Flight Assist
Let go and you orbit
Take your hands off the keys and your ship settles into a gentle orbit around the nearest planet or moon. Out here, that is what standing still means.
When you feel ready, switch the assist off and fly on nothing but your own thrust.
Read the sky
See where you are going
A line ahead of your ship shows where gravity will carry you. Green and closed means a stable orbit, red means you are falling.
Line it up through your target and let the planet do the work.
The best feeling in the game
Slingshot past giants
Your engine has a top speed; gravity does not. Dive close past a planet, swing around it and you come out faster than your engine could ever push you.
It is the quickest way across a system.
Every body is a place
Land, skim and chase
Land
Touch down softly on a planet to drill its surface, or come in too fast and feel it in your hull.
Skim
Skim the clouds of a gas giant to scoop its gas.
Chase
Match an asteroid's orbit to mine it, or chase a comet along its long loop: more on space mining.
Wonders
A sky worth exploring
Stars flare, a white dwarf blows off its shell, a pulsar sweeps its beam across the dark, starlight pushes on unfolded solar sails, and at the centre of it all a black hole waits. These are places you visit, mine and fight in, not wallpaper.
Stars flareStarlight pushes on your sails
A white dwarfIt blows off its shell
A pulsarIts beam sweeps the dark
A black holeIt waits at the centre
Combat
Physics in a fight
A full hold makes your ship sluggish. Some weapons shove and pull other ships, and a pilot thrown into a rock or a planet pays for it.
Good pilots use the planets as much as their guns. New here? Start with how to play.
