Pre-alpha codex — written from the build in internal testing. Systems, numbers and features can change before launch. · Join the waitlist
Your First System
A short walkthrough from spawn to first survey.
New accounts spawn with a single system already claimed. Until you have ships, this is your whole empire — every resource and research order starts here.
Step 1 — Open the System Overview
The default page is the System Overview. You will see three concentric rings of slot pips around your homeworld and a short status line telling you which slot is currently active.
Step 2 — Build basic infrastructure
- Open Constructions. Queue a Metal Mine, then a Crystal Mine. Build a Solar Plant whenever your energy goes negative.
- Add a Residential Complex as soon as a building shows the "population required" warning. Population gates every advanced building.
- When you have a Research Lab, queue a Robotics Bay. Every level makes the whole system build faster — it pays for itself within the first day of play.
Step 3 — Start research
Visit the Research Lab. Energy Tech, Fleet Command and Combustion Drive are the three free-to-start tier-1 nodes — pick the one whose downstream tree you want first (Energy unlocks weapons, Combustion unlocks ships, Fleet Command unlocks Spaceport).
Step 4 — Develop a slot
Click any developed slot pip to open the Slot Detail panel. You can:
- Pick a specialty — Metal, Crystal, Aetherium or Population (needs a System Administration building).
- Deepen it — higher specialty levels focus the orbit harder on its chosen resource, growing with your System Administration.
- See the orbit zone bonus — automatic, based on where the orbit sits: hot inner band, habitable middle, cold resource-rich outer ring.
Step 5 — Reach for the stars
Once you have a Shipyard and an Espionage Probe, dispatch one to a nearby star to chart it. After Astrophysics + Research Ship, run a survey mission to reveal the system's orbits, and you are ready to colonize.