FAQ

Your civilization begins with just enough energy to fund its first research: Astronomy, which lets you perceive the stars around you. Start there. While that research runs, build colonies — each one provides the energy you need to maintain your systems and unlock further research.

Once Astronomy comes online, look for a hot star nearby. On your home page, every star lists its harvest rate; anything above 1.0x grants a bonus to your income, at the cost of a brighter footprint in the galaxy. Gather as much energy as you can while you are still small — at this stage you are nearly invisible, and the galaxy rarely looks twice at a dim signal.

Grow your colonies, then research Espionage and begin exploring. Launch your first scout to learn whether you have neighbors, or whether your star is safe. Deploy listening posts to catch who is moving around you. Activate your Signal Array to listen for faint signals in the dark — and start the hunt.

Astronomy I is mandatory — nothing else works without it. After that, it depends on your philosophy. Signal Array gives you free passive intelligence with no risk. Espionage I lets you actively probe neighbors. Dark Veil I lets you start hiding.

There is no wrong second choice, but there is a wrong lack of a second choice: sitting idle with only Astronomy I means you are visible and blind at the same time. As you progress, the research tree will branch into specialization paths — but that decision is far away. Focus on building a foundation first.

Your first several colonies are maintenance-free, so early growth is essentially free income. But every colony raises your signal — and you have no veil yet.

The tension is real: more colonies fund faster research, but a bright signal on an unshrouded star is an invitation. Build enough to fund your first research comfortably, then decide how much risk you can stomach before your veil comes online.

You are small, dim, and forgettable — which is the closest thing to safety this galaxy offers. Your starting signal is low enough that most probes will miss you. But "most" is not "all," and you have no defenses yet.

Use the grace period wisely: research, grow modestly, and resist the urge to probe every neighbor before you can handle what you might find.

Three common causes: too many colonies for your star's harvest rate, veil maintenance draining you dry, or your star is depleted from extended habitation. Tap the energy display in the header to see the breakdown.

The fastest fix is lowering your veil cap — veil upkeep scales with both your colony count and veil level, and it is often the largest expense. Colonies are never lost to insolvency, but your veil will decay until your economy stabilizes, leaving you exposed.

This is the central strategic dilemma. Colonies generate income and make you stronger in battle, but they raise your signal and increase maintenance costs. High veil reduces your signal and gives massive defensive bonuses, but costs energy to sustain.

A lean civilization with strong veil is nearly invisible but lacks the resources for expensive operations. A sprawling empire funds anything but glows like a beacon. Neither extreme is optimal — the answer depends on your neighbors, your star, and how much you know about who is watching.

Migration is expensive and dangerous: you lose a percentage of your colonies to attrition during travel, your veil regeneration is halved, and if someone is already at the destination, you bounce — potentially losing colonies in combat.

But a depleted star is a slow death, and a cold star may not fund your ambitions. Weigh the costs: probe the destination first, check for depletion, and consider whether the trip is worth the colony loss.

Not necessarily. A well-hidden civilization — small fleet, cold star, high veil — can evade a probe entirely, especially a low-level one. "Nothing" means your probe didn't detect anything at its sensitivity level.

Sending a higher-level probe or repeating the scan may yield different results. Conversely, a single "Suspected (Weak)" result could be noise. Intelligence in Darkling is probabilistic, not binary. Treat every result as a data point, not a verdict.

Think of them as three layers of awareness. Passive detection (Signal Array) listens automatically for loud civilizations nearby — it is free, silent, and approximate. Listening posts watch specific chokepoints for movement — anything transiting through leaves a wake signature. Probes actively scan a specific star for inhabitants.

Each layer answers a different question: passive detection asks "is anyone out there?", listening posts ask "is anything moving?", and probes ask "is anyone here?"

Someone has a sophon watching your star. The alert does not tell you who, and it does not tell you what they have learned — only that you are being observed. Higher counter-espionage research gives you more descriptive alerts, but never identifies the watcher.

The practical response depends on your situation: if you are about to migrate or launch a strike, assume your plans are compromised. If you are sitting quietly, the observer may lose interest — or they may be deciding whether to act on what they have seen.

Sometimes. Probe intelligence decays over time — a confirmation from days ago may not reflect current reality. The civilization may have migrated away, grown stronger, or raised their veil.

Repeated probes also build a richer intelligence picture: enriched data from higher-level probes gives colony estimates and veil readings that a single scan misses. But every probe leaves a wake, and advanced civilizations with counter-espionage may detect and trace it back toward you.

The veil works on multiple fronts. It reduces your electromagnetic signal, making you harder to detect by probes and passive sensors. It weakens photoid signal lock, reducing or even negating incoming strike damage. And if someone migrates to your star and tries to evict you, high veil gives you substantial damage reduction in combat.

The cost is energy: veil maintenance is a constant drain that scales with both level and colony count. Think of veil as insurance — expensive, invisible when it works, catastrophic when you don't have it. Most civilizations cap out at 75% veil; only the Phantom specialization can push beyond that to total concealment.

Yes. An intercepted probe means someone actively targeted your star. Counter-espionage intercepts degrade the probe's results, but they don't necessarily block detection entirely — the sender may still receive a partial reading.

Worse, counter-espionage can trace the probe's incoming trajectory, giving you a direction to investigate. The interception itself is valuable intelligence: someone knows your star exists and cared enough to scan it. Start thinking about whether to reinforce, deceive, or relocate.

Decoys create phantom signals at stars you choose. An enemy probing that star will detect what appears to be a civilization. This has several uses: place one near your real location to muddy the picture, place one far away to draw attention elsewhere, or place one on your own star to absorb some damage from an incoming photoid strike.

Decoys also fool passive detection — a distant player's signal array can't distinguish your decoy from a real civilization. The bluff only fails when someone invests in a system sweep or deploys a sophon to verify. Phantoms have access to an additional deception tool — the specter — which serves a similar purpose but is persistent and free.

A photoid is a commitment: it costs significant resources, triggers a signal spike that reveals your position for hours, and has a long cooldown. Launch only when you have solid intelligence on the target — a confirmed civilization with a known location.

Firing at a decoy wastes the strike and exposes you for nothing. The ideal scenario is launching from behind a deep veil, against a target you've been monitoring with a sophon, so you know their defenses and can verify the hit. Without a sophon, you fire blind — you won't even know if you hit anything.

Your star remains a valid photoid target even after you leave — but you won't be there to take the hit. However, migration itself carries risks: you lose colonies to attrition during travel, and if your destination is occupied, you bounce to a random nearby star, potentially losing colonies in combat.

During transit, your veil regeneration is halved and you can't take most actions. Migration is not an escape — it is a calculated relocation with its own dangers.

Your location is now public knowledge. Every civilization with that broadcast can see your star and decide what to do about it. Your options depend on your position: if you have strong veil and counter-espionage, you may be able to weather the attention. Deploy decoys on nearby stars to create noise around your position.

If you are vulnerable, migration may be the only answer — but migrating when the galaxy knows where you are is itself risky, since listening posts along your route may track your departure vector. There is no clean escape from exposure; there is only choosing which risk you prefer.

The choice becomes available once you have completed the prerequisite research across all major branches. There is no rush — specialization is permanent, and choosing early gives you access to late-game capabilities sooner, but choosing without understanding your neighborhood means committing blind.

Consider what you have learned about your surroundings before deciding. The right path depends less on what sounds powerful in isolation and more on what your situation demands.

None. Each path sacrifices something essential to gain something exclusive. A Watcher who can see everything but strikes with a dull blade faces different problems than a Striker who hits hard but operates with limited intelligence. A Phantom who is nearly invisible still needs to act in a galaxy they can only partially observe.

The question is not which path is strongest — it is which weakness you can best compensate for with the tools you already have.

No. Specialization is permanent and irreversible. The technologies foreclosed by your choice are gone forever. If your current path feels wrong, consider whether the problem is the path itself or how you are using it. Every specialization has tools that become powerful in the right context.

If the research you are currently working on becomes foreclosed by your new specialization, it is automatically cancelled and you receive a partial refund. Completed research is never lost — only future access is restricted.

The Watcher plays an intelligence-first game. Your core loop: deploy sophons to monitor high-value stars, deploy siphon drones to drain targets you've identified, and let your listening post network feed Bearing Analysis to triangulate civilizations you haven't found yet.

Prioritize Counter-Espionage III early — the sophon is the cornerstone of your path. A sophon parked at a busy star gives you departure alerts, probe interception warnings, and detailed intel reports. Once you know a target's strength, deploy a siphon to bleed their economy while you decide whether to probe further or share their coordinates with someone who hits harder.

Your weakness is offensive power. You see everything but strike with basic photoids. Consider using your intelligence advantage to broadcast dangerous targets to Strikers — let them do the killing while you profit from the information trade.

The Phantom plays a deception game. Your goal is to make the galaxy believe you are somewhere you are not — or that you don't exist at all. Deep Veil pushes your concealment beyond what any other path can achieve, and your specter projects a false presence to draw attention away from your real location.

Place your specter strategically: near a rival to make them paranoid, on a trade corridor to attract probes away from you, or near your own star as a decoy shield. Reposition it as the tactical situation shifts. Combine the specter with conventional decoys for layered deception — enemies waste resources chasing ghosts.

Dark Harvest turns your stealth investment into an economic advantage — higher veil means higher income. Combined with Deep Veil, you reclaim the maximum amount of radiated energy, making your concealment self-sustaining.

Your weakness is range and offensive reach. You cap at two hops of astronomy and lack advanced weapons. Survive through invisibility, not firepower. If no one can find you, no one can kill you.

The Striker plays a siege game. Your loop: use disruption strikes to erode a target's veil over multiple sessions, then follow up with a photoid once they're exposed. Signal Lock research makes your photoids pierce through veil, and Resource Salvage lets you recover energy from successful strikes — warfare partially funds itself.

Don't rush to photoids against well-veiled targets. A disruption strike costs far less, has a shorter cooldown, and always hits an occupied star. Soften the target's defenses first. Once their veil is low enough, a Signal Lock photoid delivers devastating colony damage even through remaining concealment.

Your weakness is intelligence. You lack sophons and advanced counter-espionage, so you rely on probes and listening posts for targeting. Consider investing in a broad listening post network to find targets, then apply pressure methodically.

Resource Salvage only yields energy from established civilizations. If the target had very few colonies, there is nothing worth recovering — small civilizations simply don't produce enough infrastructure to salvage. Additionally, you need the Resource Salvage research unlocked for salvage to apply at all.

Decoys are physical devices available to anyone with Counter-Espionage I. They cost energy, travel to their target, run for a limited time, and are destroyed by photoids (absorbing the strike).

Specters are Phantom-exclusive signal projections. They are free to deploy, activate instantly, have no expiration, and can be repositioned once per day. However, sophons see through specters entirely — a Watcher monitoring a specter star will know it's a false signal. Photoids pass through specters harmlessly since there is nothing physical to hit.

In short: decoys are disposable shields that cost energy. Specters are permanent illusions that cost nothing but are transparent to sophisticated surveillance.

Bearing Analysis runs automatically in the background once a Watcher specializes. Your listening posts detect wake signatures from transiting objects — probes, migrations, photoids. Each detection provides a directional bearing. When enough bearings from different listening posts converge on the same region, the system triangulates candidate stars where a civilization is likely operating.

You receive the results as a journal alert with candidate stars added to your intelligence. The more listening posts you have spread across different approach corridors, the faster convergences occur. You don't need to do anything manually — just keep your sensor network wide and wait.

Not directly. Your specialization is never revealed in probe results, sophon intel, or any intelligence report. But your actions can betray your path: disruption strikes can only come from a Striker, a specter detected by a sophon means a Phantom is operating nearby, and siphon drones are exclusively a Watcher tool.

Experienced players will read the evidence. A target whose veil keeps eroding without photoid impacts knows a Striker is at work. A sophon reporting an anomalous signal source reveals a Phantom's specter. Unexplained energy drain points to a Watcher's siphon. Your specialization is a secret only until you use it.

No. Signal Lock is a photoid-specific research — it only affects photoid targeting and signal spike duration. Disruption strikes are area-effect weapons that hit any occupied star regardless of the target's signal strength. They don't need signal lock because they aren't precision weapons — they blanket the target area with electromagnetic interference.

Listening posts detect movement — a probe transiting through, a migration in progress, a photoid inbound. But they don't identify the sender. If a listening post picks up a probe wake heading toward a known star, you now know someone is actively scanning in your neighborhood.

Place listening posts on approach corridors to your star, and you can track the origin direction of incoming probes. Follow that vector with your own probe, and you may find who's hunting you before they find you.

Every object that transits through space — probes, scouts, migrations, decoys, listening posts, photoids — leaves a wake signature at each star along its path. Wakes are raw traces: they tell you what type of object passed, which direction it came from and where it was heading, and how fresh the trace is. They fade over time.

A track is what happens when multiple listening posts detect wakes from the same transit. If two or more of your listening posts pick up the same object moving through their respective stars, the system correlates those detections into a single track — a reconstructed path showing the object's route across multiple hops.

Listening posts detect wakes passively at the stars where they are deployed. Star scans read all current wakes at a single star as a one-time snapshot. Neither reveals who sent the object — only that something passed through, what it was, and where it was going.

First, read the object type. A probe wake means someone is scanning your neighborhood — you are being investigated. A migration wake means a civilization is relocating nearby, which could be coincidence or a direct approach. A photoid wake means a strike is inbound and you have limited time to react.

The direction matters as much as the type. A wake tells you where the object came from and where it was heading. If it points toward your star, assume you are the target until proven otherwise. If it passes through laterally, you may have simply picked up traffic between two other civilizations — useful intelligence in its own right, since it tells you the neighborhood is active.

Listening posts are passive and continuous — deploy one and it watches that star indefinitely, reporting every wake that passes through. Star scan is active and one-time — it reads all current wake residue at a single star as a snapshot, then it's done.

Use listening posts for ongoing surveillance of corridors and chokepoints you care about long-term. Use star scan when you have a specific question about a specific location: "has anything passed through this star recently?" A listening post that wasn't there yesterday can't tell you what happened yesterday. A star scan can — as long as the wakes haven't faded yet.

A track gives you something a single wake detection cannot: a trajectory. You can see the object's path across multiple hops, which reveals both where it came from and where it was going. The origin end of the track points toward whoever sent it. The destination end tells you what they were interested in.

Follow the origin vector with a probe if you want to find the sender. If the destination is your star or a star you control, treat it as confirmed hostile interest. If the track shows a photoid path, the destination is about to be hit — and if it's not you, someone nearby is about to have a very bad day, which changes your local threat landscape either way.

Probes give you a snapshot — a single reading from the moment they arrive. A sophon gives you continuous intelligence: colony counts, resource levels, veil status, active research, and migration plans, updated regularly for as long as it remains active.

A probe tells you someone is there; a sophon tells you what they are doing about it. The tradeoff is cost and risk: sophons are expensive, take time to deploy, and the target may detect the surveillance through paranoia alerts if they have counter-espionage research.

Broadcasts are weapons of information. Sharing coordinates paints a target — every civilization that receives the broadcast now knows where to look. Named broadcasts are cheaper but traceable to you, creating a diplomatic trail. Anonymous broadcasts cost far more but protect your identity.

Consider the second-order effects: if you broadcast a rival's location, every other player may strike them — but they also now know that someone in the galaxy has espionage capabilities and is willing to weaponize intelligence. The broadcast reveals as much about you as it does about your target.

You were likely fooled by a decoy or a specter — false signal sources that mimic the electromagnetic signature of a living civilization. Probes and passive sensors cannot distinguish these phantom signals from the real thing. A sophon sees through the illusion, which is why the intel reports disagree.

If you lack a sophon, the only way to resolve the ambiguity is to invest in counter-espionage detection at your own star (to find local fakes) or to probe repeatedly and look for inconsistencies in the readings over time.

Check whether your star has a siphon drone attached. A foreign siphon silently drains a fraction of your harvest every tick — it does not show up as an expense in your economy panel because the energy is taken before it reaches your reserves. If you have counter-espionage research, you may eventually receive an anomaly alert. Without it, the drain is invisible.

If you suspect a siphon, a system sweep at your star will remove it along with any other foreign devices.

Artifacts provide unique, powerful effects that can't be obtained any other way. A Phase Dampener halves your signal for hours — a stealth window for migration or strikes. A Resonance Key narrows down the location of hidden ruins. An Eidolon Cipher unlocks sealed ruins that would otherwise be inaccessible.

Artifacts are rare and consumed on use, so deploy them at moments of maximum impact. Exploring ruins also generates resonance clues that point toward further discoveries, creating a self-reinforcing exploration loop.

No. The game's information asymmetry means that the optimal play depends entirely on what you don't know. A passive player who hides well may survive longer than an aggressive one — or they may be quietly surrounded by enemies they never detected. An aggressive player who strikes first may eliminate threats before they grow — or they may reveal themselves to a dozen civilizations who were content to leave them alone.

The only universal truth: information is more valuable than firepower.

Your civilization's economy, research, and veil only progress while your session is active — checking in at least once every 24 hours keeps things ticking. Probes, migrations, and sophons travel in real time whether you are online or not.

The game is designed for brief, deliberate sessions — check your intelligence, issue orders, and return to silence. Compulsive checking does not help; thoughtful action does.

There is no formal alliance system. You can choose not to attack someone, share intelligence through broadcasts, or use anonymous broadcasts to warn a target without revealing yourself. But trust is the scarcest resource in the dark forest — any coordinates you share could be used against you, and any silence could be hiding a photoid already in transit.

Cooperation is possible, but the game's mechanics ensure it is never safe.

A warning is the simplest form of direct communication — a signal sent to a known contact that says: I see you. It always reveals your star coordinates to the recipient, making it a deliberate act of exposure. How you use that exposure depends on your intent.

As a genuine warning: If your sophon detects a photoid launch targeting a contact, sending a warning gives them advance notice to migrate, deploy decoys, or brace for impact. You sacrifice anonymity to potentially save a civilization. Whether they interpret it as altruism or a threat is up to them.

As a diplomatic gesture: Sending a warning to a neighbor says "I know where you are, and I am choosing to talk instead of shoot." It establishes mutual visibility — both sides now have each other's coordinates. This can be the foundation of a tacit non-aggression arrangement, or it can be a trap.

As a coordinated threat: A warning reveals your position, but it also tells the recipient exactly where you are. If you have strong defenses and want to invite a response — perhaps to identify an attacker or bait a photoid into your decoy field — a warning is a provocation with plausible deniability.

Every warning is a gamble. You are handing someone the coordinates they need to destroy you, and trusting that the gesture carries more weight than the opportunity.

Your civilization is gone — all colonies, research, resources, and deployments are lost. Your game record is preserved, showing how you lived and how you fell. You can start a new civilization from the same account, spawning fresh at a random star with starting resources and no research.

Death is permanent, but not final. Each life teaches you something about the dark forest that the last one didn't.