How to play Null Meridian

Build strength that matters beyond your planet.

Finish with a leading planet, System, or Alliance by combining Development, Renown, Influence, Asteroid Field control, and Meridian objectives. The final contest is designed to converge on the Meridian Core; the scope line above marks which parts are playable today.

Eliminating another commander is not a victory condition. Territory, coordination, and recorded contribution decide the season.

Use protection to establish options.

• Allocate population and choose an opening Doctrine.
• Queue useful structures, research, and production.
• Inspect your System, public fields, routes, and arrival ticks.
• Prepare the Home Guard and mobile Fleets before protection ends.

Hostile launch and arrival both recheck protection. Defend missions remain legal. Exact expiry shown by command is authoritative.

A coordinate is not complete intelligence.

Remote NPC planets begin as anonymous contacts. Their coordinate is visible, but identity, power, Development, protection, and artwork remain withheld.

The first successful Planet Scan permanently charts the planet, reveals its type and rarity, and unlocks Fleet travel to its orbit. Those identity traits do not expire. Economic, structural, and protection detail still does. Hidden Fleets are never included.

Public sites, temporary ownership.

Fields always show their location, resource, richness, and ownership state. They do not require a Planet Scan and can be targeted directly.

Control the resolved battle window and retain at least one surviving Harvester to establish a new claim.

Compose for the mission; commit for the arrival.

Your Home Guard never travels. Three mobile Fleets receive Attack or Defend orders. Locality and the slowest participating ship determine travel; the shown arrival tick comes from the same rule used at launch.

Scans are dated evidence, not permanent truth. Refresh expiring detail before a high-risk order, and share private intelligence only with consent.

Collector expeditions require an idle mobile Fleet with Harvester capacity. Survey may enter an uncharted coordinate; recovery contracts require a charted target. Results resolve remotely, but resources credit only at the displayed return tick. No route may be committed past Collapse.

Timing and composition outrank reflex.

Initiative, target roles, disruption, capture, wreckage, and surviving Harvester capacity all shape an outcome. A well-timed Defend Fleet may decide a battle planned hours earlier.

Reports distinguish destroyed, disabled, captured, recovered, and stolen values. Read the report before issuing the next order.

Local obligation first; long operations second.

Your System is the local route neighbourhood you receive. Faster Defend travel, a shared operation board, treasury, coordinator, and limited defence signals make it useful before you join any Alliance.

Alliances span Systems. Leaders and officers coordinate roles, tax, treasury, and operations whose commitments may resolve hours or days later.

Fields fund the war. Nodes open it. The Core resolves it.

Development records what you sustain. Renown records proportionate combat, defence, and objectives. Influence records support, System service, and Alliance commitments.

In the complete season design, Meridian Nodes alter access toward the Core. The Core is a consensus engine, not a superweapon: it shapes recognised routes, stable anchors, and what enters the archive before Collapse. Exact live scoring belongs to the active ruleset.