Verified against the live game, August 2026. Numbers are the current defaults and can shift with balance patches; each galaxy's host also sets its own pace.
The score
Every empire has a satisfaction score from 0 to 100, recomputed continuously. It starts from a baseline of 50 and moves with three things:
- What you fly: every active unit carries a popularity value — hospital ships and civic structures please people, some hulls unsettle them. The fleet you build is your domestic policy.
- Live trade routes: each active, crewed trade agreement you own adds to the score. Commerce is popular.
- Undefended systems: every claimed system with no cruiser-class ship of yours in it subtracts a point. Stations and fighter squadrons don't count — your people want to see a real patrol on the horizon.
The bands
Below 25 you're in the Low band; above roughly 75 you're in the High band; between is neutral. Religious units lower the High threshold — each one adds to a faith buffer (capped at 25) that makes contentment easier to reach, though never below a threshold of 50. The Vatari Cult, unsurprisingly, is good at this.
What the bands do
±5% on your entire mining and trade income — High pays a bonus, Low charges a tax. Worse, a Low-band empire starts rolling satisfaction crises: uprisings, outbreaks and logistical collapses in your systems, with structures damaged and build queues cancelled. Unrest is not cosmetic.
Utopia — the stewardship victory
Hold the High band continuously for 5,000 minutes of game time (roughly 83 game-hours — dropping out resets the clock to zero), reach Rank 100 and Empire Tier 5, and you can declare Utopia — one of the game's Defined Endings. It's the victory for players who'd rather out-govern the galaxy than out-shoot it, and it's genuinely hard: a flash spike into High gets you nothing.