Exoplanet War Beginner’s Guide for All Races

Exoplanet War Beginner’s Guide for All Races by Nehalennia

Life can be tough on a foreign planet, so I decided to help beginners by writing a detailed step-by-step guide.

The Races
There are only minor differences between the races, still I recommend Zubens for beginners, because their resource production and storage bonus is really handy and they have well-balanced units.
Gaians are nice, too, because their defense potential helps defending against attacks by stronger players and it seems there are less Gaians players than others right now, so their main resource is easier to trade for.
Neckrons are the most aggressive race and should only be taken by players who want to focus their game-play on attacks and battles.

Let’s Get Started
The tutorial is useful, just click on the things the blue arrow points at.
After that immediately upgrade your Main Base at least to level 10! It will reduce your building times and is required for other buildings.
The second building should be the Research Lab! Upgrade it as high as you can, because research is important but slow.
Fill your third slot with other useful buildings, especially the Geothermal Power Plant (always have an eye on your energy level in the upper right corner, when it gets negative, you can’t build and lose troops) and Resource Storage buildings.
As soon as your Main Base hits level 5 build your aircraft factory (Aviation Hub/Air Fleet Core/Exos Spire), switch to the “Strategic” tab and build research ships equal to your Research Lab’s level.

Research
You get 1000 Research Points (“RP”) to start with. Don’t waste them, you only get 10 RP/h +2 for each research ship!
First upgrade your Main Area Building Lots completely, the rest goes to Resources Area Building Lots.
After you have maxed that too, you’ll want these researches:
* Production Technologies to build different units (but upgrade directly before building units and only if you have enough RP for all the necessary upgrades)
* Defensive Structure Lots, because defensive buildings are very important
* Resources Storage, because you don’t want them to overflow
* Energy Technologies, because everything needs energy, especially your army
* Colony Limit to build a second colony (be aware that in order to build Colonizers you need every Production Technology at 5 and Colonization at 1)

The Colony Grows
As soon as you build your barracks (Combat Hangar/Barracks/Horde Port) train the best Influence Commander you can get (with the highest influence talent, it goes from 1.25 to 1.50) and make him manage your colony by appointing him in your Main Base. This will increase your resource output. Remember to upgrade him regularly in your barracks, he will get experience automatically. Put all points in “Influence”.
Loosely follow the missions, while still upgrading Main Base, Research Lab and Storage as high as possible. Be careful not to fill the Storage entirely, because excess will go to waste.
Now you can upgrade your resource and defense buildings.
For your resource buildings I recommend three of each kind and one Xeno Extractor, which is only to fulfill the missions, as are the other xeno buildings. Some players on the other hand like to focus resource production more on their main resource (Aqueous/Metal/Gem). Use the Trade Center to exchange resources with other players. You have to build cargo in your vehicle factory’s “Colluder” tab (Warfare Bunker/Gaia Factory/Hybrio Aptera).
Use your small army to invade wildernesses, which are generated by active colonies. They will get tougher as your colony grows, but you can attack easier ones near smaller cities. The extra resources are much needed and if you got an attack commander he can earn some experience that way.
You have 72 hours of “Noob Protection”, which means, that no one can attack you (and vice versa). Use it to build defenses, troops and a Resource Cache, so when people try to rob you, they lose more than they get.
As soon as your noob protection drops, start to rob inactive colonies near you. (The ones with a population of 2 for example…) Defensive troops are usually better at robbing, because they can carry more resources.
For your defensive buildings I recommend either 4 ground towers (Bionic Cannon/Gaia Battery/Pulse Tower) and 2 air towers (Heat Tower/AA Missles/Laser Flak) or 3/3.

Questions & Answers
How do I build troops?
Click on any of your factories and switch to the second tab. Type in the number of troops you like to order and click on “Train”.

How to create armies and split troops?
Army management is done in your army control center (Dictum Nave/Core Control/Nerve Center). To create a new army click on “Launch Attack” (yeah, I know, but then on Windows you click on “Start” to shut down your computer…). To select a certain amount of troops edit the number above/below the troops, then single-click on them, so they get an orange frame. Now click on the spot you like them to move.

How does xeno work?
Xeno is a special resource, which is mined by a Xeno Extractor, stored in the Xeno Repository and will automatically be converted to energy by the Xeno Assimilator, when your energy balance drops below zero. Think of it as oil, which can be burned to generate electricity.
The conversion rate gives the amount of energy you get for each unit of xeno, while the conversion limit specifies the maximum amount of energy which can be generated this way.

Why do I get no xeno, although I built an extractor?
Your first colony has a terrain factor of 10% for xeno, which means you get only 10% of the original amount. If your level 3 extractor can harvest 9 xeno/h, you’ll get 9 * 10% = 0.9, which is always rounded down; so you’ll get 0. That is the reason xeno isn’t important for your first colony, be sure to build your second colony on a better spot!
If you want to use xeno in your first colony it’s best to trade for it.

How does the Radiation Reactor work?
The Radiation Reactor generates moderate amounts of energy through satellites. You can build an amount of satellites in your aircraft factory equal to your Reactor’s level.

How do spies work?
Spies can be researched and get more effective every research level. Build them in the “Strategic” tab of your aircraft factory. Send armies consisting of spies to spy enemy colonies. Spies left in your base will automatically try to counter enemy spies.

Why do I suddenly have only two build slots?
When you start as a new player you get a third building slot for 72 hours to help you develop your first colony faster. After that you’re down to two.

I got robbed, what should I do?
First try to contact whoever robbed you and ask him nicely to stop. Often your colony is mistaken to be abandoned. If that doesn’t help build defensive towers, which are very cheap, to inflict damage on his troops and hide your resources by building a Resource Cache or putting them up for trades. You can spend them, too, of course. You should hide your attack troops by sending them to rob another colony or wilderness or station them in a nearby enemy colony, so they won’t get destroyed. This will make robbing you not lucrative and most players but the most dumb or stubborn will stop. If nothing helps and you are too weak to counter-attack, you’ll have to ask other players for help. Being in an alliance could be useful.
You can see robbing attempts early in your military tab in the lower right of the screen.

So alliances, what are those?
Alliances are groups of players, who are formally allied. That means they cannot attack each other.
Normally players in an alliance help each other, especially when they get attacked by others, but that can vary from alliance to alliance. You need an embassy to found or join an alliance. You can leave it at any time.

What’s up with my population?
Your population is the sum of your building upgrades times two (except defense buildings). That’s all there is to it.

What does the blue ring around cities mean?
The blue halo indicates a special alien energy shield, which can be obtained through a long conquest, in which you have to battle a huge space dragon, that came from a distance galaxy to…
Nah, just kidding. Would be great though. Blue rings are purely aesthetical and you get one as soon as your population hits 600.

How is the score calculated?
The score is simply the total energy your buildings and troops consume.

I hope this helps!
Neha