Economy and resources

The eight resources

Your empire produces, stores, and spends eight resources:

• Energy — keeps colonies and fleets running. A shortage leaves some fleets undermaintained and marks the missing amount in your turn report.
• Minerals — raw material for buildings and new ships.
• Research — pays for technological progress.
• Influence — political capital that supports treaties and strengthens your Galactic Council delegation.
• Exotic Matter — rare; harvested from anomalies. Powers high-tier propulsion.
• Dark Energy — rarer still. Required for the most advanced weapons.
• Biological Samples — collected from habitable worlds. Boosts research and population growth.
• Credits — commercial wealth. Every fresh empire begins with some, and can earn more through Trade Hubs and agreements with other civilisations.

How income works

Each turn, every colony produces a base amount of each resource. Bonuses stack on top — your faction has innate bonuses, your buildings add more, certain technologies add even more. Maintenance comes off the top: fleets eat energy, colonies pay an upkeep cost.

If your maintenance exceeds your income, your stockpile drains. If there is not enough to pay one fleet’s full bill, the game spends what remains, marks that fleet as undermaintained, and shows the shortfall.

Fleet supply and operational reach

Your colonies support your fleets within six hexes. The distance is measured directly across the hex grid from the nearest colony you own, so slow terrain does not shrink the supported area. Terrain still changes how far a fleet gets each turn and can therefore change when a long route first ends beyond support.

The route preview keeps two questions separate:

1. Can this fleet move there this turn? This depends on the fleet’s speed and the terrain along the route.
2. Can this fleet operate there at normal upkeep? This depends on whether each end-of-turn position remains within six hexes of one of your colonies.

You may send a fleet beyond that limit. The move remains legal, but the fleet’s Energy upkeep rises to 150% of its normal bill, rounded up, with at least 1 extra Energy charged. Before such a route is added to your orders, the game shows the added cost and asks you to confirm it. If part of the route is still uncharted, it warns you without pretending to know the exact turn on which the cost will begin.

Income and maintenance are handled before movement each turn. If a fleet first ends a turn beyond support, the higher bill starts in the next turn’s economy step. Moving back into range is still worthwhile, but that turn’s bill has already been paid before the fleet moves; normal upkeep returns on the following turn.

That creates a strategic choice: pay more Energy for a distant scout, attack, or reinforcement, or extend your reach first by founding or capturing another colony. Fleet Carriers do not extend supply in the current rules, and support does not pass through borders, allies, or a chain of territory.

Building an economy

Three principles:

1. Specialise colonies. A colony with dedicated research buildings produces more research than one that spends every production slot on ships or industry.
2. Don’t over-extend. Each new colony costs a one-time settlement charge and an ongoing maintenance bill, but it also extends fleet support by six hexes. Balance the bill against the reach it unlocks.
3. Research economy techs early. Unlocking improved buildings has a compounding effect — every turn you have them is a turn you produce more.

Funding research

Every faction starts with research points, but a full technology tree needs renewable income. Build the research chain through normal colony production:

Structure	Required research	Cost and build time	Output
Research Laboratory	Applied Sciences	180 energy, 40 minerals · 4 turns	7 research each turn
Data Archive	Data Archives	160 energy, 80 minerals · 5 turns	10 research each turn
Quantum Research Array	Quantum Research Arrays	220 energy, 120 minerals · 7 turns	16 research each turn

Orbital Industry also opens the Fusion Reactor. It costs 120 energy and 60 minerals, takes four turns, and produces 6 energy each turn—enough to help fund the later research buildings.

Faction technologies can add percentage bonuses to energy, minerals, research, or influence across all owned colonies. Their effects apply as soon as the project completes and stack with your faction’s permanent strengths.

Paying for production

Open a colony’s Production view to compare structures, ships, and the available Wonders. Each choice shows its resource cost, requirements, and number of turns to build. Locked choices tell you what is missing, so you can decide whether to save resources, finish research, or build something else first.

Before End turn, you can reorder or cancel planned items without paying for them. When the turn accepts a new item, its full cost comes out of your stockpile. That cost is not refunded if you remove the item from the queue later.

Only the first item in a colony’s queue makes progress each turn. Put the project you need most at the front, then check the Turn Summary for its progress and any completed production.

A researched City-Ship uses this same queue. It costs 500 Energy and 280 Minerals, takes five turns, and then launches as a dedicated fleet. Deploying it at a legal star system costs another 40 Energy and produces 2 Research each turn from its two population. Relocating it costs 20 Energy and pauses that income until it deploys again. It pays 5 Energy in fleet upkeep in either state.

The late-game supremacy project is the largest single production commitment: 600 energy, 400 minerals, and 12 turns after your faction capstone and a local Quantum Research Array. Its full cost is reserved when the order is accepted, so prepare the stockpile before entering the final race.

Influence and diplomacy

The Founders’ Beacon produces influence, while faction and research bonuses can raise that output. Every 50 influence adds a Galactic Council delegate, and a reserve of 75 also completes a one-delegate Council objective. Influence is most effective alongside population, positive reputation, treaties, and alliances rather than as a replacement for them.

Credits infrastructure

A Trade Hub is built through the same production queue as other colony structures. It costs Credits to establish and then produces Credits each turn. That creates a deliberate choice: spend part of your stockpile to increase future income, or keep the Credits on hand while pursuing an economic victory.

Trade

An active Trade Agreement increases the Credits income of both partners by the same set percentage. A newly accepted deal starts paying both sides during the following economy step.

Trade is useful, but never free of strategic risk. Every agreement improves a rival’s income as well as your own. Computer-controlled civilisations will seek profitable partners, keep Credits in reserve, and invest in Trade Hubs. They can also refuse or break a deal when a partner is close to an economic victory.

Economic victory

Reach 900 Credits and remain at or above that target for five consecutive turns to win an economic victory. Reaching the target starts your hold counter. Falling below the target before the hold is complete resets that counter, so a large purchase can delay your own victory.

If several civilisations complete the hold on the same turn, the lead goes to the one with the most Credits, then the highest Credits income that turn, then the most active trade routes. If all three are exactly tied, the campaign continues until the tie is broken.

Computer rivals can win this way too. The public rival warning gives you time to reconsider a trade deal, accelerate your own economy, or use another part of your empire to disrupt theirs.

Markers and warnings

The status beam along the top of the map keeps your stockpiles and their change this turn in one continuous row. Long-press any resource to open its detailed breakdown. Credits also opens with a tap, showing your campaign target, hold progress, and any public warning that a rival is nearing economic victory.

On a phone, the beam shows up to four resources, with the largest recorded shortages first, and an overflow readout. When a shortage clears, that resource stays in view for one more turn so a recovering value does not flicker in and out. Open a resource breakdown to pin or unpin it; your most recent pin moves to the front of your chosen resources whenever no shortage needs that space.

Tap the overflow readout to inspect every stockpile that is currently out of view and open its breakdown. It gains a warm warning when a recently recovered resource is displaced. If more resources are short than the beam can show at once, it changes to an alarm and reports exactly how many shortages remain out of view.

A shortage readout carries a warning marker, striped edge, and signed loss so it does not rely on colour alone. Address shortages by increasing production or decreasing maintenance.