The honor system rewards fair fighting and punishes bashing much weaker players. Every player has a running total of honor points (HP), which can be positive (honorable) or negative (outlaw). Your HP total decides your honorific rank and how hard you can be plundered. Alongside honor sit two hard rules — beginner protection and the server-wide bashing cap — covered at the end of this article.
Earning & losing honor points
Honor points move only in attacks between players. When a battle ends, both sides gain HP for the value of enemy units they destroyed — but the attacker's gain flips to a loss if the target was not an honorable one:
- Honorable attack → attacker gains HP.
- Bashing a much weaker player → attacker loses HP.
- The defender always gains HP for any attacker units they destroy.
What counts as an honorable target?
Attacking a player is honorable if any of these hold:
- You have fewer military points than them (you're the underdog), or
- They hold at least 50% of your military points, or
- They are an Outlaw (Bandit rank or lower) — outlaws are always fair game.
In galaxy view, honorable targets are shown with a yellow name. Attacking a white-named player who is far below you costs you honor points.
Neutral targets (no honor change)
Some fights never move HP in either direction: yourself, admins, banned players, inactive players, players on vacation, members of your own alliance, and your buddies. (NPC bots may also be neutral, depending on server configuration.)
Honorific ranks
Ranks trigger at multiples of a server threshold T (positive HP = emperor ranks, negative HP = bandit ranks):
| Positive (honorable) | HP | Negative (outlaw) | HP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Star Lord | ≥ 1T | Bandit | ≤ −1T |
| Emperor | ≥ 5T | Bandit Lord | ≤ −5T |
| Grand Emperor | ≥ 30T | Bandit King | ≤ −30T |
Being an Outlaw
Drop to Bandit rank or lower and you become an Outlaw: any player may attack you as an honorable target, and successful attackers plunder a larger share of your resources (up to full plunder) than the normal raid. Climb back out by winning honorable fights.
Beginner protection
Honor punishes bullying after the fact; beginner protection refuses the attack outright. An active player below 50,000 points who holds less than 20% of your points is a protected target — your fleet will not launch. It also works upward: while you are still under the ceiling, a player more than 5× your size is marked strong, and attacking one waives your own protection for 7 days — punch up and the gloves come off both ways. Past the points ceiling protection ends for good, and inactive players are never protected.
The server-wide bashing rule
Repeat-hammering one planet is capped for everyone, honor or not: at most 4 attacks per planet per 24 hours (8 while your alliances are in a formal war). An attack is counted the moment the fleet lifts off, a joint ACS strike counts as one, and interplanetary missiles are not capped. Inactive players are exempt — farms stay farmable around the clock.
Tips
- Hunt players near or above your own military strength — that's where the honor is.
- Don't farm players far below you: it bleeds honor points and can turn you into an Outlaw.
- Inactives and farms are neutral — raid them freely without honor risk.