Building & Expansion
Buildings turn open land into a working colony. Open the building panel at your HQ, pick a structure, and place it on a free plot. You have up to 33 plots per location — the counter in the building panel shows how many are used.
Surface first, orbit follows
Most construction happens on the ground: factories, labs, housing, defense, and special buildings. Some abilities only unlock after you build the right surface structure.
Orbital facilities (visible as objects circling your world) need a matching support building on the surface. Example: a large shipyard in orbit often requires the appropriate yard or hub on the planet below. You cannot skip the ground layer and build only in space.
Defense and orbit guns
Defense buildings on the surface feed your location’s orbital cannons. You can protect a site with up to 20 cannons in total. More and higher-level defense means heavier orbit fire — essential for holding border worlds.
Roles of common buildings
- Production — resources over time.
- Storage & energy — keep goods safe and power other structures.
- Research & shipyard — progress and fleets.
- Population & housing — room for citizens to work and grow.
- Special one-offs — civil harbor, recycler station, museum, trade center (often only one per location).
Upgrade when you can. Leave room in your 33 slots for future needs — not every plot should be filled on day one.
Upgrading a building
Click any placed building on the ground view (not the HQ palace) to open its upgrade card: current level, costs, time, and what the next level improves. Start the upgrade when you can afford it; a timer runs until completion. You can cancel an upgrade in progress if plans change — resources follow the rules shown in the panel.
Some buildings cannot upgrade (special one-offs or max level). Others need prerequisites — research, other buildings, or free worker capacity — shown as lock messages before you commit.