Station Defense

Research Station Defense level 1 in Research → Defense to unlock this mode in the current galaxy. Level 1 grants no payout bonus; level 2 adds 1% to verified end-of-run Credits. Further levels use current research tier progression, subject to the Research quote. The payout bonus is frozen at run start and applies only when a verified run settles. Research in another galaxy does not unlock this one.

Open Station Defense from the right-hand in-game menu on desktop; its shortcut is absent from the mobile footer. Starting a run has no Credit launch fee and does not attack your real station, but your equipped defenses are real owned units at risk. Choose five attack slots and two utility slots below Defense Systems. Attack slots accept Rocket Launcher, Light/Heavy Laser, Ion Cannon, Gauss Cannon and Plasma Turret; domes and Anti-Ballistic Missiles belong only in the two utility slots. Unfilled attack slots use the standard turret. Attack mounts unlock sequentially through paid auxiliary-turret upgrades, while both utility slots work from the start. Each occupied slot reserves one real defense on your selected owned station, including duplicates and inactive attack mounts: you need enough inventory for every occupied slot.

The arena displays your station artwork and detailed transparent enemy ship cutouts above the page's space background. Your personal best sits beside Hostiles. Starting a new run replaces an unsettled one and returns its reserved defenses; abandoning a live run does not pay Credits. On a verified win, all reserved defenses return. If the simulated station dies, all equipped attack and utility defenses are destroyed, and unspent kill Credits plus earned wave bonuses transfer once to the starting galaxy's wallet. Historical runs without a reservation are not charged retroactively. There is no G, RP, material or empire ranking-point reward.

Choose owned defenses

Rocket Launcher fires slower with stronger splash. Light Laser focuses the weakest enemy in range; Heavy Laser focuses the strongest.
Ion Cannon chains to nearby enemies. Gauss Cannon pierces enemies behind its target. Plasma Turret hits harder against large ships.
Small Shield Dome adds 24 shield capacity; Large Shield Dome adds 16 capacity and 0.8 regeneration per second, before applicable research. Both take effect at run start.
Each Anti-Ballistic Missile utility fires about every 12 seconds at the live enemy with greatest maximum hull. Its projectile leaves a visible 150-unit-radius debris field for four seconds; enemies in the field take damage each second based on twice station damage, scaled by firepower.

Inventory and research are frozen into a run on start; changing your selected station or building more defenses does not change that run.

The simulation opens inside the normal game display, with the station and ships floating over the page's space background. Your station has five fixed turret mounts; each auxiliary turret fills the next mount and fires from it. On wider screens, Threat Recognition sits left of the battle pane and Defense Systems upgrades sit to its right. Narrow panes stack the battle, upgrades and threat guide in that order. Your personal best appears beside Hostiles in the statistics. Leaving the pane abandons a live run; it does not cash out or save combat progress.

Research your station

Ten repeatable technologies in Research → Defense improve new runs. Their level-1 effects are:

Research	Benefit at level 1	Research effect cap
Salvage Processing	+20% credits from kills	+100%
Defense Contracts	+20% credits from wave clears	+100%
Station Gunnery	+10% turret damage	+100%
Targeting Arrays	+10% firing rate	+100%
Reinforced Bulkheads	+20% hull	+100%
Shield Capacitors	+20% shield capacity	+100%
Shield Recovery	+20% shield regeneration	+100%
Reactive Plating	5% starting damage resistance	30%
Battlefield Repairs	Restore an extra 2% of maximum hull after each cleared wave	20%
Defense Logistics	10% cheaper in-run upgrades	40%

After level 1, percentage bonuses follow tier progression, subject to the listed caps. Station Defense level 1 still unlocks the mode; research does not grant free starting Credits or extra turrets.

Existing technologies also help: Defense Technology adds hull, damage and shields; Ion Technology adds shields and slowing ammunition; Mobile Shield Technology adds shield capacity and regeneration. Weapon Technology and Laser Technology add turret damage, Plasma Technology adds starting flak radius, and Material Physics reduces upgrade costs. Their Station Defense effects appear in Research previews.

Effects add together before applying to base stats. Combined research caps are +300% hull/shields, +200% damage/regeneration, +100% firing rate and kill/wave credits, 30% starting armor/slow, 100-unit flak radius, 20% cleared-wave repair, and 50% upgrade discounts. Normal in-run caps still apply: 8 volleys/second, 70% armor, 65% slow, five turrets, and 100-unit flak radius. Hull, shield, regeneration and damage research also improve the corresponding purchased upgrades. Repairs cannot exceed maximum hull.

The station takes a snapshot of your current galaxy's research when a run starts. New research applies to your next run, not one already in progress. Upgrade prices reflect your discount and round up to whole credits; small kill-credit bonuses accumulate across kills instead of rounding away each time. Only earned, unspent whole credits transfer when the run ends.

Galaxy rankings

Open Rankings → Station Defense to see each player's best verified completed run in the current galaxy, ordered by kills, then highest fully cleared wave, then credits left after upgrades. These three values always come from the same run. The page shows the top 100 players; reopen Rankings after a successful credit transfer to see the latest results. Rankings no longer occupy space below the arena.

The credit value includes the research payout bonus. Only server-verified rewarded runs qualify. Practice runs and abandoned runs are not submitted, and older wallet payouts without stored run statistics cannot be reconstructed. These rankings are separate from empire ranking points and the browser-only personal wave record.

How a run works

Start a run. Your station stays at the bottom center of the arena and automatically fires at approaching enemies. You do not move, aim, or collect drops manually.
Enemies approach only from the upper 180 degrees, entering from the top and side edges above your station. They stop at firing distance and shoot orange-red bolts instead of touching the station. Fighters must come closest; cruisers, battleships and larger ships can fire from progressively farther away, with Deathstars holding the longest range. Shields absorb incoming hits before hull, and armor reduces their damage.
Destroy ships to earn spendable run credits immediately: Light Fighter 1, Heavy Fighter 2, Cruiser 3, Battleship and Battlecruiser 4, Bomber 5, Destroyer 6, and Deathstar 10. Salvage Processing boosts these base values. In 3.0.5, clearing wave 1 sets aside another 100 credits for your wallet; new runs add 250 more per later wave (350 and 600 for waves 2 and 3). Wave bonuses cannot buy upgrades during the run. Defense Contracts boosts each wave-clear amount. Pending runs retain their original engine's rewards when verified. Use the [+] buttons beside Defense Systems during combat, between waves, or while paused to improve your station.
Waves grow by one second apiece, and their bounded, varied enemy mixes gradually become denser and tougher. Mix damage and firing-speed upgrades with hull, armor, shields, or crowd control rather than relying on one stat.
There is no final wave. When your station's hull reaches zero, the run ends; verified unspent kill credits plus banked wave-clear bonuses transfer automatically. Wait for wallet confirmation before starting again with a fresh station and build.

Cryo ammunition slows enemies hit by lasers as well as projectiles. Flak warheads require an Ion Cannon, Gauss Cannon or Plasma Turret in the saved attack loadout, including inactive mounts; Rocket Launchers have a fixed blast radius, and lasers and utility slots do not use Flak.

Enemy ships use detailed, transparent combat cutouts derived from the game's ship artwork, without portrait frames or space backgrounds. Light Fighters and Heavy Fighters fill the standard role; Cruisers and Battlecruisers are fast attackers from wave 2; Battleships, Destroyers and Bombers are armored attackers from wave 4. A Deathstar boss leads every fifth wave.

Destroying an attacker stops its next shots, but bolts already in flight still reach the station. A wave is not clear until those incoming shots have resolved, so keep an eye on your hull even after the last enemy falls.

Progress and controls

Credits, reservations and upgrades: unspent kill Credits fund upgrades and carry between waves; wave rewards are set aside. A verified death transfers remaining kill Credits and wave bonuses once and destroys all reserved defenses, even those in attack mounts not yet unlocked. A verified win or replacing an unsettled run returns reservations. Spent Credits and upgrades are not refunded. Pausing or abandoning does not cash out. Only one rewarded run is active per account.
Transfer retries: if the transfer fails, keep the page open and use Retry credit transfer. Completed-run claims are retained in this browser when storage is available and retried when you reopen Station Defense in the same galaxy. Retrying does not pay twice. If a run can no longer be verified, Discard transfer lets you start again after confirming that unpaid credits will be lost. If your galaxy has no Credit Wallet, the screen says Practice mode and does not pay rewards.
Restart Defense: after settlement succeeds, use Restart Defense to refresh the page and choose a new loadout from current station inventory. A failed or still-pending settlement cannot be bypassed by restarting; retry the transfer first.
Run saves: live runs are not saved. Your browser may retain a paused run when you navigate back, but do not rely on that restoration. Old browser-only runs cannot be cashed out.
Personal best: the highest wave you fully cleared is stored for your account in this browser only. Starting a wave does not count as clearing it. This is not a server leaderboard and does not sync across browsers or devices. Clearing browser storage removes the record. If storage is unavailable, the game is still playable without a saved record.
Desktop and touch: use the on-screen buttons to start, pause, resume, choose upgrades and continue. Keyboard users can Tab through controls and activate them with Enter or Space.
Pausing: use Pause or Escape to stop combat or freeze the between-wave countdown, then Resume deliberately. You can still buy upgrades while paused. Switching windows or tabs on desktop does not automatically pause or require Resume. Browsers may throttle hidden tabs; missed combat time is not replayed, but an unpaused break can expire while hidden. On touch-only mobile devices, backgrounding still pauses for safety. Leaving the page also pauses a browser-restored run.
Your empire stays live: pausing this mini-game does not pause production, fleets, incoming attacks or any other universe activity. Return to the game to manage your empire.
Wave speed: use − / + on either side of the speed display to step between 1× and 5×. The entire battle speeds up together, including ships, firing, damage, recharge and the wave timer; credit payouts stay the same. The between-wave break remains three real seconds at every speed. You can change speed during a wave or while paused. It carries into the next wave and resets to 1× on a new run or reload.

Tips

Compact + buttons share a fixed column. Prices sit to their right with two decimals and K/M/B/T suffixes (for example, 50.00 or 1.25K). Hover over a price or button for the exact credit cost. Values beyond the display range show 999.99T+; exact costs still control purchases.

Upgrade prices are shown to the right of each + button. Before research discounts, starting prices are: repairs 40 credits; damage, hull and shield regeneration 50; firing speed and shield capacity 60; armor and cryo 70; flak 100; and an auxiliary turret 125. Each purchase increases that system's next price by 25% of its starting price, including repeat repairs. Other systems' prices do not change. Research discounts apply to the scaled price, rounded up to whole credits. Purchase counts reset for each new run.

Shield regen / sec is a separate upgrade that adds 2 shield points per second before research bonuses. In 3.0.5, new runs regenerate shields continuously while the station lives, even while enemy bolts hit it and during the three-second break between waves, up to maximum capacity; hits do not interrupt or delay recharge. Regeneration pauses with the simulation and stops after death. Pending runs retain their original engine's mechanics. This upgrade does not increase shield capacity or instantly recharge the shield. The shield-capacity upgrade keeps its existing regeneration bonus and full recharge.

Buttons are disabled before or after a run, when unaffordable, or when the system has reached its cap. Pause to plan purchases without pressure; there is no Next Wave button. Kill credits are awarded during combat; the additional wave bonus requires a full clear. Buying upgrades can help you survive longer, but reduces the balance eventually paid to your wallet.

Early waves give you room to learn. Watch your hull and enemy pressure before choosing upgrades. Damage helps remove attackers before they reach firing range; defenses buy time when enemies accumulate. Larger ships begin shooting earlier in their approach, so do not wait for them to crowd the station before upgrading. Every new run is another chance to try a different combination.