Xenobiome Command reference

Every rule in the game, in the game's own words. The text below is the in-game codex, rendered from the same strings the game ships, with the shipping numbers filled in. The tables under each entry are read straight from the engine data. Synced 2026-10-30.

The Colony

Morale

How the colony feels.

Morale moves toward its target slowly at first, then faster the longer it keeps going the same way. A drop closes half the gap in about 2.4 days. A rise closes half the gap in about 3.2 days. Outpost > Services shows what the colonists want.

The target Morale cap is 85. You get 15 for housing everyone, up to 55 for covering the services people ask for, and 15 for having Biomass and Filtrate in the stores. Every colonist who has nowhere to sleep costs 5. A service people ask for but don't have costs Morale. Dead colonists with no grave cost 1, plus 1 more for every 4 dead, up to 4, and each Burial Field buries 6. Shortages, an open incident, and having no Heat Cells all subtract.

The Morale cap is 85 for most colonies. Some buildings and colonist traits increase it. The floor is -50. Command refills once Morale reaches 50 or 75% of what housing, services and food can give together, whichever is lower. Below -10, unrest costs Command every few days. The lower Morale sinks, the more it costs. The more Command you hold, the sooner it hits. Below 0, colonists start leaving too. They leave sooner the heavier your Morale penalties are, and no more than one every 4 days.

Command

Your standing with the Directorate. At zero you lose the run.

Command changes only on certain events. Outpost > Leaders lists every gain and loss, including Unrest, Losses, Desertion, Directorate impatience.

Finishing a quest gives 3. A colony above 50 Morale refills about 0.35 Command per day. The refill slows as Command rises. Every colonist who dies or leaves costs 8. Each later loss costs 2 more. Every new colonist gives 2. An overdue quest costs 0.75 per day until you finish it.

Command is checked at the end of every day and after every incident choice. At zero the Directorate recalls you.

The Diplomat never refills Command passively. Quests pay double instead. Relic finds still count, so ruins matter more to that commander.

Patience and overdue quests

The patience budget on the current quest, and the cost of missing it.

Every quest has a patience budget in days. It ticks down while the quest is open. It refills when you finish the quest.

At zero the quest is overdue. You lose 0.75 Command per day, multiplied by the difficulty level and the pace level. On Hostile and Lethal the drain starts early, with 44% of the budget left. From Brutal up it starts with 35% left. It continues until you finish the quest. It shrinks once Command runs low. On Mild and Hostile it stops at 6 and 3 Command. The Diplomat never goes overdue.

Relaxed pace multiplies every budget by 2 and the drain by 0.5. Sandbox has no quests, patience or scoring.

Vigor

What every action costs.

Every action costs Vigor. Vigor refills on its own at a base rate, plus more for every colonist. Colonists beyond the first 4 add half as much. A Council and some techs raise the rate further.

Vigor has a soft cap of 3. Every point above it slows the refill more. The refill stops at about 5 plus 1 per colonist. Spend Vigor instead of holding it.

Population

How the colony grows.

Growth needs beds, Biomass in the stores, Morale above zero and no waiting incident. Running out of Filtrate doesn't stop arrivals, but it kills people. The Outpost panel shows what holds growth back.

Morale must stay above zero for the colony to grow. Below that cap, Morale doesn't change the speed. When Morale rises past what housing, services and food provide, every point over speeds growth up.

New colonists wait at the door for 16 days. If nobody lets them in, they leave. That counts as a loss. It costs 2 Command and raises the cost of the next loss. If the colony is empty, you have 15 days before you lose. A colonist waiting at the door pauses that clock. Welcoming one ends it.

Resources and storage

Seven types, four of them at the start.

Each run starts with 4 resource types: Biomass, Filtrate, Fiber and Heat Cells. Research unlocks Medicine, Regolith and Alloy later. Once Medicine is unlocked and the colony reaches 7 colonists, every colonist uses 0.05 Medicine a day.

Every resource has a capacity. A store below capacity accepts one scavenge or production tick, even if that goes over capacity. A store at or over capacity gains 0. Capacity comes from buildings, a few techs, doctrines, boons and artifacts. Sustenance 1 unlocks silos, which hold more than stores. After that you can't build new stores, but existing ones keep working.

Scavenging gives extra resources on top of production. Scavenged resources arrive as map bubbles 2 to 5 days later. You collect them. Each scavenge of a resource costs more Vigor than the last. Biomass and Heat Cells rise 1 per scavenge, up to 4 over the base. Fiber and Regolith rise slower. Medicine and Alloy rise faster. Filtrate never rises. Every 6 months each price drops one step, down to 1 Vigor.

You can order a building or tech research you can't pay for. The game shows which resource will go negative. A negative store acts like an empty one. The order pauses while that store is at zero or below. Nothing else that costs that resource can start while it is negative.

All 54 buildings

Uplink and research

Four research tracks across Uplink Tiers.

Research runs in 4 tracks, each levelled 1 to 4, in Outpost > Up⁠link. Warfare buys Warden gear, fortifications and a Command payout. Sustenance covers housing, Biomass, Filtrate and healing. Industry unlocks Regolith deposits, then Alloy, then an extra build team. Every track opens Regolith scavenging at Uplink Tier 4. Survey improves surveying and raises survey and expedition payouts.

Tier is 1 plus your total levels across all four tracks, capped at 7. It stops growing at 6 researched levels. Each tier adds 15% Warden strength, with 40% more at tier 3 and 40% more at tier 6. Tier also sets the Vigor a festival pays. Vigor income rises again at tiers 5 and 6.

Level 2 is free on any track. Higher levels force you to spread out. Level 3 needs 3 total levels across all four tracks. Level 4 needs 5.

Tier also caps how many copies of one producer an area can hold. At tier 3, for example, you can build 3 kilns per area. Condensers on a wetland are exempt. The Landing Zone holds one more condenser of each type than the tier.

Finishing a level always offers a tech draft of 3 cards from the track you just finished. Other tracks fill in only when that track has no cards left. You keep one card. The cards you pass on can return in a later draft. Techs are small permanent bonuses.

Track levels

Tech draft pool (14)

Surveying

How you survey the fog.

Surveying reveals a fogged area. The Vigor cost rises with distance from the Landing Zone, from 1 for adjacent areas to 3 at the far edge. Every 4 areas you have claimed add 1 more. A large area can cost 1 more and a small one 1 less. You can survey only areas that border your revealed areas.

Survey track level 3 cuts every survey's cost by 1 Vigor. A Warden near a fogged area cuts it further over time. The Surveyor pays -1 Vigor for survey and +1 Vigor for claims, and sees what is on an area before you survey. The Forager surveys blind. Feral packs stay hidden until they reach your border.

Expeditions

Gathering from areas you don't own.

You can send an expedition to any surveyed or claimed area except the Landing Zone, for 2 Vigor, if no ferals stand on it. It returns after 3 days with what that area produces. Sporeplain and warren give Biomass. Chitin grove gives Fiber. Wetland gives Filtrate. Ruinfield gives Heat Cells.

Expeditions don't need a claimed area. They are the cheapest way to farm areas you can't hold yet. Survey track level 4 raises every expedition's output by 1. A pack that wanders onto the area doesn't cancel an expedition already returning.

Warrens and orchards

Two ways to grow Biomass. Only one works during the Drift.

Spore Orchard on sporeplain produces 0.375 Biomass per day. Animal Pen on a warren produces 0.25. The orchard stops during the Drift. Pens keep producing.

Isolation

Cut-off areas stop producing.

An area is yours only while claimed areas connect it to the Landing Zone. Rivers and lost areas break that chain.

Cut-off areas stop producing and lose buildings one at a time. Each costs 5 Morale, up to 15. The colonists there eventually leave.

Reclaiming any missing link repairs the whole chain at once.

Seasons and the Drift

The cold season in months 12-2.

In the first Drift, Heat Rings burn Heat Cells 5x faster. Every Drift after it adds 1x, up to 10x. Sporeplain stops producing Biomass. A Heat Ring burns only for the colonists it keeps warm, so spare rings cost nothing. The Morale floor of Heat Rings drops by 60 until the Drift ends. The calendar and the map clock both show it coming. Production under The Driftborn ignores the Drift.

Store Heat Cells before the Drift. Freezing kills faster than starving.

Verdant (months 3-5) has no penalty. The first Arid (months 6-8) cuts Filtrate production to 0.5x and raises Filtrate use to 1.25x. Every Arid after it is harsher, down to 0.3x production and up to 1.5x use. Ashfall (months 9-11) cuts Biomass production to 0.75x. A year is 12 months of 8 days.

Running out

What running out costs you, and how fast.

Running out lowers Morale first, then kills. Filtrate is fastest. After 4 days without it, every colonist has a 15% chance to die each day. Biomass takes 5 days, with a higher chance of 25%.

Freezing is the worst of the three. During the Drift, running out of Heat Cells gives you 3 days before the 15% daily chance starts. A supplied Drift shelter gives 6 days at 8%. Stock up before the Drift. Once Heat Cells run out, it is too late to build anything.

Resonance Festival

The reward for keeping people happy.

A festival unlocks when Morale reaches the festival target. The target is the highest Morale your colony can currently reach, at most 100 and at least 80. If your buildings can't support 80 Morale, the target drops to what they can support.

A festival costs no Morale. It gives 3 Command, Vigor equal to your Uplink Tier, and 5 extra days of patience. The feast raises Biomass and Filtrate consumption by 25% for 3 days. The next festival is possible 48 days later, or 42 with Festival Drums researched.

Governance

A permanent choice about how you run the colony.

At 5 people and day 60 you must pick a governance. You can't undo this choice.

Autarchy gives 12 Command at once. Inspire gives 8 Command, but you lose Command below 20 Morale instead of below -10. Council costs 8 Command up front and pays it back over time. At 60 Morale or better, Vigor refills 25% faster.

Each choice also has its own incident that fires once when its trigger hits. Autarchy gets unrest when Morale runs low. Inspire gets exhaustion during the Drift. Council gets deadlock when a shortage drags on.

Relic sweeps

The only Command you can earn on your own schedule.

Sweeping a claimed ruinfield turns up 3 relics. Each is worth 2 to 4 Command. The first sweep costs 3 Vigor. Unlike quests and festivals, you can sweep whenever you like.

The Command arrives as bubbles on the map a few days later. You collect it. Each sweep costs 1 more Vigor every 2 sweeps, up to 12.

Incidents

Decisions with a countdown. An open incident costs Morale and growth.

Incidents arrive as map bubbles. You have 6 days to resolve one before it opens on its own. An open card costs 10 Morale until you resolve it. The Kindler doesn't pay the cost of choices and gets one fewer option.

An open card also stops population growth completely. Resolve cards promptly.

An incident fires at most once a run. Some cards carry between runs. If you met one in an earlier run, it has a 10% chance to return.

The Corps

Wardens

Keeping the borders safe.

Wardens heal 2% per day on claimed areas, or 5% with a working Med Bay. A healing Warden shows a pulsing green ring on the map. Antiseptic Moss multiplies that rate by 1.25x. Disbanding returns 50% of the first recruit's 3 Vigor, scaled by the Warden's remaining health. On Nominal and Hostile, a Warden who dies returns 30% of it.

A Warden becomes a veteran after killing 3 whole packs. It ranks up again at 6 and 10. Each rank adds 15% strength and heals faster on your claimed areas, at 1.25x, 1.5x and 1.75x the usual rate. Fights that leave the pack alive don't count. If a veteran dies, you lose more Morale. Retreating from a fight costs no Vigor.

Every claimed area adds 2% to your Wardens' strength. 100 Morale adds 10%. Reaching Uplink Tiers 3 and 6 adds 40%. Every other Tier adds 15%.

The first Warden costs 3 Vigor. Later recruits cost more (4, 6, 8, 10, 12) and need more population (3, 6, 9, and so on). Training starts at 4 days and takes longer for each recruit (6, 16, 20, 24, 28). There is no fixed cap. You can have at most 1 Warden per colonist, and every recruit past the 6th costs 2 more Vigor than the last. You can recruit only on claimed areas with no other Warden.

Warfare research unlocks squad kit, one piece per Warden. Chitin Plate at Warfare 1 cuts the wounds a Warden takes by 50%. Venom Blades at Warfare 3 adds 30% strength against a bloom or the nest. Signal Lance at Warfare 4 adds 50% strength to a fight two borders away. Kit is carried, not stored. It marches with the Warden and is lost for good when that Warden dies. Equip it from the area panel on any claimed ground where a Warden stands.

After 3 fights a Warden is promoted and you choose a class. An All-rounder stays as it was. A Defender fights at x1.4 on your own ground and x0.7 in the field. An Attacker is the reverse, at x1.3 in the field and x0.8 at home. A Supporter is weak alone at x0.6, but lends x1.8 of the usual share to fights next door. Gear stacks on top. The class can't be changed.

Recruiting

Gear

Warden upkeep

Wardens use supplies every day, more outside claimed areas.

Every Warden on a claimed area uses 0.06 Biomass and 0.06 Filtrate per day. The cost is flat. 10 Wardens cost ten times one.

Each Warden outside your claimed areas uses 0.08 Biomass and 0.18 Filtrate and burns 0.005 Heat Cells per day for every Uplink Tier. At Tier 3 a Warden outside costs 3 times as much as at Tier 1. On Mild and Hostile the cost is flat per Warden. On Lethal it grows faster than the headcount. 5 Wardens outside cost as much as 6.9 would at the flat rate. From Brutal up, 5 cost as much as 9.5.

If Biomass or Filtrate hits zero, Wardens outside your claimed areas lose 10% of their health every day and can die. Wardens on claimed areas take no damage from hunger. They don't heal and they fight at 80% strength.

Warden area interaction

How adjacent Wardens lend strength.

An area holds one Warden at most. You can't march onto an area another Warden stands on, and you can't recruit there. You can't recruit on contested areas either. Clear the ferals first.

Adjacent Wardens lend 50% of their strength to a fight in an adjacent area, but only if they aren't fighting themselves. An area with no Warden on it is undefended. Wardens don't defend areas from adjacent ones.

The Landing Zone adds strength to every fight it can reach. It adds 1 full Warden's worth on the zone itself and 0.5 for adjacent areas. Wardens fighting on the zone itself are 1.5x as strong.

A Warden adding strength from an unclaimed area counts for 70% of its strength.

Marching

How Wardens move.

Drag a Warden badge to send it to any claimed or surveyed area. A day has 10 ticks. Entering a claimed area costs 3 ticks. Entering a surveyed area costs 5.

Marching costs no Vigor. A Warden counts as staying in the area it left until it reaches its destination. If you cancel the move, it is as if you never moved the Warden.

Warden economy assist

A standing Warden slowly lowers survey and claim costs around it.

A Warden on a claimed area lowers the Vigor cost of surveying an adjacent area. A Warden on a surveyed area that is adjacent to any claimed one lowers the cost of claiming it. Claiming costs more the farther the area is from the Landing Zone, and 1 more for every 3 areas you have claimed. Reclaiming an area costs half of its original claim cost. The discount grows by 1 Vigor every 22 days and stops once the cost reaches zero.

An assisting Warden uses 0.1 Biomass and 0.1 Filtrate per day on top of its normal upkeep. The work stops if either resource runs out.

The Wilds

Fights

Where strength comes from, and how a fight resolves.

A pack's strength comes from its size, its breed, the difficulty and where it stands. An uncleared bloom multiplies it by 1.5x and a nest by 1.4x. Your side gets the fighting Warden's strength and health, 50% of each adjacent Warden, and bonuses on claimed areas from Uplink Tier, defensive buildings and Morale.

A fight resolves once per day. The first day kills at most half the pack, so every fight lasts at least 2 days. After that you usually kill one feral a day. At more than 1.4x the pack's strength, you kill more, up to 8 per day. If the pack is more than 3x as strong, you kill fewer than one per day, down to one every 10 days. On a bloom or a nest this starts at 2x. A pack stronger than your side wounds your Warden harder each day, up to 1.5x the usual wound. Off blooms and nests it works the other way too. A pack weaker than your side wounds less, down to 30% of the usual wound when you badly outnumber it.

Any pack can be killed eventually, but some fights outlast the Warden. You can retreat at any time by marching the Warden away. The pack always gets its first swing. Leaving before the first day's fight still wounds the Warden by 30%. After that, leaving wounds it by 5% for each day fought, up to 15%. Light Step removes that later wound, but not the first swing.

A pack entering from a fogged area surprises you and lowers your strength to 50%. Stronghold on the area prevents that.

Feral breeds

What each breed does.

There are 6 breeds. Early campaign regions have only the standard Feral pack breed. Later regions add more. The last region has all of them. Blooms spawn only the standard Feral pack breed until day 180. After that, 40% of spawns are standard Feral pack and the rest are other breeds. From day 450, only 10% are standard Feral pack. Tap a pack badge to check its breed.

The Brutes breed fights at 2x strength. The Alpha pack breed fights at 1.5x. When you kill an Alpha pack pack, half of it scatters to adjacent unclaimed areas instead of dying. The Corroders breed fights at normal strength. If you fight it on your own claimed area, you lose the area even when you win. The area stays locked for 10 days. Fight it outside your claimed areas.

The Stalkers breed goes after the nearest Warden instead of the Landing Zone. It crosses claimed areas to reach a Warden. When the Burrowers breed reaches an area next to your claimed areas, it waits a day, goes underground, then surfaces at the Landing Zone. Kill it at the border or fight it at the Landing Zone. Stronghold doesn't stop it.

The Broodmother breed fights at 1.25x strength and makes its bloom spawn twice as often. Each nest has one. A pack on a nest also gets 1.4x strength.

Pack movement

How packs wake up, walk, and try to take your areas.

A pack takes 0.6 day to enter the next area, then waits 1 day before moving again. It normally takes the shortest route to the Landing Zone. If a Warden is next to it, it goes for the Warden instead. The map shows where the pack stands. A red arrow points to the area it will enter next.

Packs on the map start asleep. One wakes when a Warden stands next to it or you claim an adjacent area. A sleeping pack within 2 areas of your land also sends a full copy toward you every 31.5 to 48 days. Higher difficulties send copies more often. The sleeping pack never gets smaller. Copies don't start before day 120. A pack you wake yourself attacks immediately, whatever the day.

A pack on one of your claimed areas starts a countdown if no Warden is there. Send a Warden within 5 days or lose the area. The Landing Zone gives 10 days, because losing it ends the game. A Warden arriving stops the countdown. You can reclaim a lost area after 10 days.

Lure costs 1 Vigor and takes 1 day. It pulls the whole pack onto the adjacent area where your Warden stands. You choose where the fight happens.

Bloom

Purple areas that spawn packs. Bloom doesn't spread.

Bloom is purple ground. Every day, each bloomed area you haven't cleared has a small chance to spawn one feral pack, unless a Warden stands on it. The pack appears on the bloom and starts walking toward you. Higher difficulties and longer runs raise the chance. Packs on an uncleared bloom have 1.5x strength. Every pack your Wardens draw off a bloom makes the ferals that later defend it 10% weaker. This stacks.

If a Warden walks onto a bloom, a pack of 2 ferals spawns on it immediately, on top of anything already there. Later defending packs are bigger. They gain one feral every 450 days of the run, up to 4. Kill everything on the bloom to clear it. A cleared bloom stays purple and stops spawning for now. Normally you can't claim a bloomed area. On a few campaign maps you can. You can also burn a cleared bloom. It costs 4 Vigor and 6 Heat Cells, and a Warden must stand on it for 3 days. The bloom fights back with a few ferals each day of the burn. Finishing the burn wakes the nearest sleeping pack. Then the purple is gone, the area is dead ground, and you can claim it. A cleared bloom you don't burn within 8 days grows back.

Every map has one special bloom area, the nest. Clearing the nest removes every cleared bloom. You can then claim those areas as dead ground, with no resources to gather or grow. Uncleared blooms keep spawning packs until you clear them. While a Broodmother lives on a bloom, it spawns twice as often. Killing the nest also gives 10 Morale and 2 Command.

Edge nests

Nests past the edge of the map. They never stop sending packs.

Every campaign region has at least one feral nest past the map edge. A purple line on the edge marks each one. You can't reach, fight or clear a nest. Each nest sends a pack in through the area next to the line. The pack walks toward the Landing Zone like any other. On Mild a nest sends 1 feral about every 48 days. On Lethal it sends 2 about every 24 days. The gap varies from pack to pack. Now and then a pack comes with 1 or 2 more ferals. Each year packs grow by one feral, up to 6. From year 3 the nests send more often, down to half the gap. More packs are brutes, corroders or stalkers. Every feral gains 10% strength a year, up to 60%. Fungal Grid is milder. Its packs stop at 4 and it skips the late-year ramp. The first pack comes after the grace period ends.

A campaign region always has the same number of edge nests. A scenario map rolls the number when it is made. Half have none and a few have up to 3. Keep Wardens on the area next to a nest to meet every pack as it comes in.

The Landing Zone

Lose it and the run ends.

The Landing Zone is your starting area. If a pack takes it, the run ends.

Only Wardens can defend areas. Stronghold doesn't. If a pack reaches the Landing Zone with no Warden there, you have 10 days to send one. Its arrival stops the countdown.

Stronghold adds strength to fights on its own area and prevents surprise attacks there. Buildings with combat bonuses help every fight on the map, not only fights where they stand.

The Run

Difficulty

Difficulty changes the world and the clock.

Difficulty changes feral numbers and strength, all resource consumption, starting Command and Morale, score multiplier, desertion speed and quest patience. Hostile is the baseline. Every other difficulty scales from it. The table below has every number.

Ferals grow stronger as a run goes on. Higher difficulties rise faster. The bonus stops at +50%.

Pace

Pace only changes the clock.

Pace changes timers only. Relaxed gives quests 2x as long and drains 0.5x as much Command when overdue. Sandbox has no quests or score. Campaign mode has no Sandbox pace.

Twists

Modifiers you take on for score.

Assignment and scenario modes use twists. You start with 26 available, out of 33 total. There are 3 kinds. 17 "hostile" twists make the run harder. 10 "boon" twists make it easier. 6 "trade" twists give a benefit with a cost.

Only twists with a downside raise score. A hostile twist adds 15% to your final score. A trade twist adds 5%. Boons add nothing. The bonuses add up, to a cap of 1.6x.

Scenarios give 2 twist slots, and you can buy 2 more with stars. Assignments come with a fixed set of twists instead.

Scenario map traits (16)

Assignments

A fixed scenario that changes every few days.

An assignment is a scenario the game sets for everyone. It has one map, one difficulty and a fixed set of twists, the same for every player, and it rolls over every 3 days. It unlocks after your first campaign win. It shows on the Progress screen's Overview tab as the Active Assignment.

Its twists are rolled from the date. You can't pick or buy them. 4 times a year a seasonal event replaces the roll with its own set for two weeks. Score and stars work as in any scenario.

Seasonal events

Side quests

Optional goals that pay Vigor and Command.

Scenarios hand out side quests on top of the main chain. They ask you to store a resource, grow the colony, hold a number of areas, or clear a named pack. Up to 2 run at once. Each expires after 45 days. Finishing one pays Vigor, Command or both. Missing one costs nothing.

Score and stars

How a win is graded and turned into stars.

Score starts with (900 minus finish day) / 3 for speed, plus 15 per survivor, plus Command / 2. Reaching 100 Morale adds +10%. Difficulty then multiplies the score, from 0.75x on Mild to 3.3x on Hardened III. Assignment twists multiply it again, up to 1.6x. Finishing after day 900 gives no speed score. A loss scores zero.

Stars use fixed score thresholds. 120 for 2, 250 for 3, 400 for 4 and 600 for 5. A 5-star win needs a quick finish on a high difficulty. Mild can't reach 600.

Feats

Five side goals tracked per region.

Every campaign region tracks 5 feats, 135 across the campaign. Progress > Feats & Doctrine lists them per region.

The feats are: finish within 220 days, win on Lethal or higher, finish with 16 colonists, lose no Wardens, and win without losing any areas.

How a run ends

The three ways a run ends.

At zero Command, the Directorate recalls you. This is the usual slow loss. Outpost > Leaders shows what drains Command.

Losing the Landing Zone ends the run at once. A pack must hold it for 10 days first.

Zero population ends the run after 15 days with nobody housed. Growth keeps running during that time, so one arrival resets the clock.

Undo and cancelling

We all make mistakes.

Undo reverses up to 5 actions before the next day ticks over. Find it in the map controls, Outpost > Resources, or press Ctrl+Z on pc and CMD+Z on mac.

Cancel a build before a crew starts it for a full refund. Once work has started, you can't cancel it.

Between Runs

The Progress screen

Everything you keep between runs, and where it lives.

Your progress is under PROGRESS on the main menu. It holds everything that carries over from run to run, split into tabs. Overview: the Active Assignment and three Rebuilding bars (your best scores added up, colonists raised across all runs, and regions won, each against a fixed target). Artifacts: the 27 you can own and the ones you acquired.

Contribution: your star balance, the 12 boons, and Supplies, the 4 things stars buy repeatedly (offer and artifact rerolls, a region reseed, a twist slot). Feats & Doctrine: feats per region and the doctrines you've drafted. Commissary: 40 cosmetics. Requisition Roster: content you unlock by playing. Frontier Map & Regions: the campaign map and your best result on each region.

Stars are the one currency here. Boons, cosmetics, rerolls and reseeds all use it. Artifacts, feats, doctrines (50) and unlocks (15) are earned by playing and can't be bought.

Doctrines

Small permanent bonuses drafted after new wins.

There are 50 doctrines in three families: 17 production, 17 society, 16 knowledge. Each is a small tweak of a few percent. Everything you acquire applies to every campaign and scenario run.

The first time you win a campaign region at a difficulty you haven't secured it on, you draft one of 3. A win that already offers an artifact draft doesn't offer a doctrine. Progress > Feats & Doctrine shows what you acquired, by family.

Artifacts

Permanent bonuses you pick between regions.

There are 27 artifacts, listed under Progress > Artifacts. Securing a campaign region for the first time offers 3. Keep one and it applies automatically to every later run.

Bigger regions offer better artifacts. Each campaign drafts from its own set. Rerolling the offer costs stars.

Boons

Starting advantages bought with stars.

There are 12 boons under Progress > Contribution, each costing 3 to 8 stars. Owned boons apply to every future run. Examples are extra starting Vigor or Command, more storage, or faster growth.

Boons make a run easier without affecting your score.

Stars

What a win's stars buy.

A win pays stars based on its score. Stars are the only currency between runs. They don't expire.

Spend stars on boons or rerolls. Rerolling a setup offer costs 1, an artifact offer 2, a region map 4, and a permanent twist slot 6. Each gets more expensive when you buy it again, up to a cap.

Caps: setup offer reroll: 1 star, +1 every 3 buys, caps at 4. Artifact draft reroll: 2, +1 every 2 buys, caps at 6. Region map reseed: 4, +1 per buy, caps at 10. Twist slot: 6, +1 per buy, caps at 10.

Rerolls change what a run offers you. Boons change what you start it with.

Stars also buy cosmetics under Progress > Commissary. There are 40 items across 4 slots (card plates, map palettes, victory banners, menu titles), from 3 to 80 stars. They change looks only. Rerolls and the twist slot are bought under Progress > Contribution > Supplies.

Supplies

Commissary (41)

Achievements

Long-term goals tracked across runs.

There are 64 achievements. They track secured chapters, regions secured at each difficulty, stars earned, feats collected, and a few particular finishes.

They unlock the moment their condition is met, even between runs. You never need to claim them. Nothing in the game is locked behind Achievements.

Leaderboards

Where a score goes after the run.

A finished campaign run posts to that region's board. A daily drop posts to that day's board. Scenarios and assignments don't use leaderboards. The score is the one on the results screen.

Each entry carries your score, stars, finish day, difficulty and the year you reached. Boards need a connected platform account. Offline runs post nothing.

Secrets

One hidden find in every campaign region.

Each campaign region hides one secret, 27 in all. The hint is on the region's card in the Campaign menu. Read it before you start. Some secrets are an object on the map. Find it and tap it once the area is surveyed. Others need a particular order, day, commander, or play style.

A found secret opens a card with a plate and a lore entry. Both stay on the Secrets tab in Progress. Secrets never change the run. They give nothing in-game. Nothing is locked behind them except the achievements for finding every secret in a campaign. Scenarios have no secrets.

Daily drop

One fixed map per day, the same for everybody.

Each day has one drop. It has a fixed map, difficulty and twist set based on the date. You bring your own commander. Everyone who plays that day gets the same run. You can retry it as often as you like, and the best score counts.

Drops stay playable for 30 days. Only today's drop counts toward a streak. Personal bests are kept for each drop.

Commanders and colony traits

Two picks at setup that change different rules.

Besides the Pathfinder in the tutorial, there are 18 commanders and 17 colony traits. Commanders change how you act, such as action costs and research pace. Traits are pure bonuses. They include extra stocks and storage, free Vigor on your first surveys, claims, builds, scavenges or expeditions, an extra colonist or Warden, a head start on Morale or Command, bigger scavenge finds, or heat rings that use fewer Heat Cells in the Drift. Some are locked until you earn them. Progress > Requisition Roster lists what you unlock by playing, with the condition for each. That is 8 of the traits and 7 of the twists.

Some change rules rather than numbers. The codex notes those where they matter. The Diplomat gets Command only from quests and relics. The Driftborn ignores the Drift.

Three commanders have an ability with a cooldown. The Speaker rallies for +20 Morale every 15 days. The Driver surges for +5 Vigor every 20 days. The Hunter purges a small pack next to your land for 15 Command. The cooldown is 20 to 45 days, depending on how strong the pack was.

Wins with the same commander earn a mastery title shown on the setup card: Commended at 3, Decorated at 5, Exemplar at 10, Vaunted at 15, Storied at 25, Undying at 50 wins.

The Bookkeeper

• +20% Vigor refill
• Uplink offline until day 50

Runs things by the numbers. Works fast. The Uplink is locked for the first 50 days.

The Warden-Captain

• +50% Warden strength
• Wardens never retreat or recall

Wardens hit 50% harder. They can't retreat.

The Driftborn

• survey cost: +1 off-Drift
• claim cost: +1 off-Drift
• Drift never slows production

Raised in the frost. Farms ignore the Drift. Surveys and claims cost 1 more outside it.

The Surveyor

• -1 survey cost
• sees pack sizes in the fog adjacent to surveyed areas
• +1 claim cost

Counts the packs in the fog before anyone crosses. Surveys are cheaper. Claims take longer to approve.

The Tyrant

• -5 Morale target
• +50% quest patience
• colonists never abandon

Nobody leaves and nobody argues.

The Hoarder

• auto-builds storage at caps

Storage grows ahead of need and costs Fiber. Caps aren't a limit.

The Foreman

• every build finishes in 1 day
• each build order: -1 Morale

Buildings finish overnight. Colonists dislike the hours.

The Den-Boss

• Colonists and Wardens eat x2 Biomass
• Biomass over the store cap turns into Vigor, 4 to 1

Colonists eat double. Overflow the stores can't hold is sold for Vigor.

The Recluse

• +50% output on areas with one adjacent claimed area or none, -10% with three or more

An area with no neighbors produces more. Neighbors reduce its output.

The Kindler

• incident choices cost nothing
• one fewer choice on every incident

Trouble costs nothing. There are fewer choices.

The Forager

• feral-free surveyed areas forage themselves (+0.5/day each)
• packs stay hidden until they touch your border

Every surveyed field produces food on its own. Surveys don't reveal what lives there.

The Marshal

• Wardens finish training in 1d
• each Warden needs the next population gate up

Recruits become Wardens overnight. Recruiting starts only once the colony is large enough.

The Frostwalker

• x1.5 Warden strength attacking outside your areas in the Drift

Born to the cold. In the Drift she hunts packs while they are slowed by it.

The Alchemist

• stores overflow into Filtrate -> Biomass -> Fiber -> Heat Cells

Nothing overflows the stores. Spare Filtrate becomes Biomass, spare Biomass becomes Fiber, and spare Fiber becomes Heat Cells.

The Diplomat

• Command only comes back from quests
• quests pay 2x Command
• overdue quests drain Morale, not Command

Quests pay double. Command comes from quests only. An overdue quest drains Morale, not Command.

The Speaker

• -5 Morale target
• Rally - +20 Morale (15d)

Rallies everyone on demand. Morale dips between speeches.

The Driver

• -15% Vigor refill
• Surge - +5 Vigor (20d)

Daily pace is slower. One big push meets deadlines.

The Hunter

• -10% Warden strength
• Purge - Finish an adjacent pack (max 4 Str, -15 Command) (20-45d)

Routine hits are weaker. The kill shot clears the whole pack.

Colonist traits (17)

Mastery titles

Requisition Roster

Factions

Who you play as.

Scenario mode has 4 factions. Each changes combat, production and feral behaviour, and has its own map and interface color.

The first campaign is played as the Foothold and the second as the Carrion. Scenarios let you pick any of the four.

Foothold plays the base rules. It has the full toolkit, no handicap and no gimmick.

Carrion produces at 75%. Every feral kill salvages 0.6 Biomass and 0.4 Filtrate. Cleared blooms and nests pay 2x. Each kill adds 0.15 Command refill for 5 days.

Symbiote grows 0.4 Biomass per colonist and 0.15 per claimed area on its own. It gets +4% output per distinct claimed terrain. It can't build Spore Orchards or Fauna Pens. Bloom packs grow 1 feral larger before they stop (normally 5).

Mycelia doesn't claim. It creeps into surveyed areas in 3 days and regrows lost areas in 2. It ignores rivers. It fights at +25% on defense and 80% on the attack.

Campaigns

Two arcs, two factions.

The Foothold campaign has 17 regions. Securing Last Stand unlocks the Carrion campaign. It has 10 regions, where goals count kills and packs keep coming in tides.

Each campaign drafts its own artifacts on a first win. Foothold regions use the original set. Carrion regions have 10 of their own. Everything you acquire applies to every future run.

Win a campaign's finale to open NG+. It has the same regions, each map re-drawn with one hostile modifier, starting at Hostile. Winning that finale opens the next cycle, up to NG+3, starting at Lethal and then Hardened I. Artifacts, doctrines and stars carry over.

The Foothold Campaign

The Carrion Campaign

The build itself

Saving

One colony, saved continuously - there are no save slots and no manual save. The game writes after every meaningful change and restores exactly where you left off, including mid-order. Saves are versioned and migrated forward, so a colony started on an older build keeps playing on a newer one; a save written by a newer build than the one reading it is refused rather than guessed at, and left untouched so upgrading again recovers it.

Controls

Mouse and keyboard, touch, or a gamepad, and the on-screen hints follow the device actually in your hands rather than the platform you bought on. Keys are rebindable, with Escape and the fullscreen pair reserved - a rebinding that could lock you out of the menu that does the rebinding is not offered.

Graphics

Terrain quality, ambient effects and map detail are separate settings rather than one slider, because they cost different things: terrain is memory, ambient is frame time, detail is both. A frame-rate chip can be turned on from options to see what a change actually did.

The demo

The demo is the tutorial plus the first six campaign maps - Fungal Grid, Spore Reach, Abyssal Tide, Drowning Deep, Fracture Zone and The Sundering - with scenarios, the daily drop and assignments held for the full game. A demo colony carries over: the full game recognises it and picks up where the demo stopped rather than making you replay it.

Glossary

The game reskins classic colony-sim vocabulary onto its alien setting:

External links