Manual:Core Strength

Your empire's Core Strength is a Strength Profile representing what it would be able to do in a universe that was otherwise devoid of life. Most investments directly affect Core Strength. Core Strength then indirectly affects your Empire Relationships and, consequently, your Total Strength.

Investments
Nearly all investments directly affect your core strength and they do so with a cumulative effect in proportion to their own incremental effect. So, if you have an investment category that adds +0.01 gc/s wealth and you add a unit, your core strength should go up by 0.01 gc/s.

Some investments have both positive and negative effects on your core strength. Military is an excellent example. Just like in real life, military infrastructure is a wealth-destroying thing but, also like in real life, military allows you to do stuff like (sadly) take what belongs to others and (happily) protect trade from piracy.

These are trade-offs you have to make in order to optimize your quest for Truth.

Collapse
Remember, First Empire is not merely an idle game. It is a blend of both your classic 4X Game and an idle game. So your decisions actually matter in more than the sense that you might have to wait a little longer if you make one choice rather than another. You can collapse the state of your game by purchasing the wrong thing at the wrong time.

This typically happens when, in the course of pursuing one goal (like getting enough Science to do something soon), you lower your wealth to the point where it can no longer sustain something you've already accomplished (like establishing a trade Connection with a major system).

Avoiding this kind of collapse, or choosing to allow it for the sake of some other gain, is your choice. Although it is probably worth discussing those choices in the Strategy section of this wiki.

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