Pax Autocratica Glossary: Every Term Explained

Pax Autocratica names things in its own bureaucratic dialect, and patch notes use those names without explanation. This page collects the terms that appear in official announcements and forum threads, with what each one actually means for you.

Only terms we can trace to an official source are listed. Where the game uses a name we have seen but cannot yet define from a source, it is left out rather than guessed at.

Resources and materials

Titanite The early-game mineral you mine first. Its main job is repairing the Command Center, which is what gates everything else — so the opening hour is essentially a Titanite run. See Titanite and Resources.

Core Fragment Pick-ups collected during an expedition that modify that run. They are the roguelite layer: temporary, not permanent colony upgrades. New players routinely misread these as tech unlocks and are surprised when they reset. See Core Fragments.

Weapon Core A named modifier attached to weapon behaviour. Patch notes tune them individually — the August 15 patch increased damage on Vortex Shell and widened the damage area of Thunderbolt Arrow.

Buildings

Command Center The building the whole colony hangs off. Repairing it unlocks research and blueprints; upgrading it raises the ceiling on everything else. If you are unsure what to build next, the answer is usually "whatever the Command Center is asking for". See Command Center.

Prison Where captured enemies are held. It has to be researched before it can be built, which catches people out — capture an enemy with nowhere to put them and the capture was wasted. See Capture and Prisoners.

Barracks Houses and trains soldiers. Required before your first expedition can be crewed.

Systems and mechanics

Capture Round Special ammunition that leaves an enemy alive instead of killing them. Ordinary fire kills; without capture rounds loaded, you cannot take prisoners at all. The August 15 patch added three advanced variants with higher capture chances against Elites and Bosses, and made a failed capture attempt temporarily prevent that enemy from dying.

Expedition A run out from the colony to gather resources and fight. Progress carries across runs — and so does enemy strength, which is why an expedition can feel harder than the last one even with better gear. See Expeditions.

Decisive Battle A major set-piece fight that opens up once expedition progress reaches a certain point. See Bosses.

Soldier Aging Soldiers age over time and decline. As of the August 12 patch this is a toggle — you can switch it off and keep soldiers at peak condition permanently, and the setting can be changed at any time.

Exile Added August 12. Lets you remove surplus or low-contribution soldiers, not just captives, to free up space and resources.

Mandatory Reproduction A colony policy affecting citizen population. Named in the August 15 patch notes where a bug producing incorrect pregnancy states was fixed.

Places and enemies

Tyris System The setting — the star system your State operates in.

Scourgeborn A hostile faction. Individual unit names appear in patch notes, such as the Scourgeborn Ravager. The Scourgeborn Wilds is an associated warzone area.

Infested Nest A battle type whose difficulty was reduced on August 12 after player reports. If you bounced off one before that date, it is easier now.

Star Map The overworld layer where you choose expedition destinations and can be intercepted by pirates while gathering.

What the game calls you

The game and its announcements never address you as "the player":

• Leader — your role in the colony. Patch notes say things like "Leaders can now choose whether…"
• Citizen — how community announcements address the audience
• The Ministry / the Supreme Council — how the developer refers to itself in-character when writing patch notes

This is worth knowing purely so patch notes are readable. When a post says "Citizens, a system calibration has been deployed", it means there is a patch.

Community shorthand

EFAS / Earth From Another Sun ⚠️ Community usage, not an official name. Multiple third-party game databases list Pax Autocratica under a former title, Earth From Another Sun, and people do search for the old name. We have not found a developer announcement confirming the rename, so treat this as "widely repeated" rather than "confirmed". If you see old videos or guides under that title, they are probably about this game — but check the dates, because a pre-rename build may differ from what ships today.

"Directives" Players use this for patches, because the developer names them that way (Directive AG-12, Directive AG-14). There is no version number to use instead — see Update History.

FAQ

Why are some terms missing?

Because we only list what we can source. Terms that appear in-game but not in any announcement get added once we can define them from something better than memory.

Where do these definitions come from?

Steam's store listing, the developer's patch notes, and this wiki's own guide pages. Full register on Sources.

A definition does not match my game

Early Access moves. Check the Last verified date at the top, then trust your game.