How do I select all my ships?

Ctrl+A, or Cmd+A on a Mac, selects every ship you own anywhere in the galaxy. On touch, the All button at the bottom of the HUD does the same thing.

How do I attack a planet?

Select ships, then right-click the hostile planet. They fly there, break its orbital defences, and land troops automatically — the ground battle then plays out on the surface.

Can I control the troops on the ground?

No, and that is deliberate. Every planet assault has a second battle on the surface. You break the orbital guns, land troops, and the ground war plays out in real time under your fleet. You shape it by what you send and what you drafted, not by clicking units.

No. The camera zooms continuously from galaxy to planet surface, so the strategic view and the tactical view are the same view and a second one would be redundant.

Controls and first match

Everything you need for your first twenty minutes

You need about four controls to play and the rest is depth. Drag a box to select. Right-click a planet to send. Scroll to zoom. Press Q to back out of whatever you just did. Everything below is elaboration on those four.

Play free in your browser No download, no installer, no account needed to start a match.

The first minute

Do these four things in order and you will have taken a planet before you have finished reading this page.

Drag a box around the corvettes orbiting your starting world. A dashed rectangle appears with a count of what is inside it.
Right-click a neighbouring planet. The fleet leaves the orbit and burns down the lane toward it.
Scroll in on the target as they arrive. You will see them break the orbital guns, then drop troops.
Keep scrolling in. The surface resolves into a live ground battle for the bunker, and you are now standing on the planet.

Selecting

Left-click a ship selects it. Left-click empty space clears the selection.
Drag on empty space box-selects, on the galaxy map or inside a system.
Shift / Ctrl / Cmd + click or drag adds to the selection instead of replacing it.
Ctrl+A selects every ship you own anywhere in the galaxy.
Double-click your own ship locks the camera to follow it. Shift + double-click selects every ship of that class on screen.
View / System / All buttons do the same three things without a keyboard.

Ordering

Right-click a planet sends the selected fleet — move if it is yours or neutral, attack if it is hostile.
Right-click empty space inside a system sets a movement waypoint there, which is how you park a fleet next to a jump gate.
Right-click an enemy ship or rail gun attacks it directly.
Shift + right-click queues the order behind the ones already given.

Camera and views

Mouse wheel zooms, continuously, from galaxy to system to planet surface.
Middle-mouse drag, Alt + right-drag, WASD or the arrow keys pan. Pushing the cursor to the screen edge pans too.
E goes one layer in — into the system you are hovering, or down to a planet surface. Shift+E goes back out to the galaxy.
Q cancels one layer at a time: an armed targeting mode, then a ship follow, then the surface view, then your selection.

On a phone or tablet

Landscape only. Yes, on a phone or tablet held in landscape. Touch controls cover selection, orders and camera.

Tap to select a ship or open a planet. Tap a planet with ships selected issues the order.
One finger drag pans, two-finger pinch zooms.
Press and hold on the map acts as a right-click move or attack order.
Drag from one of your planets to another on the galaxy map sends that planet's whole orbiting fleet.

Galaxy to ground, one continuous zoom

Scroll out and you are reading a galaxy map. Scroll in and it unfolds into a single star system. Keep going and you are standing on the planet, watching a real-time ground battle for the bunker. No loading screens between the three.

A 4X match that fits in a coffee break

You take your first world in under a minute. The research ladder, doctrine drafting and planet specialisation are all there — they just resolve in the time a grand-strategy game spends on its tutorial.

Up to 30 commanders on one map

Solo matches run at 4, 8, 16 or 30 commanders against bots. Multiplayer is a live 30-player free-for-all with private lobbies if you would rather bring your own.

Runs in the tab you already have open

No installer, no launcher, no account required to play. It is a WebGL build that starts on a laptop, a Chromebook or a phone held sideways.

Questions people actually ask

How do I select all my ships?: Ctrl+A, or Cmd+A on a Mac, selects every ship you own anywhere in the galaxy. On touch, the All button at the bottom of the HUD does the same thing.
How do I attack a planet?: Select ships, then right-click the hostile planet. They fly there, break its orbital defences, and land troops automatically — the ground battle then plays out on the surface.
Can I control the troops on the ground?: No, and that is deliberate. Every planet assault has a second battle on the surface. You break the orbital guns, land troops, and the ground war plays out in real time under your fleet. You shape it by what you send and what you drafted, not by clicking units.
Is there a minimap?: No. The camera zooms continuously from galaxy to planet surface, so the strategic view and the tactical view are the same view and a second one would be redundant.