Interstellar Engine (Hyperspace recharger, 1.2x booster).
06. Ship Cost * 22 for Enhanced Interstellar Engine (Hyperspace recharger, 1.5x booster).

For convenience, I've included the costs for each engine for each ship on the Human Ships Guide and the Alien Ships Guide.

The Pulse Core Engine and Enhanced Interstellar Engine are the most popular, the Pulse Core because it increases your ship's base combat speed, the Enhanced Interstellar because the hyperspace recharger allows you to hyperspace up to every 60 seconds with no cost (over the cost of the engine). There's some debate about which is "better," with strongly held opinions on both sides. Unfortunately, there is no engine that gives you both increased top speed and a hyperspace recharger. If there was such a thing, everyone would buy it and the argument would be over. ;-)

You can learn all about the various engine statistics at Pheermee's Engine Guide. He includes a chart that will tell you how to get the fastest speed out of your ship.

What happens if I lose my last life?

Bad things. You lose your ship, your money, your kills, and your account resets with your starting ship and 500 money. Don't let this happen to you! Always have at least 3 lives. If you get reduced to 3 lives, go back to base and buy more, now.

Some players in Multiplayer sectors delight in trying to kill an opponent over and over again until they lose their last life. This is referred to in chat and on the forums as "resetting" them, as in "I am going to reset you."

What are Top Secret missions?

Top Secret missions become available at 201 kills. They are listed in the "Go to Mission Selector" section of stations and sub-stations. They will be listed with the other missions, but the mission type will be "Top Secret" and the instructions will be to proceed to a specific sector "and await further instructions." They will be worth much more money than your other missions, no matter what those other missions are, so it can be tempting to take one.

The purpose of a Top Secret mission is always either a Clearance or an Assassination mission, and usually one that takes place in multiple sectors. You will travel to the specified sector and once you reach it, you will be asked to travel to yet another sector. Once you reach that sector, the true mission will be revealed; it might be to assassinate a particular Shredder, for instance (if you're human). Once you've completed the mission in that sector, you will usually be directed to between zero and four additional sectors, where the mission will be the same (to again assassinate a Shredder, if that's what you did the first time). Once you've completed the same mission in between one and five sectors, you will be directed to a final sector (with a station or sub-station) for your mission reward.

Top Secret missions can be annoying for two reasons:
1. They can send you on a wild goose chase throughout nearby space, including through black hole or Multiplayer sectors.
2. Once you get there, there's no guarantee that you're going to be equipped or able to perform the mission specified.

For instance, you might be sent to clear Defense Turrets when you have a ship or weapons that are completely incapable of destroying Defense Turrets. As a result, many players avoid Top Secret missions despite their lucrative payout. Remember, you can always take the Top Secret mission, then cancel it (using the button on the upper right of the screen) if it's not to your liking, without penalty.

What is the Threat Rating at the bottom left corner of the screen?

The Threat Rating of a sector measures the likelihood that enemy or friendly ships will spawn in that sector. The further into enemy territory you go, the higher the Threat Rating of the sector. The farther into friendly space, the lower the Threat Rating of the sector. Enemy ships will almost never appear in a sector with a Threat Rating of 0.05, and friendly ships will be frequent and numerous. In a Threat Rating 1 sector, a new enemy ship will appear every 15-20 seconds, and friendly ships will almost never appear.

If you're looking to kill-farm, Threat Rating 1 sectors are where to do it, but if you're not prepared, a Threat Rating 1 sector will also kill you very quickly...

I just got killed by a huge black and white swirl! What happened?

There are eight permanent black holes on the map. The most famous one is in S-9-10. The one most players run into first is in S-11-6. When you enter a black hole sector, you'll feel a strong pull toward the center of the sector. If you reach the center of the sector, your shields will fall very quickly and you will die. These black holes are permanent, and you should avoid these sectors unless you have no choice but to travel through them. You can safely travel through edges of a black hole sector. If you were killed by "undefined", a black hole got you.

Large ships -- Human Warships and above, and Alien Destroyers and above -- can carry a weapon called the Vortex Bomb. These weapons create a smaller black hole that's just as deadly. If you were killed by a "Vortex Bomb" or an "Ultra Vortex Bomb", this is what got you. Ultra Vortex Bombs are particularly scary because they also EMP you at the same time they drag you to your death. Vortex Bomb black holes last about 15 seconds, then fade away.

There are several ways to escape permanent or temporary black hole. The easiest and most common is to carry a utility called an Engine Overdrive. If you get caught in the black hole, turn away from it and fire your Engine Overdrive. It will get you out, hopefully before your shield fails and you die. Another common way to escape a black hole is with another utility called a Teleport Disc. You fire it ahead of your ship, and it will teleport you to that location.

I've written some tips and tricks on how to avoid the worst of vortex bomb effects.

There's a planet with a name in the middle of the sector. What is it? What does it do?

There are various planets on the map that you will encounter from time to time. They are named for past and current players of Starfighter that reached high levels on the kill board. Currently, though, planets don't do anything other than look pretty. There's a particularly pretty one in alien space, in sector S-4-12.

Multi-player isn't working any more! How do I fix it?

The latest version of the Adobe Flash player includes increased security features which apparently breaks the multi-player aspects of Starfighter: Disputed Galaxy. As of version 1.3 of Starfighter, to re-enable those features, unfortunately, you have to downgrade your Flash player to a version which supports SFDG's multi-player aspects. You can learn the steps to do that at a post on the Ben Olding Games forum.

Post on the Ben Olding Games forum detailing how to downgrade your Adobe Flash player.

What is the difference between a Multiplayer sector and a Co-op sector?

Both Multiplayer (MP) sectors (marked in red) and Co-op sectors (marked in blue) are sectors where you can fight either against or alongside other Starfighter players from around the world. There are 14 multi-player sectors. They're marked as red squares on the map. There are 8 Co-op sectors, 4 per race. They're marked as blue squares on the map.

In Co-op sectors, you can join up with people on your own race (human or alien) to attack AI opponents together. There will be no players from the other race in these sectors. In Multiplayer sectors, players from both races, plus AI enemies, will be present. Other players will appear as their own ships, as those ships appear in the game, including their weapon load-out and gang colors (if any). You will also be shown the login names of other players and the gang they belong to (if any).

MP sectors that aren't laggy are filled with players who've been playing much longer than you and have access to much better ships than you. In general, you should stay out of them except late at night (when there isn't as much lag) and after you've racked up at least 400 kills or so. Co-op sectors are much safer, since the only enemies you will encounter are AI, and every other Starfighter player in these sectors will be allies.

Be cautioius in these sectors, even around allies! Many Multiplayer and Co-op sectors are plagued with hackers and with spoilers: people who will activate area effect weapons (the Thunder Bolt Proximity Weapon is the most popular) intending to kill nearby "allies." If you attack and kill these hackers yourself, you will lose kills and Bounty from your own account. The best defense is to fire an EMP Blast Proximity Weapon (if you have one) to disable them, then run away.

Why are Multiplayer and Co-op sectors so laggy?

The first thing you're likely to experience in a mutiplayer or Co-op sectors is lag: the situation where ships move in a jerky fashion, and it takes a good deal of time for the results of weapons fire and maneuvers are visible to you on your screen.

The problem is that many Starfighter players are on laggy connections and can't keep up with the players with faster connections. As a result, a sector with a laggy player will cause everything in the sector to lag. AI enemies in this sector will be hard to kill for this reason, because the game has to send the AI enemy health to everyone, including the player with the laggy connection. This might even make AI enemies in MP sectors impossible to kill; to you, the AI enemy has been destroyed. But to the person with the laggy connection, they still have not recorded the result of the attack you made one or two seconds ago that first caused the AI enemy to appear as damaged. This can become frustrating as you pound away on AI enemies and their shields go into negative values. Sometimes, this happens with laggy players themselves, making these laggy players seem extremely difficult or impossible to kill.

Ironically, the best way to prevent this is sometimes to slow down. Don't try to kill things quickly in MP sectors if you're dealing with a laggy player. Hit your target, then wait for the effects of the shot to become visible before firing again.

For this reason, some Starfighter players avoid Multiplayer and Co-op sectors entirely and nearly never enter them. Still, Multiplayer combat is one of the most popular aspects of Starfighter, and these sectors are almost never empty...

What is a gang? What are they good for?

Gangs are a team of players who sometimes fight in MP or Co-op sectors as a unit, but most people join gangs to be part of a group within the game. The only advantage to being in a gang is that you get an accent color for your ship, the accent color of the chosen gang. As a member, you can enter or leave a gang at any time, unless the gang requires a password (some do), in which case you will need to know the password to join. To join a specific gang, you first must travel to the station or sub-station where that gang is based.

To create a gang, you need 1601 kills, 50,000 credits, and you need an open gang slot. Each station and sub-station has eight gang slots, but many of them will be filled. You'll need to find a station or sub-station that has an open gang slot, travel there, then click "Join/Create a Gang". If the station has open slots, the Create option will be available.

At one time, gangs could "conquer territory" by getting more kills within a given sector than any other gang. That option has been disabled. It was also possible at one time for gang members to transfer money to each other. That option has also been disabled.

As an example of gangs, the human gang "Good v. Evil" is based in the substation in human territory in sector S-11-9, and its accent color is dark red. The alien gang "The Second Rising" is based in the substation in alien territory in sector S-9-15, and its accent color is indigo (purple-blue). If you've found this tutorial useful, feel free to join one of these two...

Can I kill an enemy station or sub-station?

Sadly, no. However, each primary space station has four defense turrets, and each sub-station has one defense turret. You can kill the defense turrets associated with a station, for the usual defense turret bounty (about 400 money). If you are in a sector with an enemy station or sub-station, that location will be the spawn point for any enemy ships that appear in the area. This can be quite dangerous, as a station or sub-station can spawn up to three ships at a time. However, some players take advantage of this by leaving mines or like weapons near or on top of the spawn point at the center of the station.