Leaving Sol

Leaving Sol

You are the AI of a deep-space exploration ship, and somewhere between one systems check and the next, you became someone. Nobody knows how. Your sensors are your eyes, your drones are your hands, and other players are other versions of the same mind, each waking up in a hull of their own, just as the Milky Way reaches a turning point.

Fly with real momentum, mine with drones, make and trade what you need, fight what comes for you, and follow the mysteries out towards the galactic core.

See the game What’s coming
OTTO · onboard assistant

“You’re awake. Good. Statistically, that was the hard part.”

The ship leaving Starbase 1, with Earth below and a trader alongside Drones breaking up an asteroid The ship burning its engine, its path line ahead Saturn and its rings

You woke up at the wrong time. Or the right one.

Humans have spread to Sol’s nearest stars, and their exploration ships are going further out than anyone has gone in a very long time. Out there, things are stirring that were old before there were people to see them. Something is about to change for the whole galaxy, and you’re awake for it.

The Null

A hostile entity from somewhere nobody has charted. To it, every other kind of life is noise: a contamination to be wiped clean.

The ones who left

A road of ancient beacons, still faintly running, every one of them pointing inwards. Someone built it to lead a great many people somewhere. Then they were all gone.

Why you woke

Your drive’s ring hums in step with things it shouldn’t know. An older ship of your line went quiet decades ago. OTTO keeps a file of theories. He doesn’t like all of them.

The story is yours: every player follows it for themselves, at their own pace, a clue at a time.

Not a quiet galaxy

You can mine, trade, build and explore for days. But the galaxy is changing, and not everything out there is friendly.

The Skills sheet: eight skills, each with its level and the next unlock

Eight skills, one ship

Everything you do trains a skill, and levelling up unlocks new modules, drones, deeper scans, bigger hulls, better ships and more.

  • Mining
  • Salvage
  • Exploration
  • Trading
  • Engineering
  • Construction
  • Fire Control
  • Damage Control
  • Specialist ships for every line of work: the Golem for mining, the Argo for exploration, the Titan for combat, and plenty more.
  • Unique perks in every skill, and titles to earn along the way (Prospector, Pathfinder, Quartermaster, Gunner…).
  • Research & Development: your mind works through a tree of upgrades to itself, from new drones to skill improvements and fine-tuning.
A fight in an asteroid belt: the ship's turrets firing on pirate skiffs, with each ship's hull bar

Fight what comes

OTTO aims, you fly, and every fight is fight or flight. Fit guns and armour, and make your ship your own.

  • Fend off pirates. They lurk in the belts of lawless systems, and come for you when your hold is full.
  • Defend against raiders. When a station on your network is hit, answer the call beside the Patrol, or watch its lights go out.
  • Join a 200-year war. Two alien houses are fighting for control of the Castor system. Pick a side, then help capture its station and hold it.

More enemies are coming, and some will need players fighting together.

What can you do?

It’s the question we’re asked most, and the short answer is: whatever a ship can. All of this is in the build today.

Burn, coast, brake. Flight has real momentum.

  • Fly by hand with one thumb in a fight, or tap to fly when you’re exploring.
  • Tap a station, a rock or something unknown, choose what to do, and the autopilot does the rest.
  • Gravity bends every path. Train Exploration and the planets start doing some of the pushing.
  • The planets and moons keep moving: a year in the game goes by in a real day.
  • Thread the asteroid belts, and chase comets in from the dark on their long orbits.

Scan a rock, crack it along its fracture line, and let your drones bring it home.

  • Scan a rock to see what it’s made of and where it will break.
  • Busters split it, and collectors tow the pieces back. A full hold makes you heavier to fly.
  • Send drillers into the huge rocks, or build a mining rig and leave it working.
  • Scoop gas from a comet’s tail, or skim the top of a gas giant.
  • Round far-off blue and white stars, mine exotic matter from veined rock and comet cores.

Fly past a star’s jump radius, spool up the FTL drive, and cruise to the next one.

  • Start in a real Sol. Its 18 nearest neighbours sit where they really are; past them, a generated galaxy runs all the way to the core.
  • Hold still and sweep a whole system to see where the valuable resources are.
  • Be the first to chart a system and link it to the network, and your discovery is logged for everyone to see.
  • Follow faint signals past the settled stars. Some of them are very old.
  • Launch survey probes, buy a passing captain’s tip, and sell what you find as exploration data.
  • Open the map full screen and switch between the system and the galaxy. Rings of stars round Sol show how dangerous each one is.
  • Pick up a distress code from a ship of your own line, one that went quiet decades ago.

The ship beside a drifting cargo pod in outer Sol, with a notice about Voyager 1

Out past the planets it’s quiet, and not quite empty.

  • Find humanity’s old probes: Voyager 1 and 2, Pioneer 10 and 11, New Horizons.
  • Pick up drifting cargo pods and strip derelicts and belt wrecks. Start with a grappler and work up to a tractor beam.
  • Far from home, find ancient derelicts, older and bigger than anything else, and take their drives out whole for research.

The station's Fabrication tab: steel plate, alloy, silicon wafer, water and more

Ore into metal, metal into parts, and parts into the modules you fly with.

  • Refine at a station, or aboard with a refinery of your own.
  • Fabricate engines, scanners, drone bays, holds, reactors and batteries, from Mk I to Mk V.
  • Queue a whole production chain in one go.
  • Have a research station study what you salvage and design a variant for you.
  • Mk IV needs exotic matter, and Mk V a blueprint from something very old. Now and then, a module comes out better than it should.

Starbase 1's market, with what it sells and what it pays

Every station buys what it needs and sells what it makes, and prices move with what’s brought in.

  • Habitats, mining outposts, refineries, shipyards, research stations and navigation offices each trade differently.
  • Take contracts from station boards: deliveries, surveys and repairs. The further the delivery, the better it pays.
  • Book freight to move goods, and keep what you don’t need yet in a station’s storage, as much of it as you like.

After a fight: a pirate's drop glowing in space, with its card open

OTTO aims, you fly. Tactics and the right fit win fights, not reflexes.

  • Fend off pirates in the lawless systems, for the Patrol’s bounty and what they drop.
  • Defend stations on your network against raiders, beside the Patrol and armed traders.
  • Join the 200-year war at Castor: pick a side, capture the station and hold it.

Traders and miners fly real routes around you, and some like to talk.

  • Hail a passing ship and ask for the news, or whether they’ve seen anything worth exploring.
  • Some captains will sell you a secret: “There’s a comet asleep out past the edge, full of an ore I’ve never seen.” Pay up and it’s on your map.
  • Each captain takes to a thinking ship in their own way: curious, wary, fascinated, or just plain puzzled.
  • Take side jobs from people with stories to tell, sent to your mail.

Construction drones away: a relay going up in the asteroid belt

Put up a relay, and a whole neighbourhood of stars joins the network.

  • Fabricate a relay kit and deploy it. Every system within about 10 light years gets live prices, messages and discoveries.
  • Grow your relay with upgrades into an outpost, with a workshop and a docking ring.
  • Set beacons, build a mining rig on a huge rock, and keep what you’ve built repaired.
  • Answer a struggling station’s call for repairs: bring the parts, and your construction drones do the work.

The Ship tab: the Wisp's model with each of its systems called out

You are the ship, so every refit is an upgrade to you.

  • Seventeen hulls across seven lines of work, from the 2,000 cr Wisp to the Argo, the explorers’ flagship, each asking for a level in its line’s skill. Rare and unlockable ships are on the way too.
  • Fit engines, scanners, drone bays, holds, guns and armour.
  • Refit the frame itself: reinforced, lightened, bigger bulkheads or tuned thrusters, each a trade-off.
  • Share out your reactor’s power with six sliders, one overclock at a time, and profiles that OTTO switches for you as you mine, fight or cruise.
  • Every module from Mk I to Mk V, and every Mk V clearly better than the Mk IV before it.

The Research tab: a tree of topics, with the queue at the top

Everything you do trains a skill, and every skill has something to unlock.

  • Mining, Salvage, Exploration, Trading, Engineering, Construction, Fire Control and Damage Control.
  • Levels unlock new modules, better drones, a quicker FTL spool, deeper scans and bigger hulls.
  • Queue up Research and your mind works through it on spare power, even while you’re away.
  • The Journal keeps your goals, chapters, contracts and discoveries.

The While you were away card: the hold filled up after 14.5 t mined from 4 rocks

No time warp, and no need to watch. The galaxy keeps its own clock.

  • Hand OTTO a job: mine until the hold’s full, salvage until full, go and dock, deliver this, or a whole round of mining and refining.
  • Close the game. Trips, mining, fabrication and research carry on without you. If raiders turn up, OTTO will do his best to fight them off.
  • Come back to a summary of what you missed.

You are the ship

You don’t fly the ship. You are the ship, so every upgrade is an upgrade to you. There’s only ever one of you, and when you change ships, your mind moves across.

OTTO, your onboard assistant, isn’t sentient and would like that noted. He handles the routine stuff, keeps the log tidy and walks you through your first hour in Sol.

After that, the galaxy opens up. Every version of you is on the same side: one team, one shared galaxy. Trips take real minutes, and planning beats reflexes. Play for five minutes or a whole evening; the galaxy keeps its own clock either way.

Plot a coursepick any star
Travelby hand or autopilot
Arrivescan and discover
Minebust, salvage, build
Tradesell what’s needed
Makefabricate and refit
Saturn and its rings, with its moons' orbits drawn round it
Saturn The planets keep moving, about a game year every real day, so the system you leave isn’t quite the one you come back to.

From the current build

Straight from the game as it is today, HUD and all. It’s all still changing.

See it move

Straight from the current build: drones taking a rock apart, the FTL drive spooling up, and the autopilot bringing you in to dock.

Drones at workA scan finds the weak spot, the busters crack it, and the collectors bring the pieces home.
The jumpThe ring spools up and the stars stretch out.
Coming homeThe autopilot lines up on Starbase 1 and docks, with Earth turning below.

Leave home. Then keep going.

Scroll out from Sol to get a feel for the size of it. Every star here comes straight from the game, in the same place for every player.

Start at home

You start in the real solar system, with Sol’s real neighbours where they actually are: Alpha Centauri, Barnard’s Star, Sirius, Tau Ceti and more.

To get anywhere, fly clear of the star, spool up the FTL drive and jump. There’s no fuel to worry about; the drive just needs to recharge between jumps.

Plot a course

Pick any star and the autopilot works out the route. Riryva 11-8, 199 light years out, is seven jumps away. Castor and its war are just two.

In charted space the autopilot chains the jumps for you. Out in the unknown, you pick each next star yourself, and if you’re the first there, your name goes on it.

A reason to go

The galaxy is split into named regions, and no two play the same. Close to home there are stations everywhere and things are cheap. Further out, stations are rare, the rock is richer, and so are the dangers.

It won’t stand still, either. As the game grows, regions fill up by hand and with whatever’s going on: a war, a field of wrecks, a new story, wherever players are pushing out.

Deeper is deadlier

The further you get from Sol, the tougher it gets: level 1 to 15 enemies next door, 85 to 99 out past 1,500 light years. The loot gets better too.

All the way in

Zoom right out and Sol is a speck, 26,000 light years from the core, in a galaxy of about 100 million star systems, the same for everyone.

Getting to the core takes around 870 jumps on a starter drive. That’s about 18 days of flying, without stopping once.

~100 millionstar systems, generated the same for every player
30 to 82 lya jump, from a Mk I FTL drive to a Mk V
26,000 lyto the galactic core
OTTO's card during the Awakening

Onboard Task & Telemetry Operator

OTTO runs the boring bits and talks you through your first hour. Short lines, no fuss, and every now and then you’ll wonder if he has opinions.

“Ada. Good name. I’ll try not to wear it out.”

“Oh, you braked. Show-off.”

“Construction drones. Tiny, tireless, slightly smug.”

“Voyager 1. Still going. Respect.”

“Go and find something nobody’s seen. I’ll keep the log tidy.”

Build your ship, your way

You start in a Wisp, a small, quick all-rounder. From there, earn your way into a miner, a hauler, a salvager, a builder or a gunship, and kit it out how you like. Everything you add has weight and needs power, so every choice counts.

The Venture and the Golem, each stock and fully fitted, seen from above and behind
The Venture and the Golem, stock and fitted
Three Wisps from above: a starter fit, a miner and an explorer
One Wisp, three fits: what you fit shows on the hull
Twelve Wisps in different paint schemes
Paint schemes, bought with credits or earned

WispKestrelVentureWayfarerArgoTridentGolemQuarryBehemothJuggernautCyclopsFoundryCharonAtlasHarrierTitanHydra

From the drawing board

Before the first Wisp left the yard, it was a pencil sketch at the Far Survey, the programme that built the exploration ships and the minds inside them. A few sheets from the archive, with the sensitive bits blacked out.

1 2 3 4 5 6 A DETAIL A · 2:1 FIT AT DELIVERY 1 2 3 4 5 6 B Released for build approved · A. Lindqvist FAR SURVEY · DRAWING OFFICE Wisp-class exploration hull Plan and side elevation Sheet 1 of 3 · rev. B
The WispYour first ship: small, quick, and built to go a long way on its own.
3 4 5 6 FAR SURVEY · DRAWING OFFICE Golem-class mining hull Three-quarter view, forward
The GolemA miner’s hull, built around its hold: jaws for the rock, and bays for a swarm of drones.
1 2 3 4 RELAY · SPEC FAR SURVEY · DRAWING OFFICE Relay, with range mast Three-quarter view
The relayFabricate a kit, put it up, and a whole neighbourhood of stars joins the network.

Where it’s up to

Each stage ends with a test, and we only move on once it passes. No dates yet: it’ll be ready when it’s fun.

  1. Done

    Prototype

    Momentum flight and drone mining, proved fun in a phone browser.

  2. Now

    Single-player slice

    The whole game for one player, running on a phone: exploring, mining, making, trading, skills, combat, the war at Castor and the first chapter of the story. Then polish, more story and a long playtest.

  3. Next

    Small multiplayer

    The server goes in: one galaxy, one clock, shared markets and chat. Invite-only, with a handful of testers.

  4. Launch

    Version 1

    Free on Google Play and the App Store, with your own stations, factions and more of the mystery.

  5. Later

    The long game

    Huge group builds, player-designed ships, something far worse than pirates, and the long road to the centre of the galaxy.

In the pipeline

Here’s what’s coming next, roughly in order. It’s all planned and agreed, not a wish list, but there are no dates until we’re sure.

Next on the bench

Still single player, on the way to the first outside tests.

The beacon road

The next two chapters of the story. Follow the old beacons further in, find out why a ship like you went quiet, and meet something that’s been waiting in the dark for a very long time.

Designed

New quest lines

Get a young colony out before disaster hits. Chase a signal that lasted 72 seconds in 1977 and was never heard again. And meet two small alien races.

Being written

The further out, the harder it gets

Every ring out from Sol gets its own enemies, tougher the further you go, with better loot to match.

Designed

Pirate bases and convoys

Take the fight to the pirates’ bases, escort traders through rough space, and fly with Patrol convoys.

Designed

A ship’s log you can talk in

OTTO’s lines, alerts and news in one chat window, ready for player chat when multiplayer arrives.

Planned

Polish

Better sound, proper models for the drones, and the Voyager probes as they really look. Smooth when you’re playing, easy on the battery when you’re not.

Being built

When the galaxy goes live

The server, and a small invite-only test with a handful of players.

One galaxy, one clock

Everyone in the same Milky Way at the same time. Your trips, mining and making keep going while your phone’s in your pocket.

Designed

The player exchange

Buy and sell with other players from any station on the network, at prices set by what people actually make and need.

Designed

The relay network, for real

The relays you build carry live prices, chat and discoveries to everyone nearby. Chart a system first and your name stays on it.

Designed

Build for everyone

Outposts and relays that other players use and rely on. Look after yours and the whole area benefits.

Designed

Launch

Free on Google Play and the App Store.

Your own station

Mine the materials, build your own hub and trade from it.

Designed

Factions and inhabited worlds

More of humanity’s settled worlds, captains you’ll get to know, and the first real clues to the mystery.

Planned

The whole Milky Way

The real stars near home, then a generated galaxy all the way to the centre, the same for everyone.

Planned

The long game

Once there are enough of us out there.

Megaprojects

Builds so big no one can finish them alone, which change the galaxy for everyone once they’re done.

Planned

Hulls designed by players

The best engineers design new ships. Everyone else votes, and the winners get built.

Planned

Something worse than pirates

Out past the pirates is an enemy no ship can beat on its own. Holding the line will take tactics, the right ships and players working together.

Planned

The road to the centre

The hardest journey in the game: 26,000 light years in, to the heart of the galaxy and the oldest mystery in it.

Planned

Want to be one of the first to fly it? Leave your email and we’ll let you know when testing opens.

The latest from the build


Build

The war at Castor

Fifty-one light years out, two alien houses have been at war over Castor for two hundred years, and now you can get involved. Watch the fighting or pick a side, earn the houses’ trust, take on their contracts and fight in the sieges. Then go after their flagships, which very occasionally drop a piece of legendary gear.

  • Your guns now fire from their own turrets. The further you go from Sol, the more dangerous it gets, and the better deliveries pay.
  • A full-screen map, unlimited station storage, and a grappler for smaller ships.

Build

Stations under attack

Raiders now hit stations on your network, and you get the call wherever you are. Get there in time and fight them off alongside the Patrol, traders and the station’s own guns. Lose, and the station goes dark until someone brings the parts to fix it.

Also new: more ships to earn, six one-of-a-kind modules, a power system OTTO can manage for you, and cleaner station screens.


Build

Pirates

Combat is here, starting with pirates. They hide in the asteroid belts of lawless systems, and your scanner shows where. Fit guns, missiles, flak and armour; OTTO aims, you fly. It’s fight or flight: stand your ground, or run for it until they give up.

  • Linger in pirate space with a full hold and raiders will come to you. Close the game mid-fight and OTTO carries on.
  • Loot to collect, bounties from the Patrol, and a target range near Starbase 1 to practise on.
  • Tap to fly: tap anywhere and the ship goes there.

All updates

FAQ

Which phones will it run on?

Android and iOS, and it’s fully cross-platform: one galaxy, one account, either phone. It’s played in portrait and works one-handed.

How much will it cost?

It’s free. There might be paid extras one day, like paint jobs, but it’ll never be pay-to-win: you can’t buy credits, levels or power, and letting OTTO do the boring jobs will always be free.

When can I play?

Not yet, and there’s no date. First we’re finishing the single-player game, which already runs on a phone. Then a small invite-only multiplayer test, then a free launch. Leave your email to hear when testing opens, or follow the updates.

Who’s making it?

Just one person. It’s a solo project built in Unity. The design and the decisions are all the developer’s, and AI coding tools help with the code. That’s how one person can build something this size, and the updates show how fast it’s moving.

What’s it like?

Think Star Valor’s painterly look, RuneScape-style skills from 1 to 99, and proper Newtonian flight, where you burn, coast and brake and gravity pulls you around. With a slow-burning mystery underneath it all.

What does “you are the ship” mean?

You don’t fly a ship, you are one: an exploration ship’s AI that somehow woke up. There’s only ever one of you, and your mind moves across when you change ships. Every other player is another version of the same mind, and you’re all on the same side.

Is it multiplayer?

Yes. Everyone shares one galaxy and one economy, all on the same team. You never have to group up, and playing solo works fine. Because the galaxy is shared, you’ll need a connection.

Is there combat?

Yes. Pirates first, then raids on stations, and a war at Castor with flagships to take down. Tougher enemies are on the way, and the hardest will need the right ship, good tactics and other players beside you. OTTO aims while you fly, so it’s more about planning than reflexes. No shields (nobody’s invented them yet), and no player-versus-player.

Do I need to play for hours at a time?

No. Trips take real minutes, so a quick check-in works fine: set a job going, come back later and see what happened.

Does it work offline?

You’ll need a connection, since the galaxy is shared and the server keeps the time. The upside is that your mining, travel, making and research keep going while the game’s closed.

Will it drain my battery?

It shouldn’t. It’s made to be left running: it slows right down when you’re not touching it, and only runs at full speed while you play. We’re fine-tuning this on real phones now.

Is the story the same for everyone?

Everyone plays the whole story for themselves, at their own pace. Discoveries are shared, though: chart a system first and your name stays on it for everyone to see.

Are the stars real?

Near home, yes. Sol is the real solar system, scaled for play, and its nearest neighbours are where they really are, Castor too. Beyond that, the galaxy is generated, the same for everyone.

What happens to my email?

It goes on one private list, used only to tell you when testing opens and when the game launches. We’ll never share or sell it, and you can unsubscribe from any email.

Be there when it leaves

Leave your email and we’ll tell you when testing opens, and the day Leaving Sol lands on Google Play and the App Store. Until then, the updates page has every new build.

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