Interplanetary missiles (IPM) are the cleanest way to wipe a target's defense without risking your fleet. They leave no debris and the defense is not repaired: what you destroy stays destroyed. Used well, they crack open a well-defended planet for a later attack.
How they work
Each missile deals a base 12,000 damage, increased by 10% per level of your weapons technology. That damage is spread over the enemy defense, whose hull rises 10% per level of their armour. You need a Missile Silo to store them, and their range depends on your impulse drive.
The enemy's anti-ballistic missiles
Before damaging anything, your missiles collide with the defender's anti-ballistic missiles (ABM): each ABM intercepts one of yours. If the target has 10 ABM, your first 10 missiles are wasted. Always count them when planning the strike.
The primary target
You can set a specific defense as the priority target (for example Plasma Turrets, the most expensive). Missiles destroy it first and the leftover damage carries on to the rest. This lets you concentrate the hit where it hurts the enemy most.
Calculate your strike
Paste the espionage report into the Missile Simulator to load the enemy's defense and armour, and let it compute how many missiles you need (including the ABMs to exhaust) and the resource balance of the attack.