Planets
6/24/2025
Planets are the basis for development and battle in Astro Wars. Each member of the game is spawned on a single planet, named after the Star System it's located in, called the Planet ID. Some planets are created without an owner (Free) and many are controlled by Unknown. Players control their planets from the Planets Screen, managing the various buildings. The number of possible owned planets directly relates to the player's Culture level.
Unknown Owner
If you see a planet to be owned by Unknown, this just means that its former owner has resigned. The unknown player has a neutral race and an overall science level of zero (thus giving you a fighting bonus). If a player becomes unknown, remaining fleet on his planets does not disappear. However, any fleet in transit disappears. This applies to Transports and Colony Ships as well, though they pose no threat to attacking fleets.
Unknown planets do not continue to generate Production Points after abandonment, but you do get is 10% of the Production Points from the former owner, up to a maximum of 500pp. Therefore, unknown planets are often preferred targets for colonization as opposed to Free Planets, since they offer players extra PPs and existing buildings.
Some say that artifacts might be found on the unknown planets. However, this does not happen very often.
Colonizing A Free Planet
You can colonize unowned planets (Free) with a Colony Ship if your Culture level is higher than your total number of planets. Firstly, you will need to build a Colony Ship by spending production points on any one of your planets. After that, you can launch it via the Fleet Screen towards the selected target.
Generally, it is wise to send an escort with the Colony Ship, to ensure its safety. If the planet is under siege by another player at the time of arrival (marked red in the Star System Detail Screen), you will need an escorting war fleet strong enough to defeat the sieging ships in battle, or your ships will be destroyed.Conquering an Owned or Unknown Planet
In order to expand your empire, you will inevitably have to Conquer someone else's planet at some point. Whilst taking some Building Damage, the buildings are at least partially saved. You will find 10% of the production points that were on the planet before you colonized it, up to a maximum of 500 Production Points. To conquer a planet, you must have a Fleet capable of destroying any Starbase and/or Defending Fleet the player might have there, plus Transports at least equal in quantity to the Population (1 Transport can destroy 1 Population). When the Population reaches 0, control of the planet is turned over to the attacker (assuming the attacker has a high enough level of Culture to sustain another planet).- Example: if a Planet has a Population of 6, defended by 2 Destroyers and a Starbase level 4, an attacker would need at least 6 Transports, and a fleet worth 45 CV (in any combination of Destroyers, Cruisers and Battleships) to win.
Notes
- If your culture level increases after your fleet arrives, you will need to re-launch the transports so they arrive again. To avoid this, use the Arrival Time Calculator to help schedule your arrival for a little later than your increase in culture, so you have sufficient time to log in.
- The attacking fleet must include the number of transports at least equal to the level of population on the planet. It is usually better to send extra transports in case the population increases after the fleet is launched.
- If you include colony ships with your fleet, these will disband on arrival to give you 15 PP each, but they will not colonize an owned planet without transports.
- Unowned planets are labelled 'Free Planet' on the Star System Detail Screen. When colonised for the first time, they have no buildings and start with a population level of 1
- Colony Ships can only be used once, so on each successful colonization you will lose one Colony Ship to take over a free planet. Any other Colony Ships sent with it will be converted into Production Points
- To conquer a planet that is already owned by another player, or is marked as 'unknown', you will need Transports instead of Colony Ships. If you try to use Transports to colonize a Free planet, the planet will remain uncolonized, and the ships will remain there.
- You can send a fleet with Transports to a Free planet without colonising, to use it as a jump point for a sneak attack against an occupied planet. However if you include any colony ships in the fleet, they will colonize the Free planet and disband as soon as you land.