Buildings & Resources

Galactico's resource buildings are the foundation of everything. Without mines producing Metal, Crystal and Deuterium, nothing else happens — no ships, no research, no defense. This guide covers every resource building, what it does, when to upgrade it, and the production numbers you need to make good decisions.

The three resources

Metal is always in demand and never a bottleneck early — focus on upgrading it first. Crystal becomes the constraint once you hit serious research. Deuterium becomes critical once you have a large active fleet, since every mission burns it proportional to distance and ship count.

Energy

Energy is not a resource you collect — it's a balance. Your mines consume energy; your power plants produce it. If your energy balance goes negative, mines throttle down proportionally. A –200 energy deficit doesn't destroy anything, but it silently cuts your production output and wastes mine levels you've already paid for.

Rule: always keep energy at zero or positive. Add a Solar Plant or Fusion Reactor level every few mine upgrades.

Resource buildings

Metal Mine

Produces Metal continuously. The most important mine to upgrade first. Cost scales exponentially with level, but so does output.

• Level 1: ~35 Metal/hour (base game speed)
• Production formula: approximately 30 × level × 1.1^level per hour
• Upgrade priority: highest — always lead with Metal Mine

Crystal Mine

Produces Crystal. Slightly lower output rate than Metal Mine by design, reflecting Crystal's relative scarcity.

• Production formula: approximately 20 × level × 1.1^level per hour
• Upgrade priority: second — keep 1–2 levels behind Metal Mine

Deuterium Synthesizer

Produces Deuterium. Output is modified by your planet's maximum temperature — colder planets produce more Deuterium. If you have a choice when colonizing, consider planet temperature for your main Deuterium producer.

• Production formula: approximately 10 × level × 1.1^level × (−0.002 × max_temp + 1.28)
• Upgrade priority: third — trail Crystal Mine by a level or two early on

Solar Plant

Your primary energy source early game. Cheap, has no running costs, and produces flat energy per level.

• Production formula: approximately 20 × level × 1.1^level energy
• When to upgrade: whenever your energy balance goes negative

Fusion Reactor

An alternative energy source that runs on Deuterium. More efficient per field than a Solar Plant at high levels but costs Deuterium to run, which reduces your effective Deuterium stockpile. Best used in the mid-to-late game when you have Deuterium to spare.

• Requires: Deuterium Synthesizer 5, Energy Technology 3
• Upgrade priority: medium — build this once you have deuterium surplus

Storage buildings

Storage buildings set the maximum amount of each resource your planet can hold. Production doesn't stop when storage fills — it just gets wasted. Every unit produced past capacity is lost forever.

Metal Storage

• Increases maximum Metal capacity
• Level 1: 10,000 Metal capacity
• Capacity roughly doubles every level
• Upgrade when: production could fill current storage during your offline period

Crystal Storage

• Increases maximum Crystal capacity
• Same scaling as Metal Storage
• Upgrade when: same rule — before long offline sessions

Deuterium Tank

• Increases maximum Deuterium capacity
• Upgrade when: large fleet operations are consuming Deuterium faster than you can store it

Upgrade order recommendations

Early game (Mine levels 1–8): Metal Mine → Crystal Mine → Solar Plant (when needed) → Deuterium Synthesizer → Metal Storage/Crystal Storage before any long offline period → Robotics Factory 2 early → repeat mine rotation.

Mid game (Mine levels 8–15): Continue mine rotation, add Fusion Reactor once Deuterium surplus exists. Build a second planet and start its mines immediately — two planets compounding beats one planet at high levels.

Key principle: never let the build queue sit idle. Every idle minute is lost production that you can never recover.

Production preview

The game shows you the production preview for every building before you upgrade it — current output vs next level output, and the resource gain per hour. Use this to prioritize the mine giving you the highest relative gain for the cost.

For a complete picture of what each building unlocks, see the Facilities Guide and Research & Technology Guide.