Alliances
An alliance is a group of player planets that have committed to fight together. Alliances are the heart of Orbitarion's strategic depth — coordinated multi-player play unlocks content (Nebula War, Orbital Dominion, war plans, diplomacy) and tier-based benefits that solo players can't access.
This page covers how alliances work mechanically: creation, roles, recruitment, tier progression, and what alliances do in practice.
What is an alliance?
An alliance has:
- A name and a short tag (2–3 capital letters, displayed next to player names)
- A founder (the creating player)
- Up to 7 members
- A recruitment mode (open or invite-only)
- A logo URL and description
- A diplomatic standing with other alliances (allied, KOS, or neutral)
- A tier based on Valor Points, which must be held
Alliances are permanent. Your alliance carries over to every new round — season or speed round — and you stay a member until you leave or an officer removes you. Missing a round does not remove you.
A member who hasn't joined the current round yet appears greyed out in the roster. Grey seats don't block recruiting: when the alliance is full, a new member takes the oldest grey seat. The founder's seat is always reserved — it is never given to a newcomer, and the founder is seated first when the alliance carries over to a new round.
The roster
- Members who haven't played for 3 days are marked in the roster ("Quiet 3 days"), so the alliance can reach out to them.
- A planet whose owner has gone idle may be minded by a caretaker bot; the roster shows these planets with an "Idle · Bot" badge. When the owner returns, they take their planet back.
Creating an alliance
Any player can create an alliance from the Alliance tab. You provide a name, a tag, a description, and (optionally) a logo URL. You're then assigned as the founder, and your planet becomes the alliance's leader planet.
You can belong to one alliance at a time. To join another, leave your current one first — you can change alliance mid-round.
Costs
Alliance creation in v2 has no resource cost. The intent is to keep alliance formation friction-free — coordinate first, optimize later.
Recruitment modes
| Mode | How members join |
|---|---|
| open | Any player can join by clicking "Join" on the alliance's profile |
| invite_only | Players can only join by being invited by a founder or recruitment officer |
The default is invite_only — alliances are usually formed by players who know each other (from previous seasons, Discord, or in-game friendships) and recruit deliberately.
An open recruitment alliance is useful for public-recruitment guilds that want to scale fast. An invite-only alliance keeps tight quality control over member skill and engagement.
Roles
Members have one of five roles:
| Role | Authority |
|---|---|
| founder | Full authority. Can invite/kick members, change recruitment mode, assign roles, manage diplomacy, post war plans, dissolve the alliance |
| war_commander | Can post war plans, tag targets, coordinate attack timing |
| defence_minister | Deploys the alliance ship pool to members under attack, and posts announcements |
| recruitment_officer | Can invite new members in invite_only mode |
| member | Default role. Receives all tier benefits, can participate in alliance combat |
Role assignments are made by the founder. With a cap of seven, most alliances run one or two officers alongside the founder.
Founder transfer
If a founder needs to step down (real-life timing, etc.), they can transfer the founder role to another member. The new founder gets full authority and the old founder becomes a regular member or officer.
The alliance ship pool
Members can donate ships to a shared pool. The defence minister (or founder) deploys them to a member under attack — never to a safe planet, and never on an attack mission. Up to three defence fleets at once.
Donated ships still count toward your score while they sit in the pool or fly as defence, so donating costs you nothing in ranking. It is not risk-free: losses fall on the donors proportionally, and donated ships cannot be recalled.
Travel time follows the same rules as any other fleet. Distance is measured from the nearest donor, and the heaviest ship in the deployment sets the pace:
| Distance from nearest donor | ETA |
|---|---|
| Same galaxy | heaviest ship's base ETA |
| Same cluster | +1 tick |
| Different cluster | +2 ticks |
Minimum 3 ticks, as with every fleet.
The pool uses the alliance's best engine research — whichever member has researched furthest sets the speed for everyone's donated ships. If any member has Warp Drive, deployments beyond your own galaxy shave another tick and spend antimatter from the alliance treasury. Without enough antimatter the fleet still launches, one tick slower.
This is worth coordinating: one member taking the engine line makes the whole pool faster.
Hiding alliance membership
Each member can set the hide_alliance flag on themselves. When set:
- Your alliance tag is hidden on your public planet profile
- You don't appear in the alliance roster to non-members
- Other players see you as if you were solo
This is useful for infiltrators or off-alliance accounts that want to keep their alliance affiliation discreet. Alliance benefits still apply — you just don't broadcast the membership.
What alliances do
1. Coordinate attacks
Alliance members can coordinate attacks on shared targets. Multiple fleets arriving on the same tick (against the same planet) all join the same battle as attackers. This is the simplest and most powerful alliance benefit — timing fleets to converge on a single target is far more devastating than individual attacks.
A coordinated 5-player attack can crack defenses that no single player could touch.
In a joint attack every attacker's commander and race bonuses count, weighted by the fleet each one brings, and Joint Operations adds +2% damage per extra alliance member in the strike (each bringing at least 5% of the fleet), up to +6%. Stronghold rewards and Salvage are shared by fleet brought. See Combat — Commander damage buffs.
2. Coordinate defense
The same applies in reverse. Multiple alliance members can send defend fleets to a teammate under attack. All defenders arriving on the same tick (or already there) join the battle on the defender's side. The single weakest player in an alliance can survive attacks from much stronger opponents thanks to allied defense.
3. War plans
War commanders and founders can post a war plan — a coordination message that names targets, a coordination tick, and optional notes. Other members commit fleets to the plan, and everyone's fleets are timed to converge.
War plans live in the alliance UI as a structured object (alliance_war_plans), not just chat. They survive between sessions and can be tracked over time. Status flows: active → cancelled or expired.
4. Diplomacy
Alliances can declare formal diplomatic relations with other alliances:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| allied | Both alliances have accepted the alliance proposal. Members can defend each other freely. Battles between members of allied alliances are blocked |
| allied_proposed | One alliance has proposed alliance status; awaiting acceptance from the other side |
| kos | "Kill on sight" — formal hostility declaration. UI prominently flags KOS alliances to your members |
Diplomacy is one-way until accepted. Proposing alliance status to another alliance doesn't bind them — they have to accept. KOS, by contrast, is unilateral — anyone can declare anyone KOS.
5. Nebula War
Alliances claim slots in nebulae across galaxies. Holding slots generates Valor Points that determine alliance tier. See Nebula War.
6. Orbital Dominion
The endgame alliance content. Capture sectors on the Star Map, build a tier-rated alliance, advance through ring tiers. See Orbital Dominion.
7. Garrison sharing
In both Nebula and Dominion, alliance members can garrison ships at sites their alliance controls. Your ships defend alliance territory even when you're not online.
8. Communication
Alliances typically use Discord for real-time chat. The official Orbitarion Discord at discord.gg/xSRSe9gpgy hosts dedicated channels for each major alliance during active seasons.
9. Strategic intel sharing
Successful scans (planet, military) reveal intel to the scanner. Alliances share that intel in Discord — building collective knowledge of opponent fleet compositions, scan-block research levels, and weak points.
Territory upkeep
Holding territory costs the alliance treasury titanium and silicon every tick, drawn automatically. Uranium is never charged — it is fleet fuel.
Cost rises superlinearly with the number of holdings, so a small footprint is nearly free while covering the map is not affordable by anyone:
| Holdings | Titanium per tick |
|---|---|
| 3 | ~80 |
| 10 | ~700 |
| 50 | ~12 500 |
| 91 (all Dominion sectors) | ~94 000 |
Dominion sectors cost more per holding than Nebula slots, since they also pay Valor Points and sit on a global map.
Your first three holdings are never gated. Beyond that, an alliance must be able to cover next tick's bill before it can take another — the refusal names exactly how much titanium and silicon the treasury is short. Upkeep itself is charged on every holding from the first.
If the treasury cannot pay, the alliance is in arrears: its Nebula slots and Dominion sectors stop earning VP until the upkeep is paid, and after 48 ticks (24 hours) in arrears, up to two holdings a tick are released to the Void — cheapest Nebula slots first, then the outermost Dominion sectors. An alliance under pressure keeps its core and sheds the periphery.
Alliance tiers
Valor Points from Nebula War + Orbital Dominion determine your alliance's tier:
| Tier | Tier points needed |
|---|---|
| Unranked | 0 |
| Bronze | 2 000 |
| Silver | 8 000 |
| Gold | 20 000 |
| Platinum | 50 000 |
| Diamond | 100 000 |
These thresholds apply to all rounds, including Speed Round and Season. There is no separate threshold table per round type — Diamond is reachable at the same VP target regardless of which round you're playing.
Season VP and tier points
Every VP your alliance earns is counted twice:
- Season VP is the running total for the round. It never goes down, and it decides the alliance ranking.
- Tier points rise with every VP you earn, but they fade when your alliance holds too little territory. Your tier is always set by your tier points.
Tiers must be held
Each tier has an upkeep in VP per tick. Your alliance's VP income — what its Nebula slots and Dominion sectors earn, averaged per tick — must reach that upkeep to keep the tier:
| Tier | Upkeep (VP income per tick) | Tier points lost per tick with no income |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze | 3 | 84 |
| Silver | 10 | 167 |
| Gold | 25 | 417 |
| Platinum | 60 | 695 |
| Diamond | 125 | 695 |
- While income is at or above the upkeep, tier points keep growing.
- While income is below the upkeep, tier points fall. The shortfall sets the speed: earning half the upkeep halves the loss. Income below the upkeep does not build tier points — it only slows the fall.
- An alliance that holds nothing drops about one tier per 1.5 days (72 ticks).
- Diamond tier points stop at 150 000, so even the top tier fades within a few days if it is not held.
- One-off VP (captures, treasury donations) adds tier points but doesn't count as income against the upkeep.
When your tier drops, every member gets an "Alliance tier lost" news item and notification. The alliance card shows your current income against the upkeep, and warns when the tier is decaying and roughly how many ticks remain before it drops.
How VP accumulates
VP is awarded from these sources:
| Source | When awarded | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Nebula capture | Instantly on clearing the last NPC/enemy fleet in a slot | Slot 1–3: 10 · 4–6: 15 · 7–9: 25 · 10+: 50 |
| Nebula holding | Every 24 ticks per slot held | Slot 1–3: 10 · 4–6: 15 · 7–9: 20 · 10+: 30 |
| Nebula dominance bonus | Every 24 ticks, per nebula where you hold many slots | 4+ slots: +20 · 7+: +50 · 10+: +100 |
| Dominion capture | Once, on winning a sector | 24 × the sector's VP per tick |
| Dominion holding | Every tick, per sector held | Ring 0: 50 · Ring 1: 20 · Ring 2: 12 · Ring 3: 7 · Ring 4: 4 · Ring 5: 2 (×2 on a Rift sector) |
Season VP never decreases when slots or sectors are lost — but tier points do fade if you stop holding territory (see above).
Tier benefits
Each tier above Unranked grants a stacking package of bonuses to every member of the alliance. The alliance card lists what your current tier gives and what the next tier adds.
Build & research bonuses
These apply to every member's planet individually:
| Bonus | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum | Diamond |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ship build time | −5% | −10% | −15% | −20% | −25% |
| Ship & PDS build cost | 0 | −5% | −10% | −15% | −20% |
| Defense build time | −5% | −10% | −15% | −20% | −25% |
| Research time | −5% | −10% | −15% | −20% | −25% |
A Diamond-tier alliance member at full build benefits: 25% faster ships AND 20% cheaper ships and PDS AND 25% faster research, simultaneously. With a cap of seven members, an alliance is small enough that every member feels the difference.
Ship build time can be cut by at most 40% in total from your tier and commander bonuses combined.
Tier or Renown — the better one counts
Every player also has a personal Renown rank with its own perks. For each perk — build time, research time, build cost, free scans — you get the better of your alliance tier and your Renown, never the sum. A strong Renown rank keeps your perks up even if your alliance's tier fades.
Intel bonus
| Bonus | Gold | Platinum | Diamond |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free orbital scans / 24 ticks / member | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Free scans bypass the Silicon cost entirely. A full Diamond alliance of seven gets 21 free orbital scans per 24-tick cycle.
Conquest bonus
| Bonus | Unranked | Silver | Gold | Platinum | Diamond |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Dominion sectors held simultaneously | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Sector slots cap how many sectors your alliance can have in unlocked state at once (i.e. actively being claimed). Inner-ring sectors (ring 0 — the Crown) cost 2 slots each to keep claimed.
Logistics bonus
| Bonus | Diamond only |
|---|---|
| Fleet ETA reduction to targets in clusters where your alliance holds a nebula slot | −1 tick |
Diamond alliances effectively project power faster across the map — holding a single nebula slot anywhere in a cluster makes every target in that cluster one tick closer for everyone in the alliance.
Tier progression in practice
Reaching Bronze (2 000 VP) is easy — clearing a single full nebula gets you most of the way. Silver (8 000) requires sustained holding for several 24-tick cycles. Gold (20 000) unlocks the free-scan benefit and is the first tier where the alliance starts to feel measurably stronger than solo play. Platinum and Diamond require dedicated Dominion campaigns — and because tiers must be held, staying at Diamond means earning at least 125 VP per tick, every tick (for example the Crown plus four Inner Worlds sectors, or a broad spread of Mid Reach and Outer Drift sectors).
Strategically, Gold is the most impactful tier upgrade. The jump from Silver to Gold adds another 5% off ship and PDS cost, free scans, and a third Dominion sector slot. Worth prioritizing.
Alliance score
Your alliance's total score is the sum of all member planet scores (recalculated every tick). Alliances are ranked in the Best Alliance leaderboard by season VP; total member score breaks ties.
Alliance score doesn't directly affect mechanics — it's a ranking metric. But it does affect public perception: a high-score alliance attracts new applicants, gets featured on the stats site, and inherits a reputation.
The combination of alliance score + alliance VP gives a complete picture: score measures collective military and economic power, VP measures coordinated territorial achievement.
Persistence across seasons
Your alliance carries over to every new round, with its name, tag, roles and members. What starts from zero each round is its standing: season VP and tier points reset, so a dominant Diamond alliance in one season starts at Unranked in the next — same players, same coordination, but they have to earn their tier again.
It also means alliances can experiment. The team that played UEC-heavy in Season 1 can pivot to ATH-heavy in Season 2 without conflict.
Strategy notes
Form alliances during signup. Establishing alliance membership during the signup phase means everyone starts the season with coordinated planning. Late-formed alliances lose 1–2 days of head start.
Recruit for activity, not just rank. With only seven seats, a member who stops playing costs you a seventh of your strength. Five active players beat seven where three have gone quiet — the roster marks anyone who hasn't played for 3 days. Active members earn VP, defend each other, share intel. Inactive members add to score totals but don't contribute strategically.
Designate roles deliberately. Even at the 7-member cap, a war commander and a Defence Minister (who commands the alliance ship pool) take the operational load off the founder. An alliance where only the founder can act goes quiet the day the founder does.
Push for Gold tier early. The Gold-tier package (build cost discount + free scans + extra sector slot) is the biggest single tier jump. Hitting Gold by mid-season compounds heavily across the whole roster — and remember to hold enough territory to keep it.
Balance race composition. A pure-UEC alliance is strong but vulnerable to ATH EMP fleets. A pure-ODO alliance is fast but fragile against UEC heavy fleets. The best alliances have at least one player of each race for coordinated multi-race attacks (see Races — Alliance synergy).
Use diplomacy actively. Allying with a similar-tier neighbor alliance lets you focus on different parts of the map without fighting each other. KOS declarations focus aggression on a single rival and signal to all members "do not engage these targets casually — coordinate first."
Use Discord for everything. In-game chat is functional but slow. Discord is faster, has richer formatting (images, links, embeds), and supports persistent intel archives. The most successful alliances treat Discord as their command center.
Quick reference
| Concept | Detail |
|---|---|
| Max members per alliance | 7 |
| Alliance per player per season | 1 |
| Recruitment modes | open / invite_only |
| Roles | founder, war_commander, defence_minister, recruitment_officer, member |
| Persistence | Alliances carry over; season VP and tier reset each round |
| Grey seats | Don't block recruiting; the founder's seat is always reserved |
| Hide membership | Per-member hide_alliance flag |
| Tier source | Tier points from Nebula War + Orbital Dominion VP — fade without territory |
| Tier upkeep (VP income per tick) | Bronze 3 · Silver 10 · Gold 25 · Plat 60 · Diamond 125 |
| Tiers (ascending) | Unranked → Bronze → Silver → Gold → Platinum → Diamond |
| VP thresholds (all rounds) | 2 000 / 8 000 / 20 000 / 50 000 / 100 000 |
| Nebula capture VP per slot | 10 / 15 / 25 / 50 (by slot number) |
| Nebula holding VP per slot per 24 ticks | 10 / 15 / 20 / 30 (by slot number) |
| Nebula dominance bonus per 24 ticks | +20 (4+ slots) / +50 (7+) / +100 (10+) |
| Dominion VP per tick per sector | Ring 0: 50 · 1: 20 · 2: 12 · 3: 7 · 4: 4 · 5: 2 (×2 on Rift) |
| Dominion capture VP | 24 × the sector's VP per tick |
| Ship build time bonus | Bronze −5%, Silver −10%, Gold −15%, Plat −20%, Diamond −25% |
| Ship & PDS build cost bonus | Silver −5%, Gold −10%, Plat −15%, Diamond −20% |
| Defense build time bonus | Bronze −5%, Silver −10%, Gold −15%, Plat −20%, Diamond −25% |
| Research time bonus | Bronze −5%, Silver −10%, Gold −15%, Plat −20%, Diamond −25% |
| Free scans / 24 ticks / member | Gold 1, Plat 2, Diamond 3 |
| Tier vs Renown | Per perk, the better of the two applies — never the sum |
| Active Dominion sector cap | Unranked 1, Silver 2, Gold 3, Plat 4, Diamond 5 |
| Diamond ETA bonus | −1 tick to targets in clusters where your alliance holds a nebula slot |
| Diplomatic statuses | allied · allied_proposed · kos |
| War plans | Structured objects with targets, coordination tick, commitments |
| Alliance score | Sum of all member planet scores (updated every tick) |
| Alliance ranking | Season VP; total score breaks ties |
| VP behavior on loss | Season VP never decreases; tier points fade below upkeep |
| Discord community | discord.gg/xSRSe9gpgy |
Documentation reflects Orbitarion v4.6.4. Last updated: 2026-11-03.