Buildings
Buildings are the backbone of your empire. Every colony has limited building slots — choose wisely what to construct.
Resource Buildings
These produce the materials that fuel everything else. Upgrade them consistently to keep your economy growing.
Ore Mine
Extracts ore from planetary deposits. Your first and most important building — ore is used in everything. Higher levels dramatically increase extraction rate.
Max Level: 30
Silicate Mine
Mines crystalline silicate formations from the planet's crust. Essential for research and advanced technology. The Industrialist commander boosts silicate production empire-wide.
Max Level: 30
Hydrogen Processor
Extracts and processes atmospheric hydrogen. Used for ship fuel, alloy production, and advanced buildings. Gas Giants produce hydrogen at massively increased rates.
Max Level: 30
Alloy Foundry
Smelts ore and silicates into advanced alloys. These are required for ships, military buildings, and most mid-to-late game structures. Unlocked after researching Structural Alloys.
Max Level: 25
Rare Resource Extractor
Specialized facility that extracts exotic materials based on what the planet naturally produces — cryo-ice from ice planets, plasma core from volcanic. Bio-extract on terra worlds is produced by the Bio Complex instead. Requires Rare Resource Extraction research.
Max Level: 15 Requires Research
Quantum Synthesizer
Harnesses quantum vacuum fluctuations to passively synthesize quantum dust. Only operational in Dead and Rift space where dimensional barriers are weakest. Requires Quantum Computing research.
Max Level: 10 Dead Zone / Rift Only
Energy Buildings
Energy keeps your colony running. Every building consumes energy — if production falls below consumption, your entire economy suffers. See Energy for how the balance works.
Solar Plant
Generates energy from the local star. Available from the start, cheap to build, and scales reliably. Your bread-and-butter energy source early on.
Max Level: 30
Thermal Plant
Taps into geothermal energy beneath the planet's surface. More expensive than solar but generates considerably more power per level. Requires Thermal Extraction research.
Max Level: 25 Requires Research
Fusion Reactor
High-output reactor that consumes hydrogen as fuel. Very efficient power source, but be mindful of the fuel cost. Best paired with strong hydrogen production. Requires Hydrogen Cracking research.
Max Level: 20 Requires Research
Zero-Point Generator
Endgame energy solution — harnesses quantum vacuum fluctuations for nearly limitless energy with no fuel cost. Expensive to build but eliminates energy concerns for any colony. Requires Zero-Point Energy research.
Max Level: 15 Requires Research
Storage
Storage Complex
Unified facility that stores all basic resources. Capacity scales exponentially — each level provides dramatically more space than the last. Without enough storage, your mines' output goes to waste.
Max Level: 20
Utility Buildings
Infrastructure buildings that provide population, research capability, construction speed, trade access, and more.
Logistics Hub
Automated logistics center that enables scheduled resource deliveries between your colonies. Each level unlocks one additional auto-delivery route from this planet. Routes execute automatically — just configure the resource type, threshold, and amount, and the system handles dispatching cargo ships. Requires Transport Logistics and Supply Chains research.
Max Level: 10 Requires Research
Residential Complex
Provides housing for your colony's population. More population enables more efficient operations and faster growth.
Max Level: 20
Bio Complex
Advanced hydroponics and life support systems. Accelerates population growth and produces bio-extract — doubled output on Terra worlds, where it's the primary food source. Does not add population capacity on its own. Requires Bio Agriculture research.
Max Level: 20 Requires Research
Research Lab
The key to technological progress. Higher lab levels are required to research more advanced technologies. Every colony should have one — and your main colony's lab should be a top upgrade priority.
Max Level: 15
Medical Bay
Advanced medical facility that increases population growth rate and overall colony morale. Requires Bio Agriculture research.
Max Level: 15 Requires Research
Cultural Center
Arts and cultural hub that improves colony morale and population satisfaction. Happy colonists work harder. Requires Cultural Development research.
Max Level: 15 Requires Research
Trade Hub
Alliance commercial center used for alliance trade contracts. An alliance needs at least one Trade Hub before members can post alliance orders, and only the alliance leader or deputy can build it. Requires Basic Trade research.
Max Level: 15 Requires Research
Construction Yard
Automated construction facility that reduces building upgrade time by 5% per level. Higher levels mean faster construction across the colony — a force multiplier for your economy.
Max Level: 15
Military Buildings
Shipyards construct your fleets. Different tiers of shipyard build different sizes of ship.
Planetary Shipyard
Constructs and maintains small and medium spacecraft. Your first gateway to building a fleet — scouts, fighters, freighters, and more. Higher levels unlock additional ship types. Requires Orbital Mechanics research.
Max Level: 15 Requires Research
Orbital Shipyard
Large orbital construction facility for heavy warships — battleships, carriers, bombers, and more. Required for building any large-class vessel. Requires Orbital Construction research.
Max Level: 5 Requires Research
Defense Buildings
Defend your colonies from orbital attacks and ground raids. A well-defended planet is costly to assault.
Space Defense Systems
These fire at hostile fleets during orbital battles, supplementing your stationed ships. All space defense systems have a max level of 15.
| System | Weapon Type | Best Against | Requires Research |
|---|---|---|---|
| Railgun Defense System | Kinetic | Light-armor ships (scouts, fighters) | Kinetic Weapons |
| Laser Defense System | Laser | Balanced against all armor types | Laser Weapons |
| Missile Defense System | Missile | Medium-armor ships (cruisers, assault craft) | Missile Systems |
| Plasma Defense System | Plasma | Heavy-armor ships (battleships, carriers) | Plasma Weapons |
| Ion Defense System | Ion | Shielded ships — disrupts energy shields | Ion Cannons |
Electronic Warfare System
Jamming arrays and ECM suites that reduce enemy fleet accuracy by 3% per level (max 30%). Doesn't fire directly — instead, it weakens every shot the enemy fleet takes. Requires Electronic Warfare research.
Max Level: 10 Requires Research
Ground Defense & Raid Protection
When enemies send assault shuttles to raid your planet, these buildings protect your resources.
Shield Generator
Generates a protective energy shield. Reduces incoming damage and never fully deactivates — even at low levels, it provides a baseline defense. Shields regenerate over time. Requires Shield Theory research.
Max Level: 15 Requires Research
AA Turret
Anti-air turret that intercepts incoming assault shuttles. Destroys some raiders before they land. Requires Point Defense research.
Max Level: 15 Requires Research
Garrison
Houses ground defense troops that engage enemy raiding parties. More garrison levels mean more troops fighting to protect your resources.
Max Level: 15
Storage Cloaking
Camouflages your resource storages. Increases the time raiders need to locate your stockpiles (+30s per level) — if they run out of time, they leave with less. Requires Shield Theory research.
Max Level: 10 Requires Research
Defense Traps
Hidden traps around key installations. Deals damage to raiding parties and slows their operations (+10s per level). Combined with Storage Cloaking, makes raiding very expensive for attackers. Requires Basic Armor research.
Max Level: 10 Requires Research
Specialized Buildings
A handful of high-end buildings sit outside the standard tree — they unlock later, require specific research, and typically solve a single strategic problem extremely well.
Terraforming Station
Reshapes the planetary environment, adding extra building slots per level. Lets you squeeze more infrastructure out of a colony. Very expensive to run — pay attention to its energy drain. Requires Terraforming research.
Diplomatic Embassy
Interstellar consulate for personal diplomacy. Each level adds +2 personal pact slots. Alliance capacity starts at 30 members. Completed Embassy levels across alliance members unlock extra slots: the first 5 require 15 total levels each; after that, each next slot costs 1 more total level than the previous one. Maximum: 60 members. Requires Network Protocols research.
Moon Buildings
Moons are separate from planets — they have their own building slots and serve specialized purposes. Colonize a moon using a Lunar Shuttle after researching Lunar Operations.
Regolith Extractor
Extracts ore and trace minerals from lunar regolith. A modest but useful ore source.
Max Level: 20
Ice Harvester
Processes subsurface ice deposits into hydrogen and silicate compounds.
Max Level: 20
Silicate Processor
Processes lunar regolith into refined silicates using thermal separation.
Max Level: 20
Lunar Warehouse
Massive underground storage caverns. Low gravity makes it easy to store enormous quantities of resources.
Max Level: 5
Solar Collector
Lightweight solar array optimized for low-gravity. Powers your moon facilities.
Max Level: 20
Low-G Refinery
Microgravity refinery that converts materials into alloys at improved rates. Low gravity makes metallurgy easier.
Max Level: 15
Sensor Array
Lunar intelligence platform. It gives early warning against hostile fleets and unlocks active scans: fleet phalanx checks on planets, moons, and stations; sector activity sweeps; wormhole detection; and, with advanced sensors, spy sweeps against hidden probes.
Max Level: 10
Jump Gate
Enables instant fleet transfer between your moons that both have Jump Gates. Jump Gates also form a strategic highway network: when a suitable entry and exit are available, normal fleet routes can take a much shorter path through the network. Gates have cooldowns, so their timing matters.
Max Level: 1
Moon Dockyard
Massive low-gravity dockyard for constructing capital-class warships. Dreadnoughts and Titans can only be built here — they're too large for orbital construction.
Max Level: 2
Stealth Field
Cloaking technology that hides your moon from enemy sensor scans. At higher levels, the moon becomes effectively invisible to most scanning attempts.
Max Level: 5
Defense Platform
Automated weapons platform for moon defense. Fires at hostile fleets attacking your moon.
Max Level: 15
Megastructures
Megastructures are colossal, empire-defining projects. Each one is unique per account — you can only build one of each across all your colonies. They require Megastructure Engineering research (Era 5) and astronomical resource costs, but their effects are game-changing.
Dyson Sphere
A stellar-scale energy collector enveloping the star. Produces immense power (+8,000 energy) without fuel. Eliminates energy concerns for your entire empire.
Max Level: 1 Requires Research
Molecular Assembler
Atomic-scale fabrication facility. Converts raw matter into alloys at unprecedented rates (+5,000 alloys/tick). Consumes significant energy (-2,000) but transforms your production capacity.
Max Level: 1 Requires Research
Quantum Nexus
Quantum-entangled computing network spanning all colonies. Massively accelerates research and construction across the empire. Power-hungry (-3,000 energy) but invaluable for late-game progression.
Max Level: 1 Requires Research
Demolishing Buildings
Building slots are limited. If you need to free up a slot, you can demolish a building. Demolishing takes time and returns a partial refund of the construction costs. You can't undo a demolish once started.