Stellar Nexus

Galaxy

Anomalies

Rare hexes that reward scouts — wormholes, precursor ruins, derelict fleets, and dark-matter clouds.

Most of the galaxy is deep space, nebulae, and star systems. A small handful of hexes are something stranger — a tear in space, a graveyard fleet, a cloud of dark matter. These are anomalies, and finding them is one of the highest-leverage things a scout can do.

Anomalies are rare. A typical galaxy seed scatters only a handful across the whole map. Each one is unique on first contact: a one-time event, a research payout, or a permanent shortcut that can rewrite the strategic picture.

Wormhole
WormholeA linked pair. Step through and you skip the map — instant travel for no movement cost, both ways.
Precursor ruins
Precursor ruinsArchitecture from a vanished civilisation. First contact yields a research windfall — sometimes a unique tech.
Derelict fleet
Derelict fleetHulks adrift, still running. Salvage them for minerals and, sometimes, a working ship you didn’t have to pay for.
Dark matter cloud
Dark matter cloudA swirling reservoir. Harvest it for dark energy — the resource that feeds the rarest endgame tech.

Wormholes

Wormholes are the only anomaly that’s also a terrain type. The pair stays on the map permanently, and either end is traversable as long as it’s in your sensor range.

Strategy: Scout for them in the first 20 turns. Plan your borders around both ends — an unguarded wormhole is a backdoor into your empire. If you find one, expect someone else to find the other side soon after.

See Terrain types for the full wormhole movement rules.

Precursor ruins

A first scout to a precursor-ruins hex triggers a research event. Most events pay out a chunk of research points proportional to your current tech tier; the best ones unlock a tech you couldn’t otherwise research yet.

Strategy: Prioritise sending an early scout to ruins over almost any other exploration goal. The earlier you trigger the event, the more it warps your tech curve.

Derelict fleets

A derelict-fleet hex contains the broken remains of a fight that ended before you arrived. Salvaging costs a few turns of fleet time and pays back in minerals — and occasionally a working ship rejoins your fleet, complete with whatever tech was on board.

Strategy: Salvage is opportunistic income. Don’t divert a war fleet to claim one, but if a scout passes nearby, take the detour.

Dark-matter clouds

These hexes are passable — fleets move through them at normal cost — but the real value is mining. Dropping a harvester on a cloud yields a steady trickle of dark energy each turn for as long as the cloud lasts (which is usually the rest of the game).

Strategy: Dark energy is rare. If you find a cloud, building a small dedicated outpost to mine it can shape your entire late-game economy.