Best Beginner Planet Setup
If you’re building your first planet, keep it simple: pick a planet that makes money without demanding huge setup costs.
Best First Choice
K-Class (Desert) — easiest beginner money planet
- Best for: fuel ore production
- Why it’s good: fuel ore is always useful, easy to understand, and easier to sell than a highly specialized planet plan
- Sweet spot: about 20,000 colonists
Good backup: M-Class (Earth Type)
- Best for: balanced fuel, organics, and equipment
- Why it’s good: flexible if you want a little of everything
- Sweet spot: about 15,000 colonists
Avoid as Your First Planet
- U-Class — no production
- C-Class — weak overall production
- O-Class — strong organics, but the huge colonist cap makes it a slower starter planet
- L-Class — useful later for fighter-focused play, but not the easiest first passive-income world
Where to Build It
Your first planet should be in a sector that is:
- Dangerous (required for Genesis Torpedo use)
- Not too far from your normal route
- Close enough that colonist transport isn’t painfully expensive
- Preferably somewhere you can revisit easily to withdraw produced resources
Beginner tip: A “good enough” nearby planet is usually better than a “perfect” distant one.
What You Need Before You Start
Try to have:
- 80,000 credits for the Genesis Torpedo
- Extra credits for colonist transport costs
- A decent supply of fuel ore for colonist transport
- Enough survivability to revisit the sector later
Beginner Setup Plan
1. Launch a planet
Go to a dangerous sector and launch a Genesis Torpedo.
2. Hope for K or M
- If you roll K, great — that’s the easiest beginner producer.
- If you roll M, keep it — still a strong first planet.
3. Start colonizing right away
Open the planet and use the Colonize tab to move colonists onto it.
You pay:
- 5 credits per colonist
- 10 fuel ore per sector distance per 100 colonists
4. Aim for an early target, not perfection
Good beginner colonist targets:
| Planet | Early Target | Strong Target |
|---|---|---|
| K-Class | 5,000–10,000 | ~20,000 |
| M-Class | 5,000–8,000 | ~15,000 |
You do not need to fill the planet immediately.
5. Let it produce
Planet production runs daily at 8 AM UTC.
Resources stay on the planet until you return and withdraw them.
6. Reinvest the output
Use early production to:
- build up your trading bankroll
- fund more colonist transport
- deploy fighters for defense
- save toward your second planet
First-Planet Goal
A strong beginner goal is:
- One K- or M-class planet
- 5,000+ colonists quickly
- 15,000–20,000 colonists over time
- enough local defense that visiting it doesn’t feel suicidal
Defense Advice
A productive planet attracts attention. Once it starts mattering, defend it:
- deploy sector fighters
- consider storing planet fighters
- work toward a citadel later
Don’t overinvest in defense before the planet is actually producing something meaningful.
Best Beginner Summary
If you want the shortest version:
Build a K-class if you can, M-class if you can’t. Put the planet somewhere you can revisit easily. Get a few thousand colonists on it fast. Keep growing toward the planet’s sweet spot. Withdraw production regularly and use the profits to snowball.