Your First 48 Hours — A Commander's Survival Guide

Welcome to Orbitarion, Commander. You've just landed on your planet with nothing but a name and 200 resources per tick. In 96 ticks (48 hours), your protection shield drops and the galaxy becomes hostile. This guide will make sure you're ready.

How the game works

Orbitarion runs on ticks. Every 30 minutes, the universe updates: resources are collected, research progresses, ships are built, fleets move, and battles resolve. Between ticks, you plan your moves. When the tick hits, everything happens at once.

Your goal: grow your planet, build a fleet, and survive. The strongest commanders at the end of the season win.

Tick 1–8: Get scanning online

Your planet starts with zero orbitals and a base income of 200 Titanium, 200 Silicon, and 200 Uranium per tick. That's not enough to do anything meaningful — you need orbitals.

Your first research: Basic Sweep Sensors (8 ticks, costs 500 Ti + 1,500 Si)

This unlocks orbital scanning — your only way to find new orbitals early in the game. Start this immediately. You'll have enough Silicon by tick 8 from your core income alone.

Don't build anything else yet

Resist the urge to start building ships or other research. Scanning is your lifeline. Without orbitals, you have no economy.

Tick 8–14: Start scanning + unlock fighters

Basic Sweep Sensors is done. Now you can scan for orbitals.

Buy a scan immediately (costs ~1,000 Silicon). You have an 80% chance of finding an orbital. Each successful scan gives you 1 uninitiated orbital.

Initiate your first orbitals. Uninitiated orbitals produce nothing — you need to initiate them by choosing a resource type (Titanium, Silicon, or Uranium). The first initiation costs 300 Ti + 200 Si.

Research: Fighter Operations (6 ticks, costs 200 Ti + 300 Si)

This unlocks your first combat ships. You won't need them during protection, but you absolutely need them ready when protection drops.

How to distribute orbitals

A good early split is roughly 50% Titanium, 30% Silicon, 20% Uranium. Titanium is used for almost everything. Silicon is needed for scanning and research. Uranium fuels your fleets later.

Tick 14–30: Build your economy

You now have scanning and fighters. Time to grow.

Keep scanning every time you can afford it. Your scan chance starts at 80% and decreases by 0.5% per orbital you own — so scan aggressively while it's cheap.

Research priority:

Tick	Research	Duration	Why
14	Titanium Processing	8 ticks	+150 Ti/tick — huge income boost
22	Silicon Refinement	8 ticks	+150 Si/tick — fund more scans

These two researches double your effective income. Combined with 5–8 orbitals from scanning, you'll be producing 1,500+ resources per tick by tick 30.

Tick 30–54: Unlock your fleet

Your economy is rolling. Now prepare for war.

Research priority:

Tick	Research	Duration	Why
30	Corvette Engineering	10 ticks	Stronger ships, counter fighters
40	Frigate Engineering	14 ticks	First real warships + Orbital Pods

By tick 54, you'll have Fighters, Corvettes, and Frigates unlocked. Start building ships as soon as each research completes.

Build your Shipyard if you haven't already. You need Shipyard level 3 to build Frigates.

Tick 54–96: Prepare for war

Protection drops at tick 96. You have ~42 ticks to build a fleet.

Spend everything on ships. Your economy is established. Every resource sitting in your stockpile is a resource that could be a ship defending your planet.

Build Orbital Pods (or equivalent capture ship for your race). When you attack someone and win, pods steal their orbitals. This is how you grow in mid-game.

Consider researching:

Basic Propulsion (8 ticks) — makes your fleets arrive 1 tick faster
Basic Defense Systems (10 ticks) — unlocks Planetary Defense Systems (PDS) that damage attackers

Scout your galaxy. Look at the Galaxy tab. Who are your neighbors? Who's building up? Who's in an alliance? This information matters when protection drops.

Don't leave your planet empty

When you send ships on an attack, those ships leave your planet's defense. If someone attacks you while your fleet is away, you lose orbitals. Always keep some ships at home.

When protection drops

At tick 96, you're vulnerable. Here's what to expect:

Aggressive neighbors will attack — especially if you have many orbitals and few ships
Alliances form — join one if you can. Coordinated defense is much stronger than solo play
Orbital theft begins — winners steal orbitals from losers. This is the primary growth engine from now on

Your immediate priorities:

Keep building ships every tick
Join or form an alliance
Don't send all your ships away at once
Watch for incoming attacks in your Intel tab

Race-specific tips

Your race determines your strategy. Here's how to play the early game based on your faction:

United Earth Command (UEC) — The Fortress

Your ships have the highest armor in the game. You're hard to kill but slow to act (low initiative — you fire last).

During protection:

Research Frigate Engineering early — your Sentinel frigate (4×16 damage, 180 armor) is a beast
Build Pegasus destroyers as soon as you can — 14 flak guns that shred fighter swarms
Your +20% construction speed means buildings and ships finish faster

After protection:

Play defensively. Let enemies come to you — your armor means they lose more ships than you do
The Titan battleship is your endgame. Rush Destroyer → Cruiser → Battleship Engineering
UEC excels in large fleet-vs-fleet battles where survival matters more than speed

Odonari Hive (ODO) — The Swarm

Your fighters, corvettes and frigates are cloaked — invisible to enemy scanners. You're the cheapest and fastest race, but fragile.

During protection:

Your +15% research speed means you unlock things faster than most
Build masses of Stingers (cheapest fighter, 35 Ti) — quantity is your strength
Your -1 tick ETA means your fleets arrive before anyone expects

After protection:

Strike fast with cloaked fleets. The enemy can't see what's coming
Your Mantis frigate (cloaked, targets frigates) is an assassin — use it to pick off enemy frigates
Avoid prolonged battles — your ships are fragile. Hit and run

The Aetherians (ATH) — The Controller

Your EMP ships freeze enemies without destroying them. You fire first (highest initiative), controlling the entire battlefield.

During protection:

Your +20% research speed is the best in the game — abuse it
Build Pulse fighters and Arc corvettes — they freeze enemies, not kill them
You ALSO need kill ships (Tempest destroyer, Aether cruiser) to finish frozen enemies

After protection:

Coordinate with allies. Your EMPs are devastating when a teammate's kill fleet follows up
Freeze the biggest threats first — the Volt frigate can shut down entire destroyer groups
Your Celestial battleship fires before any other ship in the game (initiative 3)

Sytherian Cartel (STC) — The Raider

You don't steal orbitals — you raid enemy resources on victory. Your ships target above their weight class.

During protection:

Your +15% ship production speed means more ships faster
25% cheaper scanning — scan aggressively, grow your orbitals
Build Cutlass fighters (highest DPS fighter) and Raiders (corvettes)
You have no capture ships — your growth comes from resource raids and scanning

After protection:

Attack resource-rich planets. A strong victory can steal 5–25% of their stockpile
Your ships "punch up" — Frigates target Destroyers, Destroyers target Cruisers, Cruisers target Battleships
Use Shade and Infiltrator (cloaked recon ships) to scout before attacking
Reinvest raided resources immediately into more ships

Quick reference

What	When	Cost
First scan	Tick 8 (after Basic Sweep Sensors)	~1,000 Si
Initiate first orbital	Tick 8–9	300 Ti + 200 Si
First fighters	Tick 14 (after Fighter Operations)	35–50 Ti per fighter
First corvettes	Tick 40 (after Corvette Engineering)	90–120 Ti per corvette
First frigates	Tick 54 (after Frigate Engineering)	200–250 Ti per frigate
Protection drops	Tick 96	—

Common mistakes

❌ Not scanning enough. Orbitals are everything. Scan every time you can afford it during protection.

❌ Hoarding resources. Resources in your stockpile don't fight. Build ships.

❌ Sending all ships on attack. Your planet is defenseless while your fleet is away. Split your forces.

❌ Ignoring your galaxy. Check who your neighbors are. Know who's strong and who's weak before protection drops.

❌ Playing solo. This is an MMO. Alliances win seasons. Join one.

Good luck, Commander. The universe is waiting.