24 August 2026: The Imperial Foundation — your first commission
Yesterday's Standing Update gave veterans raids, reputations, and a faction title worth fighting for. Today's release is for the commander who just arrived. Season 0: The Imperial Foundation is a ten-mission story campaign that takes you from your first mine to your own capital ship — and ends by pointing you at everything the galaxy has waiting.
A summons from the Court
- Meet the Liege. Older than any of the six powers, the Imperial Court no longer rules — it recognises. Complete your first commission and the Court reveals itself on your Factions screen, gold seal and all.
- Ten commissions, three acts. Act I founds your industry: mines, a shipyard, your borders, your first warship. Act II takes you into deep space: surveying, an Advanced Shipyard, defensive batteries. Act III makes you a power: a capital ship, ten systems under your flag, and one final choice — declare an Ally, or declare an Enemy. The galactic war begins either way.
- Every commission pays. RP rewards climb from 2,000 to 40,000 across the campaign, with equipment rewards along the way — and every completion builds your record with the Court.
- Progress that counts twice. The Liege's demands are things a real empire does anyway — nothing on this list is busywork. Build the mine because the Court asks; keep the mine because your economy needs it.
The tutorial hands you in
- Finish the tutorial, receive the summons. New commanders who complete the tutorial are met with their first Imperial commission — one click and you're reading the Liege's opening demand.
- Skipped the tutorial? The campaign's first chapter sits on every commander's Mission Board from day one, wearing its Season 0 episode marker. The Court is patient.
- New objective kinds. The campaign introduces commissions that track what you construct (built after you accept — the Court pays for new steel, not old), the systems you hold, and the stance you declare. Progress for each shows right on the briefing.
And when it's done
- The Liege's final decree says it best: "The Court has no further demands, Commander — but the factions of this galaxy have noticed you. Their contracts are on your mission board; your standing with each of them starts now." The Imperial Foundation ends where the Standing Update begins.