Navigation & Star Map
Field Manual
Know the map, know your range, and never send ships somewhere you can’t bring them home from. This manual teaches you to read the star map, make jumps, judge the zones of space, and chart a safe course through contested territory.
Getting Started
The galaxy is built from three nested layers:
Regions — large tiles of the galaxy grid. Each region belongs to a zone tier and can be claimed by a player, a guild, or the Empire.
Solar Systems — the systems inside each region, each with a name, a star, and a set of planets. Systems are what you jump between.
Planets — the worlds inside a system where you mine, build cities, and set up bases.
Reading the Star Map
Your galaxy view is a live intel display. The Galaxy Info panel lets you filter systems by tab, showing the owner, your relationship to them, what key structures are present, and how many of your own units are sitting there.
| Tab | Shows |
|---|---|
| Owned | Systems where you have holdings |
| Voran Citadel | Systems with a Voran Citadel |
| HQ | Systems containing a Headquarters |
| Guild Tower | Systems with a guild tower |
| Jump Gate | Systems that have a jump gate |
| Trade | Systems with a trade base |
Presence overlay: The map lights up systems where you have a presence — your units, your HQ, your City Hall, a nearby Voran Citadel, or a friend’s HQ. Use it to see your reach across the galaxy at a glance.
System search: Look up any system by name or ID to see its planets, its position in the galaxy, and which sector it belongs to.
Jumping Between Systems
Ships travel between solar systems by making a jump through hyperspace. There is no fuel to buy or burn — whether a ship can make a jump comes down entirely to one stat: its hyperspace range (often shown as jump range).
| Method | When It Applies | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Direct jump | The target system is within the ship's hyperspace range | The ship jumps on its own — nothing else needed |
| Jump gate assist | The target is farther than the ship can reach alone | Your current system must be able to send a jump AND the target must have a jump gate you can use |
During a jump, your ship flies out to the edge of its current system, jumps from the boundary, and arrives near the center of the destination. Fleets arriving together are automatically spaced out so they don’t overlap on arrival.
Jump Gates
Jump gates are the highways of the galaxy — they let ships cross distances far beyond their own hyperspace range. A gate must be fully built (100% construction) before it will move anyone. To launch a long-distance jump from your current system, that system needs a completed jump gate PLUS either a Voran Citadel or a Headquarters.
Share Settings
Every jump gate has a share setting that controls who’s allowed to use it:
| Share Setting | Who Can Use It |
|---|---|
| Private | Only the owner |
| Friends | The owner and their friends |
| Everyone | Anyone |
You can jump into a system if you own a gate there, a friend owns a gate set to Friends or Everyone, or any gate there is set to Everyone.
Gate Fees
Using someone else’s gate costs credits, charged per ship, based on your relationship to the gate owner:
| Relationship | Fee Per Ship |
|---|---|
| Owner (your own gate) | Free |
| Friend | 100 credits |
| Public | 500 credits |
System Classifications
Every region belongs to one of four zone tiers, assigned by how densely packed the systems are. The dense heart of the galaxy is Core; the sparse edges are Void. The further you travel from the Core, the rarer and richer the resources get — but the harder they are to reach and the more exposed you are.
| Zone | Where | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Core | Densest, central galaxy | Safest and busiest — abundant common resources, but no exotic materials |
| Arm | The middle band | Balanced — a bit of everything |
| Frontier | Sparser outer regions | Riskier — rare resources appear much more often |
| Void | The sparse galactic edge | Most dangerous and most rewarding — the best exotic materials, but thin on the basics |
Sectors
Sectors are the galaxy's large named neighborhoods. New commanders choose a starter sector when they begin — options include Alpha, Beta, and Eta Sector, alongside the protected Starter Area where most players first land.
Each sector has its own Sector Intel dashboard — a region-wide situational picture showing:
Total systems and resource-tier breakdown.
Recent and largest battles — who won, who lost, units destroyed.
7-day activity levels and the players involved in recent fighting.
Top guilds ranked by systems controlled.
Territory & Contested Space
Space is claimed, and claimed space is defended. Every region can be held by a player, a guild, or the Empire (Voran Industries) itself.
Empire territory: The Empire controls clusters of regions anchored by Voran Citadels. Each comes with its own jump gate and claims the block of regions around it — stable, well-connected hubs, and a system with a Voran Citadel always reveals its planet details even without a scan.
Reading contested space: There’s no single “danger number.” You judge how hot a region is by combining what the map and Sector Intel tell you — who owns the surrounding regions, your relationship to them, and recent battle activity. A quiet sector with friendly or Empire neighbors is a safe corridor; a sector full of recent battles between rival guilds is one to scout carefully before entering.
Routes, Travel & ETA
For any trip longer than a single jump, the game plots a route — a chain of systems your ships hop through one jump at a time. Pathfinding finds the shortest chain of jumps that each stay within your ship's range; if no such chain exists, you'll see 'No valid route to destination.' Autopilot flies a route for you hop by hop — pause, resume, or cancel at any time.
When you move a whole fleet rather than a single ship, two rules dominate everything: a fleet’s jump range equals its shortest-legged ship, and a fleet travels at the speed of its slowest ship. Other movement rules to know:
| Rule | What It Means |
|---|---|
| All members must be in one system to Move | If your fleet is scattered, you must Rally it first to gather everyone at one point |
| Rally | Gathers scattered fleet members to a single destination (or the fleet's home base) |
| In-transit / busy ships are left behind | Ships already jumping, sitting on a planet, or otherwise occupied are excluded from a move order |
| Docked ships auto-undock | Docked ships are released automatically when the fleet is ordered to move |
| Can't move to where you are | Ordering a fleet to its current system does nothing |
| Home Base | A fleet can set a home system used as its default rally point |
Before committing, use Route Preview to see the trip’s number of jumps, total distance, estimated time, the slowest ship holding the fleet back, and the fleet’s effective jump range.
Navigation Checklist
From your first long trip to building your own gate network — follow each tier in sequence as your reach across the galaxy grows.
Warning Signs
The messages you'll run into on the map, what causes them, and how to clear them.
Key Tips
Distilled navigation doctrine — the habits that keep your fleets from stranding in the dark.