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There are 4 main resources in StarDrive, Food, Production, Money and Research.

These resources are produced primarily by colonies and buildings on colonies, and spent on acquiring various things in the game.

Food Food icon[]

Food (represented by an ear-of-corn symbol) is a local resource (per planet), generated by colonists on a planet according to a planet's fertility rating. Low fertility worlds produce little food per population while high fertility worlds produce a lot. The amount of food produced by colonists can also be manipulated to a degree through the labour sliders on the colony screen.

Colonists also consume food (at a rate of 0.1 food per 0.1 population unless you have picked the Gluttonous / Efficient Metabolism traits), and food can be exported (for over-producing colonies) or imported (for starving colonies) via freighters on your trade network.

Excess or imported food can also be stored on the colony screen - your population will consume this before starving. Stored food is the food that can be exported.

If a colony has more food than it needs, the population will grow (up to a maximum per planet).

Ways to gain Food[]

  • Discovering the Artifact Lemba Seeds results in a Fertility bonus to all owned Colonies of (0.1)
  • Various Food Buildings can be built to raise food production.

Production Production icon[]

Production (represented by a brown hammer symbol) is essentially how fast a colony can build things. Similar to food, production is a local resource that is shown per planet/colony. Any production jobs (such as buildings, ships, troops being produced by the colony) consume production.

Production is produced according to a planet's richness rating and the population of the planet (ie: the workforce).

Excess production can be stored on the colony screen per planet, and used to rush production jobs or marked to export to other colonies. Imported production is also stored here.

Ways to gain Production[]

  • Discovering the Artifact Nano-Collective Controller results in a 10% empire-wide production bonus.
  • Various Production Buildings can be built to raise production.

Money[]

See economy for more details.

Money (represented by a coin symbol) is a global resource. Your total money is shown in the top left of the screen, next to research, as well as the amount of money your are gaining or losing per turn. The primary way to gain money is by taxing the population of your planets. Money may also be gained through researching some technologies or performing other actions such as trading.

Money is lost through building maintenance, ship maintenance and other ways.

Money is also useful for trading to other races.

In the future, when you run out of money entirely, some of your ships will turn rogue.

Ways to gain Money[]

  • Discovering the Artifact Ecstacy Crystal results in a bonus of 10 Credits per turn.
  • Exploring and finding Mines, Ancient Tombs, and Crash Sites may result in the earning of 250 Credits or 750 Credits.
  • Sending your Agents on missions to rob enemy funds. The amount you receive is based on your agents level.
  • Making trade routes with your Allies.
  • Setting a higher tax rate will increase your income but will decrease production output.

Research Research icon[]

Research is a global resource. Your total research income is shown in the top left of the screen, next to money. Research is produced by population on planets (at a higher rate for Smart races and a lower one for Dumb races), and is also produced by certain buildings.

There is no total store of research, as all research is spent on unlocking the currently researching technology in the technology tree. If a technology is not being researched, then research gained is wasted.

Ways to gain Research[]

  • Exploring Ancient Tombs can sometimes result in a 3% bonus to research production.
  • Discovering the Artifact Spice of the Sleeper results in a 10% bonus to research.
  • Sending your Agents on missions to steal technology from enemy, the Technology received is randomly picked.
  • Various Research Buildings that will raise research production.