Starbites Guide | Essential Tips and Tricks for Survival

It's difficult enough to survive the brutal, war-torn desert planet of Bitter without a crippling debt of a hundred generations and more to pay back and a growing army of hostile AI to contend with.

Set in the footsteps of Starbites, is a game in which you assume the role of a respectable debris collector who will try to steal enough spaceship parts and relics to finally afford a way to purchase her freedom.

The game features a mix of classic turn-based RPG elements and a sci-fi wasteland aesthetic, whose balance plays a crucial role in the desolate exploration theme typical of the cel-shaded style. There's a lot of charm to be found in Delight City and the expansive desert landscapes, but the maze-like ruins and challenging boss levels can sometimes be overwhelming.

Whether you're looking to create your own ‘Motorbot' or pay down your enormous debt, this complete guide has all the tips and tricks you need to master the mechanical wasteland.

Mastering the Driver's High Combat System

Every battle in the desert is high-stakes turn-based action with a lot of strategy, and the focus is definitely on a mechanic called Drivers High. When using Drivers High, instead of following a set sequence of tasks as in many role-playing games, you have the freedom to move forward and back or halt your momentum completely whenever you wish.

This is a dedicated meter that fills as your Motorbots engage enemies in battle or take damage. When the gauge is full, Drivers High can have a different turn-order action executed automatically, without waiting for a turn.

The key to this mechanic is knowing when to activate it; it can be either a quick win or a big blow. Don't attempt to burn your Drivers High on weak, basic attacks to standard enemies. Rather, keep this activation for those times when you're on a mission to kill one of the bosses or when a vast pack of terrible AI beasts has got the better of you.

Once the gauge is triggered, you'll unlock greater abilities that can modify elemental properties, inflict important status conditioners, and inflict much greater power. The best plan is to deliberately let a strong opponent absorb a few minor hits in order to build up the gauge bars so quickly that they can then issue a few rain-like blasts of plasma to stun an opponent until they can use the most devastating of their attacks.

It's a system of rewards that gives credit to players who consider the flow of time as much as the amount of damage their weapons can deliver during a turn, making turn-based combat a dynamic game of momentum.

Focus on upgrading Motorbots and getting materials.

There is a lot more than a pretty road trip through a sandy planet in Starbites, it's an absolute must to survive. Wastelands of Bitter are strewn with remains from preceding space encounters, and picking up these fragments is the only method of keeping your mechas combat-ready.

You'll need to be aggressive to find sparkling loot points and hidden chests as you wind through the wrecked facilities and canyons. Any scrap of metal, electronic wiring, or old core that you find directly equals a stronger party.

When you get back to upgrade your Motorbots in your garage, you'll need to make sure you allocate your resources into four main categories – your weapons, armor, engines, and cores. At the beginning of the game, upgrading weapons and engines is recommended. Better weapons help you get rid of enemies before they can overcharge your shields, and better evasion and action speed allow you to survive longer.

The difficulty level increases at the end of each narrative progression, so that is not something that should be attempted at normal speed. Use the open spaces to grind for materials and to repeatedly fight against roaming foes for those rare and high-quality materials needed to make it through the end-of-chapter boss fights.

Without these elements, your team will be seriously outgunned against the huge automated landships patrolling the gateways between worlds.

Developing and fine-tuning a Synergistic Party Composition

Lukida can fly a broken-down planet, but she can't do it alone. With continued progress, you will pick up such companions as the laid-back Gwen-dol and the highly analytical engineer Badger. Every character also has a distinct mecha to deploy, and achieving close synergy across each loadout is essential.

Your party members must never be treated as individual fighters. Your party members cannot be used as “single shots” against heavily armored opponents, or else they will fail.

It is important to know the elemental skills and supporting abilities of each character in your roster down to the last detail. Having different party compositions is a very successful strategy.

You might send Gwen-Dol out with armor plating, for instance, to act as a shield and soak up the hostiles' fire, even fire-homing missiles, and then get back to the team's Drivers High gauge.

However, Badger can be played in a more limited support role, using high-tech electronic warfare to cripple the enemy's defenses or repair the front-line Meccas.

As you are able to change the composition of your party as per the enemy's elemental weaknesses, you can blow his strategy out of the water and take complete control of the flow of the battlefield.

This tactical layer of customization means that there is no single blueprint that will be applicable to the entire game, and that every time you play, your team's synergy has to be adapted to deal, as you go, with the different technological threats in the wasteland.

To maximize the potential of Delight City

Every time you need a respite from the desert's hound battles, you'll find yourself back at the all-dominant hub of sand dunes and towering structures, called Delight City.

This is a lively, vibrant place to start your activities, teeming with useful supplies. Don't simply whiz by the repair shop to get some patching work done on your Motorbots; take the time to explore the city in-depth and engage with the motley crew of non-player characters. 

Scavenging for materials and exchanging them with the locals for rare consumables and customization options for characters is one of the keys to obtaining mob-proofing items. Mob-proofing items are one of the keys to getting them, and that will involve trading your scavenged materials with the local merchants for the ability to use the materials to create unique customization options for characters.

Moreover, it is rumored that Delight City has a vast area under cover that has not been discovered by the public. Carefully listen to the rumors being passed around by locals, and finish up the optional side quests, and you'll systematically discover additional answers that will ultimately lead to new floors in the city tower.

The new territories may contain first-class traders and incredibly high-value mecha parts that are completely impossible to find in the normal desert biome. View the city as a giant jigsaw puzzle, and your hard work on social networking will be rewarded with the finest equipment, making exploration much more enjoyable and safe.

Take Control of Aggressive Enemy Encounters

The more you venture beyond Delight City, the more dangerous the corrupted artificial intelligences that roam planet Bitter are.

Later chapters feature coordinated groups of enemies that will actively try to prioritize shooting at your weakest member. It can be very destructive when it's their turn to take out a ton of fire, particularly if they throw in a combination of incendiary bombs or picketing homing missiles.

The key to surviving these harsh attack methods is to be very defensive. Don't save defensive buffs or repairs for when your mechas are in critical damage. Use the timing to your advantage, and if you see an enemy unit charging a big energy attack, try to do the task the enemy is trying to do first—stun or destroy that enemy before he/she does.

If destruction is impossible, turn around and easily switch to defense and activate energy shields. The secret to a wasteland is to understand that brute power is no good if the party can't take one shot from the enemy. With a bit of careful driving, optimal mecha setups, and using the special strengths of all your crew, you'll be able to easily pound the corrupted machines and get the coveted ticket from the desolate planet of Lukida. 

Check out our STARBITES Review