Colony Lifecycle

These rules apply to realms using the new lifecycle rules. Older realms keep their existing rules; check your realm's joining notice.

Staying active

A colony becomes eligible for removal after more than 500 hours of real time without a successful gameplay command. The limit is counted in ticks at the realm's speed: 500 ticks at one tick per hour, 2,000 at four per hour, and never fewer than 500. Speeding a realm up lengthens the limit, and slowing it down never shortens it. Building, recruiting and issuing orders count. Renaming, placing map markers, failed orders and automatic resource production do not count. The map warns when you are near the limit. Vacation, conquest and carrying a relic do not pause this clock.

After removal, you can join the realm again with a fresh colony. Your old resources, army and holdings do not return. Foreign forces are returned or released safely, and battle history remains available. Refresh an old browser tab before issuing orders to your new colony.

Settlements

One hundred unclaimed settlements appear across the world over ticks 1–100. Look for the sage colour and the SETTLEMENT badge. These are resource targets with working production, no units and no starter protection. They never act or compete in rankings.

A successful raid can take 50% of transferable resources, with a 24-tick cooldown shared by all attackers. Settlements cannot be conquered, reinforced, messaged or invited into an alliance. Find them in the Players board's Settlements view.

Each settlement disappears at a predetermined world tick between 500 and 1000, after battles for that tick have resolved. It is not replaced.