Starlane
Sol: a ring station among the planets and drifting rock, the sun at the edge of the frame

A persistent space game, played in the browser

No ship. No chart. No reset.

You wake on a dock with a name nobody knows. Everything after that, you earn — and nothing you earn is ever taken back.

free to play · nothing to install · no pay-to-win

A dock worker in a worn yellow-and-black work harness, a cargo hall behind

I · The dock

You start with nothing that flies.

A few hundred credits and a callsign. The station board has work that needs neither — shifts that run on the real clock, whether you are watching or not.

The Type-9 Skiff: a plain grey capsule of a hull

II · The first hull

The dockmaster fronts you a ship.

A Type-9 Skiff, on credit, paid back out of what you earn. It is not a good ship. It is the first thing out here that will be yours — and nothing in this game ever takes it back on a schedule.

???

III · The chart

Your chart is empty.

Lanes show how long they are, never where they go. A system you have not flown to does not exist for you yet — and how many there are is not published, not by the veterans and not by us.

IV · The bench

Every recipe is one somebody had to find.

Nothing comes off a fabricator until you have researched how to make it, and the first pilot to find each recipe is named on it. Before an enquiry, the bench works out the conditions by trial. This is the real experiment, from the real game. Try it.

gain medium
cavity gas
pump

Research bench · experiment

One gain medium, one gas pressure and one pump current make the laser work. Pick one of each and run a trial — it scores two for every factor exactly right and one for a setting a step off.

0 trialspar 4

Pick a setting for each factor.

V · The jobs

That was one board. Every job has its own.

None of them is required and none of them can be bought — each is a way to do a job faster or come out of it cheaper, for the pilot who wants to think about it.

  • Battery2 a roundTurret1 a roundFire controlaims gunsEngineskeeps range
    The laneSomething is holding it. Pick its systems apart round by round — blind its fire control, or take the engines and leave it behind.
  • The gas giantSkim the cloud decks an orbit at a time. Dive deep and the scoop fills — and the shield heats, and the drag pulls your orbit down.
  • roastreduce
    The smelterProgram the furnace through every stage. Heat hard and it runs on past where you meant to stop.
  • The burnPlot the jump to the next star yourself — through the dust cloud's channels, behind a rogue planet for a slingshot — and arrive on less fuel.

…and the dock’s load plan, the wreck’s cut line, the hull patch.

Haul cargo · work the docks · mine the belts · draw gas on the rim · smelt ore · research recipes · fabricate modules · trade on the player market · hunt bounties · raid convoys · rob other pilots on the rim · strip wrecks · chart unsurveyed lanes · fund a gate into the dark · build a ship

VI · The yard

Build what no yard sells.

Mine the belts, draw the gas, refine it, research the recipes, fabricate the parts — then lay a keel. A ship you build remembers who laid it, through every sale after.

  1. A plain grey capsule of a hull with a small cockpit blisterType-9 SkiffWhat an evening of shifts buys.
  2. A long, riveted grey hull with a drum-shaped engine and an orange stripeKestrelWhat weeks of hauling buy.
  3. A vast capital hull, built by a pilot rather than boughtLeviathanWhat no yard sells. Every one was built by a pilot.
  • A keel assembly
  • A large spaceframe
  • A cockpit module
  • An engine mount
  • …and the rest of the bill, every part of it made by a pilot

VII · The board

The pilots decide what gets built next.

File an idea on a board inside the game, back somebody else’s, and if it ships you are paid for it in credits.

Pilots flying
44

one universe, no seasons, no wipes

Active this month
43

flew, traded, mined or fought in the last 30 days

Player ideas shipped
49

filed on a board inside the game

Paid for them
177,500

in credits, to the pilots who asked

  • Nothing resets. No seasons, no wipes, no rounds that end.
  • Nothing for sale changes anything. Careers, skills and licences cost credits and real time, and nothing else.
  • The clock keeps running. Skills train and shifts finish while the tab is closed.

Your turn

Choose where you wake up.

Five origins: your station, a skill you already have, and who is pleased to see you. You pick once.

  • A pilot of the Dock Rat origin

    Dock Rat

    Sol · Terran Directorate · 320 to your name

    Their story

    You grew up on Sol's freight decks, loading other people's cargo. You know a manifest, a hold, and exactly how much a docking clerk will overlook.

  • A pilot of the Belt Prospector origin

    Belt Prospector

    Altair · Terran Directorate · 260 to your name

    Their story

    Altair's belts raised you. You can read a rock face at a glance, and you have never once been comfortable inside a station.

  • A pilot of the Navy Washout origin

    Navy Washout

    Vega · Terran Directorate · 280 to your name

    Their story

    Two years of Directorate flight training and no commission at the end of it. You can shoot, and someone at Vega still returns your calls.

  • A pilot of the Company Courier origin

    Company Courier

    Kepler Reach · Free Traders League · 300 to your name

    Their story

    You ran documents for the League until the contract ended. You know every lane out of Kepler and roughly what each one is worth.

  • A pilot of the Fringe Smuggler origin

    Fringe Smuggler

    Draco Fringe · Unaligned · 420 to your name

    Their story

    You have been running cargo nobody declared since you were old enough to reach the controls. Draco knows your face. So, unfortunately, does the Directorate.

Claim a callsignSee the galaxy →

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Open · First Light · running since 2026-09-05

Look closer — the first evening, step by step, and what the screens look like

A first evening

  1. Pick where you woke up

    Five origins, each with a station, a skill and a licence, and some with a standing with the factions. One starts you in lawless space with the best margins on the map and no protection at all.

  2. Work the dock

    No ship and a few hundred credits. The board has shifts that need neither, and a shift runs on the clock whether you are watching or not.

  3. Take the dockmaster's Skiff

    He lends every new pilot a fuelled Type-9 Skiff on credit, paid back from half of what you earn. Or buy one outright: every yard sells them.

  4. Find out what your station makes

    Every system produces some things and burns others. What it makes it sells cheap; what it burns it pays for. Noticing that is the moment the game starts.

  5. Fly a lane into the dark

    The lanes out of your system show their length, so you know what a jump costs before you take it. Where they go, you find out by arriving.

What it looks like

Starlane: a station
A station Six instruments, one dock. The market, the belt, the board, the academy, the yard and the labour desk.
Starlane: an asteroid belt
An asteroid belt Rocks you survey one at a time. Kind, grade and tier decide what lands in the hold.
Starlane: a decision
A decision How hard to drive the laser. The quote for each choice is on the screen before you commit.
Starlane: the yard
The yard Your fleet, and every axis a hull can be refitted along — bought with credits you earned.