Gameplay Basics

Accurate as of v1.22.0 (July 2026).

Master the fundamentals of Big Bang Smugglers.

Navigation

The Galaxy Map

• Sectors: each sector is a distinct location in the galaxy, numbered outward from Sector 0 at the center
• Links: lines between sectors show traversable routes
• Territories: Federation (the core), Pirate (the rim), and Neutral space (everything between)
• Current location: highlighted on the Nav screen

Moving Around

Tap a connected sector on the Nav screen to move there — 1 turn per move. (The adjacent-sector list is titled “Warp to,” but those are ordinary moves; real warp jumps are below.)

Entering a sector isn’t always quiet. A move can trigger enemy mines, sector defense fighters, and limpet trackers (see Deployables), environmental hazard damage in asteroid fields, radiation zones, and minefields, and NPC encounters (about a 5% chance per move). Your first visit to any sector awards exploration XP, with bonuses for ports, planets, and landmarks.

What Costs Turns

Banking, ship and upgrade purchases, mission accepts, and deploying equipment are all turn-free.

Warp Travel

A warp drive jumps you directly to any sector you’ve previously visited (nav-beacon landmark reveals and purchased intel also make sectors warp-eligible — see Scanners & Intel).

• Install: 15,000 cr at a starport shipyard; requires a Tier 2+ ship and 100 XP
• Cost per jump: distance ÷ warp level, rounded up, minimum 1 turn. Higher warp levels (up to 5) cover more sectors per turn; each level upgrade costs (level + 1) × 15,000 cr
• The Warp Drive Optimizer tech upgrade takes 1 turn off every warp (minimum 1)

Warp interruptions: each hop can spawn an NPC that halts your warp in that sector, but the total interruption chance is capped at roughly 30% per journey no matter the distance, and unused turns are refunded. Only auto-aggressive pirates force combat when they interrupt — patrols, traders, and calmer pirates just leave you stranded a few hops short.

Tesseract Drive

The Tesseract Drive is the endgame travel option: 10,000,000 cr, and you need a Tier 5 hull and level 100 to install it.

• Flat 25 turns per jump, any distance
• Instant and uninterruptible — no encounters mid-jump
• Mines, sector defenses, and limpet trackers waiting at the destination still trigger
• Visited sectors only; the Warp Drive Optimizer does not reduce the 25

Install it at the starport Shipyard; activate it with the Tesseract Drive toggle in the Nav screen’s warp panel (it switches on automatically if it’s your only drive). It coexists with a regular warp drive, so you can carry both.

Wormholes

Wormholes connect distant sectors for 1 turn and bypass everything — no encounters, no mines, no sector defenses on arrival. They only appear in the sector view when you’re standing at an endpoint. Most are stable and two-way, but unstable wormholes can scatter you to a random sector instead, and some are one-way with no return trip.

Landmarks

• Nav Beacons — activate for free to reveal up to 8 neighboring sectors on your map; revealed sectors become warp-eligible without visiting
• Ancient Ruins — explore for 2 turns; loot roll ranges from nothing to a few thousand credits, XP finds, and rare 10,000–25,000 cr jackpots
• Anomalies — investigate for free; a random boon or bane: credits, XP, even +3 turns — or shield damage, lost fighters, or a forced jump to parts unknown
• Black Holes — transit for 1 turn; hurls your ship to a far-off sector you don’t choose, with a 20% chance of shield damage on the way through

Each landmark has a per-player cooldown (beacons 1 hour, anomalies 6 hours, ruins and black holes 24 hours), so ruins and anomalies are farmable on rotation.

Your Ship

Ship Stats

• Shields: your defense in combat — repairable, never bought
• Fighters: escort craft; steady attack power (75 cr each to restock)
• Torpedoes: heavy ordnance; the hardest-hitting attack stat per unit (150 cr each)
• Cargo holds: how much you can carry

In combat, fighters and torpedoes drive your attack and shields drive your defense, on top of your hull’s base power. See Combat for the exact formula.

Ship Roles

Ships come in six roles across two faction lines — three archetypes, each with a Federation and Pirate version:

• Trading / Smuggling: maximum cargo, light weapons — escape 30% / 40%
• War / Raider: high fighters and torpedoes, minimal cargo — escape 40% / 50%
• Balanced / Corsair: middle cargo and weapons, best escape — 50% / 60%

Shields are identical across all roles at a given tier — no role has “the highest shields.” Every Pirate hull has +10 escape over its Federation mirror at the same price and stats (the Tier 5 War-line flagships give 10 points back in exchange for their special abilities; other lines keep full escape). See Ships for the full 30-ship catalog.

The Hangar

You can own any number of ships. Buying a new one keeps your old ship in the Hangar — there’s no trade-in. Your cargo transfers automatically; if the new ship has fewer holds, the overflow is lost.

The Hangar is a place at every starport (switch or sell) and at a planet with a Starbase you or your corp own (switch only). Switching your active ship is free, but only works at those locations. Selling pays a flat 64% of the purchase price, only at starports — you can’t sell your active ship or your last ship, and any cargo left on a sold hull is destroyed.

Destruction & Escape Pods

Losing a fight normally leaves your ship disabled, not destroyed. But if you enter combat with 0 shields, 0 fighters, and 0 torpedoes and lose, the ship is destroyed: the hull and everything installed on it are gone, cargo is lost, and your remaining turns are wiped. Your escape pod puts you at a planet where you own a built Starbase — otherwise Sector 0 — and reactivates your first surviving Hangar ship, or grants a free SS Starter if you have none. A warning banner appears whenever your defenses are fully depleted; don’t fly past it. Full details in Combat.

Maintenance & Repair

Two repair paths, plus free recovery:

• Port repair (the Repair service at Stardock, Federation, Standard, Depot, and Mining ports, plus dedicated Repair Stations): restores everything — shields, fighters, and torpedoes — with no turn cost (minimum 200 cr). The only repair that replenishes your consumables.
• Shipyard and field-kit repair: shields only. A field kit works anywhere while disabled (2 turns, shields to 50%); the starport shipyard restores full shields for 1 turn. Fighters and torpedoes are re-bought at the starport weapon bays.
• Disabled ships auto-recover for free to 50% shields at the next 4-hour turn boundary.

There is no refueling. Ships don’t consume fuel — movement costs turns, and “fuel” is just a trade commodity.

Credits & Economy

Credits are the universal currency. Earn them through:

• Trading: buy commodities cheap, haul them to a port type that pays more
• Missions: complete objectives for credits and XP
• Combat: loot credits from defeated ships (PvP victories loot credits, not cargo)
• Planets: develop planets and earn passive income from Trading Posts
• Bounties: collect player and faction bounty contracts
• Exploration: ruins, anomalies, and first-visit XP

Spend them on cargo, ships, permanent upgrades, deployables, and services. And if you run dry mid-cycle: agricultural ports sell provisions — 800 cr per turn restored, max 5 per purchase.

Banking

Your wallet is at risk; your bank is not. Banked credits are safe from combat looting and from bounty arrest (an arrest seizes only your wallet). Deposits and withdrawals are free, cost no turns, and are available at starports and at ports with a Banking service (Stardock and Federation ports).

One caveat: ship repair can auto-draw from your bank if your wallet is short — shipyard repair charges a 10% fee on the shortfall it covers.

Factions & Alignment

Two separate scores shape how the galaxy treats you:

• Alignment (−1000 to +1000): your Federation-vs-Pirate standing. Moved by missions, combat, smuggling busts, port and planet attacks and claims — not by ordinary trading.
• Trader reputation (0–100): your merchant standing, built through dealings with NPC traders you meet in space (not port trades). Affects prices at every port.

What alignment does: faction port pricing (up to 20% off when friendly, +50% markup when hostile), NPC behavior (pirates and patrols flip aggressive around ±300), and docking rights at the two faction starports (denied past ∓300 — regular ports never turn you away). One thing it does not do: gate ship purchases. Ship availability is by location — the Federation starport stocks Federation hulls, the Pirate starport stocks Pirate hulls.

PvP is territory-gated: Federation territory is always safe; everywhere else is fair game when the season has PvP enabled (the default). See Galaxy & Territory and Reputation & Factions.

Corporations

Players can band together in corporations — founded for 50,000 cr, with private chat, a shared corp bank, a ship pool, a corp Starbase, and fleets of up to 3 ships that attack together. Your corp hub lives on the Ship tab, under Corps. Full coverage — roles, joining policies, fleets, and loot rules — is in Corporations & Fleets.

Tips

• Bank your credits when you’re done for the session — safe from looters and bounty hunters alike
• Federation space is safer for new pilots; move outward as you grow
• Upgrade cargo holds early — the tiers cost only credits, no XP gates, and more holds means more profit per run
• Pirate hulls have identical stats and prices to their Federation mirrors but +10 escape — worth it if you can dock at the pirate starport
• You can hold only one mission at a time — finish or abandon it (no penalty) before taking another
• When turns run out mid-cycle, provisions at an Agricultural Station are the only way to buy more