Join Your First Alliance
Find an alliance, join an NPC faction, locate its vault, and start cooperating through donations, rallies, and events.
Topics covered: Join Your First Alliance: NPC Factions & First Steps | Interstellar Empires
Joining an alliance gives you people to fight alongside, shared research, and cooperative events. An official NPC faction is a useful first home while you learn the game.
Before you join
Build an Alliance Embassy on your base. You need an available membership slot in the alliance you choose. Active invasion restrictions can prevent membership changes, and returning to an alliance you recently left can be subject to a cooldown.
You can learn alliance play before founding your own group. Starting as a Member lets you join events while someone else handles leadership, vault placement, and scheduling.
1. Open Alliances and choose a home
Open Alliance in the game navigation and browse the Alliances list. Use the search field to find a name or tag. The NPC badge identifies the four official NPC factions: Imperium of Kralon, Celestian Accord, Aetherion Syndicate, and Aurelian Front.
NPC factions let eligible players join immediately. A player alliance may also allow immediate joining or require an application. Select an alliance's name or avatar to inspect its details before deciding.
2. Why start with an NPC alliance?
NPC leadership organizes scheduled Ephoran Vault events and prepares cooperative invasion runs. This gives you opportunities to learn rallies, damage scoring, and reinforcement without arranging the whole event yourself. You can join existing rallies and, when ready, lead your own.
Choose a faction whose event times fit your schedule. The NPC alliance reference lists the normal UTC vault hours. After joining, use the live schedule on your alliance page for the next actual date and your local time.
NPC support depends on available troops, travel time, and capacity. Membership does not guarantee reinforcements or rewards, and your base and units remain under your control.
3. Join, then find the vault and chat
Select Join immediately, or Apply to join for a group requiring approval. An application becomes membership only after it is accepted. Once you are a member, open your alliance page and alliance chat.
Read the alliance description, announcements, and event preparation messages. Find the vault coordinates and next event time. You do not need to create a second vault to take part in an NPC faction's event.
4. Start contributing at your own pace
Use Donations to contribute resources you can spare. Donations fund the alliance treasury and earn personal Alliance Credits for the Alliance Store. Keep enough resources for your own next upgrade. Shared research benefits members, while Owners and Generals choose and start the research.
For events, move near the alliance vault when you are ready. Being closer helps fleets reach rally leaders and makes nearby reinforcement more practical. For invasions, develop your Defense Command so you can host support, and read the event's own rules.
If you cannot join or participate
- No Embassy: finish building it before joining.
- Full alliance or cooldown: choose another suitable group or wait for the restriction to end.
- Membership changes blocked: check whether an invasion is running before trying to leave or switch alliances.
- No nearby support: check your distance, Defense Command capacity, and the alliance's preparation messages. Troops may already be committed elsewhere.
You are ready for the next step when your alliance page and chat are available and you know where its vault is. Continue with Move Near Your Allies, then Your First Vault Event. You can move to a player alliance or create your own later, subject to normal membership restrictions.
