City spaces cost roughly 4 resources to obtain. Planetary spaces cost 6 resources.

Build Robot Hubs or Android Hubs for almost all your worker needs. 2 hubs per city is efficient and unlocks all 15 city spaces.

Avoid build habitats or other Population buildings until city comfort levels climb to 8 and above, unless you have no other choices and Support will run out soon. They aren't cost efficient sources of Support or workers at low Comfort levels.

Building food, power, and science buildings around amplifier buildings in clusters of 3-4 can give a small, but measurable boost. Because the amplifier buildings are somewhat expensive, the benefit is about 20%-30%.

Orbital food, science, and power facilities are much more efficient than production in cities.

A train station or Hyperloop combined with robots and a robot ingenuity center can control a lot of mining sites cheaply. Such a city can benefit from buildings that scale with the number of mines controlled.

Hospitals are reasonable sources of Support if placed next to headquarters, but don't build habitats just to get the +1 Support for being adjacent.

Luxury Workshops are OK sources of support in the early game. Cultured Meat labs and Robot Dispatch Centers are also good. Underwater Hotels and Space Hotels are excellent at any stage.

Skyscrapers are better than they look if paired with Domed Parks and Megastructure Design.

Trade routes let you trade any resource for any other resource, which means on a basic level, no resource is absolutely more valuable than any other. This is particularly true at the start of the game, when any resource income is valuable because you can trade it for what you actually need.

This is of course limited by the total number of trade routes you have, which starts at just 1 unless you get the Space start. In the mid to late game, you'll use your trade routes almost exclusively to build space projects, rather than trade resources. Still, for purposes of analysis I will mostly just talk about the total resource cost of a project, rather than attempting to weight different resources differently.

The main exception is Support. You can't trade for Support via trade routes, so I address the cost of Support income separately.

In the early game, power and titanium are particularly critical because so much of your resource income comes from mines, and mines cost power and titanium to build. Specifically, 4 power and 4 titanium per point of resource income. A mine that produces 3 resources a turn costs 12 power and 12 titanium to build.

Robots also cost Power and Titanium, and Robots are generally the most efficient way to claim planetary spaces.

Food is another critical resource, because founding a new city costs 30 food and 10 water. Generally speaking you'll find enough food in "abandoned crates" to found 1, maybe 2 additional cities without any Food income, provided you don't spend any on Habitation modules. In general, though, it's a good idea to create at least some farms early so your city expansion isn't stunted. Because the Food cost is so high, trading for 30 Food is usually a bit impractical.

It's usually not difficult to accumulate the 10 water required just through exploration.

Support income is usually unimportant, even at the highest difficulty, until you hit the 2nd "Raised Expectations" milestone. -20 to -30 Support per turn isn't threatening because most turns you'll explore locations that yield 20 to 30 Support.

Cities have 15 spaces. The Headquarters occupies one space, and robots or habitats usually occupy ate least 2 more spaces. This means a city usually has at most 12 spaces available for non-worker buildings, and costs 40 resources (30 food + 10 water) to found. Therefore each city space costs an additional 40 / 12 = 3.3 resources.

If you have to clear a rock to open up a city space, that's an additional 3 power. Some sites, usually Flat Plains, may have few or no rocks, and some cites, particularly Lava Tubes, may have 10 or more rocks. This adds another 0-30 Power cost per city, or 0-30 / 13 = 0-2.3 resources per space, for a total of 3.1-5.4 resources per space. I'll generally assume city spaces cost 3 resources for the space, and 1 resource on average to clear rocks.

Because founding cities is expensive, and it's important to purchase workers (usually robots) to claim planetary spaces, it's unusual not to fill a city with enough workers to unlock all 15 spaces.

Food, power, and science production are more efficient if you place them in clusters of 3 or 4 buildings surrounding an amplifier. Some city layouts let you place 4 buildings and 2 amplifiers so the amplifiers both affect 2 of the 4 buildings.

Some buildings have support penalties. Because you can generally get 4 support income for 10 resources, I treat these penalties as a cost increase of 2.5 resources each. This isn't perfect, of course; you don't want to incur penalties if you will run out of Support soon, and you don't care much about small Support penalties in the late game when both Expectations and Support income are sky-high.

Robots are by far the most efficient way to claim planetary spaces. A Robot Hub costs 6 power and 6 titanium for a total of 12 resources for 2 spaces. The baseline cost of claiming a planetary space is 12 / 2 = 6 resources.

This cost goes up if you want a city to claim more than 4 planetary spaces. The first 4 workers all unlock additional city spaces. The 5th additional worker, pushing the city population to 6, does not. Robot buildings beyond the first 2 take up spaces that could be used for non-worker buildings, and thus cost an additional 4 resources per building.

Additional Robot Hubs beyond 2 cost (12 + 4) / 2 = 8 resources per planetary space.

Android Hubs are denser but cost more. Each Android Hub is 10 power and 10 titanium and supports 3 robots, so 2 Android Hubs claim 6 spaces for 40 resources, or 40 / 6 = 6.7 resources per space. Claiming 6 spaces with Robot Hubs would cost 36 resources + 4 resources for the additional city space, which is the same cost.

Each additional Android Hub costs 20 resources plus 4 for the city space, for 24 / 3 = 8 resources per space.

Thus Robot Hubs and Android Hubs are about the same in overall cost. A Robot Ingenuity Center will make either one more valuable, but still works out to about the same cost.

2 Robot Hubs + a Robot Ingenuity Center claims 8 spaces, and costs 37 resources + 4 for the city space, or 41 / 8 = 5.2 resources per space. Each additional Robot Center claims 4 spaces for 12 + 4 = 16 resources, or 16 / 4 = 4 resources per space.

2 Android Hubs + a Robot Ingenuity Center claims 12 spaces, and costs 57 + 4 = 61 resources, or 61 / 12 = 5.1 resources per space. Each additional hub claims 6 spaces for 20 + 4 = 24 resources, or 24 / 6 = 4 resources per space.

Despite the similar effective cost, the higher density of the Android Hubs can be valuable in sprawling Mining Cities. which claim bonuses for buildings which scale with the number of mines a city owns.

The Urban Planning technology gives each new city 2 additional claims to planetary sites. It's tempting to just start spamming new cities for the 2 free city sites, and skip building robot hubs. Robot hubs are still much cheaper, though.

Founding a new city still costs 40 resources. You get 4 city spaces worth 12 resources, so the net cost is 28 resources for 2 planetary spaces. It's cheaper to build another robot hub in an existing city if that will let you claim the same 2 spaces.

Keeping in mind that planetary map spaces cost 6 resources each, here is the real cost effectiveness of common planetary structures.


Heliostats are slightly less cost efficient than photovoltaic fields, due to their high cost. However, empty elevated planetary spaces are relatively uncommon, so it generally makes sense to pay extra for the heliostat plant.

All forms of external power plant are more cost efficient than small mines. If you really need power and you have an small (size 1) elevated resource site, it can make sense to pave it over with a power building.

Spaceports are quite expensive for what they do. The +1 Comfort they offer isn't worth much to most cities, which will have a population of 1 and lots of robots.

Placing a spaceport next to a population 5 city gives +5 support, which is worth about 12 resources. That's enough to make the spaceport competitive with landing pads.

Alternately, if a spaceport provides 2 mines, the bonus Mine trading routes mean you're getting 4 routes for 31 resources. The mines have to produce resources you're regularly using to produce space projects, though, or they have little value.

The Road Paver and Robot Ingenuity Center are the cheapest ways of claiming additional planetary spaces beyond the first 4 claimed by 2 Robot Hubs. However, these additional spaces come with Support penalities for distance, which may require additional investment to offset.

A Robot Paver adds 3 spaces for 4.7 resources each. In a city with 4 robots, the Ingenuity Center starts by adding 4 spaces for 4.3 resources each, and enables additional Robot Hubs to add spaces for just 4 resources each.

The Bus Station, Train Station, and Hyperloop all claim planetary spaces and reduce Support distance penalties. This works well with the Paver or Ingenuity center. This eliminates a cost that's roughly 2.5 resources per point of support penalty due to distance. This benefit can more than pay for for the cost of the transport improvement.

While the reduced cost per planetary space is useful, the benefit is larger if you build specialized cities that gain extra benefits from have a lot of planetary spaces under their control.

One indirect benefit of a city that controls a large number of planetary spaces is the Local Culture Center. This costs 24 + 4 = 28 resources, and gives 3 support per distance from the nearest city. If a city controls a large number of planetary spaces, it will naturally be distant from any other cities. The Local Culture Center works best if it provides at least 12 support.

A city with an Ingenuity Center and a large number of robots to claim planetary spaces can also benefit from the Robotised Laboratory. This costs 10 + 4 = 14 resources and provides 1 science per 3 robots. This is equivalent to a regular Laboratory in a regular city that only has 4 robots, but can provide 2-3 science in a city with 6-10 robots.

Most of the improvements that scale well with controlling a large number of planetary spaces are focused on mining.

The Load Balancing Station is 9 + 4 = 13 resources to build, and generates 1 power per 3 mines owned by the city. In a normal city this is comparable to a regular generator. In a city with a large number of mines, this can be 2 to 3 power for the cost of a generator.

The Exhaust Processor is 12 + 4 = 16 resources to build, and supplies 1 Silicates per 3 mines controlled. A small silicate mine costs 8 + 6 = 14 resources to build, so the Exhaust Processor is only really valuable in a city which controls at least 6 mines.

The Electron Beam Printer is 21 + 4 = 26 resources, and adds +1 Titanium to all Titanium mines. This really requires at least 2 Titanium mines to be cost effective, and 3 would be better. This is quite difficult to achieve without at least a Train Station.

The Warehouse costs 11 + 4 = 15 resources, and provides 2 support per mine controlled. This is passable with 3 mines, but really quite strong in a city that controls 10 or more mines.

The Martian Worker's Association costs 32 + 4 = 36 resources, and provides 2 Support per unique resources or terraforming output. This is both more expensive than the Warehouse and more limited, but still worthwhile in a city controlling 10+ planetary spaces.

Another application for a city that claims a lot of planetary spaces in the Support-focused tourist city. This city claims a number of Sand Stones (8 + 6 = 14 resources, 5 support) and Canyon Views (4 + 6 = 10 resources, +1 Comfort) to fuel a Touring Company (13 + 4 = 17 resources, +4 support for every planetary site providing Support or Comfort).

A Touring Company is worthwhile if the city controls at least 2 Sand Stones, but it can become ridiculously powerful in the city controls 10 such sites.

If there are enough Canyon Views in range to bring the Comfort level of the city up to 8, it can make sense to build habitat-type buildings in this city for Support.

It can also make sense to build Combined Living Centers, for an even mix of robots and population. Instead of a Robot Ingenuity Center, it can build an AI Guided Road Network, which gives 2 planetary spaces for each human / robot pair. If you have at least 2 robots and 2 population in the city, the Man Machine Cooperative Academy, which produces 1 science for each robot / human pair, can be efficient.

Support income is a complex topic, because the economics of Support change as the game
progresses and City comfort increases, and based on city locations and traits.

Animals and plants are much better long term sources of Support income than city buildings, but they take time, and they aren't an option early in the game.

On average, you want to shoot for at least 4 Support income per 10 resources invested. On higher difficulties, you may find yourself purchasing buildings that are less efficient than this because you urgently need Support immediately.

Some support buildings don't depend on adjacent population.


Support per 10 resources, Household Robot Dispatch

Support per 10 resources, Beach Resort

Support per 10 resources, mining support

Many support buildings provide Support to adjacent population. You can place these next to the city HQ for a free boost, and possibly build additional habitat-type buildings adjacent to them to get additional bonuses.

The problem with building additional Habitats is that they're expensive compared to robots. When City comfort is low, they don't generate a lot of Support, and the bonuses for adjacent support buildings don't help enough. On higher difficulties, you may find you have to build them anyway, but generally when city Comfort levels are still low you're better off finding other ways to generate Support.

You can place between 1 and 3 additional Habitats adjacent to a support building. Building 2-3 will require a suitable intersection in the city layout.

A +1 population dwelling like a Habitat, Eco Habitat, or Igloo includes an implied cost of half a city-space, or 2 resources. This is because it takes 4 of these buildings to provide 4 workers, while it only takes 2 Robot Hubs to provide 4 workers.

Combined Living Centers and Skyscrapers provide 2 workers, so there's no space penalty.

For regular habitats, the net cost is 30 - 6 (value of 1 worker) + 2 (half a city space) = 26 resources.

The Support income per 10 resources is:


It's worth noting that Modular Apartments are kind of terrible. I've included them in the table just to show that you probably shouldn't bother with them.

Skyscrapers cost 60 food and provide 2 workers worth 12 resources, so the cost of the Support they provide is 48 resources. Skyscrapers carry a -3 Support penalty, but if one is next to a Park Dome, the +4 bonus more than makes up for this.

They're only slightly better than basic Habitats unless you have the Megastructure Design technology, which reduces their cost by 10 resources.


Marshas and Igloos give full radiation resistance for an increase in cost. How efficient this is depends on the city's normal radiation resistance, and in the case of Igloos, whether the city is cold enough to freeze the water used for shielding.


This assumes you're going to built a habitat anyway. Since you generally don't want to do that unless the city's comfort level is 8 or more, it's common to have 2 levels of Atmosphere by the time it makes sense to build these, and enough Temperature that only Igloos at the poles will retain their shielding.

In practice, this means you only build Marshas in Plains cities which start with 0 radiation resistance, and Igloos only in polar Plains cities.