Helios Class Solar Satellite

The Helios Class Solar Satellite is a stationary ship that sits in orbit over the planet that built it and beams energy back down. It is the cheap way to add power to a planet, and the only way to add power without spending a field on another level of Solar Array.

It is also the flimsiest thing you can own. Hull 200, shield 1, weapon 1. It cannot move, so it cannot be fleet saved, and nearly every armed ship in SFC2 has rapid fire against it. When a raid lands on the planet the whole field dies, and it leaves a pile of crystal in the debris field for the attacker to take home.

There is a premium version, the Genesis Solar Satellite. It costs credits instead of resources, makes exactly twice the energy, and mostly regenerates after a battle.

Energy production

Output depends on the planet's maximum temperature:

Energy per satellite per hour
(Maximum Temperature ÷ 4) + 20, rounded down

Hotter planet, more energy. Temperature is set by the slot the planet sits in, so low slot numbers are hot and high slot numbers are cold. Your planet's range is on the Overview page under the planet picture. The second number is the maximum, and that is the one the formula uses.

Slot	Typical max temp	Energy per satellite
1 to 3	around 90°C	42/hr
4 to 6	around 65°C	36/hr
7 to 9	around 40°C	30/hr
10 to 12	around 0°C	20/hr
13 to 15	around -45°C	8/hr

Every planet rolls a few degrees either side of its slot's base temperature, so two planets in the same slot will not be identical. Check the planet, do not trust the table to the last point. The coldest planets are the killer here: a satellite on a slot 14 planet makes a fifth of what the same satellite makes on a slot 2 planet, for exactly the same price.

Every satellite gives the same amount. There is no falloff for stacking them, and they use no fields, which is the whole reason people build satellites instead of another level of Solar Array.

Energy is not a resource. You cannot store it or spend it. Each planet keeps its own books, and if the mines want more energy than the planet makes, every mine on that planet slows down by the same percentage. The Energy panel on the Buildings page is where you check.

That planet runs a level 20 Solar Array and 30 Helios. The Array makes 2,691 an hour on its own and the satellites add 840, which is what puts it over the 3,411 the mines want. Take the satellites away and every mine on the planet drops to just under 80 percent.

Building them

Satellites are built on the Shipyard page of the planet you want them on. You need a Shipyard at level 1, which needs Capitol 2 first. That is the whole unlock chain.

Things worth noting on that row:

Energy: 28/hr each is for that planet only. It changes from planet to planet. Total is what the satellites you already own are making there.
Max is how many you can afford right now. At 2,000 crystal and 500 hydrogen each, crystal usually runs out first.
Base is the ship as designed, Current is what your research has done to it. Armor Tech and Shield Tech apply to satellites like any other ship, which is why hull 200 reads 340 there. It does not save them.
You cannot build satellites while the Shipyard itself is upgrading. Everything on the page greys out until the upgrade lands.

Build time comes off the crystal cost, so it is the same 20 build points for every satellite. A higher Shipyard divides it, and every Foundry level halves it again:

Shipyard level	Time each (no Foundry)
1	12m
3	6m
5	4m
7	3m
10	2m 11s
15	1m 30s

They queue like any other ship, and a big batch ties the Shipyard up for the whole run. Moons cannot build a Shipyard at all, so satellites are a planet-only thing, and a moon has no mines to power anyway.

Satellites or another Solar Array level

The Solar Array gets more expensive by half again every level. Satellites cost the same forever. That is the whole trade. Here is what the next Array level costs against the satellites that would match it, on a 30/hr planet:

Next Solar Array level	What it costs	Energy it adds	Satellites for the same energy	What they cost
10	2,884 ore + 1,154 crystal	94/hr	4 (120/hr)	8,000 crystal + 2,000 hydrogen
13	9,731 ore + 3,893 crystal	144/hr	5 (150/hr)	10,000 crystal + 2,500 hydrogen
16	32,843 ore + 13,137 crystal	217/hr	8 (240/hr)	16,000 crystal + 4,000 hydrogen
20	166,263 ore + 66,506 crystal	366/hr	13 (390/hr)	26,000 crystal + 6,500 hydrogen

Below about Array level 12 the Array wins outright, and it is not close. Somewhere in the low teens the two even out, and after that the satellites pull away hard. By level 20 the Array level costs seven times what the satellites cost, and the Array level also eats a field.

Two things the table does not show. The Array bill is mostly ore, which is the resource you have the most of, while the satellite bill is crystal and hydrogen, which are the ones you are short of. And a Solar Array level cannot be shot off your planet. A satellite field can, and usually is.

The practical answer for most planets: take the Solar Array up as far as it is comfortable, then use satellites for the top-up, and only on planets you are willing to lose the field on.

Getting shot

Rapid fire is the problem. The More Info button on the Shipyard row shows the full list:

Everything with a gun gets 5 shots per satellite and Zeus gets 1,250. The only ships with no rapid fire against satellites are the two probes, Hermes and Shadow, and the Hephaestus. The probes have no attack at all, so they are no threat either way.

That adds up fast. Twelve Artemis fighters, the cheapest armed ship in the game, wiped out sixty satellites in five rounds and took no losses doing it:

The ore, crystal and hydrogen columns there are what the dead satellites were worth to build, not what anyone got. That number comes next, and it is the part that makes a satellite field worse than just losing the energy:

Sixty dead satellites left 36,000 crystal sitting in the debris field over the planet, because ships drop 30 percent of their ore and crystal cost as debris. The attacker sends a recycler back and picks it up. The plunder in that battle was 600 resources. The debris was sixty times that.

They also handed the attacker 120 destroyed ship points, 2 per satellite. And your own rank drops by 2.5 per satellite, because ship rank points are counted on what you own right now, not on what you once spent.

So a big Helios field on an undefended planet is a standing invitation. If you are going to build one, build defenses to go with it, or accept that you are rebuying it every time someone comes past.

Helios or Genesis

	Helios	Genesis
Cost	2,000 crystal, 500 hydrogen	10,000 credits
Build time	Normal Shipyard time	Instant
Energy	(max temp ÷ 4) + 20	(max temp ÷ 2) + 40
On a 40°C planet	30/hr	60/hr
Comes back after a battle	Never	About 70% of them
Debris when destroyed	600 crystal each	None
Rank points it gives you	2.5 each	0
Points the attacker gets	2 each	0

One Genesis is worth exactly two Helios in energy. If you have the credits, the Genesis is better in every way that matters in a fight. The Helios is the one you can build with resources you already have.

Things they do not do

They cannot be sent anywhere. Speed 0, no fuel, no cargo. They never appear on the Fleets page and cannot join a fleet.
They cannot be fleet saved, so they sit through every attack that lands on the planet.
There is no way to sell one back or tear one down. Once it is built, it is on that planet until something shoots it.
Abandoning a planet destroys them. Only ships that can move come with you.
Missiles cannot touch them. A missile strike only hits defenses.
They do show up in an espionage report, under the target's fleet, so anyone scanning you can count them.
They fight, but barely. Weapon 1 each, which rounds to nothing against real hulls.