In my [previous post](https://www.steemace.io/nextcolony/@culgin/finally-discovered-my-fifth-planet-on-nextcolony-a-guide-on-exploration) on [NextColony](https://nextcolony.io), I was celebrating the discovery of my 5th planet. As I previously mentioned, the chances of finding a planet on each exploration trip is a mere 1%.  Hence, I did not expect that I will be writing about NextColony so soon. 

However, to my pleasant surprise, I discovered my 6th planet yesterday! Though this is not my first rare planet, it is my first rare **Atmosphere** planet.

<center>![nextcolony.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmaDQbVpwMcv3r6MyZd2h8TiXXUKZef59V1BhevbJ8aNi8/image.png)</center>

After discovering my 5th planet, my strategy has been to send all my exploration missions from it. Hence, I was transferring all my explorers to it. This 6th planet was found in the first mission I sent from my fifth planet and they are right beside each other!

<center>![planets.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmZBTCybv3rNKzEaaKfMtiQdS1W3x4iSagYcsRVwkYtbRa/image.png)</center>

---

## Skills

So in my previous post, I said that I will talk about the topic on Skills when I next post about NextColony. So here goes.

Skills are broken down into 4 main categories and they influence what you can do in the game. Essentially, there is almost nothing much you can do in the game if you do not level up your skills. Hence, they are very important. 

Learning skills consume a huge deal of time and resources, but the saving grace is that you just need to learn them once and they will be applied to all your planets. E.g. Learning the "Coal Mine" building skill to level 20 will allow you to construct buildings to level 20 on all your planets.

#### Building Skills

The first category of skills are the "Building Skills". The level of building that you can construct is limited by the corresponding skill level. Having a level 5 "Coal Mine" building skill will allow you to build up to a level 5 coal mine. A level 10 "Uranium Mine" building skill will allow you to build up to a level 10 uranium mine. And so on.

<center>![building skills.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmQeJgSAs5u1xEbUFeAwmkJGkAAE1n5mAYgy7g46QMRM1K/image.png)</center>

#### Research Skills

"Research Skills" is a name that I find rather misleading. Intuitively, I will think that these are skills that are related to how fast I can do my research. Perhaps leveling up these skills will allow me to learn other skills faster. However, that is not the case in this game.

Research skills are skills that enhance your buildings. As you can see from the screenshot below, these skills either increase your output or your building capacity in some ways.

![research skills.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmdFUzKbrBSoaDaBtRPwjBm7pivepq2iMnNgqCXtWTz7Sq/image.png)

#### Ship Skills

Next up, we have "Ship Skills". These skills are similar to building skills in which leveling them up will allow you to build ships. However, in the case of ships, you need to level them up to 20 in order to be able to build the corresponding ships. E.g. In order to build your first Transport, you need your Transport ship skill to be level 20.

By the way, I boxed up the 3 ships below as they are newly introduced in a [recent post](https://steempeak.com/nextcolony/@nextcolony/6-new-battleships) by @nextcolony. *Love to see the continual updates coming from the team.*

<center>![ship skills.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmU2xPaEVLj8jwQcGCD3YVQCSy98phSs5YTnNAQV4bUw8N/image.png)</center>

#### Commander Skills

The last category is the "Commander Skills". These skills influence the effectiveness of your missions, defenses and attacks. 

<center>![commander skills.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmRWsvAsKbQcjvCF79CXqJbazmwNZ83tmxJuMZGg7xyynK/image.png)</center>

## What should I learn first if I just started?

For a newbie, your burning question might be, what do I learn first? To answer that, we have to understand what is the objective of this game. Apart from being a resource management game, NextColony is somewhat a 4X game ("eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate"), except that you cannot exterminate other players. Like all 4X games, the focus is always to explore and expand in the early stage. Exploiting other players by attacking and stealing their resources can come a bit later.

In my opinion, the most important thing is to get your first explorer and have it sent out to find your second planet. This way, you will begin to grow exponentially as you now earn resources twice as fast. However, you will find it difficult to raise your explorer ship skill to level 20 if you do not have enough resources. Hence, the tricky part is to balance between learning building skills to build up your mines & depots (increase production and capacity) and rushing to get the explorer up.

<center>![explorer.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmb9znd2rXuDRj4gXPHtyWZq8EBd4fDss6RREEbYi9aRGV/image.png)</center>

It is important to note that in order to build an explorer, you also need to raise your shipyard building skill to level 13. Therefore, I think it is a good idea to raise your mines and depots up to level 12 or 13 before you embark on leveling up your shipyard building skill and explorer ship skill. I recalled that I did not know that I needed to raise my shipyard level to 13 (back then, the requirements are not so clear on the UI) and immediately rushed to level up my explorer ship skill. So, try not to make the same mistakes as I did.

While building up your mines and depots, you might realize that you are starting to be attacked by nearby players. I find that the cheapest and most effective defense is the shield. It allows you block off attacks for a specific duration and you won't lose resources to these attacks. If you time it correctly, you will be able to ward off most attacks and allow your resources to accumulate.

Your path to your 2nd planet will initially be a long grind, but once you have it, you will grow significantly faster. After getting that 2nd planet, the other important skill to have is the "Mission Control" skill. Leveling up "Mission Control" allows you to send out more missions. As I mentioned before, this game is all about exploring and expanding. So it is important to be able to send out multiple explorers to hunt for your next planet.

Researching for attacking ships should never be a top priority. Reason is that I find most players relatively friendly and seldom will I get attacked. Even if there are attacks, the shield will mostly do the job and prevent resources from being stolen. In my opinion, you should only start to research attacking ships when one of your planets is well built-up (mines and depots at level 15 or 16) and have spare resources to work on them.

Research skills add more output or capacity by a percentage. Hence, it does not make sense to research them too early when your output/capacity base is still low. As a result, they are also something that I will not prioritize in the early stage. I think they only make sense after your 3rd planet.

This pretty much is all I have to say about skills. I am unable to go through each skill one by one, so feel free to leave a comment and ask me about skills-related questions that you have in mind.

---

#### The "Raise to 50" Initiative

Under 50 SP and finding it hard to do much on this platform? I might just be able to raise your SP to 50. [Check this post to find out more](https://steempeak.com/raiseto50/@culgin/announcing-the-raise-to-50-initiative)!

---

This article is created on the Steem blockchain. Check this series of posts to learn more about writing on an immutable and censorship-resistant content platform:
- [What is Steem? - My Interpretation](https://steempeak.com/steem/@culgin/what-is-steem-my-interpretation)
- [Steem Thoughts - Traditional Apps vs Steem Apps](https://steempeak.com/steem/@culgin/steem-thoughts---traditional-apps-vs-steem-apps)
- [Steem Thoughts - A Fat or Thin Protocol?](https://steempeak.com/@culgin/steem-thoughts---is-steem-a-fat-protocol-or-a-thin-protocol)
- [Steem Thoughts - There is Inequitable Value Between Users and Apps](https://steempeak.com/@culgin/steem-thoughts---inequitable-value-between-users-and-apps)
- [Make my votes count! Use Dustsweeper!](https://steempeak.com/@culgin/make-my-votes-count-use-dustsweeper)