There are multiple modes for you to play in Slipways, but you need to first complete the Standard Run mode and finish it with enough stars to unlock many of them. Your score reflects how many stars you’ll receive at the end, and those stars allow you to unlock more game modes. We’ve played several rounds to find out some of the better approaches that you should consider when attempting to reach the end of the game with the highest score.
There are multiple scoring factors that account for your final rating at the end of a Slipways game. These are the things to keep in mind while you play, and what you should to increase your score.
- How many Prosperous, Successful, and Established planets you have
- The size of your Empire
- How many tasks you’ve completed, and how many are still pending at the end of a game
- Your overall Empire Happiness
- Modifying quirks
The first portion of creating powerful planets is to ensure each one is properly taken care of before spreading yourself too thin. By creating an Established planet, your Empire generates no negative or positive happiness, and that’s a good start. When your colonies become Successful and Prosperous, you receive more benefits, boosting your Empire’s happiness and keeping you in office. If you lose too much happiness, you’ll be voted out, losing the game. Happiness is an important part of remaining in Slipways, but having a boosted amount gives you extra points at the end.
The size of your Empire will grow as you acquire additional planets. The large your Empire and the happier your citizens are as you expand, the more points you receive. Expanding is also a key factor for your happiness because if you expand too much, your happiness will tank, potentially causing you to lose.
When you do begin to expand at the start of the game, you’ll have a pair of tasks presented to you by the chosen councilors you picked out before you started. Each of them presents with you tasks that reflect their research and how they play, so you should have an idea of what their tasks will be, and they should directly benefit you for completing. You can only choose two of the three tasks. Once you complete all of these tasks, another pair will be shown to you. If you still need to complete tasks at the end of the game, you’ll lose more points.
As we mentioned previously, your Empire’s happiness is critical to keeping your citizens eager to continue expanding and working throughout your Empire. You can increase your Empire’s happiness by upgrading colonies to the Successful and Prosperous stages. Having Established colonies is important too. These colonies do not generate positive happiness, but they’re also not generating anything negative.
The final thing you can do to increase your score is to have negative quirks on your Standard Run. You can randomly pick these quirks before you start your game when you’re choosing what sector of the galaxy you want to play. There are positive quirks, but those lower your score. The negative quirks make the game more difficult, but they increase your score at the end.
It can be difficult to find the correct balance to find the best way to complete your score. Keeping an eye on your Empire’s expansion is important, but remaining too small and focusing on positive happiness won’t advance you either.
