Planetary Defenses and the Iris

Orbital defenses protect the planet during space combat.

They take part in battles against attacking fleets, alongside the ships on the planet.

Some defenses have special mechanics:

• Plasma Forge and Rupture Relay: can inflict critical damage on attacking ships;
• Weave Aegis: redirects up to 100 shots per round away from non-Aegis orbital defenses; only the Monarch Cannon and the Monarch Beam can damage it, while all other shots have no effect;
• Iris: blocks ground incursions via the Pillars; see ground interception by the Iris.

Only the Iris has a per-planet maximum. Other orbital defenses have no per-planet quantity cap.

Building defenses uses the universe's defense speed. The shared rules for active and queued batches are detailed in Construction, research, and queues.

Some orbital defenses can trigger a critical effect when they fire during space combat.

These critical effects apply to shots fired by the defender against attacking ships.

• Plasma Forge: each relevant shot has a 1% chance to disable the shield of the ship it hits. This critical effect is delayed: it begins on the following turn, and the shield then remains at 0 until the end of combat. It is distinct from a natural, immediate shield break, which occurs when damage depletes a positive shield.
• Rupture Relay: each relevant shot has a 1% chance to instantly destroy the hull of the ship it hits, but only if that ship no longer has an active shield when the critical hit occurs.

These effects do not apply between defenses. An orbital defense therefore cannot trigger a special critical hit against another orbital defense.

When the attacking fleet's statistics are visible in the combat report, critical hits from Plasma Forge and Rupture Relay also show the affected ship types.

Example

If a Plasma Forge triggers its critical hit on a ship on turn 2, that ship will be without a shield from turn 3 onward. If ordinary damage has already depleted its shield on turn 2, that break is immediate, and the shield will not return either.

If a Rupture Relay triggers its critical hit on a ship whose shield is already inactive, that ship can be destroyed instantly.

Conventional orbital defenses participate in space combat.

The Iris does not participate in space combat. It is used to block a ground attack via Pillars.

Against an Errant, the shot is subject to the inclusive ×2 limit between strong and weak targets, checked at preview and again at launch.

The Resonance Tower is a planetary structure that prepares an instant hostile attack against a planet’s orbital defenses. It can target an attackable enemy or PvE planet, but not one of your own planets, an ally, a member of your alliance, or a target protected by a pact that forbids attacks. Ordinary protections also apply, including the limits between strong and weak targets.

Its range from the exact position of the source planet is:

range = 1 050 × √source Tower level

On impact, the game compares the source Tower’s level with the level of the Tower on the target planet, or with 0 if it has none:

disabled percentage = min(100 %, max(0 %, 10 % × (source level − target level)))

For each affected defense type, the quantity disabled is floor(stock at impact × percentage). There is no artificial minimum: a single Aegis therefore remains active at 20 %, but becomes inactive at 100 %. The Iris always remains operational and is not included in this reserve.

Disabled defenses remain in stock and retain their points. For 5 minutes, they do not fire, cannot be targeted or destroyed, and apply no special effects. Defenses produced after impact remain active: the levels, percentage, and quantities disabled are fixed at the time of the shot. Losses subsequently suffered by active defenses are not restored when the effect expires.

An accepted shot consumes 50 × the Pillars activation cost for the same route, after the usual RT reductions and rounding. It adds no population cost, cargo cost, or permanent energy consumption, and uses no mission slot. The source Tower recharges for 3 hours; this cooldown remains tied to its planet if the Tower is dismantled and then rebuilt.

The target planet cannot receive another Resonance Tower shot for 5 minutes, regardless of the shooter. Other planets belonging to the same owner remain independent. A legal shot is still consumed and triggers this block even if the level difference results in 0 %, the stock is empty, or all rounding results in zero units. Enemy effectiveness and stock are not revealed before launch.

In PvP, the shot counts toward the shared player-versus-player attack limit; in PvE, it does not consume this quota. An accepted shot creates two reports in PvP, one for the shooter and one for the defender, and a single report for the shooter in PvE. The source’s disappearance does not interrupt an effect that has already been applied. Abandonment or a change of owner preserves the deadlines already set for the effect, the target block, and the source recharge.

Construction requirements are summarized in Construction, research, and queues. The RT calculation uses the components of the projection cost, and quotas or rejections are detailed in Attack restrictions and protections.

The Iris blocks ground incursions instead of fighting normally. An active Iris can stop an attack before combat begins.

If the target planet has an available Iris, a ground attack via the Pillars can be repelled before combat:

• one charge is consumed;
• no ground combat takes place;
• the attacking troops do not engage in combat and leave.

The report result is recorded as an attack blocked by Iris.

The Pillars’ Force Field comes into play before the attack is launched. If the field rejects the attack, no Iris charge is consumed. If a Pillar Virus with a level strictly higher than that of the field gets through it, the Iris can still repel the attack according to the rules above.

Example

A planet can repel an entire ground attack without losing defense units if an available Iris activates in time.

The Iris does not work like a standard shipyard defense.

The Iris is tied to items and inventory, not to standard shipyard production.

A planet can have several activated Irises, within the limit set by the system.