Intro
This post is all about tile capture strategy in EVE Galaxy Conquest. Resource tiles are the backbone of your progression, economy, and fleet power. How well you capture and manage them will directly dictate your seasonal performance. This becomes especially important if you’re early in the season, a free-to-play (F2P) commander, or both.
As always, you’ll find all the educational context you need to understand the differences between seasons and discover that NPC fleets aren’t random—it’s a system, and I’ll break it down for you. Detailed strategy breakdowns for each season are linked in separate posts for your convenience.
Table of Contents
Why It’s Important to Understand
The biggest advantage you can gain—while minimizing your losses—is by using direct formation counters. These not only boost your damage by 15% but also reduce incoming damage by the same amount. That’s why understanding what you’re up against is just as important as building a strong fleet.
This post focuses specifically on the enemy side: the defender fleets you’ll encounter and the fixed sequence in which they appear. It’s not random. Recognizing these patterns is the first step toward consistent victories.
If you’re looking for fleet composition recommendations to counter those setups, check my companion posts for Season 1 and Season 2.
Disclaimer: The game developer is known for making undocumented changes. If you spot any incorrect data in this post, please let me know in the comments so I can re-run tests and update the guide accordingly!
Tile Defender Levels
Not all tiles are created equal. Resource tiles come with difficulty levels ranging from 0 to 10. Tile levels 0 to 5 are fairly straightforward—they only have one wave of defenders, and you can always recon their compositions before deciding to engage.
From level 6 onward, tiles include two waves of enemies, with level 10 tiles featuring three waves. This is where the challenge and strategic depth truly begin.
Defender Power Changes with Seasons
At the time of writing, the game is in the middle of Season 3, which introduced a significant power spike for tile defenders. If you’re transitioning from Season 2, be warned: your early-game approach from previous seasons will need a major rethink.
Here are two tables outlining tile levels and power for each season:
Resource Tiles
From level 0 to level 5, you’ll face a single enemy fleet. Levels 6 to 9 introduce two waves, while level 10 tiles feature three waves of defenders. Below is a comparison table showing each level across all seasons—the first number represents total fleet power, and the second indicates the number of fleet squads (ships).
| Defender Level | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 0 | 672 (50) | 672 (50) | 672 (50) |
| Level 1 | 906 (100) | 906 (100) | 906 (100) |
| Level 2 | 2024 (300) | 2024 (300) | 2060 (300) |
| Level 3 | 8305 (1000) | 8305 (1000) | 8426 (1000) |
| Level 4 | 26.7k (2400) | 26.9k (2400) | 29.4k (2600) |
| Level 5 | 62.7k (4800) | 64.2k (4800) | 92.6k (6000) |
| Level 6 | 100k (6800) | 108k (6800) | 168k (10000) |
| Level 7 | 158k (9400) | 160k (9400) | 275k (15000) |
| Level 8 | 244k (12800) | 248k (12800) | 437k (22000) |
| Level 9 | 411k (19400) | 414k (19400) | 646k (30000) |
| Level 10 | 671k (30000) | 672k (30000) | 996k (44000) |
A few key takeaways jump out from the table above:
- Minor changes between Season 1 and 2, mostly small tuning.
- Season 3 introduces a major difficulty spike starting at Level 5.
- Power nearly doubles at high levels in Season 3 (e.g. L7-L10).
- Squad sizes grow significantly, especially at L10 (30k → 44k).
- Power per squad stays consistent, but numbers increase.
Resort Tiles
These follow a different power curve compared to standard tiles and starts from level 6.
| Defender Level | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 6 | 102k (6800) | 111k (6800) | 178k (10000) |
| Level 7 | 168k (9400) | 169k (9400) | 290k (15000) |
| Level 8 | 258k (12800) | 262k (12800) | 460k (22000) |
| Level 9 | 458k (21400) | 461k (21400) | 718k (33000) |
| Level 10 | 774k (34000) | 774k (34000) | 1100k (50000) |
Breaking down the numbers for Resort tiles, here are the key differences I’ve noticed:
- The differences between Seasons 1 and 2 are minimal—just like with Resource Tiles, only slight tuning.
- Season 3 introduces a major difficulty spike: Level 10 power jumps from 774k to 1.1M—a 42% increase—with squad sizes growing from 34k to 50k.
- Scaling between Resort levels is more aggressive than with Resource Tiles, both within a season and across seasons.
Resource Tile Capture Strategy Explained
Originally, I planned to list all enemy fleet compositions here. However, after deeper research, I discovered that not only do the defenders’ power and fleet compositions change between seasons—but the wave sequences do as well!
The good news: the sequence of waves for each tile level remains fixed. It’s never random. Still, with over 30 combinations and more than 120 my tailored recommendations, including everything in one post would be overwhelming.
Instead, I’ve split the strategies into separate season-specific posts. Please follow the link based on your current season:
- Season 1 Tile Capture Strategy (To be published)
- Season 2 Tile Capture Strategy (To be published)
- Season 3 Tile Capture Strategy
Regardless of tile level or season, all NPC fleets follow the same system, illustrated in the schematic below. They appear in a fixed sequence—once you’ve reconned one fleet, you’ll know exactly which wave comes next. This allows you to pick the right formation counter with all upcoming waves in mind.
Final Thoughts
I understand why the developers increased difficulty over time. Players naturally gain more commander promotions, ship blueprints, implants, and rigs—while NPC fleets stayed generic. That said, the Season 3 spike was a bit much, especially for F2P players.
It took some time to adapt and get comfortable living off level 7 tiles for a while, but it’s entirely doable and still efficient. Don’t stress too much about chasing high-level tiles!
Remember: having full capacity of lower-level tiles often provides better hourly returns than capturing a few high-level ones at great cost. Which leads us to…
Bonus Insight – The Wise Triangle of Tile Capture Strategy
While Seasons 1 and 2 were fairly forgiving, Season 3 introduces a noticeable difficulty surge that demands a more dedicated and thoughtful approach. To help with that shift, I created a simple diagram that visualizes the core trade-offs you need to manage.
If you take heavy losses while capturing high-level tiles, you’ll end up with excessive component loss, burn through your fleets, and leave your tile count limit underutilized. On the flip side, if you only target low-level tiles, you risk hitting your tile limit or stamina cap too early—leaving you with a pile of unused components sitting idle in your assembly line, offering no progression benefits.
To maintain steady growth, you need to balance all three: component loss, stamina utilization, and tile count limit. That’s what the Wise Triangle of Tile Capture Strategy is here to illustrate—your key framework for sustainable progression in the tougher seasonal environment.
If the Wise Triangle helped you balance your fleets, stamina, and components, feel free to buy me a coffee – every sip powers another strategy framework. ☕o7
Fly wisely, Commander.
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