YMMV / Drox Operative

• Scrappy Mechanic: Mandatory guild missions. Almost everyone turns these off, because your bosses have absolutely no knowledge of the facts on the ground. Often they'll want you to turn some two-planet minor race that you were just destroying into the sector's dominant power. And if you don't do this before the timer hits zero, you lose the sector. There's a good reason that condition is gone in the sequel.
  • In the second game, Galactic Karma: Anti-Leader can be potentially this, depending on whose side you're on. It's basically Realm Divide on steroids. Every race in the sector, even those you haven't contacted yet will declare war against the strongest race and form an alliance with each other. It can be really helpful if you're on the underdogs' side and you're trying to achieve a Diplomatic Win, but it's gonna hurt like hell if you were on the leader's side, as now the entire sector hates your guts.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: A standard one is "get to level 100 on hardcore mode with Command 0." This means that you've conquered the galaxy with a light escort without dying once.