or he could stay in POTC and still get his legion base drops?

Change of venue: this is now a strategy discussion

Well first of all I can use all that crap I've been saving for "some day", paradox gens, CCMs "saboteur for a day" , Aegis Capacitor, Hyper-Dimensional Anchor (never found the dyson to put it on..). Shockpulse Charger (Uses Left: 872) un-scrappable will finally go away (well that post was ignored, how many ppl have excess of this...). The +20% scan run item on the final scan run (~500 purgers atm) maybe I will find the dyson then as a final laugh ?

I may see many npc that I never saw considering I didn't really do any combat tech the first 100 levels or so (already energy/buildings tech, the pattern was established for missions).

Now... mission strategy. What to do, not to do. I may make this experience into a guide or something later.

Given that I started when the prejor mission chain was ended (last two missions lol).

Three would be on the top of my list to do. The Zolazin/prejoran chain, the pejor chain, and the Octifory chain. (spelling?)

Why all three give something that later game and even earky game help set up for later. The prejor and the zolazin since they both give some boosts (the stryal set of chains being next at least). Those that are said for this give early bonuses that help a lot, when smaller numbers matter.

The octifory chain (which I am ay last now finishing myself at rank 277 even then I have played for over a year lol) is part of a long game set up that trust me even is taking it slow, maxing mining as early as you can will help. Makes playing a slow and then fast (when you get back to where you started) easier. Plus it means you can take from the start those 15 very large toxic and 15+ very large barren knowing that you can scalp them into amazing planets.

Something that either slowing down or a restart would teach you to do.

Mission NPC that might be kept this time:

name -- xp max ratio

Chron Shift Carrier -- 4.00
Drannik Archivist -- ? (75 xp total/matched npc no data)
Rogue Data Analyzer -- 3.77 + 200 RP
The Fornyis -- 3.35
Zolazin (various) -- 3.1 to 4.6 -- can you keep these around, and are they rank adjusted or random ? The Zolazin Revenant is the good XP one.

Giving up Chron shifters I don't care, I never used mine (was to be for a found dyson I never found).
Giving up Drannik chain (if the Archivist ends up being worth its XP) I don't care this time around I will probably be Konqul Excavator since my weapons should be overpowered for some time with boosted research; I can still get 4 of 5 gaia seeds, the rest is worthless.
Giving up RSL relay or whatever after the Vault mission (which I can do 9 of 10 if I wanted to leave analyzer), well it's 3 RP for 3 space, worthless.
Giving up the rest of terran chain for Fornyis, not sure if it's worth it for an uncommon but I don't really need any of the stuff in that chain.
Giving up rest of Zolazin chain for various spawns, depends but they are all better than flamehawks xp. Don't necessarily need the 3rd glaviz device or the 2 NPC slots, but would be nice.

The Chron shifter and the Data Analyzer are definite wins; the lost mission rewards are complete junk to me (as in I still haven't used them). Combined with the ability to not do enough missions to be forced into the tech collector, the final common NPC layout is better.

I would probably reset if I were you. Unless Dan tells you he is going to come out with more features for players of epic high level. I would ask him.

♫ and the science gets done ♫ and we make a neat gun ♫ for the people who are still alive ♫

You could help my legion by sending me exotic matter, that would help my base get to lvl 2.
you could become a Legion base consultant travelling from base to base to help it get good!

You seem to be in high spirits about this reset, Binary. Hey, if it really makes you that happy, more power to ya, man! If you do decide to hit that game-altering button, good luck to ya.

there should be a special bonus to resetting at high levels

I think you should get almost only artifacts. Only research and get decks for scan and/or cloak and improve everything else with artifacts. It would be a small ship build that works at higher levels. Your research could come from scientists and you'd have almost no upkeep. Your damage cap would be as low as possible and you could still be a really high level with attack growing faster than anyone elses from tactical officers and defense growing faster than anyone else's with android helmsmen. Your shields and hull would grow faster than anyone else. You could use ship-bots up to a point. You would probably want enough engineers to auto-level still but you could start using tactical officers in conjunction with that to get more NPC kills each level and thus more terraformers each level. Keeping your level low would actually matter when it determines your damage cap. If you can keep base contributions and get people to recycle planets for you, you could make a ridiculous ship. I wouldn't try to keep the good XP NPCs around because they detract from the number of terraformers you get each level in at least one way, if not more.