War

War is an essential part of evolution, and so is in Spore.

Pre-Space Stage
Until the Tribal stage you have to rely on your creatures natural abilities. In both the Cell stage and Creature stage your creature can attack other creatures to gain DNA points. It is possible for your creatures to attack, unarmed, other creatures. However, they must have been evolved with some form of weapon, such as sharp teeth. In creature stage, you are able to recruit help from your own or other species.

Tribal stage
Weapons available during the Tribal stage are: the Throwing spear, which is the only ranged weapon (though it can also be used in hand-to-hand combat), and has moderate effectiveness; the Stone axe, which is very good against other creatures, but slightly worse when used against buildings; and the Flaming torch, which is best used against buildings.

In the 2005 GDC Presentation, Will Wright mentioned that in the Tribal stage, players would send individuals from their tribe to conduct raids against other tribes, as opposed to the Cell stage, where you are on your own, and the Creature stage, where you are once again on your own, however you are able to request assistance from other creatures of your species.

In the Tribal stage, your creatures are able to gain access to all the tools we would commonly associate with a caveman-like environment, including spears. With these weapons firmly grasped in your creatures ‘hands’(or mouths should you choose not to have hands) a your creatures will be able to more effectively defend themselves and the rest of the tribe from attack, or the reverse.



Civilization stage
In the Civilization stage, Will mentioned that war between civilizations would be conducted through Vehicles. Although it is possible to ‘conquer’ your home planet without resorting to violence, there is no guarantee that the other creatures on your planet feel the same way.

In the Civilization stage you may construct different types of vehicles, including (and again, not necessarily limited to) tank-like, hovering, floating, and flying vehicles. They can be modified or upgraded, limited by the parts available and budget. There are overall limitation on mobility, stamina and firepower. Vehicles are the only way of waging planetary war with other cities (other than insults). They are not the only means of defending your own city. Many have been seen in the various demonstrations, including land, sea and air. They are a lot like your creature in that as the game progresses you can make changes (or upgrades) to them.

In early build of the game, cities have what appears to be a wide range of defensive (and possibly offensive) weaponry to choose from. Amongst these we have seen many forms (i.e., colors) of lasers being shot from what can only be assumed to be defensive structures. It might also be possible that creatures were firing as well. The image in the Wired 14.04 Spore article shows what appears to be building defenses in [[Media:Wired cycle full.jpg|the 4th "slice"]].

Like everything else in Spore, the game modifies things depending on the way you play. For those who create mindless killing machine creatures in the Cell stage and Creature stage you will have a violent planet on which you must survive. If, on the other hand, you create a creature that seems more diplomatically inclined you may pass through stages with relatively no hostile conflict.

One of the main goals of the Civilization stage has been said to be unifying the planet you are on, by whatever means you choose.

Having your creature/tribe/civilization wiped out will not completely end your game, you will simply go back to the previous save.

Missiles
Missiles are used in the Civilization stage as Superweapons for Military nations like the Gadget Bomb, and are also used by UFOs in two different weapons - Anti-Matter Missile and Proton Missile.

Lasers
Lasers are used in both the Civilization and Space stages. Military air vehicles will use them against opponents, and more controllable ones can be used by Spaceships. The laser is the first weapon a spaceship obtains, and has 2 additional upgrades.

Robotics/Cybernetics
There are a few robotic parts in the Space outfitter and the Grox are cyborgs. However, most of those are just overlay parts and not true cybernetic creature parts. Some players hope if another parts pack comes out it will include Civ and Space stage Robotic parts that can add abilities and allow the player to further change their creation in later stages.



Galactic / Interstellar War
This type of conflict is of course, only in the Space stage. When an empire has a very low relationship with another, a war will begin. Wars automatically initiate another large drop in relationship. They may stop a war by donating money, although a large amount is required - usually a few million. During wars the AI empires attack the player whenever they go near and will occasionally attack the player's planets, conquering them when the player fails to protect them. If you ally with the Grox, many species will claim war. So far there is no way for the player to gather up a fleet to defend or attack with aside from allied ships which seem to most players to be mostly useless. However, it is important to get allied ships from larger empires as their health is sometimes (like with the Grox) much greater. The NPC empire however can attack with upwards of 16 ships or more. The Computer is also aware when you enter their space and will begin attacking your ship (Note: this occurs with all Empires with orange or worse relationship, not just those with which you are at war), where their attacks seem to spawn on your world directly. The players worlds have no system defence that can stop enemy ships from reaching a planet. All in all the combat system is only balanced by the extreme power of the player's ship which can often handle these attacks with ease. Many players complain that having only 1 ship makes defending large empires impractical as you might be attacked on a world that is on the other side of the galaxy and be unable to get there in time to stop the invasion (unless they are a Shaman). Players have not received any word if the new Galactic Adventures Expansion will add fleets to the space stage.

Trivia

 * Occasionally, other empires will talk of A Spore War when talking about or offering certain missions to you that have to do with war against other empires.