Quick matches
The standard turn clock is 180 seconds. Make a useful decision, verify the selected sector, then signal readiness.
COMMANDER ORIENTATION // LIVE RULESET
Player Field Manual
Build an interstellar economy, turn uncertain sensor contacts into informed choices, and expand without feeding your fleet to the dark. Game of Worlds rewards deliberate risk—not blind clicking.
Turn-based multiplayer12 racesRisk-driven exploration
The central rule: information has levels. A nearby sensor contact is not the same as a fully explored sector, and an old report may no longer describe what is there now.
BOOT SEQUENCE
Your first turns
You begin on a homeworld with a Scout, a Colony Ship, a Metal Extractor, a Crystal Refinery, and a Tier-1 Spaceport. This baseline guarantees income and local ship production without dictating your expansion strategy.
- Read your home sector. Select the gold tile. The left panel is the source of truth for ownership, richness, terraform needs, buildings, and fleets.
- Choose an economic opening. Metal pays for most construction; crystal pays for probes, movement, specialist hulls, and strategic flexibility.
- Inspect the sensor ring. Adjacent tiles—including diagonals—show limited live contact. Probe promising or suspicious contacts before risking a fleet.
- Use local production deliberately. Your homeworld can build starter hulls immediately. Other worlds need their own Spaceport, and advanced hulls need research plus a higher local tier.
- End the turn when ready. Turns also advance on the server timer. In multiplayer, End Turn records your readiness; it does not silently skip everyone else.
Epic matches
Long turns suit asynchronous play. Standing orders matter more because you may be away when the server advances.
SENSOR DOCTRINE
Exploration & intelligence
Fog of war is graduated. Clicking a tile should tell you both what is known and how it became known.
No reliable intelligence. Choose a probe or fleet movement deliberately.
Your one-tile sensor ring can reveal terrain class, controller, and total presence—not full composition or resources.
A probe or visit created a fuller report. Dim tiles are old memory; fleets and ownership may have changed.
Your sector and nearby live contacts give the most dependable operational picture.
Probes reduce fleet risk—not all risk
A probe costs 300 crystal. It can reveal a sector without committing ships, but hazards and counter-intelligence can destroy it. Successful reports become dated as turns pass.
Before confirming movement: check the intel badge, report age, terrain, owner, terraform requirement, and whether the action is Move or Probe.
LOCAL LOGISTICS
Worlds, buildings & economy
Resources and research are empire-wide. Buildings, defenses, Spaceports, Warp Gates, and newly built ships are sector-local. Select the destination world before opening Build.
Metal
The backbone of buildings and hulls. Rich worlds make natural industrial centers.
Crystal
Funds probes, movement, some advanced ships, and flexibility.
Research
Spent on empire technology. Academies improve its income locally.
Building rules
- Extractors, Refineries, Academies, and Orbital Turrets stack and consume building slots.
- Spaceports are unique local facilities with four tiers and 12/20/32/48 production per turn.
- Advanced hulls require both empire Military Shipyards research and a corresponding local Spaceport tier.
- Ship construction is immediate and consumes the hull's production weight; unused capacity does not carry forward.
- Captured Spaceports lose one tier.
NAVIGATION
Fleets, movement & expansion
Movement follows a direct plotted line from origin to destination. Every crossed sector matters: known obstacles appear in route preflight, while hazards in unmapped space remain unknown until encountered. Select the destination, choose Move Ships Here, select ships, review the summary, and confirm. Crystal cost scales with hulls and route length; research and racial traits can alter it.
Colonizing a world
Colonizable planets are sector types 6–9. You need a Colony Ship and enough terraform capability. Hazards resolve before control: a fleet that does not survive cannot establish a colony.
Expansion checklist: Is the intel current? Does the route cross known asteroids or a black hole? How much remains unmapped? Is the destination colonizable? Can survivors defend it?
Warp Gates
A paired network of owned Warp Gates bypasses normal-space route hazards between established hubs. Gates accelerate reinforcement, but a captured hub can reshape the front.
EMPIRE DOCTRINE
Research & race identity
Research applies across your empire. Economy technology raises output; sensors and movement improve reach; Military Shipyards unlock heavier hull knowledge. You still need a local Spaceport to build a known hull.
Choosing a race
Every race changes strengths, costs, restrictions, or special behavior. Read both the advantage and restriction before confirming; restrictions are strategic identity, not flavor text.
THREAT FILE
Combat & hazards
Black holes
Absolute danger. An entering fleet is annihilated; a probe is destroyed. Discovery does not mean safety.
Asteroid belts
Each entering ship risks destruction. Once you control the sector, it becomes safe for your transit.
Combat uses hull power, race effects, defenses, and researched advantages. Do not judge battles only by ship count. Preserve scouts for information, screen Colony Ships, and avoid committing everything to stale intelligence.
COMMAND PLAYBOOKS
Strategies that survive contact
LOW VARIANCE
Cautious explorer
Build crystal income, probe likely hazards, and expand behind reliable reports.
TEMPO
Expansionist
Claim a productive second world quickly, then add local extraction and a Spaceport.
COMPOUNDING
Economic fortress
Stack income and turrets, research efficiency, then convert the advantage into fleets.
DISRUPTION
Mobile raider
Maintain current intel, threaten weak production worlds, and withdraw before the response.
Common mistakes
- Moving because a tile is visible without checking whether information is partial or old.
- Building while the wrong sector is selected.
- Researching advanced hulls without Spaceports or an economy able to produce them.
- Expanding faster than fleets can defend.
- Saving indefinitely while opponents convert resources into territory and tempo.
END STATES
How games are won
The compact tracker stays out of the way; expand Victory Briefing in Analytics when you want exact objectives and progress.
QUICK REFERENCE
Rules at a glance
Passive sensorsOne tile in every direction, including diagonals
Probe300 crystal; destruction identifies the loss sector, not necessarily the cause
Standard moveDirect plotted route; every crossed sector can affect the fleet
Ship constructionEmpire hull research + matching local Spaceport tier + local production + resources
ColonizationPlanet type 6–9 + Colony Ship + sufficient terraform
Asteroid beltIndependent destruction chance per ship; safe once secured by you
Black holeGuaranteed destruction for every ship crossing it
Quick turn180-second server timer
Interface changed? Trust the labels and confirmation summary in the live game. This manual will evolve with the battlefield.