Your first game

In a typical first game you’ll:

1. Choose a faction.
2. Watch a procedural galaxy generate around you.
3. Send your starting fleet to scout nearby star systems.
4. Found your first colony.
5. Pick a research project.
6. Meet another civilisation, decide whether to talk or fight.
7. End the turn. Repeat.

The game opens on a full-screen view of deep space — dark sky, distant nebula light, a scatter of stars — with the title and menu kept crisp on top. That mood carries into play: your hex galaxy sits on layered starfields, and as you pan the map the layers drift at different speeds, so deep space reads as genuinely deep rather than flat. It stays quiet on purpose, setting the scale without ever pulling focus from your fleets, your colonies, or the map.

A skirmish lasts roughly 60–120 turns depending on map size. Most games end via military conquest; diplomatic and economic victory paths are planned.

Step 1 — Choose a faction

The opening menu shows four civilisations, each with different starting fleets, starting research, and bonuses. Pick the one whose flavour speaks to you:

• Terran Directorate — industrial, methodical, hard to dislodge.
• Nyx Collective — tech-rushers; small fleets but they out-science you.
• Orion Hegemony — early military pressure, fleet-first doctrine.
• Vanguard Nomads — diplomatic and mobile; nebulae barely slow them down.

Each faction page lists the full bonus suite — see Factions.

Step 2 — The galaxy

The map is a hexagonal grid. Each tile is one of seven terrain types: empty deep space, nebulae, asteroid fields, ion storms, star systems (where you can settle), black holes, and rare wormholes that link distant tiles.

Nebulae and ion storms don’t stop at tile edges. They drift across the map as soft, continuous clouds — flowing from hex to hex, merging where they meet, and dissolving into the deep-space background rather than ending at a hard border.

Your starting fleet sits next to your home colony. The fog of war hides everything you haven’t yet seen.

Step 3 — Move and explore

Click a fleet, click a destination tile, choose Move. Each ship has a movement budget per turn. Some terrain is faster (deep space) and some is slower (nebulae) — but each faction has different penalties, and the Vanguard Nomads barely notice nebulae at all.

Turn on the Movement & Terrain Cost map layer to see how terrain shapes your moves. Costly regions show a small cost number, and when you select a fleet the hexes it can reach this turn light up — denser nebulae and ion storms visibly shrink that range because they cost more to cross. Hover any hex to read its terrain and travel cost, and hover a destination to preview the route and how many movement points it takes to get there.

Step 4 — Found your second colony

When a fleet enters a habitable star system, you can settle it. New colonies start small but grow each turn. You queue buildings to specialise them (industry, research, defence) and ship resources between them.

Step 5 — Research

Each turn you accumulate research points. Spend them to unlock ships, buildings, and stat boosts. Pick a branch (military, exploration, economy) early and commit — most factions are stronger when they specialise.

Step 6 — End your turn

When you’ve issued your orders, click End Turn. The game resolves combat, applies income and maintenance, advances research, and ships you back to the map with everything updated.

What next

Read How a turn works to understand what happens between “End Turn” and the next round, then Economy and resources to start optimising your empire.