1. You start with one world (your capital, the green dot) and some credits. Credits come in every turn from your worlds.
2. Tap your world, then in Build buy a Transport and a Scout. Ships show up in the garrison next turn.
3. Press End turn (Send orders in a game with friends).
4. Under Dispatch fleet, pick the Transport (and Scout), press Choose destination and tap an empty world (one with no red ring). When the Transport arrives, it settles the world and becomes yours.
5. Spend credits on Research and more ships, and keep expanding. Rival empires do the same, so build warships before you meet them.

Speed is how many map units a ship covers each turn. The map is 120 by 80 units, and a fleet moves at the speed of its slowest ship. Research makes every ship you own hit harder and last longer.

• Empty world (no red ring): send a Transport. It colonizes it. A fleet with no Transport just looks around and goes home.
• Natives (red ring) and enemy worlds have defenses and troops. Send warships first: they fight the garrison and the world's defense. If the defenders are all dead, your Transports land.
• Each Transport lands 5 troops and is used up. You take the world if you land more troops than it has (see Troops in the world panel). Bring a few extra. Winning the space fight does not take a world by itself: a fleet of 65 warships and no Transports just goes home. The tooltip and the send warning say how many Transports a world needs.
• A world's own defense counts as one tough unit that shoots back (attack 2 and hull 8 for each point of Defense). Ships with no guns, like Transports and Scouts, cannot hurt it. While you pick a target, the tooltip says how the fight would go, and you are asked before you send a fleet that would lose. Battle reports in the log say what each side had.
• If you do not kill all defenders, the fight is a stalemate and your fleet retreats. Check Defense and the garrison before you attack, and send more than you think you need.
• Fortify adds permanent defense to a world of yours. Use it on border worlds.

• A world earns credits from its population, times its type: Capital x1.5, Industrial x1.3, Mining x1.2, Agricultural x1.0 (and grows fastest), Research x0.9 (and makes Research cheaper for you), Barren x0.6.
• Research raises your tech level (up to 6). Each level adds income and makes your ships stronger. It gets more expensive each time.
• You only see worlds near your own worlds and fleets. Grey and dim means last seen, so it may have changed. Scouts see far and are cheap, so send a few.

• Colour is the owner: green is you, grey is nobody. A red ring means natives, who fight back.
• The faint circle around your worlds is how far you can see. Triangles are fleets, with a dashed line to where they are headed.
• A white tick above a world means ships are stationed there.
• Tap or click a world to select it. Drag the map to pan. Pinch or scroll to zoom, and Fit brings the whole map back.

• Games lists every game on this device. Start as many as you want, solo or with friends, and switch between them. It says which ones are waiting on you.
• Play with friends gives you one link per friend. They open it and they are in. Turns play when everyone has sent orders, so nobody has to be online at the same time.
• Link another device (bottom of the side panel) gives you a QR code and a private link. Open it on your phone or another computer and your games are there under your name. Games with friends follow you from then on, and solo games are copied once.
• On a computer: E ends the turn, Esc cancels targeting.