There are two ways that you can expand your empire; settling a planet or conquering another player’s planet. While you will be able to settle a planet first, there are great advantages to conquering planets from other players. When you conquer an existing planet you inherit all of the buildings and resources that planet currently holds. To successfully take a planet, follow these steps:

1. Develop the required technology and buildings to build a diplomat unit. You must have a City Center level 10 and the technology Intergalactic Politics.
2. Once you have the capabilities to build diplomats you must now decide what planet to take.
   1. You cannot capture a planet that is the capital of another player’s nation. Thus you will only be able to take planets from players with more than one planet.
   2. Keep in mind the distance between your capital and the new planet. Do want a far away outpost? Or a close stronghold. Different strategies will work for different situations.
   3. Who are you attacking? Will they retaliate?

Once you have chosen the planet to capture, there are three steps you must complete before you can successfully bring a planet under your command in a "Stable" condition: You need to send an enemy planet into "Disarray" -> Capture the planet while it is in "Anarchy" -> defend the planet while it is in "Rebellion". Each of these steps is a 24 hour period. We will explain in more detail below.

1. Sending a Planet into "Disarray":
   1. Construct at least 1 diplomat unit . Prior to sending diplomats you may want to ensure no troops are defending the planet. Diplomats are not built for battle.
   2. You can send as few as 1 diplomat in your attempt to cause "Disarray" but your chances of success improve as you add more diplomats to your siege party. There is no limit to the number of diplomats you can send in this initial attack.
   3. No matter how many diplomats you send none will return. If you are unsuccessful your diplomats will be captured and executed. If you are successful your diplomats will assimilate into the society and assist in maintaining control of the population
   4. If you are successful, your target planet will be sent into "Disarray". The targeted planet will produce resources at 50% of their normal rate and will remain in "Disarray" for 24 hours. While a planet is in "Disarray" you can continue to attack the planet but you cannot take it over, so do not waste more diplomats.
   5. After 24 hours the targeted planet will shift from "Disarray" to "Anarchy".
2. Anarchy: Once a planet has moved from "Anarchy" to "Disarray", it is now vulnerable to being taken over by any player.
   1. A planet will remain in "Anarchy" for 24 hours. This is your window of opportunity. You must strike during this period to conquer a planet.
   2. Build diplomats and send them on a Siege against your target planet, again, the more you send the better the chance you have of successfully capturing the planet.
   3. For instructions of how to send an attack click here.
   4. It is wise to attack the planet with at least one waive of troops before you send your diplomat units. If you send only diplomats and the defending planet has troops stationed there, you will be forced into battle and will likely lose all of your diplomats. It is not wise to send diplomats against a guarded planet.
   5. You must send your diplomats on a “Siege” a standard “Attack” will not work.
   6. If you are successful in your attack you will immediately be notified that the planet has been captured and it is now in "Rebellion" and under your control.
3. Rebellion: "Rebellion" is the final stage of conquering a planet.
   1. Once a planet is under your control it remains in "Rebellion" for 24 hours. During this period any player can swoop in and capture it from you, so defend it well.
   2. If you successfully hold a planet that is in "Rebellion" for 24 hours it will move back to "Stable" state.

Take planets over with caution as there will certainly be retaliation from whoever you attack. It is important to note that taking a planet has the same pride repercussions as settling a planet.