The Map and Screen

Getting Started Open Beta v0.9 ruleset Updated July 12, 2026

When you enter a realm, most of what you see is a map. Learning to read it quickly is what turns a confusing wall of icons into a clear picture of your situation. This page explains the screen in concepts, so you know what you are looking at no matter how a particular realm is themed.

The world map

The center of the screen is the world map: a large grid where every colony and outpost in the realm sits at a fixed position. You can pan around it by dragging, and zoom in and out to move between a close tactical view and a wide strategic one.

Distance on this map is meaningful. Two points that look close are close, and a squad sent between them arrives faster than one crossing the whole world. When you are deciding whether a neighbor is a threat or an opportunity, the first question is always: how far away are they, in ticks of travel?

Your markers

Your own holdings are marked on the map:

Your colony is your home base, your strongest single position and the heart of your economy.
Your outposts are the points you have captured out in the world. They extend your reach and can take on specialized roles as you develop them.

Other players' colonies and outposts also appear, but only where you can actually see them. The map does not show you everything in the world by default. It shows you what your intelligence reveals.

Radar coverage

Around your colony (and certain outposts) is a zone of radar coverage. Inside that coverage you can see activity such as nearby squads and positions. Outside it, the map goes dark. This is why two players can be near each other and one knows everything while the other is blind.

Treat the edge of your radar as the edge of what you know. Intelligence covers how visibility, scanning, and scouting fit together.

Overlays and colors

The map can show more than raw positions when you ask it to:

Alliance territory. Turn on the alliance territory overlay and the map shades areas by which alliance controls them, with a legend and small badges that mark each alliance's rank and tag where its holdings cluster. It is the fastest way to read who owns what front before you commit to a fight or a move.
Personal relation colors. You can recolor a specific player to your own palette, so a friend, a rival, or a target reads at a glance no matter what the official diplomacy says. These colors are personal to you and do not change anyone's actual standing, they just make the map easier to read your way.

The HUD and panels

Around the map is a heads-up display: a set of controls and panels layered over the world view. Broadly, you will find:

The top HUD, where resources, tick timing, and commander state are always visible.
The left sidebar, where you open the main surfaces: Map overview, My Colony, the squad Roster, the Battle Simulator, Intel, Players and Alliance, Messages, and Chat, with music, settings, help, and your profile tucked under More.
The minimap, where you keep a world-scale reference while zoomed into a local position.
The map tool strip, on the right, with map modes (outpost placement, alliance markers, satellite scan) and a Layers inspector that toggles what the map draws: colonies, outposts, squads, spies, markers, wreckages, territory, radar, and fog.
The command feed, where realm messages and quick communication live.
My Colony, where you queue and track what your colony is building.
The squad Roster, floating cards you can drag anywhere, where you manage squads, movements, agents, outposts, and conquests.

The map answers "where is everything?" The panels answer "what do I want to do about it?" Good play is a constant back-and-forth between the two: read the map, open a panel, give an order, then watch the map for the result.

Acting on a target

Clicking anything on the map, a colony, an outpost, a squad, an endgame object, does two things at once. An action menu opens right at the click point, listing what you can do to that target grouped under General, Military, Control, and Intel headers, with the most likely verb highlighted. Light actions such as scans and jams confirm inline in the menu itself; an attack asks which of your stationed squads to send. At the same time the target's detail card opens with the full picture: its stats, standing forces, and every panel of deeper actions. On a phone the menu becomes a bottom sheet, but it is the same list.

If an action is greyed out, the row says why: the structure that unlocks it is not built, the target is protected, or you have nothing in range to send. The interface tells you the missing piece rather than leaving you to guess.

Reading the screen like a veteran

A practiced player glances at the screen and reads three things in seconds: where their own positions are, where the edge of their vision is, and whether anything inside it is moving toward them. Build that habit early. The map is not decoration; it is your primary source of information every time you log in.

See also: Joining a Realm for how worlds and their maps are structured, the First Session Interaction Plan for the actual first-screen flow, Alliances for the territory the overlay shades, and Intelligence for how you expand and sharpen what you can see.