A
Advanced Lab — A Research building that unlocks Tier-3 and Tier-4 tech nodes. Requires Research Lab L4.
Asteroid Field — A deposit of Metal, Crystal, or Deuterium near a planet, tracked separately from that planet’s own mine income. A winning attacker can capture a portion of a defended planet’s asteroid deposits as war loot; the defender always keeps a minimum floor. Exact capture rules are still being finalized.
Alliance — A coalition of up to 20 players sharing a bank, chat, and diplomatic status.
Alliance Bank — Shared resource pool for alliance members. Deposits are open to all members; withdrawals are Officer+ only.
Annihilation Drive — Tier-4 Military tech. Grants +40% attack to Battleships.
Attack Phase — One round within a combat simulation. Up to 3 attack phases occur per battle.
B
Battleship — Largest standard ship class. High HP and attack; slow speed. Best for sustained planetary sieges.
Build Queue — The construction slot on each planet. Accepts one item at a time (two with Commander or Admiral subscription).
Bombardment — Post-combat structure destruction when the attacker wins without a Colony Pod.
C
Capital Weapons — Tier-3 Military tech. Grants +20% attack to Battleships and Cruisers.
Cargo — Resources transported by a fleet on a Transport or Steal mission.
Catari — Race. +15% Metal income, +10% Crystal income. Best economic race.
Ceasefire — Diplomatic status change from War to Neutral. Requires 12-tick cooldown after first war declaration; 24-tick cooldown before new war after ceasefire.
Colony Pod — Specialty ship required to colonize uninhabited planets or capture enemy planets.
Combat Round — One round of simultaneous firing within a combat simulation. Up to 3 per battle.
Commander — Your player identity across all rounds. Name displayed on leaderboards, combat reports, and diplomatic messages.
Cooldown — A waiting period before a mechanic can be used again (e.g., Vacation Mode, spy missions).
Corvette — Fast raider ship class. Best speed after Fighters; good for quick strikes.
Counter-Intel — Tier-2 Espionage tech. Adds +20% counter-espionage effectiveness.
Crystal — Second resource type. Primary fuel for Research and advanced ship construction.
D
Defense Platform — Military structure. Adds flat DPS to planetary defense each combat round.
Defense Branch — One of four tech branches. Focuses on planetary hardening and damage reduction.
Destroyer — Ship class specialized for engaging Cruisers. Moderate cost; good anti-capital effectiveness.
Deuterium — The scarcest of the standard resources. Used to build specialty ships, fund late-game tech, and trade at high market value. Produced by Deuterium Mines.
Dictatorship — Government type. +25% military construction speed, -10% upkeep costs. Best for rapid fleet buildup.
Diplomacy — The system for managing alliance-to-alliance relations (Neutral, Allied, War).
Direct Trade Agreement (DTA) — A private player-to-player trade that bypasses the market and its 2% fee.
Diminishing Returns — The scaling penalty applied to military attack tech bonuses above 50% total bonus.
E
Economic Branch — One of four tech branches. Focuses on income, production speed, and market fees.
Empire Score — The leaderboard metric calculated from planets controlled, income rate, and ships destroyed.
Energy — The fourth core resource, produced by Solar Plants. Powers advanced buildings and fleet systems. Consumption and storage rules are still being finalized.
EMP Ship — Specialty ship class. Disables enemy Planetary Shields for 3 ticks before combat begins.
Espionage Branch — One of four tech branches. Focuses on spy mission success and covert operations.
Explorer — Entry subscription tier. $4.99/month. Three rounds per season, extended vacation, and cosmetic access.
F
Fighter — Fastest and cheapest ship class. Primary scouting and early-combat unit.
Fleet — A group of ships assigned to a single mission from a single origin planet.
Fleet Speed Modifier — A multiplier applied to base ship speed. Affected by techs like Advanced Targeting.
Fortress Doctrine — Tier-3 Defense tech. +40% overall planetary defense; -20% reinforcement travel time.
Frigate — Balanced mid-tier ship class. Good all-around stats; cost-efficient in mid-game fleets.
G
Galaxy Map — The top-level view of the game galaxy showing all systems, fleet paths, and your scouted intel.
Ghost Protocol — Tier-4 Espionage tech. Makes all spy operations undetectable — no notification sent to target.
Government — Your empire’s governing system, chosen at the start of each round. Sets passive bonuses. Options: Anarchy, Democracy, Dictatorship, Theocracy.
H
Hall of Fame — Permanent record of all round winners. Cannot be edited or removed.
Home Planet — Your starting planet. Has +10% permanent defense bonus.
I
Income — Resources earned per tick from your mines and wells.
Intel Report — Data produced by a successful Planetary Scan spy mission. Contains structure list, resources, fleet composition, and government type. Stale after 15 ticks.
Ion Cannon — Defense structure. Fires once per combat round at enemy ships.
J
Jammer — Defense structure. Each level reduces enemy spy success by 15% and increases their detection by 10%.
L
Leaderboard — Real-time ranking of all players in a round by Empire Score, Military Rank, or Economic Rank.
Lightyear (LY) — Galaxy Map distance unit. Each hex on the map = 1 LY.
M
Market — The shared commodity exchange where players buy and sell Metal, Crystal, Deuterium, and Energy.
Metal — Primary and most abundant resource. Used for construction, ships, and most buildings.
Military Branch — One of four tech branches. Improves combat stats, ship attack, and fleet capacity.
N
Nano-fabrication — Tier-3 Economic tech. -20% ship build time at all Shipyards.
O
Orbital Bombardment — Post-combat structure destruction without a Colony Pod. Does not capture the planet.
P
Planetary Capture — Taking ownership of an enemy planet by winning combat with a Colony Pod in the fleet.
Planetary Shield — Defense structure. Reduces incoming damage by (level × 5%) up to 25% at L5.
Planet Class — A planet type that determines its resource yield modifier. Ranges from 0.6× (barren) to 1.4× (rich).
Pod — Short for Colony Pod. Specialty ship that colonizes or captures planets.
R
Race — Your genetic faction (Terran, Catari, Zikoan, Xantha). Provides unique bonuses. Chosen once per round.
Research Lab — A building that provides research slots and speeds up tech research.
Roid — Shorthand for Asteroid Field. See Asteroid Field.
Round — A single game session with a fixed galaxy, all players starting equal. Ends at victory condition or time limit.
S
Sensor Array — Defense structure. Detects incoming fleets 3 ticks early per level.
Shadow Network — Tier-3 Espionage tech. +30% Steal ship efficiency; unlocks 4 spy agents.
Signal Intercept — Tier-2 Espionage tech. Lets you view the enemy’s top 3 researched techs on scan.
Silo — Storage building (Metal Silo or Crystal Silo). Increases storage cap by 10,000M or 5,000C per level.
SK Ship (Shield Killer) — Specialty ship. Strips 50% of enemy Planetary Shield HP before combat.
Spy Agent — The resource used to run espionage missions. Unlocking more agents requires tech.
Steal Ship — Specialty ship that raids enemy resources without engaging in combat. Requires Shadow Network tech.
Storage Cap — Maximum resources a planet can hold. Production halts at cap.
T
Terran — Race. No specific bonus or penalty. Best for beginners.
Theocracy — Government type. +20% research speed, +15% planetary defense. Best for tech-focused empires.
Tick — The fundamental unit of game time. Approximately 5 minutes at 1× speed. Fleet positions, production, and research all update each tick.
Transaction Fee — The 2% market cost per trade (1.8% for Democracy; 0% with Economic Supremacy tech).
Trade Route — An automated resource transfer between two of your own planets. Costs 5M/tick overhead.
V
Vacation Mode — A protection mechanic that blocks incoming attacks at the cost of halved income and no offensive capability.
Victory Condition — Controlling 50% of inhabited systems for 24 continuous hours (or time-limit expiry).
W
War — Diplomatic status between two alliances granting 5% combat bonus vs. that enemy. Declared unilaterally.
X
Xantha — Race. +5% fleet travel speed, -15% fleet upkeep cost, -10% fleet attack, -5% production. Swarm doctrine: cheap, numerous, individually weaker ships.
Z
Zikoan — Race. -5% income penalty but +20% Fighter attack. Best aggressive early-game race.