Custom Starts
Secrets of the Frontier adds two custom starts if the Nexerelin mod is installed. These additional start options begin the campaign with a preset fleet and some additional rules in play.
Banshee's Lost Thread
Difficulty: Easy
| You've always had a knack for finding yourself on the wrong side of things you don't really understand, poking at tech that the powers-that-be would rather stay dead and buried. This hobby brings you... strange associates.
A chance salvage expedition, bargaining on a drunken spacer's good word, brought you to your most fruitful meeting yet, the tip a dead end but leading you to a dying soul in need of your aid. Since then you've forged a camaraderie, and soon you may learn the truth of your silent friend's cause. Begin as a small salvor fleet with a loyal ally, her kin's favor and the ability to recover her unusual style of ship. |
This start can only be chosen if the Dawn and Dust main-menu mission has been completed with a score of 80% or higher. This restriction can also be turned off in the mod's settings.
In this start, the player begins with the ODS Songless as a fleet member with Inky-Echo-Nightingale in command, a unique Memoir-class drone destroyer typically found later in the campaign during A Lost Thread (which is disabled if this start is picked). In this start, Nightingale is especially loyal to the player and will not betray them in combat if they attack the Dustkeeper Contingency.
Additionally, the player begins with their first skill point already spent in the Automated Ships skill, breaking the usual sequence in which it is obtained and allowing them to use the skill without the prerequisite 4 points in Technology. If the player ever re-specs their character such that they no longer have the skill, they will then be prompted to replace one of their new skills with Automated Ships.
The player also begins with the following additional ships:
- 1x Mule-class destroyer
- 1x Wayfarer-class combat freighter
- 1x Shepherd-class combat freighter
- 1x Dram-class tanker
The Haunted
Difficulty: Very hard
| Good and evil are loose concepts in this decayed world with dead Gates. You did whatever it took to rise to your height of power, leaving a trail of broken souls, oaths of vengeance and an unholy headcount.
Even with a number of eyes in the shadows and many subordinates too afraid to turn against you, a miscalculation in a fringe system provided the perfect opportunity, and taking control of the better part of your fleet, your second decided to leave you an infamous blip in history. Begin with great potential, but a pathetic band of pirate loyalists and a persistent, malevolent stalker looking to put you down for good. |
In this start one plays as a disgraced pirate warlord and former war criminal, with one bonus skill point. This skill point doesn't count against the player's level cap, allowing for 16 skills at level 15.
The start's boons end with that skill point. The player starts with a guilt score of 7 points. This means that adaptive nanite invasions are a persistent threat throughout the entire campaign, making many battles more difficult due to the nanite swarm infesting and greatly enhancing hostile ships. This starting value of guilt is high enough that one can never bring it low enough for invasions to stop. Some Secrets of the Frontier story content may appear slightly differently for Haunted players.
While the player begins with a servicable pirate destroyer as their flagship, the rest of their fleet is extremely low-quality. The starting fleet is as follows:
- 1x Manticore (P)-class destroyer
- 1x Hound (P)-class combat freighter
- 1x Mudskipper Mk.II-class frigate
The Haunted can also be played in the form of a background when choosing a normal faction start. The additional skill point and starting guilt apply, but not the starting fleet.