Purpose

The purpose of this guide is to specifically address the issues involving playing on a free account. I do not pretend to have mastered this, but I will offer what I have learned. If there are any more experienced free account members who would like to comment on or flat out contradict what I have to say, feel free.

II. Limitations

The major strategic factor of the free account are its limitations: you get only 9 astros, and only 5 of each advanced building, including (all importantly) terraforming.
On average, therefore, you can expect to get between 100 and 110 area on each of your astros (after maxing out terraforming at level 5), and about 900 or so total in your Empire, not counting the terraforming and any orbital structures you may get up to.

Furthermore, given an average fertility of 5 or 6, 1/6 or 1/7 of those buildings will be Urban Structures. So on your 100 area base, 17 of them will be Urban Structures.

On the same note, fusion plants generate 4 points of enery, and any gas or solar that you are actually builiding should generate at least 3. If you have 10 energy tech, they will generate 5 or 6 points of energy, which means another 1/6 or 1/7 of your area is devoted to energy plants. But actually more, since there are building which use extra energy.

When you get up to around 20 energy, a fusion will produce 8, plus you start with a little, so you can get by with fewer. I have a 100 area base with just 12 fusion plants. Let's budget around 15 for energy.

So right off the bat, your 100 area base has only 68 usable slots. You better pick them well.

Note: many have mentioned MLPs. I did not here simply because I do not have them yet, nor will I in the near future. I figure anyone who has MLPs probably knows more than I do, so they don't need my help. Either way, 22 Armor is kinda tough to get to, so you are going to spend a long time with just the 5 levels in terraforming. Obviously, once you get to MLPs, you get 50 more area to play with. Have fun.

Another major limitation is economy. I have 9 planets, with about half somewhat inefficiently maxed out. My econ is 540. I am thinking that I can get it a little bit higher than that. My best economy for one of my filled planets is 88. With a little tweaking, I might be able to get most of my planets around there, maybe up to 100. But the research planets are necessarily going to be lower. So an 800 - 900 econ is really the most you can probably hope for (again, more if you have more area, crystaline planets, etc.)

III. Types of Bases

Generally, it is the accepted wisdom that you should specialize your bases into research, production, and economy. I see no reason to question that rule, though I have found that you need to be prepared to compromise a lot as a free player. For a while, I had 4-6 research labs on every base slowly chewing away at all the research types to get me through the low levels, and I have just begun tearing them down as I run out of room.

That's a good point: don't be afraid to build something while it is useful, and then tear it down later. For example, if I have a 3 solar base, I will build cheap solar plants rather than fusion plants when I'm starting, because they finish faster and cheaper and let me move on to useful buildings. But unless you have a planet with a 4 solar rating, ultimately you will need to go 100% fusion (at least until your tech is good enough to throw up 5 antimatter plants and tear down 10 fusion plants).

As for how many of each type you build - that's probably just going to be circumstance. I personally colonize the best sites that I can find, and then look to building the best base that I can given the resources available. So in my alpha empire, I got 2 arids, which make good research planets, but poor production planets. The rest are going to be production, except for my asteroid, which I am going to go econ with. But I would recommend making the best bases you can from the sites that are available. So what makes for a good site? I will mention that in each section.

A. What all bases need.

Defense: There is no excuse for a base without defenses. When you are just building up, good defenses take too long to build. Scale up through them while you are building. Remember: you're defenses only have to be good enough to make this planet not worth bothering with. Plasma and ion turrets can do that for a 20 econ planet. But for your best planets, be satisfied with nothing but the best.

In general, I go for a goal of 5 command centers and 4 turrets (2 of my best, 2 of my 2nd best) on each "finished" base.

Trade: All planets need a trade route, never pass up free income. Therefore, 1 spaceport minimun at all bases.

Total use: 10 slots (58 remaining)

B. The production base

What to look for:

A production base needs 1 principle thing - 3 metal. Also, as always, the more area the better. Minimum fertility of 5, but you can find fert 6s, and you should try to find some, but I wouldn't pass up a rocky with a fert 5.

What to build:

Nanite factories: 5 (if you have the tech, which you definitely should before you are filling planets)

Androids factories: 5 (if you have the tech, which I don't - don't hold 5 wasted slots for them, fill them with other stuff and then tear down when these become available)

Shipyards: 16 - 20 (16 will get you up to battleships, and should be sufficient for most of your bases, but I would go for at least one prod base with 20, which along with an orbital will give you dreadnoughts - I am not sure if anything more than a dreadnought is feasible for a free account player, given the cost).

Command Centers: 0 - 5 (your production planets will have pretty high econs and be where your ships are built - why not have them come in at the highest possible defensive value? If you can get your CCs up to 10 on a planet, it kinda rocks, but it means less production/income, so it's your call).

Metal Refineries/Robotic Factories: these should be built to fill the rest of your slots. How many of each? That depends upon what you built (androids yes/no, more CCs, 16 or 20 shipyards, etc.).

What to look for:

Basically, you are going for a base with as large an area as possible. That's really all you need, since no resources affect research. Since you will probably have worse construction facilities then on other bases, a planet with a 4 solar or gas will allow you to build cheaper plants that are just as good as fusion, so that is a definite bonus. As always, a minimum of 5 fertility, with 6 or even 7 being preferable, since again the higher levels of urban structures will be tough to build quickly.

Generally, I have found Arid planets work really well for this purpose.

What to build:

Research Labs: Obviously, this is what the base is for. You want to build 22 of these to give you access to all of the techs in the game.

Command Centers: 5. Remember that your research bases will have less production, but will still be responsible for building their own fighter meat shields. It is just too inefficient to ship them in from your prod bases via carrier. Since your fleet is almost doomed to be smaller, it might as well be efficient.

Nanite factories: 5. You will still need to make *some* things. Do it well.

Metal Refineries, Robot Factories, Shipyards: I would have 18 total levels in these, depending on circumstances. They will all give you +2, except that Shipyards only give to production, and not construction. So just fill up 18 levels of these, building whichever is cheaper at any point, and favoring MRs and RFs over SYs, though your Shipyards should be min 3 if you want to be able to build HBs, which are good for breaking occupations.

Secondary priorities: You will have about 8 levels to play with (more if you base is bigger, of course). You might want more MRs and RFs if you want to get those high level RLs built faster, spaceports and econ centers if you want more money. Consider adding 2 more of the next level down in turrets.

D. The Econ Base

What to look for:

The key component of the econ base is crystals. If you are lucky, you will find a crystaline (3 crystal), but those get snatched up quick, so you might have to make do with asteroids. The thing with asteroids is that they have 2 crystal, but are really small in area (65, ouch!). Metallics have only 1 crystal, but more area, so you might be able to make a decent econ with those.

Also note that both asteroids and metallics have 3 metals, so any econ base (except maybe crystaline, not sure what their metal is) is going to be able to pull 2nd tier duty as a decent production base.

What to build:

Command Centers: 5. Occupying these high value targets is going to be a tempting target to every enemy. It is your duty to deny this advantage to the enemy.

Econ Centers: 5. 3 Econ each.

Spaceports: 11. 2 Econ each, allows 3 incoming traderoutes.

Nanite factories: 5. 2 Econ each, plus it builds some stuff.

Androids factories: 5. 2 Econ each, plus builds even more.

Shipyards: 3 - 10 Makes a little money. 3 will give you HBs, a necessity for breaking occupations if you have the tech. 10 will give you Cruisers, essential for breaking occupations if you don't have the tech for HBs.

Crystals Mines: ??. If you have a 1 Crystal planet, you should really concentrate on MRs/RFs, since they have the same Econ benefit plus add con/prod. In this case you have essentially a production base with more SPs and fewer SYs (though in this case, I would definitely go with the 10 or even 12 or 16 Shipyard version, for a hybrid econ/production with the CMs as a little Econ gravy).

For a 2 Crystal planet, put a lot more into the CMs. In this case I would go with the 10 SYs only until you have Plasma 14 (and make getting plasma 14 a priority!), then tear down to 3 and go with as many CMs as will fit.

MRs/RFs: Varies wildly. For a 1 Crystal planet, you should build mostly MRs/RFs, building CMs when they are cheaper than either of the other two by at least half. For a 2 Crystal planet, you should build basically as much Econ as production, if not more so.

E. The Hybrid Base

Since you don't have as many planets to play with, you may decide to try to have some bases do double duty. This is essential when you are starting out, since your first planet pretty much has to be everything or you will never get the tech to get a 2nd planet. So your first few planets will probably be haphazardly constructed messes. I know mine are.

This is acceptable at the beginning, but becomes less so as you go on. Eventually you will reach the point that rather than having a bunch of bases that can do a little bit of everything, all you have is a bunch of bases that can't do anything. The RL and SY requirements for higher level tech and fleets are too high. You *must* specialize.

IV. Research

Here are some things I learned about tech, some the hard way.

The Use of Hybrid Bases:

There is an exception to everything I said above about base construction, and here it is:

As a new player, I recommend building about 4 RLs on each of 4 non-research planets, and then going to higher RL counts on 1 or 2. Take those 4 planets, and queue up Energy on one, Computer on another, Laser on the third, and Armor on the last. Just keep the queres maxed out there. Sure, you will get to the point where researching the next level of Laser is taking 186 hours, but so what? You need to spend your main Research planets' time on moving up the tech tree, but you don't want to get left behind on these essential techs. Just let them churn away in the background while you are going about your business.

Remember, just about every tech comes from Energy, Laser, and Computer. There are only three techs (Warp Drive, Photon, and Cybernetics) that have *any* other requirement.

By the same token, there are only 3 structures (Orbital Shipyards, Androids Factories, and Jump Gate) that have any other requirement than these basic four.

Also, Energy is vital to the output of your bases, and conserving your previous Area. Laser is the critical technology to the Fighter, the backbone of all military actions (more on this later). And Armor is the most universally beneficial of all military technologies, since every ship has it.

You must be going up in all of these technologies, all of the time.

Set goals, don't just dabble

I learned this the hard way. Right now I am in the middle of a war, at level 13 plasma, and level 9 shields. So I can neither build HBs, the best unit I am close to, nor can I build defensive shields, the best defense I am close to. Would I go down 2 levels in either of these to go up one in the other? Darn right I would.

Make sure to LOOK at the requirements for units and structures. The very first unit you are going for, of course, is the Outpost Ship. I am assuming most of you are beyond that point now. But either way, pick ONE thing that you do not qualify for, either a structure or a unit. See what you need to get there. Then just pursue nothing else but that. If you only need one tech to advance (even if it needs to advance several levels), and you have more than 1 research planet, go ahead and pick another priority (I recommend alternating between ship and structure priorities, except in wartime).

DON'T do what is very tempting, which is to just dabble in a bunch of things, advancing whatever is cheapest at the time. It does you no good at all to *almost* qualify for 4 different things. Better to actually qualify for just one.

V. So You Think You've Maxed Your Empire...

Sooner or later, the time will come when you have 9 bases w/5 levels of terraforming, 5 levels of MLPs on each. So now what?

A. Option #1 - the quickie upgrade.

This is kinda cheating in a "free account players guide," but if you are willing to buy just a 1 month upgrade, you can get some mileage out of it.

1. Basically, you calculate how many additional bases you want, build some outpost ships w/escorts, send them to the galaxies you want bases in, find your bases. Do all of the BEFORE you uggrade.

2. Upgrade for 1 month

3. Build all of your bases the second the upgrade goes through with your saved up money. Queue up 5 MRs on each.

4. Go back to your original bases, and queue up as many terraformings/MLPs (always going for terraforming provided that the next level of terraforming is less than 1/2 the next level of MLPs, otherwise go for the next MLP level) on each of your old planets.

5. Do this like crazy for the month, and then you got a nice, bigger empire to play with.

6. When you max that size empire out, repeat.

B. Option #2 - Optimize.

This is the real option, for people for whom upgrading just isn't in the cards.

Basically, ask yourself, "Sure, my base is full, but is it the *best* full it can be?"

Here are some optimization tips:

1. Have 5 of all the advanced buildings

Your planet is simply not maxed if it doesn't have 5 terra, 5 MLPs, 5 anitmatter, 5 nanite, 5 android, and 5 orbital base. If you're missing any, build them. Tear down a less efficient to do it.

2. Replace everything but antimatter w/fusion

Obviously, not if you are on a 5 gas planet, or a 4 solar or gas. But every solar or gas plant on a 2 or 3 should definitely be a fusion, no matter the cost.

3. Replace all RFs w/MRs on metal 3 planets.

The table above is the most credit efficient ratio of MRs:RFs. Obviously, however, on a metal 3 planet, an MR is absolutely better than an RF, regardless of cost. So one at a time, tear down an RF, replace it with an MR, until your RFs are all gone.

4. Replace all Econ Centers and Crystal Mines w/Spaceports

Technically, and Econ Center is better than a Spaceport, but 5 Econ Centers = 15 econ, 5 Spaceport = 10 econ + 1 traderoute. Think the traderoute is going to get you better than 5 econ? Also, ECs use twice the energy, you may be able to tear down a plant.

The same deal with Crystal Mines. Even on a Crysaline, a Spaceport is better, same math as above. When you're first starting your planet, the CM is often more efficient, but in the longer run, CM loses to SP.

5. Replace construction buildings w/research labs.

I mean, your base is maxed, right? So you're not really in a hurry to build anything. And you can import fleet from your production planets.

This is completely insane for an upgraded players, but consider slowly working toward a base which has NOTHING but research labs, power plants, population structures, and defenses. Sure, that level 87 research labs will probably take awhile when you're down to 3 metal refineries, but who cares?

6. As #5, but do it w/spaceport for your econ bases.

Triple digit spaceports would rock, wouldn't it?

7. Energy tech, energy tech, more energy tech.

If you have 20 power plants, 1 level of energy tech will let you decomission one and build something else. If you have 10, it will take 2 energy tech levels.

Here's a thought: 5 anitmatter = 50 energy. With 20 levels of energy, that's 100. A free account planet, maxed, has ~150 area, which gives you maybe 175-200 energy use tops, if you pick a lot of defenses, etc. If you can get to level 30 in enegy, you will generate 150 of that with your 5 anitmatters alone.

Remember - energy tech is a free account players' terraforming.

C. Research and fleet

Sooner or later, you will have gotten to the point where there is just nothing more you can do with your bases. Does that mean you are "done"? Hardly. There is always research and fleet.

Remember, once you "max" your bases, your econ may stagnate, but you will always have an advantage compared to an upgraded player of your econ. While he will be devoting his econ largely to his bases, you can put yours entirely toward research and tech. So you maybe "stuck" at 1500 econ or so, but after you've been there awhile, you will have a *ton* more tech than a player who is "passing through" 1500 econ on his way up.

You are now on a 100% war footing. Concentrate on the key weapon techs for your favorite ships, along with armor and shields. And then just poor the credits into fleet.

Don't forget: debris + occupations = more money for you