Getting Started

Welcome to the galaxy, pilot. Here's what you need to know to get moving.

The Map

STAR DEWAR takes place on a hexagonal sector map. There are two kinds of sectors:

• Path sectors — navigable space you can fly through.
• Edge sectors — the boundary of the map. You can't fly into these.

As you explore, sectors you've visited stay revealed on your map, along with any ports you've discovered along the way. Sectors near your starting point and the Stardock are marked as Fedspace — a safe zone where combat and trade routes are disallowed.

Moving Around

• Click or tap a sector on the map to fly there. If it's more than one hop away, your ship will automatically plot a path through connected sectors.
• Keyboard: use the arrow keys or WASD to move. Combining two directions (e.g. Up + Right) moves you diagonally along the hex grid.

Movement costs turns — the number of turns spent depends on your ship's turns per warp stat and how many sectors you travel through. Turns regenerate slowly over time, so plan your trips.

Turns and Credits

• You start with a stock of turns and credits.
• Turns regenerate automatically over real-world time, up to a cap.
• Credits are earned by trading (see Trading) and destroying enemy ships or trade routes (see Combat).

What To Do

A good first session looks like:

1. Fly around and discover a few nearby ports.
2. Dock at a port and check its port class to see what it buys and sells.
3. Buy low at one port, sell high at another — that's the core trading loop.
4. Visit Stardock to spend your credits on fighters, shields, and cargo capacity so you can trade more and survive combat.

Keep an eye on the Ship Info panel (the info button in the map area) — it shows your fighters, shields, cargo, and trade drones at a glance.

Trading

Trading is the main way to earn credits. There are three commodities in the galaxy:

• Fuel Ore (Ore)
• Organics (Org)
• Equipment (Eqp)

Port Classes

Every port has a port class — a 3-character code, one letter per commodity in the order Ore / Organics / Equipment:

• B — the port Buys that commodity (you can sell it there)
• S — the port Sells that commodity (you can buy it there)

For example, a port classed BSB buys ore, sells organics, and buys equipment. There are 8 possible combinations, from BBB (buys everything) to SSS (sells everything).

The classic trading loop is to find a port that sells a commodity cheap, then find a nearby port that buys the same commodity, and shuttle cargo between them.

Manual Trading

To trade manually, fly to a port and open the Trade panel (hotkey T). You'll see the port's stock and price for each commodity it trades.

• Buying fills your cargo with as much of a commodity as you can afford and have room for — limited by the port's stock, your credits, and your ship's free cargo holds.
• Selling offloads as much of a commodity as the port has room to buy — limited by how much you're carrying and the port's remaining storage.

Each buy/sell action trades the maximum possible amount in one action, so there's no need to haggle over quantities — just decide what to buy and sell, and repeat the loop between ports.

Your total cargo capacity is fixed by your ship's cargo holds stat (see Ships). The Ship Info panel shows how much free space you have left.

Trade Routes

Once you've discovered two ports, you can set up an automated trade route between them using one of your ship's trade drones.

• A drone travels back and forth along the route on its own, automatically buying and selling cargo at each end — no manual trading required.
• Drone travel time scales with the distance between the two ports, and progress ticks forward as you move around the galaxy.
• Routes can be upgraded to carry more cargo per trip, or reinforced with fighters from your own ship to help defend them from attackers.
• Other players can discover and attack your trade routes if they stumble onto one of the ports it uses — so a well-defended route is a safer route.

Trade routes are a great way to keep earning credits passively while you're off exploring or fighting elsewhere.

Note that you can't create a trade route to or from a port located in Fedspace — manual trading there is still fine.

Combat

Combat in STAR DEWAR revolves around two stats: fighters and shields.

• Shields absorb incoming damage first.
• Once shields are depleted, damage spills over onto fighters.
• A ship (or trade route) is destroyed when it has no shields and no fighters left.

Starting a Fight

You can attack another player's ship if you're in the same sector as them, or attack a trade route by standing at one of its ports. Escape pods can't attack, and can't be attacked. You also can't initiate combat while you're in Fedspace — the safe zone near the starting sector and Stardock.

Once you initiate combat, both you and your target are locked in combat for a limited time. During this window, neither of you can be dragged into a different fight.

Committing Fighters

When you attack, you choose how many of your fighters to commit using a slider — up to your ship's fighters per attack limit.

• Each ship type has a maximum number of fighters it can commit per attack round, regardless of how many it carries in total. A Scout Marauder can send up to 250 per round; a StarMaster up to 1,000. Check the Ships page for each ship's limit.
• Damage you deal is your committed fighters × your combat odds.
• Fighters are destroyed in a 1:1 exchange with the damage they deal or absorb. Commit 10 fighters and destroy 10 of the enemy's — you lose 10 of your own too. Commit 10 and only destroy 5 — you only lose 5.
• If your attack destroys the target outright, the fight ends immediately.
• If the target survives, it retaliates with everything it has left — all of its remaining fighters, scaled by its own combat odds.

Combat can run for several rounds within the time limit, with each round following the same attack-then-retaliate pattern.

Retreating

Instead of attacking, you can retreat. Your opponent gets one free retaliation strike with all of their remaining fighters before you're teleported to a random adjacent sector. If that retaliation destroys you, you become an escape pod just like in a normal loss.

Losing a Fight

If your fighters and shields both hit zero, your ship is converted into an escape pod — you lose your fighters, shields, trade drones, and cargo, and your cargo capacity drops sharply until you can afford a new ship at Stardock. You'll also lose a percentage of your accumulated experience.

Destroying an enemy ship, an alien trader, or a trade route earns you experience — the bigger the target, the bigger the reward.

Trade Route Defense

Trade routes defend themselves at favorable odds, and you can strengthen a route further by donating fighters from your own ship to it (see Trading). A well-defended route is much harder for other players to destroy.

Alignment

Your alignment measures how good or evil you are:

• Positive — good
• Zero — neutral
• Negative — evil

Alignment is displayed in your status bar and affects how much you gain or lose from combat.

Actions That Change Alignment

Destroying a Ship

When you completely destroy another ship, the change is based on the victim's alignment, not the number of fighters involved.

Opposite sides — good/neutral attacker vs evil victim, or vice versa:

Change = |Victim Alignment| / 2

Same side — both good or both evil:

Change = |Victim Alignment| / 4

The minimum change is ±1 whenever the victim has any non-zero alignment.

Example — neutral player destroys an evil alien with alignment −250:

Change = 250 / 2 = +125

Non-Kill Combat Rounds

When fighters are exchanged but neither ship is destroyed, your alignment changes based on your own fighters lost, not the enemy fighters you destroyed:

Change = −(Your Fighters Lost × Defender Alignment) / Scale

Scale = 5,000  if your alignment ≥ 0
Scale = 10,000 if your alignment < 0

Attacking an evil defender (negative alignment) gains you alignment; attacking a good defender loses you alignment.

Example — neutral attacker (scale 5,000) loses 10 fighters against a defender with alignment −5,000:

Change = −(10 × −5,000) / 5,000 = +10

Alien Alignment

Half of all alien traders are good (alignment +100 to +3,000) and half are evil (alignment −100 to −3,000). Evil aliens carry more fighters but fewer shields; good aliens carry more shields but fewer fighters.

Good aliens appear green; evil aliens appear red.

Fedspace

Fedspace is protected territory where players are safe from attack. It's marked on the map with a distinct sector tint.

Where Fedspace Is

• All sectors within a set number of hops of the map's starting sector (by default, 10% of the map's size, radiating outward).
• The Stardock sector and all of its immediate neighbors.

The Rules

• No attacking. You can't initiate combat against another player's ship, an alien trader, or a trade route while you're in fedspace.
• No trade routes. You can't create a new trade route if either endpoint port is located in fedspace.
• Trading is unrestricted. Buying and selling cargo manually at a port works exactly the same in fedspace as anywhere else.

Think of fedspace as a safe harbor near your starting point and Stardock — a place to stock up, regroup, or wait out your turn regeneration without worrying about being ambushed.

Ships

Your ship is your lifeline — it carries your cargo, defends you in combat, and determines how far you can travel on a single tank of turns.

Ship Stats

Open the Ship Info panel (the info button on the map) to see your current stats at a glance:

• Fighters / Max Fighters — offensive and defensive combat strength.
• Shields / Max Shields — absorb damage before your fighters do.
• Trade Drones / Max Trade Drones — used to run automated trade routes.
• Limpets / Max Limpets — see Limpets for how to deploy, track, and remove these tracking devices.
• Cargo Holds / Free Cargo Holds — total and remaining space for fuel, ore, organics, and equipment.
• Turns per Warp — how many turns it costs to move one sector.
• Combat Odds — a multiplier applied to the damage you deal in combat.
• Fighters per Attack — the maximum number of fighters you can commit in a single attack round. Even if you have more fighters on board, this caps how many you can send at once.

Available Ships

There are four ships you can own. Each has different strengths — pick the one that fits how you play.

Scout Marauder — 20,000 cr

The fastest ship in the game at only 2 turns per warp, with 2.0:1 combat odds. Small cargo hold and limited fighters, but it excels at exploration and quick strikes where speed matters more than endurance.

Merchant Cruiser — 40,000 cr

The standard starting ship. A balanced mix of cargo, combat, and speed — good at everything, exceptional at nothing. A solid choice while you build up credits for a more specialised vessel.

Colonial Transport — 60,000 cr

The hauler. With 250 cargo holds it moves more goods per trip than anything else in the game. The trade-off is speed (6 turns per warp) and poor combat odds — keep it away from hostile sectors.

StarMaster — 80,000 cr

The all-rounder for experienced pilots. 5,000 fighters, 2,000 shields, and 1.4:1 combat odds make it the strongest combat ship available while still carrying a respectable cargo load.

Escape Pods

If your ship is destroyed in combat, you're not out of the game — you're just dropped into an escape pod. Escape pods have no fighters, no shields, no trade drones, and almost no cargo space, and they're slow to move. They also can't fight or be attacked.

To get back in the game, head to Stardock and buy any ship from the Federation Shipyards. The purchase will immediately replace your escape pod.

Your Fleet

You can own more than one ship at a time. Ships you've purchased but aren't currently flying are stored in your fleet at the Stardock.

• Buying a ship while already in a non-escape-pod sends the new ship straight to your fleet — your active ship is unchanged.
• At the Stardock, open the Federation Shipyards to see your fleet listed below the ship-for-sale section.
• Press Use next to a fleet ship to swap it with your current ship. Your old ship moves to the fleet; the selected ship becomes your active vessel. Its fighters, shields, cargo, and equipment are exactly as you left them.
• Press Sell to sell a fleet ship for 50% of its purchase price.
• Press Info to inspect a fleet ship's stats before deciding.

Swapping ships costs one base action turn. Selling is free.

Growing Your Ship

Every stat besides your ship type itself is upgraded the same way: fly to Stardock and spend credits. There's no repair mechanic beyond simply buying back fighters and shields you've lost — so keeping your credits flowing through trading is the best way to stay combat-ready.

Limpets

Limpets are tracking devices that let you follow another player's movements across the map — useful for hunting targets or keeping an eye on rivals near your trade routes.

Getting Limpets

Buy limpets at Stardock for 500cr each, up to your ship's Max Limpets capacity (see Ships). Your current supply is shown as Limpets / Max Limpets in the Ship Info panel.

Deploying a Mine

Fly to the sector where you want to lay a trap and press L (Deploy) to drop one of your limpets there. This costs turns and consumes one limpet from your supply. Only one mine can be deployed per sector at a time, and you can't deploy a mine in a sector where you already have one waiting.

Attaching

When another player (other than you) flies into a sector containing your deployed mine, it automatically attaches to their ship. The mine is consumed in the process — it disappears from the sector once it attaches.

• You can only have one limpet attached to a given target at a time.
• Escape pods and alien traders don't trigger limpets.

Tracking

Once a limpet attaches, you'll see that player's live location and ship type on your map as they move, until it's removed. Tracking through a limpet only reveals location and ship type — you won't see their cargo, credits, or any port information they discover along the way.

Removing Limpets

If you suspect you're being tracked, check the Limpet scan row in your Ship Info panel — it reads DETECTED if any limpets are currently attached to your ship, or NONE if you're clear.

To remove limpets, buy a Limpet Remover at Stardock (a one-time 3000cr purchase). Once installed, press M (Remove, 1000cr) to strip every limpet currently attached to your ship in one go. This costs turns and credits, and immediately cuts off tracking for every owner who had a limpet on you.

Limpets are also removed automatically if your ship is destroyed in combat — any limpets attached to you are detached, and their owners are notified that they've lost your trail.

Stardock

Every map has exactly one Stardock — your home base for gearing up.

Fly to the Stardock sector and open the docking panel (hotkey G) to access the shop. You must be physically at the Stardock to buy anything.

Stellar Hardware Emporium

Upgrade your active ship's equipment:

Use the slider on each item to choose how much to buy, up to whatever you can afford and whatever your ship has room for. Escape pods cannot carry any of these items.

Federation Shipyards

Buy new ships and manage your fleet.

Buying a Ship

Four ships are available for purchase. Press Info on any ship to see its full stats before committing. Press Buy to purchase it.

• If you're in an escape pod, buying a ship immediately replaces it — you'll be flying the new ship right away.
• If you're already in a non-escape-pod ship, the purchased ship goes straight into your fleet. Your current ship is unchanged.

Your Fleet

Ships you own but aren't actively flying are stored in your fleet, listed below the for-sale ships. Each fleet ship shows its stored fighters, shields, and cargo holds at a glance, with three buttons:

Recovering From a Loss

If you've been reduced to an escape pod, Stardock is where you come back from it. Buy any ship from the Federation Shipyards to replace your escape pod immediately. You'll need to restock fighters and shields separately from the Stellar Hardware Emporium.

Terra

Terra is the homeworld of humanity — a Class M planet always located at your starting sector. Every new player begins adjacent to it, and it's always visible on your map from the moment you log in.

What Terra Does

Terra is the galaxy's only source of colonists. Colonists are workers you load onto your ship and then transport to other planets, where they produce resources over time.

To load colonists, fly to the Terra sector and open the docking panel (hotkey G). From the Terra lobby, tap Load Colonists to open the colonist transfer screen, where you can use the slider to choose how many to take. Colonists fill your ship's cargo holds, so make sure you have free space before loading.

Things to Know

• Terra itself produces no resources and cannot be colonized further.
• You can only load colonists from Terra — you can't drop colonists back onto it.
• Colonists on your ship occupy cargo holds the same way commodities do.
• Terra cannot be used as an endpoint for trade routes.
• Combat and trade routes are both disallowed in the Fedspace zone surrounding Terra and the starting sector.

Planets

Planets are colonizable worlds scattered across the map. Once you settle a planet with colonists, it generates resources automatically over time — a steady passive income on top of your trading profits.

Planet Classes

Every planet has a class that determines what it's good at producing. Each colonist produces a fixed number of resource units per hour:

Class H planets are fuel specialists but produce no organics at all. Class L planets are well-rounded for fuel and organics. Class M is the general-purpose baseline.

Colonizing a Planet

1. Load colonists from Terra onto your ship.
2. Fly to the planet you want to settle.
3. Open the docking panel (hotkey G) and choose Colonists.
4. Use the Unload slider to drop colonists onto the planet.

Once colonists are on a planet, use the Assign sliders to split them among the three resource types — fuel ore, organics, and equipment. The panel shows an estimated daily production based on your current assignment.

Claiming Ownership

A planet's owner is whoever most recently unloaded colonists onto it. When you unload colonists, the planet becomes yours. Colonists from previous owners stay on the planet and contribute to production, but ownership — and the right to reassign colonists — transfers to you.

Collecting Resources

Resources accumulate in the planet's stockpile automatically. To collect them, fly to the planet and open the Resources panel. From there you can load the stockpile directly into your cargo holds and haul it to a port to sell.

Things to Know

• Production ticks once per hour per colonist — stockpiles grow while you're offline.
• Colonists already on a planet don't need to be replaced; they produce indefinitely.
• A planet can be claimed by another player simply by unloading colonists onto it, so a valuable planet that you're not actively defending is at risk.
• Trade routes cannot originate from a planet in Fedspace.

Travel Screen

The Travel screen gives you quick navigation shortcuts so you don't have to manually scroll the map to find key destinations. Open it from the map area action buttons.

Fixed Destinations

The top row always shows two quick-jump buttons:

• Stardock (1) — jumps directly to the Stardock sector.
• Terra (2) — jumps directly to Terra, the colonist homeworld.

Tapping either button immediately closes the Travel screen and begins flying your ship toward that destination.

Custom Slots

Below the fixed buttons are two saved location slots (3) and (4). Each slot can hold any sector coordinate you want to return to often — a productive planet, a favourite port, a staging point deep in the map, etc.

Saving a Location

Tap the edit button next to an empty or existing slot to open the edit screen:

• Coords — enter the q,r cube coordinates of the sector you want to save, or tap use current loc to fill in your ship's current position automatically.
• Name — an optional label shown on the button (e.g. "Gold Mine" or "Pirate Base").

Tap Save to store the slot. The button on the main Travel screen updates immediately.

Direct Coordinate Jump

At the bottom of the Travel screen is a Coords text field. Type any q,r coordinate and tap Travel to fly there directly — useful for navigating to a specific location you've noted down without saving it as a slot.

Armid Mines

Armid mines are deployable explosives that detonate automatically when an enemy ship enters your sector. They're a passive defensive tool — once placed, they wait silently until triggered.

Buying Armid Mines

Purchase armid mines at Stardock under the hardware shop. They're stored in your ship's inventory and shown in the Ship Info panel as Armids / Max Armids.

Deploying Mines

Fly to any non-Fedspace sector and open the action menu. If you have mines in inventory, a Deploy action will be available. Choose how many to deploy (up to 10 per sector).

Rules for deployment:

• Escape pods cannot deploy mines.
• Mines cannot be placed in Fedspace.
• Only one player's mines can occupy a sector at a time — you can't stack your mines on top of another player's.
• A single sector holds a maximum of 10 armid mines.

How Detonation Works

When an enemy ship moves into a sector containing your mines, they detonate immediately on entry. Each mine deals 30 points of damage, applied to shields first, then fighters. All deployed mines in the sector fire at once and are consumed whether or not they destroy the ship.

You receive a notification when your mines hit, telling you how much damage was dealt — or confirming a kill.

Your own ship passes over your own mines without triggering them.

Destroying Your Own Mines

If you want to recover a sector (for example, to reuse it or to prevent friendly fire on an ally), you can permanently destroy your own deployed mines from the action menu. Destroyed mines are not returned to inventory — they're gone for good.

Things to Know

• Mines are visible on your own map as markers, but enemies don't see them until they trigger them.
• Stacking multiple mines in one sector multiplies the damage: 5 mines deal 150 points, 10 mines deal 300.
• Mines don't expire — they stay deployed until detonated or manually destroyed.
• A well-placed minefield on a trade corridor can disrupt enemy routes and deny safe passage without any active combat on your part.