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Loadouts
A loadout is the starting hand you pick before a war. Five are available from the start. The other eighteen are unlocked one per war by defeating The Guardians on the treasure planet. Weights and other terms are defined on Tech Cards.
Whatever loadout you pick, you begin with:
- four data banks, with the loadout in its own fifth bank
- Energy Plant and Metal Extractor
- every basic defence: Single Laser Defense Tower, Laser Defense Tower, Galata, Umbrella, Anchor, Kessler, Wall, Land Mine, and Torpedo Launcher
- Radar
- every basic naval and basic orbital unit
- Teleporter
- your Commander
Loadouts have weight 0. They only ever arrive as your starting choice or as the treasure planet's reward.
If your own loadout is offered again mid-war, taking it adds one data bank. General Commander is the exception and adds nothing. A different loadout won mid-war is banked as an unlock for future wars and grants nothing in the current one.
| Name | Description | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Vehicle Commander | "The Vehicle Commander loadout contains basic vehicle factories." | Basic vehicles and the Vehicle Factory |
| Air Commander | "The Air Commander loadout contains basic air factories." | Basic air units and the Air Factory |
| Bot Commander | "The Bot Commander loadout contains basic bot factories." | Basic bots and the Bot Factory |
| Orbital Commander | "The Orbital Commander loadout contains all orbital units and factories." | The complete orbital tree, Jig included |
| Naval Commander | "The Naval Commander loadout contains all naval factories. Increases the amount of water and lava on eligible planets." | The complete naval tree. Every planet is flooded for the whole war, which raises the weight of naval cards |
| Name | Description | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Artillery Commander | "The Artillery Commander loadout contains all artillery units and reduces costs of those structures by 75%. It also enables the Commander to build radar, double barreled turrets and basic artillery turrets." | Lob, Pelter, Holkins, and Dox. Holkins, Pelter, and Lob cost ×0.25. Your Commander can build the Pelter, Lob, Laser Defense Tower, and Radar. MLA only from the next release |
| General Commander | "The General Commander loadout contains very limited mobile forces and only two data banks. However, the loadout comes with two Sub Commanders that accompany you into each battle." | Ant, Skitter, Vehicle Fabber, and Vehicle Factory. Two Sub Commanders from your faction, fighting as your race, each occupying a data bank so that two remain free. Being offered it again adds no data bank |
| Bionic Augmentation Commander Of Neutralizing | "The Bionic Augmentation Commander Of Neutralizing loadout contains one data bank but increases the Commander's fire rate by 100%, decreases Uber Cannon energy usage by 75%, increases health by 200%, and increases speed by 400%." | One data bank. Commander speed ×5, health ×3, rate of fire ×2, and Uber Cannon energy ×0.25 |
| Paratrooper Commander | "Contains no basic land or air factories, just Lobs and Unit Cannons built by the commander. Halves the cost of both. All land units can be built from the Unit Cannon as they are unlocked." | Lob, Unit Cannon, and the ten units the Unit Cannon fires. Your Commander builds both at half cost. Every land unit you unlock later becomes Unit Cannon buildable, and the Manhattan can be fired from it. MLA only |
| Space Excavation Commander | "Modifies Jigs to allow building them anywhere, at the expense of not being able to build other resource structures. They are 75% cheaper but produce 30% less metal and energy and do 90% less damage on death. Orbital fabricators can build all basic structures. Contains all basic and advanced orbital units but can never build orbital battleships, any resource generating unit or structure" | The advanced orbital tree. Jig cost ×0.25, output ×0.7, buildable anywhere, death blast ×0.1. Orbital fabricators build ordinary structures. While held you cannot build either Energy Plant, either Metal Extractor, the Omega, the Solar Array, or the Icarus, and Complete Orbital Tech is never offered. No system will host an allied Commander. MLA only from the next release |
| Tactical Nuke Commander | "Replaces conventional nukes with a new low-cost/low-yield variant and relies heavily on it for both offense and defence. Gives up most advanced defenses to do it." | Ant, Skitter, Vehicle Fabber, and Vehicle Factory. Basic fabricators can build the Nuclear Missile Launcher, renamed Tactical Nuke: the silo costs about 17%, the missile 1%, and the warhead does about 2.3% of the damage over a much smaller blast. While held you cannot build the Anchor, Catapult, Flak Cannon, Kessler, Laser Defense Tower, Advanced Laser Defense Tower, or Advanced Torpedo Launcher. MLA only from the next release |
| Planetary Excavation Commander | "Modifies Metal Extractors to enable building them anywhere at 150% the cost and 50% efficiency. Starts with basic vehicles." | The basic vehicle tree. Both Metal Extractors can be placed anywhere at ×1.5 cost and ×0.5 output. A basic and an advanced extractor cannot share one spot. MLA only from the next release |
| Defense Tech Commander | "Defenses are 50% cheaper, fire 25% faster, have 50% more range, and turn 300% quicker. Barriers are 90% cheaper and have their health doubled. All defenses can be built by both the commander and basic fabricators." | Every advanced defence from the start. Every defence except the Wall: cost ×0.5, +25% rate of fire, +50% range, turn rate ×4. Wall: cost ×0.1, health ×2. Your Commander and basic fabricators build every defence. MLA only from the next release |
| Tourist Commander | "You turned up with a fat wallet, but little else. Huge amounts of storage, but no Metal Extractors, no Mining Platforms, and no basic land or air factories." | Commander metal storage ×200. While held you cannot build the Metal Extractor, Advanced Metal Extractor, or Jig. No system will host an allied Commander |
| Rapid Deployment Commander | "Factories build fabricators and fabricators build units." | Factories build only the fabricators of their domain. Fabricators build that domain's mobile units and its advanced factory. The Colonel becomes an advanced bot fabricator. MLA only |
| Swarm Commander | "This Commander likes to raid and has modified its blueprints to that end. Units are twice as fast and 30% cheaper but have damage output decreased by 50%." | The basic bot tree. Mobile units speed ×2 and cost ×0.7, structures cost ×0.7, and all damage ×0.5 |
| Buff Commander | "This Commander prefers quality over quantity and has modified its units to that end. 30% more health, 30% more damage and splash, but 25% slower, and with 30% higher build costs." | The basic vehicle tree. Mobile units speed ×0.75, cost ×1.3, health ×1.3. Structures cost ×1.3 and health ×1.3. All damage ×1.3 |
| Nomad Commander | "Non-factory and non-Titan structures are mobile. Small structures can be transported and use teleporters, medium size structures can use teleporters." | Defences, artillery, radar, storage, Energy Plants, and the Jig become hover-mobile at speed 10 with Move, Patrol, and Assist orders (and Attack when armed). The Anchor, Jig, and Kessler move in orbit at speed 25. Small structures ride in the Pelican and through teleporters; medium structures use teleporters. MLA only |
| Backpacker Commander | "Contains 16 data banks. Alas, travelling light means you start with only the most basic of bots." | Sixteen data banks. Bot Fabber, Bot Factory, and Dox only |
| Hoarder Commander | "Contains every factory on every tier of the tech tree." | The entire air, bot, naval, orbital, and vehicle trees, plus the advanced structures: Catalyst, Halley, Nuclear Missile Launcher, Anti-Nuke Launcher, Advanced Energy Plant, Advanced Metal Extractor, Advanced Radar, Radar Jamming Station, and Unit Cannon |
| Warp Commander | "The Commander can mass teleport itself and all units within weapons range to anywhere in the system, but they are highly vulnerable to attack afterwards." | A mass teleport with radius 100 that moves up to 1,000 units anywhere in the system for 600,000 energy. The teleported force spends 30 seconds phased at 1% health |
| Terminal Commander | "You're dying, but you have one last war left in you. Your units' health decreases over time, and your commander's fastest of all. Life is short and must be lived to the full, so unit damage and movement is doubled and costs are halved. Life through victory, Commander!" | Everything costs ×0.5. Mobile units and the Commander move at ×2 speed. All damage ×2. Health drains every second: Commander 15, factories 7, other structures 3, mobile units 1 |
| Lucky Commander | "The Lucky Commander is offered four cards instead of three at every planet." | One more card in every offer: four, or five when your data banks are full |
Paratrooper, Nomad, and Rapid Deployment depend on MLA units. From the next release, Artillery, Space Excavation, Tactical Nuke, Planetary Excavation, and Defense Tech are MLA only too: their changes reach only MLA units. A race player who already holds one of them in a war keeps it. MLA-only loadouts are dimmed for other races on the setup screen and are left out of the treasure pool for race players.
Every war has exactly one treasure planet, always near the centre of the galaxy. Its Planetary Intelligence panel reads: "This is a treasure planet, hiding a loadout you have yet to unlock. But beware the guardians! Armed with whatever technology bonuses you bring with you to this planet; they will stop at nothing to defend its secrets."
The planet is defended by The Guardians: faction name "The Guardians", personality "Unknown", a Raptor Unicorn Commander, fighting as your race in white and pink. Their army is built from your own tech. Every card you hold is turned against you, and in co-op the Guardians hold every player's tech combined. Their Threat Level is three times what the tech alone would give, and their AI Tech line in Planetary Intelligence reads "Your technology bonuses".
The loadout on offer is drawn when you arrive from the loadouts you have not yet unlocked. Race players are never offered an MLA-only loadout. If you have unlocked every loadout you receive a normal offer instead. The loadout offer cannot be rerolled.
Winning the battle unlocks the loadout immediately, for this and every future war, through the "Unlock Commander" button. It does not join your current inventory. In co-op every player is judged on their own unlocks.
Version 7.4.0 retired the CEO, Assault, and Storage Commander loadouts. They are no longer offered, and the counts on this wiki leave them out. A war already started with one of them continues.