Probe
A fast, lightly-built scout ship. The Probe exists to go somewhere, look around, and come back with what it saw.
| Offense | 0 |
|---|---|
| Defense | 1 |
| Palladium cost | 90 |
| Iridium cost | 45 |
| Build time | 2m |
| Upkeep / day | 12 credits |
| Speed | 60 ly/hr |
| Cargo hold | 0 |
| Shipyard level required | 1 |
What it does
A Probe is how you see inside a system. The map already shows you every system's owner and score; a Probe reveals what's actually there: structures, fleet, real strength. You send one to a system, and the moment it arrives you get a snapshot. After that, the data is frozen. To learn what happened next week, you send another.
It's the fastest ship in the Fleet and the cheapest to build.
Why it matters
Score only tells you "this system has had investment." A Probe tells you what the investment went into. Without one, you're attacking blind.
Strategy
Build them in small batches and send them where you need eyes. The hexes closest to your border or the system whose score jumped overnight.
A Probe is cheap enough that losing one is acceptable. Don't hoard them, keep a few on standby and send them when intel goes stale.
The Probe unlocks at the base Shipyard level, so it's the first ship class available to a new empire.
To understand exactly what gets reported, read Recon Missions.
