Operations is your station’s command center and main computer, and every starbase has one from the moment you start playing. Its level sets the pace for the rest of your station: upgrading Operations unlocks more buildings and raises your station’s overall capability. Each upgrade also increases the weapon damage of all your ships. Operations goes up to level 80, and it’s the one building you almost always want to keep moving.
What the Operations building does
Operations houses the command center and the main computer. Upgrading it increases the overall capability of your station by unlocking more buildings for construction, which is why your Operations level effectively caps how far the rest of your base can grow. It is the gate the whole station is built around.
Every Operations upgrade also adds a permanent weapon damage bonus to all of your ships. The bonus climbs steadily through the early and middle levels, then jumps sharply once you pass level 60.
| Operations level | Weapon damage bonus |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1% |
| 10 | 10% |
| 20 | 20% |
| 30 | 30% |
| 40 | 40% |
| 50 | 50% |
| 60 | 60% |
| 65 | 110% |
| 70 | 300% |
| 75 | 800% |
| 80 | 1,300% |
These values are current as of the latest game Daten.
How to unlock the Operations building
Operations has no build requirement of its own. Your station starts with it at level 1, so there is nothing to unlock. What matters is what each upgrade needs. From level 5 onward, every Operations level is gated by other buildings, and you can’t raise Operations until those buildings reach the listed level.
Level 5 needs Parsteel Warehouse 4. Level 10 needs Shipyard 9, Astronautics Studio 5, and Drydock B 9. Higher levels lean on your Shipyard, Raffinerie, Ship Hangar, Defense Platforms, Defense Technologies, and resource Warehouses, with the Treasury required at level 40. The practical takeaway: keep those support buildings moving, or they will hold Operations back.
Upgrade costs and build times
The costs and build times below are base values. Your own research, buildings, and buffs reduce them. Only milestone levels are shown; the game has all 80.
| Ebene | Kosten | Build time | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 400 Parsteel | 15m | Parsteel Warehouse 4 |
| 10 | 15,000 Parsteel, 225 Tritanium | 8h | Shipyard 9, Astronautics Studio 5, Drydock B 9 |
| 20 | 346,800 Parsteel, 6,375 Tritanium, 2,125 Dilithium, plus 2★ refined ore | 4d 19h | Shipyard 19, Refinery 19, Defense Technologies 19 |
| 25 | 3.819M Parsteel, 70,200 Tritanium, 23,400 Dilithium, plus 3★ refined ore | 5d 17h | Shipyard 24, Ship Hangar 24 |
| 30 | 31.82M Parsteel, 585,000 Tritanium, 195,000 Dilithium, plus 3★ refined ore | 12d 7h | Shipyard 29, Defense Platform D 10, Ship Hangar 29 |
| 40 | 6.877B Parsteel, 45.15M Tritanium, 15.05M Dilithium, 400 Ascend Key | 202d | Shipyard 39, Treasury 1, Astronautics Studio 39 |
| 50 | 299.9B Parsteel, 2.756B Tritanium, 918.8M Dilithium, plus 4★ refined ore | 3,458d 17h | Ship Hangar 49, Refinery 49, Defense Platform E 49 |
| 60 | 96.45T Parsteel, 369.4B Tritanium, 123.1B Dilithium, plus 5★ refined ore | 7,287d 3h | Ship Hangar 59, Refinery 59, Defense Platform F 59 |
| 70 | 64.73M Σ-Parsteel, 1.19M Σ-Tritanium, 396,625 Σ-Dilithium, plus 6★ refined ore | 1,922d | Ship Hangar 69, Refinery 69, Defense Platform F 69 |
| 80 | 31.6B Σ-Parsteel, 145.2M Σ-Tritanium, 48.41M Σ-Dilithium, plus 7★ refined ore | 46,394d 16h | Ship Hangar 79, Refinery 79, Defense Platform F 79 |
Taken from level 1 to 80, Operations costs roughly 424.5T Parsteel, 1.612T Tritanium, and 537.4B Dilithium, along with refined ore at every star tier, 400 Ascend Keys in three batches, 400 Data Core, and Sigma-resources at the top end. The cumulative build time is about 261,665 days unboosted, which is why speedups and build-time research matter so much at the higher levels.
How the Operations building fits your station
Operations paces your whole account. Because it gates the rest of the base, the usual rhythm is to upgrade it the moment its requirements clear, then use the buildings it unlocks to prepare for the next Operations level. Early levels are quick and cheap, so there is little reason to wait. The wall arrives in the 40s: level 40 alone takes 202 days at base speed, and level 50 jumps to over 3,400 days.
That is where build-time reductions and speedups pay off. The weapon damage bonus is a second reason to keep going, since every level makes your whole fleet hit harder in combat, on top of the buildings it opens up.
Is the Operations building worth upgrading?
Yes, without much argument. Operations is the core of your station, it gates nearly every other building, and each level adds weapon damage across your entire fleet. The only real decision is timing. Push it whenever the required buildings are ready, and plan for the cost and build time to climb steeply once you pass level 40. It is the one upgrade that keeps the rest of your progress moving.