Welcome the new Age! Stellar Age: Discovery is about to begin

Humanity has left the solar system behind. Out among the stars, you pick up a faint signal from a distant but habitable world – planet Hendron, as you later discover. What's buried on that planet looks to be remnants of an ancient civilization, and studying it will take Ages. Looks like you're here to stay, so you must make a new home for yourself among the stars. 

Welcome to the Stellar Age: Discovery, the first of the Stellar Ages and the start of a whole new chapter for your empire! You'll found a permanent second City, send missions deep into space to bring back rare elements, and slowly piece together what truly happened on this far away planet and where all of this Synthetic Intelligence Remnant is coming from.

Stellar Age: Discovery is the foundation for further exploration. We intend to open new Ages more frequently in the future, and more new mechanics will arrive as you grow increasingly more confident and powerful in the new Stellar Ages cycle. This is just the beginning.

Discover the first Stellar Age on BETA starting August 10th and keep reading to find out more about the mechanics!

Important! The future version 1.341 is required to test the update on mobile. Due to this, the Beta server will be unavailable in the general Forge of Empires mobile app until this version is distributed with the release on August 12th. In the meantime, you can test the update via the dedicated Beta app. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and hope you can enjoy the Age regardless.

A new City among the stars

Reaching the Stellar Age unlocks the permanent Stellar City that sits alongside the main. The familiar Spaceport, updated to match the Stellar Age look, will take you to your destination. 
As always with the new Ages, once you reach the Stellar Age: Discovery, the Space Age Space Hub settlement will be retired. However, the Stellar City is different from the Space Outposts you know. The City is here to stay, and will remain available in new Ages of the Stellar Cycle. It's our biggest map to date, meant to be filled in and refined over the course of multiple Stellar Ages to come.

The new City features 9 starting free Expansions, 9 Premium Expansions, and 16 Technology tree Expansions. The latter can be purchased with not just Forge Points, but also Stellar Age resources we will cover below.

Let's take a closer look at what you can build.


The Stellar City runs on its own resources, produced by its own buildings. As you progress through the Technology tree, you will gradually unlock more powerful buildings that produce the same resources, going from Basic to Enhanced to Advanced.

• Stellar Points - your main progression resource out here, produced by Stellar Beacons and boosted by Stellar Relays.
• Stellar Capacity - produced by Capacity Beacons and boosted by Capacity Relays. 
• Fusion Cells - basic energy for Missions, produced by the Fusion Cell Reactor.

Important for your planning: Stellar Points and Stellar Capacity both have a collection limit, so if your storage is full you won't be able to collect until you spend some, exactly like Forge Points in your Main City. 

Resources are scarce in space. The Stellar City cannot produce everything you need by itself, so you will need to launch Missions into space to find unique Goods, as well as a bit of support from your Main City – more on that in the Missions and Resource Flow sections. 

But none of this would be possible without a Crew. Besides managing it like you normally would population in the Main City, you'll need to carry on with the Technology research to make Engineers, Explorers, and Scientists available to you. These Workers are an important resource that will allow you to gain access to new buildings and improve your Stellar City efficiency. 

Missions: supply your City

The Mission System replaces the campaign map as your main way to push forward. Don't worry, the old campaign map is still there if you want to visit it. While similar to Exploration Cites from previous Space Ages, Missions begin the transition to a new way of exploration that offers more depth and flexibility. We start with simpler missions in the Age of Discovery and will build the system up with future Ages. However, you can already play with more attributes and choices than in the Space Ages cycle. 

In the Stellar Ages, Missions are one of the key driving forces behind your progress, together with the Technologies they provide resources for. 

So, how does one command Missions? You operate from the Mission Control Hub, which is available from from the HUD and an off-grid building.


Three Mission slots are available to you. The first opens with the Mission System itself; the other two unlock later through the research. Each Mission has multiple attributes, and some of them you can influence. 

Mission Attributes
Space missions are famously unpredictable, so prepare yourself for different challenges. The first of the Missions' attributes is their Rarity. The Rarity is determined automatically when you choose your Mission, and you can land on either Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, or Legendary. The Rarity affects Mission rewards and is represented with an icon on every Mission card in the Hub:


You will also see the Difficulty for every Mission, represented with stars, which focuses specifically on the main Mission objective: fighting or negotiating. 

But not all is left to chance. It is up to you to decide how deep you want to dive into space. The second of the Missions' attributes is Depth, and there's 5 possible stages. Orbital exploration is available to you from the get go, but to go deeper you will have to carry on with the Technology research:

	Depth	Required Technology
1	Orbital	Unlocked by default
2	Stellar	Expedition Command Initiative
3	Interstellar	Deep Space Signal Sources
4	Galactic	Void Extraction Refinement
5	Intergalactic	The Outreach Expansion Act

Once you've got the necessary Technologies unlocked, you can choose the Depth of your Mission using the arrows on the right side of the Mission card.

Every Mission has phases. You start by preparing your ship in Phase 1, then proceed to make your way to your goal in Phase 2, and are faced with the Mission objective in Phase 3. 

Tip: you will receive Missions that correspond to your overall power, including army boosts. So, they might prove to be more challenging than expected. Take a look at Historical Allies with new skills and one-time bonuses from GBs like the Kraken to give yourself the upper hand.

Mission Execution and Rewards 
The final Mission cost, duration, and rewards are decided by the combination of the preselected Mission Rarity and the Depth you choose. 

In the Stellar Age: Discovery, every Mission provides Encoded Tablets as a reward. In addition, you have a chance to find Void Shards, Goods, Special Goods, Units, Blueprints, or Fragments. While the number of Encoded Tablets you receive as a reward is determined by the Rarity, other rewards are random. You will be more likely to pull better rewards the deeper you go, but shallower Missions also have the capability to yield better rewards. 

Missions require Fusion Cells, Stellar Capacity, and Stellar points. The higher the mission Rarity, the more resources you'll need. The exact number will depend on the combination of the attributes: longer, more complicated Missions will cost more.

Not happy with what you got going on? You can re-roll Missions that haven't started yet to take a look at new combinations. Additionally, you can dismiss active Missions, but only when they are in Phases 2 and 3.

Tip: your very first Mission is preset designed to demonstrate the system. Play it through to get a feel for how everything fits together!

Research tree: branch out

The Technology tree gets a new twist: branching Technologies! At certain points of the research, you'll hit a node where you can pick only one path forward.

You'll have to make a conscious decision where to invest your Points, and the game will reflect it with additional confirmation windows. Once the choice is made here, the alternative path is locked in with no way to undo it, so think before you commit.

For now, there's just one alternative. Imagine if there were multiple? For this first Stellar Age we're keeping branching simple on purpose: it's here to teach the idea. We intend to continue building up the system, so expect more complexity as more Stellar Ages are unveiled.

Now to the costs. While you will still need Forge Points, the Stellar Age Technologies will also require Stellar Points. It's always one or the other. Build up your Stellar City to increase their production and continue researching further. 

Scientific research is key for a quest like yours, so unlocking Technologies will impact every aspect of your City development. 

Resource flow: where to find and spend

Stellar Age: Discovery offers many new resources, and not all of them are created equal. We've prepared this table to illustrate where each resource can be produced or found and where it should be applied next:

	Resource	Application	Source
	Crew	Population; Stellar City building	Basic/Enhanced/Advanced Habitat (residential)
	Workers	Stellar City building	Technology research
	Stellar Capacity	Stellar City building; Mission and Research Cost	Basic/Enhanced/Advanced Capacity Beacon (production)
	Stellar Points	Mission and Research Cost	Basic/Enhanced/Advanced Stellar Beacon (production)
	Fusion Cells	Mission and Research Cost	Fusion Cells Reaction
	Boost for Stellar Capacity	Increases Stellar Capacity output produced by buildings	Basic/Enhanced/Advanced Capacity Relay (boost)
	Boost for Stellar Points	Increases Stellar Points output produced by buildings	Basic/Enhanced/Advanced Stellar Relay (boost)
	Synthetic Intelligence Remnant	Choices in the Technology Tree	Technology research reward
	Encoded Tablets	Technology research	Mission System
	Void Shards	Special Goods for Technology research	Main City buildings (GB and Events), Mission System
	Stellar Age: Discovery Goods	Technology research	Main City buildings (GB and Events), Mission System, general rewards

New units 

The Stellar Age brings a full new military line, the FGX series, with six units to command. 

	Unit	Class	Skills	Attack	Defense	Bonuses	Range	Movement
	FGX-100 Champion	Heavy Unit	Reactive Armor (3) — Cannot take more than 3 damage per attack. Blast (10) — Gains attack bonus for each field closer to the target. Ignores stealth. Morale — All friendly units start the battle with 1 point of armor. Does not stack.	2040	2430	Attack Bonuses: on Plain 8000; vs Ranged Unit 8000 Defense Bonuses: on Plain 8000; vs Ranged Unit 8000	8	20
	FGX-101 Skyrider	Fast Unit	Flying — Cannot be attacked by artillery. Ignores terrain when moving. Contact! — Always retaliates against attacks. Force Field (2) — Absorbs 2 damage points per hit (minimum 1 damage remains).	1600	2110	Attack Bonuses: vs Artillery Unit 12500 Defense Bonuses: vs Artillery Unit 12500	4	30
	FGX-102 Anvil	Heavy Unit	Reactive Armor (5) — Cannot take more than 5 damage per attack. Force Field (2) — Absorbs 2 damage points per hit (minimum 1 damage remains). Hides on Hills (Stealth) — Hides against ranged attacks on this terrain.	1650	2290	Attack Bonuses: on Plain 7500; on Hills 7500; vs Ranged Unit 7500 Defense Bonuses: on Plain 7500; on Hills 7500; vs Ranged Unit 7500	8	20
	FGX-103 Shadow	Light Unit	Hides on Plain, Rocks (Stealth) — Hides against ranged attacks on these terrains. Contact! — Always retaliates against attacks. Frenzy (100) — Deals 100% of its damage to enemy units within 1 tile of itself, on top of the main target.	1780	1910	Attack Bonuses: on Plain 12500; on Rocks 12500; vs Fast Unit 12500 Defense Bonuses: on Plain 12500; on Rocks 12500; vs Fast Unit 12500	3	30
	FGX-104 Hammer	Artillery Unit	MIRV (2) — Hits the target plus 1–3 additional units in range. Recharge — Fires every other turn only.	1910	1720	Attack Bonuses: vs Heavy Unit 7500 Defense Bonuses: vs Heavy Unit 7500	24	10
	FGX-105 Assassin	Ranged Unit	Power Shot — Ignores most defensive skills and terrain. Reactive Armor (4) — Cannot take more than 4 damage per attack. Hides on Rocks (Stealth) — Hides against ranged attacks on this terrain.	1650	1910	Attack Bonuses: on Hills 10000; on Rocks 10000; vs Light Unit 10000 Defense Bonuses: on Hills 10000; on Rocks 10000; vs Light Unit 10000	10	16

A new Great Building

Introducing: the Shattered Horizon Siphon, the newest addition to the Great Buildings selection for your main City. Despite its unique Stellar Age origins and an unusual look, it needs the usual Blueprints, Forge Points, and Goods of this Age to be constructed.

The scientific research team at the Stellar City are divided on the anomaly inside the Great Building. For now, it's been decided to observe it. Unless it observes us?


IMPORTANT! This Great Building is designed to fit the Prestige system that is currently undergoing testing on BETA and is not yet released on LIVE servers. Due to this, we prepared two states for the Shattered Horizon Siphon.

On BETA: Players will be able to test an expanded selection of bonuses for this Great Building, including the Contribution Bonus akin to the Arc's, that will apply to Gold Tier Great Buildings. The feature being in testing, so changes are possible and likely before the feature is released on Live. We do not recommend referring to the Beta design and balancing to inform your decisions for Live servers.

Copper Effect: Attack and Defense for Attacking and Defending Army (Multiplicative)
Silver Effect: Contribution Bonus for Gold Great Buildings

On LIVE: The Shattered Horizon Siphon will have a temporary set of effects that will be updated once the Prestige system makes it to all our servers. Please also note that this changes nothing in the Great Buildings Prestige plans we announced earlier. The feature is undergoing a redesign and will be re-released on BETA and later LIVE with updated functionality. 

Passive Effect: Attack and Defense for Attacking and Defending Army
Production: Supplies

What should you look forward to?

To summarize:

• Permanent Stellar City that will persevere through all the future Stellar Ages instead of resetting with the new Age like earlier outposts.
• New Great Building: the Shattered Horizon Siphon with a unique look and a new set of effects designed to fit the Prestige system eventually.
• New units: the six-strong FGX series to switch up your battle tactics.
• New branching Technologies with unique resources to make your decisions matter more. 
• Space Missions of varying depth and difficulty to satisfy your bravest space explorer ambitions.

And a mystery to solve: What was the civilization that lived here before you? What did they leave behind? And how did they perish? Will take Ages to find the answer.

The Stellar Age: Discovery is available on BETA starting August 10th!

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