Combat

Combat in Macrocosm takes two forms: fleet engagements and missile strikes. Both can be launched from the Attack page. Fleet combat is fought in rounds and produces detailed outcome reports; missiles hit hard and fast but are limited in how frequently they can be fired.

Fleet Combat

When you send a fleet to attack a rival kingdom, the battle is resolved in up to five rounds. Each round, both sides deal damage to each other based on fleet strength, composition, and research modifiers.

Retreat Conditions

The battle ends early if either side takes enough losses to trigger a retreat:

The attacker retreats when they reach the risk profile they set before the engagement. A lower risk profile means your fleet retreats earlier and takes fewer losses overall.

Winning and Losing

If the defender retreats, the attacker wins and claims a land reward from the target kingdom. If the attacker retreats or is destroyed first, they gain nothing and lose the ships that fell in battle. A report is generated after every engagement detailing round-by-round losses for both sides.

Raid Rewards & Diminishing Returns

Not all successful raids are equally rewarding. Two mechanics reduce the land you can claim from a victory.

Score disparity - if your target's score is below 65% of your own, the galaxy offers you diminished spoils. The weaker the target relative to you, the less land a victory yields. This scales down to a floor of 20% of the base reward. Attacking a much weaker kingdom is never a profitable strategy for long.

Repeat raiding - there is only so much worth taking from the same kingdom in a short window. If you have successfully raided the same target multiple times within a 48-hour period, returns decrease sharply with each additional victory:

Both penalties stack - a repeated raid on a low-score target will compound both reductions. The Attack page will warn you when either condition applies before you commit a fleet.

Fleet Composition Modifier

Combat outcomes are not purely determined by raw power. The split between fighter, warship, and battleship units in each fleet applies a modifier to losses. A fleet that happens to counter the enemy's composition will inflict greater damage than one with the same total power but a less favourable mix. Spreading ships across all three classes or tailoring your fleet based on spy intelligence are both valid approaches.

Defences

Beyond fleet power, a defending kingdom benefits from two static defensive structures:

Shield Generators reduce incoming damage by absorbing a portion of attacker fleet strength. Shield generators can be degraded by repeated missile strikes, so a kingdom that has been recently shelled may be vulnerable to follow-up fleet assaults.

Defence Emplacements add direct firepower on the defender's side, contributing to the damage dealt against the attacking fleet each round. A kingdom with a large number of emplacements can hold off or significantly wear down a fleet that might otherwise have won comfortably.

The combination of a strong fleet, shields, and emplacements is what makes a well-prepared kingdom difficult to crack. Before committing a fleet to an attack, it is worth running a Spy probe to understand what you are walking into - the report will show the target's shield strength, emplacement count, and fleet positions.

Missile Combat

Missiles are measured in kilotonnes (Kt) or megatonnes (Mt) of yield. They are fired from the Attack page, one at a time, against a target kingdom.

How Missiles Work

When a missile is launched it is measured against the target's adjusted shield strength:

• Shields protect the target. The stronger the shield network, the more of the missile's yield is absorbed.
• Any missile yield that exceeds the adjusted shield strength becomes excess energy that damages the target's structures.
• Each successful breach destroys a percentage of the target's structures, with the exact amount depending on how much excess yield remains.

A missile that does not breach the shield still damages it. Every strike applies a shield penalty to the target, reducing the effective strength of their shields for subsequent attacks. This penalty accumulates and is capped at 100% - a fully penalised kingdom has no working shields at all.

Missile Rate

The Missile Rate setting on your Missiles page controls what percentage of your kingdom's income is allocated to missile production. You can build between 10% and 100% of your income into missiles. Higher rates produce stronger missiles faster but draw from the same resources that fund structures and ships.

Firing Limits

You can fire a maximum of 5 missiles every 12 hours. Choose your targets and timing carefully - a single large missile can do considerable damage, but spreading strikes against multiple targets over a period can drain shields across the board.

Recycling Missiles

Unused missiles can be recycled if you no longer need them or want to recover some resources. Recycled missiles are removed from your stockpile immediately.

Colony Combat

Colonies can also be targeted in combat. An attacker sends a fleet to a planet and engages the Colony's defences. Colony defences scale with the Colony's level - a higher level Colony is much harder to bring down.

If the attacker wins, there is a 50% chance the Colony downgrades by one level, and the attacker earns a land reward proportional to the Colony's current level. This makes high-level Colonies valuable targets, though the downgrade is not guaranteed - a successful assault may still leave the Colony standing at its current level.

You can also assign a fleet to defend a Colony, which will intercept incoming attacks. A Colony with a defending fleet is significantly harder to assault than one left unguarded.

Combat Reports

Every fleet engagement and missile strike generates a full report logged to your Attack History. Fleet reports include:

• Fleet strength at the start of the engagement
• Round-by-round losses for both sides
• Final outcome and any land reward

Missile reports include shield strength at time of strike, how much of the yield was absorbed, and any structure damage dealt.

These reports are useful for learning what worked, understanding your opponent's defences, and planning follow-up attacks.