Frequently Asked Questions

An online space sandbox. You find worlds, plant a flag, terraform them, build, trade, rule, and fight. There are no quests. You play for discovery and building. Real-world physics apply unless the game tells you otherwise.

18 or older. Your age gets verified before you can play.

Age verification follows Utah law.

You create sub-logins for family members. They don't play on your login. Each sub-login is a full account with its own login, character, and standing, and each one pays its own subscription. Every sub-login has to belong to someone 18 or older who has been age-verified. There are no child accounts.

First you get the legal scroll, which you have to read all the way to the bottom before [ I Agree ] unlocks. Then comes the mandatory first-install sequence: a few instruction screens, each with a Continue button that unlocks after a short delay. You can't skip either one. The basics are also covered in the starting training video.

This is not an arcade game. Space here is deadly.

Real-world physics apply in normal space. Mass, momentum, recoil, heat, and stress are all real. A gun too big for your ship can throw you backwards or tear off its mount.

Real physics don't apply in FTL. Weapons don't work there and nobody can attack you, but your own mistakes can still kill you.

Death is real. Your gear stays where you died until someone salvages it.

Caveat Emptor. The Empire doesn't police players or collect their debts.

Imperial Center is safe. Nobody can be killed there.

Don't fart about in space. It's dangerous.

Stupidity carries a death sentence.

An optional tutorial game is planned. You can replay it as many times as you like, and it has "Stupidity carries the death penalty" signs everywhere.

At Imperial Center and the protected starter hubs. Nobody can be killed there, and war can't reach them. Nobody makes you go prospecting right away. You can stay, work Imperial contracts, earn a bigger loadout, or team up before you claim your first rock. New players will see warning signs everywhere. Once you've earned some score and reputation and left Imperial Center for the first time, most of those signs go away.

Everyone starts with zero game points.

Every backer rank and what it gets is in the table above. Exact gift ship stats, sizes, and looks are still being worked out (see What do all backers get?, below).

No. Pledges are rewards-only. You get no ownership, no equity, no profit share, and no financial return.

Yes, as many times as you like. Each pledge gets its own account. Pledge accounts only track pledges. Rewards go to the game account you assign the pledge to. Until launch you can upgrade any pledged account by paying the difference. Every backer, and every account a pledge goes to, has to be 18+ and age-verified.

A gift ship on top of your starting writ.

Starting writ, for your first loadout only.

Higher starting reputation.

One free, one-time skin choice (the same for every rank).

A head start: you play before people who join after launch.

Free play on the company-hosted server only, for your rank's period.

The option to buy 1-year play extensions at $100 each, one at a time, non-refundable (backers only).

Priority support while free play or an extension is active, then standard support.

Weighted petition signatures.

No. Perks belong to the one account they were delivered to. They can't be transferred, pooled, or moved. If the account is nuked into deletion, terminated, or loses its rewards, every perk, unused card, free play, and extension goes with it, with no refunds and no replacements.

If the game moves to a different company or different servers, we'll make every attempt to carry rewards, ranks, and free play over. If the company goes out of business, we make no promises.

Plant a flag. The first flag owns the body. Any solid body counts, and gas giants can be flagged as gas mines. Moon claims have no cost and no waiting period. The rights are yours right away, and landing there is at your own risk.

You can flag them. Flagging a moon also claims its parent planet, but only if that planet is unflagged. If someone has already flagged the planet, you can't use a moon to claim it.

Yes, if you get there first. Flag the system's controlling planet (the most massive one) while NO body in the system is claimed, and the whole system is yours. If anyone already owns anything in the system, flagging the big planet only gets you that planet. Claiming Jupiter 500,000 years ago would have meant claiming the whole solar system. Claiming it today, with Earth taken, gets you Jupiter.

Claims take time to vest (lock in). If you claim a moon like Ganymede, that claims Jupiter, and once that claim vests, the whole system is claimed. If someone else claims another planet in the system while you're waiting to vest, whoever's claim vests first wins what they started. Only the AI decides when a claim vests, and it's use it or lose it. Say you claim Ganymede and barely do a thing, while another player claims Earth and builds it up. If you vest first, you get the whole system, including Earth and everything built on it. If they vest first, you were caught napping, and you get only Jupiter.

Control means defense. As long as nobody attacks it, a claim counts as defended. You lose a claim only when it's attacked and you lose control of it. Lose control of a whole-system claim and you lose the WHOLE system. Server combat logic decides who has control.

Claim control shows a progress bar that gives you a general idea of where your claim stands. It doesn't show the exact status.

A newly claimed asteroid gets 5 in-game days of protection, which is about 10 real hours, and the clock only runs while you're logged in. After that it's on its own. Get settled and then pray.

Yes. While you're logged off, your world is protected from foreign landings and attack. That protection covers your worlds only. It doesn't cover your ships or assets out in contested space. You can't log off to dodge a fight. If you log out during any battle, sieges included, you have to come back within 2 minutes or you lose the battle. That rule is there to stop people logging out to escape a battle they're losing. If your internet provider drops your connection, that's a risk you take, and nothing can be done about it. Players who sit AFK get logged off automatically.

Only with their consent. Help can be requested, sold, bought, or granted. Changing anything on someone else's world without consent is an act of war and counts as an attack.

The claim is gone with it. If it was the controlling planet of a whole-system claim, the whole-system claim lapses. Planets can be destroyed by natural events, by mining the core dry, or by weapons. Destruction updates everyone's map.

If you've also flagged the system's next-largest planet, your whole-system claim survives. A system claim on its own doesn't protect your other planets in this case, so flag the next-largest one too.

When a claim transfers to someone else, everything on the body goes with it, and claims on its moons and asteroids go wherever the original claim goes.

Surface deposits run down and then slowly refill from a much bigger core reserve. Cores themselves can run dry. Points of interest stay where they are and their loot respawns. Whoever grabs the loot keeps it.

No. Sol is a protected preserve. Nobody can claim or terraform it, and only writ is used there.

If it's a loan from the Empire, yes. Your planet is the collateral. Default and you get a warning (also sent outside the game, for example by email) and a grace period of 3 in-game months, about 7.5 real days. Then the Empire forecloses and auctions the planet to anyone, your enemies included. Loans between players are entirely between the players. The Empire doesn't collect, enforce, or hold anything in escrow.

Once per realm per game century (about 8.3 real years), you can pass it to an heir, either another player or your own new character. It's final. The retired character is gone for good, and the heir has to earn their own legacy.

Yes. Supernovas follow real physics. Only massive stars (about 8+ solar masses) and certain white dwarfs in close binaries can go. Which stars are capable of it is never shown to you. A supernova destroys the star and its bodies and erases EVERY claim in the system.

Almost none for a natural supernova. White-dwarf supernovas give none at all. A supernova set off by a weapon gives you only the light-travel time of the beam. And you only get an alert if your sensors are on and you've told them to watch for it. Sensors off means you're blind, whatever your tech level.

No. Nothing stops a nova. You can lift a star long before the end, or delay the nova at the very end. You can never prevent it.

A megaproject that pulls mass off a star long before the end. A lighter star lives longer. Lift early enough and enough, and the star drops below the supernova line and never goes nova. Start too late and you only buy time. The lifted mass is a resource you can sell or burn as fuel. Smaller stars can be lifted purely for resources and mined down to nothing. Lifting can cause flares and instability, and every lifter is visible to everyone.

From natural novas, yes. From the superweapon, no. If you lift a star, you have to defend it. If you can't defend it, that's your problem.

A smaller megaproject that works only once a star is already in its pre-nova stage. It DELAYS the nova. It never prevents it. It buys you time to evacuate and salvage. Each attempt gives up to 10 game days. The first attempt always gives the full 10, and later attempts get weaker at random. Every attempt shows an on-screen roll you can't influence. A 1 means it fails, and a failed delay can bring the nova SOONER. A 100 means another full 10 days. Every attempt pops a warning that a failure could set the star off.

Only the star's owner, plus anyone the owner invites to help. Touching someone else's star without consent is an act of war. When a star changes owners, the new owner starts fresh with a full allowance.

Nobody else can attempt a delay on your star.

Yes. Star lifters, delay rigs, and the superweapon are all attackable targets. The delay warning only shows up for whoever runs the rig. An attacker finds out a rig is mid-delay only through their own scouts, spies, or sensors.

Yes. It's a player-built megaproject that can set off a star. Anyone who can build it can use it.

Around the biggest stars (15+ solar masses), no. Around lighter ones, some outer planets may survive as rogue worlds, either ejected or drifting. The game rolls that silently. Every once in a long while a rogue world gets captured by another star.

A captured rogue world can be claimed again. An old claim survives the trip if the world is occupied, and doesn't if it isn't.

Only if you prepare far ahead. A late-game planetary drive can detach your world and drive it out as a rogue planet before the blast hits. Shielding stops radiation but not the blast wave.

The star and its destroyed planets are gone for good. You can't rebuild them or delay them again.

On three levels. Fleet and planetary battles are fought on a tactical map, you fight your own ship from the bridge, and boarding and ground fights happen in person. Most experienced players fight as commanders through their ships, fleets, and NPC squads. Ground combat against NPCs is how new players earn the reputation and resources to take a planet. Fights are decided by tactics and stats, not twitch reflexes. You can zoom out to the big picture at any time, but you can only fight in detail where your character physically is.

No. Combat doesn't happen in FTL. You can only be attacked before you spool up or after you drop out. Your own mistakes in FTL can still kill you.

No. Nobody can be killed there.

Yes. Parking behind a moon to ambush someone is legitimate. The counter is paying attention. A big high-tech ship that isn't watching dies, and an alert scout gets away. More sensors use more power. Fewer sensors leave you blind.

You come back. You don't respawn on the spot, and your ship doesn't come with you. Your gear stays where you died, drifting in space or lying on the ground, until you recover it or someone else salvages it. If you don't get it back, it's gone. That includes your starting loadout.

Where you come back depends on what you've planned ahead. For example, you might build a clinic on your own world.

Energy and projectile weapons are DNA-coded to their owner. Salvaged coded gear stays coded to you for 5 in-game years. A salvager can scrap it or give it back, but can't fire it.

Yes. Destroyed ships, cargo, and troops are gone, though wrecks can be salvaged. Dead NPC crew stay dead. Losses on the tactical map are just as final as losses in a detailed fight. There's no permadeath, except by nuke.

Things like firing on ships that have surrendered, killing rescue pods, and atrocities in ground fights. They hit your reputation and war crime score instantly. War itself is allowed.

The claim owner or the contract holder gets first right. Stealing someone's salvage is theft, and local police enforce it.

Local police, and the laws in that region, are set up and run by the players who control it.

Your unit keeps acting on its last orders or under AI control.

The Imperial Standard Writ, called "writ" for short. It's the baseline unit for everything. Every market, NPC, and player world has to accept it. Rulers can also mint their own world currencies, which float against writ.

No. Writ and all in-game items are a limited license to use inside the game. Writ has no real-money value, can't be cashed out, and isn't property.

No, never. There's no writ store, no cash-out, and no official real-money trading. Subscription starting grants are restricted, one-way perks. They aren't writ sales.

No loot boxes, no gambling, no stat items, no XP boosts. Ever. The only "loot boxes" in Terra Nullius are ancient vaults, and you find those by exploring.

Yes. You can open a bank and set your own rates. Banks can fail or turn out to be scams, and depositors carry that risk. You can lend to other players on any terms, loan sharking included, and collect by force. Borrowers can fight back. The Empire protects neither side. Only Imperial loans are collected automatically. The Imperial loan rate tracks the real-world US prime rate.

No. Nobody gets banned for foul language, bullying, or hurt feelings. Censoring happens only on your own screen. Your client can beep, hiss, or blank out what you don't want. If you don't like it, turn it off.

Only for keywords. It doesn't listen to everything and it doesn't record. When it hears what sounds like an agreement between players, it pops up the contract screen so you can make it formal. If you skip the contract and then act on the deal, you take the reputation hit. The same keyword pass can also feed your language filter. This gets disclosed in the Terms, and you have to consent to it.

Nothing is censored at the source. Content is stored exactly as it was made, and filters on your own client decide what YOU see. The nudity filter is on by default, and turning it off requires age confirmation. The religious-figure filter is on by default and can also be turned off. Filters only change your screen. Screenshots and recordings follow the settings of whoever captured them. More filters may come later.

The moment it reaches our servers, it goes into the shared in-game download library, where every player can download and use it in the game. When we say "open source," that's what we mean. We don't mean a legal open-source license, and nobody gets the right to take files off our servers outside the game. You won't be paid for normal uploads, and you give up any exclusive claim. If you built it yourself and think you need to get paid for it, DON'T UPLOAD IT. This warning also shows on the upload screen, so nobody can say they never saw it.

Only for a BIG one. The upload page has a toggle that says something like "I've got something I think you should pay me for," and toggled uploads get reviewed as paid-mod candidates. Small tweaks don't qualify, and neither does a five-page political ideology. Think of someone who keeps shipping large mods that depend on each other. For now, Edward and Stacy decide what's big enough. Once a paid mod is put up, everyone can download it. The payment rewards the creator. It doesn't buy exclusive access.

When an asset is generated, the AI pipeline automatically encodes and encrypts the creator's identity into it: images, sounds, movement, everything. You can't skip that and you don't have to do it yourself. Visible credit is up to you. You can use a subtle hull logo, a cameo, a signature sound, or a data plate, or switch visible credit off. The hidden authorship ID is always there, and it's layered, so stripping one layer leaves the others and the stripping attempt itself gets detected.

When theft is detected, the stolen mod is blocked for everyone immediately, and a review goes to whoever runs the system (Edward and Stacy for now). The same queue handles disputes between creators, and the authorship registry is the evidence.

Imports are tagged and AI-reviewed. Content that's illegal under US law gets hard-blocked. Content that's offensive but legal gets handled by each player's filters.

On licensed self-hosted servers, yes. The company-hosted universe runs locked settings. Approved static images and equipment blueprints can cross over from self-hosted servers after review, and then every player can use them. Characters, writ, and reputation never cross over.