IXION: Complete Administrator's Guide

A guide to keeping the Tiqqun alive from the Prologue to the final chapter: resources, sectors and stability, hull integrity and EVA, trust, specializations, a chapter-by-chapter plan, and the mistakes that end runs.

Researched September 2026. Current as of patch 1.0.5.8 (the August 2023 update that reworked Chapter 5) and the July 2024 PC performance update. No major PC content updates have followed; the console ports arrived in April 2025. Check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

• Hull integrity and trust are how you lose. The campaign ends if hull integrity fails or crew trust collapses. Watch both at all times.
• Research EVA early. EVA airlocks let workers repair the hull. The community's recommended Prologue research order is EVA, then Probe, then Insect Farm, then Cryonic Center.
• Workers are the real currency. Every building needs staff. Don't build faster than your population can staff it.
• Keep sector stability up. Homelessness, overwork, accidents and unpopular decisions drag it down. Low stability causes strikes and lost production.
• Build in each sector with a purpose. Aim for a specialization (Food, Industry, Recycling, Population or Space) instead of scattering everything everywhere.
• Logistics connect your sectors. Resources have to move between sectors. Build cargo capacity and transport early, and later Train Stations.
• Power is limited. Too much load causes blackouts. Keep batteries stocked and don't run every building at once.
• Probes and ships feed you. Probes reveal the system map. Mining ships and cargo ships bring back raw resources, and science ships bring back research.
• Save before every jump and every major decision. Choices have delayed consequences.

The Core Systems

Resources (community terminology)

Tier | Resources | Notes

Raw (from space) | Iron (Fe), Carbon (C), Silicon (Si), Hydrogen (H), Ice | Mined by ships from asteroids and wrecks

Life support | Food, Water | Farms (Insect Farm, later Algae Farm) and water treatment

Processed | Steel/alloy, Polymer, Electronics | Steel Mill, Polymer Factory and electronics production

Special | Cryopods, Batteries | Cryopods hold sleeping colonists; batteries back up power

Waste | Waste | Recycled back into materials at waste facilities

Don't just let waste pile up. Recycling it into alloy, electronics or polymer ("Fully Recycled") saves a lot of mining.

Sectors

The Tiqqun is a ring of six sectors. You unlock them over the campaign. Each sector:

• Has its own stability and workforce.
• Has a fixed amount of floor space. A community guide counts 1,680 tiles per sector.
• Can reach specialization tiers that grant bonuses.
• Can host a DLS (Data Listening System) building, which lets you monitor the crew and is needed to activate specialization bonuses.

Stability

Each sector's stability goes up and down with:

• Housing: homeless crew lower stability.
• Work status: you can push sectors to overwork for output, but it costs stability ("Crunch Culture" is the achievement for every sector at Overwork, not a recommendation).
• Accidents and fires: fires spread between buildings, so build fire coverage.
• Decrees: policies you enact that can help or hurt.
• Amenities: buildings such as the Health Center, memorials and entertainment options.

Trust

Crew trust is the station-wide mood toward DOLOS and you. Events and decisions move it. Hit zero and it's mutiny and game over. You can recover from 1% ("In Dolos We Trust"), but it's far better not to get there.

Hull integrity and EVA

The hull degrades over time and after jumps and events. EVA airlocks send crew out to repair it, and replacing hull pieces through EVA keeps you ahead of the decay. "The Ship of Theseus" asks you to replace the last original hull piece.

The VOHLE engine and jumps

The Tiqqun travels between systems with its VOHLE engine. Jumps cost resources and wear the hull. Before a jump, stock up, repair the hull, and bring your ships home.

Space operations

• Probes scan the system map to reveal resource deposits and points of interest ("Sputnik 2049" is for finding two large deposits with one probe).
• Mining ships harvest raw resources. "Drill-dozer" needs 5 active at once.
• Cargo ships salvage and transport.
• Science ships investigate points of interest for research and story.
• Later, the Probe Launcher can be converted into a Missile Launcher, which matters for defense in later chapters.

Specializations

Build enough buildings with a specialization icon in one sector to reach Tier 1 and then Tier 2. A community specialization guide rates them:

Specialization | Community rating | Good buildings for it

Recycling | Excellent | Mushroom Wall, Waste Treatment Center

Food | Excellent | Mushroom Wall; farms

Space | Excellent | Tech Lab

Industry | Mediocre | Electronics Factory, Waste Treatment Center

Population | Poor | Crew Quarters

Buildings don't need to be running to count, so you can build them and switch them off to reach a tier. The same guide advises against using the Drone Bay, Observatory, Optimized Quarter, Crop Farm and Exo-Fighting Dome to chase specialization points.

Chapter-by-Chapter Plan

These chapter titles and build priorities come from a popular community chapter guide. The story order matches Wikipedia's plot summary (the Protagoras, then the Etemenanki, then the Piranesi), and each of Chapters 1 to 4 has a completion achievement: "Hope Seeker", "From the Past", "What the Ruins Teach Us" and "Pulsar Disciple". Details can shift slightly with patch 1.0.5.8's Chapter 5 rework.

Prologue: The Tiqqun

Tutorial. Research EVA, then Probe, then Insect Farm, then Cryonic Center. Get food running, get EVA repairs going, and don't overbuild.

Chapter 1: Dead Earth

Open two more sectors, one for food and one for steel/industry. Research Cryonic Center and Steel Mill first. A Steel Mill needs a big crew, so plan housing and cryopod awakenings to staff it. By the end of the chapter, aim for Insect Farms in the food sector and a pair of Steel Mills and Polymer Factories in industry.

Chapter 2: The Protagoras

Push Sector 1 toward Tier 2 Space, finish the sectors you've opened, and build your first dedicated housing sector (Cell housing early). Add a Waste Center. Look for research that makes housing produce useful waste.

Chapter 3: The Etemenanki

Upgrade your food supply immediately. Algae Farms can feed a large population on a normal food policy. Stockpile batteries, build a second housing sector, and start building polymer reserves for the next chapter.

Chapter 4: The Piranesi

Mostly exploration and research collection. Convert a Probe Launcher to a Missile Launcher (one or two) and keep stockpiling polymer. You won't need much new construction.

Chapter 5: A New Home

Complete the requirements for your chosen ending path, use launchers for defense, and fill the remaining space with battery production. Save before the final decisions.

The ending choice (spoilers): per Wikipedia, you either accept the Ashtangites' offer to settle on Remus (which requires the colonists to undergo their bioengineering) or discover that Edden is hiding a second habitable planet, Romulus, and settle there without modification after disabling Edden. The community guide notes the two paths need different late-game builds (a specific facility for one, an upgraded Colony Training Center for the other), so decide early in the chapter rather than at the last moment.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Building without workers. Unstaffed buildings are wasted materials and power.
• Delaying EVA. The hull decays whether you're ready or not.
• Ignoring stability until strikes start. Recovering from a crisis costs more than preventing one.
• Overloading power. Repeated blackouts ("Power Outage" is the tenth) stall production and cause accidents.
• Spreading every building type across every sector. You'll never reach specialization tiers.
• Jumping unprepared. Always repair and stock up before a VOHLE jump.
• Waking too many cryopods at once. New colonists need housing, food and jobs immediately.
• Letting fires burn. Fires spread ("This is Fine" is for 20 simultaneous fires, so don't aim for it).

Advanced Tips

• Toggle buildings. Switch production off when you don't need it to free workers and power. It's also how you hit specialization counts cheaply.
• Stockpile management: patch 1.0.5.8 added an option to destroy resources in stockpiles. Use it to clear clutter that's blocking useful storage.
• Train Stations in every sector speed up logistics ("Monotrack Drifter").
• Use the DLS to read the crew's mood before making decrees.
• Plan a housing sector early instead of cramming housing into production sectors.
• Keep a hull buffer. Treat anything under about half integrity as an emergency during jump chapters.
• Accessibility: the August 2023 update added colorblind options, larger event text, a font option, a screen shake toggle and a "run in background" option.
• Challenge mode is the separate test for veterans. Clearing it gives "I Give You The Stars" (about 2% of players).

Update History

Date | Update | What changed

December 7, 2022 | Release (PC) | Launch by Bulwark Studios, published by Kasedo Games

August 24, 2023 | Patch 1.0.5.8 | Reworked Chapter 5, accessibility options, an option to destroy stockpiled resources, four new music tracks by Guillaume David, and bug fixes. These included the "Drill-dozer" achievement not unlocking, Edden not warning about a drone swarm attack, and asteroids not being detected

December 7, 2023 | Anniversary update | Italian localisation, Steam trading cards and a Points Shop profile bundle

July 2, 2024 | Performance update | Better overall performance and less stuttering on PC

April 8, 2025 | Console release | PS5 and Xbox Series X/S

If you last played before August 2023, Chapter 5 plays differently now, and 1.0.5.8 also closed an exploit that let players skip the final steps of "The Last Stand" and another late mission. Old Chapter 5 advice may no longer apply.

Achievement Roadmap

There are 57 achievements. The chapter ones ("Hope Seeker" through "Pulsar Disciple") and the population milestones come with normal play: "A Thousand Strong" is 1,000 crew and "Exceeding Capacity" is 3,079. Plan these ones into a run instead:

Achievement | Requirement | Unlock rate | Tip

Scientifically Accurate | Set every audio slider to 0 in settings | 8% | Free, takes 10 seconds

Remember the Dead | A memorial in each of the six sectors | 5.4% | Leave a small plot free in every sector

Scenic View | An Observatory in each of the six sectors | 2.0% | Same idea; build them late when space frees up

Monotrack Drifter | A Train Station in each of the six sectors | 22% | Useful anyway for logistics

Space Greenhouse / Work Harder / A Junker's Dream / Suburban Perfection | Tier 2 Food / Industry / Recycling / Population specialization in a sector | 13.7% / 5.2% / 4.3% / 2.3% | Buildings count while switched off, so you can build them, reach the tier, then disable them

Soylent Green | A Water Treatment Center in a sector under the Body Recycling decree | 3.0% | Save first; decrees can have delayed consequences

Delivery! | Research every Drone Bay upgrade | 14.7% | A research-point sink for later chapters

Sustainable Energy | Build all solar panels | 25.5% | Comes with power expansion

Pedal to the Metal | Move 300 resources between sectors in one cycle | 17.1% | Easier with Train Stations everywhere

Crunch Culture | Every sector at Overwork or higher at once | 2.8% | Save first; do it briefly, then revert

A Hunk of Junk | Hull below 5% and survive | 34% | Happens to many players by accident. Don't try it on purpose without spare EVA capacity

This is Fine | Fires in 20 buildings at once | 1.3% | Joint rarest; use a throwaway save

I Give You The Stars | Complete Challenge mode | 2.0% | Post-campaign

Several achievements are hidden on Steam (they show no description), so expect a few to pop from story choices.

FAQ

How do you lose in IXION? The run ends if hull integrity fails or crew trust collapses entirely.

What should I research first? The community-recommended Prologue order is EVA, then Probe, then Insect Farm, then Cryonic Center.

How many sectors are there? Six. You unlock them over the campaign.

What are specializations? Sector bonuses from building enough specialization-tagged buildings in one sector. There are two tiers, and the DLS activates the bonus.

How many chapters are there? A Prologue plus Chapters 1 to 5. Chapter 5 was reworked in patch 1.0.5.8 (August 2023).

Is IXION on console? Yes. PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions released on April 8, 2025.

Is IXION still being updated? The last PC update was a July 2024 performance patch that reduced stuttering.

Sources

• IXION on Wikipedia
• Steam store page (app 1113120)
• Steam global achievements list
• Steam guide: Chapter Layout guide
• Steam guide: Detailed Sector Specialisation Guide
• Steam news: August 2023 update (1.0.5.8), anniversary update (December 2023) and July 2024 performance update