Running your Company

Base

Where your materials are

New players often get confused by inventory locations. Materials can be stored in three different places, each with its own purpose:

Location	Purpose
Base Warehouse	Located on your planet. Used for production and construction.
Exchange Warehouse	Located at the Exchange station. Used for trading.
Ship cargo	Located on your ship. Used for transit between locations.

Restrictions

• You cannot sell items directly from your Base Warehouse (you must ship them to the Exchange first).
• You cannot use Exchange items for production (you must ship them to your Base first).
• You cannot build using materials inside a ship (you must transfer them to the Base Warehouse).

Keep your factories running

The single most important factor for growth is uptime. Your goal is to ensure your factories are always producing.

• Stockpile inputs: Maintain a stockpile of input materials sufficient to run production for long enough until you can resupply again; an extra reserve is recommended.
• Prioritize stability: Building new factories is counterproductive if you cannot afford the inputs to keep them running. An idle factory is a wasted investment.

See Production for how factories work through their orders.

Optional consumables

Your workforce requires basic supplies (essential consumables) to work, but providing optional consumables boosts their satisfaction and efficiency.

Optional consumables are a great investment. They speed up production, which means you produce more goods in the same amount of time. Because of this faster production, you are technically paying less in daily workforce costs per unit produced, making your return on investment (ROI) even better.

See Workforce for the exact numbers.

Resupply and Wishlist

The Resupply and Wishlist features let you buy all the inputs and supplies your base needs faster and more conveniently.

Resupply is a tab inside your base's Base tab. It works out how much of each input and worker supply your base needs, in one of two modes:

• Time mode: enough to last the number of days you choose.
• Weight mode: as much as fits in the tonnage you choose, such as your ship's cargo.

The button left of the slider switches modes and shows the icon of the one you're in.

Wishlist is your shopping list, on the Wishlist tab of the Exchange. In Resupply, tick the materials you want and click Add to Wishlist to put them on it, then View Wishlist to open it.

On the Wishlist, click a material and its amount is already filled in, so you just click Buy. With the auto-select button turned on, the next material opens right after each purchase.

The Repair tab next to Resupply works the same way for the materials your repairs need.

Building vs upgrading

Early on, building more level 1 buildings is more efficient than upgrading the ones you have.

• Two level 1 buildings cost less than one level 2 building
• Same production output

For the best efficiency, we recommend upgrading only once you run out of free plots.

See Buildings for how upgrade costs grow.

Building repairs

Production buildings wear down as they work: at full speed they go from 100% to 0% condition in about 40 days. Below 80% they slow down, which takes about 8 days of non-stop production. A repair costs part of the building's materials, and the lower the condition, the more it costs.

To see what needs repairing, open your base's Base tab and switch to the Repair tab. It lists every building below the condition you choose, with the materials you need.

See Buildings for the exact cost.

Base expansion

Instead of building a new base, you can expand an existing one. Each expansion uses one base permit, and every Headquarters level gives you one more permit. A base can be expanded twice.

The first expansion adds 15 plots and the second adds 10. None of them are ready to build on, though. You first have to clear them with Construction Vehicles, or unlock the Prime ones with Stars. Clearing them gets more expensive, so it can cost more than just settling a new base.

For comparison, a new base has 25 plots, 5 of them free from the start, and its clearing cost starts again at 1. That's why a new base is often the better use of a permit. See Your second Base.

An expansion is simpler to run, though: everything stays on one base, so your ships keep flying the same route.

Trading

Supply and demand

Before you build a factory, check that what it makes will sell. The Statistics window helps you decide what to produce. Open it with the pie chart button on a material, in the Exchange or the Encyclopedia. Its Galaxy view has two charts:

• Market Activity: how much of the material players bought each day, how much is still on offer, and the average price.
• Galaxy Production: how much all players produced each day, and how much they used up in production, by their workers and for building.

If players use more than they produce, the material is in demand and should sell well. If they produce much more than they use, the market is crowded and the price is likely to drop.

Ships

Your two starter ships can carry 400 t each. As you grow, you'll need more trips than they can make. You have two options:

• Upgrade an existing ship. Ships are built and changed at the Exchange, using materials from your Exchange Warehouse. Parts you keep are reused. Parts you remove are lost.
• Build another ship. You start with 2 ship slots, both used by your starter ships. You can unlock each additional slot for 250 Stars.

Ships wear down while flying and slow down below 80% condition. Repair them with Ship Repair Kits at a base or the Exchange. To save fuel, lower the reactor power slider when you're not in a hurry, especially when flying empty.

Designing a Ship

• FTL emitters move the ship. At 50% reactor power, each emitter moves about 500 t of ship and cargo at full speed. More weight than that slows the ship down a lot.
• Emitter type:
  • Basic: the emitter on your starter ships.
  • Short Range: speeds up quickly but has a low top speed. Best for planets close to the Exchange.
  • Long Range: high top speed, but needs more reactor power. Best for planets far away.
  • Efficient: in between.
• Reactors power the emitters and burn fuel: the Hydrogen Generator uses Hydrogen Fuel, the Fission Reactor uses Fission Fuel and the Antimatter Reactor uses Antimatter.
• Shielding against heat and radiation is optional. It reduces how much a ship wears down during flights.

See Ships for the exact formulas.

Research

Researching technologies in the R&D tab unlocks new recipes and increases production speed for the specific specialization by 5% per level.

You can build any factory, but it can only make the recipes you have researched. Check a factory's recipes in the Encyclopedia before you build it.

To research, the Research Data needs to be in your Headquarters base's warehouse. You can buy it on the Exchange, or make it yourself in a Survey Station.

Balancing Research and Production

Finding the balance between expanding production capacity and investing in research is important for efficiency.

For optimal efficiency, aim to keep your total Research investment value between 5% and 20% of your total buildings value.

Every new technology you research increases the cost of the next technology, so spreading your research across many unrelated industries makes all of it more expensive.

You can reset all your research for 50 Stars per level (at most 250 Stars). You get back all the Research Data you spent. Levels you had before finish instantly when you research them again, but you still pay the Research Data.

Specialization

Specializing in one or two industries is usually more efficient: each technology level only speeds up its own specialization, and every technology you research makes the next one cost more. Research the industry you make your money in.

If you enjoy being self-sufficient and running many industries, go for it! You can play the way you like.

See Technology for more details.

Expanding your Company

Farming and extraction

How well your farms and extractors (like Mines, Pumps and Gas Collectors) work depends a lot on the planet: fertility for farms, and the abundance of each material for extractors.

The Andromeda galaxy is already well established. Many players farm and mine on far-away tier 2 to 4 planets, which have much richer resources than your tier 1 starting planet. They can produce farm goods, ores and gases more efficiently than you can at home.

So it can be more profitable to import these raw materials from the Exchange, and use your own buildings for factories that turn them into goods.

See Production for how abundance and fertility affect speed.

Your second Base

Consider building your second base once your starting base is filled with level 2-4 buildings. Don't invest into your second base too soon as it's a significant investment. Building your second base

Joining a Guild

Guilds are optional, but being in one helps. Members build guild projects together, and every member gets their bonuses:

• Flight Center: faster ships.
• Warehouse: more storage at the Exchange.
• Administration Center: the bigger your company gets, the more extra supplies all your workers need (expansion overhead). This project reduces that extra.
• Arcade: prestige for every member, every day.

Guild members also share advice, and you can trade with them directly using Contracts. Members keep the projects running by donating materials, and each donation earns prestige. You can find a guild in the Guild tab.

Other tips

Play at your own pace

You can set up your company to fit how often you play. If you only check in now and then:

• Stock up for longer: keep enough inputs and worker supplies at your bases to last until your next visit.
• Use bigger ships and warehouses: fewer, bigger trips, and more room for what you buy and make.
• Choose a simple production chain: one that needs few different inputs, such as Agriculture with Food Production, or Resource Extraction with Metallurgy.
• Manage your cash: don't spend all your money on new factories. Keep enough for inputs and supplies, so the factories you have never stop.

You will still grow steadily, as long as your factories keep running.

Made a bad start?

If you don't like your starting package or planet, you can reset your company in Settings and start over. Do it in your first days, as a reset wipes everything. Early on there is little to lose, and your new company gets the starting bonus again.

Remember

This is a persistent economy game - the galaxy doesn't reset. Take your time, learn the systems, make smart investments. Your company will grow steadily if you keep your factories running and sell your goods.

Check the Frequently asked questions for more tips.