Andromeda isn't like most other games, it has been slowly developed by one person for years now, and the direction it has taken has been constantly shaped by feedback and ideas from users to make it what it is today.
It's not super fast paced. You can't really pick it up for an hour and get much out of it. It's intended to be a digital universe in your pocket with its own virtual economy and a community of people that will probably be around for awhile.
To be clear though, it's not an idle clicker game, it does take thought and strategy to succeed.
It is heavily economy oriented, with an emphasis on colonizing entire solar systems full of planets and building structures on them to generate resources over time, making it a bit of a mix of a 4X space game (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate), Universe Simulator, and a Tycoon game.
Fleet battles are 1v1, so while you can't be in the same fight with a friend, you can help defend your friend's territory from attacks by leaving your fleet in orbit over their planet.
The universe is persistent, so anything gained is kept, allowing you to build up a large interstellar empire over time.
Gameplay -
Play as an interstellar Corporation that warps to the safety of the Andromeda Galaxy to escape an alien invasion of Earth and The Milky Way.
Build up an economy by constructing and upgrading habitats for workers, solar arrays for power, resorts for tourists, mines and refineries for metals, and much more.
Hire a Stellar Representative that levels up and gains perk points that can be used to boost the efficiency all the planets in a solar system.
Use the resources you've harvested from your planets to build ships and outfit them with weapons and support modules.
Create colony ships to expand your Corporation to even more planets and moons.
Terraform your planets to make them more habitable for your Workers and Tourists by altering the planet's Temperature, Water Level and Pollution.
Form fleets of up to 12 ships and retake Earth, Mars and the rest of Sol from the aliens known as "Strith", or fight against other players and take their planets.
Not into PvP? The starter system and Andromeda galaxy is completely PvE, so you can build freely without being harassed by other players.
Trade with other players for credits, resources, ships, weapons and support modules, or use the Bazaar to leave orders to buy or sell resources while your offline.
Form alliances with other players and work together.
Fleet Battles -
Leave a fleet in orbit over a planet to protect it from other players while you're away.
Ships automatically fire at targets with basic weapons like gattling guns and lasers.
Players have control over unique abilities such as Nuke, EMP, Prism Gel, Draw Fire, Focus Fire, Repair Beam and Shield Beam making fleet composition and strategy important.
Hire a Fleet Commander that levels up from fleet battles and gains points that can unlock perks that boost all the ships in their fleet.
Land Battles -
Build defenses on the surface of your planets as a second layer of defense against other players that takes a lot longer to destroy than a fleet.
Fill up troop transport ships and enter orbit of another player's planet to land your troops and invade it.
Free to Play? -
Free to play with Non-Pay-To-Win perks for available for micro-transactions.
Micro-transactions can buy one thing: Time Crystals.
Time Crystals can be used to skip building and repair timers, buy alternate ship skins, paint ships, buy cosmetic holograms, open a mystery crate for random stuff, or re-roll resources on a planet slot.
None of the stuff you get from Time Crystals is going to make a huge difference compared to time played, and the build timers aren't that long forcing you to skip them to enjoy the game, with a buildings being 1-10 minutes usually.
Time crystals can also be occasionally obtained as in-game loot.
Also available on Google Play for Android, but I'm not allowed to post a link to it here.
Maybe an iOS version some day, I don't own a Macbook to build it on.
