Pre-alpha codex — written from the build in internal testing. Systems, numbers and features can change before launch. · Join the waitlist
Codex Entry
Claims & Colonies
Charting, surveying, colonising and releasing systems.
Lifecycle of a claim
- Chart the star. Any fleet that flies past auto-discovers a star; you can also dispatch an Espionage Probe specifically to chart distant ones.
- Survey. A Research Ship survey mission reveals every orbit — planet types, asteroid belts, moons, anomalies.
- Colonize. Send a Colony Ship to the planet orbit you picked — it founds a colony on arrival.
- The system is yours. Your first colony in a system claims the whole system, with its own resource stockpile ready to build from.
- Expand. Follow-up colonies and stations fill out the remaining orbits.
Note·How many systems can you hold?
Every empire starts with a base ceiling of 25 claimed systems. Astrophysics raises it by +1 for every 2 levels (so Astrophysics L10 → 30 systems). Releasing a claim frees a slot again.
Per-system resources
- Metal, Crystal, Aetherium — continuous, decremented by production tick.
- Storage caps — set by the level of Metal Storage / Crystal Storage / Aetherium Tank.
- Population — gates building construction; each building has a population requirement.
- Energy — produced and consumed locally. Negative net energy throttles production proportionally.
Colonies vs. stations
- A colony sits on a planet and supports the full set of buildings.
- A station sits on an asteroid belt or empty orbit. Stations host every specialty too — including a Belt Habitat (Population) on asteroid belts. No orbit is wasted.
Note·Black holes replace the sun, not a slot
A small fraction of systems (~2-3%) have a black hole as their central body instead of one or more stars. Planets, asteroid belts and empty orbits all orbit the black hole exactly the way they would orbit a star — same nine orbits, same nine sub-orbits, same rules. Black holes are no longer a slot kind, so there are no "undevelopable" slots in any system anymore.
Releasing a claim
You can release a claim from the Galaxy › System detail panel. Any colonies, stations and on-claim resources are forfeited. Use this carefully — there is no undo.