Orbitals
Orbitals are your economy. Every meaningful resource production beyond your planet's baseline core income comes from orbital structures floating in your planet's gravity well. The more orbitals you control, the faster you grow.
You don't build orbitals — you find them. Scanning your local space discovers uninitiated orbital wreckage that you then activate by choosing which resource it produces.
This page covers everything about orbitals: how to find them, how to initiate them, how production scales, and how attackers steal them.
What are orbitals?
An orbital is a small autonomous mining/refining platform anchored in your planet's orbit. There are three types:
| Orbital type | Produces | Per tick |
|---|---|---|
| Titanium | Titanium | +150 Ti |
| Silicon | Silicon | +150 Si |
| Uranium | Uranium | +100 Ur |
Each orbital produces independently and continuously. A planet with 10 Titanium orbitals adds +1 500 Ti per tick on top of its core income.
A fresh planet starts with:
- 3 Titanium orbitals already initiated and producing
- 2 Silicon orbitals already initiated and producing
- 1 Uranium orbital already initiated and producing
- 2 Uninitiated orbitals waiting to be activated
Plus core income of 200 Ti, 200 Si, 200 Ur per tick that never changes. Total starting production: 650 Ti / 500 Si / 300 Ur per tick.
From there, additional orbitals come from scanning, from orbital expeditions launched on the Overview, and from the rewarded-ad orbital reward.
Orbital yield research
The per-orbital figures above are the base yield. Research raises them:
| Research | Effect |
|---|---|
| Orbital Efficiency I–III (Industry) | +2% yield from every orbital per tier (+6% total) |
| Titanium Processing / Silicon Refinement / Uranium Enrichment (Resources) | +4% of that resource's income per tier (with a guaranteed minimum per tier) — scales with your income |
| Fortress Industry (UEC race branch) | +8% orbital yield while none of your fleets is out on an attack |
Uninitiated vs initiated orbitals
When a scan succeeds, you don't gain a working orbital immediately — you gain an uninitiated orbital. It sits in your dock as raw wreckage until you activate it.
Initiating an orbital means choosing what resource it produces — Titanium, Silicon, or Uranium — and paying the initiation cost. Once initiated, it starts producing the chosen resource every tick. The choice is permanent. You cannot reassign an initiated orbital later.
| State | Counts toward score? | Produces? | Costs to maintain? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uninitiated | Yes | No | No |
| Initiated (any type) | Yes | Yes | No (one-time cost only) |
Both states count toward your planet score and toward your scan difficulty — but an uninitiated orbital is worth half the score of an initiated one (150 vs 300 points).
Getting orbitals — scanning
Scanning is the primary way to discover new orbitals. Every successful orbital scan adds 1 uninitiated orbital to your planet.
What you need
- Basic Sweep Sensors researched (Tier 1 Scanning) — without this, you cannot scan at all
- Silicon to pay the scan cost
- Or a free scan (alliance tier or Renown bonus)
Scan cost
The cost to scan increases as your planet grows. The formula:
scan_cost = 1000 + (total_initiated_orbitals × 50) silicon
So a fresh planet (6 initiated orbitals) pays 1 300 Si per scan. A mid-game planet with 50 orbitals pays 3 500. A late-game planet with 100 orbitals pays 6 000.
Uninitiated orbitals do not count for cost scaling — only fully initiated ones. This means you can stockpile uninitiated orbitals without making future scans more expensive.
Spymaster T1 (Sharp Intel) reduces scan cost by 10% if you have it. STC race no longer gets a scan cost discount in v2 — that was a v1 perk and is now gone.
Success rate
A scan can fail. The formula:
chance = 80 − (total_orbitals × penalty) + stc_bonus + spymaster_bonus + pity_bonus
penalty = 0.5 − Survey Arrays reduction
Clamped between 5% and 95% (the floor rises to 15% with Deep Core Survey).
| Factor | Effect on chance |
|---|---|
| Base | 80% |
| Each total orbital (initiated + uninitiated) | −0.5% (down to −0.28% with Survey Arrays III) |
| Sytherian Cartel (race) | +10% |
| Spymaster T1 (Sharp Intel) | +5% |
| Spymaster T5 (Deep Cover Assets) | +2% per rank |
| Pity bonus (4+ fails in a row) | up to +30% |
Orbital Survey research
Orbital scans have their own research branch, Orbital Survey. It doesn't add a flat bonus — it shrinks the per-orbital penalty and raises the floor:
| Research | Effect |
|---|---|
| Basic Sweep Sensors | Unlocks orbital scanning (80% base chance) |
| Survey Arrays I | Penalty per orbital 0.5 → 0.42 |
| Survey Arrays II | Penalty per orbital 0.42 → 0.35 |
| Survey Arrays III | Penalty per orbital 0.35 → 0.28 |
| Deep Core Survey | Minimum chance 5% → 15% |
A starting planet (8 orbitals total) with no research has a chance of 80 − 4 = 76%. As you grow, this drops — at 100 orbitals you're at 80 − 50 = 30% without research, or 80 − 28 = 52% with Survey Arrays III. Orbital Survey research is essential to keep success rates high in mid- and late-game. (The Intel branch — Advanced Orbital Sensors, Scan Enhancement and so on — only helps planet and military scans; see Scanning & Intelligence.)
Pity bonus — never get permanently stuck
If your scans keep failing, the game gives you a comeback bonus. After 4 consecutive failed scans, the next scan gets a +10% chance bonus. Each additional consecutive failure adds another +10% (capped at +30% total).
| Consecutive fails | Next scan chance bonus |
|---|---|
| 0–3 | None |
| 4 | +10% |
| 5 | +20% |
| 6+ | +30% (capped) |
A successful scan resets the streak to 0. This guarantees that even very high-orbital planets eventually find new orbitals — they just might have to grind through a few losses first.
Free scans
Free orbital scans (no Silicon cost) come from your alliance tier or your Renown rank:
| Source | Frequency | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Alliance Gold tier | 1 per 24 ticks | Your alliance has Gold tier or higher |
| Alliance Platinum tier | 2 per 24 ticks | Your alliance has Platinum tier or higher |
| Alliance Diamond tier | 3 per 24 ticks | Your alliance has Diamond tier |
| Renown Admiral | 1 per 24 ticks | Your Renown rank is Admiral |
| Renown Warlord | 2 per 24 ticks | Your Renown rank is Warlord |
You get the better of your alliance tier and your Renown — the two don't stack. Free scans reset every 24 ticks. The rewarded-ad orbital reward (below) is separate and comes on top.
Rewarded ad rewards (4 options, shared cooldown)
In v2, the rewarded ad is no longer a "watch for a scan" trade. You pick one of four rewards from a menu, watch one rewarded ad (or skip with Premium), and claim:
| Choice | Effect | Cooldown after claim |
|---|---|---|
| Orbital | +5 orbitals (2 Ti, 2 Si, 1 Ur), already initiated, immediately | 4 hours |
| Resource boost | +25% Ti/Si/Ur income from all sources, for 4 hours real time | 6 hours |
| Production token | Next ship build runs at ×0.5 ticks (bypasses the normal 60% build-time floor). One-shot, consumed on use within an 8-hour window | 8 hours |
| Research token | Next research is 25% faster (×0.75 ticks). One-shot, consumed on use within an 8-hour window | 8 hours |
The cooldown is shared across all four choices — picking the orbital reward locks you out of all other rewards (and the orbital reward itself) for 4 hours. Picking production locks you for 8.
Premium subscribers skip the ad but get the same shared cooldown — Premium removes the ad interruption, not the wait.
On the web (app.orbitarion.com) there are no ads yet: free players claim ad rewards in the Android and iOS apps, and Premium players claim instantly on any device. If no ad is available right now, the menu says so and offers Retry.
The orbital reward is the only rewarded-ad reward that grants free orbitals. The other three (resource, production, research) don't. Choose carefully based on what your planet needs most right now.
Resource boost stacking
The resource boost is additive with the Engineer Commander's income traits (T1 +3%, T3 +10%, T5 +1% per rank — the only traits that increase income directly). So an Engineer with T1 and T3 (+13% income) and an active resource boost (+25%) sees +38% income for the duration of the boost, then settles back to +13%.
Scan batching
You can queue up to 25 scans at once. The system processes all queued scans during the next tick, in order. There's no queue limit on free scans separately — the cap is a total of 25 pending scan orders per planet.
When a batch processes, all scans use the baseline orbital count locked at the start — newly-gained orbitals from successful scans within the same batch do not increase the difficulty of later scans in that batch. This makes batched scanning more reliable than scattered single scans.
Getting orbitals — expeditions
With Deep Survey Vessel researched (R&D branch), you can send an orbital expedition from the Overview. One orbital expedition can be out at a time.
| Run | Duration | Cost (Ti / Si / Ur) | Chance of losing the run | Orbitals brought home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Half day | 24 ticks | 8 000 / 8 000 / 2 000 | 5% | 2–6 |
| Full day | 48 ticks | 15 000 / 15 000 / 4 000 | 10% | 5–16 |
The cost is paid at launch. An expedition that comes home always brings something back; a lost one brings nothing. Each orbital found is rolled separately: about 30% arrive as Titanium, 30% Silicon and 30% Uranium orbitals (already initiated), and 10% arrive uninitiated. Expeditions don't use scan cost, scan chance or the pity bonus. See Research for the antimatter expedition.
Initiating orbitals
Once you have an uninitiated orbital, choose its production type from the Orbitals screen.
Initiation cost
The cost scales with your existing initiated orbital count:
cost_titanium = CEIL((300 + total_initiated × 30))
cost_silicon = CEIL((200 + total_initiated × 20))
A fresh planet (6 initiated orbitals) pays 480 Ti + 320 Si to initiate its first new orbital. A mid-game planet with 30 initiated orbitals pays 1 200 Ti + 800 Si per initiation.
There is no Uranium cost. There is no time delay — initiation is instant. The new orbital starts producing the chosen resource on the next tick.
Choosing resource type
Different resources have different in-game roles:
| Resource | Used for |
|---|---|
| Titanium | Ships, PDS, research, initiation |
| Silicon | Same as Titanium — universally needed |
| Uranium | Late-game ships (Destroyers and up), late research |
Most early-game planets benefit from a balanced mix of Ti/Si orbitals. Uranium becomes critical only when you start building Destroyers and beyond — that's where Ur costs explode.
A common mid-game ratio for a "balanced" planet:
- 40% Titanium
- 40% Silicon
- 20% Uranium
Players specializing in heavy fleets push Uranium higher (30%+). Players running scan-heavy or alliance-builder economies push Silicon higher (50%+) since scans, research, and PDS all consume Silicon.
Losing orbitals — combat theft
When you lose a battle, the attacker can steal some of your orbitals. The mechanic is covered in detail in Combat, but the summary:
| Outcome | Orbs stolen |
|---|---|
| Defender wins | Nothing is stolen |
| Draw | floor((Fi × 0.5 + Fr × 1.25) × score_ratio × 0.40), capped at 50% of your initiated orbitals (75% vs Void) |
| Attacker wins | floor((Fi × 0.5 + Fr × 1.25) × score_ratio × 1.00), capped at 50% of your initiated orbitals (75% vs Void) |
Where Fi = surviving Orbital Pods, Fr = surviving Fr-class capture ships (Atlas Transport, Brood Carrier, Conduit, Infiltrator).
Orbital Pods (Fi-class) contribute 0.5 orbs each, while Fr-class capture ships contribute 1.25 orbs each. Sending more — and keeping them alive — directly determines how much you walk away with. No capture ships survive? You steal nothing regardless of outcome.
The result is multiplied by score ratio (0.5×–2.0×) and hard-capped at 50% of the defender's initiated orbitals per raid in PvP (30% if the fleet also carries raid corvettes). Attacks on The Void NPC raise the cap to 75% — Void planets have no Panic Retreat or raid-recovery protection, so they can be farmed much harder per attack.
Stolen orbitals are split proportionally across your existing Ti/Si/Ur orbitals. If 60% of your orbitals are Titanium, then 60% of stolen orbitals will be Titanium.
The Orbital Shield blocks theft
Since v4.0.0: if the defender's Orbital Shield holds 60%+ charge after the battle, zero orbitals are stolen — the theft step is skipped entirely. Attackers must break the shield first (or in the same strike). See Orbital Shield.
Raid recovery protection
If an attacker takes the maximum the cap allows in a single raid, your planet automatically enters a 48-tick protection period — the same P status that new planets have. No one can attack you during this window, and while it lasts you can only attack The Void yourself.
This uses the same protection timer as new-player protection, so if you already have active protection remaining it is extended to whichever is later — your existing protection is never shortened. You can end protection early yourself with End protection on the Overview — your planet becomes attackable immediately.
Stolen orbitals arrive pre-initiated
When the attacker steals your orbitals, they land in their dock pre-initiated with the same per-resource type they had on your side. If they steal one of your Uranium orbitals, it becomes a working Uranium orbital on their planet immediately — no initiation cost, no waiting.
This is a meaningful buff to raiders in v2: stolen orbitals contribute to the attacker's economy from the next tick, not later. The simplest path to late-game resource production is winning a fight against someone who already paid for the orbital growth.
This is why diversifying orbital types matters defensively. A pure-Uranium economy is easier to cripple in one attack, AND the attacker walks away with a working Uranium economy of their own.
Orbitals and score
Your planet's score is heavily weighted by total orbital count. Each initiated orbital is worth 300 score points and each uninitiated orbital 150. Both count fully toward your orbital-scan difficulty.
Implications:
- Scan defensively as well as offensively. A growing orbital count makes you a bigger target.
- Initiating raises your score — an uninitiated stockpile counts for half, so initiating it doubles its score contribution.
- Score-based attack range applies. The v2 attack range uses a sliding floor that scales with attacker size: 20% for small players, sliding up to 60% for whales (200M+). There's no upper limit — you can always punch up. See Scoring for the full algorithm.
Quick reference
| Concept | Detail |
|---|---|
| Starting orbitals | 3 Ti + 2 Si + 1 Ur + 2 uninitiated |
| Starting income | 650 Ti / 500 Si / 300 Ur per tick (with starting orbitals) |
| Per-orbital income | 150 Ti / 150 Si / 100 Ur per tick |
| Core income | 200/200/200 per tick (race-independent) |
| Scan cost formula | 1000 + (initiated × 50) Si |
| Scan success formula (orbital) | 80 − (total × penalty) + bonuses clamped 5–95%; penalty 0.5 → 0.28 with Survey Arrays I–III, floor 15% with Deep Core Survey |
| Orbital expeditions | Half day: 24 ticks, 2–6 orbitals, 5% loss · Full day: 48 ticks, 5–16 orbitals, 10% loss |
| Max scans in queue | 25 |
| Rewarded ad: 4 rewards | orbital · resource · production · research |
| Rewarded ad orbital reward | +5 initiated orbitals (2 Ti, 2 Si, 1 Ur) |
| Rewarded ad orbital cooldown | 4 hours real time (shared with other rewards) |
| Resource boost effect | +25% income for 4 hours (additive with Engineer income traits) |
| Production token effect | Next build × 0.5 ticks, one-shot in 8h window |
| Research token effect | Next research × 0.75 ticks (25% faster), one-shot in 8h window |
| Resource boost cooldown | 6 hours (shared) |
| Production token cooldown | 8 hours (shared) |
| Research token cooldown | 8 hours (shared) |
| Premium and ads | Skips the ad, same cooldown |
| Alliance Gold free scans | 1 per 24 ticks |
| Alliance Platinum free scans | 2 per 24 ticks |
| Alliance Diamond free scans | 3 per 24 ticks |
| Renown free scans | Admiral 1 / Warlord 2 per 24 ticks — you get the better of alliance tier and Renown |
| Pity bonus threshold | 4+ consecutive fails |
| Pity bonus max | +30% (after 6+ fails) |
| Initiation cost | (300 + initiated × 30) Ti + (200 + initiated × 20) Si |
| Initiation choice | Permanent — cannot reassign |
| Theft formula | floor((Fi × 0.5 + Fr × 1.25) × score_ratio × mult); mult = 1.0 / 0.4 / 0 (win/draw/loss) |
| Theft cap | 50% of defender’s initiated orbitals per raid (30% with raid corvettes; 75% vs The Void) |
| Raid recovery protection | 48-tick P-status if a raid takes the maximum the cap allows |
| Score ratio range | 0.5×–2.0× |
| Orbital Shield gate | post-attack charge ≥ 60% → zero orbitals stolen (details) |
| Orbital score | 300 per initiated orbital, 150 per uninitiated |
| Stolen orbitals state | Pre-initiated in same Ti/Si/Ur breakdown as defender |
| Attack range floor | 20% (small) → 60% (whales 200M+); no upper limit |
| STC v2 scan discount | None (v1 only) |
| STC v2 init discount | None (v1 only) |
Documentation reflects Orbitarion v4.6.4. Last updated: 2026-11-03.