The Voyage: From Raft to Power
One flotilla's whole arc, from a raft with a hundred souls to a standing power — what to do at each stage, what it costs, what it unlocks, and the mistake that sinks the commanders who rush it.
Every flotilla follows roughly the same arc, whatever order you tackle things in. This page walks it stage by stage — what to actually do, what it costs, what it unlocks, and the mistake that sinks the commanders who skip a step. Each stage links out to its own deep page for the exact numbers.
Founding
What to do. Build Drift Nets and Rain Catchers immediately — they're free to run forever
and buy you food/water headroom with zero upkeep risk. Flip Settings → autoPayBills
on, or commit to paying by hand every single visit. Let Safe Harbor and Founding Arrivals do their
work: for your first 15 tides, no world-event crisis can begin and no outbreak can start, and roughly
200 drifters find their way aboard across several waves through day 14. Leave technology and a
standing army alone.
What it costs. You start with 100 citizens and $1,000,000 cash, plus a flat $100,000/tide starting-aid subsidy for your first 30 days. That's the whole runway — spend it on provisioning and a little housing, not military or tech.
What unlocks. A ledger that can't silently collapse on you, and a population base big enough to actually use the buildings you'll unlock next.
Grow & House
What to do. Buy platform ahead of infrastructure — your infra ceiling is
max(400, platform × 2), so infra past that point is wasted until you've bought more
deck. Once a module slot opens (one per 1,000 souls aboard), reach for the housing-multiplier
buildings the moment population and cash allow — Habitat Decks, then Arcology, then Leviathan
Dock — ahead of another cheap production shed.
What it costs. Habitat Decks: $700,000 at 16,000 souls (+8% population capacity, plus real food and water). Arcology: $2,200,000 at 42,000 souls, needs Habitat Decks (+12% capacity). Leviathan Dock: $6,000,000 at 140,000 souls, needs Command Spire (+15% capacity). Full mechanics in Population.
What unlocks. Your actual population ceiling — the multiplier is worth more the earlier it lands, because it compounds over every remaining tide you play. In our 20-commander playthrough (playing under a disciplined solvency-first doctrine — see Economy), the median flotilla stood at about 1,740 souls a hundred days after founding (the range ran 1,210–2,590). Every seat crossed the Habitat Decks gate (16,000 souls) within its first two years (median day 492) — the housing multiplier is something a disciplined economy reaches on schedule, not a lucky break reserved for the largest flotillas late in the game.
Run the Economy
What to do. Hold your levy near the comfort line rather than maxing it out. Collect and pay every time you check in (or trust auto-pay). Bank real surplus into Banks for a little treasury interest. Only borrow against a genuine short-term gap between two known payoffs, never to service an earlier loan.
What it costs. Nothing extra — this stage is discipline, not spend.
What unlocks. Headroom to actually afford tech and a standing army without tripping bill-lock. Full mechanics in Economy.
Climb the Tech Ladder
What to do. Buy technology toward the unit gates you actually need, not as a stat to chase. It's a mid-game lever — it doesn't grow your population capacity at all.
What it costs. A steadily escalating purchase price, plus a real daily upkeep bill that's cheap early and brutal late (the first 50 points are free; past 3,000 it's $1,400 per point, per tide). Full brackets and the unit-gate table in Technology.
What unlocks. Every advanced unit type, plus faster production from every building you've already built. In our 20-commander playthrough, the median flotilla held about 36 technology a hundred days in — past the landing craft gate, with assault craft (50) and patrol boats (75) next. Where a commander lands after four years depends entirely on why they're buying: the peaceful traders stopped at 50–75 by choice, while the most aggressive commanders climbed past 200, and one reached 600 — the nuclear-torpedo gate — after roughly three years of sustained income.
Arm When You Can Afford It
What to do. Buy landing craft alongside Marines, never after — without lift, you can't run a ground assault. Train your fleet tides ahead of when you'll need it; nothing you buy fights until its training timer finishes. Keep total military upkeep comfortably under the happiness knee that starts biting a standing army.
What it costs. See the full unit table — costs, crews, upkeep, and training time — in Military.
What unlocks. A legal presence in your war band, real defense against the ocean's own pirate-fleet events, and enough of a standing force to actually outfit an expedition against the Radar's daily wreck contact (see Military · Salvage Expeditions). In our 20-commander playthrough, most flotillas kept a first militia of about 48 marines within their first month. A standing garrison of 200+ Marines was a real but selective milestone — about 30% of the ocean built one, arriving around day 415 on median — and it wasn't the aggressive raiders who kept the biggest one: the wealthiest peaceful traders could afford a standing garrison their upkeep-conscious warlord neighbors skipped in favor of drones and standoff strikes instead.
War
What to do. Check your war band before every declaration — you can only legally fight a target within a set strength ratio of your own flotilla. Confirm your lift capacity actually covers the posture you intend to run, and mind the 12-hour cooldown on each attack type.
What it costs. Casualties, fatigue that worsens by the day, and war exhaustion — a capped morale drag that only eases in peace. Full rules in War.
What unlocks. Prisoners, spoils, and standing among the ocean's commanders. In our 20-commander playthrough, played under a growth-before-war doctrine, the first wars didn't break out until around day 300 — every commander built a sustaining economy first. The ocean's single heaviest warlord ended up minting nearly four-fifths of every dollar of spoils looted, ocean-wide, but raiding wasn't the only road to the top: the single largest flotilla at the end belonged to a moderate commander who fought well under half as many wars and never won a cash spoil at all.
Wonders
What to do. Queue your next wonder the moment the cooldown clears and the price won't breach your bill floor. Sequence flat-yield wonders (food, water) before percentage-income ones — the multiplier compounds longer the earlier it lands.
What it costs. Base prices from $25,000,000 to $800,000,000+, seven tides to build before any effect starts, a 60-tide cooldown from completion before the next one, and $250,000/tide upkeep for as long as you own it. Full catalog and ROI ordering in Wonders.
What unlocks. The permanent catalog — 14 unique effects, no duplicates, forever. A note on the price of entry: in our 20-commander playthrough, played under a growth-first doctrine, the first wonder laid its keel around day 842 — a little over two years into a disciplined economy — and four flotillas had one graduated by the end of the run. The $25M cheapest ticket is real money, but a steadily growing economy reaches it well inside a few years; a commander who spends it down on military or overhead before their income catches up simply never will. Treat your first wonder as a long-game trophy earned by patience, not a mid-game step.
The Long Game
What to do. Keep all four resource-route partners filled and all four exchange slots turning over. Size your standing fleet to what your levy can actually sustain, and downsize the moment you're running red rather than waiting for bill-lock to force the issue. Watch your Current and the weekly Tide Council — both move the whole ocean's dials a little, for everyone, at once.
What it costs. Nothing new — this stage is stewardship, not spending.
What unlocks. Standing, commendations, and a Chronicle worth reading back. For scale: in our 20-commander playthrough the median flotilla reached about 8,300 souls by the end of its first year (the spread ran roughly 3,900 to 17,000). Left to run four years, every one of the twenty flotillas stayed alive and net-positive, and the strength gap between the smallest and largest never grew past about 6× before settling closer to 5× — a real ceiling, not a runaway. A flotilla that never gets built into insolvency has real staying power.