Religion

Every kingdom can found a religion and compete for spiritual dominance across the galaxy. Religion is a score category in its own right, rewarding players who spread their faith to the most colonies and hold religious control over contested planets. It runs in parallel to military and economic competition - a kingdom with no fleet can still be a significant religious power.

Founding a Religion

Any kingdom can found a religion by visiting the Religion page and choosing a name. Once founded, your religion persists for the rest of the round. There is no cost to founding, but the real investment comes from the units and structures needed to spread influence effectively.

The Sanctum

The Sanctum is a unique structure that unlocks the full religion unit roster. Without a Sanctum, you are limited to Preacher Drones. With one, you gain access to Priors, Purifiers, and Zealots.

The Sanctum costs 320,000 energy and 350,000 mass. It is a substantial commitment, so most kingdoms build it once their economy is established rather than rushing it early.

Religion Units

Religion units are purchased with credits and dispatched to colonies across the galaxy to place or remove influence.

Preacher Drones are the entry-level unit. They are cheap, reusable, and effective for staking out influence on new colonies early in the round.

Priors are single-use but deliver considerably more influence per dispatch than drones. Once you have a Sanctum, Priors become the workhorse of any serious religion operation.

Purifiers remove enemy influence from a colony rather than adding your own. They are a defensive and offensive tool - deployed to your own colonies to resist enemy encroachment, or to contested colonies to weaken a rival's hold.

Zealots deliver the most influence per credit but require that your religion already holds at least 50% of the net influence on the target colony before they can be deployed. They are best used to cement control on colonies where you are already dominant.

Dispatching Units

Units are dispatched from the Religion page. Select a colony target, choose a unit, and confirm the dispatch. Influence is applied immediately.

Influence placed on a colony on the same planet as the unit's origin counts at full value. Influence placed on a colony on a different planet counts at half value. This makes planets with multiple colonies more strategically significant - having a colony of your own there dramatically increases the efficiency of your religious operations on that planet.

Religious Control

Your religion scores points in two ways:

Faith Score - earned from the total influence your religion has placed across all colonies. Every point of influence generates score each tick, making consistent dispatching more valuable than burst operations. The Purifier's removed influence also contributes to your faith score, reflecting the effort put into defending and contesting colonies.

Control Score - earned each tick for every colony where your religion is the dominant faith. Each tick of control on a colony generates score based on that colony's level - higher level colonies are worth more. Holding control of high-level colonies on contested planets is one of the most valuable things a religion-focused kingdom can do.

Cults

After earning enough religion score, your religion can align with a Cult - a faction that grants a passive bonus for the remainder of the round.

Cult of Dominion - boosts all influence score placed after joining by 25%, and lowers the Zealot deployment threshold from 50% to 40%. Suits aggressive, influence-heavy play styles.

Cult of Continuance - increases the control score you earn per tick per colony level. Suits kingdoms that have already secured a large number of high-level colonies and want to maximise the score from holding them.

You do not choose a cult directly - one is assigned once you reach the eligibility threshold. Plan your strategy around both options being possible, or focus on the style that suits either outcome.

Tips

• Start dispatching Preacher Drones early. Early influence is hard to dislodge and compounds into control over time.
• Build the Sanctum as soon as your economy can support it. Priors and Zealots are vastly more efficient than drones alone.
• Watch the Religion page for colonies where rivals are gaining influence. Sending Purifiers early costs far less than trying to reclaim control after losing it.
• Colonies on densely populated planets - those with multiple kingdoms' colonies - are the most contested and the most valuable to control.
• Zealots are the best value unit in the game once the threshold is met. Stack them on colonies where you are already dominant to lock out rivals.