Buildings

The construction model

Building works like unit production, not like a shop. There's no upfront payment: you start a structure on an owned province and its metal/ichor cost is paid off over one or more turns out of your resource pool, funded by that hex's industry. When the full cost is met, the building flips to complete and starts working.

Industry is how your resources are used to construct things. Each point of industry can apply 10 metal or 2 ichor to a structure under construction each turn. Some structures may give metal- or ichor-specific industry, which can only be used to convert those specific resources.

Resources are split 50/50 between structure and unit construction when both are queued. If one queue will not consume all available resources, the other queue will take up the remainder if possible.

All provinces have at least a small amount of industry, but starting with 2 industry in a tile is quite limiting - starting with 4-6 will let you construct a Factory Mk I much faster, which will kickstart your construction queue by significantly boosting the amount of available industry for metal- or ichor-working.

Structures may be added to a queue for building in order. Because a queued build can carry partial investment, cancelling an unfinished building refunds what you've sunk into it - but demolishing a completed one gets you nothing back. Build on your high-industry hexes for the fastest turnaround.

Prerequisites

Not everything can go anywhere. A structure can require:

• Terrain - a mine needs a metal deposit or ichor seam; some structures need high ground.
• Another building - upgrades and specialised structures sit on top of a prerequisite building on the same hex.
• Research - most upgrades and every faction signature building are locked behind a research node.

The starter economy buildings - a basic mine, factory, workshop and the like - are not locked, so a fresh commander can always get at least basic resource collection and production going. Everything stronger you'll need to unlock via research.

Economy and industry

Always consider your economy when setting up a build order. Mines add metal or ichor income scaled by the ground's affinity; the Research Institute adds science; trade and yield structures squeeze more out of what a hex already produces. A second group doesn't produce a resource but raises a hex's industry - the throughput that funds building and production - so an energy relay or workshop makes everything on that province build faster. Ichor income is usually the tighter of the two budgets, so structures that lift the ichor side of industry are especially prized, especially for factions and commanders that prize powerful individual units over simply massing more of them.

Sight and factories

A factory is the structure that lets a hex manufacture units at all; upgrading it raises its output. Separately, sensor structures - watchtowers, sensor webs, refraction and targeting spires - extend your strategic sight outward along the connection graph, some revealing full detail and some only a partial outline. Sensor coverage over a contested front is how you avoid walking into an army you never saw.

Buildings that fight

Some structures reach directly into any battle fought on or near their province. A few of the shapes they take:

• Hex-local defences - fortification walls, bunkers and turret batteries that strengthen whoever defends that province, and shield domes that top up defenders' shields.
• Supply auras - ammo depots and caches that resupply nearby (or departing) armies mid-fight, and accuracy spires that sharpen your units' aim.
• Enemy jamming - ECM stations that shrink an attacker's detection range over the ground they cover.
• Strategic strikes - a launch pad fires a guided strike each turn at an enemy building within range, knocking it offline for a couple of turns, while a counter-battery station shoots those strikes down and grants defenders point-defence in battle.

The exact numbers for each can be found in each building's tooltip. What you build and where significantly changes how fights near it go. Fortify the provinces you expect to be attacked, and push sensor and supply structures toward your front so you can maintain pressure without being surprised.

Faction signatures

Each faction has its own branch of signature buildings - a Chorus ley anchor that amplifies its own units' ichor effects in battle, an Ironfall targeting spire and launch pad, a Praxis drone foundry, an Exordia corrosion spire that coats attackers in acid, and more. They're unlocked through that faction's research branch and lean into how the faction likes to fight. Explore your own tree to see what your faction can do to turn the tides in your favor.

Building an empire

Fund construction from high-industry hexes; lay economic buildings first to compound your income, factories and industry boosts to build faster, sensors to see, and defensive and battle structures along the front you're contesting. Every strong building is gated behind Research, so make sure you don't neglect your structures!