One thing that is important to stress before I begin is that Drox Operative is a game where equipment modules matter more than stats. Stats are useful inasmuch as they can influence what kind of modules you can use and which ones work more effectively than others.

Drox Operative offers a diversity of viable tactics for victory while still offering a satisfying challenge. As such, I'm not interested in showing you the "best" way to play, but rather, to help you to determine which races and stat allocations allow you play in a way you will find the most fun. I don't consider it my business to tell you have to have a good time, so I'm not my intent is to be informative rather than opinionated or prescriptive.

There are two main strategies on attack and defense. One revolves around DPS, the other around evasion and critical hits. Most races are built to be good at two of these four things, mediocre at one and terrible at one.

DPS and Regen

Burst DPS involves doing lots of damage at once. Tactical-focused builds do this the best.

Sustained DPS involves doing more damage over a longer period of time. Engineering-focused builds do this the best.

The Regen defensive strategy relies on being able to regenerate shields and/or armor faster than your enemy can wear them down. Engineering-focused builds do shield regen the best, Structural-focused builds do armor regen the best.

Accuracy and Evasion

Attack - The attack stat buffs your Accuracy, increasing the probability of hits causing damage to your enemies and how much bonus damage critical hits will cause. Improve your DPS by stacking equipment with buffs to critical hit chance.

Defense - The defense stat buffs Evasion, reducing the chance of enemies being able to hit you and the amount of damage caused by critical hits from enemies.

Resistances

Finally, there are Resistances, which Mitigate particular kinds of damage. Some modules are dedicated to increasing resistance to a specific kind of damage, but you will mostly get this as a random bonus from rare modules.

Tactical - Required to use weapons, gives bonuses to damage.

Purely Offensive stat.
Everyone needs Tactical unless they're playing a dedicated pacifist build.

Helm - Required for Drives and Thrusters to make your ship more mobile, gives bonuses to defense.

Defense/Mobility Stat.
Helm is essential for players relying on Evasion based defenses. Everyone will need some points in Helm in order to use drives that give their ship an acceptable degree of mobility.

Structural - Required for Armor and damage control, gives bonuses to structure.

Purely Defensive stat.
Structure is required in order to use Armor Tanking. Armor has less impact on Power Load than Shields and can occupy either medium and heavy slots, but requires a Damage Control module in order to regenerate.

Engineering - Required for Shields, Power Plants, Solar Panels and Batteries, gives bonuses to energy and energy regen.

Offensive/Defensive stat.
With the exception of a few exotic builds, Engineering is essential to everyone because increasingly powerful equipment has a greater power load requirement. Shields regenerate faster than Armor, but have higher power load requirements and always need Medium slots.

Computers - Required for Computers, Radars, ECM & Sensors, gives bonuses to attack.

Offensive/Defensive stat.
The buffs to attack and defense granted by Computers aren't essential, but combat without them can become frustrating as enemies become more difficult to hit.

Command - Gives you access to bigger ships.

Offensive/Defensive stat.
Bigger ships can take more damage and fit more modules, but suffer penalties to speed, maneuverability and defense. As such, if you intend on upgrading your Command rating, it is wise to put some points aside for Helm at the same time.

引用自 Soldak Entertainment：

Human:

Crew Bonus: +3 Tactical and +2 Computers
Attribute Bonus: +30% damage mult per Tactical point and +20% attack per Computers point
Race Component Slots: Mine, Computer Boost, and Human Crew

• Strengths: Humans have the unique ability to overwhelm both regen and evasion based defenses.
  
• Weaknesses: Mediocre at defense, terrible at Regen.
  
• Suitable Playstyle: Sniper - Use weapons with a slow firing rate, but high damage and DPS.
  Take out your foes with your first shot.

引用自 Soldak Entertainment：

Dryad:

Crew Bonus: +3 Structural and +2 Engineering
Attribute Bonus: +30% structure per Structural point, +20% energy per Engineering point, and +20% energy regen per Engineering point
Race Component Slots: Damage Control, Shield Regen Boost, and Dryad Crew

• Strengths: Best in the game at Regen defense. Good at Sustained DPS.
  
• Weaknesses: Terrible at Burst DPS, Accuracy and Evasion.
  Watch out for component damage - your structure regenerates but your components do not!
  
• Suitable Playstyle: Endure and Outlast - Nullify enemy DPS with regen defenses and keep up a steady stream of return fire to slowly but surely out-DPS your enemy.

引用自 Soldak Entertainment：

Utopian:

Crew Bonus: +5 Computers
Attribute Bonus: +50% attack per Computers point
Race Component Slots: Computer, Computer Active Boost, and Utopian Crew

• Strengths: Best in the game at Accuracy, good at evasion.
  
• Weaknesses: Medicore at DPS, poor at Regen.
  
• Suitable Playstyle: Battlefield Surgeon - Stack critical damage chance and favour weapons with a high fire rate to maximise your chance of landing devastating critical hits.

引用自 Soldak Entertainment：

Fringe:

Crew Bonus: +3 Engineering and +2 Tactical
Attribute Bonus: +20% damage mult per Tactical point, +30% energy per Engineering point, and +30% energy regen per Engineering point
Race Component Slots: Power Plant and Fringe Crew

• Strengths: Best in the game at sustained DPS.
  
• Weaknesses: Medicore regen, terrible accuracy and evasion.
  
• Suitable Playstyle: Danmaku - Suppress your foes by filling the sky with a hail of bullets.

引用自 Soldak Entertainment：

Hive:

Crew Bonus: +3 Structural and +2 Helm
Attribute Bonus: +20% defense per Helm point and +30% structure per Structural point
Race Component Slots: Missile Defense, Thrust Boost, and Hive Crew

• Strengths: Good at Evasion and Armor Tanking.
  
• Weaknesses: Terrible at DPS and Accuracy.
  
• Suitable Playstyle: The Pacifist - Focus on diplomacy, subterfuge and trading rather than combat.

引用自 Soldak Entertainment：

Drakk:

Crew Bonus: +3 Helm and +2 Tactical
Attribute Bonus: +20% damage mult per Tactical point and +30% defense per Helm point
Race Component Slots: Fighter and Drakk Crew

• Strengths: Good Burst DPS and Evasion.
  
• Weaknesses: Bad accuracy and Regen.
  
• Suitable Playstyle: Hit and Run - He who fights, then runs away, lives to fight another day!
  The Carrier - Crush your foes with superior numbers! (watch out for mines and EMP)

引用自 Soldak Entertainment：

Lithosoid:

Crew Bonus: +5 Structural
Attribute Bonus: +50% structure per Structural point
Race Component Slots: Armor and Lithosoid Crew

• Strengths: Best armor tankers in the game.
  
• Weaknesses: Terrible at DPS, Accuracy and Evasion.
  
• Suitable Playstyle: Extreme Tank - Get a damage control unit and focus on having a huge amount of armor points.

引用自 Soldak Entertainment：

Cortex:

Crew Bonus: +3 Engineering and +2 Computers
Attribute Bonus: +30% energy per Engineering point, +30% energy regen per Engineering point, and +20% attack per Computers point
Race Component Slots: Battery, Shield Active Boost, and Cortex Crew

• Strengths: A potential "Jack of All Trades" Good Accuracy, Shield Regen and Sustained DPS.
  
• Weaknesses: Trying to manage 3 strategies simultaneously instead of 2 can leave you too mediocre across the board to be viable in any of them.
  
• Suitable Playstyle: The Strategist - Take down enemies through planning, preparation and inventory management.

引用自 Soldak Entertainment：

Shadow:

Crew Bonus: +3 Computers and +2 Helm
Attribute Bonus: +20% defense per Helm point and +30% attack per Computers point
Race Component Slots: Cloaking, Explosion Resistance, and Shadow Crew

• Strengths: Best evasion tanks in the game. Good Accuracy.
  
• Weaknesses: Mediocre DPS, Poor regen.
  
• Suitable Playstyle: Cloak and dagger - Use the cloak to fight enemies on your own terms and stack critical chance buffs to improve your DPS.

引用自 Soldak Entertainment：

Brunt:

Crew Bonus: +5 Tactical
Attribute Bonus: 50% damage mult per Tactical point
Race Component Slots: Missile and Brunt Crew

• Strengths: Best Burst DPS in the game.
  
• Weaknesses: Terrible Accuracy, Evasion and Regen.
  
• Suitable Playstyle: Alpha Strike - Take out enemies with one devastating barrage.
  Married to the Missile - For players who only have two weapon types they like (and one of them is missiles), focus on them and put more points into engineering/structure/computers to improve your staying power in combat.

This guide contains extracts from the Drox Operative Manual[www.soldak.com]. These sections remain the intellectual property of Soldak Entertainment. These extracts have been used with the written permission of Steven Peeler of Soldak Entertainment for non-commercial educational purposes only.