How the game works
Rules the game does not show directly: how damage, shields, control effects and the economy work, checked in the game files.
Each rule says where it comes from: the game texts, its data tables, its settings or its code (read in the app files). game text game data game settings game code
Damage
- Weapons deal damage in frames: every half second of star time, each weapon deals its damage per second ÷ 2 (rounded down). game code
- In White Stars time runs 600 times slower, so a frame lasts 5 min of real time; there the wiki shows damage per hour, like the game. game code
- BARRAGE adds damage for each other enemy ship in the sector, counting at most 8 in Red Stars, 4 in White Stars and 2 in Blue Stars. game settings
- WEAPON AMPLIFIER raises the damage of friendly weapons (+20% at level 1); SUSPEND cuts the damage (-40%) and speed (-25%) of enemies in range, and an enemy inside several of its areas only feels the strongest one. game data
- Area damage hits every enemy in the blast range, even ships under STEALTH. game text
Shields
- Some shields let part of the damage through: damage taken = damage × value ÷ 100. MOTION SHIELD lets 60% through at level 1 and only works while moving; ALPHA SHIELD lets 95% through in the Quantum Star and blocks everything elsewhere. game code
- BLAST SHIELD only stops area damage: each blast loses the shield's remaining strength, and when several cover the same blast they apply one after another. game code
- ALLY SHIELD absorbs damage for every other friendly ship, drone and rocket in range, but not for its own ship. game settings
- MIRROR SHIELD sends part of the damage it absorbs back as area damage, also against projectiles. game settings
- REGENERATING SHIELD only starts recovering after a while without taking damage. game text
Control and movement
- EMP disables enemy ships, rockets and drones in range: they can't move or fire, but can still activate modules. DART LAUNCHER, ROCKET LAUNCHER and PULSE stop counting their cooldown while disabled. game code
- STEALTH: the ship can't be targeted directly, but still takes area damage. game text
- DECOY DRONE and FORTIFY pull enemy fire: enemies in range switch their target to them. game text
- BARRIER stops enemy ships and most rockets from moving inside it. Drones are not affected, DELTA ROCKET goes through, BOND ignores it and TELEPORT is not stopped (a ship that teleports into it takes damage). game settings
- BOND ties an enemy ship's movement to yours. It breaks with LEAP, TELEPORT or another BOND, and ends when your ship jumps out. game settings
- DESTINY needs enemy ships in the sector; DESTINY and LEAP can't be activated during the White Star preparation period. game code
- The effects of VENGEANCE, BOND and DISPATCH end when the ship jumps out of the star. game code
Quantum Star
- Most activated modules count as used after activating, and using them again costs Hydrogen; MINING BOOST, REMOTE MINING, HYDROGEN UPLOAD and HYDROGEN ROCKET don't. game code
Economy and progress
- A Miner collects 5,000 ÷ its mining period thousandths of Hydrogen per tick (20 ticks per second), rounded down: level 1 gets 7.2 per minute in your system. → game code
- Hull repairs by its repair rate ÷ 50 HP per second, while the ship stands still in a sector without Cerberus. → game code
- A planet spreads its shipments per day evenly through the day and holds at most that many. → game code
- A delivery gives 7 XP per 100 credits of value, from 1 to 40; to another player's planet it gives × 5, still at most 40. → game code
- Speeding up 1 min or less is free; between the price points the crystal price follows a straight line rounded down, and past the last point it stays at the last price. → game code
- A Blue Star match gives at most half of the day's credits and 10% of your Hydrogen storage; your final position takes its share. → game code
- Red Star score comes from Cerberus destroyed and artifacts taken out of the star; passing the threshold gives Empire Power. → game code