Resources & economy
The five resource kinds, harvesting rates, rocket and launch costs by body, travel times between worlds, and satellite payloads.
REFERENCE GENERATED FROM LIVE GAME DATA — BALANCE v51 · 2026-07-28 · NUMBERS UPDATE WITH EVERY RELEASE
Resource kinds
| Resource | Sell value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
 Regolith | 1c | Local bulk. Structural and defensive construction mass — shipping dirt between worlds is absurd, so you dig it where you build. |
 Metals | 4c | Hardware. Advanced units, buildings and rockets draw on theater metals on top of credits. |
 Water | 2c | Life and fuel-stock. Electrolyzed into propellant by the Fuel Plant; doubles as ice on airless bodies. |
 Helium-3 | 10c | The lunar prize. Found only where map generation puts it — the Moon. Premium trade good, Tier-2 rocket fuel, and Long Nine ammunition. |
 Propellant | not sold | Shown as FUEL. Never mined, never sold — produced from water and burned by every launch, scaled by the origin body's gravity. |
Harvesting & stockpiles
- A harvester loads 4 units every 0.25s at the deposit (16/s), capacity 20.
- Theater stockpiles cap at 600 per resource; each Storage Silo adds +400.
- Trade Hubs only sell stock above a 250-unit reserve per resource — automated selling can never strip what a rocket needs.
- Building repair costs 30% of credit cost + 50% of regolith cost for a full heal; metals are never re-spent.
Rockets & launch costs
Airframes cost the same everywhere; gravity is paid in propellant. Each body's lift factor scales the fuel bill — Earth pays the full bill, the Moon almost none.
| Launch | Airframe | Build | Fuel on Earth | Fuel on Moon | Fuel on Mars | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test rocket | 45c + 6m | 10s | 40 fuel | 6 fuel | 16 fuel | |
| Tier-1 rocket | 120c + 15m | 20s | 100 fuel | 15 fuel | 40 fuel | |
| Tier-2 heavy lifter | 180c | 30s | 40 He-3 | 6 He-3 | 16 He-3 | burns He-3 instead of propellant · carries 2× pods · cargo only |
Launch success starts at 60% and gains +12% per banked launch-data point, capped at 95%. Test flights always bank a data point; real launches bank one only on failure. The Moon's Mass Driver flings cargo pods with no rocket, no roll and no fuel every 10s.
Travel times
| From \ To | Earth | Moon | Mars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earth | 5s | 30s | 90s |
| Moon | 30s | 5s | 60s |
| Mars | 90s | 60s | 5s |
Same-body cells are orbit insertion — satellites and same-world redeploys still fly. Released invasion waves descend from parked orbit in 5s.
Working off-world
| Body | Lift factor | Solar output | Ground speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earth | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Moon | 15% | 125% | 115% |
| Mars | 40% | 75% | 105% |
Satellites
| Satellite | Payload cost | Effect | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Recon Satellite | +500c + 50m | reveals the entire theater map |
 | GPS Satellite | +450c + 40m | +15% unit damage over its theater |
 | Comms Satellite | +450c + 40m | +30% build radius over its theater |
Satellite payloads ride a Tier-1 rocket; the cost above is on top of the rocket itself. Bonuses stack additively with researched techs.