Beginner Protection
Every new empire starts with a shield. For the first five days, no other player can attack you, probe you, or land a vanguard on your stars.
The same shield reapplies every time you respawn after being eliminated, so a wipe and a fresh start always come with breathing room.
What it blocks
While the shield is up, any hostile movement against you wont work. Your enemies will not be able to send probes or attacks to your stars.
How to lose the shield early
The shield breaks the moment you dispatch a hostile fleet at another human player. That includes sending a single probe. Once you've fired the first hostile shot at a rival, the shield drops permanently for this lifetime and it doesn't come back when the trip is recalled or the target dies.
Attacking NPCs does not end the shield. Hunting grey rivals is part of finding your feet, and the protection window is built for exactly that.
Strategy
Five days is enough to build a real foundation. Suggested order:
Get a Reactor and your extractors up as far as you can, so your economy isn't crawling.
Build a Shipyard and run a couple of marauders at the nearest NPC to learn how combat feels.
After your shield expires, the Morale system keeps wildly mismatched attacks costly for the attacker, so growing your way up out of the early game stays viable.
