Inter-War is a planet colonization game where your first world is only the starting point. As your research develops, you can establish additional colonies, build new economies and turn separate planets into a connected interplanetary empire.
How does a planet colonization game work in Inter-War?
Colonization is one of the main ways to scale an Inter-War account. You prepare the required technology and Colony Ship, choose an open position, launch the mission and then develop the new world as another part of your economy. Planet choice matters because position affects building space, energy conditions, deuterium potential and logistics.
| Colonization element | How it works in Inter-War |
|---|---|
| Colony Ship | Requires Shipyard 4 and Impulse Drive 3; costs 10,000 metal, 20,000 crystal and 10,000 deuterium. |
| Planet choice | Position, fields, temperature, distance and intended role all matter. |
| Planet limit | The base rule is 9 + Colonization Technology level + additional planet slots. |
| New colony growth | Build production, energy, storage and the infrastructure needed for its role. |
| Logistics | Resource transports from mature worlds can accelerate the early build. |
How do you colonize a planet step by step?
- Confirm that you have capacity for another planet.
- Choose an open position and decide what the future colony should do.
- Send a Colony Ship on a colonization mission and prepare starting resources.
- After success, establish production and energy before expanding the colony further.
For exact mechanics, continue to the Inter-War FAQ.
How does planet colonization work?
To create a new colony you need a free galaxy position and a Colony Ship. The ship requires Shipyard level 4 and Impulse Drive level 3 and costs 10,000 metal, 20,000 crystal and 10,000 deuterium. One Colony Ship is consumed after a successful mission, while other ships and transported resources are transferred to the new planet.
Your planet limit follows the rule 9 + Colonization Technology level + additional planet slots. Colonization missions that are still in flight also reserve a slot, so expansion needs to be planned rather than spammed blindly.
Colonization is a growth investment, not a cosmetic feature
A new planet matters because it can become another permanent source of resources, another location for infrastructure and another point from which your fleet can operate. The immediate cost of colonization is therefore only the first part of the decision. You also need to think about the resources required to establish mines, power and storage after the planet is founded.
At first a colony consumes more than it produces. Over time, the relationship changes. As its economy grows, the planet begins financing its own upgrades and eventually contributes resources to account-wide goals. That transition is the real economic purpose of expansion. A successful colony is not simply owned; it becomes productive enough to increase the growth rate of the entire empire.
Prepare the Colony Ship before you search for a destination
In Inter-War, a Colony Ship requires Shipyard level 4 and Impulse Drive level 3. It costs 10,000 metal, 20,000 crystal and 10,000 deuterium. These requirements are useful planning milestones. Instead of waiting until you suddenly decide to colonize, you can prepare the technology and resources in advance.
It is also sensible to reserve resources for the first building cycle on the new planet. If every unit of crystal and metal is spent on the ship itself, the colony may develop slowly after arrival. A more deliberate approach is to fund both the mission and the first economic steps. That allows the new world to reach self-sufficiency sooner.
Understand the planet limit before sending several missions
The base planet-capacity rule is 9 + Colonization Technology level + additional planet slots. This makes Colonization Technology a direct part of empire scaling. It does not simply improve a statistic; it can increase the number of worlds the account can control.
Colonization missions that are still flying reserve capacity too. This matters when you begin sending multiple colony ships. Looking only at the number of established planets can give the wrong picture if several missions are already on the way. Checking capacity before launch prevents wasted planning and makes rapid expansion more predictable.
Why field count matters for long-term colonies
Every building needs space. A planet with many fields gives you more freedom to expand mines, storage and other infrastructure before space becomes a serious limitation. If you intend a colony to become a major economic world, field count is one of the most important long-term characteristics.
Positions 6–9 are statistically the strongest for field count, and position 8 averages 204 fields. These values do not make every other position bad; they simply show why the middle of the system is attractive when your primary goal is a large, flexible planet.
Solar energy can make inner positions useful
Planet position is not only about size. Worlds closer to the star can offer better conditions for solar-satellite energy. If a colony is intended to rely heavily on that energy source, the position may be strategically useful even when another location has a better average field count.
This creates a real choice rather than a universal ranking. A large central planet can be excellent for long-term building space, while an inner planet can fit an energy-focused role. The right answer depends on what you want the world to do within the larger empire.
Cold planets can support a deuterium-oriented economy
Temperature matters because colder planets can be attractive for deuterium production. As the account grows, deuterium becomes increasingly important for fleet operations and technological development. An empire with a lot of movement may value reliable fuel production more than an account that rarely sends long-distance missions.
This is another reason specialization can be useful. You do not need every planet to maximize every characteristic. A cold world can be selected because it strengthens one important part of the economy, while another planet can be chosen for field count or location.
Choose a strategic role before you choose the planet
A helpful way to evaluate destinations is to define the job first. Do you want a major economic center? A deuterium-focused world? A convenient logistics hub? A more distant operational point? Once the role is clear, planet characteristics are easier to compare.
Without a role, players often choose the first acceptable location and only later discover that it does not fit their development plan. A few minutes of planning before the mission can prevent much larger compromises later, especially because a colony may remain part of the account for a very long time.
Do all colonies need to be developed in the same way?
No. Identical planets are easy to manage, but specialization can make an empire more flexible. One colony can focus more heavily on resource production. Another can be developed to support fleet activity. A colder world can emphasize deuterium, while a large central planet can become a long-term infrastructure hub.
Specialization does not have to be extreme. A planet can simply be several development steps ahead in one area. The important point is that its priorities are deliberate. When each world has a reason for its current investment pattern, it becomes easier to decide where account-wide resources should go next.
How to bootstrap a fresh colony
A new colony starts with very limited infrastructure, so support from established planets can save a lot of time. Transporting an initial resource package lets you build basic mines, energy and storage without waiting for the new planet to generate everything from zero.
Support should still be balanced. Sending too much can stall the homeworld or another major project. The ideal package accelerates the colony without stopping the rest of the account. As soon as the new world reaches a reasonable production base, it can begin funding more of its own growth.
Logistics becomes more important with every colony
Multiple worlds create multiple resource locations. This is good because total production rises, but it also means resources may be on the wrong planet when a large project becomes affordable. Transport ships solve that problem by allowing the empire to behave like one connected economy.
You can collect crystal from several worlds for research, move metal to a planet building fleet units or transfer deuterium to the location launching repeated missions. This ability to concentrate resources is one of the reasons fleet logistics and economic growth are tightly connected.
Compact empire or distributed empire?
Planets located close together are easier to supply. Travel times are shorter and routine resource movement is simpler. A distributed empire, however, can extend your operational reach into different areas of the galaxy. Neither model is automatically better.
Many players may prefer a mixed structure: a compact economic core plus one or more more distant worlds serving a strategic function. The best layout depends on how often you move resources, how active your fleet is and what opportunities exist in the surrounding galaxy.
Common colonization mistakes
The first common mistake is launching at the first open position without defining what the colony is for. The second is spending everything on the Colony Ship and leaving no resources for the initial build. The third is creating several new worlds so quickly that none of them receives enough investment to become useful.
Another mistake is ignoring the logistics cost. More planets create more production, but they also require transports, fuel and fleet slots. Expansion is strongest when the supporting systems grow with it.
A practical plan for the first colony
Before launch, make sure the required Shipyard and Impulse Drive are complete, the Colony Ship can be funded and there is room in the planet limit. Decide which characteristic matters most for the destination. Then reserve an additional package of resources for the first building levels.
After colonization, establish production and energy first. Use transport support to shorten the slowest stage, but keep the homeworld developing. Once the colony can finance its own upgrades, begin preparing the next strategic objective rather than immediately repeating the same process without evaluating results.
Use a pre-colonization checklist
Before sending the mission, check five things: capacity in the planet limit, destination role, position characteristics, resources for both the Colony Ship and the initial build, and enough fleet capacity and fuel to support the new world. This short checklist prevents many avoidable mistakes.
Colonization is too important to be treated as a random click. The planet you choose may remain part of the empire through many future stages, so a small amount of planning has a large long-term value.
Learn exact mechanics when you need them
Use the Inter-War FAQ for focused questions about colonization, resources, fleets, energy and other systems. The FAQ is useful when you need a precise mechanic at the moment of a decision rather than a broad strategic overview.
Longer learning paths and broader explanations can be found in the guides. Combining both types of content makes it easier to move from “how does this work?” to “how should I use it in my account?”.
Related topics: OGame-style strategy, colonization and fleets
For the broader genre, see games like OGame. For mission-focused ship play, continue to the space fleet strategy game landing page.
Key FAQ about planet colonization
- How does colonizing a new planet work?
- Which planet positions 1–15 are best?
- How do planet temperature and position affect deuterium and satellites?
- How do planet fields work and what uses space?
Build an empire one well-chosen planet at a time
Inter-War turns colonization into a long-term strategic system. Field count, temperature, energy conditions, logistics and location all affect the value of a new world. The strongest expansion is not always the fastest expansion; it is the expansion where every new colony becomes productive and fits the wider plan.