Starting Your Journey
Welcome commander, before we get started, may we suggest running this game in maximized or in fullscreen if you are not already. That way you get the most out of the user interface and will have enough space to have a few windows open at any time.
We have given you 0.1 ๐ (pilot unit credits) to spend on commodities, fuel and repairs to get you started. In addition, 100 long-range exploration probes have been successfully transferred to your vessel's cargo bay. With these, you're primed to chart the far reaches of the galaxy, uncovering the unknown.
To initiate exploration, mastering control of your ship is essential. On your bottom right control cluster, you'll notice a vertical throttle control with numerical indicators - this governs your speed. For initial maneuvers, we advise setting your throttle to maximum velocity, as your ship's base thrusters are underpowered until upgraded at a certified ship outfitter. Be aware: each movement, irrespective of speed, will consume 1 ton of fuel. Monitor your fuel reserves via the gauges located on both the top and bottom left of your HUD. Now engage your thrusters and prepare for your first jump into the unknown.
Back To Contents The Ship Controls
In the bottom right corner of your interface, you'll find the primary ship controls. This panel gives you access to essential functions, including directional steering, throttle activation, docking options and programmed movement:
- keyboard Keyboard Movement
You can also control your shipโs movement using the arrow keys or W/A/S/D for directional navigation. Press W or the up arrow to ascend, A or the left arrow to veer left, S or the down arrow to descend, and D or the right arrow to shift right. - Bump Stick
To initiate manual movement, locate the bump stick - the circular control centered within the bottom right control cluster. Simply grab and drag the bump stick in your desired direction, and your ship will respond accordingly, moving at the speed you've set on the throttle. Once you've completed your movement action, the bump stick will automatically return to its neutral position, ready for the next maneuver. - speed Vertical Throttle Slider
This control interface also allows you to set your shipโs movement speed in Light Years (lys). While high speeds will help you cover vast distances quickly, you'll need to reduce speed for more delicate operations like docking, mining, or deploying probes. For maximum precision, adjust your throttle to lower levels when performing these tasks. Remember, the maximum speed on your throttle is the maximum speed your ship can reach. - skip_next Show Docking Options
When you're within a system that has a station inside your docking radius, represented by the green circle on your HUD, you can click the docking options icon to view available station docks. From here, you'll be able to choose which station to dock at for refueling, repairs, or trading. Once docked, you're free to engage with the station's facilities. - oil_barrel Stationary Fuel Scoop
If you're near a refuelable star (yellow square) within your docking radius (green circle), you can come to a stop and click the auto-refuel button. This will engage your fuel scooping systems, drawing fuel directly from the star. Keep in mind, however, that any movement action will immediately halt the refueling process. - timeline Programmed Navigation
These functions enable you to plot longer journeys in a more explorative manner. You can either input specific coordinates to travel directly to a chosen point or chart a more complex route using the command syntax provided below:
- The commands are always number first.
- The number is followed by a direction letter u/d/l/r
- For instance: 3r10u5r, which would move 3 right, 10 up and 5 right.
- You always move maximum speed when using programmed Movement.
You may also load the entire map here and see the sheer scale of the galaxy!
Fuel
When you navigate your ship in any direction, it will consume 1 ton of fuel per movement, regardless of the distance traveled. This means whether you move 50 lys or just 3 lys, the fuel cost remains the same at 1 ton. If you find yourself running low on fuel, you can simply wait for ticks, which will grant you 1 ton of synthesized fuel for free during each tick, whether youโre logged in or not. This can be a lifesaver if you get stranded in deep space. If you happen to be within the docking radius of a station, you can dock there to check if they offer refueling services - a fortunate opportunity that could get you back on your exploratory journey!
Corner Bars
In the bottom left corner are three bars and a mouse wheel mode display, from top to bottom they are a visual representation of the levels of your Fuel reserves, Shields and Hull. By pressing 'm' on the keyboard you change change the mouse wheel mode between throttle and zoom.
Fuel Scooping
When traveling within the docking radius (the green circle) of O class stars, marked by yellow squares, your ship will siphon 2 tons of fuel for each star you pass. This includes 1 ton for your movement action and an additional ton gained from the star itself. Be mindful that this siphoning effect is amplified by your fuel scoop level and the number of stars youโre actively siphoning from. Strategically navigating through these star systems can replenish your fuel reserves, but always keep an eye on your overall consumption to maintain a balance during your explorations!
So if you scoop from 3 stars with a level 2 fuel scoop, you would get 6 fuel as you pass by the stars.
The Coloured Radius'
In the center of the screen are three circles, these represent the following:
- - Green Circle
Distance at which you can dock, refuel & do other actions. - - Blue Circle
Distance at which you can see on the Radar HUD, outside of this area you will not be able to see systems. - - Grey Circle
The range you can travel to in a single action. Essentially a radius of your current maximum thruster speed.
Back To Contents The Side Bar
The sidebar houses all the main window controls for the HUD. Clicking these buttons will open windows and execute functions in the game. See below for a breakdown of each option:
- person Pilot Information
This shows a list of visible systems based off of the main star map. - rocket Generation Ship Stats
This shows your pilot information and stats. Such as credit/bit balance and systems visited etc. - package_2 Ship Cargo Hold
This shows what cargo you are carrying and your cargo hold free space. - groups Civilisation Stats
This shows the number of people you control and what level of training they have. - sensors_krx System Scan Window
This shows information about the selected system, including celestial bodies, stations and more. - captive_portal Systems List Window
This shows stats for your ship. Its shields, weapons and hull. As well as all the resources you own. - model_training Unit Training Window
This allows you to train your matured civilians into other professions to further increase production/exploration/mining/etc. - account_balance_wallet Your Credits
This allows you to send credits to other commanders & buy insurance. Minimum send is 1 and maximum is 100. -
- explore Star Galaxy Map
This opens the entire galaxy map. - filter_list Star Filter Window
This allows you to filter out the stars you wish to show on the main star map. - bookmark Your Beacons
View and manage your beacons. -
- newspaper Galaxy News
This shows the news from the galaxy. - quick_phrases Proximity Chat
This allows you to communicate with any other players within your communications range. - person_search Commander Search
This allows you to search for other users by username. - edit_document Ship Log
A place to save system information and important notes. - history Ship Log
Show all the actions your commander has done. - settings Game Options
This allows you to change the theme and options for the game. - refresh Refresh Data
You may manually refresh the data on the screen by pressing this.
Back To Contents The Top Bar
At the top in the middle of the screen are two bars, one orange and one green:
- - Orange Bar
This is the time left until the next tick. - - Green Bar
This is the time left on the command cooldown to reduce server spam.
Below these two bars are some quick stats. In order of left to right, these are:
- badge Your Commander Name
The name you have given your commander. - credit_card Your Credit Balance
How wealthy you (or poor) you are! - oil_barrel Your Ship's Fuel
The amount of fuel left (in lys) in your ship's reserves. - shield Your Ship's Hull & Shields
Your ships' current hull:shields. - explosion Your Detonator Count
How many detonators you have available to mine in asteroid fields. - downloading Your Probe Count
How many probes you have available to scan star systems. - sensors Scan Distance
How far you can scan for systems and commanders. - chat Your Comms Distance
How far you can communicate with other commanders. - my_location Your Galaxy Location
In an xxxx:yyyy format, this shows your current location in the galaxy
Back To Contents Stations & Docking
When sending probes to systems to view its details, you will find space stations in some systems. Systems with active stations are shown with a blue square around the system. These stations offer some services, every station is unique, so you will find that some stations are more beneficial to you than others. Services these stations offer can be a selection from these:
- Buy 100 Probes
Replenish your probes for a price.
- Buy 10 Detonators
Replenish your mining detonator supply for a price.
- Refuelling
Fills your fuel reserve tanks to 100% for a credit cost.
- Repairing
Repair your ship's hull and shields back to 100% for a credit cost.
- Commodities Market
Stations that offer this service allow you to buy commodities to deliver to other systems for credits profit. Different stations have different prices, supplies & demand. As station markets are used, their prices will fluctuate based upon supply/demand.
- Pilot's Lounge
Contribute to corporate demands and grab yourself a drink.
- Ship Outfitting
Using this service allows you to upgrade your ships facilities in order to improve storage, movement, defence, etc.
Back To Contents Mining Asteroids
To start mining, your ship must have the following available:
- Some Detinators
These can be bought at stations which offer this as a service, you may hold as many detonators as you like.
- 1 (or more) Mineral Processor
This allows you to refine the material particles you detonate when mining into usable commodity. Each Mineral Processor increases your capacity by 1 ton and increases your detonation explosion by 1/3.
Once you have those two things, you can seek out systems with asteroid fields, these are shown as a red square around the system. To mine, you must select an available asteroid field with the resource you would like and click somewhere on the detonator view where the asteroid particles are flying around. Your aim is to destroy at least 59.5% of the particles in order to mine ore from the asteroid field. The number of tons you will gain is equal to the number of Mineral Processors.
The greater your Mineral Processors then the larger your detonation size will be as well. Each Mineral Processor increases the detonation explosion size by 1/3 of the initial amount.
Back To Contents The Game Chat & Options
Also in the side bar are the Proximity Chat and Options buttons:
Proximity Chat
This is a window where you can send out beacons of communication to other players who are online at the same time as you. Note that you comms distance is how far your message travels through space. By default your ships' comms distance is 1 x your scan radius. Anyone outside of this range will not see your communication attempts.
Options
Here you will find various configuration and theme options:
- Your private ID: This is PRIVATE and should never be shared.
- Your public ID: This is PUBLIC and is used for receiving credits from other commanders.
- Window Colour: This changes the window theme colour.
- BGM: Toggle the official soundtrack.
- SoundFX: Toggle the in-game sounds.
- keyboard & Mouse SoundFX: Toggle the keyboard & mouse sounds.
- Help/Hints: Toggle the hints at the bottom of the screen.
- Ship Image: Toggle whether your ship is drawn on the screen.
- Ambient Stars: Toggle the small white stars that float around the screen.
- Dynamic Velocity Stars: Toggle the small white stars that move when your ship moves.
- Background Movement Animation: Toggle the animation of the background galaxy image.
- Map Marker Animations: Toggle the ship bobbing and star system selection animations.
- System Connection Lines: Toggle the lines leading from your ship to stars in your vicinity.
- Thruster Particle Animation: Toggle the little particles that come out of the back of the ship.
- Docked Animation: Toggle the animation effect when you are docked.
- Reset Window Position: If you have lost a window, click this.
- Restart Tutorial: This restarts this tutorial.
- Commander Log: This shows the entire commander history.
Back To Contents Ticks
Ticks are events that happen every minute in server time and they affect all commanders both online and offline.
A default tick provides:
- +1 embryo cultivated (if you have storage).
- +1 cilivian matured if you have an embryo ready & also have the habitation required.
- +1 ton of fuel synthesized from ambient photosynthesis if you have fuel reserves to hold it.
- +1 probe manufactured (up to 10 probes).
This will vary as your ship matures and you get more skilled individuals! If you do not gain an embryo or civilian on a tick, instead of a notification popup; you will see the game logo spin on its axis to denote a tick has passed.
Credits ๐
Credits are measured in ๐ (PU or "Pilot Units"). They are 8 decimal places like a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin.
Passive Income Rewards
Every "period" of server time will unlock a reward to claim, you can click the send_money icon that appears flashing in the top right. This reward will increase as your colonies and population increases.
The calculation for this passive income is as below:
( 0.00001000 ๐ ) + ( population on ship x 0.00000100 ๐ )
i.e.
For the default starting population of just 10 crew, you would get a passive income of 0.00001100 ๐.
If you maxed out your starting population of 30 (10 crew, 10 embryos, 10 civilians), you would get a passive income of 0.00001300 ๐.
As your population grows, so will your passive income. As you start to send teams to planets to colonize, your passive income will go down as population is leaving your ship.
Photon Bits ฯช
Photon Bits are measured in ๐ (Bits). Photon Bits are the "premium" currency in Farthest Reaches, when purchasing Photon Bits, you are helping us maintain servers as well as providing your commander with more functionality, such as adding a player description, changing your ship's paintjob, the ability to convert one resource to another and even warp anywhere in the galaxy! You may purchase Photon Bits from the link in the credits window!
Back To Contents Your Civilization & Training
Your civilization will be as big as you wish it to be within the restraints of your ships capability. You start with just your crew of 10. After the first tick passes, you will have cultivated an embryo, after another tick passes that embryo will become a mature civilian and another embyro will have cultivated. This will continue until your housing for embryos and civilians is maxed out. Once a civilian is matured, you can train them to become valuable members of your population.
Back To Contents The Galaxy
The galaxy is a diverse and expansive system, measuring approximately 100,000 light years across in any direction with around 1,000,000 star systems! It is home to a variety of star types and celestial bodies, a vast number of which have planetary systems with multiple planets and moons. These planets vary in their atmospheric compositions, with different mixtures of gases and orbital heights. Some planets are noted as terraformable, indicating potential for habitability with appropriate technological intervention and population assignment.
The galaxy features hundreds of space stations that offer various services, including trading, refueling, and repairing. There are also potentially millions of asteroids rich in different minerals like iron, copper, nickel, titanium, silicon, and uranium, which are valuable for mining and business operations.
The galaxy is a complex network of stars, planets, moons, space stations, and resource-rich asteroid fields, providing numerous opportunities for exploration, settlement, and resource extraction.
What will you discover...?!
Back To Contents 
