Learn to Play Age of Space - Complete beginner's guide to Age of Space. Learn how to build, attack, spy, colonize, and dominate the galaxy!
Build Orders
A build order is a planned sequence of constructions and research that optimizes your early game growth. Just like chess openings, the first days and weeks of Age of Space follow well-established patterns that experienced players have refined over years. Following a proven build order gives you a significant advantage over players who build randomly. This chapter provides day-by-day timelines for three play styles, week 2-4 milestones, and month 1-3 strategic goals.
What Is a Build Order?
A build order is a specific sequence of buildings, technologies, and ships to construct in the first days of a new game. It maximizes resource efficiency by ensuring you always build the most impactful thing next, never wasting construction time or resources on suboptimal choices.
Think of it as a recipe: follow the steps in order and you get an optimal result. Deviate from the recipe and you may still succeed, but you will grow slower than players who followed the proven path.
The build orders in this chapter assume standard game speed. Adjust timing proportionally for faster or slower universes.
Miner Build Order — Days 1-7
The economic foundation build. Prioritizes mine levels and energy production for maximum passive income.
Mines to 6/5/3 → Computer Tech 1 → Start scouting and raiding inactives
Week 2-4 Milestones
After the first week, all play styles should aim for these key milestones that unlock critical game features:
Impulse Drive Level 3: Unlocks Colony Ship production. This lets you colonize new planets, which is essential for all play styles.
Astrophysics Level 1-4: Unlocks additional colonies and expeditions. Every planet is a new income source.
Computer Technology Level 2-3: More fleet slots mean more simultaneous operations — raids, fleetsaves, and expeditions.
First Colony: Your second planet should be established by the end of week 2. Choose a position with good fields (200+ if possible).
Colony Mines: Immediately build mines on your new colony. By week 3, it should be producing significant resources.
Recyclers: Build at least 2-3 Recyclers by week 2 for collecting debris from battles and expeditions.
Month 1-3 Strategic Goals
The first three months define your position in the universe. Here are the goals every player should work toward:
Expand to 4-6 Planets
Astrophysics research to level 3-5 unlocks additional colony slots. Each planet multiplies your total production. Place colonies in different systems for strategic coverage and fleetsaving options.
Develop Your Fleet
Regardless of play style, you need ships by month 2. Miners need cargo ships for fleetsaving. Raiders need combat ships. Fleeters need a full war fleet. Start building your fleet identity.
Join an Alliance
Alliances provide protection, trade partners, ACS support, and social interaction. Join one by the end of month 1 for maximum benefit. Active alliances accelerate your growth significantly.
Establish Fleetsaving Routine
By month 2, you should have a consistent fleetsaving routine. Save your fleet every time you go offline. Use expeditions or deployment missions from a moon if you have one. Never leave resources or fleet sitting on a planet unprotected.
Common Mistakes
Avoid these common beginner mistakes that waste precious early-game resources and time:
Building ships too early: Ships don't produce resources. Every resource spent on ships in the first 3 days is a resource that could have been a mine level, which produces returns forever. Build mines first.
Neglecting Robot Factory: Robot Factory reduces build times for everything. Getting it to level 5 early saves hours of construction time over the first month. Don't skip it.
Unbalanced mines: Follow the 10:9:7 ratio for Titanium:Graphene:Deuterium mine levels. Unbalanced mines mean one resource bottlenecks while others pile up unused.
Skipping drive research: Combustion and Impulse drives make your ships faster and more fuel-efficient. Research them early — the speed bonus applies to every fleet mission you ever send.
Building storage too early: You only need storage if your resources are hitting the cap. In the early game, your mines don't produce enough to fill default storage. Wait until your mines are high enough that overflow is actually happening.
Build Order Tips
Keep All Queues Running
The three queues — buildings, research, and shipyard — can all run simultaneously. Never leave any queue idle. While a mine is building, research a technology. While researching, queue some ships or defenses. Maximum efficiency means all three queues always have something in progress.
Mine Ratio: 10:9:7
The optimal mine ratio is approximately 10:9:7 for Titanium:Graphene:Deuterium. This means if your Titanium Mine is level 10, your Graphene Mine should be 9 and Deuterium Synth should be 7. This ratio minimizes resource bottlenecks and maximizes balanced growth.
Robot Factory to 5 Early
Robot Factory level 5 should be an early priority for all play styles. It dramatically reduces build times for all buildings, meaning your mines upgrade faster, your shipyard completes faster, and everything accelerates. The time invested in Robot Factory pays for itself within days.
Frequently Asked Questions
The build orders are guidelines, not rigid rules. Adapt based on your situation — if you find a juicy inactive to raid early, pivot to ships sooner. If you're in a safe position, focus more on mines. The key principle is: mines first, then utility buildings, then research, then ships.
Aim for your first colony by the end of week 2. You need Astrophysics Level 1, Impulse Drive Level 3, and a Colony Ship. The sooner you colonize, the sooner your second planet starts producing resources. Every day without a colony is lost production.
Don't panic. Even suboptimal builds recover over time. Focus on getting your mines to competitive levels (8-10) as soon as possible. The build order advantage is biggest in the first week and diminishes after that. By month 2, smart play matters more than opening build order.
The 10:9:7 ratio is optimal for balanced production. Some players deviate based on universe economy settings or personal strategy. If you're a Fleeter who needs lots of Deuterium for fleet fuel, you might go 10:9:8. If you're a pure Miner, standard 10:9:7 is ideal.
