Elite Dangerous Colonization Mega Guide

Version 1.3.2 Beta

Written by CMDR Mechan, with input/additions/comments/suggestions/corrections from dozens of CMDRs across a number of communities

An audiobook of this guide is available here: https://youtu.be/m9Y8zitBhcE

A Mandalay Departs a Player-Built Tier 3 Planetary Port

Note: This document is optimized for on-screen viewing in a low-light setting.If you’d like a “printer-friendly” version, kindly follow these steps: File → Make A Copy File → Page Setup Change the background color to white Format → Paragraph Styles → Options → Use my default styles Assumes your default styles are black-on-white global defaults File → Print

Revision History

Game Version	Document Version	Date	Changes
4.1.2.102 (04/06/25)	1.3.2 Beta	WIP	Fixed Vista Genomics activation requirement; Added audiobook link; Noted U3.3 post-publishing patch notes updates; Minor other formatting fixes.
	1.3.1 Beta	June 12, 2025	Minor fixes and updates (Pioneer Supplies availability, instructions for printing, etc.); Also added two additional community groups for contracting
	1.3 Beta	June 4, 2025	Incorporated updates from TB Update 3.3. Added comment on variable economy value of strong links.
4.1.2.101 (16/05/25)	1.2 Beta	June 3, 2025	Added strong-link modifier effect for Agri and HiTech of water worlds¹. Added in-game codex and update patch note appendixes, for ease of access; Added (bare-bones) “happiness” to system statistics; Added “supporting facility” definition and explained mechanic of how ports can become supporting facilities in certain circumstances - and clarified case studies accordingly; Added Bugs, Known Issues, And Possible Workarounds
	1.1 Beta	June 2, 2025	Added CMM Composites case study, various stylistic updates, minor numerical error fixes, minor content updates, added additional community resources, separated revision history and added instructions for printer-friendly version; Fixed faction-selection logic [thanks to SCC for correcting that!]; Fixed specialized port economic values and clarified bonus strength values [thank you Ned Flandalorian!]
	1.0 Beta	June 1, 2025	Initial Version

Terms And Definitions

Throughout this document, when we use the following terms, we mean what is described in the table below.

Note: Colonization is a complex topic, and this initial terminology table may appear overwhelming at first. If this is your first time reading through, feel free to skip it and come back to it later if you find something in this document confusing [and let us promise you - you will :) ].

Term	Meaning
“Facility”	Any space OR ground construction architectured and built by one or more CMDRs. Anything you build is a facility.
“Tier 1/2/3” (or just “T1/2/3”)	The tier of a facility or of construction points generated / required by facilities. There are three facility tiers: T1/2/3. To build at Tier 2 and 3 you will require construction points. There are two construction point tiers: T2/3 (there are no “Tier 1” construction points.) Tier 1 facilities require no construction points and generate Tier 2 construction points. Tier 2 facilities require Tier 2 construction points and generate Tier 3 construction points. Tier 3 facilities require Tier 3 construction points and generate no construction points.²
“Port”	A specific type of facility, to include both Spaceports and Planetary Ports, as described below.
“Space Port” (or “Spaceport”)	A specific type of facility, to include:Tier 1 - space outposts Tier 2 - coriolis ports, asteroid bases Tier 3 - orbis and ocellus starports
“Planetary Port”	Either a Tier 1 [Planetary] Outpost or Tier 3 Planetary Port. There are no Tier 2 Planetary Ports.
“Settlement”	A PLANETARY facility (not including hubs). Settlements coming in Tier 1 can be “small” or “medium” sizes. Tier 2 settlements are always “large”.
“Hub”	A specific category of PLANETARY facility. Hubs are always of Tier 2, and have no size rating.
“Installation”	Anything built in space which isn’t a spaceport.
“Primary Port”	The very first facility built in a given system. This must be a Spaceport, but a CMDR can select which type. Its location is also pre-set and cannot be changed. Primary Ports are built by Colonization Megaships, are 17-25% more material-expensive than equivalent non-primary spaceports, and must be built within 4 weeks of claiming.
“Supporting Facility”	In general, any facility which isn’t a Port, with one important exception: lower-tier (and same same-tier-later-built) Ports in the same local body as higher-tier (or same-tier-earlier-built) Ports, will also act as supporting facilities (and thus emit strong and weak links.) Only supporting facilities emit strong and weak links.
“Prerequisite”	Certain facilities require specific other facilities to be built before they can, in turn, be constructed. As an example, completing a Military Settlement is a prerequisite to building a Military Installation. Prerequisites apply on a system-by-system basis.
“Local Body”	The body to which your construction is immediately connected. This does NOT include the moons of said body. “Local Body” is a key concept in determining how strong links are formed, where modifiers apply, and which economy types colony-type ports inherit (see relevant chapters for details).
“Colony-type Port”	A subset of all ports - those which have “Colony” as their economy type, and thus are notable for “acquiring” a specific economy type based on local body characteristics (other ports are NOT subject to this effect.) Colony Type ports include Civilian and Commercial [Space] Outposts, Coriolis, Orbis, Ocellus, Civilian [Planetary] Outpost, and the Planetary [Tier 3] Port.Asteroid Bases and all other [Space and Planetary] outposts are instead specialized ports.
“Specialized Port”	All ports which are not of Colony type (see above) and thus have a specific inherent economy type, and which do NOT inherit an economy based on local body characteristics. They can, however, still have their market types affected by strong and weak links.
“Bridge” / “Bridging”	A chain of outposts built for the sole intent of reaching a particular far-away system, one small 15 LY hop at a time. Bridge outposts are typically abandoned after being built, having served their purpose of making the subsequent claim.
“Sniping [a system/claim]”	The act of rushing to a newly-created primary port for the intent of making a competitive claim, without having put in any meaningful effort towards building the “bridge” towards said claim. If you do this, don’t expect to be popular in the community… Completing the final 1-20% of someone else’s outpost for the sole purpose of making a competitive claim is also considered sniping.
[Local Body] Base Inheritable Economy	A colony-type port will inherit certain characteristics based on the local body it is built on or around. For example, absent other modifiers, a Coriolis Station orbiting a Rocky planet will inherit a Refinery economy.
[Local Body] Inheritable Economy Modifier	The modifiers to inheritable economies which certain local body characteristics grant. For example, if a given body has any organics, +1.0 Agriculture and +1.0 Terraforming will be added to its Base Inheritable Economy.
[Local Body] [Strong] Link Modifier	The effect on Strong Links which local body characteristics have. Note weak links are NOT affected by link modifiers. Also note that Inheritable Economy Modifiers and [Strong] Link Modifiers apply to very different things!
Economic Strength Value	A per-economy-type value which represents the absolute strength of a given economy type at a given facility. This value typically ranges from 0.05 to 1.4, but can be increased to much higher values by stacking strong and weak link effects
Krait Mk2 2m2s³	A Krait Mk2 equipped with 2 medium and 2 small guardian gauss cannons. The best Krait! Find them for sale in Pleiades Sector MI-S B4-0. “Can I interest you in a 2m2s krait?”

Why Colonize? Purpose, Goals, and Downsides

Colonization is the most recent substantial feature added to the world of Elite: Dangerous, having been initially released in beta with the Trailblazers Update on February 26 2025.

Colonization is, simply, being able to build facilities in a new system, claiming it for humanity and expanding humanity’s influence across the galaxy. As the architect of a new colony, your name will be permanently recorded in the Elite Dangerous galaxy as the person responsible for this feat.

Colonization is described by FDEV as in “beta” phase despite being released into the live environment. It has seen several major overhauls and numerous bug fixes since its launch, and may very well see others over time. We will try our best to keep this document up to date; the changelog on the front page should give you an indication of what was updated and when.

As you explore whether Colonization in Elite is for you, the first-order question to ask yourself is: Why? Why should you do it? What’s in it for you? Why do others do it? What’s the purpose or reward of Colonization in Elite?

The reasons to pursue colonization in-game vary, but generally fall under four categories:

The intent to “paint the map” by adding to the persistent universe of Elite: Dangerous while having naming control over new facilities being created.

Arguably the most commonly-quoted reason for individuals and groups to embark on colonization efforts is to “paint the map” in a novel manner.

Colonization allows CMDRs (and the communities they affiliate with) to:

Build new facilities in many (but not all - as some are ineligible for a variety of reasons) previously-uninhabited systems
Name said facilities (either by selecting one of multiple randomly-rolled names, or, by paying a fee in ARX, with a custom name)
(Subject to an ARX fee) Customize said facilities with custom liveries

Control over “landmark” or otherwise highly-desirable systems can be coveted and can occasionally spark significant competition.

A Pre-Deployment “Under Construction” Coriolis Spaceport

The intent to create (or bolster) local market economies in locations across the galaxy where none previously existed (or were very limited)

Colonization allows CMDRs to create new markets and shipyard / outfitting facilities in their preferred areas of the galaxy.

For example, the Anti-Xeno Initiative and Xeno Strike Force built a fully-stocked military/ hi-tech set of facilities in Pleiades Sector MI-S B4-0, as a way to locally provide for universal base, repair and outfitting options in the Pleiades Nebula. This means new AX commanders can build and repair ships locally in the systems best suited for learning AX combat, eliminating the need to return to the bubble (for anything other than tech-broker-specific modules or engineering.)

r/EliteDangerous - Anti-Xeno Initiative Headquarter Complete (and 500,000 ARX commit)
A Player-Built Orbis Spaceport in Direct Orbit of a Star

The intent to reap the gameplay rewards (which, at the time of writing, are very limited) of being a system architect
Colonization grants you (somewhat underwhelming) weekly credit payments⁴
It is likely that an architected system will be paying well short of 1m credits per week
Colonization also grants you, after a 10th installation is built in a system for which you were the architect, a 3% discount on all ships and outfitting purchased in such system
This discount stacks with powerplay-controlled discounts (but note this discount applies to the system architect ONLY)
Colonization pays you a small premium in credits (vs global market average) for commodities delivered to construction sites
Note: While the default profit paid by construction carriers and construction sites is generally considered underwhelming for the invested time required, hauling for CMDRs who are offering contracts to enlist help from other CMDRs can in turn be HIGHLY profitable; such offers can be found through Inara or through discords such as the Fleet Carriers Owners Club (FCOC) and the Pilots Trade Network (PTN).

The rewards above are less profitable than other activities available at this stage of a CMDR's journey, which is why this isn’t a common motivation for players to embark on Colonization efforts.

Weekly Game Mail for System Architect Credit Rewards

The 3% Architect Discount On Ships And Modules Isn’t A Game-Changer

Any other personal intent, which may not fall in one of the three typical ones listed above but, Elite being the sandbox game which it is, is no less valid!

Whether you want to recreate Minmus from Kerbal Space Program in Elite, and build an Ice Asteroid base as an “Ice Cream Freezer” to store the mint cream ice cream purportedly mined from said planet, or for any other meme or personal creative initiative you may have - Colonization allows you to set your imagination free and create to your heart’s content.

Elite, at its heart, is the ultimate sandbox space opera. Colonization adds one more degree of freedom to tell your own stories within it.

A Freezer Asteroid for Icecream From "Minmus" (the icon is photoshopped)
A Player-Built Ice Asteroid Base (Note: logo has been photoshopped in)

It’s also worth noting that colonization can have certain (often unintended) downsides.

Colonizing a system introducing HUMAN signal sources, which compete with NON-HUMAN signal sources for spawns. Effectively, colonizing a system pushes a significant portion of Thargoids out of a system. While narratively most would see this as an upside, it is undeniable that, from a gameplay perspective, this fact can occasionally be undesirable.
Introducing newly colonised systems around existing systems increases the potential target range for missions. This means, for example, where systems had been used in the past to progress reputation with certain faction for the purposes of unlocking ships (e.g., Robigo and Sothis) - federal or imperial - the larger number of potential target systems means a wider spread, so less efficient, yield of mission targets.
Similarly, certain optimal systems for massacre-mission-stacking will lose the ability to direct to a common target system, to the detriment of those who were using that technique for credits.
Last but not least … Thargoids sent Titans to contain human expansion. Who knows how they will respond to the dramatic expansion the bubble is undergoing?

Thargoid “Death Scream” Signal - Cleaned up version by CMDR hurix, as seen on Frontier Forums

What Do You Need To Get Started?

The initial requirements for Colonization are deceptively low. All you need to make a claim is to pay 25m credits upfront and off-you-go to deploy your first system colonization beacon …

What you will quickly realize however is that, more likely than not, you will also need a pretty decent hauler - ideally a Type 9, or a Type 8 if the former isn’t an option somehow, reasonably equipped to handle the enormous amount of hauling required to build even a tiny little outpost. Here are a few suggested builds, in increasing order of effectiveness, in case you want some inspiration:

Type 8 unengineered - https://edsy.org/s/vDHweZZ
Type 8 engineered - https://edsy.org/s/v7gQC59
Type 9 unengineered - https://edsy.org/s/vfgyQFe
Type 9 engineered - https://edsy.org/s/vkBT51e
Imperial Cutter⁵ - https://edsy.org/s/vZG7tG9
Panther Clipper Mk2 - [Pending - will be added once released]

The hauling requirements mean that Colonization is more geared towards mid-game players and beyond.

Building anything other than a tiny personal system is furthermore something that requires late game resources (such as a carrier, an engineered large hauler, and ideally even funds to pay other people to load said carrier!), a coordinated group of players working together, and/or a very significant personal time commitment!

In short, you should feel free to experiment with Colonization whenever you feel you have 25m credits to spare, a decent enough hauling ship, and some time on your hands in the following four weeks.

To get serious about Colonization however, you should likely first buy a carrier, save up sufficient funds to equip it and keep it running, then engineer a large hauler and, if that fits your playstyle, also consider joining a larger in-game community which could help.

How To Claim A System? Bridging, Claiming, And The Issue With Sniping

Scouting a system to colonize is generally the first step in the process; we’ll get into what specifically to look for later on, after we explain how economies work.

Scouting a system beforehand and looking for the (Flag) slot visible in the System Map (when it's working) to see where the Primary Port is located is also a sensible thing to do - as it plays into the decision what Primary Port to pick when establishing the Claim later.

You may also want to Detail-Surface-Scan planets of interest to confirm if they have biologicals, geologicals, and/or volcanism - as these factors affect how well-suited planets are for certain economies.

Once you’ve eyed an available system, the next step is to go ahead and claim it. There are four steps in such process:

Finding a Colonization Contact
Making the Claim & Selecting the Primary Port
Deploying the System Colonization Beacon
Building the Primary Port

“Bridging” is a special case with regards to making long-range claims.
“Sniping” is an issue related to claiming highly-sought-after systems.

Finding a Colonization Contact

Claiming a system is something you perform at a newly-introduced “system colonization contact.” The following systems have such contacts:

Systems in the “bubble” (the inhabited are centered roughly on Sol, Achenar, Allioth)
Systems architected by players, where the primary port has been completed

Colonisation originates from the bubble and grows outwards. Inhabited systems OUTSIDE of the bubble, which are not colonized by players, do NOT have colonization contacts. It is not possible to colonize directly from, say, Colonia or the Witchhead Nebula.

System Colonization Contact: Initial Interface

Making a Claim & Selecting the Primary Port

A claim costs a one-time fee of 25 million credits. Such fee is not refunded if the claim is ultimately unsuccessful (more on this later.)

Claims can be made up to 15.00 Light Years from the location of the colonization contact.

Beginning a new claim brings up a special interface on the galaxy map view with a green sphere showing the claim range from the current location. Eligible systems will light up as bright green dots. If no systems are eligible, there will be no green dots, like in the view below.

System Colonization Contact: The Claiming View

Selecting a green-dot (eligible) system triggers the process of selecting a primary port. Note: The factors governing how to select a primary port are very complex and discussed in a separate section of this document.

Once you confirm your primary port choice, you will be awarded a System Colonization Beacon and can move on to the next step.

Note that the system you colonize from DOES matter inasmuch you will bring along the system’s primary faction with you - and it will become the target system’s primary faction. So if, for example, you don’t want to architect a system run by an anarchy faction, you should avoid colonizing from systems that have an anarchy faction in control.

Note: When a player is in a squadron and this squadron is associated with minor power, the factions of your colonized system will be as follows:

1st - (60%) Controlling faction of the station from which player takes the claim
This is often, but not always, the system’s controlling faction
2nd - (20%) The controlling faction of the system from which you made the claim (if it was NOT the same faction controlling the station you made the claim from) OR the 2nd faction by influence in the same system (if station and system controlling factions are the same)
3rd - (13%) The faction that is aligned with your squadron
If a player is not in a squadron, this third faction is taken from a nearby system; the specific mechanics of how said third faction is chosen in this scenario are presently unknown
4th - (6%) An anarchy faction which is taken from the closest system where it is already present - this applies also in case the ruling faction is already of Anarchy type

As changing control factions after-the-fact is extremely painful (requires weeks of BGS wars, etc.) you may want to think carefully about your source colonization contact’s affiliation.

Deploying the System Colonization Beacon

Having made the claim, you now need to jump to your target system, fly to the market system colonization beacon drop-off location, and deploy said beacon. Note - you will first need to assign the colonization beacon to a firegroup in your ship’s right panel to complete this step. If the drop-off location does not appear, check your left-panel filters and make sure “points of interest” is checked. It’s also possible to assign a hotkey for System Colonization Suit( SC suit):

Option->Controls->Ship Controls->Miscellaneous->System Colonization Suit

IMPORTANT: You have 24 hours to perform this step or your claim will expire and you will be prevented from re-claiming the same system.

The system colonization beacon is essentially a proto-nav-buoy, and will convert to a nav buoy proper once you complete the next step in the process. Like nav buoys, these beacons allow you to scan a full system by targeting them and scanning them in local space.

Building the Primary Port

Once the colonization beacon has been deployed, a special system colonization megaship will jump into the system at the primary port’s designated location.

A System Colonization Megaship Jumps Out, Having Completed Its Mission

This megaship will act as the drop-off point for materials necessary to build the port.

You will need to haul the required materials to this ship to actively build your primary port.

IMPORTANT: You have 4 weeks to perform this step or your claim will expire and you will be prevented from re-claiming the same system.

Once you have hauled the necessary materials, a Brewer Corporation screen will appear confirming construction is complete. Your new facility will immediately appear nearby, and the colonization megaship will jump out a couple of minutes later.

Congratulations! You are now permanently recognized as the System Architect of your newly-colonized system, and no longer “on the clock” for any of your subsequent build activities in the system.

Bridging Towards Far-Away Claims

As mentioned, the claim range from any given colonization contact is a meager 15 light-years. But what happens if your dream system is further away than that?

In order to “reach” said system, you will need to build one or more “stepping-stone” outposts, where you claim a system, build a tiny space outpost, then immediately claim the next system in the chain and rinse-repeat until you reach your destination. The community has come to call this chain a “bridge” and the act of building this chain of systems, “bridging.”

Some community-built bridges stretch hundreds of systems long!

The Fatherhood community built a bridge over 500 LY long to reach and colonize the California Nebula

The Issue With System Sniping, And How To Defend Against It

The process of making a claim is strictly on a first-come, first-serve basis. That means that whoever is the first CMDR to reach a colonization contact and claim the system will “lock out” anyone else from making the same claim.

The issue with system sniping arises because of the following combined factors:

Certain systems are inherently popular and in high demand
Claim system is “winner takes all” and strictly “first come, first serve”
Colonization contacts are immediately available and active upon a primary port being built
A primary port is immediately deployed once the last shipment of cargo is turned in
There is NO requirement of ANY contribution to the new port, for ANY CMDR to immediately use the new contact
Claims (and snipes) can be done in ANY game mode. CMDRs can snipe your claim while playing Solo for instance.

The issue is further compounded by the facts that:

The CMDR delivering the final shipment has to go through the whole Brewer Corp video animation, undock, and fly to the new station (and in some cases even switch ships - a Type 9 won’t be able to dock at an outpost for instance)
Any CMDR going for a “Snipe” can just loiter already undocked in a “racing” ship (a Viper Mk3, Imperial Eagle, etc.)

Now consider this:

“CMDR A” (you) built the whole outposts bridge, and is delivering the final load of steel in a Type 8; will have to watch the whole Brewer video, then undock, figure out where the outpost is, slowboat there, and go for the claim.
“CMDR B” (sniper) didn’t deliver a single ton of cargo across any of your bridge’s 20 outposts, is circling the construction site in a 932m/s Viper Mk3, and makes a beeline to the new station the moment it appears.

CMDR B is practically guaranteed to succeed in the competitive claim.

(Note: A less involved way to “snipe” -if it can still be called a snipe- claims is to wait until a given CMDR goes to sleep and building progress on the last outpost in a chain stops, jump in your own carrier, quickly complete the last 1-20% of the construction yourself and then proceed to make the claim after that.)

There is no reliable recourse against a successful snipe and FDEV will not intervene. Complaining online about it won’t make them hand it back to you. It’s theirs forever (unless they somehow fail at completing the primary port in 4 weeks, which for competitive systems is very unlikely.)

Defending against a snipe needs to start with the hard realization of the following fact: A solo player CANNOT effectively defend against system snipes.

To defend against snipes, you need one or more friends. You need one person to play “hauler” and deliver the final load of cargo for you. And you need to play “racer” to make a beeline yourself for the newly-built facility. It further helps if you have a pre-set galactic map bookmark labeled “AAA Claim This” or similar (so it’s in alphabetical order right at the top.) It also helps if you live-coordinate the final delivery in a voice channel so as a racer you are aware and alert of the precise moment the final cargo delivery is made (and thus the new facility appears.)

Another way to attempt to defend against a snipe is to relog to menu after delivering the final load of materials and while still docked at the construction site, then go straight back in game - the game should now presumably place you at the newly-build station (assuming the station has a pad where your ship can fit; otherwise you will be placed in space). This can be unreliable however, and isn’t necessarily all that quick - so this method is a Plan B at best.

Let us be clear: we think that this unrestricted first-come, first-serve claim system is deeply flawed. It’s just awful to CMDRs who put in tons of effort only to be one-upped at the last minute. And it unfairly disadvantages solo players.

But it’s the system we have, it’s unlikely to change, and we’re here to give you the best possible advice, operating within the constraints of the mechanics of the game.

It is open to you to present your views on the merits of "first come first served" to FDEV via the Frontier Forums. We encourage you to provide constructive feedback to FDEV in this way, and to help us emphasise that an alternative should be considered which protects the time investment of the architect.

How To Architect A System? Construction Points, And A Tool You Will Love

Introduction To Building Up A System

First things first - the most important element to understand when undertaking colonization is the following:
THERE IS NO UNDO, CANCEL, DELETE, OR DECONSTRUCT BUTTON. ALL CONSTRUCTION INSTRUCTIONS ARE PERMANENT FROM THE GET-GO AND CANNOT BE UNDONE IN ANY WAY. PLAN CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU BUILD; MEASURE THRICE AND CLICK ONCE!

This section assumes that you have successfully constructed a primary port, and are now looking to add more facilities to your system.

There are, broadly, four types of facilities that a player can build in Elite: Dangerous:

Ports (which come in both orbital and planetary variants)
[Planetary] Settlements
[Planetary] Hubs
[Orbital] Installations

Facilities are furthermore “Tiered” into three tiers, using a logic that goes:

Tier 1 facilities - cost no construction points, generate tier 2 construction points
Tier 2 facilities - cost tier 2 construction points, generate tier 3 construction points
Most Tier 2 facilities cost one yellow CP and generate one green CP; the exception are large settlements (which cost one yellow CP and generate TWO green CPs) and Tier 2 spaceports (Coriolis and Asteroid Bases - which cost three+ yellow CPs and generate one green CP)
Tier 3 facilities - cost tier 3 construction points, do not generate any construction points

Because the terminology in-game around this is nothing short of horrifically confusing, with “Tiers” referring to either facilities or different types of construction points, in this guide we will use “Tier” to reference exclusively to a facility’s tier, and “Yellow [Construction] Points (Tier 2)” and “Green [Construction] Points (Tier 3)” when talking about CPs.

So, for instance, we will say “a Coriolis station is a Tier 2 spaceport which, at baseline, requires three yellow CPs and generates one green CP.”

Before You Start: CP-Cost Increases For Tier 2 And Tier 3 Ports

Another critical piece of information you need to be armed with before you go about planning your system, is that the “cost” in terms of CPs of Tier 2 and Tier 3 ports INCREASES as soon as the second such port is laid down for construction. This increase gets higher and higher as additional T2/T3 ports are laid down. Ports do not need to be completed for the increase to “kick in” - merely initiating construction results in the increase for future ports. Materials cost remains the same despite the CP cost increase.

Note that the Primary Port DOES NOT COUNT towards such limit - and such exception has important implications with regards to primary port selection, which we will get into in the relevant section.

Also note that this mechanic is exclusive to T2 and T3 ports (both spaceports and the T3 planetary port.) T1 ports are exempted and so are all installations, settlements, and hubs.

The cost increase works as follows:

Port Tier	1st T2/T3 Port⁶	2nd T2/T3 Port	3rd T2/T3 Port	4th T2/T3 Port	5th T2/T3 Port	Nth T2/T3 Port
T2 (Coriolis, Asteroid Base)	3T2 Points	3T2 Points	5T2 Points	7T2 Points	9 T2 Points	3+(n-2)*2T2 Points
T3 (Orbis, Ocellus, T3 Plan. Port)	6T3 Points	6T3 Points	12T3 Points	18T3 Points	24 T3 Points	(n-1)*6T3 Points

The mechanic above has MAJOR implications for system architecting; in particular:

It severely limits the total number of T2/T3 ports which can be placed in a single system
Your first two T3 ports require a minimum of 6 supporting facilities each (to generate enough green CPs) to construct; your fifth T3 port requires no fewer than 30 supporting facilities before it can be constructed
For systems you or (more typically) your community intend to significantly build-up, it strongly encourages building a T3 as Primary Port
The Primary Port does not count towards the limit, and requires no CPs to construct and thus no “supporting” facilities in the system
It strongly encourages building T3 ports BEFORE T2 ports
The cost of T3 ports increases by 6 T3 points each step, while the cost of T2 ports only increases by 2 T2 points each step; see these two examples in practice:
- Sequence: T2, T2, T3, T3
- Cost: 6 Yellow CPs, 30 (!) Green CPs
- Minimum supporting facilities to build: 36
- Sequence: T3, T3, T2, T2
- Cost: 16 Yellow CPs, 12 Green CPs
- Minimum supporting facilities to build: 28
It makes T1 civilian planetary ports acquire a special value
The T1 Civilian Planetary Port is the only large-pad-colony-type-facility which isn’t subject to this mechanic

Tier 3 Planetary Port Construction View - Showing The Green CP Cost Increase (From 6 to 12)

How To Effectively Plan For System Construction

A near-essential tool for colonization planning, CMDR DaftMav’s Colonization Construction Spreadsheet is available here: DaftMav’s Colonization Construction Spreadsheet.

Primary View of DaftMav’s Colonization Construction Spreadsheet

DaftMav’s spreadsheet will allow you to “simulate” building up your system exactly the way you want it, while also highlighting dependencies and construction point requirements. It is a near-essential tool for any serious system architect looking to plan anything but a tiny little system.

Generally speaking, past your primary port, construction goes as follows:

You build Tier 1 facilities to generate Yellow CPs
While some Tier 1 facilities have economic-shaping effects, they tend to be much weaker than comparable Tier 2 facilities in this regard
You build Tier 2 facilities to convert Yellow CPs into Green CPs
Tier 2 facilities are also used to specialize your economy
You build Tier 3 facilities by spending the Green CPs you generated
Tier 3 facilities have the best statistics overall and on a per-ton-of-construction-materials-hauled basis

As a general rule, in the current model you will typically want to specialize the economy of a particular system as much as possible. The reason why specialized economies are presently desirable is that multi-economy markets effectively “cannibalize” each other - let’s discuss a simplified illustrative example below:

Market “A” is a refinery market which produces 100 tons of steel and demands 100 tons of power converters
Adding an industrial hub to the local body results in market “A” being both refinery AND industrial
The industrial economy demands 100 tons of steel and produces 100 tons of power converters
The resulting combined economy neither produces nor demands neither steel nor power converters, effectively having become an entirely barren market

While the example above is extreme for illustrative purposes, it is representative of a major issue in how economies presently mix, and explains why we recommend specializing economies as much as possible.

Many factors go into what economies are picked up by colony-type ports and we will explain those in the relevant sections later; for now, suffice it to say that you should focus on only building facilities that either have NO economy influence (such as satellites) or which have a specific economy influence of the type you specifically want (such as, say, a refinery hub.)

The above doesn’t apply solely to Local Body facilities - based on how Weak Links work (more on this later as well) a facility with an economy type ANYWHERE in the system will at least somewhat affect markets EVERYWHERE in a system.

In the long run, most economy types have value for the purpose of colonization and expansion. That being said, given the disproportionate demand of steel, titanium, aluminum, and other refinery-produced materials, refineries tend to be the first system built by players when “building up” a new cluster of systems, as the metals they produce greatly boost the ability to construct all other facilities.

In terms of architecting systems, keep in mind you can initiate construction of up to five facilities at the same time. Once you have done that, you will need to complete said facilities before you are allowed to lay down more for construction.

In terms of facilities, think hard before you build “small” settlements, as the cost of “medium” settlements isn’t all that higher and the benefits medium ones provide are generally better.

The specific statistics provided by individual facilities also matter, we will get into these later in this document.

Anvil’s Pride is a refinery built for the purpose of providing metals to build efforts across the Pleiades

The Value Of Space Versus Ground Slots

Ground slots and space slots both have their uses - but some things can only specifically be done in one type or the other, or are preferable in one location over the other.

In favor of space slots:

Coriolis, Orbis, and Ocellus starports are by far the most convenient markets a player can build, as they have large pads, and are not subject to the tedious and slow process of approaching a planet and gliding to a planetary port
Since space slots are built, well, in space - delivering materials to orbital construction sites tends to be much faster and more convenient than planetary sites
Contraband market strong-links can ONLY be created using orbital facilities (pirate base)

In favor of ground slots:

Certain commodities (e.g., CMM Composites) are restricted to being produced at planetary sites exclusively
Tier 3 Planetary Ports have the best statistics of any facility in the game
“Large” Tier 2 settlements are the ONLY type of facilities able to convert a single yellow CP to TWO green CPs; every other facility converts them at 1:1 ratio (or worse, for starports)
Ground facilities, while taking longer to reach, can be built very close to each other (the minimum distance between facilities is 200km); this can make delivering “low volume” construction materials across multiple sites faster when building multiple facilities at once
Refinery markets can ONLY be specialized by using the ground-exclusive Refinery Hub
Hubs in general, which are planetary-only, are among the best facilities to specialize an economy while also having excellent system-wide bonus stats

Naming And Customizing Your Facilities

Facilities can be renamed either using a randomly-rolled name or (by paying 5,000 ARX, once for each individual facility) be given a player-defined name. A facility can be renamed from anywhere in the galaxy, using the architect interface in the system map.

For randomly-rolled facility names:

You can “reroll” a name an unlimited number of times, until you see one that inspires you
You can “reassign” a name to a facility a maximum number of five times overall (so choose wisely)

For player-defined names:

The name of the facility must be unique in the system (but can be the same as facilities in other systems)
Several special characters are disallowed - notably the apostrophe, but also several other types of punctuation and parentheses
Several strings of text will be disallowed as potentially offensive; Note: this filter can be sometimes overly aggressive
Once bought for ARX, the name of that individual facility can be changed an unlimited number of times by the player

Facility names are generally updated during the weekly server downtime on Thursdays for ports, and immediately for other facility types.

5,000 ARX will unlock custom renaming and unlimited-renaming for a facility, subject to limitations

Custom liveries are also available for stations to change their color scheme. You need to be docked at the station you want to change the livery of and be the system architect for you to be able to change a station’s livery. It cannot be done remotely.

Station livery-change option only appears when docked as the system architect

Vanity doesn’t come cheap

Since update 3.3 ports also acquire the interior layout style that matches their primary economy type. Updates to interior layouts happen Thursday (on the weekly downtime) only.

Enabling Services At Ports

Services (like shipyard, outfitting, etc.) have specific requirements since update 3.3 in order to come online at your port.

Rules are as follows:

Port	Commodities Market	Shipyard	Outfitting	Universal Cartographics	Vista Genomics	Black Market	Crew Lounge	Pioneer Supplies
Tier 3 Port	Always Active	Always Active	Always Active	Always Active	Always Active	Strong link to a Pirate Installation	Always Active	Always Active
Tier 2 Port	Always Active	Always Active	Always Active	Strong link to a Satellite Installation, Comms Installation or Relay Station or Scientific Installation or Exploration Hub built in system	Strong link to a Satellite Installation, Comms Installation or Relay Station or Scientific Installation or Exploration Hub built in system		Always Active	Always Active
Commercial Outpost	Strong link to a Comms Installation or Relay Station Tourist Installation or Bar Installation or Outpost Hub in the same system	Strong link to a High Tech Hub or Military Installation or Industrial Hub built in system + Tech Level 35	Strong link to an Industrial Hub or Military Installation or High Tech Hub built in system + Tech Level 35				Bar Installation built in the system	N/A
Industrial Outpost
Civilian Outpost							Always Active
Criminal Outpost						Always Active
Scientific Outpost				Always Active	Always Active	Strong link to a Pirate Installation	Bar Installation built in the system
Military Outpost			Tech Level 35	Strong link to a Satellite Installation, Comms Installation or Relay Station or Scientific Installation or Exploration Hub built in system	Strong link to a Satellite Installation, Comms Installation or Relay Station or Medical Installation or Scientific Hub built in system			Always Active
Tier 1 Planet Port - Civilian	Strong link to a Comms Installation or Relay Station OR Tourist Installation or Bar Installation or Outpost Hub in the same system Strong link to a High Tech Hub or Military Installation or Industrial Hub built in system	Strong link to a Comms Installation or Relay Station OR Tourist Installation or Bar Installation or Outpost Hub in the same system + Tech Level 35	Strong link to an Industrial Hub or Military Installation or High Tech Hub built in system + Tech Level 35				Always Active	Always Active
Tier 1 Planet Port - Industrial			Tech Level 35				Bar Installation built in the system
Tier 1 Planet Port - HiTech			Strong link to an Industrial Hub Military Installation or High Tech Hub built in system + Tech Level 35
Research Bio Settlements	Always Active	N/A	N/A	Always Active	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
All Other Settlements	Always Active	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

How Do Colony-Type Ports Gain Economies? Base Inheritable Economy + Modifiers

Ports come in two families:

	Colony-Type Ports	Specialized Ports
Tier 1	[Orbital] Civilian Outpost, [Orbital] Commercial Outpost, [Planetary] Civilian Outpost	[Orbital] Industrial Outpost [Industrial], [Orbital] Criminal Outpost [Contraband], [Orbital] Scientific Outpost [Hitech], [Orbital] Military Outpost [Military], [Planetary] Scientific Outpost [Hitech], [Planetary] Industrial Outpost [Industrial],
Tier 2	Coriolis	Asteroid Base [Extraction]
Tier 3	Orbis, Ocellus, T3 Planetary Port	None

While more research is necessary on this topic, specialized ports appear to be:

Assigned a baseline economic strength value of 0.5 (several planetary versions) or 1.0⁷ (several orbital versions) for their applicable economy type
NOT affected by the base inheritable economy of the local body
Affected by base inheritable economy modifiers of the local body (rings, biologicals, geologicals)
Affected by strong and weak links (more on this later) like any other port

Colony-type ports instead follow special rules with regards to the economy type they acquire - which depends on the characteristics of the local body they reside on or orbit. This is in addition to being affected by strong and weak links.

Colony-type ports acquire their economy type(s) as follows:

The “Base Inheritable Economy” type of the local body they are on or orbit is assessed
The “Base Economy Modifiers” applicable to the local body are applied
The economy type of the Colony-type port is replaced by the combination of the two factors above

Frontier Developments described these factors in a forum post available here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/elite-dangerous-trailblazers-update-3-now-live.636973/.

Such post is rather complicated however; we have tried to improve the readability of the information below:

Local Body Type	Base Inheritable Economies
Black holes, Neutron Stars, White Dwarves	HighTech, Tourism
Brown Dwarves and all other star types	Military
Earth like worlds	Agriculture, HighTech, Military, Tourism
Water world	Agriculture, Tourism
Ammonia world	HighTech, Tourism
Gas giant	HighTech, Industrial
High metal content and metal rich world	Extraction
Rocky ice	Industrial, Refinery
Rocky	Refinery
Icy	Industrial

Local Body Modifier	Base Inheritable Economy Modifier
Has rings (includes stars with asteroid belts)	Extraction
Has organics	Agriculture, + Terraforming
Has geologicals	Extraction, + Industrial

Note that geologicals are the features identified with a Detailed Surface Scanner and they are distinct from “volcanism” which is instead a modifier of strong links (yes, this is very confusing - but an important distinction!)

Volcanism, such as Carbon Dioxide Geysers shown here, does NOT affect Base Inheritable Economies

The following implications can roughly be derived from the above, in terms of “pure” market-design recommendations:

Desired Economy Type	Preferred Local Body
Extraction	HMC or Metal-Rich Planets, *with rings*, without organics, and without geologicals⁸
Refinery	Rocky-type planets, without rings, without organics, and without geologicals [Note: Specialized refineries also benefit from as many ground slots as possible (as only Refinery-strong-link-granting facility is the planetary-bound Refinery Hub)]
Industrial	Icy Planets, without rings, without organics, and without geologicals⁹
Military	Main Sequence Stars (and Brown Dwarfs) without asteroid belts
Agriculture	Water world¹⁰, without rings, *with organics*, and without geologicals
Tourism	Ammonia world or Water World, without rings, without organics, and without geologicals - OR non-main-sequence-star without asteroid belts
HighTech	Ammonia world¹¹ without rings, without organics, and without geologicals - OR non-main-sequence-star without asteroid belts
Terraforming	Water World, without rings, *with organics*, and without geologicals
Contraband	N/A - No local body provides for Contraband; pick any local body with a single local market type and a good number of space local-market slots; (You’ll need to use strong/weak links to build a Contraband market, and/or use the specialized (Orbital) Criminal Outpost)

What Are Strong & Weak Links? How Are They Modified By Link Modifiers?

Official Frontier Developments Infographic On Colonization Linking

Facilities influence markets using three key mechanics:

Strong Links
Strong links are formed within facilities around a Local Body ONLY
Strong links are subject to strong link modifiers
Strong links vary in strength (usually 0.35-0.80 before modifiers); they are always significantly stronger than weak links (0.05)
Weak Links
Every facility with an economy type (except ports) generates “weak links” to all ports outside of their local body
Weak links have a fixed value of 0.05 per weak link; this value is NOT subject to any modifier, ever
Special Case: Port-to-Port Strong Links
While technically classed as strong links, these are a somewhat special variant of said strong links, and behave differently

Links Are Displayed For The System Architect When Selecting A Port

Strong Links

Strong links are likely going to be the primary way you will be specializing and building-up the economy of your system.

Strong links are formed between non-port facilities (FDEV calls them “supporting facilities”) and a port.

At most ONE strong link can be formed between a support facility and a port - if there is more than one port in the local body, special rules apply which govern how strong links are formed and “passed on” (see section below.)

If there are no ports in the same local body of a supporting facility, said facility will simply not form any strong links (but will still project weak links to other ports.)

Note that the strength of Strong Links varies: as a general rule, Tier 2 facilities (such as hubs) provide strong links with a higher economy value as compared to Tier 1 facilities (such as small and medium settlements.) We are working to gather precise details on these values.

Strong Links are subject to modifiers which affect them depending on specific characteristics of the local body, as follows:

Economy Type	Boosted by:	Decreased by:
Agriculture	Orbiting an Earth like world Orbiting a Water World On or orbiting a terraformable body On or orbiting a body with organics	On or orbiting an icy body On or orbiting a planet that is tidally locked to its star On or orbiting a moon that is tidally locked to its planet and its subsequent parent planet(s) are tidally locked to the star
Extraction	In a system with major or pristine resources On or orbiting a body with volcanism	In a system with low or depleted resources
High Tech	Orbiting an ammonia world Orbiting an earth like world Orbiting a Water World On or orbiting a body with geologicals On or orbiting a body with organics	Nil
Industrial & Refinery	In a system with major or pristine resources	In a system with low or depleted resources
Tourism	Orbiting an ammonia world In a system with a black hole Orbiting an earth like world On or orbiting a body with geologicals On or orbiting a body with organics Orbiting a water world In a system with a white dwarf In a system with a neutron star	Nil

While additional research is necessary, it would appear that “boosting” entails a flat +0.4 bonus (so a raw 0.8 value becomes 1.2) and “decreasing” entails a -0.4 malus (so a raw 0.8 value becomes 0.4), noting that strong link “strength” cannot be decreased to below 0.1.

Weak Links

Weak links are established between non-port facilities and all non-local-body ports across the system. A single facility can create weak links to an unlimited number of ports in the system.

The strength of weak links is always 0.05 and is not subject to any kind of modifier.

The Weak Link mechanic is the primary reason we recommend specializing SYSTEMS instead of BODIES - as a given type of facility ANYWHERE in a system will affect ports EVERYWHERE in the system.

Special Case: Port-to-Port Strong Links

TL;DR: Building more than one port on or around a given local body is a bad idea. Don’t do it.

FDEV treats Port-to-Port links as Strong Links, but special rules apply to such links. According to the official documentation, the following logic applies:

[Strong Links] may also be created between ports if there are multiple of this type on or around the same body

In the event multiple ports are present, the highest tier port will be linked to. If both ports are of the same tier, the port which was built first will be selected
In the event both a planetary and space-based ports are present, planetary facilities will create strong links with the planetary port, which will pass these strong links on to the orbital port following the same prioritisation rules regarding tier and build order

The specific mechanics of how multiple ports in a local body link to each other are confusing, potentially bugged, and rather clunky - which is why we generally do not recommend building more than a single port per each local body. This is compounded by the equally confusing rules of how strong links are formed when multiple ports are present.

In the present implementation of how this mechanic works, planetary ports have the surprising behavior of passing on to spaceports above them also the inherent economy of the planet they reside on - which is an extremely powerful effect. Having multiple civilian (T1) planetary ports on a rocky planet and a Coriolis above them may result in an incredibly strong market (This is true for a single planetary port to a single spaceport. Whether this is true for multiple planetary ports remains to be verified.).

We believe this is a bug (tracker link), so exploit it at your own risk - as it may be eventually fixed and you may end up with a pretty-broken system if it is.

Special Case: When Ports Convert To Being Supporting Facilities

Ports, as a general rule, are not considered supporting facilities and, as such, will generally not create weak links with other facilities across the system.

However, if more than one port is built in a local body, the lower-tier ports (or, if same-tier ports are built, the later-built ports) are built on or around a local-body, all but one of them will be converted to supporting facilities:

If both planetary and space ports exist, all but one planetary ports are converted to supporting facilities, regardless of their tier
Thereafter, orbital ports follow the rule below
Note that oldest\&top-tier Planetary Ports which connect to Orbital Ports within the same Local Body do NOT fully convert to supporting facilities proper - they DO form strong links with the space port but DO NOT generate weak links to all other ports. These are effectively a special case within a special case. Planetary Ports which connect to other planetary ports however DO convert to supporting facilities, and emit weak links like all such facilities.
If only planetary or only orbital ports exist, then all but the earliest-built, highest-tier port will be converted to supporting facilities

The following key implication applies: Like all other supporting facilities, “converted ports” will now form strong links with the “main port” in the local body and also emit weak links to every other port outside of the local body.

We have reason to believe that strong links enabled by “converted ports” are not presently working as intended (for example, they are passing on planetary inherent economies but NOT acquired economic values from local-body strong links.) So be careful about multiple-ports-around-a-single-local-body.

What Do Security, Wealth, SoL, Tech Level, Dev Level, And Population Do?

Each facility has listed “chevrons” on a number of system-wide statistics. Facilities may increase or decrease a given category, based on their specific type. Chevrons are not linear in their effect.

The following statistics apply to any given system:

Security
Wealth
Standard of Living
Technology Level
Development Level
“Initial” Population
“Max” Population
Happiness

The specific effects of each statistic are poorly understood at this time. We will do our best to relay what we do know, noting much remains to be studied in this area.

The Construction View Shows “Chevrons” For How A Facility Will Affect System Stats

Security

Security is believed to affect the overall security rating of the system, which in turn determines whether pirates or system security services will be interdicting you, and everything else which goes with the security level of the system you’re operating in.

The security level of a system is not an absolute correlation to low/medium/high security for the system overall - it appears that as population grows (or some other variable grows) so does the required security score to maintain security “high.”

Wealth

We do not really know what wealth affects in the system. Various theories have been proposed suggesting it may affect commodity prices, commodity amounts, module and/or ship availability in ports, and/or happiness of the system.

We simply don’t know candidly.

Standard of Living

We do not really know how standard of living affects the system. Various theories have been proposed suggesting it may affect population growth, maximum population, and/or happiness of the system.

We simply don’t know candidly.

Technology Level

Technology Level dictates, among other things, what services are “online” at ports in the system. There is a minimum technology level (35) for shipyards to come online at ports, but that mechanic is in the process of being modified.

Technology Level also appears to affect modules available in outfitting at ports (full module selection seems to become available at around tech level 100, though more research is needed.)

We don’t know if Technology Level has other effects.

Development Level

Development level appears to affect the volume of available commodities in markets. But even this is anecdotal.

We simply don’t know candidly.

“Initial” Population

“Initial” population appears to be amount of population added to the system when the facility is initially constructed.

Note that this value also depends on the local body where the facility is built (a Coriolis built around an Earth Like World or Water World appears to contribute a significantly higher population amount than, say, one built around an icy body.)

Regarding the effect of population on facilities in a given system, FDEV’s official patch notes say: The overall level of facility output is determined by the population associated with that facility - a higher population results in greater output of commodities.

“Max” Population

“Max” population presumably affects the size of the overall “cap” affecting how high the population in a system can ultimately grow to become. But this is entirely anecdotal.

We don’t know if the local body has an effect on this statistic in a way similar to the “initial” population impact, though we would presume so.

We simply don’t know candidly.

Regarding population growth, FDEV’s official patch notes say: Populations [sic] will grow on each weekly maintenance tick. Populations [sic] growth is based on a curve and will grow quickly for the first month before slowing to a more gradual pace, enabling quick establishment of strong economies.

Happiness

“Happiness” is a factor in the amount of credits you earn weekly for the systems you architected.

It is not directly influenced by facilities.

We do not know at this stage if “Happiness,” as it pertains to system architect payments, is the same concept or relates to “Happiness” of system factions.

We have reason to believe that system states do affect “Happiness” with positive ones raising it (such as Boom) and negative ones reducing it (such as Outbreak.)

We don’t know at this stage if other system statistics (Wealth, SoL, etc.) affect “Happiness” in any way.

Since the impact on overall gameplay of “Happiness” is truly minimal, this has not been a significant area of research for the community. Any serious study/input is welcome and we’ll gladly add it here!

What To Consider When Selecting A Primary Port?

Note that the location of the Primary Port in a given system is fixed and cannot be changed. It can be previewed by using the system map in architect mode and looking for the little “flag” icon inside an orbital slot designation.

The following factors should be taken into account when choosing what type of primary port to build:

1) What is your intent for the system?

If you’re colonizing a system just to bridge to another place, you will most definitely want to build just a simple outpost; if you plan to “build up” the system instead you may want to consider T2 or even T3 alternatives, if the local body of the primary port is of interest.

Primary Ports in “bridge” systems should obviously be outposts.

2) Will you be building the primary port solo or will a community be involved?

Building an outpost requires a minimum of 29 cutter-loads of hauling (and in practice several more) to complete. That number skyrockets to 267 when building an Orbis. Think carefully about how much time and effort you and others are willing to put into the build, also taking into account the 4-week time-limit of a primary-port build.

A solo player should almost always select an outpost as a primary port, unless they are highly determined and have set aside the necessary time and resources to build something bigger from the get-go.

3) How far is the primary port from the drop-point in the system?

A primary port 20 Ls away from the A star will be accessible to build and will be easy to reach once built. A primary port 250,000 Ls parked at a moon of a planet orbiting the C star essentially forces you to build it relying on carriers, and will be a pain to reach in the future as well.

Primary Ports located at B, C, or further-out stars (and, in some rare cases, far-away planets at A stars) should almost¹² always be an outpost.

4) What is the local body associated with the primary port? How many planetary and orbital slots does it have?

If you intend to build up the system as a refinery, are willing to invest the time, and the primary port happens to be orbiting a 7-slot rocky planet right next to the A star, by all means go ahead and build a Coriolis (or even Orbis/Ocellus) as your primary port.

Conversely if you want to make the system into an industrial powerhouse and the primary port orbits a main sequence star, you will almost certainly want to pick an industrial outpost as the primary port (a Coriolis or Commercial outpost would pick up Military from the main sequence star) and eventually build a Coriolis (or better) later around an icy body in the system.

The number of orbital and planetary slots around/on the local body to which the primary port is attached also matters. If you want a true refinery powerhouse, you’ll want a number of refinery hubs below it.

Conversely if you want to build the most wretched hive of scum and villainy in the galaxy, you’ll want to build a Criminal Outpost in a spot with as many orbital slots available as possible - as that’s where you will be building pirate bases to form strong links with it.

Primary Ports orbiting local bodies with base inherent economies that match your plan for the system are good candidates for T2 (or even T3) Primary Ports. Conversely, if there is no match, specialized outposts are recommended.

What To Consider When Selecting A System To Architect?

The following factors should be taken into account when selecting a system to architect:

1) What is your intent for the system?

Refineries rely on rocky planets. Industrial systems like icy bodies. Extraction centers want high metal content (or metal-rich) ones (bonus points if ringed) or a decent number of asteroid belts and ringed planets (to place asteroid bases). Tourism spots hinge on (whatever you want really, but presumably non-main-sequence stars and either Earth Like Worlds or Water Worlds.), etc.

Large planets (with more slots - up to 10 are possible, but more than 7 is very rare) are always preferable. A high number of space slots is always preferable.

“Tightly packed” planets/slots across a single main star are preferable (vs scattered planets across 5 separate and far-from-each-other stars.)

The characteristics of the system (number of slots, types of bodies) need to support your intent for said system.

2) Where is the primary port in the system?

You will probably want to know that the primary port is 250,000 Ls from the drop point BEFORE you commit to building an Orbis there …

The primary port must be located in a slot you are willing to commit to build at.

3) How far is the closest large-pad refinery?

Bringing hundreds of cutter-loads of metals over 1,000 LYs all the way from the bubble to the middle of nowhere is rather inconvenient. Make sure you appreciate where the closest refinery is to where you are building.

A large-pad refinery must be present within an acceptable (per your own definition) range of your target system.

4) How far from the nearest inhabited system is your target?

Only systems within 15 LY of a populated system (excluding pre-populated systems outside of the bubble) can be directly claimed. Anything beyond that range requires bridging.

How many bridge outposts (if any) are you willing to build to reach your target system?

5) Will the claim be competitive?

If you expect the claim to be competitive, you should do your best to put in place sniping-prevention tactics (see dedicated section in this document.)

Competitive claims require special considerations.

How To Haul Effectively And Make Best Use Of Carriers?

Note: This section was written before the Panther Clipper Mk2 was released, and will be updated once the new hauler becomes available.

Optimizing Hauling

The best haulers in the game are:

The Imperial Cutter for those with the Imperial rank of Duke (or higher)
The Type 9 for those without said Imperial rank

See “getting started” section in this document for suggested build links.

Unless you plan on flying manually all the time, your hauler will likely greatly benefit from having supercruise assist and an advanced docking computer. The supercruise assist module can also be used to “hyperbrake¹³” at orbital sites.

Having a friend wing with you and AFK at your destination can also speed things up significantly - as dropping using wingman navlock is significantly faster than even hyperbraking with supercruise assist.

Using bookmarks speeds up use of the galaxy and system map for navigation, and using hotkeys for galaxy and system map speeds up accessing those menus.

Where possible, using trailblazer megaships to stock up is ideal - as they are very quick to reach and dock at, and stock most materials required for colonization (including materials which are otherwise planetary-only, and thus much slower to acquire). Carrier parking spots may be limited around them however.

Depending on where you’re building, you may be better off doing short trips loading and unloading your carrier (if you have one), rather than doing direct hauls from source to destination.
An Imperial Cutter On Its Way To Deliver A Load Of Metals To A Planetary Construction Site

Optimizing Carriers

Carriers are incredibly useful considering the enormous amount of hauling that colonization requires and the vast distances that often need to be covered to bring resources to where they are needed.

The best use of carriers is to strip down the carrier to have only the following truly essential modules: Rearm, Refuel, Repair. This way you will achieve a maximum of 24,070 cargo capacity (aka metahauling).

The general principle is to use your ships to do short, quick hauls from the supplying station to the carrier, and use the carrier to do big moves of resources, and then to transfer from the carrier to the colonisation ship (or site) at the other end.

Transferring cargo at carriers is frustratingly slow when using the transfer screen in your right panel. You are much better off placing a market sell order (to yourself) for the resources you want to deliver and “buy them” from the carrier market (be careful what price you set if your carrier is open for all to dock at!)

Carriers also allow to set market orders so that other players can earn credits while e.g., loading up your carrier while you sleep. This can quickly get expensive, as the going rate to short-haul 1t of cargo is in the 30,000-60,000cr range. Even at just 30k per ton, it’ll cost you \~720m credits to have other players fill up a 24,000ton carrierload. If you’re going this route, make sure to connect your CMDR’s account to Inara and/or post orders on the trade bulletin of the Fleet Carriers Owners Club and/or PTN discords - those are two primary ways CMDRs who want to haul for credits find orders to fill. Note that you will still have to unload your carrier yourself. Services that aim to help with that as well do exist, but they are comparatively immature and quite clunky at this time.

A Victory-Class Fleet Carrier Arriving Into A System, Ready To Unload Commodities For Colonization

“Contractors” And Community Support

Various communities offer their services either for free or on a contract basis to support players with their colonization efforts. These include, but are not limited to:

Case Study #1: Building An “Ideal” Refinery System

An “ideal” refinery would meet the following criteria:

Has a large-pad spaceport with the highest refinery economy strength possibly
Has said large-pad spaceport as close as possible to the system jump-in point
Has no non-refinery weak or strong links affecting said market
Has a high system population (to boost market production)
Has pristine (or major) reserves (as these boost [refinery] strong links)
[Optional] Has high system security

To architect such a system, the most-ideal location for a port would be in orbit of a 7-planetary-slot rocky planet orbiting in close proximity of the A-star, with at least one associated orbital slot

It is important that said rocky planet does NOT have rings, geologicals, or biologicals as those would introduce the wrong economy-types to our port.
Ideally said planet would have pristine reserves (as these boost refinery strong links)

Such an ideal system would also ideally have a Water World anywhere in the system

Building a T2 or T3 station around a Water World results in a huge population boost (and thus production boost) for the system as a whole

The Primary Port slot does not need to be in our “ideal” location, but it should not interfere with our primary refinery:

If our primary port DOES happen to be in the “ideal” location, all the better - can skip the step of building this outpost and the necessary infrastructure to build a non-primary T2 or T3 spaceport, and start with a T2 or T3 from the get-go
If you build anywhere other than the ideal location, make sure you don’t later convert this primary port to a “supporting facility” (see specific section in this document), as that would make it emit weak links which would likely interfere with your refinery.

Assuming the above is sorted, we would architect and build as follows:

Complete the primary port: any port which won’t interfere with your refinery
Lay down and complete 3 satellites and 3 communication stations in any available orbital slots (making sure to leave at least one open orbital slot in our “ideal” location)
We use a combination of satellites and communication stations as neither of them have any type of economic influence, and they have perfectly complementary system stats
Using the 7 yellow CPs (six from the installations, one from the primary port), build 7 refinery hubs on our “ideal location” rocky planet
Using 6 of the 7 green CPs awarded us by the hubs, build an Orbis or Ocellus in an orbital slot at our “ideal location”
The resulting Orbis/Ocellus should have 7 strong links, boosted by pristine reserves, in addition to the inherent refinery economy from the rocky body, for a total of: 1.4 [Rocky Planet] + 7 * 0.8 * 1.5 [Strong Refinery Links, modified by pristine reserves] + 1 * 0.05 [Weak Refinery Link] \= 9.85 Refinery Economic Strength
Note: If you want access to planetary materials as well, at the “cost” of less convenient access to your port and one fewer refinery hub, you can drop one of the 7 hubs, and build a T3 Planetary Port instead of the Orbis/Ocellus
[Optional] Build a combination of three satellite/commstations anywhere else in the system, and then use the three yellow CPs to build a Coriolis in orbit of the Water World
[Optional] Build additional comm stations coupled with government installations until system security reaches “high”
While both military and security installations provide MUCH higher system security stats, they also introduce the military economy type and associated weak links (a security installation also requires a relay as a prerequisite to be built, which would introduce a hitech weak link as well, and a military installation needs a military settlement as a prerequisite, with similar issues); comm stations and government installations instead provide security WITHOUT introducing a military economy
Alternatively, if you really want to go all-out, flip the order of 5 and 6, build five comm stations and five gov installations and use the 5 + 1 from earlier green CPs to build ANOTHER Orbis (instead of the Coriolis), in orbit of the Water World, for an even higher population boost (at the price of much lost sanity :) )

A sheet-implementation of the above is available here (note the three tabs for the three variations described under “Colony 1”, “Colony 2”, and “Colony 3”):

While real-world scenarios will certainly differ from this “ideal” example, it is hopefully helpful in understanding how “efficient” system architecture operates in practice.

That being said, it’s always helpful to keep in mind that architecting for peak market efficiency is hardly the only way to go about it in a game like Elite.

Do what inspires you, and what feels like fun!

Case Study #2: Producing CMM Composites

A lot of players have been asking about how to produce CMM Composites, which are a commodity required in high volumes for the construction of larger ports.

Producing CMM composites is surprisingly simple - noting one needs to appreciate that CMM Composites (much like Ceramic Composites) are produced only at planetary ports with a refinery economy.

Also note that while NPC ports further have the requirement of having to be based on High Metal Content worlds, such restriction does NOT apply to player-built ports. A player can theoretically produce CMMs on most colonizable planet types (noting that attempting to do so on icy planets would prove extremely challenging, if not outright impossible.)

The easiest way to produce CMM Composites is the following:

Identify and claim a system with at least one “clean” rocky planet (no rings, no biologicals, no geologicals) which has at least one planetary construction slot
Build a Primary Port that won’t interfere with a refinery economy (i.e., make sure you don’t convert it to a supporting facility later on.)
Build a Tier 1 Civilian [Planetary] Outpost on your rocky body

That’s it! The Tier 1 Civilian [Planetary] Outpost will pick up a Refinery economy from the Rocky local body, and will be producing CMMs without the need for any supporting infrastructure.

Note that because such a system will have a pretty small population and pretty low economy strength and system statistics, production volume for CMMs will be somewhat low to start.

If you have additional time and the planet has additional planetary slots available, you can also build two Refinery Hubs to boost CMM Composites production if you want - and any other facilities that boost system population (without introducing competing economies) will also help boost production volumes.

This example is shown in the “Colony 4” tab of the demo spreadsheet (same as above.)

Bugs, Known Issues, And Possible Workarounds

Colonization is still in Beta; multiple issues still exist. Some have workarounds and some don’t.

We tried to capture a list here. This is likely incomplete, but hopefully will serve as a reference for players.

Issue Name	Issue Tracker Link	Issue Description	Workaround
Facilities end up misplaced	https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/73282	Certain orbital slots are too-close to a given body and result in “not enough space” to place said facility, which then ends up randomly placed elsewhere in the system	Be careful about using Slot 0 around stars
Incorrect links passed from planetary to spaceports	https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/75343 (Expired)	Planetary ports should “pass on” strong links to local spaceports, based on local planetary facilities. They don’t, and instead pass on planetary intrinsic economies (which then the spaceport receives twice - once directly from the planet, and once from strong links from the port below)	Don’t build more than one port on or around a single local body
Orbital Station Moves Away at High Speed - Unable to Dock	https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/75280	Under certain conditions the frame of reference for orbital construction sites is incorrect, and such sites become impossible to reach	Avoid building around closely-orbiting moons and/or binary bodies in close proximity to each other
List of commanders who completed station missing.	https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/74618	CMDR’s contribution isn’t correctly reported in ports bulletin board	Learn to live with a bruised ego for the time being
"You are in danger" quitting delay shown when landed on construction site	https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/73254	Logging off at construction sites triggers the 30-second “in danger” countdown timer	Wait out the timer, or log out elsewhere

How To Provide Feedback, Document Roadmap, And Special Thanks

Colonization in Elite: Dangerous is an incredibly complex topic, as the existence of this still-vastly-incomplete 50+ page document proves.

The first thing we want to do is to gather community feedback on this “beta” document, and fix any errors or oversights we may have left in here (despite our best attempts at doing our best QC, the scope of this document is massive and errors are bound to have slipped through.) To provide input in this regards, you’re welcome to do so in any of these channels:

On CMDR Mechan’s YouTube channel, through comments on the announcement video of this document
On the Reddit post announcing this document
On the Frontier Forums thread announcing this document
In the Anti-Xeno Initiative Discord server, in channel [#colonize-goids-away] in the “Operations” section.

Once we are out-of-beta with a v1.5-or-so of this document, we would love to expand by adding information as follows, as we work towards a possible v2.0 version of this document:

Precise data on market strength of various facilities
We began collecting but only have partial data about these so far
Additional science pertaining to how exactly system statistics work
Potentially other things which the community feels would be helpful and appropriate for this “colonization instruction manual”

Special Thanks:

CMDRs Absence of Gravitas, AlexMG1, and Jayzet for their input, thought partnership and help with revisions and QC of this document
The Canonn #colonization_department channel participants for their invaluable input
All Xeno Strike Force and Anti Xeno initiative community members for the input, thought partnership, help and support
All other community members who have provided input, sent data, traded ideas, or otherwise contributed directly and indirectly to this guide
CMDR DaftMav for his incredible system planning spreadsheet!

Appendix A: Colonization In-Game Codex

Appendix B: Trailblazers Updates 3.3 & 3.0 Patch Notes

Sources:

Note: Only colonization-related sections were included here for brevity
Note: Update 3.3 patch notes were updated AFTER they were published; the strikethrough sections highlight the post-publishing changes

Elite Dangerous: Trailblazers - Update 3.3

Greetings Commanders,

During this Thursday's maintenance we will be releasing an update for Elite Dangerous with some improvements to System Colonisation. As this is taking place during maintenance the downtime may potentially be longer than previous weeks.

Features of Note

Fixed multiple causes of station services not activating as intended.
Fixed limited instances of services being active without the required conditions.
This will most notably affect commodity markets at outposts in 'chaining' systems, which consist solely of a single outpost.

Station Services
The requirements for station service activation have been updated to create additional ways to activate them. A complete list for each service is provided below:

Commodities Market:
All tier 2 and tier 3 Ports
All Settlements
Commercial, Industrial, Civilian Outposts ~~plus one of the following:~~
- ~~Strong link to a Comms Installation or Relay Station~~
- ~~Tourist Installation or Bar Installation or Outpost Hub in the same system~~
Criminal, Scientific, and Military Outposts plus:
- Strong link to a Comms Installation or Relay Station
- Tourist Installation or Bar Installation or Outpost Hub in the same system
Shipyard (Note: always requires a minimum system tech level of 35)
Tier 2 or 3 port
- Note: Tech level 35 is immediately granted when a Tier 2 or 3 port is built.
- Tier 1 Planet Port plus one of the following:
- Strong link to a Comms Installation or Relay Station
- ~~Tourist Installation or Bar Installation or Outpost Hub in the same system~~
- Military Installation or Industrial Hub built in system
Strong link to a High Tech Hub or Military Installation or Industrial Hub built in system
Outfitting (Note: always requires a minimum system tech level of 35)
Tier 2 or 3 port
- Note: Tech level 35 is immediately granted when a Tier 2 or 3 port is built.
Military Outpost
Tier 1 Industrial Planet Port
Non Military Outpost or Non Industrial Tier 1 Planet Port plus one of the following:
- Strong link to an Industrial Hub
- Military Installation or High Tech Hub built in system
Universal Cartographics
Tier 3 Port
Scientific Outpost
Tier 1 or 2 Port plus one of the following:
- Strong link to a Satellite Installation, Comms Installation or Relay Station
- Scientific Installation or Exploration Hub built in system
Research Bio Settlements
Vista Genomics
Tier 3 Port
Scientific Outpost
Tier 1 or 2 Port plus one of the following:
- Strong link to a Satellite Installation, Comms Installation or Relay Station
- Medical Installation or Scientific Hub built in system
Black Market
Pirate Outpost
Any port plus strong link to a Pirate Installation
Crew Lounge
Tier 2 or 3 port
Criminal and Civilian Outposts
Tier 1 Civilian Planet Ports
Tier 1 Port of any other type plus Bar Installation built in the system
Pioneer Supplies
Tier 2 or 3 port
Military Outpost
Tier 1 Industrial Planet Port

Station interiors will now change based on the highest proportion economy present at that station.

On each Thursday maintenance, economy proportions will be checked and interiors will change as required.

Fixes

Fixed instances of undockable facilities having active services. This also resolves the map inaccurately stating that services are available at ports within a system.
Fixed specific instances where shipyard/outfitting did not activate as expected following update 3.1.
Fixed planet ports with a space port around the same body having a lower population than expected.
Additional fixes for positional errors resulting in fleet carriers and constructions being placed too close to dangerous stars.

***

Elite Dangerous: Trailblazers - Update 3

Greetings Commanders,

We will be releasing The Trailblazers Update 3 on Wednesday April 30. This update features a number of improvements to Colonisation economies and Powerplay merits, alongside a range of other fixes and improvements.

Colonisation

The operation of economies and population growth within player colonised systems have been extensively reworked following player feedback. These changes are designed to allow significantly more flexibility in building out systems to create any desired economy, and to significantly boost the economic output of colonised systems.

Economic changes

Links will now automatically be created between completed constructions within systems. Links enable supporting facilities to supply a proportion of their economy to ports across the entire system, increasing the supply, demand and types of commodities available and altering shipyard and outfitting stock.
All constructions are divided into two types for the purpose of creating links: Ports and Supporting Facilities
- Ports includes Outposts, Coriolis/Orbis/Ocellus Stations, Asteroid bases, Planetary Ports and Planetary Port Outposts
- Supporting Facilities includes Settlements, Installations and Hubs
Two types of link are available: Strong and Weak. A strong link provides a higher economic boost than a weak link
- Strong links are created between a port and any facility located on or around the same local planetary body. They may also be created between ports if there are multiple of this type on or around the same body
- In the event multiple ports are present, the highest tier port will be linked to. If both ports are of the same tier, the port which was built first will be selected
- In the event both a planetary and space-based ports are present, planetary facilities will create strong links with the planetary port, which will pass these strong links on to the orbital port following the same prioritisation rules regarding tier and build order
- Weak links are created between ports and supporting facilities located on different bodies within the same system
- Both types of link can be present, enabling a supporting facility to supply the economies of multiple ports
- Links can only be created between facilities and ports, or between ports. Facilities cannot link to each other
- Multiple economy types can be present in a port. If additional economy types are present at a port via links, this will proportionally introduce trade of commodities represented by these additional economy types.
The below infographic details these links in action:
- Body 1 has a facility on the ground and in orbit, with a tier 1 and tier 2 port also in orbit
- Strong links are created to the tier 2 port, as this is the highest tier port around this body
  - Weak links are created to the port on Body 2
- Body 2 has a ground port and a facility in orbit
  - The ground port receives weak links from the body 1 facilities and lower tier port
  - A weak link is created supplying the tier 2 port at body 1
These links will be retrospectively created for all existing colonised systems during the patch downtime
Alternations have been made to the construction user interface flow to expose links that have already been created, and will be created on completing a construction
Additionally, strong links are subject to boosts or decreases in economic supply performance by the characteristics of the host system or body. Weak links are unaffected by this mechanic. Potential boosts/decreases are listed below:
- Agriculture economy:
- Boosted by:
  - Orbiting an Earth like world
  - On or orbiting a terraformable body
  - On or orbiting a body with organics
- Decreased by:
  - On or orbiting an icy body
  - On or orbiting a planet that is tidally locked to its star
  - On or orbiting a moon that is tidally locked to its planet and its subsequent parent planet(s) are tidally locked to the star
- Extraction Economy:
- Boosted by:
  - In a system with major or pristine resources
  - On or orbiting a body with volcanism
- Decreased by:
  - In a system with low or depleted resources
- High Tech Economy:
- Boosted by:
  - Orbiting an ammonia world
  - Orbiting an earth like world
  - On or orbiting a body with geologicals
  - On or orbiting a body with organics
- Decreased by:
  - Nil
- Industrial and Refinery Economies:
- Boosted by:
  - In a system with major or pristine resources
- Decreased by:
  - In a system with low or depleted resources
- Tourism Economy:
- Boosted by:
  - Orbiting an ammonia world
  - In a system with a black hole
  - Orbiting an earth like world
  - On or orbiting a body with geologicals
  - On or orbiting a body with organics
  - Orbiting a water world
  - In a system with a white dwarf
  - In a system with a neutron star
- Decreased by:
- Nil
- As an example – Body 1 is a world with volcanism which has a port in orbit and an agricultural facility and extraction facility on the surface. The strong link from the extraction facility to the port will be strengthened while the strong link from the agricultural facility will not.
Constructions which have a Colony economy listed in the construction options will now have this overridden depending on the body the construction is on or orbiting.
- These overrides are as follows:
- Black holes, Neutron Stars, White Dwarves
  - HighTech
  - Tourism
- Brown Dwarves and all other star types
  - Military
- Earth like worlds
  - Agriculture
  - Hightech
  - Military
  - Tourism
  - Water world
  - Agriculture
  - Tourism
- Ammonia world
  - HighTech
  - Tourism
- Gas giant
  - HighTech
  - Industrial
- High metal content and metal rich world
  - Extraction
  - Rocky ice
  - Industrial
  - Refinery
- Rocky
  - Refinery
- Icy
  - Industrial
- Has rings (includes stars with asteroid belts)
  - Extraction
- Has organics
  - Agriculture
  - Terraforming
- Has geologicals
  - Extraction
  - Industrial
- These overrides may stack. As an example – for a high metal content world with organics, its overrides will be Extraction, in addition to Agriculture and Terraforming.

Population Growth Changes

The overall level of facility output is determined by the population associated with that facility - a higher population results in greater output of commodities. With the colonisation beta release, this population number was at a reduced level for balancing purposes.
With this update, populations will now be significantly increased, enabling commanders to build fully operational economies and supply chains for self-sustaining colonisation efforts.
Populations within colonised systems will now grow at a significantly faster rate with a significantly higher population limit. Overall population capacity remains determined by the port and facility types built within a system.
Populations will grow on each weekly maintenance tick. Populations growth is based on a curve and will grow quickly for the first month before slowing to a more gradual pace, enabling quick establishment of strong economies.

Additional Changes

Law and order around system colonisation ships and construction sites is now enforced by Brewer Corporation.
Brewer Corporation has elected to begin naming it's system colonisation ships.

Port Customisation

Added "Facility Customisation" button within Station Services for architects when docked at their orbital facilities. This allows architects to apply paintjobs to the following:
Coriolis Stations
Ocellus Stations
Orbis Stations
Asteroid Bases
Outposts

This is NOT reported in the patch notes, but IS reported in the in-game Codex, and experimental verification proved that the latter source is correct. ↩
Primary Ports present an exception to this rule, as they generate their applicable construction points but do NOT require any construction points to be built as the initial Port in a given system. ↩
This is a meme and an inside joke about CMDR Mechan’s almost-universally-criticized preference (to the point of him being jokingly labeled the “Krait Mk2 2m2s salesman”) for a widely-considered-undergunned Krait Mk2 ↩
The exact formula is: Weekly Earnings \= (System Score) * (10,000) * (1 + System Happiness) ↩
Note that purchasing an Imperial Cutter requires an Imperial Navy rank of Duke or higher. If you do choose to purchase one, note that the Summerland discount (which applies not only to the initial ship purchase, but lowers ALL future rebuys) is still 30% from a long-past community goal (and not 10% like the wiki says. Inara is also incorrect on this one.) Buy your Imperial Cutter in Summerland! ↩
As described above, keep in mind that the Primary Port DOES NOT COUNT towards this limit. ↩
You may occasionally see economy strengths expressed as percentages. For all intents and purposes, 1.0 \= 100% and can be used interchangeably. We prefer the absolute notation as the concept of “100%” is meaningless as it pertains to economy types and strengths, and economy strengths can and do routinely go well above 1 [100%]. ↩
While geologicals boost extraction, they also introduce an industrial market, which interferes with extraction more than the extraction boost helps ↩
While geologicals boost industrial, they introduce extraction which interferes with industrial more than the boost ↩
While an Earth-Like-World also works, the additional economies of an ELW are undesirable for a specialized Agriculture port ↩
Gas giants and ELWs are undesirable for specialized hitech markets given their economy mixes ↩
If you find something like dual Earth-Like-Worlds orbiting a ringed Neutron [B] star and want to make it the ultimate tourist destination, that might possibly be an exception to this rule. ↩
Supercruise assist, to a certain degree, can drop you at your target even when travelling above the “blue zone” velocity normally required for a drop. This can be leveraged to significantly speed up supercruise travel. ↩

Elite Dangerous Colonization Mega Guide

Version 1.3.2 Beta

Written by CMDR Mechan, with input/additions/comments/suggestions/corrections from dozens of CMDRs across a number of communities

Revision History

Table of Contents

Terms And Definitions

Why Colonize? Purpose, Goals, and Downsides

What Do You Need To Get Started?

How To Claim A System? Bridging, Claiming, And The Issue With Sniping

Finding a Colonization Contact

Making a Claim & Selecting the Primary Port

Deploying the System Colonization Beacon

Building the Primary Port

Bridging Towards Far-Away Claims

The Issue With System Sniping, And How To Defend Against It

How To Architect A System? Construction Points, And A Tool You Will Love

Introduction To Building Up A System

Before You Start: CP-Cost Increases For Tier 2 And Tier 3 Ports

How To Effectively Plan For System Construction

The Value Of Space Versus Ground Slots

Naming And Customizing Your Facilities

Enabling Services At Ports

How Do Colony-Type Ports Gain Economies? Base Inheritable Economy + Modifiers

What Are Strong & Weak Links? How Are They Modified By Link Modifiers?

Strong Links

Weak Links

Special Case: Port-to-Port Strong Links

Special Case: When Ports Convert To Being Supporting Facilities

What Do Security, Wealth, SoL, Tech Level, Dev Level, And Population Do?

Security

Wealth

Standard of Living

Technology Level

Development Level

“Initial” Population

“Max” Population

Happiness

What To Consider When Selecting A Primary Port?

What To Consider When Selecting A System To Architect?

How To Haul Effectively And Make Best Use Of Carriers?

Optimizing Hauling

Optimizing Carriers

“Contractors” And Community Support

Case Study #1: Building An “Ideal” Refinery System

Case Study #2: Producing CMM Composites

Bugs, Known Issues, And Possible Workarounds

How To Provide Feedback, Document Roadmap, And Special Thanks

Appendix A: Colonization In-Game Codex

Appendix B: Trailblazers Updates 3.3 & 3.0 Patch Notes