Don't PANIC!

The galaxy has sides. Pick yours.

Three factions hold the systems between you and the enemy capital. The Reavers are fast, brutal raiders. The Paragon is a machine order of shields and heavy guns. The Gorgons are something alive from the deep systems. Each has its own ships, its own leader and a long memory.

Every faction keeps a standing with you, from War to Allied. Destroy their ships and they hunt you. Do their work, pay tribute or trade in their space and they open their pads and their traders to you. Talk to their leaders face to face: ask for passage, offer tribute, take a contract, propose a pact, or declare war.

Free the three fortresses and break the capital. Or ally with all three factions and sign the peace without a shot. Both end the war. Then start the next one, harder, with everything you earned.

Armor is a puzzle

• Every ship has an armor level. Match your weapon's penetration to the target, or watch your shots ricochet in a bright, useless light show.

• Plasma Blaster, Autocannon, Laser Cutter or Tesla Coils, with ammo you switch on the fly. Smart rockets into crowds, flares against locks, an energy shield for the last moment.

• The fire control system shows you the lead and the armor of every target. Make each shot count.

• Stay in a hot sector and the Threat Level climbs: more enemies, meaner ones, and a soundtrack that rises with the fight (music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio).

26 enemy ships, 3 ways to be a boss

• From the Reavers' suicide drones to the Gorgons' G-VI Matriarch mothership, every faction fields its own line of ships, each met for the first time as a stronghold's flagship before it joins the ranks.

• Named warlords hold some systems. Shoot down their aces and they come for you themselves. A Reaver warlord brings the R-9 Maelstrom, a battleship you take apart piece by piece: engines, launch bays, turrets, bridge.

• Other factions' squads jump in and fight whoever they hate. Sometimes that's you. Sometimes it's your enemy.

Your ship, your fleet

• Five hull tiers, MK1 to MK5. 27 upgrades bought from passing Caravans and fitted in the Workshop, with the weapons you fit showing on your ship.

• Buy a fleet: the F23 Redoubt frigate, the F24 Palisade that draws fire off you, the F25 Ravelin missile boat and the F26 Casemate siege ship. Order them to follow you or guard a base.

• Hire wingmen, take contracts at the Bastion, build outposts to hold what you've won.

Planets worth fighting for

• Land on any planet: lush, lava, ice, desert, barren, or a city from pole to pole. Day and night, weather, wildlife that leaves you alone until you shoot near it.

• Take hostile planets by breaking their defenses and holding against the counterattack. Claim fuel wells and ore seams. Build factories that feed your war.

• Three refinery minigames, a different one for who holds the planet.

Also on board

• A seamless galaxy that grows as you explore it, with a holographic war table for every system.

• Arena Mode for pure survival with kill streaks and a leaderboard among your Steam friends.

• 37 Steam achievements, from your first freed system to a war won with clean hands.