Fleet & Combat Guide

Galactico's fleet system is the heart of the game. Thirteen ship types, a 6-round tactical battle system, debris fields, looting mechanics, and moon formation — this guide covers everything from the stats of every ship to exactly how battles resolve.

The 13 ship types

Ships fall into three categories: logistics, combat, and recon.

Logistics ships

Small Cargo

• Cargo: 5,000 units
• Fast and cheap. Your primary early raiding hauler.
• Use: raiding, resource transport between planets

Large Cargo

• Cargo: 25,000 units
• Five times the capacity of a Small Cargo at a modest cost increase.
• Use: bulk resource transfers, large raid operations

Colony Ship

• Cargo: 7,500 units
• Required to colonize a new planet. Each colonization consumes the ship.
• Use: expanding your empire to new worlds

Recycler

• Cargo: 20,000 units
• The only ship that can collect debris fields left after battles.
• Use: harvesting your own or enemy battle debris

Recon ships

Spy Probe

• No weapons, no shields, minimal hull
• Delivers an espionage report about a target planet
• Speed: extremely fast — reaches targets almost instantly
• Use: always send probes before attacking. See the Espionage Guide

Combat ships

Light Fighter

• Weapon: 50 | Shield: 10 | Armour: 400
• Your cheapest combat unit. High quantity beats quality at this level.
• Use: early raiding, cannon fodder in large fleets

Heavy Fighter

• Weapon: 150 | Shield: 25 | Armour: 1,000
• Significantly more durable than Light Fighters.
• Use: mid-tier combat, bridge between Light Fighters and Cruisers

Cruiser

• Weapon: 400 | Shield: 50 | Armour: 2,700
• Has rapid fire against Light Fighters (fires multiple times per round on average).
• Use: countering Light Fighter swarms; the backbone of mid-game attack fleets

Battleship

• Weapon: 1,000 | Shield: 200 | Armour: 6,000
• High stats across the board. The workhorse capital ship.
• Use: heavy raids, main combat ship for established players

Bomber

• Weapon: 1,000 | Shield: 500 | Armour: 7,500
• Has rapid fire against defense structures. Specialist defense-killer.
• Use: attacking well-defended planets where defenses are the main obstacle

Destroyer

• Weapon: 2,000 | Shield: 500 | Armour: 11,000
• Has rapid fire against Battlecruisers.
• Use: high-end combat, fleet vs fleet battles

Battlecruiser

• Weapon: 700 | Shield: 400 | Armour: 7,000
• Has rapid fire against multiple ship types. Versatile fleet-multiplier.
• Use: multi-role combat; strong against mixed fleets

Deathstar

• Weapon: 200,000 | Shield: 50,000 | Armour: 900,000
• The most powerful ship in the game by a massive margin.
• Has rapid fire against everything.
• Requires: Graviton Technology 1
• Use: crushing everything. A single Deathstar changes the balance of power in a galaxy.

How the battle system works

Galactico uses a 6-round tactical battle system. Here is what happens each round:

1. All ships fire simultaneously. Every ship attacks a random enemy unit based on targeting algorithms.
2. Shields absorb damage first. When a ship's shields are depleted, remaining damage hits the armour (hull).
3. Shields partially regenerate between rounds. At the end of each round, shields restore to 50% of their maximum value. This makes ships more durable across multiple rounds.
4. Ships are destroyed when hull reaches zero. A destroyed ship is removed from combat.
5. Rapid fire fires multiple times. Some ships have rapid fire against specific unit types — they get additional shots in the same round on average, making them devastating specialists.

After 6 rounds, whoever has ships remaining wins. If both sides still have ships after round 6, the battle ends as a draw and both sides keep their remaining forces.

Weapons, Shields and Armour bonuses

Your combat technologies boost fleet-wide stats:

• Weapons Technology: each level adds 10% to all ship weapon values
• Shielding Technology: each level adds 10% to all ship shield values
• Armour Technology: each level adds 10% to all ship hull values

At high tech levels, the same ships have dramatically different effective stats. Weapons 10 + Shields 10 + Armour 10 makes your fleet roughly three times as effective as it would be at tech level 0.

Loot mechanics

A successful attacker can loot up to 50% of the resources on the target planet, limited by total cargo capacity. Split evenly across Metal, Crystal and Deuterium unless you specifically carry ships optimized for one resource.

This is why cargo ships matter: you can win a battle with pure combat ships but leave most of the loot behind if you have no cargo capacity.

Debris fields

When ships are destroyed, they leave a debris field in orbit. The field contains a percentage of the destroyed ship's Metal and Crystal cost (not Deuterium). Debris fields can be collected by Recyclers — by the attacker, the defender, or any third player who reaches them first.

After a major battle: send Recyclers immediately. Debris fields disappear over time.

Moon formation

After a battle that leaves a debris field, there is a chance (1–20%, proportional to debris size) that a Moon forms in orbit around the defended planet. Moons are permanent structures that can host special buildings including the Phalanx Sensor. See the Moon Guide for full detail.

Fleet composition tips

• Early raiding: 20 Light Fighters + 5–10 Small Cargos. Cheap, fast, profitable.
• Mid-game raids: Battleships + Large Cargos. Higher loot per trip.
• Anti-defense strikes: Bombers shred defense structures. Bring Recyclers.
• Fleet vs fleet: Cruisers counter Light Fighters; Destroyers counter Battlecruisers; Battleships are flexible.
• Always bring cargo capacity. Winning without haulers is wasted effort.

For protecting your fleet between missions, see the Fleet Saving Guide.