Start Orion with a plan for your whole account.

At the merge, confirm the feature before spending

Plan for Orion as part of the move, then check the destination itself. The US merge announcement lists Mars and Nembus as target universes and gives a 9–12 November 2026 merge window. It does not explicitly confirm their Orion activation flag. Both are newly created merge targets; that alone does not prove that the feature is on or off.

The official version 13.1.0 notice limits its 6 November Orion activation to universes launching that day. Gameforge’s launch release says a global rollout is planned for 30 November. Neither statement settles the merge targets individually. Open the destination’s technology tree and check that the IAS, Lithium conversion and anomaly interface are available before committing a build budget.

What to build first, and why

Keep your mines, energy and fleet-safety routine working. Orion adds another use for resources and attention; it does not replace the economy that pays for it. This is a spending order, not a fixed timetable or a requirement to use Dark Matter.

1. Check the live prerequisites and spare fields on each planet you can practically supply. Build the minimum prerequisite facilities needed to place an IAS there. Do not add expensive facilities solely because an old PTS screenshot had them.
2. Place IAS level 1 buildings across those usable planets. For a target total, buy the cheapest next scanner level available, rather than pushing one planet far ahead. Equal per-planet exponential prices make a balanced network the least-resource route to that total.
3. Aim first for a modest total such as IAS 50, then stop to run the loop. Enable a small, affordable Lithium conversion workload and read both the hourly input and output. Check the current storage limit; leave a reserve for claiming the reward as well as finding the mission.
4. Scan for a manageable mission, inspect its actual level, type, stars, waves, participation rules, duration, requirements and reward claim cost. Use ships or delivery cargo you can afford to commit, and cover the return. A large possible reward is not a completed or claimed reward. Check the claim deadline and actual reward-delivery destination; do not assume the reward can wait until your next login.
5. Complete the qualifying mission and confirm the Control Center unlock. Buy a low level of a relevant bonus building only after its effect and price make sense for the missions you actually run. A ship-focused building has little immediate value if you keep choosing resource rewards.
6. Advance through the next useful checkpoints: 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 and 350 total IAS. Recheck affordable missions, Lithium supply and claim costs at each step. Continue beyond a checkpoint only when it supports a mission or bonus you can use.
7. Buy extra discovery capacity, scan results or deeper bonus-building levels only when the existing limit is regularly stopping profitable play. More slots are not more income if you cannot fund claims or finish missions.

Total IAS is the sum across your planets

Use T = L1 + L2 + … + Ln, where each L is one eligible planet’s IAS level. Total IAS supports the selectable anomaly level. It is not the exact level of every result, a reward multiplier by itself, or a building level on one planet. Read the mission card and the live unlock requirement.

For a balanced plan from level zero across n planets, set q = floor(T / n) and r = T − n × q. Build r planets to q + 1 and the other n − r to q. Existing uneven accounts should compare the next available upgrade prices instead of demolishing anything to match an illustration.

The table uses 15 hypothetical, equally priced and usable planets. It is not an account requirement. Amounts are cumulative construction costs from IAS 0, in units of each named resource, calculated with the preserved beta13 cost model. They are not current live quotes and do not include prerequisites.

Build toward a useful unlock, then complete the mission

The public beta13 field research recorded the progression below. Use these as planning checkpoints to confirm in the current Control Center, not guaranteed present-day bonus coefficients. Reaching the total IAS alone did not unlock the building: completing the qualifying mission was the trigger. The actual discovered mission level can differ from the level selected for a scan.

Map total IAS to a scan setting and a mission range

Keep three numbers separate: T is total IAS across your planets; S is the anomaly level selected for a scan; M is the level of the discovered mission. Total IAS sets the maximum selectable level, but you can choose a lower scan level. The documented variation of about ±20% is around the selected level S. It maps mission access, not the size of the reward.

Before any undocumented integer rounding, the working range is approximately 0.8 × S ≤ M ≤ 1.2 × S. At the maximum setting, S = T, so this becomes approximately 0.8 × T to 1.2 × T. If you select a lower level, use that selected value instead of your total IAS. The examples below explicitly assume a maximum-level scan; decimal endpoints are arithmetic, not a claim about the game’s rounding rules.

Observed possible rewards can exceed one billion per mission

The evidence pairs a reported total IAS of 693 with a card-visible level-658 Alien Encounter in PTS beta18. That card displayed approximately 1.415 billion Metal + Crystal + Deuterium in possible rewards for one mission. This supports billion-scale possible rewards at that reported IAS; it does not establish a typical payout or a reward formula.

The five examples below were visually read from mission-summary cards dated 28 October 2026, all on version 13.1.0-beta18 and all PvP combat. Possible Rewards appeared in the mission summary, above separate wave information. The separate Mission Rewards area showed No rewards. These are displayed possible resources per mission, not one wave, an actual claim, net profit or daily income.

The screenshots establish actual mission levels, templates, stars, waves and displayed reward costs. Total IAS 693 is separately reported for the level-658 example only, not visible on its mission card. The other four IAS totals and every selected scan level remain unknown. Every resource amount was marked approximate in the interface, so the sums below are approximate too.

Raw resource units means the arithmetic sum of Metal + Crystal + Deuterium. It is not Metal-equivalent value: one unit of each is simply counted as one. Ships and other non-resource rewards are excluded from this sum. The displayed Reward Costs are shown separately in Lithium units. These rounded interface amounts were not paid or independently verified as the full liability; scan costs, conversion inputs, fuel, delivery costs and losses are not deducted.

For planning at a different IAS total, first map the mission-level range from the scan setting, then compare current cards of the same template, stars, waves and mode. These five unlike cards support a scale comparison, not a line to extrapolate to IAS 500 or 1,000. More IAS opens higher mission levels; it does not assign one payout to every mission in that range.

Turn possible rewards into a measured return

1. Record the game version, total IAS, selected scan level and actual mission level separately. Keep the mission type, stars, mode, waves, class, bonuses, participation and claim fraction alongside each result. Compare like with like.
2. Record the total actually claimed across the mission, not one wave copied as a whole-mission total or the possible reward shown before completion. Treat an unknown value as unknown.
3. For a given IAS band, divide the total actual reward by all attempted comparable missions if you want a return that includes failed attempts. Keep reward per successful full claim as a separate measure. Several observations are more informative than one lucky card.
4. Observe a full real day or week, including waiting for Lithium, travel and attention. The simplest gross daily return is total actually claimed over that period divided by elapsed days. Keep denominators matched: average per attempt × attempts per day, or average per successful full claim × successful full claims per day. Never multiply an average that already includes failures by successful completions only.
5. Subtract the resources spent producing the Lithium for scans and claims, plus delivery costs, fuel and unrecovered fleet losses. Use a stated exchange rate if combining Metal, Crystal and Deuterium into one value. Do not treat Lithium as free because it is produced in a building.
6. Compare the measured extra daily net return with the price of the next IAS upgrades. A rough payback is upgrade cost divided by extra daily net return, in the same value units. If the extra return is zero or negative, that calculation gives no positive payback.

Patch changes that an old Orion guide can miss

The preserved source is guide 0.19.6, dated 11 October 2026, commit 56a951b, describing PTS v13.1.0 beta13. Later official changes take precedence. This list explains specific limits; it is not a complete changelog or a claim that beta17 is the newest release.

What the preserved cost model calculates

For the historical IAS model, the base resource costs are 84 Metal, 42 Crystal and 14 Deuterium. At target level L, the formula is floor(Base × 1.5^(L − 1)) separately for each resource. A current-to-target result sums each next level through the target. The implementation uses exact integer arithmetic with 3/2, not floating-point estimates.

The beta13 official notes increased the scaling factor from 1.4 to 1.5. The preserved calculator follows 1.5, represented exactly as 3/2. Its outputs remain historical projections and require a live-price check before use.

This calculator prices one planet only. A combined account target of 350 means adding the scanner levels on all eligible planets; do not type 350 into a single-planet target field. For a network, calculate each planet separately and add the same resource columns. Prices exclude prerequisites, facilities, transport and opportunity cost.

A final check before the next build

1. Confirm Orion activation, current prerequisites, construction prices and your usable planets in the destination universe.
2. Keep total IAS, each local IAS level, actual mission level and completed-mission unlocks separate.
3. Compare one live construction price against the historical model before using its network table or calculator. A mismatch means stop relying on that projection.
4. Reserve enough Lithium for the scan and the reward claim, and price the ordinary resources used to make it.
5. Use actual claimed rewards and sustainable completion rates to decide on the next checkpoint. Keep private coordinates, planet names, balances, fleet details and screenshots out of public research.