Loot, Wounded Units, and Captures After Ground Combat

If the attacker wins, they normally loot 50% of the exposed Iron, Crystal, and Aether. When a player attacks an Errant, this rate rises to 75%. The loot remains limited by the capacity of the carriers sent with the assault.

Ground looting:

1. takes 50% of the exposed resources, or 75% for a player attack against an Errant;
2. adds the effective cargo capacity of the Small Transporter and Large Transporter present in the attack;
3. reduces the loot proportionally if capacity is insufficient.

This bonus applies neither to PvP nor to an Errant attack against a player. Capacity is calculated from the transporters sent with the assault. Transporters do not take direct combat losses in the ground simulation.

In a PvP battle the attacker wins, they may also receive faction experience, separate from looting. The target must have fielded an effective military force and suffered military losses. The amount ranges from 10 to 90 XP, based on both players' total points before the battle; the report shows the amount gained. The defender does not receive this reward. Each distinct eligible attack counts, even against the same target; processing the same battle again does not grant experience a second time. The formula and cases where no experience is awarded are detailed in Activities That Grant Experience.

Example

With 1 000 000 exposed resources and enough cargo capacity, a standard ground victory can loot 500 000, compared with 750 000 in a player attack against an Errant. Without a transporter, no resources are brought back.

A unit is neutralized when its HP reaches 0. This ends its participation in combat, but does not automatically mean it has died: after combat, it is classified as lightly wounded, seriously wounded, captured if applicable, or killed.

Allocation of Ordinary Units

For an ordinary neutralized unit, the calculation is performed per model, with fractions rounded down:

• 20% become lightly wounded and are healed immediately;
• 40% become seriously wounded and enter their owner's Hospital;
• 10% are captured only if their side has lost;
• the remainder die, amounting to approximately 30% for the defeated side and 40% for the winner or in a draw.

The Soldier

The Soldier is excluded from the Hospital: 50% of neutralized units become lightly wounded and are healed immediately, never generating serious wounds. This leaves approximately 40% dead on the defeated side after 10% are captured, and 50% dead on the winning side or in a draw.

Treating Seriously Wounded Units

Treatment for serious wounds in other units uses the standard Population queue and costs 20% of the production cost. The total treatment time is 20% of the actual production time per unit, multiplied by the quantity, before the artificial one-second minimum for normal recruitment. These units benefit from Population accelerators.

The server batches units whose timers have expired during an action, a page change, or at the end of treatment, without making a request for each unit. Seriously wounded units no longer count toward points while returning, waiting at the Hospital, or receiving treatment, but they still occupy population capacity; each healed unit regains its normal points, with no extra points for the resources spent. They remain unavailable and invisible to espionage until healed.

Captures and NPC Cases

Captures always affect only the defeated side and amount to 10% of its neutralized units, including when fighting a persistent Errant. They become active for the winner immediately: directly on the planet if the winner is defending, or when the return mission arrives if the winner is attacking. There are no captures in a draw. Ephemeral encounters with no owner or destination inventory produce no captures; this share is counted among the dead.

Seriously wounded NPC units are recovered immediately, with no persistent pool or queue.

Example

If the defeated side loses 100 ordinary units, 20 immediately return as lightly wounded, 40 go to the Hospital, 10 are captured by the winner, and 30 die.

Carriers are used for cargo and can be captured, but they do not participate in ground fire.

Exact rules:

• Small Transporter and Large Transporter are added to the attack manifest;
• they are excluded from firing groups;
• if the defender wins, they capture 50% of the carriers sent;
• if the attacker wins or the battle is a draw, uncaptured carriers leave with the return mission.

Example

If you attack with 4 Small Transporter and lose, the defender will capture 2.

If operational units, seriously wounded units, captured units, or carriers need to return, a return mission is created.

The return contains:

• the attacker's units that survived deaths and captures;
• the uncaptured carriers;
• the loot, only if the attacker won;
• units captured from the enemy, active immediately upon arrival, if the attacker won;
• the attacker's seriously wounded units, marked separately and then transferred to the Hospital upon arrival.

If the defender wins, the attacking return contains only what is neither dead nor captured, with the attacker's seriously wounded units kept separate from the active stock until they arrive at the Hospital.

Example

An attack that wins may return with fewer soldiers than it started with, but with loot and captured enemy wounded units.

Ground combat handles deaths, wounded units, captures, possible looting, and a return mission, but does not generate a debris field to recycle.

Example

There is no equivalent ground recycling mission; recoverable fields are covered in Recycling Mission.