Space Stage

Once the player conquers or merges with all opposing cities and completes the Civilization Stage, they enter the Space Stage. Unlike all of the other stages, the Space Stage never ends, even if you have gotten past the Grox and have spoken to Steve.

First Contact
When first contact has been made with an empire that hasn't been uplifted by the player, these options appear:
 * I am from the (player species), I come in peace.: This option adds a permanent +10 relationship to the empire contacted.
 * Behold the mighty (player species) empire! I am from Planet (player home planet).: Also gives a +10 relationship to the empire.
 * Call off your fighter before I blast it into pieces!: Gives off a -10 relationship to the empire.

Main Communication
When visiting an empire that was already contacted, these options appear: Selecting these options will close out of the contact menu.
 * Greetings, nice to see you.
 * Starship (spaceship name) requesting permission to orbit.
 * Salutations! There is something I like to discuss...
 * Greetings (empire) empire. A pleasure to see you.
 * Thank you for receiving me.
 * Nevermind, I have to go.
 * Oops! Sorry, wrong alien.
 * Oops! Wrong number.
 * I forgot what I was going to say.
 * I think we're done here. Bye.

Communication at War
There are two categories when the contacting empire is at war with the player:
 * Wait! Perhaps some money could end this war.
 * I'll see you on the galactic battlefield! or Bigfatstupidaliensayswhat?
 *  Here are we at war?

Planets
During the player's exploration of space, the player comes across many planets. There are three main categories for planets, and three subcategories listed here.

Rare Galactic Formations
In the Galaxy, there are many rare galactic objects. The player can earn extra points for finding one. Each of the two letters in the binary systems represents a different type of star, i.e. Main Sequence stars, red dwarfs, blue giants. The galactic objects or rares are randomly placed in the Galaxy. Also, see the Galactic topography. There is stellar evolution to some degree such as protostars forming normal stars, blue giants and super giants going supernova, etc.



Rare Galactic Formations

 * Black Hole/Wormhole - A portal to another part of the Galaxy

These next formations have a pattern; The figure O represents a blue giant, the figure M represents a red dwarf, and the figure G represents a yellow star. There are only 6 possible combinations due to this and each one has a unique color combination compared to the other formations
 * BinaryOO - A type of Binary star system with two blue giants.
 * BinaryOM - A binary star system with a blue giant and red dwarf.
 * BinaryMM - A binary star system with two red dwarf.
 * BinaryOG - A binary star system with a blue giant in orbit with a main sequence yellow star.
 * BinaryGG - A binary star system with two main sequence stars.
 * BinaryGM - A binary star system with a yellow star and a red dwarf in orbit.
 * The Galactic Core - A super-massive black hole found at the center of the galaxy.
 * Proto-Planetary Disk - A forming star

Normal Galactic Formations
There are many more astronomical phenomena, but these only serve as eye candy such as pulsars, supernovae and nebulae. There are also several kinds of stars.
 * Nebulae - A decoration, cannot be visited.
 * Supernovae - Also a decoration, cannot be visited.
 * Nearby Galaxies - Other galaxies in the background that cannot be visited.
 * Stars - Luminous balls of plasma.
 * Planets - Objects mostly made of rock or gas orbiting a star.
 * Bright flashes - Often bright flashes can be seen, these are most common when a player first starts Space Stage, and they usually mean that an alien life form has just launched a spacecraft.

My Collections
When the player is exploring the galaxy in the Stellar View, the player may see that some planets have yellow waves that look like radio waves emitting from them. If the player zooms into the Planet View, the player sees his or her radar pointing towards something on the planet. Sometimes the player has to fly around a little before the radar picks up any items. It can be a Rare or Planet/Water/Atmosphere Painting/Sculpting Tool, although sometimes it is a trap formed by a Pirate fleet. The player can sell rare items for Sporebucks. Planet Painting or Planet Sculpting Tools helps the player to beautify a planet. See Rares or Artifacts for further info.

Badges
A badge is a certificate of appreciation. The player can earn badges by creating alliances to starting wars, buying star systems to doing missions, etc. 1-20 Badge Points are earned for completing a badge. There are five levels on each badge (except Captain's, Joker, Dance With the Devil, and Badge Outta Heck Badges, since they can only be done once per game). Each level gets harder each time the player complete the predecessor, but will give more Badge Points. Most badges cap at the fifth level. I.E. One alliance will give the player one star, making Twenty would give him or her the fifth star. See Badges page for further info.

Galactic Promotions
By accumulating badges and earning Badge Points, the player will receive the Promotions called Master Badges below. They are tracked through the progress bar in Space Stage. As the player earns greater promotions, his or her Command Control and neighboring Empires will call him or her according to those titles. But the player's homeworld always refer to the player as Captain *species name*, even if he or she has reached the rank of Omnipotent.


 * Cadet- The first mission tutorials.
 * Captain - Granted when the player accomplishes the spaceflight tutorial and receives the Captain's Badge.
 * Commander - Granted when the player reaches 5 total badge points.
 * Commodore - 15 total badge points.
 * Admiral - 30 total badge points.
 * The Celebrated - 50 total badge points.
 * The Renowned - 75 total badge points.
 * The Great - 105 total badge points.
 * The Legendary - 140 total badge points.
 * All-Powerful - 180 total badge points.
 * Ultimate Being - 225 total badge points.
 * Omnipotent - 275 total badge points.

Alien Species
There are many Alien Empires in Spore. The player can either start a war and destroy them, or create an alliance and have them help the player. There are many ways to do this, through a type of scoring called relation bonuses.

If the player sticks around long enough around several parsecs of space, at least two or three empires may appear.

Known Powers in Space Stage

 * The player can terraform and colonize uninhabitable planets with special tools that are purchased with Sporebucks (comet tool, volcano tool, etc.) The ultimate power in that area is a technology that is called the Staff of Life, which has the ability to transform a dead world into a planet capable of sustaining life in a matter of minutes. However, can only be used 42 times. Players can colonize hostile worlds, but cannot build structures until the planet is at least semi-habitable. If you go to a Grox planet and use the staff of life the Grox colonies will be completely wiped out because the Grox can only live on T-0 planets
 * The player can try to conquer the galaxy by different means: beginning an interstellar war, diplomatically creating an interstellar union, buying every single star system, etc.
 * The player can run the mouse over other star systems and their individual planets to try to pick up radio static or noise that can indicate intelligent life.
 * The player can abduct creatures and transport them to other planets. Players can do this to test a planet's inhabitants to see if they are friendly or not, or to merely test a planet's habitability.
 * The player can place a "monolith" (à la 2001: A Space Odyssey) on a planet, triggering evolution of intelligent life, then come back later to see what has evolved.
 * The player can use a black hole for "wormhole-travel" which allows the player to travel distances the UFO would require hours to cover in seconds.
 * The player can use a Planet Buster to destroy a planet. However, this violates Galactic Code and results in any other race that isn't the player's most attached ally or the Grox to declare war on the player.
 * The player can scan content and add the information to a database designed like a card game called the Sporepedia.

Spice
Spice in the Space Stage is essential to a burgeoning space empire's economy. It can be traded between other empires for large amounts of Sporebucks. Different planets have different spices, and different spices sell for different exchange rates, depending on which empire they're sold to. The player will almost always start on a planet that produces Red Spice. Hence, Red Spice is the least valuable of all spices. The most valuable of all spice is purple spice.

-Trade Routes:

You can establish trade routes with other empires, which give you spice from their empire. The trade route will run from their star system to the star system nearest to them that is controlled by you. When you go to your star system that is in the trade route, you will receive the spice your colony has mined and the spice you have received from the trade route. The spice from the trade route is coming directly from the other empire's system; thus, it will be the color of the spice they mine on their planet. This spice can be exceedingly or increasingly expensive in your systems.

-Spice Value and Rarity:

There is a certain hierarchy of the value and rarity of spices throughout the galaxy. Tier 1: Red. Red Spice is the most common spice in the galaxy, as well as the cheapest. Tier 2: Blue and Yellow. These spices are more expensive and rare than red spice. Tier 3: Pink, Purple, and Green. These three are the most rare and the most expensive of all spices. This means that is prudent to establish colonies on Purple, Pink, and Green planets. You can then sell the spice elsewhere for as much as 60,000 Sporebucks per unit.

-Where to Sell Spice:

Different colors of spice are more valuable on the planets that do not produce that same color. For example, it is more prudent to sell Pink spice to a planet that makes Red spice than a planet that makes Pink spice. Lastly, the prices of spice on different planets changes, so do not always sell Purple spice on a certain planet. Look for the best deal. Also, occasionally, a planet may buy Red spice for as much as 15,000 Sporebucks. This is why it is a good idea to keep Red spice handy to sell in bulk for a good price.

-Spice Running:

You can buy individual units of spice in the Trade section from an empire. It is sometimes good to buy this spice, if it has value based on the prestated system. If you do this, and sell it to another colony, this can be referred to as Spice-Running. If you do this, there is a motto to live by: Buy it cheap and sell it expensive.

Philosophy
Philosophy in Spore is the attribute given to the player's species in the Space Stage. There are 10 kinds of philosophy in Spore, each giving a specific weapon or ability only available when following that philosophy. archetypes are determined based on the number of each "color" (green/social, blue/balanced, red/aggressive) the creature went through evolving. Some Philosophies (Knight, Bard, Ecologist) can only be gained if the creature started at the Cell stage.

If the creature starts from the Civilization stage or complete each stage with a different color then it starts the Space Stage as either Shaman, Warrior or Trader depending on how this stage is completed ( green ,  red  or  blue  respectively).

Starship Tools

 * Most tools are enabled through gaining Badges and bought from the creature's own Empire or other neighbouring Empires.
 * Some of those tools are bought once. They spend the starship's energy bar when the player uses them. Others work as a one-shot tool and can be bought as many times if the player wants to use them.
 * Planet Sculpting Tools past Terra Lava Flow and all Planet Coloring Tools are gained by finding them on planets randomly. Radar signs from planets in the star system view may alert the player that they contain any of those tools.

Single-Player

 * Like other content in Spore, a player who chooses to opt-out of downloading material from the Internet (or has no Internet connection) will have worlds populated with both sapient and non-sapient creatures straight from the disc provided to them, much like those provided to populate the ecosystem of the player's home planet.

Multiplayer

 * Spore has been called a Massively Single Player game as, unlike traditional massively multi-player games Spore is very much a single player game - it can be played with no network connection at all. The massive "multiplayer" nature of Spore comes from its concept of Pollinated content. All creations - creatures, buildings and vehicles - are automatically shared with the online Sporepedia. When Spore needs to pollinate a game with content, e.g. to populate a planet with new creatures or even tribes or civilizations, it will use its settings to download content: Preference is given to subscribed Sporecasts, content created by buddies and so on.

Easy

 * Spaceship base health is 1500
 * Decreased attack frequency when at war.

Normal

 * Spaceship base health is 1000

Hard

 * Spaceship base health is 300
 * Increased pirate attack frequency.
 * Increased attack frequency when at war.
 * Warrior and Zealot nations demand more unreasonable quantities of money in exchange for peace.
 * Ecologic disaster rate increases
 * All-out war (No talking, only war!?)

General
.The following section will list strategies for this stage in general.
 * Before advancing to Space Stage, the player should make sure all the cities have an optimal building layout with all Turrets. This way, the player does not have to spend money later on building them. The player always starts with 100,000 Sporebucks in the Space Stage. It may be worth building just Houses since these are the most expensive. They can be replaced with Factories or Entertainment houses, giving the Space Stage player money gathered in the Civilization Stage.
 * If the player is planning to start a new game directly in space, the player should consider using a creature he or she has already played as at any stage. Any creature in the My Creations section that has its consequence traits visible in the creature preview will retain these consequence traits if the player starts a new game with them.
 * During the first space mission that sends the player to a neighboring star system, the ship's energy will not drain. The player should use this to his or her advantage to click between this system and your home system very quickly to get the Frequent Flyer badges without having to reload on a planet. The player does not have to fly all the way to one star system before clicking on the one he or she was just on.
 * When going to war or allying with other Empires, the player should consider the Empire's star rank, which is seen by mousing over one of their star systems. A 1 or 2-star Empire may be very easy to conquer, with low health ships and few systems, while a 5-star Empire may be harder to conquer, but can lend the player powerful allying ships.
 * The player also seems to get more valuable salvage from the larger empires.
 * Ally ships of small Empires may die too quickly and may be barely worth recruiting into the fleet. Ships should be from 4 or 5-star Empires.
 * When one of your allied ships is destroyed your ally gets mad, so if you are fighting the Grox or a level 4 or 5 empire it is recommended for you to kick them out of your fleet if you want good relations with that ally.
 * If there is room, the player can edge backwards with the down arrow key whilst firing missiles at enemy UFOs to stay out of their range. Alternately, circling by holding both up and left/right key also causes most of their missiles to miss.
 * When approaching colonies that possess Turrets, the player should stay low to increase the range of his or her weapons and edge closer to take out one Turret at a time. The Laser works best for this.
 * The Pulse weapon can also work very effectively on Turrets but may have a shorter range. Therefore using it with a Shield is ideal.
 * The Shield is active for only a brief moment. Rather than shooting another Pulse to finish off a little bit of a Turret's health, it may be worth quickly switching to the Laser.
 * If capturing/destroying the colonies ASAP is a goal, the player does not need to bother about the Turrets. The player may bomb the colony directly. The player should keep circling above the colony. During the process, circling can make most of the enemy ships' missiles miss the player's spaceship.
 * In fast paced combat, pausing can be an invaluable tool for locating targets or switching weapons.
 * Pausing is also an invaluable tool for getting through Grox systems on the way to the Galactic Core.
 * When attacking an enemy homeworld, the player can terraform the enemy's planet to reduce the number of cities the player has to fight. The player should fire a few terraforming tools while avoiding enemy spaceships. Eventually, the planet's T-Score can drop to Zero. When this happens, only one city will remain.
 * Note that this will mean the player may not be able to capture that planet though. This tactic should be used sparingly or in desperate times.
 * There is a different tactic, the player can terraform a homeworld to T-2. When the player leaves and re-enters the planet, there are only two cities left.
 * Destroying a building or two in a city makes the city be captured/destroyed quicker, at the cost of having one less building there if the player manages to capture it. Generally only for new goes, as the advanced weapons are powerful enough to take the place in two seconds flat.
 * If the player finds a planet in the space or civilization stage, it is easy to obtain free spice by abducting their spice boxes. The spices boxes are small cubes located in each city on the planet. A civilization is the best type of planet for getting free spice without a backlash (Attack from the Empire your Stealing From)
 * The player should take out weak star systems on the outskirts of enemy territory to establish a base to re-spawn from and get back to the battlefield more swiftly.
 * Empires that have only one planet are good targets, as their ships are very weak and there is no threat of getting counterattacked for going to war with them.
 * The player should form a trade route with ally's homeworlds first. The player can get a T3 colony planet immediately.
 * The player should avoid breaking the Galactic Code in densely populated areas of the Galaxy or particularly areas within 10pc from the player's homeworld.
 * The player can capture a city with one antimatter bomb by firing it to one side of the city hall. This may be tricky, however, and it often results the city's destruction.
 * The Asteroid Call Button, if directed at a city, does physical damage (somewhere just greater than a Mega Bomb) as well as meddling with the T-score.
 * When the player terraforms a planet by placing plant and animal species they only have to land on the surface of the planet to become part of the ecosystem. Since the player can immediately re-abduct them, he or she can make a handful of each species last indefinitely. Be warned placing having a herbivore near, next to or on top of an omnivore/carnivore will likely lead to the preditor killing the prey. Dropping all herbivores, re-abducting them and then dropping the rest is advised.
 * When looking for creatures to abduct, the player should remember they tend to live in forest and shorelines. However this doesn't apply if the player places them there.
 * Another thing about creatures is if the player wants to destroy another empire's cities, but not start a war, the player can beam a creature just outside the city walls (if a creature is placed inside, it could be killed) and then use a supersizer to make the creature an epic. The epic will mercilessly destroy everything in the city. The player should go to another city and make another epic while the spaceship forces are busy in the other city so the player can maximize destruction, and the epic will not attack the player.
 * One more thing about creatures is that if you have to eradicate them, you can abduct them to sanatize them then use them while terraforming.
 * If you have an "unexpected" encounter with a Grox colony when you get near the center of the Galaxy, it is strongly recommended that you keep on their good terms, if you wish to ally the Grox, see the Grox page on this Wiki.
 * When trying to buy off star systems, you can use this basic breakdown: Homeworlds with more than 3 cities will go for 10 million, T3(3 cities) for 5 million, T2 for 3 million, T1 for 1 million, and T0 for .5 million.
 * It should be noted that all the planets in a star system affect its price. So if a T1 planet is colonized but there is a T2 planet in the same system, the system will go for 3 million. Because of this, it is a good idea to de-terraform any planets in a star system you want to buy that have a higher T-score than the colonized one to get the best deal.

Easter Eggs
In Spore, there are plenty of easter eggs in the Galaxy and rare objects such as the Sol system, crop circles, storybook planets, and natural landmarks. Hidden items can also be found with a purpose later in the game.


 * Sol system, Earth. Gives the player the Manifest Destiny achievement for finding Earth, and Oh the Humanity! for destroying Earth.
 * Hidden achievements and badges.
 * Easter eggs. There are a lot of easter eggs in Spore, including things like Will Wright's head appearing in speech bubbles when creatures are talking to each other and so on.
 * Rock sculptures. Some can be very strange, such as rock stacks, or llama moai.