What changed

Fortified chokepoints now have a costly counterplay path

Q-Cannons spend the resources that power their shots. Once a hostile Citadel Level 3+ sector cannon can no longer fire and that owner’s deployed sector fighters are gone, a captain in the sector can use a Photon Missile to destroy the planet.

This is not conquest. Destroying a hostile planet grants no ownership, loot, or claim on the planet slot. Other defenses in the sector, including mines and other owners’ assets, remain dangerous.

Planet destruction has serious consequences

Hostile destruction permanently removes the planet’s colonists, stored resources, fighters, citadel, and cannon. It costs one armed Photon Missile and 1 Action Point, applies a major alignment penalty, grants XP, and alerts the defender through their Captain’s Log.

Photon Missiles remain available at StarDock for 120,000 credits, with one missile carried per ship.

Sector Banks can be destroyed

If the destroyed planet’s owner controlled the Sector Bank and has no other Level 5+ citadel in that sector, the bank and its contents are destroyed. It never transfers to the attacker.

Why it matters

Fortified chokepoints now have an expensive, multi-step counterplay path when normal entry becomes untenable. Destroying a planet remains a serious, irreversible decision rather than conquest or a source of loot, so defenders retain meaningful reasons to build and attackers must accept real costs.