Your first hour

You wake in a debris field of your own — not on a veteran’s base, and not in a shared queue. Three containers drift nearby, your wallet holds 15,000 cr, and a free cutter waits in the hangar. An hour from now you will have a colony, an income and your first captured relay.

This page walks you through it step by step: short sections, a check after each one, and none of the theory that can wait. Read one step, do it, come back for the next.

What you need

• A modern browser. Current Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari; phones and tablets work too.
• A mouse and keyboard — or two virtual sticks on a touchscreen.
• An account if you want one. Guest entry works immediately, but the guest name lives on this device.
• 15,000 cr and a cutter. You don’t earn these; they are every pilot’s starting kit.
• About an hour. The first loop takes ten minutes; the rest is for getting your bearings.

Goals for the first session

Six goals carry you from the debris field to a shared victory. They are tracked in your journal, and all six together pay 2,500 cr.

1. Raise a capture beacon.
2. Mine one asteroid.
3. Destroy the starter sentry.
4. Found a colony.
5. Build a power plant.
6. Capture the starter relay.

Step 1 · 0:00 — Wake in the debris

You appear in a personal debris field beside an abandoned mine. Nobody starts on someone else’s base: this is your entry point, and it stays empty until you make something of it.

Three containers hold everything you need to begin:

• Capture beacon ×1 — your ticket to a surface.
• Ore ×12 — your first material and your first credits.
• Turret blueprint ×1 — a permanent unlock that stays with you.

Your wallet already holds 15,000 cr. The ship carries a MK.1 weapon, 100 hull, 50 shield and 40 cargo.

Step 2 · 0:02 — Look over the cutter

Your first ship is the free Loaner Cutter: a compact hull, two stub wings, two engines, a double block. It cannot be sold or deleted, and it comes back after a loss.

That matters more than it sounds. A mistake at the start will never leave you shipless or unable to continue. Ships you build yourself carry no such guarantee.

The controls are simple at this point: thrust, turn, mining beam. The full key list is in Controls.

Step 3 · 0:05 — Mine your first ore

Close on an asteroid and switch on the mining beam. It reaches 250 m and takes about 1.2 seconds per unit of ore.

The starter rock holds 500 units; your hold takes 40, so this is several trips. Don’t try to haul it all at once — ore in the hold is space you may want for something better.

A station pays 25 cr per unit of ore. That is the first money you earned yourself.

Step 4 · 0:10 — Shoot down the sentry

The starter sentry is a weak opponent: 120 hull, 50 shield, 12 damage. It notices a target at 180 m, while your weapon reaches 1,200 m.

That makes the tactic simple: keep your distance, fire in short bursts and don’t ram. The gun cycles every 220 ms, so there is no rush — the only real mistake is letting it get close.

Step 5 · 0:15 — Plant the beacon

A capture beacon turns a surface plot into your colony. The first one is already in the container; the next costs 2,000 cr, and the rack holds three.

Double-click a planet on the star map to choose a plot. Founding a colony costs 5,000 cr, and the plot is a 32×32 grid of cells.

For the first 24 hours after founding a colony you are under newcomer protection: nobody can capture the base. Use that time to build power and defences, not to hide.

Step 6 · 0:25 — Build three modules

A base runs one queue: one module builds at a time. Build the first three in this order.

Without power a base does not work: production is halved, shields and defences switch off. A power plant is not “one more module”; it is the condition for the colony to exist.

More on structures in Modules.

Step 7 · 0:40 — Earn your upkeep

Every day the command post charges 40 cr plus each module’s upkeep multiplied by its level. For a base with three level-one modules that is about 150 cr a day.

A level-one mining plant adds 60 cr a minute, so it covers its upkeep with room to spare. The six starter goals add another 2,500 cr on top.

Step 8 · 0:55 — Capture the relay

The starter relay is taken together, and the capture takes fifteen minutes. When the node turns to your side it changes colour on the map — that is a shared victory, not a personal reward.

That ends the first hour. What follows is ordinary captain’s life: upkeep, the build queue, the market, foreign patrols and plans of your own.

Check yourself

• The beacon is spent and a colony stands on a 32×32 plot.
• The power plant is built and power is in surplus.
• The mining plant earns credits and the turret covers the command post.
• The sentry is destroyed and the relay is yours.
• At least 150 cr remains — one day of upkeep.
• You remember that Esc closes a panel and returns you to the map.

If something goes wrong

What next

• Controls — every key, camera and mobile stick.
• Base and command post — radius, queue and upkeep without surprises.
• Modules — twelve structures and what they cost.
• The captain’s path — where to go after the first hour.