# Question about starting NPR

**URL:** <https://aurora4x.com/t/question-about-starting-npr/991>\
**Category:** Player Questions\
**Created:** [August 12, 2026, 6:07pm UTC](https://aurora4x.com/t/question-about-starting-npr/991 "2026-08-12T18:07:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MikeNovember](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e68b1a/32.png) [@MikeNovember](https://aurora4x.com/u/MikeNovember)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 6:07pm UTC](https://aurora4x.com/t/question-about-starting-npr/991/1 "2026-08-12T18:07:33Z")

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I am currently playing a campaign, in the starting menu I set 0 starting NPR races and 50% NPR creation by player, I’ve met a few NPR while exploring but I kinda found them somewhat lackluster and weak compared to myself (minor TN % was set to 50, everything else to 0).

The question is, is the “starting NPR” stronger than these minor ones? Would it be more challenging if I were to start with 10 NPRs? Do they explore and eventually catch up to my system and strike me if I am not ready?

I’m really into an underdog challenge right now and was wondering if it was possible to do so.

Thanks

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**Author:** ![Ranger044](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/aurora4x.com/ranger044/32/515_2.png) [@Ranger044](https://aurora4x.com/u/Ranger044)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2026, 4:10am UTC](https://aurora4x.com/t/question-about-starting-npr/991/2 "2026-08-13T04:10:07Z")

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Starting NPRs will be comparable to you unless you tweak them. Tick the customized NPRs box during new game creation and you’ll get pop-up boxes for their races. You can individually adjust their Starting exploration, ship size modifier, research/production modifiers, etc.

The quickest way to increase your starting difficulty with game start NPRs would be to give them more research points. Don’t change your starting amount, but give them a 1.5x, 2.0x, 2.5x, etc. boost.

You could also have them spawn closer. Change the light years distances to something closer

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**Author:** ![CopyOfSatan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@CopyOfSatan](https://aurora4x.com/u/CopyOfSatan)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2026, 5:11pm UTC](https://aurora4x.com/t/question-about-starting-npr/991/3 "2026-08-13T17:11:50Z")

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> [@MikeNovember](#):
>
> The question is, is the “starting NPR” stronger than these minor ones?

Starting NPR (“normal”, Major) is the most advanced. If I remember correctly, Minor NPR never leaves its startup system, while Industrial NPR literally just exists and does nothing. I could be wrong. And yes, Major NPR will explore, they can find you, and they might want to kill you.

> [@MikeNovember](#):
>
> Would it be more challenging if I were to start with 10 NPRs?

It would be much more challenging for your PC. 🙂 It’s better to make one stronger NPR.

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**Author:** ![AuroraSteve](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/aurora4x.com/aurorasteve/32/96_2.png) [@AuroraSteve](https://aurora4x.com/u/AuroraSteve)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2026, 5:24pm UTC](https://aurora4x.com/t/question-about-starting-npr/991/4 "2026-08-13T17:24:50Z")

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I regularly start with 8-10 multi-system NPRs.

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**Author:** ![CopyOfSatan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@CopyOfSatan](https://aurora4x.com/u/CopyOfSatan)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2026, 5:31pm UTC](https://aurora4x.com/t/question-about-starting-npr/991/5 "2026-08-13T17:31:24Z")

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Well, as I said somewhere, it’s quite difficult for my laptop to handle more than ~3 NPRs. Perhaps this is due to my turtle playing style, which makes my games _very_ long (235th year in my current game 🙂).