Void Strongholds

New in v4.0. Each cluster now holds a tenth, Void-only galaxy — a stronghold. Nine Void planets that defend each other: attack one and you fight the entire galaxy.

Strongholds cannot be captured or colonised. They are the game's PvE raid bosses — you wear their strength down, everyone who did damage shares the breach reward, and the stronghold rebuilds.

The four tiers

One stronghold per cluster, at four difficulty tiers:

Tier	Strength multiplier	Who it's for
1	0.5×	Early raids, small alliances
2	1.0×	Mid-game fleets
3	2.0×	Strong alliances
4	4.0×	The endgame boss

A stronghold's strength ceiling is scaled against the upper quartile of real players' home-fleet value — as the strongest players in the round grow, so does the wall. A stronghold is never trivial and never impossible; it tracks the round.

ceiling = max(Q3 home fleet, 50 000) × tier multiplier × living planets

The strength meter you see in the app is the galaxy's current fleet value as a percentage of that ceiling.

Attacking a stronghold

Send an ordinary attack fleet at any planet in the stronghold galaxy. The difference from a normal battle:

The whole galaxy defends. Every neighbouring stronghold planet injects its defence into the battle as fixed installations. You never fight one Void planet — you fight nine.
The injected defenders don't consume the neighbours' ships — the wall is worn down by killing the ships that live on the planets, attack after attack.
Capture ships are pointless here (nothing transfers), but steal-ships hijack normally and every ship you destroy counts toward the breach ledger.

Your damage is tracked per attack window in a contribution ledger — the fleet value you destroy is your share of the breach payout.

Breaching

When the galaxy's strength falls below 40% of its ceiling, the stronghold breaks:

Everyone who destroyed fleet value during the window is paid by attrition share — the player who did the damage gets paid, not whoever landed last.
The payout: antimatter (scaled by tier), a share of the stronghold's resource core (×3), and commander XP. Solo attackers get everything except Valor Points.
The window then resets: the ledger clears and the stronghold rebuilds.

Because the ceiling tracks the strongest players, a stronghold broken mid-season comes back harder than it fell.

Mobilisation — the stronghold hits back

While the Void is awake (the Void Awakens window), a stronghold at 80%+ strength can mobilise: every planet in the galaxy launches its entire combat fleet — capture and recon hulls stay home — at the highest-scoring player in the round who is not under protection.

Mobilisations are at least 48 ticks apart.
A mobilised stronghold has emptied its garrison: it is measurably weaker and breachable by attackers who couldn't touch it at full strength. The strike window after a mobilisation is the best time to hit one.

If you're at the top of the rankings during Void Awakens: keep a home fleet.

The stronghold nebula

Each stronghold galaxy has its own nebula, and it plays by different rules:

Open to everyone — no alliance needed, no adjacency ladder: any slot, any time.
Nothing to hold. Control never transfers; clearing a slot pays its instant reward, then the Void respawns. No holding VP accrues here.
It is a fight arena, not territory — a place for solo players and small alliances to farm Void battles without the politics.

Quick reference

Fact	Value
Strongholds per round	4 — one per cluster, galaxy 10, tiers 1–4
Ceiling	max(Q3 real home fleet, 50 000) × multiplier × planets
Defence	whole-galaxy injection — you always fight all nine
Breach threshold	strength below 40% of ceiling
Payout	antimatter + resource core ×3 + XP, split by damage share
Mobilisation	Void awake + 80%+ strength → full strike at the #1 player, ≥48 ticks apart
Colonisable	Never — stronghold galaxies are excluded from placement
Stronghold nebula	open to all, no adjacency, control never transfers, no holding VP

Documentation reflects Orbitarion v4.0. Last updated: 2026-08-19.