Homeworld 2 is the sequel to the classic Homeworld sci-fi real-time strategy game originally released in 2003. Gearbox rereleased remastered editions of those games in 2015 with the Homeworld Remastered Collection. Homeworld 2 has a gripping interstellar campaign with 15 missions, some of which can get tricky. Here are some Homeworld 2 tips to help you get through that campaign and defeat Makaan.
Pause the Game When Playing
The Homeworld 2 campaign battles against Vaygr forces can get quite frantic. Pausing the game during the most intense moments in missions will give you time to think about what you’re doing. You can then give much more careful consideration to how to deploy your units and what ones to build. So, Pause/Break is perhaps the most useful key on your keyboard for completing the Homeworld 2 campaign.
Be Careful of Big Explosions
Big mothership and super capital ship explosions damage and destroy units. Bombers are especially vulnerable to large explosions after taking out big ships. So, be careful of big explosions wiping out your bomber units when attacking larger targets. To avoid losing bombers to such explosions, fly them away from big ships just before finishing them off. Apply the finishing blows with supporting frigates or destroyers.
A large capital ship explosion
Dock Smaller Ships to Repair Them
Docking sends all smaller ships back to your mothership or carriers for repairs. Dock often and regularly whenever you get the chance after repelling an enemy attack or defeating a capital ship. Your smaller ships will last longer when you repair them after dogfights, which will reduce losses during missions.
Units docking at a mothership and shipyard
Expand Your Fleet Just Before Finishing a Mission
You will always start the next mission with the remaining ships you had at the end of the previous one in Homeworld 1 and 2. This provides a good opportunity to expand your fleet just before the mission finishes when you’ve annihilated most Vaygr forces. So, don’t be in too much of a hurry to finish off missions nearing completion. Instead, gather more resources and expand your fleet for the next mission.
Of course, you don’t always know exactly when each mission ends in Homeworld 2. Unlike Homeworld 1, there isn’t an option to hyperjump at the end of every mission in the sequel. To give you a better idea of when each Homeworld 2 mission ends, these are the number of primary objectives in each one:
- Mission One: Six
- Mission Two: Two
- Mission Three: Four
- Mission Four: Two
- Mission Five: One
- Mission Six: Five
- Mission Seven: Four
- Mission Eight: Five
- Mission Nine: Three
- Mission 10: Two
- Mission 11: Three
- Mission 12: Two
- Mission 13: Three
- Mission 14: Two
- Mission 15: Three
Keep Your Fleet Together
The numerical advantage is crucial to completing Homeworld 2 missions. Dispersing your fleet across the battlefield can leave smaller groups of your ships at a numerical disadvantage when attacked. Keep your fleet’s ships reasonably close together to maintain numerical superiority over smaller groups of Vaygr ships.
A large group of ships
By keeping your fleet together, you can focus all your firepower on eliminating enemy ships quicker. Select specific targets for ship groups to destroy rather than leaving them to shoot at nearby hostiles randomly. Remember that focused firepower amounts to stronger attacks, like in many real-time strategy games.
Order Your Ships to Attack Units They’re Stronger Against
All ships are stronger against some units and weaker against others. For example, Gunships are strong against Interceptors and Bombers but weak against Pulsar Gunships and Torpedo Frigates. You can see what each ship is strong and weak against within the game’s build panel. To get the best from your fleet, you must assign different types of ships to counter units they’re strong against.
The build panel in Homeworld 2
Organize your ships into different control groups with the Ctrl key based on what they’re strong against. For example, you could create three control groups for combatting fighters and bombers, capital ships, and frigates. You can press the Ctrl + number key to quickly select them all. This is how you could organize ships into three groups for countering fighters, capital ships, and frigates:
- Group one for attacking fighters: Pulsar Gunships, Interceptors, Flack Frigates
- Group two for attacking frigates: Destroyers, Ion Cannon Frigates
- Group three for attacking capital ships: Destroyers, Ion Cannon Frigates, Battlecruisers, Bombers
Build Carriers to Boost Production
Carriers are of little use for combat purposes. However, it’s still worth adding some carriers to your fleet for the sake of boosting unit production. Carriers build ships, and having more of them enables you to spread production. For example, instead of assigning the mothership to build nine units, you can spread that production across to carriers with each producing three ships. This will enable you to build more reinforcement ships quicker because spreading production across carriers reduces the unit production queue.
A carrier unit
Squeeze Out the Enemy’s Resources
Squeezing out resources for the enemy will enable you to complete campaign missions. To deprive the enemy of resources, be prepared to mount large attacks at areas where there are Vaygr resource collectors. Destroying collectors and forcing the Vaygr away from resource locations will squeeze out the enemy’s supply lines and preserve more of the battlefield’s resources for your fleet.
There are also usually Vaygr carriers or shipyards near asteroids where the enemy is collecting resources. So, attacking asteroids where the enemy is collecting will usually lead you to a nearby capital ship to destroy. You’ll need to attack Vaygr supply points in force to eliminate nearby carriers.
A Vaygr mobile refinery
Check Out the Homeworld 2 Campaign Guide at Homeworlduniverse
The Homeworlduniverse website includes a series of YouTube videos that show you how to complete every mission in the Homeworld 2 campaign. Those videos include commentary and gameplay footage of players completing the missions. If you ever get seriously stuck on a mission, watching the video for it at Homeworlduniverse may help. You can view the Homeworld 2 mission guide videos on this Homeworlduniverse page.
I hope those Homeworld 2 tips help you give the Vaygr an almighty beating in the campaign game. Most of those tips are also equally relevant to the original Homeworld campaign, as the gameplay is similar in both games. Good luck, and enjoy the Homeworld Remastered Collection campaigns.
