250 turns · every 4hTurn-basedAsync multiplayerFree

Run a galaxy from your phone.

A turn-based space trader in the tradition of the classic BBS door games. You get 250 turns every 4 hours. Markets restock, planets produce and rivals spend theirs on the same clock. Every turn is a decision.

One account · same galaxy on phone and web

Your turnsResets in —
250 / 250
Full reset every 4h · nothing carries over+5 provisions a cycle · 800 cr each
The Ship screen in Big Bang Smugglers: holds, shields, fighters and torpedoes for the Nebula Merchant
Status Active
Join the season

Six resets a day. The galaxy ticks on the same ones.

Turns refill, markets restock, planets produce, garrisons regrow, minefields decay. Make every reset and that's 1,500 turns a day.

Next reset in —
00:00UTC
04:00UTC
08:00UTC
12:00UTC
16:00UTC
20:00UTC

Spend your turns.

250 land every 4 hours, none carry over, and the whole game is what you do with them. A move is a turn. A trade is a turn. A fight is a turn. A siege is three. A Tesseract jump is twenty-five.

What a turn buys
Move to a linked sector1
Buy or sell cargo, any quantity1
Engage in combat1
Claim a planet, build a structure, raid1
Warp jump⌈hops ÷ level⌉
Attack a port3
Tesseract jump, anywhere you've been25
Banking, beacons, limpets, planet storage, bounty claims0
The full turn rules →
A cycle, three ways worked examples, real costs
The trade run

Fifteen laps of a six-hop loop

Moves
180
Trade legs
60
Active scans
10

Agri organics at 75, sold at a mining port anchored at 240. Fifteen times.

The hunt

Warp to the rim and work the lanes

Warps
26
Stalking moves
110
Fights
45
Scans and mines
69

Bounty claims cost nothing to redeem. The registry is the only part that's free.

The builder

Fund it, build it, hold it

Trade to fund
100
Build and colonize
7
Siege a port
10
Raids and patrol
108
Tesseract home
25

Deposits, storage and the vault are free. Your turns go to the fight, not the paperwork.

Three zones. Risk priced accordingly.

Patrolled Federation core with no PvP. Open frontier in between. Lawless pirate rim, where the richest planets and the black markets are.

Fed coreSafe, patrolled, thin margins
FrontierContested, unclaimed worlds, real money
Pirate rimNo law, black markets, the best planets

Federation or pirate, decided by playing

Start neutral. Clean routes push you one way; contraband and first strikes push the other. Alignment sets your prices, port access, and which hulls you may fly.

Seasons of every length

Sprints and marathons, small maps and sprawling ones, each balanced for its length. Standings lock when the galaxy closes and carry forward as prestige.

Corporations

Fly as a fleet, capture and hold ports, share planets under corp policy, climb the standings under one banner.

45 hulls, five tiers deep.

The neutral spine is open to anyone. Federation hulls carry reinforced shields. Pirate hulls run better escape odds and hidden compartments customs can't scan. Six epic hulls can't be bought, only earned.

  • Three neutral lines anyone can buy, at any standing.
  • Three Federation lines unlocked by legal standing.
  • Three pirate lines earned on the wrong side of the law.
Every hull, with stats →
LineAccessBuilt for
TradingOpenCargo volume
WarOpenFighters and torpedoes
BalancedOpenA little of both
PatrolFed standingFast, well shielded
EnforcerFed standingShields and firepower
DreadnoughtFed standingHeaviest legal hull
SmugglingPirate standingHidden compartments
RaiderPirate standingSpeed and escape odds
CorsairPirate standingRim-built brawler

The game is always watching the work.

A trade, a kill, a scan, a bounty collected, a sector seen for the first time: it all goes into one action stream, and everything below reads from it.

Daily

Daily missions

A rotating slate: trade runs, hauls, pirate hunts, convoy raids, surveys, contraband moves. Honest work nudges alignment up; underworld work drags it down.

Credits · XP · bonus turns
Season

Season arcs

Seven long hauls that run the length of a season, from an easy opening muster to elite gauntlets. Where legendary gear is earned rather than rolled.

Up to 80k cr · 4,000 XP · 50 turns
Ladders

Goals

Bronze, Silver and Gold ladders per category: combat, trade, exploration, economy, piracy. Progress accrues on its own. Top tiers grant lifetime titles.

Credits · XP · titles
Epic

Epic goals

Compound conditions above Gold: stat floors, standing floors, a clean record, a measured fraction of the galaxy explored. Tuned so maybe one captain a season gets there.

One epic hull · never sold
Streak

Any day you spend a turn counts.

Miss one day and it's forgiven. Your streak is the only thing that crosses season boundaries: payouts are seasonal, showing up isn't.

3 days7 days14 days30 days

“It feels like a sort of Trade Wars meets Privateer vibe… My favorite part are the cutscenes — I feel rewarded every time I see a new one.”

John Pritchett, Trade Wars 2002 developer and Trade Wars™ rights holder*

The season is open.

Your next 250 turns land in —. Spend the ones you have first.