What would be the best strat:

Stay under 20 with hacking constantly + research for resource gathering (gonna have 9 days or so to spare) so that I have a solid footing?

Punch through 20 as fast as poss.

Just as a background on what I have been doing:
Battles 8 (Beginner)
Player Kills 0
Deaths from Players 3
Non-Player Kills 1
Planets Found 17
Planets Occupied 4
Planets Captured 0
Missions Completed 60
Scans Performed 20
Successful Hacks 62
Successful Raids 0

How good are your four planets? I've seen beginning players build a lot of space-consuming non-productive stuff on planets no one would want to take from them anyway. While I realize that in the beginning it's sometimes necessary to colonize the best that you can find and you may not find very much, just because you read that other players steal planets doesn't mean that yours are automatically targets just because they exist.

I've seen recommendations here for people to only put offensive/defensive/cloak structures on planets if the planet is at least Large and Rich. Also, the recommendation is that you should cloak the planet well before installing shields/minefields/etc. There's a low-level artifact you can get that will tell you if anyone else has already scanned your planet. If no one has, the heavy cloak is your best option, since all the defense in the world won't stop your planet from being taken if someone wants it.

In practice (as opposed to the above recommendations, which came from higher-level people), you should probably worry about planets that are at least Average and Rich, or Large and Extremely Abundant.

In terms of advice, I suggest you just do what you enjoy and don't worry about it. If you're enjoying battles, then keep battling without looking at the XP involved. If you enjoy quests, likewise. But I do think you should join a legion (if you haven't already) at least as you pass the 20 threshold (but not one of the 1 or 2 member ones, and don't start your own 1-member legion either), because this gives a flag to wannabe invaders that you will fight for any contested planet's ownership if attacked. Right now I'm going around scooping up decent enemy planets that are not in a legion (and I'll bet others are too).

First off, thank you for replying. Here goes nothing.

My four planets are nothing special I have one massive gas and 3 others. 2 are research and 1 of each mineral and artifact.

Currently at 70 research/hr, 29 (or so) minerals/hr and 25 (or so) artifact/hr. This is at rank 14 with no exotics, dysons, icys or any other awesomely awesome planet (only 2 days played).

Since I still have beginner protection I have no defensive anything so I can maximize the benefit while it lasts, which of course will change prior to losing it.

I enjoy the hacking thing and being able to cloak myself high enough for other lowbies to not see me unless I appear in their news feed. I do not know however how the game mechanic will change at or about 20. Whether or not that is still a viable way to play or if its kind of a road to nowhere. However I also like min/maxing. I want to be the best, however that needs to happen. So if my playstyle must change then so be it. I dont care.

Gam

What you have built on the planet is of little concern to whomever might want to steal it . What a planet-stealer is looking for is Size and Production. Not YOUR production, but the planetary production, which you didn't mention. As in Very Sparse, Sparse, Average, Abundant, etc. If you have a Massive planet that only has Sparse research, for instance, no one is going to steal it, ever.



You know the 20 level exemption only applies to your planets, right? Not your ship. So you will be the same as you are now so far as your ship is concerned. The only thing that will change is that other people can try to invade your planets. This isn't as common as it can sound on these boards, because before anyone can invade your planet, they have to find it first. Usually this means they just scanned it and it showed up as an enemy planet. You can get an artifact that will tell you if anyone has scanned one of your planets in this way yet (the level 20 exemption only applies to invasion, not finding the planet in the first place). If not, the best defense is to cloak the planet (you research planet cloaks at the same time you research ship cloaks so you should be well on the way). If you don't have anything terribly fancy, the high-levels won't bother you for it, so the only people you'd be protecting your planets from are those under level 100 (probably well under level 100) anyway. If someone hacks you for a planet, they will first need to score a critical hack and then they will have to ALSO manage to discover one of your four nice planets and not one of the ones you passed up. Those aren't very good odds, which is why the most common method of discovery is just via a regular planetary scan. And if you are running as a hacker anyway, then you are likely difficult for others in your Rank range to hack in the first place.

Feel free to describe your planets in detail; it won't make them any easier for others to find.



A guy on the Hack Leaderboard posts here as "Spoonyjack" ("Baltar" on the Leaderboard). Here is his advice to another player on how the game mechanic changes for hacking with level: http://galaxylegion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1806

Barren Average Mining: Abundant
Barren Very Large Mining: Abundant
Gas Massive Research: Abundant
Volcanic Very Large Mining: Abundant

Like I said, nothing too special... but its the best scouted so far. I will be a bit more picky now that I have a trickle of income.

I don't think you have anything to worry about in terms of your planets getting invaded at this point.

But like I said in my first post, be sure to join a legion if you haven't already. I'm considering all legionless planets to be owned by people who have abandoned the game and I'm sure other players are too.