Aliens Dark Descent: USS Otago Command Center Aliens Dark Descent guide, walkthrough
The USS Otago ship is a base camp in Aliens Dark Descent, which you visit between missions. On this page of the guide you will find a description of how to unlock the command center and what are the main rooms aboard the Otago.
Last update: 19 June 2023
Aliens Dark Descent has an option to manage your own base called USS Otago. From our guide, you will learn how to unlock the base and what are the main areas at Otago (including clinic, armory, laboratory) and what are their most important uses.
How to unlock the Otago Command Center?
The USS Utago ship appears at the very beginning of the game. As a result of the events presented in the campaign prologue, Otago will make an emergency landing on the planet Lethe. From this moment on, this ship will become the base of operations for the main characters and marines participating in further missions.
You'll return to the Otago deck after each completed or interrupted task. The base helps you prepare for future expeditions - choose your squad, heal and equip marines or do scientific research.
Command center
- This is the main screen where you can primarily embark on missions by selecting the destination from the Lethe Moon map. There is a limit here - you can perform 1 landing per day. After returning from the mission area, you must wait at least one day for a new expedition.
- On the left side of the screen you can see important information about marines and available actions at the base, e.g., the possibility of promoting one of the soldiers to a higher level or check if any doctors are available.
- From the command deck, you can also check the current status of the campaign. You can check the needed Otago repairs (a percentage indicator that starts at 0%) and the level of development of the plague on the planet (the higher, the greater the xenomorph activity).
- On the right side of the screen in this and other tabs, current stocks and resources are displayed. These include materials, sentry guns, tools or xenos.
Medical quarters
- The accommodations have 2 tabs, but at the beginning only Ambulatory is available. You can heal marines injured in the last mission here. The duration of treatment can be shortened by assigning doctors to the wounded marines.
- At first, one doctor is available and more can be unlocked by rescuing survivors as you complete missions. This will allow you to choose classes for several doctors on the same day.
- We recommend to reduce the duration of treatment for the most advanced marines. Also those with the best equipment (e.g. shooter with a smartgun or scout with a sniper rifle).
- The second tab is Psychiatric Care Unit. It will be unlocked after completing mission 2.
- The purpose of this room is to remove traumas that soldiers may have acquired as a result of participating in missions. These are a variety of negative states that can, for example, cause marines to accumulate stress faster.
Using a psychiatric ward is not the only way to remove trauma. We described other techniques on the FAQ page How to get rid of trauma?.
Workshop
In this area of Otago, you can acquire new weapons and battle gear, which are on the list on the left side of the screen. The most useful items to purchase have been compiled on the page List of the best weapons.
To unlock new equipment, you need:
- promote a marine to a specific experience level;
- choose a specific class for marine - this applies only to a few weapons from the list.
- being in a possession of materials - this is a raw material that you can obtain as loot while playing missions.
Laboratory
This important area of the base allows you to conduct research that can facilitate gameplay and unlock new pieces of equipment (e.g. armor invented from the skin of xenomorphs).
We have discussed this topic in more detail on the next page of this chapter - Research Projects.
Barracks
- They include 2 tabs. The first tab is the armory. You can visit the armory for the first time after you use the dropship to leave mission area 1 (aborting the mission or returning to base after completing it).
- The armory allows you to review the available marines. You can primarily find out about their current health condition (e.g. tired, unavailable due to stay in the outpatient clinic.
- You can select each soldier to check their detailed stats, promote them, choose attributes and upgrades for them. You can also select their equipment among the available weapons.
- The second tab is the Training Room and you will gain access to it after returning to the USS Otago after completing mission 2.
- The room, as the name suggests, allows training marines. They can accumulate xp even if they haven't been taken on a mission. Marine, however, cannot then perform any other activities (e.g. returning to health in medical quarters
- You can select individual marines and set up intensive training. This allows them to accumulate 2x more XP, but until the end of the training, they cannot heal or go on missions. We recommend using intensive training for marines from the lowest levels. This will allow them to quickly reach level 3 and unlock the character class.