Orbital Dominion

Orbital Dominion is the endgame alliance content in Orbitarion. Where Nebula War plays out inside each galaxy, Dominion plays out on a single shared Star Map that every alliance fights over together. The closer to the center you push, the more Valor Points your sectors generate per tick.

The reward for dominating the Star Map is steady, compounding VP — enough to push an alliance from Gold to Diamond and keep it there, if you can hold the inner rings. The cost is sustained coordination across the entire alliance: garrisons, fleet timing, and sector adjacency planning across many ticks.

When Dominion opens

Dominion is locked during the first 72 ticks of every season. Before that point, no alliance can unlock a sector — the system stays dormant while players build economies and form alliances.

At tick 72, the Star Map opens. From that tick onward, any alliance can begin claiming sectors. Battles on those sectors resolve at tick 96 at the earliest (a 24-tick "first battle" floor enforced regardless of when the unlock was requested).

The 72-tick lock exists to keep early-game focus on planet building, scanning, and Nebula War. Dominion is endgame content — it should feel like endgame content when you start engaging with it, not be a distraction from your first economy push.

Map structure — six rings, 91 sectors

The Star Map is a hexagonal layout with 6 concentric rings around a single central sector. Every season uses the same structure:

Ring	Name	Sectors	VP per tick per sector
0	Stellar Core	1	50
1	Inner Worlds	6	20
2	Mid Reach	12	12
3	Outer Drift	18	7
4	Frontier Edge	24	4
5	The Veil	30	2

91 sectors total. The outermost ring (The Veil, ring 5) is the entry point. The innermost sector (Stellar Core, ring 0 — also called "the Crown") is the most valuable single objective in the entire game.

VP economics — why ring matters

VP is awarded every tick to the controlling alliance, for every sector they hold:

A Veil sector: 2 VP/tick × 30 sectors theoretical max = 60 VP/tick if you held every Veil sector
A Stellar Core (Crown): 50 VP/tick — a single sector matches 25 Veil sectors

The exponential VP scaling means pushing toward the center is always worth more than spreading out across the rim. An alliance with 3 Inner Worlds sectors (3 × 20 = 60 VP/tick) outproduces an alliance with 25 Veil sectors (25 × 2 = 50 VP/tick) — despite controlling 8× fewer sectors.

Sector states

State	Meaning
shadowed	Nobody holds it. Default state at season start, and where a lost or released sector returns
unlocked	An alliance has claimed it; the battle to take ownership is pending (resolves at a future tick)
controlled	An alliance owns the sector and is earning VP from it every tick
locked	The sector is in a cooldown window after a battle. Owner keeps it but can't be challenged for the duration

Sectors flow: shadowed → unlocked → controlled → (potentially locked) → controlled again, or back to unlocked if someone challenges.

Claiming a sector

To claim a sector, any alliance officer (founder, war commander, defence minister or recruitment officer) unlocks it. Unlocking is free — what costs resources is holding the sector (see upkeep below). The sector transitions from shadowed (or controlled by another alliance) to unlocked, and a battle_resolves_at_tick is set for some future tick.

Where you can claim

Four rules govern where a new claim is legal:

First claim must be a Veil sector. An alliance with zero sectors held cannot just walk into the middle of the map — they must start on the rim (ring 5). Error code: first_claim_must_be_veil.
Crown requires inner ring. Stellar Core (ring 0) can only be claimed if your alliance already controls 6 Inner Worlds sectors (the full ring 1). Error code: core_requires_inner_ring. This is the longest path in the game — you have to fight inward through 5 rings of opposition.
Adjacent sectors only. After your first Veil claim, every subsequent claim must be adjacent (in hex-grid distance) to a sector your alliance already controls. You can't leap across the map; you grind ring-by-ring inward. Error code: not_adjacent.
No quick reclaims. A sector your alliance releases — by choice, for unpaid upkeep or for a garrison below the minimum — cannot be unlocked again by your alliance for 72 ticks (1.5 days in a normal season). Losing a sector in battle or to the Void does not lock you out: you can strike back straight away. An unlock that never gets an attack fleet counts as a release. Other alliances can claim it in the meantime.

Battle timing

When you unlock a sector, the battle doesn't resolve immediately. The battle_resolves_at_tick is set to:

battle_tick = MAX(96, ceil((current_tick + 6) / 24) * 24)

In plain terms: - Minimum 6 ticks of prep time between unlock and battle - Battles always resolve on a 24-tick cadence (so they pile into the same tick across the map — coordinated combat) - Never before tick 96 (the first-battle floor)

The 24-tick cadence is the heartbeat of Dominion. Every 24 ticks, all pending battles resolve at once, VP is awarded to controllers, and the map advances.

Active sector slots — tier-gated

An alliance can only have a limited number of sectors in the unlocked state simultaneously. This forces alliances to focus on individual battles rather than spreading themselves thin.

Tier	Max active unlocked sectors
Unranked	1
Bronze	1
Silver	2
Gold	3
Platinum	4
Diamond	5

Stellar Core (ring 0) counts as 2 slots. So a Diamond alliance with 4 outer pending unlocks can't also queue Stellar Core — they'd be at 4 + 2 = 6 > 5 cap.

Once a sector transitions from unlocked → controlled (battle resolved in your favor), it stops counting against your slot cap. You can then queue the next claim.

This is the most direct mechanical reason to push tier — a Diamond alliance can run 5 simultaneous campaigns where a Bronze alliance is bottlenecked to 1.

Battle resolution

When a sector's battle tick arrives, the battle resolves. The flow:

The attacking alliance's attack fleets meet the holder's garrison (or the Void's garrison, if nobody holds the sector) position by position, 1 to 10
The survivors of every position then meet in one pooled battle on the standard combat engine (same engine as PvP / Nebula)
The battle result decides the sector
A winning attacker takes control, earns a one-off capture bonus of 24 × the sector's VP per tick, and the sector enters lockdown
All surviving ships on both sides return home at once — the winner must garrison again straight away

Battles can have three outcomes:

Result	Meaning
attacker_won	The unlocking alliance takes control of the sector
defender_won	The previous owner (or NPC garrison) keeps control
draw	Indecisive — defender retains by default

After a successful capture, the new alliance starts earning VP the very next tick.

A sector under attack (in unlocked state) earns no VP for its holder until the battle is over, and it cannot be released while the attack is pending. Garrisons can still be withdrawn.

Garrisoning ships

Once your alliance controls a sector, any alliance member can garrison ships there to defend it. To take a sector, members send attack fleets to it while it is unlocked. Both work the same way:

Ships are stationed instantly — there is no travel time
Withdrawing is instant too: the ships are back in your home fleet the same moment, even while a battle is pending
Capture and recon ships cannot be stationed
Garrisons stay indefinitely and auto-defend if the sector is challenged

Garrisons are the actual fighting force of Dominion. Unlock + attack fleets is the full claim cycle — unlock starts the timer, the fleets win the resolution battle, and a fresh garrison holds the sector afterwards.

Fog of war — what other alliances can see

From app 4.6.0, Dominion fleets are hidden from other alliances:

Your own alliance sees everything about its garrisons and its attack fleets — ships, positions and who sent them.
Other alliances see none of it. Another alliance's sector shows who holds it, but not its garrison: no ships, no names, no fleet value. Its positions show as Fleets hidden.
Attacks are still announced. Everyone sees that a sector is under attack, which alliances are attacking (and with how many planets), and when the battle resolves — so the holder always has time to react, but not the size of what is coming.
Neutral sectors still show the Void's garrison, so you know what you are up against before your first claim.
After a battle, the battle report shows both sides as before.

Below-minimum status is private too: only the holding alliance sees that a sector is under its garrison minimum and when it will be released.

Garrison capacity

Each sector has 10 garrison positions. Every position holds ships up to a fleet value cap set by the ring, and several members can share a position:

Ring	Cap per position	Full sector (10 positions)
5 — The Veil	50 000	500 000
4 — Frontier Edge	100 000	1 000 000
3 — Outer Drift	200 000	2 000 000
2 — Mid Reach	400 000	4 000 000
1 — Inner Worlds	800 000	8 000 000
0 — Stellar Core	1 500 000	15 000 000

Ships return home

When a sector is lost, released, or after any battle for it, the garrison's surviving ships go straight back to their owners' home fleets. You don't lose them — but the sector is empty until someone garrisons it again.

Lockdown — defender breathing room

After a sector changes hands, it enters lockdown for 12 ticks. During lockdown:

The new owner is earning VP each tick
No other alliance can challenge the sector
The sector shows as locked instead of controlled

Lockdown gives the new owner time to consolidate — garrison fresh ships, build economy, plan the next push. Without it, alliances would lose sectors immediately after winning them in exhausting back-to-back battles.

Lockdown lasts 12 ticks in every ring.

Territory upkeep

Unlocking a sector is free. Holding it is not:

Holding costs upkeep every tick, from the alliance treasury, superlinear in your total holdings across Dominion and Nebula — a sector costs roughly 2.5× a Nebula slot in base upkeep, on top of the shared multiplier (see Alliances — Territory upkeep). While the treasury can't pay, your sectors earn no VP; if it can't pay for 48 ticks, holdings are released to the Void, up to two a tick — Nebula slots first, then the outermost Dominion sectors.

Garrison minimum — 50% or lose it. Paying upkeep is not enough: every controlled sector must also hold a garrison worth at least 50% of its full capacity — all ten garrison positions combined against the ring's per-position cap. A sector below the line is flagged, and if it stays understrength through the grace period (48 ticks) it reverts to the Void — the flag clears the moment you reinforce back over the line. Battle losses can push you under without anyone leaving, and after every battle the survivors go home, so re-garrison straight away. Your alliance is warned immediately with the shortfall and the deadline, and reminded 12 ticks before the sector is released.

You can also release a sector voluntarily instead of waiting for arrears to take it. A sector under attack can't be released until the battle is over. Remember the 72-tick lockout: once released, your alliance can't unlock it again for 72 ticks.

VP accumulation — every tick, all controlled sectors

Unlike Nebula, where holding VP is awarded every 24 ticks, Dominion VP is awarded every tick, for every sector an alliance holds (in controlled or locked state). A Rift sector pays double.

A real example: an alliance holding 1 Inner Worlds sector (20 VP/tick) + 3 Mid Reach sectors (3 × 12 = 36 VP/tick) earns 56 VP/tick × 1 920 ticks remaining in season = ~107 000 season VP by season end. But tiers must be held: 56 VP/tick covers Gold's upkeep (25) and falls just short of Platinum's (60), so this alliance settles at Gold no matter how much VP it banks. Holding Diamond takes 125 VP per tick — see Alliances — Tiers must be held.

Compare this to Nebula's 24-tick cadence — Dominion is 24× more frequent, which is why Dominion dominates VP totals in the late game.

Why the inner rings are precious

The mathematical truth of Dominion:

Holding	VP per tick	VP per day (48 ticks regular season)	VP per week
1 Veil sector	2	96	672
1 Frontier Edge	4	192	1 344
1 Outer Drift	7	336	2 352
1 Mid Reach	12	576	4 032
1 Inner Worlds	20	960	6 720
Stellar Core (Crown)	50	2 400	16 800

A single Crown sector held for one week earns 16 800 VP — as much as 25 Veil sectors. This is why the central push is the central question of Dominion — and why the adjacency + Crown-requires-inner-ring rules force a long, structured campaign rather than a single jump.

Sector traits

About a third of all sectors carry a trait — a bonus that works for every member of the alliance while the alliance holds the sector. Traits are visible on the Star Map before you claim.

Trait	Effect while held
Mining belt	+1 500 titanium and +1 500 silicon to the alliance treasury every tick
Uranium seam	+1 000 uranium to the alliance treasury every tick
Relay station	−1 tick ETA for members attacking targets in that sector's cluster (a relay in the Stellar Core covers every cluster)
Listening post	+2 scanner levels on members' intel scans (several posts don't stack)
Shipyard ruins	−5% ship build time for members per sector, up to −10% (within the 40% overall build-time limit)
Rift	Double VP every tick — but twice the risk of Void incursions

A sector under attack (unlocked) gives no trait effect until the battle is over.

Void incursions

The Void attacks sectors that alliances hold. Each held sector is struck on average once every 4 days (192 ticks); Rift sectors twice as often.

Every member gets a warning 12 ticks before the strike. The overview and the Star Map show the countdown.
The Void fleet starts at 35% of the sector's full garrison capacity and grows by 10 points for every incursion the sector has repelled, up to 100%.
It fights the garrison on the standard combat engine. If the garrison holds, the survivors stay in place and the sector's repelled count goes up.
If the garrison falls — or there is no garrison — the sector is lost and returns to shadow. Your alliance can't unlock it again for 72 ticks.
An incursion is called off if the sector changes hands or comes under player attack before it lands.

Reinforce the garrison as soon as the warning arrives — and keep in mind that each repelled incursion makes the next one stronger.

Strategy notes

Form alliances before tick 72. Dominion opens at tick 72 — alliances that exist before then can pre-plan their Veil claim path. Late-formed alliances lose 1–2 days of strategic positioning.

Pick your Veil entry point deliberately. Your first claim locks your path inward. Veil sectors at "corners" of the map have fewer adjacent options; sectors near other strong alliances will face contested fights immediately. The Veil ring has 30 sectors, so there's room to spread out — pick a Veil sector that gives you the longest uncontested adjacent chain into ring 4.

Hit Gold tier before pushing inner rings. Gold (20 000 VP) gives you 3 active unlock slots — enough to run a parallel campaign on multiple fronts. Trying to push Mid Reach with only 1 active slot is glacial.

Plan the Crown push 200 ticks ahead. Stellar Core requires all 6 Inner Worlds sectors. You'll need to be Platinum or Diamond to have the slot cap to claim them in parallel, and you'll need garrisons ready for the resolution battle. Plan backward from the battle tick.

Garrison every controlled sector immediately. After every battle the survivors go home, so a freshly won sector is empty — open to the next 24-tick battle wave, a Void incursion, and the 50% garrison minimum. The first action after winning is always to station ships from home again.

Lock down your Inner Worlds before reaching for Crown. Losing an Inner Worlds sector mid-Crown-push is catastrophic — you lose Crown eligibility instantly. Hold all 6 with redundant garrisons before claiming Stellar Core.

Quick reference

Concept	Detail
Dominion opens at	Tick 72
Earliest battle	Tick 96
Total sectors	91 (1 + 6 + 12 + 18 + 24 + 30)
Battle cadence	Every 24 ticks
Minimum prep time	6 ticks from unlock to battle
VP / tick — Stellar Core	50
VP / tick — Inner Worlds	20
VP / tick — Mid Reach	12
VP / tick — Outer Drift	7
VP / tick — Frontier Edge	4
VP / tick — The Veil	2
First claim must be	A Veil sector (ring 5)
Crown requirement	Control all 6 Inner Worlds
Adjacency requirement	Each new claim adjacent to an existing controlled sector
Sector slot cap by tier	Unranked 1 · Bronze 1 · Silver 2 · Gold 3 · Plat 4 · Diamond 5
Stellar Core slot cost	2 slots (counts double)
Battle resolution	Standard combat engine (same as PvP / Nebula)
Unlock cost	Free
Who can unlock / release	Any officer (not plain members)
Reclaim lockout	72 ticks after your alliance releases a sector (not after losing it in battle)
Release while under attack	Not allowed (garrisons can still be withdrawn)
Garrisons	Station and withdraw instantly; 10 positions per sector
Visibility	Own alliance sees its fleets; others see who attacks and when, never the fleets
Cap per position	Veil 50k · Frontier 100k · Outer 200k · Mid 400k · Inner 800k · Core 1.5M
After a battle	All survivors on both sides return home
Capture bonus	24 × the sector's VP per tick
Lockdown after capture	12 ticks
Sector traits	Mining, Uranium, Relay, Listening, Shipyard, Rift (Rift = 2× VP)
Void incursions	~1 per sector per 4 days (Rift 2×), 12-tick warning, 35% strength +10 per repel
VP behavior on loss	Season VP never decreases; tier points fade below upkeep

Documentation reflects Orbitarion v4.6.0. Last updated: 2026-10-13.