Races¶
There are 6 playable races in Galactic Conquest. Race choice determines your base income modifiers, shiplist, clustering mechanic, colony cap, and several unique mechanical rules. It is the most impactful decision a new player makes.
Three additional non-playable races exist in the game data — KalZul, Berserkers, and Dark Marauders. These are NPC-only and cannot be selected.
Race Modifiers¶
All economic modifiers are stored as percentages added to a 1.0× baseline. Convert to a multiplier with 1 + (value / 100) — e.g. +220% = 3.2× and −95% = 0.05×. These modifiers feed directly into the formulas on the Formulas page.
| Race | Tax (Pop) | Agri | Commercial | Industry | Goods Demand | Maintenance | Plunder | Minerals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terran | +0% | +20% | +20% | +220% | +350% | +0% | −50% | +0% |
| Aspha Miner | +220% | −50% | −95% | +350% | +0% | −20% | −95% | +2,900% |
| Guardian | −85% | −95% | −99% | −99% | −90% | −25% | −99% | −99% |
| Marauder | −95% | −50% | −95% | −50% | +0% | −95% | +1,900% | −95% |
| Viral | +20% | −20% | −5% | −50% | +100% | +0% | −99% | +0% |
| Collective | −50% | +50% | −95% | −90% | −95% | +0% | +1,100% | −50% |
| Column | Formula variable | Affects |
|---|---|---|
| Tax (Pop) | race_tax_mod |
Per-population credit yield |
| Agri | race_agriculture_mod |
Food + Raw Materials output |
| Commercial | race_commercial_mod |
Empire commercial credits, Commercial CG output |
| Industry | race_industry_mod |
Industry CG output |
| Goods Demand | race_good_mod |
Population goods consumption (more consumed → more 5.5/good auto-conversion income) |
| Maintenance | race_maintenance_mod |
Empire infrastructure upkeep cost |
| Plunder | — | Bonus credits when plundering colonies (no income-cycle effect) |
| Minerals | race_mineral_mod |
Minerals from mining |
Goods Demand quirk: Counter-intuitively, higher goods demand is better for income. Population consumes goods, and each consumed good converts to 5.5 credits — so more demand means more goods sold to your population. Terran's +350% is the engine behind their tax-with-CGs power, not a penalty. (Surplus beyond demand is retained in your stockpile, not sold.)
Difficulty & Colony Caps¶
| Race | Difficulty | Max Colonies | Exploration | Missions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terran | Easy | 15 | Yes | Yes |
| Aspha Miner | Easy | 12 | Yes | Yes |
| Guardian | Hard | 10 | Yes | Yes |
| Marauder | Medium | 12 | Yes (no scouts) | No |
| Viral | Hard | 12 | Yes | No |
| Collective | Hard | 13 | Yes (no scouts) | No |
Terran¶
- Viable income: Agriculture, Commercial, Industry
- Cannot lose their homeworld — the only race besides Aspha Miner with this protection
- Standard clustering (C1/C2/C3)
- A well-rounded race with strong market-based income options
Aspha Miner¶
- Viable income: Tax, Mining, Industry
- Cannot lose their homeworld — same protection as Terran
- Standard clustering (C1/C2/C3)
- Tax income is capable of producing more credits than any other race/income combination if Food and CGs are available on the market
- Mining is the easiest low-effort income path — requires little active management
Guardian¶
- Viable income: Tax only
- Does not consume Food — population requires no food supply
- Lowest Loyalty cap — as of Patch 106 Guardians can raise loyalty (it climbs passively with Consumer Goods in stock, like every race), but their personal cap is only 2,500 (→ 3,000 after all of Act 1's loyalty missions) vs. 5,000+ for everyone else. Loyalty directly multiplies Tax income, so Guardians still cap well below other races' theoretical maximum
- Can die if all planets are lost
- Standard clustering (C1/C2/C3)
- PR is determined by infrastructure and ships only, not population
Marauder¶
- Viable income: Agriculture, Industry
- No Scout-class ship — explores using the scanner values on regular combat ships, so exploring generally happens outside Damage Protection (see Exploration)
- Standard clustering (C1/C2/C3)
- Can die if all planets are lost
- D-class ships cannot be reverse engineered by Viral
Viral¶
- Viable income: Tax, Commercial, Agriculture
- Can die if all planets are lost
- Uses infection instead of standard clustering
- Cluster sizes use 4 planets per level instead of 5 (Tainted C1–C4)
- Can also infect clusters taken from other races, retaining their original planet count
- Uses T. (Tainted) U-class variants for income rather than the base U-class planets — see Planet Types. Can dig on U.Spazial regardless
- Reverse engineering: Viral selects 3 ships from the Marauder, Terran, and Aspha Miner shiplists to add to its own. This selection can be changed approximately weekly. P-class, D-class, and G-class ships are excluded from selection
- Viral's native shiplist is weak — flexibility via reverse engineering is their core identity and the tradeoff for their lower income ceiling
Collective¶
- Viable income: Agriculture, Tax
- Can die if all planets are lost
- Uses assimilation instead of standard clustering
- Cluster sizes use 4 planets per level (Similare C1–C5) — the only race with C5 (256 planets)
- No Scout-class ship — explores using the scanner values on regular combat ships, so exploring generally happens outside Damage Protection (see Exploration)
- Can assimilate clusters taken from other races
- Uses A. (Assimilated) U-class variants for income rather than the base U-class planets — see Planet Types. Can dig on U.Spazial regardless
- NPC farming is a viable and indefinite land source, so Collective can keep growing through combat even at low player counts