Guide: Combat and Battle Guide
From Astro Empires Wiki
Combat is all about getting good ratios. Ratios is a term used to describe how much fleet the opponent lost compared to how much fleet you lost, in credits. For example, if you destroyed 1000 opposing Fighters and your opponent destroyed 3 of your Heavy Cruisers, the ratio would be You:Opponent = 1500:5000 = 1:3.33. This translates as "for every 1 credit of your fleet that was destroyed, you destroyed 3.33 credits of opposing fleet". Fleet loss can be found near the end of a battle report. If it's not possible to get a good ratio, you should at least strive to make profit off every attack. This means that more credits in debris was created than you lost in fleet - it is possible to make profit on an attack with a bad ratio (you lost more fleet than your enemy), due to high armour technology levels.
This guide is all about getting you the best ratios possible. Why? Because if you get good ratios, you will be able to make more profit off attacks and lose less of your fleet. An especially well-constructed defense fleet can also hurt your opponent's ratios, making them less likely to attack you. (After all, attacks are all about profit. Make it hard for them to profit and they will not attack). Certain ships do better ratio-wise against certain other ships, for various reasons, and it is these advantages and disadvantages you will learn here.
Ships
Fighters
Good Against: Bombers, Corvettes,Heavy Bombers, Ion Bombers, Destroyers, Frigates, Ion Frigates, (ANYTHING if Fighters are in a much larger amount than the enemy fleet)
Bad Against: Heavy Cruisers, Battleships, Dreadnoughts, Titans, Leviathans, Death Stars, (UNLESS in large numbers)
Why use them? Fighters are good meat shields, they keep other ships/defensive structures alive a little longer. They are vital when using big ships (Titans, Leviathans and Death Stars). When gathered into massive numbers (over 500k), they are a force to be reckoned with, unless the opponent has a lot of Heavy Cruisers. Also see Fighter Drops.
Advanced tactics Fighters are the backbone of any good attack fleet. You should put at least 20% of the credits of your attack fleet into fighters, regardless of what type of fleet you have. You will have to replace this unit the most, because it will be used in almost every attack you make.
Fighters are also useful as defense, especially when backed by command centers. This forces your opponent to spend fighters to destroy your fighters, causing them to run out of fighters more quickly. An attack fleet that runs out of fighters can not attack effectively, and is easily destroyed. Fighters are also very useful in breaking occupations by destroying the enemy's unshielded units which are occupying your base.
While fighters readily destroy every unit up to cruisers, you can use them to take down larger ships. Large masses of fighters are commonly referred to as fighter swarms - usually a million or more fighters. Here are some handy rules of thumb when calculating how many fighters needed to take down your opponent:
vs. Cruisers, 100 - 150 fighters each (not recommended unless they have very few cruisers)
vs. Heavy Cruisers, 2000 - 3000 fighters each (not recommended - very rarely profitable)
vs. Battleships, 5000 - 8000 fighters each (not recommended unless they have very few battleships)
vs. Dreadnoughts, 20000 - 30000 fighters each (good tactic for taking out 2-3 dreadnoughts by themselves)
vs. Titans, about 100000 fighters each (profitable with a large fighter swarm)
vs. Leviathans, about 300000 fighters each (usually profitable, unless they have a large stack)
vs. Death Stars, about 600000 fighters each (very profitable, may take multiple hits)
Bombers
Good Against: Cruisers, Ion Bombers, Ion Frigates
Bad Against: Fighters
Why use them? Many people like using Cruisers to attack, these are good for stopping cruisers. They're also good to replace fighters with, since with a nice teched missile they have a similar attack power for the same hangar space. Meaning you can carry 2x the attack power over what fighters could. (Only suggested if you're used to mostly/always be on the attacking side)
Advanced tactics Bombers are only really useful if you have a high missile technology level (30 or better). Otherwise, heavy bombers tend to do much better for attacking cruisers, per credit spent. Also, when attacking a mixed fleet of cruisers and heavy cruisers (many players use this combo), bombers do not do as well as heavy bombers because they can not hurt heavy cruisers effectively. DO NOT use bombers to drop heavy cruisers or to attack naked heavy cruisers, as the heavy cruisers will usually shield rape them.
Heavy Bombers
Good Against: Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, Ion Bombers, Ion Frigates, Heavy Bombers
Bad Against: Fighters
Why use them? These are a required unit in most attacks against heavily defended astros. Either due to the amount of command centers, or because of a large amount of defensive turrets/rings. They are also good when either attacking a very large fleet in order to make it possible to one-shot it. Or if just to spread the losses a bit.
Advanced tactics Heavy bombers are probably the third or fourth most useful unit in the game (behind fighters, cruisers, and possibly heavy cruisers). You should devote 5-10% of your fleet to them, especially if you like to attack a lot. You will use these units up quickly, so always be building more.
The major advantage of heavy bombers is to destroy cruisers and heavy cruisers after all unshielded units have been eliminated by a fighter drop. A good rule of thumb is that it takes 3-4 heavy bombers to kill 1 cruiser, and 10-12 heavy bombers to kill 1 heavy cruiser. Some damage will be spread to other units, so always overestimate by 10-20% if you don't have a battle calculator.
Heavy bombers are also very useful in breaking occupations by heavy cruisers or battleships (with the aid of command centers).
Ion Bombers
Good Against: Dreadnoughts, Titans, Leviathans, Death Stars
Bad Against: Pretty much everything else.
Why use them? Useful against naked, high shielded capital ships. Extremely vulnerable to fighter drops. Do not leave unattended.
Advanced tactics Ion bombers have a very specific use, and that is to kill naked capital or super-capital ships. Since their use is so limited, and not many players build significant numbers of super-caps, it is not advisable to build too many of these. There are instances when they shine, however.
On defense, ion bombers are very useful at breaking occupations by titans, leviathans or death stars - especially backed by command centers. Do not use them against dreadnoughts or battleships, they are not as effective as other units. Even if they don't score a kill, they will force your opponent to spend a lot of credits to repair their ships.
On attack, there exist clever ways to use ion bombers. One such fleet is the speed attacker. This fleet consists of fighters, bombers, ion bombers, frigates, and ion frigates. It does fairly well against all fleet builds except the fighter swarm, and it is very fast. However, you need to put a lot of research into missile technology and ion technology to make it effective. This fleet is for active players only, as fighters will rip it to shreds. Other players just put some ion bombers into their fleet to use for a special occasion, like against a leviathan stacker.
Corvettes
Good Against: All Bombers, Recyclers, cruisers.
Bad Against: Battleships, Dreadnoughts, Titans, Leviathans, Death Stars.
Why use them? Good as recycler escorts, excellent at destroying recyclers and good secondary meat shield with fighters or should fighters be unavailable.
Advanced tactics Corvettes are good for three things:
First, as a recycler escort. Your opponent will be forced to attack with more units to kill all your recyclers since damage is spread virtually equally between all unshielded units. The most important thing when attacking is to PROTECT YOUR RECYCLERS. Without recyclers, at best you can only achieve a Pyrrhic victory, since you can not gain any profit from your attacks.
Second, to spread damage when attacking bases. Practically any unshielded units are good at this job, and corvettes are the next most efficient after fighters.
Third, to snipe enemy recyclers. Deny your opponent their profit, and you deny them a meaningful victory. And possibly allow your friends time to come and help you.
Recyclers
Good Against: Debris
Bad Against: Anything that has weapons (Everything else)
Why use them? Only use them when there is a Debris pile, otherwise don't use them. Non-Combat Unit.
Advanced tactics Recyclers are a non-combat unit and should be treated accordingly. They are, however, essential for victory in any attack. Always protect them; never send naked recyclers anywhere if you can help it. It is advisable to send as many unshielded units with your recyclers that will not slow them down (if speed is an issue). This includes all units up to frigates (corvettes and destroyers included), which move at the same speed or faster than recyclers.
If speed is not an issue, always put carriers or fleet carriers filled with fighters in a recycler fleet. Remember, more unshielded units = higher survival chance for your recyclers.
If you are desperate, recyclers can be used as fighters, but this is not recommended. This should be used only as a last resort, if all your other fighting units (including carriers/fleet carriers) have been destroyed, and you absolutely must win.
Destroyers
Good Against: Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, Recyclers, Ion Frigates, Ion Bombers.
Bad Against: Fighters, Battleships, Dreadnoughts, Titans, Leviathans, Death Stars.
Why use them? Like Heavy Bombers they are good against Cruiser & Heavy Cruiser attacks.
Advanced tactics Destroyers are similar to corvettes in usage, with a minor exception: they can be used in place of heavy bomber drops if you're desperate. However, the ratios will not be nearly as good. With destroyers used in place of heavy bombers, generally you will be able to manage even (1:1) or slightly better than even ratios when dropping destroyers on your opponent's cruisers/heavy cruisers. When used in this fashion they do better against cruisers than heavy cruisers. It is possible to make profit on such attacks if you or your opponent's armour levels are above 25.
Otherwise, all points listed under corvettes apply here as well. Destroyers are good for recycler escort, for spreading damage when attacking bases/fleets, and for recycler sniping. They just aren't as good as corvettes. You should at least have some for spreading damage on base hits and for attack finishing on fleets, however.
Frigates
Good Against: Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, Battleships, Planetary rings(with exeption to Pring/Pshield combos).
Bad Against: Everything else.
Why use them? These are suggested to only be used by the more experienced players, and even then only if you're used to attacking fleets rather than bases. Since they're in most scenarios completely useless at attacking astros. Suggested to rather build cruisers in most cases since in order to use Frigates in the best way one need to remove more or less ALL of the unshielded units before the initial strike.
Advanced tactics Frigates are a very maligned unit by the average Astro Empires player. Most guides written early in the game's history said never to build frigates, so most players avoided them like the plague. They are very effective in the right hands, however.
Frigates are very useful in finishing most attack fleets of the cruiser/heavy cruiser variety - which is the fleet most players use. They also stack up well against battleships, which covers all the anti-supercapital fleets that you will find. In other words, frigates are useful against perhaps 95% of the fleets in the game. They are only not useful against titan/leviathan stackers.
The downside is that they are also highly vulnerable to 95% of the fleets in the game, because most (if not all) fleets carry fighters. Fighters rip through frigates for terrifying ratios (if you're on the receiving end of a fighter drop, that is). So frigates are only really recommended for active players, since you need to keep your fleet safe when you're offline.
Attacking with frigates is highly profitable. Because you only have to fighter drop, the customary heavy bomber drop is eliminated and you go straight to an attack finishing hit after wiping your opponent's unshielded units. The ratios with this method are generally better than a heavy bomber drop and then finisher, and you don't have to carry heavy bombers in your fleet. With some cruisers in your fleet for attacking astros, this fleet can also be effective at hitting bases.
Players with frigate fleets tend to add battleships for the rare occasion when they run into a titan or leviathan stacker. Do not attack super-capitals with frigates unless you have a lot of them and your opponent has very few titans or leviathans.
Ion Frigates
Good Against: Dreadnoughts, Titans, Leviathans, Death Stars.
Bad Against: Everything else.
Why use them? If someone is mad enough to attack one of your bases with just a Titan, Leviathan or Death Star possibly with a few fighters, destroy the fighters with more fighters and attack the bare ship with lots of Ion Frigates filled with fighters. You will lose far less than the enemy.
Ion frigates are actually a tiny bit cheaper per armor than heavy cruisers. Ion frigates are about twice as good as HCs at shooting down leviathans, and much better at shooting deathstars. In exchange, though, they die horribly to fighters. Since everyone has fighters and very few people have leviathan/deathstar fleets you actually need to worry about, ion frigates lose out to HCs. Since HCs are better in all but one metric, ion frigates are only useful for bit roles.
Advanced tactics Ion frigates fill the same role as ion bombers: killing super-capitals. However, they are not as efficient per credit as ion bombers, so they are not recommended. Their only use is in the speed attacker fleet, or as a part of an ion-only fleet (ion frigates/ion bombers). The ion-only fleet is the most efficient way to take down naked super-capitals, since no potential damage is wasted on the ships transporting the ion bombers. Everything in that fleet can hurt super-caps, so you just land and attack. The instances where you could use such a fleet are very rare, however.
Scout ships
Good Against: Nothing.
Bad Against: Everything!
Why use them? Scouting around regions only. Non-combat unit.
Advanced tactics Scouts are not a combat part of a mobile fleet (unless you enjoy lulz), but they are very important. Information is the most valuable commodity in Astro Empires, and scouts can get that information to you the fastest. They are the fastest unit in the game for a reason ;) It is advisable to have 20 - 100 scouts in your fleet, depending on how often they are shot.
Cruisers
Good Against: Heavy Cruisers, Battleships and Defensive Structures.
Bad Against: Bombers, Heavy Bombers, Ion Bombers, Destroyers, Frigates, Ion Frigates, Leviathan, Titan, Death Stars.
Why use them? They are very good at attacking enemy bases and mobile fleets in general. Don't use these things for defense though, as they can be bomber dropped for a hefty profit. Also keep them far away from Leviathans, otherwise you may experience the legendary 'Levi-rape'.
Advanced tactics Cruisers are probably the second most valuable unit in the game, behind fighters. They are the most efficient unit at conquering bases and the second most efficient unit at killing enemy mobile fleets up to titans (only behind frigates). A good player will have 20-30% of their fleet in cruisers, unless they're going for a specialized fleet. Players specialized in cruisers will have much more than that.
Carriers
Good Against: Nothing.
Bad Against: Everything!
Why use them? Use them to carry fighters, always send these things away before you have a battle otherwise they almost certainly will die. These things are very vulnerable against fighters, but are faster than their big brother, the Fleet Carrier.
Advanced tactics Carriers are only for carrying hangar units, such as fighters, bombers, heavy bombers, and ion bombers. They don't give as much carrying capacity per credit spent as Fleet Carriers, however - but they don't lag behind by very much. What they do have is speed. Most players use these for fast fighter resupply to their mobile fleet.
It is not wise to try a fighter drop on a player (who might be active) using carriers. Over an astro, an opponent can easily destroy your carriers with fighters backed by command centers. Only use carriers in this situation if you have no choice. Fleet carriers have enough shielding to rape fighters even over 20+ command centers, so use them for drops if possible.
Heavy Cruisers
Good Against: Fighters, Bombers, Battleship, Dreadnought, Titan, Leviathan (if you have lots of them).
Bad Against: Heavy Bombers, Ion Bombers, Destroyers, Frigates, Ion Frigates, Cruisers, Death Stars.
Why use them? Good for crushing fighters and taking down Planetary Shields if you've got good Plasma tech. Also good for taking down big ships except for Death Stars.
Advanced tactics Heavy cruisers are perhaps the third most valuable unit in the game (behind fighters and cruisers). They are the all-purpose attacking ship, since they are the cheapest unit that can damage every unit in the game (besides death stars). They are not as efficient as cruisers and frigates when attacking bases or enemy mobile fleets, but their versatility in taking out super-capitals makes up for this drawback.
Most players have at least some heavy cruisers in their fleet since they're just so useful. Heavy cruisers also have the distinction of being the cheapest unit that can always rape fighters (except over command centers). If your enemy has a bunch of naked fighters, than heavy cruisers are usually the way to go - unless the enemy fleet is more than 20 times as big as yours. So in most circumstances you will rape enemy fighters for a super ratio and loads of profit. Enemy recyclers have the same power/armour as fighters, so the same lesson applies to them, only there will be more profit on your part.
In some cases, it is even profitable to rape enemy fighters over command centers. This will depend on your shielding level and opponent's laser technology/command center levels. It is best to use a battle calculator in these circumstances rather than guessing.
Heavy cruisers in large numbers are generally good at killing leviathans. However, depending on your plasma level and the opponent's shielding level, heavy cruisers may be shield-raped by leviathans. Be very careful if you have few heavy cruisers (below 2000 or so) and your opponent has a significant number of leviathans (above 50 or so). Also, do not ever attack death stars with heavy cruisers as your largest unit. Aside from ion units, battleships are the cheapest unit you should use to attack a death star. You can use heavy cruisers in a mixed fleet with battleships to bring down death stars, but this is not recommended since cruisers/frigates are more effective at absorbing damage.
Battleships
Good Against: Fighters, Bombers, Corvettes, Destroyers, Titans, Leviathans, Death Stars.
Bad Against: Frigates, Cruisers.
Why use them? They are good at destroying big ships and occupying bases that have only got fighter defenses. They are also the cheapest way to clear large quantities of fighters over 17+ or so command centers and multiple prings.
Advanced tactics Battleships are mostly used to kill super-capital ships. Any other uses are more effectively accomplished by cruisers, frigates, or heavy cruisers. Raping fighters over an astro with high levels of command centers is also usually done better with heavy cruisers. This is because battleships absorb less damage per credit spent on them than heavy cruisers, and a lot of damage will get done to an attacking fleet by planetary rings - especially multiple levels of rings.
Battleships are often used with a specialized cruiser or frigate fleet to ward away super-caps, since those fleet types are very vulnerable to titans and larger ships. They can also be used to rape fighters, since frigates and cruisers are not suited to that task.
Fleet Carrier
Good Against: Nothing.
Bad Against: Everything!
Why use them? Use them to carry fighters, always send these things away before you have a battle otherwise they will take damage and most of them will die. These things are not as vulnerable as Carriers and carry more fighters per credit than Carriers, but they are slower.
Advanced tactics Fleet carriers are better than carriers when dropping fighters on enemy astros. Otherwise, everything said above in the Carrier section applies here as well.
Dreadnoughts
Good Against: Bombers, Heavy Bombers, Corvettes, Destroyers, Frigates, Carriers
Bad Against: Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, Ion Bombers/Frigates
Why use them? Good at stopping fighter drops. Prings + 1 dreadnought is the simplest way to make bases that are unprofitable to hit.
Advanced tactics Dreadnoughts generally only have two uses: protecting trades on your base and occupying United Colony bases. They can be used to occupy other players, but a dreadnought occupation is easily broken by a few cruisers with command centers backing them.
It is theoretically possible to make a dreadnought that can shield-rape or "almost" shield-rape cruisers, but highly unlikely. Your shielding level would have to be very high (30 or more) and your opponent's plasma level would have to be very low (20 or less). It is more feasible to get dreadnoughts that "almost" shield-rape cruisers.
What does this mean? It means that very little damage from the cruiser gets through to the dreadnought. For example, say the cruiser power is 50 and the dreadnought shielding is 46. Only 4 damage will get through for each cruiser. This means it will take many cruisers to kill one dreadnought; the cruisers are very ineffective at attacking that unit. In this scenario, with a large stack of dreadnoughts, you would get a very good ratio on a smaller cruiser fleet. More attention will be given to this concept later.
Dreadnoughts are the first unit that can shield-rape frigates, but dreads are slow and as a result not very effective in a combat fleet. Some players use them as part of a "shield-raping squad" along with titans and leviathans, but this is very rare.
Titans
Good Against: Frigates, Cruisers
Bad Against: Heavy Cruisers, Battleships, Dreadnoughts, Ion Bombers/Frigates, Leviathans, Death Stars.
Why use them? Use them in a group with some fighters escorting to shield-rape cruiser fleet. Beware of larger amounts of any unit in the fleet as titans are still rather fragile at the shield-raping business. (Preferably only build these in the early states of a server or if you want to perma-farm someone)
Advanced tactics Titans can decisively shield-rape cruisers and lower. They are useful in this role, and for occupying United Colony bases. They can be used for permanently occupying players, but any decent player can break such an occupation with about 100-150 heavy cruisers (less if they have command centers) or a few thousand ion bombers.
Titans are very vulnerable to heavy cruisers, to ion units, and to fighters in large numbers. If you use titans, you must watch out for these. They are also vulnerable to battleships, which are present in many combat fleets. They are also very slow. Because of these drawbacks, they are not used in large numbers (as a stack) in combat fleets.
Some players use these as part of a "shield-raping squad" to nail fighters, frigates, or cruisers. Very often titans are stacked together with leviathans, because titans offer a better armour per credit spent ratio than leviathans and they can still rape cruiser fleets - the most common fleet in Astro Empires. But large stacks of titans by themselves are very rare. Titans by themselves don't get the 5% bonus as leviathans do, but they are just as slow as leviathans. This is why they are not recommended for combat fleets by themselves.
Leviathans
Good Against: Bombers, Heavy Bombers, Corvettes, Destroyers, Frigates, Carriers, Cruisers.
Bad Against: Heavy Cruisers, Battleships, Dreadnoughts, Ion Bombers, Death Stars
Why use them? With fighter escorts use them to occupy. They are also good at defending your mobile fleet while at the fortress. Get these in packs and they will be perfect for destroying cruiser fleets.
Advanced tactics Leviathans are an 'all or nothing' sort of unit. This means you should either make 2 or 200. Anything in between will just weaken your fleet.
It is always a good idea to have 1-2 of these as they are useful simply for the 5% armour and power bonus that they provide to your fleet. Some players will include one of these in a fighter or heavy bomber drop to increase damage and get better ratios. This would only be recommended if you're dropping many fighters (more than 500k) or many heavy bombers (more than 100k). 1 leviathan also helps to make your mobile fleet tougher to take out when you're on defense. However, be aware that leviathans are the slowest unit in the game - they can use jump gates, but they will still lag behind the rest of your combat fleet when you're moving.
The other route is to become a leviathan stacker - build as many of these as possible for the main part of your combat fleet. Generally you need at least 50 leviathans to be an effective levi stacker, but you should keep building these as often as possible if you choose this route. The levi stacker (for short) is most effective at shield raping cruiser fleets with small numbers of heavy cruisers and battleships. Small numbers of heavy cruisers can be almost shield-raped (possibly only 10-20 damage coming through a leviathan's shields), so it takes a large number to kill all your leviathans if you have a stack. Generally it takes 600 - 800 heavy cruisers to kill 1 leviathan in one hit, so keep this rule of thumb in mind when planning attacks.
Levi stackers will not find many opportunities for profit beyond a blob crash. In a blob crash, however, levis can become essential for catching straggler fleets or ill-composed battle fleets. Some opportunities exist for profit outside of blob crashes, usually when mobile fleets are not over their owner's astro, or someone leaves a cruiser fleet over their own base with insufficient command centers to repel you. Such opportunities can make very beautiful ratios for you, but they are rare.
Leviathans are also good for permanent occupations of players or to hold a United Colony base (probably overkill, though). United colony bases can kill dreadnoughts occasionally with heavy cruiser spawns, but it is unlikely they will kill a Titan. It is impossible for any UC spawn to kill a leviathan, so you have the security of knowing that your UC base is safe. Also, since UC technology level is so low, it is possible to shield rape UC heavy cruisers off-base when you achieve shielding level 23 for lots of profit. When UCs disband, and no one has held the base, there will usually be a few dreadnoughts and loads of HC left over. This is a prime target for a levi stacker.
Many players make the mistake of using leviathans to attack bases when they first get them. Generally, this is not a good idea. Usually one level of planetary rings will kill one leviathan, so your ratios when attacking bases will be very bad unless your opponent has a lot of fleet that can be shield-raped. Or they do not have planetary rings yet. Leviathans can be used with unshielded units to attack a base with multiple planetary rings, but your profit margin will be much lower than using a standard cruiser or heavy cruiser attack fleet. Leviathans should only be used for base attacks if you're an experienced player.
Death Stars
Good Against: Bombers, Heavy Bombers, Frigates, Carriers, Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers
Bad Against: Battleships, Dreadnoughts, Ion Bombers/Frigates
Why use them? They are very good at defending your mobile fleet while at the fortress. They aren't very popular due to very slow speed and they can't use Jumpgates. They could be useful for attacking incoming cruiser/heavy cruiser fleets.
Advanced tactics Death stars are very rarely used, and few people know how to use them effectively. Many people call them 'flying debris', and for good reason. Except in large numbers, death stars are highly vulnerable to many commonly used units in the game. They can be overwhelmed by fighter swarms, they can be killed by ion units (or severely damaged), they can be shot by any unit above heavy cruisers and below themselves for good ratios, they are very expensive to repair, they are very slow and they can't use jumpgates.
So what advantages do they have? Well, for one, they give a 10% bonus in power and armour to your fleet, twice that of a leviathan. For this reason alone many players use them on their fortress base for defense. This isn't recommended for newer or "uncivilized" servers, because a death star on a base is practically an invitation for you to be attacked - the death star alone makes that attacker immediately assume profit can be made. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant, because that player will attack you due to the bad reputation that a death star has in the game.
Death stars are hard to kill in large numbers, but devoting effort into a death star stack means that your mobile will be useless in most situations. Only perhaps 1 player on each server has gone this route, but the results can be very intimidating. Since most players use cruiser/heavy cruiser fleets, perhaps 75% of all fleets can be raped by a death star stack. But the players that do have battleship stacks will absolutely destroy you if they find you. Death star stacks can only effectively operate in one galaxy, so keep this in mind if you build one. It takes about 100 hours for a death star to move one galaxy, and about 1000 hours just to move one galaxy set. So they aren't going anywhere fast. Logistics commanders can help them move faster, however.
In the end, many players build one or two death stars just to say they have them, and then regret it ever after. One death star can be useful on a fortress, but only if it's backed by loads of stationary planetary defenses (rings and shields). For the bonus, a leviathan is probably more useful though.
Building a Combat Fleet
So you've read through descriptions of all the different units, but you still don't know how to put together a basic combat fleet? That's what this section is for!
Generally there are two different routes: the "something of everything" fleet (also called a Rainbow fleet) or a specialized fleet. Rainbow fleets can handle almost every situation, but they won't get ratios that are as good as a couple specialized fleets working together. Specialized fleets will require multiple people working together (you and your guildmates/friends) to pull off a successful attack. It's up to you which route you decide to go, but be aware that many top guilds strongly urge or require their members to build specialized fleets. Specialized fleets will also make you a more effective member of your guild.
The Rainbow Fleet
There's not much to know about the rainbow fleet. Just build a little of everything. Here's some numbers to get you started:
Fighters: 20%
Heavy Bombers: 10%
Corvettes: 5%
Destroyers: 5%
Recyclers: 10%
Cruisers: 20%
Fleet Carriers: 20%
Battleships: 10%
Leviathans: 1 or 2 (optional)
Scouts: 20 or so
This is a simple build that can handle most any situation and is not particularly vulnerable to any specialized build. It can be picked apart by more than one specialized fleet, however.
Specialized Fleets
