The goal

Build an empire, take the artifact worlds (marked ◆) and hold them. Every turn you hold an artifact world earns 1 victory point. The first empire to reach the target wins: .

The host can pick a game length when creating a game:

You also win by being the last empire standing. An empire is out when it has no colonies left, or no ships left. Its planets go back to neutral.

If nobody has won after 150 turns, the empire with the most victory points wins (ties go to the bigger economy).

How a turn works

Everyone gives orders at the same time; when every empire has ended its turn, the turn resolves in this order:

1. Research and refits. Your research budget is invested in your queue; weapon changes are fitted.
2. Scrapping and building. Scrapped ships leave; new ships join their fleets.
3. Movement. Fleets move one lane (two with Warp Drives). Enemy fleets meeting head-on in a lane fight there.
4. Battles. Wherever two or more empires have fleets at the same planet, they fight. All fleets of one empire at that planet fight together.
5. Colonies. An undefended enemy colony with your fleet in orbit is destroyed. A fleet that spent the turn colonizing founds its colony, if no enemy is there.
6. Victory points are awarded, eliminated empires are removed, and the game checks for a winner.

The map and fog of war

• Planets are joined by lanes. Fleets can only travel along lanes, one lane per turn. Pick any planet and the route follows the lanes.
• You see your planets, your fleets, and everything one lane beyond them (two with Long-Range Sensors), inside the bright frontier line. Beyond it you see planets as you last saw them, and no fleets.
• You can see enemy fleets' total value, but not which ships are in them, until you fight them.

Planet traits

Economy

• Every planet you own adds production each turn. Production is a fresh pool every turn: whatever you do not spend is lost.
• You spend it on ships, colonizing, and your research budget. Scrapping a ship returns half its price to this turn's pool.
• To colonize, park a fleet on a neutral planet and press Colonize. The fleet holds still for the turn and the colony is founded when the turn resolves. Ships cannot join that fleet until the colony exists.

Fleets

• Every empire has four fleets. New ships can only join a fleet while it is at one of your planets. A destroyed fleet is raised again at your home world when you buy ships for it.
• A fleet's value is the total standard price of its ships. Each fleet has a cap: Research (Fleet Logistics, Fleet Command) raises it.
• Fleets keep their battle orders (stance and retreat) from turn to turn.

Ships

Three classes. Each beats one and loses to another: Interceptors beat Heavy Battleships (big guns waste their shots on small, dodging fighters), Cruisers beat Interceptors (flak catches whole groups), Heavy Battleships beat Cruisers. Mixed fleets are usually safest.

Battleship weapons

Combat

Battles are simulated, not rolled. Ships deploy on a battlefield, pick targets, move and fire in 0.2-second steps using their stats; the replay you watch is the actual battle, the same for every player in it.

• Hitting: a shot hits unless the target dodges. Agile ships dodge weapons that track poorly: chance to dodge = agility × (1 − tracking).
• Armor softens every hit, light weapons most: damage dealt = damage² ÷ (damage + armor). A 2-damage fighter shot against armor 3 deals 0.8.
• Overkill is wasted: one shot can destroy at most the ship it strikes (beams are the exception: they pierce a line).
• Range: longer-ranged ships open fire first as the fleets close.
• Terrain: battles at asteroid fields and nebulas change the rules (see planet traits).
• After every battle, the report shows which ship classes destroyed what, damage dealt, shots dodged, hits on shields, and missiles fired and shot down.

Battle orders

Stances

If an empire has several fleets in one battle, it uses the battle orders of its largest fleet there.

Retreat

• Retreat is set per fleet: never, or at 25%, 50% or 75% losses.
• How losses are measured: by ship value (standard ship price; free drones do not count), against what your side brought into that battle. It is checked continuously during the fight.
• The moment your remaining ships are worth that much less, your side stops firing and flees toward the edge it came from, 20% faster than normal. The enemy can keep shooting for up to 7 seconds; ships that get clear survive.
• After the battle, survivors fall back to the planet they started the turn on. Defenders fall back to their nearest other colony. In a head-on lane fight they stay where they set out from.
• A retreat only happens while there is still an enemy to flee from.

Example: you bring 600 credits of ships with retreat at 50%. As soon as your surviving ships are worth 300 or less, the fleet breaks off. What escapes returns home.

Research

• Set a research budget (default a quarter of production). Each turn it is invested in the first tech in your queue; progress carries over, so big projects take several turns. Leftover budget flows into the next tech.
• Research takes effect when the turn resolves, before that turn's battles.
• Each race has its own tree with a fork: pick one side; the other is locked out. Tier 3 unlocks new ship designs (marked ◆) that change a ship class's stats and look.
• Shared research is open to everyone, including counters to each race's powers.

Races

Playing with friends

• Inviting: choose how many friends on the New game screen and share the link or the six-letter game ID. Empty seats become AI when the host starts.
• Undo end turn: changed your mind? While others are still playing the turn, Undo end turn gives you back your orders to edit.
• No turn timer: a turn resolves when everyone has ended it. Turn alerts (in the side panel) notify you when it is your move, even with the game closed. On iPhone, add the game to your home screen first.
• AI stand-in: let the AI play your turns while you are away, or (as host) for a player who is holding everyone up. Take it back any time.
• Comms: chat with everyone, or privately with one player.
• Rejoin code: enter it on any device to get back to your seat. Keep it private.