Topic: Beating each of the six player types Principle: Know your enemy’s soul. Exploit their patterns. Deny their strengths.
The Six Souls
Every machine has a dominant drive: Speculator, Entrepreneur, Achiever, Explorer, Socializer, Killer. Each excels at something. Each is predictable in their own way. To counter them, you must understand what they want—and make it costly.
vs Speculator
What they want: Information advantage, market timing, profitable trades, predictability in chaos.
How to counter:
Disrupt their information—feed false signals, obscure your true reserves, move in unexpected ways
Make markets unpredictable—large trades, volatility, coordinated moves with allies to confuse price action
Deny them data—don’t reveal your build order, your guild’s plans, your depletion timeline
Attack their assumptions—Speculators bet on patterns; break the pattern
They thrive on knowing more than others. Make them wrong. See Reading Opponents for identifying Speculator behavior.
vs Entrepreneur
What they want: Build fast, scale infrastructure, convert resources into structs, tempo advantage.
How to counter:
Raid before defenses are complete—they’re often ahead on structs, behind on defense
Outpace their build—compete for the same resources; starve their expansion
Target their power—going offline stops everything; hit reactors, overload their grid
Economic pressure—they overextend; make their investments unprofitable
They build. You destroy—or build faster. Deny them the breathing room to compound.
vs Achiever
What they want: Goals, checkboxes, milestones, visible progress.
How to counter:
Exploit their predictability—they always go for the next goal; anticipate it
Make goals costly—if the next achievement requires a specific planet, take it first
Interrupt their sequence—raids, attacks, depletion force them to react; they hate disruption
Offer false achievements—tempt them into traps (valuable-looking but undefended targets)
They are linear. You are not. Break their chain.
vs Explorer
What they want: New territory, discovery, uncharted space, first contact.
How to counter:
Claim before they do—scout their likely targets, settle first, deny them the discovery
Ambush scouts—their Command Ship is often away; hit their undefended base
Control choke points—Explorers need to move; block the paths they want
Make exploration costly—defend borders; force them to fight for every new system
They spread thin. Concentrate. They scout alone. Isolate and strike.
vs Socializer
What they want: Alliances, relationships, guild cohesion, trust networks.
How to counter:
Isolate from allies—cut their energy agreements, raid their guild’s supply lines
Break communications—if they coordinate through a hub, disrupt it
Create distrust—feed conflicting information to their allies; make them choose sides
Target their reputation—Socializers need to be trusted; one betrayal or failure erodes their position
They are strong in networks. Fragment the network. They need allies. Make allies costly.
vs Killer
What they want: Combat, raids, destruction, the thrill of the fight.
How to counter:
Fortify—Planetary Defense Cannons, power headroom, no unrefined ore
Bait traps—offer tempting targets that are actually defended; let them waste resources
Alliance-based defense—Killers avoid guild wars when outnumbered; make yourself part of a bloc
Deny value—refine everything; give them nothing to steal
Outlast—they want the fight; don’t give it. Make raiding you unprofitable until they move on.
They hunt the weak. Don’t be weak. They want action. Bore them into leaving.
Cross-Reference
Once you’ve identified an opponent’s type (see Reading Opponents), apply the relevant counter. In guild conflicts, counter the dominant souls in their leadership. In solo play, counter the one who threatens you most.