Setting the game's difficulty level will influence the performance level of the ships which you receive in the course of the story.

On the simplest level, the ship you get will have a good assortment of upgrades installed, and you get quite a bit of cash.

On the "X-Treme" level, you have very little money and no SINZA drive (which is highly recommended, as the SINZA allows time compression and therefore speeds up gameplay).

In the story, you can often choose between several different answers. Each of these "choices" yields the exact same gameplay results, unless otherwise indicated.

We don't have the translation glossary so we're not sure if we translated all the system names right. If it says "Fly through the north gate to Heron's Fog", but the system to your north is called "Heron's Cloud", or "Heron's Mist", don't worry too much. It'll probably be the system we were trying to talk about.

Drow's X2 Universe Map, with political alliances, Ship wharfs (S) and Equipment docks (A). It's in German, but it should give you an idea, and you can easily type in the translated system names. Any volunteers for creating a series of multilingual X2 universe maps, anyone?

http://www.seizewell.de/ddrow/X2sektors.gif

When landing, you first have to hit the docking bay. WNext, inside inside the craft you're docking with: Hit ESC to dock automatically, or steer your craft into the hangar bay manually. Apparently, pilots who do this manually can sometimes find goods and weapons that have been lost or discarded by other ships.

Scan a ship. If you like the cargo, shoot the ship until it breaks up and the cargo falls out. Collect cargo.

If the pilot bails, steal his ship, then collect the pilot and sell him. The bad thing is that nobody likes people robbing transports and killing their crews, so be ready for confrontations with the local law enforcement and be careful where you hunt.

To operate a factory of your own, you'll need qite a bit of money. Rent a large transport to bring the factory to a viable target location. Deploy. Now attach at least one freighter to the factory, and have it buy resources. Set a selling price. Transfer money to the factory. Watch your bank account become fat.

So ... why not dock, and leave the PC running over night so you can buy that M1? Your trading and fighting ratings will drop if you do so. Plus you risk crippling attacks on your transports and factories.

If you don't quite have enough money to make a purchase, but already have factories, you can "borrow" money from your factories and transfer it to the ship account.

******

You're an ex-con who gets rescued from the prison ship by high-ranking officer Ban Danna - he wants you to work for him. After a short chat you'll receive an M5 (a weak scout/fighter craft) and directions to go meet Elena Kho, VP of TerraCorp.

Your M5 Discoverer is hardly suitable for battle or for trading - it's the smallest vessel in the Argon fleet. Due to its tiny cargo bay and weak weapons this class of fighter is usually used for exploration and for single-person transports. Try to get used to the controls. You'll probably be stuck with this craft for a while.

Now you'll need to find the southern gate and fly through it. In the new sector ("Home of light"?) you will soon see TerraCorp HQ - the station has a sort of blue-lit tunnel attached to it. Dock and open the Communications menu. Choose to contact Elena Kho.

You'll find out that a crystal factory urgently needs computer components, you're to transport 15 units there. Leave this system, again through the southern gate. After you've reached the target system ("ore belt"?) you'll soon see a station with two huge rotating drums on its sides. Sell your computer components to this factory and fly back to TerraCorp HQ.

***

HINT: Don't bother upgrading borrowed vehicles, like the Argon Express. You'll have to give it back after the mission, losing all the upgrades.

***

Talk to Elena Kho again. You're to pick up two passengers using a nice "Argon Express" TP-class shuttle: A scienctist called Mi Ton (living on Planet Methys) and Saya Kho (Elena's daughter, currently on the Royal Boron Trading Station).

After leaving TerraCorp HQ, you'll receive some infos on the ship. Afterwards, fly through the northern gate to Argon Prime and through another northern gate to Heron's Fog. There fly east to "Red HQ" and again east into the "Clouds of Atreus" system.

Dock with the Royal Boron Trading Station and open the Communication menu to contact Saya Kho. In the following sequence, the Boron scientist is brought aboard. Now fly through the west gate into Red HQ and again east to Heron's Fog. It is recommended that you land on the station here (the game is automatically saved when you dock). Now fly through the south gate to Argon Prime.

Saya will soon notice pirate ships. The combat result is scripted: The pirates will whip you severly, almost kill you, and then get killed by a mystery ship as soon as your shields go critical. Check damage status after the battle.

Hint

Greedy? Try to survive this fight with at least one of the 25MW shields intact. You can sell them at the nearby Equipment Dock for a hefty profit. If the shields were destroyed, you might want to consider re-loading that savegame from Heron's Fog ...

Now fly back to TerraCorp HQ in Home of Light (southern gate) and contact Elena again. She'll give you a nearly wrecked TS. The TS is severly damaged - tell it to dock with the Federal Argon Shipyard. It will take a while to get there (max. speed 15 m/sec due to severe damage) - so why not fly a couple of combat missions for the local stations? When your TS has docked, go to the Federal Argon Shipyard and have your TS repaired. It won't be cheap, but much cheaper than a new TS ...

At this point, it's a good idea to build a steady source of income. Let Ban Danna wait for a while and start making serious money. It's helpful if your Discoverer is really fast (Speed Upgrades) in the next mission, and you need at least an M4 type craft for the mission after that.

Since you'll be making most of your money from trading at this stage, it's a good idea to upgrade the TS, e.g. with the 1MW shield, Cargo bay Extension, trading system, speed upgrade etc. Fly around the argon sectors and trade. The price finder upgrade is very helpful, but generally you can guess prices by checking how many units of each ressource are stored in a station.

When you have enough money, buy a station of your own. A Solar Power plant is highly recommended at this stage in the game. But where to lace it? You should look for a sector which allows the power plant to operate safely at a high profit, so pick a system where:

a) a friendly destroyer or carrier is on patrol, protecting the station from attack

b) lots of energy cells are needed

c) not too many other solar power plants are operating.

Heron's Nebula is highly recommended.

Tell your Mercury TS to buy Crystals and set the price for cells at around 21 credits - now you have a steady source of income. You can use your other ship(s) for missions or even piracy as you now have an automated, steady source of income. To make money more quickly, you can transport and sell the cells manually, allowing for prices of up to 26 credits. Make some more money.

Hint

The economics system in X2: The Threat operates according to supply and demand. A lot of energy is needed in Heron's Nebula, but as you build more Solar Power Plants, the prices may eventually drop lower. You can counter this by building factories that use energy as a raw material ...

Now you can either upgrade the M5 Discoverer, or buy a better ship. Even with lots of upgrades, the M5 Discoverer won't be useful for long. We recommend you save up for the Boron M3 "Barracuda", which will be very useful for quite some time, and some three to five combat drones which will be useful in the next mission.

Now fly to Argon One in the system Argon Prime where Ban Danna is waiting for you. He finally explains why he got you out of prison ... now he wants to meet you in the Goner temple. Fly through the gates (West, South, South) to Cloudbase South West. The Goner temple is partially hidden in the clouds (in the southeast part of the sector). Talk to Noah Gaffelt. Hmm. Wonder what happened in Trantor ... ?

After you leave the Goner temple, Bret is waiting for you onboard his ship. Cross the Paranid sectors with Bret until you reach the "Brennans Victory" (Brennans Triumph) sector. You'll now have to examine the gate. Fly to around 10 km (roughly 7 miles) distance and target its center area. You'll probably get a mine targeted instead, so send out one of those combat drones and tell it to attack the mine. Boom. Repeat.

If you can find no more mines, fly to around 500 m distance of the first nacelle. Eject from your ship and steer to about 50 m distance in the space suit. The first scan will fail _and_ cause new mines to appear. Fly carefully. Now go to the opposite nacelle gondola (?) to examine that one. Elena now tells you to got to the Antigone memorial sector.

Fly west into the Split Fire sector. Fly North three times to Clouds of Atreus. Fly west into Red HQ (The Hole?) and then north into Antigone Memorial where Bret is waiting aboard his ship. Agree to take the transport to the surface, the fourth file will match. You'll now need to find an NFL scanner.

NELLIE THE ELEPHANT HAD TO JUMP ...

You will now be promised a jump drive which is only compatible with M1, M2, M3 and M4 type craft. If you still have your M5 Discoverer, it's time to get rid of it as soon as possible, and get at least a M4 type vessel for yourself. Again, we suggest you consider e.g. the Boron M3 Barrracuda. To receive the jump drive upgrade, travel to TerraCorp HP where Saya Kho makes a reappearance and upgrades your ship.

With the jump drive, get to Priesterringe ("Priests' Circles"?) where Bret is waiting with an M3 - you're supposed to increase your reputation with the Paranids by destroying pirates. Having a modified (upgraded) M3 is definitely helpful here as you can even consider attacking combat vessels which would be difficult in an M4 and suicidal in an M5. Kill separatists (pirates) until your rank with the paranids increases by at least one level. Fly back to Priesterringe ("Priest rings"?) and dock with the trading station. Now contact the paranid trader Manckossak. Make sure you are very polite, by choosing the 2nd option and then the 2nd or 3rd option. You'll hopefully get the NFL scanner for 33.333 credits (the standard is 3.333 - no, this trader does not like you).

Leave the station and meet Saya Kho who'll accompany you to Nyana's Hideout. Your choice: The short but highly dangerous way with Saya, or the longer safer route with Bret. If you definitely don't want to see Xenon Destroyers accompanied by a Xenon Carrier, go with Bret. If you're feeling adventurous, join Saya Kho.

In "Nyana's Hideout", you'll see a sequence ... and attacking Khaak ships. Concentrate on killing Khaak until you see a sequence where the lisping profit junkie is deploying his drones and towers. Cleat Bret's way so he can sabotage the transport and hide the Gunner. Saya arrives and tells you that Elena Kho is on her way in a TL type Transport. Keep hunting the Khaak until Elena arrives. Now the Teladi guy sends some combat vessels - you can't prevent his escape, but you can shoot some of his escorts. And now a large group of Khaak are heading directly toward the AP Gunner ... Elena and Sayo are helping you, so you should be able to make it. After the fight, Elena leaves with the Gunner - mission completed.

A while later, Ban Danna wants to talk to you in the Agon Prime system. Contact him aboard the Argon one. You need to go to Ore Belt and offer to help the commander against the Khaak. First you should get at least one Hornet missile. Since you'll encounter sizeable Khaak fleets, you may want to consider a ship with the powerful Shockwave Generator, e.g. the Paranid M6 Nemesis.

An asteroid north of the northern gate contains a hidden Khaak base which you are to destroy. Kill all the enemies neary and then scroll through targets using the "next / previous target" buttons. Press I to see info on the asteroids. Once you have the right one, attack it with the Hornet. The Khaak obviously don't like you turning their hidden base to rubble ... and therefore send a few of their larger fleets to deal with you. Deal with them by yourself, or flee back to the carrier to let it handle the work. After the Khaak are defeated, return to the rubble, collect the three "unknown objects" and hand them to the carrier captain.

Now would be a good time to expand your business somewhat. When you feel ready, meet Ban Danna aboard Argon Prime. Next, meet Saya Kho in Rolk's Reich. You'll have to fork out 150.000 credits for the M6 class ship. Make sure you have enough energy cells for the return flight (at least 120 to escape from Khaak) and set the Khaak sector coordinates by pressing Shift-J. If you already have an M6, like the Paranid Nemesis, you can use that - if it has jump drive.If you don't have that one either, you can use the Hydra's jump drive.

After the jump, immediately accelerate to the max and go toward the AP Hammer (southeast). For orientation, activate the southernmost object in the sector map, which is usually the blackbox. You need to open the cargo bay just before flying over it - at maximum speed! The blackbox is indestructible so you can try several times. Jump back to a safe sector as soon as you have it. Jumping from the Khaak sector costs 120 energy cells, no matter where you jump to, so you might as well go straight to Rolk's Drift. After the sequence, contact Ban Danna again.

KHAAK MOTHERSHIP

You're now to meed Ban Danna at the West gate in Omicron Lyrae. A lot is happening there: In the northwest, a Khaak mothership keeps sending out waves of ships. The sector senter is held by a Khaak destroyer which keeps reappearing if you destroy it. Target the Argon Titan and set the autopilot - it'll fly towards the mothership, providing you with cover. After the sequence that is triggered when you approach the mothership, fly toward the nav point, but watch out for those lasers! An M3 craft is good here but it can be done in an M6. Stay directly above the blue flat area for about 30 seconds to trigger another sequence.

Ban Danna has the solution: Together with Bret and Saya, you'll need to destroy some generators on the mother ship. Use the next/previous target buttons to locate them - you can more or less ignore the Khaak attacking you, as they shouldn't be able to do too much damage. After the mothership explodes, you'll need to defeat the remaining Khaak. Jump to Argon Prime, dock with Argon One and enjoy the final story sequence.

From now on, you're on your own - an adventurer and entrepreneur in a huge, fascinating universe.