The sky opens up in Tier 3, Orbital Reach. Once you research and build the Space Elevator, your home world joins a four-planet trade network, with each partner opening up through its own research. Cargo rides the elevator up to an orbital platform, and freighters fly it out to planets that are genuinely moving, so you can send one to the Stellar Forge for Stellar Material, trade with Asteroid Belt Alpha for uranium ore, quantum crystal and gravitite, ship bulk plates, wire and concrete to Proxima Colony for quantum crystal and gravitite, and bring dense matter home from the Jovian depths of Jupiter Station. Click a planet below to see its economy.
Your home world orbits a Class-G star, and the orbits are real, so the planets and moons actually move, which is where day and night, the moon phases and the freighter launch windows all come from. Three of your trade partners share this system, and the fourth, Proxima Colony, sits 4.24 light-years out, so the trade network doesn't stop at the edge of the home system, and beyond it a whole galaxy of star systems grows out of your seed. Each partner runs its own economy.
↻ THIS DIAGRAM'S ORBITS ARE ARTISTIC LICENSE · IN-GAME THEY'RE SIMULATED · CLICK A PLANET TO LEARN MORE ↻ THE GAME'S OWN ORBITS, DRAWN AT ITS COMPRESSED MAP SCALE · CLICK A WORLD TO LEARN MORE
Each planet trades different goods. Build the right export and you can pull rare materials home that your factory could never produce on its own.
Your home planet, and where every factory starts in the game. It's a temperate world with Earth-like air, leaning 23.4 degrees on its axis just like Earth, where several of the eleven biomes meet on a surface grown from your seed. Build your factory here, and every interplanetary route starts from your Space Elevator.
An automated megaplatform anchored at the solar corona, operating at the edge of physics. It produces stellar-grade materials in exchange for advanced manufacturing components.
A network of automated mining stations in the asteroid belt. They produce rare minerals in exchange for fabricated components.
A fledgling human colony still working toward self-sufficiency. They need raw industrial materials, and they can offer quantum crystal and gravitite in return.
A massive orbital platform harvesting Jovian atmospheric gases. They have access to exotic compounds found nowhere else in the system.
Build a Space Elevator and assign freighters to trade routes. Cargo lifts to a geostationary orbital platform, and each freighter completes a full round-trip from there: depart loaded, cross to the partner planet, unload, load their export, return. On the ground, cargo drones cover the same job at planet scale, riding great-circle arcs across the surface.
Travel time varies by route. The Asteroid Belt and the outer colonies are quick runs, while the Stellar Forge at the solar corona is the long haul. Because everything is genuinely orbiting, launch windows fall out of where the planets actually are at that moment. Multiple freighters on the same route stagger automatically so you get continuous throughput.
Interplanetary trade opens from Tier 3, one partner at a time. Once your home factory is humming, the system is your next playground.