Basic Strategies

Work in progress!
Last Edited: 07/15/2015 - Expecting to add the Spoiler Strategies soon. Note: I think what I want to do is Low Tier Spoilers / Mid Tier Spoilers / High Tier Spoilers

Introduction
Welcome to the Sunless Sea Basic Strategy Guide! This strategy guide will cover the fundamentals of the game in attempts to better explain how things works as well as better resource management for new players. The Spoiler Strategies page will contain more specific information about where to go and what to do at those locations and is aimed at helping struggling players. For future edits and contributions, please try to keep any specifics about location and action events on the Spoiler Strategies page.

The Basics: Your Background
On the character creation page, you may choose from one of six different backgrounds. Choosing a background has a part to play in many of the Ambitions and quests throughout the game, so choose something that fits your character and the chosen play style you would like to embrace.

Recommendation: Background
Choosing either a Street Urchin or Natural Philospher is recommended for newer players because many challenges throughout the game use Veils or  Mirrors as well as having relevance in combat, which will be explained below. Choosing A Poet! is not a bad choice because Pages is a harder stat to increase. Don't panic if you chose one of the other backgrounds as it shouldn't make or break your game, but it may make the beginning of the game more difficult.

The Basics: Stats
Player stats represent different aspects of the captain and his or her officers. Stats may be gained primarily through the expenditure of Secrets by right clicking the portrait of an officer and selecting the speak-to option, hiring and equipping officers or through a few various events occurring throughout the game. The majority of event increases or decreases is in the realm of -2 to +2 range. The majority of officers in the game offer the player something in the range of +8 to +16 total stats.

Recommendation: Accruing Stats
If a player can afford it, hiring a new officer for each different position will greatly increase the player's chance of success at zee. Officers can be obtained by returning to London when the Something Awaits You message is active and selecting the A new recruit! option. You may not always get a new officer from this event, as it is determined randomly. Hiring redundant officers (i.e. two cooks) is not recommended in the early game as you can only put one of them to use.

Recommendation: Secrets
Having a few Secrets around to use on events is recommended, but don't be afraid to spend them. If you are pursuing the The Zong of the Zee Ambition, you should plan to spend  Secrets more moderately because you are going to need a great deal of them.

The Basics: Your Ship
Your Ship is one of the most important parts of the game. Generally speaking, it is your means to every end in Sunless Sea.  
 * Each ship has a number of hit points equal to your Hull. New players start with a Hull value of 75.
 * Each ship has a Hold capacity indicated on your Hold tab or by mousing over the inner circle on the GUI in your upper left. For new players, your ship has a Hold value of 40.
 * Each ship has up to 6 x slots: Deck Weapon Slot, Forward Weapons, Auxiliary Slot, Bridge Slot, Aft Slot and Engines Slot. For new players, your ship has a Deck Weapon Slot, an Auxiliary Slot, a Bridge Slot and an Engine Slot.
 * Each type of ship may have between 4-6 of those slots, so be aware of what ship can equip what slot.
 * Each ship has a Ship Weight value which indicates how quickly a ship moves. The heavier the ship, the slower it moves.
 * Each ship has SS_crewsmall.png capacity indicated on the upper right of the screen, directly below your character portrait. New players may have up to 10 x SS_crewsmall.png Crew -- Officers don't count towards this number.
 * Each ship may confer different stat bonuses or negatives to the player. The starting ship, the Ligeia-class Steamer, grants no benefits in this regard.

Recommendations: Repairing Your Ship
The question of when to repair your ship and through which option is going to differ from player to player. Repairing your ship when your Hull is at about 50-60% is probably a good idea. Once you get below that 50% threshold, additional effects, including the loss of Crew or additional damage from Monsters or Enemy Ships may occur.  
 * Repair your ship with Favours: Admiralty's Favour when you can, unless you are doing minor repairs.
 * Leadbetter and Stainrod Shipyards will repair 80-90% of your hull for a discount of 25 x Echo. This may be worthwhile if you don't have that much money.
 * Avoid the Employ rattus faber engineers, there is no real benefit to be had employing them.
 * Avoid using the Repair Ship option from the GUI. This spends a large amount of Supplies to repair very few Hull points.

Recommendations: Upgrade Weapons
There is never a bad time to upgrade your Ship weapons, unless of course it leaves you completely broke. The important thing to note about weapons is that you need to buy the proper type of weapon for the appropriate weapon slot (either Deck, Forward or Aft).  
 * Weapons provide two values: Hull damage and Life damage . Hull damage is applied to Enemy Ships and Life damage is applied to Zee Creatures.
 * Weapons that provide Life Damage are preferred over those that do more Hull Damage because enemy ship damage is, for the most part, avoidable. Zee-beasts have crazy and wild charges that cannot be so easily avoided and thus, ending encounters with them quickly is preferred.
 * Weapons that provide Stagger are particularly useful in delaying the actions of Monsters. Torpedo weapons provide the highest Stagger value for non-Aft weapons, but they also require that you purchase ammunition.  Because you have to buy ammunition, or if you are just a forgetful player, torpedo weapons are recommended for mid to late game so that you can save your Echo.
 * Avoid buying an Aft Weapon. The frequency that you need to fire at a chasing enemy is rare.  More often than not, you will be the person choosing the engagement and not the other way around.

Recommendations: Upgrade Engines
There are quite a few engine upgrades to be had in this game. One thing to be aware of is that the higher the Engine Power, the more fuel it consumes. Upgrading your engines is really a measure of how patient of a player you are versus your hold capacity and income.  
 * Don't upgrade your engines until you have a steady amount of income from a few trades and lucrative port reports.
 * If you really want to upgrade your engine, the recommendation is to pick a 1500 Engine Power engine or lower so you aren't rapidly depleting your fuel supply.
 * The two event obtained engines, SS engine_serpentinesmall.png Serpentine and SS bazaarsunsmall.png Fulgent Impeller are the exceptions to the above rules. Either of those engines are fantastic upgrades due to their built in Fuel Efficiency.

Recommendations: Upgrade Auxiliary
Auxiliary slot items tend to be very useful and valuable items, with a few exceptions. The majority of Auxiliary items are crafted in Your Lodgings, which means that they are going to be obtained mid game. It is recommended that you swap your auxiliary slot items around to make challenges easier.  
 * Purchase the item SS clayman7small.png ARE CLAY when you get the chance. Not only does it grant you a stat boost, but it reduces the number of crew you need to run your ship, thereby reducing the amount of SS suppliessmall.pngies that you consume.  The engine power is a mixed bag of bonus and negative (see Recommendations: Upgrade Engines)
 * Auxiliary items still require 1 x Hold space per item, so if you choose to craft all the Auxiliary Items, make sure you keep that in mind as you are not likely to get rid of them once they are made.
 * If you are having money issues or are getting low on money, it is recommended to hold off on creating the Auxiliary items because many of the components are expensive and can be used to put you in a better financial situation.
 * Don't buy SS netsmall.pngdo Nets. This is a huge waste of money and a waste of a good ship slot.  This may change once the Zubmarines expansion comes out, but for now, this item is a dud.

Recommendations: Ships
There are currently 8 total Ships available to players in this game, all of them being capable of turning into Zubmarine.

Main Ships

 * Caligo-class Merchant Cruiser is the first ship that makes a real difference after Ligeia-class ones. It has the largest amount of Hold in the game (120), an aft slot (preferably for a Suppressor), a reasonable Crew quarters (30) and Hull (300) and costs only 8,000 Echoes. It's not intended for heavy combat though, mostly due to the lack of Forward mount.
 * Eschatologue-class Dreadnaught is the most powerful ship in the entire game. Fully equipped, it allows easy farming of all enemies in the game, including the toughest ones; it's still quite useful as a cargo vessel, having only 20 less Cargo space (i.e. 100) than Caligo-class ships. The only real downside to this ship is its price (30,000 Echoes, coupled with resell value of 15,000 Echoes), being far out of reach of most newbie Captains. Still, after completing the game a couple of times and passing some Echoes as Legacies, you'll probably find that amount a pocket money.

Notable Ships

 * Ligeia-class Steamer is the ship you'll start your first game with, so you'll probably use it for a while. Clearly inferior to most ships (small (40) Cargo hold, small (10) Crew size, no Aft nor Forward mount, only 75 Hull), you'll want to get rid of it ASAP.
 * Phorcyd-class Corvette grants you a forward weapon slot and 200 x Hull, being a small step up from the Steamer. It costs 4,000 Echoes though, and retains most of the drawbacks of Ligeia-class vessels (no Aft mount, small Crew and Cargo sizes). For just two times that, you can get Merchant Cruiser, which has a similar combat capacity (half of firepower but half more Hull and twice the Crew), but is much better suited for regular play. Switch to Phorcyd-class ship only if you want to start killing medium-tier Zee-monsters fast (which is, arguably, not worth the effort; it is the bosses that really do pay off).
 * Maenad-class Frigate is, arguably, the jack-of-all-trades in Sunless Sea. It has both Forward and Aft mounts, 450 Hull (second highest in the game) and 25 Crew, as well as additional +5 Iron and Mirrors, allowing it engage almost all of Zee-monsters successfully, while still maintaining a high enough Cargo size (70) to be viable as trading/cargo quest vessel. On the other hand, it is clearly inferior to Eschatologue-class ships, having all relevant attributes lower, and lacks a bit of firepower to easily engage end-game bosses (especially with Zubmariner). The only real upside to Maenad-class ship is that its price is much lower (half) and that the resale value is much higher than for the Dreadnaught, resulting in much lower Echo loss when selling your ship before retirement, making it arguably a top-tier ship of choice for your first Zee-captain.

Special Ships

 * Stymphalos-class Steam Launch is the ship you'll end with if you're really unlucky. Unsuitable even for going South, since its permanent 1 Hull means you'll die even if you brush a shore, let alone engage in a fight. Use Lampad-class vessels instead.
 * Leucothea-class Steam-Yacht is next to useless, being available only late in the game due to the fact that you have to complete a very long and quite difficult quest line to obtain it (with the alternative reward being, amongst other things, 9 Secrets) and because you probably will have something clearly superior in terms of usability by then.
 * Lampad-class Cutter while being clearly inferior in most practical terms to most ships, is a ship of choice for Zee-captains interested in going North or South for any reason. When outfitted with WE ARE CLAY, it retains a full speed capability even with 1 Crew member. It also gives you a reasonable Veils bonus, has a very low Weight and still provides both Deck and Forward weapon mounts plus has 50 Hull, allowing you to easily escape virtually any dangerous encounters along the way (especially when coupled with Pneumatic Ratsender).

The Basics: Terror, Fuel and Supplies
Terror, Fuel and Supplies are three constantly changing values in the game. Having a lot of Fuel and Supplies is good; having a lot of Terror is bad.

Recommendations: Quantities of Fuel, Supplies and Terror
 
 * A 3:2 ratio of SS fuelsmall.png Fuel: SS suppliessmall.png Supplies is recommended when buying resources in London. For early game, you should shoot for 15 x SS fuelsmall.png Fuel and 10 x SS suppliessmall.png Supplies for discovering what's in the nearby vicinity.  That leaves you with 15 free cargo slots to make a few early trades.  Other ratios have been suggested such as a 2:1, but there are a number of events that will require supplies and if you get stuck, the markup on SS fuelsmall.png Fuel is often less than the markup on SS suppliessmall.png Supplies.
 * Never leave SS fallenlondon_portsmall.png London with more than 50 x SS skullsmall.png Terror unless you're planning an incredibly short trip. Anywhere between 50-70 x Terror is starting to get risky and anything beyond 70 can start a cascade of problems.  If you entered port with more than 50 x SS skullsmall.png Terror, but your terror was not reduced, it's because you need to wait for the SS gamekeeper_cottagesmall.png Something Awaits You to trigger before it will be reduced (it is triggered by time passing).  You can leave the dock slightly, immediately kill your engines and wait for the bell to toll (and it's indicated by a Lantern icon in the upper right of your log book).  Your supplies will be consumed when you do this, but at least you're not wasting fuel.

Recommendations: Managing Fuel
Fuel expenditure is directly related to two major factors: Engine Power and your lamp. Fuel Efficiency is also a factor, but it is relatively minor because it is limited to a few items and a single Officer and the quantities of Fuel Efficiency are not particularly high. Counter-intuitively, having a higher powered engine is going to decrease your overall productivity early game because you will have to spend more resources to gain fuel and more time to gain money to buy that fuel.  
 * Only buy SS fuelsmall.png Fuel when it is 12 or fewer SS echosmall.png Echo. Unless you have no choice, you should only rarely buy SS fuelsmall.png Fuel where it is 15 x SS echosmall.png Echo and completely avoid buying when the cost is 20 x SS echosmall.png Echo or higher.
 * Only upgrade your engine once you have achieved a level of financial stability (i.e. 1500-2000 echoes with a regular influx of echoes from trade, quests or Port Reports). The temptation to travel quickly is one of this game's many pitfalls.
 * Try to only run with your lamp on while you have 55+ SS skullsmall.png Terror or you have a surplus of SS fuelsmall.png Fuel. You can always burn SS fuelsmall.png Fuel to prevent your SS skullsmall.png Terror from rising too quickly, but you can't get your fuel back.
 * A way to save fuel while also preventing terror build up is to "flash" your lights. By memorizing the timing on the terror meter you can run with your lights off and then quickly turn them on for a tick right before you gain terror, meaning that the terror meter will increase by a much lesser amount than if you ran with your lights off, and saving your fuel as well.

Recommendations: Managing Supplies
Supply expenditure is directly related to the amount of Crew you have on your ship. Officers do not count towards your crew or your expenditure of supplies. 
 * Do not run with 100% capacity of crew. You only need 50% capacity to run at 100% speed.  Having an extra 2-3, maybe more depending on how far you plan to travel, will give you leeway in the event you lose a few crew.  Having 100% Crew capacity does not grant you any benefits.
 * Do not buy SS suppliessmall.png Supplies for more than 22 x SS echosmall.png Echo. There are a number of islands and enemies in the game that will give you free supplies.
 * Try to find places that give you free supplies. There are a number of locations in game that will allow you gather supplies with a SS gamekeeper_cottagesmall.png Something Awaits You action, though some may incur a risk.

Recommendations: Managing Terror
Terror is gained and lost through many, many circumstances in Sunless Sea. Most of the interactions in the game are some what intuitive (i.e. if you think something might inspire fear, chances are good that it will). However, there are also a number of interactions in the game that give no indication that Terror will increase or decrease. As a general rule of thumb, the recommendation is to err on the side of caution.

 </ul>
 * Your SS skullsmall.pngr accumulates quickly while away from land or light buoys or while you are traveling through fog. Having your lights on around land will decrease the gain and having your lights on while around a port or a buoy will actually decrease the gain of terror.  Note these effects will not lower your SS skullsmall.pngr score, but it will prevent it from accumulating further.
 * Periodically return to SS fallenlondon_portsmall.png Fallen London any time your SS skullsmall.png Terror increases over 50. Once you have hit that 50 SS skullsmall.png Terror mark, you should consider how you are going to get back home.
 * Rest at SS_Locations_Your_Lodgings.png Your Lodgings in SS fallenlondon_portsmall.png Fallen London if you can afford it. Resting at SS_Locations_Your_Lodgings.png Your Lodgings also has the added benefit of reducing SS bloodstainsmall.png Menaces: Wounds and SS bazaarsunsmall.png Menaces: Yearning, Burning.
 * Spending time with your family is FREE and greatly reduces your terror. It requires the SS gamekeeper_cottagesmall.png Something Awaits You event to be utilized.  How to obtain a family can be found through the SS fallenlondon_portsmall.png Fallen London page, but it is technically a spoiler, so it will not be explained here.
 * Avoid SS skullsmall.png Terror reduction at ports outside of SS fallenlondon_portsmall.png Fallen London. Generally speaking, these reductions are overpriced and not worth it.
 * Once your SS skullsmall.png Terror is at 70+, unless you are near SS fallenlondon_portsmall.png Fallen London, you should be driving around with the lamp on while you can afford the SS fuelsmall.png Fuel.
 * Defeating Monsters and Enemy Ships reduces terror. The higher your terror score is when you defeat the enemy, the greater the reduction in terror.  There is no explanation or indication for this interaction in the game at the moment, but it does happen.  This is a great way to periodically reduce your SS skullsmall.png Terror when you have more than 50.
 * There is a very beneficial zee-event that requires 50-75 terror. In mid to late-game, when you can handle spending some echo in ports, It is a good idea to keep your terror within that range to improve chances.

The Terror Score GUI
Your GUI indicates the rate of Terror accumulation. When the dots light up all the way around the skull, your terror score increases by one.  - Dark red dots indicate that your Terror is rising quickly. - Orange dots indicate that your Terror is still increasing, but at a moderate pace. - Green dots indicate your accumulation of Terror is halted and your dot accumulation may decrease. Note: This does not mean your Terror score is decreasing, but it does mean that your accumulation towards that score is. </ul>

The Basics: Money
The basic unit of current in Fallen London is Echo. Almost everything in the game can be bought or sold for Echoes, so naturally it is a very import part of the game. More detailed information about how to accrue Echo are covered below.

Recommendations: Saving Echo
One of the most import parts of the game is being able to save and amass Echo. Getting Echo in Sunless Sea is like a snowball starting at the top of a hill. Once you get going, gravity will do the work for you, but it's that initial push that you have to really worry about. Some of this may reiterate the advice from the Managing Fuel and Managing Supplies sections above, but better that you read it twice than not at all.  </ul>
 * Try and make all your SS fuelsmall.png and SS suppliessmall.pngies purchases in SS fallenlondon_portsmall.pngn London if possible. Keep an eye out for places where either of these resources are cheaper than London, but for the most part, you should use SS fallenlondon_portsmall.pngn as a benchmark for what is an acceptable price.  This does not apply for other goods, just SS fuelsmall.png and SS suppliessmall.pngies.
 * Try to plan your routes ahead of time. This does not mean don't explore, it means try to figure out efficient paths for moving your Trade Cargo X to Location Y.  This will help you mitigate circumstances that force you to return home early.  There's nothing worse than returning to SS fallenlondon_portsmall.pngn London with cargo you did not manage to unload.  Well... there are things worse, but that's still not great.
 * Earn as much SS fuelsmall.png as possible from the Port Report turn ins. This will help you keep costs down.
 * Unless your terror is 55 or higher, run with your lights off to save SS fuelsmall.png.
 * Try to keep your total SS_crewsmall.png at 75-80% capacity rather than 100%. Having more people on your boat means you are eating more SS suppliessmall.pngies.  More SS suppliessmall.pngies means less money saved. You need 50% SS_crewsmall.png capacity to run at full speed.  The zee is a dangerous place, so you need a few extra zailors in the event one of them gets space dementia or gets eaten by zee-monsters.
 * Keep an eye out for places that grant you SS fuelsmall.png and SS suppliessmall.pngies for free or at some nominal exchange. These places do exist and can save you a lot of money in the early game.

Recommendations: Spending Echo
What should you buy? If you have enough Fuel and Supplies with roughly a 3:2 ratio and you are positive you can make it to your destination and back, you should consider filling the rest of your Hold with trade cargo that you know you can sell at a destination you plan on visiting.  </ul>
 * First, turn in your Port Reports first before you buy SS fuelsmall.png.
 * Second, buy an appropriate amount of SS fuelsmall.png and SS suppliessmall.pngies to make it your destination and back.
 * If you have too much SS fuelsmall.png or too many SS suppliessmall.pngies when you rolled into town or after your turn-ins, try your best not to sell them off, but save it for extra exploration. Your margins on either of those commodities is a pittance.
 * Last, fill your hold with Trade Goods that you plan on selling.
 * As far as ships and ship amenities are concerned, focus on upgrading your ship or weapons first, your engines second and upgrading your bridge, aft and auxiliary slots last. Upgrading your weapons is much cheaper an investment than upgrading your ship; however, due to having 75 x Hull on your starting ship, the weapon upgrade is not going to get you as much mileage as having a new ship.  The engines should really only be upgraded after you have enough income that you can buy the extra fuel it is going to cost you to travel.  It is not recommended to upgrade your engine early on in the game.
 * Purchase the housing upgrade at SS_Locations_Your_Lodgings.png Lodgings when you have a comfortable margin of SS echosmall.png. This should probably be purchased after your new ship, unless you are having major problems controlling your SS skullsmall.pngr.

IMPORTANT : Early game should be focused on exploration with trading being supplemental to your income. With few exceptions, trade routes yield marginal profits of 1-13 x Echoes per item sold and your starting Hold capacity is so low that you won't make much money if you focus on trading alone. Collecting a Port Report from some locations will grant you as much money as a partial cargo load of Trade Goods.

Recommendations: Accruing Echo
Money making in this game is difficult in the early game. The way the game is designed is that locations closer to Fallen London yield smaller rewards than places further away. This is true of both Port Reports and profits on Trade goods. That means you need to focus on gaining Fuel and Supplies for the journey so that you can reach some of these more remote places.  </ul>
 * Fallen London provides cheap fuel, but there are several places where it is cheaper. It may be beneficial to plan trips through said places once discovered.
 * Because your starting Hold is only 40 units in size, your major source of income early game is going to be from Port Reports, which will grant you anywhere between 5 - 75 x SS echosmall.pngs and grant you 1 x SS fuelsmall.png.
 * Alternatively, consider various items/curiosities that do not consume cargo slots. For this reason having high Veils may be beneficial as it allows to gather intelligence and then resell it.
 * Early game you should liquidate as many goods as you can to the shops and to the SS alarmingscholargaz.pnging Scholar. With very few exceptions, almost everything in the game can be earned later, but the important thing to focus on early game is getting off the ground.
 * If you choose to deal with the SS pirategaz.png Bruiser, completing his quests will give you a nice SS echosmall.png, SS fuelsmall.png and SS suppliessmall.pngies boost.
 * Collect SS wilmotsendsmall.pngegic Information for the SS_Characters_The_Dark-Spectacled_Admiral.png Dark-Spectacled Admiral and if you can afford to not turn them in, save two of them to turn into SS surmisesmall.png Intelligence. It can be tough to collect these at times because he may send you clear across the map, so try not to rely on turning these in.
 * Note locations that gave you Trade goods, SS fuelsmall.png, SS suppliessmall.pngies or Curiosities. Chances are you can revisit these places, with the SS gamekeeper_cottagesmall.pnghing Awaits You to get more from them later.

The Basics: Combat
Fighting Enemy Ships and Zee-creatures is a fairly common occurrence in Sunless Sea. Clicking on an enemy, even if they are well out of range, will tell you how many hit points the enemy has. As you might imagine, enemies with high hit points mean they do more damage. Until you have a good feel for combat, players should avoid any of the Monsters with more than 100 x hit points or until you have a ship with a Hull value to match. Unfortunately, the reward for defeating an enemy does not always match the difficulty, so you just have to try and fight various monsters to see which ones are the most lucrative or check the Spoiler Strategies page.  </ul>
 * Engaging an enemy with your lights off will force them to search for you before they engage you. The time it takes to find you directly correlates with your SS veilssmall.png skill.
 * Enabling your lights will give away your position, but it will cause your weapons to charge faster.
 * Enemies unaware of your existence are indicated by a blank circle.
 * Enemies actively searching for your position are indicated by a question mark ( ? )
 * Enemies aware of your position and actively engaging your ship are indicated by three exclamation marks ( !!! ). For enemy ships, this also means their weapons are charging and are capable of firing upon you from their current position.
 * Enemy hit points do not reset if you disengage from them. This means you can hit them and run away if you like.

Recommendation: Engaging Enemy Ships
Most enemy ships really only need one strategy - engage them from behind.  </ul>
 * The majority of enemy ships in the game do not possess Aft Weapons. By following them in a circle on their rear and changing speeds to match their movements, you will be able to avoid all most if not all damage.
 * Ships that do have aft weapons have a very narrow cone that they can fire at you with. If you are following the enemy ship at the proper angle, you can avoid being hit even by the enemy rear weaponry.
 * There is no collision damage incurred for running into an enemy ship, so don't be afraid to bump into them.
 * Engage enemy ships with your lights turned off. Once you are in proper position behind their ship, turn your lights on to increase the recharge speed of your weapons.
 * Often times, trying to disengage from an enemy ship will incur more Hull damage to your ship than simply fighting and sinking their vessel.

Recommendation: Engaging Zee-Beasts
Zee-Creatures are a bit more tough than enemy ships. Many monsters in the game have a charge ability that will ram your ship and do significant damage. Some of them even have the ability to submerge into the zee, which prevents you from firing upon them.  </ul>
 * The basic strategy for fighting Zee-Beasts is to keep them at a range away from your ship. Most creatures possess a gap closing charge, but the ability has a limited range.  This means that if you are far enough away when they begin to charge your ship, they may not reach.  By constantly backing up and keeping them at the maximum range of your weapons, you can consistently do damage while avoiding taking any yourself.
 * Engage the Zee-Creatures with your lights off. Until the enemy is aware of your exact position, they will not attack you.  Firing upon them causes them to search for your position (indicated by ?), but it takes them time and you can charge your weapons during that time (when you see 3 x !!! that means they know your position and will begin attacking your ship).
 * If you space out your shots on an enemy while your lights are off, it may take them a very long time to locate your position.
 * Purchasing the SS mechanismsmall.pngus Yards Avid Suppressor is one of the best Aft slot items in the game and will allow you to rapidly engage and disengage from an enemy by using the Full Power option without risk of doing harm to your ship. This does eat a bit of SS fuelsmall.png Fuel when used, but it is well worth the cost. The item can be purchased in SS fallenlondon_portsmall.pngn for 800 x SS echosmall.pngs.
 * For tougher enemies, the hit and run tactic is a must. You might be able to tank some of the smaller enemies, but then you incur Hull damage.
 * Enemies cannot engage you at a port or in the near vicinity of a port. That means you can often times hit an enemy then back into a port and wait for them to disengage, then go right back to attacking them.