Spy Operations
Espionage lets you gather information on enemy empires or sabotage their production. Open Intel → Spy Mission and select a target planet. Each mission type has a base success chance, a detection risk, and a cooldown before you can send another spy to the same target.
Mission Types
| Mission | Effect on success | Base success | Detection risk | Cooldown |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planetary Scan | Full planet report (structures, resources, fleet) | 75% | 10% | 5 ticks |
| Research Scan | See top 3 researched techs | 65% | 15% | 8 ticks |
| Sabotage | Destroy one random building | 40% | 35% | 20 ticks |
| Resource Drain | Steal 5% of one resource | 50% | 25% | 12 ticks |
If a mission fails, your spy is captured or killed. The target receives an alert: “Spy detected attempting [mission type].” No asset is identified by name — only mission type.
Success Probability Formula
P(success) = base_success × (1 + spy_tech_bonus) × (1 / jammer_penalty)
P(detection) = base_detection × (1 - counter_intel_bonus) × jammer_penalty
Where:
spy_tech_bonus: Basic Infiltration (+10%), Shadow Network (+30%)jammer_penalty: each Jammer level on the target planet adds 15% to their countercounter_intel_bonus: Counter-Intel tech (+20%), Anarchy government (+20%)
Anarchy government players have the highest native spy success rates and the lowest detection risk. Combined with Ghost Protocol tech, Anarchy spies become nearly undetectable.
Counter-Espionage
Build Jammers on your most important planets to deter spies. Each Jammer level:
- Reduces enemy spy success rate by 15%
- Increases enemy detection chance by 10%
The Counter-Intel tech node (Espionage Branch, Tier-2) adds +20% to all your own counter-espionage and is cheap enough to queue early even if you are not an espionage-focused player.
Intel Reports
A successful Planetary Scan produces a report showing:
- All structures (building type and level)
- Current resource stockpiles (approximate, ±5% margin)
- Stationed fleet composition
- Government type
- Active defensive tech (Planetary Shield level)
Intel reports expire after 15 ticks — after that, they are marked “Stale” and may not reflect current state. Rescan before committing to an attack.
The Steal Ship
Steal ships are specialty units that raid enemy resources without standard combat engagement. They do not participate in fleet battles. A Steal fleet:
- Travels to the target planet (same travel time formula as normal fleets)
- Attempts a covert boarding — success chance is the same as Resource Drain spy formula
- On success: steals resources up to the Steal fleet’s cargo capacity
- On detection: target receives notification and a counter-fleet can intercept if it arrives before the Steal fleet returns home
Steal ship cargo capacity: 2,000 resources per ship. A fleet of 10 Steal ships can haul 20,000 resources per raid.
Anarchy government adds +30% Steal ship effectiveness (higher raid success, larger haul per trip).
Cooldowns and Rate Limiting
You can run one spy mission per spy agent. Each spy has its own cooldown per target. To run simultaneous operations, research Basic Infiltration (unlocks 2 spy agents) and Shadow Network (unlocks 4 spy agents).
Ghost Protocol tech removes the detection notification entirely — the target never knows a spy visited.
Continue to Markets & Trade for economic warfare.