this guide is a work in progress. vast changes should be expected
this guide assumes you are using a infinite money save file, are not speedruning, and just want to enjoy the game you bought.
we will discuss
doctrine
how to use your ships
how to build your ships
how to fight with your ships

Table of contents
1. intro
fleetcomp
each role in detail
general ship building tips
how to use your fleet

1x [flagship]
2x [carrier]
2x [scout]
2x [heavy fighter]
6x [intercepter]
3x [fast fueler]
5x [heavy fueler]
1x [AA]
1x [module transport]

this is the fleet comp I used last time I beat the game. you can change as you please, but I want to give you an idea what a good fleet comp looks like.

What each thing does

flagship is YOUR ship! while theoretically it should be as small and fast as possible. that's boring. your flagship should also be able to use planes and missiles to strike and a full suite of sensors. but never forget, it should first of all be able to keep up with the fleet.
Carrier a dedicated carrier. has planes, sensors and little else
Scout made to find the enemy. must have all the sensors and long range. it should be able to park in front of the fleet and have enough range and speed to avoid the enemy if caught

later sections will define each ship class later

Fuel Smuggling
my favorite ship building tip. you can see this in my other large ships. vital for efficient fuel storage
created by: newageofpower

cons: cannot be repaired, you cannot modify or repair the designs after they are built.

1. update to 1.12 or older
2. build your design with fuel smuggling.
3. save the design
4. move the ship save file to you steam ship save file.

overlapping WIP

engine choice
static engines are the most strategic in the game. and should be used as often as possible. but which should you use?

engine stats (1.16)
RD-51 fuel efficency= 65/7=9.285| 789t
D-30S fuel efficency= 21/4=5.25 | 45t
D-30 fuel efficency= 12/3=4.00 | 23t
NK-25 fuel efficency= 18/4=3.00 | 30t
RD-59 fuel efficency= 45/7=6.43 | 875t

RD-51 vs D-40S
big ship vs small ship
RD-51s are for big ships larger than about 3000t (untested claim). because of thrust to weight ratio,

fighter layers
keep sensitve systems (like explosive ammo) closer to the inside than the outside. in practice, a fighter core should have the bridge and ammo, around that is a layer of fuel, and on the outer most layer should be generators or other non-essential parts. like guns, thrusts, generators, crew and anything else that you can afford to lose without dying. fuel should never be exposed because any shot will burn the fuel.

Systemless
power and crew are useless. Power only matters for guns and rotating engines. most ships don't have guns and gimbaled engines are still land-able even with XX% power. and good ship designs minimize gimbaled engines anyway. and crew (as far as I know), does nothing.

Legs
spring theory.

little legs

IR signature: how many engines your ship has (total thrust)
RD signature: size of the ship
the "chance" for both is probably based off of the mass of the ship

RD sign: this is determined by the area the ship takes up as a square. when you left-click drag over your ship to select it, it will show you your ships square area. you can build within the square and not change the RD signature, but extend the square and RD signature goes up

garrisons only have short radar
so interceptors only need to worry about RD. IR is for strike groups


EXAMPLE:

these two ships are the same (minus 2 flares) however. the second one has a 18% smaller size and therefore it has a 23.5% reduction in max range of possible detection and a 1.93 times increase in chance of being undetected.

note that this rearrangement did not affect the IR detection at all, the flare removal reduced the chance of evasion because of a change in mass.

Sudden strike on cities
cities (and all grounded radar) has a range of 400km. this marked by the red circle around the city.

alert time: this is the amount of time that a city has to report you. this is a random time.
RD sign: this is the maximum distance your ship can be detected on radar. this doesn't mater if your RD is above their radar range (400km for cities), but if RD sign is less than that, they have less time to detect you
RD chance: the chance that the city does detect you. shown in the ship builder after RD chance. personal testing has shown this to be very OP and even allow intercepting merchants during sudden strike. it is therefore arguably better than regular RD sign, but the data is inconclusive on that.

stealthy ships need 1.speed 2.low RD sign & chance

measuring compression
overlapping means two pieces will occupy the same space, meaning that space is saved. this can be counted by counting how many 1x1 spaces are overlapped/saved.

one half-piece and one corner-less piece overlaped lead to a compresion of 2. but two corner-less pieces compressing the same subsystems only has a compression of 1.

leg smuggling
D-30s rockets can be smuggled with leg blocks but they must be "pointed down" compared to the leg

D-30s overlapping
you can overlap over a D-30s, you just need to ensure the rocket is unobstructed. each triangle or cornerless piece has 2 sides that are "open". you have to be sure that the D-30s is pointed in an open direction.

usually when overlapping with D-30s, you're overlapping landing legs and engines. this is good because D-30s's need to point down (usually) and legs should be as close to the ground as possible to lower weight cost and maximize spring-ability

fuel smuggling? maybe use the one in previous section

how to build
desired stats:
cruise speed: 290-300 (not strict)
range: greater than 2500km
consumption: minimize. maximum 1000 t/Mm
weapons: none
planes: maximize. minimum 6
missiles: 2-4 (2 recommended)
sensors: all of them
legs: optional

recommended building methods:
fuel smuggling: this is massive! this will easily raise your range to much more than what you need. 4 smuggle boxes is enough. 6 smuggle boxes is for especially large flagships that are both big and multi purpose
missiles are not meta. they are faaaaaar worse than planes in 1.16. because planes don't miss, and they (usually) come back. missiles should theoretically never be included, but they're fun so we keep them.


how to use

carrier doctrine
whether you have 8 planes or 28. your are going to want to use them at some point.
1. get in range. depending on the situation. you should be well fueled and go to to a point just in range of the target
2. send


All Doctrine advice

missiles: missiles are important for early game anti missile/plane systems (untested), and for nuclear weapons in the late game. in the early game, carry A-100 missiles because they are fast and they don't miss. If you see a strike coming for your flagship, and your planes have already failed you, A-100 missiles are your last option before missiles (which you should also have). in late game, if you have nuke, use nuke >:)

intro

how to build
to preface, there are escort carriers, carriers, and heavy carriers. there is a lot of variety in carriers
how to use

strikes with 1, 2, or 3 planes. the easiest thing to do is to send 6 planes at once, but in practice planes like to attack targets in groups of 3s so really you're only going to hit two ships with 3 planes. should use 3 plane squadrons for the heavily armored strike groups and late game garrisons, while using 1-2 planes squadrons against less armored ships

defending against planes and rockets: if you see planes or rockets coming at you. you can kill either with planes loaded with anti ship missiles. (note: anti-missile defense claim is untested)

Doctrine
same as flagship, minus the missiles

How To build
Ideal stats:
speed: 400-500km/h (ideal 500 km/h)
range: maximize (minimum about 2500km)
consumption: minimize
sensors: All 100% strength

how to use
generally
1. go to strike group
2. passive spy
3. active spy

missile baiting
assuming your scout has a jammer and is relatively fast (~500). you can make make a SG waste all of it's missiles before your main force arrives. you can activate your scout's jammer from a safe distance and evade it's missiles as they come.

where to be:

before talking about fighters, let me tell you about guns.

Each gun explained
starting from the left

2A37- AA use only. The best AA gun in-game. While it's not as reliable as dodging, if dodging is not an option (heavy ship), even one of these could save you.

AK-725- a trash inbetween of AA and damage. not enough shots to be AA, not enough damage compared to other 1 ammo guns

AK-100 - it has a legacy of being the best gun of 1.15, but that's in the past, now it is merely good.
good rate of fire, clip size
poor accuracy, poor damage
proxy rounds are now bad for damage. don't use proxy rounds against armor.
it's now weak armor pen means 100mm can't punch armor like you want. but it's high rate of fire means it is good against unarmored targets. the high rate of fire means it also utilizes special ammo very well. it is the best at using proxy rounds as AA, it's AP rounds are acceptable.

130mm - the best 1 ammo gun in 1.16. it has the clip, the power, accuracy, and the ammo variants, to make this a MEAN gun in 1.16.
it's ammo piercing ammo is really good, it can piece armor like butter, and just 2 guns is enough to one-shot if used properly. and the story get's better, it's lazer guided rounds are so powerful, they can make even my 2gun 130mm interceptor viable against even strike groups. note: lazer ammo is rare, and AP isn't infinite, use them conservatively. waiting for the clip to fill is useful because you can focus on maneuvering during that time. wait for a good shot on a weak spot and fire!

MK-1-180- This is my problem solver. this will break any armor and melt any ship, 180mm is the best. this is the optimal 180mm gun and arguably the best gun in the game. With a good RoF and no clip, just remember to always keep shooting.
actual RoF: 20RPM (rounds per minute)

MK-2-180- over rated. for the twice the ammo cost of the MK-1-180. this gun has a slower rate of fire. the only benefit of this gun is a clip of 2 instead of 1, while two MK-1-180s also shoot two shots (2x1). this gun is very over-rated.

MK-6-180- the trophy gun. if you have the design skills to integrate it into a ship, and to use it. it is worth the cost. it's basically 6 180mm guns for the price of 4. a full clip of 6 180mm is enough to devastate or kill even the largest ships in the game. guided rounds are strongly recommended, letting you guarantee hits while safely afar.
#2 the toy: it's basically 6 180mm guns for the price of 4. it's the most powerful gun in-game but not worth the cost. it's only good if you can hit with it, and most people can't. better off with 2 MK-1's than a squall. that said, it's a fun toy.
actual RoF: 120RPM

A-220- sounds good doesn't work. for the price of 2 MK-1-180s, you lose a lot of accuracy and rockets aren't that much stronger than 180mm. not worth it

ideal set ups
while more guns is always better. I believe in ideal gun set ups
2x 180mm HE/homing
1x 130mm AP/ proxy
HE/AP for strike fleets, Homing/Proxy for smaller ships (you shouldn't try to kill garrisons with heavy fighters)

ideal stats
thrust/weight: 3.5-4.0
range: 1000-1200km
consumption: minimize. max 750t
Sensors: None
legs: required

gun loadouts
1: 2 180mm and 1 130mm. the 180mm give the pwoer and the 130mm is for proxy rounds or extra damage
2: squall and one minigun. squall for mega damage and the minigun for AA

fighter layers
keep sensitve systems (like explosive ammo) closer to the inside than the outside. in practice, a fighter core should have the bridge and ammo, around that is a layer of fuel, and on the outer most layer should be generators or other non-essential parts. fuel should never be exposed because any shot will burn the fuel.

Engines
like with any small ship, D-30S engines are the best. However, because only the bottom of the ship should be used for engines rather than be armored, you should use gimbal engines

D-30 vs NK-25
thrust vs consumption
Ideally you should never use NK-25's. consumption is king and D-30's are better. But if your agility (thrust/weight) is too low, you can use NK-25s to fix that if you can tolerate the consumption. if that isn't enough, you need to redesign the ship

Missile defenses
Missiles are the biggest threat to any fighter in 1.16. you must have a plan to deal with missles for any of your ships or they'll die in seconds to even the weakest garrisons.
1. maneuverability to dodge: this works great for interceptors, not so much with heavy fighters. this should be your first instinct when seeing missiles.
2. dedicated AA guns: this is more fitting for heavy fighters. at the cost of an extra gun, you can shoot down most missiles, key word most. AA guns are not perfect so make sure your ship can take big hit or two.
3.flares: they don't work.
4. more armor: not worth the fuel cost.


Systems
you actually need more than one generator :( because power controls the rotation speed of guns and gimbal engines, you should have a power supply of 80-100%.
note: there is no evidence to suggest crew% helps in combat so you can still ignore crew requirements

independent or dependent ships
you'll notice I like my ships with +1100 range, but if you had separate fuelers this wouldn't matter. dependant ships must have a fueler to travel, Independent ships can (optionally) travel without a fueler.

the real pros and cons lie with fighters. independent fighters are bigger and more flammable, but have the strategic flexibility to move anytime.

It's a choice, do you want to deal with lots of dedicated fuelers and the possibility your ships can't travel without help. or add a fuel requirement to your ships. there are pros and cons to both,the choice is yours.

How many fighters
in 1.15, I used to have only one heavy fighter. but after the heavy nerf of fighters, I now have to use two. you have to test your designs in the ship builder against medium/large ships until you can reliably defeat enemy fleets. you may need 1-3 heavy fighters

intro
this ship is not meant to kill strike groups, it's meant to kill garrisons, and do it fast.

ideal stats
thrust/weight: maximize. X.X min
speed: 500-520
range: maximize. (1200-2000 independant) (2000-2500 super independant)
consumption: minimize
fuel: 600 max


why these stats?
THRUST/WEIGHT: is the primary defense of any intercepter, not armor, and should be very maneuverable in combat
SPEED: speed is soft capped in 1.16 to roughly 600km/h, I don't know the exact math but any more than 600 and you are wasting fuel. just over 500 is likely ideal. 600 speed is not that important because you'll be conquering so fast, you'll seldom get the opportunity for a silent strike. high speed is mostly a by-product of high thrust/weight
RANGE: this is the most important stat. the ability to move independently without a fueler is vital, and the more range the better
CONSUMPTION: time spent refueling is time not spent conquering. you should be able to take a city, refuel, and move on very quickly. best efficient is subjective, but it is
fuel: this stat can be found in the mass stat in parenthesis (fuel:500)

design questions to ask:
1. how many guns? 1 gun is weak, 2 is moderate, +3 is more like a light/medium fighter than an interceptor
2. how many D-30's? gimbal engines are both necessary for maneuvering but bad for efficiency. 0 gimbals is theoretically ideal, but is usually impractically unmaneuverable. 1 is poor maneuverability but great efficiency. 2 is the ideal, good manuverability, good conumption. +2 gimbals is needlessly maneuverable. any gas-guzzler gimbal engines are generally a bad idea.
3. flares, what do you like? so do you like dodging or flares. some like flares only in the down direction, all directions is very reliable. some are just good at dodging and don't need any. but if you do use them in 1.16, you have to spam them hard in combat. flared are so ineffective in 1.16 but with enough flares, they can still work sometimes
4. palash? [WIP] currently researching/experimenting the real effectiveness of palash. but initial research suggests it is not worth it.
5. Palash! I'm now a massive palash shill! regenerating armor stopping large shells means negligible repair times (<1 hour) at a small size and weight.

Doctrine is the overall strategy of your fleet. what are you trying to do with your fleet? Are you trying to kill of your enemies, or avoid all of your enemies. I like blowing things up, so this Guide will focus on explosions. So how do you want to kill? big guns, big planes or big missiles?

Fighter carrier doctrine
Basic frame work
1. find the enemy
2. big carrier strike
3. send in the fighters

About other doctrines
update 1.16 nerfed fighters hard, that's why I needed planes to compensate. but fighter carrier doctrine is not the only possible doctrine.

missile doctrine is only worth it if you're using nukes. missiles are heavy, harder to find in-game, and unlike planes they never come back. missiles are for late game or for a nuclear run.

jumper doctrine. this is where you get a fuel ship with HUGE range and fly far to a nice city, ignoring everything else in your way. refuel, then keep jumping until you reach Khiva. this is an interesting strat and is preferred in speed runs.

independent or dependent ships
you'll notice I like my ships with +1100 range, but if you had separate fuelers this wouldn't matter. dependant ships must have a fueler to travel, Independent ships can (optionally) travel without a fueler.

the real pros and cons lie with fighters. independent fighters are bigger and more flammable, but have the strategic flexibility to move anytime.

It's a choice, do you want to deal with lots of dedicated fuelers and the possibility your ships can't travel without help. or add a fuel requirement to your ships. there are pros and cons to both,the choice is yours.

early game
1. you have to decide in advance what cities your fleet will take beforehand. mark them on the map and route your fleet to that that and only that path. after reading the short and long term benefits of each city you might be tempted to take every city.

SHORT-TERM
repair by far the most important type of city in the short term. repairing interceptors is time wasted
fuel important when starting the game and as needed. these both sell cheap fuel and more importantly, fuel faster! heavy fuelers and heavy ships take forever to fuel and fuel cities do it 3-10x time faster.

LONG-TERM
rare modules planes and missiles are rare and useful. If you intend on using either, you will need to capture module cities to collect their parts
intel cities show you the nearest SG to the city. you can send ship to go far behind SGs to find SGs behind it

2. make sacrifices for speed
while you could take every city given the pace of this fleet, play-ability is an issue when you're fighting endless garrisons. try to minimize the number of cities you take while having the resources you need to succeed.

3. endgame: spoiler filled!
only read just before you arrive at khiva (80-90% completion)
speed is no longer the goal, territorial control is. you must surround Khiva. draw a 2000km circle around khiva and plan to take everything in that circle. such that you can travel freely throughout the target area
surround the capitol
2000km

scout decoys (missile baiting)
scouts (or anything with a jammer/radar) can reveal itself like a decoy from a safe distance to the missile group and get missiles sent to them. because of the safe distance, the radar warning, scout speed, and the jammer, getting hit by a missile is unlikely. once they run out off missiles you can reveal your real fleet. and attack without worrying about a missile strike from a missile group

missile interception: planes
more reliable than missiles. you can send planes equipped with preferably AA missiles, or even machine guns. if you don't stop the missile the first time, you can try again. the planes will still be near the missile and can strike again immediately if you tell them to (you have to tell them to). because of this, even the less reliable MG loadout has a fair chance to stop a missile. if you are defending against nukes, expect to lose all of your planes when it explodes so send a small AA force (2planes).

missile interception: missiles
none of this has been tested so this options is just probably true. you could intercept a missile with either another missile (preferable A-100) or an airstrike of AA missile equipped planes

tactical defense
the missile has now intercepted you and you now need to brace for impact. take the following steps in this order.

1. pause the game immediately. use this time to understand where the missile is and where it's going, where your ship is and what it can do.
2. fire all anti ship rockets you have by spamming C
3. shoot at the rocket if you can
4. wait to dodge. don't accelerate too early, lest the missile compensate.
5. Pray.

softening
you are sending smaller attacks (of planes, maybe missiles) to weaken the SG so that even a well played intecepter could kill it or the soft attacks could themselves destroy the fleet

2. planes

interceptor attack
1. send in planes
2. send in 2-3 interceptors.
attack the city with only one interceptor and do as much damage without taking (much) damge
3. attack the city and fleet separately and repeatedly until they are both dead

Hard Attack
no softening, kill it now and kill it all!

1. heavy fighters

2. interceptor kiting (save-scumming)- attack a strike group with an interceptor (maybe more than one). save right before you engage. in the battle, kill just one large ship or whatever big fight you can win and then retreat with minimal damage. then right as you leave the battle, save again. fight again and there is your save scum strat. save, fight, save, fight, until you win. high risk but also works well.

• never stop firing. Dead ships don't shoot back
  
• aim for weak points
  
• dodge missiles first
  
• accelerate to dodge missiles, not just speed
  
• ranging: keep your distance. even if you can't hit, they can't hit.
  
• missile manipulation: if a missile is close to friendly-firing another ship, maneuver so the missile does intercept the other enemy ship.
  
• fire maxing: burn your enemies until they have no more FSS (listed on the bottom right). if FSS is zero, you only need to burn them to win. best paired with incendiary ammo, HE works fine
  
• isolate your enemies: try to only fight one ship at a time.
  
• tap fire to aim guns, then burst fire to kill. when dodging mag dump at targets not tap because you should focus on dodging not aiming.
  
• save the weakest ship for last. don't kill the tiny AA ships so there are less brawlers on screen
  
• when in an armored ship. recognize non-threats to your armor. don't bother dodging proxy shells or low caliber shots. focus on dodging high caliber rounds and missiles.
  
• avoid getting cornered: never allow the enemy to have 2 or more ships targeting you. arguably more important than positioning to hit weak points, is not getting shot yourself

always on your mind
1. know your distance and never get cornered
2. dodge missiles first
3. how to aim: aiming should be visualized as adding where you and the target are going. this may be simplified by matching target movement or staying still. keep this visualization in mind only for your current target

4.pause to

tactics
luring

AMMO SWITCHING
AP/HE: AP is for getting a close range kill on armored targets. HE is for long range duels.
AP is only effective at close ranges (two long cross hair lengths) and insta-kills are not guaranteed with AP. if you fail to insta-kill you are likly in serious danger to powerful guns. consider keeping your distance with well aimed HE shots.

Proxy/HE: proxy is good for AA and very weak targets.

Lazer/HE: conserve lazer for high-value targets only.
lazer is the ammo in-game, because you can lazer in on weakpoints, killing very quickly. but it's cost and rarity means it should be conserved. use HE when lazer is not absolutely necessary.

after years of using the boron10 (the tall one), I wanted change. the boron10 had an incredible range at the cost of slow speed. I could go directly to a distant conflict but I would get there in like 9 hours, even if I deploy at max range it's till too long! ~3000km range is enough if it means I can actually arrive in good time.
So I experimented with an asymmetric, all D-30s based carrier, the arrow. I knew it would be faster, but at the cost of consumption, no! speed increased by 40%, but consumption only increased by 1.8%. in another version with 275 speed, the consumption was 315, 20% less.

the change is so extreme I might experiment with using these carriers more aggressively and in larger numbers


the lesson learned is to always use D-30S'.
RD-51's are unjustifiable on anything but titanic ships. Even then, it's not worth it to build ~250kmh ships that spend most of their time fueling.

Link to my ships:
google drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iOEh6LRNP193jr2yCD1EGTabClxENsP7?usp=sharing
new public (updated to august 14 2024): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UoTlsczWLzQcA4KKyVI7cPZO7oC9gP27?usp=drive_link

if there are any issues with the link please let me know

highfleet fleet comp +1.15 is a txt file the google drive. please read it as it includes: the categorized list of ships (carriers, fighters etc.), ship stats listed, exact fleet compositions that I use/used to win

credit to others: the vast majority of these designs are improvements of ships made by others before me. I improved these designs but I credit the original designs to others.

W I P
HE

PROXY

AP

INCENDIARY

GUIDED: very overpowered. this makes very long range kiting a viable tactic again.always a good choice

a237 description - you can hit a rocket 5 times and still get hit. I rage quit on these failed AA

to dev: please stop making the game harder. I had to spend 400 hours trying to over-engineer the game just so I can beat it on easy using infinite money, and every strategy possible.