Every commander starts with a single home world. Colonies are how an empire grows in this space browser game: every new planet brings its own mines, its own storage and its own building queue, and it extends the reach of your sensors. This guide explains how to settle new worlds and what to plan for.
What you need
A new colony is founded by a Seedship, a utility ship that carries everything needed to start a settlement on an empty world.
- Building a Seedship requires a Shipyard at level 4 and the research Ion Propulsion at level 3.
- It is expensive: 10,000 Ferrite, 20,000 Crystal and 10,000 Helion per ship.
- You also need a free colony slot. Your limit is 1 + your level of Astro Cartography, and the home world counts as one of them.
- Astro Cartography itself requires a Research Lab at level 3, Deep Scan at level 2 and Ion Propulsion at level 3. Every level allows one more colony. See Research for how research works.
Sending the Seedship
Pick a free planet in the system view or on the Fleet page and choose the mission Colonize. It is only offered for planets that nobody owns yet.
- Seedships on their way already reserve a colony slot. If you recall one, the slot is free again.
- Load the Seedship with resources. Its base cargo space is 7,500, and everything it carries becomes the starting stock of the new colony.
- You can send further ships along. One Seedship is used up on landing; all other ships stay at the new colony.
Flight times depend on distance and the slowest ship and scale with universe speed. The Fleets and missions guide covers the details.
When the Seedship arrives
On arrival the planet becomes yours, the cargo is unloaded and you get a message. Your first colony founded this way is also recorded as a milestone.
The landing fails in two cases:
- Someone was faster. If another commander colonized the planet first, it is theirs. The Seedship that arrives first wins; if two arrive at the same moment, the one dispatched earlier wins.
- Your limit is full. If you reached your colony limit in the meantime, the colony cannot be founded.
In both cases the fleet turns around and brings its ships and cargo back home.
Life as a colony
A new colony starts without buildings. It has a small base production of Ferrite and Crystal plus the resources the Seedship brought, so build mines and a Fusion Core first.
- Each planet has its own resources, storage and construction queue. Research, however, applies to your whole empire.
- Temperature matters: a Helion Extractor yields more on cold worlds and less on hot ones.
- Every colony in a new star system acts as an additional sensor station for spotting fleets.
- You can give a colony its own name (3 to 24 characters) and rename it once per 24 real hours. Its designation, such as Kaldor III, stays visible everywhere.
Several commanders can live in the same star system. Your colonies always stay yours: attacks can take loot, but nobody can take over your planet. A colony in a system is also the requirement for a system claim.
Tips
- Research Astro Cartography early, so a slot is ready when your first Seedship leaves the Shipyard.
- Fill the cargo hold with Ferrite and Crystal so the colony can start its first mines right away.
- Spread colonies over several systems to widen your sensor coverage and to have more systems you can claim.
- If you need Helion, cold planets are worth a closer look.