A small spaceport serving as the home base of a pirate faction

Pirates board and capture an enemy mining station

Rival pirate factions battle to achieve dominance at outlying colonies

Pirates extort 'protection' money from a defenseless pre-warp empire

Pirates raid a colony, looting and pillaging money, resources and tech

Pirates accept smuggling missions, shipping resources to colonies

Pirates bid on Attack or Defend missions offered by other empires

An empire requests resources be supplied to a colony via a smuggling mission

Animated ground invasions can be viewed in the new Ground Report screen

New troop types can be researched and upgraded

The Troops screen has new tools to help manage your troops

Fleets can use troop loadouts to direct which troops should be loaded

New gravity weapon tech includes Tractor Beams and Area Singularity weapons

The Area Singularity weapon creates a temporary black hole that sucks ships into its vortex

An upgraded graphics engine in Shadows ensures smooth action on-screen

Characters of various types provide special bonuses to your empire

Each character has a detailed event history

Dozens of different race-specific victory conditions offer limitless gameplay styles

Your colonies project influence that forms your empire's territory

Your empire territory allows you to control nearby systems without colonizing them

New weapon tech includes Rail Guns, Assault Missiles and Phaser Cannons

Galactic Wonders can be researched and built at your colonies

Wonders provide unique bonuses to your colonies

Advisor suggestions can be approved at any time from the queue at screen-right

A battle rages around a colony

The planet destroyer strikes!

The colony is lost!

Area shield recharge helps defenders win the battle

Fighters launch for an attack on a space port

Three huge tech trees to research

Empire Navigation Tool helps find new colony and mining locations

Set detailed policy for your advisors to carry out

Build many new ships in one simple step

Queue up construction at your space ports directly from the main screen

Fighters and ships battle it out

Your Empire Summary screen provides an overview of your empire

Ships cluster around a space port

Space port with nearby mining activity

A fleet refuels at a colony

Patrolling an asteroid field mining outpost

Mining at a Gas Giant planet and a Desert moon

Patrolling a Volcanic planet

Gas mining at a Gas Giant planet

Ships dock at a space port

A colony with its space port

Zoomed out to view an entire star system

Zoomed out to view your sector of the galaxy

Zoomed out to view the entire galaxy

Built-in help from the 'Galactopedia'

Find anything using the Galaxy Map

Design your own custom ships and bases from your researched tech