Mechanics
Commanders and adventures
Your commander levels up, wears equipment, flies with a fleet or guards a world as its warden, and goes on adventures.
Every player has one commander, made for free the first time you open the Commander page. It gains experience and levels, carries equipment and goes on adventures for you.
Levels and stats
Commander experience comes from adventures and from the battles your commander fights. Each level, up to level 50, gives 5 skill points to spend on a stat, more health, and one more point in Attack, Defense, Leadership, Fortune, Engineering and Logistics. Experience boosts and card sets that raise commander experience add to every grant (How bonuses combine).
Wherever your commander is, two stats work for your whole empire:
- Engineering shortens the building time on all your planets by 0.1% per point, at most 10%.
- Logistics raises the cargo capacity of your ships by 0.1% per point, at most 10%.
The other stats work where your commander is:
| Stat | Flying with a fleet | Guarding a world as its warden |
|---|---|---|
| Attack | The fleet's weapons +0.1% per point, at most 10% | Nothing |
| Defense | The fleet's shields +0.1% per point, at most 10% | The world's shields +0.1% per point, at most 10% |
| Leadership | The fleet's armour +0.05% per point, at most 10% | The world's armour +0.05% per point, at most 10% |
| Fortune | On an expedition, rewards +0.5% per point, at most 25% | Nothing |
| Engineering | Nothing more | Buildings, ships and defences on that world a further 0.1% faster per point, at most 10% |
| Logistics | That fleet flies 0.1% faster per point, at most 10% | Nothing more |
| Recovery | A respawn 1% shorter per point, at most 50% shorter, and healing 1% faster per point | The same |
An item that raises a fleet's weapons counts inside the Attack limit. These are Permanent bonuses: they add to your officers and every other Permanent source.
Every expedition has a 25% chance to bring home an item for your commander; with your commander aboard, Fortune raises it by 1.5% per point, to at most 80%.
Fortune also helps on adventures: the resources an adventure finds rise by 1% per point, at most 50% more, and its chance at an item rises by 0.5% per point, at most 20% more.
Where your commander goes
Your commander is at home, flies with one fleet, guards one world as its warden, is on an adventure, or has fallen.
- With a fleet. On the mission step, tick Commander aboard for an attack, an ACS attack, a deployment, a hold or an expedition. It stays with that fleet until the fleet is home, and a recalled fleet brings it back. A deployment makes it the warden of the world the fleet arrives at.
- As a warden. On the Commander page, or in the corner of a world's overview, appoint it to guard one of your planets or moons. It costs nothing and takes no time; Relieve brings it home. Sending it with a fleet takes it from its post.
- Equipment cannot be changed while it flies with a fleet or is on an adventure.
Health, falling and coming back
Your commander heals 10% of its maximum health per hour, a little faster with Recovery. In a battle it gains experience from what the enemy lost and loses health from what its own side lost; a warden loses health only when its world loses units. When its health reaches 0, or when the fleet it flies with is wiped out, it falls and comes back after 1 hour (Recovery shortens this) with 25% of its health.
Flagships and drones
A ship key brings a flagship into every battle of the fleet your commander flies with: the Reaper or the Voidstrider. A Combat Drone or a Drone Caster brings a Combat Drone; a warden's Sentinel Drone brings a Sentinel Drone to the world's defence. They fight for that battle only: nobody builds them, they are never lost as ships and they leave no debris. A destroyed flagship is repaired in 1 day.
Some items describe an effect the battles cannot use yet; their details say "No effect yet".
Equipment
Your commander has slots for a helm, armour, a weapon, a sidearm, gloves, boots, a ring, a banner, a ship key and a drone. Every item has a rarity, rolled stats and the commander level it needs; the stats it rolled add to your commander's. Items come from adventures, expeditions and auctions, and wait in the vault on the Commander page until you equip them.
A new name for your commander costs 50 antimatter.
Adventures
The Adventures page has a board of up to 5 open adventures for the whole universe. An adventure stays on the board for 1 day or until a player takes it; the board fills up again by itself.
Your commander travels to the target for half of the adventure's time. There the outcome is decided and a report arrives in your expedition messages. On the way home, for the other half, nothing more can go wrong: when it arrives, the resources land on your home planet and the experience and the item are added. You can recall the commander only on the way out, and then it brings nothing home.
| Adventure | Tier | Takes | Resources found | Commander experience | Item chance | Best item | Card pack chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patrol Sweep | 1 | 1 hour | 5,000 to 30,000 | 60 | 8% | Uncommon | 2% |
| Salvage Run | 2 | 2 hours | 25,000 to 90,000 | 140 | 12% | Rare | 4% |
| Ruined Outpost | 3 | 4 hours | 80,000 to 240,000 | 300 | 18% | Rare | 6% |
| Pirate Hideout | 4 | 8 hours | 200,000 to 600,000 | 600 | 25% | Epic | 10% |
| Ancient Vault | 5 | 12 hours | 500,000 to 1,500,000 | 1,200 | 35% | Legendary | 15% |
An adventure finds one resource, chosen at random, in the range of its tier.
Every adventure also has a 5% chance at a container for your stash (Stash and containers).
Adventures can hurt your commander. Its Defense lowers both chances in the table, by half at 100 Defense. A commander below 10% of its health cannot set out. A commander that falls on an adventure brings its experience and any card pack home, but the resources, the item and the container are lost.
| Adventure | Tier | Wound chance | Wound size | Death chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patrol Sweep | 1 | 5% | 10% | 0% |
| Salvage Run | 2 | 8% | 15% | 0% |
| Ruined Outpost | 3 | 12% | 20% | 1% |
| Pirate Hideout | 4 | 18% | 30% | 2% |
| Ancient Vault | 5 | 25% | 40% | 4% |
Questions
Can my commander die on an adventure?
On the harder adventures it can, and it can be wounded on any of them, while adventure risk is on in your universe. A fallen commander comes back after its respawn time.
Can my commander fall in battle?
Yes, when its health reaches 0 or when the fleet it flies with is wiped out. It comes back after its respawn time with a quarter of its health.
Can I run two adventures at once?
No. Your commander goes on one adventure at a time; the next one can start when it is home.
Where do the resources of an adventure go?
To your home planet, when the commander arrives back.