A–Z / QUICK REFERENCE
Know the terms.
Follow the plan.
A quick companion to the guides, not a substitute for your universe’s current rules.
- ACS
- Alliance Combat System: the feature for coordinating eligible fleets in attacks or defenses. Availability and limits depend on the universe and mission.
- Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM)
- A silo-stored interceptor for incoming Interplanetary Missiles. It does not shoot down an ordinary attacking fleet.
- Artefacts
- Lifeform discovery rewards used to select Lifeform technologies deliberately rather than relying on random selection.
- Astrophysics
- Classic research that expands colony capacity and base expedition slots at specific levels. Planet-capacity and position-access requirements are separate checks.
- Cargo
- The resources a fleet can carry. Fuel and modifiers affect the usable space shown during dispatch.
- Class
- The account's selected Collector, General or Discoverer bonuses. Different from a planet's Lifeform species and from the player's chosen routine.
- Crawler
- A stationary production-support ship. Owned count, working-count limit, workload and realized production bonus are separate quantities.
- Debris field
- Material left in space after eligible combat, collectible by the appropriate ships. Universe settings affect what becomes debris.
- Economy speed
- The universe multiplier for mine production and economic build speed. It also scales baseline fusion fuel use; it does not multiply energy output or replace the research and fleet-speed settings.
- Energy
- Power available to support production. It cannot be transported as cargo; shortages and production settings affect the income a planet can sustain.
- Expedition
- A mission to position 16 with uncertain outcomes. Distinct from Lifeform discovery missions.
- Fields
- Available building space. Ordinary building levels occupy space; planet diameter, universe settings and applicable field effects determine the usable limit. Plan free room as well as current capacity.
- Fleet slot
- Capacity to operate another fleet mission. Expedition limits and total fleet limits are separate constraints.
- Fleetsave
- Sending valuable ships and resources on a carefully planned mission while you are away, timed for a return you can cover.
- Fusion Reactor
- A durable planetary power building whose output depends on reactor level and Energy Technology and whose operation consumes Deuterium.
- Holding time
- Time a fleet spends at its expedition or holding destination, separate from outward and return travel.
- IAS
- Interstellar Anomaly Scanner, an Orion building. Add its eligible planet levels for total IAS; the guide separates total IAS, scan settings, observed mission rewards and historical beta13 prices.
- Intergalactic Research Network (IRN)
- Classic research that allows additional eligible laboratories to contribute to one normal research. A lab below that technology's own requirement does not contribute.
- Interplanetary Missile (IPM)
- A silo-launched weapon against defense installations. Its targeting, range and interception rules are separate from ordinary fleet combat.
- Jump Gate
- A moon facility that moves ships between eligible owned moons. It is not a resource transporter.
- Lifeforms
- Planet-based species, buildings, population, food, and technologies. Species choice and research selection are separate decisions.
- Lunar Base
- A moon facility that opens building space. Keep enough free space to develop it rather than filling every available field.
- Marginal gain
- The difference an additional purchase makes relative to the current setup, holding other assumptions consistent.
- Maximum temperature (Tmax)
- The upper temperature value used by the baseline Deuterium and satellite formulas. A slot's listed range describes possible Tmax rolls, not one planet's daily temperature cycle.
- Metal-equivalent
- A planning value that converts resources using explicitly chosen weights. At 3:2:1, value is M + 1.5C + 3D. It is not the raw sum of resource units or a guaranteed exchange offer.
- Mine base
- The production amount to which a particular percentage bonus applies. It is not automatically the final hourly total including every bonus.
- Missile Silo
- The planetary facility that unlocks and stores anti-ballistic and interplanetary missiles. Capacity is a stock-management constraint, not an automatic defense score.
- Nanite Factory
- A planetary construction-speed facility. It reduces build time but does not pay the resource cost of a build or directly speed ordinary research.
- Payback
- Incremental investment cost divided by additional net income over a stated period. Use consistent resource values and include required support and operating costs. Simple payback omits reinvestment and unmodeled risks.
- Phalanx
- Sensor Phalanx, a moon facility relevant to tracking eligible fleet movements. Fleetsaving choices must account for visibility.
- Plasma Technology
- Account-wide classic research with recurring mine-production benefits. Baseline per-level additions are 1% Metal, 0.66% Crystal and 0.33% Deuterium on the applicable mine bases.
- PTS
- Public Test Server. Mechanics and balancing seen here are not automatically the rules of a live universe.
- Research prerequisite
- A building or technology requirement that must be satisfied before starting the relevant research or using its unlock. IRN speed does not waive minimum-lab eligibility.
- Research speed
- The universe's total research-time multiplier. Use the published total once; do not multiply it by economy speed a second time.
- Resource bottleneck
- The resource deficit that currently controls the completion time of a named goal. A large balance in another resource does not necessarily shorten that wait.
- Tier
- A group of Lifeform research slots with population requirements and technology selections.
- Universe settings
- The server-specific rules, including economy, research, fleet speeds, debris and fuel settings. Always compare like with like.
For mechanics, prerequisites and source links, use the relevant guide in the chapter menu.