Every Star Captain starts the same way: one foothold on a hostile planet. That is Act 1. In Dominion you found your colony, raise the Command Spire and win the planet sector by sector in card battles, until no rival flag is left.
Unify that world and Act 2 begins. Planetary invasions are live, and they take your war off your home planet and onto the Galactic Map.
Act 2 opens at your first unification
Unify your home planet at any difficulty and invasions unlock for good, even if you later found a new colony. Until then, a world card on the Galactic Map shows Act 2 · Unify your planet in Dominion where Declare would be.
Five stages to take a world
Declare. Pick a world on your faction's front line and declare. You always invade for your own faction, the faction of your home colony. You run one invasion at a time. A staging window of up to 48 hours opens, and Commander victories on that world while you stage soften its garrison.
Orbital assault. Take your Flagship into the system. Break the defence fleet wave by wave, bring down the shield and destroy the orbital batteries. On a held world, relief transports try to run your blockade. The fight earns an orbital grade from A to C, and a good grade buys help on the ground: a silenced enemy battery, your fleet's own guns and Drop Troops on your side.
Planetfall. Dropships burn down through the atmosphere and land under fire. Then come the card battles: the Landing Zone, and on bigger worlds the Capital after it, each against a named Garrison Commander with the world's defences as rules. Every battle is dealt and checked by the server. Win the last one and the world flies your faction's banner.
Pacify. Taking a world is not holding it. You have 24 hours to clear its Unrest. Suppress the holdouts in a short card battle, restore the grid, issue a decree to win hearts, and then put down the counter-landing, when the faction you took the world from lands to take it back.
The claim. Clear the Unrest, and the next time you open the Galactic Map the banner rises over the capital. You are named Governor of that world and the Galactic Report carries the headline. Your first conquest makes you a Conqueror, and the first Star Captain each season to invade a world and govern it earns the Galaxy First Planetbreaker.
The stakes
Once a battle is dealt, leaving it counts as a loss, so commit when you go in. A lost planetfall battle throws you back and the garrison recovers a step, though you can drop again while staging is open. Lose the counter-landing and Unrest climbs again. If the 24 hours run out, the world stays with your faction, but you are not its Governor.
Every difficulty counts, Cadet through Admiral. Higher difficulties pay more War Marks, and none is locked out of any stage, any world or the Governor's seat. Invasions pay War Marks at every stage and goods for your colony, never Galactic Credits.
Conquest on the Galactic Leaderboard
Every planetfall, holdout and counter-landing battle you win adds a Victory on the Galactic Leaderboard at its difficulty, up to 10 a day.
Your worlds in Dominion
Each world you govern has a home in Dominion, beside your colony. The world switcher at the top of the screen moves between them in one click (or [ and ], LB and RB on a gamepad) and shows each world's garrison, supplies and status.
Conquered worlds are focused colonies that fill their own stores while supplied. Ship the stores home, or spend them on the world itself:
- Open plots that suit the world, from an Aquafarm on an ocean world to a Railgun Battery on a forge world.
- Unique buildings for each world type, such as the Slag Forge, the Choir Archive or the Refit Cradle.
- Your faction's outpost, with its own twist on that world.
Buildings on a conquered world reach level 3 at most, and never more than your home Command Spire minus two. Home stays the heart of your empire.
Worlds that defend themselves
Raiders probe your conquered worlds most days. The garrison, its defence buildings and your faction's outpost beat them back without you, and a routine raid never takes a world. You are called in only when it matters: a counter-landing, a retake fleet, or a raid two steps stronger than the defence. Each one arrives as a Defence call on the world switcher, with a link straight to the Galactic Map.
You can also appoint a Commander of level 10 (Colonel) or higher as a world's governor. Their traits strengthen its defence and output, their voice brings its reports, and that world stops counting against your command span. They take no sorties while they govern, and you can recall them at any time.
Two new achievements reward the governors you appoint: Sector Lord for two governed worlds at once, and High Steward for four.
Go take a world
Unify your home planet in Dominion, then open the Galactic Map and pick a target on your front line. Ultra War is free to play in your browser at ultrawar.io.
Early access
Play Ultra War
Card battles, your own colony world and a Flagship to fly, in your browser. Ultra War is in early access, alpha playtesting.
What’s new
In these releases
The dispatches from v0.10.372 to v0.10.381, as they appear on the Command Deck.
- Your colony keeps its builds
Star Captain, queuing a district past your tenth of a kind no longer stops your colony loading. If a cloud restore ever replaces your colony, the one you had is kept for 7 days: Colony settings, Restore the colony you had before.
- Research says what it did
Star Captain, every finished research now tells you what it changed, and each node in the Research Lab shows its effect and where it stands.
- How it all fits
Star Captain, a short brief on the war, your colony and your Flagship, and where to push, from the Galactic Map and the Flagship’s More list.
- Stations and bookmarks
Star Captain, L now reaches stations and Market Hubs too, and you can bookmark up to five favourite places with End. Travel (F6) lists them.
Field Manual: Scanning and targeting Field Manual: Autopilot
- Smoother and lighter
The Galactic Map does less work every frame, achievements no longer re-save to the cloud every few minutes, and Friends checks in less often from background tabs.
- Your report code
Star Captain, Settings now shows a short report code under Privacy and data. Use it to file a bug from our Discord once reports open there. It only links the report to you, and you can change it any time.
- Undock and jettison
Star Captain, Jettison and Scrap work as soon as you undock. No more flying 5 km out first.
- Targets beside an ore field
L now reaches the planets and moons beside an ore field: the marked rocks first, then the bodies, so a pulse jump is always one key away.
- Clearer goals and rewards
Quest hints now tell you where the home pirates gather: round your home world. The Dominion Rank track keeps every reward you have not claimed yet, daily goals tell you when new ones arrive, and the top bar switches to icons before its buttons can overlap.
- Worlds that defend themselves
Your conquered worlds now defend themselves. Garrisons, defence buildings and your faction’s outpost beat back daily raids, and you are called in only for landings, retake fleets or raids two steps too strong. Appoint a Colonel or higher as governor: their traits strengthen the world, their voice brings its reports, and the world stops counting against your command span. New achievements: Sector Lord and High Steward.
- Conquered worlds can build
Each conquered world now fills its own stores: ship them home, or spend them on its unique buildings, open plots and your faction’s outpost, up to level 3 as your home Command Spire grows.
- Invasions, painted
Star Captain, invasions now have their own paintings: your faction’s fleet massing when you declare, the orbital assault, the burning descent and the landing, then the banner raised, your investiture as Governor and the Galactic Report.
- A cleaner Galactic Map
The map now fills the screen: news, the Galactic Report, the Muster and your course share one feed, Star Captains in the galaxy is a single chip, and the controls hide behind a ? button. Commanders are compact rows that carry their own sortie timer and Watch button, and the world panel puts Deploy and Plot course first with the rest folded away.
- Your worlds in Dominion
Star Captain, your conquered worlds now have a home in Dominion: switch between your colony and every world you govern, check its garrison’s supplies and collect its boon in one click.
- Invasions are Act 2
Planetary invasions are now Act 2: unify your home planet in Dominion to open them on the Galactic Map. Every difficulty counts, and they stay open for good.
- Invasions are live
Star Captain, invasions are open. Declare one from the Galactic Map, break the orbital defence in your Flagship, drop onto the world and beat its garrison, hold it through the Unrest and be named its Governor. Leaving a dealt battle counts as a loss, so commit when you go in.
- Conquest counts
Conquering a world now counts on the Galactic Leaderboard: every planetfall and pacification battle you win adds a Victory at its difficulty, up to 10 a day.
- Invasions are coming
Star Captain, planetary invasions are built and being readied: declare an invasion from the Galactic Map, take your Flagship into orbit to break the defence fleet, the shield and the batteries, drop onto the world and fight its garrison commanders, hold it through a day of Unrest, and be named its Governor. They switch on soon.
18 dispatches · scroll, or click one to read it all