¶ Cabinet & Ministries
Your cabinet is the council of advisors you appoint to your empire. Each minister you hire activates a trait — a permanent empire-wide effect that lasts for as long as the minister is in office. Some traits are utilities (free scout ship, settlers start with extra population), others change how core systems behave (production rolls over instead of being lost), and a few unlock entirely new mechanics (the Orbital Ship Repair Dock building).
Hire and manage ministers from Government → Cabinet.
¶ VIP tokens
Ministers don't cost credits to hire — they cost a separate currency called VIP tokens. Tokens are awarded on a fixed schedule across the long game:
Tokens are granted on days 100, 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1400, 1600, 1800, 2000, 2200 — twelve tokens across the full lifetime of a long game, roughly one every 200 days.
You start with 1 token, so you can hire your first minister immediately. After that, ministers are a slow but compounding investment — you have only a handful of tokens for the entire game, so spend them carefully.
¶ How the cabinet is organised
Ministers are grouped into four paths. Each path is a tree of three ministries: you have to appoint a minister at the first ministry before the next one in the chain unlocks. Each ministry has two candidates — you appoint exactly one (left or right).
| Path | Ministry chain |
|---|---|
| Expansion | Cartography → Colonization → Exploration |
| Military | Conquest → Defense → (future) |
| Prosperity | Industry → (future) → (future) |
| Intelligence | Maintenance → Rapid Response → (future) |
Each appointment is a one-way decision: once you pick a side at a ministry, you can never appoint the other candidate there. (You can fire your choice — but the other candidate is gone for good either way.)
¶ The ministers
Each candidate has a portrait, a one-line trait, a VIP cost (1–3 tokens), and a weekly credit salary they draw while in office. Salaries come out of your weekly credit balance, just like ship maintenance — see Resources.
¶ Expansion path
| Minister | Trait | |
|---|---|---|
 |
Cartography — Cassian | A free scout ship is granted to you when hired. |
 |
Cartography — Lyra | The location of the Ferion planet is revealed to you. |
 |
Colonization — Eamon | New colonies are settled with extra starting population. |
 |
Colonization — Nara | New colonies automatically inherit your default build queue. |
 |
Exploration — Zepharix | Settler ships can reach speed 3. |
 |
Exploration — Vorn | Discovering a star reveals every planet around it (no need to scan each one). |
¶ Military path
| Minister | Trait | |
|---|---|---|
 |
Conquest — Vesper | Conquering a planet destroys fewer of its existing buildings. |
 |
Conquest — Orin | Captured planets automatically inherit a build queue. |
 |
Defense — Bonucus | Planet defenses concentrate fire on one ship at a time instead of spreading damage. |
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Defense — Olyx | Defensive buildings have a chance to survive when the planet is captured. |
¶ Prosperity path
| Minister | Trait | |
|---|---|---|
 |
Industry — Kwakkwak | Excess production from a finished queue item rolls over to the next item instead of being lost. |
 |
Industry — Doak | Idle production capacity is converted into food. |
¶ Intelligence path
| Minister | Trait | |
|---|---|---|
 |
Maintenance — Thane | Damaged ships auto-repair when idle, without you having to issue a Repair command. |
 |
Maintenance — Kira | Unlocks the Orbital Ship Repair Dock building. |
 |
Rapid Response — left | Ships catching up to their fleet get a +1 speed bonus. |
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Rapid Response — right | Ships on Patrol & Defend gain +1 speed while chasing an enemy. |
¶ Firing a minister
You can fire a minister at any time from the Cabinet view. It's free — no credit penalty, no cooldown.
But the slot stays empty afterwards. Firing doesn't reopen the ministry for a fresh pick; the spent VIP tokens are gone, and you can never appoint anyone (including the other candidate) at that ministry again. Treat firing as a way to stop the salary drain on a minister whose trait no longer matters — not as a do-over.
¶ Tips
- You don't have many tokens, ever. Twelve total in a full long game. Don't burn the first one on the path you're least sure about — pick a path you'll commit to and start its chain early.
- Read traits as long-term game changers, not boosts. Picking "excess production rolls over" on day 100 means every queue item, on every planet, for the rest of the game will roll over its surplus. That's enormous over hundreds of weeks.
- Mind the salary. Defense and Rapid Response ministers cost 100 credits/week each — a real hit if you're running thin. Cartography ministers cost 0/week, which makes them great early picks while you stabilise the economy.
- The "either / or" hurts. Picking Cassian (free scout) closes the door on Lyra (Ferion planet reveal) permanently. Don't appoint a ministry without understanding both candidates.
- Some ministries are placeholders. A handful of the late-tier slots are reserved for future content — don't be surprised if a path's third ministry isn't yet appointable.
¶ Related
- Resources — where minister salaries hit your weekly credit balance.
- Production — the queue, and the rollover trait that affects it.
- Ships and Ship Commands — the Repair command and how the auto-repair-when-idle trait interacts with it.
- Fog of War — how the "reveal all planets at a star" trait changes your scouting.