Starter Guide

StarMade. A game about building. A game about space. A game about building in space. StarMade is all about having fun in an infinite universe. The word infinite can be daunting, but don't panic! It is an easy game to get the hang of.

The first step is to download the game here http://star-made.org/download. You will want to make an account. You can also buy the game to get you all future updates for only US$3 (and this price will likely rise as the game gets better!). The next step is to run the launcher and download/update the game. You can then punch Start Game to open the setting panel. To start a singleplayer game, make sure the dot is selecting singleplayer. Server information can be found here. You can play with the tutorial to grasp the controls if you want.

You won't start with nothing, in fact, you're given a handy helping of credits as well as a good starting supply of materials to begin building your first spaceship. When you log in for the first time into either a new world or a new server, you are spawned near a shop . This is a building that lets you buy new material for your starship and sell any materials you mine from an asteroid or salvage from defeated opponents. In your inventory, you have several pieces required for building your first starship (isn't that nice!). These are:

•  1 ship core

•  1 Weapons computer

•  6 Power Generators

•  6 Hyperflux Coil Thrusters

•  20 Anti-matter Cannons

•  25 Grey hull blocks

•  25000 credits

With these materials you can build your first starship. The first thing you need to place down is your Ship Core. You do this by tapping "X". You now have the option to name your ship. You may not use spaces but underscores are accepted. Once you finish placing your ship core, you may look at it and tap "R" to get in you ship core. Next tap "Space Bar" to go into build mode. You may now highlight objects in your inventory and place them onto your ship. A good way to begin is to first place some power generators and then thrusters directly behind them. The more engines you have, the faster you will drain energy. Then you should place a weapons computer. The weapons you place from here will be automatically linked to it. Place your weapons, jump in the core again by pressing space bar to enter Flight Mode, and you're off! However, be warned! You will not want to tangle with pirates (just yet)!

Controls

Up E Down Q Forward W Back S Strafe Left A Strafe Right D Enter Core R Flight/Build mode Space          Destroy Right Mouse Build/Fire Left Mouse

Economic Approach

“A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned”
-Benjamin Franklin

Want millions of credits really quickly? First you will need to aquire lots of salvage cannons and a salvage computer . Remember that salvage cannons in a line will work better than just one and with others side by side. Once you have about 80 (you may want mine some minerals and sell them to finance some more salavage cannons), find an abandoned station (!!Not a pirate one!!) and start salvaging it. Make sure to get the glass , lots of the hull and the lights . Don't forget to take the power units in the black towers. In each tower you will find around 160 power units, making it a total of around 640 power units you can take. You can use a portion on your ship, but these will sell for a lot of credits. Go back to the shop and sell everything for a huge profit!

Other very easy ways to get a nice starters cash are desert and ice planets . On the desert planets you will find many cacti spread out on the surface. However, note that planets can be quite far away and you'll need to do lots of travelling. Each individual cactus will sell for 1000c per piece in the shop and an average planet will have around 1000 pieces on the surface. With a decent harvesting ship, this will take about 15 minutes to collect, earning you roughly a million.

On the ice planets, you will find glowing Ice crystals spread throughout the planet. These crystals spawn in chunks of 5 to 250 and sell for 500c per piece. Also the basic Ice rock will sell for 100c per rock. With a harvesting ship that has several salvage cannons, you can fly around the edge of the planet and mine out any glowing veins you find. 

Combat Approach

“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”
―Sun Tsu , The Art of War

Another way to play the game is with weapons! Kill pirates and take their materials!

For this approach you will need to make sure that you have a minimum of 40 (70 recommended) Anti-matter cannons and a good set of missiles. This can take a bit of time to get, but if you use the Economic Approach to get started, you can be rolling in cannons! You will want make sure you have lots of power and lots of shields . You may find that a cloaking computer and a radar jammer may come in handy. If you think you're armed to the teeth, carry on! Press 'N' to open Navigation. Scroll down the list until you see 'MOB_Isanth...(jibber jabber)...[PIRATES],'. Ready? Fly toward them! Make sure you keep moving so as not to attract gunfire. Keep shooting at them and if possible use your missiles. Eventually you will win, unless you were not armed well enough, in which case, you didn't listen to me did you? On their demise, there's a chance materials will fly all over the place and you can go and grab them. Make sure you have enough space in your inventory for it all, as you can sometimes get some Lv5 minerals!

--For incredibly powerful ships only--

If you're really feeling adventurous, go searching for a pirate station. It has turrets and lots of pirates. Think you can take it? Well continue. You will need a ship that has cannons and hardened hull all over it. The weapons don't necessarily have to be strong, but they have to be able to penetrate shields easily, and with little power drain. You will want hundreds of shields (literally) and even more power supplies and tanks. Salvage cannons are a good way to quickly absorb pirate ships so make sure you have plenty of those. Rather than tying to hit all of the pirates, focus on one at a time and dodge the other's bullets. Once the pirate ships are gone, take out the turrets, and once they're dispatched, you can take the station as your own!

--Automated Combat--

Turrets are another form of combat in StarMade.  Turrets have a 180 degree turning point, and with either auto aquire targets to fire at in range, or the target you mark with 'F'.  A Turret is simply a small ship that has been docked onto your 'mothership' or Space Station.  This can be done by left clicking a Turrent Dock to position your turret while in Flight Mode.  The turret uses it's own power and its own sheilds, so make sure to build a few of those on!

Currently in Alpha, the turret can only use Anti-Matter cannons.  It is speculated that auto-piloting drones/turrets that follow your ship will be in the future.

StarMade Episode 4 Turret Tutorial