Resources

The game universe consists of three types of resources: metal, crystal, and deuterium. These materials form the foundation of your empire: you can use them to build structures, produce combat and defense units, and research new technologies. The amount of resources you use in the game also determines your score on the leaderboard. As you progress, you will need more resources, which can be obtained in many ways. This description provides detailed information about the three resources, their extraction, and other resources as well.

Metal is the most common resource in the universe. A neutral planet without mines can produce 30 units of metal per hour. Its trade value is 1 MSU (Metal Standard Unit).

Crystal is the hardest resource to mine. You will notice its shortage shortly after the game starts. This remains true throughout the game, since a neutral planet produces crystal 3-4 times slower than metal. The base production of a neutral planet is 15 units of crystal per hour. Its trade value is 2 MSU, meaning you can buy 1 unit of crystal for 2 units of metal.

Deuterium is a very rare resource at the start of the game because there is no base production. To produce it, you need to build a deuterium refinery, which consumes a lot of energy to produce a small amount of deuterium. As you progress, larger refineries can produce even more deuterium than crystal mines. Its trade value is 3 MSU.

Every mine consumes energy to produce resources. The amount of energy used increases continuously as you upgrade your mines. If your energy production is negative, it means your mines don't get enough energy and operate below 100% efficiency. Besides mines, buildings of crawlers and lifeforms also consume energy, so it's important to pay attention to this during upgrades. Some buildings or research require a certain energy level as a construction prerequisite. This refers to the total energy produced (current output) and should not be confused with the displayed energy amount. The energy level must be ensured to start construction but is not required afterwards.

The lifeforms update introduced a new resource: food. Its function is simple: the lifeform's food production building on a planet produces a certain amount of food. If inhabitants consume more than produced and food runs out, the population starts to decrease. If production exceeds consumption, the population grows until the maximum habitat capacity is reached.

A bit of physics: Deuterium is a stable isotope of hydrogen, differing from common hydrogen by having a nucleus containing one proton and one neutron. Researchers use it in nuclear fusion experiments and energy production, where it is combined with a tritium atom nucleus to release energy. Since on average one in every 6000 hydrogen atoms in nature is deuterium, seawater contains a large amount of this isotope. This is the basis of the OGame deuterium theory. Deuterium can be used to power spaceships or fusion reactors for energy production, and is also required for many building and research upgrades.

The aforementioned base production and the economy speed (server setting) determine the hourly resource amount your planet produces without mines. You can increase production by building mines. Except for the first few levels, each upgrade increases production by about 10-20%.

There are many production bonuses in the game. When calculating bonuses, the production of the given mine on the given planet is taken as the base, and then the calculated bonuses are added to the total production. If mine production decreases due to energy shortage, the bonuses also decrease.

Crawlers are special buildable units which, similar to defenses, cannot leave the planet where they were built. Each crawler consumes 50 energy and provides a bonus to all three mine productions. You can build 8 times as many crawlers on a planet as the total levels of your mines on that planet. For example: Metal mine level 20, Crystal mine level 18, Deuterium refinery level 19. You can build 8*(20+18+19) = 456 crawlers. If you belong to the collector class, you get 50% more bonus per crawler and can overclock them on the resources tab to operate at up to 150% efficiency but with higher energy consumption.

Plasma technology is a research area that grants a production bonus of 1% metal, 0.66% crystal, and 0.33% deuterium per level. Since the cost doubles each level, the payback time increases drastically. Depending on your mine levels, it may take years beyond level 20 to recoup the investment!

Boosters currently exist in 10-40% production increase versions lasting 7, 30, and 90 days. They can be activated on a single planet and increase mine production until they expire. They are obtainable through auctions, import/export, the shop, and special events (reward events or expedition item events).

Geologist can be hired for 12,500 dark matter per week and gives a 10% bonus to all mines on all your planets. If the entire command staff is active, it grants an additional 2%.

Class bonuses: the collector player class and the trader federation class provide additional bonuses—25% and 5% respectively.

Lifeforms have unique buildings that significantly speed up your production when upgraded. Besides buildings, many lifeform researches provide bonuses affecting all your planets. Researching lifeforms also increases the bonuses of individual classes randomly.

In galaxy view, when you look at any system, you will see 15 numbered positions for planets. Position 1 is the closest to the sun in that system, and position 15 is the farthest. Each position has its advantages and disadvantages:

Temperature: planets closer to the sun are warmer and yield more energy from solar satellites. The farther positions have very low temperatures, and the energy produced by solar satellites is less.

Productivity: the colder a planet (positions 13-15 are the coldest), the more deuterium it produces. Middle positions (6-10) get increased metal production (up to 35%), while positions 1-3 provide a crystal bonus (up to 40%).

Size: the largest planets are found at position 8, and size gradually decreases moving away. The smallest planets are colonizable at positions 1 and 15. Larger planets allow more buildings and higher-level mines.