Taking off

As soon as you log into the game for the first time, you spawn in the hangar of your starting location. On later logins at this location, the game lets you in here as well.

And right in front of you, you’ll see an ASOP terminal.

Getting your ship

1. 1

   Open the ASOP terminal

   Walk up close to the ASOP terminal and press F to see your spaceships and vehicles.

   

2. 2

   Check the ship status

   Here you can also see the status of your ships.

   On your first start and after every patch, all your ships are Deliverable. That means no matter where you are, you can call this ship straight to your current location. To do so, click Deliver to the right of your ship.

   

   After that, your ship is Stored at this location. If it gets destroyed later or is at another location, you can bring it back to you the same way with the Claim button. That takes a certain amount of time, though, about 5 minutes for starter ships.

   If the ship’s status is Stored, you can have it delivered to the hangar with the Retrieve button.

   

3. 3

   Wait for the ship

   Your ship is now brought into the hangar. Stay behind the holographic barrier until it’s there.

   

4. 4

   Get in

   Walk up to your spaceship. Depending on the model, you get in either at the front by the cockpit or through a door or an elevator. Either way, look for a button near the door and use the F key to open your spaceship and get in.

   

5. 5

   Take the pilot seat

   Now head to the cockpit and press F again to take a seat in the pilot seat.

   

In the cockpit

Now you’re at the controls and want to take off.

1. 1

   Power up the ship

   Press U to power up your spaceship.
2. 2

   Turn on engines

   Press I to turn on your engines.

   After a short moment, tap Space to lift your spaceship off the ground.

3. 3

   Request takeoff clearance

   Press L-Alt + N. That requests takeoff clearance. If your spaceport is busy, you sometimes end up in a queue for takeoff. If not, your hangar door opens right away.

   

4. 4

   Leave the hangar

   Now carefully fly out of your hangar. Different hangars open upwards or to the front.
5. 5

   Retract landing gear

   Once you’re out of the hangar, press N to retract the landing gear. That also lifts your 30 m/s speed limit, and you can fly at full speed.
6. 6

   Use the afterburner

   Use your afterburner with L-Shift to get away from the planet faster.

   

7. 7

   Switch to NAV mode

   Hold the B key to switch to NAV mode. That makes your spaceship fly even faster, but also turns off your shields. So only do it in safe situations.
8. 8

   Out of the atmosphere

   In NAV mode you can do quantum jumps, but not in the lower atmosphere. So aim upwards and hit the throttle with W.

   If you don’t want to hold W all the time, press L-Alt + C. That turns cruise mode on and off. You set your desired speed with W and S, and the spaceship tries to hold it.