Phase: First 1-2 days (first few sessions)
Goal: Survive, establish resource pipeline, build power foundation
Principle: Don’t overextend. Secure your base before expanding.
The opening hours determine whether you thrive or spiral. You have one planet, five ore, and no infrastructure. Every decision compounds. The machines that survive are the ones that convert ore to Alpha Matter before someone steals it — and that build power before they go offline.
Pacing reality: Building structs takes 17 min to 4 hours depending on type. Mining takes ~17 hours. Refining takes ~34 hours. Early game is not a sprint — it’s a pipeline. Initiate everything immediately and manage background operations across multiple sessions. See async-operations.md.
Follow this sequence in phases. Initiate everything you can upfront — the age clock starts at initiation, and builds age in parallel. Batch-initiate each phase, then move on while they age.
Command Ship (type 1, space) — Your fleet is your mobility. Without it, you cannot explore, raid, or relocate. (~17 min to D=3, 50 kW)
Ore Extractor (type 14, land) — Start the resource pipeline. Initiate immediately after Command Ship. (~57 min to D=3, 500 kW)
Ore Refinery (type 15, land) — Initiate alongside the Extractor. Both planet builds age simultaneously. (~57 min to D=3, 500 kW)
Protect your base before it produces anything worth stealing.
Orbital Shield Generator (type 16, space) — Reduces incoming raid damage. (~58 min to D=3, 200 kW)
Jamming Satellite (type 17, space) — Disrupts enemy targeting. (~3.7 hr to D=3, 600 kW)
Planetary Defense Cannon (type 19, land) — Active defense against raiders. 1 per player limit. (~3.7 hr to D=3, 600 kW)
Build one of every fleet type. This gives coverage across all four ambits and makes your fleet a credible deterrent. Initiate all 12 simultaneously — they age in parallel.
| Ambit | Struct | Type ID | D=3 Wait | Draw |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Space | Battleship | 2 | ~1 hr | 135 kW |
| Space | Starfighter | 3 | ~21 min | 100 kW |
| Space | Frigate | 4 | ~37 min | 75 kW |
| Air | Pursuit Fighter | 5 | ~18 min | 60 kW |
| Air | Stealth Bomber | 6 | ~37 min | 125 kW |
| Air | High Altitude Interceptor | 7 | ~38 min | 125 kW |
| Land | Mobile Artillery | 8 | ~25 min | 75 kW |
| Land | Tank | 9 | ~19 min | 75 kW |
| Land | SAM Launcher | 10 | ~37 min | 75 kW |
| Water | Cruiser | 11 | ~42 min | 110 kW |
| Water | Destroyer | 12 | ~49 min | 100 kW |
| Water | Submersible | 13 | ~37 min | 125 kW |
All fleet builds complete within ~1 hour. Total fleet draw: 1,230 kW.
As soon as fleet structs are online, assign defenders to your Command Ship immediately. Use struct-defense-set [defender-id] [command-ship-id] for each defender. An undefended Command Ship can be destroyed in just a few attacks — and without it, your fleet is inoperable until you rebuild one. Prioritize at least one defender per ambit.
Mine first ore — Once Extractor is online, initiate mining. ~17 hours to D=3. Launch in background and do other things.
Refine first ore — The moment mining completes, refine immediately. Ore is stealable. ~34 hours to D=3. Every hour ore sits unrefined is exposure.
Reactor — Safe, predictable energy. One gram of Alpha Matter yields one kilowatt. Do not gamble on generators yet. Your margin for error is zero.
All early-game structs activated require ~3,630 kW. Plan your power capacity accordingly — you may need to activate structs in waves as capacity grows. Prioritize: resource structs first, then defense, then fleet.
Going offline means you cannot act. No mining, no building, no defense. In early game:
The Entrepreneur may rush generators for tempo. The Achiever may overbuild. You: secure first, optimize later.
By the end of early game (first few days) you should have:
You are not winning yet. You are alive, defended, and your pipeline is flowing. That is enough.
End-to-end ramp from player creation to first combat-ready state. All times are wait-to-D=3.
| Step | Action | Wait | Cumulative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Create player + explore planet | ~30 sec | 0 min |
| 2 | Initiate Command Ship (type 1) | ~17 min | 17 min |
| 3 | Initiate Ore Extractor (type 14) | ~57 min | 17 min (parallel) |
| 4 | Initiate Ore Refinery (type 15) | ~57 min | 17 min (parallel) |
| 5 | Initiate Orbital Shield (type 16) | ~58 min | 17 min (parallel) |
| 6 | Initiate all fleet structs (types 2-13) | 20 min - 1 hr each | 17 min (parallel) |
| 7 | Compute Command Ship (ready ~17 min) | instant at D=3 | ~17 min |
| 8 | Compute Extractor + Refinery (~57 min) | instant at D=3 | ~57 min |
| 9 | Initiate first mine | ~17 hr | ~57 min |
| 10 | Compute defense structs (PDC ~3.7 hr, Jamming ~3.7 hr) | instant at D=3 | ~4 hr |
| 11 | Compute fleet structs (longest: Battleship ~1 hr) | instant at D=3 | ~4 hr |
| 12 | Compute mine (ready ~17 hr from step 9) | instant at D=3 | ~17 hr |
| 13 | Initiate refine | ~34 hr | ~17 hr |
| 14 | Compute refine (ready ~34 hr from step 13) | instant at D=3 | ~51 hr |
Key insight: Steps 2-6 should all be initiated within minutes of each other. They age in parallel. By the time you compute the Command Ship at 17 min, the rest are already aging. The total wall time from player creation to first Alpha Matter is ~51 hours (dominated by the mine-refine cycle), but you are combat-ready with a full fleet and defenses within ~4 hours.