Haven: the Ops 61 planetary base, explained
Haven is the planetary base added in Update 95, and it is a feature for Commanders at Operations (Ops) level 61 or higher: that is the level at which you can build the Iconian Hub on your Station, and the Hub is the only way in. Players from Ops 20 upward can look at other people's Havens but not build their own. This guide assumes you are at or near Ops 61, already run a Station with the late-game spotlight buildings, and want to know what Haven gives you, what to spend on first, and what is safe to ignore. If you are below Ops 61 there is nothing to do yet except learn the vocabulary.
Build the Iconian Hub on your Station and a gateway opens to Haven, an undiscovered world that is the only known producer of Resonance Charge. At the centre of your Haven sits the Iconian Gateway. It generates Resonance Charge by itself, with no mining or fighting needed, and it can be upgraded to Level 10. Each level raises the Charge it produces and unlocks more structures for sale in the Haven Store, so the Gateway is the real progress bar of the whole feature. Resonance Charge is spent on two things: choosing shards (the fragments you collect to unlock a structure) and upgrading structures, including the Gateway itself. The first visit plays an intro video with sound that ignores your in-game audio settings, so mute your device first if you are playing somewhere quiet.
Part of Haven starts buried under toxic fog, and you cannot place structures on it. Every Haven begins with an Environmental Stabilizer, which clears that fog. Upgrading it does three things at once: it makes more Resonance Charge, it clears fog more effectively, and it opens more room to build. A second Stabilizer is promised for later in the feature, which would let you clear further areas. In practice this makes the Stabilizer and the Gateway your two priority upgrades, because both of them raise your income and your available space.
The Haven Store sells structures in four rarities: Common, Uncommon, Rare and Epic. Common structures are decoration only. Uncommon, Rare and Epic structures each give an account-wide buff, meaning it applies to your whole account and not just to Haven, and the buff grows as you upgrade the structure from Level 1 to Level 10. At launch the Store listed 8 Common, 8 Uncommon, 8 Rare and 5 Epic structures, with 4 further Epic structures planned through the Battle Pass, events and real-money purchases. Seventeen buff structures were announced at launch, and they fall into seven groups: station material and resource cost efficiency for G7 (generation 7) buildings; research cost and research speed; ship build cost; ship parts cost for Explorer, Battleship and Interceptor hulls (the three Embassies); repair speed and repair cost; ship shield and hull health; and combat bonuses for player-versus-environment (PvE) and player-versus-player (PvP) fights, such as Isolytic and Critical damage. Treat the exact maximum values as something to read off the in-game structure screen, because Scopely listed them per structure and they may be tuned. One correction worth knowing: an early version of the announcement listed a Frontier Pavilion, but the structure that shipped is the Hydroponics Dome.
Structures can be dragged to any tile that has been cleared of fog, removed from the map and redeployed, so a layout mistake costs you nothing. Special road tiles are available if you want to dress the base. Two rules matter for your buffs. First, a structure's buff and its Frontier Prestige count only while it is deployed on the map, so a structure sitting in storage does nothing. Second, you may place several copies of the same type for looks, but only the highest-level copy of each type contributes its buff and prestige. Do not spend upgrade Charge on a second copy of something you already own at a higher level.
Frontier Prestige is the score that ranks Havens. Each server, and each server region, has a leaderboard sorted by total prestige, and from it you can visit any listed Haven. You can also share your own Haven in chat. Pressing Help on another Commander's Haven gives rewards to both of you, up to three times per day, and you are not limited to your Alliance: anyone on your server can be helped. Three helps a day is a cheap routine, so do it when you log in.
Besides the Gateway, Resonance Charge arrives through both the Free and the Elite Battle Pass tracks for Ops 61+ players, which speeds up the early weeks. The Haven Arc's Elite Battle Pass also gave a full unlock of the Epic Klingon Opera House (the spelling used in the Update 95 patch notes). Unlocking it needs a Level 1 or higher Iconian Gateway and 100 Klingon Opera House shards. Its buff raises hull health by up to 10,000% at Level 10, and the feature highlight says that unlocking it adds 200,000 Frontier Prestige, which helps push the Gateway to higher levels. During the Haven Arc it was sold only through the Elite Battle Pass and was not in the Haven Store; check the Store before assuming that is still true.
Update 95.1 made Haven easier to live with without changing its numbers. The fog now looks better and runs more smoothly, the Dismantle page shows more clearly which resources you get back and whether the buff stays active, structure names, levels and buffs are easier to read, and a structure that has reached its maximum level no longer shows a pointless upgrade button.
If you are at Ops 61 or above, build the Iconian Hub as soon as your Station has room, then upgrade the Gateway and the Environmental Stabilizer before anything else: they raise your Resonance Charge income and unlock both space and better structures. Spend shards first on the Uncommon and Rare buffs that match what you are currently short of, whether that is research time, ship parts or repair cost, because Common structures give nothing. Keep only your best copy of each type deployed. Log in daily to help other Havens three times. If you are on the Elite Battle Pass, collect the Opera House shards, since unlocking it adds 200,000 prestige toward the next Gateway level. If you are below Ops 61, save your station resources for the Hub and read the Special station buildings guide to plan your space.