Pre-alpha codex — written from the build in internal testing. Systems, numbers and features can change before launch. · Join the waitlist
The Three Progression Layers
Research tech tree, orbital development, and the empire skill tree.
Your empire advances along three independent progression systems, each driven by you and none of them left to luck. Two of them — research and orbital development — are fully built. The third, the empire skill tree, banks your points ahead of its allocation update.
Layer 1 — Research (empire-wide)
The tech tree is shared across your whole empire. Nodes unlock new buildings, ships and defenses and grant the speedups every system draws on. See Research → Overview for the cost and time formulas.
Layer 2 — Orbital Development (per system)
- Zone bonus — an automatic bonus set by an orbit's index (inner / mid / outer), active once the orbit is settled.
- Specialty — a player-chosen single-resource focus (Metal, Crystal, Aetherium or Population) that deepens alongside the System Administration building.
- Sub-orbits — moons and station extensions that inherit a share of the zone bonus. Their own development layer is coming soon.
Layer 3 — Empire Skill Tree (empire-wide) Preview
Skill points are earned from milestones, not from the clock: empire-score thresholds, one point per 25 systems explored, one per 10 surveyed, one per 15 battles fought, and login-streak milestones. Idling earns nothing.
The tree itself is authored by the admins and published in versions. Until a version is published, the Skill Tree page says the tree has not been revealed yet rather than showing an empty canvas — that is expected on a fresh galaxy, not a bug.
How the layers stack
Everything adds up on top of what your buildings produce: every settled orbit's zone bonus, every specialty you've picked, every body's flavor bonus and every tech passive. You never have to do the math yourself — hover any production number and the tooltip lists each bonus by name.