Glossary

Quick reference for terms used throughout the game.

• 4X — Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate. The four pillars of empire-building strategy.
• Async — A multiplayer mode where players don’t have to be online at the same time.
• Bonus — A modifier on production, cost, or stat. Faction bonuses, building bonuses, and tech bonuses stack.
• Colony — Your settlement on a star system. Produces resources, queues buildings, defends itself with a garrison.
• End-Turn — The button you click when you’re done issuing orders. Triggers resolution.
• Faction — A playable civilisation. Stellar Nexus has four (Terran, Nyx, Orion, Vanguard).
• Fleet — A group of ships you command. Move, fight, scout, transport.
• Fog of war — The unrevealed parts of the galaxy you haven’t yet explored.
• Garrison — A colony’s built-in defence force. Attackers must defeat it before they can occupy.
• Hex — A single tile on the galaxy map. Hexes are six-sided so movement and adjacency stay symmetric.
• Influence — A resource used for diplomacy. Spend it on treaties and trade deals.
• Maintenance — The ongoing cost of keeping a fleet or colony each turn.
• Skirmish — A singleplayer game against AI opponents.
• Star system — A habitable hex. You can found a colony here.
• Stockpile — Your stored resources. If a stockpile hits zero, the things using that resource start failing.
• Tech tree — The set of technologies you can research. Branches: military, economy, exploration, diplomacy, special.
• Terrain — What’s on a hex: deep space, nebula, asteroid field, ion storm, star system, black hole, wormhole.
• Turn — One round of player orders. End-Turn resolves everything at once.