Every planet has a fixed number of fields. One field holds one level of one building, so fields are the hard ceiling on how deep a planet can be developed — and because three mines at level L alone consume 3 × L fields, they are what ultimately decides how far your mines can go.
A planet's size is rolled when it is created and depends on its position in the system. Position also sets the temperature, which changes deuterium output, solar satellite yield and crawler energy cost. There is no single best slot: the big ones are hot and poor in deuterium, the cold ones are small and rich.
Planet size by position
These are this universe's live figures. Size is rolled from the range below, so two planets in the same slot are not identical.
| Position | Fields | Temperature |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 385–465 | 220°C to 260°C |
| 2 | 400–480 | 170°C to 210°C |
| 3 | 420–505 | 120°C to 160°C |
| 4 | 455–550 | 70°C to 110°C |
| 5 | 495–590 | 60°C to 100°C |
| 6 | 545–625 | 50°C to 90°C |
| 7 | 605–675 | 40°C to 80°C |
| 8 | 625–690 | 30°C to 70°C |
| 9 | 600–670 | 20°C to 60°C |
| 10 | 540–620 | 10°C to 50°C |
| 11 | 495–580 | 0°C to 40°C |
| 12 | 450–535 | -10°C to 30°C |
| 13 | 420–505 | -50°C to -10°C |
| 14 | 400–480 | -90°C to -50°C |
| 15 | 385–465 | -130°C to -90°C |
The largest slots sit at position 8, tapering towards both ends of the system. Colonising well is therefore a real decision, and it is permanent: the roll is baked into the planet at creation and never re-rolls.
Your homeworld is rolled the same way. Colonies you settle later can be larger or smaller than it — check the position before you send the colony ship.
Temperature is the trade-off
- Deuterium production rises as temperature falls, so the cold outer slots out-produce the hot inner ones on deuterium by a wide margin.
- Solar satellites do the opposite — the hotter the planet, the more energy each satellite returns.
- Crawlers cost more energy each on hot planets and far less on cold ones.
A hot inner planet is a satellite-and-metal world; a cold outer planet is a deuterium world with cheap crawlers and less room. Neither is strictly better.
Making a planet bigger: the Terraformer
The Terraformer is the only building that adds fields to a planet you already own. Each level grants 10 extra fields after paying for its own field, and there is no level cap — how far you take it is a question of cost, not of a ceiling.
It is deliberately expensive, and it gets expensive in two different ways at once:
- Resources — the price doubles per level early on, then keeps climbing on a slower curve past the anchor level. Deep levels cost orders of magnitude more than the first ones.
- Energy — every level demands a large amount of free energy surplus before it can be built at all. This is usually the gate you hit first: you must out-build your own mines' energy draw before the Terraformer will accept the order.
Because the price curve grows faster than the income the new fields can generate, there is a natural stopping point where another level stops paying for itself. That point is not the same for everyone — it moves with the size of your economy, which is the intent.
A small planet is not a dead planet. A poor slot with a deep Terraformer can out-build a good slot that never invested in one — but it costs you the resources and the energy that a naturally large planet gets for free.
Other ways to gain fields
- Moons grow with the Lunar Base, which adds fields per level the same way the Terraformer does for planets.
- Field packages in the Dark Matter shop add permanent fields to one body. The price escalates with how many you have already bought for that body.
- The Kaelesh lifeform's Bio Modifier grants extra planet fields per level while that planet is settled Kaelesh. Switching race gives them back.
- The Collector character class colonises larger planets — the bonus applies at colonisation, so it never changes a planet you already hold.
What actually fills a planet
On a developed planet the mines dominate, but they are rarely more than half of it. A realistic breakdown at deep levels:
- The three mines — three fields per mine level, and the single largest consumer by far.
- Energy — solar plants are field-hungry; a Fusion Reactor covers the same grid in a fraction of the space, and solar satellites cost no fields at all.
- Storage — three storage buildings, each needed to stop production overflowing while you are offline.
- Facilities — Robotics Factory, Shipyard, Research Lab, Nanite Factory, Cybernetics Lab, Missile Silo, Alliance Depot and the Terraformer itself.
- Lifeform housing and farms — the residential and food buildings of your chosen race consume fields; the rest of the lifeform tree does not.
Planning a deep planet, budget the non-mine buildings first and divide what is left by three. That is your realistic mine ceiling before any Terraformer levels.