Economy Guide
Build around the bottleneck that blocks your next useful action. A fixed mine ratio is only a rough heuristic; temperature, position, research and what you build can change the best choice.
Track four separate budgets
- Materials: local metal, crystal, deuterium and Fuel Cells for construction and operations.
- Credits: your selected galaxy's wallet for construction and Exchange activity.
- RP: your selected empire's research balance, generated by stations and physical labs.
- G: account-wide currency for available cosmetic skin purchases; it cannot replace a missing material, Credit or RP balance.
See Credits, G and Research. Joining G4 does not move your old galaxy's empire or wallet there.
Grow production that you can use
Metal favors moderate temperatures and central positions; crystal favors hot inner positions; deuterium favors cold outer positions. Position and temperature are separate factors. Check the selected station's Resources screen before specializing it.
Keep enough live power for mines. Solar Plants and Solar Satellites supply fuel-free power; Deuterium Power Plants supply the grid while fueled. Energy Cell Factories consume Deuterium to charge Fuel Cells, not to solve mine power shortages. Satellites can be destroyed in battle, so weigh cheap power against interruption risk.
Storage should cover your expected production before the next visit or planned shipment. A full store stops additional mine income for that resource. Building storage, Resource Dens and Commerce upgrades can help; none protects an unlimited stockpile from raiders.
In 3.0.5, Quantum Datacenter adds station Credit production alongside the unchanged 5 Credits per five-minute empire income. At level 1 and 100% it earns up to 60 Credits/hour and consumes 1 Fuel Cell plus 10 Deuterium/hour. Higher levels and the Resource Settings slider scale output and both fuel costs; Quantum Computing boosts Credits without raising fuel use. Either input running out stops only Datacenter income, so keep enough stored fuel and check the displayed operating rate before budgeting it. Quantum Datacenter Optimization reduces its construction costs.
Research and construction
Each station earns 5 RP/hour plus 10 per physical lab level. Several affordable labs can provide better income per construction cost than one expensive upgrade. There is no timed research queue to keep busy: save RP for a useful purchase or configure automatic investment.
Plasma increases production and shortens building time; Material Physics reduces construction prices and unit timers. Their initial bonuses gain another base amount at completed five-level tiers, then compound the bonus itself. Industry Technology uses the same research tier progression. Compare the next benefit with its quoted RP cost and other-domain tier surcharge.
Robotics and Nanite Factory save construction time. Compare production upgrades and research when resources are limiting with construction speed when you already have a funded backlog.
Expansion and logistics
Astrophysics 1 raises normal capacity from one to two stations, including your starting station. Each further completed level permits one more station; check the current/max station count in Overview and pick a location you can supply, using a Heavy Freighter and an eligible station slot.
Large Cargos have 50,000 base capacity; Small Cargos have 10,000 and are faster. Fuel reserves and research modify usable cargo. Transfers between your own stations stay within the selected playable galaxy; galaxy selection is not a transport route between G1 and G4.
Industry is a separate material chain. Unlock Industry Technology 1, build a connected route from extraction to storage/processing, then add assembly or automatic Exchange trading when it has a purpose. Embedded Industry cargo uses its own throughput, not ordinary fleet hold numbers.
Evaluate a purchase
Estimate the extra useful output before your next goal, include materials and Credits, and consider what else you could buy. If converting resources to a common value, use current Exchange quotes rather than an assumed permanent trade ratio. Timers, risk and limited storage can make the cheapest theoretical output the wrong choice.
You do not need to spend every balance simply to keep every queue occupied. Leave fuel for an emergency launch and enough liquidity for your plan. Fleetsave valuable ships and cargo when you cannot manage them.