New Player Guide

Starbase Support Navigation

General:

• New Player Guide for help in venturing out the first time, popular questions and info on the universe
• Community:Guides for community-created tutorial videos and other helpful videos

Support:

• Support for general support information and how to file F1 Feedback reports and get help!
• Support guides for "How To" guides

Technical:

• Technical help for general technical help and common questions
• Technical problems for common technical problems / knowledge base
• Technical options for ".ini" file, render resolution, technical options

Important announcements:

• Steam crashes are fixed with the latest Steam beta client! Coming soon to the regular Steam client

Welcome to the New Player Guide! This guide is an attempt to teach new players certain basic features of Starbase and prepare them on their endo journey.

Starbase naming policy

• The naming policy for endos, ships, stations and other things is work-in-progress
• Currently strict, and does not allow spaces or numbers
• Some old pioneer users have names from a time when the policy was less strict
• There will be a way to rename (or request renaming of) things at some point during Early Access

Improvements coming in the near future

Please join the Discord server and follow the announcement channels for the latest news and updates.

Getting help

Come to #new-players in the Starbase Discord - no question is too small to be asked, and veteran players are happy to assist.

Also check out Community:Guides for videos created by the community or the Steam guides.

Reporting bugs

You can use the F1 Feedback Tool to report bugs to the developers. You can also check out the Feedback page for more information.

General gameplay info

Your Endo life

• Your character is always "safe"; you can die but you won't lose everything
• You may lose ships and items in the ship inventory if you e.g. get destroyed
• You can always use "Insurance Transfer" (ESC menu) to get away from tough situations - this will take you back to the Origin station

Companies (clans)

• You can create your own company
• You do not need to join or create a company, you can play Starbase solo or in a group of friends or "impromptu" gang of endos

Safe zones

• Safe zones protect endos from damage and unwanted attacks
• Your ship cannot take damage (except due to bugs etc)
• Safe zone around the starter area is big, and has plenty of asteroids to mine as well
• Outside the safe zone has rarer ores/asteroids, and in the future will have other benefits (higher risk, higher reward)
• By default your ships are not permitted to leave the safe zone. This permission can be set per ship or applied to all in settings.

Login and logout

• You can log out at any point, anywhere
• When you log back in, you'll spawn where you logged out
  • Note: if you log out on a ship and it is moved, you will not move with the ship (exception Capital Ships)
• If you have a ship when you log out, that ship will remain in the universe (for 365 days) and can be interacted with by other players while you are offline
  • If the ship is outside of the safe zone, it may get destroyed or stolen by other players (if found)
  • Best practice is to despawn the ship at a station and then log off

Buying ore and new items

• Check out the Shops page for more information on shops, their location, and the items they sell
  • Only Kite remains as a non-player trader who sells cosmetics
• Use the Auction House to buy and sell ore, parts, modules and tools and weapons to and from other players

Ships in universe vs Ship Designer

• Currently if a ship has been spawned to the universe, it cannot be brought back to the Ship Designer
• It is possible to edit ships in the universe but those changes will not reflect in the Ship Designer blueprint itself
  • Changes can be saved to a ship specific blueprint (F5) that doesn't interact with the Ship Designer

Vouchers

• Vouchers waive the resource cost of ships
• Developers can issue "vouchers" for both ship shop ships or custom ships
• A received voucher will show up in the Bank Statement as "ShipVoucherReceived"
• Vouchers are applied to the specific ship version (if you modify the ship, the voucher won't work)
• The vouchers are redeemed either when purchasing the ship from the Ship Designer or at the Ship Shop terminal if it's not a custom ship

Quick tips

• Moving with the jetpack around a huge station like Origin can be slow
  • Bind Insurance Transfer points at Marketplace and Easy Build Hall to speed up your travels
• ALWAYS bring a Pickaxe with you on mining trips!
• Turn OFF the generators of a ship when you're not actively flying, otherwise you will spend fuel at all times

Tutorial

• The Tutorial is the first thing in the game, and will teach you some basics.
• Durign tutorial you'll get your first ship, the Laborer. It's a nice, upgradable ship that will serve you well in the beginning.
• You will also have a Pickaxe (for mining asteroids) and a set of tools.

Tutorial jobs and additional credits

• The available jobs are the Mining job and the Demolition job
• Other jobs such as Repair are under construction (you may see signs for Repair and Assembly in the game world though, but they don't work)
• The Tutorial doesn't give you any credits, so if you want additional credits, you can go to the jobs and do some additional work using the same skills you learned during the Tutorial

Getting the Laborer

• The Labourer ship you get from the tutorial is a good ship, and can be extended
• You're not in a rush to get a new one but if you are you can get up to 10 by repeating the "Repair" section
• For other ships, check out the Wiki and ask around in Discord based on your needs

Troubleshooting

• If you end up destroying or crashing the Laborer, you can go to the Starbase Discord in #help-request-ingame and write a report, and the devs can refund the ship so you can buy it again or try another ship.
• You can reset the tutorial:

1. Go to Settings (ESC -> Settings), then Gameplay > Tutorial > "Reset Tutorial"
2. Then use Insurance Transfer (ESC -> Insurance Transfer) to get back to Origin, and press the F8 key

Tutorial known issues and fixes

Ore not collecting

• In some cases the ores may not be collected automatically during the Mining Job
• To fix this:
  • Go to the Inventory/Equipment menu (press I)
  • Make sure you have the Mining Backpack equipped in your Back slot
  • Toggle OFF "Automatic Collecting", and then re-enable it
• You may also need to leave the Mining Job before toggling the setting

Repair Tutorial not completing

• Sometimes the Repair tutorial does not complete
• To fix this:
  • Restart the game
  • For more information: What to do when the Repair Job does not work

Controls

Often used additional controls

• Q to align yourself to whatever you're looking at
• G to switch Magboots on/off
• (Left) Shift to boost endo walking / sprint
• U to open the Universal tool

Interacting with items

• F places an item into your hand
• P puts an item into your inventory

Ship controls rebinding

• V to rebind ship controls (look to your left to see the opened panel)

Pressing buttons with TAB

• TAB to free the mouse cursor, allowing you to click menus and buttons ingame

Mining

Selling ore

• You can sell ore in two ways:
  • Find the "Credits!" tower in Origin, connect your ship's resource bridge to the tower, and sell the ore or sell directly from station inventory
  • Go to Origin and open the Auction House (keybind ,), and put the ore up for auction

Ships

Refueling a ship

• You can buy more fuel rods from the Auction house or craft a new one or refill an old one
• Remember fuel and propellant are separate things, you need both!
• You can buy propellant at the "Credits!" tower, at Starsol booths or you replace the empty propellant tank like you would replace a fuel rod

Replacing a fuel rod

• Equip the Bolt Tool and unbolt the existing fuel rod (hold RMB on the fuel rod)
• Remove fuel rod with E
• Put in a new fuel rod (toggle snap with C and use Scroll or Shift+Scroll to rotate along the X and Y axes)
• (Use the Bolt Tool and hold LMB to bolt the fuel rod)
  • Note: Hold LMB uses Autobolt. After an update the Autobolt profile for fuel rods got purposely removed but they can still be manually bolted (LMB click when bolt-preview is green)
• The old fuel rod can be left in space (they'll despawn after some time; technically they can be sold but they're not worth much) or kept for later use
• A visual guide for this can be found in the Steam guide Fuel Rod Replacement.

Buying a ready-made ship

• You can buy a ship with materials and credits in any of the Ship Shops
• You can "Test Flight" ships before you buy them
• If you get stuck inside a ship, log out and then log back in, and quickly move a little bit before the game loads everything

Designing and buying your own custom ship

• You can design your own ship in the Ship Designer
  • Ship Designer will use materials, i.e. ore and alloys, and you will have to either mine (ore)/craft (alloy) them, or buy them from the Auction House
  • Ship Designer will take time and effort, but is recommended after you know a bit more about the game

Selling ships

• You can sell ships at the landing pad of the Sunny Ship Shop (the red ship shop). Despawn your ship, spawn it again at the landing pad terminal, and after a moment the "Spawn" will change to "Sell".
  • Note it's not the Chemosh Ship Shop (also red) but the other one that has a huge banner saying "Galaxy is big! Buy a spaceship!"
  • It's a very small landing pad at the entrance to the Sunny Ship Shop, right where the basic ships like Vasama are sold
• Selling gives a certain % of the purchase price back (around half or less) and even less if the ship has damage
• It is not advisable to sell the Laborer ship unless you have multiple other ships already

Stranded in space

• If you end up stranded in space, with e.g. all fuel rods spent, there's a couple of options:
  • Ask help in the Discord, maybe someone can come and help you out (this may not be feasible, especially if you're far out with no navigation system)
    • If you see a few station transponders, you can triangulate the position if you try to match the distances, so take some screenshots before leaving the ship for good - you may be able to recover it later
  • If you're within the safe zone, you can insurance transfer your endo back to Origin, and then Tow your ship from space for a small fee from one of the landing pads

Miscellaneous gameplay

Direct Trading / how to trade

• In the Social tab, find the player you want to trade with, then right click and choose "Request to trade"
  • The other player will need to accept the trade request in the chat
• Note that you can also send credits via the Mail/Inbox system

Rotating items

• Rotate items with Scroll and Shift+Scroll along the X and Y axes
  • You can assign a key for the X, Y and Z axes respectively, so that when you hold the key and move the mouse the held part rotates along that axis
• Toggle snapping with C (or Shift+C in the Spaceship Designer)

Interacting and traveling around the universe

Insurance Transfer / Insurance Points

• Insurance Transfer is used to quickly transfer across the universe (like teleporting). Currently it does not cost anything to use Insurance Transfer. If you ever get stuck somewhere, or get lost in space, you can use Insurance Transfer to get out.
• You can find new Insurance Points throughout the stations
  • Default is on Origin and will transfer your endo to the Command Center of the Origin station
  • Easy Build Hall/Ship Designer building has an Insurance Point at one side of the building
  • Marketplace has an Insurance Point to the right of the Marketplace entrance area (just outside the actual Marketplace)

Moon City

• Moon city has three Insurance Transfer points
• Note: To get to Moon city from Origin you need to go through the Fast Travel gate in the middel of the ring of origins and then pass a section outside of the safezone after arriving at the moon

Tips and tricks

Last updated: March 2021
Reworded: August 2024
Note that these tips may change rapidly as the game gets updates and economy changes!

Best ships for mining

• The starting Laborer is a perfectly fine mining ship, so you don't need to immediately buy another ship
• The Laborer can be - and should be - upgraded to 18 crates, which will be good for the first mining trips
• Moving on from Laborer, look for a mining ship with around 100 ore crates
• The next step is a mining ship with hundreds of ore crates, by this time you probably have a good idea of what works for you

How to be an efficient miner

• In the early game mining speed is more important than being picky about ore type. A fast and sturdy ship with 15+ ore crates is efficient
  • a trip getting 15 Charodium, which you can quickly sell to the Shops for 3810.24 Credits (for a full list of ore sell prices), results in at least 57153.60 Credits
• Find reasonably sized asteroids near the station within the safe zone and return to sell the ores.
  • If you don't find asteroids in the immediate area around an Origin station, try a different direction or start from a different station, as the asteroids can be mined out in an area

Selling or keeping ores

• The game economy is moving towards using ores more and more
• Ship building consumes ores, so if you're planning to build ships, ores will be important
• General wisdom is that it's good to keep most ore unless strapped for credits or out of station inventory slots
• The common ore (Ajatite, Valkite) can be sold for credits as they're so commonplace
• Generally use the Auction House to sell ores (unless they're generally cheap and the station vendors/towers give roughly the same price as Auction House)

Tools

A short overview over the different tools used in building, repairing and salvaging ships

Bolt Tool

• Used to connect (LMB) and disconnect (RMB) parts to each other
• Reload the Bolt Tool by buying a new magazine

Cable Tool

• Used to place (2x LMB for start and end) and remove (RMB) cables for data and power
• Reload the Cable Tool by buying a new magazine

Pipe Tool

• Used to place (2x LMB for start and end) and remove (RMB) pipes for resources and propellant
• Reload the Pipe Tool by buying a new magazine

Welding Tool

• Used to connect (LMB) and disconnect (RMB) beams
• Reload the Pipe Tool by buying a new Power Pack
  • Alternative mode allows for placing Weld Cubes that connect any parts intersecting with it (uses Bastium from inventory)

Troubleshooting

Stuck physically?

• Log out and log back in; the game takes a few seconds to load objects with collisions, so you can move out of tough spots while it loads
• Your endo has a melee attack, so you can also try destroying objects by force

"This ship has a durability error"

• This happens if your ship was a "ship strength factor" below 1.00
• Your ship will likely start falling apart at some point (typically at higher speeds) and make noise while moving
• Fix it by making sure everything is properly bolted or welded

Ship is flying away and lifeline didn't work

• If your ship is flying away without you and your lifeline didn't work, Log Out
• Logging out will cause the ship to unload, which resets levers and buttons