Manual for Recruits

Getting started at launch

All systems operational. Preparing for Gateway embarkment. Stay safe over on the other side, crew. We’ll see you there.

Explorers, get ready for blastoff in T-3, 2…

Your Official Manual for Launch on 27 JUL 2021

Your first mission is a big one, recruit. Earth is counting on your success — rather all of humanity is. It won’t be an easy task and you may eventually even come across a fight or two, but keep your cool on this one-way journey and you’ll do just fine.

Let’s get you in a ship. There’s plenty to choose from in the marketplace.

Your dossier may seem complex at first, but once you get rolling it’ll be like an alpha training session in a Martian zero gravity chamber. You know — fun.

We’ve put together a video for you to get an idea of what you’re in for.

Alpha Mission: Deploy Ship

Start by opening Project Nebula if you have your ship ready to go. You should see quite a few available sectors— go ahead and give one a click. Now it’s time to choose the Deploy Ship option. Brace yourself as you venture the The Gateway.

Your one-way journey from Earth is officially complete at this point. We hope you said goodbye to everyone you needed to.

This is a Spacedock. You’ll be starting out at this station along with a few other explorers. It may be cozy, but we wouldn’t call it home just yet.

A dock exists in many sectors and you’ll be able to spawn ships from them when you’re able to. For now, it’s alpha base.

Beta Mission: Explore the Galaxy

Shake off those wormhole vibes and maybe pray you didn’t get mindloop. This was the easy part, now it’s time to make some decisions and venture into the void.

You’ve got a limited amount of fuel in your ship and will be able to travel a certain distance with it each day (24 Earth hours). Your fuel has partial regeneration hourly and you can see your ship’s tanks can hold by viewing this symbol (shown below) in your shipyard.

Looking at the upper-right corner of your screen, you’ll see your fuel reserves indicated in blue text to match the symbol shown here. These regenerate completely in a 24 Earth hour’s time period.

As you wave your cursor over the hexes surrounding your ship, you’ll see that each red hex has a a fuel cost that varies slightly. The red hexes indicate an unexplored area of the void and the fuel indicated will be deducted from your tank when you explore it. Simple stuff, but a wise path can make a journey prosperous.

Once you’ve traveled through a hex, it will turn blue the next time you wish to visit it — the fuel cost is greatly reduced. Useful for getting back to that asteroid mine or wormhole.

Gamma Mission: Colonize a Planet

A Rogue Planet is a scientific wonder and orbits no star. A rare find out there in the void, but a beautiful and chilling discovery — no pun intended of course.

You may come across a Rogue Planet, but keep your eyes out for a star system. Once you find a star, move into that hex and click it. You’ll have an option to Go To Solar System where you’ll see all planets orbiting that particular sun.

You can use the left-hand menu to navigate back to the sector map, an individual planet, or the system view. For now, click on a planet.

You’ll view tons of information about the planet. Upgrade slots, special resources, planet type and general data. Some planets have artwork, music, and lore collections available on them — a valuable find for any future entrepreneur or collector.

Your ship’s colonization modifier helps to reduce the cost of claiming a planet. Better ships can lower this quite a bit!

Once claimed, you can view your new planet in the Overview menu in the upper-game menu.

IMPORTANT: In the beginning, explorers can only colonize one planet per 72 hours! If you colonize a common planet, you will need to wait 72 hours from that moment before colonizing another. Some strategy may be needed here to ensure you don’t miss a planet of a higher rarity-class.

Delta Mission: Research New Tech

Stars, remember when everyone was trying to build the smallest matterprinter possible? Look how big they’ve gotten!

Look at the top menu when you’re in Project Nebula. There you’ll find two very important things: “Research” and your research score indicator.

Your research score shows how many points you can apply to learning new tech on a daily basis. These don’t accumulate, but can be used again after completing a specific task — i.e. researching Molecular Biology.

Click on “Research” from the menu and you’ll see a long list of tech that you’re currently able to look in to. For example, you may want to colonize Exotic planets; you need to research Planetary Sciences > Exotic > Molecular Biology I.

When you do, you’ll be one step closer to colonizing exotic type planets and you’ll be doing so for a 5% lower cost! This research can be levelled up, like many other parts of the tree.

Epsilon Mission: Upgrade your Planet

I didn’t come all this way and claim a Gas Giant just to sit around and breathe fumes! Let’s set up that damn Energy Extractor and make some credits.

Planets have upgrade slots (shown as [empty] in the planet viewer) and are designated by the main colors Teal, Tan, Orange, and White. Where white is universal, the other colors indicate a research, industrial or credit-based upgrade ability.

Tapping on an [empty] slot will bring up a menu of upgrade opportunities! You’ll see the industry and credit cost, as well as the time it takes to upgrade. Some upgrades may require you to have researched some specific tech first.

Your credits and industry points (shown here) can be viewed in the upper-right corner of your screen.

These also accumulate fully in 24 Earth hours and incrementally on an hourly basis. Your planets boost these stats!

Gray slots will be included on every planet, regardless of rarity or type. Two of these slots will be given to allow for some basic upgrades to every player. Even the most common planet out there will have some basic building power.

Upgrading your planet is going to open a vast array of possibilities for improving your planet’s value, how well your ships explore, your power and production, and more. Don’t let your credits and industry sit idle when there is work to be done! Shouldn’t see an [empty] slot for too long.

Zeta Mission: Use the Marketplace

I claim, I saw, I sold on the marketplace.

If you’ve got a planet you’d like to turn into pure profit, nows the time to visit the Marketplace. If you’re looking to pick one up without venturing further into the void just yet, this is also a good time to explore what other travellers are selling.

Open the Overview menu and select the planet you’re considering to sell — same works for spaceships in your shipyard. Then choose the Sell On Marketplace option to list your planet. The average cost is around $0.001 to list.

You can choose between a 1, 3, 7, or 14 day auction, or you can sell directly at a fixed price. Either way, you’re bound to find an interested buyer at the right cost. Put that money back into your travels and you’ll have an empire amassed in no time.