Some encounters cannot be cleared. Route around them.
You close on enemies at only about 55% of your travel speed, which gives each one a fixed window inside weapon range. If your fleet cannot kill the grid inside that window, fighting it is a mistake by design.
Updated 31 August 2026
Enemies run with the level rather than standing still, so you close much more slowly than your speed suggests — roughly 55% of it. That gives each enemy a limited time inside your weapons range on a single pass.
From that comes a number the game never shows you: how many kills one pass is worth. If that is below the size of the encounter, the encounter is not clearable. It is not a difficulty spike and it is not a skill check. It is the intended shape.
This is why a green gate feels enormous. Fleet size multiplies damage directly, so +3 ships does not make the next encounter easier — it changes which encounters are possible at all.
Reading it in the moment
- Small fleet against a full grid: do not try. Take the cheapest line through and keep what you have.
- Prioritise a green gate over kills, always. Kills are worth coins; ships are worth every future kill.
- A red gate you can dodge is worth more than a green gate you have to fight through to reach.
The boss is more forgiving than you think
Boss health adapts to the fleet that turns up. Arriving with one ship does not mean a two-minute grind, and arriving with eight does not mean a six-second walkover — the fight is scaled to the damage you actually brought. Getting to the boss alive matters more than getting there strong.
Is this wrong?
Then say so
These are written from the games’ own balance references, but a number that was true in one build can stop being true in the next. If something here does not match what you are seeing, that is worth knowing.