Expanding Through Greys
- It takes on average about 2-3 days from the start of the galaxy until you have accumulated enough resources and population to colonise your 4th planet.
- During this time you must have captured all the visible greys with your scouts, and now have several uncolonised planets.
- The important objectives for this period is to uncover and capture as many greys as possible, to find your neighbours, to get into a good alliance, and to avoid conflict as far as possible.

The Perfect Fourth Colony
- is over 1100 land.
- has decent habitation percentage (70 or better, 65 in a pinch).
- is LOW in minerals.
- is positioned in such a way that it is very likely to reveal several new planets.

Developing your fourth colony
- Colonise with 1 scanner, 5 shields, 64 bioformers, 30 megapoli.
- The planet can withstand bombardment from a starting scout should the worst happen, and will bioform rapidly.
- Add megapoli, only megapoli. We will build this planet as an 'all-mega' planet.
- Soon, you will have significant credit income from this planet, more than likely giving you a credit surplus to your overall income.
- Research Economics to further boost credit income.
- As the population passes 500k and approaches 1M, the growth-rate will be significant, soon giving you sufficient pop for your next colony.

Continued Expansion
- It is important that you develop your economy for one goal only: your next colony.
- Watch your income, and your expenses, to insure that you make a profit each turn, even if only by a small margin.
- Your next colony may only be another two days away, so plan accordingly. After that, you will soon be colonising at least once a day.
- Build every fourth planet as an all-mega until you start meeting neighbours.
- Ideal pattern for early build is: Homeword, Econ, Econ, All-Mega, Econ, Lab, Econ, All-Mega, Econ, Lab, Econ, All-Mega. - Once you start encountering neighbours, then only build all-megas every 5th or 6th planet, or not at all, depending on your expansion possibilities. Sirnef and Oomari have to build more all-megas than other species.
- If you find you often have population but not the resources to colonise, then delay building your next all-mega.

Alert: Yellow Planet!
- A yellow planet signifies the discovery of your first neighbour.
- Click the planet to get the owner's name, or just note his ID# under the planet name.
- In the browser, click Main/Search, enter the appropriate details, and see if you can locate your neighbour.
- The important things to note are the rank, the warchest (if any), and the species of your neighbour.
- Rank 600 or worse means he is inactive. If they have deleted, this will be clearly visible in the name.
- At this stage rank is a poor indication of skill or activity, but even so, the better the rank of the player, the more likely you want to be their friend.
- Click the name to send a message, and try to establish a communication protocol. MSN Messenger is a very popular chat facility used in the game.

The Ideal Ally
- is active.
- is willing to chat and help you along.
- has a species hab dissimilar to your own, so that you are more likely to be able to swap planets.
- has an established reputation in the game (a forum identity), that he would not be willing to tarnish by cheating or sabotaging your game.
- has references (other players who know him and can vouch for him).
- There is no rush to get into an alliance. By all means wait until you have encountered several other players, and then choose what seems to be the best option. Note though that most of the players you encounter will be relatively inexperienced, or even a newbie such as yourself.
- Finding a veteran with an impressive warchest right at the start is a massive boon. In such case, dive right in.
- Also, alliances are very important for defense, even a weak 4-man alliance is less likely to be attacked than a strong individual player.