Shipyard, Defense

You're probably curious about what units you can build in the game and what they're used for. The shipyard is the facility used to produce ships and defensive structures.

The new tutorial (guidelines) clearly explains how to build your first ship. I recommend following pages I and II of the tutorial step-by-step to construct your shipyard and your first small transporter.

SHIPS

Ships can be divided into two main categories: civil and combat ships.
Civil ships include transporters, colony ships, recyclers, spy probes, crawlers, and solar satellites. These ships perform special tasks such as colonizing new planets, collecting space debris, or spying on other players. Below you'll find detailed descriptions of each civil ship and their purpose.

Transporters

All ships can carry some resources, but transporters can carry significantly more. They're useful for both peaceful and combat missions. During fleet saving (FS), you can store large amounts of resources safely with them.
What's the difference between small and large transporters? Small transporters have 5,000 cargo space, while large ones have 25,000, which is 5x more. However, the large transporter costs only 3x as much, making it more efficient for larger resource amounts. Speed and fuel consumption are also key: while the small transporter is slower, once you research impulse drive to level 5, it becomes faster than its big brother. In some raids, large transporters can slow down your fleet, but if you send small ones instead, your attack speed increases considerably.

Colony Ship

Colony ships are used to colonize planets. After a successful colonization, the unit is consumed, and leaves behind a set amount (usually 10,000) of metal and crystal on the new colony. If other ships are in the fleet, they will unload their cargo and return to the origin. Due to its slow speed, it's also useful for long FS missions.

Spy Probe

The fastest ship in the game. Its main task is espionage, but it has several other uses: if sent to attack, it will likely be destroyed and create a debris field. This allows you to send recyclers before your main attack fleet arrives. Spy probes are also used in moonshots – 6,667 are required to generate the maximum 20% moon chance.

Recycler

Debris fields are crucial for the development of your empire. Small ones form spontaneously, while larger ones appear after battles. Recyclers collect these. Initially slow, they become fast with impulse and hyperspace drives, and even more so with lifeform research. If you're a fleet player, recyclers will generate most of your income. Always send enough after battles to collect all debris. If unsure how many to send, use a combat simulator to estimate.

Solar Satellite

If you need a lot of energy quickly, or want to save planet slots, solar satellites are the best choice. Crawlers and lifeform buildings consume a lot of energy, making these satellites essential for an efficient economy. They are technically ships, but can't leave the planet – they function more like defense. Their attack power is 1, meaning 25–30 can destroy a light fighter. Still, they are not recommended for defense, as all ships have rapidfire against them.

Crawler

Crawlers are unique to the Collector class and increase resource production by 0.02% per unit on the planet. As a Collector, you can overclock them via the resource settings menu. Like solar satellites, they have an attack power of 1 and are vulnerable to rapidfire from every ship.

Combat ships: There are many types of warships in the game, which can be grouped by size: fighters, cruisers, flagships – and of course, the deathstar.

Fighters

Fighters are the smallest combat ships. Their strategic use lies in overwhelming the enemy and countering flagships. Since flagships don’t have rapidfire against fighters, they tend to shoot fighters instead of more dangerous ships.

There are two types: light and heavy fighters. Light fighters are cheap and ideal for swarming enemies and for moonshots – exactly 1,667 are needed for a 20% moon chance. Heavy fighters are stronger but more expensive. They're effective against enemies with many cruisers, as cruisers have rapidfire against light fighters. But remember: battlecruisers have rapidfire against heavy fighters!

Cruisers

When facing a swarm of fighters, cruisers can help. This group includes cruisers, pathfinders, battleships, and battlecruisers. All except the battleship have rapidfire against some fighters, making them great for clearing small ships.

The cruiser is the fastest combat ship (pathfinders can be faster with lifeform research), making it ideal for time-sensitive raids.

The battleship is the most balanced warship in the game – excellent for breaking small defenses, moonshots, and even destroying deathstars. But always mix them with other ships, as their 'average' stats make them vulnerable to battlecruisers and reapers.

The battlecruiser is designed to destroy fleets. It has rapidfire against transporters and many other ships, making it excellent for raiding miner fleets.

The pathfinder was added with the introduction of classes. Available to the Discoverer class, it’s a powerful transporter. Its high speed and cargo capacity make it perfect for farming, and its firepower often eliminates the need for escort fleets.

Flagships

Flagships represent sheer power. They're expensive, slow, and consume a lot of fuel. This group includes bombers, destroyers, and reapers.

Each flagship has a special ability. Bombers have rapidfire against all defenses, ideal for breaking fortifications. Destroyers are the only ships with rapidfire against battlecruisers and are the most cost-effective ship for destroying deathstars. Reapers can collect part of the debris field immediately after battle and also have rapidfire against destroyers. They require the General class to build.

Deathstar

The deathstar is the Joker card of the game. A few of them can wipe out entire fleets. They allow you to break defenses and fleets without losses, and even destroy moons.

For its power, it’s very expensive and extremely slow. Its speed enables multi-day FS missions if at least one is in the fleet.

Higher shipyard levels unlock stronger ships and defenses. Construction speed also increases, allowing more units to be built per time unit. The max production speed is 1 unit per second, achievable only with a high-level nanite factory.

DEFENSIVE STRUCTURES

In the universe, your colonies are rarely safe. Attacks will come sooner or later, so it's best to plan ahead. But how you build your defenses matters – poor defenses can be more of a liability than an asset.

In the early game, it’s not worth spending on defenses. Focus on fast development: research, grow your economy, colonize. If attacked, the best defense is to empty your resources – no loot means no interest.

Once you’re more stable with developed planets, it’s time to build defenses. The key fact: there’s no such thing as unbreakable defense. With enough fleet or deathstars, any defense can be breached.

When designing your defenses, consider two things: how many resources you’ll store on the planet (1 day of production? 3 days? a week plus satellites?), and the attacker’s cost. That cost depends on their losses and fuel usage. Your defense should cause enough loss to deter attacks. Use a simulator to calculate this.

The ratios of defenses matter – include all types to minimize damage from rapidfire. Rocket launchers and light lasers ‘swarm’ the enemy like fighters, protecting larger structures. Heavy lasers and ion cannons can also be used, but are more specialized – for example, ion cannons have rapidfire against reapers. Gauss cannons and plasma turrets are your main heavy hitters – they deal real damage to enemy fleets.

When fighting deathstars, attackers don’t pay deuterium fuel costs, making them very powerful. Later in the game, leaving 50–100 deathstars on a planet can help destroy enemy deathstars and cause losses to attackers.