Fleets carry your resources, fight your battles and bring back the biggest finds in the game. This page covers the first ships, the missions, fuel and fleet slots, fleetsaving and your first expedition.
Your first ships
- Small Cargo. Your first freighter. Haulers carry the loot, so no cargo means no raids.
- Espionage Probe. Scout before you strike. Always.
- Recycler. Harvests the debris fields that battles leave behind.
- Colony Ship. Settles a new planet.
- Warships. From the Light Fighter up to the Deathstar, and endgame hulls such as the Juggernaut, Tempest and Leviathan.
Fleet missions
- Attack, alone or as a joint ACS attack with allies.
- ACS Defend keeps your ships at an ally's planet to help defend it.
- Transport delivers resources and flies home.
- Deployment moves ships to another of your planets or moons for good.
- Espionage sends probes for a report on a target.
- Colonisation settles an empty position with a Colony Ship.
- Harvest sends Recyclers to collect a debris field.
- Expedition flies into deep space at position 16.
- Missile Attack and Moon Destruction wait further up the tree.
Fuel, speed and slots
Every flight burns deuterium, so keep a reserve on every planet you fly from. Your drives set the speed, and you can send a fleet slower than its top speed to save fuel or to time its arrival. Computer Technology decides how many fleets you can have in flight at once, and Astrophysics decides how many of them can be expeditions.
Fleetsave before you log off
A fleet parked on a planet while you are offline is a target. Fleetsaving means sending it on a mission that keeps it away until you are back, usually a slow deployment to one of your own planets or moons, carrying your spare resources with it. If you come back early, recall the fleet and it turns around for home.
Make it a habit from day one, before the first attack teaches it to you.
Combat basics
Every ship and defence has designated predators and prey through rapidfire, so there is no single best fleet. Scout first, then bring the fleet that beats what the report shows, and test the fight in the in-game simulator before you fly it. Battles leave debris fields for your Recyclers, and a big enough battle can leave a moon behind. The Warfare & Counters article has the full counter web, and Honor system covers who you may attack and how often.
Your first expedition
Expeditions send a fleet to position 16 of a system, deep space, to hunt for resources, ships, Dark Matter, items and permanent relics. You need Astrophysics to send one.
The golden rule: resource and ship finds scale with the build value of the fleet you commit. A token fleet finds pocket change. A serious fleet can bring back more than it cost to build.
The risks are real. Pirates and aliens can attack an expedition fleet, and on rare occasions a black hole swallows a fleet whole, so never send what you cannot afford to lose. Beating the same named pirate or alien captain again and again pays a Dark Matter bounty. The Expeditions & Deep Space article covers holding times, the fleet cap, anomalies and relics in depth.
Next step
Read Lifeforms to add a race to your planets, then Dark Matter.