Facility

The planets in a player’s possession may be improved by building Facilities, given the appropriate technology. There are two types of Facilities: Colonies and Refineries. Colonies increase the influence value of a planet by 1, while refineries increase the resource value of a planet by 1. There are 8 of each included in the game.

A player may build facilities during the Produce Units step of a Tactical Action. Facilities may only be built on unexhausted planets. The cost of building the Facility is simply to exhaust the planet. (This also terraforms the planet, removing radiation hazards etc.)

Facilities may only be built on a planet that you controlled at the beginning of the current activation.

A player may not build a facility if an opponent has ships in the system or if there are no more Facility Cards of the chosen type remaining.

Facilities may not be built on Trade Stations.

Once built, place the Facility Card under the planet card, with the bottom edge sticking out to indicate that it will provide an additional influence (colony) or resource (refinery) in future game rounds. You never exhaust Facility Cards. Instead, when you exhaust a planet with a facility, the planet is treated as if the relevant number on the planet card (influence for colonies or resources for refineries) were one higher.

Each planet may have no more than one facility on it at a given time.

A Facility counts as a planetary installation.

Refineries
To build Refineries, you need either Nanite Composites or Transfabrication.

If you have both, your Refineries are worth an extra +1.

Colonies
To build Colonies, you need either Micro-Technology or Xeno-Psychology.

If you have both, your Colonies are worth an extra +1.