Quick Start Guide

This is a building guide for total beginners to get something to start with while learning. The main goal here is to get a Small Cargo Ship as soon as possible to start raiding inactive players or undefended planets. It will also give you the option of building a few Rocket Launchers.

Beginner Build Order
The table below provides a build order for the start of your planet and account.

Considerations

 * This guide will sometimes make you drop below 0 energy. That is ok since in each case the gain in resource production is faster than if energy is built first. So this build order gives the greatest return on investment.
 * The notes column will explain energy and additional information.
 * You may want to switch steps 12 and 13, but that depends on how many resources you have at the moment and whether you will be away for a while or not. If you do go away for a while, switch them. Otherwise stick to the guide.
 * When colonizing a new planet feel free to follow this guide again. However, send twice your home planet's hourly production of Metal and Crystal along to get you started.

Next steps
From this point on its most important to build small cargo ships to raid inactives for more resources. You should research the requirements for espionage drones for information about where to strike best.

It is suggested to upgrade your mines steadily by using the following level differences: ''Level of metal mine is 2 higher than crystal mine. For every 2 levels of crystal mines you build 1 deuterium mine''. You should have 17 metal 15 crystal and 10 deuterium by the time you reach those numbers. However this is a very personal choice and once you started raiding there is no real best way to develop your mines and researches. It is all up to you.

After this
You should keep building up mines to get more resources and research new tech according to how you want to play from then on. If you like attacking people, focus on getting espionage probes as soon as possible, so you can see planet defenses. You can see what tech you need under the technology screen. If you play the discoverer class, try to start expeditions as soon as possible. Once you are able to send a large number of cargos on several expeditions, they will become more profitable than raiding for players in discoverer class.

If you have not done so already, learn to fleetsave, which is probably the most important OGame skill to keep you safe. Also become familiar with the Tools and Simulators which will help you play with less effort and in more comfort.

You could now research the Laser Technology for better defences after upgrading Energy Technology 2, or you could focus on impulse drive for Heavy fighters, Colony ships, and Cruisers (in that order). Regardless what you choose, you should research armor tech, weapons tech, and shield tech: these help build your defenses, and their benefits apply to other colonies too. You could also try to improve your combustion engine tech for faster small cargo so you raid faster and will have access to recyclers and large cargo ships at level 6. Bear in mind that you could also focus on getting impulse tech 5 instead, giving your small cargo a massive speed boost (they become as fast as heavy fighters), but consume more deuterium per 1k resources than large cargo ships.

Joining alliances could help prevent other players from attacking you, and will help you have people to whom you can ask questions. Many alliances welcome new players and will help you understand the game and find a play style right for you.

Bear in mind that you will have to research Astrophysics in order to colonize a new planet and do expeditions. See colonization.