Tonnage

Tonnage

Tonnage is a soft empire-wide ceiling on military mass — ships and planetary defenses. It does not block construction outright; going over capacity multiplies ship and defense build time. Capacity comes from your Shipyard and Defense Yard levels across colonies (moon yards count at full weight; only one moon per planet contributes). Long-term power is meant to grow from monuments and strategy more than from endless fleet size.

This page covers how capacity is calculated, what counts as used tonnage, over-capacity penalties, unit values, alliance bonuses, and related systems (Ship Graveyard, boss FCS, ally moon tests).

Contents

• Why tonnage exists
• How it works
• Empire capacity
• Moon yard contribution
• Used tonnage
• Over-capacity penalties
• Ships
• Defenses
• Alliance effects
• Related systems
• When to plan around it
• Quick reference
• See also

Why tonnage exists

End-game play centres on PvP, coordinated pirate-boss raids, and alliance warfare. Without a ceiling, fleets and turret walls would grow without bound. Tonnage:

• Caps how large an empire can grow in ships and defenses without hard-blocking builds
• Slows construction when over capacity instead of forbidding queues
• Pushes late-game power toward monuments, class choices, and strategy rather than raw hull count

Most players hit a meaningful first ceiling after roughly 3–4 months; after that, expansion of military mass is deliberately slower.

How it works

Every ship and defense unit has a catalog tonnage value. Your empire’s used tonnage is the sum of those values across hangars, active fleets, and planetary defenses. Your tonnage capacity is the sum of capacity from all Shipyards and Defense Yards (plus an optional Fortress doctrine bonus).

Concept	Meaning
Capacity	Soft cap from yard levels (and alliance Fortress %)
Used	Hangar ships + active fleets + planetary defenses
Headroom	max(0, capacity − used) — room left under the cap
Penalty	Build-time multiplier when used exceeds capacity

Tonnage does not change combat stats, fleet speed, hangar protection, resource production, or score directly. It only gates construction speed (and a few special systems listed below).

Ships and defenses share one combined empire pool. Building either type checks the same empire capacity vs the same empire used total.

Empire capacity

Yard bases

Building	Base tonnageCapacity	Growth
Shipyard	65,000,000	Power curve (below)
Defense Yard	45,000,000	Power curve (below)
Alliance Defense Yard	2,000,000,000 per level	Linear (separate system pool — see Alliance Defense Yard)

Effective levels

Across every colony that has a Shipyard or Defense Yard:

effectiveLevelContribution = isMoon ? level × moonFactor : level effectiveLevelSum = Σ contributions (separately per building type)

Default moonFactor is 1.0 (see Moon yard contribution). Only one moon per planet is included — the moon with the highest Defense Yard.

Capacity formula (player yards)

capacity = floor(baseTonnageCapacity × effectiveLevelSum^1.1) combinedCapacity = shipyardCapacity + defenseYardCapacity

Shipyard and Defense Yard are computed separately (each with its own base and effective level sum), then added.

Sample capacities (single yard type, planet levels only)

Effective level	Shipyard	Defense Yard	Combined
1	65.0M	45.0M	110.0M
10	818.3M	566.5M	1.38B
20	1.75B	1.21B	2.97B
30	2.74B	1.90B	4.64B
50	4.81B	3.33B	8.13B
80	8.06B	5.58B	13.64B
100	10.30B	7.13B	17.43B

Levels from different colonies sum before the curve. Two planet Shipyards at L15 count as effective level 30, not two separate L15 caps.

Yards on astrophysics over-cap colonies do not add capacity (ships and defenses there still count toward used tonnage).

Worked example

Planet Shipyard L30 + moon Defense Yard L40:

• Shipyard effective levels: 30 → ≈ 2.74B
• Defense Yard effective levels: 40 × 1.0 = 40 → ≈ 2.60B
• Combined ≈ 5.34B

Moon yard contribution

Yards on moon colonies contribute their full building level toward empire capacity:

Config	Default
tonnage.moonYardCapacityFactor	1.0 (100%)

moon contribution = buildingLevel × 1.0 planet contribution = buildingLevel × 1.0

One moon per planet. Each planet can have a single moon, and that moon's yards count toward capacity.

In practice this mainly affects Defense Yards: Defense Yard may be built on moons and planets; Shipyard is planet-only under current building rules. The factor still applies to any moon yard that exists in data.

Moon yards are a full-weight place to add defense capacity — concentrate yard levels on the one moon you keep.

Used tonnage

totalUsedTonnage = hangar ships + active fleets + planetary defenses

Component	What counts
Hangar	All docked ships on all colonies (colony_ships)
Active fleets	Fleets with status traveling, stationed, returning, or onMission
Defenses	All planetary defenses on all colonies

Per unit: catalog.stats.tonnage × quantity.

Not counted:

• Ship Graveyard awaiting hull (not yet bought back)
• Permanently destroyed ships that became debris

Counted immediately on graveyard buyback: recovered ships are added to the colony hangar when purchased, so they consume tonnage before recovery finishes and they can launch.

Over-capacity penalties

When used tonnage exceeds capacity, ship and defense build times are multiplied. Below 5% over, there is no penalty.

Excess over capacity	Penalty level	Build-time multiplier
< 5%	—	1× (none)
≥ 5%	1	5×
≥ 10%	2	10×
≥ 15%	3	20×
≥ 20%	4	100×

excessRatio = (used − capacity) / capacity finalBuildTimeMs = floor(baseBuildTimeMs × multiplier)

The penalty applies to both Shipyard and Defense Yard queues against the same empire combined totals. Negative energy (a separate system) can pause production entirely; that is not a tonnage effect.

Ships

Each ship type has a fixed catalog tonnage (design baseline: Light Interceptor / Kamikaze = 1).

Ship	Tonnage	Ship	Tonnage
Probe	1	Carrier	69
Kamikaze	1	Orbital Refinery	71
Cargo Ship	1	Destroyer	81
Recycler	3	Heavy Cruiser	94
Freighter	5	Science Vessel	127
Colony Ship	6	Dreadnought	133
Fighter	9	Planetary Harvester	147
Advanced Recycler	9	Support Vessel	165
Corvette	20	Megahauler	65
Frigate	27	Battlecruiser	975
Bomber	33	Titan	1888
Cruiser	36	Colossus	2829
Battleship	45

Capital hulls (Battlecruiser, Titan, Colossus) dominate late-game used tonnage. Utility ships such as Planetary Harvesters (147 each) also add up quickly if mass-produced.

Defenses

Defense	Tonnage	Defense	Tonnage
Rocket Turret	1	EMP Emitter	24
Laser Turret	2	Railgun Tower	45
Flak Cannon	4	Plasma Cannon	53
Ion Turret	9	Large Shield Dome	57
Heavy Laser	12	Planetary Dome	210
Missile Battery	15	Prism Tower	220
Small Shield Dome	22

Defenses share the empire pool with ships. Heavy late-game turrets and domes are expensive in tonnage; stacking them without upgrading yards will push you into penalty bands.

Alliance effects

Fortress doctrine (capacity %)

Connected Fortress nodes grant an alliance-wide percentage bonus to tonnage capacity:

effective% = (tonnageCapPct × L) / (L + tonnageCurveK) boostedCapacity = floor(baseCapacity × (1 + effective% / 100))

Config	Default
Cap (territory.tonnageCapPct)	5%
Curve K (territory.tonnageCurveK)	25

L is the sum of main-building levels on connected, active Fortress nodes (with signature building ≥ 1).

2.50%

3.33%

4.00%

4.44%

4.71%

Fortress levels (L)	Effective bonus
25
50
100
200
400

The bonus applies to player empire capacity for members, and to alliance Defense Yard capacity on systems. Full doctrine rules: Alliance Territory.

Alliance Defense Yard

Alliance system defenses use a separate per-system pool:

allianceCapacity = yardLevel × 2,000,000,000

Max level 15 → 30B before Fortress %. Penalty compares that colony’s defense tonnage to that system’s Alliance Defense Yard capacity — not the player empire pool.

Build speed on the Alliance Defense Yard is separate: −25% time per level (0.75^level), unrelated to the tonnage curve.

Related systems

Ship Graveyard

Hull lost in PvP can enter the Ship Graveyard. Buyback is limited by tonnage headroom (capacity − used). Awaiting graveyard inventory does not count toward used tonnage until purchased; after buyback, ships count immediately even while recovering.

Boss FCS minimum fleet tonnage

Boss coordinated strikes require each participating fleet to meet a minimum fleet tonnage that scales with realm (whole fleet — attack, defense, and support ships all qualify):

Realm	Minimum fleet tonnage
1	100,000
2	1,000,000
3	10,000,000
4	1,000,000,000

See Pirate Bosses.

Ally moon test attacks

Solo fleets attacking an ally’s moon are capped at 1,000,000,000 fleet tonnage. Group FCS attacks do not use this exemption path.

When to plan around it

Stage	Guidance
Early realms	Basic yard levels usually cover any ship tier you can unlock
Realm 4+	Watch the tonnage bar, especially with capital ships
Approaching / over cap	Upgrade yards, scrap older hulls, or stay under the limit before queuing more

Actions that help when over capacity: raise Shipyard / Defense Yard levels (planet and moon yards both give full weight), scrap or lose obsolete hulls, use alliance Fortress investment for a few percent more capacity, or delay further builds until headroom returns.

Quick reference

Item	Value / rule
Shipyard base capacity	65,000,000 × L^1.1
Defense Yard base capacity	45,000,000 × L^1.1
Moon yard level weight	100% (one moon per planet — highest Defense Yard)
Combined pool	Ships + defenses vs SY + DY capacity
Penalty bands	5%→5×, 10%→10×, 15%→20×, 20%→100×
Fortress tonnage bonus	Up to +5%, K=25 diminishing return
Alliance Defense Yard	2B × level (linear, per system)
Combat stats from tonnage?	No

See also

• Fleet Combat
• Alliance Territory
• Alliances
• Pirate Bosses
• Score
• Player Classes
• In-game Quick Guide: Settings → Quick Guides → Tonnage