Belters

ALLEGOPEDIA
About	History
FACTIONS
Belters	Bios
Dreghklar	Ga'Taraan
GigaCorp	Iron Coalition
Omicron Hive	Rixian Unity
Technoflux	Draconium
Phoenix	Valkyrie
SHIPS
Buying Ships
Small Class
Eject Pod	Interceptor
Fighter	Scout
Stealth Fighter	Other Small Ships
Medium Class
Bomber	Fighter Bomber
Gunship	Stealth Bomber
Troop Transport	Other Medium Ships
Capital Class
Assault Ship	Attack Carrier
Battlecruiser	Battleship
Corvette	Cruiser
Destroyer	Devastator
Freighter	Frigate
	Other Capital Ships
Ship Equipment
Dispenser Items	Missiles
Weapons	Other Equipment
AI Drone Ships
Carrier	Caltrop
Constructor	Miner
Tower	Other Drones
BASES
Buying Bases
Minor Bases
Outpost	Refinery
Teleport Receiver	Other Minor Bases
Special Bases
Garrison	Shipyard
Technology Bases
Expansion Complex	Supremacy Center
Tactical Laboratory	Other Tech Bases

Abbreviation: Belts

The Belters - a loose collection of independent traders, prospectors, pirates, and privateers - share a common belief: that freedom from tyranny is the right of all humanity. Belters are a rough-hewn, unruly bunch of borderline anarchists. Led by unlikely hero Orion Sholes, the Belters pilot an odd mix of captured and jury-rigged equipment: the "Junkyard Armada."

The Belters' junkyard orientations give them most of their unique qualities. Their biggest strategic advantage is their ability to use (almost) any technology without the corresponding techbase. This makes it very important for their pilots to scavenge as much technology as possible after a battle, because as soon as it's secured then everyone on the team can use it. As opposed to, for instance, an Iron Coalition pilot who secures minigun2, his team must wait until an expansion complex is built before their minigun1s are upgraded.

Another aspect of their junkyard technology is their ability to continue constructing ships after losing a techbase. Once researched enhanced fighters, stealth fighters, and interceptors will remain available for the rest of the game. Note that the advanced versions of the ship do require the techbase to stay alive. This makes a belter team incredibly resilient - after losing a techbase they can still fly Mk-II ships and use Mk-II and Mk-III weapons on them!

Their final major unique quality is their ability to mix-and-match weapons on their ships. Normally fighters can only mount fighter weapons, and interceptors can only mount interceptor weapons. With belters, anything goes. In fact, (nearly) all of their small ships can mount the nanite repair system, making them incredibly useful in nearly every situation.

The draw backs are slow research time of four minutes, their expensive costs for researching technology (however new ship types can be researched cheaply) and their poorly engineered ships. Their approach to building ships is simple - weld some metal together. Their ships are clunky craft with large hitboxes which are very easy for the enemy to shoot. To offset this the belters weld extra armour plates every single ship, and have managed to attach booster rockets to nearly every small and medium class ship for extra maneuverability. Even with boosters, belter ships handle like a sluggish brick because of all the extra mass in the armour.

Furthermore belters have never mastered small shield technology and all small class ships lack shields. This is somewhat offset by their extra hitpoints and their ability to carry nans to repair each other. However this lack of shields, coupled with their bad handling mentioned earlier, makes the belters an unpopular choice for many new players.

Their final major drawback is their poor economy. Their miners have lower capacity and an incredibly slow mining speed. On the other hand they have a better He3 yield meaning they get more money from stripping a sector - but only if you can keep them alive the long time they need to work!

Their cheap construction policies continue to their techbases. Incredibly cheap to produce, a belters team can quickly spread across the map with solid technological stations which are much tougher for the enemy to eliminate. Coupled with their ability to maintain technology from lost technological stations and incredible versatility in ship loadout, Belter pilots generally have a very large array of choice for their ships and equipment.

After finding rescue probe technology in Coalition space, Belters attempted to replicate the technology. They succeeded and pilots in eject pods can indeed use those probes to be quickly sent back to the nearest station. However Belter scientists did not succeed in creating specificity in the probe and thus belter rescue probes work for every other faction. This means Belter pilots are instructed to be particularly careful in laying them around, hiding them to be sure that the enemy cannot take advantage of them. The religious beliefs of the Belters led them to name this technology a "sanctuary".

Belters Information taken from CC_03. Starting ship(s) Scout Fighter

Faction statistics

Health		Ships		Weapons		Economy
Ship hull[1]	105%	Top speed	115%	EW range	100%	Starting money	100%
Ship shield	100%	Acceleration	100%	PW range	100%	Payday	$450
Ship shield repair	100%	Turn rate	105%	PW damage	100%	Mining speed	60%
Station hull	100%	Torque	110%	Missile tracking	100%	Miner capacity	80%
Station shield	100%	Sensors	100%	Missile damage	100%	He3 yield	125%
Station hull repair	100%	Signature[2]	100%	Energy	100%	Research time	4 minutes
Station shield repair	100%	Ripcording[3]	100%			Research costs	125%

1  ·	Standard ship hull is 90%.

2  ·	Note that ship signature is divided by this number, so a higher number is better.

3  ·	Note that ripcord time is divided by this number, so a higher number is better.

Faction unique traits

• Salvagers:
  • Can use any tech that is researched or salvaged, whether or not the corresponding techbase is alive.
  • Can replicate other factions unique technology, such as Technoflux's particle-energy weapons.
  • Belter ships can carry a variety of weapons and equipment normally available to only a single type of ship. For example the belter interceptor can mount dumbfire missiles.
  • Scouts, stealth fighters, stealth bombers, fighter bombers carry booster. Bombers can mount light booster.
• Workers, not thinkers:
  • 4 minute research time.
  • New ship equipment is expensive to research.
  • New ship designs are cheap to research.
  • Bases are cheaper to construct (-20%).
• Unsophisticated engineering:
  • No small shield available.
  • Extra hitpoints for most ships (in addition to the faction-wide buffs listed above).
  • Heavier, boxier ships.
  • Once researched, can use Mk II ships whether or not the corresponding techbase is alive.
• Unique ship the omni fighter is available.
  • A fighter class ship capable of mounting any equipment available to any small ship.

Ideal settings

• Due to their cheap techbases and ship technology belters can survive on lower money settings quite easily, however the commander will need to rely on his pilots salvaging tech as he will struggle to afford researching it.
• Higher money settings will allow belters to tech up quicker, dual or triple tech, or techbase spam for map control.
• Plentiful settings will help you spam techbase cons, be wary of going against Giga though.
• Turning treasures 'off' will hamstring belters severely, as they will not be able to get 'free' tech.

Faction strategies

• Bombing
  • Belter bombers are tanks. They are faster, have more hitpoints, more mass (making them difficult to ram off course) and mount light booster for speed bursts in a pinch.
  • Furthermore with every pilot being able to carry a nan their bomb runs are much more durable, because the escorting nans won't be weak scouts but tough fighters or heavy interceptors.
  • With every nan also mounting a booster the speeds the bomber can be rammed up to are staggering, with good squads consistently getting it to go a steady 200mps.
  • If the belters team pursues sup with its AC2/3 and ship hull upgrades they can even take on heavy interceptors.
  • If the team pursues exp then the hvy int can mount nan. A nan-train made up of 5-8 hvy ints is the toughest thing in the game to take down.
  • If the team goes tac then their stealth fighters have enough reserve energy that they can cloak as they nan, making it impossible for the defenders to spot and kill them as they repair the bomber.
• Frigate rush
  • Purchase a tech base for 8K, then immediately get a shipyard. One relatively cheap medium class payment away and you have a frigate that can use nerve gas to capture a base.
• HTT rush
  • With good Belter settings and a proper econ you can get HTTs by the 15 minute mark. As noted in the bombing section, the belter heavy int makes an excellent nan. It makes an even better rammer with its booster.
  • The key to getting the HTT so quickly to partial invest TT, Adv EXP, Int and Sig 1 GA all at the same time. Belters have a 240 second research time, so it doesn't need to finish research off immediately start with cheaper tech first, and put little increments into expensive tech.
  • If your pilots are smart and don't try to dogfight with their interceptors (they are the worst ints in the game) but concentrate on using their dumbfires to spike enemy miners and bombers, then you'll be fine until you get advanced tech up.
  • If that doesn't work then you should easily be able to multi-tech - with both yield GAs from the expansion you'll be pulling in 150% credits from the same amount of He3.
• Multi-teching
  • Belters techbases are so incredibly cheap that the only time a good Belter commander loses is when there are no tech rocks left on the map.
  • The cheap tech bases makes going dual or Omni tech very easy, even if you don't plan on getting anything from the base aside from the GA's, it is almost still worth it. The key that will make or break Belters, is the amount of tech your team picks up. If items like DF2, Nan2, Boost2, Mini2 and Gatt2 are brought in, you will save a lot of time and money. Belters should never have to buy Mark II tech.

See also

• Belter storyline
• Belters - pictures