When starting new games, you are bound to make some mistakes that you learn not to do again as you progress through the game. It’s normal, and in fact, you can help other people who are starting the game to avoid the mistake you made. It is why guides exist, to help people know what they are doing and guide them into a better version of their game. In IXION, you can make a lot of mistakes when you play, which is why we have this guide to help you be prepared.
IXION – Things I Wish I Knew Before Playing
Understand the 10 most important mechanics of IXION
IXION is a city builder simulator, except your city is a massive ship in the middle of, well, space. It’s going to be quite different, but there are things that you should be aware of in order to survive the final frontier.
- Tiqqun Hull Integrity – The Tiqqun is your home, so you better make sure that the Tiqqun’s hull is at max at all times. The Hull Integrity is essentially your health bar in IXION. If it reaches zero, then you get a game over. Once you go past the prologue, the Hull Integrity will continuously go down, so make sure to have a steady supply of Iron at all times.
- Power – You cannot run a ship without power. The Solar Panels of the Tiqqun helps in keeping the Power on at all times. If your Power, however, does not reach the required amount needed, then a Blackout will occur, which impacts your Stability.
- Stability – Speaking of Stability, this is essentially the morale of your crew. As you progress through the game, you will get permanent penalties that will affect everyone in the ship, which means your Stability will go down. You can counter this by declaring Policies or constructing Buildings. Be aware that High or Neutral Stability will give you Trust bonus, while Low Stability will grant Trust penalties.
- Trust – You will be leading your crew through the vast reaches of space, so they will naturally have their Trust on you. Trust must be high at all times to avoid things like Strikes, which will shut down production that can potentially bring destruction to the Tiqqun. If the Trust meter empties out, then a Mutiny will occur, effectively ending the game.
- Food – One way to keep your crew happy and keep their Trust and Stability up is by making sure that the Food is up. If there is no food, then you can expect your crew to lose Trust and Stability.
- Health – This is the health of the crew and workers in your ship, not the Tiqqun itself. Having a good amount of Health will make sure that your crew and workers who get injured will receive proper care and attention. If you have low Health, then you can expect some death from your crew and workers.
- Sector Workplace Safety – Making sure that you have enough workers is crucial to the ship. If the workers get imposed with Extra Hours or Overworked, this will negatively impact Stability and increase the chance of workers dying.
- Housing – While you may be in a moving ship in space, it is important that everyone must have their own… space (ba dum tss). In all seriousness, you need to have adequate housing for everyone, as homelessness in the ship will negatively affect your Stability.
- Population – You won’t be housing millions of people, but thousands of them. You will have a finite amount of people in your ship. You won’t have to worry about pregnancy, but you will have to worry about deaths.
- The Mission – The Tiqqun’s mission is to explore. Every star system you visit will have their own set of objectives. Once you complete them, then you move on to the next system.
Manage your Resources
As you play the game, you will be collecting resources that you need in order to keep your ship running. There are a lot of them to collect, all with different uses. Here are the resources you can collect:
- Iron (Fe) – These are used primarily in keeping the ship’s Hull Integrity up.
- Alloy – Alloy is mostly used for construction of Buildings. It also helps with the Hull Integrity, but only in critical situations.
- Polymer – Polymer helps in building Mining Ships, Cargo Ships, and Science Ships in the Docking Bay. It is also essential for Solar Panels.
- Carbon (C) – You need Carbon to make Polymer, mostly.
- Silicon (Si) – Silicon is used to make Electronics.
- Electronics – Speaking of, this is what you need for the more advanced Buildings and better Solar Panels. You also need Electronics to unlock Sectors, train Colonists, and more.
- Hydrogen (H) – Hydrogen helps in keeping Power up if you have a Nuclear Power Plant.
- Waste – Waste is generated by buildings, but you can use this to get other resources. If you have a Waste Treatment Center, you can turn in 50 Waste to get 50 Alloy, 20 Polymer, or 1 Electronics every 10 cycles.
- Ice – Ice isn’t really helpful, but by turning Ice into Water, you can keep your Food up.
- Cryonic Pods – As you travel the stars, you can find Cryonic Pods that contain suspended crew. You can wake them up and have them serve the Tiqqun instead.
- Science – With Science, you can research new technology and buildings for the Tiqqun.
- Workers – These are the backbone of your ship. They keep the ship running and in return, you make sure they are taken care of.
- Non-Workers – These are the people that do not contribute to the ship. Whether it’s because they are lazy or not, they will continue to drain your resources the longer they stay.
- Colonists – These are essentially people who were trained at the Colonization Training Center.
- Power – This is the amount of electricity the Tiqqun has. You need this up at all times to make sure that the Tiqqun doesn’t go down.
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