Spies and Agents
Radar watches the ground and scans probe from outside. Spies get you inside. They are the covert arm of intelligence: instead of estimating an enemy from a distance, you place an operative in their territory and let it work over time. Spies are slow to set up and demand ongoing investment, but a well-placed agent is the deepest source of intelligence and the gateway to covert operations.
Training a spy
A spy is a specialist, not a soldier, and you train one through your covert structure. The cost is about 1 worker and 25 energy, and training takes about 24 ticks. That is a real wait, so start spies early rather than the moment you need one. A trained spy is mobile: it can travel to an enemy colony or outpost and attempt to embed itself there as an agent.
Planting an agent
When a spy reaches a target, you can have it infiltrate and become an embedded agent. Planting an agent costs energy on top of the spy itself. Once embedded, the agent is immobile, it stays at that target and works from the inside.
There is a ceiling. You can have at most 10 active agents at any time, so where you plant them is a real decision. Spread thin for broad awareness, or stack pressure on the one enemy you intend to break.
Infiltration over time
An agent does not arrive at full strength. Each tick it remains embedded, it gains infiltration, a measure of how deeply it has worked into the target. Infiltration is the currency behind covert power: the longer an agent survives undetected, the more it can do, including enabling the strongest denial operations. Patience is rewarded. An agent left in place for many ticks is far more dangerous than one freshly planted.
The agent lifecycle
An agent moves through clear stages:
- Infiltrating. The spy is embedding into the target and the agent is being established.
- Embedded. The agent is in place, gaining infiltration every tick and available for covert use.
- Discovered. The agent has been caught, by enemy spy protection, a counter-operation, a spy battle, or a nuke at the target, and is no longer effective.
- Disbanded. The agent has been pulled out or consumed, ending its presence at the target.
Agents can also be lost to events at the target. If an enemy nuke hits where your agent sits, the agent is killed, and if the outpost it is embedded in is captured, the agent's infiltration is cut in half.
The cost of keeping agents
Embedded agents are not free to maintain. Every active agent reduces your worker growth (about 1 worker of upkeep per agent), so a large agent network quietly taxes your economy. Run the agents that earn their keep and pull the ones that have gone stale.
Spy protection
The same system runs in reverse against you. Enemies will try to embed agents in your colony and outposts, and your defense is spy protection: a charge you build up on a target that resists incoming covert work. When an enemy operates against you, their infiltration is measured against your protection. Keep protection up on anything that matters, because an undefended colony is an open invitation for a patient enemy spy.
See also: Intelligence and Radar for where covert intelligence fits among your other tools, and Jamming and Lockdown for the disruptive operations agents make possible.