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There are several factions in Starsector which the player can interact with. By default, all factions are neutral to the player except the pirates and the Luddic Path, who start as hostiles.

Gameplay

Each faction operates one or more markets, which can be a planet, a station, or a planet with associated station. Markets spawn fleets and allow trading with the player or other factions.

Relationship tiers

Each faction has a defined relationship with the player and other factions. The default, neutral stance allows basic interactions such as trade with the faction. A more positive relationship will give a range of bonuses including reduced customs tolls, reduced chances of investigations into criminal activity, and access to military markets. Conversely, increasingly negative relations will result in hostile behaviour. The breakpoints values need to be exceeded; e.g. a relation of 51 to be Friendly. The relationship tiers are:

  • (75) Cooperative
  • (50) Friendly
  • (25) Welcoming
  • (10) Favorable
  • (-9 to 9) Neutral
  • (-10) Suspicious
  • (-25) Inhospitable: The faction's markets will not permit the player fleet to dock, although players can still trade with the local black market by sneaking in with the transponder off.
  • (-50) Hostile: Faction fleets will attack the player or affected faction.
  • (-75) Vengeful

Modifying reputation

The following player actions will raise reputation:

  • Trading with the faction
  • Joining ongoing battles on the faction's side
  • Fulfilling faction bounties
  • Turning over AI Cores (only for factions that will accept them)
  • If reputation is negative but not too low and hasn't been lowered lately, it will rise again after a while

The following player actions will lower reputation:

  • Smuggling
    • Smuggling to the point of destabilizing the market
  • Trading with the faction's enemies, in systems where the faction has a presence (exception: pirates, you can trade with enemies of the pirates without penalty)
  • Being caught with the transponder off
  • Being caught tampering with a Comm Relay
  • Destroying faction ships or harrying their fleets (causes instant hostile status if player identity is known)
  • Pursuing fleeing faction fleets

Note that most actions will not modify the player's reputation beyond a certain point.

Commissions

The Hegemony, Tri-Tachyon, Luddic Church, Persean League, and Sindrian Diktat offer faction commissions.

Commissions will be cancelled by the faction if player relations with them drop to Suspicious or lower reputation level.

  • Resigned, which partially restores reputation with hostile factions and drops reputation with the now former commissioned faction.
  • Reputation penalty for resigning is lower if done in person via station contacts.

Factions that do not issue commissions do not require one to make purchases on the military submarket.

Perks:

  • Immediate +5 Reputation bonus
  • You get monthly stipends of 20,000 + (player level*1,500) credits
  • You get paid with a permanent (yet small) bounty for destroying each ship from the faction's enemy fleet
    • The amount multiplies for larger vessels (2x for destroyer, 3x for cruisers, 5x for capitals and stations)
  • You get access to most of non-basic weapons and ships on that factions' military submarkets
    • More advanced ships & weapons gets unlocked as player grow relationship with your faction commissioner.

Drawbacks:

  • Attacking a fleet that your faction aren't at war with will result in a reputation drop and may cause them to go to war
  • All of the faction's enemy will become hostile at a maximum -50 rep you whenever they are at war
  • During peace, the reputation will return to its previous value but with additional -20 rep penalty.
  • Eventually, your reputation with rival faction will eventually drop to a -25 rep limit even when they are not at war
  • Most rival faction will no longer allow you to dock in their shipyard due to this

Faction hostilities

At times, factions will declare war on each other for six months to a year, attacking each others' fleets. If the player holds a commission with either faction, they will be automatically made hostile to the other faction; their reputation with the enemy will be restored to the original value minus 20 once hostilities end.

List of factions


Domain

Flag of the Domain

The Domain of Man

The Domain was a galaxy-spanning polity which also ruled the Sector, until contact was lost when the gates shut down during the Collapse. All technology – ships, weapons, etc. – are just modifications of what it left behind.

The Domain as a faction doesn't appear in the game, as it's extinct in the Persean Sector.


Hegemony-1

Hegemony

Main article: Hegemony

The Hegemony is a militarized polity that arose after the Collapse, considering itself the successor to the Domain. They use primarily low-tech ships.


Luddic church

Luddic Church

Main article: Luddic Church

The religious movement of the Luddic Church blame technology for humanity's ills and thus their most hated enemy is the technologically advanced Tri-Tachyon Corporation.


Luddic path

Luddic Path

Main article: Luddic Path

A radical Luddic splinter group that views the mainstream Church as too weak and compromising, and seeks to destroy ungodly technology through violent force. They attack almost anyone else they cross, using their specially modified ships.


Persean league-0

Persean League

Main article: Persean League

A large alliance of planets opposed to the Hegemony. They use primarily midline ships.


Sindrian diktat

Sindrian Diktat

Main article: Sindrian Diktat

The Sindrian Diktat is a military dictatorship in the Askonia Star System, and a major producer of fuel.


Tritachyon

Tri-Tachyon

Main article: Tri-Tachyon

The Tri-Tachyon Corporation is a small but technologically sophisticated faction. It is heavily involved in AI research, leading to conflicts with the Hegemony and the Luddic Church.


Neutral traders

Independent

Main article: Independent

The independents are a loose collection of neutral planets and stations scattered across the Sector. Their ranks include smugglers, independent trade convoys, and mercenary patrols.


Pirates

Pirates

Main article: Pirates

The Pirates are an enemy to the player and all other factions, and will attack whenever they get the opportunity. They hold several planets and stations across various star systems in the Sector.


Minor factions

A number polities and organizations are mentioned in the lore but do not exist as discrete factions in the game. These include:

  • Altair Exotech - Competitive shipwrights, Designed the "Cruiser School" ships like the Champion, Heron, Vigilance, and Gryphon. Destroyed after the Collapse.
  • Askonian polity - The original nation that ruled Askonia. Their capital was Opis. The polity collapsed in Cycle 182 during the Askonia Crisis, when Opis was destroyed with a Planet Killer by the Hegemony trying to annex the system. The remnants formed the Askonian Revolutionary Council that governs Umbra, while the Hegemony admiral Philip Andrada turned rogue and took over Askonia, forming the Sindrian Diktat. Called ARCists or Antis by the Sindrian Diktat.
  • Bhilai Astra Group - Domain-era manufacturer of heavy weapons and a key supplier to the 200th Legion. They were the original designers of the Ion Pulser and its enhanced sibling, the Ion Beam. Also known as the Bhilai Space Group or Bhilai Exospace. Survived the Collapse as a fragment serving the Hegemony Navy.
  • Eridani-Utopia Terraforming Corporation - A Domain-era corporation that focused on surveying and terraforming planets to make them suitable for humans. Builders of the Garnir Extraction Depot in Corvus, Kapteyn Starworks in Isirah and designers of the Stellar Mirrors and Stellar Shades. Creators of Autonomous Mantle Bore and Soil Nanites. Its subsidiaries in the Persean Sector collapsed after the Collapse, with some of the remnants settling on Qaras.
  • Exodyne Biotech - Domain-era corporation who created the Biofactory Embryo. Post-Collapse status unknown.
  • Fabrique Orbitale - Domain-era corporation and an old rival of Tri-Tachyon. Creators of the Kite shuttle, the Orbital Fusion Lamp, the Fullerene Spool, the Plasma Dynamo, and designers of the Terminator Drone's chassis and systems. Destroyed after the Collapse.
  • GA-X Industries - Manufacturers of the Assault Chaingun. Post-Collapse status unknown.
  • Huan-Gogel Autofab (HGA) - Built various ships, such as the Starliner, Nebula and Mudskipper. Also credited to have manufactured two kinds of combat drones, the Defender and the Bastillon. Survived after the Collapse.
  • Interstellar Dynamics - Domain-era corporation. Destroyed after the Collapse.
  • Ko Combine - Domain-era industrial corporation with a post-collapse presence. Creators of the civilian drone tender Shepherd, the experimental Monitor frigate, the Catalytic Core, and the Combat Drone Replicators. The Free Star Combine, a subsidiary of the Ko Combine, purchased the rediscovered Mark IX Autocannon blueprints and built a prototype. Purchased the administration rights to barren world Agreus in the Arcadia Star System, rebuilding their fortune on shipbreaking and reconstruction.
  • Mayasuran Terraforming Cabal - A once powerful polity that originally ruled the Mayasura system. It collapsed in Cycle 82, when the Luddic Path devastated Mairaath and the Hegemony temporarily annexed them. Currently part of the Persean League.
  • Maxios Charter - The original government of the Magec system. It ceased to exist five years after the Collapse, when Maxios' terraforming failed and the planet became a barren rock. The survivors fled to a mining station in the Guayota Disk and re-organized as Nova Maxios.
  • Mbaye-Gogol - Creator of the Dealmaker Holosuite. Post-Collapse status unknown.
  • Orion Shipyards - Traditional builders of the heavier Armada ships of the Domain navy. Designers of the Drover. Had a rivalry with Altair Exotech in naval procurement. Post-Collapse status unknown.


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