Resources: claims, contests, extraction
What this does
Every planet, feature, and rock in a system is a contractable — something you can fight for, hold, and bleed for resources. Control runs on three stacked layers: a passive trickle while you hold a claim, active runs that do the real hauling, and longer resource expeditions for the big scores.
Prerequisites
- An active account with at least one ship build. See the onboarding guide if you are just starting out.
- Citizenship helps: a citizen extracting at home earns +15% yield. See docking and citizenship.
- A home-base room gathering all of this in one place arrives later; for now everything below runs through slash commands.
Step-by-step walkthrough
Layer 1 — Passive trickle
Hold any claim and it drips its primary resource at 5% of the active hourly
rate, no ship committed. It is the holder’s reward for holding — under OPEN
and INVITED claims trickle still goes 100% to the holder. Bank it with
/extract claim, which sweeps accrued trickle
across every claim you hold into your stockpile. Check totals with
/stockpile view.
Layer 2 — Active runs
Survey. Run /system_info in a system channel to
list its planets, named features, and minor features. Each target type maps to
exactly one contest archetype — the mapping never randomizes:
| Target type | Contest archetype | How you win it |
|---|---|---|
| Planet | Stake Auction | /contracts bid — highest effective stake at close |
| Named feature | Race Contract | /contracts race_start — highest scoring attempt |
| Light minor feature | Performance Overtake | out-extract the incumbent over a rolling window |
| Heavy minor feature | Tribute Outbid | /contracts outbid — declare a higher daily rate |
List open windows with /contracts list and
/contracts races. On the two rolling archetypes
you do not bid — /extract begin auto-creates the
claim the first time you extract.
Run. With a claim in hand, launch /extract start
with the claim and a build. Each run is a fixed 6 hours and locks that ship.
If a run is already active on a target, the next becomes queued (clock starts
when the active slot frees). Track it all with
/extract status.
Claim the yield. Yields land automatically on completion — primary resource plus an optional secondary at half the rate.
Access tiers, from the extractor’s seat
When you extract under someone else’s claim, the holder’s tier sets your cut:
| Tier | What it means for you | Your share |
|---|---|---|
| OPEN | Anyone may extract; auto-split with the holder | 70% (80% if you are a citizen at home) |
| INVITED | You must hold a permit (/contracts permit) | 100% — no split |
Extracting under your own claim is never a split — you keep 100%. The tier is snapshotted at run start, so a run launched under OPEN still splits even if the holder later flips the claim.
Layer 3 — Resource expeditions
The heavy haul. /extract expedition launches
a 4-hour run that debits a fixed launch kit (5 Salvage + 3 Ore + 1 Exotic
Physics) up front and pays 3–5× a normal run’s yield. It needs an active
claim you hold or are permitted on, and is capped at one per claim per cycle.
The same OPEN/INVITED split rules apply.
What “success” looks like
/extract status shows your runs as ACTIVE or
QUEUED with end times; completed runs credit your stockpile and free the ship.
/stockpile view climbs across Ore, Salvage,
Biotech, Exotic Physics, and Echo Fragments. Liquidate surplus to credits at the
salvage broker with /stockpile convert (10
credits per unit, daily cap 500 units).
Keep these caps in mind — they are universe-wide per player:
| Cap | Limit |
|---|---|
| Active extractions at once | 3 |
| Claims held at once | 5 |
| Queued runs per target | 3 (plus the 1 active = 4 total) |
Common gotchas & troubleshooting
“You’re at the 3 active-extraction cap. Wait for one to finish.” You already have three runs active across the universe. Wait for one to complete or queue this one on a target instead.
“Queue is full on that target (1 active + 3 queued).” That target is maxed at one active plus three queued. Wait for the active run to land, which promotes the head of the queue.
“This target needs an active claim (auction/race must resolve first)…”
You tried to extract on a planet or named feature with no resolved claim. Those
are won through a contest — use /contracts list
or /contracts races to find a window.
“You’re not permitted to extract on that claim under its access policy.” The claim is PRIVATE, or INVITED without a permit for you. Ask the holder for a permit, or find an OPEN target.
“No held claims to collect trickle from.” / “No trickle has accrued since the last collection.” You hold no claims, or none has built a whole unit since your last collection.
“That build is already busy with another activity.” The ship is locked into another run or expedition. Pick an idle build.
Related guides
- Docking and citizenship — citizenship grants the +15% home yield bonus and the better 80/20 sub-tenant split.
- Spending what you extract — Lighthouse upgrades, specialty crew training, and the salvage broker turn your stockpile into power.