Start with the right mindset
The single biggest reason new players bounce off Distant Worlds 2 is that they try to control everything at once and drown in its menus. The game is enormous, its interface is dense, and its onboarding does little to ease you in — so the natural instinct to manage every system yourself leads straight to being overwhelmed. The fix is counterintuitive but essential: do not try to play the whole game at first. Distant Worlds 2 is built around automation precisely so that you can hand off the parts you do not understand yet and focus on a small slice you do. Your only real goal in your first game is to learn the systems gradually while a manageable empire grows around you.
Once you embrace that — automate most of it, follow your advisors, and take on one area at a time — the daunting opening turns into a steady, fascinating climb. Everything below is about making that work.
Distant Worlds 2 lets you choose how much to control. Treat automation not as cheating but as the intended on-ramp: it is how the game keeps a two-thousand-system galaxy playable, and how you learn it without burning out.
Lean on automation and your advisors
Your first move should be to set up automation so the game is not running entirely on your shoulders. In the policy and automation settings, let the AI handle most of your empire to begin with — economy, ship design, fleets, diplomacy — so you are not buried under decisions you do not yet understand. Crucially, the game's advisors will then guide you, offering suggestions and notifications about colonization, defence, diplomacy and more. Treat these as a built-in tutor: follow their prompts, and you will learn the rhythms of the game and where to focus without having to figure it all out cold.
This is the heart of a smooth start. The automation keeps the galaxy running while the advisors teach you, so you are learning by watching and nudging rather than flailing at every system at once. As you grow comfortable, you can start overriding the AI in areas you understand, but early on, let it carry you.
Open the policy and automation settings early (the policy screen) and skim what each area does. You do not need to master them — just know they exist, set most to automatic, and remember you can pull any one back to manual when you are ready to learn it.
Learn one area at a time
With most of your empire automated, the way to actually learn is to take manual control of just one or two systems at a time. Many players start by controlling exploration and colonization, because they are approachable and central: sending out explorers to chart the galaxy and choosing which worlds to settle teaches you the map, your resources and your expansion without overwhelming you. Leave the economy, ship design and diplomacy automated while you do this. Once exploration and colonization feel natural, pull back another area — say, your research priorities or your fleet orders — and learn that too, always keeping the rest on automatic.
This gradual approach is the opposite of how the game first makes you feel you should play, and it is far more effective. You build genuine understanding one system at a time, instead of a shallow, panicked grasp of everything. By the end of a campaign or two, you will be controlling whatever you want and automating the rest by choice, not necessity.
| Priority | Do this | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Automate first | Set most areas to automatic | Keeps the galaxy running while you learn |
| 2. Follow advisors | Act on their suggestions and alerts | They teach you what to do and where to focus |
| 3. Learn one area | Take manual control of one system | Builds real understanding without overload |
| 4. Expand steadily | Build outposts and colonize good worlds | Grows your economy before you overreach |
Expand steadily and grow into the game
While you learn, your empire still needs to grow, and steady expansion is the safe path. Use construction ships to build mining outposts at valuable resource sites, and colonize suitable worlds to grow your population and economy. Let your private economy — the civilian ships that mine and trade on their own — supply and connect your colonies, which it will do without your direct involvement. Lean on your advisors' colonization suggestions to find strong targets, and expand toward good resources and defensible positions rather than racing across the galaxy faster than you can manage or defend.
The goal of a first game is not to win quickly but to come out the other side understanding how the pieces fit. Grow a stable, modest empire, learn a system at a time, and let automation and your advisors carry the rest. Once the fundamentals click, dig into our automation guide to fine-tune what you control, the economy guide to understand your private sector, and the fleets guide when you are ready to take command of your military. The overwhelming start becomes a galaxy you genuinely run.
