Turn 1 negative
No penalty
DEADLINK
Empire & Network Warfare Manual
Fig. 00 — Title Screen
Two commanders. One shared galaxy, generated fresh every match. DEADLINK is won not by owning the most planets, but by controlling the routes between them — read this manual before your first Hot Seat deployment.
Contents
Table of Contents
01
Chapter 01
Overview
DEADLINK is a turn-based space strategy game for two players, played Hot Seat on a single device. Players compete to expand their empire across a procedurally generated network of planets, connected by traversable routes.
Resource management, control of strategic routes, and military planning all decide the outcome. A match ends the instant one player conquers the opponent's Core Planet.
Active PlayerMain planet & screen border glow yellow
Waiting PlayerMain planet & screen border glow red
02
Chapter 02
Design Pillars
Three principles govern every decision on the graph.
Economic Management
Balance production, expansion, and military capacity across three limited resources. Overreach in one starves the others.
Network Control
Position within the graph matters as much as the number of planets held. Cutting a connection can be more effective than conquest.
War of Attrition
Battles always leave survivors, and standing armies demand upkeep. Victory depends on economy as much as on force.
03
Chapter 03
Resources
Three resources power the empire. Only one of them stacks.
Food
2/ planet consumed
Sustains every conquered colony. Does not accumulate — only the net balance at the start of each turn matters.
- A Food-specialized planet produces 6 Food/turn — enough to sustain itself plus 2 additional planets.
- Balance = Production − Consumption, recalculated every turn.
Materials
15/ turn per planet
The only resource that accumulates turn over turn. Spent on infrastructure, hangars, and troops.
- Hangar: 10 Materials, 1 turn to build.
- Each troop produced: 5 Materials.
Energy
5/ turn per planet
Determines maximum sustainable military capacity. Does not accumulate — net usage per turn, same as Food.
- 1 Energy = 1 Troop maintained at full effectiveness.
Food Deficit & Crisis
If Production falls short of Consumption, the empire runs a Food deficit that turn. Isolated single bad turns are forgiven — but a pattern is punished.
Turn 2 negative
No penalty
Turn 3 negative
Food Crisis
During a Food Crisis
Materials and Energy production are both reduced. The crisis only ends once a turn begins with a positive Food balance again.
Energy Deficit
If troop count exceeds available Energy, troops remain active but combat effectiveness suffers empire-wide.
Force penalty
−20%
Effective force per troop
0.8
04
Chapter 04
Colonization & Expansion
- Neutral planets are conquered instantly, at no cost — simply move troops onto them.
- A newly conquered planet joins the empire immediately, begins consuming Food right away, and produces nothing until infrastructure is built.
- Every match starts with the Core Planet plus 5 adjacent Neutral planets around it.
- The graph is procedurally generated with no fixed planet count or map size.
Accessible Planets
- At the start of each turn, the game calculates which Neutral planets are accessible — adjacent to a planet already under your control.
- This list is locked for the whole turn. Conquering a planet mid-turn does not unlock its neighbours until your next turn.
05
Chapter 05
Infrastructure
- Each planet may build one Economic Infrastructure: Food, Materials, or Energy.
- The choice is permanent — it cannot be changed once built.
- Construction takes 1 turn.
- A Hangar is separate from Economic Infrastructure — a single planet can host both at once.
Infrastructure is permanent
Infrastructure is never destroyed. It always serves whoever currently holds the planet — if you retake or reconnect a planet, its infrastructure switches on for you immediately. No rebuilding required.
Infrastructure Type Indicator
A colored diamond around a planet shows its active infrastructure at a glance:
Food
Materials
Energy
06
Chapter 06
Network & Isolation
Every planet must stay connected to the empire. Cutting that connection is a weapon in itself.
Marks the Core / Main planet
Troops awaiting deploy or retreat orders- All conquered planets must maintain a connection back to the empire, traced along the graph's edges.
- If a route is cut and a group of planets is isolated, those planets revert to Neutral — their production stops and their infrastructure becomes unusable (but not destroyed) until reconnected.
- The Core Planet can never become Neutral — Neutral status requires disconnection from the Core itself, and the Core cannot disconnect from itself. It carries no special defense bonus; it is a normal planet whose loss simply ends the game.
Isolated Troops
- Troops stranded on a disconnected planet cannot move, attack, or receive orders.
- They stop consuming Energy and no longer count toward the military cap.
- They lose 1 troop per turn, counting both players' turns — 5 isolated troops take 5 total turns (combined) to fully die off.
- No survivor floor Unlike combat losses, isolation decay has no minimum — isolated troops can be wiped out entirely.
- Reconnecting the planet immediately restores normal control: troops stop decaying and resume consuming Energy.
Under construction, still safe
If a planet is lost while its infrastructure is still being built, construction still completes for the new owner. If a planet is lost while a Hangar order is mid-production, those in-progress troops are lost.
07
Chapter 07
Hangars & Troop Production
- A Hangar can be built on any planet, independent of Economic Infrastructure.
- Each production order makes between 1 and 5 troops, ready the following turn.
- The player chooses where new troops appear: the Hangar's own planet, or any planet adjacent to it.
- If a Hangar's planet is captured in battle, the Hangar itself is destroyed — it must be rebuilt from scratch for the full 10 Materials.
08
Chapter 08
Movement
- Each troop gets one move per turn, to an adjacent planet along a graph edge — retreat, reinforce, or attack.
- Moving troops onto a Neutral planet conquers it automatically. Moving troops onto an enemy planet is what triggers an attack.
- Players choose freely how many troops to move — never obligatory to move an entire garrison.
- Exception Deployed troops may move again the same turn after deploying. Retreating troops may also move again the same turn after retreating.
Mandatory before ending a turn
Deploying newly produced troops and retreating troops that need it are the only compulsory actions each turn — the Finish Turn button stays disabled until both are resolved, in whatever order the player prefers.
Troops with nowhere to go are lost
If troops need to retreat but no adjacent friendly planet exists, they are simply lost. This can happen if a player wins an attack and then disconnects that same planet from their own network within the same turn.
09
Chapter 09
Combat
An attack is nothing more than moving troops onto an enemy-held planet.
- The attacker chooses an origin planet, a target planet, and how many troops take part.
- The defender automatically commits every troop present on the planet.
- Every planet has a baseline natural defense of 2 troops, even when completely empty.
- A player may launch as many attacks in a turn as their troop count and positioning allow — there is no limit on attacks per turn.
Before You Commit
A win percentage is shown before the attack is confirmed, based on the relative force of both sides — including any Energy-deficit penalty in effect. No further math is exposed.
Resolving the Battle
- Both sides lose troops in every battle, regardless of outcome — the loser always loses more.
- Guaranteed survivor At least one troop always survives on each side. A battle can never wipe out an entire army.
After the Battle
If the attacker wins
- The planet changes ownership; attacking troops occupy it.
- Those troops enter a 1-turn cooldown — unable to move, but still able to defend, receive reinforcements, and count as garrison.
- Any infrastructure on the planet is untouched and now serves the new owner. A Hangar, if present, is destroyed.
If the defender wins
- The attack is repelled — no army changes position.
- Casualties still apply on both sides.
- Surviving defenders may retreat next turn if an adjacent friendly planet exists. Retreat is optional.
10
Chapter 10
Victory Condition
The match ends the instant one player's forces conquer the opponent's Core Planet. Everything else — economy, territory, army size — only matters as far as it gets you there.
11
Chapter 11
Quick Reference
Every hard number in the manual, in one table.
| Value | Amount |
|---|---|
| Food consumed per planet | 2 / turn |
| Food planet production | 6 / turn |
| Materials planet production | 15 / turn (accumulates) |
| Energy planet production | 5 / turn |
| Energy-to-troop ratio | 1 : 1 |
| Energy deficit force penalty | −20% (0.8 force/troop) |
| Hangar build cost / time | 10 Materials / 1 turn |
| Cost per troop produced | 5 Materials |
| Troops per production order | 1–5 |
| Planetary baseline defense | 2 troops |
| Turns before Food Crisis | 3 consecutive deficits |
| Isolated troop decay | 1 troop / turn (either player's turn) |
| Post-conquest cooldown | 1 turn |
| Starting Neutral planets around Core | 5 |