Homeworld 2 Hints & Cheats

To work these codes, right-click on your Homeworld2 shortcut. Go to where it says Target, and type in the code to achieve the stated effect.

How to unlock all the missions
Go into the Profile folider in the homeworld directory mine is for example
ex. C:\Games\Homeworld2\Bin\Profiles\Profile1
In this folder there is a file called ''playercfg'' it should be a lua file. Open it up with notepad, and scroll down just a bit till you see ''maxmission = x'' obviously x will be differnet for everyone but if you want to be able to play all the levels the just type 15 here. This will open all the missions, just to let you know though it bases your starting fleet off your last completed mission, so if you try this in the very beginning you get jack crap to start off with (use next code to fix this though). This is good however for skipping a difficult mission...like 4...

To change the numbers of ships you start off on a mission
Go into the Acension folder in the homewolrd directory mine for example is
ex. C:\Games\Homeworld2\Bin\Profiles\Profile1\Campaign\ASCENSION
In this folder there are files named ''persist'' there should be one for every mission you have played (this means you have to at least have loaded the mission and stayed for the first cutscene) Which ever mission you want to add more starting ships to lets say 4 for example, you would look for persist4 then. Open the file up with notepad and search for a string of lines like this:
shiphold = {
},
name = '''',
teamColourHandle = 0,
hotkey = 67108872,
},
{
tactic = 1,
type = ''Hgn_AssaultFrigate'',
subsystems = {
},
buildjobs = {
},
size = 1,
shiphold = {
},
name = '''',
teamColourHandle = 0,
hotkey = 67108872,

Ok there is alot of information here that you dont really care about the important part is the
type =''Hgn_assault_frigate'' part, this tells you what ship is in the ship hold, if you want more of it just copy the entire string ie.
{
tactic = 1,
type = ''Hgn_AssaultFrigate'',
subsystems = {
},
buildjobs = {
},
size = 1,
shiphold = {
},
name = '''',
teamColourHandle = 0,
hotkey = 67108872,
},
and paste more...this will give you one more ship for each one pasted.....so you can create a huge fleet if you want, please note that if you make alot of ships that ''fly'' out of the mothership in the beginning then you have to wait for all of them....this could be a while if you make 50 or so, so try to stick to frigates since they warp in seperatly.

How to start with almost infinite Resource Units
Browse your Homeworld 2 directory til you reach the Acension subfolder (usually \Homeworld2\Bin\Profiles\Profile1\Campaign\ASCENSION). In here you will find a list of your data. Depending on the level you've reached, you will see a persistx.lua where x stands for the autosave start for each level.
After you've started a level, exit the game and browse to the above folder. Open the lua file for your current level with notepad and at the bottom you will find your current standing RU's.

},
RUs = 3249,
}

Change this to any number you wish (i.e. 99999) and when you return to the Single Player Screen, choose to now start playing your level. When you begin you will have your entered amount of resource units.

This cheat may spoil a minor detail of the game.

Since this is an exploitation of the code in the game, there are many bugs that develop from using this glitch.

Homeworld keeps track of what ships you start out with on every level in a LUA file in your campaign folder. By copying and pasting the LUA file contents into, say, the LUA file for level two, effectively you can get the fleet you have on the last level, which includes Sajuuk and the Dreadnought, in any level you want. As a bonus, the effect carries over into the next level, so that you don't have to repeat this with every level.

The safest way to use this cheat is to go to your LUA file, as described in the above cheats, go to level 15, and copy all the contents. Copy level two, put an extra copy somewhere for safekeeping, in case something goes wrong, then paste your level 15 LUA into your level 2 LUA.

Now here's the tricky part. For levels 1-14, there is a defeat trigger that will cause you to automatically lose if you don't have a mothership. Since you have no mothership in level 15, you will have to go to the level 14 LUA file, and find the line of coding that gives you the mothership. It can be identified by this line somewhere in there.

type = HGN_MotherShip

Be sure you include the mothership and all of it's attachments in the coding. Then all you have to do is paste this above the coding for your ships in the LUA file for level 2, and below shiphold = something.

Sounds confusing? It is. The code is far too long for me to paste down here in this cheat, but if you e-mail me, I will reply to you with the coding you need, and instructions to install it.

There are some freezing/crashing glitches associated with this cheat, but most of them can be overcome. The upside is that having the raw destructive power of Sajuuk in the first couple of missions can be thrilling!