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. The mouse steers; the keyboard accelerates, brakes and stabilises.

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
W · S Accelerate and brake. Holding S can walk the ship slowly backwards.
Mouse Steer: pitch and yaw. The ship always tries to follow the cursor.
A · D Assisted keyboard turn, with no lateral drift.
Q · E Roll. Your evasion tool in a close fight.
Shift Boost. Raises speed, engine glow and field of view.
Space Brake and stabilise.
Ctrl Drift. Heavy ships only.
F Release or capture the mouse pointer.

Interface

Key Action
M Galactic map: the state of the front, who holds each sector and your contribution today.
E Dock at the station.
V Analyse the selected target.
B Deploy the mining drone.
Tab Select the nearest enemy or cycle targets.
Enter Open chat.
Esc Settings, or close the open window.

Garage

Key Action
1 · 2 · 3 · 4 Ship, inventory, shop and missions.
Q · E Previous and next within the tab.

Every action 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.

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 violet ring warns that the core is immune: towers are still standing.
The violet ring warns that the core is immune: towers are still standing.

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.

Shield and hull

The shield regenerates on its own; the hull does not. When the hull 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.

Resources

Mining and economy

Deploy the mining drone with B 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 drone extracts in batches while you cover the area.
The drone 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. Very scarce: today its only source is assaulting Custodian bases.
Quasicrystal Material Upgrading weapons and modules. Dominant in Crucible.
Fragment energy Strategic material A war resource. Dominant in the Alcyone Veil.

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. It goes to whoever has the most points, provided they lead by at least sixty.

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.

Your career

Progression

Levelling up grants a new rank and unlocks higher ship classes and more equipment slots. Every ship has slots for a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, hull and system. The campaign carries you through the early levels; after that, the front decides.

See the ranks on each side

Desktop client · In development

Pick your side.
Enter the war.

Download AXIOM: Origins and deploy to the belt front.

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