Infiltration

Not active in production. The mechanics below describe implemented operations for separately enabled environments. Researching Infiltration does not activate the feature in G1–G4.

Research requirement

Complete Infiltration (level 1) in Intrigue before any operation, including Exchange embezzlement. Level 1 grants one concurrent mission, level 2 two, and further levels add capacity. The first level has a 32 RP base cost before other-domain tier surcharges; partial or queued investment grants no slot. Capacity belongs to your selected galaxy's empire. Research alone does not activate the operator-held feature.

All objectives share these slots. Infiltrating, embedded and returning operatives occupy a slot until their operation is complete; recall does not free it until they return. The console shows your active missions and capacity. Multiple Exchange missions still give your empire only one entry in each transaction's selection pool, and at most one of your missions can skim that transaction.

Infiltration is a separate screen, not a Launch Pad mission. Choose the objective first, then select an owned staging location and commit probes. Player-directed objectives ask you to choose a player in your current galaxy; Exchange embezzlement does not ask for a player target. Operations remain disabled until enabled by the operator and the galaxy is ready.

After launch, your active mission appears as a tile beside the Infiltration title, with a short status below it. Select the tile to jump to its report. Completed missions remain in the reports instead of the active tile row.

Open Target player to browse every player in the current galaxy. Start typing to filter the dropdown without reloading the page. Your own account and players in isolation mode are listed but cannot be selected. Use the arrow keys to navigate and Enter to select a player, or Escape to close the dropdown.

Open Infiltration at the bottom of the desktop right-hand navigation menu. The mobile footer no longer includes an Infiltration shortcut. It is no longer in the galaxy menu.

On desktop and tablet, the console uses the full available center pane. Scroll inside the pane to reach operation reports without losing the navigation menus.

Objectives

Objective	Maximum effect
Steal resources	Base 5% of exposed idle metal, crystal and deuterium; Resource Diversion raises this to at most 10%, further limited by cargo
Steal Credits	Base 1% of the target's current-galaxy wallet; Credit Siphoning raises this to at most 2%
Hijack ships	Random individual ships, up to 1% of eligible idle hulls at theft time, rounded down; one base slot plus 5 per small cargo, 25 per large cargo and 50 per Heavy Freighter
Sabotage production	25% lower metal, crystal and deuterium production for a base two hours, extended by Persistent Intrusion
Embezzle Exchange	A probe-based share of Credits paid or received in this galaxy's Exchange; no goods are taken

Exchange probes join a galaxy-wide pool without selecting a player or committing cargo. Each Credit transaction chooses one eligible embezzler, then checks success and detection. One probe skims 1%; two skim 1.01%; 101 skim 2%. The formula is amount × 0.01 × (1 + 0.01 × (probes - 1)), rounded down and bounded by the transaction amount and available wallet space. Purchases skim the Credits paid without charging the buyer again or reducing goods; sales skim the seller's proceeds. Successful skims reach the embezzler's wallet immediately. Your own account's trades are excluded, and retries cannot repeat payouts or probe losses. Resource barter and historical sales are unaffected.

Resource protection granted by Defense Technology still applies on planets. Premium currency, Fuel Cells, buildings, defensive structures, solar satellites and stations are not stolen. Ship theft counts individual hulls, not material value; every eligible hull has the same selection chance. Extra probes improve the success chance but add no theft slots. Fewer than 100 eligible hulls round down to zero stolen ships. For example, against 10,000 eligible hulls, one probe and ten small cargos can steal 51 ships, below the 100-ship ceiling.

Unexpired ships in stasis are idle assets and remain eligible for ship theft. New Credit proceeds from stasis sales are subject to an active Exchange operation too; expired stasis lots are excluded.

Commitment and timing

One active operation per completed Infiltration level, shared across all objectives in your current galaxy.
Infiltration and extraction each take a base 30 minutes, reduced by Covert Deployment and Rapid Exfiltration respectively.
These are minimum waits. Effects and extraction start when the scheduler processes the preceding phase; an outage does not apply theft or sabotage retroactively.
Exchange probes remain embedded until recalled or all detected. Embedded missions can be recalled at any time; survivors use the extraction time saved at launch.
Only resource theft requires cargo. The base resource budget is 5,000 per small cargo or 25,000 per large cargo; Covert Hold Expansion raises these infiltration limits, ordinary cargo research does not. Ship theft can use one probe alone for its single base slot; cargo and Heavy Freighters increase its hull capacity, further improved by Hull Extraction.
Committed probes, cargo and stolen ships remain yours for ordinary upkeep. You cannot launch or sell them elsewhere while they are committed.
Loot is held until extraction. If the staging location is gone, survivors return to another owned location. If none exists, custody is retained until a return location becomes available.
A full Credit wallet delays extraction without losing the held ships or loot. Make wallet space; the operation retries every five minutes.
A processing error or paused Credit wallet retains custody and retries after five minutes without blocking other operations.
Player-targeted operations must be recalled before infiltration resolves. Survivors use the extraction time saved at launch, and a recalled operation gains nothing. Recalling embedded Exchange probes keeps Credits already earned.

Repeatable Intrigue research

These ten upgrades improve newly launched operations. They do not replace the Infiltration unlock. Level 1 grants the starting modifier below; later levels follow tiered bonus progression, subject to caps. These are relative bonuses: a 50% success chance with a +10% modifier becomes 55%, not 60%.

Research	Starting modifier	Maximum modifier	Effect
Covert Planning	+5%	+50%	Hostile success chance, still capped at 90%
Signature Masking	-5%	-50%	Hostile detection chance
Probe Recovery	-10%	-50%	Ordinary failed-operation probe losses
Resource Diversion	+10%	+100%	Resource theft allowance; cargo and protection still apply
Covert Hold Expansion	+10%	+100%	Infiltration resource cargo capacity
Credit Siphoning	+10%	+100%	Hostile Credit theft allowance, not Exchange payouts
Covert Deployment	-5%	-50%	Preparation time for all objectives
Rapid Exfiltration	-5%	-50%	Extraction and recall time for all objectives
Persistent Intrusion	+10%	+100%	Successful sabotage access duration
Hull Extraction	+10%	+100%	Ship theft carrying capacity; the victim's 1% hull ceiling is unchanged

Research is saved at launch: later purchases do not change an operation already underway. Added quantities round down; remaining waits, risk and losses round up. Small fleets can therefore need several levels before a whole extra hull or saved probe appears. Previously launched operations without research bonuses retain their original rules. Exchange selection, rolls, payouts and one-probe detection losses are unchanged; only preparation and extraction improve there.

Risk and protection

Player-targeted success starts at 50%, with five percentage points for each Espionage level advantage over the defender's Counter-Intelligence. More probes add a bounded bonus, up to ten percentage points. Covert Planning improves this chance, still bounded between 10% and 90%. Base detection is the complement of the success chance before Covert Planning; Signature Masking reduces detection separately. Success and detection are rolled separately, once per operation.

Exchange success compares your Espionage with the trader's Counter-Intelligence. More probes raise success and detection risk. Each detected transaction destroys one probe and pays no skim. Isolation mode pauses your participation. Exchange does not grant target protection.

Detection during ship theft destroys the entire attacking fleet: all committed probes, small cargos, large cargos and Heavy Freighters. Every victim asset remains in its original custody, as if the theft never occurred. Detection is resolved before any victim inventory is deducted, so retries cannot duplicate a restoration. No stolen ships reach the attacker. A detected operation completes immediately rather than returning a destroyed fleet.

Other non-Exchange failed infiltration starts with half the committed probes lost, rounded up; Probe Recovery then reduces those losses, again rounding up. Cargo survives that failure. These ship-theft detection rules do not change Exchange detection behavior. Committed units finish their operation before underfunded upkeep can park them; returning ships are reconciled into stasis when necessary. A target becoming unavailable before resolution causes an unsuccessful return without the infiltration probe penalty.

Successful player-targeted operations grant the target six hours of protection against all player-targeted infiltration objectives and attackers. Pending operations recheck that protection, so multiple attackers cannot stack effects. Isolation mode prevents hostile resolution.

Sabotage expires automatically. Production earned before it starts and after it expires is unaffected, including when you are offline. It does not stop research, construction or Fuel Cell charging.

Reports

The Infiltration screen shows operation status, the next transition, and loss/effect reports. Defenders receive reports after resolution; attacker identity is hidden unless detected. Refresh the screen to see scheduled progress.