You might not know it yet, but it is a huge decision on where you choose to colonize your next planet. This can have a huge impact not only on your playstyle but the number of resources you are gathering as well.

The Requirements

So, you want to colonize another planet for the economic advantage? Well now hold on that is quite an endeavor to take on early game. It is also what most other players who know better are focusing on.

To do so you just need a colony ship. Along with Expedition Research 1. Then you can only have 1 other planet. To go further beyond that you need to keep increasing Expedition Research. With you being able to colonize another planet at every other level.

For this, you are going to need:

• Research Lab 3
• Combustion Engine 3
• Spy Technology 3
• Shipyard 4
• Impulse Engine 3

To give you an idea of costs. Impulse Engine level 3 alone is going to set you back 8k metal, 16k silicon, and 2.4k Uranium. So, it's a total of 14k metal, 28k silicon, and 4.2k uranium just to fully level it to 3.

That makes the costs for Combustion Engine leveling up to level 3 of 2.8k metal, and 2.4k uranium look not so bad. Thankfully this one did not need silicon as you are already bleeding dry of that trying to reach this goal.

Along with all the other costs. Once you have everything researched and the right level of shipyard. You still need another 10k metal, 20k silicon, and 10k deuterium for the ship.

Yep, getting one of these is going to take some time and cost you a lot of resources. So, it would be a shame to just plop one down without giving it some further thought. It’s now time to decide where you are going to place your next colony so you are ready when you can afford to do so.

Once you are ready you are also limited to planet positions 4-10 if your Expedition Research is under level 4. Once at level 4 that expands to positions 3-11. Then again at level six that is expanded to positions 2-12. Finally, at level 8 Expedition Research or higher, you can colonize in any position.

Should You Stay Or Go

Before you even think about which position to take in a solar system. You first need to work out if you will choose to colonize your current system or choose a new system to set up some operations.

The further you colonize away not only in position but system location. The longer it will take for you to send ships between those two planets. It will also cost more in fuel (uranium) to do so. While the fuel part is not a big deal later in the game right now you are more than likely starving for enough uranium for all the upgrades you want.

You might also notice if you click on the galaxy map and just start changing what system you are looking into. That it is costing you uranium just to see what is in another system. That means finding somewhere new to put another colony could end up costing a decent chunk of uranium just to find.

There are a couple of reasons to move to another system. If you joined this universe right at the start. You have a low-numbered system I bet you were rather proud of yourself. That was until you realized a dozen players who know way too much about this game are on all sides of you. Looking at you like you are holding up a sign saying, “free resources.”

While this game has some protections from massive accounts wiping your piggy bank out just by looking at you. Along with some community rules to try and make the game not so brutal. Even your alliance might ask for you to not just murder the same target 24/7.

The fact of the matter is. You might consider the solar system you are in to be a “bad part” of the universe. The high crime against your empire and the lack of prospects is enough to make anyone want to set up another colony far away hoping for a better life.

The opposite could also be true. You are some massive PvPer and you find yourself in a part of the universe where everyone around you has noob protection status. How are you supposed to be able to grow and compete to be number one?

The good news for the second case. After a while inactive accounts get marked as such. Then you get to farm them.

There are also social reasons to move. Perhaps the people you are playing with are scattered 200 systems apart. You all decided you want want to be 20 systems apart from each other. So, you pick a solar range, and all colonize planets closer together.

There are also other things to consider. That is things like fleet saving. Where you send out a fleet a long distance away so you don’t lose it while you are out at work and can’t keep an eye on incoming. Sometimes you need a long-distance. Other times, just a couple of hours. Just keep in mind it takes just as long for a fleet to return as you sent it out for. There are also other ways to do this that go beyond the scope of this post.

Hopefully, you find yourself in a part of the universe you like but so much so that everyone wants to move there. Regardless once you are ready to colonize another planet it’s time to work out where in a solar system.

Picking A Location In A Solar System

Position in a solar system affects how much building space you have on a planet. It has an impact on certain power productions, metal, silicon, and uranium output as well.

Fields For Planet Size And Metal Production

You might not know it or not. That starting planet you are on is running out of space. The good news is no matter where the game puts you in position. Starting planets have a minimum amount of space.

The amount of space a planet has in Hive Moon is called fields. This is how many upgrades and buildings you can have on a single planet. Thankfully things like defenses don't take up space.

You can find this information under the empire tab. You can see my starting planet at the time of writing this was at 53/163 fields. I can only have 110 more levels before this planet is full.

Depending on what you want your next planet to be doing. Having more fields than another planet could be a deal breaker or not. If you are just looking to min/max certain resource productions, then having the biggest field amount is not as important as other factors.

In general, each position in a solar system has a certain range of min to max field sizes. Positions in the middle have the highest fields with the 8th slot having the highest. While positions on the ends have the lowest at positions 1 and 13.

For most of your needs what the other positions in a solar system provide will be a more important factor in you picking your next location. However, at some point in Hive Moon, you are going to need a planet with a decent number of fields for leveling up a bunch of stuff.

There is also the impact fields have on metal production. Where bigger the planet the higher the production. That is why you get the most in the middle positions. With slot 8 getting the highest metal yields. With it tapering down a couple of potions up or down from 8.

Solar Satellites

It should make sense to anyone that the closer you are to the sun in a solar system the higher the energy output is from solar satellites. That makes position 1 the best choice if you are doing to use them and position 13 downright stupid to use them at.

Now I'm personally not a huge fan of solar satellites. Yes, they can look like a quick and easy way to get some much-needed energy output quickly short term. There are also very specific use cases for using them that go far beyond the scope of this post. For most people who don’t know any better they end up becoming an expensive loss that enemies can inflict on someone at a low cost to the attacker.

You might also notice in the description that just about everything in the game deals rapid-fire damage to them. If one gets hit by a ship that deals rapid-fire damage that ship gets another opportunity to shoot again that round. Making these things sitting ducks in space if you don’t have a good enough defense for that planet. A single attacking ship without any defense to fight back can take as long as it needs to destroy it.

Planet Temperature Effects on Silicon And Uranium

You might have noticed that production for silicon and uranium is different in different solar positions. That is because heat plays an impact on any extra production a resource might get in that position.

Silicon prefers heat so generally if you need more of this resource than others the first three planet positions will get you the highest yield. With position 1 giving you the most.

On the other hand, uranium wants it cold. The lower the temperature the higher the production. So, the highest uranium production will be in the 13th position. Those going that route will also want to investigate using a Uranium Power Plant that benefits from having a high building level of uranium.

Keep in mind those positions 1 and 13 also have the lowest number of fields limiting how much you can build on a planet. Like many things in this game, there are going to be tradeoffs. Do you go for min/max resource production or settle somewhere in the middle?

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, this will help many who wish they knew more about this topic. There are a lot of things to take into consideration. This is only a starting point. Some very complex gameplays require the specific building of an empire that goes far beyond the scope of a post like this.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Hive Moon.