Getting started
Pax Autocratica has two connected halves. The colony side is where you assign citizens to mining, gathering, hauling, research and production; the expedition side is where you lead soldiers in first-person combat to bring resources and prisoners home.
A new player can follow this order: build a small colony, assign citizens to the basic jobs, run your first research, prepare an expedition, go out and fight, then feed the results back into the base.
The two halves of the game
Colony management is the persistent base layer: citizens, resources, production chains, research and policies keep the settlement running.
Expeditions are the field layer: first-person roguelite combat where you collect cores, resources, new citizens and spread your creed.
Where to go next
Open the Gameplay overview for the core loop, the Colony Management guide for the base, the Expeditions guide for combat, and the Early Access page for what is still changing.
Every guide marks what is confirmed from the official Steam listing versus what the community is still testing during Early Access.
Source boundary
Primary source checked: 2026-08-26. Pax Autocratica is in Steam Early Access, so changing information should be rechecked before publication.
Primary source: Official Steam listing for Pax Autocratica.