Intelligence: Telescope, Radar, probes and deciding under uncertainty

Three layers of knowing

In Astera, owning a planet is hidden until someone discovers it, and even a discovered planet keeps its fleet, stock and research private. That is deliberate: the game is about deciding with incomplete information. It helps to think in three layers. The first is what anyone can see: points on the map, public news, battles flashing between two positions. The second is what your sensors identify: which point is a planet, who owns it, whether its fleet is home. The third is what you have measured: a dated estimate of defence, classes and loot from a probe.

Each layer costs more than the one before and answers a different question. Mixing them up is the most common intelligence mistake. A commander’s name in the standings does not reveal their planets. A battle seen on the map does not hand you either side’s report. And a planet you have identified can still hide an unknown fleet. Missing information is uncertainty, not a measured zero.

The Telescope: identify and watch

The Telescope does two separate jobs. It identifies moving contacts within its contact range, and it gives you silent watch slots. A watch on a planet inside watch range tells you whether that planet’s fleet is home or away. The target is not notified. Asteroids that enter the Telescope’s area are revealed too, and stay known until they disappear, which makes the same instrument useful for mining.

Slots and range grow with level, and the cooldown before a slot can be moved shrinks:

Your first world starts with a level 3 Telescope, so you begin with two watch slots and a three-hour cooldown. That is enough to follow two neighbours closely. A watch reports presence, not content: it never shows resources or research. The target’s Veil can also blur it, leaving readings intermittent or unknown, and a blurred reading is not an empty planet.

The Radar: warnings about you

The Radar looks inward. It warns about attacks aimed at its own planet, and each level adds detail. Level 1 shows an incoming attack’s arrival time. Level 2 adds its direction. Level 4 adds an estimate of its strength, and level 5 adds the origin and ship details. Higher levels also extend the warning range, from 2,700 map units at level 1 to 9,900 at level 8, and raise the chance of detecting probes sent at you.

Your starting level 2 Radar therefore tells you when and from which direction a raid will arrive, but not how big it is. That is often enough: an arrival countdown is the time you have to bring a fleet home, finish a repair, collect and spend the Works, or switch your defence posture. A Radar warning concerns your planet only. Seeing another moving contact does not mean it will reach you, and it does not give you its arrival time.

Both the Telescope and the Radar need an Uplink in orbit before they can be installed. The Uplink uses one orbit slot and does nothing by itself, so on a new colony it is a real choice between seeing and producing.

Probes: paying to measure

A probe is a paid scouting flight: 65 alloy and 40 crystal, deducted when you send it. It uses no flight bay and cannot be recalled. Its report can show defence, ship classes, a range of potential loot, combat research and the defence posture, depending on how well the reading went. Accuracy is a contest. Your origin Shipyard improves accuracy and makes the probe harder to detect. The target’s Radar improves detection, and its Veil reduces accuracy for probes from an equal-level Shipyard. A detected probe can alert its target.

Read two times on every report: when the observation happened and when the report reached you. The target may change between them, and it will certainly change before your fleet arrives. Ground defences are rebuilt after battles, fleets return from missions and resources are collected. A probe answers “what was there?”, never “what will be there?”.

The loot range estimates what a decisive raid could take before your own cargo limit. It is not the target’s total stock. Compare it with the cargo you plan to send: if the low end of the range already exceeds your holds, you have room to choose a safer, smaller target or to add a transport.

When should you probe again? A probe costs 105 resources; a raid that meets an unexpected defence can cost thousands. Probe again whenever something meaningful may have changed since the last reading: a battle at the target, a long gap since the observation, a watch showing the fleet back home, or a plan to send a larger and more valuable fleet than last time. Skip it when your last report is fresh, the target has been quiet and the fleet you are risking is cheap. The question is always the same: is the uncertainty that remains worth more than the probe?

A routine that turns sightings into decisions

Intelligence pays off when it is a habit rather than a reaction. Here is a routine that fits into short visits:

• Place your watch slots on the two or three planets you would most like to raid and leave them there for a day.
• Note when each fleet is away. A commander whose fleet leaves at the same time every evening has a pattern you can plan around.
• When a pattern holds, probe the planet once. Compare its classes with yours and its loot range with your cargo.
• Time your arrival for the window you observed, using the flight preview’s arrival time, not your guess.
• After the battle, move the watch if the target is no longer worth it. Watches are your scarcest intelligence resource.

A worked example: your Telescope at level 3 gives two watches with a three-hour cooldown. You watch a neighbour for a day and see the fleet away from about 19:00 to 23:00. You probe at 18:00 and the report shows mostly Bulwark ground defences and a loot range above 1,500 alloy. Bulwarks take ×1.6 damage from Skirmishers, so Darts are the right ships, and one Courier covers the cargo. You launch so that the preview shows arrival around 20:00, inside the observed window, and you keep your Warden at home.

Denying information to others

Everything above can be done to you. Three habits make you harder to read. First, raise your Radar so you see probes and raids early; the arrival countdown is the most valuable defensive number in the game. Second, build Veil on the planets you care most about: it makes enemy Telescope readings less clear and reduces the accuracy of probes, without inventing false readings. Third, avoid predictable patterns. A fleet that is always away at the same hour is an invitation.

Remember that information leaks through people as well as sensors. A screenshot can reveal what your reports keep private, and clan membership does not automatically share sensors between members. Share findings deliberately, in clan chat, when coordination needs them.

Common intelligence mistakes

• Treating a blank field as zero. If a probe did not measure something, it may still be there.
• Attacking on an old report. Defences are rebuilt, fleets return, and the Store is refilled.
• Using a watch to judge loot. Watches show presence only; probes estimate loot.
• Ignoring the Radar countdown. Even without a strength estimate, it tells you how long you have to act.
• Leaving watches on worthless targets. Slots are few; move them to where the next decision is.

Intelligence never guarantees victory. It narrows the range of outcomes so that the risk you take is one you chose. See visible information and silent watches for the rule details.