Flight manual

Pilot's guide

What you need to know before your first deployment. Every key shown here is the factory default: all of them can be remapped from the settings.

First things

Flight

Flight is free in all three dimensions and the camera sits behind your ship. A fighter and a heavy ship do not fly the same way, and several keys change meaning when you move from one to the other: where they differ, the table says so.

Quantum jump: the bubble opens and the new sector appears around you.
Quantum jump: the bubble opens and the new sector appears around you.
Key Action
Mouse In a fighter, the stick: the ship follows the cursor with no pitch limit, so you may end up flying upside down. On a heavy ship the cursor runs FREE and does not steer — it points.
W · S In a fighter, accelerate and brake; there is no reverse. On a heavy ship, raise and lower the nose, with a limit and never rolling over.
Wheel The throttle on heavy ships. It is the change that catches out every fighter pilot.
A · D Turn left and right. On a heavy the turn is slow and carries inertia: you have to start it before you need it.
Q · E In a fighter, free roll: your evasion tool in a close fight. On a heavy they do NOT turn the ship, they lean the camera to port and starboard.
Shift Thruster. Raises speed and engine glow; on a heavy it also cancels drift.
N Brake.
Ctrl Drift, heavy ships only: it freezes your velocity, so you turn the hull without changing course.
F Release or capture the mouse pointer.

Combat

There are only two weapon types, and both resolve on the server: nothing on screen can lie to you about damage.

Key Action
Left click In a fighter, shoot: hold for sustained fire and your guns take turns. The crosshair picks the target — whatever falls under it is selected automatically. On a heavy, DESIGNATE the target.
Space Weapons-free order on heavy ships. It is a switch: while it is active the battery fires on its own at the designated target — and it fires from the FLANKS, not the nose.
Right click Free look without changing course. On a heavy it orbits the camera and, while held, the wheel zooms in and out instead of changing speed.
G Switch the scatter gun on and off; it shoots down missiles in a cone ahead of the nose. It is bought switched off, so it helps to know it is there.

Interface

Key Action
1 … 8 Fire the kit in that slot of the ability bar. The mining drone is one of them.
M Galactic map: the state of the front, who holds each sector and your contribution today.
R Interact: dock at the station when you are close, or cross the incursion portal.
V Analyse the selected target. On a massive asteroid it tells you which resource it holds and how much is left.
L Log: the history of what has happened to you — kills, loot, experience, promotions, invitations and conquests.
H Accept a squad invitation. It has its own key because in a fighter the cursor is captured and the card cannot be clicked.
C Open chat straight into your clan room.
Enter Open chat. While typing, Tab cycles through the rooms.
Esc Settings, or close the open window.

Garage

The hangar only opens while docked, on purpose: that way nobody swaps loadout in the middle of a fight.

Key Action
1 … 7 Ship, inventory, shop, missions, clan, ranking and redeem codes.
Q · E Previous and next within the tab.
Esc Close the hangar and return to space.

Every key can be remapped from Settings › Controls, grouped into flight and combat, interface and garage. Remapping a key only affects its own context, so Q and E can stay as roll in flight and tab switching in the garage without clashing. And if you cannot remember any of them: the first time you fly each class the game shows you its controls with the key drawn out, and those cards stay in Settings › Help so you can go back to them.

The fleet

Six classes, six ways to fly

Each class has its own physics, not the same one with different numbers. Going from a fighter to a cruiser isn't flying something slower: it's ceasing to pilot and starting to command.

01

Fighter

Combat aircraft

Instant aiming and almost no inertia. Pure reflexes, close camera.

02

Heavy fighter

Twice the mass

Same keys, but the nose follows the mouse with a slight lag and the boost takes a moment to bite.

03

Corvette

A ship, not a plane

The mouse points a heading and the turn takes seconds to complete.

04

Frigate

Inertia rules

The turn keeps going after you let go: you have to correct the other way. Acceleration measured in seconds.

05

Cruiser

You command, not pilot

You tell it where to look and it obeys calmly. A full turn can take ten seconds.

06

Capital

Mobile military base

The mouse moves the camera, not the ship. Automatic turrets and a distant orbital view.

The clash

Combat

There are only two weapon types, and both resolve on the server: nothing on screen can lie to you about damage.

The Guardian Core and its eight towers in Crucible: while one tower stands, the core takes no damage.
The Guardian Core and its eight towers in Crucible: while one tower stands, the core takes no damage.

Shots come from the real guns

Every projectile is born at the cannon or launcher you can see on the model, not at the ship's centre, and leaves aligned with that muzzle.

Cannons

Direct, sustained fire. With a target locked, the hit is decided by a roll against your accuracy and your rival's evasion: on a hit the tracer dies against the hull; on a miss it glances off with a dry spark.

Missiles

Guided, high-damage projectiles. Each faction has its own silhouette, and the trail, flame and light carry its colour: you know who's firing at a glance.

Hull, armour and evasion

There are no shields. Three things keep you alive: the hull, the armour that subtracts damage from every hit, and the evasion that makes the other pilot miss. The hull does not regenerate on its own — you repair it at the station or with a sealant. When it goes critical, the ship tells you with red lights and failure sounds.

Big ships

Cruisers and capitals add turrets that aim and fire on their own within their arc. Your job is to angle the hull so as many as possible have a firing line.

Authoritative server

Position, damage and rate of fire are validated server-side. That is what keeps the game clean of cheats.

Incursions: ten waves and a boss

Crossing a portal leaves you alone on the other side. Ten waves jump in, with fifteen seconds of breathing room between them and five minutes to clear each one. The last brings the Executor Custodian and its escort, and difficulty rises 3.5% for every level you carry.

Dying inside cancels the incursion

There is no respawn beyond the portal: if you go down it is over, and the day's attempt is spent. If your connection drops you have ninety seconds of grace to come back before the dungeon closes.

Resources

Mining and economy

Fire the mining drone from its bar slot and it works in batches while you cover the area. Mining a contested sector pays more, but Custodian hunters punish looting without caring which side you're on.

The mining drone settles over the deposit and extracts in batches while you cover the area.
The mining drone settles over the deposit and extracts in batches while you cover the area.
Resource Type What it's for
Nexite Common currency Basic purchases, repairs and ammunition.
Elisium Premium currency Elite unlocks and the Forge's upper tiers. Scarce on purpose: it comes from assaulting Custodian bases and from clearing incursions.
Quasicrystal Material Upgrading weapons and modules. Dominant in Crucible.
Fragment energy Strategic material A war resource. Dominant in the Alcyone Veil.

The workshop

The Forge and your kit

Buying the weapon is the start. Levelling it up happens at the Forge, and there upgrading stopped being paperwork: it is a bet with the odds in plain sight.

Every attempt is a bet

The cost is charged whether you succeed or fail. Before you press, you see the exact probability and what it will cost, so the decision is yours with the numbers in front of you.

Failing never sets you back

If the attempt goes wrong, the level does not drop. Failing costs time and resources; never progress. No bad streak can leave you worse off than you started.

The first level cannot fail

Going from zero to one is 100% on purpose: someone who just bought a weapon has to see the mechanic work before it can bite them. From there it eases down to level six and hardens after, to 35% on the jump to ten.

The upper tiers want both currencies

Up to level six, Nexite and materials are enough. From seven to ten, Elisium is added — and the Nexite does not go away: you pay both. That is where Quasicrystal and Energy Fragment stop piling up unused.

Kit

Eight pieces of kit bought at the shop and fired from the ability bar. They unlock by rank, so the bar grows with you instead of handing you everything on day one.

Item Rank What it does
Mining Ship From the start Deploys the drone that mines in batches while you cover the area. The only one paid in Nexite; the rest cost Elisium.
Hull sealant Rank 4 Repairs 10% of the hull instantly. The only way to heal without returning to the station.
Plasma injection Rank 6 +15% speed for 20 seconds. To get there, or to not be where they expected you.
Cannon overload Rank 8 +10% damage for 20 seconds.
Targeting inhibitor Rank 12 Takes 10% damage off your target for 15 seconds. Range of 1,000 units.
Emergency gyroscope Rank 14 +15% evasion for 20 seconds.
Gravity ballast Rank 16 Takes 15% speed off your target for 15 seconds. At 2,000 units of range, this is the one that stops them running.
Predictive marking Rank 20 Takes 15% evasion off your target for 15 seconds. Range of 1,000 units.

Kit that affects your target requires it locked and within range. All of it resolves on the server, same as damage.

The meta

Sector War

The four contested maps change hands while you play. Everything you do in them adds War Points to your faction.

Conquest is live

Every five minutes the server checks who is ahead in each sector, and it goes to whoever leads. There is no minimum threshold and no margin to clear: a 1-0 is enough to change hands.

You have to hold the lead

Pulling ahead mid-interval achieves nothing: what counts is where you stand at the cut.

What scores most

Shooting down an enemy player is worth twenty-five points. Stray Custodians are worth three, so the scoreboard isn't decided by whoever grinds NPCs longest.

The day and the week

At 01:00 the snapshot is taken: each faction scores a point per sector held and the daily board resets. Conquest, though, persists until someone takes it from you.

The prize

The faction that wins the week gets 5% more damage through the next one. The loser gets 5% more experience. Seasons last four weeks.

It helps everyone on your side

Holding sectors improves mining, Nexite and materials for your entire faction, whichever map you play.

Every map has its portal

A Custodian portal floats in each of the four contested sectors. It only opens if your faction holds that map, and it grants one entry per map per day: attempts come back at the 01:00 cut, with the war day.

And the portal pays in Elisium

Conquest also adds an Elisium bonus to incursions: 7.5% for every map your faction holds, up to 30% with the whole front. It is the only war reward paid in the scarce currency.

Your career

Progression

Two things go up, and they do not mix. Your LEVEL comes from experience and unlocks higher ship classes and more equipment slots: every ship has slots for a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, hull and system. Your RANK does not come from levelling — it comes from the War Points you earn at the front, and it is what decides which kits you can buy. The campaign carries you at the start; after that, the front decides.

See the forty war ranks

Desktop client · In development

Pick your side.
Enter the war.

Download AXIOM: Origins and deploy to the belt front.

Download the game

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