# KESTREL FRONTIER

Commander's Walkthrough — A Guided First Campaign
FOR NEW COMMANDERS · NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ASSUMED
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ORIENTATION BRIEFING · KESTREL-9 SCOUT FLEET · AUTOMATED

Commander,

The Colonial Compendium tells you what everything is. This document tells you what to actually do, in what order, and why one choice tends to beat another. It follows a single campaign from the first tick to the moment you set foot on Solarus, stopping at every real decision point to explain the trade-off, not just the mechanic.

Nothing here is the only correct path. Kestrel Frontier is built so no galaxy seed and no early mistake can lock you out of winning — but some orders genuinely cost you less time and fewer setbacks than others, and that is what this briefing is for.

— Colonial Survey Computer, KESTREL-9

## 1 · THE OPENING MOVES

Every game starts the same way: one colonized home world, no buildings on it yet, a single scout, and a starting stockpile of Ferrite only (never Crystallite) — deliberately, so no galaxy seed can start you unable to afford your own first mine.

#### STEP 1 — Build your home world's native mine

Open the Galaxy Map, click your home system (the house icon) twice to enter it, click your colonized planet, and build whatever mine matches its native resource. This is always the correct first action — nothing else in the economy produces anything until this exists.

#### STEP 2 — Send your starting scout outward

While the mine builds, don't leave the scout idle. Send it to the nearest unscouted, connected system. You cannot evaluate a system — its resource, its alien contact, whether it's worth colonizing — until a ship physically reaches it.

The mine takes real time (shown in ticks). Nothing about the early game punishes you for letting it run in the background — check in on it, don't sit and watch a progress bar.

## 2 · BUILDING YOUR FIRST ECONOMY

Once the native mine is up, you'll have a trickle of income. The next decisions matter more than they look.

The Resources panel packs all 14 resources two-per-row as a glyph, a short code, and a rounded value — click any one to expand it into a detail card with the exact quantity, which building produces it, and how many of that building you've actually got running. Handy for spotting a resource with zero active sources before it becomes a problem.

#### Decision: Power Plant or Research Lab first?

Power Plant first — the safer default. Power is scarce by design (it only trickles in slowly on its own) and gates both Tech Tree research and, later, an Engineering Lab. Running out of Power stalls everything else.
Research Lab first — reasonable if your home world's native resource is one you're not worried about (a healthy Ferrite/Crystallite trickle from any mine covers early costs), and you want the Tech Tree moving as early as possible. You'll still need Power eventually, just slightly later.

Either is fine. What's not fine is building neither for a long stretch — both share their own independent global build slot, so building both back-to-back doesn't actually cost you extra waiting.

#### Watch your Ferrite/Crystallite cap

Every native mine also trickles a small Ferrite/Crystallite byproduct — but it pauses once that resource passes 200. If you see either sitting capped, that's a signal to spend it: found a new colony, queue a build, lay a Stellar Road. A capped stockpile earns nothing further.

Resist building a Research Lab, Power Plant, Academy, Engineering Lab, or any ship before at least one native mine exists anywhere in your empire — the game blocks this specifically because it's a real trap: you'd spend your one-time starting stockpile with nothing behind it.

## 3 · EXPLORING OUTWARD

Exploration has no downside beyond a scout's travel time — scouts can't be attacked, can't be lost to anything but you deciding not to send them. There is close to no reason to ever leave one idle.

- Send scouts toward your frontier — whatever's directly connected to territory you already know. You can't leapfrog past unscouted space.
- Prioritize contiguous territory over scattering in every direction — once Stellar Roads and reinforcement routes matter (they will, once you're managing more than one colony), a connected blob of known space is easier to defend and supply than scattered outposts.
- Research Scout Hulls once you have Power/Research flowing — it adds a fleet slot, meaning more scouts working the frontier at once. If you rushed this and it's locked behind an Advisor Field requirement, see §6.

## 4 · FIRST CONTACT — WHAT TO ACTUALLY PICK

The moment a ship of yours reaches an alien-held system, a Meeting opens automatically. Don't treat this as a coin flip — the "right" choice depends entirely on what you need right now.

#### Decision: how to respond to first contact

Exchange Gifts — always safe, always available, small flat resource gain, no commitment either way. The default choice if you're not sure yet and want to scout more of the galaxy before deciding.
Offer Alliance — costs Ferrite/Crystallite/Research up front, but permanently removes raid risk from that faction and opens their worlds to peaceful colonization. Worth it early if that faction sits near territory you want to expand into.
Propose a Non-Aggression Pact (available once neutral contact is established, not just on first contact) — cheaper than a full alliance, doesn't open their worlds, but meaningfully reduces the risk that a Satellite you deploy there gets discovered and escalates to war (see §10). A good middle option if you want to watch a system without committing to a full alliance yet.
Keep your distance — free, changes nothing. Reasonable if this faction is far from anything you care about and you'd rather not spend resources on a relationship you don't need yet.
Declare War — never do this on first contact unless you already have battleships docked nearby and a real reason. Aliens never declare war on you first; every war in this game is a choice you made, so there's essentially no reason to start one before you're ready to finish it.

You are not locked into your first-contact choice forever — a "Meet" button appears on any contacted system's panel afterward, letting you revisit the relationship any time (propose a pact later, upgrade neutral to allied, sue for peace, and so on).

A Meeting stops the game clock the instant it opens — ticks (and any unscheduled events) wait until you've actually resolved it. Take your time; nothing keeps happening in the background while you decide.

### The fuller Meeting economy — worth revisiting later

Once you've settled a relationship, "Meet" keeps offering more as the situation changes — don't treat it as a one-time decision and forget about it.

#### Decision: which ongoing Meeting options are worth using?

Sell Surplus and Pool Knowledge — quiet, repeatable ways to turn a resource glut into whatever you're actually short on (minerals into Research, or a resource you're capped on into Ferrite/Crystallite). Check in whenever a stockpile looks capped.
Sell Star Charts — available with almost any non-hostile faction, on a cooldown. A steady, if modest, source of Influence/Research that costs you nothing but a Meeting — worth using every time it's off cooldown if you're short on either.
Trade Star Charts vs Exchange Maps (both allied-only) — Trade is the bigger one-way buy (more systems revealed, no cost recovered); Exchange is cheaper and gives a small resource kickback but reveals fewer systems. Use Exchange for routine top-ups, Trade when you specifically need to see a lot of the map at once (e.g. hunting for the Kestrel System's general direction).
Request Military Aid — save it for right before a push you're actually planning, not the moment it comes off cooldown — the flat Ferrite/Titanium gift is more useful timed against a real build queue than banked passively.

## 5 · CHOOSING A TECH PATH

The Tech Tree has no wrong order enforced beyond prerequisites, but some sequencing genuinely serves you better depending on what you're trying to do.

#### Decision: which early tech first?

Improved Thrusters and Efficient Mining have no prerequisites and both pay off immediately — faster fleets, better mine yield. Very hard to go wrong picking either first.
Advanced Collection is excellent if you already have a Power Plant running — skip it until you do, it does nothing on its own.
Everything past Scout Hulls (Orbital Satellites, Weapons Systems, Battleship Hulls, Engineering Fundamentals, Interstellar Drive) is a deeper commitment — string these together once your economy is stable, not while you're still building your first Power Plant.

A meaningful branch point sits at Engineering Fundamentals vs Battleship Hulls — both sit at the same depth in the tree, behind Weapons Systems. Battleship Hulls if you expect or are already in a war. Engineering Fundamentals if you'd rather open the Devices track (a long, separate progression covering resource access, region access, transport, and military bonuses) first. Neither blocks the other permanently — you'll likely want both eventually.

Several techs also require a specific Advisor Field of Expertise at a minimum level, not just Research/Power. If a tech shows "Needs expertise" instead of a cost, that's an Advisor you need to hire and send to the Academy first — see §6.

## 6 · ADVISORS — WHO FIRST, AND WHY

You don't need an Advisor to survive the early game, but the first one you hire should match whatever you're actually bottlenecked on, not just whichever feels thematically appealing.

#### Decision: your first Advisor hire

Economy — the safest first pick. Its bonus (native mine yield) touches every colony you have and will ever found, so it compounds the longest.
Research — strong if you're planning to push deep into the Tech Tree quickly; several mid/late techs need this Advisor's Fields raised anyway (Applied Engineering, Innovation, Theoretical Science all gate real techs), so hiring early means you're not scrambling later.
Military — only worth rushing if you're already anticipating a war. Its Fields also gate Battleships themselves (Fleet Command) and several Devices, so if combat is part of your plan, this Advisor becomes mandatory sooner or later regardless.
Diplomacy / Exploration — good second or third picks rather than first, unless you're leaning hard into one playstyle (heavy alliance-building, or aggressive early scouting).

### Fields of Expertise and the Academy

Every Advisor starts with an uneven, fixed set of four Fields (0–10 each) the moment you hire them — not blank. Promoting past Novice requires every field to clear a minimum (3 for Expert, 6 for Master), and a growing list of techs, buildings, ships, diplomacy actions, and Devices lean on a specific field directly.

#### Build an Academy as soon as you can afford one

Nothing about Fields can improve without one — sending an Advisor to study is the only way to raise a field. Only one Advisor, empire-wide, can be studying at a time, and the cost/time of a course climbs as the field gets higher, so plan which Advisor studies what a little ahead rather than reactively. Building more Academies pays off well past the first: each one adds its own full course speed, and every 5th one lets a single course teach an extra Field at once (automatically bundling in that Advisor's weakest remaining Fields) — worth a real investment if you're planning to push several Advisors to Master.

If you'd rather skip this entire layer of complexity, Settings has a Simple Mode toggle — Fields stop blocking anything, though they still exist and can still be trained if you want the flavor without the friction.

## 7 · EXPANDING AND MANAGING MULTIPLE COLONIES

Once your home world is self-sufficient, growth compounds fast — but only if each new colony is actually productive, not just claimed.

- Colonize toward whichever resource you're shortest on. A second Ferrite world when you already have plenty does less for you than a first Biomass or Isotopes world if you have none.
- Build the native mine immediately at every new colony — the same rule as your home world, every time.
- Use Cargo Ships once one colony is resource-rich and another is resource-poor — moving surplus between your own colonies, or trading with an allied faction, beats letting one stockpile sit capped while another starves.
- Don't outgrow your Fleet. A colony you can't defend or reach with reinforcements is a liability the moment anything goes wrong nearby — grow as far as your ships and Stellar Roads can actually support, not further.

## 8 · WHEN TO CHASE ENGINEERING

The Engineering Lab (behind Engineering Fundamentals, plus a real Field requirement on the Research Advisor) opens a second, separate progression: Devices. It is not required to win — but it unlocks real value once your core economy is stable.

#### Decision: is it worth prioritizing right now?

Yes, prioritize it if your galaxy seed left you resource-starved on an exotic type, boxed into a region behind a lock, or you want the Transport/Military bonuses for an expansion or war push you're already planning.
No, it can wait if your core loop (mines, Power, Research, first few colonies) isn't stable yet. Devices are a force-multiplier on an economy that already works, not a fix for one that doesn't.
The Engineering Lab produces nothing itself, so its payoff isn't yield — it's speed and capacity. Every Lab adds its own full invention speed (5 Labs = 5x speed), and every 5th Lab opens one more parallel invention slot. If you're leaning hard into Devices, more Labs are absolutely worth it; just know you're buying speed/capacity, not income.

### Recognizing a locked region — and when to open one

If your Galaxy Map's system count seems small for how much exploring you've done, or your scouts keep running out of frontier despite the galaxy clearly being bigger than what you've found, you've likely hit a locked region — a whole cluster of systems (12 total, split into four groups of three) that isn't just unscouted but genuinely doesn't exist on the map yet. No scout, however far you send it, will ever reach one.

#### Decision: is unlocking a region worth it right now?

Worth it once you've fully explored your reachable frontier and want more room to expand, colonize, or find additional alien contact — each Deep-Space Relay Array Device (Region Access family, §7 of the Compendium) reveals one cluster the instant it completes.
Not urgent early — your home system and the Kestrel System are guaranteed to never be inside a locked cluster, so you can find and take Solarus without ever inventing one of these. Treat locked regions as bonus lategame territory, not a blocker.

## 9 · DECIDING TO GO TO WAR

War is always your choice — aliens never declare it on you first. That means every war you're in is one you can also decline to start, or end.

#### Decision: is this war worth it?

Ask what you actually want: territory (conquering opens their worlds to colonization) is usually the only real reason to fight rather than ally. If you just want the raid risk gone, peace or alliance is almost always cheaper than the resources you'll lose to combat and raids combined.
Never attack with less than you think you need — combat has real variance, and even a winning fight can cost you ships. Mass battleships at the target system first; Attack only works with ships already docked there, combining every docked ship into one combined roll.
A losing fight still permanently damages the target — nothing resets. If you don't finish them this time, rebuild and attack again later rather than treating one loss as wasted.
Remember that Battleships themselves need the Military Advisor's Fleet Command field at 2+ to build at all. If you're planning a war, get that Advisor hired and studying well before you expect to need the fleet.

## 10 · SATELLITES AND THE ESPIONAGE GAMBLE

Deploying a Satellite over your own colonies is entirely safe. Deploying one over a still-neutral alien system is not — there's a real chance they notice, and if they do, contact turns to war immediately, with no warning.

#### Decision: is watching them worth the risk?

If you just want basic information, a scout visiting once already told you their star type, planets, and initial relation — you may not need a permanent Satellite at all.
If you want ongoing intel (tracking their fleet activity, colony status over time), a Non-Aggression Pact first cuts discovery risk to roughly a fifth of normal — propose one via a Meeting before you deploy, if you can spare the resources.
If you're already allied or already at war, deploying is risk-free either way — there's nothing left to provoke.

## 11 · PACING, PAUSING, AND NOT MISSING THINGS

Kestrel Frontier runs in real time, at an adjustable speed (0.05×–20×), with two distinct ways to stop the clock:

- Still (the ⏸ button) — a soft pause. Ticks stop, but everything else keeps working: give orders, enter systems, open panels. Use this constantly — there's no reason not to pause while you plan a move.
- Hard Pause — stops ticks and blocks all interaction behind a full overlay until you press it again. Use this when you need to genuinely step away, not just think.

Unscheduled random events (mostly good, occasionally bad — see the Compendium) interrupt with their own modal and pause the game until you acknowledge them, so nothing slips by even at high speed. Diplomatic Meetings do the same — the clock stops the moment one opens and only resumes once you've actually resolved it, so a negotiation never gets rushed by events piling up behind it. The scrolling ticker under the header also mirrors the last several Event Log lines if you want a passive glance without opening anything.

## 12 · COMMON MISTAKES TO AVOID

- Building anything before a native mine exists. The game blocks the worst version of this, but don't try to work around it — there's no benefit to rushing a non-income building first.
- Letting Ferrite/Crystallite sit capped at 200 while a build queue or expansion opportunity goes untouched.
- Declaring war without battleships already built or built by the field-locked minimum. You cannot Attack with nothing docked, and Battleships themselves may be Field-gated.
- Deploying Satellites over neutral aliens with no Pact and no plan for what happens if they notice.
- Ignoring the Academy entirely. Several genuinely useful techs, ships, and buildings quietly lock behind Advisor Fields — if progress feels stuck, check whether an Advisor needs a course before assuming it's a resource problem.
- Scattering colonies with no roads or fleet coverage between them. A colony you can't reach or defend is a future loss, not present progress.
- Building only one Engineering Lab or Academy and assuming that's the ceiling. Both keep paying off well past the first — more Labs speed up and parallelize Device invention, more Academies speed up and bundle Field courses. Neither produces resources directly, but neither caps out at one either.

## 13 · THE ENDGAME — FINDING AND TAKING SOLARUS

One alien-held system in every galaxy is the Kestrel System, holding a planet called Solarus — always reachable through ordinary exploration, never behind a Device-locked region, by design. There is no special order required to find it: keep pushing your frontier outward and you will eventually reach it.

#### Decision: ally or conquer the Kestrel System's holder?

Ally if you'd rather not fight at all — an alliance opens their worlds, including Solarus, to peaceful colonization the same as any other allied system.
Conquer if diplomacy has already broken down, or if you'd simply rather finish the campaign by force. Bring more battleships than you think you need — this is typically the toughest single fight in the game, and a losing attempt still costs you ships without finishing the job.

Once the system is yours by either path, found a colony on Solarus. That's the win.

END OF WALKTHROUGH · KESTREL-9 SURVEY COMPUTER · TRANSMISSION COMPLETE