Official Guide

Welcome to the Big Bang Smugglers official guide. Learn the mechanics, master the systems, and forge your legacy in the void.

Guide fully updated for v1.22.0 (July 2026).

Guide Sections

Getting Started

Your first steps. Download the app or play on the web, join a season, understand your starter ship, and make your first trade.

Gameplay Basics

Core mechanics: movement, turns, warp and Tesseract travel, wormholes, landmarks, repair, and the wallet-versus-bank credit system.

Galaxy & Territory

How galaxies are structured, the six regions, territory types, where PvP actually happens, and how to read the Nav screen.

Trading & Economy

How port prices really work, trade pressure, fees and taxes, cargo lots, and the routes that make money.

Ships

Every ship class in the game. Federation and Pirate lines, six roles, five tiers each — plus the Hangar, ship destruction, and escape pods.

Tech Upgrades

Permanent ship improvements from the Upgrades service covering cargo, shields, combat, stealth, and warp efficiency — and the right order to buy them.

Combat

How combat resolves, PvP zone rules, loot, disable and recovery, fleets, port sieges, and sector defenses.

NPCs & Encounters

Patrols, pirates, and traders: spawn rates by region, every encounter option with its real odds and costs, and what each NPC actually drops.

Trader Reputation & Faction Alignment

The two standing scores, everything that moves them, the full price-modifier ladders (buying and selling), and the access gates they control.

Smuggling & Contraband

Contraband goods, the two detection systems, cloaking, real margins, and why a clean record is a smuggler’s best tool.

Deployables

Navigation beacons, proximity mines, limpet trackers, and sector-defense fighters — deploying them from the Bridge and what they mean for anyone flying through.

Scanners & Intel

The StarNav 2002 scanner, active sector scans, buying intel, cloaking devices, and who can see your ship.

Missions & Streaks

Mission types, how accepting and completing works, the one-active-mission rule, expiry alerts, and turn-streak rewards.

Bounties

Player-posted and faction bounties: posting costs, how each type pays out, wanted status, and arrest at enemy starports.

Starports

All eight starport places at the Federation starport and the Pirate Haven — services, prices, and docking rules.

Locations

Ports, landmarks, stations, starbases, hazards, and wormholes across the galaxy. What each type is and what to expect.

Planets

Claiming and developing planets: all six structures, production and export income, garrisons, sieges, parking, and trading posts.

Corporations & Fleets

Creating and running a corporation: roles, the corp bank, ship pool, corp starbases, and fleet combat.

Seasons & Leaderboard

How seasons work, what persists between them, XP scoring, the six leaderboards, and season-end.

Economy Formulas

The live formulas for power users: trade pricing, combat resolution, planet production, NPC spawns, and contraband detection.