Colonization Pod
The Colonization Pod is not a combat vessel. It is a colony-in-a-box — a heavily shielded transport containing the personnel, equipment, seed stock, manufacturing base, and environmental systems required to establish a new inhabited planet from a barren or uninhabited world.
Pods are slow, defenseless, and irreplaceable in the sense that losing one sets your expansion schedule back significantly. They should never travel without escort. A fleet that loses its Pod to a raider has wasted the resources required to build it and the opportunity cost of the trip.
Successfully delivering a Pod to an uninhabited planet claims it as your colony and begins production on the new world.
Stats
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Attack | 0 |
| Defense | 2 |
| Speed | 1 |
| Cargo | 200 (colonization payload, not tradeable) |
| Metal cost | 120 |
| Crystal cost | 40 |
| Deuterium cost | 10 |
| Special | Establishes colony on delivery |
Visual Aesthetic
Pods are wide, squat, and cylinder-dominated — the colonization payload module occupies most of the visible hull volume, with propulsion and maneuvering thrusters arranged around the exterior as surface attachments. They look like infrastructure dropped into space rather than ships. Terran Pods are the most recognizable: stacked ring modules with visible airlock hatches every forty degrees around the equatorial ring.
UI Tooltip
Colonization vessel. Establishes a new planet. Slow and undefended — always escort.