In the beginning OGame might be a little confusing, especially for those who are not used to browser games. But even if OGame is not the first browser game one plays it is normal for problems and questions to show up, and that a newcomer does not know everything. We want to provide help for both groups in order to make it easier to learn everything about OGame in an uncomplicated and easy way.

If you follow it's elaborate and illustrated chapters you will nonetheless receive the rewards given for various important milestones while building up your Empire. Here you will find the information needed in the beginning and, moreover, all the information you may need to be successful in further stages of OGame.

If this is your first browser game, and you would like to learn more about the special features of this type of game. Contrary to conventional computer games OGame continues even if you are not sitting at the computer. This means that while you work or sleep, thousands of other players may be online in your universe and are able to attack you as well. OGame, however, does not need any additional software, but you can play OGame at any computer with connection to the web and a Browser. Nonetheless one needs to think more strategically than in a normal game where you can save, reload or end a game. But don't worry - this tutorial will provide you with all the information you may need and it will not take a long time to get used to it.

Getting a feel for OGame

Like in every other game it is recommended to get an idea of the interface at first. You can try the different buttons to see what is behind every single menu item without any risk. One of the most important elements which catches the user's eye immediately are the different resources at the top of the page - OGame revolves around these resources most of the time. Metal, Crystal and Deuterium are necessary for the construction of buildings and ships as well as for researches. Generally Energy is used to run the Mines. The fifth resource - Dark Matter - plays a special role and will be introduced later in the chapter "premium features".

Another important element can be found on the left side: The main menu. Using the buttons placed there you get access to every important submenu which you need to use time and time again.
The page you are currently looking at is the overview and can be reached every time by clicking the corresponding button. Behind the buttons Resources, Facilities, Research, Shipyard and Defense you can unlock and build all the ships, buildings and defenses, and conduct research. The further chapters of the tutorial will - in detail - deal with these. The button Galaxy leads to the map of all planets and systems of your Universe. This will gain more importance in further stages of the game. The message system can be found by clicking on the message icon underneath the resources. "Empire View" and "Recruit Officers" will be explained later in the chapter under "premium features".

If you now take a look at the interface you will notice the planet register on the right side. In the beginning there is only one planet shown, in further stages of the game you are able to switch easily between your colonies. At the top end of the page you can find another ledger including the highscore, options and some other points. You can find some more links at the bottom of the page - you should pay attention to the Rules and the link to the Board.

Due to the fact that there is no real goal in OGame - which means the game does not end at a specific point by achieving something special - the gamer finds himself in a constant competition with every other gamer playing in the universe. To be successful you have to collect as much resources as possible and invest them into your account. In order to achieve this goal you can either mine them on your planets and trade with other players or you can attack your competitors and steal their resources. In the next chapter we are going to start by showing you how to build your first mine.

After you have been looking around for awhile, and because now you know the basic elements of the game, you are now able to start with building up your account. As most of the menu items are still unavailable, we will start with constructing buildings, more precisely with constructing mines, which are responsible for the resource production.

Construction of the resource supply

Please change to the according menu, by clicking on the button “resources”, and there please click on the first building of the list, the metal mine. By clicking on the “improve” button, the required resources will be deducted of your credit, and a countdown will start. After this countdown comes to the end, you have constructed your first building, metal mine level 1. Without energy, the mine is not able to produce any resources, therefore now you have to select and build a solar plant. Until then, no metal will be produced, as you can see in the resource setting.

If you accidently start constructing a wrong building, you can still cancel it while it's building. To do this, scroll down a bit to where you can see the current building order under "Buildings" and click here on the red "X". Now confirm the following safety question and the construction will be cancelled and the resources will be repaid for the full 100%. If you notice your error to late and the building has been completed already, you can't cancel it anymore. It's possible to deconstruct finished buildings, but instead of getting your resources back, you'll have to pay extra resources for the deconstruction. As this isn't recommended at the start of the game, it's better to be careful which buildings you put under construction.

The first mine is now producing a constant flow of resources and of course you have to go a little further now. Besides the Metal Mine, the Crystal Mine is very important, later the Deuterium Synthesizer. With those you have all 3 types of resources covered. As you can only build every building once on each planet, you have to upgrade their level. With every level, the deconstruction costs, the costs for the new level and the production will increase.

Also make sure that you upgrade your Solar Planet sufficiently, because your mines can only produce at 100% if you have enough energy. You can see if you have enough energy by looking at the resources list. When your energy level is shown in red, you have to upgrade your solar plant urgently. If after that your energy is still shown in red, you can go to your resources settings and change the production factor of some mines so your other mines can produce at 100%. Because of this, you can often faster obtain the resources you need for your next building project. At a later stage of the game, you have 2 other alternatives for energy production besides of the solar plant.This will be explained in the chapter on Energy Production.

Tutorial reward:
As soon as your planet has a metal mine level 4, a crystal mine level 2 and a solar plant level 4, you will receive 150 metal and 75 crystal from the ingame tutorial.

Both of these resources are specially important at the start of the game, to upgrade your mines. Soon the third resource, named deuterium, will take start playing a central role. Therefor you now have to upgrade your deuterium synthesizer to level 2. Be careful though, the production of deuterium costs a lot of energy and goes very slow. Make sure your solar plant level is sufficient. When you are out of resources, you have to wait until your mines have produced enough to finance the next level.

The basic defense

Not only the resource buildings are important, under “facilities”, there are basic game elements also. For starters you should build the robotics factory, as soon as you are content with your mines. It does not only reduce the time for completion, but also it unlocks, with level two, a new building, the shipyard. You need the yard to build ships and defensive structures, therefore it is one of the most important buildings of the game.

First of all you need to build the first level, you are now capable of building your first rocket launcher to protect your planet. Go to the defense menu and select the rocket launcher. If you have enough metal, you can now build a rocket launcher. After the countdown, your planet will be a bit safer.

Tutorial reward:
With the completion of your first rocket launcher, you automatically get a second one.

But not only rocket launchers, also other defense structures and ships can be build in the shipyard, as soon as you have fulfilled some requirements. How you have to fulfill those, and what the research lab is used for, will be explained in the next chapter. The other buildings, which you find under facilities, aren't important yet at this stage and will be explained in the next chapters.

Never being glad

Your primary economic system is built, but you should not rest on it too long. The mines at the beginning are the only way to get resources, and for your next projects, you will need a lot of them. Because of that, you should spend time on improving your mines, again, before you deal with the next chapter. In the further process of the game, you should improve your mines more and more, because it is the easiest way to produce resources, and besides they cannot be destroyed like ships and defensive structures.

Tutorial reward:
As soon as you have a metal mine level 10, a crystal mine level 7 and a deuterium synthesizer level 5, you'll get a reward of 2000 metal and 500 crystal.

The storages are another important item to which you have to pay attention, besides the energy supply. There are storages for every resource, which buffer the produced resources. The higher the metal storage, the crystal storage and the deuterium tank are improved, the more resources they can store. As soon as the storage capacity is nearly full, the according resource will be colored yellow in the resource bar; if it is full, it will be red. In this case the mine cannot continue to produce. Because of that, you will lose important resources, with every minute, in which the storage is overloaded. For this reason, watch out that your storages are adapted to your mine production.

With an efficient economy and the first defensive structures, you are now well-trained and ready for the next chapter Buildings. In this chapter we'll look in detail at the different buildings in Ogame.

While ships are indispensable for offensive actions, there are defensive structures for defensive players to allow them to protect their planets from other players. Those are built the same way as ships and from then on are always ready to fight against attacking ships. Depending on how many defenses one builds, one can defend more or less resources from other players, as a big defense makes attacks unprofitable for other players.
Though there are also those players who systematically attack heavily-defended planets (so called turtles).

Balanced build-up:

When building a fleet there are some major points you have to pay attention to. The same goes for defenses. The amount of defensive structures should always be matched with the needs of the planet / moon the defense is built on.
If your goal is to just save those res you produce over night it would be overkill to build a huge turtle worth some hundred-thousand points.
Though if you want to defend your whole fleet (at least for a while) you of course need a much bigger defense. The right mixture of the different units is very important too.
Eventually small ships or small defensive-units take the role of "cannon fodder", while you build the big guns for the big bang ;)
But no matter how strong your defense is and how well thought-out its design, the best defense is the one that's never used. When you're unprofitable for even the strongest players in your universe you're almost 100% sure to not be attacked.

Exceptions are:
- above mentioned "turtle-hunters". They'll smash you to pieces just for fun.
- You play in a special universe where a certain % of the defense-cost goes to a debris-field when its destroyed (def-to-DF-unis). In such unis a big defense is like a free BBQ for all players with a strong fleet, as defense can't run away from an attack ;)

Chance of reconstruction:

As said, defensive units can't fly or magically disappear, so they can't be saved from attacks. But if they are destroyed during an attack its not the end. In ogame every type of defense has a chance of 70% to be repaired after it was destroyed during an attack. (If you use the premium-feature "engineer" the chance is 85%.) After the fight, the percentage for every type of unit, which will have been rebuilt, will be defined – that normally ranges a little bit, but it veers toward the aforesaid average. If there are less than 10 defensive structures on a planet, the probability will not be calculated for each type of unit, but for each separate unit.

This feature doesn't allow your enemies to wipe out your defense in just 1 run. They have to fly numerous attacks against your planet before everything is gone.
Another way to destroy defense is via using interplanetary missiles.

The different defensive units:

Even though all defenses have the same purpose, to protect your planet from enemy attacks, some units are more specialized then others. Its basically the same as with fleets. All units play their own important part, but only in combination with the others are they the most effective.

Rocket launchers

The first available defense-unit in OGame is the rocket launcher. It's the cheapest unit too. It is, especially in the later game-stages used as cannon fodder.....huge masses to spread enemy fire and give the big guns a better chance to survive and hand out damage.
Its biggest disadvantage is, that some ship-types (especially cruisers) have a very high rapid-fire against them. So you should combine them with Light Lasers

Light Laser

The light laser is the second cannon fodder-unit. Marginally more expensive then the rocket launcher it has a bit better stats and cruisers don't have rapid-fire against them.

Heavy Laser

Too expensive for the role of cannon fodder, it still shouldn't be missing in any good defense. Especially good against light fighters as each shot of a heavy laser can kill 1 light fighter.

Ion Cannon

No defensive unit has stronger shields then the Ion cannon, making it very durable.
Its high crystal-costs in addition with its low attack-strength make it less popular then Heavy Lasers or Gauss Cannons.

Gauss Cannon

Long before you have access to the Plasma Turret you'll be able to build Gauss Cannons, the second-strongest defensive-units. Their good attack power makes them especially good against cruisers and battleships.

Plasma Turret

The biggest gun with the highest price. The needed researches alone are a fortune for players in the early days of their career, and the turret itself is pretty expensive too. But what you get in return is the strongest gun, powerful enough to fend off even big ships like destroyers or deathstars. Most efficient when you add cannon fodder to protect it as long as possible to allow it to deal out huge amounts of damage.

Small Shield Dome

Shield domes do absolutely no harm to enemy ships (except probes), but that isn't their purpose anyways.
In the earlier game stages even 1 small shield dome alone can fend off a whole enemy fleet, in case it consists only of cargoes. That is because those ships lack the attack strength to penetrate the shield itself and thus can't destroy the dome.
You can only build 1 small shield dome per planet.

Large Shield Dome

What goes for the small dome goes for the large dome too....but just in a bigger scale. Even light fighters in any amount can't do any harm against the large dome and have to fly home empty-handed.
You can also build only 1 large shield dome per planet.

Anti-Ballistic Missiles

Anti-Ballistic Missiles are a special type of defensive units. They're not designed to fight enemy ships, but instead to shoot down incoming Interplanetary Missiles. Each anti-ballistic- can take out one interplanetary missile.

Interplanetary Missiles
With Interplanetary Missiles you can clean an enemies planet from defense without launching a single ship. They destroy the defense without rebuilding, so when using them you can wipe out the defense completely.

If you want to advance in OGame, you cannot limit yourself to buildings and battle units. You also have to spend time on research, because by acquiring new knowledge through research, you will be able to build more powerful ships and colonize more planets. So always remember, invest in research while upgrading your empire, in order not to fall behind in comparison to the other players.

The font of wisdom

The research system of OGame is actually straight-lined and easy to understand. First of all, you have to build a research lab, which you can find at the facilities. After that you already can see the list of researches. At the moment, most of the researches are colored gray, that means that the requirements are not met. Lots of researches require a research lab on at least a certain level or another research on level x, before those are activated – one click on the belonging tech-tree provides some clarity. This principle ensures that researches can only be achieved little by little, so that you are not totally over strained at the beginning.

If you have decided in favor of a research, you will only have to make the resources, which you will need, available. Nearly every research needs a specified amount of metal, crystal and deuterium – if there are not enough resources on the planet, the research will appear gray-hatched and it will not be able to be started. In order to be able to build your first ship soon, you should look at the combustion drive more precisely and commission level 1. The event is nearly like improving buildings, researches also need a certain time, and they can be canceled, by which you get your resources back. Completed researches cannot be canceled.

With the combustion drive on level 1 and the shipyard, which has been built in the last chapter, you are able to build light fighters, now. However it is more reasonable to invest first resources in the second level of the combustion drive and also in the shipyard, which will activate the small cargo. With that practical ship you are able to transport significantly more resources than with the light fighters, which are rather intended for attacks.

Tutorial reward:
As soon as you have built your first small cargo, you get 200 deuterium as a reward.

Like that you can now activate all other buildings, ships, defensive structures and researches. You can find the requirements, which must be achieved, in the respective techtree. However, you should not research all over the place, but you should set yourself a target and activate one unit after the other.

You get on better together

Besides the costs, also the duration of the research is important, because you can always only do one research. All the other research plans have to be queued up. On the one hand, this duration depends on the costs of the technology, but on the other hand on the level of the research lab – the higher it's level, the faster you can research.

So, it is obvious, that you only will be able to activate new technologies fast enough if you have a well-improved research lab. Only like that you can advance in the game. But you have to bear in mind that, while researching, you are not able to improve the lab, and while improving the lab, you are not able to research. Furthermore, several labs on different planets are useless, for a start, because you can research in only one lab, and at the moment, several labs do not have a positive effect on the research duration.

Later on that will be changed, once you have researched the intergalactic research network. From now on, labs can be combined, to accelerate your researches. Per level, a further lab can be combined; on level 3 already 4 labs work together on different planets. The lab levels can just be added, 4 labs on level 8 are the same as one lab on level 32. By improving the research network, the research durations will be decreased; first of all, that is very important for the subsequent game progress, in which some technology levels can take weeks or months. Take notice however, that the level of the lab that you start the research from will always be the first one to be added into the calculation. The highest one on another planet will be added after that, then the second highest etc. For example:

planet a - lvl 10 research laboratory
planet b - lvl 12 research laboratory
planet c - lvl 8 research laboratory

If you start the research on planet C and have IRN lvl 1, this will take into account the lab on that planet as first (8) and the next highest lab available (in this case the lab at planet B - 12), so in total you will have a lab of lvl 20

Another thing to take care of is that a lab has to have the required level in order to be included into researching via IRN. If you have a lab at lvl 12, and a lab at lvl 3, with IRN lvl 1 and start researching Hyperspace Tehcnology (which requires a lvl 7 lab), the lvl 3 lab won't be included in the research. In other words, you will work with a lvl 12 lab, not a lvl 15 (12+3) lab.

A collection of knowledge

A total of 16 researches, which are separated in 4 arrangements, are at your command, and each of those has its own characteristic. We have specified and explained all researches here, so that you do not invest into a wrong direction. Some technologies only make sense, until they are on a certain level, because after that, they do not have any effects. You recognize them by the bracketed number, which specifies the maximum sensible level.

Basic researches

Most of these researches are mainly designed for activating other researches or units.

Energy technology

At the beginning it is only an important requirement for other researches, later it is important in combination with the fusion reactor, because its energy production significantly depends on this research.
Requirements:
research lab 1

Laser technology (12)

The laser technology is a requirement for some researches and ships, after activating the battlecruiser, it is completed.
Requirements:
research lab 1
energy technology 2

Ion technology (5)

The ion technology is only a requirement for the plasma technology and cruisers. All the other levels are only for the statistics.
Requirements:
research lab 4
energy technology 2
laser technology 5

Hyperspace technology (8)

It is an important research, which is required for improving the intergalactic research network and for researching the hyperspace drive.
Requirements:
research lab 7
energy technology 5
shielding technology 5

Plasma technology (7)

The plasma technology is an important requirement for bombers and for the strongest defensive structure, the plasma turret.
Requirements:
research lab 4
energy technology 8
laser technology 10
ion technology 5

Drive researches

Any ship needs a drive to move in the universe – the type depends on the ship. But, the drive researches are not only important to activate ships; each level also heightens their flying speed.

Combustion drive

Light fighters, espionage probes, recyclers and small (until you research impulse drive level 5) and large cargoes fly with combustion drive. Every level of the research heightens the basic speed of those ships by 10 %.
Requirements:
research lab 1
energy technology 1

Impulse drive

This research speeds up heavy fighters, colony ships, cruisers, bombers (until you research hyperspace drive level 8 ), as well as interplanetary missiles, about which we will talk in a different chapter. Each of these ships gains 20% more speed per level. As soon as level 5 is finished, the small cargo starts using the impulse drive.
Requirements:
research lab 2
energy technology 1

Hyperspace drive

Battleships, battlecruisers, destroyers and deathstars use this drive. As soon as it is researched to level 8, the bomber is also fit with hyperspace drive. These ships will be sped up by 30 % for each level of hyperspace drive researched.
Requirements:
research lab 7
energy technology 5
hyperspace technology 3
shielding technology 6

Advanced researches

The advanced researches are not only requirements for important game elements; they also upgrade lots of central features of the account.

Espionage technology

You need this research to build espionage probes and to be able to spy on other players. You can find more about that in the chapter “espionage”.
Requirements:
research lab 3

Computer technology

For each new level of the computer technology, you can dispatch one more fleet at the same time. Furthermore, not till level 10 you will be able to build a nanite factory.
Requirements:
research lab 1

Astrophysics

On the one hand that research impacts on the expeditions and on the other hand on the number of colonies. What exactly, you will find in the according chapter.
Requirements:
research lab 3
energy technology 1
impulse drive 3
espionage technology 4

Intergalactic research network

As defined in detail in this chapter, the IRN allows you to connect several research labs (depending on it's level) and thus reduces the research time needed.
Requirements:
research lab 10
energy technology 5
hyperspace technology 8
computer technology 8
shielding technology 5

Graviton technology (1)

The graviton technology enables to build the deathstar, the mightiest ship in OGame. There is an own chapter for it, because it has some specialties compared to other researches.
Requirements:
research lab 12

Combat researches
The number of ships and defences aren't the only thing that makes a difference in a battle. The combat researches also play a great role in the outcome of one, which is why they should not be disregarded.

Armor technology

It heightens the structure of all ships and defense structures by 10 % of the basic value, so those can take more shots.
Requirements:
research lab 2

Weapons technology

With every level of that research, the weapons of your ships and defensive structures will cause 10% more damage.
Requirements:
research lab 4

Shielding technology

It tightens the shield of all units by 10% per level, so less damage can reach the armor.
Requirements:
research lab 6
energy technology 3

There is no player, no matter if he is ranked #1 or #5000, who can sit 24 hours in front of his computer and watch out that nobody steals his resources or kills his fleet – everyone has got to go to work, school, or at least sleep for a few hours. During this time, the account would be open to possible attacks without any protection, and because of that, fleetsaving has become one of the most important aspects of OGame. That means dispatching your own fleet with all resources from a planet or moon during the absence, because fleets cannot be attacked while they are flying. But killing fleets is a very lucrative business, so you have to save very conscientiously and you first and foremost have to pay attention to choose the correct method. For this reason we created this compendium, which should help you with this problem, in order that you do not have to learn from own mistakes or casualties.

Do I really have to save every day ?

You should not see saving as a necessary evil, but rather you should plan it advisedly, so that you will not suddenly awake one day without your fleet, which you have built tediously. Of course, it can happen sometimes, that you are in a hurry and you are pinched for time – but especially then, faults will happen fast, which benefits your enemy. That is very important, if you have the feeling that someone zeroes in on your own fleet – e.g. if there is a new colony of a strong player in your own system, or if you are spied on often. You also have to watch out for never falling for daily habits. Sometimes change your save time and the position to which you dispatch your fleet, because if you always save exactly the same way, you will be a potential target for those players who will find out the flying time of your fleet very fast by such regularities, and who will kill it. Mainly this sort of interception is the biggest danger, of which you have to take care during saving – but that also can be minimized with this tutorial. Preferably, take a look at our interception-tutorial as well, to be armed and ready for the fight.

Besides the right saving method, also the control is a useful element to avoid fleet loss. That means precisely, that after you have sent your fleet, you have to look on the overview, if the fleet really comes back to the designated time. Nothing is more infuriating than a fleet loss by a typing error with the coordinates, by the wrong speed or by the wrong mission. Furthermore, especially if you feel like being watched, it is advisable to stay in the account for a while. Most of the players defer the saving on the end of the playing time (logically), thus the enemy can value the possible time of dispatch without spying.

What is the best way to save on a planet ?

At the beginning of a universe, when you do not have a moon yet, the choice of saving possibilities is limited. But also later, for example if you deploy a fleet on a raid-colony without any moon, you have to go back to these methods. There it is important to know, what kind of safety each method provides.

Option 1: Planet – Debris Field:

This is a very simple method, which is very dangerous, and which should only be used at the beginning of a universe, when nobody has a moon or a sensor phalanx. In this case, just send your fleet with at least one recycler to a close debris field and adjust the flying time, so that the fleet returns when you can be online again. By doing that you ensure that nobody can kill your fleet while you are away. But as soon as somebody has a phalanx in the immediate vicinity, this method to save is pure suicide, because the fleet can be intercepted easily.



Option 2: planet – attack:

If you do not have any recyclers at the beginning of a universe, or if you are ready to dare for a few more resources, you also can save via attacking a player. But you should only fly on inactive players or such, who are in an inferior position, because else you can get a nasty surprise very fast – nobody wants to log in after the saving action and notice that the fleet was killed during the attack. This option is more insecure as the saving to a debris field, because the fleet can not only be intercepted on the return path with the sensor phalanx, but also by an ACS defend on the attacked planet.

Option 3: planet – planet – deployment:

Unlike saving to a debris field or via attack, this method will also be secure in some degree even if there are players with moons near you. The requirements for that are two planets, which are relatively close together. That is why you should not disperse your colonies in all galaxies at the beginning. Now you just send your fleet via deployment to the other planet, so that you are online when it arrives there. If an enemy tries to intercept the fleet, you just can call it back and let the attack run into emptiness. Alternatively, you can also call back your fleet anytime, so that it disappears from the adversarial phalanx – however, also take care that the fleet arrives back to the origin planet when you are online again.The problem of this alternative is, that if you use it regularly, the time of return can be calculated. That can cause a loss of your fleet via intercepting, but this time- and cost-consuming method (phalanx deuterium) will only be used for big fleets.

The best saving methods with moon

The minute you have one or more moons, you can take the topic saving easier. Because moons cannot be scanned by a sensor phalanx, that means the fleet movement on a moon is not obvious to adversarial players. Thereby some comfortable, but secure options of saving your fleet are given.

Option 1: moon – debris field:

Since moons cannot be scanned by sensor phalanx, you can save more securely on a debris field. But, although only fewer players will bother, this method is still far from absolute safety. Seasoned fleet hunters will look after the debris field, on which you send your fleet, and can start an interception by observing the harvest time.

That is the reason why some players use so-called shadow waves – they first send one or more single recyclers to a debris field and let follow their fleet shortly afterwards – so the enemy cannot know, which part of the fleet he has to intercept. If the distance between the single fleets is more short ( less than 20 seconds ), one shadow wave suffices more often than not, because the attacker is not able to uncover the debris field meanwhile and to find out the arrival time of the main fleet. It is advisable to send more recyclers instead of one. Because, if there is a really valuable fleet, maybe the attacker bothers to shoot a debris field with more crystal as fits into a normal shadow wave (one recycler). Than the attacker will see when exactly the debris field will change, and he will, according to this, wait until the big debris field entirely disappears. Generally that means that the main fleet just reached. But if you send more equal recycler fragments to the debris field, the attacker will need even more information, because he will not be able to infer only to the harvest.

The most secure method is never letting the fleet arrive at the debris field. If the ships are recalled while they are flying, nothing will be changed at the debris field, even if the enemy observes very much.

Please note: Invisible debris fields will be deleted every week at night from Sunday to Monday (at ca. 1:30 am) and they cannot be approached until there is a new debris field (just destroying a probe via attack there). They will not be deleted if a fleet flies to or from this debris field at the time. Especially if you have the option to save on a debris field, which you cannot uncover, you shall save it by flying on it at the deleting time, because they give you an extra protection against a loss of fleet via intercepting. Debris fields, which give you such advantage, are those of players, who are in the vacation mode or those on empty positions, which are still there if there was a planet. But also debris fields on planets of inactive players, on which there are no ships or defensive structures, will make saving much easier.

Option 2: moon – colonization:

Just send your whole fleet as well as a colony ship with all the resources to an unsettled position. If you are not able to colonize more planets, the colony ship will just return with the fleet and the resources. Other players are not able to notice the failed try to colonize, which makes this method very secure. But please note: if there is one free colony, the colony ship will subdue the planet and before it will return, the fleet will dump all resources.

Option 3: moon – moon – ACS defend:

Here it is necessary, that you have a player of good repute in your vicinity. For saving you have to fly to his moon with the order “hold”. It is important, that the time of holding is 0, so the fleet could not be intercepted on the other moon. The only thing, what can be dangerous is a moon destroying or a betrayal by your holding target.

Option 4: moon – moon:

Everyone, who is lucky enough to have two moons close to each other, can use the most secure save method and sleep calmly. Just send the fleet from one moon to the other; nobody can calculate the arrival and no phalanx can localize it. But it is possible that a player destroys one or both moons, and intercepts your fleet – but it is associated with immense effort and risk, that is why it will be tried only if there is a lucrative target. And even in this case, when both moons are destroyed, you still can avoid an interception by calling back the fleet. Thereby it disappears from the phalanx and flies relatively secure back to the planet.

What if I am intercepted never the less ?

If it happens, that your fleet is intercepted and destroyed, do not take it too seriously. OGame is after all just a game and it should not be a reason to attack other people verbal or to flame them. Better ask the player about what you have done wrong, and avoid this fault in the future, because like that every player has learned and advanced himself – also the enemy, who was just now destroying your ships. To quicken the rebuilding of your fleet, of course you can try to harvest the debris field of your destroyed fleet, whether the attacker did not yet.

It doesn't matter if you rely on your own mine production or if you steal the resources from other players, those will almost never be the exact amount you need for construction or research. Here comes the possibility to trade your resources, for example to compensate your lack of metal with your deuterium surplus. You can do that by trading with other players or by using the merchant.

The classic trade

When doing a trade with players, both of the trade partners send the predetermined amount of resources to the other player. Because of that, not only the amount of resources but also the coordinates to which they are to be sent should be arranged. An arrangement according to the delivery time is advisable also, so that the trading fleet does not arrive in the middle of the night and the resources do not lie around unprotected for hours.

Basically trading must comply with the rules. Resources should only be traded in such a ratio, where nobody would benefit exceedingly ( at which only an advantage of the stronger player will result in consequences ). Normally the ratio of metal, crystal and deuterium is between 3:2:1 ( that means e.g. 300 metal to 100 deuterium ) and 2:1:1 ( e.g. 100 deuterium to 100 crystal). Furthermore a trade must be finished within 48 hours; otherwise the responsible game operator must be informed about the delay. In other respects both trade partners will be banned because of pushing, if the rule is broken, that means a stronger player profits by a one-way trade.

Where do I find trading partners?

Asking your own alliance or friendly players is the best and most secure method. They often give you a better rate than foreign players and the danger of being cheated decreases, because basically it is not forbidden to cheat the trade partner. [community specific, check with your CoMa/GAs for the following sentence, if it is allowed, include it in the translation, if not, leave it out]In agreement with a GO even players with more points can send empty cargoes instead of the promised resources, but it must be controlled.[/note - Najics]

If you are not a member of an alliance or if there is nobody who has the resource you are looking for on sale, the board will be a good place to trade. In the forum “The Universes” and there in the sub-forum of your universe, in the trade forum, you can open a new thread and present your offer. There you should specify the amount and type of the wanted and demanded resources, as well as the ratio and the galaxy, in which the trade shall take place. Potential buyers will contact you in the thread or ingame, if you give out your contact information. You can also respond to the offers of other users, but please check if they aren't already done and the thread starter has asked for a closing of the thread. Please also note the trade rules, they are stickied deliberately and they should be regarded again.

The last alternative is the IRC-network. In the channel of your universe you will find some active players for sure, who you can ask for a trade. You should however not be too pushy and end up annoying the others – if you bother other users, superior fleets will call on you fast, instead of trading partners. If you are permanently looking for resources, for example deuterium, you will be able to integrate it in your nick on IRC or also in the game (e.g. Alex[Deut]), and hope for potential buyers.

How do I use the merchant?

If there is no human trade partner or if nobody has the wanted resource on sale, you will be able to use the merchant, who you will find in the main menu under “merchant”. There you can call a merchant, who trades with a certain resource, by clicking on the according button. Calling the merchant costs 3.500 DM, which will be specified in the chapter premium features. You can also find merchants on expeditions, however those only buy a certain resource, which is possibly not the one you want to dispose of at that moment. If you find a merchant while another merchant is already active, the located merchant will buy the same resource as the present one, only the ratio will change.

If you have decided to use the merchant, the window on which you can trade the resources, will appear. There you can see the ratio for the first time, this is assigned coincidentally, but it is mostly under 3:2:1. If you are not pleased with this ratio, you will be able to call a new merchant; doing that will make the old one disappear – you spend another 3.500 DM. If you are pleased with this ratio, the trade can begin. Because the merchant will stay until you either use it or call a new one, you can take your time.

For example, if you call a merchant, who buys deuterium, you will be able to specify the amount of metal and crystal you want to buy. You can ask for as much resources as the worth of your deuterium and as the according storage can take. Definitely it will be profitable to upgrade the storages before trading, because every trade event costs the same, regardless of the amount. Because of that, a trade should be done on a planet, because there large storages make sense compared to a moon.

After you have entered all amounts, you only have to click on the button “Trade resources!” to confirm the trading event. After that, you get the designated resources, and the trader will receive the exchanged resources and disappear.

As you already have noticed for sure, OGame is about collecting as mush resources as you can, to invest them in buildings and structures – therefore in points. Besides the mine production, which is easy to reach, you can get resources also by raids, which means, attacks on other players, which will be explained in the next chapter. But not any player is a worthwhile target, and not anybody can just be attacked. Espionage provides an opportunity to check how much resources, ships and defensive structures are on your neighbour’s planets.

What are the requirements?

To use this feature, you need the espionage technology. First of all, a research, which is available very early (requirements: research lab level 3). The first benefit you get from researching espionage technology is that you can get more information about incoming fleets – in the first instance you will only see that a fleet moves towards your planet. You see the total number of the ships with level 2, the present types of ships with level 4 and with level 8 you see exactly how much ships of which kind are approaching you. This information is enormously important to react to an attack in the right way and to defend your resources ideally.

But the research is also important for the espionage, as the name suggests. You need level two to build espionage probes, and the rate of the level has an effect on the information which you get by spying an enemy and whether your probes survive the flight or not.

How to spy?

If you have espionage probes, you will have the opportunity to spy on an enemy. The fastest method is to click on the espionage symbol next to the according planet. Upon that action, probes head to that planet automatically ( the quantity can be changed under Options > General ) and gather information. Alternatively you also can send some probes with the mission espionage to the according coordinates by using the fleet menu, so you also can change the number of espionage probes manually.

Tutorial reward:
After you have used your probes for the first time to spy on another player, you receive two more probes as a gift from the Tutorial.

Which information can I gather?

If you spy on an enemy, you will get all available information with an espionage report, which is grouped into a total of 5 blocks. First of all there are the resources - the amount of the present resources, as well as the energy production, which will be reported in every case; then information about the fleet, defensive structures and as well as buildings and researches. To gather more information than just about the resources, you have to heighten your espionage, either by researching a higher espionage technology than the enemy, or by sending more probes at the same time. You can calculate easily how many probes you have to send to gather the designated information:

Formula:
resources = 1 probe
fleet = (difference of the espionage technology level) ^ 2 + 2
defense = (difference of the espionage technology level) ^ 2 + 3
buildings = (difference of the espionage technology level) ^ 2 + 5
research = (difference of the espionage technology level) ^ 2 + 7

If the own espionage technology is three levels higher than the technology of the enemy, one probe will suffice to gather all information. After you see all designated information in your espionage report, you can balance, if it is a profitable target and if so, dispatch your fleet.

What is counter-espionage?

If you get an espionage report, then at the end there will always be the value of counter-espionage, which is between 0 % and 100 %. This value specifies the chance of detecting and destroying your probes by an enemy, who you spy on. The higher the chance, the more likely it is that your probes will be detected and engage in battle with the defender's ships and defences present at the planet. The counter-espionage does not affect the espionage report, which will be delivered even if the probes are detected and destroyed.

The exact formula, on how to calculate that value is still unknown so far, because it is obvious that the coincidence plays a major role (with the same combination, there are often very different values), so it is not very important. As a matter of fact, three different elements have an effect on the counter-espionage: The number of espionage probes, the difference between your own and the enemies’ espionage technology, as well as the number of ships on the planet. If there is no fleet on the spied colony, the probes will return in
every case; the more ships the higher is the chance that they can be shot down. If your espionage technology is a lot higher than your enemy's, than there is a higher chance you will save your probes. On the other hand, if it is much lower, only a few cargoes and satellites can detect your probes. It is also very risky to send a huge number of espionage probes, because they can be detected easily and that means of course more loss. Because of that you should only fly with more than 2 or 4 probesonly if the target is of great value. If your probes are detected, there will automatically be a fight against the units on the planet. The probes usually will not survive the first round, because they are lightly armoured and unarmed, that is why you will not get a combat report.

What do I have to consider?

The opposing player gets a message that you spied him – most of the players are not amused that you are interested in their planet. So you should only spy on a player, for who you are a match. Let sleeping dogs lie, because it is no use to provoke a campaign of vengeance.

Lots of players still refer to OGame as a war game. Although it features other aspects like the economic point and social contact, that description applies thoroughly. The player is indeed not desperate to wage war against a user, but attacks on players are a favored and promising way to get resources and prestige, and to rise in the statistics. Even if you do not want to attack other players, you should read this chapter to be prepared for attacks by other players.

Where do I find good targets ?

In the last chapter spying on players and thus gathering information about their planets was described in detail. To find good raid targets you should just look around in your environment and spy on all that could be a good target. Above all you should look at weaker player or players of similar strength; also inactive players could be worthwhile targets. The location of the target is also important - the more distant it is from your planet, the longer the flight will last and the more deuterium will be burnt up, therefore the attack will pose a bigger risk to make loss.

Now just only choose the right instrument

If you have found a worthwhile target, you will only have to decide which ships you want to attack with. The optimal composition of the attacking fleet always depends on the choice of the target and the type of attack. If you want to raid a small amount of resources from a less guarded planet, a sufficient amount of cargoes and a few battleships to protect those would normally suffice. But if you want to kill an adversarial fleet or to attack a heavily defended planet, you will have to call up significantly more ships and adjust the fleet to the target.

The best way to check the optimal attacking fleet is a so called combat simulator. But do not look only after suffering as little losses as possible,take care about the consumption of deuterium too, because it could reduce the effective gain. Also the flight duration is something to be considered, because every minute of the flight heightens the chance that your victim comes on just in time to ruin your attack.

The debris field

After lots of battles a so called debris field occurs. It consists of the remnants of the ships which have been destroyed. In every case 30 % metal and 30 % crystal of the destroyed ships’ building costs are included in the debris field (some special universes have different percentages, make sure to check the "universe specials" for this). To harvest a debris field, recyclers are needed. Via the fleet menu, those can be sent to the debris field. Pay attention to choose the debris field symbol as target, as well as the mission “recycle debris field”.

Tutorial reward:
The minute you have harvested your first debris field, you get one recycler for free.

When is a raid profitable ?

Normally a raid will be considered to be profitable, if the gain is higher than the loss. So you have to look at the ships you will lose and the deuterium you will have to spend – if it is less than the captured resources and the harvested debris field, than the raid will pay off in each case. But you have to decide at if the estimated profit is of great value.

What else do I have to bear in mind ?

Gathering preferably as much and as up to date information about the enemy is of capital importance. Therefore you should always have a current espionage report – if there have not been any defensive structures two days ago, that does not mean that it is still like that. Start an attack only after you know what you are in for.

Besides you always have to keep an eye on the fact that the victim could be online. If he sees the attack, he will take his resources and ships in a safe place without any problem and he will make the hit unprofitable to you; or he can deploy more ships on the attacked planet and destroy your attacking fleet. He also could call some of his alliance or other friends to defend his planet (only in an ACS universe) and destroy your fleet. If there has been activity on a planet a short time before, the activity star in the galaxy view will show it to you. It is a good sign that the defender is online, although there are other actions that can cause activity.

Because of this it is a good idea to look for any changes in activity, which could indicate that the player is online, while your flight goes on. First and foremost before you fleet arrives the target, you should spy again to see if there have been changes. If you want to play it safe so you are not intercepted, you will be able to slow down your fleet, but that is described in detail in the according chapter. If you doubt that your target is online, you should recall in order not to risk losing your fleet.

By the way, attacks against stronger enemies are inadvisable, because with such provocations you often cut off your nose to spite your face. If a stronger player hunts you because of vengeance, the fun will come to an end fast. So at the beginning, only attack weaker or equal enemies, who you can fight against in case of emergency.

Are there also rules ?

When you attack other players, you have to regard the bashing rule. That means not attacking a planet or a moon more than 6 times within 24 hours.If both parties are at war with each other, 12 hours after the declaration of war the bashing rule is lifted for the duration of the war. [this part is community specific. Check with your GAs/CoMas and include or exclude this part accordingly]If you attack inactive players, the rules will generally not be in force.[/]

The Alliance Combat System (ACS) permits fighting together with other players, so that no player is always on his own. On the one hand thereby you can attack a target with friends, and on the other hand you also can deploy your fleet for defence at alliance partners or at players, who are on your buddy list. Thus you cannot only attack significantly bigger targets, but also a few important tactical alternatives are available.

How to attack together ?

To start an ACS-attack, one of the players first has to begin an attack with a fleet. As soon as it launches, he can change that fleet to a union and invite other players via the fleet menu, where joining fleets don't have to be in the alliance or on the buddy list. Those players will get an invitation for the union and will be able to join the attack with their fleets via clicking on the short link on the second fleet page "Combat forces". All in all five players can join in the union combat; the union fleet can consist of a maximum 16 fleets maximum. But look out all fleets of a union are geared to the slowest one. So if a slower fleet is added to a union, the arrival time of all fleets will be set back. That can also be used as the chapter "delay action" will show.

If a fleet will slow down the union more than 30 % it will not be able to join (eg. when the union should be arrive in 60 minutes, you can't join a fleet which takes more than 78 minutes (60 + 30%) ). First of all if it is about an interception, at which it is important that the fleet union arrives exactly at the right time, the ACS-attack should be arranged accordingly. It will be the best, if the player, who has the longest flight time starts it. All the others can send their fleets, without reducing speed of the first fleet. At interceptions you also can save deuterium by timing with a single ship at first, and after that joining the combat fleet. Like that, if you have timed the attack in a wrong way, you will have to call back only one ship and not sending the whole fleet twice. You especially will have to pay attention, if the attack is cancelled. In that case, every player has to call back his own fleet manually – if only one fleet cancels the flight, the rest of the union will just continue. If the fleet, which starts the union, is called back, no other fleets will be able to join the union.

Defending together

With a union you can surprise an enemy not only with an attack, but also with a defence. If you want to defend a planet of a member of the alliance or a buddy, you just will have to command your fleet there and to choose the mission "ACS defend". Before sending your fleet, you will be able to specify how long it shall stay at the target. As long as it is deployed there, it will participate in every combat inline with the defender, if the defended co-ord's is attacked, but the defending owner cannot control it himself during this time. The fleet constantly needs deuterium, that is why the holding time is limited by the cargo bay of the fleet. If you want to fly back earlier you will only have to click on recall fleet in the fleet menu to cancel the holding operation. A maximum four players are able to defend on a foreign planet / moon; all in all 15 fleets are possible.

However be aware if you attack a planet or a moon, on which one of your fleets is holding, your fleets will fight against each other.

The joint defending is perfect, when a member of the alliance is attacked by an enemy player. Here with a little bit of luck, you can deploy your fleet on the target before the attacker arrives and thus surprise him. If your own fleet arrives a few seconds before the attacker’s one, he suddenly will be face to face with an unforeseen superiority and lose his own fleet, instead of destroying the fleet of your partner.

What use does the alliance depot have ?

The alliance depot acts as a deuterium supply for your fleet while it is defending a planet or a moon, so that it can stay there longer. For this you choose the alliance depot at the facility menu on the defended planet and you enter the amount of deuterium, which shall be send to the fleet and affirm the process. The bigger the depot, the more deuterium you can send per hour like that. That facility proves useless, because in practice you normally do not hold your fleet on a foreign planet more than one hour. So you can confidently save the time and the resource, which you need for the construction.

There are several options ingame where you can change some aspects and settings of your account. You do not have to change anything to play OGame but some of them might be interesting for you. For some more detailed information on managing your account and keeping it secure see our Account management guide.

User data

Nickname: During the registration you chose your favorite nickname. You need that name for the login as well as for the whole game. The nickname can be changed freely but any kind of insult or racism is not allowed and will result in a ban. You can change your nick once a week.

Password: Many players disregard this setting but it is one of the most important you have.
If another person/player knows the password or even has access to that he can do whatever he wants. Your fleet can be destroyed and your planets or even the whole account can be deleted.

Take care that nobody knows your current password. For security reasons the password should contain at least 8 characters and small letters, capital letters and special characters.
Do not use a simple password like your nickname or anything like that.
Do not save your password at public computers (internet cafe, university, etc.) or write them down on a paper. Change your password if you think somebody could know it.

E-mail Address: You need the email address to request a new password as well as to identify yourself as the owner of an account. Due to that you should take your own valid email address where only you have access to. Take a safe password and do not use the same password for your ingame account. If you change your email address a validation link will be sent to the new address. At the same time another notification will be sent to the old address. To prevent account thievery the owner of the old email address can be cancel this process by clicking his link within 7 days. In this case the mail address will be back to previously permanent mail.

General

Espionage Probes: You have two possibilities to spy your enemies. Either you send your probes by using your fleet menu or you take the easy way by clicking on the right button in your galaxy.
Here you can set the number of probes which should be used every time you click at the symbol in your galaxy.

Messages: You have two possible settings. If you want to see full spy reports, instead of opening a new window/tab every time you should turn on that first option. Secondly you can appoint the amount of displayed messages per page.

IP-Check: Due to security reasons it is not recommendable to deactivate the IP-Check. IP Check means that you will be automatically logged out for safety reasons if your IP is changed or two players login through different IPs on the same account.
Be careful! In some countries you might need the authorization of the responsible GameOperator if you want to deactivate the IP-Check.

RSS-Feed (only commander): With the aid of the RSS-Feature you can forward your messages automatically so you can read them even if you are not logged in your account at the moment.

Display

Your planets: In this menu you can adjust how your planets should be sorted. You can choose between coordinates, alphabet, size, used fields and the order of emergence.

Other: Here you can turn off some small animations if you want.[/quote]

Extended

Vacation Mode: The vacation mode protects you during absences from the game. So if you want to go on vacation and protect your account until you are back, you should activate the vacation mode. As long as the vacation mode is activated you are protected from any new attacks and your account is totally safe, but ongoing attacks still goes on.
You can only activate it when nothing is being built/researched (fleet, buildings, defence, research) and if yours fleets are not in transit. (If there is incoming fleets they will continue to your planet/moon even if you go into vacation mode). Vacation mode lasts at least 48 hours (might be different in speed universes) you cannot deactivate it any earlier.
Be careful! In case there is no bought dark matter your account can be deleted after 35 days without any login even if your account is in vacation mode.

Your Account: Here you are able to delete your account. After the verification it takes another 7 days until your account will be deleted permanently.
If you change your mind after during this period you can unmark the box to cancel the deletion and go on playing. Before you decide to delete your account permanent and destroy the work of thousands hours you should check if one of your mates wants to take the account.

Looked over, fixed some context errors. It's a lil' rough in areas (structure) but that's mainly due to the english language being a pain.
It's readable and spelling is fine. If you don't mind I may have another look over and suggest some larger changes?

Checked and corrected some tenses (past rather then present).

All good

Even if you've read and understood the Tutorial, you might encounter further questions or problems about the game or community in the future. And so you should know where you can find some help and assistance so we'll try to cover this in our second last chapter of the Tutorial.

What should I do if I have some Questions or Problems?

Because of OGame's very active and cooperative Community you can get helpful answers and tips very quickly by posting your question in the Game Help-board area which has been created for our users' questions. Before you start a new topic with your question you should first use the board's search function. Almost every question imaginable will have already been answered at least once. Another possibility is to ask other players or to visit the IRC Support channel. For more information about how to use IRC have a look at the topic "Alliances". For specific questions about the game join the support channel #ogame.tld-support where a supporter will try to help you. For general questions you can also use the public channels like #ogame.tld or your specific universe channel (i.e #tld.uni1)

What rules do I have to follow?

In Ogame there's a global set of rules which are common for each community, however each has it's own set of Clarifications so it's important to check the rules for the particular community you play in. The main set of rules can be found at the bottom of your Ogame page, and the community specific clarification can be seen by looking on the forums.

What happens if someone breaks the rules?

In order to maintain fairness and ensure game-play isn't disturbed there are a few rules that need to be followed. Ensure you read the rules at least once and then ask someone if you have any questions. If you break one of the rules you might get punished. Depending on the violation you will get a ban which is permanent or temporary and with or without vacation mode. Any kind of insult will result in a ban so remember to stay courteous when communicating with others ingame.

What can I do if I get banned?

If you get banned you should contact the responsible gameoperator. More information about the reason, the gameoperator who banned you, as well as the ban period can be found in the pillory. You may contact your gameoperator via the Ticketsystem or IRC. Please do not try to contact your GO via email, PM (board) or ingame message. When contacting your GO you should be careful with your language. In some cases it will be hard but being polite will go a long way to helping you get what you want ;). If you're not satisfied with the GO's decision you may contact the responsible SGO as well via ticketsystem or IRC.

How does the Ticketsystem work?

To open a new Ticket you have to go to support.ogame.tld. After clicking the "Contact support" Button you have to choose the right section. To discuss board issues or board bans - Select Board. To discuss any ingame issues, bugs, bans or to notify your GO of something - Select Game. To contact support regarding the purchase of Dark Matter or for payment issues - Select Payment. For Game issues you will need to Select the Universe that your issue is with.
To ensure that your ticket can be handled as fast as possible you should give all the necessary information and fill out all the details correctly. Take care that the email address is the same as on your ingame account. After submitting the ticket you will receive a confirmation email with a special key and checksum number. Your ticket should get a reply within 48hrs, when this happens you'll receive an email notification. To check your ticket click on "Ticket History" and fill in the form with the information you received in the first email. Click "Send reply" to answer the ticket, please do not open a new ticket for the same issue. If you're unhappy with the reply you've received and what to complain to the supporter's superior then click "complain" in the ticket and it will be escalated to the next level.

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Rocketlaunchers

The first available defense-unit in OGame is the rocketlauncher. It's the cheapest unit too. It is, especially in the later game-stages used as cannon fodder.....huge masses to spread enemy fire and give the big guns a better chance to survive and hand out damage.
Its biggest disadvantage is, that many ship-types (especially cruisers) have a very high rapid-fire against them.

changed to:

Rocketlaunchers

The first available defense-unit in OGame is the rocketlauncher. It's the cheapest unit too. It is, especially in the later game-stages used as cannon fodder.....huge masses to spread enemy fire and give the big guns a better chance to survive and hand out damage.
Its biggest disadvantage is, that some ship-types (especially cruisers) have a very high rapid-fire against them. So you should combine them with Light Lasers.

Klickin or klick are wrong.
The correct word is clicking or click

hm... well.... i took the german version