Defense Build Strategies

There is a large variance in strategies that players use for defense. What follows on this page are some strategies that experienced players have found to work for them. No matter the strategy used, the best way to avoid attack is to fleetsave and spend your resources promptly. Defense simply serves as an additional measure to add to that.


 * Any defense can be beaten by a determined player or group of players. Even if you are the strongest player in the universe, others can still attack you together using ACS.
 * Remember that the attacker has the initiative. He or she will espionage your planet, learn how your defense is made, and compose a fleet to counter it. It is not possible with a defensive build to counter the type of fleet someone will attack with; the attacker will just use a different fleet.
 * Unless you become a turtle, you are unlikely to deter all attacks. Plan on deterring most of them. Aim to make possible attackers go looking for easier targets than you, or at least equal targets that bring higher profit.
 * In some universes, a percentage of defense goes into debris field. If an attacker beats you, this just gives him or her more profit from the attack. Unlike normal universes, large defenses in those may cause more attacks not less. Know your universe before planning what you will build for defense.
 * Your defense serves to protect the production of your planet until you can remove or spend the resources.

This article presents a series of different ratios explaining the costs, benefits and disadvantages of each.

If you have an alternate strategy you would recommend, please add it to the end of this list; do NOT overwrite someone else's strategy. If you have comments on these strategies, leave them on the talk page instead of inserting here.

Calculator
You can also use some calculators to decide for yourself what to build.


 * Optimal defense calculator
 * In progress work on another: Defense Calculator

It is also possible to play around with battle simulators to see what works on various attacks.

Early Game Defense
Ratios:
 * Build Light Lasers as your fodder.
 * Build Rocket Launchers when you have spare metal but no spare crystal
 * Consider 2 Rocket Launchers as being 1 Light Laser
 * Build 1 Heavy Laser for every 10 Light Lasers.
 * Build 1 Ion Cannon for every 20 Light Lasers.
 * Build 1 Small Shield Dome when you reach 50 Light Lasers
 * Build 1 Gauss Cannon for every 50 Light Lasers.
 * Build 1 Large Shield Dome as soon as you can afford it
 * Fill a level 2 missile silo with Anti-ballistic Missiles when you reach 200 Light Lasers

That means when you acquire 200 Light Lasers, you should have:
 * 300-400 Rocket Launchers (depending on how much spare metal you had)
 * 20 Heavy Lasers
 * 10 Ion Cannons
 * 4 Gauss Cannons
 * 1 Small Shield Dome
 * 1 Large Shield Dome
 * 20 Anti-ballistic Missiles

This strategy aims to offset your opponents likely use of Cruisers (which have Rapid Fire against Rocket Launchers) and scare off any smaller fleets. An appropriate amount of defense built at this ratio (relative to how many resources you leave on planet) should keep away any player without a fleet of Battleships and Bombers but you should be working on a Big Gun Defense before you reach the '200 Light Lasers' number in this example!

Big Gun Heavy
Ratios：
 * Build Rocket Launchers as your fodder.
 * Build 1 Light Laser for every 2 Rocket Launchers.
 * Build 1 Heavy Laser for every 10 Rocket Launchers.
 * Build 1 Ion Cannon for every 25 Rocket Launchers.
 * Build 1 Small Shield Dome when you reach 10 Rocket Launchers
 * Build 1 Gauss Cannon for every 50 Rocket Launchers.
 * Build 1 Plasma Turret for every 100 Rocket Launchers.
 * Build 1 Large Shield Dome when you reach 100 Rocket Launchers
 * Build Anti-ballistic Missiles when you reach 100 Rocket Launchers

That means when you acquire 1000 Rocket Launchers, you should have:
 * 500 Light Lasers
 * 100 Heavy Lasers
 * 20 Gauss Cannons
 * 10 Plasma Turret
 * 40 Ion Cannon
 * 1 Small Shield Dome
 * 1 Large Shield Dome
 * some Anti-ballistic Missiles

The Total Cost of this method is:
 * 4,390,000 Metal
 * 1,550,000 Crystal
 * 340,000 Deuterium
 * + costs of silos and missiles

Some critics of this setup would may point out that there are too many big guns (Gauss Cannons & Plasma Turrets) in this type of defense; however, in order to deter attack from higher level players, Gauss and Plasma Turrets are necessary in order to make sure a defender can damage an attacker's upper tier ships (i.e. Battleships, Bombers, and Destroyers), since upper tier vessels can easily break through defenses lacking in big guns.

The Heavy Lasers included in this strategy are included to clear a path through the Light Fighters that players like to use as fodder in their raiding fleets, and the Ion Cannons are there for their strong shields.

Fodder Heavy
Ratios:
 * Build Rocket Launchers as your fodder.
 * Build 1 Light Laser for every 5 Rocket Launchers.
 * Build 1 Heavy Laser for every 20 Rocket Launchers.
 * Build 1 Ion Cannon for every 60 Rocket Launchers.
 * Build 1 Small Shield Dome when you reach 100 Rocket Launchers
 * Build 1 Gauss Cannon for every 150 Rocket Launchers.
 * Build 1 Plasma Turret for every 500 Rocket Launchers.
 * Build 1 Large Shield Dome when you reach 500 Rocket Launchers
 * Build 1 Anti-ballistic Missile when you reach 500 Rocket Launchers

That means when you acquire 500 Rocket Launchers, you should have:
 * 100 Light Lasers
 * 25 Heavy Lasers
 * 8 Ion Cannons
 * 3 Gauss Cannons
 * 1 Plasma Turret
 * 1 Small Shield Dome
 * 1 Large Shield Dome
 * Anti-ballistic Missiles
 * Interplanetary Missiles

The Total Cost of this method is:
 * 1,486,000 Metal
 * 303,000 Crystal
 * 36,000 Deuterium

At this point it would be very difficult to have enough resources sitting on a planet to make attacking profitable. People would only be attacking you to crash or ninja your fleet. Therefore, this defensive strategy is suited towards supporting a fleet of ships in orbit of the planet. You will achieve much more fodder for a comparable amount of res spent because the resources you are not building nearly as many big guns - you have big ships in orbit instead. Your large amount of fodder makes it much harder for people to kill your ships and profit from the attack, while your defense is killing their Light Fighter screen in droves.

Note that any defense built at this ratio will be more vulnerable to Death Star attack as shots from Rocket Launchers, Light Lasers, Heavy Lasers, and Ion Cannons are rendered pointless against the Bouncing Effect.

Endgame (against rips)
One thing you should be very careful with is the fact that the plasma turrets and shield domes are the only defense units which are not affected by a RIP's rapid fire. This means that if you have no or very little of these compared to the rest of your defenses (i.e. lots of fodder) the rips will really go to town and can fire up to 160 times a piece in a single round, shredding everything to bits. However, whenever a rip hits a plasma turret or a shield dome, its turn will end.

Therefore, the rules change when rips come into play, albeit this sort of defense won't disappoint against bombers either as their rapid fire can be annoying too.

Ratios: Of course, you should have both domes and as many ABMs as you can fit.
 * Build Light Lasers as your fodder.
 * Build Rocket Launchers when you have spare metal but no spare crystal (Consider 2 Rocket Launchers as being 1 Light Laser)
 * Build 1 Heavy Laser for every 3 Light Lasers.
 * Build 1 Ion Cannon for every 3 Light Lasers.
 * Build 1 Gauss Cannon for every 4 Light Lasers.
 * Build 1 Plasma Cannon for every 5 Light Lasers.

That means when you acquire 3000 Light Lasers (or 6000 Rocket Launchers), you should have:
 * 1000 Heavy Lasers
 * 1000 Ion Cannons
 * 750 Gauss Cannons
 * 600 Plasma Turrets
 * 1 Small Shield Dome
 * 1 Large Shield Dome

Total Cost of this method:
 * 57.560.000 Metal (65.060.000 using Rocket Launchers)
 * 50.810.000 Crystal (49.310.000 using Rocket Launchers)
 * 19.500.000 Deuterium

You now have a plasma to fodder ratio of almost 1 to 10 and the point here is that the plasmas are numerous enough to actually be hit by rips, but have enough fodder to be fairly safe from the rest of the attackers' fleet.

The above defense by the way will kill 23 attacking RIPs (with no other ships as fodder) and kill most when 24 were to attack. More importantly, the attacker needs a minimum of 155 RIPs(!) to even have a chance of winning in one battle. Needless to say, you'll be needing massive amounts of ABMs.

Big Guns Mid-to-Late Game
This defense strategy is the one that will protect you against the most Battle Ship based fleets and Destroyer based fleets, you'll have enough fodder that will protect your big guns while they destroy the attacking fleets effectively.

Ratios:


 * Use the Rocket Launcher as your fodder.
 * 1 Light Laser for every 2 Rocket Launcher
 * 1 Heavy Laser for every 20 Rocket Launcher
 * 1 Ion Cannon for every 20 Rocket Launcher
 * 1 Gauss Cannon for every 20 or 40 Rocket Launcher (For every 20 will protect you better of mixed fleets with Cruiser on them, since they can destroy a Cruiser in one hit)
 * 1 Plasma Turret for every 100 Rocket Launcher
 * 1 Small Shield Dome when you have 50 Rocket Launcher
 * 1 Large Shield Dome when you have 100 Rocket Launcher
 * Choice Anti-ballistic Missile

By the time you have 1000 Rocket Launchers, you'll have:


 * 500 Light Laser
 * 50 Heavy Laser
 * 50 Ion Cannon
 * 50 or 25 Gauss Cannon
 * 10 Plasma Turret
 * Small Shield Dome
 * Large Shield Dome
 * Some Anti-ballistic Missile

The cost of this strategy is:

With the 50 Gauss Cannons:

Metal: 4,710,000

Crystal: 1,960,000

Deuterium: 400,000

Plus the cost of the ABM's you chosen to build.

With 25 Gauss Cannons:

Metal: 4,210,000

Crystal: 1,585,000

Deuterium: 350,000

Plus the cost of the ABM's you chosen to build

This Strategy covers most of fleets made by an average Raider with fleets of Cruiser, Battle Ship, Destroyer and shouldn't have much problem to take out Battlecruiser.

Late-game Value for Resources
This strategy may be most effective against any kind of fleet, costing as little as possible. It will fare decently against all types of late-game fleets, inflicting a decent amount of damage.

Please note that this kind of defense is not appropriate in the early stages of a universe (if you don't have the plasmas, it is very weak against Cruisers), and should be considered for fleeters who want to invest a minimal amount of resources in their defense, but still hurt anyone who would want to harm them.


 * Use the Rocket Launcher as your fodder.
 * 15 Heavy Lasers for every 50 Rocket Launchers
 * 1 Plasma Turret for every 50 Rocket Launchers
 * Both domes and about 1 ABM for each PT.

RL is used as fodder to counter Destroyer fleets. HL are included to quickly wipe out Light Fighters in the case of fodder-based fleets, and also to help finish off dessies which aren't killed by the PTs. Lastly, the PTs are there to kill any Cruiser/Battleship/Battlecruiser/Bomber in a single hit.

By the time you have 1000 Rocket Launchers, you'll have:


 * 300 Heavy Lasers
 * 20 Plasma Turrets
 * Small Shield Dome
 * Large Shield Dome
 * 20 Anti-ballistic Missiles

The cost of this strategy is:

Metal: 5,020,000

Crystal: 1,660,000

Deuterium: 640,000

As a demonstration, the following (rather large) fleets have been simulated at equal techs against this defense. The numbers in are the losses to the attacking fleet. For example, the 500 destroyer fleet will lose 4 of them, totaling 240,000 metal, 200,000 crystal and 60,000 deuterium. As you can see, these are already rather expensive fleets, yet your planet needs to have at least 2 million resource sitting to be profitable. The only way to make a flawless hit against this set-up (without using RIPs), is by sending at least 2,000 Destroyers.
 * 10 Deathstars (lossless) -- note: 9 will win at 98%. If you want to protect against RIPs you should use the above set-up, or at least increase the number of PTs in this one.
 * 500 Destroyers (240k, 200k, 60k)
 * 1,000 Battlecruisers & 300 Bombers (450k, 475k, 195k)
 * 2,000 Light fighters, 400 Cruisers, 200 Battleships, 100 Bombers, 100 Destroyers & 200 Battlecruisers (811k, 302k, 25k)
 * 5,000 Heavy Fighters & 300 Bombers (350k, 225k, 15k)

Balanced Defense
So, for every 100 Light Lasers, you have 20 Rocket Launchers, 20 Ion Cannons, 10 Heavy Lasers, 10 Gauss Cannons, and 5 Plasma Turrets.
 * Build Light Lasers as your main fodder.
 * Build 1 Rocket Launcher for every 5 Light Lasers.
 * Build 1 Ion Cannon for every 5 Light Lasers.
 * Build 1 Heavy Laser for every 10 Light Lasers.
 * Build 1 Gauss Cannon for every 10 Light Lasers.
 * Build 1 Plasma Turret for every 20 Light Lasers.
 * You should have both domes and lots of ABMs.

In this setup, the Light Lasers are good fodder because of their balanced cost and good cost/performance ratio. The Rocket Launchers are there as extra fodder, and having both LL and RL as fodder decreases the rapid fire usefulness of Cruisers and Destroyers. Ion Cannons are necessary for their strong shields. Heavy Lasers are useful to crush Light Fighters, and work well against Destroyers. The Gauss Cannons are your basic big gun, useful against all ships. Finally, the Plasma Turrets are your best guns and help against Battleships, Bombers, Battlecruisers, Destroyers, and Death Stars.

Late game damage absorbency

 * Use the Rocket Launcher as your fodder.
 * 1 Light Laser for every 2 Rocket Launchers
 * 1 Heavy Laser for every 10 Rocket Launchers
 * 1 Ion Cannon for every 5 Rocket Launchers
 * 1 Gauss Cannon for every 20 Rocket Launchers
 * 1 Plasma Turret for every 100 Rocket Launchers
 * 1 Small Shield Dome as soon as possible
 * 1 Large Shield Dome when you have 50 Rocket Launchers
 * Lots of Anti-ballistic Missiles

With 10k rocket launchers you will get a defense like this
 * 10000 Rocket Launchers


 * 5000 Light Lasers


 * 1000 Heavy Lasers


 * 2000 Ion Cannons


 * 500 Gauss Cannons

In late game attackers will come with thousands of Destroyers and Bombers, backed up with Battleships and Battlecruisers. These ships are dealing tons of damage. That's why there is a large amount of Ion Cannons in this set up, as they have 500 basic shield power. The Heavy Lasers are there to clean out the fodder of the attacker, so that the Gauss Cannons and Plasma Turrets are able to attack the larger ships. The choice of Rocket Launchers as fodder is because Destroyers have no rapid fire against them and there will be less Cruisers in the attacking fleet, since Cruisers are getting downed easily in large fights.
 * 100 Plasma Turret

S.I, Shield, Weapon balanced
No ratio should be taken literally but should altered in accordance to your universe. i.e. newer universes should focus on light lasers as fodder but rocket launchers are priceless in the late game (look up rapid fire).

''The ratio was founded by GameForge Services user Ryan A. Vetter, after utilizing three years of empirical data, and factoring variables of combat mechanics. The era of which SpeedSim was still in use. The only further modification to this ratio in that time was the addition of the 1:100 Death Star to Plasma Turret ratio, performed by an unknown individual.''

"This ratio factors in a variety of game mechanics inclusive of resource production and combat mechanics. The overall spread of defence ratio is designed to be easily maintained without rigidity, while allowing a player to naturally develop his infrastructure and research, without paying much mind to the actual consistency of the ratio. Essentially, the ratio was developed to accommodate full defence production and spare resource dumping, while allowing for the most effective & consistent balance throughout the duration of 5+ years.

"Simply put, while miners/turtles may find themselves developing infrastructure and research consistently, this ratio can allow for 'untouchability.' Tested via my original Universe 1 account, I maintained a total of 8 years without being raided, attacked, bashed, crashed, or IPMed.

"The ratio also takes into consideration the slower development of infrastructure and research of fresh players, while allowing them to sustain regular schedules of personal (RL) affairs. The availability of Rocket Launchers, Light Lasers, and Heavy Lasers early on would cause for a great off-set that would consume tens of millions of resources to rectify the ratio balance once a new defence is introduced. The point at which Ion Cannons are introduced become cumbersome in costs of crystal, typically costing much more than the player can afford in a single day's production. 

"The fairly balanced cost of the Gauss Cannon and the ease of how it is unlocked enables even fledgling/green players to bulk up quickly, in deference to the actual costs of Ion Cannons. Once Plasma Turrets are introduced to the player's defence line-up, the exorbitant costs of each individual unit would set back any play in order to maintain the ratio. Taking into consideration the relative rates of progress of 100+ other players and the rate in which they increase their infrastructure, production, and research, this ratio is designed to offer the best of both worlds: Cost effectiveness and ease of maintenance in tandem with balanced power.

''"I cannot claim responsibility for the addition of the Death Star to this ratio, though the entirety of the rest of the ratio is verbatim mine. Though I find it detestable one would claim full development of the entire ratio, I would not mind if I had been appropriately credited for my work." - Ryan A. Vetter (Int'l Oboard handle "Revolutionary Lancer" @ 22/03/2018)''

This factored variance involves the combination of several statistics and dealing with simulations.
 * 270 Rocket Launchers for every Plasma Turret
 * 180 Light Lasers for every Plasma Turret
 * 45 Heavy Lasers for every Plasma Turret
 * 5 Gauss Cannons for every Plasma Turret
 * 15 Ion Cannons for every Plasma Turret
 * 1 Deathstar for every 100 Plasma Turrets
 * Both domes and lots of ABMs

The ratio works great until the endgame as fodder usually just increases your losses against RIPs and therefore you should think about halving the fodder.

Empirical Data and Original Source:

Ryan A. Vetter (01/09/2008). ''bwakel's guide to being totally turtle: The building blocks, FAQ, and more! ''Retrieved from: http://z9.invisionfree.com/Otarian/index.php?showtopic=813

Resource Balanced: early to mid-late game
This setup uses the fact that only RIPs have Rapid Fire against Gauss Cannons. Thus, you don't have to rely on the very expensive (and hard to research) Plasma Turrets as your RF blockers and main Big Guns. Using Light lasers gives better results, is more cost balanced, and it protects you much better against cruisers.
 * Use Light Laser or Rocket Launcher as Your Fodder.
 * 1 Gauss Cannon for every 8 Light Lasers or Rocket Launchers.
 * 1 Ion Cannon for every 4 Light Lasers, or 3 Rocket Launchers.
 * Both Domes.
 * Plasma Turrets to your choice - about 1 for 5 Gauss Cannons.

The Ion Cannons are there for multiple reasons: to balance the crystal:metal ratio, and for their good shields, and they help against fodder based fleets. Adding PTs will defend you better from Destroyers. Notice, though, that this setup isn't worth at all against RIPs.

When you have 200 Light Lasers. you will have: For 200 Light lasers, this setup will cost you:
 * 200 Light Lasers
 * 25 Gauss Cannons
 * 50 Ion Cannons
 * 2 Domes
 * [5 Plasma Turrets]

without PT:

960.000 Metal, 835.000 Crystal and 50.000 Deuterium

with PT:

1.210.000 Metal, 1.085.000 Crystal and 200.000 Deuterium.

Large Fodder, Damage Heavy
I Have found this setup to be fairly useful. I use Light Lasers as fodder for Cruiser based fleets, as they don't have Rapid Fire against the lasers. With 10k rocket launchers you will get a defence like this There is such a large number of Plasma Turret as late game in particular (as well as high speed universes) you can came against huge fleets of RIPs, and this helps increase the number needed for a profitable hit. Personally, I wouldn't use RIPs as defense as they are often targets for Fleeters, particularly when you go offline.
 * 1 Light Laser for every 2 Rocket Launcher
 * 1 Heavy Laser for every 10 Rocket Launcher
 * 1 Gauss Cannon for every 20 Rocket Launcher
 * 1 Ion Cannon for every 10 Rocket Launcher
 * 1 Plasma Turret for every 20 Rocket Launcher
 * Both Large Shield Dome and Small Shield Dome
 * As many ABMs as you can store
 * 10000 Rocket Launchers
 * 5000 Light Lasers
 * 1000 Heavy Lasers
 * 1000 Ion Cannons
 * 500 Gauss Cannons
 * 500 Plasma Turret

Against Bigger Ships
I made this kind of defenses in Wasat Server, and It worked pretty well! The Ratio For Defense is 40:25:10:4:1 With 4k rocket launchers you will get a defence like this Total Resource Consumption is Metal 30.75M / Crystal 16.25M / Deuterium 5M This can defeat 2000 Battlecruisers to Draw, With Same Weapon, Shield, Armor Techs. But with Light Fighter Fodder, This defenst will break easily, so you have to build more than 4k Rocket Launchers and other defenses
 * Build a Rocket Launchers
 * Build 5 Light Lasers for every 8 Rocket Launcher
 * Build a Heavy Laser for every 4 Rocket Launcher
 * Build a Gauss Cannon for every 10 Rocket Launcher
 * Build a Plasma Turret for every 4 Gauss Cannon
 * Both Large Shield Dome and Small Shield Dome
 * As many ABMs as you can store
 * 4000 Rocket Launchers
 * 2500 Light Lasers
 * 1000 Heavy Lasers
 * 400 Gauss Cannons
 * 100 Plasma Turret

Early-Mid-Late Game Fodder build up
This is a fodder with approx. 3:1 Metal : Crystal cost. Merely build this up and add the ratio of the next Defense Structure type as you go. Starts with a 3:1 Rocket Launcher: Light Laser ratio. This defense can hold off around 147 Deathstars at around 150million resources.
 * 900 Rocket Launcher
 * 300 Light Laser
 * 50 Heavy Laser
 * 30 Ion Cannon
 * 18 Gauss Cannon
 * 9 Plasma Cannon

Later you can switch to a pure Plasma Cannon + Rocket launcher setup for maximum Death Star deflection capabilities. Requires larger Deuterium but requires much larger numbers of Death Stars to take down for the same cost. An alternative version of this is: This is also a 3:1 Metal:Crystal setup but has a bit more damage from the Smaller defense. The downside is it stops less deathstars and has less damage from the Plasma cannons. It may be easiest to develop this defense prior to the RL and PC only defence.
 * 1 Plasma Cannon
 * 50 rocket Launcher (This could be up to 100 depending on resources but 50 is a 3:1 Met:Cry cost.)
 * 1 Plasma Cannon
 * 50 Light Lasers
 * 50 Rocket Launchers.

Examples: This has 2.25million attack from PC and 3million attack from RL for a total of 5.25 million damage.. It can hold off 254 Deathstars and it has 975,000 Shields and Cost 150million resources.
 * 750 Plasma cannons
 * 37,500 Rocket Launchers

For the same price you can also do: This setup has 2million damage from RL, 2.5million from LL, and 1.5million from PC for a total of 6 million damage. It can hold off 201 Deathstars and has 1,275,000 Shields.
 * 500 PC
 * 25,000 RL
 * 25,000 LL

Late Game Turtle
As a turtle in late-game, most likely you will get attacked with straight up Deathstars. If you have little to no fleet and not a huge amount of resources, top players may attack with Deathstars simply to get military points or honor points. Obviously, PT are the only real defense against Deathstars, but you can't have only PT, because you'll just get swarmed with LF, Cruisers, and Battleships. So, this is a defense heavy enough to ward off Deathstars but balanced enough to discourage balanced fleets.

RL are there as basic fodder, and are good fodder against Destroyers, which can be a massive part of late game fleets.

LL are more effective fodder than RL, but because of Rapid Fire from Destroyers, cannot be the only fodder. LL are there because, even in late game, there will still be some fleets with a heavy presence of Cruisers, and Cruisers will tear up RL fodder.

Heavy lasers can be considered heavy fodder. Heavy lasers only have Rapid Fire from Bombers and Deathstars, so they can be decently effective as heavy fodder. Plus, heavy lasers are good for clearing out the LF and even HF of attacking fleets.

Ion Cannons are there simply because of their high shields. They can absorb a good amount of damage. If the crystal cost is too high for you, scratch the ion cannons and just build a few more heavy lasers.

Gauss cannons can be considered a staple part of most defenses. They are strong against mid class ships, and can damage Deathstars. In addition, they only have Rapid Fire from Deathstars. Gauss Cannons are good for clearing out Cruisers, Battleships, and Bombers and will help against Destroyers.

Plasma Turrets are there to be your anti-Deathstar defense. This is pretty self explanatory, you must have PT to defend against Deathstars. Only they can really damage Deathstars, and they have no Rapid Fire from any ship (so 7 PT will ALWAYS draw with 1 Deathstar).

Finally, don't forget Shield Domes and ABMs to protect those precious Plasma Turrets.

Now down to the ratios (consider RL and LL together as fodder):

Build equal amounts of RL and LL (unless you choose differently because of an excess of metal) So, an example of this would be: The above defense would cost 10.6 million metal, 5.46 million crystal, and 1.5 million deuterium. It can only destroy 2 attacking Deathstars, but keep in mind it takes 37 PT to destroy 1 Deathstar on their own. On the plus side, it can draw with 13 Deathstars and has a decent chance to draw with 14.
 * Build 1 Heavy Laser for every 5 fodder
 * Build 1 Gauss Cannon for every 20 fodder
 * Build 1 Ion Cannon for every 20 fodder
 * Build 1 Plasma Turret for every 50 fodder
 * Both Shield Domes and Maximum ABMs
 * 1000 RL
 * 1000 LL
 * 400 HL
 * 100 GC
 * 100 IC
 * 40 PT
 * Both Shield Domes
 * 60 ABMs

Looking at other ships: it will destroy 300 Destroyers, and will draw with about 500. It will destroy 525 Battleships, and will draw with about 875–900. It will destroy 850 Cruisers, and will draw with about 1200.

Tip: Once Graviton is achieved, Deathstars can be used as a defensive ship. Use 1 Deathstar as a defense with the above defense. It will raise the cost to 15.6 million metal, 9.46 million crystal, and 2.5 million deuterium. It will now destroy 4 Deathtars and draw with about 14. However, the real value of that defensive Deathstar would come with smaller ships, as the Deathstar will ravage them with its rapid fire, and the defensive fodder will protect the Deathstar. Don't build more than a couple defensive Deathstars, as a top player may try to crash them with a huge fleet of Deathstars.

Equivalent Effective Cost Defence for Turtling
Assuming an exchange ratio of 2.5:1.5:1, the following are roughly equivalent in total cost: Effective cost is calculated by converting unit cost to metal. For instance, a rocket launcher takes 2,000 Metal to build and its effective cost is 2,000; whereas plasma turret takes 50,000 Metal, 50,000 Crystal and 30,000 Deuterium to build, and if we traded the crystal and deuterium for metal, we would get 158,350 Metal, adding the 50,000 Metal from the plasma turret's construction cost would yield 208,350, the effective cost of a plasma turret.
 * 1000 Rocket Launchers
 * 850 Light Lasers
 * 200 Heavy Lasers
 * 160 Ion Cannons
 * 40 Gauss Cannons
 * 10 Plasma Turrets

In the above list, each item has roughly the same totaling effective cost of 2,000,000 Metal. If every item in the list is built, the defence effectively costs 12,000,000 Metal. Applying the same logic to attacking units, about twelve million metal can be used to build one of the following: The defense can easily wipe out any of the above. If the above list is combined into a single fleet, its equivalent-cost is 100 million metal. For half of that price, one could build (using the above ratios) the defense consisting of 24,000 Rocket Launchers, 20,400 Light Lasers, 4800 Heavy Cannons, 3840 Ion Cannons, 960 Gauss Cannons and 240 Plasma Turrets. In such a battle, the attackers' loss would amount to 100 million equivalent-cost, whereas the defenders would only lose 13 millions, assuming the defence repair factor is zero. In practice the loss is much lower.
 * 2500 Light Fighters
 * 950 Heavy Fighters
 * 320 Cruisers
 * 170 Battleships
 * 90 Battlecruisers
 * 90 Bombers
 * 60 Destroyers
 * 1 Deathstar

To choose which type of defense to build; use a battle simulator and run these exact numbers to see how many iterations you have to do. Usually, for the half price (i.e. 6 choices from the first list) you will beat the equal cost enemy fleet (i.e. 1 choice from the bottom list).

TL;DR: You may guarantee being unprofitable from attacks by building equivalent-costing defences.