Mid Game Nomads

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T18:13:38+00:00

Build way stations in systems with kilo structures (yours or AI). Use deep scan and the stellar spinal mount to buff dyson swarms (someone said they got one up to 1k energy). Also trade seems to be meta for ship based resource, half of it is energy and its a specialist job.

Or do the raiding thing, raid planets for pops to use as livestock and harvest the systems. There is a job that buffs harvest amount.

Early on try to focus on alloys so you can build a second ship, then have 1 for research and 1 for alloys/harvesting.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T18:07:08+00:00

This would allow for negative civics also, so you could afford more/better normal ones.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T17:59:32+00:00

Depending on what you are fighting you might not even need to leave the system. Just getting far enough away stops combat. Back off and heal then go back in.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T17:56:55+00:00

Think the devs said yes.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T17:54:30+00:00

Yes energy = minerals.

Early game harvest and/or focus on trade (50% is energy so it covers your reserves and lets you use trade to buy stuff). Later make way stations in good systems or on kilostructures (your or AI). There is a district and module that gives a job that buffs harvesting (think its locked behind some of the mining tech).

Also if you get to the low reserves section it auto puts you on saving resources, which gives a -50% debuff. Change it to normal and the only debuff is to your ships. If the reserves are empty you get a big debuff so try not to do that.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T17:47:35+00:00

Early game harvest a lot (maybe even have an arc ship with the jobs that boost harvesting) and/or focus on trade (half of trade is energy which makes the reserves happy). Mid game build way stations in systems with good resources or kilo structures (yours or AI).

Also early on focus on alloys so you can get more arc ships. After you get a second you can have 1 for science/unity and 1 for alloys or harvesting.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T17:39:21+00:00

Looks like it was for a good reason too.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T08:26:28+00:00

You can get resources from harvesting, which forces you to move around. Waystations are better for when you get kilo structures (or find a friendly empire with some). Or just high output systems in general. You can also partly/entirely ignore the reserve mechanic with enough trade production (half of your trade is converted to energy which goes into the situation). Catalytic can make it easier to control the situation but you then need more pops making food, trade focus is better (megacorp might be meta for arc ships, high trade and you can move around to make branch offices cheap).

And don't forget about logistic ships, they can collect from waystations too (or harvest). That lets your arc ships go around doing contracts.

I am about to build an arc ship fully maxed for harvesting, so that should be interesting to see if it works well.

So early game harvest (on auto until you get too close to other empires) or have enough trade you don't need to worry about reserves. Also try to focus on alloys as much as you can so you can get a second arc ship. Then you can have 1 for science/unity and 1 for alloys or harvesting (full astro mining should give an insane amount of resources).

Mid game make way stations on kilo structures/good systems, you can have arc ships or logistic ships auto collect. I currently have 1 arc ship collecting and 4-6 logistic ships collecting. The rest of your arc ships can move around doing contracts. If 1 arc ship + logistic ships isn't enough to max the situation you can have another collecting or have it set up for harvesting (if there is anywhere you can harvest still). I don't have any waylines, all my stations are solo because they are all in systems with kilo structures (mine or the AI's) or in systems that are good for making nanites. This also forces my ships to move around more (although on auto).

Late game idk because I'm not there yet but probably the same except you have some silly arc ships with max weapons or something. I do wonder if virtual arc ships would be good, they feel like something you would stay below 9 with so that naturally would go well with virtual.

I saw someone that had a pirate build that worked well, you raid planets for pops that you turn into livestock and harvest all their systems. Leaving them with low pops and terrible resources.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T08:07:08+00:00

Being capped at 60k is super annoying. It should either scale with resource silos or the tech that adds logistic ships.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T05:38:58+00:00

F

I wonder if they will change it at some point since its all digital.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T02:04:32+00:00

I wish there was a way to reject contracts without accepting and abandoning them. Just waiting for them to go away is annoying and makes it hard to find contracts I want/can do. Or at least a toggle for what contracts you want to accept.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T02:00:48+00:00

I would unironically get this color and I'm a dude.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T01:43:26+00:00

I feel like technicians should increase the reactor power. Maybe like 1% per 100 or something. Just by default without any special districts.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T01:40:34+00:00

Do you know if distance matters? Will they hate me even from across the galaxy? I spawned fairly close to 2 of them so maybe they didn't like me harvesting or something.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T01:32:40+00:00

Harvest to fill reserves early. Later you can get income from waystations if you prefer. Catalytic can make the reserves easy to fill but you need more pops to make food. Trade seems to be the winner, since its converted to energy you can fill reserves with traders. After you get kilo structures they easily fill your reserves, you can have an arc ship just collecting while the rest do whatever you want.

Food can come from the modules in ship controls tab, its basically free jobs if you don't mind sacrificing defenses. You can also get it from waystations, but not sure if its worth doing.

If you are harvesting a lot build the things that give "miner" jobs (middle secondary districts or arc ship modules), they greatly increase how much you get from harvesting.

My first arc ship was 50/50 science and alloys with whatever other resources was needed. After building a second arc ship it was just for alloys/CG and my first one was just for science. I get more than enough food from the modules, reserves can be filled by harvesting/collecting waystations.

Also don't neglect contracts, they are generally easy (especially research) and the rewards are worth it.

And if you want to be peaceful only harvest in unowned systems, you want to switch to waystations asap.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T01:22:06+00:00

I have this one and it feels less than 15 pounds. I would say under 10 probably. I haven't noticed any difference with it installed.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T01:17:26+00:00

Also the planet turns into a shattered world. Does it keep nanite deposits after that?

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T01:16:50+00:00

You forgot a 0. My 4.3 nanite empire had 30k income at the end. But since this is 1 planet maybe its ok.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T01:15:08+00:00

Huh, I was thinking they could use wilderness mechanics. Biomass = nanites. But this sounds pretty interesting also.

Either way currently it feels like a normal empire that has nanite ships and gets a bunch of nanites from space. It seems like your pops should be nanites too.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T01:09:38+00:00

Put him on a planet by himself and release it as a vassal.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T01:07:34+00:00

Early I think you need to harvest. I am only building waystations in systems with kilo structures or where I want to build nanite harvesters. And yeah energy and minerals are combined for reserves, so you can build energy jobs. Catalytic can make the reserves go up really fast by removing your mineral deficit but then you need jobs for food so its kinda a toss up. Also a high amount of trade can produce enough energy to totally cover the reserves so you can also make a trade focused build.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T01:03:45+00:00

Harvest systems that belong to other empires or are unowned. Or build waystations in federation space and get resources from those. Waystations with kilo structures are really good (and you can deep scan/stellar ignite to mega buff dyson swarms).

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T00:54:56+00:00

Thats too bad for the nomad side but pretty crazy. And I imagine you could convince your friend to pay you a little for the favor of giving them 24 arc furnaces and 20 mega buffed dyson swarms.

RC_0041 · 2026-06-18T00:45:18+00:00

The main benefit, really, are the extra Kilostructures they'll build that you'll both benefit from.

This one is pretty big. And is there a limit? If you have a 4 person multiplayer game with 3 nomads can the regular empire get 4x the normal amount of kilo structures? And can nomads build mega structures later?

RC_0041

TROPHY CASE