Welcome to my first guide, please feel free to add comments & suggestions and I’ll try to incorporate them into the guide. Most games like these cannot be won in the early stages, but they can be lost during this time. If you don’t have a strong start, you will always be playing from behind. This game is not turn-based, so the longer you take to make decisions the further behind you can find yourself. Do not be afraid to use the PAUSE button especially in the early game. (I’m not sure about Pausing in multi-player games.) This guide is using the Easy settings for most of the game setup. I have added some comments about Normal and Hard settings towards the end of this guide, as well as an attempt at a "cheat sheet" for both paths.

The tutorial can teach you some really good basics for your first playthroughs. Most notable for early game are start on a Grass world. Desert and Ice planets both grow 50% slower than Grass planets and do not start with Clay, Iron and Coal needed for Steel. Settle near clay and make 2 brick smelters per clay mine. If you can find a 2 clay mine area to start then I’d build 5 smelters and mine the other clays, because you need tons of bricks. Later, I would add some smelters by the more distant clays, along with a warehouse to speed the collection of resources.

Now let’s get into settling and advancing thru Tier 1. After placing the Spaceport and starting the clays, you need to think about where to layout your Residences, and where to place your farms and production builds. You need to make sure you have enough room for 60-70 Residences, built adjacent to each other. They also must be built next to all the Public Buildings that are happiness “Factors” for each tier. It is these Factors that must reach 100% and be maintained to reach full population for each tier. You advance tiers when you max your population on the current tier. Your RES are your income producers in the game, so keeping them as happy as possible should always be a top priority. Later in the game you may find it necessary to turn off the Auto-update feature of the City Center to save resource and money.


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Tier 1 has 5 Factors that must be met to advance to the next tier. You start by being able to place City Center (CC), Energy and Vegetables giving you 60%. The other 2 factors have size requirements on them. Work Wear (72) and the Pub (100) require some planning to achieve. You will need 12 RES at 60% to reach the 72 mark and between either 14-18 RES depending if you are at 60% or 80%. You need a lot more in the next tier so I just go to 18 as quickly as I can. The CC will show you your RES count, also be sure to turn on Auto Upgrade. This upgrades your RES to the next tier. Spread out a few warehouses around the globe to help speed up the collection of your resources to help reduce the lags in your productions.

Tier 1 is almost complete in the above shot. I need a few more population before I can add the Pub, which as a Public Building must be built adjacent to the residences. Then it is just a little waiting time until Tier 2. If you notice one of your Factors not reaching 100% check the Spaceport to see if a component is running short. I added another cotton farm after seeing only 2 on hand. This was easy to see here but later it gets more complicated as the product, and components, list grows.


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Note: Looking at the details as you build items can help tell you how many you should build. Example, Clay mines produce ore every 5 seconds while the Brick Smeltery produces a brick in 10 seconds. In 10 seconds you'll have 2 ores enough for 2 Smelters. I've included a chart at the end of the guide with these ratios already setup.

Lastly, there is no research on Tier 1.

What type of Victory do you want to achieve? You’re barely 10 minutes into the game and you’re being asked about how it will end. But in most games like these your end goal shapes how you build your empire. This question is important now because there are currently 2 different paths to achieve Victory: Science and Military. A Science Victory involves launching the Exo Spaceship, while the Military Victory is a conquest type takeover of your opponent’s colonies. The research trees and builds are different depending on which path you choose.

There are now 9 Factors needed for RES growth. You start with 5 from T1 in place giving you 55%. You need to be aware that each time you advance to the next level that this percentage drop impacts your economy. Your income remains the same as you enter the new tier, but if you don't start adding the new factors your percentages and population will drop and that will lower your income. That is why it is important to always monitor your happiness levels in an effort to keep your economy in Balance. No matter which path you have chosen there is only 1 factor you can immediately work on in either path. This gets you to 66% happy. The other factors need 300 & 400 T2 people to be able to build. Which means you need 24 RES to reach 300 and 32 RES to reach 400.

The 300 RES mark is also important because it opens your Small Space Shipyard for building additional ships. Iron and Coal become available early here and is needed to get your Steelworks up and running. Steel and Bricks are needed for almost all builds now, and steel is needed to build your new Colony. Colonize a Desert planet to acquire copper as quickly as possible. You need 10 bricks and 5 steel to colonize a new planet, by building a Spaceport. You’ll need the copper for T2 and T3 builds. The Military path needs Oil which is on most Grass planets and all Desert planets. You'll also need an Ice planet in T3, so go ahead and claim one now. They have copper, iron and coal that you can use until the nickel is available in T3.

You are also now able to research techs. There are two different paths, Science and Military, so make sure you are using the correct path. There is a notification icon that appears on the right hand side of the screen when a tech is completed, but there is currently no warning for having no tech selected to research. So, remember to check your research frequently. You can research up to Offshore Wind Park on both paths, however this is the 1st Tier 3 tech and must wait until you advance to that tier.


Developers Residence
9 Factors
CC, WW, Veg, Pub & Energy = 55% (+11% for each additional factor)

• Fruit Juice
  
• Holo Displays (need 300 and Copper from Colony)
  
• Bakery (need 400)
  
• Cinema (need 400) – Public Building

T2 Science Builds


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Mechanics Developments
9 Factors
CC, WW, Veg, Pub, Energy = 55% (+11% for each additional factor)

• Soft Drinks
  
• Smartphones Displays (need 300 and Oil, plus Copper from Colony)
  
• Bakery (need 400)
  
• Gym (need 400) – Public Building

T2 Military Builds


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Note: These build choices initially show up under a single tab labeled as either Science or Military as long as you are on T2. However, once you reach T3 it becomes a nested menu starting with the Science and Military tabs but then having specific icons for each tier level. The T1 builds are under “Common”, while the first page of each tier will contain the Public Buildings on the first line.

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You’ll need to setup a trade route from the Desert planet back home to make the copper available. Trade routes are slot dependent, so be careful when setting them up. Also, make sure you have your load and unload selections made correctly. For most of T2 you should be able to get by sending your transports without fighter escorts. As your Spaceport fills, you will want to add Depots (not warehouses) to increase the inventory capacity of the port. Don’t forget to use your Spaceport and "N" Statistics to look for slowdowns in components to the happiness Factors. Because you can’t advance to T3 until you hit 100% on all factors and have grown your RES to size 20. Also, use the Diplomacy button to see if you are keeping pace with the AI’s. If you are not building ships and adding defenses like flaks, they will have a higher score than you. Don’t let that gap get too big or they may attack.


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Note: If you are missing or running short on a resource you may need to setup a trade with the Neutral Trader. Click on your Spaceport and see if you have surplus inventory you can sell, or select the buy tab and place your order. Then wait for the trader to show up.

By now you should be expanding your borders. You will need to Colonize an Ice planet to gain Nickel and if you are going Military you want to secure Titanium and Cobalt for use in T4 builds. Again, if Military is your goal, you also need to start laying the footwork for claiming a Gas planet in T4. You’ll want to start building some defenses on your planet and colonies, as well as escorting your trade routes. You will start being attacked by AI’s if you are behind, check the Diplomacy button. Adding Flaks, Lasers, and Shield near you Spaceports and around your planet will add to your Garrison and help your defense. You only need to protect the Spaceports on your colonies.

In the mid-T3 period you need to switch from fighters to Falcons/Protectors/Interceptors as escorts for your trade routes. The fighters won't hold up to the top T4 ships. When you hit T4 your routes will definitely see Guardians attacking them. Laser weapons have a greater range than guns, but Military path has no laser weapons.

But for now, you need to grow your home world, more percentages. You need to start adding more RES again. Plus, your happiness drops from 100% down to 64% in the RES that have upgraded and this impacts your economy. This is where you may find it necessary to turn Auto-update off, as the demands on your resources grow. You will have to manually upgrade the RES from T2 to T3 once you turn this off.

There are 14 T3 Factors here, some don’t start until you hit 500 T3 RES, while the last one needs 1600 RES. To reach the 1600 number you’ll need 70 RES at 78%, a few less if you manage 85% happy. As long as the line of RES connects to the main group they count as being connected. This is why you need a separate area for RES. You will need a few more RES in T4. I have about 75 RES in the follow shot.



Researchers Residence
14 Factors
9 from T2 = 64% (+7% for each additional factor)

• Cultivated Meats (needs 1000)
  
• Laboratory Instruments (needs 500 & Nickel from Colony)
  
• Casual Wear (needs 1300)
  
• Laboratory (needs 1600) – Public Building
  
• Science University (needs 750) – Public Building

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T3 Science Builds


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Military Technicians Residence
14 Factors
9 from T2 = 64% (+7% for each additional factor)

• Convenience Food (needs 1000 & Oil)
  
• Cars (needs 500 & Oil)
  
• Suits (needs 1300)
  
• Shooting Range (needs 1600) – Public Building
  
• Military Academy (needs 750) – Public Building

T3 Military Builds


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Note: The ship names are limited and repeat, but you can rename them. (New update just expanded name list). This makes setting up trade routes easier when you don’t have duplicate names. You can escort a ship by selecting the ship you want as the escort then right mouse click on the ship you want to escort. A green circle should appear on the target ship. You can add more than one escort ship. Also, you can select a group of ships by drawing a box around them. This creates a “fleet” and you can give them 1 set of orders, instead of having to move them individually. You can also select ship(s) and use "Ctrl" + 1-9 key to assign them to a group for easy command purposes.

Research can impact your growth and consumption rates on products and components. This tier is where I find using the Spaceport to monitor the slowdowns and bottlenecks in the happiness levels very important. You have so many farms and production buildings it is hard to track them all. But the Spaceport can show you why your Holo Displays are not at 100%. There is a good example at the end of the next section. Also, try to keep your economy in Balance and bank some credits because the T4 builds are expensive and your economy can get wrecked easily. If you have been building your products using the right ratio combination based on time it takes to produce 1 unit, you should be in decent shape. But, bottlenecks can still occur so using both the "N" Statistics and the Spaceport together are a good way to keep your growth moving in the right direction.

Currently, this is the final tier for the game. You should now be focusing on your push towards final victory. We get to play with bigger ships thanks to the Large Spaceship Yard (needs 300 T4 RES), and we can settle the Gas planet finally. There are usually only a couple of Gas planets in the game so you need to claim one quickly and defend it, especially if you are going Military. It’s not needed under the Science path (no Nukes) but by claiming it you keep it away from your opponents. There is a good guide on Steam for settling a Gas Planet https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2988320998 so I won’t spend time here. (Note: Update added the Floating Depot for Gas Planet, build this instead of the warehouse.) War should definitely be happening in the solar system, so be prepared. Your planet and colony defenses should be in place too. There is need for more trade routes here, but do not send any ship out unescorted. If you are still using Explorers and Fighters on your trade routes, it is time to retire them. You'll also need 300 T4 RES before you can even start researching most of the T4 techs.

There are 19 T4 Factors and you start at 73% happy. Builds and large ships are expensive on this level so you need to watch your credits and balance numbers. The factors range from 500 to 2000, but you only need to add a few more RES from the 70 you had on T3.


Visionaries Residence
19 Factors
14 from T3 = 73% (+5 or 6% for each additional factor)

• Smart Food (needs 500)
  
• Brain Interfaces (need 2000)
  
• Cocktails (need 1200)
  
• Research Center (needs 850) – Public Building
  
• Technology Fair (needs 1750) – Public Building

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T4 Science Builds


You need to get Nano Fibers up as soon as possible. They take Oil and Coal, which you may need to import from your colonies to keep the machines feed. Four of the five T4 factors require Nano Fibers. Interplanetary Lasers requires Hydrogen from Gas Planet, then converted to Helium, to work.


Weapons Engineers Residence
19 Factors
14 from T3 = 73% (+5 or 6% for each additional factor)

• Desserts (needs 500)
  
• Household Robots (needs 2000)
  
• Champagne (needs 1200)
  
• Ministry of Defence (needs 850) – Public Building
  
• Secret Weapon Laboratory (needs 1750) – Public Building

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T4 Military Builds


You need to get Composit Metals up as soon as possible. They take Titanium, Nickel and Cobalt which all come from colonies. Plus, you need Methane and Hydrogen from Gas Planet, Uranium from Desert Planet, and the creation of Plutonium on Home Planet for Interplanetary Rockets (Nukes).

If you notice in the 2nd Weapon Engineers RES picture (above) Desserts are only at 50%. Using the Spaceport, I can see that the bottleneck is with the Pudding component. I have plenty of the ingredients, so I need to add another Pudding Factory.


You can also use the "N" key to open a Statistics window which can help show you your Consumption rates. (See Statistic section.)

Time to secure your victory. By now everything should be in place, if not already in motion.

You need 2000 T4 RES to build the Exo Spaceship. It requires 1000 bottles of Oxygen, so you need to add Depots until your Spaceport is large enough to hold the 1000 bottles. It takes 10 minutes to build and once built there are two stages: Prep Expedition and Start Expedition. The Prep stage last 3 minutes and costs 5000 credit upkeep, so make sure you have money. Then you have to Start your ship on it journey out of the solar system. The Exo has no weapons, so you should escort it as it leaves. Sit back and watch your ship fly away to victory.


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This victory condition does not have to wait until tier 4 to begin. However, the Large Spaceship Yard unlocks the Battle Cruiser for you. Not much stands up to a fleet lead by these big guns. The AI will heavily garrison their main planets, while the colonies are lightly guarded. You must defeat all garrisons on a planet and then the Spaceport to take over control. Once your opponent has no planets left, they are eliminated. If you are not currently at war with an opponent you must declare war on them using the Diplomacy screen. Hopefully, you have been using this screen along the way to monitor your strength and to see the status of your opponents. As long as your planets are well defended, don’t worry if you are behind the other players. As long as you have the resources to build a fleet, you can still prevail. So go forth and smash.


The game has a nice feature that lets you swap places with an opponent. This will let you see how they have setup their planet. It is especially nice to use in the mid game time frame when you find yourself lagging way behind.



That concludes my first guide for any game. Please post any additions, suggestions or corrections. Thanks.

The Statistic "N" key shows how you planet is doing. The Items tab shows the Production and Consumption rates of the resources and buildings on your planet. The Building tab shows the number of resources and buildings you have, while the Research Power tab shows your number of residences by tiers and their research power. To use these pages you need to be on that planet, not paused, hit the "N" key. Then cycle thru the 3 tabs to update the information. Now you can press pause to look at the information.
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The key information to watch on the Item tab is Consumption. This is showing how much of each item is needed on this planet. Your population size is included in this figure. The Production numbers are based off how many buildings of each item you have. In the above picture my Wheat, Milk and Flour are all in balance with the Bakery (that is just out of the picture). If you see red warning triangles you have a consumption supply shortage. You need to supply more of the missing resource to bring the item back into balance.

Note: Incoming resources that come from another planet will not add into the production side, so they almost always have red warning signs on them. Just ignore them, for example, copper will have a shortage warning on it.

You can also break the Items down into the subgroups of Construction Materials, Consumables, Intermediates, Raw Materials, and Agriculture Products. Take that list in reverse order and you can see how they relate to completing each tier. The Ag products (Cotton, Corn, Soy) and Raw Materials (Iron, Coal, Copper) are used to make either Intermediates (Iron Ingots, Flour) or Consumables (non-Public building factors; Work Wear, Bakery, Fruit Juices). Construction Materials are needed to build either ships or the new buildings opened on that tier. It is important to get Construction Materials up as fast as possible when reaching a new tier.
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The Building tab shows you the actual number of buildings and their income or upkeep cost. This can help to show you why your shortages are happening. Did you overbuild or are you missing a resource. This tab can help you find out. Also, using the Positive tab will show you your income and give you a breakdown by tier of your RES.


An example of overbuilding an Intermediate or consumable. In this case I built 2 Sugarbeet farms (1 unit/10 sec), 2 Fruit farms (1 unit/10 sec), and 3 Juicers (1 unit/10 sec). These produce at the same time and should be built in equal numbers. By building 1 extra Juicer I've increased the Consumption demand on Sugar and Fruit to 18 according to the Statistics. But the real Consumption for the Juicer is only 10.8 and is being meet by the 12 unit being produced.


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This false shortage was easy to see here, but in some cases it may look like you have overbuilt an Agriculture Product but you need to make sure it is not used in multiple products. For example, Cotton is used in both Work Wear and Casual Wear (Sci) or Suit Tailoring (Mil). The Cotton farms and Cotton will only appear once in the Item listing even though it is used twice, so you need to make sure the production covers both products.

Note: Don't worry about overbuilding Raw Materials. Just mine all that can, you can always sell the excess to the Neutral Trader if you have too much.

As the previous section shows, your consumption and production builds are based on times. You can see this information in the Building Menu "M" by hovering over the icon for an item. Using this information you should be able to calculate the time intervals and minimum number of building to produce 1 final product (Consumable or Construction Material).

The first basic ratio you were introduced to was for making the clay bricks. The Clay mine produced an ore every 5 seconds, while the Brick Smeltery took 10 seconds. So you need a 2:1 Brick Smelter to Clay Mine ratio. A quick look at what happens if we only build 1 Smelter is shown below:
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Now, with 2 Smelter you see that the production cycle is in sync.


I know this was a simple example but some products have up to 7 components, and times vary from 5, 10 and 20 seconds. Usually you can match up the times and then you need to determine which machine needs to double to match production rates. Don't forget if you overbuild an Intermediate or the final product (Consumable or Construction Material) you can create false shortages on the Statistics "N" data. Also, later game research can impact growth and consumption rates and impact these ratios. So, you may still want to use the Spaceport to see where a bottleneck is occurring.

Note: These ratios only tell you how many to build in a set, not how many sets you may need to satisfy your population's consumption. Just add a full set and you should remain in good shape.

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The first column shows which items are used in more than 1 build. The builds are ordered by components on top and the end product underneath. I also show the tier and point/population requirements for the builds.

If I knew how to attach the pdf file for the sheets here I would do that, this was the best alternative I could think of.

Once you get a handle on the game start playing with the settings to test yourself. You can adjust the settings when you create a game. The game does a good job describing what each setting controls. Here are the settings that I like to play on.

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The World Difficulty Setting will control the number of planets in the game
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Here are some quick observations about playing on Normal and Hard settings that I've seen.

• Stay focused on Research - beeline thru techs, unless waiting at tier gateway techs
  
• AI's can grab the Gas planets on Tier 3 - can't develop it until T4
  
• Need more RES earlier than I lay out, to help with income and to help with research - estimate about 120 by the time you get to T3
  
• Turn auto-update off when you reach T3, need the resources for Construction Materials
  
• Buy/sell resources from trader
  
• Don't overbuild Fighters early T2, the 500 upkeep is better invested in buildings
  
• Late game battle you'll see planets with 20+ garrison strength