When a fleet with the mission Attack reaches a foreign colony, a battle starts against everything that guards that planet. Battles are resolved by the server at the exact moment of arrival, so they also happen while the defender is offline. Before attacking, it pays to scout the target first.
Who fights
- Attacker: the ships in the arriving fleet.
- Defender: all ships stationed on the target planet plus all of its defenses, from the Autocannon Turret to the Plasma Lance and shields such as the Aegis Dome.
- The planet is brought up to the moment of arrival first. Defenses finished before the fleet arrives join the battle, and so does a defending fleet that came home in time. Research finished before the arrival counts as well.
- Fleets of the defender that are underway do not take part.
If the target has joined your alliance in the meantime, or one of you is now under new player protection, your fleet turns around without a battle.
How a battle runs
A battle lasts up to six rounds. Every unit has three values: attack, shield and hull.
- At the start of each round the shields of all units recharge completely.
- Every unit fires one shot per round at a random enemy unit. Both sides fire at the same time.
- A shot hits the target's shield first. Whatever the shield cannot absorb damages the hull. Damage does not spill over to other units.
- A unit whose hull drops to zero is destroyed and leaves the battle at the end of the round.
The battle ends as soon as one side has no units left, or after the sixth round. If only the defender is wiped out, the attacker wins. If only the attacker is wiped out, the defender wins. In every other case the battle is a draw. An undefended planet falls without a single round.
Combat research
Three technologies make your ships and defenses stronger, at 10 percent per level:
- Pulse Optics raises attack.
- Deflector Theory raises shields.
- Hull Plating raises hull.
Because shields recharge every round, a strong shield can swallow many weak shots. Large shield values like those of the Aegis Dome and Pulse Barrier only break under concentrated fire.
Loot and losses
- Only a winning attacker takes loot: half of every resource stored on the planet, limited by the free cargo space of the surviving ships. If the cargo is too small, every resource is reduced in the same proportion.
- After a draw or a defeat the surviving attackers return home without loot. If the whole fleet is destroyed, nothing comes back.
- Destroyed ships and defenses are lost for good and there is no free rebuild. Their value is deducted from your points, see Rankings.
- Destroyed ships of both sides leave a debris field that can be collected, see Salvage.
The battle report
Attacker and defender both receive a battle report with the result, the number of rounds, the losses of both sides, the loot taken and the debris left behind. The returning fleet links to its report on the Fleet page.
Tips
- Spy first, attack second. Only attack when you know the defense.
- Bring enough cargo: freighters in an attack fleet raise the loot you can carry home.
- Keep your own resources low on exposed colonies, because half of what lies around can be stolen.
- Research combat technology for both sides of the war - it boosts your defenses as well as your fleet.