Players start out with the Terran faction, so everyone has used them.
The Terrans are a strong and versatile faction that allows players to adapt and experiment with many different tactics and ship builds. They have no weaknesses and in many ways are the strongest faction in the game. The other playable factions cannot be used until a player kills 1000P worth of ships from that other faction, which means every player has some experience with them.
The Terrans are always unlocked.
Blocks
The first thing to note would be the armor blocks, which have a very good regrow rate. The Terrans are very forgiving to play because even if you do take damage, if you can escape combat, your blocks will quickly regrow. No other faction has the same combination of health and regrowth. They also have the widest variety of shapes, allowing you to build many different ways.
Thrusters
The Terran thrusters are also some of the best in the game. Their thrust-to-mass ratio is great allowing them to be very mobile. The Asteroid Thruster in particular is over-powered considering how much mass it can move for the cost. the down-side being that the Asteroid thruster has a delayed-reaction on it’s thrust to give it slower acceleration. However, you can cap the Asteroid thruster with a small thruster to eliminate the ‘wind-up’ delay.
Cannons
The Terran cannons are all-around very good. If you want good direct damage, you have the Plasma Cannons. If you want splash damage, you have the Mortar and Flak Cannon. If you want long-range, you have the Anti-matter cannon and Railgun. Generally what you see in all the gun options is trade-offs between cost, size, range, energy usage, and damage type. This allows you to choose and experiment with which guns fit your build.
Plasma Cannons: These provide good direct damage for the cost. Generally you’d choose which size to use based on how large your ship is. Overall, the largest one is the best because it has greater range than the smaller ones.
Autocannon: Compared to the small Plasma Cannon, this costs more, uses more energy, and has less range. The benefit is the Autocannon has much higher dps.
Defense Cannon: Tiny, and one of the cheapest weapons in the game. These have a very short range, but provide excellent dps.
Flak Cannon: Small, fairly cheap, and with decent range – the great benefit of the Flak Cannons is that they provide splash damage. The splash guns wreck smaller ships.
Blast Pulsar: Technically a cannon, but it fires in 360 degrees. The short range makes it hard to use offensively, but if you change the binding to poit-defense, it makes an excellent defensive weapon. The main down-side would be energy usage.
Plasma Mortar: A charging turret canon with a large splash radius on impact. Damage is best when the weapon is at full charge. The main downside would be cost compared to other options, and reduced damage output when it’s firing at less-than full charge.
Plasma Projector: One of the weapons to avoid. The turreted options are more versatile, and although the Plasma Projector appears to be cheap, the energy usage is quite high.
Rail Gun: A long-range turret canon. Only the Anti-matter Cannon and missile weapons have longer range. Other options are more efficient at closer ranges.
Anti-matter Cannon: A large fixed gun with great range and splash damage. Expensive and harder to use than the turreted guns, but it packs a punch.
Laser weapons.
Laser: Basic, cheap and short-range. These are great value, with the only downside being the scale of the block.
Burst Laser: This is a charged weapon that provides good damage at full charge. It’s small and compact, making it exceptionally good for smaller ships and the range is great for a laser weapon. The main down-side is that it’s expensive for the damage done.
Proton Beam: This is a fixed laser beam that does damage over time. Stat-wise the weapon should be good, but ends-up being sub par because the beam rarely stays fixed on the target. Most other weapons are more effective for the cost.
Proton Sword: Huge damage at close range and it’s on a turret. There are no down-sides to this weapon other than the limited range.
Launcher Weapons.
Missiles: The damage is a little low, but they have excellent range, speed, and are guided. The Terran motto is “if in doubt, add more missiles.”
Mines: A bit expensive, but the mines do good damage, good splash radius, and stay on the field a long time. The challenge of the weapon is trying to use it effectively.
Rockets: A dumb-fired missile. Good damage and speed, but no guiding to the target. These are best on kiter-style ships that can stay facing the enemy and spray them on target. The main benefit of Rockets is that A.I. controlled ships have a hard time dodging them.
Torpedos: A large dumb-fired missile with excellent damage for the cost. Their speed is slow, but volleys of torpedoes will annihilate enemies if they hit.
Drones: The Terran drones are equipped with a small cannon and can make a good weapon when amassed into a swarm. Unlike the drones from other factions, the Terran ones will align themselves in a circle around the mothership when set to point-defense.
Terrans have a good variety of shields and are good value, best used on lighter ships or to protect vulnerable modules. The exception would be the extremely large Station Shield, which is too large to protect most ships and over-priced for it’s effectiveness.
Terran Tricks
Spinner, Spinner, It’s a Winner: You can make a small ship with just a couple blocks and some thrusters in the opposite directions. Add a Mine launcher or a Torpedo launcher, and you’ll have a stupidly-powerful little ship that spins at hyper-speed and can hit targets at long-range with pin-point Mine shots.
The Terrans have a few blocks that are not normally available in the campaign. You can get them through the Sandbox.
Subcommand: The command module on the bases has some unique functions. It can act as a factory if you leave space around it. It has super-high mass so the station won’t move if you bump into it. And, it DEACTIVATES rather than dying when it loses it’s health.
Asteroid: Some of the bases are built into asteroids. Normally you wouldn’t be able to build a ship with these high-health blocks.
Teleporter: Some stations have this block on them. Unfortunately ‘Teleporter’ is just the name. The block doesn’t actually have any functions and is just a normal hull block with different colors.