Beginners Guide: Build Order
Beginners Guide: Build Order
1. Check your leaders tab and re-arrange as necessary. Opt to recruit a research lead and check if there are more suitable ones. Ideally you want new worlds specialisation, survey speed, experience gain, maniacal (or any other plus research speed). Check your governor, opt to recruit a new one and check for positive traits (production bonuses, cheaper build costs, happiness boost).
2. Get cracking on colony tech for society research. Best early techs for physics are administrative AI, better ship weapons, physics lab. For engineering, mines, power plants, engines, strategic resource mining techs, spaceport (corvette assembly).
3. Set your science vessel to survey home system.
4. Split your fleet and scout. For wormhole, you’re limited to every star in your starting radius. For hyperlane and warp, you can just waypoint out in all directions.
5. Check your planet tiles. You want at least 1 food positive in order to grow, but beyond that you want any +mineral tiles to have mines on them first. Clear tile blockers to get at them if you need.
6. Constructor to build mining stations as the science vessel uncovers them.
7. Science vessel to survey any other stars within your influence zone for further mineral deposits.
8. constructor to build on those deposits.
In the bottom right of the HUD is a checkbox for showing system details in the map view. click it to constantly show habitable worlds, resources, etc. in the map view. Then:
9. As your split fleet hops between worlds, check any that are gaia or your species preference. Hop into the system and check the size. You want 20+.
– If the system has hostile aliens, set your science vessel to passive and survey the planet (unless the hostiles are over the planet, then just leave it).
– If the system is clear, survey the whole system, then send your constructor to put down an influence starbase.
Repeat 9 as necessary, I try not to go beyond 2 bases though. Depends on a few factors, particularly whether you detect any nearby enemy players.
10. Continue surveying systems within your influence zone and claim minerals (and energy as required to maintain positive balance). Unless the systems around your influence bases are rich, leave them be (you can remove the base once you claim the planet, but your zone will shrink to just the system until the colony grows).
11. Don’t forget to develop your home planet, going after mineral > energy > science tile bonuses as each new pop comes in.
12. When colony tech is a few months away, save up for 350 minerals. Buy the colony ship, and claim the best planet you have found/secured.
13. Now go to the situation log and start all the special projects for research x aliens at once – this will halt your society research while they complete.
14. Build a second science vessel to assist in surveying.
15. When the special projects complete and you start encountering everyone else, set up embassies with friendly AIs you don’t want to war with, declare rivalries with any who are in your way, ignore everyone else.
That’s about as far as you can go with specifics. I generally upgrade my corvette design and start to build up to max fleet capacity, clear out any troublesome aliens within my influence zone to enable more surveying, and gear up to conquer AI homeworlds while switching from mass mineral/energy mining to science boosting.
Don’t be in a rush to colonise everything. Focus on securing territory/influence zone to enable mining and screen out opponents. The longer you can avoid having to create a sector or eating the over-limit penalty the better. If you have 5/5 and they’re either conquered homeworlds or 20+ worlds, that’s a good place to be. Consider switching to a new government if you want more.
