Distress Call to Your Alliance

What is the distress call? #

The distress call alerts your alliance with a single click when your island is under attack. Alliance members see a red marker at the top of the navigation and can send you reinforcements. If your leadership has enabled distress-call sharing, members of confirmed treaty allies also see the call on their distress-call page — without a message or marker — and can send reinforcements.

When does the button appear? #

The button shows up on the island detail page when:

• an enemy attack or colonization is heading toward your island,
• this island has no active distress call already,
• the cooldown has expired (1 hour after you closed a call yourself),
• you are in an alliance.

What happens after you click? #

1. The other alliance members receive a message unless their account is banned or suspended, or they have requested deletion.
2. The red distress marker appears in the top navigation for every member.
3. The distress detail page lists recorded responses. Aid sent by treaty allies through the fleet wizard does not appear there; their reinforcements may still be on the way.

Understanding travel time — the most important section #

The display compares your reinforcements’ estimated arrival with the saved attack window. It tells you whether you can arrive in time or will probably be too late.

What counts is the arrival of your reinforcement: whoever reaches the island before the attack fights along. The display already accounts for this. If it says uncertain, your reinforcement only arrives within the attack window. Whether that is enough depends on exactly when the attack strikes.

The preview shows an arrival range for your reinforcements, from the small to the large warship. Alliance and fortress bonuses are included; a large trading ship takes longer. Depending on the ships, the verdict can differ at the two ends. The verdict refers to the saved attack window; a faster wave launched later may be missing from it.

Response options #

On the distress detail page you have two ways to send reinforcements:

• Send reinforcements: Pick one of your saved fleet templates and dispatch it instantly from one of your islands.
• Adjust in fleet wizard: Open the fleet wizard with target and “Dispatch” mission pre-filled. You can freely tune the composition there.

No templates yet? Create one in the fleet cockpit under "Templates" first.

Note: As long as you yourself are in Vacation Mode (Anchor Mode), you cannot answer a distress call — your fleets stay in port until you return.

Sending reinforcements by Dispatch does not end your beginner protection. If instead you create or join a Combined Attack against a player or a player-held fortress, the game warns you beforehand if this would end your beginner protection. Only when you confirm does your beginner protection end for good -- never later on arrival or when the battle is resolved.

When does the distress call disappear? #

• Manually: The sender clicks "Close distress call" — for example after the attack has ended.
• Automatically: After a repelled wave, the call may close if no further hostile fleet is inbound. It also closes after a period without combat. This may happen even while a later wave is still on the way.
• Island lost: If the island is colonized, the call closes automatically.
• Leaving the alliance, being kicked, or vacation mode: The call closes automatically. If the alliance is dissolved, it may remain open and temporarily block a new call for the same island.

Loyalty period (24 hours) #

While either you or the caller is still within the loyalty period, you cannot send reinforcements. You can still view and raise distress calls. This period prevents someone from briefly joining an alliance just to exchange reinforcements.

Accounts in their first 14 days have no loyalty period of their own. Any ongoing loyalty period for the other captain still applies.

Cooldown (1 hour) #

If you close a distress call yourself, you must wait 1 hour before you can send a new one on the same island. This prevents spam. If a call closes automatically, you can send a new one right away as soon as another attack heads for the island. Other islands in your empire are not affected.

Maximum 5 concurrent distress calls per alliance #

A performance ceiling — in practice this should never be a limit.

Frequently asked questions #

• Does the attacker know I sent a distress call? No.
• What if no one answers? You defend on your own, as always. The distress call does not guarantee help.
• Can I receive distress calls by email or push? Not in this version. They are in-game only.
• Can I have multiple distress calls at once? Maximum one active per island.
• Does the call cover multiple simultaneous attacks? Yes, it can cover several waves. However, the saved attack window is not updated for every new wave, and the call may close despite further incoming attacks.